Preface
A Personal Note

1) Counting Hebrew Letters, Words, and Verses in Jewish Tradition

• Introduction
• The Function of Numbers in Antiquity
• The Counting of Letters, Words, and Verses in the Masoretic Tradition
• Seeking and Locating of the Center of the Text
• The Significance of Such Counting Activities
• Well-Known Numerical Compositions: the Alphabetical Poems
• The Book of Lamentations as a Numerical Composition
• Conclusions That Could Have Been Drawn Long Ago

• A New Awareness of the Significance of Numbers in the Bible
• Explicitly Mentioned Symbolic Numbers in the Bible: 40, 12, and 7
• Explicit References to the Number Seven in the Bible
• The Hidden Presence of the Number Seven in the Old Testament
• Examples from the Four Gospels
• More Examples from Other Books of the New Testament

• The Divine Speech Formulas as an Incentive to Counting
• Series of Seven in the Tabernacle Laws
• The Significance of the Menorah in Center Position
• Series of Seven in the Book of Leviticus and the Sabbath
• More Examples of Manifestly Designed Series of Seven Items

• The Primeval History in Genesis 1-11
• The Eleven Divine Monologues in the Pentateuch
• Three Genealogies in Genesis 1-11
• The Eleven Toledoth-Formulas in Genesis
• The Role of 7 in the Life Spans of the Patriarchs
• How Did 7 Acquire its Symbolic Meaning?
• The Number of Fulfillment, 11

• Significant Numbers in the Divine Speeches in Genesis
• Examples from the Book of Exodus
• Conspicuous Numbers in the Divine Speeches in Deuteronomy
• Counting Verses in Deuteronomy
• The Symbolic Meaning of 17 and 26
• The Divine Name Interwoven in the Fabric of the Text
• The Purpose of the Hidden Numerical Structures
• The Divine Name Numbers Signifying God's Presence
• 17 and 26 in the Life Spans of the Patriarchs and in the Genealogies
• The Watermark of the Name of God as the Hallmark of Holy Scripture

6) The Bible as a High-Grade Literary Work of Art

• Investigating the Numerical Structure of the Biblical Text
• The Layout Markers in the Hebrew Text of Genesis
• The Numerical Architecture of the Hebrew Bible Rediscovered
• The Pioneering Work of Claus Schedl
• The Theoretical Foundations of Schedl's Thesis
• Schedl's Numerical Analysis of New Testament Texts
• Significant Compositional Models Discovered by Schedl:

   a) The "Minor Tetraktys"
   b) The "Major Tetraktys"
   c) The Pentateuch- and Decalogue-Model
   d) The YHWH-'echad Model
   e) The Numerical Menorah-Structure and the Balance-Model
• Keywords Determining the Number of Words in a Text

• The Significance of the Numerical Aspects of the Bible
• How Numerical Structures Support the Message of a Text

   a) Psalm 82
   b) Psalm 8
   c) Psalm 19
   d) Isa 8:19 - 9:6
• The Misuse of Numbers by Numerologists
• A Theological Assessment of the Numerical Aspects of the Bible

The sub-title "Rediscovering the Bible Codes" obviously is only a publicity phrase by the American publisher. This book does not promote the so-called 'Bible Codes' in any way!

The main part of the book is 162 pages long and is followed by 20 pages full of notes, most of them references to relevant books and articles. Finally, there is an eight pages long index of scripture citations.

Prof. Labuschagne wants to take the readers on an "exploratory expedition" into the realm of biblical numbers. His book is "not written for specialists" he claims, and for a great part of it this is certainly true. However, there are at least a couple of messages for theological specialists as well as some rather tricky sections. 

In a personal note at the beginning of the book we learn that Labuschagne's colleagues - professors of theology like himself - seem to have trouble appreciating what he has discovered, and this problem continues to echo more or less subliminally throughout the whole book. And it is this very book by which Labuschagne intends to lay a "massive amount of evidence" for the validity of his discoveries on the desks of his colleagues. So it is a 'numerical thriller' right from the start.

In seven chapters we are guided through a rich selection of well-known and unknown, simple and perplexing examples of numerical patterns in the bible. And on reaching the end we will not be surprised that it took exactly seven chapters to complete this journey. But will we be convinced of having seen real numerical secrets?

The method of retrieving this information by numerically analysing the text Labuschagne calls "numerical structural analysis" or "logotechnical analysis". As part of literary criticism he calls it 'numerical criticism'.

He does not attach any mystical, magical or pseudo-scientific meaning to biblical numbers, unlike a couple of other authors who have published about this subject. According to him,  numbers in biblical texts have two main functions: "first, as a technique to count, calculate and structure - also with regard to the composition of texts - and second, as a 

Although the greater part of biblical and other ancient literature has not yet been analysed systematically, Labuschagne seems confident that numerical compositional techniques have been used in many parts of it. His reasons for this assumption are given in his own discoveries in several biblical books and in similar findings by some classical and medieval scholars in their respective literature. 

Furthermore, he points out that the Masoretes carefully counted verses, words and letters of the bible. They even located the center of biblical books on the level of words, verses and letters. These "... two phenomena were never viewed together and explained in conjunction with each other". In Labuschagne's opinion the real reason behind these activities was "to keep [the] purposeful and meaningful [numerical] structures of the text intact".

(By the way: in Labuschagne's terminology  'purposeful' and 'meaningful' seem to be almost synonymous with 'significant', so in this connection 'significant' must not be confused with 'statistically significant'.)

The Book of Lamentations seems to be a good example of numerical studies. Labuschagne (and D.Christensen) found a couple of obvious as well as more or less 'hidden' quantitative structures: A symmetrical distribution of verses, lines, and words - most of them in some connection with the number 22 - and even vowels. A sevenfold structure can be found, called 'Menorah structure', as well as a "balance-structure". Both are to be understood as symmetries in a sense that there are text-sections which have identical lengths if counted in verses. In Lamentations chapter 5 even alphabetic acrostics are found.

Labuschagne concludes from these examples and the Masoretes' counting activities, that biblical scholars should study the biblical writings with regard to their numerical aspects.

James 3,17:
"But the wisdom that comes from heaven is first of all pure[1]; then peace loving[2], considerate[3], submissive[4], full of mercy and good fruit[5], impartial[6] and sincere[7]."
Rev. 5,12:
"Worthy is the Lamb, who was slain, to receive power[1] and wealth[2] and wisdom[3] and strength[4] and honor[5] and glory[6] and praise[7]!"

In chapters 3 and 4 we get acquainted with the 'divine speech formulas', as Labuschagne calls them, a subject I already dealt with in Akzent 5  (abstract). We learn about series of seven structuring the Book of Exodus and the Book of Leviticus, the 'Menorah-Structure' in Ex. 30,26-28 being an especially pretty example since it is a symbolical self-reference. Furthermore we come to know about a couple of different 11-patterns built out of 1, 3, 4 and 7 respectively. 
It is surprising to see concentrations of such structures in special sections of the Pentateuch. Labuschagne tries to show that these structures can not only be defined formally but correspond to the contents of the text passages that are marked out by these structures.

I will not go into details here in order to leave enough reasons to buy and read the book. In these 2 chapters alone you will find plenty of material to think about.

Labuschagne claims not to treat the material exhaustively in this chapter, however, after reading chapter 5 at the latest, it is the reader who is exhausted, at least a little. We have to acknowledge that this book first of all is a collection of material. This is indeed the "massive amount" of evidence for the validity of his discoveries he intended to give his colleagues, and not necessarily suited for "lay readers" interested in the Bible as literature, as he claims in the preface. (He himself later admits this fact unintentionally in the first sentences of chapter seven.)

One problem to understand the point he is making lies in his very concise presentation of a large number of biblical passages and their numerical structures, sometimes only slightly mentioning their subject or giving a hint about their contents or context. In these places he is obviously writing for professionals in biblical studies, and even they will have to get out their Biblia Hebraica and check out by themselves what Labuschagne presented in his book. Less material could have meant more explanation.

We can only hope that some day someone with a profound knowledge in mathematics as well as in biblical literature, will come around and put the data to the test. (I guess there is enough stuff for several dissertations.)
One thing is already for sure simply from reading Labuschagne's book: It is certainly impossible to rate its content as "totally invalid", as some have done with an earlier publication of his. Even if a strict statistical analysis fails to bring up any valid results, it is worth working on this subject and trying to shed new light on the origins of the mystical Jewish numbers tradition. Of course it is the duty of the protagonist of these observations to come up with real evidence, not only a materials collection. Numbers of this kind have too often been claimed to "speak for themselves"; but they do not. They are always being interpreted. What we need is a reproducible quantitative (statistical) argumentation. 

On chapter 6:  In Akzent 1  (abstract) I already discussed a problem with the so-called 'bible code': There is absolutely no literary connection between the text of the Bible and the results of the computer programs used to find such 'codes'. In my opinion this is perhaps the most important indicator against the validity of 'Bible codes'. Not so with the research of Prof. Labuschagne! In chapter 6 he shows us how 'numerical criticism' can be (he would say: should be) understood as a part of traditional literary criticism. Of course it is no surprise that he can give a clear and again very concise presentation of its position in literary criticism, since he has been thinking in these categories for decades as a lecturer and professor of Old Testament at the State University in Groningen, The Netherlands.

His traditional literary approach also implies a critical reflection on the results of numerical research. It is almost reassuring to see how the protagonists of numerical research differ in their view of a couple of questions of definition and interpretation. And, not surprisingly, Labuschagne does not hide these discussions but honestly tells us about some moot points. There seem to be lively discussions 'behind the scenes'.

But there is more: In this chapter again - while writing on the "Theoretical Foundations of Schedl's Thesis" - we find Labuschagne commenting on the core problem making him troubles for so long: There are reviewers of his work who claimed that "Labuschagne has not proved anything yet", which he finds "unjustified. The massive amount of evidence I have brought to light sufficiently demonstrates the existence of notable numerical features of the biblical writings.[...] My interpretations may be challenged, disputed, falsified, and rejected, but the hard facts I have brought to light up till now simply cannot be ignored indefinitely."

(Example: Sub-sections of the Book of Genesis, page 110: "... this arrangement clearly shows the structural use of the divine name numbers 17 and 26.")

Main sections     Sub-sections       Total number of Sub-sections
1:1-2:2           Creation             7
2:4 - 10:32       Primeval Cycle      10       7+10=17

11:1 - 25:18      Abraham Cycle        9                  17+9=26

25:19 - 36:43     Jacob Cycle          7
37:1 - 50:26      Joseph-Cycle        10       7+10=17

are kind of self-evident in the sense of 'clearly man-made artifacts'. And the reviewers do not agree. Where is the problem? The sceptical reviewer does not assume 17 and 26 to be 'divine name numbers' ! At present it is certainly an interpretation only to call 17 and 26 'divine name numbers', not a fact. But what we are looking for is a starting point, something "proved", a statistical characteristic of so much substance that we all can agree upon its existence. If it could be proved that 17 and 26 were seen as divine name numbers at the times when the Pentateuch was written, then we would have an entirely different situation in numerical research right from the start. But there is no such proof.

More important: On pages 154/155 Labuschagne presents 3 categories of numbers he has found in the Bible and 3 methodical "hard conditions" that numerical findings have to meet to be taken seriously. These categories and conditions to me are the essence of Labuschagne's book. 

"Will we be convinced of having seen real numerical secrets?" In the final analysis, I believe that there is no explicit proof for 'numerical secrets' to be found in this book. It is a collection of many examples, often surprising, there are interpretations, plausible at most times, the author has given good arguments that must be taken into account. However, there is no mathematical 'proof' ... but I did not expect to find one, anyway. Prof. Labuschagne is no mathematician and we should not expect him to use elaborate mathematical concepts. Certainly there is much "evidence", but this evidence still depends on interpretation. After laying 'Numerical Secrets' aside, this sceptical reviewer has the following impression: Just by reading this book, i.e. without going into the very details checking out by myself all the examples Labuschagne has compiled, it is not possible to 'see' that Labuschagne is right. It may well be that he is, and this book is one important step to clarifying the subject.

I personally would have preferred to read less examples and instead have a much more rigorous treatment of just the best examples the author could find, perhaps written by a mathematician as a co-author. However, in this case the number of buyers and readers would go down to the absolute minimum ;-) . 

So, as a primer on 'Numerical Secrets of the Bible' this book is certainly as good as it can be and I recommend it to anybody interested in this subject as well as the sceptical professionals of the  'theological variety'. In all likelihood Labuschagne is right when he says: "Numerical structural analysis is here to stay and the results already brought to light simply cannot be dismissed as unimportant. (p.22)"

Prof. Casper J. Labuschagne has written a primer on numerical characteristics of the biblical text. In seven chapters we are being introduced to a great number of quantitative structures he has discovered in the Bible, especially structures using the numbers 7, 17 and 26. Furthermore this book gives an insight into the still antagonistic debate in theology about the validity of numerical research as such. We do not find a mathematical 'proof', but there is a lot of plausible evidence in favor of the numerical features Labuschagne has found. This book is an important contribution to the discussion on numbers as structuring devices in biblical writings in general, especially since there is no such thing as a 'textbook' on this subject.