Number Symbology: 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 unraveling 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 people from traditional societies are mystics by instinct, and that people in the more modern societies 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.

1 IS THE ZERO made more manifest; it is the self, independence and unity. "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 multiplication 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 inquires 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; therefor the 4 and 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 upon him," (Mark 1:13). 40 is used in 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 anointed, 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 heads to illumination or adepship. 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):

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, symbolically 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.

13 IS A NUMBER of special significance. Note that there were twelve apostles, 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."