In the Beginning

Overall, the order of the regular text after insertion into the square follows a kind of coiled path that diminishes as it approaches the centre. It is no misreading to suggest that this arrangement of text from the very start of Genesis may be described as a miniature scroll. Ultimately we shall uncover the evidence that we are looking at the same ‘small scroll’ mentioned by both Ezekiel and in the Book of Revelation.

By far the most stunning component in the completed square is the arrangement of five identical letters that have been highlighted for effect. The letter in question is vav; it is the sixth of the alephbeyt and it symbolises a tentpeg. Of topical interest is the symmetry of the positions these five letters have adopted. And their distinctive ‘Y’ configuration is precisely the shape of the letter vav as it once appeared in the ancient proto-Hebrew script.

Of course, the five highlighted letters are not the only examples of the letter vav in the square, as there are nine altogether. And, if you look closely you will see that all nine are found on or below the horizontal diagonal of the square. It is my own belief that this unusual distribution is unlikely to have arisen by accident; statistically, there is only a 1 in 164 chance that all nine letters should occur in one half of the square, unless by deliberate intent. Although I do also have the advantage of knowing that the same nine letters will assemble themselves into some even more striking configurations in later versions of the Seal. Those arrangements will not only confirm the Author’s deliberate intent, but will also show that the sixth letter has been selected for the special role of representing water. Evidently, in our present view of the square all the water has settled into the lowest positions, as water normally tends to do in nature. This is, incidentally, one of the reasons the present orientation of the square suggested itself, backed up by Genesis 1:9: And God said, Let the waters under the heaven be gathered together unto one place …. What we see is a distinctly graphical example of the Seal anticipating later biblical narrative.

Given that vav is the sixth letter of the alephbeyt, the linear group of three of them in the vertical diagonal immediately gives rise to a further association with the Book of Revelation. There, Chapter 13 begins with the words: And I saw a beast rising out of the sea …, and it ends: …let him who has understanding reckon the number of the beast, for it is a human number, its number is six hundred and sixty-six. Evidently, the linear group of three copies of vav represent that number, while all nine collectively represent a sea.

After that most sinister of chapters, there is an immediate change of mood in Revelation, and the very next verse – the start of Chapter 14 – reads: Then I looked, and lo, on Mount Zion stood the Lamb …. Which gives rise to the single most important interpretation of the distinctive ‘Y’ arrangement of the letter vav. Given that each vav is symbolically a spike, what we see depicted in the square is the representation of a man being put to death by crucifixion. And each of the five spikes stands for one of the five wounds of Jesus Christ. From a Christian standpoint, this interpretation must have huge implications, since it may replace the need to depend for authority solely on the very Christian reading of certain Old Testament prophesies. Some of those partisan interpretations, numbering in the hundreds, can seem strained and others tenuous. And even where a Christian interpretation looks sound, it can be refuted all too easily on the grounds that the same prophetic words apply equally well, if not better, to their contemporary Jewish situations. However, once we become confident in the ‘crucified man’ interpretation, the square will demonstrate that the events that led to Christianity emerging from Judaism have been foreseen since the very first words of the Hebrew Old Testament.

What we do not yet see, however, is that the expression ‘Behold – a river!’ is giving notice of something truly momentous that we shall see in Chapter 5. All I can say just now is that the meaning has everything to do with the crucified man, in whom the expression has its source. What matters especially is the presence of five wounds (spikes) rather than four, which indicates that the roman soldier has already pierced the side of the crucified man with his spear. And that was when water was seen to issue from the wound. In Chapter 5 we shall see the true river with perfect clarity.

One river that is only occasionally mentioned in the Bible, and never by name, is the river of Egypt which we know today as the Nile.

There is one particular, emergent word in the new square that, from a biblical perspective, explicitly identifies the winding shape as a river. It is a word that did not exist in the G1 aspect of the Seal, but is created by the new transformation. This is hwh) / Ahavah / Ahavah from:

I gathered them together to the river that runneth to Ahavah, and there abode we in tents three days.

(Ezra 8:15)

There is, in the square, a choice of two versions of Ahavah, from a horizontal palindromic sequence )hwh) (heavier borders in Figure 5.4) which may be read in either direction. And since the middle letter of the group is the uppermost letter vav, it is in this sense that our river ‘runneth to Ahavah’. Observe also that this palindromic sequence shares the same vertical axis of symmetry as was seen in a symmetrical group of nine letters in the G1 square, which I described in Chapter 2. There, I gave notice of further cases of coincident symmetry such as the one we now see. Moreover, the centre of this square now depicts the letters of lh) / ohel / a tent in a distinctly tent-like configuration, corresponding to Ezra’s: and there abode we in tents three days. The duration of Ezra’s sojourn may have much to do with the period from Jesus’ crucifixion to his subsequent resurrection.

The book of Ezra is one of the select few that are favoured by recognition from within the Seal. It is also among the shortest in the Bible, with only ten chapters. Yet it is one of only four in which, in addition, the number 666 may be found. In Ezra 2, where he describes the return of the first wave of exiles from Babylon to Jerusalem, the heads of families are listed along with the numbers of their kinsmen. One of these is:

Adonikam, six hundred and sixty-six

(Ezra 2:13)