Two months passed since my discovery of the significance of the number 888. On July 31, 1994, as I was to get the mail from our post office box, I noticed that box 888 seems to be somewhere in the middle. The set of boxes consists of nine columns and eight rows.� When I counted the boxes on the left, right, above and below box 888, to my surprise, I discovered that box 888 is in the middle and a symmetrical cross could be formed.� It is on the fifth column and the fourth row.� There are four boxes on the right of 888, four on the left, four below and three above.� If you draw a vertical line and a horizontal line through box 888, you will form a cross.� Is this a coincidence?� 888, number of Jesus, cross!
I had been sharing this discovery to friends and work colleagues, and sketching how the pattern looked like.� Later, I decided to take photos of the boxes to show how it looked like.� That was much better than making a sketch each time.� It made my explaining much easier.� Here is one of the photos that I took of box 888.� And here is the schematic diagram of that set of boxes I did on MS Word in March 1999.
Two months passed since my discovery of the significance of the number 888. On July 31, 1994, as I was to get the mail from our post office box, I noticed that box 888 seems to be somewhere in the middle. The set of boxes consists of nine columns and eight rows.� When I counted the boxes on the left, right, above and below box 888, to my surprise, I discovered that box 888 is in the middle and a symmetrical cross could be formed.� It is on the fifth column and the fourth row.� There are four boxes on the right of 888, four on the left, four below and three above.� If you draw a vertical line and a horizontal line through box 888, you will form a cross.� Is this a coincidence?� 888, number of Jesus, cross!
I had been sharing this discovery to friends and work colleagues, and sketching how the pattern looked like.� Later, I decided to take photos of the boxes to show how it looked like.� That was much better than making a sketch each time.� It made my explaining much easier.� Here is one of the photos that I took of box 888.� And here is the schematic diagram of that set of boxes I did on MS Word in March 1999.
In school, we learned about the ancient Roman Numeral System which we still use for certain limited purposes, as in some pagination, dates on buildings, etc.� Under this system, seven letters of the Roman alphabet are used as basic symbols to represent values, namely: I (=1), V (=5), X (=10), L (=50), C (=100), D (=500), and M (=1000).� Thus, for example, XVI is 16 and DCCCLXXXVIII is 888.
Unlike the Roman Numeral System, the Greeks in their Ionic Greek Ciphered Numeral System used all the 24 capital letters of the Greek alphabet plus three foreign symbols,
vau,
koppa, and
sampi (6, 90, and 900), to represent values as shown in the following table:
1
| 2
| 3
| 4
| 5
| 6
| 7
| 8
| 9
|
A
| B
| G
| D
| E
| F
| Z
| H
| q
|
alpha
| beta
| gamma
| delta
| epsilon
| vau
| zeta
| eta
| theta
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
10
| 20
| 30
| 40
| 50
| 60
| 70
| 80
| 90
|
I
| K
| L
| M
| N
| X
| O
| P
| q
|
iota
| kappa
| lambda
| mu
| nu
| xi
| omicron
| pi
| koppa
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
100
| 200
| 300
| 400
| 500
| 600
| 700
| 800
| 900
|
R
| S
| T
| U
| F
| C
| Y
| W
| S
|
rho
| sigma
| tau
| upsilon
| phi
| chi
| psi
| omega
| sampi
|
vau and koppa are of Phoenician origin.� vau is shaped like the letter F, while koph, qoph, or koppa is shaped somewhat like Q.� A character known in modern times as sampi is shaped somewhat like the Greek letter pi, P, but tipped about 45 degrees to the right, and represented in the table by S.� The small letters of the Greek alphabet, by the way, is just a recent introduction.
Aside from the Greeks, the use of letters of the alphabet for the numeral system was also used in the Hebrew Numeral System and the Arabic Alphabetic Numeral System.
In January 1999, I realized that this Greek numeral system came into use in Greece since 3rd century BC.� That is 300 years even before Jesus was born!� When Jesus was born, it was the Romans who were the colonizers of Bethlehem. As such, the Roman numeral system was the one in used. The number 888 cannot even be derived from the name of Jesus since only the letter I in the name of Jesus is found in the numeral system.
�In Greek, the name of Jesus is spelled I H S O U S (iota, eta, sigma, omicron, upsilon, sigma).� Substituting in the Greek numeral system the equivalent numerical values to each letter in the name of Jesus and adding them up, the total is 888.� This value is represented as W P H (omega, pi, eta) and does not look like 888.�
|
| I
| iota
| =
| 10
|
|
|
|
| H
| eta
| =
| 8
|
|
|
|
| S
| sigma
| =
| 200
|
|
|
|
| O
| omicron
| =
| 70
|
|
|
|
| U
| upsilon
| =
| 400
|
|
|
|
| S
| sigma
| =
| 200
|
|
|
|
| W P H
| Total
| =
| 888
| |
|
It was only in the 12th century A.D. that the sum would look like 888 when the Arabic numerals using the characters 0, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9 came into general use in Europe.� The number eight that we use now does not even look like the number eight in the modern Arabic numeral.� There, the number 8 looks like the Greek letter lambda or an inverted V.
During the time of Jesus, the Arabic Numeral System was not used yet.� The number 8 did not even look like 8 now.� The Romans were in control of Jerusalem and the Roman numeral system was used.� 888 was represented in this numeral system as DCCCLXXXVIII.
It would need two different numeral systems and fifteen centuries apart before this amazing revelation of 888 would be discovered in the Arabic Numeral System.� And it would be another eight centuries later before the number of Jesus and the crucifixion would be manifested and confirmed�in humble post office boxes!
Is it a coincidence that the name of the Son of Man in Greek would be Jesus and be spelled I H S O U S?� Is it a coincidence that the Greek would be using all the letters of their alphabet in the Ionic Greek Ciphered Numeral System, which gave values to each letter in the name of Jesus?� Is it a coincidence that eventually, using a newer, modern numeral system, the number of Jesus would be revealed as 888?�