The miracle of the “I AM” statements of Jesus

The miracle of the “I AM” statements of Jesus

In the Old Testament, 37 times a specific Hebrew word is used, of the LORD, saying: "I will be ..." In the New Testament, 37 times a precise Greek phrase is used, of Jesus, saying: "I am ..."

37 times ... a promise is made, of the LORD. 37 times ... fulfillment comes, in Jesus. 37 ... exactly 37 times.

We'll return to this.

Here is the mathematical framework of the Bible: 37 x 73

3 x 7 x 73

3 x 7 x 7 x 3

37 x 7 x 3

3 7 7 3

There is a mathematical structure underpinning the original text of the Bible. The number patterns help prove the original text of the Bible.

We'll return to this.

Every letter of the Hebrew alphabet, and every letter of the Greek alphabet, has a numeric value. Therefore, every word and every phrase in the Bible has a numeric value. Calculating numeric values is not done to find mystical, hidden meanings. The plain text tells us all we need to know. Analysis is done to identify the original writing.

Today we have access to more than 5,700 ancient hand-written copies of Bible texts in the original languages, but they don't all agree. The differences don't affect foundational doctrines like the nature of God, and redemption in Jesus Christ, but analysis is needed to identify precisely what was delivered to men by the Holy Spirit.

As to the numeric structure, 37 (3 and 7) is the first key to understanding.

The primary doctrine of the Bible is salvation through faith in Jesus Christ. Jesus died on the cross for our sins, He was buried, and He rose from the dead. Jesus' sacrifice was foretold in the Old Testament. Isaiah chapter 53 has the phrase: "...and He was pierced for our transgressions, crushed for our iniquities ..." (Isa 53:5)

On screen is the Hebrew ... together with the numeric value of each word. והוא מחלל מפשענו מדכא מעונתינו

The total numeric value is 1,369 which is 37 x 37. 37 shows up, in the Old and New Testaments, as a factor in the numeric value of significant words and phrases to do with Jesus and life in Him.

We get the name of Jesus from the Greek of the New Testament ΙΗΣΟΥΣ. The numeric value of ΙΗΣΟΥΣ is 888, and 888 is a number divisible by 37 ... 2 x 12 x 37.

Christ is a title for Jesus. It means "the Anointed One" ... ΧΡΙΣΤΟΣ in Greek. The numeric value of ΧΡΙΣΤΟΣ is 1480, and that is divisible by 37 ... 37 x 40 in fact.

"...the blood of Jesus..." is a phrase in the Bible (1 John 1:7). In Greek ... ΤΟ ΑΙΜΑ ΙΗΣΟΥ. The numeric value is 1,110 ... a number divisible by 37.

In Hebrew, the word שלם means "made whole, completed, at peace, debts paid". The numeric value of שלם is 370, which is 37 x 10.

Also, in the Greek of the New Testament, the word ΟΛΟΣ means "made whole, complete", and the numeric value of ΟΛΟΣ is also 370, which is 37 x 10.

Now we'll look at the framework of the Bible, and then return to the 37 "I am ..." statements.

This is the numeric value of the first verse of the Bible ... 2,701 = 37 x 73

This is the number of verses in the first book of the Bible, Genesis ... 1,533 = 3 x 7 x 73

This is the number of verses in the New Testament ... 7,938 = 3 x 7 x 7 x 3 x 18, and this is the number of verses in the Bible, on the two sides of the middle two verses ... 31,080 = 37 x 7 x 3 x 40.

18 enters the frame, and 18 is the numeric value of the Hebrew word for "life" ... חי.

40 enters the frame, and many times the plain text of the Bible identifies the number 40 in association with testing ... God watching how people respond. This is covered in a video ("Chapters and verses are the framework of the Bible") on this website : LivingGreekNT.org. There you will also find the Greek and Hebrew texts with word count and positions.

The sequence 37 x 7 x 3 x 40 has a place in the patterns, and this is the number of verses in the Bible excluding the middle two verses. The two verses are worth highlighting, by the way, because they are a clue of what God is about to do on the earth, but if we calculate the total number of verses including the two middle verses, it is 31,082 and that works out at ... 2 x 15,541. 15,541 is indivisible. It is a prime number. It is the 1,813th prime number. And 1,813 is 37 x 7 x 7.

Back to where we started ... 37 times in the Hebrew text this word is used about the LORD ... אהיה ... "I will be ..." And 37 times in the original Greek text this phrase is used, quoting Jesus ... ΕΓΩ ΕΙΜΙ. "I am ... " (He). Jesus fulfills the promise. The New Testament announces, Jesus is the LORD.

Over a period of about 1600 years, 40 different men wrote down messages that were given to them by the Spirit of God. Much later those words would be selected and collated into one book that we know as the Bible. Somehow, precisely 37 times אהיה ("I will be...") found its way into the Old Testament text in reference to the LORD. And precisely 37 fulfillments (Jesus saying ΕΓΩ ΕΙΜΙ "I am ...") found its way into the New Testament text. That could not have happened by chance. That is a miracle.

The number 37 is significant, as we have seen. And the promise and fulfillment in Jesus is central in our knowledge of salvation. That result is not by chance. And certain times the words occur in a significant chapter or verse, or in a particular word order, that makes us believe that the placement wasn't accidental. That's supernatural.

Here are the 37 occurences of אהיה in the Old Testament in reference to the LORD. They are also on the website, where they can be downloaded in PDF form.

In the first occurence, the LORD tells Isaac to stay in the promised land and "I will be with you." (Gen 26:3). In the second reference, the LORD tells Jacob to return to the promised land, and "I will be with you." (Gen 31:3)

Here is an interesting feature of biblical Hebrew. The letter vav placed in front of a word means "and". When a vav is placed in front of a verb it changes the tense. Past becomes future. Future becomes past (or present). In these two occurences of אהיה there is a vav prefix. The LORD says that He will be with Isaac, and He will be with Jacob (future tense). But, because of the letter vav, we translate these as "and I am with you" (present tense ... continuous, ongoing). It's a hint of Jesus saying "I am ... " with you.

The same feature is in the promises of the Davidic covenant in 2 Samuel, repeated in 1 Chronicles, where the LORD says that He was with David wherever he had been, and gives David confidence that He will be with him to fulfill the covenant.

The first occurence of אהיה is in Genesis chapter 26. That is intentional. 26 is the numeric value of this word (spelled yud heh vav heh in Hebrew). The word occurs more than 6,800 times in the Old Testament. The word is unpronounceable. When Jews come to this word they say Adonai .... Adonai means "the LORD".

The first occurence of אהיה is in the 26th chapter of the Bible.

The 26th occurence is in Jeremiah 32, and Jeremiah 32 is the 777th chapter of the Bible. 777 is 37 x 7 x 3. 3 7 7 3.

The 37th occurence is in Zechariah chapter 8. Zechariah 8 is the 919th chapter of the Bible. 919 is the 157th prime number, and 157 is the 37th prime number.

Zechariah 8:8 is the 22,984th verse of the Bible, and that number breaks down to 26 x 26 x 2 x 17.

The word אהיה in this last reference is the 302,979th word in the Bible. The promises find fulfillment in Jesus in the New Testament. There are 137,720 Greek words in the original New Testament text. Add the 137,720 words of the New Testament to these 302,979 words and we get 440,699 and that is 7 x 157 x 401. And that is intentional.

157 is the 37th prime number, and 401 is the numeric value of the untranslatable Hebrew word spelled alef tav - the first and last letters of the Hebrew alphabet. Jesus said, He is the first and the last, the alpha and omega - the first and last letters of the Greek alphabet.

This is the first verse of the Bible: "In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth". Here it is in the Hebrew, with the numeric value of each word. The middle word is the untranslatable word spelled alef tav, with a numeric value of 401. The third word is the word for God (Elohim). It has a numeric value of 86.

Here are the 37 references in the New Testament ... quoting Jesus, saying ΕΓΩ ΕΙΜΙ "I am ..." They are also on the website.

The last reference is in the 260th chapter of the New Testament (260 ... that's 26 x 10).

The last word of the phrase is the 137,600th word in the New Testament. 137,600 is 86 x 40 x 40. And that's not by chance.

If a verse was lost, or a verse was added, then we wouldn’t have this result, and that goes a long way to validating all that has gone before it.