Page 161 - Coincidences in the Bible and in Biblical Hebrew

COINCIDENCES IN THE BIBLE AND IN BIBLICAL HEBREW
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140 COINCIDENCES IN THE BIBLE AND IN BIBLICAL HEBREW
1
• yod (10)—like yad, meaning “hand”;
2
• kaf (20)—meaning “palm” (of a hand or a leg); sometimes also used for
“hand”; this letter comes right after the yod;
3
• ayin (70)—meaning “eye”;
4
• peh (80)—meaning “mouth”; this letter comes right after the ayin; 3
5
• resh (200)—like rosh, meaning “head”; in Aramaic, resh means “head”;
6
• shin (300)—like shen, meaning “tooth”; this letter comes right after
resh.

Out of the twenty-two letters of the Hebrew alphabet (not including “final
letters”), over a quarter are named after parts of the human body, which epitomize
modes of interaction of the human body with the outer world. Furthermore, for
each of these functions, there are strict laws in the Bible about what is permitted
and what is not.
Examples:

• The letter ayin (meaning eye): “And you shall not tour after your heart
and after your eyes” (Num. 15:39);
4
• The letter peh (meaning mouth): “You shall not slander” (Lev. 19:16);
5
• The letter resh (resembling rosh, “head”), in the Tenth Commandment:
“Thou shalt not covet thy neighbor’s house, thou shalt not covet thy
neighbor’s wife, nor his …” (Exod. 20:14).

A recent book by Jeff A. Benner (2004) refers to the history of the ancient
Hebrew pictographic alphabet—attempting to explain, among other things,
the high frequency of human body parts in the names and structure of Hebrew
letters.

10.2 Human Body Parts with Names Indicative of Mutual Relationships

Earlier in the book, several examples were introduced that demonstrated that
letters in certain positions, shared by different words, were indicative of these
words’ mutual relationships (section 2.2). The most prominent example given was

familial genealogy, where the last letter of an earlier generation is the first letter
of the next. Similar patterns may be traced in how human organs relate to one
another.
Examples: