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BIBLE SYMBOLOGY

T HE BIBLE is a veritable mine of number symbology. Both the Old

and New Testaments reveal, by use of numbers, depth of meaning
and hidden concepts which commonly escape the casual reader.
The Zohar, a collection of mystical kabbalistic writings, states that, “The
Universe was created by three forms of expression—Numbers, Letters and
Words.” The letters in all alphabets represent definite powers. To study the
vibratory value of numbers and letters is to study the divine creative
energies in various degrees of manifestation. Every name in the Bible
describes a deeper meaning regarding the person or place to which it
applies. Similarly certain words are made to have hidden significance.

Old Testament
To read through the Old Testament, the Torah, Kabbalah, and other
sacred Hebraic writings is to become well aware of how the Hebrews used
the science of names and numbers in their number-letter code. By this code
they wished to obscure their meanings from the uninitiate, and at the same
time to reveal their inner teachings to the initiate.
Each letter of the Hebrew alphabet has several meanings—for example
the letter Aleph (A) means “life-breath, power, source; “while the letter Beth
(B) means “house, shelter”—and so on with every letter. The symbology
allowed hidden teachings to be evident to those who knew how to read the
deeper message contained in the names of all persons and places described.
Scholars could also penetrate the mask of allegory and receive or give
divine guidance through numbers and letters.
For example, the story of Cain slaying Abel is about fraternal rivalry. But
symbolically, the name Cain means body and materialistic human desires,
while Abel stands for the soul and idealistic human nature. These characters
were so named to warn that materialism would kill spiritual ideas; hence
Cain was said to have killed Abel (Genesis 4:8).
Many biblical characters who reached periods of spiritual growth and
development in their lives were given new names by divine direction. Thus
Abram became Abraham (Genesis 17:5) and Sara became Sarah (Genesis
17:15). In both cases, the Hebrew Heh (H), a letter meaning “light” and
having a vibration of 9, was added to the name to denote the attainment of
spiritual light.
New Testament writers also made name changes to point out an
individual’s spiritual progress. For example, Saul became Paul after his
conversion to Christianity (Acts 9:1-22 and 13:9). This symbolized the
removal of the Hebrew Shin (S) and its replacement with the Hebrew Peh
(P). Shin means “tooth or fang of a serpent.”Peh means “mouth.” After this
change, Saul became Paul, the spokesman for Christ (Acts 13:9). As
Proverbs 22:1 states, “a good name is rather to be chosen than great riches.”
A further use of numbers in biblical language involves recounting the
number of years a person lived, begat and died. These numbers did not refer
to the person’s age in years, but rather to progress in spiritual attainment.
The meaning of the name of the begotten indicated the development of a
characteristic. Cycles also were indicated by the generations of descent. For
example, from Adam to Noah there were nine generations, and from Noah
to Abraham there were also nine generations. That made Noah the ninth
from Adam, and Abraham the ninth from Noah.
Adam had three sons—Cain (body), Abel (soul) and Seth (replacement
for Abel to carry the spiritual light). In a parallel situation, Noah also had
three sons—Shem (spirit), Ham (physical nature) and Japhet (mental
nature). These names represented the growth of humanity in consciousness
after eighteen cycles of change.
Abram meant “father,” while Abraham implied the added faith in God
which he had come to realize. At ninety-nine years of age, Abraham begat
Isaac, whose name meant “joy in divine sonship.” Isaac begat Jacob, whose
name meant “illumination through unfolding soul.” Jacob’s twelve sons
(Genesis 35:22-27) refer to the twelve types of consciousness represented
by the twelve character types in the signs of the zodiac.
To study the whole Bible in this light is to have a lifetime of fascinating
discovery. It can be said that Hebrew, more than any other language, offers
us a great opportunity to study the profound power and significance of
names.
Here is a short list of keywords for the numbers in biblical times:

0. Source before manifestation.

1. God, the one immutable divine unity.
2. Duality—human, not divine.
3. Attributes of 1 + 2 = 3—union of divine and human qualities.
4. The idea of solidity—steadfastness.
5. Humanity with its five developed senses.
6. Equilibrium, fitness, peace.
7. Humanity’s septenary nature, cyclic fullness.
8. Accumulation, strength, power, augmentation.
9. Consolidation, conservation, humaneness. (The true mission of the 9 is
to serve as a minister of God on earth.)
10. God and humanity, father-mother-deity, completion.

Modem numerology has grown partly from these concepts. The numbers
and letters reflect meanings from the past coupled with many added
spiritual interpretations. Meanings of our names today have deep
significance and can be delineated letter by letter and number by number as
we attain cycles of expression year by year in our own lives. These are fully
explained in earlier chapters of this book.

0 GENESIS, which means “first cause,” relates to the primordial source.

The first few verses of Genesis pertain only to the one God, as divine
creator, who brings the world into existence out of the void, or from the
unmanifest.

1 “LET THERE BE LIGHT” (Genesis 1:3). The first spiritual

emanation was light. If our soul continues to follow the light, we will
get back to our source. 1 stands for a beginning, a new start and unity.
“…AND GOD DIVIDED the light from the darkness” (Genesis 1:4). In 2

2 there is duality, day and night, heaven and earth, man and woman and
all pairs of opposites. Thus the development of choice began between
good and evil, true and false and positive and negative.
Pythagoras says, “2 is the imperfect condition into which ‘being’ falls,
when it becomes detached from the monad, God.” Manly Hall in The
Mystical Christ, states, “When the eyes of the both are opened, the sight of
the soul is obscured.”

3 THE FIRST TRINITY—Adam and Eve and child. Thus 3 means

manifestation and expansion. Other trinities survive in our world—
body, soul, and spirit, and the three divisions of mind—conscious,
subconscious and super-conscious.

4 MANY BIBLICAL REFERENCES are taken from the cycles of the

natural world. The symbology of the four seasons and four winds is
embodied in Ezekiel’s vision of the four living creatures—the face of a
man, the face of a lion, the face of an ox and the face of an eagle (Ezekiel
1:5-14). These four relate to the four fixed signs of the zodiac.
The four elements appear symbolically as the birds of the air, the fish of
the sea, the fire of the Lord and the products of the earth. Genesis 2:10-14
tells of the “river out of Eden which parted into four heads.” The rivers
were named Pison, Gihon, Hiddekel and Euphrates. Metaphysically these
names mean spirit (fire), breath (air), body (earth) and blood (water). These
symbolize spirit, mind, body and soul which are the four principles that
vitalize the material body during the earth life.

5 METAPHYSICALLY a “river” represents vital force. Human beings

are the container of this force, as a “garden” symbolizes the body. The
river of Genesis 2:10-14, described under number 4, represents the flow of
humanity itself throughout the earth, which divides and divides until it
covers all the earth. The 5 is the number of humanity with our five
developed senses. The five senses are introduced in the early chapters of
Genesis to indicate that the senses are essential in human creation; and
therefore 5 is the number of humanity.
Five plays an important part in the story of David and Goliath, “…and
David chose five smooth stones out of the brook” and “David took a stone
and smote the Philistine (Goliath) in the forehead. The stone sunk into the
forehead and he fell to the ground, (I Samuel 17:40). The five stones
represent the spiritualization of David’s senses. David believed in the
indwelling God of love and had learned to depend upon the spiritual power
within himself. According to a mystical legend, when David touched the
five stones they became as one stone, thus combining the total powers of
his senses. The name Goliath means material power; thus the story is meant
to demonstrate the power of the spiritual over the material.

6 THE PREPARATIONS for the emergence of humanity had all been

made during the five days of creation, so on the sixth day, God made
human beings. “In the image of God created He him, male and female
created He them,” (Genesis 1:27). So 6 is associated with generation,
motherhood, fatherhood, domesticity and service. Home, family and
children are the concerns of 6; human relationships and love abound.
Moses, the first lawgiver, patterned the Ten Commandments after the
Lord’s example of creating the universe in six days. “Six days shalt thou
labor and do all thy work” (Exodus 20:9). Therefore 6 is related to labor
and service, as shown by the sixth sign of the zodiac, Virgo.
Through love, the sixth sense is to be developed as people demonstrate
their godliness. The Book of Ruth is keyed to the number 6 and to love. In
Ruth 3:15, Boaz gives Ruth six measures of barley, symbolic of love and
protection.

7 IS THE PRINCIPLE NUMBER in the Bible; it is used innumerable

times (some say over three hundred sixty) throughout both the Old
and New Testaments. “But the seventh day is the Sabbath of the Lord thy
God…. For in six days the Lord made heaven and earth…and rested the
seventh day; wherefore the Lord blessed the seventh day and hallowed it”
(Exodus 20:10-11).
One of the most profound examples of the use of the symbolic number 7
is related to the fall of Jericho in the Book of Joshua, 6:1-20:

And the Lord said unto Joshua, “And ye shall compass the city…and
go round about the city once. Thus shalt thou do six days….And the
priests shall bear before the ark seven trumpets of rams’ horns: and
the seventh day ye shall compass the city seven times, and the priests
 shall blow with the trumpets…. When they make a long blast with the
ram’s horn and when ye hear the sound of the trumpet, all the people
shall shout with a great shout, and the wall of the city shall fall down
flat.

It becomes evident that the fall of Jericho was not by warfare but rather
was by the principle of the 7. Victory was achieved by means of the positive
vibration of sound which had been built up to a tremendous power.

8 THE MYSTERY of the 8 is that of eternal and continuous spiral

motion, which is constant throughout the universe. The life-force
currents sweep through the body in the form of a figure 8, following the
cerebro-spinal and the sympathetic nervous systems, like radiations of light.
This is why in deep meditation one sees a real light within. The symbol co,
the horizontal 8, means “as above, so below.” It is a symbol of power. In
Genesis 17:10 the rite and covenant of circumcision was to be performed on
the eighth day of a man-child’s life. This was considered one of the most
important covenants between God and humanity.

9 IS THE ULTIMATE, containing the forces of all the other numbers. It

stands for a complete cycle of growth. The nine generations from
Adam to Noah and from Noah to Abraham indicate stages of growth and
development. Noah was the ninth from Adam, and Abraham was the ninth
from Noah.
When Abram received his covenant from God and his new name,
Abraham, he was “ninety and nine years old” (Genesis 17:1-5).
Symbolically, his age reduces to a 9, to indicate that this was a period of
time in which a spiritual cycle had been completed. The addition of the
Hebrew Heh (H) to Abram’s name carries a 9 vibration as well.

New Testament
In the first four books of the New Testament, Matthew, Mark, Luke and
John, the writers express their Christian teachings mostly by allegory and
parable. These are meant to be interpreted in various ways; some apply to
the cosmic world as a whole, some to our solar system, some to the entire
human race and some to individuals. Since a person is called the microcosm
within the macrocosm, an individual represents, in miniature, all that is, was
and will be.
As in the Old Testament, symbology is used also to point out significant
hidden meanings in names and numbers. The art and science of numerology
is one of the most obvious methods employed, although a deep
understanding of the basic meanings of numbers is necessary for a complete
unravelling of inner meanings.
The New Testament describes the path of faith. Faith is the conscious
acceptance of wisdom and love. When faith is strong the mind is at peace
and the body is free of tension. Faith is a mystical conviction that God is
presently a power within the individual. The instinct to believe is as strong
as the instinct to survive, impelling one to search for a philosophy to sustain
one’s hopes and desires on the journey through life. It is said that primitive
people were mystics by instinct, and that modem people are mystics by
intuition.
In Christian teachings Christ is the revelation of the love and forgiveness
of God. The Sermon on the Mount (Matthew 5:17) is the code of mystic
Christianity, and it is in the faithful heart that the Sermon is understood.
The twelve disciples of Jesus represent an extension of the twelve tribes
of Israel. The seventy-two other disciples correspond to the six elders
chosen from each of the original twelve tribes.
The Pythagorean dodecahedron (a twelve-sided symmetrical figure
which can be compared to the twelve lines of the Divine Triangle)
represents the universe as related to humanity. This indicates that the
individual has within himself the potential of the twelve powers as they
relate to the inherent attributes within the twelve signs of the zodiac. The
search for knowledge is motivated by the desire to understand the self in
relation to God.
The New Testament writers symbolically applied all the basic numbers to
express their ideas, but made more references to specific numbers relating
to the seven-fold human body, to the divine potential of the human mind
and soul and to spiritual destiny. Many years elapsed between the writing of
the Old and New Testaments which allowed time for much expansion of
human consciousness. As a result, many more meanings for the numbers
had accrued. The use of symbolism had grown and was liberally employed
as a means of revelation.
IS THE ZERO made more manifest; it is the self, independence and unity.

1 “In the beginning was the Word…and the Word was God” (John 1:1).
1 is the basis or cause of a beginning; it is a start, a creative idea for
expression.

2 ENCOMPASSES ALL PAIRS of opposites—male and female, spirit

and matter, heaven and hell. “No man can serve two masters…ye
cannot serve God and Mammon,” (Matthew 6:24). There is always a choice
to be made between the pairs of opposites; thus we are warned that in
duality there is danger. “A house divided against itself shall not stand,”
(Matthew 12:25). But, “If two agree, it shall be done,” (Matthew 18:19).

3 SYMBOLIZES THE TRINITY, triad and trine—the three dimensions.

In a larger sense, the 3 stands for mutliplication and growth.
Three of the disciples went with Jesus into the garden of Gethsemane.
They were Peter, James and John; these three stand for light, life and love.
“And Jesus went apart and prayed three times…each time He returned to
find them asleep.” The inner meaning is that Jesus felt that light, life and
love were forsaking Him, as He said in His prayer, “Father let this cup pass
from me, nevertheless, Thy will be done” (Matthew 26:37-45; Mark 14:32-
41).
Jesus asked Peter three times, “Lovest thou me?” (John 21:15-17). The
three inquiries refer to love on the three planes of consciousness—the
conscious mind, the subconscious mind and the super-conscious mind. “If
two or three are gathered together in my name, there am I in the midst of
them,” (Matthew 18:20). This also refers to the three parts of the mind, and
avers that if all agree, the Christ power will prevail.
The story of Jesus is a story of 3’s. He rose after three days and he was
denied thrice by Peter. The fact that Jesus was crucified between two
thieves is symbolic of the divided system of belief which has stolen many
of the true teachings. Christ sat down with the twelve, a higher vibration of
3. Judas bargained for thirty pieces of silver, again a vibration of 3.

4 STANDS FOR LAW and order, measurement, the physical and

material realms, reason, logic, the square and the cross. Whenever a
number is made up of straight lines, it symbolizes the divine principle;
therefore the 4 and the 7 are called sacred numbers. The symbols are the
square and the cross. The cross is always a sacred symbol wherever found.
Traditionally, the equal-armed cross represented man. With the coming of
Christ, the horizontal line of the cross was raised from the umbilical center
to the heart center. It is not necessarily a Christian symbol; other spiritual
leaders have died on the cross such as Krishna of India, Thamus of Syria,
Hesus of the Druids, Mithra of Persia and Quexalcotl of Mexico.
“And He was there in the wilderness forty days tempted by Satan; and
was with the wild beasts, and the angels ministered unto him,” (Mark 1:13).
40 is used in a Scripture to indicate a completed cycle of retreat from things
of the world in preparation for something better to follow.
On the morning of the fourth day after he died, Lazarus (meaning lack of
spiritual understanding) lay in the tomb, bound hand and foot, with grave
clothes wound around him. The fourth dawning day is when spiritual
understanding shall release us from the grave of materialism and bring
awakening to the one light.
“At the fourth watch, just as gray dawn was breaking, they beheld one
walking on the water,” (Matthew 14:25). This refers metaphorically to the
dawning of Aquarian Age, the age of community.

5 STANDS FOR MEDIATION, understanding and judgment. The

ancients represented the world by the number 5, the explanation being
that in 5 are represented the four elements earth, water, fire and air, plus the
fifth essence, ether or spirit. Five became the number of humanity with the
five developed senses. It is the great work of human beings to gain control
over the five senses, after which the sixth sense, intuition develops.
The five wounds of Christ symbolize the suffering endured while in the
flesh, which leads us to turn to God. In the parable of the five wise and the
five foolish virgins (Matthew 25:3), ‘They that were foolish took their
lamps and took no oil with them. But the wise took oil in their vessels with
their lamps.” The oil relates to the annointed, or those who had light.
Human beings can choose the light or reject it by their actions.
Interestingly, the word oil is a 9-powered word which means a completed
cycle of attainment.

6 IS THE NUMBER OF BALANCE, harmony, cooperation, marriage,

connubiality and beauty. “And there were set there six water pots of
stone” (John 2:6) for the wedding feast. A wedding represents love (as does
the number 6) at its most blissful state in earthly consciousness. The 6
expresses universal love, for out of the sorrows of personal love, the soul
awakens to the higher life which leads to illumination or adeptship. Jesus’s
first miracle changed six pots of water to wine.

7 IS THE NUMBER OF REST, cessation but not ceasing, safety, and

the full measure of the triad and the quaternary.
One of the greatest heritages from the Christian Scriptures is the seven-
fold path of the Lord’s prayer. The seven statements express the triad and
the quaternary (Matthew 6:9-13):

1. Our Father which art in heaven,

2. Hallowed be Thy Name.
3. Thy kingdom come, Thy will be done, on earth as it is in heaven.
4. Give us this day our daily bread, and
5. Forgive us our debts as we forgive our debtors.
6. Lead us not into temptation,
7. But deliver us from evil.

The final statement (“For Thine is the kingdom, and the power and the
glory, forever”) was added much later to symbolize return to the heavenly
state.

8 STANDS FOR INVOLUTION AND EVOLUTION, for cycles of ebb

and flow, infinity, rhythm, advancement, strength and confidence.
The 8 is not a primary number in the New Testament. Rather, we find the
8 figures heavily in the eight-fold path of the Buddha and in occult
literature.

9 REFERS TO COMPLETION, attainment, fulfillment, regeneration

and revelation. Many words in the Bible are used for their symbolic
meanings and teachings mystically concealed. Bread and wine are usually
linked together. Bread is a 3-powered word; wine is a 6-powered word;
together they form a symbol of the 9-power of regeneration. Thus the
serving of bread and wine means that one is to partake of a regenerative
process when taking communion.
 In the Book of Revelation there are two numbers whose meanings have
caused much discussion. These two numbers, the 666 and the 144,000 both
vibrate to a 9. The 144,000 who were sealed as members of the Tribes of
Israel refers to developed or saved humanity. The seal refers to the
protective “sign in their foreheads,” (Revelations 9:4). The 666, described
as the “number of the beast” (Revelations 13:18), refers to humanity
functioning at the materialistic unregenerated level. Thus these two
numbers mystically refer to the evolution of humanity, either as ‘lost” (666)
or “saved” (144,000).
Humanity, symbolicaly called the “hand of God,” demonstrates the same
principle. Hand is a 9-powered word and refers to humanity as one of God’s
helpers in bringing forth His Kingdom.
The nine statements of blessing in the Sermon on the Mount, which show
a completed cycle, represent the essence of the New Testament teaching
that the greatest of all power is love. Love is a 9-powered word. “He that
loveth not knoweth not God, for God is love,” (I John 4:8). “God is love,
and he that dwelleth in love, dwelleth in God, and God in him,” (I John
4:16). In the ninth hour—the hour of prayer—Christ on the cross said, “It is
finished,” (John 19:30).
The numbers 12 and 13 hold a special place in both the Old and New
Testaments.

12 THERE WERE Twelve Tribes of Israel who were the sons of Jacob.
When Jacob gave his blessing to his twelve sons, he was referring not only
to twelve individuals, but to the development of twelve attributes to be
awakened in the human soul. These paralleled the twelve characteristics of
the twelve signs of the zodiac (Genesis 49:1-28). The work of these twelve
sons dominated most of the Old Testament. Each tribe expressed the
qualities of one sign of the zodiac and responded to a certain number. No
tribe was wholly good or bad. These twelve signs and their corresponding
numbers are operative in the lives of every individual, for each person
indeed is a miniature universe.
Jesus chose to have twelve apostles. These also relate in character to the
twelve signs of the zodiac to make a complete gathering of types of people
in the inner circle of followers of Jesus. Thus the vibrational force under the
number 12 belongs to the developed soul who has accumulated unusual
inner strength through many and varied experiences.
13ISapostles,
A NUMBER of special significance. Note that there were twelve
but Jesus, the Christ, made a thirteenth member at the last
supper. 12 is the number of solar months in the year, but 13 is the number of
lunar months. While the solar vibrations are positive-creative in type, the
lunar vibrations are negative-receptive in type. Each, as a reflection of God,
is equally important.
13 means either death through degeneration, or life and attainment
through regeneration. There are no half-way measures in 13; it requires all
or nothing. If 13 is your number, face it and win!
“Choose ye this day whom ye will serve,” (Joshua 24:15). In
Deuteronomy 30:16, Moses said, “See, I have set before thee this day life
and good—or death and evil—therefore choose life, and both thou and thy
seed shall live.”
Incarnation in the flesh represents the soul’s burial in matter, where it
loses the power it originally had in the ethereal realm where it was created
to be a companion to God. Eating of the Tree of Knowledge of Good and
Evil leads to spiritual, not physical, death. When the soul turns from God to
self it figuratively dies. We wander about on earth in the flesh, as prodigal
sons and daughters, victims of spiritual amnesia. The prodigal, even as you
and I, went from the father’s home of his own free will; the father did not
send him.
Both the Old and the New Testaments contain numerous instances of the
use of numerological symbols in the form of parable and allegory. Because
every number and letter has a dual meaning, hidden messages are
discernible to readers who understand the number-letter codes employed in
biblical times.
In addition, there are three levels of meaning or knowledge which the
reader can acquire. The first level comes through the conscious mind and
applies to the material or physical world. The second level is absorbed
through the subconscious mind and is acquired by means of parables and
symbols. The third level deals with revelations on the super-conscious plane
of thought and affirms that we must rediscover who we are from within.
The Bible is the story of humanity and its generations (growth and
attainment), of its degeneration (the prodigal who left his father’s house
forgetful of his divinity) and of its regeneration through the possible path of
return to the consciousness within which proclaims, “Thy Will be done.”