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1 Kings was written using a goodly amount of gematria calculations. With them we can arrive at a more complete picture than ever before of what the scribal author of the text was trying to convey. 1 Kings does not aim at reflecting an authentic chronology of events but rather presents numbers of days that are typological, and represent an ideal span of time.

QED:
"In the four hundred and eightieth year after the Israelites came out of Egypt, in the fourth year of Solomon’s reign over Israel, in the month of Ziv, the second month, he began to build the Temple of the LORD."

The self styled ‘hipster historian‘, David Miano suggests that 480 years represents an Era and he notes that biblical writers appear to have written or adjusted their open chronology to fit an idealized period of time. He cites the chronology that spans for 480 years between the Exodus (Josh 14:10) and the 4th year of Solomon’s reign when he begins building the Temple (1 Kgs 6:1).

45 years for the Exodus and Conquest (Josh 14:10)
70 years for the periods of oppression (Judges 3:8, 14; 4:3; 6:1; 10:8)
200 years for the periods of rest (Judges 3:3, 11; 5:31; 8:28)
76 years for the minor judges (Judges 10:1-4; 12:7-15)
3 years for the reign of Abimelech (Judges 9:22)
40 years for the Philistine oppression (Judges 13:1)
2 years for Saul (1 Sam 13:1)
40 years for David (1 Kgs 2:11)
3 years for Solomon (1 Kgs 6:1)
= 480 years by ordinal measurement.

According to 1 Kings, 480 years after the Israelites left Egypt, Solomon finished the Temple in 3 sections over a 7 year period – [6:9], [6:14], [6:38]. Yet one day is 480 minutes x 3 (= 1440 minutes), so this is typological to the way God created the heaven and the earth in a single day because in the first line of genesis, 480 is the sum total of the words Elohim, Heaven and Earth in the first sentence of Genesis.

אלהימ 86 + השמימ 98 + הארצ 296 = 480

This underlines the typological nature of the writing in 1 Kings. These parallels are well known in Kabbalistic literature; the original menorah and its seven branches represent the seven lower Sephirot of the Tree of Life. The veil of the Holy of Holies and the inner part of the temple represent the Veil of the Abyss on the Tree of Life, behind which the Shekhina or Divine presence hovers. Scholars have suggested that the Temple described in 1 Kings represented God’s personal pleasure garden on Earth – and was a copy of the divine garden of Eden in the heavens.

The description of the First Temple shares many architectural similarities with other Temples in the region. It’s location sounds similar to that of the Temple of ‘El’ located in the mountains, at the “source of the rivers; amidst the channels of the two oceans.” Its a concept strongly reminiscent of the biblical Garden of Eden – however no trace of any physical Temple building to El has ever been found.

The Temple could be entered through a number of gates by those who were ritually pure, and visitors participated in sacrificial meals.

The Temple was built very closely to the Kings palace, actually within earshot. The Kings palace may have functioned to parallel the bottom palace on the Wheel of the Chariot where the earthy domain and the physical creation of the world were designated to manifest. It was comprised of five sections; the Hall of Pillars; the House of the Forest of Lebanon and a Throne room where the King sat in judgment. Further back from the Kings Throne room was his living area and a hall like this was also made for the Queen. These five sections would correspond to the letter Heh (5) on the Seven Palaces.

I’m not suggesting that the Temple looked like the Seven Palaces; only that the Temple and the Palaces share correspondences.

Simple.jpg


An outer court connected the royal palace with an inner court with the Temple was located in the centre. Only priests where allowed in the precinct of the inner court which symbolically represented the Garden of Eden. The inner court parallels the rectangular section of the wheel of the chariot –bounded by the cross beams and the circumference.

The outer court was surrounded by service chambers used by priests, prophets and courtiers and they served for storage, for the eating of the sacrificial meat and other functions.

In the inner courtyard stood a large bronze altar with a fire burning on top of it. Several types of sacrifice were performed a top this altar and the blood was collected and poured into the base of the altar with special bronze implements.

At the left and right of the entrance to the Temple, were placed ten enormous bronze vessels filled with water and mounted inside wheeled stands. Each stand had four wheels and was decorated with cherubs, cattle and lions. A huge basin ‘the Sea’ (yam) was placed slightly to the left of the entrance, and this rested on twelve bronze cattle and were aligned to the north, south, east and west. The ten vessels were used for washing meat and the priests used the Sea for washing themselves.

Symbolically the Sea represented the river flowing from the Garden of Eden, to water the garden before branching into four rivers. These four heads are metaphorical for the four spokes of the wheel that branch to the northeast, the northwest, the southeast, and the southwest from the axis –distributing the life giving grace of the divinity from his residence.

The entrance to the house of God was flanked by two immense and freestanding bronze pillars that were topped with floral motifs of a lotus-shaped capital, decorated with pomegranates, and intertwined, tangled branches. Some writers have raised the possibility that they represent the two trees which grew in the middle of the Garden of Eden – the Tree of Knowledge and the Tree of Life.

The pillars have a likely correspondence with the path connecting the bottom palace with the solar palace at the axis of the wheel. If so the symbolism of the two pillars may be related to the injunction of silence during the sacrifice – represented by the two letters Heh Samekh meaning ‘silence and Heh-Samekh Resh meaning to take away or remove. As Zephaniah declared: “Be silent at the presence of the Lord Yhvh – for the day of Yhvh is at hand – for he has prepared Yhvh a sacrifice and He has consecrated His guests.” The pillars were named Yakhin and Boaz.

The entrance of the Temple is framed by four stepped and interlocking door frames. The entrance is usually portrayed as having double doors but there is nothing actually in the literature to definitively indicate this;

"For the entrance to the inner sanctuary he made doors out of olive wood that were one fifth of the width of the sanctuary. And on the two olive-wood doors he carved cherubim, palm trees and open flowers, and overlaid the cherubim and palm trees with hammered gold. In the same way, for the entrance to the main hall he made door frames out of olive wood that were one fourth of the width of the hall. He also made two doors out of juniper wood, each having two leaves that turned in sockets. He carved cherubim, palm trees and open flowers on them and overlaid them with gold hammered evenly over the carvings". – 1 Kings 6:31.

The doors may equally have been separated one from the other for some cultic purpose. If so this would explain the symbolism of having two palaces that both are attributed with the letter Daleth; this letter is related to the pictogram of a door.

Door opening rituals are known to have been practiced in other ancient Near East Temples, and the first Temple was opened and closed every morning and evening with golden tools that were probably a type of key. It may be that when one door was opened in the morning the other was closed, and with the advent of the evening the morning door was closed and the evening door was opened. Again, from the literature there is nothing to suggest that the House of God was shut up for the night –or that cultic worship was strictly a day time affair, although this seem to seems to be a common assumption. On the Wheel of the Chariot the entire left hand side appears to be associated with the daylight hours while the whole of right hand side would correspond with the night time.

Once we have entered into the Temple, we find ourselves in a long room twice as long as a wide known as the outer sanctum (Heykhal). The floor was laid with cypress wood and the walls and ceiling were paneled with fragrant Cederwood. The room is decorated and engraved with gourds and calyxes, continuing on with Garden of Eden motifs. Two side buildings flanked the Heykhal, again corresponding to the circumference; and these may have functioned as a scriptorium and storage areas for scrolls.

It was possible to walk about on the roof of the temple, and some Freemasons have suggested that the tabernacle may have been erected on the roof once a year in order to make the temple visually resemble a mountain.

At the far end of the Heykhal was the most important place in the Temple –the divine residence; Holy of holies; or D’bir which is intensely an ornately decorated with calyxes, palmettes and cherubs. Outside in the Heykhal the sidewalls are lit with ten golden lamp stands containing golden oil lamps that illuminate the rest of the cultic furniture present, such as a table with an offering of bread and drinking vessels for the divine victuals. In front of the doors leading to the D’bir was an incense altar made of Cederwood and plated with gold.

When entering the inner chamber to the divine residence you passed within a short corridor surrounded by five interlocking frames. The walls were made of Cederwood and covered with pure gold, although the room feature no illumination of any kind. In the centre of the Holy of Holies there were two giant golden Cherubs with wings that filled the chamber.
According to Hurowitz these cherubs represented god’s divine throne, and were the basis of the epithet “he who sits upon the Cherubs” (1 Sam. 44), and “Rider of the cherubs” (Ps. 18.11) and we are told that according to the Book of Chronicles, this cherub throne is a model of the Merkabah. The throne represented the seventh palace of the Merkabah wheel which is a place where, according to the Zohar –the ‘Ancient of Days’ dwelt – a place where humans could not enter. Under the wings of the cherubs was the golden Ark that housed the tablets of the covenant – containing the Ten Commandments given by God to the Jewish people to obey.

“The gradual increase in the value of the materials and the sophistication of design parallels an increase in sanctity and limitations on those who may enter. The outer court would have been visited by the public at large, where the inner court was restricted to priests, and the inside of the Temple was open only to the high priest.” – Hurowitz.
 
If you'd like to know more about the Temple of Solomon, Professor Hurowitz recorded a marvelous video for the Library of Congress before he passed away. I highly recommend it.

 
The alphabetic acrostic of Genesis 1 & 2:

The Palace of Beth (2).
‎“1. In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth. 2. The earth was formless and void, and ‎darkness was over the surface of the deep, and the Spirit of God was moving over the surface of the ‎waters. “‎

This is an extract from a new paper I'm writing. Please consult "The Gematria Substrate" on academia.edu before reading. Thank you.

Abstract
I present evidence that the creation myth of Genesis was founded upon an alphabetic framework that corresponds to the letter attributions of the Seven Palaces, and I discuss how this accounts for the repetition and lack of linearity in chapters 1 & 2. Naturally this inevitably debunks the documentary hypothesis, which is something I touch upon in the subsequent discussion.


The Palace of the Beth (2)
Genesis 1:1-2
בראשית ברא אלהים את השמים ואת הארץ
והארץ היתה תהו ובהו וחשך על פני תהום ורוח אלהים מרחפת על פני המים

The letter Beth is attributed to the Seventh Palace, and its pictographs are representative of a house or tent. As a prefix it carries the meaning ‘in’ or ‘inside’. In Genesis it is the first letter of the book and the first letter Elohim uses to begin creation. It is here that God sits on his heavenly throne made of the wings of the cherubs to rule over all his creation. According to Hurowitz’s reading of the Book of Chronicles, this cherub throne is a model of the Merkavah . Indeed, the Seven Palaces may be appreciated figuratively as the great Wheel of his Chariot, as well as the architectural plans for EL/YHVH’s First Temple. Here at the very top is God, and at the very bottom is the earth.

The location of EL on high is attested in Ugaritic and Mesopotamian cultures. There is no word for EL in Akkadian, but there are many Akkadian words beginning with EL that mean 'high, above, over'. According to the Baal cycle, El’s abode was high up on the mountain of Lel.

The palace of the Beth is atop a path comprised of the Gimel, the Heh and the Zayin and this corresponds with the Holy of Holies which is itself atop the Palace of the Resh. The gate Heh-Resh spells out the word ‘mountain’, and in Exodus 3.1 the mountain of Elohim is identified as Horeb חרבה which has a gematria of 215. If we add the value of the Beth to this we have the value of the gate of the Holy of Holies; ב+ג+ה+ז+ר=217, which is 31 x 7, and replicates the value of the seven palaces; ב+א+א+ר+ד+ד+ה=217, thus creating a numerical expression that underlies everything is created by God. 31 is the value of אל EL, which is given by adding the Beth to its nearest neighboring paths; ב+ח+ו+ג+ה+ז=31.

The first word of Genesis ‘Bra****h’ [In the beginning] has the gematria of 220, which is 2 x 10 + 2 x 100 (the value of Beth multiplied) and when divided by 7 this results in an approximation of pi. In the first sentence there are seven letters and a gematria of 700 from: בראשית+אלהים+השמים+הארץ. There are 21 words, corresponding to the 21 paths and palaces of the diagram, and 80 letters in the verses of the palaces of the Beth.

The second phrase of interest is “And the earth was formless and void” which yields a gematria of 360 from: ובהו + תהו + היתה + והארץ. There are 360 degrees in a circle, which has no end and thus represents the infinite nature of deity, and yet a circle has 2 sides (inside and outside) which corresponds with the value of the Beth. Aleister Crowley, who was well acquainted with biblical gematria and the seven palaces, probably coined the phrase “0=2” after studying this verse of Genesis.

It may be that the plurality of the name Elohim comes from the value of the Beth as two. The essence of this duality is split into two to make the palaces of the alephs in the next step of creation which makes light and dark, day and night possible, but here in their unified formlessness there is only unrelieved darkness and the potential for light. Numerically this is expressed by the phrase “and darkness on the face of the deep”. The value of וחשך “and darkness” is part of פני תתהום “face of the deep” and only when it is removed and אור “light” is added (in the verses of the aleph) are the 365 days created that comprise 1 year, corresponding to the value of the aleph (1).

The Holy of Holies which housed the Ark of Testimony in the First Temple had no lamps or windows to illuminate it. Solomon declared "the Lord decided to dwell in thick darkness'. This lack of illumination is echoed by statements in Mesopotamian texts describing Temples as dark inside and also making a direct association with a mountain. In the Hymn to Ekur from the Temple of Enlil in Nippur:

The House of Enlil – it is a mountain great.
The House of Ninlil – it is a mountain great.
The House of Darkness – it is a mountain great.
The house which knows no light – it is a mountain great.

The last phrase of the verses attributed to the Beth is “and the spirit Elohim moved on the face of the waters. The value of 233, which is the gate value of the Palace of Beth, is given by פני המים (235) – 2 because the spirit Elohim is the letter Beth.

The word על is mathematical notation that means one value is part of another one and should be subtracted, which is why “and darkness” is to be subtracted from the face of the deep in Gen 1:3 and why we subtract Beth (2) from “face of the waters” (235).

---------------------------
Read more [about the aleph] at: The Genesis Wheel [Extract] - Topic - Shematria
 

sooda

Veteran Member
This is an extract from a new paper I'm writing. Please consult "The Gematria Substrate" on academia.edu before reading. Thank you.

Abstract
I present evidence that the creation myth of Genesis was founded upon an alphabetic framework that corresponds to the letter attributions of the Seven Palaces, and I discuss how this accounts for the repetition and lack of linearity in chapters 1 & 2. Naturally this inevitably debunks the documentary hypothesis, which is something I touch upon in the subsequent discussion.


The Palace of the Beth (2)
Genesis 1:1-2
בראשית ברא אלהים את השמים ואת הארץ
והארץ היתה תהו ובהו וחשך על פני תהום ורוח אלהים מרחפת על פני המים

The letter Beth is attributed to the Seventh Palace, and its pictographs are representative of a house or tent. As a prefix it carries the meaning ‘in’ or ‘inside’. In Genesis it is the first letter of the book and the first letter Elohim uses to begin creation. It is here that God sits on his heavenly throne made of the wings of the cherubs to rule over all his creation. According to Hurowitz’s reading of the Book of Chronicles, this cherub throne is a model of the Merkavah . Indeed, the Seven Palaces may be appreciated figuratively as the great Wheel of his Chariot, as well as the architectural plans for EL/YHVH’s First Temple. Here at the very top is God, and at the very bottom is the earth.

The location of EL on high is attested in Ugaritic and Mesopotamian cultures. There is no word for EL in Akkadian, but there are many Akkadian words beginning with EL that mean 'high, above, over'. According to the Baal cycle, El’s abode was high up on the mountain of Lel.

The palace of the Beth is atop a path comprised of the Gimel, the Heh and the Zayin and this corresponds with the Holy of Holies which is itself atop the Palace of the Resh. The gate Heh-Resh spells out the word ‘mountain’, and in Exodus 3.1 the mountain of Elohim is identified as Horeb חרבה which has a gematria of 215. If we add the value of the Beth to this we have the value of the gate of the Holy of Holies; ב+ג+ה+ז+ר=217, which is 31 x 7, and replicates the value of the seven palaces; ב+א+א+ר+ד+ד+ה=217, thus creating a numerical expression that underlies everything is created by God. 31 is the value of אל EL, which is given by adding the Beth to its nearest neighboring paths; ב+ח+ו+ג+ה+ז=31.

The first word of Genesis ‘Bra****h’ [In the beginning] has the gematria of 220, which is 2 x 10 + 2 x 100 (the value of Beth multiplied) and when divided by 7 this results in an approximation of pi. In the first sentence there are seven letters and a gematria of 700 from: בראשית+אלהים+השמים+הארץ. There are 21 words, corresponding to the 21 paths and palaces of the diagram, and 80 letters in the verses of the palaces of the Beth.

The second phrase of interest is “And the earth was formless and void” which yields a gematria of 360 from: ובהו + תהו + היתה + והארץ. There are 360 degrees in a circle, which has no end and thus represents the infinite nature of deity, and yet a circle has 2 sides (inside and outside) which corresponds with the value of the Beth. Aleister Crowley, who was well acquainted with biblical gematria and the seven palaces, probably coined the phrase “0=2” after studying this verse of Genesis.

It may be that the plurality of the name Elohim comes from the value of the Beth as two. The essence of this duality is split into two to make the palaces of the alephs in the next step of creation which makes light and dark, day and night possible, but here in their unified formlessness there is only unrelieved darkness and the potential for light. Numerically this is expressed by the phrase “and darkness on the face of the deep”. The value of וחשך “and darkness” is part of פני תתהום “face of the deep” and only when it is removed and אור “light” is added (in the verses of the aleph) are the 365 days created that comprise 1 year, corresponding to the value of the aleph (1).

The Holy of Holies which housed the Ark of Testimony in the First Temple had no lamps or windows to illuminate it. Solomon declared "the Lord decided to dwell in thick darkness'. This lack of illumination is echoed by statements in Mesopotamian texts describing Temples as dark inside and also making a direct association with a mountain. In the Hymn to Ekur from the Temple of Enlil in Nippur:

The House of Enlil – it is a mountain great.
The House of Ninlil – it is a mountain great.
The House of Darkness – it is a mountain great.
The house which knows no light – it is a mountain great.

The last phrase of the verses attributed to the Beth is “and the spirit Elohim moved on the face of the waters. The value of 233, which is the gate value of the Palace of Beth, is given by פני המים (235) – 2 because the spirit Elohim is the letter Beth.

The word על is mathematical notation that means one value is part of another one and should be subtracted, which is why “and darkness” is to be subtracted from the face of the deep in Gen 1:3 and why we subtract Beth (2) from “face of the waters” (235).

---------------------------
Read more [about the aleph] at: The Genesis Wheel [Extract] - Topic - Shematria

Is this like numerology?
 
Is this like numerology?

Apart from the fact they both use numbers - no. Numerology is a new age free-association type of thing. Biblical gematria deals with the Hebrew and Greek texts of the bible, and adheres to the strict conventions of the biblical scribes. They're chalk and cheese.
 

sooda

Veteran Member
Apart from the fact they both use numbers - no. Numerology is a new age free-association type of thing. Biblical gematria deals with the Hebrew and Greek texts of the bible, and adheres to the strict conventions of the biblical scribes. They're chalk and cheese.

Why change the spelling of Babylon?
 
Why change the spelling of Babylon?

Are you referring to the thread on the Thelema forum? Crowley changed it to Babalon so that it would number 166 in Greek [ΒΑΒΑΛΩΝ], so when it was added to the Notariqon he created from "Now ye shall know that the chosen priest & apostle of infinite space is the prince-priest the Beast", which is "N Y Sh K Th Th Ch P A O I S I Th P P Th B" = 500, it would sum to 666. Basically, he was having fun, and why not? It was the first time anyone had written a whole book with Biblical Gematria for 2,000 years. Viewed simply on its technical merits Liber Al vel Legis is quite a hermeneutical tour de force.
 
Last edited:

paarsurrey

Veteran Member
Are you referring to the thread on the Thelema forum? Crowley changed it to Babalon so that it would number 166 in Greek [ΒΑΒΑΛΩΝ], so when it was added to the Notariqon he created from "Now ye shall know that the chosen priest & apostle of infinite space is the prince-priest the Beast", which is "N Y Sh K Th Th Ch P A O I S I Th P P Th B" = 500, it would sum to 666. Basically, he was having fun, and why not? It was the first time anyone had written a whole book with Biblical Gematria for 2,000 years. Viewed simply on its technical merits Liber Al vel Legis is quite a hermeneutical tour de force.
"Gematria"

People of India also have number values for the letters. The Chinese also. Who fixed values of the letters and on what basis, please.

Regards
 
"Gematria"

People of India also have number values for the letters. The Chinese also. Who fixed values of the letters and on what basis, please.

Regards

It was fixed by the same people who invented and developed the alephbet; these were the ancient Hebrews and Canaanites from the West Semitic culture[1]. It is possible that the letters were used to represent numbers before they were used to represent sounds of speech, but further work must be done with the proto-conconantal script in order to confirm or reject this hypothesis. We know that gematria is at least as old as the paleohebrew writing script, and that ancient scribes used a variety of common words in the hebrew language as mathematical notation[2]. Gematria was used for counting the days and years, and as the basis of religious mysticism concerning the God EL and his creation. One of the best examples of a text written with Gematria is the Book of Genesis, and I refer you to my [draft] paper on that 'The Genesis Wheel'.

Thank you for your question. Have a nice day.

--------------------------------

[1] Hebrew as the Language behind the World’s First Alphabet? By Douglas Petrovich
[2] The Gematria Substrate, by Bethsheba Ashe
 
If you've read the paper on Academia.edu and you want to know about Vav to Resh, you'll be interested to know that I'm publishing the full book of The Genesis Wheel shortly.

I think it might be against forum rules to post a link to it, but it will be out on the 1st August. Its on Amazon and is available to Pre-Order. I'm currently sorting out a paperback version too. It goes through every line of Genesis 1-2 and demonstrates how the scribes were basing the entire framework of Genesis on the Seven Palaces.

I'm looking forward to getting back to writing. I learned a thing or two that will be very valuable to future studies and Genesis 3 is looking inviting. I found out that the serpent of the Garden of Eden was the spirit of the letter Nun! So every time the serpent is mentioned you just count 50 for that word. Brilliant move by those ancient scribes, adding an extra level of security to the text.

Is it weird when some of your favourite people have been dead for 2500 years? Not that I mind being weird. :)

51nQi-i0ErL.jpg
 
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