Bible Wheel Book Table of Contents (Note: This is as much as I could get into Doc for you Randy. There may Be some Repeats in this document. Just highlight and then delete them)

Genesis of the Bible Wheel

(Chapter 1 of the Bible Wheel Book)

Rolling Up the Bible Scroll

Then said he unto them, Therefore every scribe which is instructed unto the kingdom of heaven is like unto a man that is an householder, which bringeth forth out of his treasure things new and old.

Matthew 13:52

These words from the Lord Jesus Christ, spoken at the end of a series of seven parables concerning the Kingdom of Heaven recorded in Matthew 13, allude to the everlasting vitality of the ancient treasures of Wisdom and Truth hidden and revealed in the Holy Bible. No matter its antiquity, its message remains ever fresh and new, relevant and profound. At once, it is the simplest, the deepest, the oldest, and the newest book ever written. It is the Book of God.

The Bible Wheel unveils another aspect of Scripture that is old and new, simple and profound. It is as old as the Bible itself, for indeed, it is the Bible itself. It is new only because no one had ever noticed that such a unified view of the whole Bible lay implicit in its structure. This new view of the Old Book is as simple as a Circle and as elementary as the ABCs, yet also as complex, deep, and all encompassing as the whole body of Scripture that it faithfully represents. The primary thing to understand about the Bible Wheel is the simplicity of its origin. It emerges when we do nothing but take the list of the sixty-six books and roll it up like a scroll on a spindle Wheel of twenty-two Spokes, corresponding to the twenty-two letters of the Hebrew Alphabet. That is all there is to it. Everything else in this study follows from that single and surprisingly simple act.

The Alphabetic Verses

All scripture is given by inspiration of God, and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness: That the man of God may be perfect, thoroughly furnished unto all good works.

2 Timothy 3:16f

The Bible Wheel Spindle of Twenty-Two Letters

The Bible Wheel is a simple two-dimensional representation of the traditional Protestant Bible of sixty-six books. Nothing has been added and nothing has been taken away. It spontaneously blossoms when we simply roll up the list of sixty-six books like a scroll on a spindle Wheel of twenty-two Spokes. The entire structure is derived directly from Scripture and Scripture alone. The list of the sixty-six books follows the traditional sequence of the Protestant Bible, and God Himself eternally established the sequence of the twenty-two Hebrew letters within the very text of Holy Scripture in the passages known as the Alphabetic, or Acrostic, Verses.

Digital Image of Psalm 119 (KJV)

The Alphabetic Verses are passages of the Old Testament that God designed explicitly upon the pattern of the Hebrew Alphabet. They include several Psalms, most of Lamentations, and the last twenty-two verses of Proverbs. The complete set is listed on page 109 of the Bible Wheel book. Each verse begins with an Alphabetic KeyWord that starts with the corresponding Hebrew letter. These KeyWords are essential to everything that follows in this book. They are built-in keys designed by God to unlock the supernatural structure of His Word and to open our eyes to the limitless ocean of Divine Wisdom He prepared for us from before the foundation of the World. Psalm 119, set like a jewel in the very heart of Scripture, is the most notable example of an alphabetically structured text. It consists of twenty-two stanzas, each having eight verses that begin with the same Hebrew letter for a total of 176 (= 8 x 22) verses. The first eight verses each begin with an Aleph KeyWord, the next eight with a Bet KeyWord, the next eight with a Gimel KeyWord, and so forth. Its alphabetic structure is transparent in many Bibles such as the King James Version which prints the name and form of the corresponding Hebrew letter above each eightfold stanza. The digital photograph shows the first nine verses of Psalm 119 as found in my personal copy of the King James Bible.

Psalm 119: The Alphabetic Seed in the Heart of God’s Word

Being born again, not of corruptible seed, but of incorruptible, by the word of God, which liveth and abideth for ever.

1 Peter 1:23

Psalm 119 is the longest chapter in the Bible, more than twice the size of any other Psalm. It also is the greatest treasury of wisdom and knowledge concerning the power, the praise, and the glory of God’s Word. All but three of its 176 verses speak directly of the Word or one of its synonyms listed in the table. It is an overflowing fountain of inspiration that never fails to delight the Christian soul. A brief sample is all we need to appreciate its character:

Thy word is a lamp unto my feet, and a light to my path. (vs 105)

How sweet are thy words unto my taste! yea, sweeter than honey to my mouth! (vs 103)

The entrance of thy words giveth light; it giveth understanding unto the simple. (vs 130)

For ever, O LORD, thy word is settled in heaven. (vs 89)

Blessed are they that keep his testimonies, and that seek him with the whole heart. (vs 2)

Great peace have they which love thy law: and nothing shall offend them. (vs 165)

Thou art my hiding place and my shield: I hope in thy word. (vs 114)

Blessed are the undefiled in the way, who walk in the law of the LORD. (vs 1)

Open thou mine eyes, that I may behold wondrous things out of thy law. (vs 18)

With my whole heart have I sought thee: O let me not wander from thy commandments. (vs 10)

Let thy mercies come also unto me, O LORD, even thy salvation, according to thy word. (vs 41)

Princes have persecuted me without a cause: but my heart standeth in awe of thy word. (vs 161)

The greatest preachers and teachers throughout the history of the Church have praised the unique value of this Psalm. Franz Delitzsch noted its “inexhaustible fullness” in his classic ten-volume Commentary on the Old Testament (co-authored with C. F. Keil, 1867):

In our German version [of the Bible] it has the appropriate inscription, “The Christian’s golden ABC of the praise, love, power, and use of the word of God;” for here we have set forth in inexhaustible fullness what the word of God is to a man, and how a man is to behave him-self in relation to it.

Charles Haddon Spurgeon, the “Prince of Preachers” of nineteenth century England, borrowed the title of his book on Psalm 119 – The Golden Alphabet  – from the German Bible mentioned by Delitzsch. He praised this Psalm to the limit of his rhetorical abilities, which were considerable. He called it “a little Bible, the Scriptures condensed … Holy Writ rewritten in holy emotions and actions,” and went on to mix the metaphors of “ocean” and “continent” in his effort to express the magnitude of this mighty portion of God’s Word:

Other psalms have been mere lakes, but this is the main ocean. It is a continent of sacred thought, every inch of which is fertile as the garden of the Lord: it is an amazing level of abundance, a mighty stretch of harvest fields.

He also did us the good service of collecting many observations from saints who went before him. Here are two of the most notable examples he gave from the seventeenth century:

Johannes Paulus Palanterius, 1600: This Psalm is called the Alphabet of Divine Love, the Paradise of all the Doctrines, the Storehouse of the Holy Spirit, the School of Truth, also the deep mystery of the Scriptures, where the whole moral discipline of all the virtues shines brightly. … The other Psalms, truly, as lesser stars shine somewhat; but this burns with the meridian heat of its full brightness, and is wholly resplendent with moral loveliness.

Rev. W. Simmons, in a sermon in the “Morning Exercises”, 1661: This Psalm shines and shows itself among the rest as a star in the firmament of the Psalms, of the first and greatest magnitude. This will readily appear if you consider either the manner it is composed in, or the matter it is composed of. The manner it is composed in is very elegant. The matter it is composed of is very excellent:

The manner it is composed in is very elegant; full of art, rule, method, and theological matter in a logical manner, a spiritual alphabet framed and formed according to the Hebrew alphabet.

The matter it is composed of is very excellent; full of rare sublimities, deep mysteries, gracious activities, yea, glorious ecstasies.

These comments show that the glory of Psalm 119, like that of the Bible itself, surpasses the limits of human language. Even when we speak only with superlatives, our praise falls short of the “inexhaustible fullness” of this supreme Psalm of God’s Word.

Yet there is more – so much more! – in this “little Bible” than anyone ever anticipated. It is here in Psalm 119, and kindred Alphabetic Verses, that God eternally established the order and meaning of the twenty-two Hebrew letters and so laid an unshakable foundation for the large-scale structure of His Word within its own text. The Bible is self-reflective; it contains an image of itself within itself in the Alphabetic Verses. Moreover, God embedded within this foundation an abundant storehouse of Alphabetic KeyWords that prophetically anticipate the thematic pattern of the entire Bible from Genesis to Revelation. This is the Work of God. This is the revelation of the Bible Wheel.

The Hebrew Alphabet

Think not that I am come to destroy the law, or the prophets: I am not come to destroy, but to fulfill. For verily I say unto you, Till heaven and earth pass, one jot or one tittle shall in no wise pass from the law, till all be fulfilled.

Matthew 5:17f

In His testimony of the eternal endurance of the Hebrew Scriptures, which sounds a lot like “Forever, O Lord, thy word is settled in heaven” (Ps 119:89), the Lord Jesus spoke of the immutability of their smallest details. The word translated as “jot” is from the Greek iota. It corresponds to the smallest Hebrew letter, Yod, that looks pretty much like an apostrophe. The “tittle” refers the slight differences between some Hebrew letters, such as the tiny tail off the top line of the Dalet which distinguishes it from the Resh, as shown in the table. Jesus therefore declared that every detail of the Old Testament was significant and would be fulfilled in Him. He used the same ultimate language when He spoke of the eternal nature of His own Word, saying: “Heaven and earth shall pass away: but my words shall not pass away” (Mark 13:31). These declarations are maximal in the sense that they span the entire created Cosmos, linking the totality of “heaven and earth” with the smallest details of God’s Written Word and its fulfillment in Christ, the Living Word.

The supreme importance that Christ placed on Scripture will prove to be a faithful guide in all that follows. The closer we look at the precise details of the text, the greater will be the glory revealed. But fear not, dear reader. You need not learn much Hebrew to understand the basics of the Bible Wheel. Its primary glory shines like the noontime sun in a cloudless sky. The Divine Unity of the whole Bible radiates out from the plain meaning of the books aligned on each Spoke with such simplicity that any child could understand it. Most of its parts already have been well documented by countless scholars over the past two millennia. The only thing really new is the unified point of view and its integration with the Hebrew Alphabet. The discussion of the top-level, super-obvious patterns will fill the 119 pages of Part I of the book. It is in Part II, The Synopsis of the Twenty-Two Spokes, that we will need to look much more closely at the Hebrew Alphabetic KeyWords because they are the true prophetic keys that reveal the design, established by God before the foundation of the world, of the detailed structure of His Holy Word. But in all this, everything will still be easy to understand since it will be explained in simple English as we go along. I have done everything in my power to adhere to my guiding verse, the command I have received from God: “Write the vision, and make it plain upon tables, that he may run that readeth it” (Habakkuk 2:2).

A minimal introduction to the Hebrew Alphabet and how Hebrew words are written is all we need to embark on the journey into the blazing heart of this unified vision of God’s Word. It begins with three elementary facts:

Hebrew is read from right to left.

The twenty-two Hebrew letters are consonants.

Vowels are indicated by diacritical marks like written above, below, or within the twenty-two letters. They are called vowel points.

The text below shows the first three verses of the Alphabetic Psalm 145, with the initial Hebrew letter of each verse written large and the translated KeyWords in bold italics.

Though the shapes of the Hebrew characters are foreign to most readers of the Bible, their order and sound are very similar to the other two Alphabets, Latin and Greek, mentioned in Scripture. All three Alphabets, in harmony with the Gospel Truth that Christ died for people of every “tribe, nation, and tongue,” were used in the title placed above the Lord when they hung Him on the Cross (John 19:19f):

And Pilate wrote a title, and put it on the cross. And the writing was, JESUS OF NAZARETH THE KING OF THE JEWS. This title then read many of the Jews: for the place where Jesus was crucified was nigh to the city: and it was written in Hebrew, and Greek, and Latin.

These three Alphabets are closely related and have a common origin. Their similarity is quite obvious when we compare the names of the first few letters:

Latin: A, B, C, D …

Greek: Alpha, Beta, Gamma, Delta …

Hebrew: Aleph, Bet, Gimel, Dalet …

This list shows a progressive loss of information. The Latin names are nothing but the letters themselves, and the Greek names are merely Hellenized transliterations of the Hebrew. The names of the Hebrew letters alone have true meaning, in the sense that they are based on common Hebrew words. In the list above, Aleph denotes an Ox, Bet a House, Gimel a Camel, and Dalet a Door. Their names will play a central role in our effort to discern their symbolic meanings which God supernaturally integrated with the content of the books on each Spoke of the Wheel. Their names are very well established historically. They appear in countless ancient documents and all Hebrew lexicons agree on them. And most significantly, God Himself established several of them in the ultimate authority, the Holy Bible, where He used them as KeyWords in the Alphabetic Verses.

The names of the first two Hebrew letters, Aleph and Bet, are the origin of the English word Alphabet. This reveals the complex simplicity of this study. At once, it is as elementary as the ABCs and as multifaceted and all encompassing as the set of all things that can be named with words written with an Alphabet, which is, of course, everything (pg 39).

The Hebrew Alphabet is an incomparably rich and self-coherent symbolic system. Each letter has a broad set of associated meanings based on its name, its position in the Alphabet, its role in Hebrew grammar, and its use in the Alphabetic Verses. The great miracle of God is that the meanings associated with each letter, which have been well understood for millennia, are also fully integrated with the content of the books on the corresponding Spokes of the Wheel. The table below lists the primary properties of each Hebrew letter:

The Hebrew Alphabet

Column 1 – Order: The integration of the twenty-two letters with the sixty-six books is based on the sequence of the Hebrew Alphabet. Any alteration would cause the structure to fall into disarray. God therefore eternally established this sequence in the Alphabetic Verses of His everlasting Word. This is a very important point that cannot be overemphasized. God engraved the Alphabetic Key to the large-scale geometric structure of His Word within the text of the Bible itself.

Column 2 – Sign: This column lists the modern “square” forms of the twenty-two letters that began to replace the ancient script (Column 5) around sixth century BC. Note that five letters have two forms. The form listed on the left shows how the letter is drawn when it appears at the end of a word. The form on the right is for all other cases. For example, the name of the Fourteenth letter Nun begins and ends with this letter, so it displays both of its forms: נון

Column 3 – Name: The names of the letters are related to their shapes in the old Hebrew script. For example, the meaning of Aleph as ox was denoted by drawing an ox head with horns: . When rotated, it became the Latin A. Likewise Bet began as a picture of a tent – – the typical house of desert dwelling folk. When rotated, it became the lowercase Latin b. In most cases, there is a direct correspondence between both the form and the sequence of the Latin letters with those in the old Hebrew script. The grey boxes mark the four exceptions. The pronunciations are also very similar. This is why the Hebrew Alphabet is so easy to learn.

Column 4 – Literal Meaning: The names of the letters are based on common Hebrew words, as discussed above.

Column 5 – Ancient Script: The original forms of the letters in the ancient Hebrew script were more or less obvious pictographs of the thing indicated by the name.

Column 6 – Latin: The correspondence between the Latin and Hebrew Alphabets shows their common origin, and makes learning Hebrew somewhat simpler.

Column 7 – Pronunciation: The guide is simplified, but should suffice for our purposes.

There is one letter of special interest that we should look at before finishing this introduction. The name of the Last letter Tav denotes a mark, sign, or cross. It is the origin of the Latin T and Greek Tau and was drawn in the old script either as and , the latter being identical to the traditional form of the traditional cross of Christ. I first learned this in 1991 when I began teaching myself Hebrew from Ben-Yehuda’s Pocket Hebrew Dictionary which displays an image of both the modern and ancient forms at the head of each section. The digital image above shows the heading for the last letter Tav.

This “coincidence” astounded me. The Hebrew Alphabet ends with the sign of the cross in precise analogy with the Gospel Message that declares Christ completed His Work of redemption on His Cross with the words “It is finished” (John 19:30). This was one of the first signs that God used to awaken my interest in the Hebrew Alphabet. It was this, along with a number of other “coincidences,” that prompted me to delve into a deep study of the symbolic meanings of the twenty-two letters. In 1995, as I sought to systematize my four years of study using the ancient Jewish tradition that says God “placed the letters in a circle,” it occurred to me that the whole body of Scripture could be rolled up and integrated with the Hebrew Alphabetic Circle. This is how God led me to discover the Bible Wheel.

A View from a Higher Dimension

For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways, saith the LORD. For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways, and my thoughts than your thoughts.

Isaiah 55:8f

On May 12, 1995, I completed the first draft of the of the Bible Wheel shown below. I placed the Hebrew letters on the outer rim so there would be room to write their names in English, and wrote the numerical position of each book below its name for easy reference.

The structure consists of a circular matrix of Sixty-Six Cells on a Wheel of twenty-two Spokes. The Sixty-Six Cells form three wheels within the Wheel called Cycles. Each Cycle spans a continuous sequence of twenty-two books:

With the completion of the Bible Wheel, we now have a fully unified view of the whole Bible as a symmetrical, mathematically structured two-dimensional object. The increase from the traditional one-dimensional list of books to the two-dimensional Bible Wheel immediately reveals a host of unanticipated correlations between the three books on each Spoke with each other and the corresponding Hebrew letter. The correlations exhibit a perfection of intelligence unlike anything ever seen in the history of the world. They involve top-level super-obvious patterns based on fundamental Biblical categories, historical events, specific content from the Alphabetic Verses found only on the corresponding Spoke, and so on and so forth.

First amongst the “host of unanticipated correlations” is the alignment of Genesis, Isaiah, and Romans on the first Spoke. These are the first books of three primary divisions of Scripture:

The conjunction of the “Law” and the “Prophets” immediately evokes the self-desciption of Scripture found within Scripture and we see that the text of Scripture describes the its own large-scale structure!

These three “first books” align with the first letter of the Hebrew alphabet, Aleph, which is a Biblical symbol of beginnings or first things. This is how God used the corresponding Greek Alpha when He said “I am Alpha and Omega, the beginning and the ending” (Rev 1:8). We have, therefore, a top-level super-obvious integration of the structure of Scripture with the meaning of the first letter of the Hebrew alphabet as defined within the Holy Text itself. To fully appreciate the significance of this “coincidence” we need to review the large-scale structure of the Christian Canon.

The Canon Wheel

(Chapter 2 of the Bible Wheel Book)

The Protestant Canon of Scripture

But God forbid that I should glory, save in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ, by whom the world is crucified unto me, and I unto the world. For in Christ Jesus neither circumcision availeth any thing, nor uncircumcision, but a new creature. And as many as walk according to this rule, peace be on them, and mercy, and upon the Israel of God.

Galatians 6:14ff

The list of the sixty-six books of the Bible is called the canon of Scripture, from the Greek κανων (kanon), meaning rule or measuring rod. The ultimate root is found in the Hebrew קנה (kaneh), of the same meaning, which also gave rise to the English word “cane” (a rod or walking stick). Paul used this word above in Galatians 6:16 and again in Philippians 3:16 when he admonished us to “walk according to the same rule (kanon).” Though these verses do not directly refer to the list of sixty-six inspired books, the early Church fathers recognized “canon” as an apt term for that which defines the rule of the Christian Faith given in the Holy Bible. It is of primary importance to remember that the Bible Wheel is a representation of the Protestant Bible. Issues relating to such things as other versions of the Bible and the Apocrypha, while interesting, do not impact any facts presented in this book.

The Protestant Canon possesses an extraordinarily coherent and perfectly symmetric structure. It is first divided into two main groups:

39 Books of the Old Testament, originally written in Hebrew (and some Aramaic)

27 Books of the New Testament, originally written in Greek

These two groups further subdivide into seven divisions based primarily on the genre, or type of writing, of each Book. This has been thoroughly studied and documented in many Biblical commentaries. My favorite is J. Sidlow Baxter’s massive six-volume Explore the Book (1960) in which he presented a detailed analysis of the main themes of each of the sixty-six books in the context of the “big picture” of the whole Bible. His work shines with a rare brilliance, being thoroughly enlightened by his full appreciation of the Divine design of the Holy Bible, as is quite evident from the introduction to his book:

Our Bible consists of sixty-six component parts. These are divided into two distinctive major collections, the Old and New Testaments. But each of these two Testaments, the one consisting of thirty-nine books, the other of twenty-seven, is found to be arranged in certain clearly homogenous groups; and in this connection careful investigation reveals the presence of a marvelous Divine design running through the whole. … This presence of plan and design does not only pertain to the Bible in this general sense; it runs through all the different book-groups considered separately; and the more we follow it through in detail, so the more won-derful it becomes, until all possibility of its being mere coincidence is eliminated by over-whelming abundance of evidence that this is indeed the word of the living God.

Baxter was not alone with this insight. W. Graham Scroggie held an identical view which he described in the introduction to his magnificent synthetic vision of the Bible as whole, The Unfolding Drama of Redemption (1953):

In the Bible, as in biology, the whole is more than the aggregate of the parts. A living body is more than an assemblage of limbs; and the Bible is more than a collection of texts, paragraphs, chapters, or even books; it is a spiritual organism, in which each part is related to, and is dependent on, every other part, the whole being pervaded by spiritual life. … It has a starting point, a track, a goal. The Temple of Truth is upreared from its foundation to its con-summation by its glorious superstructure, in which are beauty of conception, unity of plan, harmony of parts, and growth towards completion.

Both Baxter and Scroggie followed the ancient Christian tradition that lists the sixty-six books under the three general categories (genres) of History, Prophecy, and Writings, the latter containing the subcategories of Wisdom (Didactic) Literature and Epistles (Letters). This tradition probably arose in Judaism, before Christianity was born, with the publication of the Septuagint (ca. 200 BC) which follows this categorical system. Many Christian scholars have used it to a greater or lesser extent over the centuries. It defines the chapter structure of many Bible commentaries such as Adam Clarke’s Clavis Biblica (Bible Key) published in 1810 and the more modern Eerdmans’ Handbook to the Bible (1973) which color-codes its chapters in precise accordance with the seven divisions outlined below. This review of the large-scale structure of the Bible follows the pattern that Baxter, Scroggie, Clarke, Eerdmans’ Handbook, and a host of other Biblical scholars have published in abundance.

The 39 Books of the Old Testament

The law of the LORD is perfect, converting the soul: the testimony of the LORD is sure, making wise the simple. The statutes of the LORD are right, rejoicing the heart: the commandment of the LORD is pure, enlightening the eyes.

Psalm 19:7f

The thirty-nine books of the Old Testament fall into three consecutive groups of Seventeen Books of History, Five Books of Wisdom, and Seventeen Books of Prophecy. These three groups symmetrically subdivide into five groups which contain either five books or twelve books. Of these, the two groups of Twelve Books symmetrically subdivide into groups of Nine and Three. These are the “homogenous groups” mentioned by Baxter above, and this is part of the “plan and design” that “does not only pertain to the Bible in this general sense” but “runs through all the different book-groups considered separately” to yield an “over-whelming abundance of evidence that this is indeed the word of the living God.” Here now is a review the details of the Old Testament portion of this “marvelous Divine design running through the whole” of the Bible.

Five Books of the Law [Category: History]

Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers, Deuteronomy

The first Five Books form a group that goes by various names, such as the Law, the Pentateuch, and the Five Books of Moses. The Jews call it the Torah. It chronologically records the history from the beginning of creation (Gen 1:1) through the formation of Israel as God’s Chosen People up to the time just before they entered the Promised Land. It includes major formative events such as the Exodus from Egypt, the giving of the Ten Commandments, and the forty years of wandering in the wilderness. Both Jews and Christians have recognized this group as a separate canonical division since the earliest times.

Twelve Books of Old Testament History [Category: History]

Joshua, Judges, Ruth, 1,2 Samuel, 1,2 Kings, 1,2 Chronicles, Ezra, Nehemiah, Esther

This group continues the history of the children of Israel from the crossing of the Jordan River and entrance into the Promised Land. It records the rise and fall of the Davidic Kingdom and the many trials and tribulations that befell the Jews as they repeatedly disobeyed God’s commandments. The Babylonian Exile, when God drove them from the Promised Land because of their many sins, punctuates this section. The first nine books record the time before the Exile, and the last three record the time after their return.

The Bible therefore begins with a sequence of Seventeen Books of History divided into two main groups of Five and Twelve Books which record the events before and after en-trance into the Promised Land, punctuated by the crossing of the Jordan River. Likewise, the last Twelve Historical Books are divided into two main groups of Nine and Three, punctuated by the Babylonian Exile. As we will see below, the Seventeen Books of Prophecy follow exactly the same pattern.

Five Books of Wisdom and Poetry [Category: Writings]

Job, Psalms, Proverbs, Ecclesiastes, Song of Songs

These Five Books form a meditative, prayerful, and philosophical interlude between the Seventeen Books of History preceding them and the Seventeen Books of Prophecy that follow after. As shown in the table below, they reside in the symmetrical heart of the Old Testament and so it is that they teach the heart of every believer the Wisdom of God in Proverbs, the Praise of God in the Psalms, and the Love of God in the Song of Songs.

Five Books of the Major Prophets [Category: Prophecy]

Isaiah, Jeremiah, Lamentations, Ezekiel, Daniel

Twelve Books of the Minor Prophets [Category: Prophecy]

Hosea, Joel, Amos, Obadiah, Jonah, Micah, Nahum, Habakkuk, Zephaniah, Haggai, Zechariah, Malachi

The first Five and last Twelve of the Seventeen Books of Prophecy have always been grouped separately because the latter Twelve were small enough to be written together on a single scroll called the Book of the Twelve. Almost all early canon lists attest to its existence as a separate group. The ancient Jewish book, The Wisdom of Sirach (ca. 180 BC) gives the earliest witness to this grouping.

Each of the Books of Isaiah, Jeremiah, and Ezekiel are larger than all Twelve Minor Prophets combined and were written on individual scrolls. But there are other important distinctions that set the first Five Books of Prophecy apart from the Twelve that follow them. The Book of Isaiah is without doubt the “first of the Prophets” for many reasons, as discussed in detail below (pg 61). The New Testament quotes it more than any other prophetic Book because it contains the greatest Old Testament revelation of the Gospel and the Work of Christ (e.g. Isaiah chapters 40 & 53). David A. Hubbard lauded its unique significance when he called it “the Mount Rushmore of biblical prophecy,” and went on to write:

Sculpted on its massive slopes are the major themes of Scripture: who God is, what he has done for his people, and how he expects us to serve him. … No other part of the Bible gives us so panoramic a view of God’s handiwork in Israel’s history nor such clear prophecies of his lordship over the nations. If Beethoven’s nine symphonies loom as landmarks on the horizon of classical music, Isaiah’s sixty-six chapters mark the apex of prophetic vision.

The Books of Jeremiah and Ezekiel are likewise distinct from the Twelve Minor Prophets in scope as well as size. The Book of Lamentations, on the other hand, is not prophetic per se, but has been included with Jeremiah since ancient times because that great prophet wrote it and so it stands with his Book in all Protestant Bibles. The Major Prophets therefore contain Five Books by four writers, which is the same pattern seen in the Five New Testament History Books, as discussed below.

This coherence of design continues in the Twelve Minor Prophets which subdivide in precisely the same way as the latter Twelve History Books. In both cases, the Babylonian Exile punctuates the subdivision. The first Nine prophesied before the Exile, and the latter Three after the return. The Seventeen Books of Prophecy therefore exhibit exactly the same numerical pattern as the Seventeen Books of History. The table below displays the symmetric structure of the Old Testament, with the Babylonian Exile dividing between the Fourteenth and Fifteenth Books of both the historical and prophetical sections. It is displayed on the Wheel on page 98 where it is shown that all the divisions and subdivisions align on the same sets of Spokes. The table follows the pattern as presented in both Baxter’s and Scroggie’s comprehensive studies of the Bible as a whole.

The 27 Books of the New Testament

The book of the generation of Jesus Christ, the son of David, the son of Abraham. Abraham begat Isaac; and Isaac begat Jacob; and Jacob begat Judas and his brethren;

Matthew 1:1

At the highest level of categorization, the structure of the New Testament, like that of the Old, is very simple. It consists of only two main groups; Five Books of History and twenty-two Writings most broadly categorized as Epistles (Letters).

Five Books of New Testament History [Category: History]

Matthew, Mark, Luke, John, Acts

These Five Books consist of four biographies (personal histories) of Christ called Gospels, and one history of the early Church called the Acts of the Apostles. The Gospels cover the birth, life, death, and resurrection of the Lord Jesus Christ. Likewise, Acts begins with the birth of His Church at Pentecost when God sealed

His disciples with the Holy Spirit and sent them forth to proclaim the Gospel unto “the uttermost parts of the earth.” Luke is the author of both Acts and the Gospel that bears his name so the New Testament History consists of Five Books written by four authors just like the Five Major Prophets. The Gospels subdivide into a “3 + 1” pattern with three synoptic Gospels presenting roughly parallel accounts of the life of Christ and the Gospel of John which stands alone with its unique revelation of Christ as the Living Word of God. This exhibits the same structure as the Menorah (pgs 48, 384).

Twenty-Two Epistles [Category: Writings]

Romans, 1,2 Corinthians, Galatians, Ephesians, Philippians, Colossians, 1,2 Thessalonians, 1,2 Timothy, Titus, Philemon, Hebrews, James, 1,2 Peter, 1,2,3 John, Jude, Revelation

The word “epistle” comes directly from the Greek επιστολη (epistole) which denotes a letter as “something sent.” It is from the same root as “apostle” which appears in the opening salutation of exactly one-half of the books in this group, such as the first verse of the first Epistle, “Paul, a servant of Jesus Christ, called to be an apostle, separated unto the gospel of God” (Rom 1:1). The category of Epistle derives from the self-description of Scripture which uses this term in reference to seven of the Books listed above. For example, the First Epistle ends with a note from the scribe who penned it, “I Tertius, who wrote this epistle, salute you in the Lord” (Rom 16:22). Likewise, Peter called his own writing an epistle (2 Pet 3:1) and referred to Paul’s writings as both epistles and scripture:

… even as our beloved brother Paul also according to the wisdom given unto him hath written unto you; As also in all his epistles, speaking in them of these things; in which are some things hard to be understood, which they that are unlearned and unstable wrest, as they do also the other scriptures, unto their own destruction.

2 Peter 3:15f

Paul also referred to his own writings as epistles, as when he said “I charge you by the Lord that this epistle be read unto all the holy brethren” (1 Thes 5:27).

Each of the twenty-two Epistles except Hebrews and 1 John opens with a salutation from the author, the name of the recipient(s), and a blessing that usually includes grace and peace from God. The opening salutations from the first and last Books in this group serve as good examples of the common style of New Testament Epistles:

Romans 1:1,7: Paul … to all that be in Rome, beloved of God, called to be saints: Grace to you and peace from God our Father, and the Lord Jesus Christ.

Revelation 1:4: John to the seven churches which are in Asia: Grace be unto you, and peace, from him which is, and which was, and which is to come; and from the seven Spirits which are before his throne;

Likewise, each of the twenty-two Epistles except James has a closing salutation that typically includes a blessing, a mention of Christ being “with you,” and an concluding “amen.” Again, the first and last Epistles serve as fine examples of the uniformity of the style of the New Testament Epistles, since they are identical:

Romans 16:24: The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with you all. Amen.

Revelation 22:21: The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with you all. Amen.

The twenty-two Epistles subdivide sequentially into various groups and subgroups based on authorship and audience as follows:

14 Pauline Epistles

9 Ecclesiastical Epistles written to Churches in seven cities; Rome, Corinth, Galatia, Ephesus, Philippi, Colossae, and Thessalonica.

4 Personal Epistles written to three individuals. These divide into a “3 + 1” pattern like the Gospels. The first three were written to the pastors Timothy and Titus, and so are called “Pastoral Epistles.” Paul wrote the fourth to his close friend and convert, Philemon.

1 Epistle to the Hebrews. As mentioned above, this Book has no opening salutation so we do not know with certainty who wrote it. The KJV follows the early Church tradition, maintained also by both the Roman Catholic and Greek Orthodox Churches, and lists this Book as “The Epistle of Paul the Apostle to the Hebrews.” The question of authorship will be dealt with as the need arises (pg 100).

7 General Epistles written by James (1), Peter (2), John (3), and Jude (1).

1 Prophetic/Apocalyptic Epistle. There is no consensus on the proper sub-categorization of the Book of Revelation. It has been called prophetic, apocalyptic, historic, symbolic, and allegorical. It is all this and more. It is a Capstone to the Bible that ties together everything that goes before it. Many canon lists overlook its epistolary nature and categorize it as the only prophetic Book of the NT, but this ignores a primary aspect of its true nature, as Roloff well explained in his section called The Epistolary Character of Revelation in his commentary, writing: “In summary, Revelation is a prophetic writing that contains numerous apocalyptic motifs and elements of style, but whose form is chiefly characterized by the purpose of epistolary communication.” David Aune, in his exhaustive three-volume commentary on the Final Book, noted that “The Canon Muratori [2nd-4th century] recognized the epistolary character of Revelation, which is understood to mean that the seven individual churches to whom John wrote, when taken together, represent the universal Church.” Baxter concurred, stating simply that the Book of Revelation “is really an Epistle of our Lord Himself: see the opening verse.”

We now have completed a survey of the structure of the Christian Canon as understood by numerous Biblical scholars over a span of centuries. The blazing miracle of God is that the seven canonical divisions reviewed above spontaneously blossom on the Bible Wheel to form a top-level, super-obvious pattern that is nothing less than a Divine revelation of the fully unified sevenfold symmetric perfection of the whole Bible prepared by God before the foundation of the world.

The Seven Canonical Divisions on the Bible Wheel

The image above displays the seven canonical divisions of the Bible in various shades of purple, red, and blue. Symmetrically placed divisions, such as the Five Books of the Law (Genesis to Deuteronomy) and the Five Wisdom Books (Job to Song of Songs) are marked with the same color. Divisions aligned on the same set of Spokes, such as the Law and the Major Prophets (Isaiah to Daniel) which span the first five Spokes, are marked by different shades of the same color. The Canon Wheel on the next page displays the same information in a simplified format, using only the names of the seven divisions.

The Canon Wheel

Sevenfold Symmetric Perfection

(Chapter 3 of the Bible Wheel Book)

The Symmetry of the Canon Wheel

For behold the stone that I have laid before Joshua; upon one stone shall be seven eyes: behold, I will engrave the graving thereof, saith the LORD of hosts, and I will remove the iniq-uity of that land in one day.

Zechariah 3:9

Christ Pantocrator with Tri-Radiant Cruciform Halo (Hagia Sofia Church, 1260 AD)

The first thing to bear in mind about the Canon Wheel is the simplicity of its origin. It spontaneously emerges from the “single and surprisingly simple act” of rolling up the Bible like a scroll on a spindle wheel of Twenty-Two Spokes (pg 16), followed by the even simpler act of merely coloring and labeling the seven divisions listed at the bottom of the opposite page. That is all there is to it. Nothing has been added to the Bible, and nothing has been taken away.

As mentioned on page 24, the increase from a one- to a two-dimensional representation of the Bible reveals “a host of unanticipated correlations.” Chief amongst these is the three-rayed cross-like symmetry that arises from the alignment of the first six canonical divisions on only three sets of Spokes. The Torah aligns with the Major Prophets on the first five Spokes, the Old Testament History aligns with the Minor Prophets on the next twelve Spokes, and the Wisdom Books align with the New Testament History on the last five Spokes. The Epistles stand alone as a perfect circle spanning all twenty-two Spokes on Cycle 3. The Canon Wheel exhibits three kinds of symmetry:

Rotational Symmetry: The infinite symmetry of the simple Circle defines the basic form of the Wheel. This symmetry applies in particular to Cycle 3 which is an undivided circle of Epistles.

Bilateral Symmetry: The left looks like the right. The cross-like (cruciform) pattern looks the same when reflected in a mirror. This symmetry is characteristic of most living creatures such as reptiles, birds, and mammals.

Periodic Radial Symmetry: The six divisions on the first two Cycles follow the periodic pattern of 5–12–5 so that the six dividing lines are paired on only three radii. This symmetry also governs the design of the Menorah and the Seven Days of Creation (pg 48).

Holy Spirit

The perfect symmetry of the Canon Wheel is by itself an overwhelming witness to the Divine Unity of the living creature known as the Holy Bible, but even more profound are the implications ringing from its symbolic overtones. The basic pattern of the Canon Wheel is not new to Christianity. It echoes the ancient tri-radiant cruciform halo (three-rayed cross nimbus) that originated in the early Church with the union of the Circle, the Cross, and the doctrine of the Holy Trinity. Christian iconography has used it as a Sign of Deity since at least the sixth century. It almost always has three rays and is never used for any person except a member of the Holy Trinity. It is a standard element in the iconic form called Christ Pantocrator (Greek for Almighty) exemplified above in the mosaic from the Church of Holy Wisdom (Hagia Sofia) made around 1260 AD. It appears in paintings and stained glass windows in churches of every denomination found all over the planet. Thomas Stafford explained its use in representations of the Holy Spirit in his book Christian Symbolism in Evangelical Churches:

The most used and most authentic symbol of the Holy Spirit is the descending dove with the tri-radiant nimbus. It is based on the account of the baptism of our Lord. This is one of the earliest forms used to represent the Holy Spirit and is the most beautiful of all the symbols used in Christian art. It is the preferred symbol for baptismal fonts.

Outline of the Canon Wheel

The symbolic overtones of the tri-radiant halo carry over directly onto the Canon Wheel, which now appears to be nothing less than a Divine Icon of the very Faith taught in the pages of the Book it faithfully represents. But there is much more to it than this. The tri-radiant halo is a lot simpler than the Canon Wheel. Its geometric pattern is based on the union of only the Circle and the Cross, whereas the Canon Wheel incorporates two additional symbols – the Alphabet and the Number Seven – in its design. It is from the unified convergence of all four of these independent symbols that the glorious light of God’s incomparable Wisdom blazes forth.

A Compound Symbol of Unity, Perfection, and Completeness

In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. The same was in the beginning with God. All things were made by him; and without him was not any thing made that was made. In him was life; and the life was the light of men. And the light shineth in darkness; and the darkness comprehended it not.

John 1:1-5

With the advent of the Canon Wheel, we now have an overwhelming convergence of distinct, independent, universal, and Biblical symbols representing different aspects of the unity, perfection, and completeness of the Holy Bible. The symbols include the Circle, the Cross, the Alphabet, and the Number Seven. God united all four of these elements in a single compound symbol when He designed the Canon Wheel. They synergistically interact with each other to amplify the symbolic meaning each holds individually so that the significance of the whole is immeasurably greater than the sum of its individual parts. Here is an overview of the results covered in this chapter:

The Eternal Circle: Unchanging, without beginning or end, infinitely symmetric, and perfect in form, the Circle is uniquely qualified as a symbol of unity, wholeness, things divine, and things eternal. It is the optimal form for the Book revealing God’s eternal Word.

Sealed with the Sign of the Cross: The Sign of the Cross seals the geometric structure of the Bible in two fundamental ways. The name of the last Hebrew Letter, Tav (t), literally denotes a mark, sign, or cross. Both Jewish and Christian traditions have long recognized it as a Biblical symbol of God’s Covenant. It consummates and seals the entire Biblical revelation on Spoke 22, the Last Spoke. The Sign of the Cross also seals the large-scale structure of the whole Bible with the sevenfold symmetry that forms an image of the traditional tri-radiant cruciform halo, the Sign of Deity in ancient Christian iconography. The seals of many denominational churches echo this pattern (pg 56).

Aleph (א) and Tav (ת), First and Last: Scripture reveals the Lord Jesus Christ both as the Word of God and as the Alpha Omega (ΑΩ), using the names of the first and last letters of the Greek alphabet. These ideas naturally cohere because any word can be written with letters, so the first and last Letters of any alphabet, as representative of all that lie between them, innately form a symbol of everything that can be named, implying completeness and totality. God merged the Hebrew Alphabet, the Circle, and all Scrip-ture when He designed the Bible Wheel to form a compound symbol of the all-encompassing, everlasting, sealed perfection of His written Word, from Aleph to Tav.

Sevenfold Symmetric Perfection: From the Seven Days of Creation to the Seven Seals of Revelation, Scripture presents the Number Seven as the numerical symbol of fullness, completion, and perfection. God incorporated this number in the canonical divisions to form the sevenfold symmetry that looks like the tri-radiant cruciform halo. The pattern combines with the Alphabetic Circle so that the vertical line of bilateral symmetry divides between the Aleph (א) and Tav (ת). The Bible Wheel unites all four independent symbols – the Circle, the Cross, the Alphabet, and the Number Seven – to form a compound symbol representing the complete perfection of God’s Holy Word from begin-ning to end. Its structure is optimal in too many ways to mention. It is perfection set upon perfection!

The next few sections will explore how the Lord fully integrated these four independent symbols to form a single multifaceted compound symbol declaring nothing less than the eternal perfection of the entire revealed Word of God. It is important to remember that these are just a few of the top-level signs and symbols proclaiming the Divine Perfection of God’s Book. The detailed structure revealed in the thematic integration of the three Books on each Spoke with each other and the corresponding Hebrew Letter is no less miraculous. This is explored in great detail in Part II, The Synopsis of the Twenty-Two Spokes.

The Eternal Circle

Every good gift and every perfect gift is from above, and cometh down from the Father of lights, with whom is no variableness, neither shadow of turning. Of his own will begat he us with the word of truth, that we should be a kind of firstfruits of his creatures.

James 1:17f

God the Geometer (13th Century Manuscript)

Throughout history and across all cultures, artists and religious iconographers have recognized the Circle as the ideal symbol of completion, perfection, things Divine, and things eternal. No other figure expresses these ideas with such simple elegance. It is a universal symbol; an archetype from the Mind of God. We see it in the glorious rainbow roundabout God’s throne (Ezek 1:28, Rev 4:1), in the halos above the heads of His saints, and even as a symbol of the very act of creation when God “placed a compass upon the face of the depth” (Prov 8:27). This last verse inspired the image below, which also portrays Christ with the tri-radiant cruciform halo. Note that His foot is stepping out of the frame. The artist understood well that God cannot be “put in a box.”

The Circle is uniquely qualified as the geometric form of God’s eternal Word. It possesses significant properties found in no other two-dimensional figure. It is the most compact, meaning that the ratio of the perimeter to the area is less than any other figure. The Wheel, therefore, is the most compact two-dimensional representation possible by which the Bible may be geometrically integrated with the Hebrew alphabet. This follows the same minimization principle that characterizes many physical laws, which also can be used in the derivation of the sevenfold symmetry of the Canon Wheel from first principles, as explained on my website.

The Infinite Symmetry of a Perfect Circle

One thing have I desired of the LORD, that will I seek after; that I may dwell in the house of the LORD all the days of my life, to behold the beauty of the LORD, and to enquire in his temple.

Psalm 27:4

The singular beauty of the simple Circle arises from the fact that amongst all two-dimensional objects it and it alone is infinitely symmetric. Any two-dimensional figure has a degree of symmetry measured by its behavior under rotation. An equilateral triangle, when rotated about its center, returns to its original orientation only when the angle is a multiple of 120 degrees, or one third of the Circle. It has, therefore, symmetry of order three. Likewise, a square returns to its original orientation only when the angle is a multiple of 90 degrees, or one fourth of the Circle. It has symmetry of order four. In general, a regular polygon with “n” sides will have symmetry of order “n.” The symmetry order of a non-regular polygon, such as a rectangle, will always be less than “n.” Here are three simple figures that exemplify these ideas; a rectangle, a square, and a circle:

Most objects are not symmetric at all, and of all that are symmetric, the degree of symmetry is always finite, except in the unique case of the Circle which can be rotated through any angle with no variation in form. It is, therefore, a natural analog of the relation between God, “with whom is no variableness, neither shadow of turning” (James 1:17), and everything else in His creation. It is He, and He alone that is infinite and unchanging, as it is written, “For I am the LORD, I change not” (Mal 3:6), and again, “Jesus Christ the same yesterday, and to day, and for ever” (Heb 13:8). The spiritual significance of the Circle as the most excellent symbol of things Divine and things eternal is impossible to miss and to behold the Word of God to be supernaturally structured on this eternal pattern strikes the mind that has faith to see as nothing less than an immutable miracle, endlessly ablaze.

Sealed with the Sign of the Cross

And I, brethren, when I came to you, came not with excellency of speech or of wisdom, declaring unto you the testimony of God. For I determined not to know any thing among you, save Jesus Christ, and him crucified.

I Corinthians 2:1f

God designed the symbolic meaning of the twenty-two Hebrew letters to proclaim the message of the everlasting Gospel. The meaning of each letter derives from its name, position in the alphabet, grammatical function and associated KeyWords. The meaning of the last letter is very plain; Jews and Christians have agreed about it from the beginning. As noted on page 21, its name תו (Tav) is a common Hebrew word that denotes a mark, sign, or cross. In the ancient Hebrew script, it was written alternately as X or , the latter being identical to the traditional form of the Cross of Christ. It is the origin of the corresponding Greek Tau and Latin T. The famed Hebrew scholar Gesenius noted that it was “a sign in the form of a cross branded on the thigh or neck of horses and camels.” It is the elemental sign of ownership used by God to identity His faithful Remnant in a vision He gave to the Prophet Ezekiel:

And the LORD said unto him, Go through the midst of the city, through the midst of Jerusalem, and set a mark (tav) upon the foreheads of the men that sigh and that cry for all the abominations that be done in the midst thereof.

Ezekiel 9:4

Keystone of the Bible     Spoke 22 – Tav

The actual Hebrew word translated as mark in this verse is tav, the name of the twenty-second letter. Everyone marked with the Tav Cross was protected when God poured out his wrath on the apostates corrupting His Temple. Similar imagery appears in Revelation 7 when God sealed 144,000 of His servants in their foreheads against the coming judgment. All of this conspires to reveal Tav as the Covenant Letter which is the meaning recognized by both Christians and Jews since antiquity. Rabbinic tradition calls it the Seal of Creation and the Seal of Truth. As discussed in the next section, Church Fathers from the earliest times preached on its relation to the eternal covenant Christ sealed by His death on the Cross. The correlation between the pattern of the Hebrew alphabet and the Gospel is as plain as it is precise. Jesus Christ Himself declared “It is finished” when He sealed the New Covenant with His blood on the Cross! The Cross therefore seals the Bible in two fundamental ways; once on Spoke 22 and again in the tri-radiant cruciform symmetry generated by the seven canonical divisions.

The Fulfillment of the Entire Revealed Word of God.

After this, Jesus knowing that all things were now accomplished, that the scripture might be fulfilled, saith, I thirst. Now there was set a vessel full of vinegar: and they filled a sponge with vinegar, and put it upon hyssop, and put it to his mouth. When Jesus therefore had received the vinegar, he said, IT IS FINISHED: and he bowed his head, and gave up the ghost.

John 19:28ff

Of the many Christian teachers who have expounded on the relation between Tav and the Cross of Christ, one of the earliest on record is Origen (died 254 AD). He drew his insight from the Tav used in Ezekiel’s vision, as he explained in his commentary on that prophet:

This [the letter Tav] bears a resemblance to the figure of the cross; and this prophecy (Ezek. ix. 4) is said to regard the sign made by Christians on the forehead, which all believers make whatsoever work they begin upon, and especially at the beginning of prayers, or of holy readings.

Likewise, Saint Francis of Assisi (died 1226 AD), following the ancient tradition, took up the Tav as his own mark. A modern member of his Order explained its meaning and linked it to Ezekiel’s vision in an article called The Tau Cross in Franciscan Tradition:

For our purposes, the last letter of the Hebrew alphabet represented the fulfillment of the entire revealed Word of God. This Letter was called the Tau (pronounced “Tav” in Hebrew). When the Prophet Ezekiel (9:4) uses the imagery of the last letter of the alphabet he is commending Israel to remain faithful to God until the last, to be recognized as symbolically “sealed” with the mark of the Tau on their foreheads as God’s chosen people until the end of their lives. Those who remained faithful were called the remnant of Israel, often the poor and simple people who trusted in God even without understanding the present struggle in their lives.

Seal of the A.R. Presbyterian Church

This is the overwhelming wonder of the Bible Wheel. The last letter Tav, the divine symbol of both the Cross of Christ and the Seal of the Covenant, simultaneously consummates, completes, and finishes both the thematic and the geometric structures of Scripture. It is not merely a metaphoric “fulfillment of the entire revealed Word of God.” The Tav Cross literally fulfills and seals the entire Biblical revelation on Spoke 22, the Last Spoke of the Wheel (see pg 69). God engraved the essential sign of the Gospel in the structure of His Word. Yet this is only one of two great wonders. The pattern of the Cross appears again in the tri-radiant cruciform structure that simply falls together when we roll up the Bible and color the seven canonical divisions so now the primary message of the text – the Gospel of our Salvation – is seen to be engraved in two independent ways and we recognize again that the Holy Bible itself is a multifaceted Divine Icon of the Faith taught within its pages. All these ideas come together in countless denominational church seals such as that of the Associate Reformed Presbyterian Church which incorporates the Circle, Cross, Alpha Omega (ΑΩ), Dove, and Bible. Page 56 shows more examples. This amplifies the symbolic overtones of the Canon Wheel yet again, suggesting it to be a Divine Seal of the universal Christian Church, designed by God Himself as a template for the very Book that defines it.

Aleph and Tav, First and Last

I am Alpha and Omega, the beginning and the ending, saith the Lord, which is, and which was, and which is to come, the Almighty.

Revelation 1:8

Scripture reveals the Lord Jesus Christ as both the Word of God and the Alpha Omega (ΑΩ), using the names of the first and last letters of the Greek alphabet. These ideas naturally cohere because any word can be written by some combination of characters taken from a small alphabetic set, such as the twenty-six Latin, twenty-four Greek, or twenty-two Hebrew Letters. The infinite set of all possible Letter combinations therefore lists everything that could ever be named, so that the totality of any alphabet, represented by its first and last letters, inherently forms a symbol of wholeness and completeness. In English we say “from A to Z,” and in Hebrew, “from Aleph to Tav.” Note that the Greek word translated as “Almighty” in Revelation 1:8 above is Παντοκρατωρ (Pantocrator), whence the name of the icon of Christ shown below and at the head of this chapter (pg 33).

Christ Pantocrator (modern woodcarving)

The connections between the Word, the Alphabet, and Everything are inherent in the symbol of Alpha Omega (and the corresponding Hebrew Aleph Tav), and are easy to understand without reference to the Biblical witness. But when viewed in light of the revelation of Jesus Christ as Alpha Omega, we immediately recognize that this symbol, by its very nature, expresses the fundamental Christian doctrine that He is the Living Word of God by whom “all things were made” (John 1:3). This is why the symbol is so powerful, and one of the reasons the Creator chose it to identify Himself. These ideas inevitably carry over onto the Bible, which is the written analog (a kind of incarnation) of the Second Person of the Godhead whose “name is called the Word of God” (Rev 19:13). Christian art typically represents these ideas with the compound symbol of a Book (The Word) marked with Alpha Omega as seen in the seal of the A. R. Presbyterian Church (pg 38) and again in the modern wood carving modeled on the ancient icon of Christ Pantocrator shown above. It is a traditional Christian emblem simultaneously proclaiming the Divine Authorship of the Bible and its status as the Complete Word of God, from beginning to end, from first to last.

In the Old Testament, God never explicitly identified Himself with Aleph (א) and Tav (ת) as He did with Alpha (Α) and Omega (Ω) in the New, but He did use the same style of language three times in Isaiah, referring to Himself as the first and the last:

Thus saith the LORD the King of Israel, and his redeemer the LORD of hosts; I am the first, and I am the last; and beside me there is no God.

Isaiah 44:6

This parallels the words He used in the first chapter of the Last Book (Rev 1:8 quoted above), as well as the words spoken by the Lord Jesus Christ in the last chapter of the Last Book (Rev 22:13), which therefore identifies Him as the Almighty God:

And, behold, I come quickly; and my reward is with me, to give every man according as his work shall be. I am Alpha and Omega, the beginning and the end, the first and the last.

Revelation 22:13

Alpha and Omega, Beginning and End, First and Last, Aleph and Tav. These symbols are one. There is nothing surprising about God’s use of them in His Self-Revelation; on the contrary, it would be odd if the Eternal Lord neglected them. But the true glory of God’s Infinite Wisdom goes well beyond the simple use of these symbols in the text of His Word. The real miracle is where He placed them. God used the words “first” and “last” in His Self-Revelation as the Eternal Lord in two and only two Books of the Bible; in Isaiah on Spoke 1 (Aleph) and in Revelation on Spoke 22 (Tav). That’s it. This means that out of all the Books of the Bible, God presents Himself as the “first and last” only on the First and Last Spokes! The structure of Scripture exemplifies the plain message of its text and bears, in its own body, the self-descriptive Signature of its Divine Author! This reveals the Bible as the ultimate “illuminated manuscript” (pg 75) with both its origin from the Eternal Lord and its primary message of the Cross simultaneously engraved by God Himself in both its content and its form.

This is yet another example of the top-level super-obvious “host of unanticipated correlations” (pg 24) that spontaneously burst forth from the “single and surprisingly simple act” of rolling up the Bible like a scroll on the spindle wheel of twenty-two Spokes (pg 16). The simplicity of its origin is of utmost significance. The Alphabetic Key that unlocks the Divine design of the Bible is given in the Bible, eternally established by God Himself in the Alphabetic Verses (pg 17). At no point do we need to go outside Scripture. The Bible Wheel stands solely on the immovable Rock of God’s Eternal Word. Everything about it is derived, established, and validated from Scripture and Scripture alone.

From Eternity to Eternity: The Revelation of All History

Remember the former things of old: for I am God, and there is none else; I am God, and there is none like me, Declaring the end from the beginning, and from ancient times the things that are not yet done, saying, My counsel shall stand, and I will do all my pleasure:

Isaiah 46:9f

God amplified the symbolic meaning of Alpha and Omega to include All History – past, pre-sent, and future – when He followed it with the declaration that He is the Almighty God “which is, and which was, and which is to come” (Rev 1:8). This threefold formulation, called the “formula of eternity,” also appears in John’s opening salutation (Rev 1:4). The exalted Lord Jesus used a variation of it when He gave John his prophetic commission (Rev 1:17ff):

And when I saw him, I fell at his feet as dead. And he laid his right hand upon me, saying unto me, Fear not; I am the first and the last: I am he that liveth, and was dead; and, behold, I am alive for evermore, Amen; and have the keys of hell and of death. Write [1] the things which thou hast seen, and [2] the things which are, and [3] the things which shall be hereafter;

Like the Circle, the first and last letters of either the Greek or Hebrew Alphabets form a general symbol of Wholeness, Totality, Perfection, and when applied to time, Eternity. This brings us to the union of these two independent symbols – the Circle and the Alphabet – that God united in the Divine design of His Holy Bible. Each has its own distinct set of overtones that qualifies it for symbolic use:

The Circle for its all-encompassing form, unchanging simplicity, and infinite symmetry.

The Alphabet for the all-encompassing variety expressed by simple combinations of its characters.

The union of these two symbols forms an Alphabetic Circle that intensifies the symbolic power of each by representing different aspects of Totality in a single figure that jointly displays in the simple unity of the Circle and infinite variety of the Alphabet. Together, they form a natural analog of God’s Eternal Word through whom “all things were made” (John 1:3). This exemplifies the reiterative miracle of the Bible Wheel. The symbols continue to build coherently, one atop the other. God based the geometric structure of His Word on the Alphabetic Circle, which is itself an innate symbol of the all-encompassing nature of the Everlasting Word by which all was created. This is perfection set upon perfection!

We now have a complete convergence of the symbolic power of the Alphabet and the Circle with both the form and the content of the entire Biblical revelation. Everything begins and ends in God. This is true at all levels of enquiry. We see it in the grand scheme of creation which opens with “In the beginning God” and culminates in the revelation of God as the “all in all” (1 Cor 15:28) when “the tabernacle of God [will be] with men, and he will dwell with them, and they shall be his people, and God himself shall be with them” (Rev 21:3). We see it in the personal salvation of each soul believing in the Lord Jesus Christ, “the Author (Α/א) and Finisher (Ω/ת) of our faith” (Heb 12:2, pg 284) in whom “dwells all the fullness of the Godhead bodily” (Col 2:9). The geometric form of the Bible Wheel bears the watermark of the Eternal God who calls Himself the Alpha and Omega, the Beginning and the End.

Numerous biblical commentators have noted the fundamentally circular nature of the overall thematic design of God’s Word. One of my favorite examples is from Daniel Fuller’s excellent book, The Unity of the Bible, where he cites James Orr’s unified vision of the Bible as a whole (emphasis added):

From Genesis to Revelation we feel that this book is in a real sense a unity. It is not a collection of fragments, but has, as we say, an organic character. It has one connected story to tell from beginning to end; we see something growing before our eyes; there is plan, purpose, progress; the end folds back on the beginning [like a circle], and, when the whole is finished, we feel that here again, as in the primal creation, God has finished all his works, and behold, they are very good.

Orr recognized the intimate, symmetrical relation between the First and Last Books of the Bible. The Book of Revelation completes the circle of the Biblical Story by restoring, on an immensely elevated level, everything lost with the Fall in the Garden of Eden in Genesis. The advent of the Bible Wheel amplifies these ideas beyond all measure. We now can see Orr’s metaphorical description of the Bible as a kind of circle whose “end folds back on the beginning” as also a literal description of its geometric structure. An equally profound observation comes from the literary critic Gabriel Josipovici, who easily sees things that are just a little too obvious for most professional Biblical critics. Here is his description of the structure of the Christian Bible, in which he quotes another famous literary critic, Northrop Frye:

It’s a magnificent conception, spread over thousands of pages and encompassing the entire history of the universe. There is both perfect correspondence between the Old and New Testaments and a continuous forward drive from Creation to the end of time: “It begins where time begins, with the creation of the world; it ends where time ends, with the Apocalypse, and it surveys human history in between, or the aspect of history it is interested in, under the symbolic names of Adam and Israel.” Earlier ages had no difficulty in grasping the design, though our own, more bookish age, obsessed with both history and immediacy, has tended to lose sight of it. Neither theologians nor biblical scholars have stood back enough to see it as a whole. Yet it is a whole and quite unlike any other book.

Perhaps no student of Scripture has expressed the Biblical revelation of all history with the clarity, completeness, and compactness of Erich Sauer’s From Eternity to Eternity (1954). Like Baxter (pg 25), his work shines with a rare brilliance, being thoroughly enlightened by his full appreciation of the Divine design of the Holy Bible. Here is how Sauer expressed his understanding of God’s Word:

We believe in an organic, self-unfolding, full inspiration because of the historical unity of the revelation testified by the Bible. This is the most wonderful thing about the Bible: in spite of its most astonishing variety it is a united organism, a harmonious system, full of life and animated by one spirit.

Like Orr above and Scroggie on page 26, Sauer likened the Bible to a living organic creature. And like all living creatures, it has a highly detailed, coherent structure which he represented in a chart displaying the great Circle of History proceeding from and returning to God, the Alpha and Omega. His whole book is an exposition on the structure represented by the chart, of which a digital photograph is reproduced on the next page. The original chart unfolds, as seen in the creases, to be about fifteen inches square. Though it is difficult to read in the small reproduction, the bottom half of the circle displays the history of the world from the original Creation recorded in Genesis to the New Creation proclaimed in Revelation, patterned on the Seven Days of Creation. Here is Sauer’s explanation of its circular form:

Inasmuch as everything comes from God, and, according to His ideal appointment, is for Him, and tends back toward Him, the whole revelation and course of history is like a mighty circular movement. This is the reason why we have not chosen to represent matters on our Chart as a horizontal level, but in the form of a circle, so that the whole is to be read as the dial of a universal clock, just as we, by the use of watches and clocks, are accustomed to read the sequence of time (hours and minutes) not in a horizontal line but in a circle.

Sauer went on to explain the Alpha and Omega at the top of the chart:

World creation, world redemption, world consummation – this is the threefold yet harmonious content of the Divine revelation. Everything comes from God (world creation); everything is wrought by God (world preservation, world redemption); everything tends back toward God (ideal appointment for world-consummation). Thus God is beginning and end, origin and goal of the whole universal process. Therefore the Alpha and Omega, the A and the O, at the summit of the whole circle of the Chart.

Chart of the Biblical Revelation of All History Past, Present, and Future presented in Erich Sauer’s From Eternity to Eternity (1954). Note the interlocking Alpha Omega atthe top and the Cross at the center of both the Circle and the Timeline.

Finally, Sauer explained the Cross at the center of both the Circle and the Timeline:

In this mighty movement from God to God the Cross of Christ is the center of all history. Not indeed as to time, but spiritually and really, and therefore as to the history of salvation, it is the center of all world events. The Cross is the one, incomparable, central event in universal history, surpassing all else in significance. Therefore in the Chart it stands not only as the middle point of the long extended section which represents the course of history, but in size and height it surpasses in the drawing all other representations of events in the whole plan of salvation.

The only nuance I would add to his description of the Cross is that though he is correct to say it is not the literal center of time in the sense of the actual years on either side of it, it is the center of time in our common measurement since our calendar is divided into Before Christ (BC) and after Christ, Anno Domini (AD, the Year of our Lord). In this sense, the Cross of Christ, in perfect harmony with its essential form as one line dividing another, literally divides all history. Note that Sauer’s chart embodies all four symbols – the Circle, the Cross, the Alphabet, and the Number Seven – that are united in God’s design of the Canon Wheel. The value of his work was acknowledged by one of the greatest worldwide evangelists of the twentieth century, Billy Graham (from the back cover of Sauer’s book):

Dr. Sauer’s books should be in the hands of every Christian. They show the work of a scholar who seems to put his finger on the very heart of the Gospel on every page. They have been a great personal blessing to me, and a constant source of material for my messages. I have given scores to friends.

Endless volumes could be written on the all-encompassing theme of this one subsection, but we need to return to the topic of this chapter and complete the review of the full divine integration of the entire body of Scripture with the four independent symbols of the Circle, the Cross, the Hebrew Alphabet, and finally, the Number Seven.

Sevenfold Symmetric Perfection

The words of the LORD are pure words: as silver tried in a furnace of earth, purified seven times.

Psalm 12:6

From the Seven Days of Genesis to the Seven Seals of Revelation, Scripture is saturated with the Number Seven. Essentially all Biblical scholars, regardless of their stance regarding the meaning of numbers in Scripture, have recognized its special symbolic significance. Simply stated, it is impossible to miss. God laid the foundation of its meaning when He introduced this number in the context of His finished Work of Creation:

And on the seventh day God ended his work which he had made; and he rested on the seventh day from all his work which he had made. And God blessed the seventh day, and sanctified it: because that in it he had rested from all his work which God created and made.

Genesis 2:2f

God introduced the Number Seven as a symbol of the completion of His initial creative act. But the work that He ended on the Seventh Day in the first book was really just the beginning of the Biblical revelation of all history that He consummated in the last book. And it is here that we see the divine consistency of the Number Seven as a Biblical symbol; God used it with exactly the same meaning when He revealed the end of time, described as the completion of the “mystery of God,” in Revelation:

And the angel which I saw stand upon the sea and upon the earth lifted up his hand to heaven, And sware by him that liveth for ever and ever, who created heaven, and the things that therein are, and the earth, and the things that therein are, and the sea, and the things which are therein, that there should be time no longer: But in the days of the voice of the seventh angel, when he shall begin to sound, the mystery of God should be finished, as he hath declared to his servants the prophets.

Revelation 10:5ff

The word translated as finished is the Greek τελεω (teleo), which generally means to bring to a close, to complete, to end, to fulfill. This word appears again in Revelation 15:1 which explicitly states the reason for seven angels with seven plagues:

And I saw another sign in heaven, great and marvelous, seven angels having the seven last plagues; because in them is filled up (teleo) the wrath of God.

This verse displays a double emphasis on temporal consummation; the word translated as last is εσχατοϛ (eschatos), whence eschatology, the study of the end times. God reiterated its connection with the Number Seven a third time in Revelation 16:17:

And the seventh angel poured out his vial into the air; and there came a great voice out of the temple of heaven, from the throne, saying, It is done.

This is characteristic of the Bible; most symbols are clearly defined in the text and used quite consistently from Genesis to Revelation. The Number Seven, the numerical symbol of Fullness, Completion, and Perfection, is a prime example of this consistency, as illustrated by this entry from the Tyndale Bible Dictionary:

In Scripture, seven symbolizes completeness or perfection. On the seventh day God rested from his labors and creation is finished (Gn 2:2). Pharaoh in his dream saw seven cattle coming from the Nile (41:2). Samson’s sacred Nazirite locks were braided in seven plaits (Jgs 16:13). Seven devils left Mary of Magdala, signifying the totality of her previous possession by Satan (Lk 8:2); “seven other devils” will enter the purified but vacant life of a person (Mt 12:45). However, on the positive side, there were the seven spirits of God (Rv 3:1). In the seventh year the Hebrew slave was to be freed (Ex 21:2), having completed his time of captivity and service. Every seventh year was a sabbatical year (Lv 25:4). Seven times seven reiterates the sense of completeness. In the Year of Jubilee (at the completion of 7 x 7 years = the 50th year), all land is freed and returns to the original owners (Lv 25:10). Pentecost, the Feast of Weeks, is seven times seven days after Passover. “Seventy,” which is literally “sevens” in Hebrew, strengthens the concept of perfection. There are 70 elders (Ex 24:1) in Israel. Israel was exiled to Babylon for 70 years (Jer 25:12) to complete its punish-ment. “Seventy times seven” (Mt 18:22) reiterates this still further. The Lord was not giving Peter a mathematical number of times that he should forgive another person, but rather was insisting on limitless forgiveness for a brother’s sin.

With this understanding, we can now see the Number Seven as a fourth independent symbol declaring of the completion and perfection of the whole Bible displayed in the sevenfold symmetry of the Canon Wheel. After clearly defining the meaning of the Number Seven throughout the text of Scripture, God then plainly applied it to the design of its large-scale structure. Thus we see that God took four independent yet harmonious symbols and forged them in the furnace of His Infinite Wisdom into a single multifaceted compound symbol declaring with one voice the Divine Perfection of His Holy Word! This is the overwhelming wonder of it all; the symbols God embedded in the design of His Word continue to build one upon the other, endlessly and effortlessly amplifying their mutually coherent implications. Each independent thread in this Divine Tapestry strengthens every other thread until they unite to form an absolutely unbreakable cord.

This complex simplicity and unity in diversity is the hallmark of Divine Wisdom. The Bible Wheel – the Seal of God’s Word – is an exceedingly dense compound of four heterogeneous elements that burns like the nuclear furnace of the sun. And just as the four symbols are mutually integrated, so also each symbol carries multiple symbolic overtones within itself. We saw this with the Alpha Omega which bears the ideas of the beginning and end, eternity, everything created, the Word of God, and God Himself. The Number Seven carries a corresponding depth of composite meaning within itself, as we shall presently see.

A Compound Symbol of Completion and Sanctification

Remember the sabbath day, to keep it holy. Six days shalt thou labour, and do all thy work: But the seventh day is the sabbath of the LORD thy God: in it thou shalt not do any work, thou, nor thy son, nor thy daughter, thy manservant, nor thy maidservant, nor thy cattle, nor thy stranger that is within thy gates: For in six days the LORD made heaven and earth, the sea, and all that in them is, and rested the seventh day: wherefore the LORD blessed the sabbath day, and hallowed [sanctified] it.

Exodus 20:8ff

When God introduced the Number Seven as a symbol of the completion of His Work of Creation, He also associated it with sanctification (holiness), declaring that He “blessed the seventh day, and sanctified it.” Thus God laid the foundation for its application throughout the rest of Scripture. It is a double symbol signifying both completion and sanctification. These ideas natural cohere because sanctification denotes the setting apart or separating of a person or thing as wholly devoted or completely given over to God, as when He separated the Levitical Priests saying “they are wholly given unto me” (Num 8:16), or again when Paul prayed that “the very God of peace sanctify you wholly” (1 Thes 5:23). This is the essence of the Fourth Commandment which mandates the complete cessation of all mundane work and the complete devotion to the things of God. The Christian fulfills this through faith in the finished work of Christ, our eternal Sabbath (Hebrews 4:10).

The Fourth Commandment permanently embedded the threefold association of completion, sanctification, and the Number Seven into the fundamental rhythm – the very heartbeat – of Jewish life. Just as God ceased His Work on the Seventh Day, so the Jews rest from their work on the Seventh Day and sanctify it unto God. This set the basis of God’s sacred pattern of time that completely dominates the Old Testament calendar. It is the origin of the seven-day week now common to the entire world. Obviously, it is very important to God that we recognize and understand the meaning of this number. He used it reiteratively on multiple scales (days, months, years) throughout His ceremonial laws and in His design of the Jewish religious calendar. The Lord ordained seven days for the sanctification of the altar (Exo 29:37), seven days for the sanctification of the Priests (Lev 8:33), and a series of weeks for the cleansing of leprosy (13:1). Likewise, the sanctifying blood of the sacrifice was sprinkled seven times (8:11, 14:7), and following the pattern of the weekly Sabbath on a higher scale, He ordained every seventh year as a sabbatical year when the land was to lay fallow (25:2).

The Seven Feasts of the Lord exemplify God’s reiterative application of this number in the structure of His ceremonial circle of time. It begins with the Feast of Passover on the fourteenth day (2 x 7) of the first month followed immediately by seven days of the Feast of Unleavened Bread. The Feast of Pentecost then comes fifty days (7 x 7 + 1) after the first sabbath following Passover, a pattern God repeated on a higher scale with the Year of Jubilee set for every fifty years (7 x 7 + 1). The whole cycle of Seven Feasts culminates with three connected “holy convocations” of the seventh month, beginning with the Feast of Trumpets followed by the great Day of Atonement which God integrated with the Year of Jubilee and the numerical pattern of “seven times seven”:

And thou shalt number seven sabbaths of years unto thee, seven times seven years; and the space of the seven sabbaths of years shall be unto thee forty and nine years. Then shalt thou cause the trumpet of the Jubilee to sound on the tenth day of the seventh month, in the Day of Atonement shall ye make the trumpet sound throughout all your land. And ye shall hallow the fiftieth year, and proclaim liberty throughout all the land unto all the inhabitants thereof: it shall be a jubilee unto you; and ye shall return every man unto his possession, and ye shall return every man unto his family.

Leviticus 25:8f

God designed the Seven Feasts to accomplish a variety of purposes. They exemplify the symbolic meaning of the Number Seven and indelibly imprint it on the mind of all who read the Bible. They also reveal a prophetic calendar that now stands as an eternal memorial of the great Work of Christ. Three of the primary events of the New Testament – the death of Christ on Passover (1 Cor 5:7), His resurrection on Firstfruits (1 Cor 15:20), and sealing of the newborn Church by the Holy Spirit on Pentecost – were anticipated by them (pg 83).

The Sevenfold Light of God’s Word

And thou shalt make a candlestick of pure gold: of beaten work shall the candlestick be made: his shaft, and his branches, his bowls, his knops, and his flowers, shall be of the same. And six branches shall come out of the sides of it; three branches of the candlestick out of the one side, and three branches of the candlestick out of the other side: … And thou shalt make the seven lamps thereof: and they shall light the lamps thereof, that they may give light … And look that thou make them after their pattern, which was shewed thee in the mount.

Exodus 25:31ff

The symbolic meaning of the Number Seven reaches its apex in the Menorah, the seven-branched candlestick designed by God Himself to be a perpetual light in His Tabernacle. The Lord emphasized its Divine origin when He twice instructed Moses to be sure to follow the pattern that He Himself revealed when they met for forty days on Mount Sinai (Exo 25:9, 40). Like the Seven Feasts, God designed the whole structure of the Tabernacle and its instruments as a prophetic picture of His Son, the Word of God who “became flesh, and dwelt (literally tabernacled) amongst us” (John 1:14). God instructed that two symbols of His Word – Manna and the Ten Commandments – be put in the Ark of the Covenant in the Holy of holies in the heart of the Tabernacle. Thus the “Word became flesh” in this symbol in anticipation of the incarnation of the Living Word, Jesus Christ, the True Tabernacle (John 2:21).

The Menorah stood before the vail covering the entrance to the Holy of Holies. It is a divine symbol that unites the whole panoply of meanings of the Number Seven – fullness, completion, perfection, and holiness – with the idea of the Light of God’s Word. The perfect union of these ideas is astounding to behold. As with the Sabbath and the Number Seven itself, it begins in Genesis. The Menorah stands as an eternal memorial of the Seven Days when God created everything by the power of His Word and spoke His first command, “Let there be light.” And just as the Menorah is called the Lamp of God (1 Sam 3:3), so also is God’s Word twice referred to as a Lamp:

Thy word is a lamp unto my feet, and a light unto my path. – Psalm 119:105

The commandment is a lamp; and the law is light. – Proverbs 6:23

These descriptions are more than mere metaphors, and the Menorah is more than a suggestive symbol of the Light of God’s Word; it actually displays the sevenfold symmetric perfection of the Canon Wheel. The image shows the seven canonical divisions numbered on the Canon Wheel and listed at the bottom in accordance with the Three Cycles. The Menorah displays the periodic radial symmetry of the Canon Wheel (pg 33). Divisions that align on the same set of Spokes – 1/4, 2/5, 3/6 – are shown on paired branches, with the sequences listed in order towards the central lamp representing the New Testament Epistles (7th division). Like the Sign of Deity in Christian iconography (tri-radiant halo), this symbol of Divine Light revealed to Moses on Mount Sinai now appears as nothing less than another prophetic image of the Holy Word. The unity of these two symbols is as simple as it is obvious, as beautiful as it is profound.

Yet this is but the beginning of wonders. God used exactly the same sevenfold symmetry when He designed the Seven Days of Creation! The first Three Days correspond to the second Three Days; the First with the Fourth (1/4), the Second with the Fifth (2/5), and the Third with the Sixth (3/6). This pattern has been noted by numerous scholars, such as Scrog-gie, who also sees a hint of its structure in the phrase “formless and void” from Genesis 1:2. The first three days were Days of Formation that were empty and void until God filled them on the three days that followed. As shown in the table below, this is identical to the form of the Seven Divisions of the Canon Wheel. Both follow a 3+1 pattern with the same three pairs of numbered elements – 1/4, 2/5, 3/6 – and the Seventh Day/Division set apart by itself. This means that God prophetically set the pattern of the entire Bible, revealed now thousands of years later, in the creation account of Genesis 1! The numerical structures of the Word of Creation and of the Holy Bible are ONE. Both were designed symmetrically upon the Number Seven, and both exemplify the full set ideas associated with it. What prophecy! What Wisdom! How mighty are the Lord’s Works! This is the Wisdom by which God “founded the earth” (Prov 3:19) fulfilling Proverbs 9:1: “Wisdom hath builded her House [Word/Cosmos], she hath hewn out her seven pillars.”

Yet there is still more. There is a strong correlation between the thematic flow of the Seven Days with that of the Seven Divisions of the Bible. While a detailed analysis is beyond the scope of this section, a few highlights should make the correlation clear. The First Division is called the Torah (Law). This is not a human convention; the Bible itself frequently uses this name for the first Five Books as when Christ referred to the “law of Moses” (Luke 24:44) or when He said He came to fulfill, not to destroy “the law, or the prophets” (Mat 5:17). As noted above, the Bible declares that “the law (torah) is light” (Prov 6:23) and this corresponds exactly with the primary event of the First Day when God said “Let there be light.” Likewise, the Second Day is characterized by the division of the waters, and this marks the primary event initiating the Second Division, the Twelve OT History Books, when the waters of the Jordan river were “cut off” (divided like the Red Sea in the second book) and the children of Israel “passed over on dry ground” into the Promised Land (Joshua 3:17). The pattern continues with the Third Division, the Five Wisdom Books, corresponding to the Third Day when God created trees bearing fruit, for indeed Wisdom is a “tree of life” (Prov 3:18) and her fruit is “better than gold” (Prov 8:12).

The correlation becomes profoundly theological in the Sixth Division, the Five NT History Books, which record the primary event of the Incarnation when God became Man in Jesus Christ (Mat 1:23, John 1:14). This corresponds precisely with the Sixth Day when God created Man in His image! The parallel is both perfect and precise, and it recurs in many different aspects of the word (see the Synopsis of Spoke 6, pg 206). Finally, the full flowering of the spiritual meaning of the Seventh Day unfolds in the Seventh Division of the Bible. The twenty-two Epistles are unique in that they alone contain the full and explicit revelation of the fundamental doctrine of salvation by grace through faith, and not by works. This characterizes the New Testament Epistles. The most famous is probably this verse from Ephesians:

For by grace are ye saved through faith; and that not of yourselves: it is the gift of God: Not of works, lest any man should boast. For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus unto good works, which God hath before ordained that we should walk in them.

Ephesians 2:8f

This is the clarion call of the Gospel taught in the Seventh Division; NO WORKS! We must rest in the finished Work of Christ! The correlation with the Seventh Day Sabbath could be no clearer. Thus we have a full integration of 1) the Days of Creation, 2) the Menorah, 3) the symbolic meaning of the Number Seven, 4) the geometric structure of the Holy Word, and 5) the fundamental Christian Doctrines of the Incarnation of God (with its implication of the Deity of Christ) and Salvation through Faith Alone!

Yet again we see the content of the text imprinted in its form! God engraved all these fundamental Christian doctrines, and countless others, in the very structure of the Holy Bible! Has ever such a wonder been seen in the history of the world? Yet for all this we have only just begun, for truly there are no limits to the glory of God’s Word!

The Bible Sealed with Seven Seals

And I turned to see the voice that spake with me. And being turned, I saw seven golden candlesticks; And in the midst of the seven candlesticks one like unto the Son of man, clothed with a garment down to the foot, and girt about the paps with a golden girdle. His head and his hairs were white like wool, as white as snow; and his eyes were as a flame of fire; And his feet like unto fine brass, as if they burned in a furnace; and his voice as the sound of many waters. And he had in his right hand seven stars: and out of his mouth went a sharp twoedged sword: and his countenance was as the sun shineth in his strength. And when I saw him, I fell at his feet as dead. And he laid his right hand upon me, saying unto me, Fear not; I am the first and the last: I am he that liveth, and was dead; and, behold, I am alive for evermore, Amen; and have the keys of hell and of death.

Revelation 1:12ff

This brief review of the meaning of the Number Seven now brings us to the Capstone Book of the Holy Bible, sealed by God with the Seal of Seven. In perfect harmony with its plain and obvious symbolic meaning taught throughout His Word, God completed the Bible with a climaxing flourish of sevens seen nowhere else in all Scripture. Indeed, the Last Book is sometimes called the “Book of Sevens” because of its unique emphasis upon that number. The table shows many of its surface level appearances, but there also are subtle patterns of seven running throughout its text, such as the seven blessings given to the saints and sevenfold praise of the Lamb that was slain:

And I beheld, and I heard the voice of many angels round about the throne and the beasts and the elders: and the number of them was ten thousand times ten thousand, and thousands of thousands; Saying with a loud voice, Worthy is the Lamb that was slain to receive 1) power, and 2) riches, and 3) wisdom, and 4) strength, and 5) honour, and 6) glory, and 7) blessing.

Revelation 5:11ff

The Book of Revelation seals the Bible on multiple levels; indeed, the word seal itself appears more in Revelation than any other Book with whole chapters devoted to the opening of the book sealed with seven seals and the revelation of the “seal of the living God” that sealed 144,000 of His servants. It is here in the Last Book that God simultaneously applied the Number Seven as the seal of the whole Bible even as He explicitly united its symbolic meaning – completion and perfection – with the idea of a seal in the image of His Word as a book sealed with seven seals (Rev 5:1). These ideas are, of course, naturally coherent and once again we witness Divine Wisdom in action; God compounding and compacting multiple symbols into a single blazing Sign of the Divine Perfection of His Holy Word, all the while teaching everything to us with simple examples any child could understand.

In precise analogy with the Cross, the Number Seven is actually a double seal upon the Bible. In the section called Sealed with the Sign of the Cross (pg 37) it was noted that the Cross seals the Bible in two fundamental ways; once in the tri-radiant cruciform symmetry of the whole and again on Spoke 22 corresponding to the Last Letter Tav (Cross). Exactly the same duality appears in God’s application of the Number Seven. The tri-radiant cruciform symmetry is formed by the seven canonical divisions, and the last book on the last Spoke is itself sealed throughout with the Number Seven. This means that the Cross and the Number Seven unite to form a double double sealing of the whole Bible! This is a hint of what I mean when I say there is no end to the Glory of God’s Word. It is truly infinite! If only I had ten thousand tongues to declare the true depth of wonder of His Holy Revelation! I stand in awe with our Christian brother, the Apostle Paul:

O the depth of the riches both of the wisdom and knowledge of God! how unsearchable are his judgments, and his ways past finding out!

Romans 11:33

The Pure Light of God from Beginning to End

Moreover the light of the moon shall be as the light of the sun, and the light of the sun shall be sevenfold, as the light of seven days, in the day that the LORD bindeth up the breach of his people, and healeth the stroke of their wound.

Isaiah 30:26

The sevenfold light prophesied in the Book of Isaiah reiterates the connection between the Number Seven and Light that God established in His design of the Menorah. It is a symbol of the Divine Light that will shine in the New Jerusalem at the end of time when all the words of God are fulfilled, as declared in the last book of the Holy Bible:

And the city had no need of the sun, neither of the moon, to shine in it: for the glory of God did lighten it, and the Lamb is the light thereof.

Revelation 21:23,

And again in the last chapter of the last book:

And there shall be no more curse: but the throne of God and of the Lamb shall be in it; and his servants shall serve him: And they shall see his face [which shines as the sun, Rev 1:16]; and his name shall be in their foreheads. And there shall be no night there; and they need no candle, neither light of the sun; for the Lord God giveth them light: and they shall reign for ever and ever.

Revelation 22:3ff

Isaiah’s revelation of the Sevenfold Light of God also hearkens back to the original Seven Days of Creation when God created everything by the Word of His Power (Heb 1:3) which is itself the essence and source of all Light, as it is written:

In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. The same was in the beginning with God. All things were made by him; and without him was not any thing made that was made. In him was life; and the life was the light of men. And the light shineth in darkness; and the darkness comprehended it not.

John 1:1ff

We have a perfect and complete union of the ideas of Creation, God’s Word, Light, and Life. The Bible begins with God’s first command, “Let there be light” (Gen 1:3) and ends with God Himself revealed as the Eternal Light of Heaven (Rev 22:5). As Orr noted above (pg 41), “the end folds back on the beginning, and, when the whole is finished, we feel that here again, as in the primal creation, God has finished all his works, and behold, they are very good.” Yes, the Bible begins and ends with the Light of God, and yes indeed, it is very good! Amen.

Divine Synergy of the Four Symbols

And he gave some, apostles; and some, prophets; and some, evangelists; and some, pastors and teachers; For the perfecting of the saints, for the work of the ministry, for the edifying of the body of Christ: Till we all come in the unity of the faith, and of the knowledge of the Son of God, unto a perfect man, unto the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ:

Ephesians 4:11ff

We are now able to see how God united the four elements into a single compound symbol declaring the absolute perfection of His Holy Word. The Circle encompasses the whole, the Cross seals it once on Spoke 22 and again in the tri-radiant cruciform symmetry, the Alphabet represents the Word itself and its completeness from Aleph to Tav, and the Number Seven, like the Cross, seals and completes the whole Bible once in the sevenfold tri-radiant cruciform symmetry and again on Spoke 22 in the Last Book, the “Book of Sevens.”

The implications of this revelation know no limit. Never in the history of the world has anyone beheld such a profoundly compact and reiterative compound symbol in the structure of any book, let alone a book that proclaims itself Divine, that defines and exemplifies the symbols in its own text, that was composed in three languages over a period of fifteen hundred years by multiple individuals from all walks of life, that transformed the world with its message, and that kept its secret hidden for centuries after its completion only to be revealed when it was simply “rolled up like a scroll” on the alphabetic pattern established within its own pages! Obviously, we are beholding a blazing immutable miracle straight from the Mind of Almighty God.

For Glory and for Beauty

(Chapter 4 of the Bible Wheel Book)

The Bible as a Divine Work of Theological Art

All thy works shall praise thee, O LORD; and thy saints shall bless thee. They shall speak of the glory of thy kingdom, and talk of thy power; To make known to the sons of men his mighty acts, and the glorious majesty of his kingdom.

Psalm 145:10-12

Stained Glass Canon Wheel Cross

On December 5, 2002, my wife Rose completed my Christmas gift, the stained glass rendition of the Bible Wheel shown above. The photograph caught the setting sun behind the Wheel, causing the cross and tri-radiant symmetry to “shine in the darkness” like the light of the God’s Word revealed in John 1:5. This awoke a deep sense of spiritual awe at what God has done in His design of the Holy Bible. In a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, it transformed my highly detailed geometric analysis of Scripture into a work of sacred symbolism that any traditional Christian iconographer could have produced during the last fifteen hundred years. I did not recognize this at first. As usual, I had to wait for one of Rose’s inspired off-hand comments for this Divine door to be opened. “Wouldn’t it be neat if we found the Bible Wheel in a stained glass window of some old church?” she asked.

Cross of Victory

This question was on my mind the next morning as I went for my walk and glanced at the signboard of St. Mark’s Catholic Church across the street. And there it was, the basic pattern of the Bible Wheel – a circle divided into three sections by an inverted Tau Cross (T) – at the base of the Cross of Victory! Suddenly, a thousand images flooded my mind and I recognized this form as truly omnipresent throughout Christian art, symbolism, and iconography, most notably in the tri-radiant cruciform halo in icons of Christ.

Celtic Cross

Though it had been over two years since I had discovered the Canon Wheel (which came four years after the discovery of the Bible Wheel), I had yet to connect it with Christian art. It was the religious overtones that stained glass had acquired through centuries of use in the Church, coupled with the light that lit up the cross and the tri-radiant symmetry, that awoke my artistic imagination and united it with my spiritual intuition to evoke an entirely new sense of the significance of the Bible Wheel. This was when I recognized the natural integration of the Bible Wheel with the traditional “Circle and Cross” found throughout Christian art, and sat in utter amazement as it dawned on me that God had designed the Bible to be a symbol of the very faith taught within its pages. This kind of continuous transforming revelation from one deep level to another ever deeper has characterized nearly every day of the last decade since I first discovered this Divine wonder. At every point I think to myself, “how could there be any more?” and then God opens my mind to see an entirely new and unexpected vista into His oceanic Wisdom.

The stained glass Canon Wheel Cross, another gift from my wife shown above, further exemplifies the endless artistic potential inherent in the structure of the Bible. In this piece, Rose extended the three arms of the tri-radiant symmetry outwards, which is simply the inverse of the stained glass Bible Wheel where the internal cross is formed by extending the three radii towards the center. Both of these forms come together in the Celtic Cross. When Rose was designing these pieces, the only difficulty was the choice of colors. She made many drawings with all sorts of variations, but none seemed correct. Then she fell upon God’s instructions for the priests’ “holy garments” and had a strong witness in her spirit that these also were the proper colors for the Wheel:

And thou shalt make holy garments for Aaron thy brother for glory and for beauty. And thou shalt speak unto all that are wise hearted, whom I have filled with the spirit of wisdom, that they may make Aaron’s garments to consecrate him, that he may minister unto me in the priest’s office. … And they shall make the ephod of gold, of blue, and of purple, of scarlet, and fine twined linen, with cunning work.

Exodus 28:2ff

It was not until about a year after she completed these works that we realized it was not merely the colors, but their placement, that seemed so appropriate. The “heavenly” purples, like the evening sky, are at the top and the “earthly” reds (in Hebrew, “adamah” means both “earth” and “red”) are on the bottom. Neither Rose nor I noticed this when she was making them; in all ways we are utterly indebted to the incomparable grace of God’s guidance. Neither of us feels that any of this really has anything to do with us personally. It is all the work of God. The one thing to remember when looking at these stained glass images is that they are artistic expressions of the innate structure of the Holy Bible. This is the overwhelming wonder of it all – the structure of Scripture unites with its content to reveal it all as a majestic Work of Divine Art that now looks like the prophetic prototype of the art God’s people have been producing throughout the last two millennia.

The Cross of Victory

O death, where is thy sting? O grave, where is thy victory? The sting of death is sin; and the strength of sin is the law. But thanks be to God, which giveth us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ.

1 Corinthians 15:55-56

The Cross of Victory, also known as the “Cross of Triumph” or simply “Cross and Orb,” is very old. The latter description comes from its origin as an image of the orb of the world surmounted by the cross which began appearing around the eighth century in Christian art and Byzantine coins. This, by the way, is a rather obvious contradiction of the already thoroughly discredited myth  that medieval Christians generally believed the world was flat. Many denominational churches use the Victory Cross in their seals, logos, and art. For example, here is the seal

and its explanation from the United Church of Christ :

The symbol of the United Church of Christ comprises a crown, cross and orb enclosed within a double oval bearing the name of the church and the prayer of Jesus, “That they may all be one” (John 17:21). It is based on an ancient Christian symbol called the “Cross of Victory” or the “Cross Triumphant.” The crown symbolizes the sovereignty of Christ. The cross recalls the suffering of Christ — his arms outstretched on the wood of the cross — for the salvation of humanity. The orb, divided into three parts, reminds us of Jesus’ command to be his “witnesses in Jerusalem and in all Judea and Samaria and to the ends of the earth” (Acts 1:8). The verse from Scripture reflects our historic commitment to the restoration of unity among the separated churches of Jesus Christ.

A variation of this pattern appears in the seal of the Lutheran Church–Missouri Synod, which places three of the primary Protestant doctrines – Sola Scriptura (Scripture Alone), Sola Gratia (Grace Alone), and Sole Fide (Faith Alone) – to form an upper semi-circle with the cross moved inside taking the place of the vertical line. Here is their explanation :

The official seal of The Lutheran Church–Missouri Synod is a unique blend of symbols and words. In the center is a blue shield, representing the Christian’s faith;

a prominent gold cross proclaiming that we preach Jesus Christ crucified and risen from the dead;

Latin words under the cross reading “Jesus Christ is Lord”;

three equilateral gold crosses symbolizing the Holy Trinity;

three gold stars on the shield standing for the three Christian creeds: the Apostolic, the Nicene and the Athanasian.

Grape vines fill the bottom white spaces, symbolizing Christ’s words in John 15:5.

As seen in these explanations, the seals were designed to symbolically convey essential theological truths in color, word, and form. This is a primary human activity; it is how God made us. It is also the method God exemplified throughout the Bible, where He teaches His truths through symbols and word pictures. Jesus is called a Lamb, a Door, a Vine, a Star, a Lion. These are all symbols that God Himself chose to reveal the character of His Son. The Christian Church, led by the same Spirit of God who inspired Scripture, has long followed this Divine example by producing theological art, which finds its highest expression in the calculated iconographic beauty characteristic of the Eastern Orthodox Church.

The Bible as the Seal of the Living God

That we should be to the praise of his glory, who first trusted in Christ. In whom ye also trusted, after that ye heard the word of truth, the gospel of your salvation: in whom also after that ye believed, ye were sealed with that Holy Spirit of promise.

Ephesians 1:12f

The seals below are from four Protestant theological seminaries. They have three elements in common; a Circle encompassing the whole, an image of a Book representing the Bible, and a Cross proclaiming the essence of the Gospel (1 Cor 2:2). Two of them use a Dove to signify the Holy Spirit (Mat 3:16) who inspired Scripture (1 Pet 1:11), who leads each believer “into all truth” (John 16:13), and who seals us in the faith (Eph 1:13). Two use a Shield recalling the “the shield of faith” (Eph 6:16). One uses Alpha Omega to represent both Jesus Christ (Rev 22:13), the Living Word of God who created everything, and the completeness of the Bible as God’s Word from beginning to end. One includes the seven-branched Menorah to represent the perfect and complete Light of God’s Word with its shield following the pattern of the tri-radiant halo except for the extra diagonal dividing the upper left section.

Book, Cross, Shield, Tri-radiant Halo	Book, Cross, Dove	Book, Cross, Alpha Omega	Book, Cross, Crown, Menorah, Shield

All four of the symbolic elements discussed in Chapter 3 of the Bible Wheel book appear in these standard Christian seals. This is why the Divine design of the Bible Wheel is so utterly astounding. These standard Christian symbols exist implicitly in it and spontaneously emerge from it when we do nothing but simply “roll up the Bible like a scroll (pg 16). The Circle describes the overall form of the Wheel which is the just the Book itself, the Cross shines from its tri-radiant symmetry, the whole is encompassed and sealed with Aleph Tav corresponding to the Alpha Omega, and the seven divisions link directly to the seven branches of the Menorah. Christians use these symbols in their seals because they are what God has taught us in His Word. Each represents a kind of sealing in and of itself so that these standard Christian seals are made with Biblical symbols that carry within themselves the ideas of sealing and completion. They are strongly reiterative and self-reflective. This means that God’s design of the Wheel now looks like the prophetic prototype of all standard Christian seals. In other words, the Bible itself is the Seal of the Living God, inside and out (both in content and form)!

The image on the cover of the Bible Wheel book portrays these ideas. The Seal of the living God – the Holy Bible – is represented by the stained glass Bible Wheel set in the center of the stone circle and cross. The symbols engraved around it are the standard Biblical symbols of the Dove, the Alpha and Omega, and the Book at the base reminding us that the whole symbol emerges from the Bible and the Bible alone. The background is from the façade of the First Covenant Church  in Seattle Washington, built in 1910. It caught my interest when I noticed the striking variation of the traditional “circle and cross” made with a solid ring with three arms cut from a single stone set atop a pedestal carved from a distinctly darker stone.

Though I have not been able to find a statement from the designer of this façade, it seems clear that he meant to symbolically express the unity of God by the circle and the doctrine of the Trinity with the three arms. In any case, the moment I saw it I knew it would be a perfect setting for the Divine Jewel of the Bible Wheel. It integrates the traditional “circle and cross” with the tri-radiant halo by retaining its elements – a circle with three arms – only inverting them to point outward rather than inward. The distinct pedestal then emphasizes the tri-radiant circle by setting it apart even as it echoes the traditional four-armed cross.

The union of the tri-radiant halo with the four-armed cross is not new to Christianity. It appears, for example, in the Seal of St. Tikhon’s Orthodox Theological Seminary , established in 1938. This is a common iconic form of the Greek Orthodox Church. It differs form those of the Protestants in that it uses a face to represent the humanity of Christ. The beauty of this seal is that it sums up what the faith is all about and what we see when we look at the Bible as a whole and extract its essential message, which is nothing less than the Light of God shining in the face of Jesus Christ (2 Cor 4:6). The Greek Letters above the cross – IC and XC – are the first and last Letters of the words IHSOUC (Jesus) and XRISTOC (Christ). This way of writing Divine names is very old; it appears in some of the earliest New Testament manuscripts and even in the Septuagint, the pre-Christian Jewish Greek translation of the Old Testament. It is a standard element in icons of Christ as seen in both examples given in the last chapter (Bible Wheel book, pgs 33, 39). The three Greek Letters on the arms of the tri-radiant halo spell o wN (Ho On) meaning He Who Is, the Septuagint’s rendition of “I AM THAT I AM” (Exo 3:14). This iconic form, therefore, strongly proclaims the Deity of Christ and His Work on the Cross, with the three arms further reiterating the Doctrine of the Trinity. This is why Christian iconography has been called “theology in form and color.” It is designed to visually represent the fundamental doctrines of the faith.

This magnificent mosaic of Christ seated in glory from the ceiling of the San Giovanni (St. John’s) Baptistery  in Florence, Italy, made in the thirteenth century, is another premier example of this ubiquitous artistic pattern. It was designed to reiteratively display the tri-radiant symmetry, first in the halo of Christ, and again in the form of His body within the circle of glory. Christian tradition, especially in its Greek Orthodox branch, holds that true religious icons are the product of Divine inspiration. It seems impossible to explain the correspondence between these ancient icons of Christ – whose name is called the Word of God – with the geometric form of the Holy Bible in any other way. And besides, what a glory it is to behold! The power of God’s revelation is absolutely overwhelming, filling the soul with a witness unlike anything ever seen in the history of the world. Who can but cry “Grace, grace unto it!” (Zechariah 4:7)?

The Bible Wheel Medallion

The inherent artistic potential of this Capstone that crowns God’s Word has continued to bear abundant fruit, beyond anything I ever could have imagined. In another burst of Divine inspiration, Rose made a solid silver Bible Wheel medallion set with Sixty-Six Stones to represent the Sixty-Six Books of the Bible, so now the Seal of God – the Holy Bible – is effort-lessly displayed as a stunning piece of jewelry. Every day people comment how beautiful it is without having any idea of what it actually represents. I pray the day comes soon when everyone will know what God has done in His Word so that “the earth shall be filled with the knowledge of the glory of the LORD, as the waters cover the sea” (Hab 2:14).

The Bible Wheel is, therefore, simultaneously a Seal, a Capstone, a Jeweled Medallion, and a Divine Work of Theological Art. It glorifies God’s Word beyond all measure. Yet these are only a few of the top-level super-obvious signs of its Divine design. The Alphabet encompassing the Bible Wheel is not merely a symbolic seal on the whole. Each Letter has a meaning that is supernaturally integrated with dominant themes interwoven throughout the three Books on its corresponding Spoke. It is to this infinite depth of Divine Wisdom we now shall turn.

The Bible Sealed from Aleph to Tav

(Chapter 5 of the Bible Wheel Book)

Spoke 1 – Aleph: The Law, the Prophets, and the Epistles

Therefore by the deeds of the law there shall no flesh be justified in his sight: for by the law is the knowledge of sin. But now the righteousness of God without the law is manifested, being witnessed by the law and the prophets; Even the righteousness of God which is by faith of Jesus Christ unto all and upon all them that believe: for there is no difference: For all have sinned, and come short of the glory of God;

Romans 3:20ff (Spoke 1, Cycle 3)

The Divine clarity and supernatural perfection of the detailed design of the Bible Wheel is nowhere more evident than on the first Spoke, corresponding to Aleph. Early in the morning of May 14, 1999, exactly four years and two days after I drew the first Bible Wheel (pg 23), I was meditating on the first Spoke and noticed that it holds the first books of three primary divisions of Scripture:

The conjunction of “the law” and “the prophets” immediately evoked the frequent self-description of the Bible found in the Bible in passages such as Romans 3:21 quoted above. This prompted me to look at the rest of the canonical divisions which in turn led to the discovery of the Canon Wheel later that same day. It was an utterly astounding experience; I sat awe-struck for a week thereafter. I had been fruitfully studying the basic black and white Bible Wheel for years with no particular interest in the large-scale canonical divisions. My focus was on a much finer level of detail. For four full years I was constantly discovering endless correlations of highly specific content from the three books on each Spoke with each other and the meaning of the corresponding Hebrew letter. I had no idea that an entirely new level of Divine design – aptly described as sevenfold symmetric perfection – lay implicit in its structure. In a single day God opened my mind to see this glorious new aspect of the unlimited perfection of His Holy Word, the surface of which was barely touched in the 800+ pages on this website. Our task now is to review the first and last Spokes of this theological tapestry to see how God supernaturally sealed His entire Word from beginning to end, from Aleph to Tav.

Aleph: The Symbol God, Beginnings, and First Things

Thus saith the LORD the King of Israel, and his redeemer the LORD of hosts; I am the first, and I am the last; and beside me there is no God.

Isaiah 44:6 (Spoke 1, Cycle 2)

As the first of the letters, Aleph is a natural symbol of first things, beginnings, and origins. This is how the Lord Jesus Christ used the first Greek letter when He said “I am Alpha … the beginning … the first …” (Rev 22:13, pg 39). God is the Creator of All and so all things find their origin in Him. He also is the Sovereign Lord of Creation, and this is expressed by the closely associated KeyWord alluph (see table) which denotes a sovereign ruler, master, chief, or leader of thousands. Alluph is nearly identical to Aleph; it differs only in pronunciation (vowel points, see pg 19). This is typical of how KeyWords closely associated with a letter’s name reveal its symbolic meaning. In the KJV, alluph is translated as duke, which was the common word denoting a sovereign male ruler in the European social structure dominant at the time of its translation. Others translate it as leader, ruler, or chief. Its greatest density appears on Spoke 1 in Genesis 36 where it is used forty-three times in the lists of the Dukes of Edom. These ideas will be explored in more detail in the Synopsis (BW book pg 124).

In its ultimate sense, Aleph is a symbol of God, the Sovereign Ruler of All who should be first in every heart and who is literally First of All in that He existed before He created anything. The first verse of the Bible amplifies these ideas: “In the beginning God created the heaven and the earth.” The word translated as God is the Aleph KeyWord Elohim, displayed in the third entry in the table. It is based on the root El which denotes a mighty one, and so came to be applied to God as the Almighty. And since Elohim is an Aleph KeyWord (it starts with Aleph), the first letter is literally God’s initial. This echoes His declaration that He is the “Alpha” and adds symbolic depth by linking it to the first Divine Name revealed in Scripture. Thus we see the symbolic meaning of Aleph is based on its position in the Alphabet, the meaning of its name and associated KeyWords, and God’s use of it (in the form of Alpha) in the text of Scripture. This exemplifies a few of the primary methods we will use to discern the meaning of each of the twenty-two letters. The wonder of it all is that everything is so simple, plain, and clear. There is no mistaking the essential meaning of the first letter. Though a complete understanding of Aleph involves a full review of its use in the Alphabetic Verses, Hebrew grammar, and elsewhere, the ideas touched upon above should be sufficient to spark the requisite insight to perceive the Divine wonder that is the first Spoke of God’s Wheel. Here now is a brief review of the three books it holds.

CYCLE 1, GENESIS: The Book of Origins

In the beginning God created the heaven and the earth.

Genesis 1:1 (Spoke 1, Cycle 1)

Little need be said to explain why the Bible begins in Genesis. It is saturated with primary themes relating to Aleph. Its very name signifies an origin, beginning, or birth. Obviously, there is no better place to begin the Bible than “In the beginning”. All the fundamental doctrines of Scripture find their root in this book; the Sovereignty of God, the creation of man (1:26), the origin of sin and the consequent curse of death (3:19), God’s promise of the virgin-born Redeemer (3:15), His election of Abraham (12:2), and the great doctrine of God’s gift of righteousness through faith (15:6), the latter being the true Genesis of the Gospel proclaimed with perfect precision in Romans, the third book on Spoke 1. No author, human or Divine, could have begun in a more logical, intelligent, or skillful fashion. The great miracle of God is that these ideas, which are based on the symbolic meaning of Aleph, are also uniquely linked to the other two books on the first Spoke, as a brief review will quickly show.

CYCLE 2, ISAIAH: The Romans of the Old Testament

Hast thou not known? hast thou not heard, that the everlasting God, the LORD, the Creator of the ends of the earth, fainteth not, neither is weary? there is no searching of his under-standing.

Isaiah 40:28 (Spoke 1, Cycle 2)

The verse above exemplifies the profound link between Genesis and Isaiah based on the primary Aleph themes of Creation and the Sovereignty of God. It is one of the principal hallmarks of the twenty-third book, as seen in these representative verses:

Isaiah 40:28 Thus saith God the LORD, he that created the heavens, and stretched them out; he that spread forth the earth, and that which cometh out of it:

Isaiah 45:11 Thus saith the LORD, the Holy One of Israel, and his Maker, …I have made the earth, and created man upon it: I, even my hands, have stretched out the heavens, and all their host have I commanded.

Isaiah 45:18 For thus saith the LORD that created the heavens; God himself that formed the earth and made it; he hath established it, he created it not in vain, he formed it to be inhabited: I am the LORD; and there is none else.

Isaiah 40:26 Lift up your eyes on high, and behold who hath created these things, that bringeth out their host by number: he calleth them all by names by the greatness of his might, for that he is strong in power; not one faileth.

The revelation of God’s Sovereignty in Isaiah and its relation to Genesis has been noted by many scholars, such as John D. W. Watts in his Word Biblical Themes: Isaiah:

Every student of Hebrew is aware the word ‘create’ in Genesis 1 is a rare word used only with God as subject. The highest concentration of uses of that word occurs in Isaiah 40 – 66. If there should be any fear that Isaiah’s emphasis on God as the owner of Canaan represents a provincial and limited picture of God, this fact should dispel it. … God is understood in Isaiah to be the sovereign ruler over all his creation and over Canaan particularly.

Watts’ observation extends to include the Book of Romans which contains the highest frequency of the corresponding Greek word meaning “to create” in the New Testament. When we calculate the sum of all occurrences on each Spoke, we find that they occur on Spoke 1 nearly ten times above average. We have, therefore, an objective mathematical measure of this correlated theme. Graphs of this phenomenon are shown below in the Distribution of Creation Words on the Wheel (pg 103). Each Spoke shows similar peaks in the distribution of words relating to its primary themes based on the corresponding Hebrew Letter.

It is of utmost importance to remember that Watts, like all scholars cited in this book, provides a completely independent witness to the divine design of the Bible. He knew nothing of the Wheel. He did not write his words to support the geometric and alphabetic correlation revealed by the structure of the first Spoke. His comments are based entirely on the content of Genesis and Isaiah, yet he writes as if he were holding the Bible Wheel in his very hands! Hubbard’s comments from his Forward to Watts’ book, quoted earlier in the review of the seven canonical divisions (pg 28), are worth repeating here:

The Book of Isaiah is the Mount Rushmore of biblical prophecy. Sculpted on its massive slopes are the major themes of Scripture: who God is, what he has done for his people, and how he expects us to serve him. … No other part of the Bible gives us so panoramic a view of God’s handiwork in Israel’s history nor such clear prophecies of his lordship over the nations. If Beethoven’s nine symphonies loom as landmarks on the horizon of classical mu-sic, Isaiah’s sixty-six chapters mark the apex of prophetic vision.

Like Watts, Hubbard emphasized the theme of Sovereignty (Lordship) in Isaiah that naturally links it with the meaning of Aleph as Leader. And just as the major themes of Scripture find their root in Genesis, so their branches spread forth into a full “panoramic” view in Isaiah which he called the very “apex of prophetic vision.” Similar observations abound throughout the literature. Both Jews and Christians have recognized Isaiah as the first and greatest of the prophets since the earliest times. Here is how The New Bible Dictionary states it:

From ancient times Isaiah has been considered the greatest of OT prophets. He has been called ‘the eagle among the prophets’, ‘the Evangelist of the Old Covenant’, and the like. His book is not only lofty in style and conception, but rich in spiritual meaning. Likewise, The Teachers’ Commentary has this to say: To the Jews, Isaiah was the greatest of the prophets. The commentator Karl Delitzsch called Isaiah the “universal prophet.” Probably no other Old Testament document has been more deeply studied than the Book of Isaiah. Certainly none has had more books and articles written about it.

And here is how James Smith put it in his book on the Major Prophets in The Old Testament Survey Series where he quotes four other commentators:

He has been called “the Prince of the Old Testament Prophets” (Copass), “the Saint Paul of the Old Testament” (Robinson) and “the greatest prophet” (Eusebius). Isaiah son of Amoz was a theologian, reformer, statesman, historian, poet, orator, prince, and patriot. He was “prophet of the gospel before the Gospel” (Robinson), the fifth evangelist.

Quotes like these could fill a book. Isaiah is truly the supreme Old Testament prophet. His work is unique in its genre and its preeminence makes its appearance on the first Spoke truly stunning. Just as a dominant wolf is called the “alpha male” so Isaiah could rightly be called the “Alpha Prophet” or, as we would say in Hebrew, the Aleph Prophet. Its placement on Spoke 1, like that of Genesis, is without question optimal. It is exactly where any informed person would have placed it if he or she were consciously designing the Wheel from whole cloth, especially in light of its conformation with the self-description of the Old Testament as the Law (beginning with Genesis) and the Prophets (beginning with Isaiah). This is quite a “coincidence” to emerge from simply “rolling up the Bible like a scroll.”

Yet this is but the beginning of wonders. Numerous scholars have also recognized the intimate and profound theological resemblance between Isaiah and Romans and they base their observations on primary themes relating to the symbolic meaning of Aleph! Oh! The glory of God’s Wisdom! Praise His name now and forever! Here is how Lewis Sperry Chafer explained it in an article in the journal of the Dallas Theological Seminary, Bibliotheca Sacra, written in 1936, fifty-nine years before the revelation of the Wheel:

For breadth of divine revelation covered, the Book of Isaiah reminds us of the Epistle to the Romans. Some have called Isaiah the Paul of the Old Testament. C. S. Robinson goes even further when he maintains that it “is, perhaps, not too much to say that, if the New Testament were lost, a helpful gospel for sinners’ salvation, available and clear, might be easily compiled from the chapters Isaiah has written.” Isaiah with Paul [in Romans] shows us in the beginning of his message the utter depravity, perversity, and helplessness of man, and then presents the effectual remedy of God-salvation in Himself. Both are prophets of God speaking for Him and both are pre-eminently theologians. … [Isaiah] has a most exalted idea of God in His majesty and sovereignty. It is not too much to say that no writer in the Bible has a more exalted or clear conception of the greatness of God than had Isaiah.

This quote is typical of the continuous outpouring of revelation that has been my daily bread since I first discovered the Wheel in 1995. There is really no end to it. Like Watts above, Chafer wrote as if he had the Bible Wheel right before his eyes. Not only did he note Isaiah’s exceptional emphasis on the Aleph concept of God’s Sovereignty, but he also commented on the united thematic river flowing through Isaiah and Romans that originates with the Fall in Genesis. The parallel of the opening passages of these two books is impossible to miss:

Isaiah (Spoke 1, Cycle 2)

Romans (Spoke 1, Cycle 3)

[1:2] Hear, O heavens, and give ear, O earth: for the LORD hath spoken, I have nourished and brought up children, and they have rebelled against me. The ox knoweth his owner, and the ass his master’s crib: but Israel doth not know, my people doth not consider. Ah sinful nation, a people laden with iniquity, a seed of evildoers, children that are corrupters: they have forsaken the LORD, they have provoked the Holy One of Israel unto anger, they are gone away backward. Why should ye be stricken any more? ye will revolt more and more: the whole head is sick, and the whole heart faint. From the sole of the foot even unto the head there is no soundness in it; but wounds, and bruises, and putrefying sores: they have not been closed, neither bound up, neither mollified with ointment.

[1:18] For the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men, who hold the truth in unrighteousness; Because that which may be known of God is manifest in them; for God hath shewed it unto them. For the invisible things of him from the creation of the world are clearly seen, being understood by the things that are made, even his eternal power and Godhead; so that they are without excuse: Because that, when they knew God, they glorified him not as God, neither were thankful; but became vain in their imaginations, and their foolish heart was darkened. … Wherefore God also gave them up to uncleanness through the lusts of their own hearts, to dishonour their own bodies between themselves: Who changed the truth of God into a lie, and worshipped and served the creature more than the Creator, who is blessed for ever. Amen. And even as they did not like to retain God in their knowledge, God gave them over to a reprobate mind … Being filled with all unrighteousness, fornication, wickedness, covetousness, maliciousness; full of envy, murder, debate, deceit …haters of God …

The thematic flow of Isaiah 1 parallels the first few chapters of Genesis with extreme precision. Its opening “Hear O heavens, and give ear O earth, for the Lord has spoken” hearkens back to Genesis 1 when “God created the heaven and the earth” by His Word, repeatedly speaking “Let there be…” It then echoes the creation of Adam and Eve of Genesis 2 saying, “I have nourished and brought up children.” It sums up Genesis 3 in the words “and they have rebelled against me” adding that “Israel doth not know,” thereby reflecting their original sin of eating from the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil. The parallel passage in Romans 1-3 gives the universal application of these ideas that were typologically applied to Israel in Isaiah. And just as these two premier books begin “in the beginning” with the universal problem of sin, so they conclude with the most explicit and comprehensive proclamation of God’s Way of Salvation to be found in their respective Testaments. Here is how Herbert Wolf put it in his book Interpreting Isaiah, the Suffering and Glory of the Messiah :

The Book of Isaiah, one of the most important and best-loved books in the Bible, is sometimes called the Gospel of Isaiah because of the good news that characterizes its message. Indeed, no other Old Testament book contains as many references to the Messiah as does the Book of Isaiah. Its sixty-six chapters contain crucial passages that allude to Christ’s incarnation, earthly ministry and atoning death and glorious world-wide rule. … Isaiah also has been called the Romans of the Old Testament because like the Book of Romans, it sets forth God’s case against sinners, unveils the wretchedness of the human heart, and reveals the way of salvation for Israel and the world. Under the hammer blows of Isaiah’s message, God calls sinners to repentance and graciously promises forgiveness. It is no accident that in Romans Paul quoted Isaiah seventeen times – more than any other New Testament author. And, like Romans, Isaiah is a profoundly theological book that deals with a number of vital doctrines.

To behold Isaiah as the “Romans of the Old Testament” appears, in light of God’s Wheel, to be nothing less than the purest prophecy. To see it called the Gospel of Isaiah and its prophet the Evangelist of the Old Covenant elevates it to the highest level of Biblical significance, the Good News of Jesus Christ being the whole point of all Scripture. This is what the Bible Wheel is really all about. We are seeing into the Mind of God and perceiving the Divine Thoughts revealed in the fully integrated geometric, thematic, and alphabetic structure of His everlasting Word, established before the foundation of the world.

CYCLE 3: ROMANS: The Cathedral of the Christian Faith

Now to him that is of power to stablish you according to my gospel, and the preaching of Jesus Christ, according to the revelation of the mystery, which was kept secret since the world began, But now is made manifest, and by the scriptures of the prophets, according to the commandment of the everlasting God, made known to all nations for the obedience of faith: To God only wise, be glory through Jesus Christ for ever. Amen.

Romans 16:25ff (Spoke 1, Cycle 3)

If the major themes of Scripture find their root in Genesis and their branch in Isaiah, so they flower in Romans. Few books, if any, have received accolades quite like this “cathedral of the Christian faith” as it was called by Frederick Godet. In the introduction to his Commentary on St. Paul’s Epistle to the Romans he lists but a few of the prominent Christian leaders who have recognized the unique significance of the Book of Romans:

Coleridge calls the Epistle to the Romans “the profoundest book in existence.” Chrysostom had it read to him twice a week. Luther, in his famous preface, says “This Epistle is the chief book of the New Testament, the purest Gospel. It deserves not only to be known word for word by every Christian, but to be the subject of his meditation day by day, the daily bread of his soul.” … Melanchthon, in order to make it more perfectly his own, copied it twice with his own hand. It is the book which he expounded most frequently in his lectures. The Reformation was undoubtedly the work of the Epistle to the Romans, as well as the epistle to the Galatians; and the probability is that every great spiritual revival in the church will be associated as effect and cause with a deeper understanding of this book.

Reformer John Calvin wrote that “If a man understands Romans he has a sure road open to him to the understanding of the whole Scripture.” Gleason Archer concurs, saying, “There is no more complete compendium of the Christian doctrine in the sixty-six books of the Bible than the Epistle to the Romans.” Likewise, Dr. Lloyd-Jones called it “a colossal and incomparable statement of Christian truth.” Chafer noted this “breadth of divine revelation” when he said “the Book of Isaiah reminds us of the Epistle to the Romans.” Furthermore, Paul Achtemeier noted that the Book of Romans, like both Genesis and Isaiah, is marked by the primary Aleph themes of Creation and the Sovereignty of God:

Paul was on fire to preach the good news of the gracious lordship of God expressed in Jesus Christ, and nowhere more so than in Romans. Because God as creator is Lord over the whole of created reality, reflections on that lordship encompass the full range of human problems, and nowhere is that more the case than in Romans.

Just as Isaiah is the “Alpha Prophet” of the Old Testament, so Romans is the “Alpha Epistle” of the New. The great miracle of God is that He engraved the correlated preeminence of these two undisputed doctrinal masterpieces in the geometric Stone of His everlasting Word.

A Divine Theological Tapestry

And how shall they preach, except they be sent? as it is written, How beautiful are the feet of them that preach the gospel of peace, and bring glad tidings of good things! But they have not all obeyed the gospel. For Isaiah saith, Lord, who hath believed our report? So then faith cometh by hearing, and hearing by the word of God.

Romans 10:15ff (Spoke 1, Cycle 3)

The thematic correlation amongst the three books on Spoke 1 is astounding to behold. A quick review of Romans reveals it to be an intricate theological tapestry woven primarily with threads drawn from Genesis and Isaiah. Barry G. Webb noted a few of the threads from Isaiah in his book The Message of Isaiah: On Eagles’ Wings  where he also adds his voice to the great chorus of scholars who have recognized Isaiah as the “Romans” of the Old Testament:

In terms of theological significance, the book of Isaiah is the “Romans” of the Old Testament. It is here that the threads come together and the big picture of God’s purposes for his people and for his world is most clearly set forth. … The New Testament moves to its climax by echoing Isaiah’s promise of death conquered, tears wiped away, and new heavens and a new earth. In fact it was Isaiah who, via the LXX, gave us the term “gospel” …

Webb’s assertion that Isaiah “gave us the term ‘gospel'” is based on passages like Isaiah 52:15 that Paul quoted in Romans 10:15 above. He was speaking of the Greek word evangelidzo, translated as “preach the gospel.” This is the root of the English word evangelize. In the Greek Septuagint version of Isaiah it first occurs immediately after the prophecy of John the Baptist, rendered as bringest good tidings in the KJV:

O Zion, that bringest good tidings, get thee up into the high mountain; O Jerusalem, that bringest good tidings, lift up thy voice with strength; lift it up, be not afraid; say unto the cities of Judah, Behold your God!

Isaiah 40:9 (Spoke 1, Cycle 2)

The Doctrine of the Trinity is evident here in this Old Testament passage. The proclamation “Behold your God!” refers to Jesus Christ, the Divine Shepherd mentioned two verses later (Isa 40:11, see John 10:11). Robinson spoke truly when he called Isaiah “the prophet of the gospel before the Gospel,” and as Wolf noted above, “It is no accident that in Romans Paul quoted Isaiah seventeen times – more than any other New Testament author.” These quotes are, in fact, only a hint of the truly profound integration of the books on the first Spoke. Of the sixty explicit citations of the Old Testament in Romans, exactly half come from the first two books on Spoke 1. Furthermore, Romans is the only book on Cycle 3 that mentions Isaiah by name, and he does so five times! (Rom 9:27, 9:29, 10:16, 10:20, 15:12). This is but one of the many unique links between Isaiah and Romans found in no other New Testament Epistle on Cycle 3.

Moreover, the links between Genesis and Romans are just as profound and inextricable. It begins with the universal conviction of sin based on the natural revelation of God given in creation available to all people cited in parallel with Isaiah 1 above. Romans charges that every person who rejects God is guilty and “without excuse, because that when they knew God, they glorified him not as God … and changed the truth of God into a lie, and worshipped and served the creature> more than the Creator.” This theme culminates in Romans 3 with the declaration that “all have sinned and come short of the glory of God.” Having thus established the bad news of the universality of our sin and guilt before God, Romans lays the foundation of the Good News on Abraham’s encounter with God in Genesis:

What shall we say then that Abraham our father, as pertaining to the flesh, hath found? For if Abraham were justified by works, he hath whereof to glory; but not before God. For what saith the scripture? Abraham believed God, and it was counted unto him for righteousness.

Romans 4:1ff (Spoke 1, Cycle 3)

The highlighted passage is truly the Genesis of the Gospel, revealed in the Book of Origins (Gen 15:6). Romans then continues to draw from Genesis, amplifying this idea and applying it to all who would come to God through faith:

Therefore it is of faith, that it might be by grace; to the end the promise might be sure to all the seed; not to that only which is of the law, but to that also which is of the faith of Abraham; who is the father of us all, (As it is written, I have made thee a father of many nations,) before him whom he believed, even God, who quickeneth the dead, and calleth those things which be not as though they were.

Romans 4:16ff (Spoke 1, Cycle 3)

The verse cited in Romans 4:17 with “as it is written” comes from Genesis 17:4. No other book of the Bible quotes this verse. It is unique to Genesis and Romans. This is an example of a KeyLink, defined as a unique word or group of words found only in books on a single Spoke that exemplifies their common theme. In my decade of study, I have found many hundreds of such KeyLinks connecting the books on every Spoke of the Wheel. They are primary witnesses of its Divine design.

The truly stunning KeyLinks involve Alphabetic KeyWords based on the corresponding Hebrew Letter, as is the case with the KeyLink between Genesis and Romans under discussion. It is based on three fundamental Aleph KeyWords Av (Father), Avraham, and Emunah (Faith). The “v” in Av and Avraham represents the soft Bet () which is its proper pronunciation in these words (see the Alphabet Table, BW book pg 22). Christians are familiar with Av through its Aramaic cognate Abba which is both transliterated and translated in Romans 8:14:

For as many as are led by the Spirit of God, they are the sons of God. For ye have not received the spirit of bondage again to fear; but ye have received the Spirit of adoption, whereby we cry, Abba, Father.

The KeyLink is based on the name God gave to Abraham as a sign that he would be the Father (Av) of the Faith (Emunah), the prototype of the great multitude who have been reconciled to God through the Faith of Jesus Christ (see Synopsis, BW book pg 128). We have a Spoke 1 KeyLink based on three principal Aleph KeyWords which exemplify the central Gospel message that unites the books of Genesis and Romans. Again, this reveals how God engraved the meaning of the text on multiple levels in its geometric structure and integrated it with the symbolic meaning of the corresponding Hebrew Letter! Has such a wonder ever been imagined, let alone seen?

Yet for all this there is, as always, an ever-deeper wonder being revealed here. The Bible was given that we might know the Triune God; the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. God revealed the character and role of each Divine Person in associated Alphabetic KeyWords. The First Person is denoted by the Aleph KeyWord Av (Father) and the Second Person by the Bet KeyWord Ben (Son). These ideas will be developed later in the appropriate chapters. The implications are overwhelming. We have a complete convergence of the meaning of the Hebrew Letters, the geometric structure of the Wheel and the specific content of the books with all of this descending from the Triune nature of the Eternal God! This is, of course, exactly what we would expect in a Divine revelation given by the Holy Trinity. We already saw a hint of it in the role the Number Three plays in the tri-radiant symmetry of the Canon Wheel (Sign of Deity) and the number of its Cycles. The more we learn of the structure of the Bible Wheel, the more we understand it as a blazing synergy of fiery symbols designed by God Himself to bear the glory of His Self-Revelation. Praise His Name, now and forever!

Yet there is still more to see just on this introductory level. The interweaving of threads from Genesis continues in Romans 5 which traces the origin of sin and death to “Adam’s transgression” (Rom 5:14) saying “by one man sin entered into the world, and death by sin; and so death passed upon all men, for that all have sinned” and then linking this to God’s gift of salvation by grace through faith, “which is by one man, Jesus Christ” (Rom 5:15). Finally, Romans 9 contains a flourish of KeyLinks to Genesis (BW book pg 134) just before shifting to the great salvation passages of Isaiah. It is here that we find the ultimate joint proclamation of God’s Sovereignty in the one of the most profound KeyLinks in the entire Bible:

This is a double KeyLink because the verse in Romans is linked to two verses in Isaiah (29:16, 45:9, see Synopsis, pg 127). Remember, this is a Spoke 1 KeyLink displaying the Aleph theme of God’s Sovereignty that has been universally recognized as dominant in both Isaiah and Romans. This is the Divine integration of the content with the form of Scripture that utterly astonishes the mind that is able to see what is really going on here.

The passage from Romans concludes the argument that was developed over three chapters (9-11) in answer to the question “Is there unrighteousness with God?” (Rom 9:14). It is answered by argument in Romans and by declaration in the immediate context of the Key-Link in Isaiah 45:21 where God flatly states “there is no God else beside me; a just God and a Saviour.” The whole chapter of Isaiah 45 profoundly parallels the issues dealt with in Romans 9-11, where also we find the greatest density of quotes from Isaiah. The KeyLink phrase therefore reveals the common theme and thrust of these two books. Its appearance nowhere else in the entire Bible must be understood as the work of God who alone could have superintended its overall design.

This is the first Spoke of the Wheel – a pillar of fire that enlightens the whole body of Scripture and bears Eternal Witness of its Divine Design. Entire volumes could be written on the endless correlations amongst the elements of Spoke 1. In this one section alone we have seen the independent witness of over nineteen mutually corroborating Biblical scholars – Watts, Hubbard, Smith, Copass, Robinson, Delitzsch, Eusebius, Chafer, Wolf, Godet, Coleridge, Chrysostom, Luther, Melanchthon, Calvin, Archer, Lloyd-Jones, Achtemeier, Webb – spanning nearly the entire history of the Church. And this is but a small sampling of the great cloud of witnesses who could have been called forth to testify. It is not to their authority I appeal, but only to their witness that they themselves have seen the profound and inextricable links between these books that now are revealed to be geometrically integrated by God. Such witnesses abound for the entire structure of the Divine Word. This is the great miracle of the Wheel. It has been implicit in the Canon since the day it was sealed and the servants of God have been writing as if they were following it as a hermeneutical Star Chart in their travels through the glorious galaxy of God’s Holy Scripture. What now should we expect since the inner workings of this Map of Heaven have been explicitly revealed?

Spoke 22 – Tav: Consummation of God’s Plan of the Ages

And I saw a new heaven and a new earth: for the first heaven and the first earth were passed away; and there was no more sea. And I John saw the holy city, new Jerusalem, coming down from God out of heaven, prepared as a bride adorned for her husband. And I heard a great voice out of heaven saying, Behold, the tabernacle of God is with men, and he will dwell with them, and they shall be his people, and God himself shall be with them, and be their God.

Revelation 21:1ff (Spoke 22, Cycle 3)

With insuperable logic and in perfect harmony with the symbolic meaning of the final letter, the great themes of the whole Bible are consummated on the final Spoke. As noted in the section called Sealed with the Sign of the Cross (BW book pg 37), the last letter Tav ת = ) represents the ideas of Consummation, Completion, Covenant, and Sealing. Rabbinic tradition calls it the Seal of Creation and the Seal of Truth and the Franciscans say that it represents “the fulfillment of the entire revealed word of God.” It is, therefore, an incomparable wonder to behold that just as three Books of Commencement align to form the first Spoke, so three Books of Consummation align to form the last:

This alignment brings another level of God’s manifold Wisdom into clear focus. In the section called Aleph and Tav, First and Last (BW book pg 40) we saw that the Lord revealed Himself as “first and last” only on the first and last Spokes. Now we see that He followed exactly the same pattern in the themes of the books on those Spokes! Oh! The glory of God’s Word! He designed the entire Bible on multiple levels to give a reiterative revelation of His own eternal character as the Lord of History and His Plan of the Ages from its inception in Genesis to its consummation in Revelation . Praise His name now and forever!

We are now gazing into the very heart of God’s purpose for all creation, the Holy of Holies of the entire Biblical revelation where we can actually see the Lord’s ultimate intent displayed in His Map of Heaven, telling us exactly where we are going and how to get there. God is love (1 John 4:8) and from the beginning He has been working to restore the communion He had with His people before sin entered the world in Genesis 3. This is what the Bible is all about. Each book on Spoke 22 shines as star in the Heaven of God’s Word and their threefold union forms a brilliant constellation that has led many a Christian soul through this world’s stormy seas with the guiding light of the blessed vision of the glorious consummation of the Divine Love Story known as the Holy Bible.

CYCLE 1 – SONG OF SONGS: Union of Christ and His Church

A bundle of myrrh is my wellbeloved unto me; he shall lie all night betwixt my breasts. My beloved is unto me as a cluster of camphire in the vineyards of Engedi. Behold, thou art fair, my love; behold, thou art fair; thou hast doves’ eyes. Behold, thou art fair, my beloved, yea, pleasant: also our bed is green.

Song of Songs 1:13ff (Spoke 22, Cycle 1)

Union with God is the great promise and culminating purpose of the whole Bible. But to what shall we liken this union? Scripture declares “our God is a consuming fire” (Heb 12:29). He appeared to Moses in a flame of fire in the burning bush and led Israel through the wilderness by a pillar of fire. He lit the souls of His people with tongues of fire on Pentecost (Acts 2:3) and appeared to the Apostle John with eyes as flames of fire (Rev 1:14). There is absolutely nothing dispassionate about the God of the Bible. There is no limit to the fiery love He has for our souls as He proved with utter finality in the passion and death of His Son upon the Cross. In natural terms, the Song of Songs is an unbridled and explicitly erotic romance between King Solomon and his bride, bursting with shouts of joy and sensual delight. It declares God’s Love in a way few men or women could fail to appreciate because it touches, with visceral physical images, the most intense and universal of all our desires – to give and receive love. God chose this imagery to evoke the deepest passions that He Himself placed in us when He created us “in the image of God … male and female” (Gen 1:27). In the Song of Songs, God reveals Himself as the Lover of our souls and leads us as our Beloved Shepherd to the “high places” of Scripture through analogy, allegory, metaphor, and typology, showing us the Royal Road to fulfillment of the first and greatest commandment, “And thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thine heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy might” (Deut 6:5). This is what we were made for. It should be the consuming passion of our hearts because it is the consummating purpose of our creation.

The form of the title “Song of Songs” expresses its superior excellence as the best of all songs. Similar constructs are used in such titles as “King of Kings and Lord of Lords” to denote Christ’s supreme sovereignty (Rev 19:16) and “Holy of Holies” to denote the holiest part of the Temple. The latter appears frequently in descriptions of the Divine Song, the earliest being from the first century when Rabbi Akiva defended its inclusion in the Canon, saying:

The entire universe is unworthy of the day on which the Song of Songs was given to Israel. For all the Writings are holy, but the Song of Songs is the holy of holies.

Eighteen centuries later, Charles Haddon Spurgeon, the “prince of preachers” of nineteenth century England, used the same language in his sermon A Bundle of Myrrh  in which he explained that just as a veil blocked entrance to the Temple’s Holy of Holies, so there is a veil over the eyes of all who would approach the Divine Song unprepared, whether through spiritual immaturity or rank unbelief:

Certain divines [theologians] have doubted the inspiration of Solomon’s Song; others have conceived it to be nothing more than a specimen of ancient love-songs, and some have been afraid to preach from it because of its highly poetical character. The true reason for all this avoidance of one of the most heavenly portions of God’s Word lies in the fact that the spirit of this Song is not easily attained. Its music belongs to the higher spiritual life, and has no charm in it for unspiritual ears. The Song occupies a sacred enclosure into which none may enter unprepared. “Put off thy shoes from off thy feet, for the place whereon thou standest is holy ground,” is the warning voice from its secret tabernacles. The historical books I may compare to the outer courts of the Temple; the Gospels, the Epistles, and the Psalms, bring us into the holy place or the Court of the priests; but the Song of Solomon is the most holy place: the holy of holies, before which the veil still hangs to many an untaught believer. It is not all the saints who can enter here, for they have not yet attained unto the holy confidence of faith, and that exceeding familiarity of love which will permit them to commune in conjugal love with the great Bridegroom.

Since ancient times both Jews and Christians have understood the spiritual maturity required to properly interpret the Song of Songs, as explained by A. R. Fausset in his Introduction to the Song of Solomon  in the famous Commentary, Critical and Explanatory, on the Old and New Testaments:

Origen [185-254 AD] and Jerome [347-420 AD] tell us that the Jews forbade it to be read by any until he was thirty years old. It certainly needs a degree of spiritual maturity to enter aright into the holy mystery of love which it allegorically sets forth. To such as have attained this maturity, of whatever age they be, the Song of Songs is one of the most edifying of the sacred writings. … The Song throughout consists of immediate addresses either of Christ to the soul, or of the soul to Christ. “The experimental knowledge of Christ’s loveliness and the believer’s love is the best commentary on the whole of this allegorical Song” [Leighton]. Like the curiously wrought Oriental lamps, which do not reveal the beauty of their transparent emblems until lighted up within, so the types and allegories of Scripture, “the lantern to our path” (Ps 119:105), need the inner light of the Holy Spirit of Jesus to reveal their significance.

The Spirit-led blend of allegorical, metaphorical, and typological interpretations of God’s poetic Song is both obvious and correct. It is no accident that this view completely dominated Christian exegesis throughout most of the Church’s history. Duane Garrett traced its origin to some of the earliest and most important Jewish and Christian writings in his entry in the New American Commentary:

From early times both Christians and Jews have proposed allegorical interpretations of the Song of Songs. Jews have taken it to be an allegory of the love between Yahweh and Israel, and Christians have regarded it as a song of the love between Christ and the church. … Examples of allegorizing interpretations among the Jews are found in the Mishna, the Talmud, and the Targum on the book. … The first manifestation of the Christian allegorizing tradition is in the commentary by Hippolytus of Rome (d. 235), now only partially extant. Jerome, Augustine, and above all Origen stand in the tradition of interpreting Song of Songs allegorically. Subsequent luminaries in this tradition include Gregory the Great and the Venerable Bede.

Garret said “above all Origen” because he wrote the first great commentary on it, influencing all who followed, such as Jerome who had this to say in his Preface to the Song of Songs:

Origen, whilst in his other books he has surpassed all others, has in the Song of Songs surpassed himself. He wrote ten volumes upon it, which amount to almost twenty thousand lines. … [He writes] so grandly and so freely that it seems to me as if the words were fulfilled in him which say, “The king has brought me into his bedchamber.” (Song 1:4) It would require a vast amount of time, of labour, and of money to translate a work so great and of so much merit into the Latin language. I therefore leave it unattempted …

Ten volumes of twenty thousand lines to comment on the 117 verses of the Song of Songs? How could this be? Exactly what did Origen see in it? The answer is simple. Origen saw the full flowering and complete consummation of the essential message of all Scripture in the Song of God! In it, he heard the voice of the Bridegroom, the Living Christ, calling to him, and in this he was not alone. Hundreds of other Spirit-led commentators and preachers of the Word wrote from exactly the same point of view in the ensuing centuries. In her book The Voice of My Beloved: The Song of Songs in Western Medieval Christianity , E. Ann Matter noted that it is “the most frequently interpreted book of medieval Christianity” with “nearly one hundred extant commentaries and homilies on the Song of Songs written between the sixth and fifteenth centuries.”

Unfortunately, modern students of the Bible rarely appreciate the preeminence of the Song of Songs in traditional Christian exegesis because the current intellectual fashion denies the very key to its interpretation, leaving it a sealed book utterly impenetrable to contemporary critical scholarship. “The demise of the allegorical interpretation,” explained Garret, “appears to have left the Song of Songs a theologically impoverished book.” Though naming the correct elements, Garret got them backwards; it is not the book, but its unenlightened interpreters that are left “theologically impoverished” by their inability to see the consummate glory of the greatest Song of all Songs. They can not hear the voice of Christ calling to them, “Arise, my love, my fair one, and come away!” (Song 2:13) They are left to sit in the dust of this world without any metaphor, allegory, or poetry to carry them to the higher truths of Holy Scripture.

Fausset provided a fine (and typical) explanation of the traditional Christian understanding of the Canticle of Canticles as it is known from the Latin translations:

Canticles sets forth the fullness of the love which joins believers and the Saviour. The entire economy of salvation, says Harris, aims at restoring to the world the lost spirit of love. God is love, and Christ is the embodiment of the love of God. As the other books of Scripture present severally their own aspects of divine truth, so Canticles furnishes the believer with the language of holy love, wherewith his heart can commune with his Lord; and it portrays the intensity of Christ’s love to him; the affection of love was created in man to be a transcript of the divine love, and the Song clothes the latter in words; were it not for this, we should be at a loss for language, having the divine warrant, wherewith to express, without presumption, the fervor of the love between Christ and us. The image of a bride, a bridegroom, and a marriage, to represent this spiritual union, has the sanction of Scripture throughout; nay, the spiritual union was the original fact in the mind of God, of which marriage is the transcript.

It is important to receive Fausset’s insight. Our spiritual union with Christ was the original idea in the mind of God, the root and foundation of the Divine Institution of Marriage. In support of his assertions, he cited fourteen passages drawn from both Testaments where God presented marriage as a metaphor or analogy of our relationship with Him, including “For thy Maker is thine husband” (Isa 54:5), “Turn, O backsliding children, saith the LORD; for I am married unto you” (Jer 3:14), “I have espoused you to one husband, that I may present you as a chaste virgin to Christ” (2 Cor 11:2), and this long passage from Ephesians:

Husbands, love your wives, even as Christ also loved the church, and gave himself for it; That he might sanctify and cleanse it with the washing of water by the word, That he might present it to himself a glorious church, not having spot, or wrinkle, or any such thing; but that it should be holy and without blemish. So ought men to love their wives as their own bodies. He that loveth his wife loveth himself. For no man ever yet hated his own flesh; but nourisheth and cherisheth it, even as the Lord the church: For we are members of his body, of his flesh, and of his bones. For this cause shall a man leave his father and mother, and shall be joined unto his wife, and they two shall be one flesh. This is a great mystery: but I speak concerning Christ and the church.

Ephesians 5:25ff

The last highlighted words sum up the source of the difficulties modern critics have with the Song of Songs. Union with God through Christ is one of the deepest mysteries of the faith; no insight into it can be found outside a living relationship with Christ as Saviour and Lord. Immediately following his citation of Ephesians, Fausset reiterated his insight and capped it off by citing the three verses from Revelation shown in the box:

Paul does not go from the marriage relation to the union of Christ and the Church as if the former were the first; but comes down from the latter as the first and best recognized fact on which the relation of marriage is based (Rev 19:7; 21:2; 22:17).

This brings us to the great consummation of God’s Plan of the Ages, and again we are able to see – with our own eyes – the overwhelming wonder of Divine Wisdom displayed so simply and so gracefully in the structure of the Holy Word. The first and last books on Spoke 22 mutually enlighten each other. While the individual threads of this Marriage Tapestry are woven throughout nearly every book of the Bible, they come together in complete perfection on the last Spoke to form an incomparable image of the consummation of God’s whole plan of salvation. The alignment of these books on Spoke 22 is a perpetual miracle; the Consummation of All History in Revelation is couched in the primary metaphor of the Song of Songs! Their geometric alignment and alphabetic integration with Tav ignites a Divine synergy that compounds, compacts, and amplifies the meaning of each element associated with the last Spoke. We have here another complete convergence of multiple independent components that reiteratively tell the everlasting story of the glorious Love of God.

Yet this is but the beginning of wonders. The true miracle is that none of these observations, except those directly dependent on the Wheel, are new. For centuries, Christians have written about the inextricable interconnections between the Song of Songs and the Apocalypse (Book of Revelation). In his comment on the Song’s first verse, Fausset wrote that it is a “foretaste on earth of the ‘new song’ to be sung in glory,” citing the three verses from Revelation quoted in the box. Ann Matter, the expert on medieval interpretations of the Song of Songs quoted above, wrote:

It is no historical accident that so many medieval exegetes commented on both the Apocalypse and the Song of Songs.

Her book is filled with observations about the “softening of boundaries between the Apocalypse and Song of Songs” in medieval interpretation, the “thematic convergence” of these two books, and “the connection between the Song of Songs and the Apocalypse as related allegories of the Church.” She wrote that the “Song of Songs and the Apocalypse were thus increasingly read together, as two accounts of the same divine plan” and later explained how Haimo of Auxerre in the ninth century combined earlier commentaries on the Song of Songs from the Venerable Bede and Ambrosius Autpertus in his own commentary on the Apocalypse:

Haimo’s text opened the way for … a series of commentaries which especially stress the understanding of the Song of Songs as the love between Christ and the individual human soul. This idea became especially current in the twelfth century, but its roots can be seen several generations earlier, in the increasingly common perception of the relation between the Song of Songs and the Apocalypse. … It is hardly surprising that Haimo, like Akuin, put together an Apocalypse commentary from the works of Bede and Ambrosius Autpertus; many medieval exegetes commented on both the Apocalypse and the Song of Songs.

Without a doubt, these two books are by far the most poetic, symbolic, metaphorical, allegorical, parabolic, typological, and mystical books in the Bible. Thus Garret wrote:

No other book of the Bible (except perhaps Revelation) suffers under so many radically different interpretations as the Song of Songs.

By Divine design, these are the two books with the broadest range of possible interpretations because such is the only way to teach the deepest truths of the faith. Like any great poem, painting, or song, all people will agree on the primary themes and outline but each will have his or her own rich set of interpretations and unique personal applications. This is how the Bible comes alive for each believer. For the Christian seeking communion with the Lord, their wealth of allusion opens the door to the limitless “treasures of wisdom and knowledge” that are hid in Christ Jesus (Col 2:3). Only when pressed into a limited one-dimensional “this means that and only that” type interpretation, are their wings clipped and they fall silent to the ground.

All these ideas, including the geometric structure of the Bible in the form of the Wheel, come together in this image from an eleventh century illuminated manuscript of the Latin Vulgate called the “Bible of Alard.” This returns us again to the full integration of Art and Theology. It is a magnificent work in which the initial Letter of the first verse of each book is written large and brightly decorated with colorful images, hence the term illuminated. Scholars call these Letters “historiated initials.” Many such initials are adorned only with flowers, animals, or abstract patterns that do not relate to the theme of its book. But in some instances, the shape of the initial Letter lends itself quite naturally to an artistic representation of the book’s primary theme, as in the present case.

In the Bible of Alard, the initial Letter of the Song of Songs is the “O” of the Latin phrase OSCVLETVR ME (Let him kiss me). It is drawn much larger than most illuminated Letters, taking up almost the entire width of the text column. The scribe filled the remaining vertical space with the rest of the first two words. Though it is hard to see in the reproduction, the two figures are labeled with the abbreviations XRS (Christus = Christ) and ECCLA (Ecclesia = Church). Christ covers His Bride with His cloak and their cheeks are intimately pressed together at the exact center of the tri-radiant halo so they share the Sign of Deity, suggesting the full presence of Christ in His Church and the fulfillment of God’s promise to make all believers “partakers in the Divine nature” (2 Pet 1:4). I have little doubt the scribe thought it providential the initial “O” naturally accommodated an optimal representation of the union of Christ with His Bride embracing within an unbroken circle like a wedding ring. This shows not only how illuminated manuscripts unite form with meaning, but also that such is an essential characteristic of the Wheel. The theme of the book that closes the circle of Cycle 1 is itself best represented by a closed circle, so that the historiated “O” – produced nine centuries before the revelation of the Wheel – enlightens its whole structure and reveals it to be nothing less than a God given illuminated manuscript, fully integrating its content with its form (BW book pgs 40, 178).

The table below lists a few of the primary thematic correlations between the Song of Songs and the Apocalypse. The paired verses in the third row form a KeyLink as discussed in the Synopsis (BW book pg 367). Almost every commentary on the Song of Songs ends by linking its last verse “Make haste, my beloved” (Song 8:14), with the penultimate verse of Revelation: “Surely I come quickly. Amen. Even so, come Lord Jesus!” (Rev 22:20). Could there be a more fitting correlated conclusion to these two books on the last Spoke of the Bible Wheel?

Thematic Links between Song of Songs and Revelation
Song of Songs (Spoke 22, Cycle 1)	Revelation (Spoke 22, Cycle 3)
1:1 The Song of Songs which is Solomon’s. Let him kiss me with the kisses of his mouth: for thy love is better than wine. Because of the savour of thy good ointments thy name is as ointment poured forth, therefore do the virgins love thee. Draw me, we will run after thee:	14:1 A Lamb stood on the mount Zion, and with him 144,000 having his Father’s name written in their foreheads … they sung as it were a new song … no man could learn that song but the 144,000 … they are virgins…which follow the Lamb whithersoever he goeth.
2:13 Arise, my love, my fair one, and come away.	4:1 Come up hither, and I will shew thee 22:17 And the Spirit and the Bride say, Come.
5:2 I sleep, but my heart waketh: it is the voice of my beloved that knocketh, saying, Open to me, my sister, my love, my dove, my undefiled: [KeyLink, pg 367]	3:20 Behold, I stand at the door, and knock: if any man hear my voice, and open the door, I will come in to him, and will sup with him, and he with me.
4:12 A garden enclosed is my sister, my spouse; a spring shut up, a fountain sealed.	7:2 And I heard the number of them which were sealed: and there were 144,000 sealed
8:6 Set me as a seal upon thine heart, as a seal upon thine arm: for love is strong as death;	12:11 And they overcame him by the blood of the Lamb, and by the word of their testimony; and they loved not their lives unto the death.
2:16 My beloved is mine, and I am his:	21:7 He that overcometh shall inherit all things; and I will be his God, and he shall be my son.
3:11 Go forth, O ye daughters of Zion, and behold king Solomon with the crown wherewith his mother crowned him in the day of his wedding, the day of the gladness of his heart.	19:7 Let us be glad and rejoice, and give honour to him: for the marriage of the Lamb is come, and his wife hath made herself ready.
2:17 Until the day break, and the shadows flee away, turn, my beloved, and be thou like a roe or a young hart upon the mountains of Bether.	21:23 And the city had no need of the sun, neither of the moon, to shine in it: for the glory of God did lighten it, and the Lamb is the light thereof.
1:7 Tell me, O thou whom my soul loveth, where thou feedest, where thou makest thy flock to rest at noon:	7:17 For the Lamb which is in the midst of the throne shall feed them, and shall lead them unto living fountains of waters:
4:15 A fountain of gardens, a well of living waters, and streams from Lebanon. 8:2 drink, yea, drink abundantly, O beloved.	22:17 And the Spirit and the Bride say, Come. And let him that heareth say, Come. And let him that is athirst come. And whosoever will, let him take the water of life freely.
8:14 Make haste, my beloved, and be thou like to a roe or to a young hart upon the mountains of spices.	22:20 He which testifieth these things saith, Surely I come quickly. Amen. Even so, come, Lord Jesus.

CYCLE 2 – ACTS: Birth of the Church and Consummation of the Jewish Age

The former treatise have I made, O Theophilus, of all that Jesus began both to do and teach, Until the day in which he was taken up, after that he through the Holy Ghost had given commandments unto the apostles whom he had chosen: To whom also he shewed himself alive after his passion by many infallible proofs, being seen of them forty days, and speaking of the things pertaining to the kingdom of God: And, being assembled together with them, commanded them that they should not depart from Jerusalem, but wait for the promise of the Father, which, saith he, ye have heard of me. For John truly baptized with water; but ye shall be baptized with the Holy Ghost not many days hence.

When they therefore were come together, they asked of him, saying, Lord, wilt thou at this time restore again the kingdom to Israel? And he said unto them, It is not for you to know the times or the seasons, which the Father hath put in his own power. But ye shall receive power, after that the Holy Ghost is come upon you: and ye shall be witnesses unto me both in Jerusalem, and in all Judea, and in Samaria, and unto the uttermost parts of the earth.

Acts 1:1ff (Spoke 22, Cycle 3)

The Book of Acts is the last of the Five New Testament History Books. It is the premier book of historical consummation second only to the Apocalypse on the third Cycle of Spoke 22. Its dominant theme is the express fulfillment of everything declared by “all the prophets from Samuel and those that follow after, as many as have spoken” (Acts 3:24) in the life, suffering, death and resurrection of the Lord Jesus Christ, His exaltation to His Throne in Heaven, His outpouring of the Holy Spirit and the consequent birth and world-wide expansion of His Church, His Kingdom on earth that will never end. It is the penultimate historical climax of the whole drama of redemption that prefigures the final consummation at the end of time in the Apocalypse. It reveals the historical meaning and purpose of the Jewish Age and everything written in the Old Testament, all of which is summed up in the one and only “name under heaven given among men, whereby we must be saved” (Acts 4:12) – THE LORD JESUS CHRIST – the Name above all names, the Beginning and the End, the Alpha and Omega, the King of Kings and Lord of Lords who is revealed in all His glory in the final book (Rev 19:16).

As is typical of the supreme literary style of Scripture, the opening passage quoted above lays out the primary themes of the whole Book of Acts. It begins with the “promise of the Father” that came to fruition on the Day of Pentecost:

And when the day of Pentecost was fully come, they were all with one accord in one place. And suddenly there came a sound from heaven as of a rushing mighty wind, and it filled all the house where they were sitting. And there appeared unto them cloven tongues like as of fire, and it sat upon each of them. And they were all filled with the Holy Ghost, and began to speak with other tongues, as the Spirit gave them utterance.

Acts 2:1ff (Spoke 22, Cycle 2)

This event transformed common men – including fishermen, a political activist, and a tax collector who were called “ignorant and unlearned” (Acts 4:13) – into powerhouse witnesses of the Risen Lord of History (ΑΩ/את) who then “turned the world upside down” (Acts 17:6) with their proclamation of His victory over sin and death and enthronement in heaven “on the throne of his father David” (Luke 1:32). On the morning of Pentecost, empowered now by the Holy Spirit, Peter preached his first sermon and declared the glorious fulfillment of the multi-faceted Promise of the Father of which he had just received so abundantly:

Therefore being a prophet, and knowing that God had sworn with an oath to him [David], that of the fruit of his loins, according to the flesh, he would raise up Christ to sit on his throne; He seeing this before spake of the resurrection of Christ, that his soul was not left in hell, neither his flesh did see corruption. This Jesus hath God raised up, whereof we all are witnesses. Therefore being by the right hand of God exalted, and having received of the Father the promise of the Holy Ghost, he hath shed forth this, which ye now see and hear. For David is not ascended into the heavens: but he saith himself, The LORD said unto my Lord, Sit thou on my right hand, Until I make thy foes thy footstool. Therefore let all the house of Israel know assuredly, that God hath made that same Jesus, whom ye have crucified, both Lord and Christ. Now when they heard this, they were pricked in their heart, and said unto Peter and to the rest of the apostles, Men and brethren, what shall we do? Then Peter said unto them, Repent, and be baptized every one of you in the name of Jesus Christ for the remission of sins, and ye shall receive the gift of the Holy Ghost. For the promise is unto you, and to your children, and to all that are afar off, even as many as the Lord our God shall call.

Acts 2:30ff (Spoke 22, Cycle 2)

The manifold promise included a host of connected events, including the resurrection of Christ, His ascension to His Throne in Heaven, the forgiveness of sins, and the gift of the Holy Spirit. Has there ever been such a day since? Could anything compare with Pentecost? It is the birthday of the Church, the Bride of Christ, the day God’s Kingdom came to earth!

Peter’s audience was a diverse crowd of Jews from all corners of the known world that had come for the Feast of Pentecost because it was one of the three feasts the Lord had commanded all Jews to attend in Jerusalem (Deut 16:16). The Holy Spirit gave them a sign only the willfully ignorant could deny when He put His Divine Words in the mouths of over one hundred of His disciples to proclaim the “wonderful works of God” in every language spoken by the Pentecostal pilgrims. This foreshadowed His guiding Work that fills the rest of the book, which has been called the “Acts of the Holy Spirit.” Its chapters record the geographical progress of the Gospel, precisely following the sequence Christ revealed in its opening passage, quoted at the head of this section:

In Jerusalem (Acts 1-7): All the action of the first seven chapters is set in this city.

In all Judaea and in Samaria (Acts 8-12): The first verse of the eighth chapter marks the transition from Jerusalem to Judea and Samaria: “And at that time there was a great persecution against the church which was at Jerusalem; and they were all scattered abroad throughout the regions of Judaea and Samaria, except the apostles.” This is a valuable lesson of how God uses the actions of evil people to accomplish His good ends. In effect, God used the persecution to kick the first believers “out of the nest” of Jerusalem to spread the Gospel world-wide.

Unto the uttermost parts of the earth (Acts 13-28): These remaining chapters record the dispersion of the Gospel throughout the rest of the known world. The explicit transition to the Gentiles is recorded in Acts 13:46ff: “Then Paul and Barnabas waxed bold, and said, It was necessary that the word of God should first have been spoken to you: but seeing ye put it from you, and judge yourselves unworthy of everlasting life, lo, we turn to the Gentiles. For so hath the Lord commanded us, saying, I have set thee to be a light of the Gentiles, that thou shouldest be for salvation unto the ends of the earth.”

David Brown explained the relation between the Gospels, Acts, and the Epistles in his entry on Acts  in A commentary, Critical and Explanatory, on the Old and New Testaments:

This book is to the Gospels what the fruit is to the tree that bears it. In the Gospels we see the corn of wheat falling into the ground and dying: in the Acts we see it bringing forth much fruit (John 12:24). There we see Christ purchasing the Church with His own blood: here we see the Church, so purchased, rising into actual existence; first among the Jews of Palestine, and next among the surrounding Gentiles, until it gains a footing in the great capital of the ancient world – sweeping majestically from Jerusalem to Rome. Nor is this book of less value as an Introduction to the Epistles which follow it, than as a Sequel to the Gospels which precede it. For without this history the Epistles of the New Testament – presupposing, as they do, the historical circumstances of the parties addressed, and deriving from these so much of their freshness, point, and force – would in no respect be what they now are, and would in a number of places be scarcely intelligible.

The Book of Acts is the capstone of the continuous thematic flow from Genesis through the entire Old Testament and Gospels. It is a book of consummation twice told; once in its record of the actual historical fulfillment of God’s Plan for the Jewish Age in the Work of Christ and subsequent birth of His Church at Pentecost, and again in its didactic recapitulation of the primary events in the entire Biblical history leading up to that consummation. The extended sermons of Peter (Acts 2-3), Stephen (Acts 7), and Paul (Acts 13) all follow a similar pattern of recapitulating the history of Israel and declaring its fulfillment in Christ. In his first sermon, Peter explained the outpouring of God’s Spirit in terms of an apocalyptic passage from Joel that began with “it shall come to pass in the last days.” He concluded with the fulfillment of the prophecy of the Christ’s exaltation to the right hand of God from Psalm 110: “The LORD said unto my Lord, Sit thou on my right hand, Until I make thy foes thy foot-stool” (Acts 2:34Rev 3:21). His second sermon was no less apocalyptic, speaking directly of the restitution of all things at the end of the age (Acts 3:21Rev 21:5):

But those things, which God before had shewed by the mouth of all his prophets, that Christ should suffer, he hath so fulfilled. Repent ye therefore, and be converted, that your sins may be blotted out, when the times of refreshing shall come from the presence of the Lord; And he shall send Jesus Christ, which before was preached unto you: Whom the heaven must receive until the times of restitution of all things, which God hath spoken by the mouth of all his holy prophets since the world began.

Acts 3:18ff (Spoke 22, Cycle 2)

In his two sermons in the second and third chapters of Acts, Peter cited or alluded to (in this order), Joel, Psalms, Samuel, Deuteronomy, and finally, just before closing with the covenant God made with Abraham that “in thy seed shall all the kindreds of the earth be blessed” (Gen12:3), he summed up the whole Old Testament in one sentence:

Yea, and all the prophets from Samuel and those that follow after, as many as have spoken, have likewise foretold of these days.

Acts 3:24 (Spoke 22, Cycle 2)

Peter’s recapitulation of history was, in keeping with his brash style, somewhat disordered compared with the sermons of Stephen in Acts 7 and Paul in Acts 13 where they systematically reviewed all history from its beginning in Genesis to its fulfillment in Christ. The table below lists the books of the Old Testament they quoted or alluded to in those two chapters. For the most part, both sermons follow the order of the books of the Bible since they simply retell its innate historical sequence, highlighting the prominent points relating to the consummation.

Taken together, these two sermons include citations from fourteen books of the First Covenant and give a panoramic view of the whole course and purpose of Jewish history, beginning with their progenitor Abraham. Stephen’s sermon is the longest, spanning fifty-two verses of the seventh chapter of Acts. Paul’s is about half as long, covering the same ground in twenty-four verses. Of the seventy-six verses in their combined historical review, only five are out of sequence with the canonical order of books. Those are marked with an asterisk in the table. The similarity of the two sermons is not surprising given that Paul (then Saul) was present at the stoning of Stephen (Acts 8:1) and so almost certainly was in the audience that heard his sermon leading up to his martyrdom. It may well have been what lit his fire to persecute the fledgling Church.

THE BOOK OF ACTS: Summation of ALL HISTORY from Genesis to its Fulfillment in Christ
Citation	Stephen’s Sermon (Acts 7)	Paul’s Sermon (Acts 13)
1: Genesis	2 The God of glory appeared unto our father Abraham [+15 verses retelling Genesis]	17 The God of this people of Israel chose our fathers
2: Exodus	20 In which time Moses was born [+15 verses retelling Exodus].	they dwelt … in the land of Egypt, and with an high arm brought he them out
4: Numbers	36 and in the wilderness [the Hebrew name of the Fourth Book] forty years	18 And about the time of forty years suffered he their manners in the wilderness
5: Deut	37 A prophet shall the Lord your God raise up unto you of your brethren
6: Joshua	45 with Joshua into the possession of the Gentiles, whom God drove out before the face of our fathers	19 And when he had destroyed seven nations in the land of Canaan, he divided their land to them by lot.
7: Judges		20 And after that he gave unto them judges
9: 1 Samuel	until Samuel the prophet …	21 they desired a king: and God gave unto them Saul
10: 2 Samuel	45 unto the days of David	22 he raised up David to be their king
11: 1 Kings	47 But Solomon built him an house
19: Psalms	*33 as it is also written in the second psalm, Thou art my Son …	*35 also in another psalm, Thou shalt not suffer thine holy one to see corruption
23: Isaiah	48 as saith the prophet, Heaven is my throne, and earth is my footstool	*34 I will give you the sure mercies of David.
24: Jeremiah	51 Ye stiffnecked and uncircumcised in heart
30: Amos	*43 Yea, ye took up the tabernacle of Moloch, and the star of your god Remphan
35: Habakkuk		*40 spoken of in the prophets; Behold, ye despisers, and wonder, and perish: for I work a work in your days, a work which ye shall in no wise believe, though a man declare it
FULFILLMENT IN CHRIST IN THE GOSPELS 40 – 43:	52 Which of the prophets have not your fathers persecuted? and they have slain them which shewed before of the coming of the Just One; of whom ye have been now the betrayers and murderers: … But he, being full of the Holy Ghost, looked up stedfastly into heaven, and saw the glory of God, and Jesus standing on the right hand of God, And said, Behold, I see the heavens opened, and the Son of man standing on the right hand of God.	23 Of [David’s] seed hath God raised unto Israel a Saviour, Jesus. When John had first preached before his coming the baptism of repentance … John fulfilled his course … to you is the word of this salvation sent … they have fulfilled [the prophets] in condemning him … And though they found no cause of death in him, yet desired they Pilate that he should be slain. And when they had fulfilled all that was written of him, they took him down from the tree, and laid him in a sepulcher. But God raised him from the dead:

Once again we have come full circle, both thematically and geometrically (BW book pg 40). The Circle of Time and the Circle of the Bible simultaneously close in the Book of Acts with God coming to dwell in the hearts of His people. The Triune God directed all history to its fulfillment in that day. The Father gave the promise and the Son sent forth the Holy Spirit (Acts 2:33). Time and Eternity met in historical anticipation of the final consummation – the Marriage of the Lamb – revealed in the Apocalypse (Rev 19:7). As Gordon D. Fee explained, “Salvation is ‘eschatological’ in the sense that final salvation, which still awaits the believer, is already a present reality through Christ and the Spirit.” The Church birthed by the Holy Spirit at Pentecost is “a thoroughly eschatological people who live the life of the future in the present as they await the consummation” with the Spirit Himself being the “eschatological fulfillment” of God’s promises “who both reconstitutes God’s people anew and empowers us to live the life of the future in our between-the-times existence – between the times of Christ’s first and second coming.” Fee aptly described this as the “already/not yet” eschatological framework that defines the essential theological core of the apostolic Epistles which sprung from the fount of Pentecost. And the witness is this:

The original disciples of Christ beheld the “ends of the world [age]” (1 Cor 10:11). They knew with certainty that “God, who at sundry times and in divers manners spake in time past unto the fathers by the prophets, hath in these last days spoken unto us by his Son” (Heb 1:1f). This is why Peter opened his Pentecost sermon with the apocalyptic/eschatological passage from Joel “it shall come to pass in the last days, saith God, I will pour out of my Spirit upon all flesh: and your sons and your daughters shall prophesy” (Acts 2:17f). Yet the coming of Christ and the Spirit was only the beginning of the end. The Church continues to live “between-the-times” awaiting the final consummation. This “already/not yet” end-times tension evokes the cry of the Bride (the Body of all Believers) that jointly closes the first and last books on Spoke 22, “Make haste, my beloved!” – “Even so, come Lord Jesus!”

The coming of the Spirit at Pentecost was the final installment of the “promise of the Father” initiated in the life, death, and resurrection of the Lord Jesus Christ and His exaltation to “the right hand of God.” This is the eschatological heart of the apostolic witness. And just as Scripture declares “Surely the Lord GOD will do nothing, but he revealeth his secret unto his servants the prophets” (Amos 3:7), so it is that the whole connected sequence of events from the sacrifice of the Lamb of God on Passover (1 Cor 5:7) to His Resurrection on Firstfruits (1 Cor 15:20) and the outpouring of the Holy Spirit on Pentecost were all typologically foretold in the plainest possible language in the Seven Feasts of Israel (BW book pg 47, see below):

The Promise of Forgiveness of Sins: Sealed by the Death of Christ (Passover)

The Promise of Eternal Life: Sealed by the Resurrection of Christ (Firstfruits)

The Promise of Eternal Fellowship with God: Sealed by the Holy Spirit (Pentecost)

The true miracle of these prophetic feasts is that God fulfilled them on the exact days they were being celebrated by the Jews. He ordained the Feast of Passover on Nisan 14 as a perpetual memorial (Exo 12:14) of Israel’s deliverance from bondage in Egypt He wrought through the death of the Passover Lamb. This was the most significant day in the entire prophetic drama of redemption historically enacted with blood, sweat, and countless tears by the Jews. Jesus revealed its true significance the night before His Death when He instituted Bread and Wine as the perpetual memorial of His saving Work on the Cross (1 Cor 11:23ff):

For I have received of the Lord that which also I delivered unto you, That the Lord Jesus the same night in which he was betrayed took bread: And when he had given thanks, he brake it, and said, Take, eat: this is my body, which is broken for you: this do in remembrance of me. After the same manner also he took the cup, when he had supped, saying, This cup is the new covenant in my blood: this do ye, as oft as ye drink it, in remembrance of me. For as often as ye eat this bread, and drink this cup, ye do shew the Lord’s death till he come.

Passover initiated the seven days of the Feast of Unleavened Bread that began the next day (Nisan 15). It corresponds to the first full day that the sinless Lord Jesus – the Bread of Life – lay buried in the tomb. In general, leaven is a symbol of sin that corrupts, and unlike every other body ever buried, the unleavened body of the pure and holy Lord Jesus “saw no corruption” (Acts 13:37). The Feast of Firstfruits followed on the first Sunday after Passover, the day the Lord rose from the dead (Mat 28:1). God ordained for this day that the priest to wave a sheaf, a bundle including both stalk and head called an omer, from the first of the harvest (reshit haqatzir, Lev 23:10) as a representation of the promise of the anticipated harvest and its dedication to the Lord. The New Testament explicitly declares it to be a type, or pre-image, of the resurrection of the Lord Jesus, saying “But now is Christ risen from the dead, and become the firstfruits of them that slept” (1 Cor 15:20).

Pentecost, also known as the Feast of Harvest (Hag HaQatzir, Exo 23:16), completed the cycle of Spring Feasts that began with Passover. It commemorates the fulfilled promise of harvest affirmed at Firstfruits. Its agricultural setting gave rise to one its primary typological overtones, the harvest of souls into the Kingdom of God. Jesus used this metaphor when He sent out the Seventy saying “The harvest truly is great, but the labourers are few: pray ye therefore the Lord of the harvest, that he would send forth labourers into his harvest” (Luke 10:2), and again as a metaphor of the gathering of all souls belonging to God into His Kingdom at the end of time in His parable of the Harvest where He flatly states “the harvest is the end of the world” (Mat 13:39). This figure appears again in the Book of Consummation when the Angel is commanded to “reap; for the harvest of the earth is ripe” (Rev 14:15). These images are fundamentally eschatological; just as the end of the Jewish age and the “already/not yet” fulfillment of the Father’s promise came in the Book of Acts, so the final consummation comes in Revelation. The correspondence continues; the end of the Jewish age coincided with the beginning of the Church age, just as the end of this age will initiate entrance into God’s Eternal Kingdom (Rev 21:1). In the Bible, an End (Tav) always leads to a new Beginning (Aleph). Death died in the resurrection of Jesus Christ (Rom 6:9). Hallelujah!

The five New Testament History Books span the fulfillment of these prophetic feasts and connect them as a unit. The first four books, the Gospels, record the fulfillment of the first three feasts in the death, burial, and resurrection of the Lord Jesus. The fifth book, Acts, records the fulfillment of Pentecost. God connected it to the previous feasts by setting its date as the day after completion of seven sabbaths (a week of weeks) from the Day of Firstfruits. It was on the fiftieth day (50 = 7 x 7 + 1) and so in Greek was called Pentecost, meaning fiftieth. God used this Pentecostal pattern on a higher scale when He ordained every fiftieth year as the Year of Jubilee when a trumpet would sound and everyone would “proclaim liberty throughout all the land unto all the inhabitants thereof” (Lev 25:10). This adds to the fullness of the already super-saturated symbolism of Pentecost, for “where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is liberty” (2 Cor 3:17). Pentecost is the Jubilee of God’s Spirit!

The whole structure of the Jewish religious calendar is based on interplay of the Numbers One and Seven. Two main events, the Spring Feast of Unleavened Bread in the first month (1) and the Fall Feast of Tabernacles in the seventh (7), start on the fifteenth day (7 + 7 + 1) and continue for seven days (7). They are exactly six months apart, to the day, and so are diametrically opposed on the circle of the year and again we behold the perfect symmetry of the Law of the Lord. The end of the whole cycle is marked by a “holy convocation” on the eighth day (7 + 1) after Tabernacles (Lev 23:36). This all follows the basic covenantal pat-tern of 7 + 1 seen in the law of circumcision (Gen 17:10) where entrance into God’s Covenant occurs on the eighth (= 7 + 1) day. This returns us, of course, to the first day of the week (and of Creation) on a higher level. New beginnings! The Octave! The Number Eight therefore came to be a symbol of entrance into the New Covenant as seen, for example in the octagonal baptismal fonts common in Christian Churches since ancient times.

Yet for all this we have only begun to fathom the endless wonder of God’s glorious Plan of the Ages. The fulfillment of the feasts is the apex of a host of prophecies centered on the New Covenant, most notably Jeremiah 31:31ff:

Behold, the days come, saith the LORD, that I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel, and with the house of Judah: Not according to the covenant that I made with their fathers in the day that I took them by the hand to bring them out of the land of Egypt; which my covenant they broke, although I was a husband unto them, saith the LORD: But this shall be the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel; After those days, saith the LORD, I will put my law in their inward parts, and write it in their hearts; and will be their God, and they shall be my people. And they shall teach no more every man his neighbour, and every man his brother, saying, Know the LORD: for they shall all know me, from the least of them unto the greatest of them, saith the LORD: for I will forgive their iniquity, and I will remember their sin no more.

The covenant “they broke” was the covenant God made at Sinai when He gave the Ten Commandments in Exodus (Spoke 2, Cycle 1). As an aside, its alignment with the New Covenant promised in Jeremiah (Spoke 2, Cycle 2) forms a profound Spoke 2 thematic link (Exo 20:1ff <> Jer 31:31ff) based on the fundamental Bet KeyWord b’rit (covenant, pg 143). Paul explained the relation between these two Covenants in terms of the Work of the Holy Spirit who writes God’s Law on the hearts of all His saints (2 Cor 3:2ff):

Ye are our epistle written in our hearts, known and read of all men: Forasmuch as ye are manifestly declared to be the epistle of Christ ministered by us, written not with ink, but with the Spirit of the living God; not in tables of stone [like the Ten Commandments], but in fleshy tables of the heart [as promised in Jeremiah]. And such trust have we through Christ toward God … who also hath made us able ministers of the new covenant; not of the letter, but of the spirit: for the letter killeth, but the spirit giveth life.

This is the promise of the Father fulfilled at Pentecost. Jeremiah’s marriage metaphor – “I was a husband unto them” – exemplifies the covenantal essence of marriage based entirely on promise and faith. God used similar language in Hosea’s prophecy of the New Covenant (Hos 2:18ff):

And in that day will I make a covenant … And I will betroth thee unto me for ever; yea, I will betroth thee unto me in righteousness, and in judgment, and in lovingkindness, and in mercies. I will even betroth thee unto me in faithfulness: and thou shalt know the LORD.

In both Jeremiah and Hosea God promised that we would “know the Lord,” which Christ de-fined as the key to eternal life (John 17:3). This amplifies the marriage metaphor, for when a couple consummates their marriage they are said to “know” each other. This is its “Biblical sense,” as when Adam knew Eve and she conceived (Gen 4:1). Thus Adam used the covenantal word cleave (davaq) when God presented him his wife Eve, saying a man shall “cleave to his wife” just as we are commanded to love the Lord and cleave unto him all the days of our lives (Deut 30:20). Unfortunately, space prohibits even a cursory glance, let alone an exegesis, of all the Scriptures touching on the Marriage Covenant as a symbol of God’s relation with His People and how He wove these threads into a bridal tapestry of unparalleled beauty on the Twenty-Second Spoke. Such could easily fill a large book.

In sum, the Day of Pentecost, the defining event of Acts, was the birthday of the Church, the Bride of Christ. She is revealed allegorically in the Song of Songs (Cycle 1), seen rising to her place in history in Acts (Cycle 2) where she occupies herself with the Work of God while anxiously awaiting the consummation of her Eternal Marriage to her Bridegroom prophesied in the Book of Revelation (Cycle 3). This is the consummation of God’s Plan of the Ages.

CYCLE 3 – REVELATION: Christ Receives His Bride, Consummation of All History

And he that sat upon the throne said, Behold, I make all things new. And he said unto me, Write: for these words are true and faithful. And he said unto me, It is done. I am Alpha and Omega, the beginning and the end. I will give unto him that is athirst of the fountain of the water of life freely. He that overcometh shall inherit all things; and I will be his God, and he shall be my son.

Revelation 21:5f (Spoke 22, Cycle 3)

Revelation is the ultimate Book of Consummation. It simultaneously closes the thematic and geometric circles of the Bible even as it seals the whole with a Sevenfold Seal of Perfection (see The Bible Sealed with Seven Seals, BW book pg 50). But as it closes, so it opens in the sense indicated by its name Apocalupsis denoting an unveiling, uncovering, or revelation. Opening and closing, beginning and ending are united in the Apocalypse where God declares “It is done” even as His previous proclamation “Behold, I make all things new” still rings in the Throne Room of heaven. Everything in the last book centers on its first words, THE REVELATION OF JESUS CHRIST. He is the true purpose and central character of the all Scripture, and so it is with absolute perfection of design that all Scripture closes with the opening of heaven and the revelation of the King of Kings and Lord of Lords (Rev 19:16). Such is the Wisdom of God.

Sample of the Symphony of Biblical Symbols in Revelation
Source	Rev	Reference
Gen 2:9	2:7	Tree of Life
Gen 3:1	12:9	Serpent
Gen 49:9	5:5	Lion of Judah
Exo 12:5	5:6	Lamb of God
Exo 15:1	15:3	Song of Moses
Exo 32:32	3:5	Book of Life
Lev 16:12	8:3	Incense and Altar
Num 25:1	2:14	Balaam
Deut 4:2	22:18	God’s Word unchanged
Josh 6:4	8:2	Seven Trumpets
1Kg 22:19	4:2	The Lord upon His Throne
1Kg 7:50	11:1	Temple of God
2Kg 1:10	20:9	Fire from Heaven
Job 2:1	12:9	Satan
Ps 17:15	22:4	The Face of God
Song 5:1	19:7	THE BRIDE

Revelation is the supreme Book of Signs and Symbols. Its 404 verses contain at least 400 allusions to elements drawn from the first sixty-five books of the Bible. W. Graham Scroggie, in his excellent synopsis of the whole Bible, The Unfolding Drama of Redemption , filled six pages of fine print listing 280 references to the events, persons, types, symbols, and metaphors found in just the thirty-nine books of the Old Testament. The table gives a tiny sample from Cycle 1, space prohibits listing them all. Revelation is truly a Divine symphony of Biblical symbols. Its melody is the Song of the Beloved, the Lord Jesus Christ. A thousand harmonics ring from its every note, evoking memories of all that God has taught us along the long, long road of the history of the world. It is a true Paradise for all who love to meditate in the Holy Word, unifying everything revealed in the sixty-six books. It is the ultimate demonstration of the multifaceted Wisdom of God; an inexhaustible treasure house that unlocks the true vision of the whole Bible as the revelation of the Lord of History . By Divine design, it suggests worlds within worlds of manifold interpretations, which is how God evokes a response from the highest faculties of our souls. Nothing less would suffice for the Vision from Eternity held within its finite pages.

The true wonder of the Bible Wheel is that almost all of its elements have been both recognized and commented on by countless scholars over the span of centuries. For example, I could not have written a more precise description of the Apocalypse than this by Simon Kistemaker in the Journal of the Evangelical Theological Society :

The Revelation of John is the capstone of Scripture. It is a concise summary of the history of redemption that points to the consummation of time. In total it has some 278 allusions to the OT. The teachings of this book reveal a glorious unity, a progression of thought, and perfect agreement with the entire Bible. When the last book of the NT was composed, nothing could be added to God’s written revelation. His written word has been completed in the sixty-six books of the Old and New Testaments.

Just as the Franciscan tradition sees the last letter Tav as representing the “fulfillment of the entire revealed Word of God” (BW book pg 38), so now we see the literal fulfillment of the entire revealed Word of God in the last book and its full thematic and geometric integration with the last Hebrew letter! Furthermore, scholars throughout the ages have noticed the profound thematic and theological integration of Revelation with the Song of Songs, an association that is amplified beyond all measure in the geometric alignment of these two books with each other and the final Hebrew Letter! This is the Work of God. This is the revelation of the Bible Wheel.

Aleph Tav: The Capstone Signature of God’s Word

We began this journey into the unified geometric heart of God’s Word with the surprisingly simple act of “rolling up the Bible like a scroll” on a spindle Wheel of twenty-two Spokes, corresponding to the twenty-two letters of the Hebrew alphabet (pg 23). This led immediately to a host of “unanticipated correlations” such as the synergistic compounding and compacting of the four archetypal symbols – the Circle, the Cross, the Alphabet, and the Number Seven – in its large-scale structure, aptly described as sevenfold symmetric perfection (BW book, pg 52). Chapter 4 of the Bible Wheel book – For Glory and for Beauty – reviewed its relation to the prophetic theological art of traditional Christian iconography and its ultimate significance as the very Seal of God bearing the Sign of Deity in the form of the tri-radiant cruciform halo generated by the distribution of the seven canonical divisions on its three Cycles. The first part of this chapter reviewed the integration of the primary themes of the books on the first and last Spokes with the symbolic meanings of Aleph (Commencement) and Tav (Consummation). It is, therefore, an incomparable wonder, having come full circle after traversing such a vast domain, to find the first words of Christ in the last book returning us again to the alphabetic origin of the Wheel of God’s Word:

I am Alpha and Omega, the beginning and the ending, saith the Lord, which is, and which was, and which is to come, the Almighty.

Revelation 1:8 (Spoke 22, Cycle 3)

This title identifies Christ as the Living Word of God who created all things, as it is written later in the same Book, “his name is called the Word of God” (Rev 19:13, BW book pg 39, see Aleph and Tav, First and Last). It is a Divine Title, revealed by God Himself, and it seals the Bible on multiple reiterative levels; first as a natural symbol of wholeness and completeness, second as a symbol of Eternity, and third as a symbol of the Word, with all these overtones being combined, compacted, pressed down, and shaken together into the ultimate symbol of the Complete Perfection of the Eternal Word of God. It is revealed only in the Apocalypse, and so the Last Book seals the linear sequence of the Sixty-Six Books with the declaration “It is done. I am the Alpha and Omega.” Its Hebrew form – Aleph Tav – likewise seals the circular matrix of Sixty-Six Books and combines with the bilateral symmetry of the Canon Wheel, thereby “rightly dividing the word of truth” (2 Tim 2:15, BW book pg 246) between the first and last Spokes (pg 33).

This Seal of God’s Word – – is itself a Divine Title not dissimilar to His eternal memorial name I AM THAT I AM (Exo 3:14). But it is more than just a title, and the Letters Aleph and Tav are more than mere symbols – they combine to form a number of Hebrew words that reveal the true nature and origin of the Bible Wheel, chief amongst them being את (ot) which carries the meanings listed in the table. This word appears nearly a hundred times in the Old Testament, first in the fourfold description of the purpose of the heavenly lights made on the Fourth Day (Spoke 4, BW book pg 169):

And God said, Let there be lights in the firmament of the heaven to divide the day from the night; and let them be for signs (ot), and for seasons, and for days, and years:

Genesis 1:14

It next appears in Genesis 4 when God placed a mark (ot) on Cain to protect him from being slain. God used it a third time when He established His Covenant with Noah, symbolized by the rainbow:

And God said, This is the sign (ot) of the covenant which I make between me and you and every living creature that is with you, for perpetual generations: I do set my bow in the cloud, and it shall be for a sign (ot) of a covenant between me and the earth.

Genesis 9:12-13

It appears a fourth time when God made His Covenant with Abraham (Gen 17:10f):

This is my covenant, which ye shall keep, between me and you and thy seed after thee; Every man child among you shall be circumcised. And ye shall circumcise the flesh of your foreskin; and it shall be a sign (ot) of the covenant betwixt me and you.

Genesis 17:10-11

This word is deeply associated with God’s covenants and His miraculous saving acts. The blood of the Passover Lamb was the sign that protected the Israel from death (Exo 12:13), God gave Moses miraculous proofs that He had sent him (Exo 4:5), and He freed them from Egypt with “great signs and wonders” (Deut 6:22). And of utmost significance, this is the word that God chose when He gave the prophecy in Isaiah 7:14 of the miraculous birth of His Son who bears the Sign of Eternity :

Therefore the Lord himself shall give you a sign (ot); Behold, a virgin shall conceive, and bear a son, and shall call his name Immanuel.

Isaiah 7:14

Immanuel, God with us!

This brings us to the heart of the Gospel which, like the Bible that declares it, is encompassed by the Letters Aleph (Beginnings/God) and Tav (Consummation/Cross). The very word for a miracle is itself a miracle that coherently derives its meaning from the symbolic power of its Letters: את (ot) = A Sign (ת) from God (ת)! The Lord engraved this symbol in the Capstone of His Holy Word. It governs its entire structure even as it proclaims a host of Divine Signs with distinct yet harmonious voices. It produces a symbolic symphony declaring the Eternal Nature of God, His Authorship of Scripture, its Perfection from Aleph to Tav, and its own self-reflective meaning as a Divine Sign. If you are not dizzy yet, it probably means you need to slow down and meditate on what has been said. How is it possible that human language could even express these ideas? They touch the highest heavens and yet remain as simple as ABC, 123. We are gazing into the absolute perfection of the Infinite Intelligence of Almighty God! Yet there is more; the Sign of God – את – also proclaims the essential core of the Gospel, the greatest miracle of all time:

For God [Aleph א KeyWord Elohim] so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son [on the Cross = = ת] that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life.

John 3:16

Jesus Himself used the word sign when He prophesied His death upon the Cross:

But he answered and said unto them, An evil and adulterous generation seeketh after a sign; and there shall no sign be given to it, but the sign of the prophet Jonas: For as Jonas was three days and three nights in the whale’s belly; so shall the Son of man be three days and three nights in the heart of the earth.

Matthew 12:39-40

Here sign is from the Greek semeion, whence Semiotics, the science of signs and symbols. It is used for את (ot) in Greek translations of the Old Testament. This returns us to the opening (and defining) passage of the Apocalypse where God used its related verb:

The Revelation of Jesus Christ, which God gave unto him, to shew unto his servants things which must shortly come to pass; and he sent and signified (semaino) it by his angel unto his servant John:

Revelation 1:1

This brings us full circle yet again. The last book on the last Spoke declares itself to be a Book of Signs, using the Greek word that specifically corresponds to את. It then reveals its Divine Author by the Greek title that also specifically corresponds to את. And all of this is exactly what we would expect in a Divine Book specifically designed upon את!

When God joined Aleph to Tav and sealed His Circle of Revelation, a kind of nuclear fusion occurred that unified the whole and ignited it into a blazing synergistic sun of fiery symbols. In a literal nuclear fusion, physical elements such as hydrogen, helium, and so forth are brought into close proximity by the sun’s powerful gravitational field. This forces them to interact in ways otherwise impossible, fusing new elements from the originals even as it generates the Light of the World. In the same way, the Bible Wheel brings together three primary elements (Books) on each Spoke and catalyzes their interaction with the corresponding Hebrew Letter. This Divine Fire produces a ceaseless conflagration of new insights into the Holy Word. Indeed, from the moment of its ignition we saw the very Sign of Deity shining from its sevenfold symmetric perfection. New and wondrous insights continued to effortlessly burst forth, culminating in the discovery of God’s Divine Title – – reiteratively engraved on multiple levels in its structure so that that Wheel declares from within itself, by its very nature, that it is a miraculous Sign from God את (ot)! The Divine Unity of this revelation makes it self-reflective, self-descriptive and self-authenticating. It bears its own proof (ot) in the structure of its body, and all of this, from beginning to end, is based on nothing less than the very Signature of God that He Himself revealed in the Final Book.

This one word – את (ot) – reveals the full Divine integration of the Hebrew Alphabet, the Hebrew Language, the Bible Wheel, and the Gospel message. It is all one! When God closed the circle of the Bible, He fused Aleph with Tav and brought forth its sevenfold symmetric perfection. And just as the Capstone Signature , signifying the alphabetic core of the Wheel, is explicitly revealed in the Last Book, so also is its sevenfold Seal of Perfection there revealed in the symbol of a book sealed with seven seals:

And I saw in the right hand of him that sat on the throne a book written within and on the backside, sealed with seven seals. And I saw a strong angel proclaiming with a loud voice, Who is worthy to open the book, and to loose the seals thereof? And no man in heaven, nor in earth, neither under the earth, was able to open the book, neither to look thereon. And I wept much, because no man was found worthy to open and to read the book, neither to look thereon. And one of the elders saith unto me, Weep not: behold, the Lion of the tribe of Judah, the Root of David, hath prevailed to open the book, and to loose the seven seals thereof. And I beheld, and, lo, in the midst of the throne and of the four beasts, and in the midst of the elders, stood a Lamb as it had been slain, having seven horns and seven eyes, which are the seven Spirits of God sent forth into all the earth. And he came and took the book out of the right hand of him that sat upon the throne.

Revelation 5:1-7

This passage played a central role in the design of the presentation in the Bible Wheel book. I had been struggling for some time to find an introduction to the Wheel that would make it intuitively obvious I had not “done anything” myself to produce the pattern. The solution came when my wife Rose was meditating on Revelation 5 and noticed a footnote that said the “book” was probably a scroll. The Lord quickened her imagination, and she saw the Bible “roll up like a scroll” in her mind’s eye. This is the origin of the metaphor that has proven so fruitful (BW book pg 16). It also is a key to the Capstone Prophecies (pg 391).

We have yet to exhaust the manifold meaning of Aleph and Tav. As mentioned above, they combine to form other words that relate to the structure of the Wheel. The most common, et, is a derivative of ot that functions as a grammatical sign to mark the direct object of a verb. It first appears at the exact center of the seven words of Genesis 1:1 where it marks heaven as the direct object of God’s first creative act:

As a grammatical marker, et is peculiar to Hebrew and so is not translated. It appears again as the sixth word to mark the earth as the other direct object of God’s creative act. There it is prefixed with the Sixth Letter (Vav) which is how the conjunctive “and” is written in Hebrew (pg 197). A closely related meaning of et is to mark out words for special emphasis with the implication that the essence or totality of the thing is in view. This is common knowledge amongst both Christian and Jewish commentators, as noted by Adam Clarke in his commentary on Genesis 1:1  (1826 AD):

The word eth, which is generally considered as a particle is often understood by the rabbins in a much more extensive sense. “The particle,” says Aben Ezra, “signifies the substance of the thing.” The like definition is given by Kimchi in his Book of Roots. “This particle,” says Mr. Ainsworth, “having the first and last letters of the Hebrew alphabet in it, is supposed to comprise the sum and substance of all things.”

This rabbinic tradition interprets Genesis 1:1 as “In the beginning God created et – Aleph Tav, the Essence of Everything – that is, the heaven and the earth.” This further coheres with its etymology, as Ernest Klein explained in his Comprehensive Etymological Dictionary of the Hebrew Language where he traced it back to the ultimate root meaning of ot as “a noun in the sense of ‘being, essence, existence’.” This means that the Seal of God’s Word carries the idea of essential existence. The closing passage of the story of creation exemplifies this meaning:

And God saw everything (et-kol) that he had made, and, behold, it was very good. And the evening and the morning were the sixth day. Thus the heavens and the earth were finished (kalah), and all the host of them.

Genesis 1:31-2:1

The phrase et-kol is formed by combining et with (kol), the standard Hebrew word meaning the whole or all. It is spelt with the same consonants (vowel points were not added until the 10th century) as ot-kol, the sign of everything, which coheres, of course, with the precise topic of the passage. This then reveals the true essence of the alphabetic core of God’s Word. Following the arrow from the center of the figure eight, we pass through the Letters Aleph Tav Kaph Lamed, and see that et-kol is formed by symmetrically interweaving these two diametrically opposed words on the Alphabetic Circle. This means that the Sign of Everything is symmetrically spelt out in the defining alphabetic core of the Bible Wheel, which amplifies yet again its power as a symbol of the all-encompassing Word of God. This is the never-ending wonder of the Theological Art that God has so skillfully engraved in His Capstone.

This then leads directly back to the primary Spoke 22 theme of the consummation of God’s Plan of the Ages. In the verse above, God used the Kaph KeyWord kol in conjunction with its cognate kalah which means to complete, to finish, to bring to an end. Except for vowel points, this word is identical to kallah which denotes a bride or spouse. This is the Divine Mystery of the Hebrew language; God based the word for a bride on the idea of completion to prefigure the ultimate purpose of all creation, as it is written “and they two shall be one flesh, this is a great mystery: but I speak concerning Christ and the church” (Eph 5:32f, pg 73). Note that Kaph is diametrically opposed to Tav on the Wheel (pg 277). And precisely as we would expect, the word kallah appears frequently in the Songs of Songs, specifically in the passages leading up to the point when the Beloved and His Bride consummate their marriage, which is marked by the phrase “I am come into my garden”:

Come with me from Lebanon, my spouse (kallah), with me from Lebanon: look from the top of Amana, from the top of Shenir and Hermon, from the lions’ dens, from the mountains of the leopards. Thou hast ravished my heart, my sister, my spouse (kallah); thou hast ravished my heart with one of thine eyes, with one chain of thy neck. How fair is thy love, my sister, my spouse (kallah)! how much better is thy love than wine! and the smell of thine ointments than all spices! Thy lips, O my spouse (kallah), drop as the honeycomb: honey and milk are under thy tongue; and the smell of thy garments is like the smell of Lebanon. A garden inclosed is my sister, my spouse (kallah); a spring shut up, a fountain sealed. Thy plants are an orchard of pomegranates, with pleasant fruits; camphire, with spikenard, Spikenard and saffron; calamus and cinnamon, with all trees of frankincense; myrrh and aloes, with all the chief spices: A fountain of gardens, a well of living waters, and streams from Lebanon. Awake, O north wind; and come, thou south; blow upon my garden, that the spices thereof may flow out. Let my beloved come into his garden, and eat his pleasant fruits. I am come into my garden, my sister, my spouse (kallah): I have gathered my myrrh with my spice; I have eaten my honeycomb with my honey; I have drunk my wine with my milk: eat, O friends; drink, yea, drink abundantly, O beloved.

Song of Songs 4:8ff (Spoke 22, Cycle 1)

Without knowledge of the Gospel, the phrase “my sister, my spouse” might seem a bit “off key” in this most Holy of all Songs. But in light of the Biblical typology of Christ as both our Brother (Heb 2:11) and our Husband (2 Cor 11:2), it sings in perfect harmony with the rest of the Scriptural symphony.

This is the consummation of God’s Plan for the Ages:

Let us be glad and rejoice, and give honour to him: for the marriage of the Lamb is come, and his wife hath made herself ready. And to her was granted that she should be arrayed in fine linen, clean and white: for the fine linen is the righteousness of saints. And he saith unto me, Write, Blessed are they which are called unto the marriage supper of the Lamb. And he saith unto me, These are the true sayings of God.

Reveleation 19:7f (Spoke 22, Cycle 3)

Yes, let us rejoice! Let us sing praises unto our Father who “hid these things from the wise and prudent, and has revealed them unto babes” (Luke 10:21). Praise His Holy Name now and forever! Make haste, my beloved! Come Lord Jesus!

THE BIBLE SEALED FROM ALEPH TO TAV
א Spoke 1 – Aleph Three Books of Commencement	ת Spoke 22 – Tav Three Books of Consummation
CYCLE 1
GENESIS: First Book of the Law Themes: Creation; Origin of Universe, Life, Man, Sin; Election of Abraham; Genesis of the Gospel of Righteousness by Faith. Key Verses: 1:1 In the beginning God created … 15:6 And he believed in the Lord and it was counted unto him as righteousness. 17:4 I have made thee a father of many nations.	SONG OF SONGS: Last Book of Wisdom Themes: A natural King receives his Bride and consummates his marriage. This is a Type, an Analogy, a Metaphor of Christ and His Church. Key Verses: 8:6 Set me as a seal upon thine heart 7:11 Come, my beloved 2:16 My beloved is mine, and I am his. 8:14 Make haste, my beloved!
CYCLE 2
ISAIAH: First Book of the Prophets Themes: God’s Sovereignty, Creation, Election of Abraham, God our Father, Justification, Gospel of Righteousness through faith, The Passion of Christ Key Verses: 40:28 The everlasting God, the LORD, the Creator of the ends of the earth 51:2 Look unto Abraham your father … for I called him alone … 59:20 The Redeemer shall come to Zion 53:11 by his knowledge shall my righteous servant justify many; for he shall bear their iniquities. 45:17 Israel shall be saved with an everlasting … 63:16 Thou, O LORD, art our father …	ACTS: Last Book of NT History Themes: God seals His Bride the Church at Pen-tecost. Consummation of the Jewish age and birth of the Church. Summation of History from Genesis to its fulfillment in Christ in the Gospels. Key Verses: 2:1 when Pentecost had fully come .. 3:18 But those things, which God before had shewed by the mouth of all his prophets, that Christ should suffer, he hath so fulfilled. 3:21 until the times of restitution of all things, which God hath spoken by the mouth of all his holy prophets since the world began 15:18 Known unto God are all his works from the beginning of the world.
CYCLE 3
ROMANS: First Book of NT Epistles Themes: Chief Book of the NT, reaching back to Genesis, the Fall, righteousness through faith (Fa-ther Abraham). Justification, Cites Isaiah 17 times. Key Verses: 1:20 For the invisible things of him from the creation of the world are clearly seen 4:3 Abraham believed God, and it was counted unto him for righteousness. 4:17 I have made thee a father of many nations 3:26 that he might be just, and the justifier … 11:27 And so all Israel shall be saved …	REVELATION: Last Book of the Bible Themes: Christ receives His Bride the Church, and the purpose of all creation is consummated. En-trance into eternity with God. Key Verses: 7:2 The seal of the living God 5:1 a book … sealed with seven seals. 19:7 The marriage of the Lamb is come, and his wife hath made herself ready. 21:3 Behold, the tabernacle of God is with men, and he will dwell with them 21:6 IT IS FINISHED!

The Divine Design of the Twenty-Two Spokes

(Chapter 6 of the Bible Wheel Book)

Word Distributions: The God of Infinite Detail

Are not five sparrows sold for two farthings, and not one of them is forgotten before God? But even the very hairs of your head are all numbered. Fear not therefore: ye are of more value than many sparrows.

Luke 12:6f

The Bible is a sacred tapestry of Divine Words woven by God into a portrait of His Son, Jesus Christ our Lord, the Saviour of the World. Threads of every color are distributed throughout its fabric, with each rising to prominence here and falling into obscurity there under threads of a different color. From the very beginning, Christians have been tracing these threads throughout Scripture to discern this portrait, which is, in fact, nothing less than the very Image of God shining in the glorious face of the Lord Jesus Christ (2 Cor 4:6).

God’s Word is unique amongst all other books because the image woven from its words is both historical and prophetical. It is simply impossible to maintain that the detailed fulfillment of the types and shadows established in the Old Testament, such as Christ’s death and resurrection and the outpouring of the Holy Spirit in relation to the Feasts of the Lord (pg 83), was nothing but a happenstance of history. There are too many independent and delightfully intelligent converging lines to allow for that possibility. The intended image is as clear as daylight and was established centuries before its fulfillment. Tracing out the infinite detail of this Divine Image is one of the greatest joys of Bible study, for “this is life eternal, that they might know thee the only true God, and Jesus Christ, whom thou hast sent” (John 17:3).

The miracle of God’s Wheel is that it transforms the metaphor of the Bible as “an image woven in a tapestry of words” into a literal description of its supernatural design (pg 42). Chapter 3 reviewed the Divine synergy of the four symbols – the Circle, the Cross, the Alphabet, and the Number Seven – that were “pressed down, and shaken together” in its geometric structure. Chapter 4 explored its nature as a Divine Seal and work of Theological Art. The upshot of those chapters was that God has united the content of His Word with its geometric form. The distribution of the threads – themes expressed with words – in God’s tapestry forms a self-coherent visual image that exemplifies, amplifies, and reiterates the meaning of the words that form it! It is the ultimate illuminated manuscript (pg 75). A prime example was seen in the restriction of God’s Self-Revelation as “First and Last” on the First and Last Spokes (pg 40) and the amplification of this pattern in the themes of the corresponding Books (Commencement and Consummation). Similar distributions characterize the entire structure of the Wheel, from the large-scale sevenfold symmetric perfection generated by the seven canonical divisions down to the exact placement of individual Books.

Distinctive Word Distributions in the Seven Canonical Divisions

Whom shall he teach knowledge? and whom shall he make to understand doctrine? them that are weaned from the milk, and drawn from the breasts. For precept must be upon precept, precept upon precept; line upon line, line upon line; here a little, and there a little:

Isaiah 28:10f

The seven canonical divisions are the basis of the sevenfold symmetric perfection of the Canon Wheel (pg 32). Each division is characterized by specific words that expressly cohere with its traditional name. This is a strong witness of the objective validity of the canonical divisions since they would be discernable by their characteristic word distributions even if we had not received them from the early Church. As you scroll over these graphs, you will see the dominant thematic patterns sequentially unfold. It forms a simple outline of the ebb and flow of the Everlasting Story.

Division 1: The Law (Torah)

Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers, Deuteronomy

And when Abram was ninety years old and nine, the LORD appeared to Abram, and said unto him, I am the Almighty God; walk before me, and be thou perfect. And I will make my covenant between me and thee, and will multiply thee exceedingly.

Genesis 17:1f

Jews and Christians have always known the first Five Books as a unit that goes by various names such as the Torah, the Pentateuch, and the Five Books of Moses. It is also known as the “Book of the Covenant” because it records the first covenants God made with Noah (Gen 6:18), Abraham (Gen 17:1), and all Israel (Exo 19:5). The word “covenant” itself is distributed fairly broadly throughout all seven divisions, but the phrase “my covenant” as spoken by the Lord directly to Noah, Abraham, Moses, and the children of Israel distinguishes the Torah where it occurs 26 times (48%). It appears in each of the first Five Books, with the maximum in Genesis. The Torah is also clearly distinguished by the words “statute” and “ordinance” characteristic of the Old Covenant established in therein.

Division 2: Old Testament History

Joshua, Judges, Ruth, 1,2 Samuel, 1,2 Kings, 1,2 Chronicles, Ezra, Nehemiah, Esther

Now after the death of Moses the servant of the LORD it came to pass, that the LORD spake unto Joshua the son of Nun,

Joshua 1:1

Precisely as one would expect, the continuous narrative of the Historical Books is naturally distinguished by the phrase “it came to pass.” It appears between 13 and 40 times in each of the Twelve Old Testament History Books except Ruth (3x), 1 Chr (9x) and Ezra where, oddly enough, it is absent. The second greatest concentration appears in the Torah. The third maximum appears, again as expected, in the Five NT History Books. There are no occurrences in the Epistles, so the phrase “it came to pass” clearly distinguishes between the two primary divisions of the New Testament.

Another intriguing distribution is found in the Divine Title “Lord God of Israel” which appears almost exclusively in the Twelve OT History Books. The distribution is quite uniform throughout most of this division. It occurs between six and twenty-one times in all but four Books, and is missing only in Nehemiah and Esther, the latter being expected because of its unique design as a demonstration of God’s Providence when He is acting from behind the scenes (Esther means hidden, pg 307). Of particular interest is that this distribution distinguishes this division even from the Torah which shares its historical character. There is a mystery as to why this title appears so frequently in the historical record but rarely in the prophets who were writing at that same time.

Division 3: Wisdom Books

Job, Psalms, Proverbs, Ecclesiastes, Song of Songs

The proverbs of Solomon the son of David, king of Israel; To know wisdom and instruction; to perceive the words of understanding;

Proverbs 1:1f

Again, in precise agreement with what we would expect, the Five Wisdom Books are distinguished by their unique emphasis on the word “wisdom.” Of its 234 occurrences in the KJV, 113 appear in this division. It is missing only in the Song of Songs. The distribution within this division is also instructive. Of its 113 hits, the maximum of 54 (48%) occurs in Proverbs at the exact midpoint of these Five Books. It aligns on the Wheel with the Book of Luke, which uses the word “wisdom” more than the other Gospels and also contains the most parables (proverbs). This is the basis of many links on Spoke 20 between Proverbs and Luke discussed in the Synopsis (pg 339).

The Five Wisdom Books are also distinguished by the frequent us of the word “understanding” which is often paired with wisdom, as in the verse quoted above.

Divisions 4 and 5: Major and Minor Prophets

Isaiah, Jeremiah, Lamentations, Ezekiel, Daniel

Hosea, Joel, Amos, Obadiah, Jonah, Micah, Nahum, Habakkuk, Zephaniah, Haggai, Zechariah, Malachi

And many nations shall be joined to the LORD in that day, and shall be my people: and I will dwell in the midst of thee, and thou shalt know that the LORD of hosts hath sent me unto thee.

Zechariah 2:11

The Prophets, both Major and Minor, speak frequently of the things the Lord was or is yet to do in the future, so they are distinguished by the frequent use of the phrase “in that day.” Though this does set apart the Seventeen Prophetic Books from the other five divisions, it does not differentiate between the Major and Minor Prophets. The distribution is dominant in Isaiah (43x) in the Major Prophets and Zechariah (20x) in the Minor. It appears in all but five of the Seventeen Books of Prophecy. It contrasts well with the phrase “it came to pass” characteristic of the Seventeen Books of History.

A similar phrase, “the day of the Lord,” also characterizes these paired divisions. It is fairly uniform throughout all Seventeen Prophetic Books, appearing in four of the Major and six of the Minor Prophets. The graph looks like it distinguishes between them only because the phrase is particularly frequent in two of the latter (Joel and Zechariah). I present these distributions here because they clearly distinguish the Prophets in terms that naturally illustrate their character. There are other word distributions that distinguish between the two, but space prohibits a detailed review at this time.

Division 6: New Testament History

Matthew, Mark, Luke, John, Acts

Now all this was done, that it might be fulfilled which was spoken of the Lord by the prophet, saying,

Matthew 1:23

The Five New Testament History Books record the fulfillment of all the prophecies of the Old Testament concerning the First Advent of Christ, and so they are naturally characterized by the word “fulfilled.” It appears in all Five Books of this division, with the frequency in each being Mat (16x), Mark (4x), Luke (8x), John (11x), Acts (9x). Not every occurrence of the word “fulfilled” in the Bible refers to fulfilled prophecy, but most do and so it is a good “rough marker” of the Sixth Canonical Division. A more detailed analysis would yield essentially the same results.

Division 7: New Testament Epistles

Romans, 1,2 Corinthians, Galatians, Ephesians, Philippians, Colossians, 1,2 Thessalonians, 1,2 Timothy, Titus, Philemon, Hebrews, James, 1,2 Peter, 1,2,3 John, Jude, Revelation

For by grace are ye saved through faith; and that not of yourselves: it is the gift of God: Not of works, lest any man should boast.

Ephesians 2:8f

And now we come to the ultimate message of all Scripture, the essence of the Gospel declared in a single word: grace. This word is characteristic of the entire seventh division, in perfect correspondence to the spiritual meaning of the Seventh Day Sabbath that prefigured the rest we have in Christ through grace (pg 49). It appears in all but two of the twenty-two Epistles. As would be expected, the word faith generates an almost identical distribution.

 

From Large-Scale Symmetry to Correlated Fine-Structure

Ye shall know them by their fruits. Do men gather grapes of thorns, or figs of thistles? Even so every good tree bringeth forth good fruit; but a corrupt tree bringeth forth evil fruit. A good tree cannot bring forth evil fruit, neither can a corrupt tree bring forth good fruit. Every tree that bringeth not forth good fruit is hewn down, and cast into the fire. Wherefore by their fruits ye shall know them.

Matthew 7:16ff

Perhaps the greatest single witness to the incomparable value of the Bible Wheel is the continuous, effortless, and overflowing abundance of fruitful insight it yields into the Holy Word. Scarce has been the day in the last decade since I discovered it in 1995 (pg 23) when I have not sat stunned at the revelation of some new wonder. It seems not to matter where I look in Scripture or what commentary I read (whether written by a skeptic or a believer), everything is alive and bursting with shouts of acclamation for what God has done in His Holy Word. A typical example is the day I wandered into the Evangel Bookstore in Seattle Washington and “chanced” to pick up H. A. Ironside’s 1909 commentary on the Minor Prophets and read:

There are six books of the Old Testament that may be read together most profitably. I refer to Ezra, Nehemiah, and Esther, of the historical part of the Bible, coupled with the prophetic messages of Haggai, Zechariah, and Malachi.

I immediately recognized that these six Books are aligned on three consecutive Spokes. As displayed on the next page, they span Spokes 15, 16, and 17 on the first two Cycles. Though I had already discovered many links between them, I had yet to realize the depth of their historical and thematic coherence. Ironside’s observation sparked my interest and as I researched it I found J. Sidlow Baxter’s massive six-volume survey of the entire Bible called Exploring the Book where he closely examined the perfect symmetry of the Old Testament displayed in the table on page 28. Of all the authors I have read, Baxter came closest to discovering the pattern of the Wheel. He began by noting that the first two divisions – the Five Books of the Torah and the Twelve Historical Books – naturally cohere under the general category of historical so that “the first stretch of our Old Testament consists of seventeen historical books, falling in a natural sub-division of five and twelve.” He then noted that the Major and Minor Prophets fall under the general category of prophetical and stated, in complete agreement with Ironside, that:

It should always be born in mind that the last three of the seventeen prophetical books (Haggai, Zechariah, Malachi) should be read with the last three of the seventeen historical books (Ezra, Nehemiah, Esther), for in both cases the three books are post-exilic.

The exile Baxter spoke of here is the Babylonian Exile that lasted seventy years. It ended with the repatriation of Jerusalem and the rebuilding of the Temple, as prophesied in Haggai and Zechariah and recorded historically in Ezra and Nehemiah. It forms a natural subdivision in both the historical and prophetical portions of the Old Testament. Baxter explained this relation in more detail, emphasizing the precise numerical correspondence between these portions of Scripture:

Moreover, as the last twelve of the seventeen historical books further sub-divide themselves into nine and three, the first nine being pre-exilic, and the remaining three (Ezra, Nehemiah, Esther) being post-exilic, so is it with these twelve minor prophets, i.e. the first nine are all pre-exilic, while the remaining three (Haggai, Zechariah, Malachi) are post-exilic; and these two terminal trios, the last three historical books and the last three prophetical, have a reciprocal correspondence with each other.

Baxter’s “reciprocal correspondence” manifests as periodic radial symmetry on the Wheel, with all the subdivisions aligning on the same sets of Spokes. The first Seventeen Books on the first two Cycles are divided in exactly the same way into groups of 5 and 12 with the latter further subdivided into groups of 9 and 3.

The words around the Wheel describe the correlated content of the divisions on the first two Cycles, highlighted in grey. We have, therefore, thirty-four Books aligned on seventeen Spokes coherently subdivided into three paired sets of 5, 9, and 3 Books, and all of this was recognized by well accomplished Biblical commentators decades before the revelation of the Wheel. This highly detailed substructure will now open our eyes unto an entirely new array of “unanticipated correlations” generated by the “surprisingly simple act” of rolling up the Bible like a scroll.

A Triplet of Triplets

Two are better than one; because they have a good reward for their labour. For if they fall, the one will lift up his fellow: but woe to him that is alone when he falleth; for he hath not another to help him up. Again, if two lie together, then they have heat: but how can one be warm alone? And if one prevail against him, two shall withstand him; and a threefold cord is not quickly broken.

Ecclesiastes 4:9ff

The really amazing thing about the symmetry of the first two Cycles is that three of its dividing lines extend into the Third Cycle, marking two primary subdivisions of the Epistles. Consider first the paired triplets of post-exilic History and post-exilic Minor Prophets. They span Spokes 15 – 17 on Cycle 1 and Cycle 2. They align with the Epistles written by James and Peter on Cycle 3. These three Epistles are distinct from all the others in that they alone are addressed to those “scattered abroad”:

James, a servant of God and of the Lord Jesus Christ, to the twelve tribes which are scattered abroad, greeting. James 1:1 (Spoke 15, Cycle 3)

Peter, an apostle of Jesus Christ, to the strangers scattered throughout Pontus, Galatia, Cappadocia, Asia, and Bithynia, 1 Peter 1:1 (Spoke 16, Cycle 3)

Peter concluded his first Letter with reference to Babylon, saying “The church that is at Babylon, elected together with you, saluteth you” (1 Pet 5:13). We know his second Letter was addressed to the same group as his first because he mentioned his previous communication to them, “This second epistle, beloved, I now write unto you” (2 Pet 3:1). Thus the three epistles spanning Spokes 15 – 17 on Cycle 3 are aptly described as “Epistles to the Scattered.” This coheres with the primary theme of the Babylonian Exile – when God scattered Israel out of the Holy Land because of their incorrigible sin – that punctuates the first and second Cycles between the 14th and 15th Spokes. We have therefore a “triplet of triplets” – nine Books with correlated themes – aligned on Spokes 15, 16, and 17:

A Triplet of Triplets	Spoke 15	Spoke 16	Spoke 17
Cycle 3: Epistles to the Scattered	James	1 Peter	2 Peter
Cycle 2: Post-Exilic Minor Prophets	Haggai	Zechariah	Malachi
Cycle 1: Post-Exilic OT History	Ezra	Nehemiah	Esther

A close examination of this table reveals a highly detailed correlated fine-structure involving a host of unique links amongst these geometrically aligned Books. This testifies to the careful and precise Divine design of both the specific content of each individual Book and its exact placement in the order of the Canon. These links and their relations to the corresponding Hebrew Letters are traced out in extreme detail in Part II, The Synopsis of the twenty-two Spokes. For now we need only a few examples to get the basic idea of what is going on here. One of the most obvious links is between Haggai and Ezra 4:24ff:

Then ceased the work of the house of God which is at Jerusalem. So it ceased unto the second year of the reign of Darius king of Persia. Then the prophets, Haggai the prophet, and Zechariah the son of Iddo, prophesied unto the Jews that were in Judah and Jerusalem in the name of the God of Israel, even unto them. Then rose up Zerubbabel the son of Shealtiel, and Jeshua the son of Jozadak, and began to build the house of God which is at Jerusalem: and with them were the prophets of God helping them.

Ezra 4:24ff (Spoke 15, Cycle 1)

This passage contains the first mention of the Prophet Haggai in the Bible. The theme of rebuilding of the Temple and the time of Haggai’s appearance – the second year of Darius – are identical to what we find in the opening passage of the Book of his prophecy:

In the second year of Darius the king, in the sixth month, in the first day of the month, came the word of the LORD by Haggai the prophet unto Zerubbabel the son of Shealtiel, governor of Judah, and to Joshua the son of Josedech, the high priest, saying, Thus speaketh the LORD of hosts, saying, This people say, The time is not come, the time that the LORD’S house should be built.

Haggai 1:1ff (Spoke 15, Cycle 2)

The correlation between these Books is much more detailed than what might be assumed by their mere classification as “post-exilic.” Haggai and Zechariah were the prophets during the historical era recorded by Ezra and Nehemiah. They prophesied in support of the people’s labors to rebuild the Temple after returning from the Babylonian Exile. And now we can see the fearful symmetry of the Holy Word. There is one and only one other verse in all Scripture, outside his own Book, that mentions the Prophet Haggai – Ezra 6:14 – where he and Zechariah are again presented in the same order as their Books in the Canon:

And the elders of the Jews builded, and they prospered through the prophesying of Haggai the prophet and Zechariah the son of Iddo. And they builded, and finished it, according to the commandment of the God of Israel, and according to the commandment of Cyrus, and Darius, and Artaxerxes king of Persia.

Ezra 6:14f (Spoke 15, Cycle 1)

	Spoke 15 KeyLink The Prophet Haggai
	Ezra 5:1Haggai 1:1

The Prophet Haggai appears only on Spoke 15; twice in Ezra on Cycle 1 and throughout the Book bearing his name on Cycle 2. This is the definition of a KeyLink – a unique word, set of words, or theme that is found only in Books geometrically correlated on the Wheel. We encountered a similar KeyLink based on the Aleph KeyWords Av (Father), Abraham, and Emunah (Faith) in the review of Spoke 1 (pg 67). As I stated then, so now I repeat; I have discovered many hundreds of KeyLinks like these that stitch together the whole structure of the Bible Wheel. It is as overwhelming wonder to behold. Discoveries like this have been my daily bread for nearly a decade.

Mutual Corroboration of Scripture and Tradition

Therefore, brethren, stand fast, and hold the traditions which ye have been taught, whether by word, or our epistle.

2 Thessalonians 2:15ff

Turning now to the second set of Books on Cycle 3 grouped together by extending three of the dividing lines from the first two Cycles, we come to the first Fourteen Epistles, spanning Romans to Hebrews. Many Christians are surprised to learn that modern scholarship disputes the Pauline authorship of some of these, even those that open with the words like “Paul, an apostle of Jesus Christ.” Such speculations can be safely ignored by Christians who receive the Bible as the Word of God. For us, there is only one Epistle of uncertain authorship – Hebrews – since it does not have an opening salutation or any verse that unambiguously identifies the mortal through whom God spoke. But is its writer really unknown? Not in the eyes of the two main branches of the Church – East (Greek Orthodox) and West (Roman Catholic) – who receive it as a genuine Epistle of Paul, as did the second and third century writers Clement of Alexandria and Origin. Neither was it uncertain in the eyes of the Protestant Reformers who wrote its superscription “The Epistle of Paul the Apostle to the Hebrews” in the King James Bible, a position Wiersbe has shown to be strongly supported from Scripture alone. It is here that we discover an amazing mutual corroboration of this ancient Christian tradition with the newly revealed structure of the Wheel. The reception of Hebrews as a Pauline Epistle leads directly to another perfectly symmetric substructure that fully integrates with everything seen in the preceding pages:

Correlated Fine-Structure of Spokes 1 – 17
Cycle	Spokes 1 – 14		Spokes 15 – 17
3	14 Pauline Epistles (Romans – Hebrews)		3 Epistles to the Scattered (James – 2 Peter)
2	5 Major Prophets (Isaiah – Daniel)	9 Pre-Exilic Minor Prophets (Hosea – Zephaniah)	3 Post-Exilic Minor Prophets (Haggai – Malachi)
1	5 Torah (Genesis – Deut))	9 Pre-Exilic OT History (Joshua – 2 Chronicles)	3 Post-Exilic OT History (Ezra – Esther)

We have here a mutual corroboration of multiplied witnesses. If we take the highly detailed symmetry of the Bible Wheel as a given, then we should expect the Fourteen Epistles to cohere with the pattern, thereby confirming the tradition of Pauline authorship of Hebrews. If, on the other hand, we take the tradition as a given, then it immediately manifests as yet another substructure that fits perfectly with the rest of the pattern. The validity of either one supports the validity of the other. Mathematically inclined readers may enjoy trying to calculate the probability that a structure like this could happen by chance. The answer is, of course, very close to zero. A general approach to this question is discussed here.

We also find an unexpected echo of this pattern in the plain text of Scripture. As reviewed above, the Babylonian Exile divides the Wheel between Spokes 14 and 15 on the first two Cycles, and when this line is extended into the third Cycle it divides between the Fourteen Pauline Epistles and the three “Epistles to the Scattered.” The Babylonian Exile and the Number Fourteen jointly punctuate the Wheel and the pattern extends across all three Cycles. The amazing thing is that an identical pattern governs Matthew’s genealogy of Christ, with its three divisions punctuated in exactly the same way (Mat 1:17):

So all the generations from Abraham to David are fourteen generations; and from David until the carrying away into Babylon are fourteen generations; and from the carrying away into Babylon unto Christ are fourteen generations.

This correlation evokes a mystical sense of the whole Bible as the “book of the generation [literally genesis] of Jesus Christ” (Mat 1:1). He is the Living Word of God who created all things. The Written Word is analogous to Him because it is His Self-Revelation. This amplifies the traditional Christian understanding Martin Luther so clearly articulated in his famous dictum that “the entire Scripture deals only with Christ everywhere.” It is precisely what we should expect from a genuine revelation given by the Lord of History (ΑΩ/את). He is the fount and fulfillment of all Scripture. Everything in the Written Word centers on the Living Word, from the creation He wrought in Genesis (Α/א) to His unveiling in

Revelation (Ω/ת).

Zerubbabel and the Correlated Fine-Structure of the Capstone

Then he answered and spake unto me, saying, This is the word of the LORD unto Zerubbabel, saying, Not by might, nor by power, but by my spirit, saith the LORD of hosts. Who art thou, O great mountain? before Zerubbabel thou shalt become a plain: and he shall bring forth the headstone thereof with shoutings, crying, Grace, grace unto it.

Zechariah 4:6f

The correlated fine-structure seen in the “triplet of triplets” and the Haggai KeyLink continues to compound with ever increasing density as we dig deeper into these Books. Haggai’s prophecy was directed to Zerubbabel and Joshua, the leaders of the project to rebuild the Temple of the Lord. God also spoke to these two men through Zechariah, the prophet that follows Haggai in the canonical order. The particularly powerful words He gave to Zerubbabel are quoted above.

Just as Ezra and Nehemiah record the history of Zerubbabel on Cycle 1, so Haggai and Zechariah record the prophecy to Zerubbabel on Cycle 2. And now Zerubbabel himself shall bring forth one of the most amazing properties of God’s everlasting Capstone. The top graph shows the distribution of his name throughout the sixty-six books. The horizontal x-axis, ranging from 1 to 66, represents the Books of the Bible and the vertical y-axis represents the total number of occurrences, or ‘hits’, found in each Book. The two largest spikes correspond to the Books of Ezra and Haggai, which are separated by exactly 22 Books in the Canon. Ezra is the 15th Book, Haggai is the 37th, and 15 + 22 = 37. This is why they are on the same Spoke of the Wheel.

The name “Zerubbabel” appears twenty-five times in the Bible. Listed in descending order, the frequency is: Haggai (7x), Ezra (6x), Zechariah (4x), and Nehemiah (3x). These four Books span Spokes 15 and 16 on the first two Cycles. The remaining five occurrences are from genealogies of 1 Chronicles (2x), Matthew (2x) and Luke (1x). The second graph shows the same data plotted against the twenty-two Spokes, with hits from different Cycles marked with bars colored black (Cycle 1) and grey (Cycle 2). There are no hits on Cycle 3. This results in two dominant spikes on Spokes 15 and 16 which contain 80% of all references to Zerubbabel. It gives a visual representation of the correlated themes in the four Books spanning the 15th and 16th Spokes on the first two Cycles. This demonstrates that the geometric structure of the Wheel is a mathematically measurable property arising from the Divine integration of its form with its content. Such thematic correlations appear throughout Scripture, as in the distribution of creation words which we shall presently review.

Distribution of Creation Words on the Wheel

Drop down, ye heavens, from above, and let the skies pour down righteousness: let the earth open, and let them bring forth salvation, and let righteousness spring up together; I the LORD have created (bara) it.

Isaiah 45:8 (Spoke 1, Cycle 2)

Creation Verbs
ברא	bara (Hebrew)
κτιζω	ktidzo (Greek)

The Greek and Hebrew words for God’s act of creation yield one of the clearest word distributions displaying the Divine design of the Bible Wheel. In the review of Spoke 1 (pg 61), Watts was quoted as saying that “Every student of Hebrew is aware the word ‘create’ in Genesis 1 is a rare word used only with God as subject. The highest concentration of uses of that word occurs in Isaiah 40 – 66.” He was speaking of bara, which is translated as created in the quote of Isaiah 45:8 above. When this verse was rendered into Greek in the Septuagint, bara was translated as ktidzo, the standard Greek word used throughout the New Testament for the idea of creation.

The graph displays the distribution of these two “creation words” throughout the sixty-six books of the Bible. The search resulted in a total of 90 hits, with an average of about 1.4 (= 90/66) hits per Book. The most notable feature of the graph is the prominent peak corresponding to the 21 hits found in Isaiah, which means that bara occurs 15 times above average in that Book. It is quite obvious therefore that Watts was correct in his assertion about the distribution of this word. When listed in descending order, the first three peaks occur in the three Books from Spoke 1: Isaiah (21x), Genesis (11x), and Romans (8x). Just as the seven canonical divisions are distinguished by their characteristic word distributions, so also are the twenty-two Spokes. Each Book initiating a Cycle of the Wheel contains the maximum number of creation words in that Cycle. Genesis contains the greatest frequency in the first 22 Books, Isaiah contains the greatest frequency in the next 22 Books, and Romans contains the greatest frequency in the final 22 Books, though in this latter case the peak is not so pronounced.

The graph shows the distribution plotted on the twenty-two Spokes. The Cycles are marked with black, grey, and white bars. The correlated theme of creation manifests as a very prominent peak on Spoke 1, where the frequency is nearly ten times above average. Again, we have a mathematical measure and visual representation of the Divine integration of the Bible’s content with its form. But to really appreciate the depth of Divine wisdom woven here, it must be remembered that the theme of creation links to the symbolic meaning of Aleph, the first letter of the Alphabet.

Alphabetic Integration with the Rise and Fall of the Kingdom

Yet have I set my king upon my holy hill of Zion. I will declare the decree: the LORD hath said unto me, Thou art my Son; this day have I begotten thee.

Psalm 2:6f

מלך	Melekh (King)
מלכי	Malkhi (My King)

We began this leg of our journey into the blazing heart of God’s Wisdom with the large-scale sevenfold symmetric perfection of the Canon Wheel and traced out its correlated fine-structure all the way down to the exact placement of individual Books. We constantly moved deeper into increasingly refined levels of detail only to discover an ever-increasing glory in its design. We now enter into yet another level that reveals the Divine integration of the dominant thematic flow of the first Cycle with the sequence of Letters in the Hebrew Alphabet. It is based on one of the most significant themes of the Old Testament – the rise and fall of the Davidic Kingdom – by which God established the whole typology of the Son of David and King of Israel fulfilled in the Lord Jesus Christ, the Son of God and King of Kings.

The word translated as “my king” in the verse above is malki, formed from the standard Hebrew word for a king (melek) suffixed with a Yod to indicate personal possession. This is an example of the self-reflective coherence characteristic of the Hebrew language. As discussed in the next chapter, Hebrew is a building-block language where the meanings of the letters carry over into the meanings of the words they form. The letter Yod denotes a hand, the member of the body by which we grasp and control things, and so it is suffixed as a symbol of personal possession (pg 113). The word malki is formed from four sequential Letters that lie at the exact center of the Alphabet – Yod, Kaph, Lamed, Mem – read in reverse order (recall Hebrew is read from right to left). They span the following Books on Cycle 1:

י	כ	ל	מ
Yod, 10th Book 2 Samuel	Kaph, 11th Book 1 Kings	Lamed, 12th Book 2 Kings	Mem, 13th Book 1 Chronicles
The reign of King David from his ascension to the throne to the end of his life just before his death.	Death of King David. King Solomon’s reign and many other kings. Division of the kingdom into Israel and Judah.	Record of the reign of many kings of the divided kingdom.	Genealogical record from Adam unto King David, followed by a retelling of his entire reign. This Book ends with his death.

If ever there were a sign of Divine design, this is it. The Hebrew name of the two central Books – Melakim (Kings) – is itself the plural of melek, the very word spelt by the alphabetic sequence! Furthermore, these four Books span the reign of all the kings of Israel and Judah except Saul who was explicitly rejected as king by the Lord Himself (1 Sam 15:26, pg 225). King David, called by God “my king” in Psalm 2:6 in prophetic anticipation of His Son, completely dominates the first and last of these four Books. His ascension to the throne and subsequent forty-year reign is the sole subject of 2 Samuel, and after ten chapters of genealogies, 1 Chronicles devotes its remaining nineteen chapters entirely to the reign of King David, closing with his death. We have, therefore, an exact correspondence of the content of these four Books and their placement in the Christian Canon with the pattern eternally established by God in the sequence of the Hebrew Alphabet. Simply stated, God designed the Wheel to be self-descriptive.

Yet there is, as always, more, ever more! The blazing glory of God’s revelation knows no limit. The graph shows the distribution of melek on Cycle 1. Exactly as should be expected, the Books describing the kings themselves contain the greatest frequency of the word “king.” The distribution follows the rise and fall of the Davidic Kingdom. It mimics a bell curve that is both maximized and centered on Spoke 12, corresponding to the Lamed at the exact center of the word melek, highlighted on the x-axis. It is really important to sit back at this point and ponder what is going on here. We are witnessing a standing miracle; the self-descriptive and self-coherent design of the order and content of the Books of the Bible upon the pattern of the Hebrew Alphabet.

The beauty of these results is that they are as obvious as they are simple. The abundant fruit of this Divine Tree of Wisdom just falls into our hands, fully ripe, freely available to all who hunger. Everything lies plainly on the surface. We are simply skipping across the thematic mountaintops of God’s Word, touching upon major themes such as Creation, Consummation, the Babylonian Exile, the rise and fall of the Davidic Kingdom, fulfillment of prophecy and the Gospel of God’s Grace. Consider what we have seen in this chapter! Here is a list of the 26 distinct (though overlapping) groups of Books we have reviewed:

1 Group of 3 Books on Spoke 1 (Genesis, Isaiah, Romans) and their relation to Aleph:

Distinguished as the First Books of the Law, the Prophets, and NT Epistles

Distinguished by the maximal frequency in the distribution of creations words

1 Group of 3 Books on Spoke 22 (Song of Songs, Acts, Revelation) and their relation to Tav

7 Groups (canonical divisions) spanning all 66 Books, each set apart by distinctive word distributions

3 Groups of 17 Books each (51 Books total) with the following coherent subdivisions:

2 Groups of 5 Books (Torah and Major Prophets) aligned on the first five Spokes.

2 Groups of 12 Books (OT History and Minor Prophets) with coherent subdivisions:

2 Groups of 9 Books (Pre-Exilic OT History and Pre-Exilic Minor Prophets) aligned on Spokes 6-14.

2 Groups of 3 Books (Post-Exilic OT History and Post-Exilic Minor Prophets) aligned on Spokes 15-17, with coherent subdivisions:

2 Groups of 2 Books on Spokes 15 and 16 (Ezra, Nehemiah and Haggai, Zechariah) marked by the distribution of Zerubbabel and events after the return from exile.

1 Group of 2 Books on Spoke 15 (Ezra, Haggai) marked by the Haggai KeyLink

1 Group of 3 Books (Epistles to the Scattered) that extends the pattern to Cycle 3.

1 Group of 14 Books (Pauline Epistles) that extends the pattern to Cycle 3.

1 Group of 4 Books on Cycle 1 (2 Sam – 1 Chr) correlated with “my king” and David’s Kingdom

This seemingly extensive review of the Divine design of the twenty-two Spokes has really been little more than a hint of the endless depth of Wisdom revealed in the supernatural structure of Holy Scripture. The patterns of the Bible Wheel are utterly pervasive, spanning everything from its large-scale sevenfold symmetric perfection to its correlated fine-structure revealed in the exact placement of individual Books. To properly understand and appreciate the fullness of this revelation, we need to explore the Divine design of the Hebrew Alphabet. It is to this task we now turn.

The Divine Design of the Hebrew Alphabet

(Chapter 7 of the Bible Wheel Book)

The Symbolic Meanings of the Twenty-Two Hebrew Letters

There are, it may be, so many kinds of voices in the world, and none of them is without signification. Therefore if I know not the meaning of the voice, I shall be unto him that speaketh a barbarian, and he that speaketh shall be a barbarian unto me. Even so ye, forasmuch as ye are zealous of spiritual gifts, seek that ye may excel to the edifying of the church.

1 Corinthians 14:10ff (Spoke 2, Cycle 3)

The thematic interweaving of the three Books on each Spoke with each other and the corresponding Hebrew letter is one of deepest wonders revealed by the Wheel. To understand this, we need know the symbolic meanings of the letters. They are derived from five primary sources: 1) the name of the letter, 2) its position in the alphabetic sequence, 3) KeyWords found in the Alphabet Verses and Hebrew Lexicon, 4) the role the letter plays in Hebrew grammar, and 5) the way each letter combines with others to form Hebrew Word Pictures. These five sources are tightly integrated. They synergistically reinforce each other to reveal the rich halo of symbolic meanings God invested in each letter and used in the design of His Word. They will be discussed in order below.

The Names of the Letters

Letter Names in the Alphabetic Verses
י	10th Letter Yod (Hand): Lam 1:10, 4:10, Prov 31:19, Ps 119:73
כ	11th Letter Kaph (Palm of the Hand): Prov 31:20
ס	15th Letter Samek (Support): Ps 111:8a; 112:8a,119:116,117, 145:14
ע	16th Letter Ayin (Eye): Lam 3:49, 3:51, Ps 25:15, 34:15, 119:123, 145:15
פ	17th Letter Pey (Mouth): Prov 31:26, Ps 34:16, 119:131, 145:16
ר	20th Letter Resh (Head): Ps 119:160
ש	21st Letter Shin (Tooth): Ps 112:10b

He telleth the number of the stars; he calleth them all by their names. Great is our Lord, and of great power: his understanding is infinite.

Psalm 147:4f (Spoke 19, Cycle 1)

The names of the letters reveal essential aspects of their symbolic meanings. We saw this, for example, in the review of Spoke 22 in Chapter 5 (pg 69) and its relation to the last letter Tav (ת) which signifies a mark, sign, or cross ().

All of the names are firmly established in countless historical documents and God con-firmed seven of them in the Alphabetic Verses where He used them as KeyWords, as listed in the table. He emphasized many by repetition, and as shown in the Synopsis, these repeated Keywords play very important roles in the dominant themes of the books on their corresponding Spokes (e.g. pgs 299, 325, 348).

The Position of the Letters

Thus saith the LORD the King of Israel, and his redeemer the LORD of hosts; I am the first, and I am the last; and beside me there is no God. And who, as I, shall call, and shall declare it, and set it in order for me, since I appointed the ancient people? and the things that are coming, and shall come, let them shew unto them.

Isaiah 44:6f (Spoke 1, Cycle 2)

The position of each letter in the alphabetic sequence reveals a lot about its meaning. This is very obvious with the first and last letters, Aleph (א) and Tav (ת), since they correspond to the Greek Alpha and Omega which God used to identify Himself in Revelation 1:8 and elsewhere. The relation between position and meaning is easily discerned for the first ten letters since they are linked with fundamental Biblical sequences like the Ten Commandments, the Seven Days of Creation, and the Seven Seals of Revelation. Most other numeric relations are too subtle to be explored in an introductory book like this.

Alphabetic Verses and KeyWords

Therefore whosoever heareth these sayings of mine, and doeth them, I will liken him unto a wise man, which built his house upon a rock: And the rain descended, and the floods came, and the winds blew, and beat upon that house; and it fell not: for it was founded upon a rock.

Matthew 7:24f (Spoke 18, Cycle 2)

God established the primary source of information about the meaning of the Hebrew letters in the KeyWords given in the Alphabetic Verses of His everlasting Word. They are, therefore, part of the Rock upon which He instructs us to build our “house.” The significance of this cannot be overstated; God built the alphabetic core of the Bible Wheel into the very structure of the text itself. The whole Bible is self-reflective. Its large-scale structure follows the pattern found in the text, most notably in Psalm 119, the great Psalm of the Word (pg 17).

The most significant aspect of this “self-reflection” is seen in the Alphabetic KeyLinks, which are defined as unique links between the Alphabetic Verses and one or more books on a corresponding Spoke. For example, the verse corresponding to the sixteenth letter Ayin (Eye) in the alphabetically structured Psalm 34 says: “The eyes (ayin) of the LORD are upon the righteous, and his ears are open unto their cry.” This verse is quoted in one and only one book of the Bible, in 1 Peter 3:12 on Spoke 16. It is an Alphabetic KeyLink. Furthermore, it defines one of the most prominent of the themes that unite all three books on Spoke 16, as discussed at length in the Synopsis (pg 293). These Alphabetic KeyLinks reveal God’s prophetic anticipation of the thematic pattern of the entire Bible, from Genesis to Revelation, in the Alphabetic Verses.

Psalm 119 gives the grandest revelation of the Alphabet, with its 176 verses divided into 22 stanzas yielding eight KeyWords for each letter (176 = 8 x 22). This Psalm perfectly represents the whole Alphabet; there are no variations from the standard order and no missing letters. It is particularly significant that the sole topic of this greatest of all Alphabetic Psalms is none other than the proclamation of the glory of the Word of God from Aleph to Tav, thereby reiterating its connection with the Capstone Signature (ΑΩ/את, pg 88).

References to such verses will henceforth be marked with “AV” as a reminder that they are Alphabetic Verses. Not all Alphabetic Verses are structured as neatly as AV Psalm 119. Many exhibit some variation from the expected pattern, such AV Psalm 145 which is missing the Nun verse in most Hebrew manuscripts. Whether this is due to God’s design or an error in transmission of the text is not always clear. It will be discussed as the need arises. The table on the next page lists the primary passages that are alphabetically structured.

The Alphabetic Verses

LAMENTATIONS Chapter 1: 22 verses, one for each letter in the standard alphabetic order from Aleph to Tav. Chapter 2: 22 verses, one for each letter. This chapter introduces the curious variation that the order of Ayin and Pey is reversed. This same interchange appears also in Chapters 3 and 4. Chapter 3: 66 verses, three consecutive verses for each letter from Aleph to Tav Chapter 4: 22 verses, one for each letter from Aleph to Tav. Chapter 5: 22 verses, but they are not written alphabetically. PROVERBS 31:10-31: 22 Verses, one for each letter in the standard alphabetic order from Aleph to Tav. ALPHABETIC PSALMS: Psalms 9 & 10: 39 verses: These two Psalms were composed together. The first runs from Aleph to Kaph, the second from Lamed to Tav. It follows a skip pattern with a KeyWord in every other verse. There are a few variations from the expected pattern, such as the missing Dalet and Quph verses. Psalm 25: 22 verses. The KJV versification gets out of line with the Alphabet at verse 5, which includes the Hey and Vav verses in one. Tav therefore appears in verse 21. Also, there are two consecutive verses corresponding to Resh, one of which fills the space usually occupied by Quph. This Psalm ends in verse 22 with an appended verse beginning with the Pey KeyWord hdeP] (p’dey, redeem) which is used in one of the Pey verses of Psalm 119. It also is appended to Psalm 34. Psalm 34: 22 verses. This Psalm follows the standard order with the exception that the verse corresponding to Vav is missing, so correlation between the verse numbers and the letters is off by one after verse 5. For example, the Tav verse is AV Ps 34:21 rather than the expected 22. This Psalm ends in verse 22 with an appended Pey KeyWord hdeP] (p’dey, redeem) which is also appended to Psalm 25. Psalm 37: 40 verses. Most of this Psalm follows a skip pattern with every other verse corresponding to a Hebrew Letter. The first verse starts with Aleph, the third with Bet, the fifth with Gimel and the seventh with Dalet. If this pattern were followed throughout, there would be 44 (= 2 x 22) verses. But the pattern breaks down in a few places where there is no verse separating the sequential Letters. This first happens with Hey appearing in verse 8 immediately after Dalet in verse 7. But then the original plan begins again, with Vav in verse 10, Zayin in verse 12, Chet in verse 14, and so forth until we come to Kaph in verse 20. These variations are easy to follow and the corresponding KeyWords are clearly discerned. Psalm 111: 10 verses. The whole Alphabet is represented in standard order from Aleph to Tav. The first 8 verses each have two clauses beginning with consecutive Letters and the last 2 verses have three clauses, so the 10 (= 8 + 2) verses represent all 22 (= 8 x 2 + 2 x 3) letters. The clauses will be indicated by letters such as AV Ps 111:1a for the Aleph clause and AV Ps 111:10c for the Tav clause. Psalm 112: 10 verses. The whole alphabet is represented in standard order from Aleph to Tav. Each verse divided into two or three clauses in exactly the same way as Psalm 111. Psalm 119: 176 verses. This is the greatest alphabetically structured chapter in the Bible. It is also the longest. It consists of 22 sections, each containing 8 consecutive verses that begin with the same Hebrew letter, for a total of 176 (= 8 x 22) verses. The first eight begin with Aleph, the next eight with Bet, the next eight with Gimel, until the alphabet is exhausted. There are no variations from the standard order. Its alphabetic structure is transparent in many Bibles, such as the New International and King James Versions, which present the name of the letter at the beginning of each section of 8 verses. Psalm 145: 21 verses. This follows the standard order from Aleph to Tav, with the exception that the Nun verse is missing in some manuscripts. This is why it has 21 rather than the expected 22 verses.

Symbolic Meanings Based on Grammatical Functions

So I prophesied as I was commanded: and as I prophesied, there was a noise, and behold a shaking, and the bones came together, bone to his bone. And when I beheld, lo, the sin-ews and the flesh came up upon them, and the skin covered them above: but there was no breath in them. Then said he unto me, Prophesy unto the wind, prophesy, son of man, and say to the wind, Thus saith the Lord GOD; Come from the four winds, O breath, and breathe upon these slain, that they may live. So I prophesied as he commanded me, and the breath came into them, and they lived, and stood up upon their feet, an exceeding great army.

Ezekiel 37:7ff (Spoke 4, Cycle 2)

In Chapter 1, the skeleton of the Bible Wheel was completed when all its bones (books) “came together, bone to his bone” on the twenty-two Spokes. We have since been occupied with the second stage, clothing these bones with the “sinews, flesh, and skin” through the knowledge and understanding of the detailed content of each book, the thematic links amongst them, their connection with the Hebrew letters, and how every part relates to the whole body of Scripture. This stage will be complete when we learn the Divine Wisdom that God has built into the Hebrew Alphabet. It is then that our ears will be open to hear the rolling thunder of His Voice in the Wheel of His everlasting Word (galgal, Ps 77:18, pg 380).

God has given us the key to the Wisdom of the Hebrew Alphabet in Alphabetic Verses. Hebrew is a building-block language. Each letter carries its own innate symbolic meaning into the words it forms when it combines with other letters. This is seen most clearly in the grammatical functions of certain letters that are used as prefixes and suffixes. It is all very simple and straightforward, and the best part is that God has illustrated it for us in Scripture. Again, citations from the Alphabetic Verses will always be marked with the reminder “AV.”

Bet Prefix: Sign of the Prepositions In, With, By

My soul shall make her boast IN the LORD: the humble shall hear thereof, and be glad.

AV Psalm 34:2

ב	Bet Prefix
ביהוה	B’YHVH: IN the Lord
בשפתי	Bishpati: WITH thy lips
בדרך	B’Derek: IN the way

The name of the second letter Bet means house. In the ancient Hebrew script it was drawn as an image of a tent: . When rotated ninety degrees clockwise, it becomes the Latin miniscule b. The most obvious manifestation of its meaning on Spoke 2 is in the theme based on the design of the Tabernacle, the House of the Lord, which dominates Exodus (pg 135).

When prefixed to a word, Bet signifies the prepositions in, within, with, or by. God used it this way in almost all of the Alphabetic Verses, such as the one quoted above. As is typical in translations, the original word order was lost (compare Genesis 1:1, pg 89). A more rigid rendition would, of course, start with the Bet KeyWord and read “In the Lord, my soul shall make her boast.” In all discussions of the Alphabetic Verses, the highlighted portion represents the translated KeyWords which always appear at the head of the verse in the original Hebrew. Here are two other examples of Bet (ב) in the Alphabetic Verses:

AV Ps 119:13 WITH my lips (bisphati) have I declared all the judgments of thy mouth.

AV Ps 119:14 I have rejoiced IN the way (b’derek) of thy testimonies, as much as in all riches.

The grammatical function of Bet (ב) coheres precisely with its literal meaning since a house serves as a general symbol of a place to go IN. This is the basis of a profound KeyLink between Jeremiah and 1 Corinthians on Spoke 2 (see Glory IN the Lord, pg 139).

Lamed Prefix: Sign of the Prepositions To, Towards, For

ל	Lamed Prefix
לעולם	L’olam: FOR ever
להודיע	L’hodia: TO make known
למען שמך	L’ma’an-shimka: FOR thy name’s sake

For ever (l’olam), O LORD, thy word is settled in heaven.

AV Psalm 119:89

The name of the twelfth letter Lamed denotes an ox goad or a pointer. In the ancient script it looked like a Latin L, a picture of a shepherd’s staff. This coheres precisely with its grammatical function. When prefixed to a word, Lamed signifies the prepositions to or for. God used it this way in over half of the Alphabetic Verses. Here are two more examples:

AV Ps 145:12 TO make known (l’hodia) to the sons of men his mighty acts, and the glorious majesty of his kingdom.

AV Ps 25:11 FOR thy name’s sake (l’ma’an-shimka), O LORD, pardon mine iniquity; for it is great.

The name Lamed leads directly to another important KeyWord, lamad (to teach), which also is the root of Talmud, the compendium of Jewish learning. Again, we have an obvious threefold coherence of 1) the meaning of the letter’s name as ox-goad or pointer, 2) its grammatical role as the sign of the prepositions to or for, and 3) the meaning of the related KeyWord lamad (to teach). The great miracle of God is that this coherence defines many of the dominant themes of Spoke 12, most notably that of Paul’s Pastoral Epistle to Titus (see Teach and Exhort! pg 258).

Vav Prefix: Sign of the Conjunctives And, But, Also, So

ו	Vav Prefix
וצדקתו	V’tzidqatho: AND his righteousness
ואשמרה	v’eshm’rah: SO shall I keep
ותקם	V’taqam: She riseth ALSO

… AND his righteousness endureth for ever.

AV Psalm 111:3b

The name of the sixth letter Vav denotes a nail or hook. Scripture uses it this way in the description of the hooks in the Tabernacle (Exo 26:32). This exemplifies its grammatical function. When prefixed to a word, it signifies conjunctives like and, but, also, so and then. Note that the verse above is marked “3b” because AV Psalm 111 presents two letters per verse, and it is in the second clause of verse 3 (pg 109).

Every Alphabetic Verse corresponding to Vav uses its meaning as a conjunctive, which in part may be due to the fact that it is the first letter of very few Hebrew words. Here are a couple more examples from the Alphabetic Verses:

AV Ps 119:44 SO shall I keep (v’eshm’rah) thy law continually for ever and ever.

AV Prov 31:15 She riseth ALSO (vataqam) while it is yet night, and giveth meat to her household, and a por-tion to her maidens.

The letter Vav connects and hooks words together in a sentence. As with Bet and Lamed, we have an exact correspondence between the literal meaning of the letter’s name and its grammatical function. This is what I meant when I said this would all be “very simple and straightforward.” In truth, it could not be any simpler, or any more profound (which is, by the way, a very nice mix).

Yod Prefix: The Active Hand, the Sign of Continued Action

… HE WILL guide (y’kalkel) his affairs with discretion.

AV Psalm 112:5b

י	Yod Prefix
יכלכל	Y’kalkel: HE WILL guide
יזכר	Yizkor: HE WILL be mindful
ידרך	Yadrek: HE WILL guide

The name of the tenth letter Yod denotes a hand, the symbol of personal action, power, and control. When prefixed to a verb, it indicates the grammatical conjugation called the “third person masculine imperfect” which conveys the idea of continuous action, usually expressed as “he is doing,” “he was doing,” or “he will be doing” something. God used it this way in six Alphabetic Verses. Here are two more examples:

AV Ps 111:5b … HE WILL ever be mindful (yizkor) of his covenant.

AV Ps 25:9 The meek WILL HE guide (yadrek) in judgment: and the meek will he teach his way.

The word translated “guide” in the second example is different from the first. It is based on derek (way), which we saw prefixed with a Bet in the table for that letter above. Yod is one of the seven letters that had its name established by God in the Alphabetic Verses (pg 107). Here is one example:

AV Ps 119:73 Thy hands (yadeyka) have made me and fashioned me: give me understanding, that I may learn thy com-mandments.

The symbolic meaning of Yod is the key to understanding the reason for the Number 10 in the Ten Commandments which are the guide to all our actions. This manifests in many primary themes in 1 Timothy on Spoke 10 (see The Ten Commandments, pg 237).

Kaph Prefix: The Open Hand, the Sign of Similarity

Quicken me AFTER thy lovingkindness; so shall I keep the testimony of thy mouth.

AV Psalm 119:88

כ	Kaph Prefix
כחסדך	K’hasd’ka: AFTER thy lovingkindness
כמה	Kammah?: How many?

The name of the eleventh letter Kaph denotes the hollow of the hand, the palm of the open hand. It is also translated as spoon. The next section discusses its relation to Yod. When prefixed to a word, Kaph signifies the idea of similarity and is translated with such words as like, how, thus, so, according to, in this manner, and so forth. This is how it is used in the verse above, which in more modern terms would be translated as “according to your lovingkindness.” Kaph is frequently prefixed to interrogatives like hm; (mah, what?) to form hM;K’ (kammah?) which asks as what? or how many? God used it this way in the following Alphabetic Verse:

AV Ps 119:84 How many (kammah) are the days of thy servant? when wilt thou execute judgment on them that persecute me?

The meaning of Kaph as the sign of similarity is the basis of the name Micah (Spoke 11, Cycle 2), which means “Mi (Who is) K (like) Yah (the Lord)?” The same question is asked in the text of Micah 7:18 so we have a threefold convergence of the meaning of Kaph, Micah’s name, and the content of his prophecy on Spoke 11 (see Who is a God like You? pg 243).

Yod and Kaph Suffixes: Mine and Thine

And Ruth said, Intreat me not to leave thee, or to return from following after thee: for whither thou goest, I will go; and where thou lodgest, I will lodge: THY people shall be MY people, and thy God my God:

Ruth 1:16

Yod and Kaph Suffixes
עם	Am: People
עמי	Ami: My People
עמך	Amkah: Thy People

As noted above, the letters Yod and Kaph denote different aspects of the hand. Yod is the Active Hand by which we manipulate, control, manage, and grasp things. It is a symbol of personal power and possession. Kaph is the Open Hand by which we give and receive things. And as when they were prefixed, so also do their meanings manifest with perfect clarity when they are suffixed. When Yod is suffixed to a word, it signifies the first person possessive, the idea of ME or MINE. This is complimented by Kaph, which is suffixed to indicate the second person possessive, the idea of YOU or YOURS. The verse from Ruth 1:16 beautifully exemplifies their roles in Hebrew grammar. The actual Hebrew underlying the highlighted words reads simply “ammek ammi” which literally means “thy people, my people.” These words are listed in the table, where the suffixes and their meanings are highlighted red to stand out. To repeat: when used as a suffix, Yod means MY and Kaph means THY. As an aside, this gives an opportunity to note that Mem and Kaph are two of the letters that are drawn differently when written at the end of a word. The Mem (מ) is drawn more squarely (ם), and Kaph (כ) is elongated (ך). These are called the sofit or final forms. The five letters with sofit forms are listed in the table of the Hebrew Alphabet on page 22.

The images graphically illustrate the meanings of the Yod and Kaph suffixes. They are pictures of the real meaning of these Hebrew letters. The term “Hebrew Word Picture” is meant to be taken literally. This is why the language is so impressive. It embodies universal gestures in a system of signs that unifies its grammar, its Alphabet, its syntax, and its semantics so that it forms a universal sign language (pun intended). In this example, I used the consonants מפתח (maphte’ach, key, Isaiah 22:22) for the unchanging word base, printed in gray. The different meanings come only from the change of suffixes and vowel points. This is what makes Hebrew such a lucid building-block language. The letters (blocks) carry their own meanings into the words they form. They remain unchanged no matter what vowels you decorate them with, so their symbolic meanings shine forth unobstructed.

Divine Algebra: Putting it all Together

I will praise thee; for I am fearfully and wonderfully made: marvellous are thy works; and that my soul knoweth right well. My substance was not hid from thee, when I was made in se-cret, and curiously wrought in the lowest parts of the earth. Thine eyes did see my substance, yet being unperfect; and in thy book all my members were written …

Psalm 139:14ff

The table below gathers together the meanings of four of the Letters reviewed above. We have here a lucid threefold convergence of 1) the names of the Letters with 2) their basic symbolic meanings and 3) their grammatical functions:

The consistency displayed in each column shows how God designed the names of the letters with their grammatical function in mind. This leads directly to the miraculous heart of the Hebrew language. These letters bring their meanings with them when they combine with each other to form basic Hebrew words. Each letter is like a building-block that contributes its own meaning so that the meaning of the words they form coheres with the meanings of the letters that form them! The table above shows the individual meanings of these four Letters. The table below shows how they combine to form four fundamental words which are used throughout Scripture:

This table looks and functions like a standard multiplication table representing a kind of semantic algebra. The Bet Prefix (IN) combines with the Yod Suffix (ME) to form the word Bi (IN ME), and so forth. This kind of Divine coherence characterizes the entire Hebrew language. Just as the individual letters are pictures with profound symbolic overtones, so they combine to form words – Hebrew Word Pictures – with even deeper symbolic overtones. It is truly a Holy Tongue based upon God’s Wisdom and designed by Him as the foundation of the large-scale structure of His Word. It is very important to remember that God taught us the meanings of these letters in the Alphabetic Verses. Obviously, He intended for us to study them to discern their meanings. As we shall see, they are the true prophetic keys to the structure of the Wheel of His everlasting Word.

Hebrew Word Pictures

But if he will not hear thee, then take with thee one or two more, that in the mouth of two or three witnesses every word may be established.

Matthew 18:16

One of the strongest Biblical tests of truth is the coherence of independent witnesses. The idea of analyzing Hebrew words in terms of the meaning of their constituent letters is very old and is discussed in many ancient Jewish documents. In recent years, it has been popularized in Christian circles by Dr. Frank T. Seekins through his book Hebrew Word Pictures in which he analyzed the relation between the symbolic meanings of the Hebrew Letters and hundreds of the words they form. About two years after I first published the preliminary results of my research on my website in February 2001, I was contacted by Dr. Seekins because he thought I was using his work without acknowledging the source. The tight convergence of our conclusions convinced him I must have drawn my understanding directly from his material. The fact is I had never seen his book. But after receiving a copy of it, I quickly understood the cause of his concern. For example, on the first page of Hebrew Word Pictures, Seekins explained how God led him to begin his work when he attended a Hebrew seminar in the 1980s:

The instructor at that seminar shared with us that Hebrew used to be an ideogramic language (i.e. many pictures are used to describe a word). He demonstrated this point with the Hebrew word for shepherd. The three Letters in this word are Resh the head, Ayin the eye and Hey the window. Together these letters reveal the picture for a shepherd as a person looking out of the window or as one who watches intently.

This is very near to the interpretation I had had published on my website for over two years in my article The Chief Shepherd (reproduced in the Synopsis, pg 301). But I did not learn it from a seminar or any book. My conclusions were simply the result of applying the methods discussed in this chapter. This demonstrates the objective reality of these interpretations. Independent researchers come to the same conclusions because they are based on the common, traditional meanings of the letters as revealed in their names, the Alphabetic Verses, Hebrew grammar, and so forth. The review of a few of the primary Hebrew Word Pictures below should make their Divine origin and power clear.

Hebrew Word Picture of the Father

For ye have not received the spirit of bondage again to fear; but ye have received the Spirit of adoption, whereby we cry, Abba, Father.

Romans 8:15 (Spoke 1, Cycle 3)

אב	Av: Father

A premier example of the connection between Hebrew words and the meanings of their constituent letters is found in the primary Aleph KeyWord Av (Father), shown large in the box. It is literally the first word of the Hebrew language because it is spelt with the first two Letters, Aleph (א) and Bet (ב). Their names gave rise to our word for the Alphabet. Most Christians are familiar with its Aramaic cognate Abba found transliterated in Romans 8:15 above. Before analyzing its symbolic meaning, we should recall three simple facts about reading Hebrew:

Hebrew is read from right to left. Thus, the Aleph is on the right of the Bet.

Hebrew Letters are consonants, though a few have certain vowel-like aspects. The vowels are written with diacritical marks called “vowel points” (pg 19). In the case of av, the little mark that looks like a “T” under the Aleph represents the vowel “qamatz” which sounds like “ah.” The Letter Aleph itself has no sound. Linguists call it a “glottal stop” which basically means that it functions as a placeholder for the vowel (see the Alphabet Table, pg 22). These vowel points were not included in the original Hebrew manuscripts; they were added in the 10th century by scribes called the Massoretes.

The Letter Bet has two pronunciations, soft (v) and hard (b). The hard pronunciation is indicated by a dagesh (dot) placed in the center of the letter. There are six other letters that take a dagesh.

Hebrew Word Picture אב Av: Father The Leader of the House
א	Aleph: Leader
ב	Bet: House

Now it is easy to analyze the first Hebrew word. As the first letter, Aleph represents the idea of a Leader or Ruler. This manifests in closely related KeyWords such as Alluph (Leader, Guide, Teacher) which differs from Aleph only in vowel points (pg 60). It combines with the second letter Bet (House) to form Av (Father) which is therefore a compound symbol signifying the Leader (Aleph) of the House (Bet). Its meaning coheres precisely with the symbolic meanings of its constituent letters, and all of this exemplifies the traditional and Biblical definition of a father, as explicitly stated in the qualifications of a bishop in 1 Timothy 3:5:

A bishop then must be blameless, the husband of one wife, vigilant, sober, of good behaviour, given to hospitality, apt to teach; Not given to wine, no striker, not greedy of filthy lucre; but patient, not a brawler, not covetous; One that ruleth well his own house, having his children in subjection with all gravity; For if a man know not how to rule his own house, how shall he take care of the church of God?

Yet this is only the beginning of wonders. We encountered this KeyWord in the review of the First Spoke (pg 67) where it played a central role in the unique link – the KeyLink – between Genesis 17:4 and Romans 4:17 based on the phrase “a father of many nations”! And as noted then, this Spoke 1 KeyLink and the Aleph KeyWord it is based upon both relate directly to the nature of the First Person of the Trinity, God the Father! We have a threefold convergence that shows the full integration of 1) the reiterative symbolic structure of the first Hebrew word based on the meanings of its constituent letters, 2) the integrated geometric, alphabetic, and thematic structure of the Wheel, and 3) the Triune nature of the Godhead. This extreme coherence, sufficiently plain for any child to see, is typical of each Spoke of the Bible Wheel.

Hebrew Word Picture of the Son

And thou shalt say unto Pharaoh, Thus saith the LORD, Israel is my son, even my firstborn:

Exodus 4:22 (Spoke 2, Cycle 1)

בן

Ben: Son

This verse from the Second Spoke contains the first reference to anyone as God’s Son. We see the same pattern in the sequence of Psalms where we find the Second Psalm to be the great prophetic Psalm of the Son, the Second Person of the Godhead. Both passages use the Bet KeyWord Ben:

I will declare the decree: the LORD hath said unto me, Thou art my Son (Ben); this day have I begotten thee. Ask of me, and I shall give thee the heathen for thine inheritance (nachal), and the uttermost parts of the earth for thy possession.

Psalm 2:7-8

Hebrew Word Picture אב Av: Father The Leader of the House
א	Aleph: Leader
ב	Bet: House

This prophetic passage contains the key needed to understand the symbolic meaning of the KeyWord Ben, spelt with a Bet and a Nun, the fourteenth letter. We already know the meaning of Bet as House. The rest of the meaning is wrapped up in the word nachal (inheritance). This is a primary Nun KeyWord that defines a dominant theme of Hebrews on Spoke 14 found in its opening declaration of Christ as the “heir of all things” (Heb 1:2) and its unique promise of an eternal inheritance to the faithful (Heb 9:15, pg 281). God used this word in conjunction with the name of the Fourteenth Letter when He ordained Joshua to lead Israel into the Promised Land:

But Joshua the son (ben) of Nun, which standeth before thee, he shall go in thither: encourage him: for he shall cause Israel to inherit (nachal) it.

Deuteronomy 1:38

This theme is based on the name of the Fourteenth Letter Nun which literally means to continue, increase, or propagate. It is closely related to the KeyWord neen which denotes progeny or descendents. All of this is discussed in great detail in the Synopsis of Spoke 14. The important point now is to see how the meaning of these letters combine to form the Bet KeyWord Ben (Son) as he who receives his father’s House (Bet) for his Inheritance (Nun). Again, this coheres precisely with the traditional and Biblical meaning of this word, and we see another example of the profound theology that God engraved in His Capstone. Note that we have again a threefold coherence of 1) the reiterative symbolic structure of the Bet KeyWord Ben (Son) based on the meanings of its constituent letters, 2) the integrated geometric, alphabetic, and thematic structure of the Wheel, and 3) the nature and title of the Second Person of the Godhead! Moreover, the analysis of this Bet KeyWord followed exactly the same pattern as that of the Aleph KeyWord Av (Father) above. Truly, there is no end to the glory of what God has done in His Word!

Hebrew Word Picture of the Stone

Be it known unto you all, and to all the people of Israel, that by the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth, whom ye crucified, whom God raised from the dead, even by him doth this man stand here before you whole. This is the stone which was set at nought of you builders, which is become the head of the corner. Neither is there salvation in any other: for there is none other name under heaven given among men, whereby we must be saved.

Acts 4:10f

As a final example that shows the profound theological implications of the Hebrew Language and the Word Pictures it forms, we have the word for stone, ehven. This is the word used in Psalm 118:22 quoted by Peter in Acts 4:12 above. It represents the union of the Father and the Son and so displays the doctrine of the Divinity of Christ who said “I and the Father are one” (John 10:30). When the Father (Av) and the Son (Ben) share the same “house” or “dwelling place” (represented by the letter Bet) they form the word ehven, (stone). As it is written, “For in him dwelleth all the fullness of the Godhead bodily” (Col 2:9) and “Who is a rock but our God?” (Ps 18:1). The word ehven is an anagram of nava (to prophesy). It will play an essential role in our understanding of the Capstone Prophecies in Part III. This interpretation of this Word Picture is very ancient. Rabbi Heshy Grossman explained  its relation to the Headstone (Ehven HaRoshah) of Zechariah 4:7 and the Stone of Israel, citing the commentary on Genesis 49:24 by Rabbi Shlomo Yitzchaki known by the acronym Rashi (died 1105 AD):

Av is spelled ‘Aleph’ – ‘Bais’ [=Bet], for this is the beginning of the proper Seder [Order] in life. When things begin thus, all of life continues in a productive and worthwhile manner, and the ongoing process of Divine revelation continues its uninterrupted growth. This true beginning is the basis of all existence, and the foundation of our world. It is the “Ehven HaRoshah” (Zechariah 4:7) – the rock of creation. Upon this altar, Avraham Avinu [our Father] offers his son Isaac as a sacrifice to G-d, and it is this sanctity that subsequently pervades the Holy Temple. The word “Ehven” is also rooted in the ‘Aleph’ – ‘Bais’, with the all-encompassing ‘Nun’ that is the middle of the alphabet immediately following – and it alludes as well to the ‘Av’ and ‘Ben’ – father and son. “MiSham Ro’eh Ehven Yisrael [From thence is the Shepherd, the Stone of Israel]” – this [Ehven] is an acronym – ‘Av’ and ‘Ben’ – fathers and sons, Ya’akov and his children.” (Rashi, Breishis 49:24)

TISHA B’AV

The Sages, who see in the first words of Breishis the entirety of Jewish history, discuss as well the origin of Messiah, whose appearance will reintroduce the world to the spirit of its Creator.

“….V’Ruach Elokim Merachefes Al Pnei HaMayim – this is the spirit of Moshiach….” (Breishis Rabbah 2:5)

This is truly an astounding insight. It coheres perfectly with Romans 8.9 which identifies the Spirit of Christ with the Spirit of God, saying “But ye are not in the flesh, but in the Spirit, if so be that the Spirit of God dwell in you. Now if any man have not the Spirit of Christ, he is none of his.”

The spirit of G-d is manifest immediately after the darkness and chaos of “Tohu VaVohu, V’Choshech Al Pnei Tehom” (Breishis 1:2) and in a similar vein, the revelation of the Messiah is destined for a day that begins with suffering and grief – “On Tisha B’Av the Messiah is born.” (Yerushalmi Berachos)

Apparently, it is darkness and pain that produces the ultimate redemption. In our shiur this week, we will explain why this is so.

Indeed! It required the blood of the sinless Saviour, cf. Genesis 22 – The Genesis of the Cross, Psalms 22 – The Psalm of the Cross, and the meaning of the 22nd Letter, Tav.

1

This month is referred to as Av, and it is a name that is quite puzzling. What is the connection between this month of destruction and a father who produces offspring?

Let us first try to define the word Av.

Av is spelled ‘Aleph’ – ‘Bais’, for this is the beginning of the proper Seder in life. When things begin thus, all of life continues in a productive and worthwhile manner, and the ongoing process of Divine revelation continues its uninterrupted growth.

This true beginning is the basis of all existence, and the foundation of our world. It is the ‘Even HaRoshah’ (Zechariah 4:7) – the rock of creation. Upon this altar, Avraham Avinu offers his son Isaac as a sacrifice to G-d, and it this sanctity that subsequently pervades the Holy Temple.

This Even HaRoshah brought forth by Zerubbabel seems to be a prophecy of the Bible Wheel (cf. The Divine Seal and Capstone of God’s Word). Note that the Wheel is built upon the 22nd Letter Tav signifying the Cross of Christ, which integrates with the tradition concerning the sacrifice of Isaac in Genesis 22, the Genesis of the Cross.

The word ‘Even’ is also rooted in the ‘Aleph’ – ‘Bais’, with the all-encompassing ‘Nun’ that is the middle of the alphabet immediately following – and it alludes as well to the ‘Av’ and ‘Ben’ – father and son.

“MiSham Ro’eh Even Yisrael” – this [Even] is an acronym – ‘Av’ and ‘Ben’ – fathers and sons, Ya’akov and his children.” (Rashi, Breishis 49:24)

This is the insight encoded in the word Even, Stone: Note that the stone results when the Father and the Son share the same Beyt (House) – the Father and the Son share the same dwelling, as it is written (Colossians 2.9): “For in him dwelleth all the fulness of the Godhead bodily.”. This is part of the fundamental insight into the meaning of Spoke 2 (cf. The Second Commandment). It is interesting that the Jews took up stones to stone Him when He declared His Unity with the Father. These ideas also appear in the word play of John the Baptist in Matthew 3.9: “And think not to say within yourselves, We have Abraham to our father (av): for I say unto you, that God is able of these stones (avenim) to raise up children (benim) unto Abraham.”

In the language of Chazal – stones are the building blocks of language, each ‘Even’ being a letter, while ‘Batim’ connote their formation into words. The message is the same: it is only through this father, or this stone, that something of lasting substance can be produced.

The Torah describes one particular stone as being strong enough to support a lasting edifice – “Even Mo’asu HaBonim Haysa L’Rosh Pinah – the stone the builders despised has become the cornerstone.” (Tehillim 118:22)

This verse refers to David HaMelech, the brother whom no one deemed worthy. It is this initial despair that sparks his ultimate rise, and it is here that the Messiah is born.

Explanation: When all of life is arranged in the proper order, this world is connected to its Creator, revealing in absolute harmony the framework of a higher dimension. This is a ‘Chibur’ – ‘Ches’, ‘Beis’, ‘Reish’. But, if this order is distorted, the world devolves towards destruction, and ‘Churban’ – ‘Ches’, ‘Reish’, ‘Beis’ – is the natural result.

This idea is highlighted in Megilas Eichah. While the first chapter follows the order of the alphabet, the subsequent change in order highlights the particular cause that stands at the root of all the day’s woes.

“Said Rava in the name of Rebbe Yochanan: Why does the letter ‘Peh’ precede the “Ayin’? Because of the Meraglim, who related with their mouths [B’FiHem] what they had not seen with their eyes [B’Ayneihem].” (Sanhedrin 104b)

It seems puzzling that the sin of the spies is attributed to this seemingly minor fault. Was it giving precedence to hastily spoken words that defines their sin? Was it not that they had lied, denying the goodness of the land, that is their primary sin?

Apparently, Chazal are teaching us the hidden cause of all falsehood, and the reason our Temple remains lost to this day.

Man’s words are an expression of his consciousness and perception, a means of relating his own view of life. Once these ideas are crystallized in his mind, with a coherent worldview established, all subsequent revelations are compartmentalized into the structure that he has already established. From this point on, he sees only what he wants to see.

Here’s an example: As a young infant, a human being first begins to grasp his surroundings by learning to identify a few familiar images; his mother’s face, his own crib, his siblings. As he grows, and as his mind continues to develop, he slowly begins to comprehend ever more; traveling the world around him, and finding his way with ease. For this reason, modern man has few existential problems, as he pretends to understand the mysteries of life. In this way, he lives out the balance of his days, comfortable with his own self, and blissfully unaware of any higher existence.

Oblivious to any deeper sort of truth, there is nothing left to learn, and any heavenly lesson G-d wishes to send simply glides off his impenetrable exterior.

This is ‘Peh Kodem L’Ayin’ – the mouth precedes the eye.

His worldview already established, from this point on, he will see what he wishes to see.

In the ideal order of things, this process should work in reverse, and the ‘Ayin’ would precede the ‘Peh’. In our own terms, this idea indicates than man’s conceptions should originate outside himself, and he begins his study of the world with an empty slate, waiting patiently to see what G-d is destined to show him.

With this trait perfected, he merits a higher vision, and three times a year he goes up to Jerusalem, to see and to be seen. This is the Mitzva of Re’iah – alluded to in the very name of this city – “B’Har Hashem YiRa’eh” (Breishis 22:14)

In a sense, his life begins with Tohu VaVohu, for only after he recognizes the limits and futility of his own perception, is he worthy of ‘VaYehi Or’. With his vision now perfected, his words take on new meaning, and the ‘Peh’ will subsequently speak words that man is meant to deliver.

In a world of chaos and turmoil, man has no choice but to turn his hopes towards a distant horizon. In this faraway dimension, beyond the gaze of mortal man, he sees the promise of a more wholesome existence.

With the Temple destroyed, and the world in disarray, we too can recognize the loneliness and despair of a world lined with darkness.

With this sense of desperation, and the knowledge that we are left with only one place to turn, we recover the stone that supports the Bais HaMikdash, the building blocks of existence.

We mourn in silence, waiting to be seen.

On Tisha B’Av the Messiah is born…

Part II – Synopsis of the 22 Spokes

Biblical Evidence of the Sevenfold Canon

The law of the LORD is perfect, converting the soul: the testimony of the LORD is sure, making wise the simple. The statutes of the LORD are right, rejoicing the heart: the commandment of the LORD is pure, enlightening the eyes.

Psalm 19:7-8

The Canon Wheel

THE SEVENFOLD SYMMETRIC PERFECTION of the Canon Wheel is one of the most obvious signs of the divine design of the Holy Bible. It emerges when we simply color and label the seven canonical divisions after “rolling up” the list of sixty-six books like a scroll on a spindle Wheel of twenty-two Spokes, corresponding to the twenty-two letters of the Hebrew alphabet. This is explained in the online version of Chapter 1 of the Bible Wheel book. This article reviews the Biblical evidence for the seven canonical divisions by examining the relation between the traditional divisions with the content of the books they contain as represented by the distribution of key words.

We begin by reveiwing the content of the seven divisions. The Protestant Canon possesses an extra-ordinarily coherent and perfectly symmetric structure. It is first divided into two main groups:

39 Books of the Old Testament, originally written in Hebrew (and some Aramaic)

27 Books of the New Testament, originally written in Greek

These two groups subdivide into seven divisions based primarily on the genre, or type of writing, of each book. This has been thoroughly studied and documented in many Biblical commentaries. The three genres (categories) are History, Prophecy, and Writings, the latter containing the subcategories of Poetry and Wisdom (Didactic) Literature and Epistles (Letters). This tradition probably arose in Judaism, before Christianity was born, with the publication of the Septuagint (ca. 200 BC) which follows this categorical system.

39 Books of the Old Testament

Division 1: 05 Books of the Torah [Category: History]

Division 2: 12 Books of Old Testament History [Category: History]

Division 3: 05 Books of Wisdom and Poetry [Category: Writings]

Division 4: 05 Books of the Major Prophets [Category: Prophecy]

Division 5: 12 Books of the Minor Prophets [Category: Prophecy]

27 Books of the New Testament

Division 6: 05 Books of New Testement History [Category: History]

Division 7: 22 Books of the New Testament Epistles [Category: Writings]

Many Bible commentaries are structured on this pattern, such as Adam Clarke’s Clavis Biblica  (Bible Key) published in 1810 and the more modern Eerdmans’ Handbook to the Bible  (1973) which color-codes its chapters in precise accordance with the seven divisions. The digital photos below show the Seven Canonical Divisions as listed in the introductions to the Old and the New Testaments in my personal copy of Eerdmans’ Handbook (click on the images for a larger view):

Eerdmans’ Introduction to the OT	Eerdmans’ Introduction to the NT

Exactly the same pattern is presented online on the   site, with the only variation being that the Epistles are subdivided into three groups called the Pauling Epistles, the General Epsitles, and one Apocaliptic Epistle (Revelation). The important point being that the last twenty-two books are all recognized as epistles. See Revelation as an Epistle for more discussion on this point.

In the overview below, I have included graphs of characteristic word distributions that are maximized in each of the seven divisions (taken from Chapter 6 of the Bible Wheel book). These are distributions of specific words that expressly cohere with the division’s traditional name. This is a strong witness of the objective validity of the canonical divisions since they would be discernable by their characteristic word distributions even if we had not received them from the early Church (as discussed in Historical Evidence for the Sevenfold Canon). As you scroll over the graphs below, you will see the dominant thematic patterns of the Bible sequentially unfold. It forms a simple outline of the ebb and flow of the Everlasting Story. Note that similar word distributions characterize each of the twenty-two Spokes.

The 39 Books of the Old Testament

The thirty-nine books of the Old Testament fall into three consecutive groups of seventeen books of History, five books of Wisdom and Poetry, and seventeen books of Prophecy. These three groups symmetrically subdivide into five groups which contain either five books or twelve books. Of these, the two groups of twelve books symmetrically subdivide into groups of nine and three. This is shown in the table at the end of the review of the books of the Old Testament below.

Five Books of the Law [Category: History]

Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers, Deuteronomy

These five books are universally recognized as forming a unit that goes by various names such as the Pentateuch, the Law, or the Five Books of Moses. Jews call it the Torah, which is usually translated as “Law” but more generally means “The Teaching.” It chronologically records the history from the beginning of creation (Gen 1:1) through the formation of Israel as God’s Chosen People up to the time just before they entered the Promised Land. It includes major formative events such as the Exodus from Egypt, the giving of the Ten Commandments, and the forty years of wandering in the wilderness. This canonical division is universally recognized as a separate canonical division that belongs first in the canon by all Jews and Christians since the earliest times.

The Torah is also known as the “Book of the Covenant” because it records the first covenants God made with Noah (Gen 6:18), Abraham (Gen 17:1), and all Israel (Exo 19:5). The word “covenant” itself is distributed fairly broadly throughout all seven divisions, but the phrase “my covenant” as spoken by the Lord directly to Noah, Abraham, Moses, and the children of Israel distinguishes the Torah where it occurs 26 times (48%). It appears in each of the first Five Books, with the maximum in Genesis. The Torah is also clearly distinguished by the words “statute(s)” and “ordinance(s)” characteristic of the Old Covenant established in therein.

Twelve Books of Old Testament History [Category: History]

Joshua, Judges, Ruth, 1,2 Samuel, 1,2 Kings, 1,2 Chronicles, Ezra, Nehemiah, Esther

This group continues the history of the children of Israel from the crossing of the Jordan River and entrance into the Promised Land. It records the rise and fall of the Davidic Kingdom and the many trials and tribulations that befell the children of Israel as they repeatedly disobeyed God’s commandments. The Babylonian Exile, when God drove them from the Promised Land because of their many sins, punctuates this section. The first Nine Books record the time before the Exile, and the last Three record the time after their return. The Bible therefore begins with a sequence of Seventeen Books of History divided into two main groups of Five and Twelve Books which record the events before and after entrance into the Promised Land, punctuated by the crossing of the Jordan River. Likewise, the last Twelve Historical Books are divided into two main groups of Nine and Three, punctuated by the Babylonian Exile. As shown in the table below, the Seventeen Books of Prophecy follow exactly the same pattern.

Precisely as one would expect, the continuous narrative of the Historical Books is naturally distinguished by the phrase “it came to pass.” It appears between 13 and 40 times in each of the Twelve Old Testament History Books except Ruth (3x), 1 Chr (9x) and Ezra where, oddly enough, it is absent. The second greatest concentration appears in the Torah. The third maximum appears, again as expected, in the Five NT History Books. There are no occurrences in the Epistles, so the phrase “it came to pass” clearly distinguishes between the two primary divisions of the New Testament.

Another intriguing distribution is found in the Divine Title “Lord God of Israel” which appears almost exclusively in the Twelve OT History Books. The distribution is quite uniform throughout most of this division. It occurs between six and twenty-one times in all but four Books, and is missing only in Nehemiah and Esther, the latter being expected because of its unique design as a demonstration of God’s Providence when He is acting from behind the scenes (Esther means hidden, see Unveiling the Hidden). Of particular interest is that this distribution distinguishes this division even from the Torah which shares its historical character. There is a mystery as to why this title appears so frequently in the historical record but rarely in the prophets who were writing at that same time.

Five Books of Wisdom and Poetry [Category: Writings]

Job, Psalms, Proverbs, Ecclesiastes, Song of Songs

These Five Books form a meditative, prayerful, and philosophical interlude between the Seventeen Books of History preceding them and the Seventeen Books of Prophecy that follow after. As shown in the table below, they reside in the symmetrical heart of the Old Testament and so it is that they teach the heart of every believer the Wisdom of God in Proverbs, the Praise of God in the Psalms, and the Love of God in the Song of Songs.

Again, in precise agreement with what we would expect, the Five Wisdom Books are distinguished by their unique emphasis on the word “wisdom.” Of its 234 occurrences in the KJV, 113 appear in this division. It is missing only in the Song of Songs. The distribution within this division is also instructive. Of its 113 hits, the maximum of 54 (48%) occurs in Proverbs at the exact midpoint of these Five Books. It aligns on the Wheel with the Book of Luke on Spoke 20, which uses the word “wisdom” more than the other Gospels and also contains the most parables (proverbs). This is the basis of many links on Spoke 20 between Proverbs and Luke discussed in the Synopsis (pg 339 of the BW Book).

The Five Wisdom Books are also distinguished by the frequent use of the word “understanding” which is often paired with wisdom, as in the first verse of Proverbs:

The proverbs of Solomon the son of David, king of Israel; To know wisdom and instruction; to perceive the words of understanding …

 

 

Five Books of the Major Prophets [Category: Prophecy]

Isaiah, Jeremiah, Lamentations, Ezekiel, Daniel

Twelve Books of the Minor Prophets [Category: Prophecy]

Hosea, Joel, Amos, Obadiah, Jonah, Micah, Nahum, Habakkuk, Zephaniah, Haggai, Zechariah, Malachi

The first Five and last Twelve of the Seventeen Books of Prophecy have always been grouped separately because the latter Twelve were small enough to be written together on a single scroll called the Book of the Twelve. Almost all early canon lists attest to its existence as a separate group. The ancient Jewish book, The Wisdom of Sirach (ca. 180 BC) gives the earliest witness to this grouping.

The Prophets, both Major and Minor, speak frequently of the things the Lord was or is yet to do in the future, so they are distinguished by the frequent use of the phrase “in that day.” Though this does set apart the Seventeen Prophetic Books from the other five divisions, it does not differentiate between the Major and Minor Prophets. The distribution is dominant in Isaiah (43x) in the Major Prophets and Zechariah (20x) in the Minor. It appears in all but five of the Seventeen Books of Prophecy. It contrasts well with the phrase “it came to pass” characteristic of the Seventeen Books of History.

A similar phrase, “the day of the Lord”, also characterizes these paired divisions. It is fairly uniform throughout all Seventeen Prophetic Books, appearing in four of the Major and six of the Minor Prophets. The graph looks like it distinguishes between them only because the phrase is particularly frequent in two of the latter (Joel and Zechariah). I present these distributions here because they clearly distinguish the Prophets in terms that naturally illustrate their character. There are other word distributions that distinguish between the two, but space prohibits a detailed review at this time.

Each of the Books of Isaiah, Jeremiah, and Ezekiel are larger than all Twelve Minor Prophets combined and were written on individual scrolls. But there are other important distinctions that set the first Five Books of Prophecy apart from the Twelve that follow them. The Book of Isaiah is without doubt the “first of the Prophets” for many reasons, as discussed in detail below (see pg 61 of the BW book). The New Testament quotes it more than any other prophetic Book because it contains the greatest Old Testament revelation of the Gospel and the Work of Christ (e.g. Isaiah chapters 40 & 53). David A. Hubbard lauded its unique significance when he called it “the Mount Rushmore of biblical prophecy,” and went on to write:

Sculpted on its massive slopes are the major themes of Scripture: who God is, what he has done for his people, and how he expects us to serve him. … No other part of the Bible gives us so panoramic a view of God’s handiwork in Israel’s history nor such clear prophecies of his lordship over the nations. If Beethoven’s nine symphonies loom as landmarks on the horizon of classical music, Isaiah’s sixty-six chapters mark the apex of prophetic vision.

The Books of Jeremiah and Ezekiel are likewise distinct from the Twelve Minor Prophets in scope as well as size. The Book of Lamentations, on the other hand, is not prophetic per se, but has been included with Jeremiah since ancient times because that great prophet wrote it and so it stands with his Book in all Protestant Bibles. The Major Prophets therefore therefore contain Five Books by four writers, which is the same pattern seen in the Five New Testament History Books (see Symmetries of the Bible Wheel).

This coherence of design continues in the Twelve Minor Prophets which subdivide in precisely the same way as the latter Twelve History Books. In both cases, the Babylonian Exile punctuates the subdivision. The first Nine prophesied before the Exile, and the latter Three after the return. The Seventeen Books of Prophecy therefore exhibit exactly the same numerical pattern as the Seventeen Books of History. The table below displays the symmetric structure of the Old Testament, with the Babylonian Exile dividing between the Fourteenth and Fifteenth Books of both the historical and prophetical sections.

This same information is displayed on the Wheel in The Perfect Symmetry of the Christian Old Testament, where it is shown that all the divisions and subdivisions align on the same sets of Spokes.

The 27 Books of the New Testament

Five Books of New Testament History [Category: History]

Matthew, Mark, Luke, John, Acts

These five books consist of four biographies (personal histories) of Christ called Gospels, and one history of the early Church called the Acts of the Apostles. The Gospels cover the birth, life, death, and resurrection of the Lord Jesus Christ. Likewise, Acts begins with the birth of His Church at Pentecost when God sealed His disciples with the Holy Spirit and sent them forth to proclaim the Gospel unto “the uttermost parts of the earth.” Luke is the author of both Acts and the Gospel that bears his name so the New Testament History consists of Five Books written by four authors just like the Five Major Prophets. The Gospels subdivide into a “3 + 1” pattern with three synoptic Gospels presenting roughly parallel accounts of the life of Christ and the Gospel of John which stands alone with its unique revelation of Christ as the Living Word of God.

The Five New Testament History Books record the fulfillment of all the prophecies of the Old Testament concerning the First Advent of Christ, and so they are naturally characterized by the word “fulfilled.” It appears in all Five Books of this division, with the frequency in each being Mat (16x), Mark (4x), Luke (8x), John (11x), Acts (9x). Not every occurrence of the word “fulfilled” in the Bible refers to fulfilled prophecy, but most do and so it is a good “rough marker” of the Sixth Canonical Division. A more detailed analysis would yield essentially the same results.

Twenty-Two Epistles [Category: Writings]

Romans, 1,2 Corinthians, Galatians, Ephesians, Philippians, Colossians, 1,2 Thessalonians, 1,2 Timothy, Titus, Philemon, Hebrews, James, 1,2 Peter, 1,2,3 John, Jude, Revelation

The Seventh Division brings us to the ultimate message of all Scripture, the essence of the Gospel declared in a single word: grace. This word is characteristic of the entire seventh division, which perfectly coheres with the spiritual meaning of the Seventh Day Sabbath that prefigured the rest we have in Christ through grace (pg 49 of the BW book). The word “grace” appears in all but two of the twenty-two Epistles. As would be expected, the word faith generates an almost identical distribution.

The word epistle comes directly from the Greek επιστολη (epistole) which denotes a letter as “something sent.” It is from the same root as “apostle” which appears in the opening salutation of exactly one-half of the Books in this group, such as the first verse of the First Epistle, “Paul, a servant of Jesus Christ, called to be an apostle, separated unto the gospel of God” (Rom 1:1).

The category of Epistle derives from the self-description of Scripture which uses this term in reference to seven of the Books listed above. For example, the First Epistle ends with a note from the scribe who penned it, “I Tertius, who wrote this epistle, salute you in the Lord” (Rom 16:22). Likewise, Peter called his own writing an epistle (2 Pet 3:1) and referred to Paul’s writings as both epistles and scripture:

… even as our beloved brother Paul also according to the wisdom given unto him hath written unto you; As also in all his epistles, speaking in them of these things; in which are some things hard to be understood, which they that are unlearned and unstable wrest, as they do also the other scriptures, unto their own destruction.

2 Peter 3:15f

Paul also referred to his own writings as epistles, as when he said “I charge you by the Lord that this epistle be read unto all the holy brethren” (1 Thes 5:27).

Each of the twenty-two Epistles except Hebrews and 1 John opens with a salutation from the author, the name of the recipient(s), and a blessing that usually includes grace and peace from God. The opening salutations from the first and last Books in this group serve as good examples of the common style of New Testament Epistles:

Romans 1:1,7: Paul … to all that be in Rome, beloved of God, called to be saints: Grace to you and peace from God our Father, and the Lord Jesus Christ.

Revelation 1:4: John to the seven churches which are in Asia: Grace be unto you, and peace, from him which is, and which was, and which is to come; and from the seven Spirits which are before his throne;

Likewise, each of the twenty-two Epistles except James has a closing salutation that typically includes a blessing, a mention of Christ being “with you,” and an concluding “amen.” Again, the first and last Epistles serve as fine examples of the uniformity of the style of the New Testament Epistles, since they are identical:

Romans 16:24: The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with you all. Amen.

Revelation 22:21: The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with you all. Amen.

The twenty-two Epistles subdivide sequentially into various groups and subgroups based on authorship and audience as follows:

14 Pauline Epistles

9 Ecclesiastical Epistles written to Churches in seven cities; Rome, Corinth, Galatia, Ephesus, Philippi, Colossae, and Thessalonica.

4 Personal Epistles written to three individuals. These divide into a “3 + 1” pattern like the Gospels. The first three were written to the pastors Timothy and Titus, and so are called “Pastoral Epistles.” Paul wrote the fourth to his close friend and convert, Philemon.

1 Epistle to the Hebrews. As mentioned above, this Book has no opening salutation so we do not know with certainty who wrote it. The KJV follows the early Church tradition, maintained also by both the Roman Catholic and Greek Orthodox Churches, and lists this Book as “The Epistle of Paul the Apostle to the Hebrews.” The question of authorship will be dealt with as the need arises (pg 100).

7 General Epistles written by James (1), Peter (2), John (3), and Jude (1).

1 Prophetic/Apocalyptic Epistle. There is no consensus on the proper sub-categorization of the Book of Revelation. It has been called prophetic, apocalyptic, historic, symbolic, and allegorical. It is all this and more. It is a Capstone to the Bible that ties together everything that goes before it. Many canon lists overlook its epistolary nature and categorize it as the only prophetic Book of the NT, but this ignores a primary aspect of its true nature, as Roloff well explained in his section called The Epistolary Character of Revelation in his commentary, writing: “In summary, Revelation is a prophetic writing that contains numerous apocalyptic motifs and elements of style, but whose form is chiefly characterized by the purpose of epistolary communication.” David Aune, in his exhaustive three-volume commentary on the Final Book, noted that “The Canon Muratori [2nd-4th century] recognized the epistolary character of Revelation, which is understood to mean that the seven individual churches to whom John wrote, when taken together, represent the universal Church.” Baxter concurred, stating simply that the Book of Revelation “is really an Epistle of our Lord Himself: see the opening verse.”

Conclusion: Sevenfold Symmetric Perfection!

When the Seven Canonical Divisions are displayed on the Bible Wheel, we immediately discover one of the greatest wonders ever seen in the history of Biblical studies. The structure of the Christian Canon is perfectly symmetric, and it looks like the tri-radiant halo – the Sign of Deity – seen in ancient icons of Christ! [See Art, Theology, and Prophecy] There can be no conclusion but this structure was designed by the Lord God Almighty before the foundation of the world. Praise His name now and forever! Amen.

Historical Evidence of the Sevenfold Canon

A Complete Categorical View of the Bible

As for God, his way is perfect: the word of the LORD is tried: he is a buckler to all those that trust in him.

Psalm 18:30

The Canon Wheel

THE SEVENFOLD SYMMETRIC PERFECTION of the Canon Wheel is one of the most obvious signs of the divine design of the Bible. It is, therefore, the first point of attack by most opponents. They typically start by asserting that the seven canonical divisions are arbitrary and therefore meaningless. Others assert that there are various ways to categorize the books of the Bible, so no one pattern can be considered “correct” or “better” than any other. And some folks assert that the exact pattern of the Canon Wheel rarely appears in the literature because the Epistles are almost always divided into subcategories such as “Pauline” and “General” and that this somehow invalidates the pattern of the Canon Wheel.

The complete categorical view of the Bible presented here eliminates all the confusion from this issue and yields the final refutation of any argument against the Canon Wheel. The table is simple, logical, complete, and fully documented in the literature. It begins with the the largest and most inclusive contiguous categories and introduces sudivisions until we reach terminal divisions which contain individual books.

The categories in this table are very well attested in the literature. Most of them have been in common use for more than fifteen hundred years, as documented below. They begin with the most inclusive “Level 0” category of the Bible as a whole and move down to ever more specific subcategories. At Level 1, the categorization displays the Bible as divided into the Old and New Testaments. At Level 2, those subdivisions are futher divided into the most inclusive contiguous groups possible. The Old Testament naturally divides into three simple groups of History (17 books), Wisdom/Poetry (5 books), and Prophecy (17 books). The numerical symmetry of this divsion is striking, and continues all the way down to Level 4 as discussed in The Perfect Symmetry of the Christian Old Testament. The New Testament naturally divides into two groups of History (5 books) and Epistles (22 books).

The validity of the table should be self-evident to anyone reasonably familiar with Scripture, but for the sake of completeness and to silence the opponents who will not admit the truth unless forced by absolutely explicit and incontrovertible evidence, I will cite a few of the primary ancient references to the categorical structure of the Bible. I begin with this description of the canon by Cyril of Jerusalem found in his Catechetical Lectures , iv. 33-37, from around the year A.D. 350:

Of these read the two and twenty books, but have nothing to do with the apocryphal writings. Study earnestly these only which we read openly in the Church. Far wiser and more pious than thyself were the Apostles, and the bishops of old time, the presidents of the Church who handed down these books. Being therefore a child of the Church, trench thou not upon its statutes. And of the Old Testament, as we have said, study the two and twenty books, which, if thou art desirous of learning, strive to remember by name, as I recite them. For of the Law the books of Moses are the first five, Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers, Deuteronomy. And next, Joshua the son of Nave, and the book of Judges, including Ruth, counted as seventh. And of the other historical books, the first and second books of the Kings are among the Hebrews one book; also the third and fourth one book. And in like manner, the first and second of Chronicles are with them one book; and the first and second of Esdras are counted one. Esther is the twelfth book; and these are the Historical writings. But those which are written in verses are five, Job, and the book of Psalms, and Proverbs, and Ecclesiastes, and the Song of Songs, which is the seventeenth book. And after these come the five Prophetic books: of the Twelve Prophets one book, of Isaiah one, of Jeremiah one, including Baruch and Lamentations and the Epistle; then Ezekiel, and the Book of Daniel, the twenty-second of the Old Testament.

Thus we have a witness to the categories of the five books of the Law (Torah) and the twelve books of History from Joshua to Esther as well as a reference to the whole set of books from Genesis to Esther as the “historical books.” And we have the five Wisdom books desribed as those “written in verses” and the Minor Prophets which Cyril called the “Twelve Prophets”. The Major Prophets are named but not grouped as a category. Note that the reference to “twenty-two books” refers to the Hebraic way of counting the Old Testament (see The 22 Books of the Jewish Canon) to which Cyril conformed his list. Cyril then continued in the same document to list the books of the New Testament:

Then of the New Testament there are the four Gospels only, for the rest have false titles and are mischievous. The Manichaeans also wrote a Gospel according to Thomas, which being tinctured with the fragrance of the evangelic title corrupts the souls of the simple sort. Receive also the Acts of the Twelve Apostles; and in addition to these the seven Catholic Epistles of James, Peter, John, and Jude; and as a seal upon them all, and the last work of the disciples, the fourteen Epistles of Paul.

Thus we have the four Gospels and two subcategories of the Epistles listed by both name and number – the fourteen Pauline and seven Catholic (or General) Epistles – precisely as listed in the categorical table. In all, Cyril listed five categories from the Old Testament and four from the New. An essentially identical description of both Testaments is found in the the the 39th Festal Letter of Athanasias  (ca. A.D. 367) and in the poem by Gregory of Nazianzus called Concerning the Genuine Books of Divinely Inspired Scripture  (ca. A.D. 380).

Statistical Probability of the Canon Wheel

One thing have I desired of the LORD, that will I seek after; that I may dwell in the house of the LORD all the days of my life, to behold the beauty of the LORD, and to enquire in his temple.

Psalm 27:4

The Canon Wheel

One would think it impossible miss the beauty and significance of the sevenfold symmetric perfection of the Canon Wheel. What could be simpler than a perfect Circle? What worthier design for God’s Work than this universal symbol of Eternity, symmetrically divided in accordance with the fundamental numerical signature of Scripture – the Number Seven – embedded as a watermark throughout the text on all levels from Genesis to Revelation? And as if this weren’t enough, the entire structure is supernaturally integrated with the 22 letters of the divine Hebrew alphabet – the original vector of revelation! Oh! Human language is utterly insufficient to communicate the perfection of the Holy Bible – words, sentences, paragraphs, indeed whole books – must needs overlap in the mind of the reader to see but a glimpse of God’s infinite Wisdom and Knowledge radiating from Scripture. Of course, this is exactly what He has provided in the structure of His Word which is nothing less than infinity designed to be held in the palm of your hand, its fearful symmetry burning bright before your very eyes!

Questions Answered Below

How Many Sevenfold Canons? Answer: 82,598,880 How Many Symmetric Sevenfold Canons? Answer: 120 Probability of a Symmetric Sevenfold Canon? Answer: 1 in 688,324 How Many Canonical Orders Answer: 5.4 x 1092 What are the Real Chances? Answer: Zero

Yet not all have the gift of this vision. I therefore have answered the questions in the side box to reveal the absolute mathematical impossibility that this structure could have occurred by chance or even deliberate human effort. Of course, there is a certain futility and absurdity in presenting these arguments. It would be much simpler if the skeptic would merely ask God to open his eyes – like the blind men enlightened by Christ two thousand years ago. This has nothing to do with blind faith – on the contrary, it is the unbeliever who suffers blindness! The evidence is shining like the noontime sun in a cloudless sky! An analogy may help make this clear. It is rather like meeting a man who denies that Chinese is a language, and refuses to learn anything about it until it has been mathematically proven that the marks in the Chinese book are interrelated in the same way as other languages, and that they certainly were not randomly scratched out. The joke is that even if the proof is understood and accepted (a very unlikely outcome, considering the effect of willful ignorance), the unbeliever has not come one step closer to knowing – let alone receiving – the message contained in the book! If, on the other hand, the unbeliever were willing to learn to read Chinese, the proof that it is indeed a language would simply fall out as an inevitable side effect. This analogy corresponds exactly with the Wheel. Its primary purpose is not mere proof that the Bible is the Word of God – what good would that do? It would be just like abstractly proving that Chinese really is a language to someone who refuses to learn. The person who chooses to learn, on the other hand, will gain all the benefit of the knowledge in the book while simultaneously receiving – as an inevitable side effect – absolute, irrefutable proof of the intelligent, purposeful design of the book.

How Many Possible Sevenfold Canons?

The Bible is divided into seven canonical divisions, starting with the 5 books of the Torah, 12 books of the Old Testament History, and so forth. This structure can be described by saying there is a canonical division D1 between books 5 and 6, another division D2 between books 17 and 18, and so forth. Six dividers are needed to describe seven divisions. The question of “How many possible sevenfold canons are there?” is therefore equivalent to asking “How many ways are there to put six dividers between 66 objects?”

This means that each possible sevenfold canonical division of the Bible can be represented as a line of 66 objects with six dividers dropped between them as follows:

The number of sevenfold canonical divisions is therefore determined by the number of distinct ways there is to drop the six dividers between the 66 objects. This number is very easy to calculate – its a problem of Combinatorics . There are 65 places to drop the first division D1, 64 places to then drop the next division D2, 63 for the next, and so forth, so the total is …

65 x 64 x 63 x 62 x 61 x 60 = 59,471,193,600 possible divisions.

Now rearrangement of the dividers amongst themselves – e.g. interchanging D1 with D2 – results in the same canonical division, so we need to divide by the total number of ways to arrange six objects which is simply 6! = 6 x 5 x 4 x 3 x 2 x 1 = 720. The result is:

Numbers of this form are called Binomial Coefficients . They are also known as Choice numbers because they give the number of ways to select an unordered subset of k objects from a set of n objects. In the case above, it is called “65 choose 6” which tells us the number of ways to select an unordered subset of 6 dividers from the set of 65 dividers standing between each pair of books. This is simply an alternate description of our initial question. Note that similiar calculations are used to analyze the probability of the symmetric structure of the Old Testament canon alone [see Probabilities of the OT Symmetry].

Thus there are about 82 million possible sevenfold canonical structures of the Bible. Our task now is to determine how many of these exhibit both bilateral and radial symmetry.

How Many Symmetric Sevenfold Canons?

This answer to this question is essentially as simple as the one above, except that it involves a few “special cases.”

1) Bilateral Symmetry demands that there be divisions between books 22 and 23 and 44 and 45. Otherwise a canonical division would cross from one Cycle to the next, which is not symmetric. For example, supposed that books 43 through 46 form a canonical division. These books are highlighted red in the image. They lack bilateral symmetry. Thus we must have two dividers as shown in the second image.

2) There now remains four dividers to place symmetrically on the Wheel. There are two possibilities we must consider.

a) Suppose we drop D3 anywhere except on the line of bilateral symmetry, that is, between Spokes 11 and 12. Bilateral symmetry then demands that we place a corresponding divider in the mirror position. Radial symmetry demands that we place the remaining pair of dividers on the radii corresponding to the two just set or symmetrically in the same Cycle as the first two. Here are examples of each of these possibilities:

We have 10 choices for where to drop D3 and its mirror D4. For each of these ten choices, we have these possibilities for D5 and D6:

i) Radial symmetry gives us only one choice if we drop D5 and D6 on a different Cycle.

ii) We have 9 choices if we drop D5 and D6 on the same Cycle as D3 and D4 since there are 18 open slots there.

Total: 10 x 1 + 10 x 9 = 100.

b) Now suppose we chose to place D3 on the line of bilateral symmetry. This leaves three dividers, so we need to place D4 in line with D3 since bilateral symmetry demands that all dividers not on the line of symmetry be paired – i.e. it must be an even number. D4 can be placed on either Cycle not holding D3, and for each of these choices, there remains two dividers that can be placed as a symmetric pair on any of the remaining 20 slots, giving 10 possibilities since interchanging D5 and D6 yields the same canonical division.

Total: 2 x 10 = 20

Grand Total: 120 possible symmetric sevenfold canons. We can now use this number to determine the probability of “finding” a symmetric sevenfold canon.

Probability of a Symmetric Sevenfold Canon?

This probability is calculated by taking the ratio of the number of symmetric sevenfold canons (120) to the total number of possible sevenfold canons (82,598,880). The answer is one chance in 688,324.

When considering this number, it is extremely important to recall that the sevenfold structure designed by God can be derived from first principles using nothing but the Bible Wheel, two initial conditions, and symmetry constraints. This is exactly the same pattern that led to many of the most significant discoveries in 20th century Physics (cf. Fearful Symmetry).

How Many Canonical Orders?

This is another problem from the field of Combinatorics . The total number of ways to arrange n things is called n factorial, denoted by n!. It is calculated by forming the product of all numbers less than or equal to n:

n! = n x (n-1) x (n-2) x … x 3 x 2 x 1

For example, the total number of ways to arrange the letters ABC is 3! = 3 x 2 x 1 = 6. This is easy to check by simply listing them:

ABC, ACB, BAC, BCA, CAB, CBA

The logic that gives rise to this formula is elementary. One simply notes that there are three choices for the first position, after which there remains two choices for the second position, and finally one for the last. Multiplying the number of choices yields the total number of ways one could arrange the three letters.

The answer to “How many ways are there to arrange the sixty-six books of the Bible?” is therefore:

66! = 66 x 65 x 64 x 63 x … x 4 x 3 x 2 x 1 = 5.44 x 10⁹².

Written is standard decimal notation (to three significant digits), this number appears as:

544,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,
000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000.

This number is so far beyond all human experience that I hardly know how to describe it. It is 5.44 times 1 followed by 92 zeros! The implications of this are discussed in the next section.

Mathematical Derivation of the Canon Wheel
from First Principles

From whom the whole body fitly joined together and compacted by that which every joint supplieth, according to the effectual working in the measure of every part, maketh increase of the body unto the edifying of itself in love.

Ephesians 4:15f

One way to look at the Bible Wheel is as a scientific model of the structure of Scripture. Just as physical phenomena have been studied with various models such as Ptolemaic vs. Copernican Astronomy, Classical vs. Quantum Physics, and Newtonian vs. Relativistic Mechanics, so the Bible Wheel can be seen as a way to model the sixty-six books, the “data” of the Bible. What follows is a derivation of the sevenfold structure of the Christian Canon from first principles, using nothing but:

A Model

Two Initial Conditions

Two Symmetry Constraints

This follows precisely the same pattern as many of the greatest scientific discoveries of the last century, as discussed in my review of A. Zee’s Fearful Symmetry. Let us begin:

Object to Model:

The traditional Protestant canon of 66 Books (the proto-canon of the Catholics).

Model:

Construct a circular grid of 66 Cells with 22 Spokes and three concentric circles called Cycles. Place the 66 books sequentially on the Wheel, so that Cycle 1 consists of Books 1 to 22, Cycle 2 consists of Books 23 to 44, and Cycle 3 consists of Books 45 to 66.

Method:

To derive the sevenfold structure of the Canon Wheel, impose two initial conditions and construct the Canon with the minimal number of divisions required to satisfy maximal symmetry constraints as explained below.

Definition:

A “canonical division” CD(m,c) is defined as a radial line between Spoke m and m+1 (modulo 22) on Cycle c (see the image below).

Definition:

The set of books contained between two canonical divisions CD(m,c) and CD(n,c) is defined as Block(m,n,c), where m denotes the starting division and n the ending division. For example, the Torah is Block(22,5,1) (see image below).

Initial Conditions:

History has given us two incontrovertible constraints on any possible canonical structure:

There must exist a canonical division between the first five books (The Torah) and the rest of Scripture.

There must exist a canonical division between the Old Testament and the New Testament.

Maximal Symmetry Constraints:

Bilateral Symmetry: The Wheel must look the same when reflected in mirror. This constraint demands that for each CD(m,c) there must exist a CD(n,c) such that m + n = 22.

Radial Symmetry: There must be no conflicting canonical divisions. Any two Cycles that contain canonical divisions must have the same number of divisions and all the divisions must lie on a common set of radii.

Construction:

Now construct the minimal Canon structure that satisfies the symmetry constraints:

1) The initial conditions demand that there are three canonical divisions.

There must be a CD(22,1) and a CD(5,1) to form Block(22,5,1) corresponding to the Torah.

There must be a CD(17,2) between the Old and the New Testaments.

2) Bilateral symmetry demands that there are two more canonical divisions to match the initial conditions:

There must be a CD(17,1) to match CD(5,1)

There must be a CD(5,2) to match CD(17,2)

3) Radial symmetry demands that there is one additional canonical division:

There must be a CD(22,2) to match CD(22,1).

The initial conditions and symmetry constraints are now satisfied. This is the minimal solution. Mapping these divisions on the Wheel results in the traditional Seven Canonical Divisions of the Christian Canon:

The Bible Wheel as Divine Art

One thing have I desired of the LORD, that will I seek after; that I may dwell in the house of the LORD all the days of my life, to behold the beauty of the LORD, and to enquire in his temple.

Psalm 27.4

The truth of the Christian Faith shines with unparalled clarity through the divine symbols given by God in Scripture. The Circle, the Cross, the Dove, the Alpha and Omega! These symbols, and many more, are enshrined in stained glass, frescoes, and mosaics throughout the Churches of Christendom. They are found in the illuminated manuscripts of the middle ages and the graffiti scratched on the walls of the Roman catcombs. They are also found in the geometric structure of the text itself. God used them as templates in the design of His Holy Word. They appear on all levels, from the large-scale tri-radiant structure of the sevenfold symmetric perfection of the Canon Wheel down to the sixfold symmetry of the Star of Creation in the Creation Holograph. The links below are just my first efforts to bring forth this facet of the Divine Revelation. The study of the heavenly Beauty of God’s Word [Jesus Christ] is an infinite endeavor that will never be completed in this world, nor even in the world to come.

For Glory and for Beauty

This article is adapted from Chapter 4 of the Bible Wheel book. It discusses how my wife Rose was led to make the stained glass Bible Wheel and Canon Wheel Cross, and how such artistic renditions relate to traditional Christian icons and seals and how all of this shows that God designed the Bible as a Divine Work of Theological Art.

For Glory and for Beauty

(Chapter 4 of the Bible Wheel Book)

All thy works shall praise thee, O LORD; and thy saints shall bless thee. They shall speak of the glory of thy kingdom, and talk of thy power; To make known to the sons of men his mighty acts, and the glorious majesty of his kingdom.

Psalm 145:10-12

Stained Glass Canon Wheel Cross

On December 5, 2002, my wife Rose completed my Christmas gift, the stained glass rendition of the Bible Wheel shown above. The photograph caught the setting sun behind the Wheel, causing the cross and tri-radiant symmetry to “shine in the darkness” like the light of the God’s Word revealed in John 1:5. This awoke a deep sense of spiritual awe at what God has done in His design of the Holy Bible. In a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, it transformed my highly detailed geometric analysis of Scripture into a work of sacred symbolism that any traditional Christian iconographer could have produced during the last fifteen hundred years. I did not recognize this at first. As usual, I had to wait for one of Rose’s inspired off-hand comments for this Divine door to be opened. “Wouldn’t it be neat if we found the Bible Wheel in a stained glass window of some old church?” she asked.

Cross of Victory

This question was on my mind the next morning as I went for my walk and glanced at the signboard of St. Mark’s Catholic Church across the street. And there it was, the basic pattern of the Bible Wheel – a circle divided into three sections by an inverted Tau Cross (T) – at the base of the Cross of Victory! Suddenly, a thousand images flooded my mind and I recognized this form as truly omnipresent throughout Christian art, symbolism, and iconography, most notably in the tri-radiant cruciform halo in icons of Christ.

Celtic Cross

Though it had been over two years since I had discovered the Canon Wheel (which came four years after the discovery of the Bible Wheel), I had yet to connect it with Christian art. It was the religious overtones that stained glass had acquired through centuries of use in the Church, coupled with the light that lit up the cross and the tri-radiant symmetry, that awoke my artistic imagination and united it with my spiritual intuition to evoke an entirely new sense of the significance of the Bible Wheel. This was when I recognized the natural integration of the Bible Wheel with the traditional “Circle and Cross” found throughout Christian art, and sat in utter amazement as it dawned on me that God had designed the Bible to be a symbol of the very faith taught within its pages. This kind of continuous transforming revelation from one deep level to another ever deeper has characterized nearly every day of the last decade since I first discovered this Divine wonder. At every point I think to myself, “how could there be any more?” and then God opens my mind to see an entirely new and unexpected vista into His oceanic Wisdom.

The stained glass Canon Wheel Cross, another gift from my wife shown above, further exemplifies the endless artistic potential inherent in the structure of the Bible. In this piece, Rose extended the three arms of the tri-radiant symmetry outwards, which is simply the inverse of the stained glass Bible Wheel where the internal cross is formed by extending the three radii towards the center. Both of these forms come together in the Celtic Cross. When Rose was designing these pieces, the only difficulty was the choice of colors. She made many drawings with all sorts of variations, but none seemed correct. Then she fell upon God’s instructions for the priests’ “holy garments” and had a strong witness in her spirit that these also were the proper colors for the Wheel:

And thou shalt make holy garments for Aaron thy brother for glory and for beauty. And thou shalt speak unto all that are wise hearted, whom I have filled with the spirit of wisdom, that they may make Aaron’s garments to consecrate him, that he may minister unto me in the priest’s office. … And they shall make the ephod of gold, of blue, and of purple, of scarlet, and fine twined linen, with cunning work.

Exodus 28:2ff

It was not until about a year after she completed these works that we realized it was not merely the colors, but their placement, that seemed so appropriate. The “heavenly” purples, like the evening sky, are at the top and the “earthly” reds (in Hebrew, “adamah” means both “earth” and “red”) are on the bottom. Neither Rose nor I noticed this when she was making them; in all ways we are utterly indebted to the incomparable grace of God‘s guidance. Neither of us feels that any of this really has anything to do with us personally. It is all the work of God. The one thing to remember when looking at these stained glass images is that they are artistic expressions of the innate structure of the Holy Bible. This is the overwhelming wonder of it all – the structure of Scripture unites with its content to reveal it all as a majestic Work of Divine Art that now looks like the prophetic prototype of the art God’s people have been producing throughout the last two millennia.

The Cross of Victory

O death, where is thy sting? O grave, where is thy victory? The sting of death is sin; and the strength of sin is the law. But thanks be to God, which giveth us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ.

1 Corinthians 15:55-56

The Cross of Victory, also known as the “Cross of Triumph” or simply “Cross and Orb,” is very old. The latter description comes from its origin as an image of the orb of the world surmounted by the cross which began appearing around the eighth century in Christian art and Byzantine coins. This, by the way, is a rather obvious contradiction of the already thoroughly discredited myth  that medieval Christians generally believed the world was flat. Many denominational churches use the Victory Cross in their seals, logos, and art. For example, here is the seal and its explanation from the United Church of Christ :

The symbol of the United Church of Christ comprises a crown, cross and orb enclosed within a double oval bearing the name of the church and the prayer of Jesus, “That they may all be one” (John 17:21). It is based on an ancient Christian symbol called the “Cross of Victory” or the “Cross Triumphant.” The crown symbolizes the sovereignty of Christ. The cross recalls the suffering of Christ — his arms outstretched on the wood of the cross — for the salvation of humanity. The orb, divided into three parts, reminds us of Jesus’ command to be his “witnesses in Jerusalem and in all Judea and Samaria and to the ends of the earth” (Acts 1:8). The verse from Scripture reflects our historic commitment to the restoration of unity among the separated churches of Jesus Christ.

A variation of this pattern appears in the seal of the Lutheran Church–Missouri Synod, which places three of the primary Protestant doctrines – Sola Scriptura (Scripture Alone), Sola Gratia (Grace Alone), and Sole Fide (Faith Alone) – to form an upper semi-circle with the cross moved inside taking the place of the vertical line. Here is their explanation :

The official seal of The Lutheran Church–Missouri Synod is a unique blend of symbols and words. In the center is a blue shield, representing the Christian’s faith;

a prominent gold cross proclaiming that we preach Jesus Christ crucified and risen from the dead;

Latin words under the cross reading “Jesus Christ is Lord”;

three equilateral gold crosses symbolizing the Holy Trinity;

three gold stars on the shield standing for the three Christian creeds: the Apostolic, the Nicene and the Athanasian.

Grape vines fill the bottom white spaces, symbolizing Christ’s words in John 15:5.

As seen in these explanations, the seals were designed to symbolically convey essential theological truths in color, word, and form. This is a primary human activity; it is how God made us. It is also the method God exemplified throughout the Bible, where He teaches His truths through symbols and word pictures. Jesus is called a Lamb, a Door, a Vine, a Star, a Lion. These are all symbols that God Himself chose to reveal the character of His Son. The Christian Church, led by the same Spirit of God who inspired Scripture, has long followed this Divine example by producing theological art, which finds its highest expression in the calculated iconographic beauty characteristic of the Eastern Orthodox Church.

The Bible as the Seal of the Living God

That we should be to the praise of his glory, who first trusted in Christ. In whom ye also trusted, after that ye heard the word of truth, the gospel of your salvation: in whom also after that ye believed, ye were sealed with that Holy Spirit of promise.

Ephesians 1:12f

The seals below are from four Protestant theological seminaries. They have three elements in common; a Circle encompassing the whole, an image of a Book representing the Bible, and a Cross proclaiming the essence of the Gospel (1 Cor 2:2). Two of them use a Dove to signify the Holy Spirit (Mat 3:16) who inspired Scripture (1 Pet 1:11), who leads each believer “into all truth” (John 16:13), and who seals us in the faith (Eph 1:13). Two use a Shield recalling the “the shield of faith” (Eph 6:16). One uses Alpha Omega to represent both Jesus Christ (Rev 22:13), the Living Word of God who created everything, and the completeness of the Bible as God’s Word from beginning to end. One includes the seven-branched Menorah to represent the perfect and complete Light of God’s Word with its shield following the pattern of the tri-radiant halo except for the extra diagonal dividing the upper left section.

Book, Cross, Shield, Tri-radiant Halo	Book, Cross, Dove	Book, Cross, Alpha Omega	Book, Cross, Crown, Menorah, Shield

All four of the symbolic elements discussed in Chapter 3 of the Bible Wheel book appear in these standard Christian seals. This is why the Divine design of the Bible Wheel is so utterly astounding. These standard Christian symbols exist implicitly in it and spontaneously emerge from it when we do nothing but simply “roll up the Bible like a scroll (pg 16). The Circle describes the overall form of the Wheel which is the just the Book itself, the Cross shines from its tri-radiant symmetry, the whole is encompassed and sealed with Aleph Tav corresponding to the Alpha Omega, and the seven divisions link directly to the seven branches of the Menorah. Christians use these symbols in their seals because they are what God has taught us in His Word. Each represents a kind of sealing in and of itself so that these standard Christian seals are made with Biblical symbols that carry within themselves the ideas of sealing and completion. They are strongly reiterative and self-reflective. This means that God’s design of the Wheel now looks like the prophetic prototype of all standard Christian seals. In other words, the Bible itself is the Seal of the Living God, inside and out (both in content and form)!

The image on the cover of the Bible Wheel book portrays these ideas. The Seal of the living God – the Holy Bible – is represented by the stained glass Bible Wheel set in the center of the stone circle and cross. The symbols engraved around it are the standard Biblical symbols of the Dove, the Alpha and Omega, and the Book at the base reminding us that the whole symbol emerges from the Bible and the Bible alone. The background is from the façade of the First Covenant Church  in Seattle Washington, built in 1910. It caught my interest when I noticed the striking variation of the traditional “circle and cross” made with a solid ring with three arms cut from a single stone set atop a pedestal carved from a distinctly darker stone.

Though I have not been able to find a statement from the designer of this façade, it seems clear that he meant to symbolically express the unity of God by the circle and the doctrine of the Trinity with the three arms. In any case, the moment I saw it I knew it would be a perfect setting for the Divine Jewel of the Bible Wheel. It integrates the traditional “circle and cross” with the tri-radiant halo by retaining its elements – a circle with three arms – only inverting them to point outward rather than inward. The distinct pedestal then emphasizes the tri-radiant circle by setting it apart even as it echoes the traditional four-armed cross.

The union of the tri-radiant halo with the four-armed cross is not new to Christianity. It appears, for example, in the Seal of St. Tikhon’s Orthodox Theological Seminary , established in 1938. This is a common iconic form of the Greek Orthodox Church. It differs form those of the Protestants in that it uses a face to represent the humanity of Christ. The beauty of this seal is that it sums up what the faith is all about and what we see when we look at the Bible as a whole and extract its essential message, which is nothing less than the Light of God shining in the face of Jesus Christ (2 Cor 4:6). The Greek Letters above the cross – IC and XC – are the first and last Letters of the words IHSOUC (Jesus) and XRISTOC (Christ). This way of writing Divine names is very old; it appears in some of the earliest New Testament manuscripts and even in the Septuagint, the pre-Christian Jewish Greek translation of the Old Testament. It is a standard element in icons of Christ as seen in both examples given in the last chapter (Bible Wheel book, pgs 33, 39). The three Greek Letters on the arms of the tri-radiant halo spell o wN (Ho On) meaning He Who Is, the Septuagint’s rendition of “I AM THAT I AM” (Exo 3:14). This iconic form, therefore, strongly proclaims the Deity of Christ and His Work on the Cross, with the three arms further reiterating the Doctrine of the Trinity. This is why Christian iconography has been called “theology in form and color.” It is designed to visually represent the fundamental doctrines of the faith.

This magnificent mosaic of Christ seated in glory from the ceiling of the San Giovanni (St. John’s) Baptistery  in Florence, Italy, made in the thirteenth century, is another premier example of this ubiquitous artistic pattern. It was designed to reiteratively display the tri-radiant symmetry, first in the halo of Christ, and again in the form of His body within the circle of glory. Christian tradition, especially in its Greek Orthodox branch, holds that true religious icons are the product of Divine inspiration. It seems impossible to explain the correspondence between these ancient icons of Christ – whose name is called the Word of God – with the geometric form of the Holy Bible in any other way. And besides, what a glory it is to behold! The power of God’s revelation is absolutely overwhelming, filling the soul with a witness unlike anything ever seen in the history of the world. Who can but cry “Grace, grace unto it!” (Zechariah 4:7)?The Bible Wheel Medallion

The inherent artistic potential of this Capstone that crowns God’s Word has continued to bear abundant fruit, beyond anything I ever could have imagined. In another burst of Divine inspiration, Rose made a solid silver Bible Wheel medallion set with Sixty-Six Stones to represent the Sixty-Six Books of the Bible, so now the Seal of God – the Holy Bible – is effort-lessly displayed as a stunning piece of jewelry. Every day people comment how beautiful it is without having any idea of what it actually represents. I pray the day comes soon when everyone will know what God has done in His Word so that “the earth shall be filled with the knowledge of the glory of the LORD, as the waters cover the sea” (Hab 2:14).

The Bible Wheel is, therefore, simultaneously a Seal, a Capstone, a Jeweled Medallion, and a Divine Work of Theological Art. It glorifies God’s Word beyond all measure. Yet these are only a few of the top-level super-obvious signs of its Divine design. The Alphabet encompassing the Bible Wheel is not merely a symbolic seal on the whole. Each Letter has a meaning that is supernaturally integrated with dominant themes interwoven throughout the three Books on its corresponding Spoke. It is to this infinite depth of Divine Wisdom we now shall turn (in chapter five of the Bible Wheel book).

The Tri-Radiant Cruciform Halo as the Sign of Deity

The symbol of the tri-radiant halo has been used specifically to identify Christ in Christian Art for at least fifteen hundred years. This article further explores its relation to the structure of Scripture, and reviews its explicit appearance as a halo with only three arms.

The Tri-Radiant Halo as the Sign of Deity

Christ the Judge by Fra Angelico (1447 AD)

For we must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ; that every one may receive the things done in his body, according to that he hath done, whether it be good or bad.

2 Corinthians 5:10

The Canon Wheel

One of the most amazing things about the Canon Wheel is that it was prophetically anticipated in Christian art some fourteen hundred years before I discovered it in 1999 (four years after I discovered the Bible Wheel). The tri-radiant cruciform halo is the oldest, and now most common, sign of deity found in Christian iconography. It dates back to at least the sixth century AD. The form of the halo anticipated the structure of the Canon Wheel, which means that this iconographic pattern simultaneously points to Jesus Christ as the Living Word of God who “became flesh and dwelt amongst us” as a man (John 1:14), and to the Holy Bible as the Written Word of God that now is revealed as designed by God in the form of the Wheel.

Celtic Cross

Traditional Icon of Christ

The cruciform halo probably originated with the union of the Circle and Cross in figures like the the Celtic Cross. The two symbols were combined to signify the universal nature (Circle) of the central fact of the Gospel – Jesus Christ and Him crucified (Cross). When adapted for use as the halo in icons of Christ, only three arms could be seen because the fourth was obscured by the head. This fortuitous “accident” allowed the artist to simultaneously express two additional fundamental and interelated Christian doctrines in a single figure. The Doctrine of the Trinity is echoed in the three arms, or rays of light as they often are represented, and the Deity of Christ is explicity expressed in the inscription of the three Greek letters Ο ωΝ that spell Ho On, the translation of “I AM” found in the Septuagint version of Exodus 3:14. This means that five fundamental Christian Doctrines are symbolically expressed in this simple iconic pattern:

The Cross declares how Christ saved us.

The Circle teaches that he is the saviour of the whole world.

The Three Arms recall the Doctrine of the Trinity.

The Three Letters on the Three Arms declare the Deity of Christ, that He is the I AM of Exodus 3:14.

The Human Face teaches the Doctrine of the Incarnation, that God became man

Icon from

These theological truths, taught in symbol and form, carry over directly to the structure of the Bible as revealed in the Canon Wheel, which now is recognized as nothing less than a divine icon of the Christian Faith taught within its own pages! The degree of precision in this iconographic prophecy is truly astounding because it explicitly anticipated the tri-radiant pattern of the Canon Wheel, as seen in the icon of Christ as He lifted His head in prayer to the Father in Gethsemane. Historically, there has been some ambiguity as to the number of arms because early Christian art always drew the figure so that the fourth arm (if it existed) was hidden by the head and neck. But given the pressure to actualize the profound theological truths listed above – the twin doctrines of the Trinity and the Deity of Christ – it seems inevitable that the iconographers, had they not begun with it, would have been driven to draw an explicitly three-armed crucifom halo.

Icon from St. Clement’s Church (1295 AD)

The oldest example that I have found of this pattern is in a fresco made in the year 1295 AD for St. Clement’s Church in Ochrid, Macedonia. It can be viewed here . It seems that the cruciform halo with three (and only three) arms explicitly shown has become the standard used in Orthodox representations of Christ’s prayer in the garden. The three-armed cross may have been the original form since the earliest Christian description of the Cross is that of the three-armed Greek Tau (T) rather than the four-armed Latin Cross. This is found in the The Epistle of Barnabus  from the late first or early second century (section 9:7-8):

Learn fully then, children of love, concerning all things, for Abraham, who first circumcised, did so looking forward in the spirit to Jesus, and had received the doctrines of three letters. For it says, “And Abraham circumcised from his household eighteen men and three hundred.” What then was the knowledge that was given to him? Notice that he first mentions the eighteen, and after a pause the three hundred. The eighteen is I (=ten) and H (=8) — you have [the first two letters of] Jesus — and because the cross was destined to have grace in the T he says “and three hundred.” So he indicates Jesus in the two letters and the cross in the other.

The “T” spoken of here is identified as the Greek Tau since that letter has the numeric value of 300, whereas the corresponding Hebrew Tav has the value 400, and the Latin “T” has no numeric value at all. As an aside, this quote is a good example of how early Christians used the art and science of gematria as a homiletic tool from the earliest times. Indeed, it is used explicitly in Scritpure itself by the Apostle John in Revelation 13:18. The modern aversion to the study of numbers in Scripture is an unfortunate anomaly that is grossly out of harmony with essentially all historical Christian theology. It arose when theologians began to capitulate to the radical atheistic naturalism that rode on the coat-tails of Seventeenth Century scientific enlightment that was actually the child born of the Christian “Logos-based” world-view.

The use of symmetry, number, geometry, and color to form artistic repesentations of profound theological truths has been practiced since the earliest times in the Church. It is formalized in the practice of Christian iconography  as explained in this online article from the Columbia Encyclopedia:

A long series of evolutionary stages unfolds in the representation of a given person or scene from the art of the catacombs to that of the Gothic cathedrals. Thus the art of the Middle Ages is above all a kind of sacred writing whose system of characters, i.e., the iconography, had to be learned by every artist. It was governed also by a kind of sacred mathematics, in which position, grouping, symmetry, and number were of extraordinary importance and were themselves an integral part of the iconography.

From earliest times Christian iconography has likewise been a symbolic code, showing the faithful one thing and inviting them to see in it the figure of another. Some examples are: the dove, which figures the Holy Spirit; the fish, symbol of Christ, from the Greek icthus, an anagram for Jesus Christ, Son of God, Savior; the monkey or reptile as symbol of evil; and the bowl or pitcher of water and the vase of lilies that signify the Virgin’s purity in the Annunciation scene. In Christian art, form is thus the vehicle of spiritual meaning; in the expression and reading of this meaning lies the essence of Christian iconography.

The tri-radiant cruciform halo is used only to represent a person of the Trinity. Its most frequently signifies Christ, but is also used to signify God the Father and God the Holy Spirit:

Given the confluence of theologically profound symbols, simple beauty, sevenfold symmetric perfection, and extremely low a priori probability that such a pattern could arise by chance, no conclusion could be drawn but that the ancient Christian iconic form discovered in the Canon Wheel must have been designed by God Himself and accomplished through men inspired by His Holy Spirit.

The Eternal Circle and the Geometry of the Bible

The Circle is universally recognized as uniquely qualified to represent things divine and eternal. It manifests in the Halo – the ubiquitous sign of holiness and divinity found throughout Christian Art. It is inconceivable that any other form could serve as a better basis for the geometric structure of God’s Word. The Circle is an optimal design. Its infinite symmetry leaves it without peer. Its integration with the 22 symbols of the Hebrew alphabet, encoded by God in the Alphabetic Verses of the Bible, unites the simplicity of the Circle with the infinite richness and complexity of Language.

The Eternal Circle

Have ye not known? have ye not heard? hath it not been told you from the beginning? have ye not understood from the foundations of the earth? It is he that sitteth upon the circle of the earth, and the inhabitants thereof are as grasshoppers; that stretcheth out the heavens as a curtain, and spreadeth them out as a tent to dwell in.

Isaiah 40:22

The Ancient of Days – William Blake –

The most striking characteristic of the Wheel is that it forms a perfect Circle which visually displays the full integrity of the Canon of Scripture. Beyond this most obvious point, there are numerous reasons God chose the Circle as the figure upon which he would engrave his everlasting Word. Our Creator is the Author of reason, beauty, love and logic. It goes without saying that there is none more creative, intelligent or artistic than the God who made us! Indeed, the title of the Lord Jesus Christ as the Word, or Logos, of God signifies that in him dwells the sum total of all wisdom, understanding, science, and art, whether it be natural or divine. “For by him were all things created, that are in heaven, and that are in earth, visible and invisible, whether they be thrones, or dominions, or principalities, or powers: all things were created by him, and for him.” The Logos, then, is He Who articulates the Mind of God, and by Him all is created, as it is written, “In the beginning was the Word (Logos), and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. … All things were made by him; and without him was not any thing made that was made.”

Greek Icon of Christ

As the Divine Artist, God recognizes the Circle as the ideal symbol of “things eternal.” In concert with this heavenly thought, mortal artists have throughout the ages used the Circle in religious art. It appears in the glorious rainbow roundabout God’s throne, in the radiant halos above the heads of his saints, and even as a symbol of the very act of creation when God “placed a compass upon the face of the depth.” No other figure expresses with such simple elegance the ideas of wholeness, completion, and perfection.

The significance of the cirular form of the Bible Wheel is greatly amplified by the threefold cruciform symmetry discovered in the Canon Wheel which is essentially identical to the halo used in traditional Christian Iconography to indicated Deity. The correspondence is too simple and striking to think it anything but the product of Divine Inspiration. This is discussed at length in Art, Theology, and Prophecy.

As the Divine Mathematician, God delights in the form of the Circle because it possesses significant properties found in no other two-dimensional object. It is the most compact, meaning that the ratio of the perimeter to the area is less than any other figure. The Wheel, therefore, is the most compact two-dimensional representation conceivable in which the Bible may be geometrically integrated with the Hebrew alphabet. This follows the same principle God the Divine Physicist used when he designed the laws governing the motion of objects. Indeed, the profound dependence of Physics upon Symmetry is the basis of A. Zee’s excellent book Fearful Symmetry which I discuss in the Research and Reviews section.

The Circle is unique amongst all two-dimensional objects in that it, and it alone, is infinitely symmetric. Any two-dimensional figure has a degree of symmetry that can be measured by its behavior under rotation. An equilateral triangle, when rotated about its center, returns to its original orientation only when the angle is a multiple of 120 degrees, or one third of the Circle. It has, therefore, a three-fold symmetry. Likewise, a square returns to its original orientation only when the angle is a multiple of 90 degrees, or one fourth of the Circle. It has a four-fold symmetry. In general, a regular polygon with “n” sides will have an n-fold symmetry. Here are three simple objects that exemplify these ideas, a circle, a square, and a rectangle:

Most objects are not symmetric at all, and of all that are symmetric, the degree of symmetry is always finite, except in the unique case of the Circle which can be rotated through any angle with no variation in form. It is, therefore, a natural analog of the relation between God, “with whom is no variableness, neither shadow of turning”, and everything else in his creation. It is He, and He alone that is infinite and unchanging, as it is written, “For I am the LORD, I change not,” and again, “Jesus Christ the same yesterday, and to day, and for ever.” Thus, the spiritual significance of the Circle as the most excellent symbol of things divine is impossible to miss and to behold “the word of God, which liveth and abideth for ever” to be supernaturally structured on this eternal pattern strikes the mind that has faith to see as nothing less than an immutable miracle, endlessly ablaze.

Art, Theology, and Prophecy

The symbol of the tri-radiant halo has been used specifically to identify Christ in Christian Art for at least fifteen hundred years. The geometric structure of God’s Word simultaneously proclaims the central message – the Deity of the Lord Jesus Christ – and the divine origin of all Scripture. It is a blazing beacon beckoning all who are in darkness to repent and turn to God.

The integration of the Numbers 3 and 7 is extremely strong here. The Wheel has 3 Cycles divided into 7 canonical divisions by 3 radii. These Numbers are highly symbolic in Scripture, and both are deeply related to Deity. The Number 3 relates most strongly to the Trinity, and the Number 7 to Completion and Perfection – with a strong emphasis on the idea of Coventant, Promise, and Scripture, as explained in Seven and Scripture. This then manifests in the Menorah below. These ideas are also integrated with the fractal Star of Creation representation of the prime number 373 – the Logos Star.

Art, Theology, and Prophecy

[Jesus Christ] is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn of every creature: For by him were all things created, that are in heaven, and that are in earth, visible and invisible, whether they be thrones, or dominions, or principalities, or powers: all things were created by him, and for him: And he is before all things, and by him all things consist.

Colossians 1.15f

The image above is a simple combination of the stained glass Canon Wheel and the 13th century icon of Christ Pantocrator (Ruler of All) found in the Church of Hagia Sophia  (Holy Wisdom). In principle, it could have been found in any church during the last fifteen hundred years since all the elements have been in place since then. Similar images abound in traditional Christian iconography. The image represents the ultimate union of Art, Theology, and Prophecy: it appears to be a prophetic revelation of the the geometric integration of God’s Word with the doctrine of the Trinity through ancient Christian art. The blazing implications of this discovery are the subject of this page. A similar phenomenon amnifests in the integration of the Bible with the Menorah and the Shema with the Shield of the Blessed Trinity

Christian Art begins and ends in our infinitely creative Creator – the Lord Jesus Christ in whom “dwelleth all the fulness of the Godhead bodily” (Colossians 2.9). He is the perfection of Beauty, Knowledge and Wisdom. Scripture knows no limit to the wonders of His glorious Work. Psalm 145 is a good example:

Great is the LORD, and greatly to be praised; and his greatness is unsearchable. One generation shall praise thy works to another, and shall declare thy mighty acts. I will speak of the glorious honour of thy majesty, and of thy wondrous works.

The Glorification of God – which is intimately integrated with concepts like Beauty, Simplicity, and Grace – is the purpose of all creation. It coincides with the personal prayer of my life, given to me as word from the Lord many years ago. In Psalm 27 we read:

One thing have I desired of the LORD, that will I seek after; that I may dwell in the house of the LORD all the days of my life, to behold the beauty of the LORD, and to enquire in his temple.

We discover the beauty of the Lord as we enquire in His Holy Word. This is the message conveyed in the image above which is the union of the ancient icon of Christ Pantocrator (Ruler of All) with the geometric representation of God’s Word in the form of the Wheel. It symbolically answers the question “What do we see when all Scripture is united as one?” The answer is, of course, nothing if not “the face of our Lord Jesus Christ.” Yet this is but the beginning of wonders.

The icon used as the basis of the image above is from the Church of Hagia Sophia (Holy Wisdom). It was produced around 1260 AD. Its title “Christ Pantocrator” is from Revelation 1.8, where the word Pantocrator is translated as Almighty:

I am Alpha and Omega, the beginning and the ending, saith the Lord, which is, and which was, and which is to come, the Almighty [Pantocrator].

True Christian Art is sanctified theological art. It represents spiritual rather than physical realities. Icons of Christ are understood as symbols of Christian Doctrine, not as mundane renderings of what Christ physically looked like. The intent is to provide a “window into heaven” – a symbol that teaches spiritual truths of the Christian Faith. This coheres with the nature of Christ who is Himself the “image of God” (Ikon Theou – cf. GR 1369) (Colossians 1.15), and with His ordinal position as the Second Person of the Godhead and the associated concepts relating to the Number 2 such as Duality, Image, and Reflection (cf. [Spoke 2] > The Dividing Line). It is through Christ that we come to know God (John 1.18).

Threefold Cruciform Halo and the Geometry of the Bible

The oldest existing icon of Christ Pantocrator dates from the Sixth Century. It is one of the earliest pieces of Christian Art in existence. It always contains three fundamental elements:

A Tri-radiant Halo: The halo always has three rays as a reference to the Trinity. It is never used for anyone but a member of the Trinity.

Right hand raised in Priestly Blessing: The position of the fingers typically spell the initials of Jesus Christ in Greek.

Left hand holding a book of Holy Scripture.

The tri-radiant halo has been used for at least fifteen centuries to represent Deity. It usually identifies Christ, but may also be used to represent any one of the members of the Holy Trinity. It is never used for anyone else. It appears behind the head of the descending dove when used to represent the Holy Spirit and with a “Hand of God” when representing God the Father (further details may be found on this Lutheran site  or this Wesleyan site .

The halo is almost always shown with three rays even when it is positioned so as to allow a fourth to be seen if it were there. The same form is used in the Cross Triumphant, also known as the “Cross and Orb”, which represents the Victory of Christ over the World (John 16.33). This also is an ancient Christian symbol found in images from a thousand years ago.

This means that this tri-radiant structure, which has been used to denote Deity for at least fifteen hundred years, is isomorphic (iso = same, morph = form) to the intrinsic geometric structure of the Holy Bible. The implications are overwhelming: The geometric structure of the Bible is itself an Icon of the Faith, designed by the Ultimate Designer, God Himself! Note in particular that the tri-radiant form, which for the icons could be thought to be “invented” by humans because of their belief in the Trinity, has been discovered after nearly two millennia in the structure of the Bible and so has emerged independently of any human tampering. It must be understood as the Work of God, which, in light of the significance of the Trinity, bears extreme theological weight.

Yet there is more. The icon of Christ Pantocrator always shows him holding a book of Holy Scripture, so He Himself is the Word, He is holding an book representing the Word, and His halo now is recognized as revealing the geometric structure of His Word. This is the awesome wonder of the divine revelation mediated through sanctified Christian art.

Yet there is still more. Many icons of Christ Pantocrator contain the letters Omicron Omega Nu which spell Ho On (The Being, or I AM) which is used in the Septuagintal version of Exodus 3.14 (I AM THAT I AM) and also Revelation 1.8 translated as “which is” meaning “He who is”:

I am Alpha and Omega, the beginning and the ending, saith the Lord, which is, and which was, and which is to come, the Almighty [Pantocrator].

Here is a typical modern icon with all these elements:

The book is open, revealing the letters Alpha and Omega, which are now known to be numerically equivalent to the Greek phrase Ho Ktisas (The Creator – cf. GR 801). These letters correspond to the Hebrew Aleph and Tav which govern the overall structure of Scripture, which is now recognized as Christ’s halo. The red words across the center spell Christos Pantocrator.

Transfiguration of Christ and the Geometry of the Bible

Below is the detail from the top of a 14th century icon of the transfiguration of Christ. It displays the two fundamental geometric structures of the Bible Wheel: 1) Christ stands in the center of the three concentric circles which coincide with the Three Cycles of the Bible Wheel, and 2) the cruciform halo represents the sevenfold symmetry of the Canon Wheel.

The figures on the right and left are Moses and Elijah, representing the Law and the Prophets. This corresponds to the first two books on Spoke 1 of the Wheel: Genesis (first book of the Law) and Isaiah (first book of the Prophets). Thus, we have three primary aspects of the structure of Scripture represented in this icon:

The threefold cruciform structure of the Canon Wheel

The three concentric circles representing the three Cycles

The two primary divisions of the Law and the Prophets

Prophetic Theological Art

Christian Tradition holds that true religious icons are the product of divine inspiration. It seems impossible to explain the correspondence between these ancient icons of Christ – whose name is called the Word of God – with the geometric form of the Holy Bible in any other way. And besides – what a glory it is to behold! The power of God’s revelation is absolutely overwhelming, filling the soul with a witness unlike anything ever seen in the history of the world. This is the highest Art – the geometric representation of the Bible supernaturally integrates both with the divine Menorah representing God’s Eternal Light and the Eternal Circle representing His unchanging perfection. Is there an end to such glory?

And as a final note, who could fail to recognize that the prophetic icon of Christ Pantocrator points to the end of the age when Christ will “put all enemies under his feet?” We read (1 Corinthians 15):

For as in Adam all die, even so in Christ shall all be made alive. But every man in his own order: Christ the firstfruits; afterward they that are Christ’s at his coming. Then cometh the end, when he shall have delivered up the kingdom to God, even the Father; when he shall have put down all rule and all authority and power. For he must reign, till he hath put all enemies under his feet. The last enemy that shall be destroyed is death. For he hath put all things under his feet. But when he saith all things are put under him, it is manifest that he is excepted, which did put all things under him. And when all things shall be subdued unto him, then shall the Son also himself be subject unto him that put all things under him, that God may be all in all.

This is the prophetic implication of the Bible revealed in the form of a perfect Circle – we have come full circle to the end of the age. God has revealed the complete perfection of His Holy Word. Oh! What joy to know we shall soon see His Holy Face!

Artistic Applications of the Bible Wheel

This page displays a collection of artistic applications of the Bible Wheel. The wonder of it all is how the Bible Wheel integrates with traditional Christian iconography with such simplicity, clarity, and beauty.

Artistic Applications of the Bible Wheel

One thing have I desired of the LORD, that will I seek after; that I may dwell in the house of the LORD all the days of my life, to behold the beauty of the LORD, and to enquire in his temple.

Psalm 27:4

Adaptation of Christ Pantocrator

Original icon

The icon used as the basis of the image above is from the Church of Hagia Sophia (Holy Wisdom). It was produced around 1260 AD. Its title “Christ Pantocrator” is from Revelation 1:8, where the word Pantocrator is translated as Almighty:

I am Alpha and Omega, the beginning and the ending, saith the Lord, which is, and which was, and which is to come, the Almighty [Pantocrator].

The wonderful thing about this icon is that it expresses the deep theological truth of the Divinity of Christ and the meaning of Alpha Omega (represented here with the Hebrew Aleph Tav) by the all-encompassing circle. My adaptation of the same icon where I use the stained glass Canon Wheel can be seen in my article on Art, Theology, and Prophecy. Note that the icon uses the abreviations IC and XC for IHSOUC (Jesus) and XRISTOC (Christ). This style of writing the Divine Names by using only the first and last letters follows the pattern of Alpha Omega and Aleph Tav. This form is found in many early Greek manuscripts of the New Testament. Chuck Missler gives some good insight into this form of shorthand called the nomina sacra .

In my adaptation, which required transforming the icon to black and white for the Bible Wheel book (pg 92), I highlighted the three bars that constitute the tri-radiant halo. The result is striking; the three bars, which were pretty broad in the original piece, enlighten the three Spokes that are divided by the three pairs of divisions:

Spokes 1 & 22 (Aleph & Tav)

Spokes 5 & 6 (Hey & Vav)

Spokes 17 & 18 (Pey & Tzaddi)

These paired divisions follow exactly the same pattern as the paired Days of Creation, and both are represented by the paired branches of the Menorah which was designed by God Himself (Exo 25:40)! This means that we have a (super)natural artistic integration of the entire Word of God with the Menorah via the Bible Wheel! And it all integrates with the Word of Creation recorded in the first chapter of Genesis! This is explained in detail in my article called The Sevenfold Light of God’s Word.

Zechariah’s Vision of the Entire Bible

And the angel that talked with me came again, and waked me, as a man that is wakened out of his sleep, And said unto me, What seest thou? And I said, I have looked, and behold a candlestick all of gold, with a bowl upon the top of it, and his seven lamps thereon, and seven pipes to the seven lamps, which are upon the top thereof: And two olive trees by it, one upon the right side of the bowl, and the other upon the left side thereof. So I answered and spake to the angel that talked with me, saying, What are these, my lord? Then the angel that talked with me answered and said unto me, Knowest thou not what these be? And I said, No, my lord. Then he answered and spake unto me, saying, This is the word of the LORD unto Zerubbabel, saying, Not by might, nor by power, but by my spirit, saith the LORD of hosts.

Zechariah 4:1-6

In Hebrew, the “bowl” is called a “gullah” which is a pun on the word for a “revealer” or “revelation.” It is cognate with galgal – the Hebrew word for a “wheel.” The “seven pipes” correspond to the seven canonical divisions that generate the sevenfold symmetry of the Canon Wheel. This is all explained in the Divine Seal and Capstone article.

The Holy Bible as God’s Signet Ring

In that day, saith the LORD of hosts, will I take thee, O Zerubbabel, my servant, the son of Shealtiel, saith the LORD, and will make thee as a signet: for I have chosen thee, saith the LORD of hosts.

Haggai 2.3

Throughout history, kings and other governing authorities have made signet rings to proclaim their identity, signify their authority, and validate the content of their official documents declaring their laws, judgments, and commandments. The seals were typically set in a signet ring that would be pressed in soft clay or wax. When the clay or wax hardened, the signet’s impression could not be changed. The various uses of seals and signets are exemplified in many Scriptures, such as Esther 8.8, which emphasizes three fundamental aspects of the King’s Seal: 1) Identity, 2) Authority, and 3) Immutability … [read more …]

Bible Wheel Medalion

Set me as a seal upon thine heart, as a seal upon thine arm: for love is strong as death; jealousy is cruel as the grave: the coals thereof are coals of fire, which hath a most vehement flame.

Song of Solomon 8:6

Here is a picture of the Bible Wheel Medalion that my wife Rose made. It has 66 stones set in solid silver. Its really amazing to be able to wear the Bible as a piece of Divinely Designed Theological Art. Many folks comment on how beautiful it is without having any idea about what it really represents – the Book sealed with seven seals! The Eternal Word of God, sealed with utter perfection from Aleph to Tav, from Beginning to End! I’m looking for a company that will reproduce them for a reasonable price. It takes Rose about five hours to make one and its pretty tedius setting all those tiny stones, so I can’t offer them for sale yet.

 

Adaptation of “Christ the Geometer” from the Bible Moralisee

I was set up from everlasting, from the beginning, or ever the earth was. When there were no depths, I was brought forth; when there were no fountains abounding with water. Before the mountains were settled, before the hills was I brought forth: While as yet he had not made the earth, nor the fields, nor the highest part of the dust of the world. When he prepared the heavens, I was there: when he set a compass upon the face of the depth:

Proverbs 8:23-27

Original icon

We have in this adaptation a convergence of many theologically significant themes. The ancient icon pictured Christ with the tri-radiant halo which is reflected in the structure of His Word which He is designing with the compass. In the original, He was placing His compass “on the face of the depths” to create the world. So we have an overlap of His Word of Creation and His Act of Creation, and a self-similarity between the ancient prophetic iconic form that represents Deity (tri-radiant halo) with the image of His Word.

 

 

 

Stained Glass Renditions of the Bible Wheel

All thy works shall praise thee, O LORD; and thy saints shall bless thee. They shall speak of the glory of thy kingdom, and talk of thy power; To make known to the sons of men his mighty acts, and the glorious majesty of his kingdom.

Psalm 145:10-12

Stained Glass Canon Wheel Cross

Stained glass has been used in Christian Churches throughout most of its history. The beauty of it is that the effect changes with the ambient light. The photograph above was caught nere sunset to give the sense of the Bible Wheel “shining in the darkness.” You can see how it changes with various lightings here. The tri-radiant design of the Bible Wheel naturally extends to form a cross so that the geometric structure of the Bible inevitably returns us to the central message of all Scritpure, Jesus Christ and Him crucified (1 Cor 2:2). Extending the three rays inward yields a cross in the center, as above, whereas extending them outword yields a variation on the Celtic Cross. [See For Glory and for Beauty]

 

 

The Spiral Galaxies, Spiral Sealife, and God’s Living Word

The heavens declare the glory of God; and the firmament sheweth his handywork.

Psalm 19:1

The Bible Wheel naturally lends itself to wonderful artistic expressions that point to the glory of what God has done in His Holy Word. I made the image below for the back of the Bible Wheel book, but later opted for a different image that showed the completed Bible Wheel.

In the image above, I was hoping to offer a vision of the unity of God’s design in everything He created, from spiral galaxies to spiral seashells (based on spirals of DNA), to the structure of His Holy Word.

 

There’s a Bible Wheel on the Rise

For, behold, the day cometh, that shall burn as an oven; and all the proud, yea, and all that do wickedly, shall be stubble: and the day that cometh shall burn them up, saith the LORD of hosts, that it shall leave them neither root nor branch. But unto you that fear my name shall the Sun of righteousness arise with healing in his wings; and ye shall go forth, and grow up as calves of the stall. And ye shall tread down the wicked; for they shall be ashes under the soles of your feet in the day that I shall do this, saith the LORD of hosts.

Malachi 4:1ff

 

Big Bible Wheel Tricycle

And said, Verily I say unto you, Except ye be converted, and become as little children, ye shall not enter into the kingdom of heaven. Whosoever therefore shall humble himself as this little child, the same is greatest in the kingdom of heaven. 5 ¶ And whoso shall receive one such little child in my name receiveth me.

Matthew 18:3-5

I was arguing with a very rude atheist on an internet forum back in 2004 and he began mocking me as they usually do when they can’t refute the Bible Wheel with logic and facts. Then one day he thought he would mock me some more by posting a picture of a Big Wheel Tricyle, as if it had something to do with the Bible Wheel. So I took it as inspiration and produced this little piece of art. He actually liked it quite a bit, and it did loosen up the conversation some and gave me a chance to preach the Gospel. Its important that we don’t take ourselves too seriously.

The Bible as Menorah

The sevefold symmetric perfection of the Canon Wheel corresponds directly with the sevenfold Menorah which was designed by God Himself in Exodus 25. The fact that it was designed by God, and that the Bible integrates with it perfectly is an extremely strong witness to the artistry of God. Indeed, His Word is a “lamp unto my feet!” Note also that the bilateral symmetry of the Menorah divides it into 3 pairs of branchs with the 7th in the center. And that there are 22 bowls. This is another expression of the unity of the numbers 3, 7 and 22 that govern the structure of the Bible Wheel.

The Bible as Menorah

And thou shalt make a candlestick of pure gold: of beaten work shall the candlestick be made: his shaft, and his branches, his bowls, his knops, and his flowers, shall be of the same. And six branches shall come out of the sides of it; three branches of the candlestick out of the one side, and three branches of the candlestick out of the other side:

Exodus 25.31f

Throughout the ages the Menorah has been understood to represent the everlasting light of God’s self-revelation. This coincides with the Christian understanding of the purpose and function of God’s eternal Word. After all, His first words were “Let there be light!” The Wheel reveals the unity of these two great lights. The sevenfold structure of the Biblical Canon perfectly integrates with the sevenfold form of the Menorah. The radial symmetry of the Canon Wheel manifests in the symmetric distribution of books on the branches. Click the image to view a larger version.

The Hebrew letters running down the center column represent the number of books on the corresponding branches. The letters are:

Tav:	22nd letter
Heh:	5th letter
Lamed:	12th letter
Heh:	5th letter

When read as a word, these letters spell “Tehilah”, which means PRAISE! The plural form is Tehilim, which is the Hebrew name of the Book of Psalms.

Tehilah is a Tav KeyWord that God used in the last verse of the last alphabetic Psalm, Psalm 145.21:

My mouth shall speak the praise of the LORD: and let all flesh bless his holy name for ever and ever.

The actual Hebrew reads “Tehilet (the praises of) YHVH (the Lord) y’dabar (shall speak) pei (my mouth).” Tehilet is the construct form of Tehilah.

The verses describing the design of the Menorah specify that there are to be three bowls on each of the six branches, and four on the center column:

Three bowls made like unto almonds, with a knop and a flower in one branch; and three bowls made like almonds in the other branch, with a knop and a flower: so in the six branches that come out of the candlestick. And in the candlestick shall be four bowls made like unto almonds, with their knops and their flowers.

The total number of bowls is therefore:

3 x 6 + 4 = 22

These bowls naturally correspond to the 22 Hebrew letters, the containers (delimiters) of God’s creative impulse.

Historically, there has been some confusion as to how to design these 22 bowls and the six branches. The image to the right shows how Moses Maimonides understood the divine pattern for the Menorah. In his understanding the bowls were supposed to be pointing down to represent the outpouring of the Wisdom of God. Others believe they should be upright, which is how I represented them in the image at the top.

The ramifications of this divinely ordained pattern are endless. The Numbers 3, 7, and 22, which figure prominently in the design, are also prominent in the design of the Bible in the form of the Wheel with its 3 Cycles, 7 Canonical Divisions, and 22 Spokes! Endless wonder and beauty! Praise the Lord who has given us His Holy Word!

Yet there is still more. Each side branch has three sets of three items – three bowls, each with a “knop” and a “flower.” The central branch has four sets of the same three items. Thus, the numerical arrangement of these decorations follow a symmetric pattern on the seven branches:

9 + 9 + 9 + 12 + 9 + 9 + 9

The number of these “decorations” sums to 66, the number of books in the Bible. Furthermore, the sum subdivides into the sum of the first four (9 + 9 + 9 + 9 + 12 = 39) and the last three (9 + 9 + 9 = 27) to give the number of books in the Old and New Testaments. Putting it all together, we see that the Bible and the Menorah have a large set of structural numbers in common:

7 Branches [Canonical Divisions] symmetrically displayed

3 Branches [Canonical Divisions] are paired, with one set apart.

22 Bowls [Hebrew Letters]

66 Decorations [Books] that subdivide into groups of 39 and 27

Given the fact that God calls His Word a “Lamp”, and that He designed the Menorah Himself, there can be no conclusion but that the Menorah was designed as a prophecy of the completed structure of His Word in the form of the Wheel, fully integrated with the 22 Hebrew letters.

The structure of the Menorah also integrates with axis of the Wheel, with the Tav on the central pillar referring back, yet again, to the Crucifixion. Taking just the distinct letters from the central column yields the Tav KeyWord (Talah, to hang). God used this word to describe the crucifixion of the Lord Jesus Christ when He gave this command in Deuteronomy 21:22f

And if a man have committed a sin worthy of death, and he be to be put to death, and thou hang him on a tree: His body shall not remain all night upon the tree, but thou shalt in any wise bury him that day; (for he that is hanged is accursed of God;) that thy land be not defiled, which the LORD thy God giveth thee for an inheritance.

We know that this applies to the crucifixion because Paul quoted it in reference to Christ in Galations 3.13. Thus we see how the Menorah – designed by God Himself more than a thousand years before Christ was born – points to that one event that defines what the Bible is really all about and reveals how this is the source and essence of the great light of the Gospel.

The word Tehilah also intgrates with the numerical weight of another Tav KeyWord – (Tawm) which means perfect, complete, done, or accomplished. It is used in the latter sense in the acrostic verses of Lamentations 4 (verse 22):

The punishment of thine iniquity is accomplished, O daughter of Zion; he will no more carry thee away into captivity: he will visit thine iniquity, O daughter of Edom; he will discover thy sins.

We have the identity:

(Tehilah, Praise) = 440 = (Tawm, Perfect)

Note that 440 (= 20 x 22) is a multiple of the Key Number 22. These two ideas are united in the words of the Lord Jesus (Matthew 21.16):

And said unto him, Hearest thou what these say? And Jesus saith unto them, Yea; have ye never read, Out of the mouth of babes and sucklings thou hast perfected praise?

And so we can see a little of God’s infinite Wisdom displayed in the integrated Bible/Menorah, and how all of this reveals the light of salvation through the crucifixion of our Lord Jesus Christ. What a wonder it is to see the Gospel adorned with such beauty and grace! Praise His Holy Name!

The Sevenfold Light of God’s Word

And thou shalt make a candlestick of pure gold: of beaten work shall the candlestick be made: his shaft, and his branches, his bowls, his knops, and his flowers, shall be of the same. And six branches shall come out of the sides of it; three branches of the candlestick out of the one side, and three branches of the candlestick out of the other side: … And thou shalt make the seven lamps thereof: and they shall light the lamps thereof, that they may give light over against it. … And look that thou make them after their pattern, which was shewed thee in the mount.

Exodus 25:31ff

The symbolic meaning of the Number Seven reaches its apex in the Menorah, the seven-branched candlestick designed by God Himself to be a perpetual light in His Tabernacle. The Lord emphasized its Divine origin when He twice instructed Moses to be sure to follow the pattern that He Himself revealed when they met for forty days on Mount Sinai (Exo 25:9, 40). Like the Seven Feasts, God designed the whole structure of the Tabernacle and its instruments as a prophetic picture of His Son, the Word of God who “became flesh, and dwelt (literally tabernacled) amongst us” (John 1:14). God instructed that two symbols of His Word – Manna and the Ten Commandments – be put in the Ark of the Covenant in the Holy of holies in the heart of the Tabernacle. Thus the “Word became flesh” in this symbol in anticipation of the incarnation of the Living Word, Jesus Christ, the True Tabernacle (John 2:21).

The Menorah stood before the vail covering the entrance to the Holy of Holies. It is a Divine symbol that unites the whole panoply of meanings of the Number Seven – fullness, completion, perfection, and holiness – with the idea of the Light of God’s Word. The perfect union of these ideas is astounding to behold. As with the Sabbath and the Number Seven itself, it begins in Genesis. The Menorah stands as an eternal memorial of the Seven Days when God created everything by the power of His Word and spoke His first command, “Let there be light.” And just as the Menorah is called the Lamp of God (1 Sam 3:3), so also is God’s Word twice referred to as a Lamp:

Thy word is a lamp unto my feet, and a light unto my path. …………………. Psalm 119:105

The commandment is a lamp; and the law is light.………………………………. Proverbs 6:23

These descriptions are more than mere metaphors, and the Menorah is more than a suggestive symbol of the Light of God’s Word; it actually displays the sevenfold symmetric perfection of the Canon Wheel. The image shows the seven canonical divisions numbered on the Canon Wheel and listed at the bottom in accordance with the Three Cycles. The Menorah displays the periodic radial symmetry of the Canon Wheel (Bible Wheel book, pg 33). Divisions that align on the same set of Spokes – 1/4, 2/5, 3/6 – are shown on paired branches, with the sequences listed in order towards the central lamp representing the New Testament Epistles (7th division). Like the Sign of Deity in Christian iconography (tri-radiant halo), this symbol of Divine Light revealed to Moses on Mount Sinai now appears as nothing less than another prophetic image of the Holy Word. The unity of these two symbols is as simple as it is obvious, as beautiful as it is profound. This correlation is a key to understanding how the Bible Wheel fulfills Ezekiel’s prophecies of the wheels within wheels.

Yet this is but the beginning of wonders. God used exactly the same sevenfold symmetry when He designed the Seven Days of Creation! The first Three Days correspond to the second Three Days; the First with the Fourth (1/4), the Second with the Fifth (2/5), and the Third with the Sixth (3/6). This pattern has been noted by numerous scholars, such as Scroggie, who also sees a hint of its structure in the phrase “formless and void” from Genesis 1:2. The first Three Days were Days of Formation that were empty and void until God filled them on the Three Days that followed. As shown in the table below, this is identical to the form of the Seven Divisions of the Canon Wheel. Both follow a 3+1 pattern with the same three pairs of numbered elements – 1/4, 2/5, 3/6 – and the Seventh Day/Division set apart by itself. This means that God prophetically set the pattern of the entire Bible, revealed now thousands of years later, in the creation account of Genesis 1! The numerical structures of the Word of Creation and of the Holy Bible are ONE. Both were designed symmetrically upon the Number Seven, and both exemplify the full set ideas associated with it. What prophecy! What Wisdom! How mighty are the Lord’s Works! This is the Wisdom by which God “founded the earth” (Prov 3:19) fulfilling Proverbs 9:1: “Wisdom hath builded her House [Word/Cosmos], she hath hewn out her seven pillars.”

Yet there is still more. There is a strong correlation between the thematic flow of the Seven Days with that of the Seven Divisions of the Bible. While a detailed analysis is beyond the scope of this section, a few highlights should make the correlation clear. The First Division is called the Torah (Law). This is not a human convention; the Bible itself frequently uses this name for the first Five Books as when Christ referred to the “law of Moses” (Luke 24:44) or when He said He came to fulfill, not to destroy “the law, or the prophets” (Matt 5:17). As noted above, the Bible declares that “the law (torah) is light” (Prov 6:23) and this corresponds exactly with the primary event of the First Day when God said “Let there be light.” Likewise, the Second Day is characterized by the division of the waters, and this marks the primary event initiating the Second Division, the Twelve OT History Books, when the waters of the Jordan river were “cut off” (divided like the Red Sea in the Second Book) and the children of Israel “passed over on dry ground” into the Promised Land (Joshua 3:17). The pattern continues with the Third Division, the Five Wisdom Books, corresponding to the Third Day when God created trees bearing fruit, for indeed Wisdom is a “tree of life” (Prov 3:18) and her fruit is “better than gold” (Prov 8:12).

The correlation becomes profoundly theological in the Sixth Division, the Five NT History Books, which record the primary event of the Incarnation when God became Man in Jesus Christ (Mat 1:23, John 1:14). This corresponds precisely with the Sixth Day when God created Man in His image! The parallel is both perfect and precise, and it recurs in many different aspects of the word (see the Synopsis of Spoke 6, Bible Wheel book, pg 206). Finally, the full flowering of the spiritual meaning of the Seventh Day unfolds in the Seventh Division of the Bible. The Twenty-Two Epistles are unique in that they alone contain the full and explicit revelation of the fundamental doctrine of salvation by grace through faith, and not by works. This characterizes the New Testament Epistles. The most famous is probably Ephesians 2:8f:

For by grace are ye saved through faith; and that not of yourselves: it is the gift of God: Not of works, lest any man should boast. For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus unto good works, which God hath before ordained that we should walk in them.

This is the clarion call of the Gospel taught in the Seventh Division; NO WORKS! We must rest in the finished Work of Christ! The correlation with the Seventh Day Sabbath could be no clearer. Thus we have a full integration of 1) the Days of Creation, 2) the Menorah, 3) the symbolic meaning of the Number Seven, 4) the geometric structure of the Holy Word, and 5) the fundamental Christian Doctrines of the Incarnation of God (with its implication of the Deity of Christ) and Salvation through Faith Alone!

Yet again we see the content of the text imprinted in its form! God engraved all these fundamental Christian doctrines, and countless others, in the very structure of the Holy Bible! Has ever such a wonder been seen in the history of the world? Yet for all this we have only just begun, for truly there are no limits to the glory of God’s Word!

Pure Light of God from Beginning to End

Moreover the light of the moon shall be as the light of the sun, and the light of the sun shall be sevenfold, as the light of seven days, in the day that the LORD bindeth up the breach of his people, and healeth the stroke of their wound.

Isaiah 30:26

The sevenfold light prophesied in the Book of Isaiah reiterates the connection between the Number Seven and Light that God established in His design of the Menorah. It is a symbol of the Divine Light that will shine in the New Jerusalem at the end of time when all the words of God are fulfilled, as declared in the Last Book of the Holy Bible (Rev 21:23):

And the city had no need of the sun, neither of the moon, to shine in it: for the glory of God did lighten it, and the Lamb is the light thereof.

And again in the last chapter of the Last Book (Rev 22:3ff):

And there shall be no more curse: but the throne of God and of the Lamb shall be in it; and his servants shall serve him: And they shall see his face [which shines as the sun, Rev 1:16]; and his name shall be in their foreheads. And there shall be no night there; and they need no candle, neither light of the sun; for the Lord God giveth them light: and they shall reign for ever and ever.

Isaiah’s revelation of the Sevenfold Light of God also hearkens back to the original Seven Days of Creation when God created everything by the Word of His Power (Heb 1:3) which is itself the essence and source of all Light, as it is written (John 1:1ff):

In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. The same was in the beginning with God. All things were made by him; and without him was not any thing made that was made. In him was life; and the life was the light of men. And the light shineth in darkness; and the darkness comprehended it not.

We have a perfect and complete union of the ideas of Creation, God’s Word, Light, and Life. The Bible begins with God’s first command, “Let there be light” (Gen 1:3) and ends with God Himself revealed as the Eternal Light of Heaven (Rev 22:5). As Orr noted above (BW book pg 41), “the end folds back on the beginning, and, when the whole is finished, we feel that here again, as in the primal creation, God has finished all his works, and behold, they are very good.” Yes, the Bible begins and ends with the Light of God, and yes indeed, it is very good! Amen.

The Bible Sealed with Seven Seals

And I turned to see the voice that spake with me. And being turned, I saw seven golden candlesticks; And in the midst of the seven candlesticks one like unto the Son of man, clothed with a garment down to the foot, and girt about the paps with a golden girdle. His head and his hairs were white like wool, as white as snow; and his eyes were as a flame of fire; And his feet like unto fine brass, as if they burned in a furnace; and his voice as the sound of many waters. And he had in his right hand seven stars: and out of his mouth went a sharp twoedged sword: and his countenance was as the sun shineth in his strength. And when I saw him, I fell at his feet as dead. And he laid his right hand upon me, saying unto me, Fear not; I am the first and the last: I am he that liveth, and was dead; and, behold, I am alive for ever-more, Amen; and have the keys of hell and of death.

Revelation 1:12ff

This brief review of the meaning of the Number Seven now brings us to the Capstone Book of the Holy Bible, sealed by God with the Seal of Seven. In perfect harmony with its plain and obvious symbolic meaning taught throughout His Word, God completed the Bible with a climaxing flourish of sevens seen nowhere else in all Scripture. Indeed, the Last Book is sometimes called the “Book of Sevens” because of its unique emphasis upon that number. The table shows many of its surface level appearances, but there also are subtle patterns of seven running throughout its text, such as the seven blessings given to the saints and sevenfold praise of the Lamb that was slain:

And I beheld, and I heard the voice of many angels round about the throne and the beasts and the elders: and the number of them was ten thousand times ten thousand, and thousands of thousands; Saying with a loud voice, Worthy is the Lamb that was slain to receive 1) power, and 2) riches, and 3) wisdom, and 4) strength, and 5) honour, and 6) glory, and 7) blessing.

Revelation 5:11ff

The Book of Revelation seals the Bible on multiple levels; indeed, the word seal itself appears more in Revelation than any other Book with whole chapters devoted to the opening of the book sealed with seven seals and the revelation of the “seal of the living God” that sealed 144,000 of His servants. It is here in the Last Book that God simultaneously applied the Number Seven as the seal of the whole Bible even as He explicitly united its symbolic meaning – completion and perfection – with the idea of a seal in the image of His Word as a book sealed with seven seals (Rev 5:1). These ideas are, of course, naturally coherent and once again we witness Divine Wisdom in action; God compounding and compacting multiple symbols into a single blazing Sign of the Divine Perfection of His Holy Word, all the while teaching everything to us with simple examples any child could understand.

In precise analogy with the Cross, the Number Seven is actually a double seal upon the Bible. In the section called “Sealed with the Sign of the Cross” (Bible Wheel book, pg 37) it was noted that the Cross seals the Bible in two fundamental ways; once in the tri-radiant cruciform symmetry of the whole and again on Spoke 22 corresponding to the Last Letter Tav (Cross). Exactly the same duality appears in God’s application of the Number Seven. The tri-radiant cruciform symmetry is formed by the seven canonical divisions, and the Last Book on the Last Spoke is itself sealed throughout with the Number Seven. This means that the Cross and the Number Seven unite to form a double double sealing of the whole Bible! This is a hint of what I mean when I say there is no end to the Glory of God’s Word. It is truly infinite! If only I had ten thousand tongues to declare the true depth of wonder of His Holy Revelation! I stand in awe with our Christian brother, the Apostle Paul:

O the depth of the riches both of the wisdom and knowledge of God! how unsearchable are his judgments, and his ways past finding out!

Romans 11:33

The Book of Sevens

Below are quotes from commentaries that discuss the meaning of the Number Seven and specifically mention Revelation as the “Book of Sevens”:

John MacAuthur’s Commentary on Revelation 

What is seven? Well you can go all the way back to the book of Genesis and find out. I’ll just read it to you. Genesis 2:3, “God blessed the seventh day and sanctified it because in it He rested from all His work which God had created and made.” If seven means nothing else, seven means it’s over. Seven is the number of completion. Seven is the number of fullness. And all the sevens in this book tell me that this is the completion. That’s why in 22, chapter 22 look at verses 18 and 19, “I testify to everyone who hears the words of the prophecy of this book, if anyone adds to them God shall add to him the plagues which are written in this book.” Don’t add to it. This is the book of sevens, this is the book of fullness, this is the end when God is finished.

Prophetic History of Christendom, by R. K. Campbell 

Surely there were more Assemblies in Asia than these seven that are before us in Revelation one through three. Why then were just these seven picked out by the Lord and messages sent to them? We shall see that Revelation is a book of sevens, the seven churches, the seven-sealed book, seven trumpets and seven vials of wrath. Seven is a complete number, and the different conditions found in these seven particular Assemblies in Asia present a complete prophetical view of seven distinct stages of the professing Church from the time of the apostle John to its end.

The Apocalypse: A Series of Special Lectures on the Revelation of Jesus  by Joseph Augustus Seiss (from Google books)

And the Apocalypse, which is the book of the consummation of all God’s dispensational dealings with mankind, is, above all a book of sevens. It consists of seven visions with the sevenfold ascription of glory to God and to the Lamb and discloses to us the seven Spirits of God, the seven candlesticks, the seven stars, seven lamps of fire, seven seals, seven horns, and seven eyes of the Lamb, seven angels with seven trumpets, seven thunders, seven heads of the beast, and seven crowns upon those heads, the seven plagues, seven vials, seven mountains, and seven regencies. And it is this book of sevens because it is the book of the fulness of everything of which it treats – the Trinity’s consummation of all divine dispensations. It is therefore the number of dispensational fulness. And whatever bears this number in the divine reckoning is full, complete, with nothing left out, and nothing of its own kind to be added.

Biblical Mathematics, by Evangelist, Ed F. Vallowe 

SEVEN times the Book of Life is mentioned in the Bible. The Book of Revelation is a Book of SEVENS. We have SEVEN churches, SEVEN seals, SEVEN Trumpets, SEVEN Personages, SEVEN vails (sic), SEVEN dooms, SEVEN new things. SEVEN SEVENS make up this Book . It is the COMPLETENESS of all things. Jesus said to “forgive SEVENTY times SEVEN” In other words, He is saying, “Keep on forgiving until you are complete.”

The Divine Seal and Capstone of God’s Word

The Lord said that He would take Zerubbabel and make him “as a signet” (Haggai 2.23). Then in the Book of Zechariah, the prophet is given “the Word of the Lord unto Zerubbabel” in the midst of a series of visions that prophesy the full structure of the Bible in the form of the Menorah, Two Olive Trees, and a Golden Bowl that corresponds to the Bible Wheel.

The Divine Seal and Capstone of God’s Word

And the LORD answered me, and said, Write the vision, and make it plain upon tables, that he may run that readeth it.

Habakkuk 2:2

To be true to God’s Word, the proclamation of the Gospel must shine as the noontime sun in a cloudless sky. The purity of the Gospel Truth is unlike anything seen in the history of the world. Nothing compares to the Work wrought by Christ upon the Cross. Precisely the same truth applies to the Holy Bible that bears the imprint of His Divine Seal.

Topics in this Article

The Holy Bible as God’s Signet

Sevenfold Symmetric Perfection

Sealed with the Cross

God’s Seal as Menorah

The Capstone of God’s Word

The Stone of Division

Zechariah’s Prophetic Vision of the Whole Bible

The Lord Jesus Christ is the Alpha and the Omega, the First and the Last, the Beginning and the End. He is the Author and the Finisher of our Faith. He is the Foundation Stone upon which our Salvation and all Reality rests, the Capstone that completes the Work of God, and Keystone that holds all things together. He is the Mighty God manifest in the flesh, the Creator of All, the great I AM and the Prince of Peace. He is the Author of the Holy Bible which He sealed with a prophetic Capstone engraved with His Own Signet Ring of Twenty-two Hebrew Letters and Sevenfold Symmetric Perfection which is itself sealed with the Cross – – the very Sign and Seal of Almighty God. And all of this was given in a vision to the Prophet Zechariah over five hundred years before Christ was born.The Holy Bible as God’s Signet Ring

In that day, saith the LORD of hosts, will I take thee, O Zerubbabel, my servant, the son of Shealtiel, saith the LORD, and will make thee as a signet: for I have chosen thee, saith the LORD of hosts.

Haggai 2.3

Throughout history, kings and other governing authorities have made signet rings to proclaim their identity, signify their authority, and validate the content of their official documents declaring their laws, judgments, and commandments. The seals were typically set in a signet ring that would be pressed in soft clay or wax. When the clay or wax hardened, the signet’s impression could not be changed. The various uses of seals and signets are exemplified in many Scriptures, such as Esther 8.8, which emphasizes three fundamental aspects of the King’s Seal: 1) Identity, 2) Authority, and 3) Immutability:

Write ye also for the Jews, as it liketh you, in the king’s name, and seal it with the king’s ring: for the writing which is written in the king’s name, and sealed with the king’s ring, may no man reverse.

The Royal Signet is the King’s signature and symbolizes his authority. It is no surprise therefore that the King of kings has done the same thing in His design of His Holy Word, though the way He has done it surpasses every human effort as the light of the Sun surpasses that of a flickering candle. The Seal of God is embedded in the unchangeable structure of His everlasting Word. It is not like a seal that is merely impressed on a document, which could be forged. God’s Seal is different. He designed the entire Bible in the form of the Divine Seal that validates it. The impression can be neither changed nor removed. It is fully integrated with the document itself. Any attempt to tamper with God’s Bible by adding a Book, deleting a Book, or even changing the order of the Books immediately destroys the Divine Seal and is thereby exposed as a fraud.

Yet this is but the beginning. God designed the Seal itself upon the fundamental Biblical Seals He revealed in the plain text of Scripture. I’m talking about the Cross, the Number Seven, the Doctrine of the Trinity, and God’s self-revelation as the Alpha and Omega (expressed thought the Aleph and Tav of the Hebrew Alphabet). These are fundamental Christian symbols designed by God and embedded as a Divine Seal in the very structure of His everlasting Word.

Sevenfold Symmetric Perfection

For behold the stone that I have laid before Joshua; upon one stone shall be seven eyes: behold, I will engrave the graving thereof, saith the LORD of hosts, and I will remove the iniquity of that land in one day.

Zechariah 3.9

From the Seven Days of Genesis to the Seven Seals of Revelation, God has used the Number Seven as a kind of Seal upon His Word. This is a symbolic way of simultaneously declaring a whole set of integrated ideas such as Fullness, Perfection, Completion on the one hand, and fidelity to an Oath, Promise, or Vow on the other hand (cf. Seven and Scripture for an in-depth analysis).

The phrase “seven eyes” is often translated as “seven facets” suggesting a precious engraved gem. They naturally correspond to the seven canonical divisions of the Canon Wheel. Traditionally, they have been seen as symbolic of God’s Omniscience. Indeed, they are identified as the “eyes of the Lord” in the next chapter, discussed below. It should be noted that this was revealed on Spoke 16, corresponding to the Letter Ayin, which denotes the Eye (cf. The Eyes of the Lord). The Number Seven is explicitly associated with the idea of a Seal in Revelation 5.1:

And I saw in the right hand of him that sat on the throne a book written within and on the backside, sealed with seven seals.

The language required to describe the Seal of the Living God is necessarily maximal. The Divine Seal is perfection built upon perfection, grace placed upon grace. It begins with infinite symmetry of the perfect Circle, which is unique amongst all two-dimensional objects. Simply stated, the Circle is the only form suitable for an eternal book. Note also that most seals are circular, as seen for example in the Great Seal of the United States. It then divides this eternal form into seven symmetric sections, with the line of bilateral symmetry dividing between the Aleph and Tav, the First and Last letters of the Hebrew Alphabet, corresponding to the Greek Alpha and Omega with which the Author of Scripture identified Himself, saying (Revelation 1.8):

I am Alpha and Omega, the beginning and the ending, saith the Lord, which is, and which was, and which is to come, the Almighty.

The phrase “Aleph and Tav” spells the word (Oath, Sign). The division between Aleph and Tav is itself the Sign and Seal of Almighty God. This is “rightly dividing the Word of truth.” Note also that the numerical value of the letters Alpha and Omega is 801, the same as that of Ho Ktisas (The Creator), and Peristera (Dove). The whole idea of the Alpha and Omega is circular in the sense that everything begins and ends in God.

The Divine Seal therefore specifically identifies its Creator and is sealed with the Number Seven that He used as a watermark throughout Scripture. The Seal is strongly reiterative – the patterns appear again and again and in perfect harmony with their use in the text of Scripture. Yet there is so much more! The sevenfold symmetric perfection of the Divine Seal is arranged to proclaim the Cross of Christ and the Doctrine of the Trinity!

Sealed with the Cross

And I, brethren, when I came to you, came not with excellency of speech or of wisdom, declaring unto you the testimony of God. For I determined not to know any thing among you, save Jesus Christ, and him crucified.

I Corinthians 2.1f

Ancient seals were typically engraved with images that identified the owner and proclaimed his greatest achievements. This is exactly what we see in the Divine Seal of Holy Scripture. The Name of God is implied in the structure based on the Aleph and Tav, and His Great Work on the Cross is forever memorialized in the cruciform structure of the whole. It is truly a work worthy of its Creator.

My Wedding Ring

The Cross symbolizes the essence of the Gospel which is the central message of all Scripture. It is the true symbol of the New Covenant sealed when Christ shed His blood upon the Cross. Indeed the Cross is the perfect symbol of a Covenant, and just as Christ sealed His Bride the Church for eternal marriage with the Cross, so my covenant with my wife is symbolized by a Circle and Cross, as seen in the image of my wedding ring. Oh the depth of both the wisdom and knowledge of God! The form of the Cross seals God’s Word on multiple reiterative levels. The pattern begins in the structure of the Hebrew Alphabet which ends in Tav – – which signifies a Cross and is uniformly recognized as the Seal of Truth and the Seal of Creation in the Rabbinic tradition. They also say that Tav “makes an impression” like a seal on the Ancient of Days. The Bible Wheel is sealed on Spoke 22 with the Sign of the Cross. This then manifests in the distribution of the word Seal throughout Scripture, which is maximized on Spoke 22. Most of the references to seals in the Bible are in the last book – Revelation – where we read about the Book sealed with seven seals and the 144,000 sealed with the Seal of the living God. It, and the whole Bible, ends with the command “Seal not the sayings of the prophecy of this book: for the time is at hand” followed by the warning not to alter the content of the book in any way.

Tri-radiant Cruciform Halo

All of this integrates with the words of Christ from the Cross declaring the complete culmination of History and the final victory over sin “IT IS FINISHED” is therefore reflected with divine perfection in the Hebrew Alphabet which is finished in Tav – – the Cross, and this is the basis of the 22 Spokes of the Bible Wheel (cf. Psalm 22, the Psalm of the Cross, and Genesis 22, the Genesis of the Cross). The Cross is the basis of the large-scale structure of the whole Bible, which looks like the tri-radiant cruciform halo that has been used in Christian Iconography for over fourteen hundred years. This means that the traditional halo of Christ, “whose name is called the Word of God” is itself an image of the God’s Word! All of this coheres, of course, with the fact that the Cross is itself the archetype of a Seal. Yet this is but the smallest hint of the ten thousand glorious Gospel Truths shining from the Divine Seal of the Ever Living God.

God’s Word as Menorah

And the angel that talked with me came again, and waked me, as a man that is wakened out of his sleep, And said unto me, What seest thou? And I said, I have looked, and behold a candlestick all of gold, with a bowl upon the top of it, and his seven lamps thereon, and seven pipes to the seven lamps, which are upon the top thereof: And two olive trees by it, one upon the right side of the bowl, and the other upon the left side thereof. So I answered and spake to the angel that talked with me, saying, What are these, my lord? Then the angel that talked with me answered and said unto me, Knowest thou not what these be? And I said, No, my lord.

Zechariah 4.1f

The Bible as Menorah

A great and awesome Work of God appears when the sevenfold symmetric perfection of the Holy Bible is displayed in the form of the Menorah. The Divine Word conforms perfectly to the pattern of the sevenfold lamp designed by God in Exodus as a symbol of the Eternal Light of His self-revelation. This is the light that shines through His Holy Word. The number of books associated with each pair of arms alphanumerically proclaims the word (Tehilah), which means PRAISE! God’s Word declares His Praise with upraised arms (cf. The Bible as Menorah for a detailed explanation). Truly, God’s Word is “a Lamp unto my feet, a light unto my path” (Psalm 119.105). That such a representation is even possible should be sufficient to convince any unbiased person of the reality of God’s supernatural design of the Holy Bible. These ramifications are then amplified beyond measure when it is recognized that the link between the Divine Seal of God’s Word and the Menorah was prophesied in the Book of Zechariah.

When the angel showed Zechariah a Menorah, and asked if he understood what he was seeing. He answered no, which seems a little odd since he was surely familiar with the Temple Menorah. In response to his stated ignorance of the meaning of the vision, the angel then gave him the Word of the Lord for Zerubbabel which contains the revelation of the Divine Seal and Capstone of Scripture, as discussed below. The important point is that the revelation of the Capstone is given as an explanation of the meaning of the Menorah.

This point has been well understood by many commentators. For example, here is what Dr. James Coffman says in the chapter on Zechariah 4  from his commentary on the whole Bible.

Fortunately, we do not need to rely upon the subjective guesses of liberal commentators for the interpretation of this vision, which in the light of related passages of the Bible appears simple and easily understood. The golden candlestick from the very first appearance of it in the ancient tabernacle typified the word of God by virtue of its being the only light in the sanctuary representing both Israels of God.

The Capstone of God’s Word

Then he answered and spake unto me, saying, This is the word of the LORD unto Zerubbabel, saying, Not by might, nor by power, but by my spirit, saith the LORD of hosts. Who art thou, O great mountain? before Zerubbabel thou shalt become a plain: and he shall bring forth the headstone thereof with shoutings, crying, Grace, grace unto it.

Zechariah 4.6f

Jerusalem Cross on keystone
over chapel door at Golgotha

The Prophetic Headstone revealed in Zechariah was the final stone needed to complete the Temple reconstruction overseen by Zerubbabel. In Hebrew, it is called (HaEven HaRoshah) which literally means the top, first, head, or chief stone. Rabbinic tradition calls it the “rock of creation” and says it is the stone upon which Abraham placed Isaac for sacrifice which we recognize as the Genesis of the Cross (cf. Genesis 22). When a Capstone is the top stone in an arch, it is called a Keystone. This makes an excellent metaphor for Christ since the Keystone bears the weight and holds the arch together as all the other stones lean on it. Christ bore the weight of all our sin on the Cross at Golgotha. It is the Keystone of that holds the whole Bible together, revealed in the Letter Tav (cf. Golgotha: The Axis of the Wheel).

We do not know if God was describing a Capstone or a Keystone because the text does not specify that architectural detail. It would be a Keystone if placed in an arch, which is certainly a possibility since the oldest brick archway, (ca. 3000 BC) ever discovered was excavated at the biblical city of Dan , and an arch gateway from about 1600 BC is still standing in the biblical city of Ur , the homeland of Abraham. In either case, God’s main intent is perfectly clear. He declared that Zerubbabel would bring forth the finishing touch to the “Temple” – the Beyt of God, which is symbolic of the Word, as discussed in great detail in a host of articles exploring Spoke 2 of the Wheel (cf. The Dividing Line and The Word). The Capstone revealed is the final touch to the Holy Word, revealing its divine perfection. Note that the word is sealed with the Cross in two independent ways:

The large scale structure is built on the pattern of the tri-radiant cruciform halo (see above)

The Bible Wheel is completed (consummated) on Spoke 22, governed by the Letter Tav, the Cross: .

We now can discern some of the answer to Zechariah’s question “What are these?” that he asked concerning the Menorah, the Bowl, and the Two Olive Trees. God is giving us three different views of a single object, which is none other than the Divine Seal and Capstone of God’s Word, that is, the Holy Bible itself. This also is the most literal interpretation of the answer to Zechariah’s question. When he asked, “What are these, my lord?” he meant, “what does this vision signify?” to which the angel answered, “This is the Word of the Lord to Zerubbabel.” The Vision itself is a vision of the Holy Bible! I am not the first to understand this vision this way. For example, here is what Dr. James Coffman says in the chapter on Zechariah 4  from his commentary on the whole Bible.

The first six words of the angel’s explanation contain the whole explanation: THIS IS THE WORD OF JEHOVAH! As Unger observed: “Zechariah’s vision was THE WORD OF THE LORD, vitally real and effective for the pressing problems of the hour in which it was initially revealed.”

The emphasis in all caps is Coffman’s. He was also careful to clarify  that the vision “stands for all the word of the Lord in the whole Bible; and, as such, it is a fantastically accurate and instructive type of it.”

It is important to meditate on the fact the Seal of Scripture is Scripture itself. Nothing more, nothing less. The Seal of God was not added to the Bible as an after thought. It is the template of all Scripture and is profoundly integrated with the vision of the Whole Bible as explained below. As discussed above, the Bible can be represented either as a Menorah or as a Wheel with Seven Eyes (Facets), which could, in fact, be easily be engraved on a literal Stone. The prophecies from both Zechariah 3.9 and Zechariah 4.1-5 apply naturally and directly to the structure of God’s Word. Yet there is one more stone to be revealed through the Prophet Zechariah.

The Stone of Division

Moreover the word of the LORD came unto me, saying, The hands of Zerubbabel have laid the foundation of this house; his hands shall also finish it; and thou shalt know that the LORD of hosts hath sent me unto you.

For who hath despised the day of small things? for they shall rejoice, and shall see the plummet in the hand of Zerubbabel with those seven; they are the eyes of the LORD, which run to and fro through the whole earth.

Zechariah 4.8-9

These words add another dimension to the answer to Zechariah’s question “What are these?” that he asked concerning the Menorah, the Bowl, and the Two Olive Trees. We have here yet another prophetic Stone revealed through Zechariah, though it is not evident in the English translation. The Hebrew phrase translated as “plummet” is (HaEven HaBadeel). The assumption typically made is that the word Badeel means tin, so this stone is taken as a “stone of tin” that was used as a plummet, to determine vertical or true lines. But the phrase does not have to be limited to this assumption. Badeel comes from the root Badal, meaning “to divide.” This word first occurs in Genesis 1.4 when God “divided the light from the darkness.” The most literal rendering of the phrase HaEven HaBadeel then would be the Stone of Division, or as the Jewish Publication Society translates it, the Stone of Distinction.

We now have three stones revealed in Zechariah which, by the way, is profoundly integrated with the structure of the Holy Word, there being many KeyLinks based on the idea of Stone between Zechariah and I Peter on Spoke 16. These Three Stones now appear as One Stone, and with the vision of the Menorah we now have four images revealed in Zechariah that give us four fundamental views of God’s Holy Word prophetically given in God’s Holy Word:

Four Prophecies of the Bible Wheel in Zechariah

Zechariah 3.9 reveals the Bible as the One Stone with Seven Eyes (Facets = Canonical Divisions) engraved by God and sealed with the Cross (by which he removed the iniquity of the land in one day). Zechariah 4.2 reveals the Bible in the form of the Menorah. Zechariah 4.7 reveals the Bible in the form of the Wheel as the Capstone that completes the supernatural structure of Scripture. Zechariah 4.10 reveals the Bible as the Plummet, the Stone of Division, the Word of God that “is quick, and powerful, and sharper than any twoedged sword, piercing even to the dividing asunder of soul and spirit, and of the joints and marrow, and is a discerner of the thoughts and intents of the heart.” (Hebrew 4.12 – cf. the Logos Holograph). The Divine Seal and Capstone of God’s Word is now fully revealed, enabling all believers to discern true lines in the House of God.

Zechariah’s Prophetic Vision of the Whole Bible

Then answered I, and said unto him, What are these two olive trees upon the right side of the candlestick and upon the left side thereof? And I answered again, and said unto him, What be these two olive branches which through the two golden pipes empty the golden oil out of themselves? And he answered me and said, Knowest thou not what these be? And I said, No, my lord. Then said he, These are the two anointed ones, that stand by the Lord of the whole earth.

Zecahriah 4.12f

These words complete the answer to Zechariah’s question “What are these?” that he repeatedly asked concerning the Menorah, the Bowl, and the Two Olive Trees. Coffman asserts that they “undoubtedly stand for the Old and the New Testaments.” He was not alone in this perception. It is very ancient. For example, this view was taught in the Explanatio Apocalypsis  (Explanation of the Apocalypse) authored by the Venerable Bede  around the year 710 AD:

Olive Trees: The Church is irradiated by the light of the two Testaments, and ever waits upon the commands of the Lord. So also the prophet Zechariah saw one candlestick with seven branches, and these two olive-trees, that is, testaments, pouring oil into the candlestick. This is the Church with its oil, which never fails, which makes it shine for the light of the world.

The Candlestick can be understood as representing both the Bible and the Church. These are closely related symbols in this context, since both bear witness of God in the world. But as we shall see below, the full set of symbols consisting of the Menorah, the Two Olive Trees, the Golden Bowl, the Seven Pipes, the One Stone with Seven Eyes, the Capstone, and the Plummet all combine to form one grand image of the whole Bible, which must therefore be understood as the primary meaning God intended when He gave the Vision.

There are just a few more details to cover before we are able to see how the visions connect to form a complete revelation of the Holy Bible, given 500 years before Christ was born. Returning to the initial vision given in Zechariah 4.1f, we read:

And said unto me, What seest thou? And I said, I have looked, and behold a candlestick all of gold, with a bowl upon the top of it, and his seven lamps thereon, and seven pipes to the seven lamps, which are upon the top thereof: And two olive trees by it, one upon the right side of the bowl, and the other upon the left side thereof.

The word translated as “bowl” is Gulah from the root Galal. It primarily means “a round thing.” God reveals this as the etymological root of the word Gilgal in Joshua 5.9 (Golgotha: The Axis of the Wheel):

And the LORD said unto Joshua, This day have I rolled away [galal] the reproach of Egypt from off you. Wherefore the name of the place is called Gilgal unto this day.

Gilgal differs from Galgal (Wheel) only in a single vowel point. The consonants are the same. When suffixed with a Tav and Aleph, it forms the word Golgotha, the name of the place where Christ rolled away the reproach of our sin in a single day (cf. Zechariah 3.9). Without the vowel points, Gulah is identical to Galah which means to reveal, discover, or make naked. This root is used, for example, in the following Scriptures. As an aside, the verses in Deuteronomy and Daniel are strongly linked with many KeyLinks (cf. The Secret Revealed):

Deuteronomy 29.29: The secret things belong unto the LORD our God: but those things which are revealed belong unto us and to our children for ever, that we may do all the words of this law.

Daniel 2.17: The king answered unto Daniel, and said, Of a truth it is, that your God is a God of gods, and a Lord of kings, and a revealer [Galeh] of secrets, seeing thou couldest reveal this secret. [Note: the word translated as “and a revealer” (v’galeh), is identical in consonants to the word translated as “and a bowl” in Zechariah 4.2.]

Isaiah 40.5: And the glory of the LORD shall be revealed, and all flesh shall see it together: for the mouth of the LORD hath spoken it.

In the Hebrew translation of the New Testament, the Book of Revelation is called the Hitgalut, from the root Galah. This all shows how the words Galah (Bowl, Revealer) and Galgal (Wheel) are intimately connected with each other and the idea of Revelation. Note also that we have the alphanumeric identity Galgal = 66, the number of Books in the Bible. This is an example of the divine integration of Thread 1 (The Bible Wheel) with Thread 3 (Gematria). Putting these ideas together, we have this amplified version of what Zechariah saw:

And said unto me, What seest thou? And I said, I have looked, and behold a candlestick all of gold, with a bowl [a round thing, a revealer] upon the top of it, and his seven lamps thereon, and seven pipes to the seven lamps, which are upon the top thereof: And two olive trees by it, one upon the right side of the bowl, and the other upon the left side thereof.

We are now able to see with great simplicity and clarity the prophecy of the Whole Bible given to Zechariah over 500 years before Christ. Here is a brief explanation of the Vision of the Whole Bible, and its integration with His Seal:

The Two Olive Trees are the Two Testaments (Old and New) that testify (bear witness) to the Lord of all the earth.

The Two Testaments pour their Golden Oil (Books) through two Golden Pipes into the Golden Bowl (= the Bible Wheel = the One Stone with Seven Eyes = the Capstone = the Plummet).

The Golden Bowl distributes the Books from each of the Seven Divisions of the Canon Wheel to the Seven Lamps of the Golden Menorah, to enlighten the whole world with the Light of God’s Word through the power of the Holy Spirit.

This Vision is a prophecy of God’s completed Word – the Holy Bible – composed of the Old and New Testaments and sealed in the form the Bible Wheel. Remember, this was given hundreds of years before Christ came in the flesh. It is a perpetual blazing miracle. We now have a complete self-description of God’s Word revealed within God’s Word. The prophecy of the full structure of the Bible and its integration with the Seal of God is embedded within the text itself!

All of this conspires to declare the Glory of God. The number of Books symmetrically placed on the arms of the Menorah alpha-numerically spell the word (Tehilah, PRAISE), as it is written in Psalm 145.10

All thy works shall praise thee, O LORD; and thy saints shall bless thee. They shall speak of the glory of thy kingdom, and talk of thy power; To make known to the sons of men his mighty acts, and the glorious majesty of his kingdom. Thy kingdom is an everlasting kingdom, and thy dominion endureth throughout all generations.

The word Tehilah is the Tav KeyWord used in the last verse of the alphabetic Psalm 145 (vs. 22):

My mouth shall speak the praise of the LORD: and let all flesh bless his holy name for ever and ever.

In closing, lets us always remember that the Bible is but a Book, albeit divine in origin. And let us turn our hearts always to the Living Stone, Jesus Christ our Lord, as so boldly declared by our beloved brother, the Apostle Peter (Acts 4.9):

Be it known unto you all, and to all the people of Israel, that by the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth, whom ye crucified, whom God raised from the dead, even by him doth this man stand here before you whole. This is the stone which was set at nought of you builders, which is become the head of the corner. Neither is there salvation in any other: for there is none other name under heaven given among men, whereby we must be saved.

The Lord Jesus Christ possesses the most exalted and all-encompassing names that can be uttered. He is the Alpha and Omega, the First and the Last, the Beginning and the End. He is the Living Word, the Resurrection, the Way, the Truth, and the Life. He is the Living Stone, at once the Cornerstone and the Capstone of God’s Temple the Church composed of all believers. To Him be honor, praise and glory, now and forever, AMEN AMEN AMEN.

Shield of the Blessed Trinity and the Unity Holograph

The Shield of the Blessed Trinity is isomorphic to the closed algebra of Divine Names united in the Unity Holograph. The geometry is a perfect expression of the relation amongst the prime factors of the Shema. Thus we have a supernatural integration of the greatest declaration of the Unity of God with the Doctrine of the Holy Trinity. Note also that its structure is very similar to the tri-radiant halo, the only difference being the angles have been made equal, which best expresses the unity of the three Divine Persons of the Trinity.

The Shield of the Blessed Trinity

And Jesus came and spake unto them, saying, All power is given unto me in heaven and in earth. Go ye therefore, and teach all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost: Teaching them to observe all things whatsoever I have commanded you: and, lo, I am with you alway, even unto the end of the world. Amen.

Matthew 28.18f

Hear, O Israel: The LORD our God is one LORD: And thou shalt love the LORD thy God with all thine heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy might.

Deuteronomy 6.4f

The Shield of the Blessed Trinity

The Shield of the Blessed Trinity is another perfect example of the divine integration of Art, Prophecy, and Scripture. The discovery of the formal identity between the geometric structure of the Canon Wheel and ancient icons of Christ Pantocrator awoke my soul to the prophetic nature of sanctified Christian Art produced by God’s Saints during the last twenty centuries. I immediately recognized the representation of the Bible in the form of the Menorah – designed by God Himself in Exodus 25 – to be another example of this divinely inspired Art, given for glory and for beauty. Likewise, I now recognize the Shield of the Blessed Trinity as a representation of the prime structure of the Shema as revealed in the Unity Holograph:

The common shape is but a slight variation of the Tri-radiant Nimbus God used in the design of the Canon Wheel. This is an example of God’s continuous variation on the theme of the Trinity that we find throughout His Artwork.

The Shield is a graphic representation of the Doctrine of the Trinity. I believe it is inspired of God. It is the most compact, complete, and perfect representation of this essential Doctrine that I could imagine. The three letters in the circles represent Father (P. = Pater), Son (F. = Filius), and Holy Spirit (S.S. = Spiritus Sanctus). Each radius to the central circle representing God (Deus) contains the word est (is) so the diagram states that the Father is God, the Son is God, and the Holy Spirit is God. Each connection is bi-directional, so it can be read outwards to declare that God is the Father, God is the Son, and God is the Spirit.

The eternal distinction between the three Divine Persons is taught by reading around the outer circle: The Father is not (non est) the Son, the Son is not (non est) the Holy Spirit, and the Holy Spirit is not (non est) the Father. This too is bi-directional and can be read in reverse to declare the Father is not the Holy Spirit, the Holy Spirit is not the Son, and the Son is not the Father.

The equality of each Divine Person is expressed in the perfect threefold symmetry of the diagram. The complete unity and eternal unchanging nature of God is communicated by the circular design (cf. The Eternal Circle). This then integrates with the structure of the Canon Wheel and the ancient icons of Christ Pantocrator when we note that the Shield is but a slight variation of the pattern of the tri-radiant halo used to represent Deity. The compact perfection, geometric clarity, and rich variation on the theme of Three in One is not merely impossible to miss, it is glorious to behold!

I have been unable to determine the exact date or place of origin of the Shield, but I do know that it is at least five hundred years old, because it appears in a fifteenth century stained glass window of St. Mary’s Church  in Henham, England shown below. Any additional insight the reader might have on this question would be appreciated.

15th Century window from St. Mary’s Church in Henham, Enlgand	Closeup of the Trinity Shield

The Trefoil and Symbols of the Trinity

One of the most common symbols of the Trinity is the Trefoil, generated from three interlocking Circles. It is generally believed that this symbol was created by St. Patrick when he illustrated the Trinity by pointing to a shamrock and remarking that it the three separate leaves form yet one shamrock. Hence the name Trefoil, i.e. three-leaved. The image at right is a variation on the Shield of the Holy Trinity, and is essentially identical to a diagram found in a thirteenth century manuscript in the Municipal Library at Chartres. The rings are also called Borromean Rings , named after the Italian Renaissance family that used them on their Coat of Arms. It is mathematically equivalent to a Venn Diagram  which is how it will be applied below in the analysis of the prime structure of the Shema. The Trefoil became a very popular motif for Gothic architecture especial windows. Not that the Bible Wheel echoes this structure, in that it is built upon three concentric rings (cf. Three Cycles).

The intersection of the three circles in the Trefoil gives rise to the Triquetra such as this one from a stained glass window of Edwards Congregational United Church of Christ 

All of these geometric forms – the Trinity Shield, the Trefoil, and the Triquetra – are found enshrined in a stained glass windows of Christian churches from all over the planet, though variations on the three interlocking circles is by far the most common. Schematic examples of the great variety of forms can be viewed here . A good explanation of the Triquetra and related symbols is given by Trinity Assembly of God  Church which uses it as its logo.

The Triquetra is seen at the top of this stained glass window integrated with the Triangle, an ancient symbol of the Trinity (cf. The Great Seal of the United States). Note also the Shield of the Blessed Trinity near the bottom. Both of these geometric forms, which are traditional Christian symbols of the Trinity, will be seen to naturally represent the prime structure of the Shema which is the greatest statement of the Unity of God to be found in Scripture. I trust the significance of this will not lost on the reader.

Integration with the Unity Holograph

This image represents the mathematical structure of the Shema, as explained in depth in the Unity Holograph article. The point of interest now is its prime structure represented by the 7 numbers uniting the 3 fundamental Divine Names in the large circle centered on the Number 1118.

The two circular representations below are mathematically equivalent ways to represent the prime structure of the Shema. Any set of 3 distinct prime numbers will generate another set of 7 numbers by multiplication. In the diagram on the left, we have three overlapping circles with each circle representing one of the primes from the Unity Holograph generating set (2, 13, 43). The overlap represents multiplication; e.g. 13 x 43 = 559. The number in the center is the sum of the entire Shema, which also is the product of the three primes in the generating set: 1118 = 2 x 13 x 43:

In both diagrams, the 7 numbers are arranged in accordance with the number of primes in the product. The outer light blue areas represent the 3 individual primes. The 3 darker blue sections represent the 3 numbers generated by multiplying pairs of primes, and the central circle (royal blue) contains the number generated by multiplying together all three primes. This is the prime structure of the Unity Holograph. Here is a table of the 7 numbers generated from the 3 primes, and their associated meanings which are established with extreme exactitude in the hyperlinked articles and the discussion to follow below:

Prime Factors			Value	Meaning	Person
13	–	–	13	One, Love, My Father	Father
–	2	–	2	Image, Number of the Son	Son
–	–	43	43	His Greatness, Exceeding Joy	Holy Spirit
13	–	43	559	The Father (Ho Pater)	Father
13	2	–	26	The Lord (YHVH)	Son
–	2	43	86	God (Elohim)	Holy Spirit
13	2	43	1118	Sum of Shema = One x God	GODHEAD

This table is exhaustive. It lists all possible combinations (without repetition) of 3 distinct primes. The interplay of 3 rings dividing 7 sections echoes the structure of the Canon Wheel with its 3 radii dividing the whole Bible into 7 canonical divisions. The interplay of 3 and 7 is found on all levels of the Biblical revelation. It is found in the doctrinal symbols of the Trinity, in the large-scale structure of the Canon Wheel, and on the other extreme, it is saturates the extremely complex “microscopic” structures like the Logos Holograph built upon the numbers 73 (Wisdom) and 373 (Logos) and the Creation Holograph built on the Hex/Star pair 37/73.

I will now derive a fuller set of associations between each Number and its meaning.

Number 13: One, Love, My Father

Hear, O Israel: The LORD our God is one LORD: And thou shalt love the LORD thy God with all thine heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy might. [Deuteronomy 6.4]

The entire structure of the Shema is built upon the mathematical identity linking the Hebrew words for One and Love with the Number 13:

One Echad

= 13 =

Love Ahavah

The depth of integration is complete and perfect, with even the digits of the prime Number 13 – 1 and 3 – reiterating yet again the Trinitarian nature of Unity which is both the origin and nature of Love. We were created by the Ever Blessed Trinity – this is the source of all Love, and the Nature of God, as it is written (I John 4.13):

Hereby know we that we dwell in him, and he in us, because he hath given us of his Spirit. And we have seen and do testify that the Father sent the Son to be the Saviour of the world. Whosoever shall confess that Jesus is the Son of God, God dwelleth in him, and he in God. And we have known and believed the love that God hath to us. God is love; and he that dwelleth in love dwelleth in God, and God in him.

Note the explicit Trinitarian reference to the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. Three Divine Persons united in Perfect Love.

Of extreme interest is the tri-literal verbal root   (Ohav, To Love) of the noun Ahavah. It is simply the word (Av, Father) with the letter Heh – the letter of revelation – inserted in the heart. On page 14 of his excellent Hebrew Word Pictures, Dr. Seekins interprets this fact:

By placing the letter ‘hey’ in the middle of the word for father, this word picture tells us that love is the father’s heart revealed.

In fact, the verb Ohav is an anagram of The Father (HaAv) declaring that the Father is Love! This is reiterated yet again with perfect clarity in the Hebrew phrase for “My Father” which is formed my suffixing a Yod to indicate person possession. We have the identity:

My Father Avi

= 13 =

Love Ahavah

Av is also the first word of the Hebrew language and it integrates with the alphanumeric structure of the First Word of the Bible – endless glory!

Here is a list of the primary associations between the Number 13 and God the Father:

13 = Echad = Ahavah = Avi

Echad is the Hebrew name of the Number 1, the Number of the Father in the Trinity.

Echad, Ahavah, and Avi are all Aleph KeyWords that sum to 13

The verb Ohav is the revelation of the Heart of the Father

Number 2: Image, Number of the Son

[Jesus Christ] is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn of every creature: For by him were all things created, that are in heaven, and that are in earth, visible and invisible, whether they be thrones, or dominions, or principalities, or powers: all things were created by him, and for him: And he is before all things, and by him all things consist. [Colossians 1.15f]

The Number 2 is the Number of the Son, the Second Person of the Blessed Trinity. It is also the value of the Second Letter Beyt, which is the initial of the Beyt KeyWord (Ben) meaning Son. In general, the Number 2 defines the Numerical Category subsuming concepts such as Duality, Reflection, Image, and Division (cf. The Dividing Line and the Second Commandment). It is deeply related to the Word (the linguistic image of an object) which is maximized on Spoke 2 and the idea of the Sword (Second Seal) – specifically the two-edged sword (cf. Logos Holograph). The Sword is the instrument of Division, causing duality, which integrates with the Division of the Waters on the Second Day and again in the Second Book. The cascading confluence of ideas relating to the Number 2 and God the Son is perhaps the most obvious in all Scripture.

Number 43: His Greatness, Exceeding Joy, and the Holy Spirit

And the disciples were filled with joy, and with the Holy Ghost. [Acts 13.52]

Howbeit when he, the Spirit of truth, is come, he will guide you into all truth: for he shall not speak of himself; but whatsoever he shall hear, that shall he speak: and he will shew you things to come. He shall glorify me: for he shall receive of mine, and shall shew it unto you. All things that the Father hath are mine [The Son’s]: therefore said I, that he shall take of mine, and shall shew it unto you. [John 16.13]

And ye said, Behold, the LORD our God hath shewed us his glory and his greatness, and we have heard his voice out of the midst of the fire: we have seen this day that God doth talk with man, and he liveth. [Deuteronomy 5.24]

The Son came to glorify the Father. The Holy Spirit comes to glorify the Father and the Son. He is the expression of the power and love of God the Father and His Son Jesus Christ. In the Spirit also is the fulness of Joy. Thus we read in Psalm 43:

O send out thy light and thy truth: let them lead me; let them bring me unto thy holy hill, and to thy tabernacles. Then will I go unto the altar of God, unto God my exceeding joy [Geel]: yea, upon the harp will I praise thee, O God my God [Elohim Elohi].

These verses are intimately related to God the Holy Spirit. We have the identities:

His Greatness [Deut. 5.24] Gadlo

= 43 =

Exceeding Joy [Ps 43.4] Geel

Note that both these words are Gimel KeyWords. We have a strong confluence of ideas relating to the Holy Spirit, the Number 43, and the letter Gimel (cf. The Abundant Giver).

The idea of sending forth “light and truth” in Psalm 43 is intimately linked to the character and role of the Holy Spirit, and relates strongly to the Letter Shin – the letter of Fire – governing Spoke 21. All of this is part of the divine integration of the order of Psalms with that of the Canon, with the words (Light, Truth) ^[Verify] forming a KeyLink between Psalm 43 and John (Book 43).

Psalm 43 relates to Holiness, Joy, and the Divine Name Elohim, which has the value of 86 = 2 x 43, generated by multiplying two primes from the Unity Holograph generating set, as discussed below.

The Shema as Trefoil

Using the associations between the three primes and the members of the Holy Trinity allows us to represent the prime structure of the Shema in exactly the same form as the thirteenth century trefoil shown above:

Note that the center is derived from the exceedingly profound relation based on the sum total of the Shema:

Sum of Shema = 1118 = 13 (Echad, One) x 86 (Elohim, God)

This will be discussed in detail below. I will now derive the association between the composite numbers  generated from pairs of primes and the members of the Trinity.

Number 559 = 13 x 43: The Father

The three primes examined above are each associated with a specific Person of the Holy Trinity. The same phenomenon is seen on the second level where we consider binary products of the three primes, only now it is even more obvious with the appearance of the value of the primary New Testament Divine Title of “The Father:”

Prime Factors			Value	Meaning	Person
13	–	43	559	The Father (Ho Pater)	Father
13	2	–	26	The Lord (YHVH)	Son
–	2	43	86	God (Elohim)	Holy Spirit
13	2	43	1118	Sum of Shema = One x God	GODHEAD

It is extremely important to understand that there is no Hebrew title of God in the Bible that sums to 559. This means that the names encoded in the Shema are incomplete without the New Testament revelation. It can not be completed with the Hebrew alone. It is equally important to note that all three of the Divine Names in the table above are specifically the three primary Names of God used in the Bible. The structure is absolutely complete and perfect. But above all it is of the greatest importance to recognize that these three Divine Names can be represented as a Triquetra with the value of One x God at the center:

The Shema unifies the three primary names of God. A sense of connection with the members of the Trinity immediately leaps out, even without the detailed analysis of the meanings associated with them. This is all the more tantalizing in light of the Trinity Shield and the central statement of the Shema “The Lord is One” which contains in itself an alphanumeric reflection of the Trinity:

The Lord is one YHVH Echad

= 39 = 3 x 13 (One / Love)

The statement of the Oneness of God mathematically states that the nature of this Unity is Three x One! Evidence of the Trinity saturates the Shema – the greatest statement of the Unity of God.

Number 26 = 2 x 13: YHVH and the Son

Having determined the main associations with the primes 2 and 13 above, it is now a simple matter to discern the meaning associated with their product. Scripture declares Jesus Christ is the Image (2) of the Father (13). This is encoded in the value of the Tetragrammaton:

YHVH (The Lord) = 26 = 2 (Image) x 13 (The Father)

This number is then reflected again in the title of the Second Person:

The Son Ben

= 52 = 2 x 26

It is important to understand that while the Tetragrammaton reveals the character of the Son, the name itself may be used in reference to any member of the Trinity, or to the Trinity as a whole. The same is true of the name Elohim, which, while revealing the character of the Holy Spirit with particular clarity, may reference any or all of the members of the Trinity.

Number 86 = 2 x 43: Elohim and The Holy Spirit

They shall lift up their voice, they shall sing for the majesty of the LORD, they shall cry aloud from the sea. [Jeremiah 24.14]

The Holy Spirit glorifies the Father and the Son. His presence is known as the Shekinah Glory – indeed, He is the glory of God. This is encoded in this pair of identities:

Elohim

= 86 =

The Majesty of the Lord Gaon YHVH

Note that Gaon is a Gimel KeyWord, just like Gadol, Gadlo, and Geel examined above with regards to the Number 43.

The purpose of the Holy Spirit is also to lead us all in praise of the Father and the Son. Also, the Spirit is God’s Power, spoken of in Jeremiah 27.5:

I have made the earth, the man and the beast that are upon the ground, by my great power and by my outstretched arm, and have given it unto whom it seemed meet unto me.

Both of these ideas are subsumed in the category defined by the Number 86

Praise the Lord Hallelu Yah

= 86 =

My Great Power Koachi HaGadol

Note that the Gimel KeyWord Gadol is used in the description of God’s great power. The thematic light shining through the window of Gimel continues to reveal the nature of the Third Person of the Blessed Trinity.

As a final example, we have this identity relating the value of the Greek for the Spirit with the Hebrew Divine Name Elohim:

The Spirit To Pnuema

= 946 = 11 (Where?) x 86 (Elohim)

“The Spirit” answers the question “Where is Elohim”. Note also that the Number 946 is the 43rd Triangular Number – so we have a double reference via the Joy and Majesty of the Number 43 and the form of the Triangle which naturally integrates with the Number 3, the Number of the Holy Spirit.

The prime factors of the Key Number 22 = 2 x 11 modulate the Son and the Spirit with the composite numbers 26 and 86 from the Shema:

52 (Son) = 2 x 26 (YHVH)

946 (The Spirit) = 11 x 86 (Elohim)

Number 1118 = 2 x 13 x 43: ONE GOD

And now we are able to see the full glory of the standing miracle that is the Shema. The sum of the Shema reiterates its central message with absolute mathematical perfection.

Sum of Shema = 1118 = 13 (ONE) x 86 (GOD)

This equation echoes, rings, and resonates with the vibrant ever-living glory of the Eternal Godhead. The triple reiteration of the Number 1 draws the mind back to Aleph = 111 and the great name of God “I AM THAT I AM” (cf. GR 543) which forms the triple acronym . It requires nothing more than the insertion of St. Andrews Cross (an x) to arrive at the wondrous name of Jesus:

1118 ==> 111 x 8 = 888 (Jesus)

The truth declared in the Number 1118 is found in the first words of I John:

That which was from the beginning Ho en ap arches

= 1118

This is the Number the Eternal God, the Alpha Omega = 801 = The Creator designed for the proclamation of His Glory.

We can now represent the Doctrine of the Holy Trinity by replacing the 7 numbers derived from the prime structure of the Shema in the Trefoil, using mnemonics for the three primes to express more of the character of the associated Divine Person:

Mnemonic	Value	Person
Love	13	Father
Word	2	Son
Joy	43	Holy Spirit
Father	559	Father
Son	26	Son
Holy Spirit	86	Holy Spirit
ONE GOD	1118	GODHEAD

Mapping these onto the Trefoil allows us to simultaneously represent the full structure of the sacred Shema and the divine Doctrine of the glorious Ever Blessed Thrice Holy Trinity:

Oh! How does mere clay thank a Creator of such glory as this? Praise His Holy Name! Praise Him all who breath! Praise the Lord who is our life!

Holy, Holy, Holy!

And the four beasts had each of them six wings about him; and they were full of eyes within: and they rest not day and night, saying, Holy, holy, holy, Lord God Almighty, which was, and is, and is to come.

This verse from Revelation 4 contains the eternal praise of the Blessed Trinity. It is itself profoundly Trinitarian, being built on three sets of three:

Holy Holy Holy

Lord God Almighty

which was and is and is to come

Note that the description of God as He who was, is, and will be encodes the essence of His Divine Name YHVH, which contains the three forms of “to be” in Hebrew (cf. GR 543). Here is a representation threefold threefold praise in both the original Greek and the English of the KJV:

To understand the depth of this praise, we recall the fundamental identity relating God and Holiness:

God Theos

= 284 =

Holy Hagios

Thus, “Holy, Holy, Holy” is numerically equivalent to “God, God, God.” Yet there is more. The fundamental Hebrew word meaning “three, threefold, triple” is (Shalash, S# H8027). When combined with the fundamental Beyt KeyWord (Barak, Blessing, cf. GR 222) we arrive at the phrase Barak Shalish, which could mean either “Threefold Blessing” of “Blessing of the Trinity.” We have therefore this pair of identities:

Holy, Holy, Holy Hagios, Hagios, Hagios

= 852 =

Threefold Blessing Barak Shalash

The Star of Creation and the Creation Holograph

The Star of Creation (Star of David) is an ancient symbol not necessarily associated with Christianity or Judaism though it is found in ancient synagogues and churches. It is called the “Star of Creation” because its sixfold symmetry naturally integrates with the Six Days of Creation. The discovery of the appearance of this geometric form suffusing the alphanumeric structure of the Creation Holograph reveals this to be the result of Divine Artistry.

The Work of Creation

And God saw every thing that he had made, and, behold, it was very good. And the evening and the morning were the sixth day. Thus the heavens and the earth were finished, and all the host of them.

Genesis 1.31

God’s great work of Creation is founded upon the Number Six and its associated symbolic meanings and geometric structures. This manifests in many ways on multiple independent, yet integrated, levels. It begins with the plain text of Scripture which states that God created the Cosmos in Six Days. This then became the basis of the Fourth Commandment (Exodus 20.9f):

Six days shalt thou labour, and do all thy work: But the seventh day is the sabbath of the LORD thy God: in it thou shalt not do any work, thou, nor thy son, nor thy daughter, thy manservant, nor thy maidservant, nor thy cattle, nor thy stranger that is within thy gates: For in six days the LORD made heaven and earth, the sea, and all that in them is, and rested the seventh day: wherefore the LORD blessed the sabbath day, and hallowed it.

Given its centrality in both Creation and the Ten Commandments, the relation between the Number Six and Work – of both Man and God – is without doubt one of the most well established numerical teachings of Scripture.

The Biblical integration of the God’s Work, the Number Six, and the Creation of the Cosmos manifests in this pair of fundamental identities:

World Cosmos

= 600 =

Six Shaysh

These identities reiterate the fundamental “sixness” of the Cosmos exhibited in the six directions that characterize three-dimensional space:

This image follows the pattern of the Chi Rho, the Monogram of Christ, the Creator, so it would appear that the Lord God Almighty has stamped His Creation with His Initials or designed His Name upon the same template as His Creation. Either way, it glorifies the Lord and gives new meaning to Psalm 19.1:

The heavens declare the glory of God; and the firmament sheweth his handywork.

The divinely ordained relation between the Number Six and Creation forms the context needed to properly understand the miracle that is the text of Genesis 1.1, the Creation Holograph. I begin with the Hebrew text consisting of 7 words and 28 letters:

At the center of these seven words we see the Aleph-Tav – the Sign and Seal of the Lord God Almighty – upon which His entire Word is built. The number of letters – 28 – relates to the number of words – 7 – by being the seventh Triangular Number:

28 = 1 + 2 + 3 + 4 + 5 + 6 + 7 = Sum(7)

The n^th Triangular Number is represented by Sum(n) because it is a general property of Triangular Numbers that they are equal to the sum of all numbers from 1 to n.

The sum of the entire verse is also a Triangular Number – specifically, the 73^rd:

Sum of Genesis 1.1 = 2701 = 37 x 73 = Sum(73)

The Numbers 37 and 73 are a palindromic pair of geometrically related primes. In general, the n^th Centered Hexagonal Number is the core of the n^th Star Number. Here are the first few in the series:

This means that the integration of the Work of Creation with the Number Six extends all the way down to the numeric values of the letters of the text. I am greatly indebted to Vernon Jenkins’ profound research and exposition of the relation between these geometric numbers, the text of Genesis 1.1, and the Name of the Creator. A good place to start is his article called Judging By Appearances. I recomend reading all his work.

The Numbers 37-as-Hexagam and 73-as-Star result from the self-intersection of the Tenth Triangular Number, the Number 55:

The Number 55 is the value of (HaKol, Everything). It is the Tenth Triangular Number, Sum(10). It plays a central role in the Foundation of Creation and the HoloDec which divides into two halves that are both multiples of 55 = Sum(10), hence the sum of the Whole is also a multiple of 55. In other words, the Ten Commandments are built on the Tenth Triangle, which also is deeply integrated with the Creation Holograph!

The Numbers 37 and 73 are an extremely significant pair of primes. The essential significance (singular!) of these two prime numbers is found in this pair of identities generated by one word:

Wisdom Hokmah	37 = 8 + 11 + 13 + 5 (Ordinal Value)
	73 = 8 + 20 + 40 + 5 (Standard Value)

These identities reveal the supernatural integration of the two fundamental Gematriot: the Ordinal Value, calculated using the place value of the letters, and the Standard Value, calculated using the Base Ten numerical weights in use since ancient times, as listed in Alphabet Table. Vernon Jenkins also notes this pair of identities in his article A Numerical View of Beginnings, where he discusses its relation to the Wisdom presented in association with the numerical analysis of words (Revelation 13.18)

The direct association of Wisdom with both prime factors of Genesis 1.1 amplifies the the teaching of Jeremiah 10.12:

He hath made the earth by his power, he hath established the world by his wisdom, and hath stretched out the heavens by his discretion.

The author of the Zohar also recognized a deep relation between the Number Six, the Six Directions of the Cosmos, and the idea of Widsom (Vol. I:3b):

BERASHITH (In the beginning). Said Rabbi Yudai: ‘What is the mening of Bershith? It means “with Wisdom”, the Wisdom on which the world is based, and through this it introduces us to deep and recondite mysteries. In it, too, is the inscription of the six chief supernal directions. … This is implied in the word berashith which can be analysed into bara-shith [He created six].

The relation between these figurate numbers and the Number Six, which Scripture explicitely relates to the Work of Creation and the Cosmos, is, of course, absolutely impossible to miss. This is none other than the Work of God! Both factors of the Creation Holograph are prime hexagonal Star Numbers that relate directly to the Hebrew word for Wisdom by which – according to the text of Jeremiah and ancient Hebraic Tradition – is the Wisdom by which God created the Sixfold Cosmos! Endless glory! Divine perfection! Yet we have just begun.

Fractal Star of Creation and the Logos

One of the greatest titles of the Lord Jesus Christ is “The Logos (Word) of God.” Its representation as a fractal Star of David is woven into the text of John 1.1. It hexagonal (sixfold) symmetry supernaturally integrates with the Number 6 and the Work of Creation.

For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways, saith the LORD. For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways, and my thoughts than your thoughts. For as the rain cometh down, and the snow from heaven, and returneth not thither, but watereth the earth, and maketh it bring forth and bud, that it may give seed to the sower, and bread to the eater: So shall my word be that goeth forth out of my mouth: it shall not return unto me void, but it shall accomplish that which I please, and it shall prosper in the thing whereto I sent it.

Isaiah 55.8f

The sevenfold Logos Star exhibits a fractal variation on the Star pattern that unifies many holographic fragments such as the Unity Holograph, the Logos Holograph, and the numerous components of the Creation HyperHolograph. Any article that is directly associated with the Logos Star is marked with a small version of the Logos Star icon at the head of this page.

Great insight into the reason for unbiquitous appearance of sixfold symmetries in the alphanumeric structure of Scripture is found in the Biblical significance of the Number Six, which is deeply integrated with Work in general, and specifically God’s Work of Creation. As it is written:

Six days shalt thou labour, and do all thy work … For in six days the LORD made heaven and earth, the sea, and all that in them is, and rested the seventh day: wherefore the LORD blessed the sabbath day, and hallowed it.

Exodus 20:9-11

This connection between Work, Creation, and the Number Six runs thoughout Scripture. This fundamental association manifests in the appearance of Centered Hexagonal and Star Numbers in the structure of the Biblical Holographs. It is especially evident in the structure of Genesis 1.1, the basis of the Creation HyperHolograph:

Sum of Genesis 1.1 = 2701 = 37 x 73 = Sum(73)

The Numbers 37 and 73 are a palindromic pair of primes. They are both Star Numbers, and the Number 37 is both a Star and Centered Hexagonal Number. Their product is the 73^rd Triangular Number which is a manifestation of the fact that the product of paired Hexagon / Star numbers is always Triangular. But the fact that it is the 73^rd Triangle is particularly beautiful, not only because of the 37 / 73 symmetry, but further because of the relation between the Numbers 37, 73 and the value of Wisdom, by which the Lord created the Cosmos (Jeremiah 10.12):

Wisdom Hokmah	37 = 8 + 11 + 13 + 5 (Ordinal Value)
	73 = 8 + 20 + 40 + 5 (Standard Value)

These numbers of Wisdom – 37 and 73 – then coalesce to form the value of the Logos – the Word by which God created the Cosmos:

Word Logos

= 373

The geometric form of the prime Number 373 is a variation on the theme of the sixfold Star Numbers. It is a fractal Star Number that is built upon the union of Seven Stars, each with the value of 37 – the numeric weight of Wisdom!

This means the Logos Star is based on Seven Stars of Wisdom, and its form exhibits the fundamental fractal/holographic property of self-similarity over scale! The image below shows how the Logos Star relates to the fundamental Numbers of Creation – 37, 73 and 373:

This structure of the Logos Star is encoded in the text of John 1.1, as demonstrated in the Divine Tapestry of John 1.1.

These sixfold stars are the geometric forms of the two fundamental Words God used to create the the sixfold Cosmos. The depth of Wisdom encoded in these geometric Numbers defies description. Not only are they are mutually integrated both with geometry and the plain text of Scripture, but they are the two prime Numbers God used in His design of the Logos Holograph!

The Logos Star – 373 – is a sevenfold integration of 37 as a Star! This was first brought to my attention by Iain Strachan. It is built from seven Stars each representing the Number 37 with the remaining space filled by six Hexagons representing the Number 19. Note that these numbers (19 / 37) form a Hexagon / Star pair just like 37 / 73 – the basis of Creation. Their product gives the Number 703 (= and the earth) from the Creation Holograph. Furthermore, the Number 19 is the value of The Earth and it is modulated my the Number 6, whereas 37 – the ordinal value of Widsom – is modulated by the Number 7. The product 6 x 19 = 114 yields the index of the Grace Manifest Holograph. Yet there is more! The Number 37 (as Hexagon) is the projection of the 4^th cube, 64 = 4 x 4 x 4:

The Logos Star corresponds to the third term in the Snowflake sequence which begins with a simple triangle:

To generate the Logos Star, we begin with the self-intersection of the 22^nd Triangle (the Number 253), followed by the self-intersection of the 7^th Triangle (the Number 28):

This means that the Logos Star is the third term in the snowflake sequence that begins with the 22^nd Triangle There is a profound integration of these Numbers with Creation and God’s Word. The Number 22 is the Number of Spokes of the Wheel and Letters of the Hebrew Alphabet, and the Number 7 is the premier Number in all Scripture, as discussed at some length in Seven and Scripture. Yet the union goes deeper, with the Numbers 7 and 28 (united in the 7^th Triangle) registering the number of Words and Letters of Genesis 1.1, which is itself the product 2701 = 37 x 73. Endless glory!

The resemblence of the Logos Star to a snowflake is not a chance occurrence. It was designed by God before the foundation of the world when He designed the Greek and Hebrew languages. We have the identity (Cf. Proverbs 31.21):

Of Snow Mishlag

= 373

It appears that the Logos represents the condensation of God’s thought not unlike the crystaline form of snow – which is so beautifully used as a symbol of purity in Scripture (cf. Isaiah 1.18).

Consider now what this means! We have a full integration of Numerical Geometry, Gematria, the Sixfold Creation (as expressed in the plain text of Scripture) and the intrinsic geometric form of the Wisdom and the Logos, the latter being a sevenfold integration of the beautiful prime Number 37! Endless glory!

Part III – The Divine Seal and Capstone of Holy Scripture

Chpt 1: The Wheel of Revelation

The Wheel of Revelation

And he bearing his cross went forth into a place called the place of a skull, which is called in the Hebrew Golgotha: Where they crucified him, and two other with him, on either side one, and Jesus in the midst. And Pilate wrote a title, and put it on the cross. And the writing was, JESUS OF NAZARETH THE KING OF THE JEWS. This title then read many of the Jews: for the place where Jesus was crucified was nigh to the city: and it was written in Hebrew, and Greek, and Latin.

John 19:17ff

Golgotha – The Axis of the Wheel

The crucifixion of the Lord Jesus Christ is the central event of all Scripture. It is the fixed point of God’s revelation. Just as the Apostle Paul “determined not to know any thing among you, save Jesus Christ, and him crucified” (1 Cor 2:2), so the Wheel revolves about this singular event. It is the axis of the Wheel. The name Golgotha, as noted above by the Apostle John, means the Place of the Skull. It is a transliteration of the Aramaic name used at the time of Christ, Gulgoltha, corresponding to the Hebrew gulgoleth (skull).

This word gives great insight into the design of the Bible. It is based on the verb galal (to roll) because a skull is round like a ball or globe. Christians know this root through the original location of the Lord’s ministry, Galilee, so called because it consisted of a circuit (galeel) of border towns in the northernmost region of Israel (Joshua 20:7). Another familiar word is Gilgal, so named because it is where God figuratively “rolled away” the reproach of Egypt after the children of Israel crossed the Jordon into the Promised Land (Joshua 5:9):

And the LORD said unto Joshua, This day have I rolled away (galal) the reproach of Egypt from off you. Wherefore the name of the place is called Gilgal unto this day.

The name Gilgal is a variation of galgal, the common Hebrew word for a wheel, such as that of a chariot. Its plural form is galgalim. This word appears in twelve verses, such as the “wheels like a whirlwind” (Isa 5:28), the “fire from between the wheels” (Ezek 10:6), and the “wheels as burning fire” whirling below the Throne of God (Dan 7:9f):

I beheld till the thrones were cast down, and the Ancient of days did sit, whose garment was white as snow, and the hair of his head like the pure wool: his throne was like the fiery flame, and his wheels (galgalim) as burning fire. A fiery stream issued and came forth from before him: thousand thousands ministered unto him, and ten thousand times ten thousand stood before him: the judgment was set, and the books were opened.

Now we can easily see more of God’s glorious Wisdom. The name of the place where the Lord was crucified, Gulgoltha, is spelt with the same letters as galgal suffixed with an Aleph and a Tav in reverse order. This means that the word identifying the central event of all Scripture implicitly contains the elements of its unified geometric and alphabetic structure that we discovered through that “single and surprisingly simple act” (Bible Wheel book pg 16) of rolling up the list of Sixty-Six Books on a spindle Wheel of Twenty-Two Spokes, corresponding to the Twenty-Two Hebrew Letters from Aleph to Tav. Moreover, this leads straight back to the word for a miracle or proof, the very Sign (Tav) of God (Aleph) = ot (BW book pg 88) that declares the essence of the Gospel, for it was at Gulgoltha that God (Aleph) died for us on the Cross (Tav), as it is written:

For the grace of God that bringeth salvation hath appeared to all men, Teaching us [Lamed, BW book pg 258] that, denying ungodliness and worldly lusts, we should live soberly, righteously, and godly, in this present world; looking for that blessed hope, and the glorious appearing of our great God [] and Saviour Jesus Christ; Who gave himself for us [on the Cross, = ], that he might redeem us from all iniquity, and purify unto himself a peculiar people, zealous of good works.…… Titus 2:11ff (Spoke 12, Cycle 3)

Skull and Crossbones from Mayan Graveyard Uxmal, Mexico  ca. 700 AD

The Gospel message comes directly from the Mind of God, the Creator of All. He teaches it to us using universal symbols called archetypes. Case in point: Christ’s Death on the Cross at the place of the Skull – the most significant death in the history of the universe – contains the elements of the archetypal Sign of Death, the Skull and Crossbones. Note that the crossbones look like the ancient form of Tav (X, BW book pg 373), and that their fourfold form integrates with the meaning of the Number Four as revealed in the Fourth Seal of the Apocalypse (Spoke 4, BW book BW book pg 171). The independent appearance of this symbol on both hemispheres of the globe reveals its universal nature as an archetype of death, and this reflects the universality of Christ’s Atonement when He “died for all” (2 Cor 5:15), “tasted death for every man” (Heb 2:9), and “took away the sins of the world” (John 1:29).All these ideas are implicit in the name Gulgoltha. When its final two Letters are taken in their normal order, they combine to form (et, BW book pg 88), which denotes the essence and totality of a thing from Aleph to Tav, from beginning to end. A simple permutation of the letters of Gulgoltha therefore transforms it into Et Galgal, the Essence of the Wheel, and we see that the word for the geometric structure of Scripture, when combined with the two letters defining its Alphabetic Seal, declare nothing less than the essential Gospel message of all Scripture! And besides all this, we see once again how God has signed and sealed His Word with His Capstone Signature , the Sign of the Eternal God (Rev 1:8, 22:13).

Consider the depth of self-reflective integrity revealed here. Throughout this study, we have seen numerous examples of the self-descriptive nature of the Bible Wheel. We saw it in the alignment of the First Books of the Law and the Prophets on Spoke 1 (BW book pg 59), and again in the symmetrically maximized distribution of melek (king) on Spoke 12 (BW book BW book pg 104), corresponding to the Lamed in the middle of the alphabetic sequence – Kaph Lamed Mem – which spells melek in reverse order. Now we see the whole structure of the Bible Wheel implicit in the word describing the central theme of all Scripture! Praise God for His mighty Work! Yet again we see form united with content (BW book pg 75) in the most plain and obvious way.

Golgotha remains fixed as the inescapable central point about which God’s revelation eternally revolves. This is the revelation of “the Lamb slain from the foundation of the world” (Rev 13:8). It is the unmovable axis of the Wheel. From Aleph to Tav, from beginning to end, from Genesis to Revelation, both the Bible and the Bible Wheel have but one message – Jesus Christ, and Him crucified! Behold the Wisdom of God! The very word denoting the intrinsic geometric structure of God’s Word, Galgal (Wheel), points directly and inevitably to its central event at Golgotha, the crucifixion of “our great God and Saviour Jesus Christ” where the reproach of our sin was forever rolled away. Glory to God in the highest!

The Wheel of Revelation

The voice of him that crieth in the wilderness, Prepare ye the way of the LORD, make straight in the desert a highway for our God. Every valley shall be exalted, and every mountain and hill shall be made low: and the crooked shall be made straight, and the rough places plain: And the glory of the LORD shall be revealed (galah), and all flesh shall see it together: for the mouth of the LORD hath spoken it.

Isaiah 40:3ff (Spoke 1, Cycle 2)

Throughout the Old Testament, the primary Hebrew verb meaning to reveal is galah. This word figures prominently in the thematic links and KeyLinks between the first two Books on Spoke 5 (BW book pg 189):

The secret things belong unto the LORD our God: but those things which are revealed (galah) belong unto us and to our children for ever, that we may do all the words of this law.
………………………… Deut 29:29 (Spoke 5, Cycle 1)

The king answered unto Daniel, and said, Of a truth it is, that your God is a God of gods, and a Lord of kings, and a revealer (galah) of secrets, seeing thou couldest reveal (galah) this secret.
………………………… Daniel 2:40 (Spoke 5, Cycle 2)

Galah relates to galal (to roll) through the idea of rolling away a covering to expose, uncover, or make something bare and naked. It is a fundamental Gimel KeyWord that appears with its greatest frequency (24x) in the prohibitions against inappropriate nakedness in Leviticus (Spoke 3, BW book pg 158). The Septuagint almost always renders galah with the Greek verb apocalupto, the root of the name and first word of the Apocalypse. Jesus used this word when He said “there is nothing covered, that shall not be revealed; neither hid, that shall not be known” (Luke 12:2). Most Hebrew translations of the New Testament use this root in the form of the noun Hitgalut (Revelation) as the title for the Final Book of the Bible.

The roots galal and galah are so closely associated in rabbinic thought that they are often conflated and spoken of as the same. We saw this in Rabbi Dov Ber Weisman’s explanation of the relation between the word for a scroll (megillah) and the idea of revelation that was cited in the discussion of Esther (Spoke 17, BW book pg 308):

In Hebrew, the word “megillah” shares the same root as the word “reveal”. By contrast, the name “Esther” comes from the root word meaning “hidden”. Megillat Esther (Book of Esther), therefore, translates to mean: “Revealing the hidden.”

Linguistic specialists, in accordance with their careful categorical systems, would quibble with Weisman and distinguish between the roots galal (to roll) and galah (to reveal), but the natural coherence of these words, both in spelling and meaning, can not be denied. Indeed, megillah is spelt with exactly the same letters as galah prefixed with a Mem, while its literal meaning as “something rolled up” is obviously based on the root galal. This is what Weisman meant when he said megillah and galah share the same root word. Their meanings completely overlap.

This same semantic overlap extends to the word for a wheel (galgal) which describes the large-scale geometric structure of God’s Word. Any reader of Hebrew can not help but see it, because it is built into the very Letters of the word itself. Indeed, the distinction between the roots galal and galah is lost in galgal, which is formed by simply reduplicating the first two letters Gimel and Lamed that are common to both roots. The very word for the Wheel, just like the megillah (scroll) it is patterned after, inevitably carries the implication of revelation. Thus, the nature of God’s Word as a Divine Revelation is implicit in its geometric structure! It is the Wheel of Revelation (Galgal HaHitgalut).

Rolling Thunder: The Voice of God

The voice of thy thunder was in the heaven: the lightnings lightened the world: the earth trembled and shook.

Psalm 77:18

Lightning, thunder, and earthquakes! These phenomena are associated with Divine Revelation throughout Scripture, most notably the manifestation of the Voice of the Lord. We see it first when God revealed the Ten Commandments (Exo 20:18f):

And all the people saw the thunderings, and the lightnings, and the noise of the trumpet, and the mountain smoking: and when the people saw it, they removed, and stood afar off. And they said unto Moses, Speak thou with us, and we will hear: but let not God speak with us, lest we die.

David praised the power of God’s Voice in Psalm 29:3f:

The voice of the LORD is upon the waters: the God of glory thundereth: the LORD is upon many waters. The voice of the LORD is powerful; the voice of the LORD is full of majesty. The voice of the LORD breaketh the cedars; yea, the LORD breaketh the cedars of Lebanon.

And again in Psalm 18:13f:

The LORD also thundered in the heavens, and the Highest gave his voice; hail stones and coals of fire. Yea, he sent out his arrows, and scattered them; and he shot out lightnings, and discomfited them.

People said it thundered when God the Father audibly answered His Son in John 12:29:

Then came there a voice from heaven, saying, I have both glorified it, and will glorify it again. The people therefore, that stood by, and heard it, said that it thundered …

As would be expected, these phenomena are particularly dominant in the Book of Revelation. We see them in John’s vision of the Throne of God in heaven (Rev 4:5):

And out of the throne proceeded lightnings and thunderings and voices: and there were seven lamps of fire burning before the throne, which are the seven Spirits of God.

And when the First Seal was opened (Rev 6:1):

And I saw when the Lamb opened one of the seals, and I heard, as it were the noise of thunder, one of the four beasts saying, Come and see.

And when the Temple of God was opened (Rev 11:19):

And the temple of God was opened in heaven, and there was seen in his temple the ark of his testament: and there were lightnings, and voices, and thunderings, and an earthquake, and great hail.

And when the Seventh Angel poured out the final vial of God’s Wrath (16:17f):

And the seventh angel poured out his vial into the air; and there came a great voice out of the temple of heaven, from the throne, saying, It is done. And there were voices, and thunders, and lightnings; and there was a great earthquake.

Pastor Carl Boberg  captured these ideas in his magnificent hymn, “How Great Thou Art”:

O Lord my God, when I in awesome wonder consider all the worlds Thy hands have made, I see the stars, I hear the rolling thunder, Thy power throughout the universe displayed! Then sings my soul, my savior God to Thee, How great Thou art, How great Thou art!

People describe thunder as rolling because it sounds like some gigantic wheel or ball rolling through the heaven. The Psalm quoted at the head of this section exemplifies this common metaphor (Psalm 77:18):

The voice of thy thunder was in the heaven (galgal): the lightnings lightened the world: the earth trembled and shook.

This verse is the only place galgal is ever translated as “heaven” in the Bible. Most English versions, such as the NKJV, NIV, and NRSV, render it as whirlwind in keeping with the root meaning of galal (to roll). The Bible produced by the Jewish Publication Society follows its literal sense and renders this verse as “Your thunder rumbled like wheels.” The only problem with this is that they used the plural when in fact the Hebrew is in the singular. The most literal translation would be “The voice of thy thunder was in the wheel (ba-galgal).” Here galgal is prefixed with a Bet, the sign of the preposition in (BW book pg 138).

This Psalm is a prophetic anticipation of the rolling thunder of God’s Voice revealed in the Wheel (Galgal) of His Word. The KeyLinks strike like lightning from the Alphabetic Verses to highly specific points on each Spoke, enlightening the Books with a flash of Divine Insight and sending forth rolling thematic thunder throughout the Holy Word. This is the Voice of God resounding from the revelation of the Divine Unity of the Bible as a whole. God expanded the relatively subtle anticipation of Psalm 77:18 into an explicit revelation of the fully unified structure of the entire Bible in Ezekiel’s vision of the Divine Glory, where He explicitly defined the whole system of “wheels within wheels” using the singular Galgal: “As for the wheels, it was cried unto them in my hearing, O Wheel (Galgal)” (Ezek 10:13).

Fulfillment of Ezekiel’s Prophecy of the Wheels

And I looked, and, behold, a whirlwind came out of the north, a great cloud, and a fire infolding itself, and a brightness was about it, and out of the midst thereof as the colour of amber, out of the midst of the fire. … Also out of the midst thereof came the likeness of four living creatures. … As for the likeness of their faces, they four had the face of a man, and the face of a lion, on the right side: and they four had the face of an ox on the left side; they four also had the face of an eagle. … As for the likeness of the living creatures, their appearance was like burning coals of fire, and like the appearance of lamps: it went up and down among the living creatures; and the fire was bright, and out of the fire went forth lightning. … And when they went, I heard the noise of their wings, like the noise of great waters, as the voice of the Almighty, the voice of speech, as the noise of an host:

Ezekiel 1:4ff (Spoke 4, Cycle 2)

Ezekiel’s Vision (Weigel, 1695) From

Ezekiel’s famous vision of the Divine Throne above the Four Living Creatures with their “wheels within wheels” contains all the elements of lightning, fire, a whirlwind, and great noise that typically attend the great revelations of God’s Word. Indeed, Ezekiel said that the sound emanating from the wings of the Four Cherubim was as “the Voice of the Almighty, the voice of speech” (Ezek 1:24), which is, of course, an exact description of what we hear resounding from God’s Holy Bible. It is the rolling thunder of God’s Voice. The “noise of many waters” represents the many human voices of the prophets through whom God revealed His Word as well as the great cloud of witnesses that have been proclaiming it throughout the ensuing millennia (water typifies people, see Spoke 13, BW book pg 265). It is the “voice of speech, as the noise of an host” reverberating within and ringing out from the Wheel (Galgal) of God’s Word like a Divine Bell summoning all who would know God. Ezekiel stated the ultimate meaning of this vision at the end when he saw the “appearance of a man” – the pre-incarnate Lord Jesus Christ – seated on His Throne above the Four Living Creatures and said “This was the appearance of the likeness of the glory of the LORD” (Ezek 1:28). This is the miracle of true prophecy; he saw the glory of God shining “in the face of Jesus Christ” (2 Cor 4:6) six hundred years before His incarnation in Bethlehem (see Spoke 4, BW book pg 178).

Ezekiel later identified the Living Creatures as Cherubim, saying “This is the living creature that I saw under the God of Israel by the river of Chebar; and I knew that they were the cherubim” (Ezek 10:20). His reference to them as a single “living creature” signifies their profound unity. All four looked identical, and like the inseparable “wheel in the middle of a wheel” associated with each, they were intertwined as one for “their wings were joined one to another” (Ezek 1:9). The image of God enthroned above or between the cherubim originates in the design of the Mercy Seat that He revealed to Moses (Exo 25:18ff):

And thou shalt make two cherubims of gold, of beaten work shalt thou make them, in the two ends of the mercy seat. And make one cherub on the one end, and the other cherub on the other end: even of the mercy seat shall ye make the cherubims on the two ends thereof. And the cherubims shall stretch forth their wings on high, covering the mercy seat with their wings, and their faces shall look one to another; toward the mercy seat shall the faces of the cherubims be. And thou shalt put the mercy seat above upon the ark; and in the ark thou shalt put the testimony [the prototypical Word of God, Spoke 2, BW book pg 136] that I shall give thee. And there I will meet with thee, and I will commune with thee from above the mercy seat, from between the two cherubims which are upon the ark of the testimony, of all things which I will give thee in commandment unto the children of Israel.

As discussed in Wings of Glory (Spoke 11, BW book pg 242), “cherub” is a Kaph KeyWord that is closely associated with many others such as kissey (throne), kasah (to cover), kanaph (wing), and kavod (glory). These supernatural creatures dwell in the presence of God and ceaselessly declare “Holy, Holy, Holy is the Lord of hosts, the whole earth is full of His glory (kavod)” (Isa 6:3). It was from between the cherubim on the Mercy Seat above the Ark of the Testimony (God’s Word) that the Lord spoke with Moses (Num 7:89):

And when Moses was gone into the tabernacle of the congregation to speak with him, then he heard the voice of one speaking unto him from off the mercy seat that was upon the ark of testimony, from between the two cherubim: and he spake unto him.

This then became a standard image of God’s dwelling place, as seen in many Scriptures:

So the people sent to Shiloh, that they might bring from thence the ark of the covenant of the LORD of hosts, which dwelleth between the cherubim: 1 Sam 4:4

And David went up … to bring up thence the ark of God the LORD, that dwelleth between the cherubims, whose name is called on it. 1 Chr 13:6

Give ear, O Shepherd of Israel, thou that leadest Joseph like a flock; thou that dwellest between the cherubims, shine forth. Ps 80:1

O LORD of hosts, God of Israel, that dwellest between the cherubim, thou art the God, even thou alone, of all the kingdoms of the earth: thou hast made heaven and earth. Isa 37:16

In Solomon’s Temple, the Ark of the Covenant was placed in the Holy of Holies, also known as the Davir (Oracle, 1 Kings 6:20), from the root davar which as a verb means to speak and as a noun denotes a word (Spoke 2, BW book pg 141). It was called the Davir because it was there that God spoke – gave His Word – from between the cherubim.

Various commentators from the earliest times in Church history have recognized Ezekiel’s vision as a prophetic revelation of the detailed structure of the whole Bible, given many centuries before it was completed. The most obvious correspondence is between the Four Faces and the Four Gospels, as discussed on Spoke 4 (BW book pg 178). One of the earliest records of this interpretation is from Irenaeus (died 202 AD):

It is not possible that the Gospels can be either more or fewer in number than they are. For, since there are four zones of the world in which we live, and four principal winds, while the Church is scattered throughout all the world, and the “pillar and ground” of the Church is the Gospel and the spirit of life; it is fitting that she should have four pillars, breathing out immortality on every side, and vivifying men afresh. From which fact, it is evident that the Word, the Artificer of all, He that sitteth upon the cherubim, and contains all things, He who was manifested to men, has given us the Gospel under four aspects, but bound together by one Spirit. As also David says, when entreating His manifestation, “Thou that sittest between the cherubim, shine forth [Ps 80:1].”

Jerome (died 420 AD) said the same thing in his review of the New Testament:

Matthew, Mark, Luke and John are the Lord’s team of four, the true cherubim or store of knowledge. With them the whole body is full of eyes, they glitter as sparks, they run and return like lightning, their feet are straight feet, and lifted up, their backs also are winged, ready to fly in all directions. They hold together each by each and are interwoven one with another: like wheels within wheels they roll along and go whithersoever the breath of the Holy Spirit wafts them.

Though there has been some historical confusion as to which Face goes with which Gospel, there always has been broad agreement of the basic fact of the correspondence. Both follow a 3 + 1 pattern just like the space-time manifold discussed in relation to the Fourth Day (Spoke 4, BW book pg 169). The Four Faces divide into three that are earth-bound (Lion, Ox, Man) and one that flies in the heights of heaven (Eagle). This is directly analogous to the pattern of the three synoptic Gospels (Matthew, Mark, Luke) and the one “heavenly Gospel” of John (Eagle). Furthermore, the order of the Gospels corresponds precisely with that of the Four Faces revealed by God in the parallel vision of Revelation 4:

And out of the throne proceeded lightnings and thunderings and voices: and there were seven lamps of fire burning before the throne, which are the seven Spirits of God. And before the throne there was a sea of glass like unto crystal: and in the midst of the throne, and round about the throne, were four beasts full of eyes before and behind. And the first beast was like a lion, and the second beast like an ox, and the third beast had a face as a man, and the fourth beast was like a flying eagle.

Arthur Pink, in his enlightening book Why Four Gospels? , noted that this passage “authenticates the arrangement of the four Gospels as we have them in our Bibles, evidencing the fact that their present order is of Divine arrangement as Rev 4:7 confirms!” (his emphasis). Pink also commented on the 3 + 1 pattern and described the correspondences pretty much as listed in the table, which also coheres with the general consensus amongst most Protestant scholars. This is the overwhelming wonder of the Bible Wheel; the profound integration of the Four Faces with the distinctive characteristics of each Gospel, as recognized by countless scholars, is identical to the distinctive characteristics reviewed in the Synopsis that are based on KeyWords revealed in the Alphabetic Verses! The Wheel is an astounding witness of the correct interpretation of Scripture. Everything mutually reinforces and confirms everything else and seamlessly coheres with the witness of countless Biblical scholars from ages past.

The 3 + 1 pattern also appears in the large-scale tri-radiant structure generated by the seven canonical divisions since it consists of three pairs of divisions aligned on the first two Cycles, and one Cycle, the third, that is an undivided whole. This also is reflected in Ezekiel’s prophetic Temple with its three pairs of gates centered on the altar standing before the one door to the Holy of Holies (Spoke 4, BW book pg 180). The same pattern is seen yet again in the Seven Days of Creation which has three pairs of corresponding Days and one Day, the Sabbath, that is set apart. And all of this is united in the design of the sevenfold Menorah with its three pairs of branches symmetrically arrayed about one central lamp (BW book pg 49). It is this integration of the Menorah with the Wheel that reveals a second correlation between the Four Faces and the progressive structure of the whole body of Scripture:

Full integration of the Gospels, Cherubim, divisions of the Bible Wheel, and the Menorah

Lion: Just as Matthew emphasizes the righteousness of the Law and the fulfillment of the Prophets, so the Lion corresponds to the Law and the Major Prophets (Divisions 1 & 4). This corresponds to the creation of Light and Light Bearers on the First and Fourth Days of Creation, for “The commandment is a lamp [light bearer], and the Law is light” (Prov 6:23). Note also “The lion hath roared, who will not fear? the Lord GOD hath spoken, who can but prophesy?” (Amos 3:8).Ox: Just as Mark emphasizes the actions of Christ, so the Ox corresponds to Israel’s historical actions as she ploughed through the Twelve OT History Books, which also were the central focus of the Twelve Minor Prophets (Divisions 2 & 5). Note that Division 2 begins with the parting of the waters of the Jordon River, just as the waters were divided on the Second Day and in the Second Book (Spoke 2, BW book pg 144).

Man: Just as Luke emphasizes the humanity and wisdom of Christ, so the Man corresponds to the Five Books of Wisdom and Five NT History Books (Divisions 3 & 6). This interweaves with everything we have seen concerning the creation of Man in the likeness of God on the Sixth Day, the Incarnation of God in the likeness of Man in the Sixth Division, and its reiteration on the Sixth Spoke (pgs 204, 206).

Eagle: Just as John is marked with the greatest density of the word faith in any Book of the Bible, and it contains the explicit declaration that “This is the work of God, that ye believe on him whom he hath sent” (John 6:29), so the Eagle corresponds to the 22 NT Epistles (Division 7) which is marked with the clarion call of NO WORKS, salvation is through faith alone. This corresponds exactly with the ultimate spiritual meaning of the Seventh Day of Creation, the Sabbath Rest (pg 49). It is through faith in the Son of God that we “overcome the world” (1 John 5:5) and soar like eagles into the heights of heaven to be with our Saviour God.

This new correlation reveals yet another level of the limitless depth of Divine Wisdom that God invested in the structure of His Holy Word. We have the full synergistic integration of the Seven Days of Creation, the Sevenfold Menorah, and the Seven Canonical Divisions with the Four Gospels and the Four Faces revealed in Ezekiel on Spoke 4 and in Revelation 4! This is an exceedingly dense and reiterative compounding of manifold symbolic elements, not unlike the Divine Synergy of the Four Symbols of the Circle, the Cross, the Alphabet, and the Number Seven discussed in Part I (BW book pg 52). The Four Faces therefore simultaneously represent two aspects of the Divine Word; one recognized since ancient times (the Four Gospels) and one newly revealed by the integration of the Wheel with the Menorah.

The differences between Ezekiel’s vision and that of Revelation 4 are as important as their similarities. In Revelation, the Four Faces are separated and distributed amongst the Four Cherubim and the wheels are absent. These represent the Four Gospels in their traditional canonical order, and are listed by number as the first, second, third, and fourth. In contrast, Ezekiel reveals the Cherubim with Four Faces each. This signifies their composite unity – four aspects of one being. They simultaneously represent four aspects of the One Lord Jesus Christ, the Living Word, and four aspects of His Bible, the Written Word, that reveals Him to us. Each stands beside a huge wheel that has another wheel within it. Scripture strongly emphasizes their unity with the Cherubim, twice stating that “the spirit of the living creature was in the wheels” (Ezek 1:20f). This unity is naturally displayed in the Wheel with the Four Faces distributed according to the 3 + 1 pattern of the seven canonical divisions (see The Sevenfold Light of God’s Word, BW book pg 47). This is why Scripture says that each wheel itself had Four Faces like the Cherubim (Ezek 1:15). It represents the full fourfold pattern of the entire unified Word of God – four aspects of one being – and so reveals God enthroned between the cherubim of His Holy Word! Recall also that the tri-radiant form of the Word of God is isomorphic to the tri-radiant form of Ezekiel’s prophetic Temple where once again the eternal Lord is seen enthroned amongst the Cherubim. The whole Bible is a revelation of its True Author, the Almighty Lord of History !

Wheels within Wheels

Now as I beheld the living creatures, behold one wheel upon the earth by the living creatures, with his four faces. The appearance of the wheels and their work was like unto the colour of a beryl [bright gold/yellow]: and they four had one likeness: and their appearance and their work was as it were a wheel in the middle of a wheel. When they went, they went upon their four sides: and they turned not when they went. As for their rings [rims], they were so high that they were dreadful; and their rings were full of eyes round about them four. And when the living creatures went, the wheels went by them: and when the living creatures were lifted up from the earth, the wheels were lifted up. Whithersoever the spirit was to go, they went, thither was their spirit to go; and the wheels were lifted up over against them: for the spirit of the living creature was in the wheels.

Ezekiel 1:15ff (Spoke 4, Cycle 2)

Throughout most of Ezekiel’s vision, the word translated as “wheel” is not galgal, but ophan. It is not until a later vision in Ezekiel 10:13 that the vision as a whole is declared to be the Galgal. The word ophan is from the root panah meaning “to turn” or “to look” which also is the root of the Pey KeyWord panim (face) as discussed at length on Spoke 17 (BW book pg 306). Its plural form ophanim differs from panim only by the initial Aleph (and the Vav which functions as a vowel). These words are closely related and they both play central roles in Ezekiel’s vision. It is in the wheels (ophanim) and the Four Faces (Panim) of the Cherubim that God displays His character and glory. This is amplified by looking at ophan as a Hebrew Word Picture (BW book pg 115). Applying what we learned in the Synopsis of the Twenty-Two Spokes, we see Aleph as a symbol of God the Creator (Spoke 1, BW book pg 121), Pey as a symbol of the Face of God (Spoke 17, pg 307), and Nun as a symbol of Eternality (Spoke 14, BW book pg 271). Putting these ideas together into an English phrase, we see the vision of the ophanim as representing Divine Phenomena that reveal the Eternal Face of God, exactly as the text has been interpreted for millennia. The power of this root is such that cognates appear in many languages, most notably in Latin, Greek, and English words with similar meanings. Our word phenomenon is from the Latin phaenomenon , which in turn is based on the Greek fainomenon (phainomenon), the root being phaino which means to shine, to appear, or to show forth. God used this word in His explanation of faith as a mode of cognition (knowing, understanding):

Now faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen. For by it the elders obtained a good report. Through faith we understand that the worlds were framed by the word of God, so that things which are seen were not made of things which do appear (phaino). Hebrews 11:1ff (Spoke 14, Cycle 3, BW book pg 284)

God also used this word to describe the light of His Creative Word, saying “The light shineth (phaino) in the darkness; and the darkness comprehended it not” (John 1:5), and again to describe the face of His Son, the Living Word, which blazes as “the sun shineth (phaino) in his strength” (Rev 1:16). He used this word again to describe the light of His glory that enlightens the New Jerusalem (Rev 21:23):

And the city had no need of the sun, neither of the moon, to shine (phaino) in it: for the glory of God did lighten it, and the Lamb is the light thereof.

This is the light that shines throughout God’s Written Word from beginning to end (BW book pg 51). It is the light of the Old and New Testaments, which have been understood as a “wheel within a wheel” since at least the sixth century when Saint Gregory the Great presented his Homilies on Ezekiel  (593 AD):

The wheel within the wheel is, as we said, the New Testament within the Old Testament, because what the Old Testament defined the New Testament showed forth. … Therefore, the wheel is in the midst of a wheel because the New Testament is encompassed by the Old. And, as we have often said already, what the Old Testament promised the New showed forth, and what the one covertly announced the other openly proclaimed manifest. Therefore, the Old Testament is the prophecy of the New, and the New is the exposition of the Old.

Gregory’s explanation of the “wheel within a wheel” is identical to Augustine’s poetic dictum “The New is in the Old concealed, and the Old is in the New revealed.” This understanding is found throughout the writings of the Church Fathers, and was graphically portrayed in the fifteenth century by Fra Angelico in his magnificent set of 32 panels called the Silver Closet (Armadio degli Argenti, 1455 AD). The first nine panels, shown in the image, begin with a representation of Ezekiel’s Wheel. Each panel that follows has two banners quoting Scripture; the top banner quotes an Old Testament prophecy and the bottom banner quotes its fulfillment in the New. For example, the second panel shows the Annunciation when Gabriel spoke to the Virgin Mary. The top banner quotes Isaiah 7:14 “Behold, a virgin shall conceive, and bear a son, and shall call his name Immanuel,” and the bottom banner quotes its fulfillment in Luke 1:31 “Behold, thou shalt conceive in thy womb, and bring forth a son, and shalt call his name Jesus.” This is the purpose of the Silver Closet. The 31 panels that follow the Wheel exemplify how the Two Testaments interweave like a “wheel in the middle of a wheel.” They demonstrate the reality of prophecy by telling the whole story of Christ from His Birth to His Ministry, His Death and His Resurrection through interlaced passages from the both Testaments. It is a magnificent piece of theological art. Here now is the first panel showing Ezekiel’s Wheel as the Old and New Testaments:

The outer wheel represents the Old Testament by portraying twelve of its primary prophets. Moses sits in the top position, holding the two tablets of the Ten Commandments. He is flanked by King David on his right and King Solomon on his left. Listed clockwise, we have Ezekiel, Jeremiah, Micah, Jonah, Joel, Malachi, Ezra, Daniel, and Isaac, the latter being the only Old Testament figure not known as a writer of Sacred Scripture. Angelico encircled the outer Wheel of the Old Testament with the Latin text of Genesis 1:1-5  from the Vulgate:

In principio creavit Deus caelum et terram terra autem erat inanis et vacua et tenebrae super faciem abyssi et spiritus Dei ferebatur super aquas dixitque Deus fiat lux et facta est lux. Et vidit Deus lucem quod esset bona et divisit lucem ac tenebras appellavitque lucem diem.

The inner wheel represents the New Testament. It portrays the Four Evangelists as a cross like the Four Cherubim around God’s Throne. The top figure represents John, the bottom Luke, the right Mark, and the left Matthew. These four figures each hold a codex (bound book). In contrast, the other four prophets of the New Testament – Peter, Jude, James, Paul – are interspersed and portrayed with scrolls. Angelico encircled the Wheel of the New Testament with the Latin text of John 1:1-3  from the Vulgate:

In principio erat Verbum et Verbum erat apud Deum et Deus erat Verbum. hoc erat in principio apud Deum. omnia per ipsum facta sunt et sine ipso factum est nihil quod factum est.

Angelico inscribed both wheels with text that begins with In principio (In the beginning) to show the unity of God’s Creative Word as revealed in the Two Testaments. The figures at the bottom are the Prophet Ezekiel on the left and Saint Gregory on the right. The banner at the bottom reads “Flumen Cobar” (River Chebar), the place of the vision. The unrolled scroll in the upper left corner quotes the Latin text of Ezekiel that speaks of the Four Cherubim and their wheels. The unrolled scroll in the upper right corner quotes a fragment from one of Gregory’s Homilies on Ezekiel. It picks up after the words in square brackets:

[Why is it that when one wheel was mentioned] a little later is added “as it were a wheel in the midst of a wheel,” unless that the New Testament lay hidden by allegory in the letter of the Old Testament? Hence also this same wheel which appeared by the sacred creatures is described as having four faces because Holy Scripture is divided into four parts through both Testaments. Indeed the Old Testament is divided into the Law and the Prophets, and truly the New into the Gospels and the Acts and Sayings of the Apostles.

Gregory’s simplified fourfold division of the Bible closely mimics the more detailed sevenfold structure we discovered through its correlation with the Menorah (BW book pg 385, see above). In both cases, the Four Faces are associated with the canonical divisions of Scripture. Note also that a connection between the Numbers Four and Seven is implicit in the structure of the Ten Commandments where we find the Seventh Day Sabbath as the subject of the Fourth Commandment.

Fra Angelico’s painting graphically illustrates the natural understanding of Ezekiel’s vision that has appeared to be quite obvious, indeed, self-evident, to many commentators through-out much of Church history. Gregory’s interpretation still held currency some eight centuries after he presented it in 593 AD. It has been lost to most modern scholars for three reasons. First, much of the writings from before the Reformation remain hidden in Latin, never having been translated into English. For example, Gregory’s Homilies on Ezekiel were first translated into English in 1990. The second and more significant reason is the “demise” of the allegorical and typological methods of interpretation as discussed at length with regards to the Song of Songs (BW book pg 72). This has sealed off vast portions of the true meaning of Scripture from the view of contemporary scholarship. Such skepticism directly contradicts the common and correct methods of interpretation, as taught in Scripture, that have dominated traditional Biblical exegesis from the beginning. Gregory devoted over one hundred pages to his explanation of the relation between Ezekiel’s vision and different aspects of both the Written and the Living Word of God. The great miracle is that it reads like a commentary on the Bible Wheel, written seventeen hundred years before it was revealed in 1995.

The third reason Ezekiel’s vision has remained “enigmatic” is that there has never been a second witness to confirm the interpretation. The Bible Wheel solves that problem. In fact, it solves it abundantly, since there is yet a third group of witnesses that both confirm and amplify Ezekiel’s vision as a revelation of the structure of God’s Word. I speak of the series of visions – the Capstone Prophecies – given to the third and fourth chapters of Zechariah. It is to these we now turn.

Fulfillment of Zechariah’s Capstone Prophecies

Hear now, O Joshua the high priest, thou, and thy fellows that sit before thee: for they are men wondered at: for, behold, I will bring forth my servant the BRANCH. For behold the stone that I have laid before Joshua; upon one stone shall be seven eyes: behold, I will engrave the engraving thereof, saith the LORD of hosts, and I will remove the iniquity of that land in one day.

Zechariah 3:8-9 (Spoke 16, Cycle 2)

Behold! One Stone with Seven Eyes

Divine Revelation is True Light. When the Spirit of God illuminates His Word, we know His Truth with the same certainty a blind man would have if he received sight. Everything suddenly comes into focus with perfect clarity. We can walk without stumbling in the Daylight of God’s Word. All the pieces effortlessly fit together with supernatural grace when the vision of the Whole is received. Ten thousand witnesses lift their voices in unison to confirm God’s Word. There is no perplexing doubt, no confusion. Scripture superabundantly conforms to its own reiterative command that “every word” must be established “in the mouth of two or three witnesses” (Deut 19:15, Mat 18:16, 2 Cor 13:1). There is nothing but light, Light, LIGHT that drives out any shadow of darkness. The Gates of Heaven are thrust open; the Divine Perfection of the Holy Word shines like the noontime sun in a cloudless sky for all to see. This is the overwhelming power of God’s prophetic Capstone. Enigmatic clouds that have shrouded the self-reflective prophecies of God’s Word given within the Word itself, such as Ezekiel’s Wheels and Zechariah’s Stone, simply evaporate in the light of its blazing glory.

The revelation (galah) of the Divine Unity of all Scripture burst forth fully formed from the “single and surprisingly simple act” of rolling up (galal) the list of Sixty-Six Books like a scroll (megillah) on a spindle wheel (galgal) of Twenty-Two Spokes (BW book pg 16). God prophetically anticipated and confirmed its design by using the same alphabetic template as the foundation of Psalm 119, the great Psalm of His Word set as a jewel in the very heart of Scripture (BW book pg 17). The Wheel immediately exposed a host of “unanticipated correlations” spanning every aspect of the Holy Word, most notably its sevenfold symmetric perfection (BW book pg 33) which is now easily and unmistakably recognized as the fulfillment of Zechariah’s prophecy of the One Stone with Seven Eyes.

Zechariah’s vision of the One Stone is part of an extremely dense prophecy that has three primary applications. First, it applies to the time of Haggai and Zechariah when Joshua and Zerubbabel led the rebuilding of the Temple after their return from the Babylonian Exile. Second, it is a prophecy of the Spiritual Temple, the Church, built by the Lord Jesus Christ who is doubly signified by Joshua the High Priest and the Servant of the Lord, the BRANCH. Third, it is a prophecy of the Lord’s Capstone which reveals the Divine Unity of all Scripture, the completion of the prophetic Temple of God’s Word (BW book pg 180). Its description as one stone uses the Aleph KeyWord echat (one, the feminine form of echad, BW book pg 121). This emphasizes its unity. When echat follows a noun it usually means one in number, as opposed to a plurality, but it can also mean unified, as in the one language (saphah echat) of Genesis 11:1. This seems to be the intent here.

We touched upon this prophecy in the synopsis of Spoke 16 where we saw that the distribution of the name of the Sixteenth Letter, Ayin (Eye), is greatly maximized in Zechariah (BW book pg 299), and that the identification of the seven eyes with the “eyes of the Lord” (Zech 4:10) links it to 1 Peter 3:12 (Spoke 16, Cycle 3) which itself forms an Alphabetic KeyLink to the Ayin verse of AV Psalm 34 (BW book pg 293). This is one of the most amazing things about this prophecy – not only is it given on Spoke 16, governed by the letter Ayin (Eye), but it is also interwoven with an Alphabetic KeyLink to 1 Peter! Furthermore, the Book of 1 Peter also explains the full typological significance of Zechariah’s prophecy, as we soon shall see.

The symbol of the eye naturally represents insight and intelligence, and when coupled with the Number Seven, omniscience, which is how almost all commentators understand the seven eyes. But the word Ayin can also denote a fountain of water or a facet of a gemstone. The “seven eyes” therefore can be understood as “seven fountains” (of wisdom) or “seven facets” or “aspects” of the One (unified) Stone of God’s Word.

God marked this prophecy with a unique phrase – Hinney HaEhven (Behold the Stone) – to guide us to its meaning as a witness of His Word. This phrase is found in one and only one other passage, which “just happens” to speak of Joshua, a covenant, God’s Book, and a “great stone” he set up as a witness of “all the words of the Lord”:

So Joshua made a covenant with the people that day, and set them a statute and an ordinance in Shechem. And Joshua wrote these words in the book of the law of God, and took a great stone, and set it up there under an oak, that was by the sanctuary of the LORD. And Joshua said unto all the people, Behold the stone, this shall be a witness unto us; for it hath heard all the words of the LORD which he spake unto us: it shall be therefore a witness unto you, lest ye deny your God.

Joshua 24:25ff

The stone bore witness of all the words of the Lord written in His Book. This follows the pattern of the Ten Commandments that were originally engraved on Two Stone Tablets by the very “finger” of God Himself (Exo 31:18). The Tablets of Testimony – the prototypical Word of God – were later placed in the Ark of the Covenant in the Holy of Holies of the Tabernacle, prefiguring the incarnation of the Son of God, when the Living Word “became flesh and dwelt (lit. tabernacled) amongst us” (John 1:14, BW book pgs 138, 355). And just as God Himself engraved the two Stone Tablets, so also He declares that He Himself “will engrave the engraving” of the One Stone with Seven Eyes. The intended implications are obvious – God’s Word is permanent and unchangeable, sure and secure, eternally WRITTEN IN STONE.

Jesus used this symbolism when He likened His Word to a Rock, saying “Therefore whosoever heareth these sayings of mine [His Word], and doeth them, I will liken him unto a wise man, which built his house upon a rock” (Mat 7:24). And as would be expected given the integrated thematic and geometric structure of the Wheel, God presented the symbolic relation between Stone and the Word with the utmost clarity in the First Epistle of the Apostle Peter (The Rock, Matthew 16:16ff), which aligns with Zechariah on Spoke 16:

Wherefore laying aside all malice, and all guile, and hypocrisies, and envies, and all evil speakings, As newborn babes, desire the sincere milk of the word, that ye may grow thereby: If so be ye have tasted that the Lord is gracious. To whom coming, as unto a Living Stone, disallowed indeed of men, but chosen of God, and precious, Ye also, as lively stones, are built up a spiritual house [tabernacle], an holy priesthood, to offer up spiritual sacrifices, acceptable to God by Jesus Christ. Wherefore also it is contained in the Scripture, Behold, I lay in Zion a chief corner stone, elect, precious: and he that believeth on him shall not be confounded. Unto you therefore which believe he is precious: but unto them which be disobedient, the stone which the builders disallowed, the same is made the head of the corner, And a stone of stumbling, and a rock of offence, even to them which stumble at the Word, being disobedient: whereunto also they were appointed.

1 Peter 3:1ff (Spoke 16, Cycle 3)

Here we see the Written Word – Scripture – presented in parallel with the Living Stone, a typological image of Jesus Christ. The disobedient stumble over the Written Word just as they stumble over the Living Word/Stone. Furthermore, this passage links back to Zechariah to illuminate the typological meaning of his prophecies concerning the rebuilding of the literal historical Temple after the Babylonian Exile. They are a pre-image of the building of the True Temple, the Body of Christ (John 2:21), with each member typified as a living stone on the pattern of Christ as the prototypical Living Stone in whom we all are “fitly framed together” to grow into a “holy temple in the Lord” (Eph 2:21). Thus both Christ and each believer is likened to the Temple in which God is made present in the world, for we are the Temple of God (1 Cor 6:19). Christ is in us and we are in Christ. This is our “hope of glory” (Col 1:27).

The density of typological imagery can be very challenging to the excessively rationalistic modern mind that wants to explain Scripture in terms of “this means that and only that.” Such thinking manifestly contradicts the way that God Himself presents His Truth in the Bible in which the symbols overlap. This follows the principles of stereoscopic vision in which two slightly different overlapping images are used to achieve depth perception. Christ is simultaneously presented as the foundational Cornerstone (Alpha/Aleph) and the finishing Capstone (Omega/Tav) even as both He and His Body are represented by the entire Temple with Him as the Head (Rosh) of His Church, “which is his body, the fullness of him that filleth all in all” (Eph 1:23).

Having established the symbolic meaning of Stone as a witness of God’s Word, we now can easily understand the parallel vision given in Revelation 5 when the Apostle John saw the Lamb with Seven Eyes (Jesus) receive the Book sealed with Seven Seals (Bible):

And I saw in the right hand of him that sat on the throne a book written within and on the backside, sealed with seven seals. And I saw a strong angel proclaiming with a loud voice, Who is worthy to open the book, and to loose the seals thereof? And no man in heaven, nor in earth, neither under the earth, was able to open the book, neither to look thereon. And I wept much, because no man was found worthy to open and to read the book, neither to look thereon. And one of the elders saith unto me, Weep not: behold, the Lion of the tribe of Judah, the Root of David, hath prevailed to open the book, and to loose the seven seals thereof. And I beheld, and, lo, in the midst of the throne and of the four beasts, and in the midst of the elders, stood a Lamb as it had been slain, having seven horns and seven eyes, which are the seven Spirits of God sent forth into all the earth. And he came and took the book out of the right hand of him that sat upon the throne.

Revelation 5:1-7

Zechariah saw One Stone with Seven Eyes (Bible) placed before Joshua (Jesus) just as John saw the Lamb with Seven Eyes (Jesus) receive the Book with Seven Seals (Bible). These visions are one. In both cases, we have a revelation of the Living Word in conjunction with a sevenfold object representing the Written Word, quite literally in the case of Revelation where the object itself is a book. We have here two independent witnesses that mutually corroborate the prophetic revelation of the sevenfold unity of God’s Word. Just as Ezekiel’s vision reveals the Bible as a “wheel within a wheel” so the visions of Zechariah 3 and Revelation 5 point to its sevenfold structure. Yet there is more. God gave yet another witness in the subsequent vision of Zechariah 4 that explicitly reveals its full integration with the sevenfold Menorah, which, as will be recalled, was designed by God Himself (Exo 25:40, pg 47).

Zechariah’s Prophetic Vision of the Whole Bible

And the angel that talked with me came again, and waked me, as a man that is wakened out of his sleep, And said unto me, What seest thou? And I said, I have looked, and behold a candlestick [menorah] all of gold, with a bowl upon the top of it, and his seven lamps thereon, and seven pipes to the seven lamps, which are upon the top thereof: And two olive trees by it, one upon the right side of the bowl, and the other upon the left side thereof. So I answered and spake to the angel that talked with me, saying, What are these, my lord? Then the angel that talked with me answered and said unto me, Knowest thou not what these be? And I said, No, my lord.

Then he answered and spake unto me, saying, This is THE WORD OF THE LORD unto Zerubbabel, saying, Not by might, nor by power, but by my spirit, saith the LORD of hosts. Who art thou, O great mountain? before Zerubbabel thou shalt become a plain: and he shall bring forth THE HEADSTONE thereof with shoutings, crying, GRACE, GRACE UNTO IT. …

Then answered I, and said unto him, What are these two olive trees upon the right side of the candlestick and upon the left side thereof? And I answered again, and said unto him, What be these two olive branches which through the two golden pipes empty the golden oil out of themselves? And he answered me and said, Knowest thou not what these be? And I said, No, my lord. Then said he, These are the two anointed ones, that stand by the Lord of the whole earth.

Zechariah Chapter 4 (Spoke 16, Cycle 2)

If ever there were a time when “all the pieces” effortlessly fell together with supernatural grace, it was in December 2003 when my wife and I were discussing this prophecy. It had been more than eight years since I had first discovered the Wheel, and about four years since I had noticed its integration with the Menorah (BW book pg 48). But I had yet to understand the meaning of the Two Olive Trees, primarily because I spent most of my time focused on a much finer level of detail as I explored the endless links amongst the three Books on each of the Twenty-Two Spokes. But on this day we were just chatting, taking in a high-level view of the prophecy. I suddenly had a flash of insight and said “I wonder if they are the Two Testaments?” I did a quick internet search to see if anyone else had ever suggested this interpretation and once again found myself sitting in utter astonishment. As it turns out, I was not the first to think this thought. No, not by a long shot. One of the earliest records is from the Explanatio Apocalypsis (Explanation of the Apocalypse) written by the Venerable Bede around 710 AD, whom we also encountered in the discussion of the Song of Songs (BW book pg 74). Here’s what he had to say about the Two Olive Trees  in Revelation 11, which, as he noted, correspond to those in Zechariah:

OLIVE TREES: The Church is irradiated by the light of the TWO TESTAMENTS, and ever waits upon the commands of the Lord. So also the prophet Zechariah saw one candlestick with seven branches, and these TWO OLIVE-TREES, that is, TESTAMENTS, pouring oil into the candlestick. This is the Church with its oil, which never fails, which makes it shine for the light of the world.

Many hold this interpretation to this day. Here is how Dr. James Burton Coffman put it in his entry on Zechariah 4  in his thirty-seven volume Commentary on the Bible:

The central features of [this vision] are the seven branched golden candlestick and the two olive trees, one on each side of it. Fortunately, we do not need to rely upon the subjective guesses of liberal commentators for the interpretation of this vision, which in the light of related passages of the Bible appears simple and easily understood. The golden candlestick from the very first appearance of it in the ancient tabernacle TYPIFIED THE WORD OF GOD by virtue of its being the only light in the sanctuary representing both Israels of God. Zechariah’s vision adds a significant detail to the metaphorical candlestick of the tabernacle, namely, the two olive trees; but that merely changed the symbolism to show the source of THE WORD OF GOD, i.e., the OLIVE TREES, which undoubtedly stand for THE OLD AND NEW TESTAMENTS.

Coffman recognized the whole vision as a revelation of God’s Word, a view he supported with citations from two other scholars (Coffman’s emphasis):

The first six words of the angel’s explanation contain the whole explanation: THIS IS THE WORD OF JEHOVAH! As Unger observed:

“Zechariah’s vision was THE WORD OF THE LORD, vitally real and effective for the pressing problems of the hour in which it was initially revealed.”

Nor should the meaning of it be restricted to that immediate portion of the word of the Lord addressed to Zerubbabel. … Gill properly discerned the meaning thus: “The multiple menorah of the vision represents the Word of God to Zerubbabel and through him to the people,” a most excellent demonstration that it is the candlestick of God’s Word that provided guidance for Israel.

Like Bede, Coffman understood the Menorah as a symbol of the Church, but went on to note that it is also a symbol of God’s Word:

As for the meaning of this candlestick: “It symbolizes the Jewish Theocracy, and ultimately the Church.” It also undoubtedly symbolizes “the Word of God,” as revealed in verse 6. The whole figure is that of the Jewish theocracy holding forth the Word of God for all the world in the pre-Christian centuries. This vision placed the candlestick, not in a sanctuary, but in the world, hence the necessary application to the true Israel of God among the Jews. This also represents the Church, because the first Israel was a type of the second Israel. Moreover, the function of the Church today is the same as God’s intended use of the old Israel to spread his truth and that through them and by such means, “All the families of the earth should be blessed” (Genesis 12:3).

We saw the same symbolic overlap with the Stone that simultaneously represents Christ, His Word, and His Church. We are in Him only if His Word abides in us:

I am the vine, ye are the branches: He that abideth in me, and I in him, the same bringeth forth much fruit: for without me ye can do nothing. If a man abide not in me, he is cast forth as a branch, and is withered; and men gather them, and cast them into the fire, and they are burned. If ye abide in me, and my words abide in you, ye shall ask what ye will, and it shall be done unto you.

John 15:5-7

With this insight into the meaning of the Two Olive Trees, we can now easily behold the stunning fulfillment of Zechariah’s prophesy in the revelation of the Bible Wheel.

Zerubbabel Brings Forth the Capstone

Then he answered and spake unto me, saying, This is THE WORD OF THE LORD unto Zerubbabel, saying, Not by might, nor by power, but by my spirit, saith the LORD of hosts. Who art thou, O great mountain? before Zerubbabel thou shalt become a plain: and he shall bring forth THE HEADSTONE thereof with shoutings, crying, GRACE, GRACE UNTO IT.

Zechariah 4:6f (Spoke 16, Cycle 2)

The word headstone is a very literal translation of the Hebrew phrase Ehven HaRoshah found in the verse above. Others render it as capstone (NKJV, NIV), top stone (NASB, NRSV), final stone (NLT), and excellent stone (JPS). We are familiar with rosh as head from the review of Spoke 20. God used it as a KeyWord in one of the Resh verses of AV Psalm 119:

Thy word is true from the beginning (rosh): and every one of thy righteous judgments endureth for ever.

AV Psalm 119:160

This links back to the first word of the Bible, Bereshith (BW book pg 89), which is based on the root rosh (head, beginning) prefixed with a Bet to signify the preposition “in” (BW book pg 138). It is a double entendre; God’s Word is true from the beginning (rosh), indeed, from its very first word, Bereshith! This also links to the theme of Wisdom – a primary characteristic of God’s Word – symbolized by the Twentieth Letter (BW book pg 337). The words ehven (stone) and rosh (head) also appear together in the corresponding prophecy of Psalm 118:

This gate of the LORD, into which the righteous shall enter. I will praise thee: for thou hast heard me, and art become my salvation. The stone (ehven) which the builders refused is become the head of the corner (rosh pinnah). This is the LORD’S doing; it is marvellous in our eyes. This is the day which the LORD hath made; we will rejoice and be glad in it. Save now, I beseech thee, O LORD: O LORD, I beseech thee, send now prosperity. Blessed be he that cometh in the name of the LORD: we have blessed you out of the house of the LORD.

This is an exceedingly significant prophecy. All three synoptic Gospels quote Christ using it to describe Himself as the stone which the builders rejected, and all Four Gospels record the cry of the crowd “Blessed be he that cometh in the name of the Lord” that attended His Triumphal Entry into Jerusalem. The word pinnah denotes a corner, or turning point. It is from the verb panah meaning to turn as we have seen a number of times (BW book pgs 306, 387). The phrase “head of the corner” is a very literal translation of rosh pinnah, as is the Greek phrase kephale gonia which Peter used in his first Epistle when he quoted Psalm 118:22. Here is how the Theological Dictionary of the New Testament describes this term:

In the NT kephale gonia is consistently used of Christ. According to Mk 12:10 Jesus described Himself as the stone, rejected by the builders, which has been chosen by God as the chief cornerstone in the heavenly sanctuary. The saying is one of the lofty declarations of Jesus in which He relates Himself to the heavenly sanctuary. He is not merely the final stone, i.e., the Consummator, but also the Builder of the new temple (Mk. 14:58; cf. Mt. 16:18). … With this description we are to link very closely the lofty predicates which describe Jesus as the cosmic rock dispensing the water of life.

The “chief cornerstone” is also denoted by the Greek word akrogoniaios, from the roots akro (sharp, pointed, or angular) and gonia (corner). This word is used in Ephesians 2:20f:

And are built upon the foundation of the apostles and prophets, Jesus Christ himself being the chief cornerstone (akrogonaiaos); In whom all the building fitly framed together groweth unto an holy temple in the Lord:

Here is how two Greek dictionaries define it:

Analytical Lexicon of the Greek New Testament: akrogoniaios: literally lying at the extreme angle; cornerstone; capstone, the final stone placed at the top of a building structure to integrate it; figuratively, of the place of Christ in the believing community (Eph 2:20)

Theological Dictionary of the New Testament: akrogoniaios: The “final stone” in a building, probably set over the gate. In the NT the word is found only in 1 Pt. 2:6 (= Isa 28:16) and Eph. 2:20, in both cases with reference to Christ. Eph. 2:20, like 1 Pt. 2:6, describes the community as a spiritual temple. The apostles and prophets are the foundation, and Christ is the cornerstone who binds the whole building together and completes it (Eph 2:20 f). Underlying the image is the lofty declaration of Jesus that He is the final stone in the heavenly sanctuary.

Jerusalem Cross  on Keystone over chapel door at Golgotha

When the Headstone is placed at the top turning point in an arch, it is called a Keystone. It bears the weight and holds the arch together as all the other stones lean on it. This is an excellent symbol of Christ who bore the weight of all our sins on the Cross at Golgotha. This is the Keystone that holds the whole Bible together, revealed in the final letter Tav (BW book pg 366). The phrase “chief cornerstone” can denote either a foundation stone or a top stone depending on context. Both apply to Christ, as explained by Matthew Henry with regards to Psalm 118:22:His exaltation. He has become the headstone of the corner; He is advanced to the highest degree both of honour and usefulness, to be above all, and all in all. He is the chief cornerstone in the foundation, in whom Jew and Gentile are united, that they may be built up one holy house. He is the chief top-stone in the corner, in whom the building is completed, and who must in all things have the pre-eminence, as the author and finisher of our faith. Thus highly has God exalted him, because he humbled himself; and we, in compliance with God’s design, must make him the foundation of our hope, the centre of our unity, and the end of our living. To me to live is Christ.

Though similar words are used to describe both the foundational Cornerstone and the crowning Capstone, we know that the Ehven HaRoshah is the Final Stone because Zerubbabel had already laid the foundation before he brought it forth:

And he shall [future tense] bring forth the Headstone [Ehven HaRoshah] thereof with shoutings, crying, grace, grace unto it. Moreover the word of the LORD came unto me, saying, The hands of Zerubbabel have laid [past tense] the foundation (Alpha/Aleph) of this house; his hands shall [future tense] also finish it (Omega/Tav); and thou shalt know that the LORD of hosts hath sent me unto you.

The true miracle of the Capstone Prophecies is that they fully integrate the revelation of the Divine Unity of the Written Word with the essential Gospel message of Christ. We have seen this repeatedly throughout this study, most notably in the word galgal (wheel) which simultaneously describes the Bible’s structure even as it points to its central message, the crucifixion of Christ at the Place of the Skull (Golgotha). God engraved the Gospel itself in the body of His Holy Word, as He said, “I will engrave the engraving thereof” (Zech 3:9).

The Stone of Division

Moreover the word of the LORD came unto me, saying, The hands of Zerubbabel have laid the foundation of this house; his hands shall also finish it; and thou shalt know that the LORD of hosts hath sent me unto you. For who hath despised the day of small things? for they shall rejoice, and shall see the Plummet in the hand of Zerubbabel with those seven; they are the eyes of the LORD, which run to and fro through the whole earth.

Zechariah 4:8ff

A plummet is a standard building tool made from a line with a weight and used to determine if a wall is plumb, that is, vertical or true. The Hebrew words translated as plummet, Ehven HabBadeel, literally denote a “stone of tin,” the latter term being based on the Bet KeyWord badal (to divide) which was discussed at length on Spoke 2 (BW book pg 144). It is generally assumed that badeel acquired its meaning as tin because tin is separated from silver or gold by smelting. The idea of a “plummet” is not actually present in the text. Translators inferred it in their efforts to understand the meaning of the “tin stone.” The Bible produced by the Jewish Publication Society, the standard used in most synagogues today, renders it quite literally (and accurately, I believe), as the Stone of Distinction. It gives us a third view of the Capstone as the One Stone that reveals the perfect symmetry of the seven divisions of the Holy Word, as is emphasized in the passage above with the words “they shall rejoice, and shall see the Ehven HabBadeel in the hand of Zerubbabel with those seven.” It is, therefore, literally a Stone of Division. It is particularly striking that the vertical line of bilateral symmetry divides between the Aleph and the Tav. Thus Zechariah’s visions give us three views of the Bible Wheel:

THE ONE STONE (Ehven Echat): The Aleph KeyWord echat (one) signifies the perfect unity of the Bible Wheel, specifically the seven eyes (canonical divisions).

THE CAPSTONE (Ehven HaRoshah): The Resh KeyWord rosh (head) signifies the Bible Wheel as the culmination and apex of the revelation of the Divine Unity of God’s Written Word.

THE STONE OF DIVISION (Ehven HabBadeel): The Bet KeyWord badeel (division) signifies that its design is based on “rightly dividing the Word of God” (1 Tim 2:15, pg 246) according to the seven canonical divisions and the Hebrew Alphabet. It also is the “Stone of Distinction” in the same sense as the Ehven HaRoshah is the “Premier Stone” or “Stone of Preeminence.”

The Golden Bowl – The Revealer

And said unto me, What seest thou? And I said, I have looked, and behold a candlestick (menorah) all of gold, with a bowl (gullah) upon the top of it, and his seven lamps thereon, and seven pipes to the seven lamps, which are upon the top thereof: And two olive trees by it, one upon the right side of the bowl, and the other upon the left side thereof.

Zechariah 4:1ff

Zechariah’s vision of the golden menorah is similar to the one God revealed to Moses. The difference is in the surrounding images of the two olive trees and the golden bowl with the seven pipes that fed oil to each of the seven lamps. Here the word translated as bowl is gullah, from the root galal. It primarily means “a round thing.” It is spelt with exactly the same Letters as galah (to reveal), only the vowel points differ. This word appears in conjunction with galgal in Ecclesiastes 12:3:

Or ever the silver cord be loosed, or the golden bowl (gullah) be broken, or the pitcher be broken at the fountain, or the wheel (galgal) broken at the cistern.

Saint Gregory identified the symbol of the bowl with the Wheel of God’s Word in his comment on Ezekiel 1:15 in his Homilies on Ezekiel :

Just as the teaching of prophecy is interpreted as a bowl in [the menorah of] Moses, so Holy Scripture itself is here meant by the wheel.

In the original menorah, each side-branch had a three bowls, with four bowls on the central branch (Exo 25:33f):

Three bowls made like unto almonds, with a knop and a flower in one branch; and three bowls made like almonds in the other branch, with a knop and a flower: so in the six branches that come out of the candlestick. And in the [central] candlestick shall be four bowls made like unto almonds, with their knops and their flowers.

The Menorah therefore has a total of Twenty-Two Bowls since each side branch has three and the central branch four, yielding 6 x 3 + 4 = 22. The text distinguishes these bowls from the gullah standing above Zechariah’s Menorah by using a different word, gavia. Rabbinic tradition teaches that these correspond to the Twenty-Two Letters of the Hebrew Alphabet, the containers (delimiters) of God’s creative impulse. I concur, though the details must wait for a later book. For now, the significant point is that the Menorah represents three fundamental aspects of the Bible Wheel:

The Seven Branches correspond to the Seven Canonical Divisions of the Bible Wheel.

The Twenty-Two Bowls correspond to the Twenty-Two Letters that define the Wheel.

The fact that it is a lamp fulfills AV Psalm 119:105: “Thy Word is a Lamp.”

And now we are able to see with great simplicity and perfect clarity how Zechariah’s visions, given over 400 years before Christ, prophesied the complex structure of the entire Bible:

The Two Olive Trees are the Two Testaments (Old and New) that testify (bear witness) to the Lord of all the earth.

The Two Olive Trees (Testaments) pour the Golden Oil of Spirit-Inspired Books through two Golden Pipes into the Golden Bowl (Gullah).

The Golden Bowl is the Revealer, the One Stone with Seven Eyes, the Capstone, the Stone of Division. It is the Bible Wheel that reveals the sevenfold symmetric perfection of the Bible and its supernatural integration with the Twenty-Two Hebrew Letters.

The Seven Golden Pipes distribute the Golden Oil (Inspired Books) from each of the Seven Canonical Divisions revealed by the Golden Bowl to the Seven Lamps of the Golden Menorah, to enlighten the whole world with the everlasting Light of God’s Word through the power of the Holy Spirit.

The image below graphically displays all these ideas. I marked the Seven Lamps with the number of corresponding Books so that we can see the repeated 5-12-5 symmetry. Each pair of branches represents divisions with the same number of Books. They are marked by the corresponding Hebrew Letter where they meet on the central branch. When read from top to bottom, the Seven Canonical Divisions spell the Tav KeyWord Tehillah which we discussed at the very end of Spoke 22 in the section called “Universal Praise and Worship” (BW pg 374):

My mouth shall speak the praise (tehillah) of the LORD: and let all flesh bless his holy name for ever and ever. AV Ps 145:21

This means that the numbers of the Books symmetrically placed on the arms of the Menorah alphanumerically spell the Tav KeyWord PRAISE! The Wheel has another message engraved in its body: PRAISE TO THE LORD GOD ALMIGHTY! It is the everlasting declaration of His Praise that will be the joy of every soul redeemed by the Lamb in the new heaven and earth. It is this message, based on the Tav KeyWord Tehillah that appears now at the consummation of the age, when we perceive the Divine Unity of the whole body of Scripture.

The Bible Wheel fulfills each and every detail of the prophecies of both Ezekiel’s Wheels and the Stones and Menorah revealed in the third and fourth chapters of Zechariah. It is the Capstone of the Bible! Who can but cry “Grace, grace unto it!”? This revelation brings us one step closer to the day when “the earth shall be filled with the knowledge of the glory of the LORD, as the waters cover the sea” (Hab 2:14), and when “the LORD shall be king over all the earth” and there shall be “one LORD, and his name one” (Zech 14:9). I pray that day come soon! Come King Jesus!

ALL THY WORKS SHALL PRAISE THEE, O LORD; and thy saints shall bless thee. They shall speak of the glory of thy kingdom, and talk of thy power; To make known to the sons of men his mighty acts, and the glorious majesty of his kingdom. Thy kingdom is an everlasting kingdom, and thy dominion endureth throughout all generations. Psalm 145:10ff

Alphabetic Integration
with the History of the Kingdom

Yet have I set my king (malki) upon my holy hill of Zion. I will declare the decree: the LORD hath said unto me, Thou art my Son; this day have I begotten thee.

Psalm 2:6f

The word translated as “my king” in the verse above is malki, formed from the standard Hebrew word for a king (melek) suffixed with a Yod to indicate personal possession. This is an example of the self-reflective coherence characteristic of the Hebrew language. As discussed in Chapter 6 of the Bible Wheel book, Hebrew is a building-block language where the meanings of the Letters carry over into the meanings of the words they form. The Letter Yod denotes a hand, the member of the body by which we grasp and control things, and so it is suffixed as a symbol of personal possession (BW book pg 113). The word malki is formed from four sequential Letters that lie at the exact center of the Alphabet – Yod, Kaph, Lamed, Mem – read in reverse order (recall Hebrew is read from right to left). They span the following Books on Cycle 1:

If ever there were a sign of Divine design, this is it. The Hebrew name of the two central Books – Melakim (Kings) – is itself the plural of melek, the very word spelt by the alphabetic sequence! Furthermore, these four Books span the reign of all the kings of Israel and Judah except Saul who was explicitly rejected as king by the Lord Himself (1 Sam 15:26, BW book pg 225). King David, called by God “my king” in Psalm 2:6 in prophetic anticipation of His Son, completely dominates the first and last of these four Books. His ascension to the throne and subsequent forty-year reign is the sole subject of 2 Samuel, and after ten chapters of genealogies, 1 Chronicles devotes its remaining nineteen chapters entirely to the reign of King David, closing with his death. We have, therefore, an exact correspondence of the content of these four Books and their placement in the Christian Canon with the pattern eternally established by God in the sequence of the Hebrew Alphabet. Simply stated, God designed the Wheel to be self-descriptive.

Yet there is, as always, more, ever more! The blazing glory of God’s revelation knows no limit. The graph shows the distribution of melek on Cycle 1. Exactly as should be expected, the Books describing the kings themselves contain the greatest frequency of the word “king.” The distribution follows the rise and fall of the Davidic Kingdom. It mimics a bell curve that is both maximized and centered on Spoke 12, corresponding to the Lamed at the exact center of the word melek, highlighted on the x-axis. It is really important to sit back at this point and ponder what is going on here. We are witnessing a standing miracle; the self-descriptive and self-coherent design of the order and content of the Books of the Bible upon the pattern of the Hebrew Alphabet.

God reiterated the thematic pattern of the central books on Cycle 1 in the four middle letters of the alphabetically structured Psalm 145. The Mem KeyWord malkuth (kingdom), based on melek (king), is found only in the verses corresponding to Mem, Lamed, and Kaph, the very letters which spell melek!. I include the verse corresponding to Yod for context. The hyperlinked words are the corresponding Alphabetic KeyWords. The Mem KeyWord in verse 13 is the word malkuth itself.

Central Alphabetic Sequence of AV Psalm 145
י	10 – Yod	All thy works shall praise (yadah) thee, O LORD; and thy saints shall bless thee.
כ	11 – Kaph	They shall speak of the glory (kavod) of thy KINGDOM (malkuth), and talk of thy power;
ל	12 – Lamed	To make known (l’hodia) to the sons of men his mighty acts, and the glorious majesty of his KINGDOM (malkuth).
מ	13 – Mem	Thy KINGDOM (malkuth) is an everlasting KINGDOM (malkuth), and thy dominion endureth throughout all generations.

The integration here is truly astounding. Not only are the symbolic meanings of these letters fully integrated with the content of their corresponding books on the Wheel, but they also combine to form the meaning of the Hebrew word melek, and they do so in a way that has been understood for millenia in the rabbinic tradition! Here is how Rabbi Munk put it in his book Wisdom of the Hebrew Alphabet  (pg 138). [References to the Bible Wheel book are added in square brackets]:

The ל (Lamed) is a majestic Letter, towering above the other Letters from its position in the center of the Alphabet. Thus it symbolizes the King of Kings, the Supreme Ruler [Spoke 12, BW book pg 247]. On one side Lamed is flanked by the כ (Kaph) which alludes to the kiseh hakavod, God’s Throne of Glory [Spoke 11, BW book pg 239], while on its other side stands מ (Mem), the Attribute of malkuth, God’s Kingship [Spoke 13, BW book pg 266]. Together, these three Letters spell Melek (King).

Yet there is still another greater wonder that surpasses all others to be discoverd in this Alphabetic correlation. When the Spokes of the Wheel are taken as representing centuries both before and after Christ, the rise and fall of the Two Kingdoms – that of Israel (ca. 1000 BC) and that of the Holy Roman Empire (ca. 1000 AD) – both align with the word malki at the center of the Alphabet! This is discussed in Aleph Tav: The Key to the Kingdoms.

Alphabetic Integration
with the History of the Kingdom

Yet have I set my king (malki) upon my holy hill of Zion. I will declare the decree: the LORD hath said unto me, Thou art my Son; this day have I begotten thee.

Psalm 2:6f

The word translated as “my king” in the verse above is malki, formed from the standard Hebrew word for a king (melek) suffixed with a Yod to indicate personal possession. This is an example of the self-reflective coherence characteristic of the Hebrew language. As discussed in Chapter 6 of the Bible Wheel book, Hebrew is a building-block language where the meanings of the Letters carry over into the meanings of the words they form. The Letter Yod denotes a hand, the member of the body by which we grasp and control things, and so it is suffixed as a symbol of personal possession (BW book pg 113). The word malki is formed from four sequential Letters that lie at the exact center of the Alphabet – Yod, Kaph, Lamed, Mem – read in reverse order (recall Hebrew is read from right to left). They span the following Books on Cycle 1:

If ever there were a sign of Divine design, this is it. The Hebrew name of the two central Books – Melakim (Kings) – is itself the plural of melek, the very word spelt by the alphabetic sequence! Furthermore, these four Books span the reign of all the kings of Israel and Judah except Saul who was explicitly rejected as king by the Lord Himself (1 Sam 15:26, BW book pg 225). King David, called by God “my king” in Psalm 2:6 in prophetic anticipation of His Son, completely dominates the first and last of these four Books. His ascension to the throne and subsequent forty-year reign is the sole subject of 2 Samuel, and after ten chapters of genealogies, 1 Chronicles devotes its remaining nineteen chapters entirely to the reign of King David, closing with his death. We have, therefore, an exact correspondence of the content of these four Books and their placement in the Christian Canon with the pattern eternally established by God in the sequence of the Hebrew Alphabet. Simply stated, God designed the Wheel to be self-descriptive.

Yet there is, as always, more, ever more! The blazing glory of God’s revelation knows no limit. The graph shows the distribution of melek on Cycle 1. Exactly as should be expected, the Books describing the kings themselves contain the greatest frequency of the word “king.” The distribution follows the rise and fall of the Davidic Kingdom. It mimics a bell curve that is both maximized and centered on Spoke 12, corresponding to the Lamed at the exact center of the word melek, highlighted on the x-axis. It is really important to sit back at this point and ponder what is going on here. We are witnessing a standing miracle; the self-descriptive and self-coherent design of the order and content of the Books of the Bible upon the pattern of the Hebrew Alphabet.

God reiterated the thematic pattern of the central books on Cycle 1 in the four middle letters of the alphabetically structured Psalm 145. The Mem KeyWord malkuth (kingdom), based on melek (king), is found only in the verses corresponding to Mem, Lamed, and Kaph, the very letters which spell melek!. I include the verse corresponding to Yod for context. The hyperlinked words are the corresponding Alphabetic KeyWords. The Mem KeyWord in verse 13 is the word malkuth itself.

Central Alphabetic Sequence of AV Psalm 145
י	10 – Yod	All thy works shall praise (yadah) thee, O LORD; and thy saints shall bless thee.
כ	11 – Kaph	They shall speak of the glory (kavod) of thy KINGDOM (malkuth), and talk of thy power;
ל	12 – Lamed	To make known (l’hodia) to the sons of men his mighty acts, and the glorious majesty of his KINGDOM (malkuth).
מ	13 – Mem	Thy KINGDOM (malkuth) is an everlasting KINGDOM (malkuth), and thy dominion endureth throughout all generations.

The integration here is truly astounding. Not only are the symbolic meanings of these letters fully integrated with the content of their corresponding books on the Wheel, but they also combine to form the meaning of the Hebrew word melek, and they do so in a way that has been understood for millenia in the rabbinic tradition! Here is how Rabbi Munk put it in his book Wisdom of the Hebrew Alphabet  (pg 138). [References to the Bible Wheel book are added in square brackets]:

The ל (Lamed) is a majestic Letter, towering above the other Letters from its position in the center of the Alphabet. Thus it symbolizes the King of Kings, the Supreme Ruler [Spoke 12, BW book pg 247]. On one side Lamed is flanked by the כ (Kaph) which alludes to the kiseh hakavod, God’s Throne of Glory [Spoke 11, BW book pg 239], while on its other side stands מ (Mem), the Attribute of malkuth, God’s Kingship [Spoke 13, BW book pg 266]. Together, these three Letters spell Melek (King).

Yet there is still another greater wonder that surpasses all others to be discoverd in this Alphabetic correlation. When the Spokes of the Wheel are taken as representing centuries both before and after Christ, the rise and fall of the Two Kingdoms – that of Israel (ca. 1000 BC) and that of the Holy Roman Empire (ca. 1000 AD) – both align with the word malki at the center of the Alphabet! This is discussed in Aleph Tav: The Key to the Kingdoms.

Symmetries on the Bible Wheel

A false balance is abomination to the LORD: but a just weight is his delight.

Proverbs 11.1

The symmetries of the Bible Wheel never cease to astonish me. It is an endless delight to see what the Lord has done in His Word – all the while keeping my eye upon Golgotha – the axis about which the entire revelation revolves. Oh! The wonders of God’s Wisdom! The image above outlines the primary substructures – broken symmetries – found beneath the perfect radial and bilateral symmetry of the traditional sevenfold Christian Canon.

Three Cycles

The Five – Twelve – Five Pattern: Cycle 1 and Cycle 2 each subdivide into canonical divisions containing 5, 12, and 5 books. These two Cycles exhibit perfect radial and bilateral symmetry.

Twenty-Two Books: Cycle 3 consists of 22 Epistles with no subdivisions at this level of categorization.

These three Cycles unite to form the supernatural sevenfold symmetric perfection of the traditional Christian Canon (see The Canon Wheel).

The Five/Four Pattern

Five Books – Four Writers: The Major Prophets are bilaterally symmetric with the New Testament History books. They both consist of Five Books composed by Four Writers.

Five Books – Four Churches: The Major Prophets align with the first five Pauline Epistles which are addressed to Four Churches.

Five Books – Four from one Writer: The New Testament History books are radially symmetric the last five letters on Cycle 3, four from the pen of John. This is the inverse of the pattern found in the Major Prophets and NT History.

Five Books in Four Canonical Divisions: The Canon has seven divisions: Four have Five books each, Two have Twelve books each, and One has Twenty-Two Books.

Groups of Three

Three Post Exilic OT History and Minor Prophets: Ezra, Nehemiah, and Esther are the Post-Exilic OT History. They correspond both historically and geometrically with the three Post-Exilic Minor Prophets Haggai, Zechariah, and Malachi.

Three Epistles to the Scattered: James and I & II Peter are each addressed to those “scattered abroad.” They are radially symmetric with the Post-Exilic OT History and Minor Prophets.

Epistles to the Scattered:	James	I Peter	II Peter
Post-Exilic Minor Prophets:	Haggai	Zechariah	Malachi
Post-Exilic OT History:	Ezra	Nehemiah	Esther

This triplet of triplets is discussed in more detail in A Great Cloud of Witnesses. It also plays a significant role in the Sixteenth Century history of the Church.

Three Synoptic Gospels and Epistles of John The three synoptic Gospels and the three Epistles to the Scattered are the only books on Cycle 2 that naturally form a contiguous triplet. Likewise, the only such books on Cycle 3 are John’s Epistles. These two triplets are radially symmetric, being aligned on Spokes 18, 19, and 20.

Three Pairs of Numbered Books: Comparing the OT History with the 12 corresponding Books on Cycle 3 reveals that each set contains three pairs of numbered books:

3 on Cycle 1: 1 & 2 Samuel, 1 & 2 Kings, 1 & 2 Chronicles
3 on Cycle 3: 1 & 2 Thessalonians, 1 & 2 Timothy, 1 & 2 Peter

Groups of Nine

Nine (3 x 3) Pre-exilic OT History and Minor Prophets: The first nine OT History books and the first nine Minor Prophets were written before the Babylonian exile. These two subdivision are radially symmetric. They end on Spoke 14 with the Babylonian Exile. The Number 14 and the Babylonian Exile are used in the structure of Matthew’s genealogy.

Nine + Five: Fourteen Pauline Epistles

Cycle 3 consists of 22 Books, the first 14 being Pauline Epistles. These align with the subdivision between Spokes 14 and 15 found in both the OT History and Minor Prophets. This means that there is a line between Spokes 14 and 15 dividing all three Cycles (see A Triplet of Triplets and Bible Wheel book pp. 97-101)

Pauline Epistles:	14 Books, Romans – Hebrews
Major and Pre-Exilic Minor Prophets:	14 Books, Isaiah – Zephaniah
The Law and Pre-Exilic History:	14 Books, Genesis – 2 Chronicles

This has an interesting impact on the question of the authorship of Hebrews, which is sufficiently “Pauline” to have been identified as such by much of the Church throughout its history. Any categorization of the NT Epistles will necessarily have an ambiguity with regards to Hebrews because of its anonymity. The symmetry arising from its traditional assignation to Paul – as in the KJV, for example – naturally inclines me to prefer this position. But a very slight expansion of the categorization from “authored by Paul” to “Pauline in character” avoids these issues and results in the symmetric structure above. Of course, the extreme and ungodly assertions of many “scholars” denying traditional authorship of many NT books is simply not worth addressing at any length, the perpetrators being self-condemned. For example, they have delighted in raising doubt about the authorship of Luke – not knowing the profound supernatural integration of his Gospel with the theme of Health and the Great Physician.

There are probably many other patterns to be found on the Bible Wheel. I would be very grateful to receive any insights the reader may have.

The Three Cycles

And the very God of peace sanctify you wholly; and I pray God your whole spirit and soul and body be preserved blameless unto the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ.

I Thessalonians 5.23

The Wheel of God is composed of twenty-two Spokes and three concentric wheels within the Wheel called Cycles. The sixty-six books of the Bible fit perfectly on this structure. Each Cycle retells the Gospel story in its own unique way from Aleph to Tav, from the beginning of God’s creation to its ultimate consummation.

Each of the twenty-two Spokes cuts across the three Cycles to reveal the common themes emerging at that stage of the everlasting story. God designed the Cycles in accordance with the primary divisions of Scripture.

Cycle 1 begins with Genesis, the first book of the Law (Torah) which contains the seed of every major doctrine of Scripture.

Cycle 2 begins with Isaiah, the first book of the Prophets. This follows the pattern presented by Christ when he said, “Think not that I am come to destroy the law, or the prophets: I am not come to destroy, but to fulfil.” This partition, found eleven times in the writings Matthew, Luke, John, and Paul, was commonly understood to represent the entire Old Testament.

Cycle 3 begins with Romans, the first book of the Epistles, which forms the largest division of the New Testament, consisting of exactly twenty-two books.

The Three Cycles
Cycle 1	Genesis – Song of Solomon
Cycle 2	Isaiah – Acts
Cycle 3	Romans – Revelation

In general, the three Cycles follow the pattern of Body (Matter), Soul (Life), and Spirit (God).

Cycle 1, spanning Genesis to the Song of Solomon, is the most physical, natural, and materialistic Cycle in that it begins with the literal creation of the world and ends with the literal marriage of a King and his Bride.

Cycle 2, spanning Isaiah to Acts, opens with a reference to heaven and earth, as in Genesis, but is aimed at reformation of the life of God’s children, as we read in Isaiah 1:

Hear, O heavens, and give ear, O earth: for the LORD hath spoken, I have nourished and brought up children, and they have rebelled against me. … Come now, and let us reason together, saith the LORD: though your sins be as scarlet, they shall be as white as snow; though they be red like crimson, they shall be as wool. If ye be willing and obedient, ye shall eat the good of the land: But if ye refuse and rebel, ye shall be devoured with the sword: for the mouth of the LORD hath spoken it.

This Cycle is consummated in the Book of Acts with the advent of the Holy Spirit at Pentecost and the consequent birth of the Church of Christ, the eternal King’s living Bride. The Lord Jesus Christ now dwells in the heart of his people as they accomplish his work and await his return.

Cycle 3, spanning Romans to Revelation, is the most spiritual Cycle. As with Genesis and Isaiah, Romans opens with reference to heaven and earth and hearkens back to “the creation of the world,” but now the veil is fully removed and the Bible speaks explicitly of the Godhead, saying,

For the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men, who hold the truth in unrighteousness; Because that which may be known of God is manifest in them; for God hath shewed it unto them. For the invisible things of him from the creation of the world are clearly seen, being understood by the things that are made, even his eternal power and Godhead; so that they are without excuse.

This final Cycle culminates in the simultaneous consummation of the Bible and Creation, wherein Christ the “King of kings and Lord of lords” now receives his Bride made spotless by his blood and a great voice from heaven declares “Behold, the tabernacle of God is with men, and he will dwell with them, and they shall be his people, and God himself shall be with them, and be their God.” This is when God will create “a new heaven and a new earth: for the first heaven and the first earth were passed away” and “we shall be changed” to “bear the image of the heavenly.” Then shall we see God “face to face” and “we shall be like him; for we shall see him as he is.” And finally, this is when we “shall have put on immortality,” death having been “swallowed up in victory.”

The Three Cycles of Spoke 1
Genesis		The first book of the Law which records the creation of heaven and earth. It is the foundation of all the doctrines in the Bible.
Isaiah		The first book of the Prophets  in which we read: “For thus saith the LORD that created the heavens; God himself that formed the earth and made it; he hath established it.” Herein all the doctrines are amplified, especially the doctrine of Christ.
Romans		The first book of the Epistles, which quotes heavily from Genesis and Isaiah and is the greatest doctrinal book of the entire Bible.
The Three Cycles of Spoke 22
Song of Solomon:	The Marriage Song, when a King receives his bride. This is the most physical manifestation of the theme.
Acts:	The Birth of the Church, the Bride of Christ, the Eternal King.
Revelation:	The Marriage of the Lamb, when Christ receives H

The 231 Gates of the Sepher Yetzirah

Twenty-two Foundation letters: He placed them in a circle like a wall with 231 gates. The Circle oscillates back and forth. A sign for this is: There is nothing in good higher than Delight (Oneg – ); There is nothing in evil lower than Plague (Nega – )

Sepher Yetzirah 2.2

The Sepher Yetzirah, (Book of Creation) refers to the lines connecting each pair of Hebrew letters as gates. Rabbinic tradition teaches that systematic meditation upon the various combinations will open the mind to the mysteries of God. In the context of the Wheel, we can see that such mediation will lead to insight into the meaning of each letter, hence the meaning of each Spoke, and from there, we will gain insight into the meaning of the Word of God, and so come to know a little more of God himself, who is the greatest mystery of all.

Below are a few examples of how deeply self-integrated the Hebrew language really is. The examples given show how the meanings of KeyWords emerges from the meaning of letters being combined, and how all of this integrates with the geometric structure of the Wheel.

(Beyt – Aleph) Bo:Enter In

Binary combinations with Aleph usually reveal the essence of the leading letter. This is particularly evident with the Second Letter (Beyt, House), which serves to represent the preposition in when prefixed to a word. When combined with Aleph, it forms the word Bo which means to go in, enter, come, go, or come in. This coheres beautifully with both the meaning of its name (a house is a natural symbol of a place to go in) and its grammatical function as the preposition “in.”

Bo first appears in Genesis 2 and so integrates with the chapter seqence of Genesis. Likewise, it appears (as a root) twice in the first verse of Exodus, the Second Book, in conjuction with two other highly significant Beyt KeyWords: House (Beyt, Name of the Second Letter) and Ben (Son, Name of the Second Person of the Godhead, translated as “children”):

Now these are the names of the children (Ben) of Israel, which came into (Bo) Egypt; every man and his household (Beyt) came with (Bo) Jacob.

(Beyt – Nun) Ben:Son

The Fourteenth Letter Nun means perpetuity. This manifests in the Beyt KeyWord Ben, which is analyzed as:

(Ben, Son) = (Beyt, House) and (Nun, Posterity)

In plain English, the Son is he who represents the Posterity of the House. This integrates with the theology of the Trinity, as it is written in the Book of Hebrews on Spoke 14:

God, who at sundry times and in divers manners spake in time past unto the fathers by the prophets, Hath in these last days spoken unto us by his Son, whom he hath appointed heir of all things, by whom also he made the worlds;

(Dalet – Mem) Dam:Blood

Genesis 4 contains the first occurrences of four concepts: Birth, Death, Blood and Door. This coheres with the meaning of the name of the Fourth letter (Dalet, Door) and manifests in the Dalet KeyWord (Dam, Blood) which is analyzed as:

(Dam, Blood) = (Dalet, Door of Birth/Death) + (Mem, Water)

In simple English, Blood is the “water” (liquid) that issues forth when one passes through the Universal Door.

(Tsaddi – Aleph) Tsey!:Go Forth!

The essence of the eighteenth letter Tsaddi is seen when it is combined with Aleph to form the command “Go forth!” Thus the Gospel goes forth on Spoke 18 in the Book of Matthew, which ends with the Great Commission:

And Jesus came and spake unto them, saying, All power is given unto me in heaven and in earth. Go ye therefore, and teach all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost: Teaching them to observe all things whatsoever I have commanded you: and, lo, I am with you alway, even unto the end of the world. Amen.

This further ingtegrates with Spoke 18 of the Inner Wheel of Isaiah, where the Gospel goes forth.

(Resh – Ayin) Rayah:Shepherd

Rayah is easily analyzed as follows:

(Rayah, Shepherd) = (Resh, Chief/Head) and (Ayin, Eye)

Thus we see the Shepherd as the Chief Eye – that is, the Overseerer, or Bishop. The Letter Ayin governs the themes of Spoke 16, which is most clearly seen in the books of Zechariah and 1 Peter.

Inner Wheels and Alphabetic Cycles

And when I looked, behold the four wheels by the cherubims, one wheel by one cherub, and another wheel by another cherub: and the appearance of the wheels was as the colour of a beryl stone. And as for their appearances, they four had one likeness, as if a wheel had been in the midst of a wheel. When they went, they went upon their four sides; they turned not as they went, but to the place whither the head looked they followed it; they turned not as they went. And their whole body, and their backs, and their hands, and their wings, and the wheels, were full of eyes round about, even the wheels that they four had. As for the wheels, it was cried unto them in my hearing, O wheel (galgal).

Ezekiel 10:9ff (Spoke 4, Cycle 2)

Ezekiel’s First Vision Icones Biblicae  (1625)

The revelation of the Bible Wheel confirms and amplifies the ancient Christian tradition that Ezekiel’s Vision of the “wheels within wheels” was a vision of the entire Bible in which the Old and and New Testaments are inextricably interwoven. Here is how Gregory the Great stated it in his Homilies on Ezekiel  (593 AD):The wheel within the wheel is, as we said, the New Testament within the Old Testament, because what the Old Testament defined the New Testament showed forth. … Therefore, the wheel is in the midst of a wheel because the New Testament is encompassed by the Old. And, as we have often said already, what the Old Testament promised the New showed forth, and what the one covertly announced the other openly proclaimed manifest. Therefore, the Old Testament is the prophecy of the New, and the New is the exposition of the Old.

Ezekiel’s Vision interpreted as the Old and New Testaments by Fra Angelico  (1455 AD)

This understanding of Ezekiel’s Wheels as a prophetic representation of the Holy Bible still held currency some nine hundred years later when Fra Angelico painted his Silver Closet  (Armadio degli Argenti, 1455 AD), the first panel of which is shown here. The outer Wheel represents the Old Testament with twelve of its primary prophets. Moses sits in the premier position at the top, flanked by David on his right and Solomon on his left. The Latin text of Genesis 1:1-5 adorns the outer rim. The Inner Wheel represents the New Testament with all eight of its prophets and the Latin text of John 1:1-3 inscribed on its rim. The unrolled scrolls at the top are portions of the text of Ezekiel’s vision (left) and Gregory’s Homilies (rigtht). The figures on the bottom represent Ezekiel and Gregory. See Fufillment of Ezekiel’s Prophecy of the Wheels for further discussion of this astounding artwork and its implications.The Bible Wheel is not the only aspect of Scripture that God designed on the pattern of a “wheel within a wheel.” The template for the whole structure is found in the Alphabetic Verses, the most notable being AV Psalm 119 – the Psalm of the Word. Each of the alphabetically structured passages forms an Inner Wheel that functions as a template for the Bible Wheel. Indeed, God designed the Alphabetic Verses to prophetically anticipate its precise structure, down to the exact position of each and every book. Each Spoke contains unique elements that are linked to the corresponding verses in the Alphabetic Verses. For example, consider Resh, the Twentieth Hebrew letter. The Resh clause of AV Psalm 111 says “The fear of the LORD is the beginning of wisdom.” This phrase appears elsewhere in one and only one other book in the KJV. It is found in Proverbs, the Twentieth Book, the first book on Spoke 20 corresponding to the letter Resh. Many similar examples are documented in the Alphabetic KeyLinks article.

We have therefore two aspects of the Word that God designed on the pattern of the Hebrew Alphabet: 1) the Bible Wheel itself, and 2) the Inner Wheels of Alphabetic Verses that define and predict it. It is not unreasonable, therefore, that we should expect to find other aspects of the Word designed on this pattern. This expectation has been proven correct. The shear weight of evidence is overwhelming. The pattern informs all levels of the Biblical revelation, from the order of the books, chapters, verses, and on down to the very order of the letters of the orginal text, and all of this is coherently integrated with the meaning of the letters of the Hebrew alphabet. The most complete correlation is seen in the Inner Wheel of Isaiah where its 66 chapters are in one-to-one correspondence with the 66 books of the Bible. The Inner Wheel of Revelation is also complete in the sense that its 22 Chapters are in one-to-one correspondence with the Spokes of the Bible Wheel. Both Inner Wheels are confirmed by an abundance of evidence (which is documented on this site). Many other books show a correspondence with the sequence of the Alphabet though the sequence does not close on Tav. For example, the 28 chapters of Matthew are strongly linked to the first 28 books on the Bible Wheel. When the sequence does not end on Tav, the correlation is called an Inner Alphabetic Cycle, or just Inner Cycle for short, to distinguish it from the perfect Inner Wheels.

The study of the Inner Wheels and Cycles can be very confusing for many folks because it is easy to forget what “level” we are on. To help alleviate this confusion, I have begun marking all the Inner Wheel and Inner Cycle articles with the icon of the “wheel within a wheel.” This will distinguish Inner Wheel and Inner Cycle articles from Bible Wheel articles which are marked by an image of the Bible Wheel with the corresponding Spoke highlighted. Here now is an overview of the discoveries so far:

Inner Wheels

ISAIAH: THE WHEEL WITHIN THE WHEEL: This series of articles explores the one-to-one correlation between the 66 chapters of Isaiah and the 66 books of the Bible. Numerous KeyLinks, (unique links between an individual chapter and its corresponding book), are discussed. Also, word distributions in Isaiah are shown to be mathematically correlated (R=.9) with similiar distributions in the Bible as a whole. In sum, Isaiah is shown to be a comprehensive image of the Bible within the Bible, a two-dimensional projection of the three-dimensional body of Scripture. In other words, Isaiah relates to the Bible as a shadow to the object that casts it. Knowledge of Isaiah as an image of the entire Bible is not new. For example, consider these words from the Introduction to Isaiah found in Thomas Nelson’s New King James Version:

Isaiah is like a miniature Bible. The first thirty-nine chapters (like the thirty-nine books of the Old Testament) are filled with judgment upon immoral idolatrous men. Judah has sinned; the surrounding nations have sinned; the whole earth has sinned. Judgment must come, for God cannot allow such blatant sin to go unpunished forever. But the final twenty-seven chapters (like the twenty-seven chapters of the New Testament) declare a message of hope. The Messiah is coming as a Savior and a Sovereign to bear a cross and to wear a crown.

THE WHEEL OF REVELATION: The deep integration of the 22 Chapters of Revelation with the 22 Spokes is explored. Links to the 22 Spokes of the Inner Wheel of Isaiah are also discussed. And as with Isaiah, certain word distributions are shown to be mathematically correlated with the pattern of the Wheel. The image below shows the Inner Wheel of Revelation in the center of the Bible Wheel. This makes the correlation between the chapters of Revelation with each Spoke easy to contemplate.

THE WHEEL OF LIGHT: The pattern of the Wheel emerges in the earliest portion of Scripture in the distribution of letters in Genesis 1.3-5, which describes the creation of Light.

Inner Cycles

GENESIS CYCLE: Correlations between the chapter structure of Genesis and various aspects of the Wheel are discussed. The principle of first occurrence dominates most of these links. For example, the first occurrence of the word “Hebrew” and the person “Melchizadek” are found in Genesis 14, which correlates with the explanation of Melchizadek in the book of Hebrews found on Spoke 14 of the Wheel. Another example of this phenomenon, and its interweaving with both the Bible Wheel and the Inner Cycle of 2 Chronicles is shown next.

2 CHRONICLES CYCLE: An astounding example of this Inner Cycle is the intesection of the appearance of Azariah in 2 Chronicles 15 with the meaning of the 15^th letter Samek (Support), the first book on Spoke 15 of the Bible Wheel, Ezra, and the first appearance of a name based on Ezra (Eliazar) in the corresponding chapter of Genesis 15.

PSALMS CYCLE: This Inner Cycle spans 150 chapters, or six complete Alphabetic Cycles, and ends on the 18th Spoke (150 = 6 x 22 + 18). Two of the more astounding correlations are:

Psalm 2 – The Psalm of the Son (Bet KeyWord Ben, Second Person of the Trinity)

Psalm 22 – The Psalm of the Cross (22^nd Letter Tav)

MATTHEW CYCLE: The Inner Cycle of Matthew is one of the most lucid of them all:

Matthew 1 – Genesis: “The Book of the generation (lit. genesis) of Jesus Christ …”

Matthew 2 – Exodus: “Out of Egypt have I called my son.”

Matthew 3 – Leviticus: “The voice of one crying …

Matthew 4 – Numbers: Forty Days/Years in the Wilderness

… etc. …

Matthew 22 – Song of Songs: “The kingdom of heaven is like unto a certain king, which made a marriage for his son!”

JOHN CYCLE: I currently have eighteen articles documenting the profound integration of the Fourth Gospel with the alphabetic sequence.

ROMANS CYCLE: I currently have sixteen articles documenting the profound integration of the Paul’s first and greatest Epistle with the alphabetic sequence.

World History and the Bible Wheel

Aleph Tav, Infinity, and Everything

In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.

John 1.1

All things were made by Him. He is the Word of God, the Logos in whom resides all Wisdom, Beauty, and Knowledge. His glory manifests in the structure of His written Word in the form of the Wheel, sealed by Aleph and Tav which combine through the figure Eight Symbol of Infinity to form the Hebrew phrase Et-Kol meaning Everything. This is the but the beginning if the endless wonders revealed in Scripture. The Bible is the Divine Word. It is integrated with everything pertaining to the creation of this world, including the full course of its History.

The Divine Capstone of Holy Scripture

Who art thou, O great mountain? before Zerubbabel thou shalt become a plain: and he shall bring forth the headstone thereof with shoutings, crying, Grace, grace unto it.

Zechariah 4.10

The Bible Wheel reveals the supernatural wonders of Scripture unlike anything ever seen in the history of the world. It truly is the Divine Seal and Capstone of God’s Word. Viewing the contents of each Spoke in light of its corresponding Hebrew letter opens the eye to see ten thousand correlations that would otherwise be hidden. The overwhelming Truth, Power and Reality of this revelation can not be hidden.

Less than six weeks after completing the basic documentation of the primary links between the Letters, Books, and Inner Cycles of the Bible Wheel, I received inspiration from God to compare the course of World History with the Spokes of the Wheel, taking each Spoke as representing one Century. The results were immediate, obvious, and overwhelming. What Wonder! What glory of God revealed! The Bible is correlated with the primary events that are common knowledge to almost everyone, like the great missionary exansion of the Eighteenth Century corresponding to the Gospel going forth and the great commission in Matthew on Spoke 18 or the great medical miracles of the Twentieth Century correlated with the Resh KeyWord Ropha (Physician) and the content of Spoke 20 which contains Dr. Luke’s Gospel. Everywhere I looked, I immediately recognized extremely obvious connections with articles I have had published for years. I looked at the Twelfth Century and saw the Renaissance of Learning and in the Fourth Century I saw the Fourth Day, Fourth Commandment, and Constantine’s vision of the Sign of the Cross that changed Christianity forever. The great events of Church History such as the Sixteenth Century Reformation are fully integrated with the Bible Wheel. There is no end to the wonder of it all … the full integration of the Word of Almighty God with everything He created has now burst forth here in the beginning of the Twenty First Century – the Century of Spoke 21 where we find the Divine Prologue of John.

In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. The same was in the beginning with God. All things were made by him; and without him was not any thing made that was made. In him was life; and the life was the light of men. And the light shineth in darkness; and the darkness comprehended it not.

Remember, all of this just fell out before my eyes in a matter of days following the initial inspiration. I completed fifteen articles linking eight centuries to their corresponding Spoke to God’s Word in just days! Glory, Glory, Glory to the Lord, the King of all History!

WHEEL SPOKES:

Spoke 1

Genesis, Isaiah, Romans

One Language

And the whole earth was of one language, and of one speech.

Spoke 1, Cycle 1
(Genesis 11)

The divine preparation for the proclamation of the Gospel has long been recognized by Christian historians. Here is how Earle Cairns states it in his classic Christianity through the Centuries  (pg. 38)

The universal gospel was in need of a universal language if it was to make maximum impact on the world. Just as English has become the universal language in the modern world and just as Latin ws such in the medieval scholarly world, so Greek had becom the universal tongue in the ancient world.

Note that the word translated as “one” in the verse above is the fundamental Aleph KeyWord (Echad).

The universal language of the Greeks was but one part of the universal Roman Empire, which was used of God – without their knowledge nor consent – to accomplish His purpose of bringing salvation to the world. Returning again to Cairns we read (pg. 35):

The Romans, as no other people up to their time, developed a sense of the unity of mankind under a universal law. This sense of the solidarity of man within the empiore created an environment favorable to the reception of a gospel that proclaimed the unity of the human race in the fact that all men are under the penalty of sin and in the fact that all are offered a salvation that makes them part of a universal organism, the Christian church, Christ’s body.

Roman Roads

The voice of him that crieth in the wilderness, Prepare ye the way of the LORD, make straight in the desert a highway for our God. Every valley shall be exalted, and every mountain and hill shall be made low: and the crooked shall be made straight, and the rough places plain: And the glory of the LORD shall be revealed, and all flesh shall see it together: for the mouth of the LORD hath spoken it.

Spoke 1, Cycle 2
(Isaiah 40.3f)

The Roman Roads were to commerce and travel what the Greek language was to communication. They united the entire Roman Empire and opened the way for the swift messengers of the Gospel. Here is how Cairns put (pg. 36, emphasis mine):

The Romans developed an excellent system of roads radiating out from the golden milestone in the Roman forum to all parts of the empire. The main roads were built of concrete to serrve for ages. They went straight over hill and dale to the farthest point of the empire. A study of the journeys of Paul indicates that he made great use of the excellent road system to get from stategic center to staregic center of the Roman Empire. Roman roads and strategic cities located on these roads were an indespensable aid in the realization of Paul’s mission.

4th Century – Dalet – The Sign of the Cross

Spoke 4

Numbers, Ezekiel, Galatians

And God said, Let there be lights in the firmament of the heaven to divide the day from the night; and let them be for signs, and for seasons, and for days, and years: And let them be for lights in the firmament of the heaven to give light upon the earth: and it was so.

The Fourth Day

The Fourth Day

The Fourth Day of Creation concerns the Marking of Time. God gives four reasons for the creation of the Sun, Moon, and Stars. This is the basis of the profound KeyLink between Numbers and Ezekiel based on the phrase Each Day for a Year, which also plays a crucial role in the integration of Matthew 4 with the Book of Numbers. The word “sign” (Aut, S# H0226) first appears on the Fourth Day of Creation. It next appears in Genesis 4 when God placed a mark on Cain to save him from death after his murder of Abel.

The Sign also manifests with great clarity in Ezekiel (Spoke 4, Cycle 2) where it is used to mark those saved from Death (cf. Fourth Seal). The form of the Cross and its integration with the Fourth Spoke is discussed in such articles as The Cross in the Wilderness and The Four Directions.

The Sign of the Cross

The Sign of the Cross played a CRUCIAL role in Fourth Century Church History. In the year 312 AD, Constantine  claimed to see a “cross of light, with the inscription ‘in hoc signo vince'” which means “in this sign, conquer” (cf. New Advent article The Labarum ). Some historians have cast doubt on this story, suggesting it is mere legend, and many Christians have cast doubt on the validity of Constantines conversion, citing later behaviour that was inconsistent with Christianity. While I have no knowledge of whether the conversion was valid or not, I can assert with great confidence that the integration of this event with the structure of Scripture is such that it must be recognized as the Work of God. The Sign of the Cross led Constantine to become the first Christian Emperor who then ended persecution, giving rest to the Church (Fourth Commandment).

Aleph Tav: The Key to the Kingdoms

And the seventh angel sounded; and there were great voices in heaven, saying, The kingdoms of this world are become the kingdoms of our Lord, and of his Christ; and he shall reign for ever and ever. And the four and twenty elders, which sat before God on their seats, fell upon their faces, and worshipped God, Saying, We give thee thanks, O Lord God Almighty, which art, and wast, and art to come; because thou hast taken to thee thy great power, and hast reigned.

Revelation 11:15ff (Spoke 22, Cycle 3)

The Consummation of God’s Plan of the Ages marked by the trumpet of the seventh angel exemplifies yet again the consistent symbolic application of the Number Seven throughout the Bible, from Genesis to Revelation. The Consummation is characterized by the transformation of the “kingdoms of this world” into the “kingdoms of our Lord, and of his Christ,” thus fulfilling the Lord’s prayer, “Thy Kingdom come, thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven” (Matthew 6:10).

The theme of the Kingdom of God is the key to the symmetric history that flows from Abraham to Christ and from Christ to the present age. It is symmetrically centered on the incarnation of Jesus Christ, the Eternal Lord and King of Kings who identified Himself as the Lord God Almighty via the Greek Alpha Omega () which corresponds to the Hebrew Aleph Tav (). These symbols unite to form the Capstone Signature that seals God’s Word from beginning to end. The overwhelming miracle of God is that exactly the same alphabetic pattern serving as a template of the large-scale symmetric structure of His Word also serves as a template for a symmetric pattern that spans forty-three hundred years of Judeo-Christian history. In the diagram below, each century corresponds to a single Hebrew letter, except for the First Century AD in which the Tav consummating the BC Cycle coincides with the Aleph initiating the AD Cycle. It is this union of Aleph and Tav, this complete interpenetration of the beginning with the end, that yields the Key to the symmetric structure of Judeo-Christian History.

……………………………The Key to the Kingdoms

The diagram above displays the two great interlinked cycles of history. The first cycle (on the bottom) represents the time from Abraham to Christ. It begins with Aleph in the 21^st Century BC with the call of Abraham (Aleph KeyWord Avraham) and ends with Tav in the First Century AD when Christ was crucified, the Temple was destroyed, and the Jewish Age was consummated. The second cycle (on the top) begins with Aleph in the First Century with the incarnation of God (Aleph KeyWord Elohim) in Christ and the Birth of His Church at Pentecost. To see how the Aleph of the AD cycle overlaps the Tav of the BC cycle in the First Century AD we need to take a side-view of the diagram which is actually a three-dimensional spiral centered on the incarnation of the Lord Jesus Christ:

The events of the 21^st Century BC (Aleph) prophetically anticipated the Cross (Tav) of Jesus Christ when Abraham the Father of the Faith (Aleph KeyWords Abraham, Av and Emunah) sacrificed his only beloved son Isaac.

The union of Aleph Tav at the center of Christian History transforms the universally recognized metaphorical understanding of the Advent of Christ and His Work on the Cross as the “center of time” into a literal description [see From Eternity to Eternity]. The diagram satisfies the definition of a complete macrohistory  that must have “linear, cyclical, and transcendental dimensions.” The sequence of centuries defines the linear dimension, the pattern of the Bible Wheel defines the cyclical dimension, and the unifying function of the Aleph Tav defines the transcendental dimension. This is particularly significant when it is recalled that the word et-kol which means “everything” (Gen 1:31) is spelt out when the same “figure 8” symmetry is applied to the Alphabetic Wheel. The “Key to the Kingdoms” diagram is also highly reminiscent of Oscar Cullmann’s “shape of history” discussed by Charles D. Barrett in his Understanding the Christian Faith . Here is a scan from page 67 of his book:

As an aside, this is a wonderful example of the providential guidance of our Lord. I found Barrett’s book at a yardsale about a week after drawing the diagram of the Key to the Kingdoms! He supplies everything we need to accomplish His work just at the time we need it.

The “chance” discovery of Cullman’s diagram in Barrett’s book introduced me to the extraordinarily rich, broad, and deep study called the Philosophy of History. Once again, the Bible Wheel has proven its abundant fruitfulness. The idea that history has a large-scale “shape” is very old. Most pagan systems see history as completely cyclical with no beginning, no end, and no progress. Just endless repetition like that expressed in Ecclessiastes 1:9 “there is no new thing under the sun” [see Spoke 21 > Where is the Sun?]. This view was strongly opposed by Augsustine in the fifth century who correctly saw it as the antithesis of the Christian revelation of progress from Genesis through to the final judgment and consummation in Revelation. But Christian historians could never fully shake the cyclical idea because it is obviously manifest in the fulfillment of types and shadows where we have a formal cyclical repetition like a spiral rather than a closed circle that never advances. The shape of a spiral unites the progression of the linear sequence with the cyclical repetitions. The same pattern of a spiral that returns to the beginning on a higher level has often been used to describe the large-scale pattern of Scripture, (e.g Revelation returns us to the Garden from which we were exiled in Genesis, see From Eternity to Eternity). Frank E. Manuel gives an excellent review of these ideas in his Shapes of Philosophical History .

Aleph Tav: The Kingdom of God manifest in the Lord Jesus Christ

Jesus came into Galilee, preaching the gospel of the kingdom of God, And saying, The time is fulfilled, and the kingdom of God is at hand: repent ye, and believe the gospel.

Mark 1:14f

But if I cast out devils by the Spirit of God, then the kingdom of God IS COME unto you.

Matthew 12:28

Aleph-Tav at the Center of History

The Key to the Kingdoms is centered on the inauguration of the Kingdom of God at incarnation of the Lord Jesus Christ. The incarnation of the Alpha Omega corresponds to the Aleph Tav representing the First Century AD at the center of time in Judeo-Christian history. The appearance of Christ at the exact midpoint of the “Key to the Kingdoms” is perhaps the most astounding feature of the diagram. It corresponds precisely to the theological insights of many biblical scholars such as those of Oscar Cullman (discussed above) which Anthony Hoekema brought together in his excellent book The Bible and the Future . The entire book, which includes the numbered footnotes, can be read online. Here is an extended excerpt from Chapter 3, Section 3 called “Christ is the Center of History” in which he repeatedly refers to the incarnation as the inauguration of the Kingdom of God at the midpoint of history (emphasis added):

“The exclusively historical character and dynamism of Christianity are the result of the Coming of Christ, which constitutes the central fact of Christian history. This fact is unique and non-recurring — the essential quality of everything historical. And it focuses the whole of world history.”9 These words by the Russian writer, Nicolas Berdyaev, will serve to introduce us to another major feature of the Christian interpretation of history: that Christ is the center of history. Oscar Cullmann has called our attention to the fact that the very way we date our calendars, numbering years forward or backward from the birth of Christ, has theological implications: … The theologically decisive and interesting point is not the fact that goes back to Dionysius Exiguus, that the birth of Christ was taken as the starting point of subsequent enumeration. … The decisive thing is rather the practice, which has been in vogue only for the last two centuries, of numbering both forward and backward from the birth of Christ. Only when this is done is the Christ-event regarded as the temporal mid-point of the entire historical process. We say “Christian system of reckoning time.” But it is the common system in the Western world. . . . Yet today scarcely anyone thinks of the fact that this division is not merely a convention resting upon Christian tradition, but actually presupposes fundamental assertions of New Testament theology concerning time and history.10 Cullmann goes on to say that the primary difference between the Old Testament understanding of history and that of the New Testament is that the midpoint of history has moved from the future to the past. For the New Testament believer the coming of Christ is that midpoint, and he is therefore conscious of living between the midpoint of history and its culmination — the Parousia of Jesus Christ.11 This implies that the coming of Christ was the single most important event of human history. It also implies that this event had decisive significance for all subsequent and even for all preceding history. Cullmann’s D-day and V-day analogy has already been mentioned: The first coming of Christ was like D-day, in that it was the decisive battle of the war, guaranteeing the enemy’s final defeat. The second coming of Christ will be like V-day, in which the enemy finally lays down its arms and surrenders.12 The New Testament believer lives, as it were, between D-day and V-day.13 The fact that the coming of Christ is the midpoint of history means that in this central event “not only is all that goes before fulfilled but also all that is future is decided.”14 The Christ-event, therefore, puts its distinctive stamp on all of history. … Since the kingdom of God was fulfilled in Christ, then none other than that same kingdom can come at the end of history… . This action [the fulfillment of Old Testament promises in the coming of Christ] fulfills both what has gone before and what follows after it in history and constitutes ontologically the imposition of the divine pattern of providence and redemption upon history, and epistemologically the point at which the revelation of the divine will and purpose is fully revealed. It also means that the end of historical process can be none other than the final manifestation or revelation of the fulfillment of history that took place at its ‘centre’.15 The Bible, therefore, teaches us to see human history as completely dominated by Jesus Christ.

“The final manifestation or revelation of the fulfillment of history that took place at its ‘centre’” is the key to understanding the whole eschatological message of Scripture, and the real meaning of the Work of Christ on the Cross when He bore the Divine Judgment we were destined to receive at the End of Time when God will judge the world. This is what I mean when I say that “time and eternity met in the Cross.” Indeed, the “meeting of opposites” are characteristic of the Cross, most notably the meeting of perfect Justice and immeasurable Grace in the suffering of our great God Who became Man in Jesus Christ! “O the depth of the riches both of the wisdom and knowledge of God! how unsearchable are his judgments, and his ways past finding out!” (Rom 11:33)

William Barclay provides another powerful and lucid explanation of the same ideas in the second chapter of his Many Witnesses, One Lord  (also available online):

In the Synoptic Gospels the Kingdom is conceived of in a double way. It is conceived of as a growth. It is a slow, steady, unseen growth, developing not by the effort of man, but by the power of God (Mark 4.26-29; Matthew 13.33). In this sense the Kingdom might well be called the product of the power and Spirit of God at work in the world and in the minds and hearts of men. But it is also conceived of as a consummation (Matthew 24; Mark 13). It is not, as it were, a growth which will never be anything else but a growth; it is a growth moving towards a consummation in which at last the will of God will be done not partially but completely, and in which the kingdoms of the world will become the Kingdom of God. Quite inevitably that involves judgment, for where there must be obedience there can be disobedience, and where there is a king who lays claim to the world there must be rebels who refuse his claim. Wherein then is Jesus’ place within this Kingdom? First and foremost, Jesus is the Kingdom, Jesus embodied the Kingdom. If the Kingdom is a state and condition of things in which the will of God is perfectly accepted and done, then Jesus is the only person in the universe who perfectly accepted that will. The thread that binds the life of Jesus together is his continual acceptance of the will of God. At the beginning and the end of his life on earth we see him accepting that will. In the temptation story (Matthew 4:1-I I; Luke 4.1-13) we see him accepting that way which can end only in the Cross. In Gethsemane (Matthew 26.36-46; Mark 14.32-42; Luke 22.39-46) we see him still accepting this will. In Jesus the Kingdom actually and in fact did come. To look at him is to see life in the Kingdom.

The idea of the Kingdom of God as something growing from a seed comes directly from the parables taught by the Lord Jesus Christ:

And he said, So is the kingdom of God, as if a man should cast seed into the ground; And should sleep, and rise night and day, and the seed should spring and grow up, he knoweth not how. For the earth bringeth forth fruit of herself; first the blade, then the ear, after that the full corn in the ear. But when the fruit is brought forth, immediately he putteth in the sickle, because the harvest is come. …………………………………………..Mark 4:26ff

Another parable put he forth unto them, saying, The kingdom of heaven is likened unto a man which sowed good seed in his field: But while men slept, his enemy came and sowed tares among the wheat, and went his way. But when the blade was sprung up, and brought forth fruit, then appeared the tares also. So the servants of the householder came and said unto him, Sir, didst not thou sow good seed in thy field? from whence then hath it tares? He said unto them, An enemy hath done this. The servants said unto him, Wilt thou then that we go and gather them up? But he said, Nay; lest while ye gather up the tares, ye root up also the wheat with them. Let both grow together until the harvest: and in the time of harvest I will say to the reapers, Gather ye together first the tares, and bind them in bundles to burn them: but gather the wheat into my barn. ……………………Matthew 13:24ff

Another parable put he forth unto them, saying, The kingdom of heaven is like to a grain of mustard seed, which a man took, and sowed in his field: Which indeed is the least of all seeds: but when it is grown, it is the greatest among herbs, and becometh a tree, so that the birds of the air come and lodge in the branches thereof.…………………Matthew 13:31ff

The growth pattern from the “kingdoms of this world” to the Kingdom of God expands on the alphabetic integration of the history of David’s Kingdom that I discovered some years ago when I noticed many strong and obvious correlations between the Spokes of the Wheel and the centuries after Christ. It is to this great miracle we now turn …

The Middle Letters and the Two Earthly Kingdoms of this World

Jesus answered, My kingdom is not of this world: if my kingdom were of this world, then would my servants fight, that I should not be delivered to the Jews: but now is my kingdom not from hence.

John 18:36

The diagram is called “The Key to the Kingdoms” because it displays the symmetric relation between the three great kingdoms of Judeo-Christian history. Two of the kingdoms are the earthly “kingdoms of this world” that appear symmetrically at the top and bottom extremities of the diagram. The third kingdom is the Kingdom of God that was inaugurated at the incarnation of the Lord Jesus Christ. It is represented by the Aleph Tav at the center of the diagram.

The two earthly kingdoms consist of 1) the Kingdom of Israel founded about 1050 BC and divided between North and South about 931 BC, and 2) the Kingdom of the Church – the Christian Theocracy (Holy Roman Empire) – founded with the crowning of Charlemagne in 800 AD and divided between East and West in 1054 AD (Great Schism). The record of these two kingdoms displays an astounding depth of symmetry. The two time periods span opposite vertical extremes of the diagram with a bias towards the left in both cases. Furthermore, the geography of the divisions is symmetric (North/South versus East/West) as well as the time of the divisions which in both cases occurred near the center of the centuries adjacent to the vertical line of bilateral symmetry that divides the entire diagram itself! The diagram therefore is symmetric both in space and time and centered on the incarnation of the Lord Jesus Christ. Yet this is but the beginning of wonders ….

The true miracle of the Key to the Kingdoms is seen in the supernatural integration of three fundamentally independent sequences: 1) the order and meaning of the letters of the Hebrew Alphabet, 2) the order and content of the Books of the Bible, and 3) the rise of the two earthly kingdoms in Judeo-Christian History. The four middle letters at the exact center of the alphabetic sequence, which correspond to the time periods of the two kingdoms, spell the word malki, meaning “my king” or “king of” depending on vowel points. It is extremely important to take this in: the meaning of the Hebrew letters and the word they spell coheres with the historical events in the corresponding centuries!

These four middle letters span the four books of 2 Samuel, 1 & 2 Kings, and 1 Chronicles on the first Cycle of the Bible Wheel (highlighted gray). These books begin with the reign of King David (2 Samuel), the reign of his son Solomon, the division of the kingdom, and the reign of all the other kings of Judah and Israel (1 & 2 Kings). The Book of 1 Chronicles then reiterates the reign of David, ending with his death. God explicitly reiterated this pattern in the alphabetically structured Psalm 145, which He designed so that the word “kingdom” appears only in the verses corresponding to the 11^th, 12^th, and 13^th letters which spell melek (king)!Furthermore, the actual distribution of the word melek (king) on Cycle 1 is centered on the central letters which spell the word melek itself! The graph shows how the distribution closely follows a bell curve centered on the Twelfth Letter Lamed in the center of the word melek (king), which means that the Hebrew Alphabet describes the actual content of the books themselves! In other words, the structure of the Bible Wheel describes its own content! God designed it to be self-descriptive and therefore self-confirming! Furthermore, the symbolic meanings of these “middle letters” and their relation to the idea of the Kingdom has been well understood in Rabbinic tradition since the time of the Talmud [see Spoke 12 > Christ our Master and Teacher].

And now we can begin to understand the depth of the miracle displayed here. The correlation of the centuries after Abraham with the Hebrew letters reveals that the actual historical rise of King Solomon corresponds to the Eleventh Letter Kaph (ca. 1010 BC) which is the very Letter corresponding to the Book of 1 Kings that records his reign! [See Spoke 11 > The Throne of Glory] We have therefore a threefold integration of 1) The order and meanings of the Twenty-two Hebrew letters (as taught by God in Scripture and witnessed in the ancient rabbinic tradition), 2) the order and content of the Books of the Bible, and 3) the actual historical rise of the Kindom of Israel!

This is what is so amazing about the diagram. Exactly the same correlation of the Hebrew Alphabet, the Holy Bible, and Christian History continues into the centuries after Christ where we see the rise of the Christian Theocracy in the middle ages also corresponds to the middle letters of the Hebrew Alphabet, just like the period of the Hebrew Theocracy! We have a completely symmetric integration of the two earthly kingdoms at the top and bottom extremeties of the diagram with the sequence and meanings of the Hebrew letters! Yet there is still more … the two short periods of Jewish independence are also symmetrically integrated with both the sequence and the meanings of the letters, as we shall presently see …

Resh: Two periods of Jewish Independence (Headship)

And Moses chose able men out of all Israel, and made them heads (roshim) over the people, rulers (sarim) of thousands, rulers of hundreds, rulers of fifties, and rulers of tens.

Exodus 18:25

The primary test of a good “scientific model” is if it leads to new, unexpected, and fruitful insights. It is especially impressive when the new insight is independent of the considerations that motivated the development of the model. This is what has been so exciting about studying the Wheel over all these years. It has proven itself to be a most excellent and abundantly fruitful “model” of the Bible [for example, see the Derivation of the Sevenfold Canon from First Principles]. This happened to me again immediately after drawing the diagram of the Key to the Kingdoms. It was motivated by the success I had in tracing out the correlation of the primary events in the centuries after Christ with the Hebrew alphabet, especially in light of the correlation of of both Kingdom ages discussed above. I had no idea that it would also reveal an extremely obvious geometric, thematic, and alphabetic correlation based on a feature of Hebrew history that has occured only twice since the Babylonian Exile.

The name of the Twentieth Letter – Resh – is based on rosh which literally denotes the head and figuratively denotes a beginning, a leader, or a ruler [Spoke 20 > Beginning of Wisdom]. This is how it is used in Exodus 18:25 (quoted above) when Moses chose “able men” to be heads (roshim) and rulers (sarim) over the people. The two words – rosh (head) and sar (ruler) – have similar meaning and are near anagrams of each other, differing only in the presence of an Aleph, as shown in the table. Both are Alphabetic KeyWords used by God in the Alphabetic Verses such as AV Ps 119:160 (Resh) “Thy word is true from the beginning (rosh)” and AV Ps 119:161 (Shin) “Princes (Sarim) have persecuted me without cause.” These two letters Resh (Head) and Shin (Tooth) combine to form two powerful leadership words that are also related to each other in the text of Scripture (Exo 18:25).

With this knowledge, we are now able to perceive the providential hand of God that has guided the history of His People. There simply is no other way to explain how the only two periods that the Jews experienced headship over their land after the Babylonian Exile both began in the centuries corresponding to Resh (Head)! The first began with the victory of the Maccabees over the Seleucid King and anti-semitic hitlerian madman Antiochus IV Epiphanes . He instigated the uprising by desecrating the Temple in 167 BC, which was cleansed and rededicated by the Maccabees in 164 BC (Resh). This event is commemorated by the “Festival of Lights” known as Hanukkah (Dedication) . This period of Jewish autonomy (headship) lasted almost exactly 100 years, ending when Jerusalem fell to the Roman general Pompey in 63 BC (Shin). The second period began almost exactly 2100 years later, in 1948 AD (Resh) with the formation of the modern state of Israel. It came to its climax with the recapture of Jerusalem in 1967. We are now six years into the Twenty-first century (Shin), and the Jews still retain control of Jerusalem.

The 16^th Letter Ayin: End of the Two Babylonian Exiles

Thus saith the LORD my God; Feed the flock of the slaughter; Whose possessors slay them, and hold themselves not guilty: and they that sell them say, Blessed be the LORD; for I am rich: and their own shepherds pity them not.

Zechariah 11:4ff (Spoke 16, Cycle 2)

Feed the flock of God which is among you, taking the oversight thereof, not by constraint, but willingly; not for filthy lucre, but of a ready mind; Neither as being lords over God’s heritage, but being ensamples to the flock. And when the chief Shepherd shall appear, ye shall receive a crown of glory that fadeth not away.

1 Peter 5:2ff (Spoke 16, Cycle 3)

In June of 2003 I wrote an article describing the extremely obvious correlations between Spoke 16 of the Bible Wheel and the Protestant Reformation of the 16^th Century AD, including a discussion of Martin Luther’s book called The Babylonian Captivity of the Church. Imagine my surprise when I looked at the diagram of the Key to the Kingdoms, drawn almost exactly three years later in August of 2006, and noticed that the end of the literal Babylonian Captivity was precisely symmetric in the 16^th Century after Abraham (Ayin). Unfortunately, there is much too much to write about on other topics, and I must let this article rest here. Please don’t hesitate to write with any insights you may have concerning this article.

Daniel’s 70 Weeks were fulfilled in 70 AD

The Sevenfold Seal of the Vision and the Prophecy

Seventy weeks (70 x 7) are determined upon thy people and upon thy holy city, to finish the transgression, and to make an end of sins, and to make reconciliation for iniquity, and to bring in everlasting righteousness, and to seal up the vision and prophecy, and to anoint the most Holy. Know therefore and understand, that from the going forth of the commandment to restore and to build Jerusalem unto the Messiah the Prince shall be seven weeks, and threescore and two weeks: the street shall be built again, and the wall, even in troublous times. And after threescore and two weeks shall Messiah be cut off, but not for himself: and the people of the prince that shall come shall destroy the city and the sanctuary; and the end thereof shall be with a flood, and unto the end of the war desolations are determined.

Daniel 9:24-26

This prophecy displays the full convergence of the biblical meaning of the Number Seven with the ideas of completion (finish the transgression, make an end of sins), sanctification (anoint the most Holy), and the sealing of the Divine revelation (the vision and the prophecy of the Holy Bible). It is the crown jewel of all prophecies concerning the coming of Christ, the redemption He sealed with His blood when He was “cut off” for our sins on the Cross, and the completion of the inspired documents that became the books of the Holy Bible. It also integrates the symbolic meaning of the Number Seven with the actual flow of history recorded in both biblical and secular sources. It stands at the apex of a series of judgments and prophecies God gave through the prophets Moses, Ezra, Nehemiah, Jeremiah, Haggai, Zechariah, and others that are all based on the Number Seven and its multiples.

The fulfillment of Daniel’s prophecy in Christ is declared throughout the New Testament. It is the heart and soul of the Gospel which proclaims God’s reconciliation for iniquity accomplished through the death of His Messiah (Col 1:18-21):

For it pleased the Father that in him [Jesus] should all fullness dwell; And, having made peace through the blood of his cross, by him to reconcile all things unto himself; by him, I say, whether they be things in earth, or things in heaven. And you, that were sometime alienated and enemies in your mind by wicked works, yet now hath he reconciled in the body of his flesh through death, to present you holy and unblameable and unreproveable in his sight:

Time and Eternity met in the Cross of Christ. Daniel’s prophecy touches both the “last days” of Christ and the “last days” at the end of time. It connects the final judgment destined for the last day with Jesus, “the Lamb slain before the foundation of the worl” (Rev 13:8). At the Cross, He took upon Himself the Divine Judgment waiting to be revealed to every man in the Last Day, thereby freeing now all who believe in Him from the death-grip of sin and giving them entrance now into His everlasting Life. This brought the end into the middle of Time, the Cross at the center of the Circle. He is the Everlasting Way, “the same yesterday, today, and forever” (Heb 13:8). His death ended the old order of things, and brought in new life and holiness for all believers. Thus the Bible marks the time of His death as “the end of the world” and relates it directly to the judgment that follows every man’s death (Heb 9:26-28):

but now once in the end of the world hath he appeared to put away sin by the sacrifice of himself. And as it is appointed unto men once to die, but after this the judgment, so Christ was once offered to bear the sins of many.

Christ is the end of the law for righteousness to every one that believeth (Rom 10:4). By His death He put an end to sin, and He is the everlasting righteousness prophesied by Daniel above. It is of utmost significance that the word translated as “cut off” is karat – – which is the word that God used every time He made a covenant, as in Ezekiel 37:26:

Moreover I will make (karat) a covenant of peace with them; it shall be an everlasting covenant with them: and I will place them, and multiply them, and will set my sanctuary in the midst of them for evermore.

Christ’s death on the Cross sealed the “vision and the prophecy” in three ways. First, it literally sealed the New Covenant with his blood. Second, it fulfilled all that was prophesied of him, as he himself declared (Luke 24:44-45):

And he said unto them, These are the words which I spake unto you, while I was yet with you, that all things must be fulfilled, which were written in the law of Moses, and in the prophets, and in the psalms, concerning me. Then opened he their understanding, that they might understand the scriptures, And said unto them, Thus it is written, and thus it behooved Christ to suffer, and to rise from the dead the third day: And that repentance and remission of sins should be preached in his name among all nations, beginning at Jerusalem.

Third, the Holy Word itself was completed shortly after His death, never to be changed, as it is written in the last verses of the last book of the Bible (Rev 22:18-19):

For I testify unto every man that heareth the words of the prophecy of this book, If any man shall add unto these things, God shall add unto him the plagues that are written in this book. And if any man shall take away from the words of the book of this prophecy, God shall take away his part out of the book of life, and out of the holy city, and from the things which are written in this book.

All these are the fulfillments of Daniel’s prophecy in the atonement wrought by Christ on the Cross. It is a magnificent prophecy of the core Gospel Message, given six centuries before Jesus was born. But it also has a time element that predicted when this fulfillment would occur, based entirely on God’s application of the Number Seven throughout Scripture.

The Time of the Fulfillment

But when you see Jerusalem surrounded by armies, then know that its desolation has come near. Then let those who are in Judea flee to the mountains, and let those who are inside the city depart, and let not those who are out in the country enter it; for these are days of vengeance, to fulfill all that is written. Alas for those who are with child and for those who give suck in those days! For great distress shall be upon the earth and wrath upon this people; they will fall by the edge of the sword, and be led captive among all nations; and Jerusalem will be trodden down by the Gentiles, until the times of the Gentiles are fulfilled. – The Lord Jesus Christ (Luke 21:20-24)

Daniel’s prophecy frames the time for its fulfillment with the statement “seventy weeks are determined upon thy people and upon thy holy city.” This literally reads “seventy sevens” because the Hebrew word for “week” is just the word for “seven.” Essentially all commentators, both Jewish and Christian, have understood this as seven “weeks of years” following the pattern of a day for a year that God used when He established the sabbatical year, which also plays an essential role in the historical unfolding of this prophecy. Some modern translations interpret it this way for the reader, such as the RSV which has “Seventy weeks of years are determined.” Others, such as the NIV, avoid interpreting it at all and translate it as “seventy sevens are decreed.”

The pattern of this prophecy spans the entire Biblical revelation. It is founded on the Days of Creation, the Fourth Commandment, and the law of the Sabbatical Year, which is just an amplification of the seventh day Sabbath on a higher scale. God linked this pattern to His judgments in Leviticus when He gave the Prophet Moses a series of warnings of the calamity that would befall the Jews if they continued to rebel against His rule. Each warning was magnified seven times, culminating in the complete destruction of Jerusalem. Though many violations of God’s laws were listed along with the warnings, the primary crime cited was the failure to obey the sabbatical year (Lev 26:28-35):

And if ye will not for all this hearken unto me, but walk contrary unto me; Then I will walk contrary unto you also in fury; and I, even I, will chastise you seven times for your sins. … And I will scatter you among the heathen, and will draw out a sword after you: and your land shall be desolate, and your cities waste. Then shall the land enjoy her sabbaths, as long as it lieth desolate, and ye be in your enemies’ land; even then shall the land rest, and enjoy her sabbaths. As long as it lieth desolate it shall rest; because it did not rest in your sabbaths, when ye dwelt upon it.

The fulfillment of this prophecy, called the Babylonian Exile, is an undisputed fact of history. It began in 606 BC when God allowed Nebuchadnezzar to capture Jerusalem and deport many of the Jews, including the Prophet Daniel, to Babylon (Dan 1:2). It reached its zenith in 586 BC with the utter destruction of Jerusalem and the Temple and the exile of most of the remaining Jews. In Lamentations, the “weeping prophet” Jeremiah recorded the detailed fulfillment of each and every warning given in Leviticus. But God also gave Jeremiah the comfort of proclaiming His promise that they would return after seventy years in Babylon (Jer 29:10-13):

For thus saith the LORD, That after seventy years (10 x 7) be accomplished at Babylon I will visit you, and perform my good word toward you, in causing you to return to this place. For I know the thoughts that I think toward you, saith the LORD, thoughts of peace, and not of evil, to give you an expected end. Then shall ye call upon me, and ye shall go and pray unto me, and I will hearken unto you. Then you will call upon me and come and pray to me, and I will hear you. You will seek me and find me; when you seek me with all your heart.

The fulfillment of this prophecy began in 538 BC when God raised up Cyrus, king of Persia, and directed him to rebuild the Temple that had been destroyed (Ezra 1:1-2):

Now in the first year of Cyrus king of Persia, that the word of the LORD by the mouth of Jeremiah might be fulfilled, the LORD stirred up the spirit of Cyrus king of Persia, that he made a proclamation throughout all his kingdom, and put it also in writing, saying, Thus saith Cyrus king of Persia, The LORD God of heaven hath given me all the kingdoms of the earth; and he hath charged me to build him a house at Jerusalem, which is in Judah.

As shown in the table the Old Testament symmetry (Bible Wheel book, pg. 10), these events divide the twelve books of OT History and the twelve books of the Minor Prophets in exactly the same way, with the first nine being pre-exilic (before the Babylonian Exile) and last three post-exilic (after return from the Babylonian Exile). These divisions exhibit perfect radial symmetry on the Wheel with the nine/three division falling between Spokes 14 and 15 on both Cycles 1 and 2, as discussed in the section Symmetries of the Bible Wheel (Bible wheel book pg. 33).

We now are able to see the true wonder of the revelation given to Daniel by the Lord of All History. In the year 538 BC Daniel discerned from the book of Jeremiah that the seventy years of captivity in Babylon was about to end (Dan 9:2). He was praying, confessing his sins and the sins of his people, and asking God for mercy when the Angel Gabriel came and revealed God’s master plan of the ages that culminated in the central event of all history, the crucifixion of the Lord Jesus Christ. The prophecy foretold that Christ would appear 69 weeks, signifying 69 x 7 = 483 years, “from the going forth of the command to restore and rebuild Jerusalem.” The question then is to determine this date. Most commentators believe it refers to one of two decrees given by Artaxerxes in either 457 BC (Ezra 7:11-26) or 444 BC (Neh 2:1-8). The first date gives 457 BC + 483 years = 26 AD, which fits very well with the beginning of Christ’s earthly ministry that ended three and one half years later with His death in 30 AD. Others, such as Anderson, use the 444 BC date coupled with a “prophetic year” of 360 days to arrive at the exact day of Christ’s “triumphal entry” into Jerusalem in 33 AD. While these calculations impressively demonstrate that the advent of Christ occurred within the range of the prophecy, uncertainties in the starting date (457-444 BC) and ending date (30-33 AD) and other issues cloud the clear proof of its Divine fulfillment. This question has generated a huge volume of literature spanning the entire history of the Church which, while fascinating, lies outside the scope of this article. Thankfully, God designed Daniel’s prophecy so that its fulfillment could not be hidden by the “fuzziness” of human history, because the beginning and end points are determined beyond all dispute. This means that even with the remaining historical uncertainties, the Book of Daniel predicted a prophetic window of roughly 124 years (55 BC to 70 AD) in which all the events had to happen:

Conclusion

Menorah being carried by Jewish captives carved in the Arch of Titus

One of the primary characteristics of the Bible is that the main things are the plain things. God did not give us His Word simply to knot our brows. The fulfillment of Daniel’s prophecy is written in stone, specifically the stone “Arch of Titus” that was carved as a memorial of his victory over the Jews in 70 AD. This fulfilled his prophecy that the death of Christ would be followed by the complete destruction of Jerusalem and the Temple, and that both of these events would happen sometime after the 483 years had elapsed since the command to rebuild: And after threescore and two (69) weeks shall Messiah be cut off, but not for himself: and the people of the prince that shall come shall destroy the city and the sanctuary; and the end thereof shall be with a flood, and unto the end of the war desolations are determined.

The image carve in the Arch of Titus is extremely compelling. It represent more than just the fall of Jerusalem. In it, we see the symbol of the sevenfold light of God’s Word being transferred from the Jews to the Gentiles, as Christ Himself predicted (Matt 21:43):

Therefore say I unto you, The kingdom of God shall be taken from you, and given to a nation bringing forth the fruits thereof.

Thus the Light of the World was transfered from the Jews to all the nations of the world. The salvation of Messiah came first to the Jews, and then to the Gentiles. It is particularly striking that these events are marked by the Number 70, since that is the number God used in the prophecy He gave to Daniel, and it is the Number the Jews see as symbolic of the Gentile nations! They determined this from the 70 decendents  of Noah’s three sons listed in Genesis 10. And so it is a most amazing witness to the Jews, that God did indeed fulfill all the words that He spoke to them through the prophets. In closing, I will list a few of the most significant fulfillments of Daniel’s prophecy in Christ for easy reference:

Prophecy in Daniel: to finish the transgression, and to make an end of sins,

Fulfillment in Christ: Hebrews 9:25-26 Nor yet that he should offer himself often, as the high priest entereth into the holy place every year with blood of others; 26 For then must he often have suffered since the foundation of the world: but now once in the end of the world hath he appeared to put away sin by the sacrifice of himself.

Prophecy in Daniel: and to make reconciliation for iniquity,

Fulfillment in Christ: 2 Corinthians 5:19 To wit, that God was in Christ, reconciling the world unto himself, not imputing their trespasses unto them; and hath committed unto us the word of reconciliation.

Prophecy in Daniel: and to bring in everlasting righteousness,

Fulfillment in Christ: Romans 3:21-22 21 But now the righteousness of God without the law is manifested, being witnessed by the law and the prophets; 22 Even the righteousness of God which is by faith of Jesus Christ unto all and upon all them that believe: for there is no difference:

Prophecy in Daniel: and to seal up the vision and prophecy,

Fulfillment in Christ: Revelation 22:18-20 For I testify unto every man that heareth the words of the prophecy of this book, If any man shall add unto these things, God shall add unto him the plagues that are written in this book: 19 And if any man shall take away from the words of the book of this prophecy, God shall take away his part out of the book of life, and out of the holy city, and from the things which are written in this book. 20 He which testifieth these things saith, Surely I come quickly. Amen. Even so, come, Lord Jesus.

Spoke 4

Numbers, Ezekiel, Galatians

Remember the sabbath day, to keep it holy. Six days shalt thou labour, and do all thy work: But the seventh day is the sabbath of the LORD thy God: in it thou shalt not do any work, thou, nor thy son, nor thy daughter, thy manservant, nor thy maidservant, nor thy cattle, nor thy stranger that is within thy gates: For in six days the LORD made heaven and earth, the sea, and all that in them is, and rested the seventh day: wherefore the LORD blessed the sabbath day, and hallowed it.

The Fourth Commandment

Persecution Ends, the Church Rests

The Decalogue was written by the very “Finger of God.” Its supernatural alphanumeric structure has been documented in The Holographic Decalog and related articles. The Ten Commandments govern vast structures in both Scripture and History, as seen with particular clarity in the correlation between the Fourth Century and the Fourth Commandment. It was in the Fourth Century that Constantine saw a Cross of Light and the word “In this sign conquer” after which he converted to Christiantity and legalized it.

The Day of the Sun

Though there is some evidence that Sunday Worship had been practiced since the First Century as the “Lord’s Day” in honour of the Resurrection, it was not until the Fourth Century that Sunday became a legal holiday by the Edict of Constantine  in 321 AD. It is also significant that God gave Sabbath was as a Sign, as it is written in Ezekiel (Spoke 4, Cycle 2):

Moreover also I gave them my sabbaths, to be a sign between me and them, that they might know that I am the LORD that sanctify them.

This then links to the Fourth Day, where we find the first occurrence of the word “sign” as the first of four temporal reasons for the creation of the Sun, Moon, and Stars:

And God said, Let there be lights in the firmament of the heaven to divide the day from the night; and let them be for signs, and for seasons, and for days, and years:

The relation between the idea of a Sign or Mark and the Number 4 is extremely profound. It runs through everything from Genesis 4, to Galatians on Spoke 4, to Circumcision in Romans 4, and even in the course of History with the Sign of the Cross given to convert Constantine. We have therefore a multithreaded integration of the Fourth Day of Creation (when the Sun was made for a Sign), the Fourth Commandment (Sabbath Rest which was given for a Sign) and the Fourth Century when Constantine was given the Sign of a Cross of Light and later made Sunday a legal holiday, mandating the cessation of labours and selling.

Church Buildings

Constantine’s pronouncemnt of freedom of worship for all in the ‘Edict’ of Milan (313) was soon reflected in the buildings used for Christian worship. The Emperor himself built a new church in Rome which symbolized the dawn of a new era. This Church of St. John Lateran was a basilica, and in all the main centres of the Empire this style of church seems rapidly to have replaced the house-church.”

4th Century – Dalet – The First Councils

Spoke 4

Numbers, Ezekiel, Galatians

I marvel that ye are so soon removed from him that called you into the grace of Christ unto another gospel: Which is not another; but there be some that trouble you, and would pervert the gospel of Christ. But though we, or an angel from heaven, preach any other gospel unto you than that which we have preached unto you, let him be accursed [anathama]. As we said before, so say I now again, If any man preach any other gospel unto you than that ye have received, let him be accursed [anathama].

Spoke 4, Cycle 3
(Galatians 1.6f)

Anathema

The Fourth Century marks the beginning of a series of Church Councils that met over a period of four hundred years. It was enabled by the legalization of Christianity by Constantine in 312 AD. The first two Ecumentical Councils (considered binding on the whole Church) were held in the Fourth Century in Nicaea  (325) and Constantinople  (381). The Council of Nicaea dealt with the Arian Heresy, conlcuding with this statement anathematizing those who would teach a different Christ than that received by the Apostles:

We believe in one God the Father Almighty, Maker of all things visible and invisible; and in one Lord Jesus Christ, the only begotten of the Father, that is, of the substance [ek tes ousias] of the Father, God of God, light of light, true God of true God, begotten not made, of the same substance with the Father [homoousion to patri], through whom all things were made both in heaven and on earth; who for us men and our salvation descended, was incarnate, and was made man, suffered and rose again the third day, ascended into heaven and cometh to judge the living and the dead. And in the Holy Ghost. Those who say: There was a time when He was not, and He was not before He was begotten; and that He was made our of nothing (ex ouk onton); or who maintain that He is of another hypostasis or another substance [than the Father], or that the Son of God is created, or mutable, or subject to change, [them] the catholic Church anathematizes.

This is the first formal anathematization from a Council of God’s Church. We have a perfect correlation of the content from the Fourth Spoke (Galatians) with this artifact from the Fourth Century. The concept of anathema also part of a Spoke 4 KeyLink discussed in Dedicated to God. None of this would be evident without knowledge of the Bible Wheel. Yet this is but the beginning of wonders! The Book of Galatians continues with the actual record of the Council of Jerusalem.

The Council of Jerusalem

Then fourteen years after I went up again to Jerusalem with Barnabas, and took Titus with me also. 2 And I went up by revelation, and communicated unto them that gospel which I preach among the Gentiles, but privately to them which were of reputation, lest by any means I should run, or had run, in vain. 3 But neither Titus, who was with me, being a Greek, was compelled to be circumcised: 4 And that because of false brethren unawares brought in, who came in privily to spy out our liberty which we have in Christ Jesus, that they might bring us into bondage: 5 To whom we gave place by subjection, no, not for an hour; that the truth of the gospel might continue with you. 6 But of these who seemed to be somewhat, (whatsoever they were, it maketh no matter to me: God accepteth no man’s person:) for they who seemed to be somewhat in conference added nothing to me: 7 But contrariwise, when they saw that the gospel of the uncircumcision was committed unto me, as the gospel of the circumcision was unto Peter; 8 ( For he that wrought effectually in Peter to the apostleship of the circumcision, the same was mighty in me toward the Gentiles:) 9 And when James, Cephas, and John, who seemed to be pillars, perceived the grace that was given unto me, they gave to me and Barnabas the right hands of fellowship; that we should go unto the heathen, and they unto the circumcision. 10 Only they would that we should remember the poor; the same which I also was forward to do.

Spoke 4, Cycle 3
(Galatians 2.1f)

Paul Johnson describes the event above in the first paragraph of his History of Christianity  (emphasis added):

Some time about the middle of the first century AD, and very likely in the year 49, Paul of Tarsus travelled south from Antioch to Jerusalem and there met the surviving followers of Jesus of Nazareth, who had been crucified about sixteen years before. This Apostolic Conference, or Council of Jerusalem, is the first political act in the history of Christianity and the starting-point from which we can seek to reconstruct the nature of Jesus’s teaching and the origins fo the religion and church he brought into being.

The correspondence betweent the content of Galatians and the Fourth Century is perfect and precise.

Spoke 8

Ruth, Amos, I Thessalonians

And ye became followers of us, and of the Lord, having received the word in much affliction, with joy of the Holy Ghost: So that ye were ensamples to all that believe in Macedonia and Achaia.

Spoke 8, Cycle 3
(I Thessalonians 1.6f)

Charlemagne and the Number 8

Charlemagne began his reign as King of the Franks in the Eighth Century (768 AD). He was not crowned Emperor of the Roman Empire until the dawn of the Ninth Century on Christmas Day of the year 800, which coincides with the value of the Greek word (Kurios, Lord). Earlier in the Eighth Century he began building his Church in Aachan  with an octangular Cathedral, as shown below:

Palace Chapel (Octagon with two-storied, sixteen-sided polygon) Former Choir of the Palace Chapel West wing (three-floored) Atrium with four rotunda (Exedra) and fountains Northern annex (three naves) Southern annex (hall and gallery) Portico

More pictures of this Cathedral are available from Catholic University of America  (who really liked Charlemagne because of his strong support for the Pope).

There seems to have been some awareness of the meaning of the Number 8 in the Court of the Holy Roman Empire, since Otto I was crowned at Aachen with an octangular crown.

Spoke 8

Ruth, Amos, I Thessalonians

And ye became followers of us, and of the Lord, having received the word in much affliction, with joy of the Holy Ghost: So that ye were ensamples to all that believe in Macedonia and Achaia.

Spoke 8, Cycle 3
(I Thessalonians 1.6f)

Charlemagne and the Number 8

Charlemagne began his reign as King of the Franks in the Eighth Century (768 AD). He was not crowned Emperor of the Roman Empire until the dawn of the Ninth Century on Christmas Day of the year 800, which coincides with the value of the Greek word (Kurios, Lord). Earlier in the Eighth Century he began building his Church in Aachan  with an octangular Cathedral, as shown below:

Palace Chapel (Octagon with two-storied, sixteen-sided polygon) Former Choir of the Palace Chapel West wing (three-floored) Atrium with four rotunda (Exedra) and fountains Northern annex (three naves) Southern annex (hall and gallery) Portico

More pictures of this Cathedral are available from Catholic University of America  (who really liked Charlemagne because of his strong support for the Pope).

There seems to have been some awareness of the meaning of the Number 8 in the Court of the Holy Roman Empire, since Otto I was crowned at Aachen with an octangular crown.

Spoke 9

1 Samuel, Obadiah, 2 Thessalonians

And he sent, and brought him in. Now he was ruddy, and withal of a beautiful countenance, and goodly to look to. And the LORD said, Arise, anoint him: for this is he. Then Samuel took the horn of oil, and anointed him in the midst of his brethren: and the Spirit of the LORD came upon David from that day forward. So Samuel rose up, and went to Ramah.

Spoke 9, Cycle 1
I Samuel 16.12f

Coronation and Anointing of Charlemagne

Charlemagne began his reign as King of the Franks in 768. On Christmas Day of the year 800 he was crowned Emperor of the Roman Empire by Pope Leo III . Some historians see him as the first emperor of the Holy Roman Empire while others reserve that designation for Otto the Great who was crowned in the Tenth Century. Here is a description of his coronation  from Seton Hall College that draws on various historical sources. The one quoted below is from Liber Pontificalis  (The Book of the Popes):

On the day of the Nativity of our Lord Jesus Christ all [who had been present at the council] came together again in the same basilica of blessed Peter the apostle. And then the venerable and holy pontiff, with his own hands, crowned [Charles] with a most precious crown. Then all the faithful Romans, seeing how he loved the holy Roman church and its vicar and how he defended them, cried out with one voice by the will of God and of St. Peter, the key-bearer of the kingdom of heaven, “To Charles, most pious Augustus, crowned by God, great and peace-loving emperor, life and victory.” (Salus et victoria) This was said three times before the sacred tomb of blessed Peter the apostle, with the invocation of many saints, and he was instituted by all as emperor of the Romans. Thereupon, on that same day of the nativity of our Lord Jesus Christ, the most holy bishop and pontiff anointed his most excellent son Charles as king with holy oil.

The classic college textbook Civilization Past and Present  (pg. 313, Vol. I, Fourth Ed.) declares that this event is “most important single event in the momentous reign of Charlemagne.” It is strongly integrated with the great Spoke 9 theme of the establishment of God’s Kingdom which we see in various Inner Cycles as well, such as Psalm 9 and Isaiah 9. More details can be found in Mosaic’s  excellent series of articles called Charlemagne and the Franks .

Concerning the reign of Chalemagne, here is an account given by Notker the Stammerer , one of his biographers:

He who ordains the fate of kingdoms, and the march of the centuries, the all-powerful Disposer of events, having destroyed one extraordinary image, that of the Romans . . . then raised up, among the Franks, the golden head of a second image, equally remarkable, in the person of the illustrious Charlemagne.

I find it intriguing, in light of the revelation of the relation between History and the structure of Scripture, that there was a recognition of the Work of God in the “march of the centuries” during the course of the same.

There is some ambuiguity as to whether or not Charlemagne’s coronation should be classified under the Eighth or Ninth Century, since it occurred in the year 800. This touches the interminable and not very edifying argument about whether or not a century begins in the year “00” or “01.” I settled on the Ninth Century for a for a few reasons. First of all, the fact that the coronation happened one week before the year 801 means that no matter how we cut it, the event happened at or very near the dawn of the Ninth Century. Also, from the sense of history being like a wave moving forward, the impact of an event that happened in one century may not be felt until the next. The resulting integration with the annointing of David in I Samuel then settled it for me.

10th Century – Yod – The Holy Roman Empire

Spoke 10

II Samuel, Jonah, I Timothy

Then came all the tribes of Israel to David unto Hebron, and spake, saying, Behold, we are thy bone and thy flesh. Also in time past, when Saul was king over us, thou wast he that leddest out and broughtest in Israel: and the LORD said to thee, Thou shalt feed my people Israel, and thou shalt be a captain over Israel. So all the elders of Israel came to the king to Hebron; and king David made a league with them in Hebron before the LORD: and they anointed David king over Israel. David was thirty years old when he began to reign, and he reigned forty years.

Spoke 10, Cycle 1
(II Samuel 5.1f)

Otto I, The Great

Otto I, “the Great,” was crowned Emperor of the Holy Roman Empire  by Pope John XII (though the term “holy” was not added until the Thirteenth Century). Otto chose to have the cermony conducted at Aachen, built by Charlemagne in the Eighth Century as a sign that he was continuing the Carolingian  legacy. Many dukes of the realm served him a great banguet to show the German unity. This was the beginning of the first “German Reich” in the line that culminated in Hitler’s failed attempt to form the Third Reich.

The Empire was strongly allied with the Roman Catholic Church. Papal approval and coronation was required for the elected “king of the Romans” to become “Emperor of the Holy Roman Empire.” The relation between Church and Empire was often tumultuous, with many German kings such as Henry IV  and Frederick I  opposing the Pope because of inevitable political differences between the German Emperors and Italian Popes.

The rise of the Holy Roman Empire in the Tenth Century corresponds to David’s ascent to the Throne in II Samuel. Its zenith of power in the following few centuries corresponds to the books of Kings and Chronicles that are filled with the history of the Kings of Israel and Judah. Its decline around the Thirteenth Century is described by Dr. Harold Damerow , the Senior Professor of Government and History at Union County College, in his article on the Holy Roman Empire :

While the Holy Roman Empire survived until 1806 when the self-made Emperor Napoleon I of France finally abolishes it, the Empire became a weak confederation of ultimately more than 300 independent little states. … Just as France and England emerged as powerful monarchical states in the thirteenth century, the Holy Roman Empire went into decline.

This means that the correlation between the history of the Kings of Israel that begins on Spoke 9 and follows through to Spoke 14 corresponds almost exactly with that of the Holy Roman Empire.

The Eternal King

The Crown of the Holy Roman Empire was built with eight hinged panels with pictures of King David (II Samuel), King Solomon (I Kings), King Hezekiah (II Kings) and Christ the Eternal King. This integrates with the content of Spoke 10 and the great theme of God the Eternal King, which forms a strong link between I Timothy (Spoke 10, Cycle 3) and Psalm 10 based on the set (King, “for ever and ever”) ^[Verify] which is a near KeyLink, selecting only one other verse than these two:

Spoke 10, Cycle 3 (I Timothy 1.17)	Psalm 10 (vs. 16)
Now unto the King eternal, immortal, invisible, the only wise God, be honour and glory for ever and ever. Amen.	The LORD is King for ever and ever: the heathen are perished out of his land.

All of this finds its origin in Genesis 10 which contains the first appearance of the word “kingdom” in the Bible.

Alphabetic Integration

Yet have I set my king upon my holy hill of Zion. [Psalm 2]

When read backwards, the four central letters of the Herbew Alphabet – Yod, Kaph, Lamed, Mayim – spell the word (Malki, My King), used above in Psalm 2 in direct reference to David and prophetic reference to Christ. It is therefore a great wonder to behold the books corresponding to these letters spanning the time when David ascended to the throne unto the last mention of his death in I Chronicles 29.26:

Thus David the son of Jesse reigned over all Israel. And the time that he reigned over Israel was forty years; seven years reigned he in Hebron, and thirty and three years reigned he in Jerusalem. And he died in a good old age, full of days, riches, and honour: and Solomon his son reigned in his stead. Now the acts of David the king, first and last, behold, they are written in the book of Samuel the seer, and in the book of Nathan the prophet, and in the book of Gad the seer, With all his reign and his might, and the times that went over him, and over Israel, and over all the kingdoms of the countries.

As mentioned above, the Imperial Crown, which was probably made for King Otto I in the Tenth Century, has images of the three greatest Kings in the history of Israel and Judah. The rule of these three Kings began with King David in the 10^th and progressed sequentially with King Solomon in the 11^th Book and King Hezekiah in the 12^th. All of this is integrated with the order of the Canon, the order of the Hebrew alphabet, and the course of World History:

MALKI (My King)
Yod	Kaph	Lamed	Mayim
II Samuel	I Kings	II Kings	I Chronicles
10th King David	11th King Solomon	12th King Hezekiah	13th (repetition)

Historians call the time period spanned by the middle letters of the Hebrew Alphabet the Middle Ages, when the Kings rule their kingdoms. This is the Wisdom of Almighty God, who determines the course of the nations and the flow of the centuries.

11th Century – Kaph – The Great Schism

Spoke 11 11^th Century AD

1 Kings, Micah, 2 Timothy

And Ahijah caught the new garment that was on him, and rent it in twelve pieces: And he said to Jeroboam, Take thee ten pieces: for thus saith the LORD, the God of Israel, Behold, I will rend the kingdom out of the hand of Solomon, and will give ten tribes to thee: (But he shall have one tribe for my servant David’s sake, and for Jerusalem’s sake, the city which I have chosen out of all the tribes of Israel:)……………….1 Kings 11.30f (Spoke 11, Cycle 1)

A Heavy Yoke

The division of the Eastern and Western branches of the one holy and apostolic Church in the Eleventh Century (1054 AD) corresponds to the division of the Northern and Southern tribes in the Kingdom of Israel in the Eleventh Book, I Kings. The reason for the division involved a wanton use of power over others, as explained in I Kings (I quote the whole of chapter 12):

I Kings 12.1 And Rehoboam went to Shechem: for all Israel were come to Shechem to make him king. 2 And it came to pass, when Jeroboam the son of Nebat, who was yet in Egypt, heard of it, (for he was fled from the presence of king Solomon, and Jeroboam dwelt in Egypt;) 3 That they sent and called him. And Jeroboam and all the congregation of Israel came, and spake unto Rehoboam, saying, 4 Thy father made our yoke grievous: now therefore make thou the grievous service of thy father, and his heavy yoke which he put upon us, lighter, and we will serve thee. 5 And he said unto them, Depart yet for three days, then come again to me. And the people departed. 6 And king Rehoboam consulted with the old men, that stood before Solomon his father while he yet lived, and said, How do ye advise that I may answer this people? 7 And they spake unto him, saying, If thou wilt be a servant unto this people this day, and wilt serve them, and answer them, and speak good words to them, then they will be thy servants for ever. 8 But he forsook the counsel of the old men, which they had given him, and consulted with the young men that were grown up with him, and which stood before him: 9 And he said unto them, What counsel give ye that we may answer this people, who have spoken to me, saying, Make the yoke which thy father did put upon us lighter? 10 And the young men that were grown up with him spake unto him, saying, Thus shalt thou speak unto this people that spake unto thee, saying, Thy father made our yoke heavy, but make thou it lighter unto us; thus shalt thou say unto them, My little finger shall be thicker than my father’s loins. 11 And now whereas my father did lade you with a heavy yoke, I will add to your yoke: my father hath chastised you with whips, but I will chastise you with scorpions. 12 So Jeroboam and all the people came to Rehoboam the third day, as the king had appointed, saying, Come to me again the third day. 13 And the king answered the people roughly, and forsook the old men’s counsel that they gave him; 14 And spake to them after the counsel of the young men, saying, My father made your yoke heavy, and I will add to your yoke: my father also chastised you with whips, but I will chastise you with scorpions. 15 Wherefore the king hearkened not unto the people; for the cause was from the LORD, that he might perform his saying, which the LORD spake by Ahijah the Shilonite unto Jeroboam the son of Nebat. 16 So when all Israel saw that the king hearkened not unto them, the people answered the king, saying, What portion have we in David? neither have we inheritance in the son of Jesse: to your tents, O Israel: now see to thine own house, David. So Israel departed unto their tents. 17 But as for the children of Israel which dwelt in the cities of Judah, Rehoboam reigned over them. 18 Then king Rehoboam sent Adoram, who was over the tribute; and all Israel stoned him with stones, that he died. Therefore king Rehoboam made speed to get him up to his chariot, to flee to Jerusalem. 19 So Israel rebelled against the house of David unto this day.

Now the really incredible thing is that the language of an unacceptable yoke is used by modern Greek Orthodox in their discussion of the Schism, as quoted below. Both the Greek Orthodox and the Roman Catholic Churches agree on the many causes leading up to the Great Schism of 1054, such as differences in languages, geography, and politics. They also agree in that the breaking point was brought on by the hubris of the opponent in abrogating undue powers over the other. The Roman Catholics assert that the Orthodox had usurped the authority rigthtly due only to the See of Saint Peter while the Orthodox assert that it was the Catholics who were attempting to inappropriately impose their authority over the four Eastern Sees. There is a fundamental difference though – the Greek Othodox demanded equality while the Roman Catholic demanded supremacy. Here is a comparison of the main points as presented by the Roman Catholic  and the Greek Orthodox :

Catholic View

Othodox View

The rivalry and hatred arose from several causes. Undoubtedly the first, the root of all the quarrel, was the advance of the See of Constantinople. We have seen that four Eastern patriarchates were to some extent contrasted to the one great Western unity. Had there remained four such unities in the East, nothing further need have followed. What accentuated the contrast and made it a rivalry was the gradual assumption of authority over the other three by the patriarch of Constantinople. It was Constantinople that bound together the East into one body, uniting it against the West. It was the persistent attempt of the emperor’s patriarch to become a kind of Eastern pope, as nearly as possible equal to his Western prototype, that was the real source of all the trouble.

The Bishop of Rome, even today in the 20th century, insists that he has a primacy of jurisdiction over all Churches, including the Patriarchs of the East. He claims they should be subject to him since “he is not only Bishop of Rome and the Patriarch of the West but also the Vicar of Christ on Earth, the successor of St. Peter, and the Supreme Pontiff”. Pope Pius XII in 1955 called upon the “Uniat” Church to use its utmost to bring the Orthodox Churches to the “fold”. The Eastern Orthodox is told that it would not be necessary to change any of the teachings or customs of the Orthodox Church but to submit himself under the Pope’s jurisdiction; that is, to lose every right of freedom and independence. In other words, unconditional surrender under the Pope’s yoke is asked. But the principles of the democratic government of the Eastern Orthodox Church is its very foundation. The “Conscience of the Church” is its supreme authority and the infallible guidance to proclaim the truth of Salvation, as was the case for centuries for the Western Church, too. The question as to the supremacy of the Pope was the main cause of the separation of the Eastern and Western Churches.

The correlation between History and the structure of the Canon is astounding – it includes not only a description of the main event, but even the reasons for it! Exactly the same phenomenon is seen in the description of the Sixteenth Century Reformation, where both the event and the reason for it appear on Spoke 16. A full exploration of the reasons for the split can be read in Mosaic’s  excellent series of articles called Schism: The Origins of Christian Disunity .

The Yoke of Christ

Come unto me, all ye that labour and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you, and learn of me; for I am meek and lowly in heart: and ye shall find rest unto your souls. For my yoke is easy, and my burden is light.

Matthew 11

The link between the Eleventh Century and the idea of the Yoke caused me to recall the words of Christ from Matthew 11 which are in in stark contrast to the yoke recomended by Rehoboam’s younger counsellors:

And he said unto them, What counsel give ye that we may answer this people, who have spoken to me, saying, Make the yoke which thy father did put upon us lighter? And the young men that were grown up with him spake unto him, saying, Thus shalt thou speak unto this people that spake unto thee, saying, Thy father made our yoke heavy, but make thou it lighter unto us; thus shalt thou say unto them, My little finger shall be thicker than my father’s loins.

We have a near KeyLink between Matthew 11 and I Kings based on the simple set (light*, yoke) ^[Verify], which selects only the two passages quoted above, and the parallel passage in 2 Chronicles 10.10:

Thematic Link Set (Light*, Yoke)

PBible( 11 ) PMatthew( 11 )

This is the power of the correlation between History and the Bible Wheel: I discovered this strong thematic link between I Kings and the Inner Cycle of Matthew based on the connection between I Kings and the Eleventh Century. Such is the awesome power of God’s revelation!

Spoke 12

II Kings, Nahum, Titus

Then the king of Assyria commanded, saying, Carry thither one of the priests whom ye brought from thence; and let them go and dwell there, and let him teach them the manner of the God of the land. Then one of the priests whom they had carried away from Samaria came and dwelt in Bethel, and taught them how they should fear the LORD.

II Kings

The Twelfth Century Renaissance of Learning

The Twelfth Letter Lamed means both to Teach and to Learn. It is the root of the word Talmud , the compendium of Jewish Learning. This meaning of Lamed manifests with great clarity in the little book of Titus on Spoke 12, Cycle 3 )cf. Teach and Exhort! where the density of “teaching” is shown to be maximized on Spoke 12). It also manifests in the Life of Christ, who sat as the Teacher of teachers in the Temple at Age 12.

All of this is supernaturally integrated with the History of Western Europe and the Renaissance of Learning  in the Twelfth Century and the subsequent rise of the system of Universities. Here’s how the brief Chronological Table reads in the classic college textbook Civilization Past and Present  (pg. 395 Vol. 1, Fourth Ed.):

Renaissance of the twelfth century — return of classical learning to the West, translations of Greek and Arabic works, rise of universities, (Balogna, Paris, Oxford), development of professional curriculums in law, medicine, theology; revival of Latin poetry, development of vernacular literature …

This description reveals the essence of the Twelfth Letter Lamed. Praise God who guides the affairs of men as a Shepherd with His rod and staff.

The distinction between the Renaissance of the Twelfth Century and the Italian Renaissance of the Fifteenth Century is discussed by Charles Homer Haskins in his introduction to his book Renaissance of the Twelfth Century 

Spoke 12

II Kings, Nahum, Titus

Then the king of Assyria commanded, saying, Carry thither one of the priests whom ye brought from thence; and let them go and dwell there, and let him teach them the manner of the God of the land. Then one of the priests whom they had carried away from Samaria came and dwelt in Bethel, and taught them how they should fear the LORD.

II Kings

The Twelfth Century Renaissance of Learning

The Twelfth Letter Lamed means both to Teach and to Learn. It is the root of the word Talmud , the compendium of Jewish Learning. This meaning of Lamed manifests with great clarity in the little book of Titus on Spoke 12, Cycle 3 )cf. Teach and Exhort! where the density of “teaching” is shown to be maximized on Spoke 12). It also manifests in the Life of Christ, who sat as the Teacher of teachers in the Temple at Age 12.

All of this is supernaturally integrated with the History of Western Europe and the Renaissance of Learning  in the Twelfth Century and the subsequent rise of the system of Universities. Here’s how the brief Chronological Table reads in the classic college textbook Civilization Past and Present  (pg. 395 Vol. 1, Fourth Ed.):

Renaissance of the twelfth century — return of classical learning to the West, translations of Greek and Arabic works, rise of universities, (Balogna, Paris, Oxford), development of professional curriculums in law, medicine, theology; revival of Latin poetry, development of vernacular literature …

This description reveals the essence of the Twelfth Letter Lamed. Praise God who guides the affairs of men as a Shepherd with His rod and staff.

The distinction between the Renaissance of the Twelfth Century and the Italian Renaissance of the Fifteenth Century is discussed by Charles Homer Haskins in his introduction to his book Renaissance of the Twelfth Century 

14th Century – Nun – The Fall of Papal Supremacy

Spoke 14 14^th Century AD

2 Chronicles, Zephaniah, Hebrews

And there followed another angel, saying, Babylon is fallen, is fallen, that great city, because she made all nations drink of the wine of the wrath of her fornication.

Revelation 14

How art thou fallen from heaven, O Lucifer, son of the morning! how art thou cut down to the ground, which didst weaken the nations! For thou hast said in thine heart, I will ascend into heaven, I will exalt my throne above the stars of God: I will sit also upon the mount of the congregation, in the sides of the north: I will ascend above the heights of the clouds; I will be like the most High.

Isaiah 14

Absolute Papal Supremacy

This authority, however, (though it has been given to man and is exercised by man), is not human but rather divine, granted to Peter by a divine word and reaffirmed to him (Peter) and his successors by the One Whom Peter confessed, the Lord saying to Peter himself, ‘Whatsoever you shall bind on earth, shall be bound also in Heaven’ etc., [Mt 16:19]. Therefore whoever resists this power thus ordained by God, resists the ordinance of God [Rom 13:2]. … Furthermore, we declare, we proclaim, we define that it is absolutely necessary for salvation that every human creature be subject to the Roman Pontiff.

Fourteenth Century Papal Bull Unam Sanctam 

Ancient Rabbinical tradition relates the Fourteenth Letter Nun to the idea of the “Fallen Ones” (Nephalim) as discussed in articles relating to Isaiah 14, Romans 14, and Revelation 14, to name a few. This then integrates with the course of Church History and the first official declaration of absolute papal supremacy made at the dawn of the Fourteenth Century  (1302) by Pope Boniface VIII  (quoted above). The supernatural integration with Isaiah 14 simultaneously exposes the spirit motivating mere creatures to claim divine authority while demonstrating the absolute supremacy of the one true and sovereign Lord God Almighty Who has given us His perfect prophetic Word.

The Fall of Boniface VIII

Yet thou shalt be brought down to hell, to the sides of the pit. They that see thee shall narrowly look upon thee, and consider thee, saying, Is this the man that made the earth to tremble, that did shake kingdoms; That made the world as a wilderness, and destroyed the cities thereof; that opened not the house of his prisoners? All the kings of the nations, even all of them, lie in glory, every one in his own house. But thou art cast out of thy grave like an abominable branch, and as the raiment of those that are slain, thrust through with a sword, that go down to the stones of the pit; as a carcase trodden under feet.

Isaiah 14.15f

The downfall of the medieval papal power was triggered by a monetary conflict between King Philip the Fair of France and Pope Boniface VIII. Phillip was heavily taxing the Church to build his kingdom, so Boniface issued his bull Clericis Laicos  that threatened ipso facto excommunication for anyone taxing the Church without papal approval. As Philip’s rebellion against the Pope intensified, Pope Boniface issued his bull Unam Sanctam, claiming both spiritual and temporal authority over all human creatures. Philip resonded by publicly accusing the Pope of a host of crimes against God, man, and nature. As Boniface sat in his home in Anagni preparing another bull that would have excommunicated Philip, he was attacked by a force of hundreds of horsemen and one or two thousand footmen with the intent of capturing him and setting him before a council in France that would depose him of his power. The Catholic view of what then happened is described by this entry in the Catholic Encyclopedia :

Boniface was held three days a close prisoner in the plundered papal palace. No one cared to bring him food or drink, while the banditti quarrelled over his person, as over a valuable asset. By early morning of 9 September the burghers of Anagni had changed their minds, wearied perhaps of the presence of the soldiers, and ashamed that a pope, their townsman, should perish within their walls at the hands of the hated Francesi. They expelled Nogaret and his band, and confided Boniface to the care of the two Orsini cardinals, who had come from Rome with four hundred horsemen; with them he returned to Rome.

The holding of Boniface as a “close prisoner” echoes the words of Isaiah 14.16: “They that see thee shall narrowly look upon thee, and consider thee, saying, Is this the man that made the earth to tremble, that did shake kingdoms?”

The excessive trauma of this whole ordeal brought the 85 year old Pontiff to his knees and he promptly died of a violent fever less about a month later. Thus were the words of the Lord fulfilled against whoever would exalt himself to “the heights of heaven” – indeed, in less than a year after proclaiming the divine power of the Papacy, Pope Boniface lay dead in the grave. Note also that there could not be a more accurate description of this Pope than he “that did shake kingdoms.” Indeed, the event that led to Unam Sanctam and Boniface’s downfall was the result of the papal conflict Philip, king of the nation of France.

Historian Thomas Bokenkotter discusses the rise of “nation states” as an integral cause of the decline in papal power in his well-balanced book A Concise History of the Catholic Church . In his chapter called “The Unmaking of Christendom A.D. 1300-1650” the first section, coverning the opening of the Fourteenth Century and called “The Decline of the Papal Monarchy,” integrates perfectly with the symbolic meaning of Nun as The Fallen Ones. Here is an excerpt (pg. 179):

The successors of Hildebrand succeeded to a remarkable degree in establishing their supremacy over Christendom. Under these imposing papal monarchs Christendom enjoyed its golden age in the thirteenth century … But the onward sweep of history could not be held back, and the rise of national monarchies in the thirteenth century presaged the decline of both the imerial and papal authority and the end of papal Christendom. … Philip the Fair of France led the onslought of nation states on the papal monarchy when he literally kidnapped Pope Boniface VIII and then constrained Boniface’s successor to remain in France.

The imediate consequence of all these political machinations was the seventy year “Babylonian Captivity” of the Papacy in Avignon, France.

Bablyonian Captivity of the Papacy

And it shall come to pass in the day that the LORD shall give thee rest from thy sorrow, and from thy fear, and from the hard bondage wherein thou wast made to serve, That thou shalt take up this proverb against the king of Babylon, and say, How hath the oppressor ceased! the golden city ceased! The LORD hath broken the staff of the wicked, and the sceptre of the rulers.

Isaiah 14.3f

In 1305 Pope Clement V , a Frenchman, was elected Pope. He lived in various places in France until 1309 when he moved the Papal court to Avignon, France, where the papacy remained until 1378. For seventy years, Rome lay dormant, indeed, the golden city had ceased, precisely as Isaiah 14 declares. This was a major event that came to be known as the “Babylonian Captivity of the Papacy contemporaneously in the Fourteenth Century. It also correlates perfectly with the historical Babylonian exile mentioned above in the Fourteenth Book, both in terms of the century in which it occured and its duration, as declared in II Chronicles 36.20, on Spoke 14 of the Bible Wheel:

And them that had escaped from the sword carried he away to Babylon; where they were servants to him and his sons until the reign of the kingdom of Persia: To fulfil the word of the LORD by the mouth of Jeremiah, until the land had enjoyed her sabbaths: for as long as she lay desolate she kept sabbath, to fulfil threescore and ten years.

It is extremely significant that the Roman Catholic Church, as part of its apologetic of Papal authority derived from Peter, asserts to this day that Rome is symbolically represented as Babylon in the Scriptures (cf. Sixteenth Century Reformation).

This mysterious connection between Babylon and the Number 14 also manifests in the structure of Matthew’s geneology, where the Babylonian exile is used to punctuate two sets of 14 generations. All of this manifests in the structure of the Canon with this correlated set of three of triplets that follow Spoke 14 of the Wheel.

	Spoke 15	Spoke 16	Spoke 17
Epistles to the Scattered:	James	I Peter	II Peter
Post-Exilic Minor Prophets:	Haggai	Zechariah	Malachi
Post-Exilic OT History:	Ezra	Nehemiah	Esther

Both Catholics in the Fourteenth Century and Protestants in the Sixteenth Century recognized the Babylonian Captivity as an apt biblical symbol or “type” befitting their historical situation. These centuries span the end of the pre-exilic to the center of the post-exilic books of the Bible. Such is the Divine Wisdom of our Almighty God.

Thy Pomp is Brought Down to the Grave

Hell from beneath is moved for thee to meet thee at thy coming: it stirreth up the dead for thee, even all the chief ones of the earth; it hath raised up from their thrones all the kings of the nations. All they shall speak and say unto thee, Art thou also become weak as we? art thou become like unto us? Thy pomp is brought down to the grave, and the noise of thy viols: the worm is spread under thee, and the worms cover thee. How art thou fallen from heaven, O Lucifer, son of the morning! how art thou cut down to the ground, which didst weaken the nations!

I return now to the commentary of Thomas Bokenkotter in his book A Concise History of the Catholic Church  (pg. 191):

These Avignon Popes – rightly or wrongly – put great faith in the efficacy of external pomp. In an age of increasing wealth, they felt it necessary to display a magnificence on a scale equal to their claims. A massive palace was built whose forbidding parapets still dazzle the eye of the tourist. A crowd of courtiers – knights, squires, and chamberlains, their ranks swelled by an army of hungry benefice seekers – filled the spacious rooms. The palace’s luxurious furnishings were the talk of Europe. Avignon outshone all other courts by the extravagence of its style and the brilliance of its feasts.

What more need be said? History bears witness to the infinite Widsom of Almighty God. Yet there remains one last event that dealt the death blow to the papal presumptions; the Great Schism.

The Great Schism

That thou shalt take up this proverb against the king of Babylon, and say, How hath the oppressor ceased! the golden city ceased! The LORD hath broken the staff of the wicked, and the sceptre of the rulers. He who smote the people in wrath with a continual stroke, he that ruled the nations in anger, is persecuted, and none hindereth. The whole earth is at rest, and is quiet: they break forth into singing. Yea, the fir trees rejoice at thee, and the cedars of Lebanon, saying, Since thou art laid down, no feller is come up against us.

Isaiah 14.4f

In 1378, Pope Gregory XI  returned the papacy to Rome and then prompty died. This caused a panic amongst the residents of Rome, who feared that the papacy would be lost to France again. In their haste, they elected Urban VI  who turned out to be a tirant which prompted thirteen cardinals to abandon Rome and declare Urban as “anti-christ, demon, apostate and tyrant.” They then elected Robert of Geneva  who took the title Pope Clement VII, but who is to this day considered an ani-pope by the Catholics. History then records forty years of bitter fighting for dominance between the “popes” of Avignon and the “popes” of Rome! As Thomas Bokenkotter puts it, this brought the papal office to the utter depths of degradation and did more than any other event to discredit its authority (pg. 195).” This completed the fourteenth century Pope’s fall from “heaven.”

As a final note, it is important not to read into this correspondence more than what is revealed. The Roman Catholic Church acknowledges that evil men have sat in “Peter’s Seat.” This does not necessarily imply that the Papacy is currently of the anti-christ, nor that everyone in the Roman Catholic Church is damned. But it does add yet another witness against the papal claim to infallibility and supremacy, which for numerous reasons must be absolutely rejected as utterly false. Simply stated, the Roman Catholic Church needs to repent of this very human sin, that also gave rise to the Great Schism between East and West in the Eleventh Century. If there is any flaw in the Roman Catholic Church, this is it – the inability or unwillingness to say “I was wrong.” Unfortunately, such an ability coincides with the absolute heart and soul of the Christian Faith.

Spoke 14

II Chronicles, Zephaniah, Hebrews

And I looked, and behold a white cloud, and upon the cloud one sat like unto the Son of man, having on his head a golden crown, and in his hand a sharp sickle. And another angel came out of the temple, crying with a loud voice to him that sat on the cloud, Thrust in thy sickle, and reap: for the time is come for thee to reap; for the harvest of the earth is ripe. And he that sat on the cloud thrust in his sickle on the earth; and the earth was reaped.

Revelation 14

The Bubonic Plague

The Black Death  of the Fourteenth Century killed roughly 25 million people, about one third of the population of Western Europe. The integration with the Inner Wheel of Revelation is striking. The image on the left is from Geoffroy Tory’s Horae, printed in Paris in 1525. It portrays Death riding a Horse as in the Fourth Seal, with a Crown and Sickle as described in Revelation 14. The raven appears in Deuteronomy 14.14 as discussed below. A similar connection between a major world calamity and the chapter sequence of Revelation appears in Revelation 16 and the Great China Earthquake.

There is a connection here between the Number 14 and the Number 4, which strongly relates to Death, as explained in the Fourth Seal which describes Death astride a Pale Horse. This seems related to the relation between Death (4) and Rest (14: Nun KeyWord Nuach). It follows the pattern of an affine transformation . I have noticed it with all of the digits – there is a link between N and N + 10. Unfortunately, an exposition of such subtleties must wait until the world can recieve the more elemetary teachings.

The relation between Death and the Number 14 runs deeply through the versification of Scripture, for example, these four verses seem significant:

Deuteronomy 14.14: And every raven after his kind,

II Samuel 14.14: For we must needs die, and are as water spilt on the ground, which cannot be gathered up again; neither doth God respect any person: yet doth he devise means, that his banished be not expelled from him.

Job 14.14: If a man die, shall he live again? all the days of my appointed time will I wait, till my change come.

Revelation 14.14: And I looked, and behold a white cloud, and upon the cloud one sat like unto the Son of man, having on his head a golden crown, and in his hand a sharp sickle.

15th Century – Samek – The Printing Press

Spoke 15

Ezra, Haggai, James

This Ezra went up from Babylon; and he was a ready scribe in the law of Moses, which the LORD God of Israel had given: and the king granted him all his request, according to the hand of the LORD his God upon him. … For Ezra had prepared his heart to seek the law of the LORD, and to do it, and to teach in Israel statutes and judgments.

Ezra 7:6
Spoke 15, Cycle 1

A Ready Scribe

The Hebrew words for Book (Sepher, S# H6612) and Scribe (Sopher, S# H6608) are written with the same three consonants: . They are both fundamental Samek KeyWords. This integrates directly with one of the greatest historical events in both the History of the Church and the History of the World; the Fifteenth Century invention of the Printing Press . Talk about a ready scribe! The word translated as “ready” is Mahir (S# H5106) which means both “swift” and “skillful” and as we all know, no scribe ever lived that could compete with the speed or accuracy of the Printing Press. The correlation between History, the Alphabet, and the Wheel is perfect.

Gutenberg Bible

It is no small matter that the first major book published was the Holy Bible (1456). This correlates perfectly with the content of the quote above from Ezra 7:6:

This Ezra went up from Babylon; and he was a ready scribe in the law of Moses, which the LORD God of Israel had given: and the king granted him all his request, according to the hand of the LORD his God upon him.

The significance of this event is such almost everyone is familiar with the term Gutenberg Bible . Its publication corresponds to the reformation in the time of Ezra – Nehemaiah when the Law of God reinstituted and read in public. While the promulgation began in the Fifteenth Century with the printing press, the real flood of Bibles translated into common vernaculars did not come until the Sixteenth Century, corresponding to to the statement in Nehemiah (Spoke 16, Cycle 2):

So they read in the book in the law of God distinctly, and gave the sense, and caused them to understand the reading.

15th Century – Samek – The Printing Press

Spoke 15

Ezra, Haggai, James

This Ezra went up from Babylon; and he was a ready scribe in the law of Moses, which the LORD God of Israel had given: and the king granted him all his request, according to the hand of the LORD his God upon him. … For Ezra had prepared his heart to seek the law of the LORD, and to do it, and to teach in Israel statutes and judgments.

Ezra 7:6
Spoke 15, Cycle 1

A Ready Scribe

The Hebrew words for Book (Sepher, S# H6612) and Scribe (Sopher, S# H6608) are written with the same three consonants: . They are both fundamental Samek KeyWords. This integrates directly with one of the greatest historical events in both the History of the Church and the History of the World; the Fifteenth Century invention of the Printing Press . Talk about a ready scribe! The word translated as “ready” is Mahir (S# H5106) which means both “swift” and “skillful” and as we all know, no scribe ever lived that could compete with the speed or accuracy of the Printing Press. The correlation between History, the Alphabet, and the Wheel is perfect.

Gutenberg Bible

It is no small matter that the first major book published was the Holy Bible (1456). This correlates perfectly with the content of the quote above from Ezra 7:6:

This Ezra went up from Babylon; and he was a ready scribe in the law of Moses, which the LORD God of Israel had given: and the king granted him all his request, according to the hand of the LORD his God upon him.

The significance of this event is such almost everyone is familiar with the term Gutenberg Bible . Its publication corresponds to the reformation in the time of Ezra – Nehemaiah when the Law of God reinstituted and read in public. While the promulgation began in the Fifteenth Century with the printing press, the real flood of Bibles translated into common vernaculars did not come until the Sixteenth Century, corresponding to to the statement in Nehemiah (Spoke 16, Cycle 2):

16th Century AD – Ayin – The Protestant Reformation

Spoke 16

Nehemiah, Zechariah, I Peter

Thus saith the LORD my God; Feed the flock of the slaughter; Whose possessors slay them, and hold themselves not guilty: and they that sell them say, Blessed be the LORD; for I am rich: and their own shepherds pity them not. ………………………………………………… Zechariah 11:4ff (Spoke 16, Cycle 2)

Feed the flock of God which is among you, taking the oversight thereof, not by constraint, but willingly; not for filthy lucre, but of a ready mind; Neither as being lords over God’s heritage, but being ensamples to the flock. And when the chief Shepherd shall appear, ye shall receive a crown of glory that fadeth not away. …………………………………… 1 Peter 5:2ff (Spoke 16, Cycle 3)

The Protestant Reformation

The verses above are linked by the KeyLink (“Feed the flock of”) ^[Verify] , as discussed in the Spoke 16 article The Chief Shepherd. They both speak against the wicked shepherd who would fleece the flock for “filthy lucre’s sake” which is the very spark that lit Martin Luther’s flame leading to the Protestant Reformation of the Sixteenth Century – the selling of indulgences. We have here multiple levels of integration: Zechariah and I Peter are integrated with a KeyLink based on the theme of the Shepherd who is the Overseer or Chief (Resh) Eye (Ayin) – and this common theme that integrates elements of Spoke 16 is seen to be the very element that manifested one of the most momentous events in Christian History – the Protestant Reformation. It is extremely ironic that it was the Peter’s words against “filthy lucre” that sparked the fire against the Roman Catholic Church who claims him as their first Pope. Yet the irony runs deeper still. It was Johan Tetzel’s  efforts to drum up funds for the building of St. Peter’s Basilica in Rome  through the sale of indulgences that ignited Luther’s ire!

One of the primary themes of the the Sixteenth Spoke is the building of God’s Temple. In Nehemiah and Zechariah it is the rebuilding of the Temple after the Babylonian captivity, while in I Peter it is spiritualized to the building of God’s holy Temple with “living stones” – i.e. believers. This is the Church. The restoration of the Temple, Worship, and the Word of God are major themes of Ezra and Nehemiah on Spokes 15 and 16. It is not limited to just Spoke 16 – there are strong common themes found in all nine books on these three consecutive Spokes (cf. Symmetries of the Bible Wheel):

Epistles to the Scattered:	James	I Peter	II Peter
Post-Exilic Minor Prophets:	Haggai	Zechariah	Malachi
Post-Exilic OT History:	Ezra	Nehemiah	Esther

Coupling the theme of rebuilding the Temple with Peter’s view of the Church as God’s living Temple, we see that the theme of the reformation of the Church dominates this portion of the Wheel. The miracle of God is that this is also the dominant theme of the Fifteenth and Sixteenth Centuries of Church History, so that we have a direct integration of the geometry of the Bible with the primary events of Church History. This correlation is even more stunning in light of Luther’s proclamation the the corrupted church was truly the “kingdom of Babylon” in his book On the Baylonian Captivity of the Church discussed below.

Martin Luther and the Babylonian Captivity of the Church

These are the children of the province, that went up out of the captivity, of those that had been carried away, whom Nebuchadnezzar the king of Babylon had carried away, and came again to Jerusalem and to Judah, every one unto his city;

Nehemiah 7.6

The great miracle of God’s Word is now evident. The thematically correlated verses above are not only geometrically correlated on Spoke 16 of the Bible Wheel, they also contain the spark that lit the Sixteenth Century Protestant Reformation. Both Calvin  and Luther  used the quote from I Peter in their criticism of indulgences, calling them “filthy lucre.” If ever the Shepherds were guilty of fleecing the sheep, this was it! As Luther fought to remove this deadly corruption from his beloved Church, he encountered more and more resistance from wicked men ensconced therein. As the passions rose, he became utterly convinced that the Roman heirarchy had become truly evil. In the preface to his On the Babylonian Captivity of the Church  he clearly defined his postion, writing:

But after hearing and reading the subtle subtleties of these pretentious and conceited men, with which they skillfully prop their idol – for in these matters my mind is not altogether unteachable – I now know of a certainty that the papacy is the kingdom of Babylon and the power of Nimrod the mighty hunter.

Now whether or not the papacy is the “kingdom of Babylon” it is certain that the Roman Church exhibited a character consistent with this accusation at the time Luther made it. And this is what is so utterly and completely astounding. In the Sixteenth Century, the Church desperately needed a Reformation, just as the Temple had to be rebuilt and the people reformed after the Babylonian Captivity on the Sixteenth Spoke fo the Wheel. And this is the theme used by the reformers themselves. The reformations made by Nehemiah also integrate perfectly with this theme, as discussed below. The correlation between the geometric structure of the Bible and the History of the Church is both perfect and obvious. We also have the testimony of Catholic apologists – current and past – that Rome is to be identitified as Babylon, as discussed below.

Note added Oct 30, 2006: This article was originally posted on June 6, 2003. I have today (October 30, 2006) posted the article called the Key to the Kingdoms, which shows, amongst many other things, that the end of the actual historical Babylonian Exile occurred in 536 BC and so corresponds to Ayin in the BC cycle (counting centuries after Abraham). This means that the ends of both the symbolic (AD) and historical (BC) Babylonian Exiles appear symmetrically on the Key to the Kingdoms diagram, and are also fully integrated with the specific content of the 16^th Spoke of the Wheel. This exemplifies yet again the never ending wonder of this revelation. Everything continues to build consistently and coherently upon results that were discovered and published years ago. There is no end to the glory of God’s Word! Praise His Holy Name now and forever!

Nehemiah’s Reformation

Then I consulted with myself, and I rebuked the nobles, and the rulers, and said unto them, Ye exact usury, every one of his brother. And I set a great assembly against them. And I said unto them, We after our ability have redeemed our brethren the Jews, which were sold unto the heathen; and will ye even sell your brethren? or shall they be sold unto us? Then held they their peace, and found nothing to answer. Also I said, It is not good that ye do: ought ye not to walk in the fear of our God because of the reproach of the heathen our enemies? I likewise, and my brethren, and my servants, might exact of them money and corn: I pray you, let us leave off this usury. Restore, I pray you, to them, even this day, their lands, their vineyards, their oliveyards, and their houses, also the hundredth part of the money, and of the corn, the wine, and the oil, that ye exact of them. Then said they, We will restore them, and will require nothing of them; so will we do as thou sayest. Then I called the priests, and took an oath of them, that they should do according to this promise.

The theme of the Sixteenth Book intetgrates perfectly with the theme of the abuse of money by the ruling class of Priests, which also is the dominant theme of the Sixteenth Century, and the elements from Zechariah and I Peter on Spoke 16 discussed above. Note that Nehemiah made the Priests promise to reform. What clearer allusion to the Protestant Reformation could be imagined?

Rome as Babylon

The church that is at Babylon, elected together with you, saluteth you; and so doth Marcus my son.

I Peter 5.13

Deliver thyself, O Zion, that dwellest with the daughter of Babylon. For thus saith the LORD of hosts; After the glory hath he sent me unto the nations which spoiled you: for he that toucheth you toucheth the apple of his eye.

Zechariah 2.7

Catholic apologists typically argue that Peter’s reference to Babylon in his first epistle is a “code word” for Rome. Here is a quote from article, Was Peter in Rome? :

Boettner is also wrong when he claims “there is no allusion to Rome in either of [Peter’s] epistles.” There is, in the greeting at the end of the first epistle: “The Church here in Babylon, united with you by God’s election, sends you her greeting, and so does my son, Mark” (1 Pet. 5:13, Knox). Babylon is a code-word for Rome. It is used that way six times in the last book of the Bible and in extra-biblical works like the Sibylline Oracles (5:159f), the Apocalypse of Baruch (2:1), and 4 Esdras (3:1). Eusebius Pamphilius, in The Chronicle, composed about A.D. 303, noted that “It is said that Peter’s first epistle, in which he makes mention of Mark, was composed at Rome itself; and that he himself indicates this, referring to the city figuratively as Babylon.”

The article goes on to cite the reference to Babylon in Revelation 16:

And there were voices, and thunders, and lightnings; and there was a great earthquake, such as was not since men were upon the earth, so mighty an earthquake, and so great. And the great city was divided into three parts, and the cities of the nations fell: and great Babylon came in remembrance before God, to give unto her the cup of the wine of the fierceness of his wrath.

The “great earthquake” that splits city in to “three parts” is strongly linked with Zechariah, whose name means “the Lord remembers” as discussed in the Revelation 16 article (cf. also the Isaiah 38 article Remember Me, O Lord! and Psalm 38).

> 16th Century – Ayin – Bible Translations

Spoke 16

Nehemiah, Zechariah, I Peter

So they read in the book in the law of God distinctly, and gave the sense, and caused them to understand the reading. And Nehemiah, which is the Tirshatha, and Ezra the priest the scribe, and the Levites that taught the people, said unto all the people, This day is holy unto the LORD your God; mourn not, nor weep. For all the people wept, when they heard the words of the law.

The Fifteenth Century invention of the Printing Press prepared the way for the restoration of God’s Word to the common people. Before the Sixteenth Century, the Bible was almost exclusively available only in the Latin Vulgate, which most common folk could not read. The verse from Nehemiah above exhibits the most profound integration with this theme.

The God-given impluse to translate the Bible so that it “gave the sense” to the common man and “caused him to understand the reading” swept through all of Europe. The Sixteenth Century saw the translation of the New Testament into German (1522), French (1523), English (1525), Italian (1562), Spanish (1556), Swedish (1541) and Danish (1550). This information is from Eerdman’s Handbook of the History of Christianity (pg. 370).

The English trasnslation was the passion of William Tyndale , who reportedly vowed to a cleric that “If God spare my life, ere many years pass, I will cause a boy that driveth the plough to know more of the Scriptures than thou dost.” Tyndale completed his English New Testament in 1525, and it became the basis of the King James Bible which went on to be the most widely distributed form of the Bible in all time.

Spoke 16

Nehemiah, Zechariah, I Peter

And ye shall flee to the valley of the mountains; for the valley of the mountains shall reach unto Azal: yea, ye shall flee, like as ye fled from before the earthquake in the days of Uzziah king of Judah: and the LORD my God shall come, and all the saints with thee.

Spoke 16, Cycle 2
Zechariah

And there were voices, and thunders, and lightnings; and there was a great earthquake, such as was not since men were upon the earth, so mighty an earthquake, and so great. And the great city was divided into three parts, and the cities of the nations fell: and great Babylon came in remembrance before God, to give unto her the cup of the wine of the fierceness of his wrath. And every island fled away, and the mountains were not found.

Revelation 16

The Great China Earthquake of 1556  had a magnitude of around 8.0 on the Richter scale. It was the greatest natural disaster – in terms of the death toll of 830 thousand – in all of recorded human history. This Sixteenth Century earthquake correlates perfectly with the common theme connecting Spoke 16 of the Inner Wheel of Revelation with Zechariah on Spoke 16, Cycle 2 of the Bible Wheel. The verses quoted above are the only verses in the KJV containing the highlighted words. We have the KeyLink:

	KeyLink: Fleeing from the Great Earthquake
	Revelation 16Zechariah

This KeyLink discussed in context in the Revelation 16 article. Its important to consider what is going on here. Revelation 16 specifically refers to “great earthquake, such as was not since men were upon the earth, so mighty an earthquake, and so great.” Of course, this this does not mean that the Chinese earthquake in the Sixteenth Century was the quake prophesied in this verse, any more than it was related directly to the quake mentioned in Zechariah. The phenomenon we are witnessing here is the thematic correlation of elements from Spoke 16 of the Bible Wheel, Spoke 16 of the Inner Wheel of Revelation, and the Sixteenth Century of World History. A similar correlation between a major historical calamity and the chapter sequence of Revelation is seen in the Black Death of the Fourteenth Century.

17th Century – Peh – The Scientific Revolution

Spoke 17

Esther, Malachi, II Peter

Knowing this first, that there shall come in the last days scoffers, walking after their own lusts, And saying, Where is the promise of his coming? for since the fathers fell asleep, all things continue as they were from the beginning of the creation. For this they willingly are ignorant of, that by the word of God the heavens were of old, and the earth standing out of the water and in the water: Whereby the world that then was, being overflowed with water, perished:

Spoke 17, Cycle 3
(II Peter 3.3)

The scoffers spoken of by Saint Peter appear to be asserting the doctrine known as “uniformitarianism” which arose in the eighteenth century as part of the Scientific Revolution. Here is the definition of Uniformitarianism  presented by the Electronic Universe  from the University of Oregon. Note the reference to supernaturalism and the biblical flood:

Uniformitarianism is the doctrine that existing processes acting in the same manner and with essentially the same intensity as at present are sufficient to account for all geologic change. Uniformitarianism posits that natural agents now at work on and within the Earth have operated with general uniformity through immensely long periods of time. When William Whewell, a University of Cambridge scholar, introduced the term in 1832, the prevailing view (called catastrophism) was that the Earth had originated through supernatural means and had been affected by a series of catastrophic events such as the biblical Flood. In contrast to the catastrophic view of geology, the principle of uniformity postulates that phenomena displayed in the rocks may be entirely accounted for by geologic processes that continue to operate at the present day–in other words, the present is the key to the past. This principle is fundamental to geologic thinking and underlies the whole development of the science of geology.

The Doctrine of Uniformitarianism will play an essential role in understanding the connection with Spoke 17 as discussed below. This doctrine was essential to the development of the Theory of Evolution (cf. Apemen and Evolution).

The Enlightenment and the Scientific Revolution

Along with Rene Descartes, the other great mind that wrestled with the new universe opening up in the early European Enlightenment was Blaise Pascal, a mathematician and sometime theologian. The universe in the seventeenth century had expanded beyond human imagination. The century before introduced Europe to an entirely new continent, filled with a people no one had ever heard of before, who had a history spanning centuries, a history that would forever remain a mystery to the Europeans. They looked at fallen cities in Meso-America and gazed on stone stelae and books filled with a mysterious and indecipherable language and realized a wealth of human history lay beyond their grasp.

The European Enlightenment  by Richard Hooker

This quote is from the wonderful on-line history course from Washington State University  (my Alma Mater). It perfectly conveys the sense of wonder, awe, and open horizons that characterize the intellectual revolution that dominated the Seventeenth Century. Perhaps the greatest intellect of the time was Isaac Newton. Hooker discusses the main principles Newton’s presented in his primary work Principia Mathematica (1687) in his article The Scientific Revolution :

The universe could be explained completely through the use of mathematics; mathematical models of the universe were accurate physical descriptions of the universe.

The universe operated in a completely rational and predictable way following the mathematics used to describe the universe; the universe, then, was mechanistic.

One need not appeal to revealed religion or theology to explain any aspect of the physical phenomena of the universe.

All the planets and other objects in the universe moved according to a physical attraction between them, which is called gravity; this mutual attraction explained the orderly and mechanistic motions of the universe.

These principles are characteristic of much of the thought of the Seventeenth Century, as exemplified by Isaac Newton’s principles outlined above.

Open Science

“Open science” as a practice became increasing widespread in Europe during the late sixteenth and early seventeenth centuries. It represented a departure from the previously dominant ethos of secrecy in the pursuit of Nature’s Secrets, and its emergence was a distinctive and vital organizational aspect of the Scientific Revolution. … Foundations were thus laid for the later seventeenth and eighteenth century institutionalization of the open pursuit of scientific knowledge under the auspices of State-sponsored academies.

The above quote is from the abstract to Paul A. David’s  analysis of the Scientific Revolution called “From Keeping ‘Nature’s Secrets’ to the Institutionalization of ‘Open Science.'” His thesis, written as an economist interested in the relation between open verses closed proprietary scientific research, perfectly encapsulates the meaning of the Letter Peh and its relation to the Seventeenth Century Scientific Revolution and the Books on Spoke 17 of the Bible Wheel.

The integration begins with the literal and symbolic meanings of the Seventeenth Letter. Literally, Peh denotes the Mouth. God used it this way in three of the Peh Alphabetic Verses. From this, its symbolic meaning as “opening” naturally follows, which also appears in the form of many of its KeyWords, most notably (Petach, Opening). God used this word in two of the Peh Alphabetic Verses. The whole force of the letter Peh has to do with the ideas of opening, bursting, and breaking forth (cf. Where is the Promise of His Coming?). This all integrates with the theme of Open Science, and more generally, the entire intellectual revolution that dominated the Seventeenth Century. These ideas are all profoundly integrated with the content of the books on Spoke 17. I begin with a Rabbinical commentary on the Book of Esther.

Unveiling the Hidden

There is a profound Rabbinic tradition surrounding the Megillat (Scroll of) Esther which interprets it as The Revelation of Things Hidden. The reason for this is explained by Rabbi Dov Ber Weisman in his article Revealing the Hidden :

In Hebrew, the word “megillah” shares the same root as the word “reveal”. By contrast, the name “Esther” comes from the root word meaning “hidden”. Megillat Esther (the Book of Esther), therefore, translates to mean: “Revealing the hidden.” It teaches us a powerful lesson about cause and effect that we can carry with us wherever we go. We must not be satisfied with superficial evidence. Rather, we must delve into the root cause of the issues that we face.

The “superficial evidence” refers to the way things seem on the face of things, at the surface. This then links directly to the Peh KeyWord Panim), and leads to the profound Rabbinical understanding that relates the Book of Esther to Rationalism and Natural Law.

Rationalism and Natural Law

Can a logical person see the hand of God and deny its existence? Certainly. God wears a glove called Nature. The Divine Name [Elohim] which signifies God’s mastery over the universe, had the numerical value of 86, the same as that of , the laws of nature. Nature truly exists; it is God’s way of exercising control over creation. Can one find natural causes for events? Yes’ almost always there are good causes for every effect. When God dispatches angels to do his bidding, they take the form of fires, winning lottery tickets, business upturns, winds that push balls over goal posts, aggressors – the entire panoply of causes and effects that make headlines and history books. So we are always challenged to see the Hand inside the glove.

Rationalism and the belief in Natural Law are two of the most obvious hallmarks of the Scientific Revolution. It is the essence of the question posed by scoffers in II Peter at the head of this page. The above commentary is from Rabbi Nosson Scherman’s introduction to Purim – Its Observance and Significance , with the subtitle “A presentation based on Talmudic and Traditional Sources.” It is primarily an explanation of the Book of Esther. Rabbi Sherman’s concern with Natural Law and the apparent hiddenness of God is based on thousands of years of traditional insight into Esther, whose very name means “I will hide” and in which there is not a single explicit reference to God. This is very rare for a book in the Bible, and it begs and explanation. Here is part of the answer provided by the ancient tradition:

The man or woman of genuine faith, the human being who elevates himself above the mirage of cause-and-effect, merits a Divine response. For God’s behaviour towards people mirrors their own actions. In the famous homiletical interpretation of the Baal Shem Tov, the Psalmist’s declaration that Hashem is your shade (Ps 121.5) can be rendered as Hashem is your shadow. If he is kind to others, God will be generous with him; if he is tightfisted to others, God will not be gracious with him. If he believes that God is everywhere and in control of everything … then God will shower His personal attention on him.

And conversely, if someone is convinced that every occurrence has a natural reason that is its only true cause, then he is the person that God speaks of in that chilling refrain in the Admonition: our casualness toward God’s message to us, a message that is delivered by motley agents, will beget a wrath of casualness on His part.

This means that if we find the reason for everything in natural causes, then God, our ‘Shadow’ will treat us in kind. He will abandon us to chance, remove His Provindence from us, and leave us to the mercies of our enemies and the vagaries of uncontrolled nature.

Remember, all of these ideas are part of the traditional rabbinical analysis of the Book of Esther – the seventeenth Book of the Bible. Note the profound integration with Peter’s question, as discussed at length in Where is the Promise of His Coming?. And now for the clincher – all of this is characteristic of the attitude that was prominent in the Scientific Revolution, which was based on the utter rejection of supernaturalism and the demand that everything be explained in terms of natural cause and effect, as noted above in relation to both the Doctrine of Uniformitarianism and the work of Isaac Newton.

Spoke 17

Esther, Malachi, II Peter

Knowing this first, that there shall come in the last days scoffers, walking after their own lusts, And saying, Where is the promise of his coming? for since the fathers fell asleep, all things continue as they were from the beginning of the creation. For this they willingly are ignorant of, that by the word of God the heavens were of old, and the earth standing out of the water and in the water: Whereby the world that then was, being overflowed with water, perished:

Spoke 17, Cycle 3
(II Peter 3.3)

The scoffers spoken of by Saint Peter appear to be asserting the doctrine known as “uniformitarianism” which arose in the eighteenth century as part of the Scientific Revolution. Here is the definition of Uniformitarianism  presented by the Electronic Universe  from the University of Oregon. Note the reference to supernaturalism and the biblical flood:

Uniformitarianism is the doctrine that existing processes acting in the same manner and with essentially the same intensity as at present are sufficient to account for all geologic change. Uniformitarianism posits that natural agents now at work on and within the Earth have operated with general uniformity through immensely long periods of time. When William Whewell, a University of Cambridge scholar, introduced the term in 1832, the prevailing view (called catastrophism) was that the Earth had originated through supernatural means and had been affected by a series of catastrophic events such as the biblical Flood. In contrast to the catastrophic view of geology, the principle of uniformity postulates that phenomena displayed in the rocks may be entirely accounted for by geologic processes that continue to operate at the present day–in other words, the present is the key to the past. This principle is fundamental to geologic thinking and underlies the whole development of the science of geology.

The Doctrine of Uniformitarianism will play an essential role in understanding the connection with Spoke 17 as discussed below. This doctrine was essential to the development of the Theory of Evolution (cf. Apemen and Evolution).

The Enlightenment and the Scientific Revolution

Along with Rene Descartes, the other great mind that wrestled with the new universe opening up in the early European Enlightenment was Blaise Pascal, a mathematician and sometime theologian. The universe in the seventeenth century had expanded beyond human imagination. The century before introduced Europe to an entirely new continent, filled with a people no one had ever heard of before, who had a history spanning centuries, a history that would forever remain a mystery to the Europeans. They looked at fallen cities in Meso-America and gazed on stone stelae and books filled with a mysterious and indecipherable language and realized a wealth of human history lay beyond their grasp.

The European Enlightenment  by Richard Hooker

This quote is from the wonderful on-line history course from Washington State University  (my Alma Mater). It perfectly conveys the sense of wonder, awe, and open horizons that characterize the intellectual revolution that dominated the Seventeenth Century. Perhaps the greatest intellect of the time was Isaac Newton. Hooker discusses the main principles Newton’s presented in his primary work Principia Mathematica (1687) in his article The Scientific Revolution :

The universe could be explained completely through the use of mathematics; mathematical models of the universe were accurate physical descriptions of the universe.

The universe operated in a completely rational and predictable way following the mathematics used to describe the universe; the universe, then, was mechanistic.

One need not appeal to revealed religion or theology to explain any aspect of the physical phenomena of the universe.

All the planets and other objects in the universe moved according to a physical attraction between them, which is called gravity; this mutual attraction explained the orderly and mechanistic motions of the universe.

These principles are characteristic of much of the thought of the Seventeenth Century, as exemplified by Isaac Newton’s principles outlined above.

Open Science

“Open science” as a practice became increasing widespread in Europe during the late sixteenth and early seventeenth centuries. It represented a departure from the previously dominant ethos of secrecy in the pursuit of Nature’s Secrets, and its emergence was a distinctive and vital organizational aspect of the Scientific Revolution. … Foundations were thus laid for the later seventeenth and eighteenth century institutionalization of the open pursuit of scientific knowledge under the auspices of State-sponsored academies.

The above quote is from the abstract to Paul A. David’s  analysis of the Scientific Revolution called “From Keeping ‘Nature’s Secrets’ to the Institutionalization of ‘Open Science.'” His thesis, written as an economist interested in the relation between open verses closed proprietary scientific research, perfectly encapsulates the meaning of the Letter Peh and its relation to the Seventeenth Century Scientific Revolution and the Books on Spoke 17 of the Bible Wheel.

The integration begins with the literal and symbolic meanings of the Seventeenth Letter. Literally, Peh denotes the Mouth. God used it this way in three of the Peh Alphabetic Verses. From this, its symbolic meaning as “opening” naturally follows, which also appears in the form of many of its KeyWords, most notably (Petach, Opening). God used this word in two of the Peh Alphabetic Verses. The whole force of the letter Peh has to do with the ideas of opening, bursting, and breaking forth (cf. Where is the Promise of His Coming?). This all integrates with the theme of Open Science, and more generally, the entire intellectual revolution that dominated the Seventeenth Century. These ideas are all profoundly integrated with the content of the books on Spoke 17. I begin with a Rabbinical commentary on the Book of Esther.

Unveiling the Hidden

There is a profound Rabbinic tradition surrounding the Megillat (Scroll of) Esther which interprets it as The Revelation of Things Hidden. The reason for this is explained by Rabbi Dov Ber Weisman in his article Revealing the Hidden :

In Hebrew, the word “megillah” shares the same root as the word “reveal”. By contrast, the name “Esther” comes from the root word meaning “hidden”. Megillat Esther (the Book of Esther), therefore, translates to mean: “Revealing the hidden.” It teaches us a powerful lesson about cause and effect that we can carry with us wherever we go. We must not be satisfied with superficial evidence. Rather, we must delve into the root cause of the issues that we face.

The “superficial evidence” refers to the way things seem on the face of things, at the surface. This then links directly to the Peh KeyWord Panim), and leads to the profound Rabbinical understanding that relates the Book of Esther to Rationalism and Natural Law.

Rationalism and Natural Law

Can a logical person see the hand of God and deny its existence? Certainly. God wears a glove called Nature. The Divine Name [Elohim] which signifies God’s mastery over the universe, had the numerical value of 86, the same as that of , the laws of nature. Nature truly exists; it is God’s way of exercising control over creation. Can one find natural causes for events? Yes’ almost always there are good causes for every effect. When God dispatches angels to do his bidding, they take the form of fires, winning lottery tickets, business upturns, winds that push balls over goal posts, aggressors – the entire panoply of causes and effects that make headlines and history books. So we are always challenged to see the Hand inside the glove.

Rationalism and the belief in Natural Law are two of the most obvious hallmarks of the Scientific Revolution. It is the essence of the question posed by scoffers in II Peter at the head of this page. The above commentary is from Rabbi Nosson Scherman’s introduction to Purim – Its Observance and Significance , with the subtitle “A presentation based on Talmudic and Traditional Sources.” It is primarily an explanation of the Book of Esther. Rabbi Sherman’s concern with Natural Law and the apparent hiddenness of God is based on thousands of years of traditional insight into Esther, whose very name means “I will hide” and in which there is not a single explicit reference to God. This is very rare for a book in the Bible, and it begs and explanation. Here is part of the answer provided by the ancient tradition:

The man or woman of genuine faith, the human being who elevates himself above the mirage of cause-and-effect, merits a Divine response. For God’s behaviour towards people mirrors their own actions. In the famous homiletical interpretation of the Baal Shem Tov, the Psalmist’s declaration that Hashem is your shade (Ps 121.5) can be rendered as Hashem is your shadow. If he is kind to others, God will be generous with him; if he is tightfisted to others, God will not be gracious with him. If he believes that God is everywhere and in control of everything … then God will shower His personal attention on him.

And conversely, if someone is convinced that every occurrence has a natural reason that is its only true cause, then he is the person that God speaks of in that chilling refrain in the Admonition: our casualness toward God’s message to us, a message that is delivered by motley agents, will beget a wrath of casualness on His part.

This means that if we find the reason for everything in natural causes, then God, our ‘Shadow’ will treat us in kind. He will abandon us to chance, remove His Provindence from us, and leave us to the mercies of our enemies and the vagaries of uncontrolled nature.

Remember, all of these ideas are part of the traditional rabbinical analysis of the Book of Esther – the seventeenth Book of the Bible. Note the profound integration with Peter’s question, as discussed at length in Where is the Promise of His Coming?. And now for the clincher – all of this is characteristic of the attitude that was prominent in the Scientific Revolution, which was based on the utter rejection of supernaturalism and the demand that everything be explained in terms of natural cause and effect, as noted above in relation to both the Doctrine of Uniformitarianism and the work of Isaac Newton.

18th Century – Tsaddi – World Missions

Spoke 18

Job, Matthew, I John

Woe to the land shadowing with wings, which is beyond the rivers of Ethiopia: That sendeth ambassadors by the sea, even in vessels of bulrushes upon the waters, saying, Go, ye swift messengers, to a nation scattered and peeled, to a people terrible from their beginning hitherto; a nation meted out and trodden down, whose land the rivers have spoiled!

Isaiah 18

The Seal of the Society for the Propogation of the Gospel

The seal below was designed in the first year of the Eighteenth Century (1701 AD). The words around the edge read “SIGILLUM SOCIETATIS DE PROMOVENDO EVANGLIO IN PARTIBUS TRANSMARINIS” which is usually translated as “Seal of the Society for the Propogation of the Gospel in Foreign Parts.” A more literal translation would render the last word transmarinis as “across the sea” which is represented in the Ship crossing the Sea in the Seal below. The banner above the people says “Transiens Adiuva Nos ” which means “Come over and help us!” The Preacher on the bow, holding an open Bible, is nearly half as tall as the mast. A strong wind, representing the Holy Spirit, fills the sails, forcefully driving the ship to deliver the Gospel to the new land. More information on the SPG and this Seal can be found on Anglican’s Online  site. Its supernatural integration with the Inner Wheel of Isaiah is discussed in the Isaiah 18 article.

18th Century – Tsaddi – Revolutions for Just Government

Spoke 18

Job, Matthew, I John

For Zion’s sake will I not hold my peace, and for Jerusalem’s sake I will not rest, until the righteousness thereof go forth as brightness, and the salvation thereof as a lamp that burneth. And the Gentiles shall see thy righteousness, and all kings thy glory: and thou shalt be called by a new name, which the mouth of the LORD shall name.

Inner Wheel: Spoke 18, Cycle 3
(Isaiah 62.1f)

Strongs’ 2nd Entry for Tsedek

1b) righteousness (in government) 1b1) of judges, rulers, kings 1b2) of law 1b3) of Davidic king, Messiah 1b4) of Jerusalem as seat of just government 1b5) of God’s attribute

The fundamental Tsaddi KeyWord (Tsedek, Righteousness) governs many of the primary themes of Spoke 18, as documented in such articles as:Righteous Job

To Fullfill All Righteousness

Jesus Christ the Righteous

In Strongs’ entry for this word (S# H6664), the second definition deals specifically with righteousness in goverment as shown in the box on the right. God displayed the application of Tsedek to the idea of civil government in the quote above from Spoke 18, Cycle 3 of the Inner Wheel of Isaiah (62 = 18₃, cf. Modular Notation). That passage is rich in Tsaddi KeyWords, as discussed in the Inner Wheel article on Isaiah 62. Tsedek is the root of two of the great events of the Eighteenth Century – the American and French revolutions for just government.

The American Revolution for Just Government

We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal; that they are endowed by their Creator with inherent and inalienable rights; that among these, are life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness; that to secure these rights, governments are instituted among men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed; that whenever any form of government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the right of the people to alter or abolish it, and to institute new government, laying its foundation on such principles, and organizing its powers in such form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect their safety and happiness.

American Declaration of Independence  (1776)

When I first began documenting the correlation between the Centuries since Christ and the Spokes of the Bible Wheel, I was constantly astounded and filled with awe at nearly every turn as I watched the panoply of history dove-tail with the hundreds of articles I had already published on this site. But there were also some major events that did not immediately fit with my understanding of anything I had written. This was the case with the major revolutions of the eighteenth century which stand at the forefront of any survey of the history of that time. I noted the revolutions on the sidebar (since they clearly were primary events), but didn’t write anything about them because I had no insight into their relation to Spoke 18. My habit is to report only on those things that are so obvious a child could not miss them.

God flipped on the light when I was reading Charles Van Doren’s History of Knowledge  (page 8):

[W]e will never forget the new ideas about just government that were advanced and fought for during the revolutions of the eighteenth century in England, America, and France.

Just Government! Tsedek! Of course, it was all now perfectly clear and obvous. I initially missed the relation between the revolutions and Spoke 18 because I was thinking only about the idea of “revolution” itself, and had not considered the causes and purposes of the revolutions.

The Constitution and the Bill of Rights

The Eyes of the United States are turned upon this [Constiutional] Assembly and their Expectations raised to a very anxious Degree. May God Grant that we may be able to gratify them, by establishing a wise and just Government.

George Mason  from the Constitutional Convention, 1787

A bill of rights is what the people are entitled to against every government on earth, general or particular; and what no just government should refuse, or rest on inferences.”

Thomas Jefferson  in letter to James Madison, 1787

The great concern of the framers of the Constitution of the United States of America was the establishment of a just government. They come to the emminently practical solution the division of powers into three competing branches – Legislative, Judicial, and Executive – thereby countering the otherwise inevitable consolidation of all power in a sinlge hand.

Many thought that the Constitution would be sufficient to ensure the rights of the people, but Thomas Jefferson and others strongly disagreed, and the Bill of Rights was born. All of this embodies the primary meaning of Tsaddi as (Tsedek, Righteousness). This is the endless wonder revealed in the Bible Wheel and its integration with the Hebrew Alphabet. The Bible is God’s Word – it contains everything, from the plain message of Salvation through Faith in Christ to the ebbs and flows of all history. It is all the Work of God.

> 19th Century – Quph – The Holiness Movement

Spoke 19

Psalms, Mark, II John

He sent redemption unto his people: he hath commanded his covenant for ever: holy and reverend is his name.

Psalm 111.9

The Holiness Movement

Of the various meanings associated with the Nineteenth Letter Quph, the first and foremost is that of Holiness, which is derived directly from the Quph KeyWord (Qedosh, Holy) which God used in the Quph Alphabetic Verse in Psalm 111. This integrates with the great Holiness Movement of the Nineteenth Century, when dozens of “Holiness Denominations” were founded. Here is a brief outline of its origins from the online article The American Holiness Movement :

In the midnineteenth century several factors converged that contributed to the renewal of the Holiness emphasis, among them the camp meeting revivals that were a common feature in rural America, the Christian perfectionism of Charles Finney and Asa Mahan (the Oberlin theology), the “Tuesday Meeting” of Phoebe Palmer in New York, the urban revival of 1857 – 58, and protests within the Methodist churches about the decline of discipline which resulted in the Wesleyan Methodist secession in 1843 and Free Methodist withdrawal in 1860. These two became the first denominations formally committed to Holiness. After the Civil War a full fledged Holiness revival broke out within the ranks of Methodism, and in 1867 the National Camp Meeting Association for the Promotion of Holiness was formed. From 1893 it was known as the National Holiness Association (NHA) and in 1971 was renamed the Christian Holiness Association. Until the 1890s Methodists dominated the movement and channeled its enthusiasm into their churches.

Phoebe Palmer: Mother of the Holiness Revival

“She could have graced a throne, or filled the office of a bishop, or organized and governed a new sect. . . . Whoever promotes holiness in all this country, must build upon the deep-laid foundations of this holy woman,” wrote a leading minister upon the death in 1874 of Phoebe Palmer of New York City. A century later, M. E. Dieter argued in his history of The Holiness Revival of the Nineteenth Century that “the quiet discourse and boundless activity” of Mrs. Palmer “became the major impetus in setting off a world wide [holiness] movement. “

Stan Ingersol , Herald of Holiness

Phoebe Palmer was the leader of the “Tuesday Meeting for the Promotion of Holiness,” the author of the The Way of Holiness, and the editor of the magazine called the Guide to Holiness.

19th Century – Quph – The Abolition of Slavery

Spoke 19

Psalms, Mark, II John

O LORD, truly I am thy servant; I am thy servant, and the son of thine handmaid: thou hast loosed my bonds. I will offer to thee the sacrifice of thanksgiving, and will call upon the name of the LORD.

Spoke 19, Cycle 1
(Psalm 116.16)

The Nineteenth Letter Quph has has the seemingly paradoxical association with both Holiness and the Flesh. This duality manifests most obviously in the Holiness Movement and the introduction of Darwin’s Theory of Evolution. Both of these ideas come together in the Nineteenth Century abolition of Flesh Trade (Slavery) led largely by prominent members of the Holiness/Evangelical Movement.

Abolition in England (1809 – 1833)

God Almighty has set before me two great objects, the suppression of the slave trade and the reformation of manners [i.e. morality]. [W. Wilberforce]

From his teens, William Wilberforce  was appalled by slavery. At the age of 17, he wrote to a York paper “in condemnation of the odious traffic in human flesh.” His passions were only amplified by his conversion to to an evangelical (Wesleyan style) branch of the Anglican Church in 1784. His efforts to end slavery were applauded by his spiritual father in this, the John Wesley’s last letter  to him, written in 1781:

Dear Sir:
Unless the divine power has raised you us to be as Athanasius contra mundum, [Athanasius against the world] I see not how you can go through your glorious enterprise in opposing that execrable villainy which is the scandal of religion, of England, and of human nature. Unless God has raised you up for this very thing, you will be worn out by the opposition of men and devils. But if God be fore you, who can be against you? Are all of them together stronger than God? O be not weary of well doing! Go on, in the name of God and in the power of his might, till even American slavery (the vilest that ever saw the sun) shall vanish away before it.

The Holiness Movement and the Abolition of Slavery were profoundly related, the one being instrumental in the destruction of the other. Here’s another link to a biography about William Wilberforce, where he is called The Liberator .

Abolition in America (1865)

If Wilberforce’s struggle threatened to wear him out “by the opposition of men and devils” what then would be the fate of he who would oppose American slavery “the vilest that ever saw the sun?” Abraham Lincoln was murdered, and the fight against American slavery tore the country apart, setting brother against brother, and soaking the land in blood. But victory was finally won, and in 1865 the 13th Ammendment was passed, abolishing slavery from the United States of America.

Spoke 19

Psalms, Mark, II John

For many deceivers are entered into the world, who confess not that Jesus Christ is come in the flesh. This is a deceiver and an antichrist.

Spoke 19, Cycle 3
(II John 7)

Quph, Apes, and the Flesh

Of the various meanings associated with the Nineteenth Letter Quph, the Rabbis traditionally note two that are prominent. The first and most significant is based on Quph KeyWord (Qedosh, Holy) which God used in the Quph Alphabetic Verse in Psalm 111. This integrates with the great Holiness Movement of the Nineteenth Century

The second meaning is derived from the name of the Nineteenth Letter (Quph) which literally denotes an Eye of a Needle but which also is a close pun on the word for a monkey or an ape (Qoph, S# H6971). It is this latter meaning that then integrates with the idea of the Flesh (Sarx, = 361 = 19 x 19), the Body of Jesus (John 19), and the the Grace Manifest Holograph. This integrates with the great upsurge of Materialism in the Nineteenth Century. Rabbi Michael Munk discusses the apparent contradiction between Holiness and an Ape on page 198 of his excellent book The Wisdom of the Hebrew Alphabet:

The fact that the same letter repesents both kedushah [holiness] and an animal [ape] that is a parody of humanity offers a deep insight about man’s role. Man is created in the image of God and is only a little lower than the angels (Psalms 8:6). Though he can never attain God’s holiness, he is charged with emulating Him and is assured that he can scale celestial heights. But he can do so only if his efforts are concerted and sincere. If man acts as an “image of God,” his potential is boundless. If he is merely a poor imitation of what man should be, he is hardly better than a primate.

Charles Darwin and Evolution

It was in the middle of the Nineteenth Century (1859) that Darwin published his Origin of Species that convinced the world man was “hardly better than a primate.” Indeed, it was Darwin’s work that has offered the greatest assistance in the degradation of man from the image of God to that of an Ape – a close pun on the name of the Nineteenth Hebrew Letter.

The cartoon was produced in 1871. The significance of this “coincidence” can not be overstated. It would be hard to find any historian who would argue against Darwin’s book as anything less than the “most important book of the [nineteenth] century” as William Irvine stated it in his Apes, Angels, and Victorians: The Story of Darwin, Huxley, and Evolution .

Consider what this means! We have here yet another direct, top level, super obvious threefold integration of 1) The Meaning of the letters of the Hebrew Alphabet, 2) The Structure of the Bible Wheel, 3) The Course of World History. This evidence from History is unlike anything ever seen in all History! We have come full circle, and have received the full revelation of God’s Holy Word and its integration with everything, from Aleph to Tav. Praise His Holy Name now and forever!

19th Century – Quph – Age of Materialism

Spoke 19

Psalms, Mark, II John

The heavens declare the glory of God; and the firmament sheweth his handywork. Day unto day uttereth speech, and night unto night sheweth knowledge. There is no speech nor language, where their voice is not heard. Their line is gone out through all the earth, and their words to the end of the world.

Psalm 19

Topics in this Article

Dialectical Materialism

Quph and the Cycles of Nature

Evolution, Materialism, and the 19th Century

Heroic Materialism

The Atlantic Cable

Many people ask about my research methods. The integration of the Number 19 with the Bible Wheel and World History offers an apt example of the process. For many years I have been writing articles on the relation between the Number 19 and Physical Manifestation such as Grace Manifest Holograph (cf. Apemen and Evolution for more details). All I did then was hold the idea of Quph in my mind while scanning timelines of the major Nineteenth Century events, discoveries, and social movements. The results were immediate and obvious, as anyone can see by looking at the documentation below.Dialectical Materialism

It is an eternal cycle in which matter moves, a cycle that certainly only completes its orbit in periods of time for which our terrestrial year is no adequate measure, a cycle in which the time of highest development, the time of organic life and still more that of the life of beings conscious of nature and of themselves, is just as narrowly restricted as the space in which life and self-consciousness come into operation; a cycle in which every finite mode of existence of matter, whether it be sun or nebular vapour, single animal or genus of animals, chemical combination or dissociation, is equally transient, and wherein nothing is eternal but eternally changing, eternally moving matter and the laws according to which it moves and changes. But however often, and however relentlessly, this cycle is completed in time and space, however many millions of suns and earths may arise and pass away, however long it may last before the conditions for organic life develop, however innumerable the organic beings that have to arise and to pass away before animals with a brain capable of thought are developed from their midst, and for a short span of time find conditions suitable for life, only to be exterminated later without mercy, we have the certainty that matter remains eternally the same in all its transformations, that none of its attributes can ever be lost, and therefore, also, that with the same iron necessity that it will exterminate on the earth its highest creation, the thinking mind, it must somewhere else and at another time again produce it.

Dialectics of Nature . Frederick Engels (1883)

Dialectical Materialism is the theoretical foundation of the Materialist Conception of History  promulgated by Marx and Engels. This theory holds that Matter is supreme, as seen in the quote above. Note also the profound integration with the Theory of Evolution which is seen as an inevitable consequence of the eternal cycles of matter. This corheres precisely with the ancient Rabbinical undestanding of the Letter Quph, which they derived directly from Scripture, as we shall now see.

Quph and the Cycles of Nature

Their line is gone out through all the earth, and their words to the end of the world. In them hath he set a tabernacle for the sun, Which is as a bridegroom coming out of his chamber, and rejoiceth as a strong man to run a race. His going forth is from the end of the heaven, and his circuit unto the ends of it: and there is nothing hid from the heat thereof.

Psalm 19

This passage is discussed in context in the introductory article to Spoke 19, which I have had published for over two years. This is why the discovery of the integration of History with the Bible Wheel is such an overwhelming wonder – the articles I have had written for years were just sitting there waiting to be linked to the major events of World History! This is the grandest confirmation that any theory could have.

The word translated as “circuit” is (Tekuphah, S# H8622 is closely related to the name of the Nineteenth letter (the three central letters of Teckuphah spell Quph). Rabbi Munk gives us the report on how the Sages traditionally understand this letter [emphasis added, and notes in square brackets]:

The most obvous manifestation of God’s majesty is expressed in nature and its cycles. Therefore the Sages relate the name Quph to haqaph, to go around, and haqaphah, cycle. The cycles of nature – the changing seasons, the monthly renewal of the moon, the twenty-eight year solar cycle – all teach man that there is a pattern and purpose to the Universe.

Could the contrast between theistic and atheistic presuppositions be any clearer? The very facts Munk sees as evidence of God are claimed by Engel as proof of his non-existence!

It is important to review the quotes of both Engel and Rabbi Munk to really grasp how Engel’s words reflect a negative image of the meaning of the Number 19 as revealed in Scripture.

Evolution, Materialism, and the Nineteenth Century

The formulation of the biological theory of evolution by means of natural selection by Charles DARWIN virtually eliminated teleological explanations of biological phenomena and thereby buttressed material and physical interpretations of organic development. With the advances in chemistry achieved by Lavoisier (1743-94) in France and John Dalton (1766-1844) in England, the reductive analysis of natural phenomena to chemical substances, elements and processes bolstered the empirical, naturalistic and materialistic interpretations of phenomena. During the nineteenth century many philosophical thinkers sought to build theories on the foundation of scientific facts, principles or laws. The historical materialism developed by Marx and Engels sought to formulate laws of social, economic and historical development, but did not defend metaphysical materialism (see DIALECTICAL MATERIALISM). The general appeal of materialism in the nineteenth century is shown by the popularity of the 1855 work by Ludwig BÜCHNER, Kraft und Stoff (Force and Matter), which passed through sixteen editions. Although philosophically crude, it is an accessible compendium of popular materialism. In 1852, Jacob Moleschott had defended the reduction of force to matter, the doctrine of the conservation of matter, and a species of objective relativism in Der Kreislauf des Lebens (The Cycle of Life). Following the ill-chosen analogy between the brain and thought and the digestive system in Jean Cabanis’ Rapports due physique et du moral de I’homme (Relations of the Physical and the Mental in Man) (1802), Karl Vogt proclaimed that the brain ‘secretes’ thought the way the liver secretes bile. Despite such excursions into, ‘vulgar materialism’, the nineteenth century became a period of intense debate for scientists and philosophers alike in regard to the limits of scientific knowledge and the, epistemological problems of metaphysical materialism. This was fuelled by a Neo-Kantian movement which Particularly in Geschichte des Materialismus (History of Materialism) (1865) by F.A. LANGE, held that materialism is a useful methodological principle in science, but questionable as a reductionist metaphysics. The concepts and postulates of science are theoretical entities or conventional notions formed by the mind. Their usefulness does not, according to Lange, warrant their role as bases for materialism.

George J. Stack 

The above is quoted from Routledge Encyclopedia of Philosophy, ed. Edward Craig. 1998 Routledge, New York.

 

Heroic Materialism

British art historian Kenneth Clark coined the term Heroic Materialism to describe the engineering of the middle 19th century. Those Victorian engineers were melodramatic artists in iron. And Isambard Kingdom Brunel was the grandest artist of them all.

John H. Kienhard 

The theme of materialism in the Nineteenth Century appears also in unparalleled feats of engineering in iron and other technologies, such as the laying of the Atlantic Cable.

The Atlantic Cable

The heavens declare the glory of God; and the firmament sheweth his handywork. Day unto day uttereth speech, and night unto night sheweth knowledge. There is no speech nor language, where their voice is not heard. Their line is gone out through all the earth, and their words to the end of the world.

Psalm 19

The word translated as “line” in this verse is the fundamental Quph KeyWord (Qav, S# H6957) which appears in the Psalms only in Psalm 19. The stretching of this line “through all the earth” and its association with the “their words” going out “to the end of the world” sounds very much like the laying of the Atlantic Telegraphic Cable. The first message was sent on August 5, 1858 contained these words:

Europe and America are united by telegraphic communication. Glory to God in the highest, on earth, peace, good will towards men.

This returns us to the first verse of Psalm 19: GLORY TO GOD!

20th Century – Resh – Medical Miracles

Spoke 20

Proverbs, Luke, III John

Beloved, I wish above all things that thou mayest prosper and be in health, even as thy soul prospereth.

Spoke 20, Cycle 3
(III John 2)

Medical Miracles

Few human achievements in the History of the World compare with the impact of Twentieth Century Medicine. It would be impossible to count the lives saved and the suffering alleviated. This integrates with many aspects of the Bible Wheel. Genesis 20 contains the first occurrence of the root (Rapha, Heal, S# H7495) which is an example of the Inner Cycle of Genesis following the general pattern of the Bible Wheel and the Hebrew Alphabet. These same three letters also spell the fundamental Resh KeyWord Ropha (Physician) which descibes Dr. Luke, whose Gospel resides on Spoke 20. The theme of Health dominates Spoke 20, as discussed in some detail in the article The Great Physician.

This is an important example of the power of the Bible Wheel and its integation with Worlk History. The relation between Health and Spoke 20 was published on this website for over two years before I even conceived of the relation between the Spokes and the Centuries. I simply looked and saw what was there.

Prosperity

The Twentieth Century was the most prosperous in all human history. J. Bradford DeLong describes the “explosion of material wealth” in his The Shape of Twentieth Century History  but he also notes that the “relative gulf between rich and poor economies has grown steadily over the past century.” This all integrates with the connection between Resh and both Wealth and Poverty, as will be discussed in a future article.

The Number Seven

The Number Seven and Scripture

And Abimelech said unto Abraham, What mean these seven ewe lambs which thou hast set by themselves? And he said, For these seven ewe lambs shalt thou take of my hand, that they may be a witness unto me, that I have digged this well. Wherefore he called that place Beersheba; because there they sware both of them.

Genesis 21.29

From the Seven days of Creation to the Seven Seals of Revelation, Scripture is saturated with the Number Seven. Just listing all the occurrences would take several pages. Essentially all biblical scholars, regardless of their stance with respect to the meaning of numbers in Scripture, have recognized the special symbolic use of this Number. It is simply impossible to miss.

The discovery of the symmetric sevenfold Canon Wheel and its corresponding representation in the form of the Menorah is like a capstone to the study of the Number Seven in Scripture. We now can see this number emerging from all levels of the Biblical revelation. It is found in the microstructure of the text (e.g. the seven words and 28 letters of Genesis 1.1), in the plain message of the text (as mentioned above) and now with the advent of the Canon Wheel we see it shine in the largescale structure of the entire Bible. The question now is this:

Why did God do this? What is the meaning of the Number Seven? Why did He indelibly mark his Word with this Number?

Hebrew	Sheva
English	Seven
German	Sieben
Old Saxon	Sebun
Sanskrit	Sapta
Latin	Septem
Greek	Hepta

The answers to these questions yield great insight into the Mind of God, His Wisdom, and the Promise revealed in His Holy Word. I begin with the meaning of the Hebrew word for seven, (Sheva), and roots that are closely related to it. This word is often transliterated as Sheba, with a hard Bet (b), but as far as I can tell, the soft Bet (v) is more accurate. The sidebar compares the word for Seven in various languages. Note that words with both the hard Bet (b) and soft Bet (v) appear in the list. The phonetic resemblance is striking, especially since there is a strong similarity between the Hebrew and Sanskrit which are supposedly independent language groups.

Sheva is closely related to two other triliteral roots spelt with the same three consonants that differ only in vowel points. Thus, there are three Hebrew roots that look identical. Here are three representative entries from Strong’s Concordance:

Strong’s #	Meaning
S# H7646	saba: satisfy, fill, full, plenty, satiate
S# H7650	shaba: sware, charge, oath
S# H7651	sheba: seven

The triliteral root (Shin – Bet – Ayin) therefore carries three fundamental meanings:

1) Seven
2) Full/Complete
3) Oath/Sware.

These three ideas are found associated throughout the Bible. For example, the reason for seven angels with seven final plagues is explained in terms of fullness in Revelation 15.1:

And I saw another sign in heaven, great and marvellous, seven angels having the seven last plagues; for in them is filled up the wrath of God.

Thus we have one very obvious answer to our question:

God marked the Bible with the Number Seven because it is the fulness of God’s revelation!

Yet there is more, much more. The relation between the Number Seven and the idea of an oath is explained in the passage from Genesis 21 quoted at the head of this page. This is especially insightful because these passages reveal the etymology of Sheva/Sheba in the surface text of Scripture. Here, the Bible is serving as its own etymological dictionary.

Genesis 21, which corresponds to Shin within the chapter sequence of Genesis, gives a detailed introduction to the various meanings of the Shin KeyWord (Sheva/Saba). I begin with the question posed by the verse itself “What is the meaning of these seven ewe lambs?” The next verse gives the answer:

And he said, For these seven ewe lambs shalt thou take of my hand, that they may be a witness unto me, that I have digged this well. Wherefore he called that place Beersheba; because there they sware both of them.

The name Beersheba means Beer (well) of the Sheba (Oath). Thus Scripture clearly displays the Number Seven with its associated meaning of Oath, and we have another very obvious answer to our question:

God marked the Bible with the Number Seven because it is His Oath! His Promise! His Covenant!

This further integrates with gematria. The fundamental Greek word for Scripture is (graphe). Its numerical weight coincides exactly with that of the fundamental Hebrew word for Covenant (B’rit). We have the identity:

(Graphe, Scripture) = 612 = (B’rit, Covenant)

The depth of this relation is greatly amplified by this phrase that appears four times in Scripture (e.g. Numbers 15:39):

All the commandments of the LORD Kol Mitzvoth YHVH

= 612

These are the fundamental terms used throughout Scripture for All, Commandments, and LORD. The word (Kol, All) is particularly interesting because it is geometrically integrated with the Aleph and the Tav on the Wheel.

Yet this is but the beginning! The phrase seven times is used frequently in Scripture to mark the work of God. The Levitcal Priests were told to sprinkle the blood of the sacrifice seven times, Joshua was ordered to march around Jericho seven times, and Namaan was told to wash in the Jordan seven times to be cleansed of leprosy. In all these cases, the phrase used is:

Seven Times Sheva Pawmim

= 612

The word (Pawmim) is the plural of (Pawm) which carries the meanings of stroke, beat, foot, step, anvil, or occurrence. It is best understood as the sound of a foot striking the ground, or the “pawm pawm pawm” of a drum. It is translated as “anvil” in Isaiah.

Thus Holy Scripture – God’s Covenant – is numerically equivalent to this central phrase which may be interpreted as Seven Occurrences, Seven Beats, or Seven Anvils. We have therefore a fourfold identity based on the Number 612 which reveals the Number Seven as the heartbeat of Scripture!

The Number 612
	Scripture
	Covenant
	Seven Times
	All the Commandments of the LORD

I particularly enjoy the meaning of Sheva Pawmim as Seven Anvils in view of the symmetric sevenfold Canon Wheel upon which countless scholars will undoubtedly break many of their hammers!

These identities are further amplified by the explicit statement of the Word concerning itself (Psalm 12.6):

The words of the LORD are pure words: as silver tried in a furnace of earth, purified seven times.

Yet for all this, we have not come close to exhausting the richness found in the Number Seven. One of the most significant uses of the phrase seven times is found in these words of the Lord Jesus (Matthew 18.21):

Then came Peter to him, and said, Lord, how oft shall my brother sin against me, and I forgive him? till seven times? Jesus saith unto him, I say not unto thee, Until seven times: but, Until seventy times seven.

There is a an entire constellation of reasons why the omniscient Lord Jesus Christ chose the number 490 = 70 x 7 to represents the perfection of forgiveness. First, there is the immediate, double integration with the meaning of Seven as Perfection and Completeness. The duplication emphasizes the meaning, as when Jesus says “Truly, Truly” to emphasize the importance of what He is saying. But the integration goes much deeper than this.

Returning to Genesis, we find that the seventh occurrence of the name Noah is used in the phrase (Genesis 6.9) “Noah was a just man and perfect in his generations.” The word translated as perfect is (Thammim). We have the identity:

(Thammim, Perfect) = 490 = 70 x 7

Consider the degree of integration represented here: The Hebrew word Thammim literally means perfect, which is the symbolic meaning of Seven; Thammim first appears in conjunction with the seventh occurrence of Noah’s name; the numeric weight of Thammim is both a multiple of seven and exactly equal to the value the Lord chose to represent the perfection of forgiveness! There is no end to the wonder of God’s Wisdom!

Yet this is but the beginning. My database has a huge set of identities relating to large prime multiples of seven which are semantically integrated with the idea of Perfection and Completion. I begin with these verses from II Corinthians (vss. 12.7f):

And lest I should be exalted above measure through the abundance of the revelations, there was given to me a thorn in the flesh, the messenger of Satan to buffet me, lest I should be exalted above measure. For this thing I besought the Lord thrice, that it might depart from me. And he said unto me, My grace is sufficient for thee: for my strength is made perfect in weakness . Most gladly therefore will I rather glory in my infirmities, that the power of Christ may rest upon me.

The word translated as “weakness” is (asthenia). We have the identity:

 (Asthenia, Weakness) = 281

The Number 281 is prime. This number and its associated idea of weakness further integrates with the symbol of Christ as the sacrificial Lamb of God, as in Revelation 5.6:

And I beheld, and, lo, in the midst of the throne and of the four beasts, and in the midst of the elders, stood a Lamb as it had been slain, having seven horns and seven eyes, which are the seven Spirits of God sent forth into all the earth.

The Lamb represents the perfection of weakness that Almighty God accepted when he went to the Cross. We have the identity:

(Arnion, Lamb) = 281

These ideas are inextricable integrated with the power of God . The word translated as “power” is dunamis. It is used elsewhere (e.g. II Corinthians 13.4) in the essentially equivalent phrase “the power of God.” In the nominative case, we have the identity:

The Power of God Ho Dunamis tou Theou

= 1967 = 7 x 281

Interpreting this with the associated concepts, we have this relation:

The Power of God = 7 (Perfection) x 281 (Weakness)

I) The root of the name of the Number Seven means Perfect, Complete, or Satisfied.

II) Thammim means perfect, and its numeric weight is 70 x 7, which is the number the Lord used to describe the perfection of forgiveness.

III) Thammim first occurs in conjunction with the seventh occurrence of the name Noah.

Thus we see the explicit message of Scripture encoded in the intrinsic alphanumeric structure of the Greek language! Such is the Widsom of God.

Many other highly significant, deeply integrated, and self-reflective identities based on the meaning and value of the Number Seven may be found in the article Multiples of Seven.

he Sevenfold Light of God’s Word

And thou shalt make a candlestick of pure gold: of beaten work shall the candlestick be made: his shaft, and his branches, his bowls, his knops, and his flowers, shall be of the same. And six branches shall come out of the sides of it; three branches of the candlestick out of the one side, and three branches of the candlestick out of the other side: … And thou shalt make the seven lamps thereof: and they shall light the lamps thereof, that they may give light over against it. … And look that thou make them after their pattern, which was shewed thee in the mount.

Exodus 25:31ff

The symbolic meaning of the Number Seven reaches its apex in the Menorah, the seven-branched candlestick designed by God Himself to be a perpetual light in His Tabernacle. The Lord emphasized its Divine origin when He twice instructed Moses to be sure to follow the pattern that He Himself revealed when they met for forty days on Mount Sinai (Exo 25:9, 40). Like the Seven Feasts, God designed the whole structure of the Tabernacle and its instruments as a prophetic picture of His Son, the Word of God who “became flesh, and dwelt (literally tabernacled) amongst us” (John 1:14). God instructed that two symbols of His Word – Manna and the Ten Commandments – be put in the Ark of the Covenant in the Holy of holies in the heart of the Tabernacle. Thus the “Word became flesh” in this symbol in anticipation of the incarnation of the Living Word, Jesus Christ, the True Tabernacle (John 2:21).

The Menorah stood before the vail covering the entrance to the Holy of Holies. It is a Divine symbol that unites the whole panoply of meanings of the Number Seven – fullness, completion, perfection, and holiness – with the idea of the Light of God’s Word. The perfect union of these ideas is astounding to behold. As with the Sabbath and the Number Seven itself, it begins in Genesis. The Menorah stands as an eternal memorial of the Seven Days when God created everything by the power of His Word and spoke His first command, “Let there be light.” And just as the Menorah is called the Lamp of God (1 Sam 3:3), so also is God’s Word twice referred to as a Lamp:

Thy word is a lamp unto my feet, and a light unto my path. …………………. Psalm 119:105

The commandment is a lamp; and the law is light.………………………………. Proverbs 6:23

These descriptions are more than mere metaphors, and the Menorah is more than a suggestive symbol of the Light of God’s Word; it actually displays the sevenfold symmetric perfection of the Canon Wheel. The image shows the seven canonical divisions numbered on the Canon Wheel and listed at the bottom in accordance with the Three Cycles. The Menorah displays the periodic radial symmetry of the Canon Wheel (Bible Wheel book, pg 33). Divisions that align on the same set of Spokes – 1/4, 2/5, 3/6 – are shown on paired branches, with the sequences listed in order towards the central lamp representing the New Testament Epistles (7th division). Like the Sign of Deity in Christian iconography (tri-radiant halo), this symbol of Divine Light revealed to Moses on Mount Sinai now appears as nothing less than another prophetic image of the Holy Word. The unity of these two symbols is as simple as it is obvious, as beautiful as it is profound. This correlation is a key to understanding how the Bible Wheel fulfills Ezekiel’s prophecies of the wheels within wheels.

Yet this is but the beginning of wonders. God used exactly the same sevenfold symmetry when He designed the Seven Days of Creation! The first Three Days correspond to the second Three Days; the First with the Fourth (1/4), the Second with the Fifth (2/5), and the Third with the Sixth (3/6). This pattern has been noted by numerous scholars, such as Scroggie, who also sees a hint of its structure in the phrase “formless and void” from Genesis 1:2. The first Three Days were Days of Formation that were empty and void until God filled them on the Three Days that followed. As shown in the table below, this is identical to the form of the Seven Divisions of the Canon Wheel. Both follow a 3+1 pattern with the same three pairs of numbered elements – 1/4, 2/5, 3/6 – and the Seventh Day/Division set apart by itself. This means that God prophetically set the pattern of the entire Bible, revealed now thousands of years later, in the creation account of Genesis 1! The numerical structures of the Word of Creation and of the Holy Bible are ONE. Both were designed symmetrically upon the Number Seven, and both exemplify the full set ideas associated with it. What prophecy! What Wisdom! How mighty are the Lord’s Works! This is the Wisdom by which God “founded the earth” (Prov 3:19) fulfilling Proverbs 9:1: “Wisdom hath builded her House [Word/Cosmos], she hath hewn out her seven pillars.”

Yet there is still more. There is a strong correlation between the thematic flow of the Seven Days with that of the Seven Divisions of the Bible. While a detailed analysis is beyond the scope of this section, a few highlights should make the correlation clear. The First Division is called the Torah (Law). This is not a human convention; the Bible itself frequently uses this name for the first Five Books as when Christ referred to the “law of Moses” (Luke 24:44) or when He said He came to fulfill, not to destroy “the law, or the prophets” (Matt 5:17). As noted above, the Bible declares that “the law (torah) is light” (Prov 6:23) and this corresponds exactly with the primary event of the First Day when God said “Let there be light.” Likewise, the Second Day is characterized by the division of the waters, and this marks the primary event initiating the Second Division, the Twelve OT History Books, when the waters of the Jordan river were “cut off” (divided like the Red Sea in the Second Book) and the children of Israel “passed over on dry ground” into the Promised Land (Joshua 3:17). The pattern continues with the Third Division, the Five Wisdom Books, corresponding to the Third Day when God created trees bearing fruit, for indeed Wisdom is a “tree of life” (Prov 3:18) and her fruit is “better than gold” (Prov 8:12).

The correlation becomes profoundly theological in the Sixth Division, the Five NT History Books, which record the primary event of the Incarnation when God became Man in Jesus Christ (Mat 1:23, John 1:14). This corresponds precisely with the Sixth Day when God created Man in His image! The parallel is both perfect and precise, and it recurs in many different aspects of the word (see the Synopsis of Spoke 6, Bible Wheel book, pg 206). Finally, the full flowering of the spiritual meaning of the Seventh Day unfolds in the Seventh Division of the Bible. The Twenty-Two Epistles are unique in that they alone contain the full and explicit revelation of the fundamental doctrine of salvation by grace through faith, and not by works. This characterizes the New Testament Epistles. The most famous is probably Ephesians 2:8f:

For by grace are ye saved through faith; and that not of yourselves: it is the gift of God: Not of works, lest any man should boast. For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus unto good works, which God hath before ordained that we should walk in them.

This is the clarion call of the Gospel taught in the Seventh Division; NO WORKS! We must rest in the finished Work of Christ! The correlation with the Seventh Day Sabbath could be no clearer. Thus we have a full integration of 1) the Days of Creation, 2) the Menorah, 3) the symbolic meaning of the Number Seven, 4) the geometric structure of the Holy Word, and 5) the fundamental Christian Doctrines of the Incarnation of God (with its implication of the Deity of Christ) and Salvation through Faith Alone!

Yet again we see the content of the text imprinted in its form! God engraved all these fundamental Christian doctrines, and countless others, in the very structure of the Holy Bible! Has ever such a wonder been seen in the history of the world? Yet for all this we have only just begun, for truly there are no limits to the glory of God’s Word!

Pure Light of God from Beginning to End

Moreover the light of the moon shall be as the light of the sun, and the light of the sun shall be sevenfold, as the light of seven days, in the day that the LORD bindeth up the breach of his people, and healeth the stroke of their wound.

Isaiah 30:26

The sevenfold light prophesied in the Book of Isaiah reiterates the connection between the Number Seven and Light that God established in His design of the Menorah. It is a symbol of the Divine Light that will shine in the New Jerusalem at the end of time when all the words of God are fulfilled, as declared in the Last Book of the Holy Bible (Rev 21:23):

And the city had no need of the sun, neither of the moon, to shine in it: for the glory of God did lighten it, and the Lamb is the light thereof.

And again in the last chapter of the Last Book (Rev 22:3ff):

And there shall be no more curse: but the throne of God and of the Lamb shall be in it; and his servants shall serve him: And they shall see his face [which shines as the sun, Rev 1:16]; and his name shall be in their foreheads. And there shall be no night there; and they need no candle, neither light of the sun; for the Lord God giveth them light: and they shall reign for ever and ever.

Isaiah’s revelation of the Sevenfold Light of God also hearkens back to the original Seven Days of Creation when God created everything by the Word of His Power (Heb 1:3) which is itself the essence and source of all Light, as it is written (John 1:1ff):

In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. The same was in the beginning with God. All things were made by him; and without him was not any thing made that was made. In him was life; and the life was the light of men. And the light shineth in darkness; and the darkness comprehended it not.

We have a perfect and complete union of the ideas of Creation, God’s Word, Light, and Life. The Bible begins with God’s first command, “Let there be light” (Gen 1:3) and ends with God Himself revealed as the Eternal Light of Heaven (Rev 22:5). As Orr noted above (BW book pg 41), “the end folds back on the beginning, and, when the whole is finished, we feel that here again, as in the primal creation, God has finished all his works, and behold, they are very good.” Yes, the Bible begins and ends with the Light of God, and yes indeed, it is very good! Amen.

The Bible Sealed with Seven Seals

And I turned to see the voice that spake with me. And being turned, I saw seven golden candlesticks; And in the midst of the seven candlesticks one like unto the Son of man, clothed with a garment down to the foot, and girt about the paps with a golden girdle. His head and his hairs were white like wool, as white as snow; and his eyes were as a flame of fire; And his feet like unto fine brass, as if they burned in a furnace; and his voice as the sound of many waters. And he had in his right hand seven stars: and out of his mouth went a sharp twoedged sword: and his countenance was as the sun shineth in his strength. And when I saw him, I fell at his feet as dead. And he laid his right hand upon me, saying unto me, Fear not; I am the first and the last: I am he that liveth, and was dead; and, behold, I am alive for ever-more, Amen; and have the keys of hell and of death.

Revelation 1:12ff

This brief review of the meaning of the Number Seven now brings us to the Capstone Book of the Holy Bible, sealed by God with the Seal of Seven. In perfect harmony with its plain and obvious symbolic meaning taught throughout His Word, God completed the Bible with a climaxing flourish of sevens seen nowhere else in all Scripture. Indeed, the Last Book is sometimes called the “Book of Sevens” because of its unique emphasis upon that number. The table shows many of its surface level appearances, but there also are subtle patterns of seven running throughout its text, such as the seven blessings given to the saints and sevenfold praise of the Lamb that was slain:

And I beheld, and I heard the voice of many angels round about the throne and the beasts and the elders: and the number of them was ten thousand times ten thousand, and thousands of thousands; Saying with a loud voice, Worthy is the Lamb that was slain to receive 1) power, and 2) riches, and 3) wisdom, and 4) strength, and 5) honour, and 6) glory, and 7) blessing.

Revelation 5:11ff

The Book of Revelation seals the Bible on multiple levels; indeed, the word seal itself appears more in Revelation than any other Book with whole chapters devoted to the opening of the book sealed with seven seals and the revelation of the “seal of the living God” that sealed 144,000 of His servants. It is here in the Last Book that God simultaneously applied the Number Seven as the seal of the whole Bible even as He explicitly united its symbolic meaning – completion and perfection – with the idea of a seal in the image of His Word as a book sealed with seven seals (Rev 5:1). These ideas are, of course, naturally coherent and once again we witness Divine Wisdom in action; God compounding and compacting multiple symbols into a single blazing Sign of the Divine Perfection of His Holy Word, all the while teaching everything to us with simple examples any child could understand.

In precise analogy with the Cross, the Number Seven is actually a double seal upon the Bible. In the section called “Sealed with the Sign of the Cross” (Bible Wheel book, pg 37) it was noted that the Cross seals the Bible in two fundamental ways; once in the tri-radiant cruciform symmetry of the whole and again on Spoke 22 corresponding to the Last Letter Tav (Cross). Exactly the same duality appears in God’s application of the Number Seven. The tri-radiant cruciform symmetry is formed by the seven canonical divisions, and the Last Book on the Last Spoke is itself sealed throughout with the Number Seven. This means that the Cross and the Number Seven unite to form a double double sealing of the whole Bible! This is a hint of what I mean when I say there is no end to the Glory of God’s Word. It is truly infinite! If only I had ten thousand tongues to declare the true depth of wonder of His Holy Revelation! I stand in awe with our Christian brother, the Apostle Paul:

O the depth of the riches both of the wisdom and knowledge of God! how unsearchable are his judgments, and his ways past finding out!

Romans 11:33

The Book of Sevens

Below are quotes from commentaries that discuss the meaning of the Number Seven and specifically mention Revelation as the “Book of Sevens”:

John MacAuthur’s Commentary on Revelation 

What is seven? Well you can go all the way back to the book of Genesis and find out. I’ll just read it to you. Genesis 2:3, “God blessed the seventh day and sanctified it because in it He rested from all His work which God had created and made.” If seven means nothing else, seven means it’s over. Seven is the number of completion. Seven is the number of fullness. And all the sevens in this book tell me that this is the completion. That’s why in 22, chapter 22 look at verses 18 and 19, “I testify to everyone who hears the words of the prophecy of this book, if anyone adds to them God shall add to him the plagues which are written in this book.” Don’t add to it. This is the book of sevens, this is the book of fullness, this is the end when God is finished.

Prophetic History of Christendom, by R. K. Campbell 

Surely there were more Assemblies in Asia than these seven that are before us in Revelation one through three. Why then were just these seven picked out by the Lord and messages sent to them? We shall see that Revelation is a book of sevens, the seven churches, the seven-sealed book, seven trumpets and seven vials of wrath. Seven is a complete number, and the different conditions found in these seven particular Assemblies in Asia present a complete prophetical view of seven distinct stages of the professing Church from the time of the apostle John to its end.

The Apocalypse: A Series of Special Lectures on the Revelation of Jesus  by Joseph Augustus Seiss (from Google books)

And the Apocalypse, which is the book of the consummation of all God’s dispensational dealings with mankind, is, above all a book of sevens. It consists of seven visions with the sevenfold ascription of glory to God and to the Lamb and discloses to us the seven Spirits of God, the seven candlesticks, the seven stars, seven lamps of fire, seven seals, seven horns, and seven eyes of the Lamb, seven angels with seven trumpets, seven thunders, seven heads of the beast, and seven crowns upon those heads, the seven plagues, seven vials, seven mountains, and seven regencies. And it is this book of sevens because it is the book of the fulness of everything of which it treats – the Trinity’s consummation of all divine dispensations. It is therefore the number of dispensational fulness. And whatever bears this number in the divine reckoning is full, complete, with nothing left out, and nothing of its own kind to be added.

Biblical Mathematics, by Evangelist, Ed F. Vallowe 

SEVEN times the Book of Life is mentioned in the Bible. The Book of Revelation is a Book of SEVENS. We have SEVEN churches, SEVEN seals, SEVEN Trumpets, SEVEN Personages, SEVEN vails (sic), SEVEN dooms, SEVEN new things. SEVEN SEVENS make up this Book . It is the COMPLETENESS of all things. Jesus said to “forgive SEVENTY times SEVEN” In other words, He is saying, “Keep on forgiving until you are complete.”

The Bible as Menorah

And thou shalt make a candlestick of pure gold: of beaten work shall the candlestick be made: his shaft, and his branches, his bowls, his knops, and his flowers, shall be of the same. And six branches shall come out of the sides of it; three branches of the candlestick out of the one side, and three branches of the candlestick out of the other side:

Exodus 25.31f

Throughout the ages the Menorah has been understood to represent the everlasting light of God’s self-revelation. This coincides with the Christian understanding of the purpose and function of God’s eternal Word. After all, His first words were “Let there be light!” The Wheel reveals the unity of these two great lights. The sevenfold structure of the Biblical Canon perfectly integrates with the sevenfold form of the Menorah. The radial symmetry of the Canon Wheel manifests in the symmetric distribution of books on the branches. Click the image to view a larger version.

The Hebrew letters running down the center column represent the number of books on the corresponding branches. The letters are:

Tav:	22nd letter
Heh:	5th letter
Lamed:	12th letter
Heh:	5th letter

When read as a word, these letters spell “Tehilah”, which means PRAISE! The plural form is Tehilim, which is the Hebrew name of the Book of Psalms.

Tehilah is a Tav KeyWord that God used in the last verse of the last alphabetic Psalm, Psalm 145.21:

My mouth shall speak the praise of the LORD: and let all flesh bless his holy name for ever and ever.

The actual Hebrew reads “Tehilet (the praises of) YHVH (the Lord) y’dabar (shall speak) pei (my mouth).” Tehilet is the construct form of Tehilah.

The verses describing the design of the Menorah specify that there are to be three bowls on each of the six branches, and four on the center column:

Three bowls made like unto almonds, with a knop and a flower in one branch; and three bowls made like almonds in the other branch, with a knop and a flower: so in the six branches that come out of the candlestick. And in the candlestick shall be four bowls made like unto almonds, with their knops and their flowers.

The total number of bowls is therefore:

3 x 6 + 4 = 22

These bowls naturally correspond to the 22 Hebrew letters, the containers (delimiters) of God’s creative impulse.

Historically, there has been some confusion as to how to design these 22 bowls and the six branches. The image to the right shows how Moses Maimonides understood the divine pattern for the Menorah. In his understanding the bowls were supposed to be pointing down to represent the outpouring of the Wisdom of God. Others believe they should be upright, which is how I represented them in the image at the top.

The ramifications of this divinely ordained pattern are endless. The Numbers 3, 7, and 22, which figure prominently in the design, are also prominent in the design of the Bible in the form of the Wheel with its 3 Cycles, 7 Canonical Divisions, and 22 Spokes! Endless wonder and beauty! Praise the Lord who has given us His Holy Word!

Yet there is still more. Each side branch has three sets of three items – three bowls, each with a “knop” and a “flower.” The central branch has four sets of the same three items. Thus, the numerical arrangement of these decorations follow a symmetric pattern on the seven branches:

9 + 9 + 9 + 12 + 9 + 9 + 9

The number of these “decorations” sums to 66, the number of books in the Bible. Furthermore, the sum subdivides into the sum of the first four (9 + 9 + 9 + 9 + 12 = 39) and the last three (9 + 9 + 9 = 27) to give the number of books in the Old and New Testaments. Putting it all together, we see that the Bible and the Menorah have a large set of structural numbers in common:

7 Branches [Canonical Divisions] symmetrically displayed

3 Branches [Canonical Divisions] are paired, with one set apart.

22 Bowls [Hebrew Letters]

66 Decorations [Books] that subdivide into groups of 39 and 27

Given the fact that God calls His Word a “Lamp”, and that He designed the Menorah Himself, there can be no conclusion but that the Menorah was designed as a prophecy of the completed structure of His Word in the form of the Wheel, fully integrated with the 22 Hebrew letters.

The structure of the Menorah also integrates with axis of the Wheel, with the Tav on the central pillar referring back, yet again, to the Crucifixion. Taking just the distinct letters from the central column yields the Tav KeyWord (Talah, to hang). God used this word to describe the crucifixion of the Lord Jesus Christ when He gave this command in Deuteronomy 21:22f

And if a man have committed a sin worthy of death, and he be to be put to death, and thou hang him on a tree: His body shall not remain all night upon the tree, but thou shalt in any wise bury him that day; (for he that is hanged is accursed of God;) that thy land be not defiled, which the LORD thy God giveth thee for an inheritance.

We know that this applies to the crucifixion because Paul quoted it in reference to Christ in Galations 3.13. Thus we see how the Menorah – designed by God Himself more than a thousand years before Christ was born – points to that one event that defines what the Bible is really all about and reveals how this is the source and essence of the great light of the Gospel.

The word Tehilah also intgrates with the numerical weight of another Tav KeyWord – (Tawm) which means perfect, complete, done, or accomplished. It is used in the latter sense in the acrostic verses of Lamentations 4 (verse 22):

The punishment of thine iniquity is accomplished, O daughter of Zion; he will no more carry thee away into captivity: he will visit thine iniquity, O daughter of Edom; he will discover thy sins.

We have the identity:

(Tehilah, Praise) = 440 = (Tawm, Perfect)

Note that 440 (= 20 x 22) is a multiple of the Key Number 22. These two ideas are united in the words of the Lord Jesus (Matthew 21.16):

And said unto him, Hearest thou what these say? And Jesus saith unto them, Yea; have ye never read, Out of the mouth of babes and sucklings thou hast perfected praise?

And so we can see a little of God’s infinite Wisdom displayed in the integrated Bible/Menorah, and how all of this reveals the light of salvation through the crucifixion of our Lord Jesus Christ. What a wonder it is to see the Gospel adorned with such beauty and grace! Praise His Holy Name!

The Sevenfold Light of God’s Word

And thou shalt make a candlestick of pure gold: of beaten work shall the candlestick be made: his shaft, and his branches, his bowls, his knops, and his flowers, shall be of the same. And six branches shall come out of the sides of it; three branches of the candlestick out of the one side, and three branches of the candlestick out of the other side: … And thou shalt make the seven lamps thereof: and they shall light the lamps thereof, that they may give light over against it. … And look that thou make them after their pattern, which was shewed thee in the mount.

Exodus 25:31ff

The symbolic meaning of the Number Seven reaches its apex in the Menorah, the seven-branched candlestick designed by God Himself to be a perpetual light in His Tabernacle. The Lord emphasized its Divine origin when He twice instructed Moses to be sure to follow the pattern that He Himself revealed when they met for forty days on Mount Sinai (Exo 25:9, 40). Like the Seven Feasts, God designed the whole structure of the Tabernacle and its instruments as a prophetic picture of His Son, the Word of God who “became flesh, and dwelt (literally tabernacled) amongst us” (John 1:14). God instructed that two symbols of His Word – Manna and the Ten Commandments – be put in the Ark of the Covenant in the Holy of holies in the heart of the Tabernacle. Thus the “Word became flesh” in this symbol in anticipation of the incarnation of the Living Word, Jesus Christ, the True Tabernacle (John 2:21).

The Menorah stood before the vail covering the entrance to the Holy of Holies. It is a Divine symbol that unites the whole panoply of meanings of the Number Seven – fullness, completion, perfection, and holiness – with the idea of the Light of God’s Word. The perfect union of these ideas is astounding to behold. As with the Sabbath and the Number Seven itself, it begins in Genesis. The Menorah stands as an eternal memorial of the Seven Days when God created everything by the power of His Word and spoke His first command, “Let there be light.” And just as the Menorah is called the Lamp of God (1 Sam 3:3), so also is God’s Word twice referred to as a Lamp:

Thy word is a lamp unto my feet, and a light unto my path. …………………. Psalm 119:105

The commandment is a lamp; and the law is light.………………………………. Proverbs 6:23

These descriptions are more than mere metaphors, and the Menorah is more than a suggestive symbol of the Light of God’s Word; it actually displays the sevenfold symmetric perfection of the Canon Wheel. The image shows the seven canonical divisions numbered on the Canon Wheel and listed at the bottom in accordance with the Three Cycles. The Menorah displays the periodic radial symmetry of the Canon Wheel (Bible Wheel book, pg 33). Divisions that align on the same set of Spokes – 1/4, 2/5, 3/6 – are shown on paired branches, with the sequences listed in order towards the central lamp representing the New Testament Epistles (7th division). Like the Sign of Deity in Christian iconography (tri-radiant halo), this symbol of Divine Light revealed to Moses on Mount Sinai now appears as nothing less than another prophetic image of the Holy Word. The unity of these two symbols is as simple as it is obvious, as beautiful as it is profound. This correlation is a key to understanding how the Bible Wheel fulfills Ezekiel’s prophecies of the wheels within wheels.

Yet this is but the beginning of wonders. God used exactly the same sevenfold symmetry when He designed the Seven Days of Creation! The first Three Days correspond to the second Three Days; the First with the Fourth (1/4), the Second with the Fifth (2/5), and the Third with the Sixth (3/6). This pattern has been noted by numerous scholars, such as Scroggie, who also sees a hint of its structure in the phrase “formless and void” from Genesis 1:2. The first Three Days were Days of Formation that were empty and void until God filled them on the Three Days that followed. As shown in the table below, this is identical to the form of the Seven Divisions of the Canon Wheel. Both follow a 3+1 pattern with the same three pairs of numbered elements – 1/4, 2/5, 3/6 – and the Seventh Day/Division set apart by itself. This means that God prophetically set the pattern of the entire Bible, revealed now thousands of years later, in the creation account of Genesis 1! The numerical structures of the Word of Creation and of the Holy Bible are ONE. Both were designed symmetrically upon the Number Seven, and both exemplify the full set ideas associated with it. What prophecy! What Wisdom! How mighty are the Lord’s Works! This is the Wisdom by which God “founded the earth” (Prov 3:19) fulfilling Proverbs 9:1: “Wisdom hath builded her House [Word/Cosmos], she hath hewn out her seven pillars.”

Yet there is still more. There is a strong correlation between the thematic flow of the Seven Days with that of the Seven Divisions of the Bible. While a detailed analysis is beyond the scope of this section, a few highlights should make the correlation clear. The First Division is called the Torah (Law). This is not a human convention; the Bible itself frequently uses this name for the first Five Books as when Christ referred to the “law of Moses” (Luke 24:44) or when He said He came to fulfill, not to destroy “the law, or the prophets” (Matt 5:17). As noted above, the Bible declares that “the law (torah) is light” (Prov 6:23) and this corresponds exactly with the primary event of the First Day when God said “Let there be light.” Likewise, the Second Day is characterized by the division of the waters, and this marks the primary event initiating the Second Division, the Twelve OT History Books, when the waters of the Jordan river were “cut off” (divided like the Red Sea in the Second Book) and the children of Israel “passed over on dry ground” into the Promised Land (Joshua 3:17). The pattern continues with the Third Division, the Five Wisdom Books, corresponding to the Third Day when God created trees bearing fruit, for indeed Wisdom is a “tree of life” (Prov 3:18) and her fruit is “better than gold” (Prov 8:12).

The correlation becomes profoundly theological in the Sixth Division, the Five NT History Books, which record the primary event of the Incarnation when God became Man in Jesus Christ (Mat 1:23, John 1:14). This corresponds precisely with the Sixth Day when God created Man in His image! The parallel is both perfect and precise, and it recurs in many different aspects of the word (see the Synopsis of Spoke 6, Bible Wheel book, pg 206). Finally, the full flowering of the spiritual meaning of the Seventh Day unfolds in the Seventh Division of the Bible. The Twenty-Two Epistles are unique in that they alone contain the full and explicit revelation of the fundamental doctrine of salvation by grace through faith, and not by works. This characterizes the New Testament Epistles. The most famous is probably Ephesians 2:8f:

For by grace are ye saved through faith; and that not of yourselves: it is the gift of God: Not of works, lest any man should boast. For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus unto good works, which God hath before ordained that we should walk in them.

This is the clarion call of the Gospel taught in the Seventh Division; NO WORKS! We must rest in the finished Work of Christ! The correlation with the Seventh Day Sabbath could be no clearer. Thus we have a full integration of 1) the Days of Creation, 2) the Menorah, 3) the symbolic meaning of the Number Seven, 4) the geometric structure of the Holy Word, and 5) the fundamental Christian Doctrines of the Incarnation of God (with its implication of the Deity of Christ) and Salvation through Faith Alone!

Yet again we see the content of the text imprinted in its form! God engraved all these fundamental Christian doctrines, and countless others, in the very structure of the Holy Bible! Has ever such a wonder been seen in the history of the world? Yet for all this we have only just begun, for truly there are no limits to the glory of God’s Word!

Pure Light of God from Beginning to End

Moreover the light of the moon shall be as the light of the sun, and the light of the sun shall be sevenfold, as the light of seven days, in the day that the LORD bindeth up the breach of his people, and healeth the stroke of their wound.

Isaiah 30:26

The sevenfold light prophesied in the Book of Isaiah reiterates the connection between the Number Seven and Light that God established in His design of the Menorah. It is a symbol of the Divine Light that will shine in the New Jerusalem at the end of time when all the words of God are fulfilled, as declared in the Last Book of the Holy Bible (Rev 21:23):

And the city had no need of the sun, neither of the moon, to shine in it: for the glory of God did lighten it, and the Lamb is the light thereof.

And again in the last chapter of the Last Book (Rev 22:3ff):

And there shall be no more curse: but the throne of God and of the Lamb shall be in it; and his servants shall serve him: And they shall see his face [which shines as the sun, Rev 1:16]; and his name shall be in their foreheads. And there shall be no night there; and they need no candle, neither light of the sun; for the Lord God giveth them light: and they shall reign for ever and ever.

Isaiah’s revelation of the Sevenfold Light of God also hearkens back to the original Seven Days of Creation when God created everything by the Word of His Power (Heb 1:3) which is itself the essence and source of all Light, as it is written (John 1:1ff):

In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. The same was in the beginning with God. All things were made by him; and without him was not any thing made that was made. In him was life; and the life was the light of men. And the light shineth in darkness; and the darkness comprehended it not.

We have a perfect and complete union of the ideas of Creation, God’s Word, Light, and Life. The Bible begins with God’s first command, “Let there be light” (Gen 1:3) and ends with God Himself revealed as the Eternal Light of Heaven (Rev 22:5). As Orr noted above (BW book pg 41), “the end folds back on the beginning, and, when the whole is finished, we feel that here again, as in the primal creation, God has finished all his works, and behold, they are very good.” Yes, the Bible begins and ends with the Light of God, and yes indeed, it is very good! Amen.

The Bible Sealed with Seven Seals

And I turned to see the voice that spake with me. And being turned, I saw seven golden candlesticks; And in the midst of the seven candlesticks one like unto the Son of man, clothed with a garment down to the foot, and girt about the paps with a golden girdle. His head and his hairs were white like wool, as white as snow; and his eyes were as a flame of fire; And his feet like unto fine brass, as if they burned in a furnace; and his voice as the sound of many waters. And he had in his right hand seven stars: and out of his mouth went a sharp twoedged sword: and his countenance was as the sun shineth in his strength. And when I saw him, I fell at his feet as dead. And he laid his right hand upon me, saying unto me, Fear not; I am the first and the last: I am he that liveth, and was dead; and, behold, I am alive for ever-more, Amen; and have the keys of hell and of death.

Revelation 1:12ff

This brief review of the meaning of the Number Seven now brings us to the Capstone Book of the Holy Bible, sealed by God with the Seal of Seven. In perfect harmony with its plain and obvious symbolic meaning taught throughout His Word, God completed the Bible with a climaxing flourish of sevens seen nowhere else in all Scripture. Indeed, the Last Book is sometimes called the “Book of Sevens” because of its unique emphasis upon that number. The table shows many of its surface level appearances, but there also are subtle patterns of seven running throughout its text, such as the seven blessings given to the saints and sevenfold praise of the Lamb that was slain:

And I beheld, and I heard the voice of many angels round about the throne and the beasts and the elders: and the number of them was ten thousand times ten thousand, and thousands of thousands; Saying with a loud voice, Worthy is the Lamb that was slain to receive 1) power, and 2) riches, and 3) wisdom, and 4) strength, and 5) honour, and 6) glory, and 7) blessing.

Revelation 5:11ff

The Book of Revelation seals the Bible on multiple levels; indeed, the word seal itself appears more in Revelation than any other Book with whole chapters devoted to the opening of the book sealed with seven seals and the revelation of the “seal of the living God” that sealed 144,000 of His servants. It is here in the Last Book that God simultaneously applied the Number Seven as the seal of the whole Bible even as He explicitly united its symbolic meaning – completion and perfection – with the idea of a seal in the image of His Word as a book sealed with seven seals (Rev 5:1). These ideas are, of course, naturally coherent and once again we witness Divine Wisdom in action; God compounding and compacting multiple symbols into a single blazing Sign of the Divine Perfection of His Holy Word, all the while teaching everything to us with simple examples any child could understand.

In precise analogy with the Cross, the Number Seven is actually a double seal upon the Bible. In the section called “Sealed with the Sign of the Cross” (Bible Wheel book, pg 37) it was noted that the Cross seals the Bible in two fundamental ways; once in the tri-radiant cruciform symmetry of the whole and again on Spoke 22 corresponding to the Last Letter Tav (Cross). Exactly the same duality appears in God’s application of the Number Seven. The tri-radiant cruciform symmetry is formed by the seven canonical divisions, and the Last Book on the Last Spoke is itself sealed throughout with the Number Seven. This means that the Cross and the Number Seven unite to form a double double sealing of the whole Bible! This is a hint of what I mean when I say there is no end to the Glory of God’s Word. It is truly infinite! If only I had ten thousand tongues to declare the true depth of wonder of His Holy Revelation! I stand in awe with our Christian brother, the Apostle Paul:

O the depth of the riches both of the wisdom and knowledge of God! how unsearchable are his judgments, and his ways past finding out!

Romans 11:33

The Book of Sevens

Below are quotes from commentaries that discuss the meaning of the Number Seven and specifically mention Revelation as the “Book of Sevens”:

John MacAuthur’s Commentary on Revelation 

What is seven? Well you can go all the way back to the book of Genesis and find out. I’ll just read it to you. Genesis 2:3, “God blessed the seventh day and sanctified it because in it He rested from all His work which God had created and made.” If seven means nothing else, seven means it’s over. Seven is the number of completion. Seven is the number of fullness. And all the sevens in this book tell me that this is the completion. That’s why in 22, chapter 22 look at verses 18 and 19, “I testify to everyone who hears the words of the prophecy of this book, if anyone adds to them God shall add to him the plagues which are written in this book.” Don’t add to it. This is the book of sevens, this is the book of fullness, this is the end when God is finished.

Prophetic History of Christendom, by R. K. Campbell 

Surely there were more Assemblies in Asia than these seven that are before us in Revelation one through three. Why then were just these seven picked out by the Lord and messages sent to them? We shall see that Revelation is a book of sevens, the seven churches, the seven-sealed book, seven trumpets and seven vials of wrath. Seven is a complete number, and the different conditions found in these seven particular Assemblies in Asia present a complete prophetical view of seven distinct stages of the professing Church from the time of the apostle John to its end.

The Apocalypse: A Series of Special Lectures on the Revelation of Jesus  by Joseph Augustus Seiss (from Google books)

And the Apocalypse, which is the book of the consummation of all God’s dispensational dealings with mankind, is, above all a book of sevens. It consists of seven visions with the sevenfold ascription of glory to God and to the Lamb and discloses to us the seven Spirits of God, the seven candlesticks, the seven stars, seven lamps of fire, seven seals, seven horns, and seven eyes of the Lamb, seven angels with seven trumpets, seven thunders, seven heads of the beast, and seven crowns upon those heads, the seven plagues, seven vials, seven mountains, and seven regencies. And it is this book of sevens because it is the book of the fulness of everything of which it treats – the Trinity’s consummation of all divine dispensations. It is therefore the number of dispensational fulness. And whatever bears this number in the divine reckoning is full, complete, with nothing left out, and nothing of its own kind to be added.

Biblical Mathematics, by Evangelist, Ed F. Vallowe 

SEVEN times the Book of Life is mentioned in the Bible. The Book of Revelation is a Book of SEVENS. We have SEVEN churches, SEVEN seals, SEVEN Trumpets, SEVEN Personages, SEVEN vails (sic), SEVEN dooms, SEVEN new things. SEVEN SEVENS make up this Book . It is the COMPLETENESS of all things. Jesus said to “forgive SEVENTY times SEVEN” In other words, He is saying, “Keep on forgiving until you are complete.”

The Rosetta Stone of Biblical Hermeneutics

This is the third time I am coming to you. In the mouth of two or three witnesses shall every word be established.

2 Corinthians 13:1 (Spoke 3, Cycle 3)

Rosetta Stone [British Museum ]

The Kingdom of Egypt is referenced by name over seven hundred times in the Bible. It played an essential role in the history of Israel. Historians, archeologists, and Biblical scholars were therefore deeply frustrated by their inablity to read the Egyptian hieroglyphs. This all changed in the year 1799 with the discovery of the Rosetta Stone in el-Rashid (Rosetta), Egypt. The stone has an inscription describing a decree from the general council of Egyptian priests issued during the reign of Ptolemy V in 196 BC. It is written in three scripts (Egyptian Hieroglyphics, Egyption Demotic, and Greek) and two languages (Egyptian and Greek). By comparing these three parallel passages, scholars were able, for the first time in modern history, to interpret the Egyptian hieroglyphics. Simon Singh wrote a lucid review of this discovery on his site  and also in a related article he produced for the BBC . High-resolution images of the three scripts used on the stone can be viewed on this page  from the Biblical Graduate School of Theology. Here is an except from the article on Singh’s site:

The most famous, and arguably the most romantic, of all decipherments was the cracking of Egyptian hieroglyphics. For centuries, hieroglyphics remained a mystery, and hence archaeologists could merely speculate about their meaning. However, as a result of a classic piece of codebreaking, the hieroglyphs were eventually deciphered, and ever since archaeologists have been able to read first-hand accounts of the history, culture, and beliefs of the ancient Egyptians. The decipherment of hieroglyphics has bridged the millennia between ourselves and the civilisation of the pharaohs.

The term “Rosetta Stone” has therefore became a common metaphor for any dicsovery that provides the key to understanding a complex set of data, such as the genetic code (DNA) which has been called The Rosetta Stone of Life .

The Bible Wheel is very much like the Rosetta Stone in both the metaphorical and the literal senses. Just as the stone unlocked the mystery of Egyptian hieroglyphs by revealing correlated script in three parallel passages, so the Bible Wheel unlocks a host of profound theological and hermeneutical insights by revealing twenty-two sets of three books that are correlated with each other and with a Letter of the Hebrew Alphabet. There is no limit to its fruitfulness. Below is a review of a few of the primary areas of biblical research impacted by the revelation of the Bible Wheel. I will add linked articles explaining each section as I find time.

The Divine Unity of the Holy Bible
This is the most obvious implication of the revelation of the Bible Wheel. That’s why I chose it for the subtitle of the Bible Wheel book.

The Canon Debate: Which Books belong in the Bible?
Christians have argued amongst themeselves for centuries about how to establish the Biblical canon. The revelation of the Bible Wheel settles this issue once and for all. It also has a huge impact on all other aspects of canonical studies. Indeed, it transforms the subject altogether. For example, people often ask why Esther is in the Bible, since it does not explicitly mention God or the Lord even once in its entirety. This is due entirely to Divine Design. God designed the Book of Esther to reveal the doctrine known in Judaism as Hester Panim (The Hidden Face) of God. In Christian parlance, it relates to the doctrine of Divine Providence. Here are two articles that show the power of the Bible Wheel in action:

Solution of the Synoptic Problem
Huge volumes of literature has been published relating to this question. The Bible Wheel opens the door to an insight never before suspected. The variations seen in the parallel verses are based on KeyWords that God placed in the Alphabetic Verses. The pattern is consistent through all three synoptic Gospels of Matthew, Mark, and Luke:

Kings-Chronicles Parallel Verses Resolved

The resolution of these parallel verses follows exactly the same pattern as seen in the solution of the Synoptic Problem. It is explained in the context of Spoke 14:

[Wheel] > Spoke 14 – Nun – Priestly History of Faithful Judah

Proper Hermeneutical approach to the Song of Songs and Revelation
The alignment of these two books on Spoke 22 – the last Spoke – reveals how the geometry of the Holy Word affects our hermeneutical approach. It reinforces the proper and traditional Christian interpretation of these books which were long seen as complementary visions of the Consummation of God’s Plan of the Ages (reproduced from Chapter 5 of the Bible Wheel book). See also:

[Wheel] > Spoke 22 – The Marriage Song: Union of Christ and His Church

hree Levels: Self-Similarity over Scale

For who hath despised the day of small things? for they shall rejoice, and shall see the plummet in the hand of Zerubbabel with those seven; they are the eyes of the LORD, which run to and fro through the whole earth.

Zechariah 4.10

A fractal is an object that looks like itself at different scales, or levels of magnification. This is called self-similarity over scale. There are numerous sites with tutorials and examples – just search for fractal and tutorial and you will find more information than you could ever need. For example, here’s a good one with a tutorial: Amazing Seattle Fractals .

This idea is extremely useful because the Bible is a divine fractal revelation of the Mind of God. Similar alphabetic patterns appear at all levels. This is similar to the way information is stored in a Holograph, which is one of the reasons I chose that word to describe the integrated alphanumeric structures such as the Unity Holograph and the Creation HyperHolograph. I actually prefer that term because of the wholeness it implies, and its orginal meaning as a document written wholy in the hand of the Author – God!

The Holy Word is infinitely deep with endless wheels within the wheels but there are three fundamental levels that clearly reiterate the alphabetic structure of the Whole. These levels are simply axes of the Bible when viewed as a three dimensional object. Each verse may be located by three numbers: Book Number, Chapter Number, and Verses Number. This means that every verse in the Bible corresponds to a point in three dimensional space – (x, y, z). This is defined and discussed with examples in the Projective Links article.

Three Levels:

Level 1: This is the basic Bible Wheel level, defined by the ordinal position of each book. Links and KeyLinks on this level are between elements of Books on the same Spoke. For example, seaching the entire KJV for the phrase Israel shall be saved yields exactly two verses, Isaiah 45.17 and Romans 11.26. Both Isaiah and Romans are on Spoke 1, so we represent this KeyLink by simply linking the names:

	KeyLink Phrase: Israel shall be Saved
	IsaiahRomans

Alternately, we might want to emphasise the Spoke Number, so we could use modular notation to write 23 = 1₂ to refer to Book 23 (Isaiah) that resides on Spoke 1, Cycle 2 and 45 = 1₃ to refer to Book 45 (Romans) that resides on Spoke 1, Cycle 3. Using this notatation, coupled with geometric notation to represent these numbers as geometric points, we write:

	KeyLink Phrase: Israel shall be Saved
	PBible( 13 ) PBible( 13 )

The subscript tells us which object contains the point.

Level 2: This is the level of the Inner Wheels and Cycles when we look at the sequence of chapters. For example, the phrase “Israel shall be Saved” is found in Isaiah 45 which corresponds to the ordinal postition of Romans as Book 45 on the Bible Wheel. This means that the KeyLink exists on two levels. The internal structure of the 66 chapters of Isaiah being self-similar to the sequence of books of its parent object – the Bible. In this situation, the geometric notation is very helpful, and we represent this KeyLink as:

	KeyLink Phrase: Israel shall be Saved
	PIsaiah( 45 ) PBible( 45 )

Remember – this is the day of small things. Take a close look at this KeyLink. The only difference is is the subscript “Isaiah” on the left and “Bible” on the right, which reveals the geometric self-simlarity of the Inner Wheel of Isaiah wiht the Bible Wheel. This KeyLink the Bible Wheel (Level 1) and the Inner Wheel of Isaiah (Level 2).

Level 3: At this level we examine the sequence of the verses in a chapter. This is particularly significant because of the Alphabetic Verses where God encoded the fundamental themes of the Bible Wheel (Level 1)! For example, the Letter Ayin signifies an Eye. God used the name of this letter as a KeyWord in the Ayin verse of the alphabetic Psalm 34:

The eyes of the LORD are upon the righteous, and his ears are open unto their cry.

This verse is quoted in one an only one Book of the Bible – I Peter on Spoke 16, governed by the letter Ayin! Thus we have a KeyLink between the Ayin verses of Psalm 34 (Level 3) and the Bible Wheel (Level 1)! We could write this a number of ways. For example:

	KeyLink Quote: The Eyes of the Lord are on the Righteous
	Psalm 34.AyinI Peter

Or alternately:

	KeyLink Quote: The Eyes of the Lord are on the Righteous
	PPsalm 34( 161 ) PBible( 163 )

Again, take a close look at the subscripts. This KeyLink reveals the Alphabetic sequence of Psalm 34 to be self-similar to the large scale structure of the Bible Wheel. This is a KeyLink between Level 3 and Level 1.

At each level, we move down to a deeper structure – not unlike first viewing an object, then the molecules that make it up, and then the atoms that constitute the molecules. Thus we see God’s Word exhibiting the same reiterative strucuture as the rest of Creation – all to His Glory. This is but a glimpse of the infinity of perfection that is the Living Word of God!

Admittedly, it requires a certain mental displine to trace the threads through all the different Inner Cycles and Alphabetic Verses without getting lost. This is why understanding the idea of levels is so important. For an application of these ideas with a graphic of what is going on, check out my article exploring Spoke 12 of the Inner Cycle of Psalms Psalm 34: I will Teach.

The Scroll versus the Codex

Then said I, Lo, I come: in the volume (megillah) of the book it is written of me, I delight to do thy will, O my God: yea, thy law is within my heart.

Psalm 40:7-8

The Lord Jesus Christ is the grand subject of all Scripture. The passage above contains His own words speaking of Himself, as it is written: “Wherefore when he [Christ] cometh into the world, he saith, … in the volume of the book it is written of me” (Heb 10:5ff). Christ fulfilled this Scripture, saying “For I came down from heaven, not to do mine own will, but the will of him that sent me” (John 6:38). He frequently spoke of the revelation of Himself in Scripture, as when he told the unbelieving Jews that “had ye believed Moses, ye would have believed me: for he wrote of me” (John 5:46), and again when He spoke with His disciples after His resurrection, saying “These are the words which I spake unto you, while I was yet with you, that all things must be fulfilled, which were written in the law of Moses, and in the prophets, and in the psalms, concerning me” (Luke 24:44ff). This is what the Bible is all about; it is the revelation of Jesus Christ.

The original manuscripts of the Old Testament were all written on scolls. This is the meaning of the Hebrew megillah, translated as “volume” in Psalm 40 above. It is from the root galal (to roll), since a scroll is something “rolled up.” This also is the root of galgal (wheel) which describes the geometric structure of the Bible. The same etymology is seen for the word “volume” which is from the Latin volumen (scroll) which in turn is based on the verb volvere (to roll). This is familiar to English speakers through other words such as revolve.

Scholars distinguish between a scroll and a book of bound pages by referring to the latter as a codex. The codex was invented around the time of Christ and popularized largely by Christians (see The Birth of the Codex  and data taken from it here ). Both Jews and Gentiles continued to use scrolls well into the fourth century especially for Sacred Scripture and important works of literature, but by that time Christians had moved to the codex format for nearly all of thier literature.

The codex was a huge technological advance over the scroll for two reasons. First, it was much more compact because its pages could be written on both sides. Scrolls were usually written on only on the inside since text on the unprotected outside would easily get smudged and effaced. Given the same amount of papyrus, a codex could hold twice as much text as a scroll. Second, the codex allowed quick random access to any of its content since one could simply turn to the appropriate page rather than having to “scroll” through the entire document. Imagine trying to compare Scripture with Scripture; first, you would have to retrieve both scrolls, and then scroll all the way through each until you found the passages you were looking for. Furthermore, it would be very difficult to travel with a huge satchet of rolled up documents. The freedom afforded by the codex is immortalized in the image from the Catacombs of Domitilla. It shows the a circular leather box – a capsa – with a big shoulder strap stuffed full of scrolls with a codex, presumably holding the same content, flying above it! The codex gave great freedom to the early Christian missionaries who could go forth with the Scriptures bound in a single Book. It seems likely that God inspired this invention to further His Gospel.

Image of a Codex flying above a satchet of Scrolls from the Catacomb of Domitilla (mid-fourth century)

The invention of the codex had a third effect of great significance: it imposed a fixed order to the books it contained. A collection of scrolls contains no intrinsic order. Any order needs to be imposed by either written or oral tradition. A bound codex, on the other hand, has an intrinsic order by the mere fact of binding the books together. This ultimately led to the fixed order that we see in modern Bibles such as the King James Version, which is the foundation of the Bible Wheel.

Revelation as an Epistle

John to the seven churches which are in Asia: Grace be unto you, and peace, from him which is, and which was, and which is to come; and from the seven Spirits which are before his throne …

Revelation 1:4

The Canon Wheel

The Book of Revelation is the last of the twenty-two New Testament Epistles which constitute the seventh and final canonical division of the Holy Bible. When colored on the Bible Wheel, these seven divisions form a perfectly symmetric pattern – the Canon Wheel – that echoes the traditional tri-radiant halo of Christ which is used as the Sign of His Deity throughout Christian iconography. The Canon Wheel is an overwhelmingly powerful, top-level, super-obvious witness of the divine design of the Holy Bible. Just look at it! Its perfect symmetry unites the symbolic meaning of the Number Seven (completion and perfection) with the ancient Christian iconographic Sign of Deity (tri-radiant halo) with the whole structure sealed from Aleph Tav to echo the Living Word of God Who identifies Himself as the Alpha Omega. Anyone who knows anything about the origina and natural history of the Bible knows with perfect certainty that no human or group of humans could have conspired to compose the Canon Wheel, since its essential elements (the books, their order, content, and integration with the Hebrew Alphabet and the Alphabetic Verses) span the millenia.

The supreme clarity and overwhelming power of the Canon Wheel as a witness to the divine design of the Holy Bible makes it one of the of the primary targets of those who oppose God’s Word. It’s just too obvious – if the Canon Wheel is valid, then the Bible was designed by God. There are no two ways about it. Unfortunately for the opponents, they have very few points from which to even attempt an attack. (see Answers to Critics of the Canon Wheel). They are forced to grasp at straws as they struggle against being drowned under the overwhelming weight of evidence supporting the Canon Wheel. One of thinnest of such straws is their attempt to deny that Revelation is a letter. If they could prove that Revelation is not “really” a letter, or that its nature as letter is a secondary feature, they could form an argument against the sevenfold structure of the Canon Wheel. It is, therefore, necesary and beneficial to take a close look at the genre of the final book.

The testimonies from a wide variety of teachers, preachers, pastors and scholars are presented below. They supply more than anyone should ever need to support the fact that the Book of Revelation is indeed an epistle. As you read the quotes, you will see that there is a profound hermeneutical significance to the proper understand of the genre of Revelation. It is a letter intended to be read by all Christians at all times, and so it always has had and will always coninue to have, real meaning and real value as a comforter and guide to the body of Christ which always has been subject to great tribulations in this wicked world. When we contrast its true value with the absurd notion that it was written in a “secret code” where locusts are really helicopters, falling stars are nuclear bombs, and the beast is a supercomputer, the purely futuristic interpretation is revealed to be literally meaningless to all who lived before those advanced technologies were invented. As such, the purely futuristic interpretation of Revelation reduces the book to utter insignificance to all Christians throughout most of church history. This seem to me to be the antithesis of its true significance as the Capstone Book of the Bible in which everything that has gone before is united in a single majestic tapestry.

The epistolary nature of Revelation is immediately evident by its opening and closing salutations which are identical to the pattern seen in Paul’s epistles. It opens with “John to the seven churches which are in Asia: Grace be unto you, and peace” and closes with “The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with you all. Amen.” There also are many places in Revelation (primarily in the seven letters and the closing chapter) where the readers/hearers are spoken to directly as “you” or “thee” (second person pronouns). Like such titles as “Song of songs” and “King of kings,” the book of Revelation is literally an “epistle of epistles” because it contains seven epistles within it. As we will see in the testimony of our first witness, the understanding of Revelation as a letter the the universal church is as old as the book itself.

Solution of the Synoptic Problem

And we know that all things work together for good to them that love God, to them who are the called according to his purpose.

Romans 8:28

One of the greatest revelations the Lord gave during the writing of the Bible Wheel book has to do with parallel passages in which we find very similar records with curious variations. The scholarly literature on this subject is enormous. :

The synoptic problem is an investigation into the existence and nature of the literary interrelationship among the first three “synoptic” gospels. Matthew, Mark, and Luke are called the synoptic gospels, in contrast with John, because they can readily be arranged in a three-column harmony called a “synopsis.” Unlike John, the synoptic gospels share a great number of parallel accounts and parables, arranged in mostly the same order, and told with many of the same words. Any proposed solution to the synoptic problem, therefore, must account for these literary similarities among the synoptics, not so much in terms of their factual content, but in the selection of that content, the arrangement of the material, and wording of the parallels.

The Bible Wheel reveals the solution to the Synoptic Problem. The evidence is both overwhelming and incontrovertible. It proves that the variations were designed by God in perfect and precise accordance with the KeyWords He prophetically placed in the Alphabetic Verses. The patterns are consistent throughout all three synoptic Gospels. Here is a brief overview of the most significant results

Spoke 18: Matthew and Righteousness (Tzaddi KeyWord Tzedakah)

As discussed in the article on Matthew called To Fulfill All Righteousness, Spoke 18 is dominated by themes based on the primary Tzaddi KeyWords Tzedaqah (Righteousness) and Tzaddiq (Righteous One) which God used in many Alphabetic Verses corresponding to Tzaddi (see list in God’s Righteousness Goes Forth!). Thus the Lord God Almighty inspired Matthew to consistently insert righteousness into the parallel passages where it is missing in Luke. Note particularly the third entry in the table (Matt 6:33 vs. Luke 12:31):

Parallel Verses where Matthew = Luke + Righteousness
Matthew	Luke
[5:6] Blessed are they which do hunger and thirst after righteousness: for they shall be filled.	[6:21] Blessed are ye that hunger now: for ye shall be filled.
[5:10] Blessed are they which are persecuted for righteousness’ sake: for theirs is the king¬dom of heaven.	[6:22] Blessed are ye, when men shall hate you, and when they shall separate you from their company, and shall reproach you, and cast out your name as evil, for the Son of man’s sake.
[6:33] But seek ye first the kingdom of God, and his righteousness; and all these things shall be added unto you.	[12:31] But rather seek ye the kingdom of God; and all these things shall be added unto you.
[10:40] He that receiveth you receiveth me, and he that receiveth me receiveth him that sent me. He that receiveth a prophet in the name of a prophet shall receive a prophet’s reward; and he that receiveth a righteous man in the name of a righteous man shall receive a righteous man’s reward.	[9:48] And said unto them, Whosoever shall receive this child in my name receiveth me: and whosoever shall receive me receiveth him that sent me: for he that is least among you all, the same shall be great.
[13:17] For verily I say unto you, That many prophets and righteous men have desired to see those things which ye see, and have not seen them; and to hear those things which ye hear, and have not heard them.	[10:24] For I tell you, that many prophets and kings have desired to see those things which ye see, and have not seen them; and to hear those things which ye hear, and have not heard them.
[23:35] That upon you may come all the righteous blood shed upon the earth, from the blood of righteous Abel unto the blood of Zacharias son of Barachias, whom ye slew between the temple and the altar.	[11:50] That the blood of all the prophets, which was shed from the foundation of the world, may be required of this generation; From the blood of Abel unto the blood of Zacharias, which perished between the altar and the temple: verily I say unto you, It shall be required of this generation.
[23:29] Woe unto you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! because ye build the tombs of the prophets, and garnish the sepulchres of the righteous,	[11:47] Woe unto you! for ye build the sepulchres of the prophets, and your fathers killed them.

Spoke 19: Mark and the Quph KeyWord Qal (Swift)

Mark is known as the Gospel of Action because his narrative is very swift. This links to the Quph KeyWord Qal (Swift) which God used in the Quph verse of Lamenatations 4:19:

Our persecutors are swifter (qal) than the eagles of the heaven: they pursued us upon the mountains, they laid wait for us in the wilderness.

Scripture uses this KeyWord to describe a fast runner, such as Asahael who was “as light (qal) of foot as a wild roe” (2 Sam 2:18). Swanson’s Dictionary of Biblical Languages with Semantic Domains notes that as a noun, the word qal defines “a class of persons that can move quickly from one place to another, implying fitness, strength, and health, with a central focus on running.” This then leads directly to the supernatural integration of Mark with this Quph KeyWord. The table below shows four verses from Mark that have parallels in both Matthew and Luke, and one with a parallel only in Matthew. In each and every case, God distinguished Mark with the word run. The parallel verses in Matthew and Luke use phrases like “met him,” “followed him,” or “came to him” with no reference to running. In these parallel verses, only Mark runs. The consistency of this miracle is truly astounding.

Parallel Verses where ONLY MARK RUNS
Matthew	Mark	Luke
The Demon Legion Cast Out
[8:28] there met him two possessed with devils, coming out of the tombs,	[5:2] But when he saw Jesus afar off, he ran and worshipped him,	[8:27] there met him out of the city a certain man, which had devils long time
Five Thousand Fed
[14:13] and when the people had heard thereof, they followed him on foot out of the cities. And Jesus went forth, and saw a great multitude, and was moved with compassion toward them …	[6:33] And the people saw them departing, and many knew him, and ran afoot thither out of all cities, and outwent them, and came together unto him. And Jesus, when he came out, saw much people …	[9:11] And the people, when they knew it, followed him: and he received them, and spake unto them of the kingdom of God, and healed them that had need of healing.
Boy with Deaf and Dumb Spirit Healed
[17:14] And when they were come to the multitude, there came to him a certain man, kneeling down to him, and saying, Lord, have mercy on my son: for he is lunatick, and sore vexed: for ofttimes he falleth into the fire …	[9:15] And straightway all the people, when they beheld him, were greatly amazed, and running to him saluted him. … When Jesus saw that the people came running together, he rebuked the foul spirit …	[9:37] And it came to pass, that on the next day, when they were come down from the hill, much people met him. And, behold, a man of the company cried out, saying, Master, I beseech thee, look upon my son: for he is mine only child.
What shall I do to Inherit Eternal Life?
[19:16] And behold, one came to him and said, Teacher, what good thing shall I do, that I may have eternal life?	[10:17] And as he was going forth into the way, there ran one to him, and kneeled to him, and asked him, Good Teacher, what shall I do that I may inherit eternal life?	[18:18] And a certain ruler asked him, saying, Good Teacher, what shall I do to inherit eternal life?
Healing at Gennesaret
[14:34] And when the men of that place had knowledge of him, they sent out into all that country round about, and brought unto him all that were diseased;	[6:54] And when they were come out of the ship, straightway they knew him, And ran through that whole region round about, and began to carry about in beds those that were sick …	No parallel

Spoke 20: Luke and the Resh KeyWord Ra’ah (Look/See)

As disucssed in the Spoke 20 article The Lord Looks, one of the Resh KeyWords that God used most frequently in the Alphabetic Verses is ra’ah S# H7200 which means to see, to look, to behold, to gaze upon. Here are a few examples from the Alphabetic Verses (indicated by the AV):

Look upon mine affliction and my pain; and forgive all my sins. AV Ps 25:18

Behold, O LORD; for I am in distress: my bowels are troubled; mine heart is turned within me; for I have grievously rebelled: AV Lam 1:20

Behold, O LORD, and consider to whom thou hast done this. AV Lam 2:20

O LORD, thou hast seen my wrong: judge thou my cause. AV Lam 3:59

This manifests in parallel passages where the Lord God Almighty inspired Luke to insert the word “see” when it is missing in Matthew:

Parallel Verses where Luke = Matthew + See
MATTHEW	LUKE
Parable of the Fig Tree
[24:32] Now learn a parable of the fig tree; When his branch is yet tender, and putteth forth leaves, ye know that summer is nigh:	[21:29] And he spake to them a parable; Behold the fig tree, and all the trees; When they now shoot forth, ye see and know of your own selves that summer is now nigh at hand.
The Light that must not be Hid
[5:15] Neither do men light a candle, and put it under a bushel, but on a candlestick; and it giveth light unto all that are in the house.	[8:16] No man, when he hath lighted a candle, covereth it with a vessel, or putteth it under a bed; but setteth it on a candlestick, that they which enter in may see the light. [11:33] No man, when he hath lighted a candle, putteth it in a secret place, neither under a bushel, but on a candlestick, that they which come in may see the light.
Sitting with Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob in the Kingdom of God
[8:11] And I say unto you, That many shall come from the east and west, and shall sit down with Abraham, and Isaac, and Jacob, in the kingdom of heaven. But the children of the kingdom shall be cast out into outer darkness: there shall be weeping and gnashing of teeth.	[13:28] There shall be weeping and gnashing of teeth, when ye shall see Abraham, and Isaac, and Jacob, and all the prophets, in the kingdom of God, and you yourselves thrust out. And they shall come from the east, and from the west, and from the north, and from the south, and shall sit down in the kingdom of God.

There is yet one more wonder that must be shared. This is like a capstone to all we have seen above. Whereas all four Gospels record Peter’s denial of the Lord, ONLY LUKE mentions that the Lord turned and LOOKED at Peter!

Four Gospel Parallels where the Lord LOOKS upon Peter only in Luke
Matt 26:74f	Then began he to curse and to swear, saying, I know not the man. And immediately the cock crew. And Peter remembered the word of Jesus, which said unto him, Before the cock crow, thou shalt deny me thrice. And he went out, and wept bitterly.
Mark 14:71f	But he began to curse and to swear, saying, I know not this man of whom ye speak. And the second time the cock crew. And Peter called to mind the word that Jesus said unto him, Before the cock crow twice, thou shalt deny me thrice. And when he thought thereon, he wept.
Luke 22:60ff	And Peter said, Man, I know not what thou sayest. And immediately, while he yet spake, the cock crew. And the Lord turned, and looked upon Peter. And Peter remembered the word of the Lord, how he had said unto him, Before the cock crow, thou shalt deny me thrice. And Peter went out, and wept bitterly.
John 18:26f	One of the servants of the high priest, being his kinsman whose ear Peter cut off, saith, Did not I see thee in the garden with him? Peter then denied again: and immediately the cock crew.

Spoke 14 – Nun 2 Chronicles, Zephaniah, Hebrews

Priestly History of Faithful Judah And the Spirit of God came upon Azariah the son of Oded: And he went out to meet Asa, and said unto him, Hear ye me, Asa [King of Judah], and all Judah and Benjamin; The LORD is with you, while ye be with him; and if ye seek him, he will be found of you; but if ye forsake him, he will forsake you. Now for a long season Israel hath been without the true God, and without a teaching priest, and without law. But when they in their trouble did turn unto the LORD God of Israel, and sought him, he was found of them. And in those times there was no peace to him that went out, nor to him that came in, but great vexations were upon all the inhabitants of the countries. And nation was destroyed of nation, and city of city: for God did vex them with all adversity. Be ye strong therefore, and let not your hands be weak: for your work shall be rewarded. 2 Chronicles 15:1ff (Spoke 14, Cycle 1) The Fourteenth Book records the history from Solomon’s glorious reign down to the horror and degradation of the Babylonian Exile. But it is no vain repetition of the history previously recorded. It has a very specific character that is the key to its integration with the rest of Scripture. As usual, J. Sidlow Baxter faithfully hit the heart of the essential issues (Explore the Book, Vol 2, pg 165): Chronicles is a retelling of the story already told in the books of Samuel and the Kings, but from a different standpoint, with new emphases and new aspects, with significant additions and omissions, and supplying completive interpretations. In fact, it is in this repetition, with its characteristic additions and omissions, that the peculiar viewpoint and significance of the Chronicles are perceived; for if we read these “chronicles” side by side with the earlier ac-counts in Samuel and Kings, we soon begin to notice that the addition and omissions all seem of the same sort, that is, they all seem to conform to one focal purpose. What, then, is the unifying idea running through theses additions and omissions? And what is the central purpose of the Chronicles? The characteristic “additions and omissions” are of two primary types. First, the history is restricted almost entirely to the Southern Kingdom of Judah, with only tangential references to the Northern Kingdom of Israel which was, as we saw on Spoke 12 (Bible Wheel Book, pg 255), utterly corrupt and apostate from the beginning. As noted there, Jeroboam the son of Nebat forced Israel into idolatrous worship of golden calves and a false religion. Each and every priest who would remain faithful to the Lord had to leave, and leave they did: For the Levites left their suburbs and their possession, and came to Judah and Jerusalem: for Jeroboam and his sons had cast them off from executing the priest’s office unto the LORD: And he ordained him priests for the high places, and for the devils, and for the calves which he had made. 2 Chronicles 11:14 (Spoke 14, Cycle 1) This brings us to the second unique characteristic of 2 Chronicles. It contains an extreme emphasis on the faithful remnant of the Levitical Priesthood. There are numerous parallel passages between the Books of Kings and 2 Chronicles where only the latter even mentions the Levitical Priesthood at all. For example, consider this parallel record of Josiah’s Passover: 2 Kings 23:22-23 2 Chronicles 35:18-19 Surely there was not held such a passover from the days of the judges that judged Israel, nor in all the days of the kings of Israel, nor of the kings of Judah; But in the eighteenth year of king Josiah, wherein this passover was held to the LORD in Jerusalem. And there was no passover like to that kept in Israel from the days of Samuel the prophet; neither did all the kings of Israel keep such a passover as Josiah kept, and the priests, and the Levites, and all Judah and Israel that were present, and the inhabitants of Jerusalem. In the eighteenth year of the reign of Josiah was this passover kept. These texts speak of the same event using almost the same words except for the reference to “the priests and the Levites” in 2 Chronicles. God Himself has “cast out” the priests and Levites from the historical record that includes the apostate Kingdom of Israel! The statistics are astounding. The two books of Kings contain exactly one reference to the Levites, whereas the book of 2 Chronicles mentions them sixty-five times! This is its characteristic emphasis. Note that the theme of Passover, which happened on the Fourteenth Day, is also a special theme of the Fourteenth Spoke. Parallel Passages where ONLY 2 Chronicles mentions the Levites 1 Kings 8:10-11 2 Chronicles 5:11-14 And it came to pass, when the priests were come out of the holy place, And it came to pass, when the priests were come out of the holy place MISSING (for all the priests that were present were sanctified, and did not then wait by course: Also the Levites which were the singers, all of them of Asaph, of Heman, of Jeduthun, with their sons and their brethren, being arrayed in white linen, having cymbals and psalteries and harps, stood at the east end of the altar, and with them an hundred and twenty priests sounding with trumpets:) It came even to pass, as the trumpeters and singers were as one, to make one sound to be heard in praising and thanking the LORD; and when they lifted up their voice with the trumpets and cymbals and instruments of music, and praised the LORD, saying, For he is good; for his mercy endureth for ever: that the cloud filled the house of the LORD, So that the priests could not stand to minister because of the cloud: that then the house was filled with a cloud, even the house of the LORD; So that the priests could not stand to minister by reason of the cloud: 1 Kings 8:63-64 2 Chronicles 7:5-7 So the king and all the children of Israel dedicated the house of the LORD. so the king and all the people dedicated the house of God. MISSING And the priests waited on their offices: the Levites also with instruments of music of the LORD, which David the king had made to praise the LORD, because his mercy endureth for ever, when David praised by their ministry; and the priests sounded trumpets before them, and all Israel stood. The same day did the king hallow the middle of the court that was before the house of the LORD Moreover Solomon hallowed the middle of the court that was before the house of the LORD: 2 Kings 11:5-7 2 Chronicles 23:4-7 This is the thing that ye shall do; A third part of you that enter in on the sabbath shall even be keepers of the watch of the king’s house; And a third part shall be at the gate of Sur; and a third part at the gate behind the guard: so shall ye keep the watch of the house, that it be not broken down. And two parts of all you that go forth on the sabbath, even they shall keep the watch of the house of the LORD about the king. This is the thing that ye shall do; A third part of you entering on the sabbath, of the priests and of the Levites, shall be porters of the doors; And a third part shall be at the king’s house; and a third part at the gate of the foundation: and all the people shall be in the courts of the house of the LORD. But let none come into the house of the LORD, save the priests, and they that minister of the Levites; they shall go in, for they are holy: but all the people shall keep the watch of the LORD. And the Levites shall compass the king round about, every man with his weapons in his hand; and whosoever else cometh into the house, he shall be put to death: Just look at that! We have overwhelming evidence of design wherever we look. We saw the same thing with the parallel passages amongst the Synopitic Gospels [see the Solution of the Synoptic Problem]. Note also that the priestly theme so dominant in 2 Chronicles (Spoke 14, Cycle 1) links directly to Hebrews (Spoke 14, Cycle 3), which is the one and only “priestly” book of the New Testament. This article is drawn from the material in pages 272-274 of the Bible Wheel book. It is based on the Nun KeyWord ne’eman (faithful) which also dominates Hebrews on Cycle 3.

Apocryphal Additions to Esther Refuted

The Meaning of Esther and its Integration with the Bible Wheel

Esther had not shewed her people nor her kindred: for Mordecai had charged her that she should not shew it.

Esther 2:10 (Spoke 17, Cycle 1)

One of the most significant results derived from the Bible Wheel, which profoundly impacts all aspects of canonical studies, is the synergistic mutual confirmation of the content of Holy Scripture with its geometric form and integration with the Hebrew Alphabet.

The integration of the content of Esther with its position on the Bible Wheel is one of the most astounding examples of God’s providential supervision over the formation of the Canon. The full explanation is given on pages 307-309 of the BW book, reproduced here online in the Spoke 17 article called Esther: The Hidden Face of God. The explanation is based on the nearly universal understanding of the real meaning of Esther propounded by both Christian and Jewish exegetes throughout the ages, the earliest witness being found in the Talmud (5th century). Here is how A. M. Hodgkin expressed it in his review of every Book of the Bible called Christ in All the Scriptures :

The Book of Esther is designed to show God’s providential care of His people. Through the name of God is not mentioned, the hand of God, ruling and over-ruling the events for the preservation of His people, can be seen throughout. In the Talmud the question is asked: “Where do we get Esther in the Law?” The answer is Deuteronomy 31:18 “And I will surely hide my face, or presence.” God was hiding His face from His people on account of their sins; they had deliberately chosen to continue in the land of their captivity among the heathen, instead of availing themselves of the opportunity of returning to Jerusalem with Zerubbabel.

The Jews use the phrase hester panim to refer to this “hiddenness” of God’s “face” that characterizes the Book of Esther. It is based on a pun on the name “Esther” and the Pey KeyWord panim (face) which God used frequently in the corresponding Alphabetic Verses. We have therefore a direct and incontrovertible integration of the primary theme of the Seventeenth Book with the symbolic meaning of the Seventeenth Letter as established by God Himself in the Alphabetic Verses and which has been expounded by biblical exegetes throughout the ages! The Bible Wheel therefore confirms the inclusion of Esther in the Canon. Furthermore, the integration of its content with the symbolic meaning of the corresponding Hebrew letter confirms the design of the whole Bible on the pattern of the Wheel. Yet there is more ….

The Apocryphal Additions to Esther

Having discovered how the primary theme of Esther integrates with its position on the Wheel and the meaning of the corresponding Hebrew letter, we have extremely strong evidence – indeed proof – for the validity of its inclusion in the Canon. The miracle of God is that exactly the same evidence that proves Esther belongs in the canon also proves that we most definitely must exclude the apocryphal additions because they expressly contradict the whole lesson the Book was designed to teach!

The apocryphal additions to Esther consist of 107 verses in seven short chapters interspersed throughout the Greek Septuagint version. They were not found in the Hebrew text that Jerome used when he produced the Latin Vulgate (5th century) and he did not recognize them as Scripture, so he moved them to an appendix at the end of his translation. The Roman Catholic Church still considers the Vulgate to be the authoritative Latin version of the Bible. Its content – including all the apocrypha – was canonized by the Council of Trent in 1545 in reaction to the Protestant Reformation which held only to the protocanonical Books accepted by the Jews.

As noted above, the additions to Esther consist of seven short chapters amounting to a total of 107 verses. Yet within these 107 verses, we find a total of twenty-five references to “God” and twenty-three references to “Lord” which yields an average of one such reference in almost every other verse! These additions therefore expressly contradict the primary message of the Book as explained at length above and in the article called Esther: The Hidden Face of God. It is good at this point to recall how Baxter explained it:

The purpose of this book is to demonstrate the providential care of God over His people. It is vital to see this, for herein lies the living significance and permanent value of the book. … It is this which explains why the name of God does not occur in the Book of Esther. This non-mention of God in the story has been a problem to many. Martin Luther, in one of his occasional lapses of self-restraint, went so far as to say that he wished the book did not exist! Others have contested its right to a place in the canon. Yet surely to find a problem in this non-mention of God is to miss that which above all else we are intended to see! We say it reverently, yet none the less unhesitatingly, that if God had been specifically mentioned in the story, or, still more, if the story had specifically explained, in so many words, that it was God who was bringing about all those happenings which are recorded, the dramatic force and moral impact of the story would have been reduced; for above all, we are meant to see, in the natural outworking of events, how without violating human free will, and without interrupting the ordinary ongoing of human affairs, a hidden Power unsuspectedly but infallibly controls all things. There may have been other reasons the anonymous author may have omitted any direct reference to God … but we believe one main reason to be that which we have given, namely, the emphasizing of God’s invisible activity in providence.

To see the complete divergence of the apocryphal additions from whole thrust of the truly canonical Book of Esther, we need only to quote the first chapter. Here we find seven references to “God”, two to “Lord”, and the express statement that “God hath done these things”:

Additions to Esther, Chapter 10:4-13 

Then Mardocheus said, God hath done these things.

For I remember a dream which I saw concerning these matters, and nothing thereof hath failed.

A little fountain became a river, and there was light, and the sun, and much water: this river is Esther, whom the king married, and made queen:

And the two dragons are I and Aman.

And the nations were those that were assembled to destroy the name of the Jews:

And my nation is this Israel, which cried to God, and were saved: for the Lord hath saved his people, and the Lord hath delivered us from all those evils, and God hath wrought signs and great wonders, which have not been done among the Gentiles.

Therefore hath he made two lots, one for the people of God, and another for all the Gentiles.

And these two lots came at the hour, and time, and day of judgment, before God among all nations.

So God remembered his people, and justified his inheritance.

Therefore those days shall be unto them in the month Adar, the fourteenth and fifteenth day of the same month, with an assembly, and joy, and with gladness before God, according to the generations for ever among his people.

Obviously, the aprocryphal additions are the work of mere humans who felt a need to thrust God into the story in which He Himself had clearly chosen to “hide His face.” There are many lessons to be learned here. We must never think to “improve” on the Word of God. Many aspects of its design are hidden from us. If we try to “force-fit” anything to conform to our limited human understanding, we most certainly will distort the Work of God.

These results demonstrate yet again the overwhelming power of the Bible Wheel. It truly is the Rosetta Stone of Biblical Hermeneutics. It confirms the canonical Books even as it proves (with the same evidence, no less!) that the apocryphal additions must be excluded. Note also that we have the mutual confirmation of the Canon and the Wheel. The Canon proves the Bible Wheel, and the Bible Wheel proves the Canon. This may appear to be circular reasoning, but it is not because there is a third element – an independent parameter – found in the sequence and symbolic meaning of the Hebrew Alphabet that unites the two.