Count God In

Theological Numbers in the Song of Songs

Bliese

• Publisher: Resource Publications
• Year: 2018
• eBook ISBN: 9781532642869
• Topic: Theology & Religion
• Subtopic: Biblical Criticism & Interpretation

This study of Song of Songs uncovers many patterns related to the numerical value twenty-six and related numbers for the divine name YHWH. Patterns are so unique that they clearly show authorial intent. They involve the numerical value of root forms of words, their sequences, and their totals in the book. The beloved man is highlighted by special patterns, which indicate that a typology for God is intended. Deer names in the refrain have number patterns that confirm intention for being circumlocutions for divine names. The disputed presence of the divine name YH in 8:6 is confirmed by the value of its full word. One of the most striking patterns found with the help of a computer is that the totals of root words are all arranged to point to theological numbers in a beautiful intricacy. Besides describing these patterns, this study discusses numerical competence within a proposed Hebrew literary circle, and what steps they might have gone through to create these amazing phenomena. These theological numbers confirm intentionality for allusions to the Hebrew Bible and support a hermeneutic of spiritual applications. A literary analysis of each poem focuses on the use of numbers among other features of prominence.

Chapter 1

Theology and Song of Songs

As a part of the canon of scripture the Song of Songs has teased the imagination of both Jews and Christians. Does such an obvious love song speak theologically in its literary form, or only by the allegorical interpretations that have been popular for two millennia to Jews and Christians? The debate that began in the first century CE with the formation of the canon of the Hebrew Bible goes on.1 Since the rise of historical criticism, faithful exegesis aims to base interpretations as much as possible on the message that writers and redactors are believed to have intended. On the surface Songs has no theological discussion, and it has only one debated reference to God in “a flame of YH” in 8:6. Many modern interpreters therefore doubt that there is an exegetical basis for a theological interpretation of Song of Songs.2 Haupt (“Difficult Passages,” 52) wrote, “The Song of Songs is neither allegorical, nor typical, nor dramatic; indeed it is not the work of one poet but a collection of popular love-songs”. There has also been a reaction to this view with an increasing number of interpreters seeing theological intent evidenced by allusions to the Hebrew Bible.3 This study agrees with this, but also shows how the use of theologically potent numbers were used by the author/redactor to stamp it with a seal that gives a spiritual motif to this love story. Labuschagne (“Use of Number,” 584) notes that numbers are “a means of adding depth to a text and to imbue it with symbolic significance.” The use of double entendre for decorum in sexual scenes in Songs is widely acknowledged. The assumption here is that Songs also has cryptic numerical associations that give a third level of theological meaning. We will especially deal with this deeper 3-D level of meaning.

The traditional religious approach has a very long and rich allegorical history in which “these songs have often been interpreted by Jews as a picture of the relationship between God and his people”.4 For example, Rabbi Akiba designated Song of Songs as the “Holy of Holies” at the council of Jamnia in 90 C.E. (Fishbane, Commentary, xxii; Murphy, Song of Songs, 13; Ogden and Zogbo, Song of Songs,1; and Davis, Song of Songs, 240–41, who gives the source as Mishnah Yadayim 3:5). Akiba and the many rabbis and Christian interpreters after him, found things in the text that point to a spiritual interpretation.5 I will point out possible evidence such as allusions to the Hebrew Bible as they have been described by others, but I will also add my research aided by computer technology on theological numbers in Songs. I see these together as supporting an exegetically faithful theological reading.

Theoretical Basis of This Analysis—Symbolic Numbers in Biblical Literature

Hebrew does not have a separate set of numbers distinct from letters. Instead, the sequence of the 22 letters of the alphabet was used to give values to each letter. The use of Hebrew letters in math seems to have developed late. The Hebrew Bible has all numbers written out as words, rather than using the letters as numbers. Greek and Egyptian numbers were normally used instead of Hebrew letters for numbers in most cases. However, Lieberman (“Measures,” 198–98) cites archealogical evidence from the fourth century BCE that shows some likely use of Hebrew letters as numbers. Although the use as numbers was limited, the recognition of the numerical value of the letters is clear.

The strongest theological markers relate to the divine name YHWH, especially by use of its numerical equivalent 26, where Y=10, H=5, W=6 and H=5. An example of how 26 was used is with 26-letter lines. For example, the central poem of the book 5:2–6, and the last poem 5:10–16 of the central part four, and the Poem of Love in 8:6–7 by my analysis each have two 26-letter lines.

In addition to the value ten for י Y, the first letter of YHWH was also recognized with a counterpart אּ ʾalep with the value of one. This makes the sum 17 for the four letters of the divine Tetragrammaton. The background to the short count 17 is that God’s name ’HYH in Exod 3:14 is read as an archaic form ’HWH analogous to YHWH (see Labuschagne, Numerical Secrets, 89–90, and Christensen Deuteronomy, 9). 6 Other numbers related mathematically to 26 (13, 39, 52, 78) and multiples of 17 (34, 51, 68) are also used in Songs to enhance literary structures.

Besides 26 and 17 for YHWH, the numerical values associated with כבוד kbwd ‘glory’ are used...

Table of contents

• Title Page
• Preface
• Abbreviations
• Hebrew Alphabet with Numerical Values
• Chapter 1: Theology and Song of Songs
• Chapter 2: Literary Structure of Song of Songs
• Chapter 3: Theological Applications
• Chapter 4: Translation of Text and Literary Features at the Poem Level
• Chapter 5: Application to Translation
• Appendix
• References