Originally posted on August 26, 2013
It’s funny how once you see it, it seems obvious, but before you see it, it isn’t.
That is the case with the 300 missing Levites. Oh, yes, the Priestly Writer strikes again. I’m having so much fun with him! *squeals gleefully* He gives me many good riddles to solve. This one has me stumped however. Now that I know his-’eh hum’-number, I can usually crack his codes quite quickly. But the Case of the Missing Numbers in Numbers has me masticating.
Shall we begin? This will be quite a whirlwind~
It starts at the beginning of the Book of Numbers with the census. The numbers are important to me inasmuch as the Priestly Circle has hidden a code in them. Other scholars have proven that the large swaths of people (hundreds of thousands) could not really have occurred during this time in the Wilderness, and have made legitimate arguments for that. Since I know the Priestly Writer used numerology to make the numbers add up to a hidden cohesive code, I do not bother with trying to support or refute the likelihood of the actual numbers given in the Bible, but prefer to deduce the symbolic meaning they represent.
In the Wilderness, the tribes moved around the desert in a formation of a cross (E/S/W/N), in three tiers basically, with the precious Ark of the Covenant nestled in the very middle of them. As this process is explained, it becomes clear, if one plots it, that the Priestly Circle attributes the most important people (for his purposes) to the East. Then the South. Then the West, Then the North. This makes a clockwise motion. It’s not that the East is always the most important in the Bible. Indeed the Ark of the Covenant within the Holiest of Holies is situated in a westerly direction. But East has always been prized by ancient, pagan cultures, probably because the sun rises in the east.
Anyway, for brevity I will omit the actual families’ names here, but the book explains how the twelve tribes of Jacob are divided up into bands of three with the Levites in the middle, guarding the ark. That equals 13, yes. But remember that the tribe of Joseph was divided into two bands. [the stage of this division is set up all the way back in Genesis in the poem, “Jacob’s Last Words to His Sons”, and is iterated more clearly in Numbers 1:32-35. This makes me think the Priestly Writer’s influence was cast all the way back into Genesis]. If we crunch the numbers, we see that we come up with 10/10/10/7. If we multiply these out we get 7,000.
Then the band of Levites is counted and their number given is 22,000 [Numbers 3:39]. However, if you add up the numbers given in “Census of the Levites Commanded”, one gets 22,300. Did the Priestly Writer do this on purpose? I’ve never noticed a ‘mistake’ in his numbers thus far. It has been proposed that the numbers given for the family of Kohath (the most important family) of 8,600 has been mistransliterated from 8,300. But if that is the case, then the larger band of Dan, et al., who serves the northern flank would also have been mistransliterated because their number given is 157,600. I understand mistransliterations do happen as in the Red Sea really being the ‘Reed’ Sea, but when it comes to the Priestly Writer one just never knows!
So, that is the problem of the 300. Let’s forge on.
The inner band of Levites is actually divided into two bands, their families from one month old and up; and those who service the articles of the tabernacle who are 30 to 50 years of age, make up the innermost circle, and even camp as a legion close to the articles. When we apply numerology to the family band, we get the number 7. When we apply it to the very inner priestly circle (!) we get 3.
The same clockwise rotation applies for the two circles of Levites as applied to the outer circle. So, in effect, we get this:
- outer circle: 1/7,000
- middle circle: 7/22,000
- inner circle: 12/3
Again, 22/7 represents a pi of 3. But instead of a circle this time, we have three circles twirling together, as in a vortex. 1 and 7 and 12 represent 1 God, 7th degree of holiness, represented by 12 units within a circle (like a clock is divided into 12 hours).
So perhaps the Priestly Writer gave us an extra 300 because he wanted it to come out with 7 in the middle circle, and/or perhaps he wanted to repeat the theme of pi in a three-dimensional plane. I doubt it was a mistransliteration…
Exciting times ahead, because as I was studying my spiritual journal I stumbed across a writing in Job and guess what a quick and simple addition revealed?? You got it: 22/7/3 again. Scholars do not know who wrote Job, but I have a feeling I do. And now you do as well. 🙂
This has rocked my world a bit, this numerology discovery. At first I literally thought it was God speaking to me from His Word. While I still think there was that aspect for sure, because I otherwise would never have seen it, A theory is working itself out in my head that in the era just before Christ came on the scene, there was so much debauchery and corruption within the Israelite ruling class, with firstborn sons having priestly privileges, and oftentimes abusing those privileges, not to mention bad rulers; that I think there existed an underground circle of priests who, throughout all these hard times of unGodly leadership and exile, tried to lace God’s true Word with a hidden meaning in order to identify it and keep it pure, for those deemed worthy.
I studied somewhat about the rulers in the first and second centuries B.C., and I see no evidence of these Priestly Circle numbers in their realm, though they did use numbers like 8 or 800, which was likely borrowed from a more eastern influence. This sort-of thing can tell us, in light of the Priestly Writer’s hidden number code, that they probably were not deemed worthy nor were they truly holy high priests, even if they called themselves such.
In essence, the Priestly Writer might have manipulated the numbers and circumstances of the Old Testament to fit an agenda of who the Priestly Circle deemed worthy or important, versus it being the literal word of God, but that doesn’t mean that the primary import or meaning behind it is not Godly. It does become obvious, however, that following certain, or ALL, of the recorded statutes word for word, is no different than following man-made law word for word. As Jesus came to represent so well, God’s Word and Will stands deeper and is more unconditional than what men have had the ability to influence in the pages of time.
Update: Then I just ran across this link: https://www.thetorah.com/article/recounting-the-census-a-military-force-of-5500
Love,
~Mary
~Song of Mary~ 