IVAN PANIN
In 1882, a young immigrant from Russia was just graduating from Harvard. He had a wonderful conversion to Christ, after traveling as an agnostic who often lectured on atheism! A brilliant mathematician, multi-lingual scholar and a literary figure, Panin began to study the Scriptures as a Christian. Knowing Hebrew, Aramaic and Greek, he began reading them in the original languages. Now both Hebrew and Greek are unique in that they do not have separate characters for numbers. In other words, they do not use special symbols for their numbers (like our Arabic numerals 1,2,3,etc.) but use instead the letters of their alphabets to represent numbers.
Aware of the numerical values of the Greek and Hebrew alphabets, Panin experimented one day by replacing the letters with their corresponding numbers in Scripture. Here is Panin...a mathematical genius, a Hebrew and Greek scholar, and he loves playing with numbers. Suddenly, his trained mind saw a mathematical pattern! As he studied more intensely, his excitement grew. A few short hours of work had him utterly amazed. The verses he had studied bore unmistakable evidence of an elaborate mathematical pattern, far beyond random chance, or human ability to construct. This discovery marked the turning point in his career, and from that time until his death in 1942, he devoted his entire life to the study of Bible numerics.
He showed, first of all, that the Bible, in its original language, is a skillfully designed product of a mathematical mastermind --far beyond any possibility of deliberate structuring. He later supplied a representative of the Nobel Research Foundation with over 43,000 sheets of his studies accompanied by his statement that this was his evidence that the Bible was the Word of God. Their reply was, "As far as our investigation has proceeded...we find the evidence overwhelmingly in favor of such a statement." He then issued a challenge throughout leading newspapers of the world to offer a "natural explanation" or refute the facts; not a single person was able to do so.
In 1882, a young immigrant from Russia was just graduating from Harvard. He had a wonderful conversion to Christ, after traveling as an agnostic who often lectured on atheism! A brilliant mathematician, multi-lingual scholar and a literary figure, Panin began to study the Scriptures as a Christian. Knowing Hebrew, Aramaic and Greek, he began reading them in the original languages. Now both Hebrew and Greek are unique in that they do not have separate characters for numbers. In other words, they do not use special symbols for their numbers (like our Arabic numerals 1,2,3,etc.) but use instead the letters of their alphabets to represent numbers.
Aware of the numerical values of the Greek and Hebrew alphabets, Panin experimented one day by replacing the letters with their corresponding numbers in Scripture. Here is Panin...a mathematical genius, a Hebrew and Greek scholar, and he loves playing with numbers. Suddenly, his trained mind saw a mathematical pattern! As he studied more intensely, his excitement grew. A few short hours of work had him utterly amazed. The verses he had studied bore unmistakable evidence of an elaborate mathematical pattern, far beyond random chance, or human ability to construct. This discovery marked the turning point in his career, and from that time until his death in 1942, he devoted his entire life to the study of Bible numerics.
He showed, first of all, that the Bible, in its original language, is a skillfully designed product of a mathematical mastermind --far beyond any possibility of deliberate structuring. He later supplied a representative of the Nobel Research Foundation with over 43,000 sheets of his studies accompanied by his statement that this was his evidence that the Bible was the Word of God. Their reply was, "As far as our investigation has proceeded...we find the evidence overwhelmingly in favor of such a statement." He then issued a challenge throughout leading newspapers of the world to offer a "natural explanation" or refute the facts; not a single person was able to do so.
