You haven't read your Bible for a while when...

• The Preacher announces the sermon is from Genesis ... and you check the table of contents.
• Your favorite Old Testament Patriarch is Hercules.
• You become frustrated because Charlton Heston isn't listed in either the Concordance or the Table of Contents.
• You keep falling for it every time when Pastor tells you to turn to First Condominiums.
• The kids keep asking too many questions about your usual bedtime story: "Jonah the Shepherd Boy and His rainbow Ark of Many Colors."fficeffice" />

The Middle of the Bible -

 

I think this is cool... not wizz bang wow proof of the bible, just an interesting observation.

1) Psalm 118 is the middle chapter of the entire Bible.

2) Psalm 117, before Psalm 118 is the shortest chapter in the Bible

3) Psalm 119, after Psalm 118 is the longest chapter in the Bible

4) The Bible has 594 chapters before Psalm 118 and 594 chapters after Psalm 118

5) If you add up all the chapters except Psalm 118, you get a total of 1188 chapters

6) 1188 or Psalm 118 verse 8 is the middle verse of the entire Bible

Should the central verse not have an important message

It is better to trust in the LORD than to put confidence in man.

Deliah did not cut Samson's hair

David didn't kill Goliath with a stone!

Satan was never an angel!

Peter was never the pope!

Does Gabriel ever blow a horn?

I once met a man about 13 years ago. A wild one eyed man roaming the streets of Surfer's Paradise. He had long messy hair, a biker's jacket on and a black leather patch over his eye. He saw the RCI sticker on the back of my car and slammed angrily on the window until I stopped and parked the car. My wife was terrified.

He gave me a booklet he had made (I still have it). It detailed his solo vigilante fight against cult churches and 'the New World Order'. I wrote him off as a mad man (and to a certain degree I'm sure he was... but aren't we all?).

Anyway after a quick conversation (I was keen to get away from him) he made a parting comment which has only just come back to mind. He said, "I only read the words in red... That's all I read". Thinking back on that I can see some wisdom. If you concentrate mostly on the words in red (ie. only the words Jesus actually spoke in the gospels) you can't go too wrong.

Waddayareckon?

---

i did some quick maths recently. If you add all the numbers from 1 to 36 (6x6)you get 666. The sum of the numbers 1 to 17 is 153 (fish in net)

---

In case you're interested and still feeling mathematical Pilinut:

Bible Numerics is controversial and guffawed at this site but I can't help it. My intent for this 'interesting' thread is not to argue but rather to post quirky, fun and irreverent stuff, whatever your belief (so I reserve the right to believe and discuss numerics in this thread without heckling - please) .

666 and 153 stand out as the most interesting 3 digit numbers quoted in scripture. That 153 fish were counted in the haul is an interestingly exact number. A round number of 150 would have lacked some definitenesss. To exceed the number by 3 is significant. 153 is divisible by 3 also. I don't think John actually counted these fish out of interest to be written down in his best selling gospel book of facts. But I do believe someone along the way (perhaps John I suppose) was inspired to write this total with some symbolic reference.

153 is a pyramid number. The sum of the numbers 1 to 17 = 153. Also 9x17=153. and the meanings of 9 and 17 respectively are judgement/finality and church/safety. 17 is the 7th (spiritual purity) prime number and interestingly 13 is the 6th (sin and impurity) prime number. Therefore the story I get from the number 153 (sounds like I'm stretching it a bit eh, humour me) is that those caught in the net are a saved holy and elect group (although maybe skinned, pan-fried and eaten as well).

One thing I have confirmed through gemetria (sum of the numerical value of Hebrew letters) is that the Hebrew expression 'Beni Ha-Elohim' (Sons of God) adds up to 153. This is one of the few gemetrias I have actually been able to verify along with the gemtia for the Greek word 'fishes' ichthues(ixoues) is 1224 (8x153).

Both have remarkable properties and the following snippets are just a few of the patterns found around 666 for the minority that are interested in such things.

The number 666 is a simple sum and difference of the first three 6th powers:

666 = 1⁶ - 2⁶ + 3⁶.

It is also equal to the sum of its digits plus the cubes of its digits:

666 = 6 + 6 + 6 + 6?+ 6?+ 6?

There are only five other positive integers with this property. Exercise: find them, and prove they are the only ones!

666 is related to (6?+ n? in the following interesting ways:

666 = (6 + 6 + 6) ?(6?+ 1?
666 = 6! ?(6?+ 1? / (6?+ 2?

The sum of the squares of the first 7 primes is 666:

666 = 2?+ 3?+ 5?+ 7?+ 11?+ 13?+ 17?

The sum of the first 144 (= (6+6)?6+6)) digits of pi is 666.

A well-known remarkably good approximation to pi is 355/113 = 3.1415929... If one part of this fraction is reversed and added to the other part, we get

553 + 113 = 666.

[from Martin Gardner's "Dr. Matrix" columns] The Dewey Decimal System classification number for "Numerology" is 133.335. If you reverse this and add, you get

133.335 + 533.331 = 666.666

The number 666 is one of only two positive integers equal to the sum of the cubes of the digits in its square, plus the digits in its cube. On the one hand, we have

666² = 443556
666³ = 295408296

while at the same time,

(4³ + 4³ + 3³ + 5³ + 5³ + 6³) + (2+9+5+4+0+8+2+9+6) = 666.

The other number with this property is 2583.

There are exactly two ways to insert '+' signs into the sequence 123456789 to make the sum 666, and exactly one way for the sequence 987654321:

666 = 1 + 2 + 3 + 4 + 567 + 89 = 123 + 456 + 78 + 9
666 = 9 + 87 + 6 + 543 + 21

A Smith number is an integer in which the sum of its digits is equal to the sum of the digits of its prime factors. 666 is a Smith number, since

666 = 2???7

while at the same time

6 + 6 + 6 = 2 + 3 + 3 + 3 + 7.

Consider integers n with the following special property: if n is written in binary, then the one's complement is taken (which changes all 1's to 0's and all 0's to 1's), then the result is written in reverse, the result is the starting integer n. The first few such numbers are

2 10 12 38 42 52 56 142 150 170 178 204 212 232 240 542 558 598 614...

For example, 38 is 100110, which complemented is 011001, which reversed is 100110. Now, you don't really need to be told what the next one after 614 is, do you?

All very interesting. I wonder what significance 666 would hold if we mere mortals used a number system based anything else other than 10?

I do believe God is the supreme mathematician and logistics manager. Who else could know where any of the 10^80 atoms in the known universe are at any instant of time?

Chapters, verses, punctuation, capitalization, section headings and footnotes all have been added for convenience.  The chapter and verse numbers have been agreed upon, so they are standard.  They were based on the Hebrew version of the Old Testament. This was organised about 1000 A.D.

Therefore there are no patterns that exist in chapter and verse numbering. That is why the Psalms phenomena is so interesting. On a sidenote however, Psalms is the only book of the bible that was originally set out in separate verses some of which were ordered according to the Hebrew alphabet. That there happens to be 1188 chapters; the middle chapter happens to be Psalm 118. That verse happens to be significant. Funny how things happen.

There is no standard set of punctuation, capitalization, section headings, or footnotes.

Many of the beforesaid patterns work no matter what base you work in. e.g. 12 is a great number to divide into subgroups, that's why it's used as a number for government in the bible. Without using a base 10 system you can see how it can be organised: (...........) can be separated into (... ... ... ...) or (.... .... ....) or (.. .. .. .. .. .. ) or (...... ......)

Most of civilisation was promted to use a base 10 counting system because God provided us a tangible and concrete counting system right at our fingertips... our fingertips. Perhaps that's why he chose 10 commandments... one for each finger.

Some of the Most Well Known Chapters of the Bible
1. The Love chapter 1 Corinthians 13
2. The Faith chapter Hebrews 11
3. The Resurrection chapter 1 Corinthians 15
4. The Twenty-third Psalm Psalm 23
5. The Forgiveness chapter Psalm 51
6. The Suffering Servant chapter Isaiah 53
7. The Heaven chapter Revelation 21

Reply to WonbyONe:

The point I am making is 666 in the decimal system equals 476 in the base 12 system. Not as interesting perhaps?

Does God use 10 as a base number? I doubt it.

here is a perfect description of love:

Love is patient,
love is kind
No eyes of envy,
true love is blind
Love is humble,
it knows no pride
No selfish motive hidden inside
Love is gentle, makes no demands
Despite all wrong, true love still stands
Love is holy, love is pure
It lasts forever, it will endure

Love knows when to let go
Love knows when to say no
Love grows in the light of the Son
And love shows the world that the Son of Love has come
Love is loyal, believes the best
It loves the truth, love stands the test
Love is God sent in His Son
Love forgives all we have done
In this world where hatred seems to grow
True love goes against the flow
And becomes so hard to show
In this world where push turns into shove
We have strength to rise above
Through the power of His love
Lord, we need to know the power of Your love

Lyrics: Bob Hartman... vocals: John Schlitt, Petra
Based on 1 Corinthians 13... Possibly the most beautiful description of love I've ever written and makes you realise what a beautiful book it comes from. Forget the religion, forget the mind controlling fear tactics of number hungry church institutions. The message of love is a universal hope.

The word 'Jesus' makes me cringe... it does... even though I believe in the whole shebang... but the word jesus and the eye-glazed christian view of the blue eyed golden bearded guy is just not digestable sometimes. They've (fundies and etc) muddied the waters and look out at the world through rose-coloured stained glass windows.

The message of the Christ is awesome; it's powerful and it's relevant when looked at realistically and not cordoned off to only be respected and 'owned' by religion. He raised hell to make the world sit up and take notice.

As horrible and as painful as his death was... there have actually been people who have suffered worse and for longer. Talk to any cop and they'll tell you the stories that don't make it to the papers because they are too horrifying to print. Read Foxes book of martyrs. Jesus was tortured and ripped apart for preaching against the corrupt religion of the day... he rose a few days later as good as new. I'm not dissing him, i'm just saying that His death was significant but not just because He was an 'atonement sacrifice'.

---

Reply to WonbyONe:The point I am making is 666 in the decimal system equals 476 in the base 12 system. Not as interesting perhaps?Does God use 10 as a base number? I doubt it.

---