A MATHEMATICAL CHALLENGE

“The words of the Lord are pure words, as silver tried in a furnace of earth, puri-
fied seven times Thou shalt keep them, O Lord; thou shalt preserve them from
this generation forever”
(Psalm 12:6-7).

The date:December 12.

The year:1855.

Man was awakening to the dawn of a new age - within a few short decades, knowledge
would explode throughout the civilized world. Brand-new sciences appeared almost over-
night, as men concentrated mind and energies to find and conquer the secrets of their
universe.

In Russia, the seeds of a revolutionary new religion were being sown. With its basic
premise of “No God” and its Bible a text on dialectical materialism, it was soon to take root
and spread like a parasitical mushroom across the world. Spearheading this ideological
attack was an assault to defame, discredit, and finally destroy the Book that had given
millions the promise of Christ.

It is thus strange how God in ironic humor chose a boy born in Russia to issue a counter-
challenge to a skeptical world that has never been successfully refuted. His name - Ivan
Panin. His challenge - the inspiration of Scriptures, factually demonstrated in the one
language all sciences utilize - mathematics.

Panin died in 1942, after almost 50 years of brilliant work, and passed into the Presence of
the God he loved and served. His writings and labors have been largely lost to the world of
saints and scoffers alike, and have not been given the attention they deserve. A small
fraction of his amazing discoveries are here re-issued for the benefit of a generation of
doubt.

Those familiar with the laws of statistical probability will most appreciate the issues at
stake. Those with a knowledge of Hebrew and Greek will be even better prepared to ana-
lyze and understand this challenge. Those with neither are still invited to consider the facts,
and to give any other answer than the one the overwhelming evidence presents - that the
Holy Bible in its original languages is the skillfully-designed product of a Mathematical
Master-mind far beyond any earthly capability and far above any human possibility of
deliberate structuring. The evidence Panin presents may only be refuted one of two ways;
1. By showing that his facts presented here are not actually true;
2. By demonstrating that his mathematics are faulty and the statistical conclusions
reached unfounded.

To check the first is simply a matter of verifying the author’s statements from the original
languages and sources. To check the second requires only a knowledge of high-school
arithmetic, and a little knowledge of the laws of arithmetic and geometrical progression. If
then neither can be faulted (and the author knows of no successful attempt to date) there is
left no other reasonable or scientific answer to the evidence you are about to see than the
simple Biblical statement of its origins - “Holy men of God spoke as they were moved by
the Holy Ghost” (2 Pet. 1:21). You are invited to impartially examine the evidence, but
should know before beginning that knowledge equals responsibility and the Bible will not
leave you impartial to its claims for commitment to its Author! Accordingly, these are written
“that you might believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God; and that believing, you
might have life through His name” (John 20:31).

The New Testament was originally written in Greek, the Old Testament in Hebrew and
Aramaic. Both Greek and Hebrew have a common peculiarity - neither use special symbols
for their numbers (like our “1”, “2”, “3”, etc.) but use instead the LETTERS of their alpha-
bets to represent numbers. Accordingly, the 24 Greek letters of the alphabet also stand for
the following numbers, in order: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 7, 8, 9, 10; then 20, 30, etc. to 80; next 100,
200, etc. up to 800.

Likewise the Hebrew alphabet uses a similar numeric value for each of its letters. The
Hebrew numbers 6 and 90 are not in the Greek; and the Greek numbers 500, 600, 700,
and 800 are not in the Hebrew. All other numbers are common to both alphabets. We shall
call these numbers the numeric values of the letters.

Each word in Hebrew and Greek thus represents a sum in arithmetic, obtained by adding
the numbers for which each letter stands. Bear in mind that the numeric values are not
assigned arbitrarily, but are part and parcel of the language. The resultant SUM of all the
added letters in a word or phrase will be called its GEMATRIA. For the purpose of study,
one further definition is necessary; the number of the place a letter occupies in the Hebrew
or Greek alphabet will be called its PLACE VALUE. The numeric value is the same as the
place value for the first 10 Hebrew letters; but the eleventh letter, caph, has a place value
of 11 but a numeric value of 20. Keep in mind this distinction. Here is a complete list of the
Hebrew and Greek alphabets, plus numeric and place values:
Panin was a mathematics genius, one of the top ten men in his field at the time. He be-
came a Christian after graduating from Harvard University in 1882 and began to devote
time to study the Bible. He read fluently in a number of languages, Hebrew and Greek
among them. Aware of the numerical values of the Greek and Hebrew alphabets, he ex-
perimented one day by replacing the letters for their corresponding numbers in Scripture.
Suddenly, his trained mind saw a mathematical pattern! He studied the gematria of the
words more intensely, his excitement growing. More and more evidences of incredibly
detailed mathematical design came to light. A few short hours of work had him utterly
amazed.

The verses he had studied bore unmistakable evidence of an elaborate mathematical

pattern, far beyond chance or of accident. He calculated roughly the time it would take for a
mathematician even of his own caliber to produce a similar mathematical design, with the
corresponding letters still making sense in a sentence. It was plainly impossible, even if the
design had been intentional to the writer, within the space of many years to complete! This
discovery marked the entire turning-point in his career; it revolutionized his life. From that
time on until his death in 1942, he devoted his life to the study of Bible Numerics.

His painstaking researches into the original languages of Scripture in the light of this dis-
covery brought to light a wealth of irrefutable objective evidence for the Divine Inspiration of
Scripture. The Bible was assembled over a period of 1,600 years by 40 different writers; yet
it shows an incredible unity, humanly impossible to construct under similar conditions,
guarded by a protective mathematical code and kept for modern man!

Panin’s work is highly detailed and exhaustive. At best this tract can only state some of his
general findings and give a limited number of examples from his voluminous writings on the
subject. But even the few selected will be far more than enough to convince the honest
inquirer that the Bible is all it claims to be - the Holy, inspired, infallible Word of God. Panin
supplied a representative of the Nobel Research Foundation with over 43,000 pages of his
studies accompanied by his statement that this was his evidence that the Bible was the
Word of God. Their reply was - “As far as our investigation has proceeded we find the
evidence overwhelmingly in favor of such a statement.”

He challenged nine noted rationalists and Bible critics through the medium of the “New
York Sun” newspaper to publicly refute or give explanation for a few of his presented facts
other than the obvious; that the Word of God was the product of a Divine Master-mind
above all possibility of human construction, carrying within itself a self-checking and pro-
tecting factor to ensure against additions and subtractions to its text in the original lan-
guages. Four made lame excuses; the rest were silent. He issued a challenge throughout
leading newspapers of the world to offer a natural explanation or refute the facts; not a
single person has ever been able to do so.

Taking a given subject, like a genealogy, a passage of Scripture, a book of the Bible or the
Bible in its entirety, he demonstrated among many other things the following phenomena:

PATTERNS of prime numbers, such as 11, 13, 17, and 23, but especially 7, so remarkable
as to be beyond human ability to construct. The number 7 has always had a special signifi-
cance in religious patterns of worship through the ages. The Bible is filled with sevens, from
the 7 days of creation to the 7 angels in Revelation. It has been an old venture of Bible
scholars to trace the recurrences of the number 7 through the Scripture. Numerics reveal
an incredible pattern of sevens underlying and reinforcing the very words of Scripture, that
are seemingly inexhaustible in detail and intricacy. The numbers on the surface only give
us a clue to the wealth of numeric detail underneath. In a given passage or book, the
following patterns of seven can be seen to occur, ALL BY DESIGN -
o The number of words in the vocabulary will divide by 7;
o The number of words that begin with a vowel will divide by 7; likewise the number
of words that begin with a consonant;
o The number of letters in the vocabulary is divisible by 7;
 o Of the letters, those which are vowels and those which are consonants will both
divide by 7;
o The number of words in the vocabulary occurring more than once is divisible by
seven; those occurring once only likewise divide by 7;
o The number of words occurring in more than one form is divisible by 7; the num-
ber occurring in only one form likewise divides by 7;
o The number of nouns is divisible by 7; the number of words that are not nouns
likewise divides by 7; the same goes for the number of proper names, male and
female names and the number of words beginning with each of the letters of the
alphabet!
The following is an example of this from the New Testament:

Matthew 1:1-16 - Examining only the first 11 verses numerically:

The genealogy of Christ is divided into 3 sets of 14; Abraham to David; David to Babylon;
Babylon to Christ. There are two natural sections; vs. 1-11 and vs. 12-17; of those first 11
verses:
o The vocabulary has 49 words (7 x 7); the sum of its factors is 14 (2 x 7).
o 28 words begin with a vowel (4 x 7); 21 remaining with a consonant (3 x 7).
o 7 words end with a vowel (1 x 7); 42 end with a consonant (6 x 7).
o The 49 words have 266 letters (38 x 7); the sum of the digits in 266 is 14 (2 x 7).
o The sum of the factors of 266 (2 x 19 x 7) is 28 (4 x 7).
o Out of the 266 letters, 140 are vowels (20 x 7); 126 are consonants (18 x 7).
Also!!
o Of those 49 words, 7 occur in more than one form (1 x 7); 42 in one form only (6
x 7).
o 14 occur only once (2 x 7); 35 occur more than once (5 x 7).
o 42 are nouns (6 x 7); 7 are not; of the 42 nouns, 35 are proper names (5 x 7); the
other 7 are not.
o These remaining 7 common nouns have exactly 49 letters (7 x 7).
o Of the 35 proper names 28 are male ancestors after the flesh (4 x 7); 7 are not.
o Male names occur in all 56 times (8 x 7)
o The names of only 3 women occur in the passage; the Greek letters in their
names add up to 14 exactly (2 x 7).
o There is only one city mentioned-Babylon; it has exactly 7 letters!!
This diminishes the chance of accident to six hundred billion to one! Many other details are
hidden here that come to light on further study. Panin said it would have taken Matthew
working several months working 8 hours a day to construct the genealogy even if it were
possible-but these names were chosen BEFORE MATTHEW WAS BORN.

But the pattern is certainly not limited to genealogies! Let us examine the following:

Matthew 1:18-25 - The account of the Virgin Birth of Christ:

o The number of Greek words in the passage is exactly 161 (23 x 7).
 o The numeric value of these, or gematria, is exactly 93,394 (13,342 x 7).
o The number of vocabulary words used is 77 (11 x 7); their gematria is 52,605
(7,515 x 7).
o 6 Greek words are used here which are found nowhere else in Matthew. Their
value is 5,005 (715 x 7).
o These 6 Greek words have 56 letters (8 x 7).
o The 161 words occur in 105 forms (15 x 7); their numeric value is 65,429 (9,347
x 7).
o In the 105 forms there are 35 verbs (5 x 7).
o There are exactly 7 proper names.
o The number of letters in these is 42 (6 x 7).
o One word-”Emmanuel”-is used nowhere else in the New Testament; its gematria
is 644 (92 x 7). The sum of its figures is 14 (2 x 7).
o The number of forms exclusive to this passage is 14 (2 x 7); their numeric value
is 8,715 (1,245 x 7).
Now the angel speaks to Joseph, his words forming a pattern of 7’s of their own, yet dove-
tailing into the whole in a most remarkable manner:
o In speaking to Joseph, the angel uses of the 77 vocabulary words exactly 28 (4 x
7).
o The numeric value of all his words is exactly 21,042 (3,006 x 7).
o The angel uses 35 different forms (5 x 7); these forms have exactly 168 letters
(24 x 7).
o The numeric value of these letters is 19,397 (2,771 x 7).
o In using 28 of the vocabulary words the angel leaves exactly 49 (7 x 7).
o In using exactly 35 forms he leaves exactly 70 (10 x 7).
o The sum of the digits in 70 is 7; its factors (7 x 2 x 5) added equal 14 (2 x
7).....etc.!!
This by no means exhausts the passage, which is said to be literally packed with sevens.
Dr. Panin challenged anyone to produce a similar passage in 3 years of 161 words - the
law of chances here operating in this little passage of 8 verses stand at ONE in 200-odd
QUINTILLION - a number 21 digits long! EVERY paragraph, passage, and book in the
Bible can be shown to be constructed in the same marvelous way, each doing a work
estimated to take at least thousand years. Humanly speaking this is utterly impossible.

Consider for a moment the difficulty of constructing a similar book, even with the design in
mind. With each additional paragraph, the difficulty of constructing it increases not in arith-
metical but geometric progression. He must try to write paragraphs to develop fixed nu-
merical relations constantly to what goes both before and after. It must not only conform to
the numerical pattern consistently and in sufficient detail to yield evidence after evidence of
design in its structure, but it must also make sense and read in smooth, literary style in the
same simple majesty of the Bible documents. So Matthew was not only a historian and an
accomplished literary man, but also a mathematical genius! And if he was, so were ALL the
other writers of the Bible, because ALL ITS BOOKS show the same phenomena.

Consider the last few verses of Mark, a target for much criticism in recent years, and trium-
phantly rejected by many scholars on the grounds that it is an “addition” by some “over-
zealous scribes” because it is missing from the “best” manuscripts:

Mark 16:9-20 - The Resurrection testimony of Christ and His commission to the
disciples:
o Number of words - 175 (25 x 7).
o Verses 9-11, a natural division, has 35 words (5 x 7); verses 19-20 have the
same.
o Number of forms - 133 (19 x 7); the sum of these is 7.
o Of these forms, 112 occur once (16 x 7); 21 occur more than once (3 x 7).
o The vocabulary has 98 words (14 x 7).
o Christ uses 42 of these (6 x 7); 56 remain (8 x 7).
o Number of vowels - 294 (42 x 7); number of consonants is 259 (37 x 7).
And so on!

The above passage yields on analysis at least 75 such features of 7. The statistical chance
that this occurred by accident is laughable. Yet Mark was a Roman, used a totally different
style than Matthew and wrote for a different type of reader. Luke and John both also show
different styles and design their books for different readerships also; but Luke and John
also both show the same patterns!

What kind of fantastic collaboration between the disciples could have produced this struc-
ture without computers? How could mere fishermen and tax-collectors produce this kind of
incredible structure and design? Panin stated that he only stayed on a given passage long
enough to confirm beyond reasonable doubt the statistical evidence for supernatural de-
sign, but that each passage continued to yield further and further evidences of patterns
within patterns until the mind reeled. No human being who ever lived could have written
one book like these unaided. The evidence is objective and overwhelming to the careful
and honest scholar. Scripture is inspired!

The Hebrew text also reveals the same amazing phenomena. For example, the very first
verse in the Bible has been a target for much criticism. Observe the incredible detail the
pattern reveals in just one simple verse of seven Hebrew words;

Genesis 1:1 - “In the beginning God created the heaven and the earth.”
o The 7 words have exactly 28 letters (4 x 7).
o There are 3 nouns (God, heaven, and earth) with a gematria of exactly 777 (111
x 7).
o There is one verb (“created”) with a numeric value of 203 (29 x 7).
o The first 3 words contain the subject and have exactly 14 letters (2 x 7); the other
four contain the object and also have exactly 14 letters.
o The Hebrew words for the two objects (heaven and earth) each have exactly 7
letters; the value of the first, middle, and last letters in the sentence is 133 (19 x
7).
o The numeric value of the first and last words in the sentence is 1,393 (199 x 7).
o The value of the first and last letters of the verse is 497 (71 x 7).
o The value of the first and the last letters of each word in between is 896 (128 x
 7).
o The Hebrew particle “eth” is used with the article “the” twice; its total value is 406
(58 x 7).
o The last letters of the first and last words are valued at 490 (70 x 7).
o The 4th, 5th, and 6th words have 7 letters each......etc.!!
There are over 30 different numeric features in this one verse alone. The chances of coinci-
dence for the above 16 are one in 33-odd TRILLION. Explain it if you can in any other way
than the obvious - God was in the writing of the Book that bears His Name.

ONLY the 66 books of the Scriptures bear this Divine seal. No other works of man in any other
language faintly resemble the intricate structure and design of the Bible. Those who have
made attempts to write poetry or prose by an artificial number pattern have not only made
poor, stilted literature, but their extent and intricacy of design is trivial in comparison.

The fact remains; only an Infinite mind could have devised this Book of books. Will you care-
fully consider His personal message to you and be willing to do something about it?

Copyright © 1998 Winkie Pratney