LUCKY NUMBER 13 IN THE BIBLE - The number 13 proved lucky for the Jews. They not only were spared destruction, they were able to rid the empire of all those who hated them. Their influence in the empire also grew tremendously, in large measure due to Mordecai replacing Haman as the Prime Minister. Mordecai is also given control of Haman's vast wealth. Every year, starting at sunset on Adar 13 Jews celebrate their deliverance on Purim. The holiday's name is the Hebrew plural of the Persian word for "lots" (Pur) which, though initially used to seal their demise, became a reason to celebrate their luck! - The number 13 is often thought of as being unlucky, with many people avoiding it entirely. There is a fascinating story in the Bible, however, that shows thirteen was not only accepted as lucky, it became the basis for a yearly celebration! We begin our "lucky 13" story in the book of Esther, where the number appears more times (six) than any other Biblical book. Persian King Ahasuerus (Xerxes I the Great) promotes a man named Haman to the powerful position of Prime Minister. This promotion makes him the second most powerful person in the vast empire! Haman soon becomes enraged, however, when a Jewish official named Mordecai refuses to follow the king's command to bow and revere him like a god. His fierce anger moves him not only to seek revenge on Mordecai but also on all the Jews throughout the empire.

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Lucky Number 13 in the Bible

The number 13 proved lucky for the Jews. They not only were spared destruction, they were able to rid the empire of all those who hated them. 

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Their influence in the empire also grew tremendously, in large measure due to Mordecai replacing Haman as the Prime Minister. Mordecai is also given control of Haman's vast wealth. 

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Every year, starting at sunset on Adar 13 Jews celebrate their deliverance on Purim. The holiday's name is the Hebrew plural of the Persian word for "lots" (Pur) which, though initially used to seal their demise, became a reason to celebrate their luck!

BibleStudy.org

 

 

The number 13 is often thought of as being unlucky, with many people avoiding it entirely.

There is a fascinating story in the Bible, however, that shows thirteen was not only accepted as lucky, it became the basis for a yearly celebration!

We begin our "lucky 13" story in the book of Esther, where the number appears more times (six) than any other Biblical book.

Persian King Ahasuerus (Xerxes I the Great) promotes a man named Haman to the powerful position of Prime Minister (Esther 3:1).

This promotion makes him the second most powerful person in the vast empire!

Haman soon becomes enraged, however, when a Jewish official named Mordecai refuses to follow the king's command to bow and revere him like a god (Esther 3:1 - 5).

His fierce anger moves him not only to seek revenge on Mordecai but also on all the Jews throughout the empire (Esther 1:1, 3:6).

Haman's lucky day

Haman hatches a plan to convince the king that the Jews are worthless lawbreakers who deserve total annihilation.

Being a superstitious person, he decides to find which day will prove lucky for his evil scheme of genocide to succeed.

Starting in Nisan (Abib), the first month of the Hebrew sacred year, Haman has lots (called Pur) cast each day to determine which one might be lucky.

He continues this practice for a number of days until, on day 13 of the twelfth month (Adar), he receives the sign he has waited for (Esther 3:7, 13)!

It is on this day of the month that he plans to fulfill his revenge against the Jews.

It is possible Haman also decided to appear before the king with his accusations and murderous plan on the same day the lots came up lucky (Adar 13).

He almost certainly needed such favor, as Persian kings made it illegal for anyone to approach them, on their throne, unless they were summoned (Antiquities of the Jews, Book 11, Chapter 6, Section 3, see also Esther 4:11).

Those who dared break the law of the king would receive an immediate death penalty from axe-wielding guards.

Even Queen Esther had to have the king extend her special favor, through his sceptre, before she could safely come to him (Esther 4:11, 5:1-2).

An edict of destruction

Haman approaches the king and receives the permission he desires to destroy the Jews (Esther 3:10-11).

He then waits until his lucky day 13 arrives the following month (Nisan) before having the royal scribes write the official edict declaring all Jews should be destroyed on the thirteenth day of Adar.

The edict is then immediately sent to Persian officials, with copies posted for all people to see (verses 12-15).

Haman's edict is unusual and especially brutal. It is not only delivered to those working for the king it is also posted, in several languages, in all 127 provinces for everyone to read!

All Jews, including women and children (regardless of age), were to be murdered by the empire's non-Jewish residents.

As further incentive for carrying out this demonic order, anyone who killed a Jew was allowed to take their land, cattle and any other possessions as spoil (Esther 3:13-15).

Destined for failure

Haman's luck begins to run out, however, when both Queen Esther and Mordecai (both Jews) get involved to save their people.

Additionally, though not directly recorded in the Bible, God seems to have had a hand in certain perfectly timed events that turned the tide against Haman (Esther 5:2-3, 6:1-11, 7:8).

Haman is executed less than two and one half months after recording his edict of death (Esther 7 to 8:9).

Queen Esther then quickly arranges for the king to write a new edict. This decree authorizes all Jews to defend themselves on Adar 13 against all those who would do them harm.

When the day arrives, even the public officials defend the Jewish people from being slaughtered (Esther 9:3-4).

A day to remember

The number 13 would ultimately prove lucky for the Jews. They not only were spared destruction, they were able to rid the empire of all those who hated them.

Their influence in the empire also grew tremendously, in large measure due to Mordecai replacing Haman as the Prime Minister (Esther 8:1-2).

Mordecai is also given control of Haman's vast wealth, which in today's money was worth more than $150 million dollars.

Every year, starting at sunset on Adar 13 (see Esther 9:15, 19-21), Jews celebrate their deliverance on Purim.

The holiday's name is the Hebrew plural of the Persian word for "lots" (Pur) which, though initially used to seal their demise, became a reason to celebrate their luck!

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THE SECRET BEHIND THE NUMBER 666 - True completeness was only achieved by Jesus Christ, who saved the world through his perfect sacrifice. If Jesus had a symbolic number, it would be 777 - by assigning 666 to the "number of the beast," the author of Revelation is warning Christians to beware of Satan's "cheap imitation of Christ - In the book of Revelation 3:18, it reads, "Here is wisdom. Let him who has understanding calculate the number of the beast, for the number is that of a man; and his number is 666." When you dig deeper into its historical context, there's evidence that the author of Revelation was using numbers to send his early Christian readers a coded message. "The beast" was a reference to an evil-looking creature that the author of Revelation saw rising out of the earth in a vision. This creature could perform miracles, would demand that everyone be "marked" with its name or number in order to buy and sell anything; and would also kill those who did not worship it. People have wondered whether this beast referred to someone who has come and gone, was yet to come or to no person in particular. The book of Revelation was written in Greek, the language of the Christian world in the first and second century C.E. Instead, each letter of the Greek (and Hebrew) alphabet had a numeric value.

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What's the Secret Behind the Number 666?

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True completeness was only achieved by Jesus Christ, who saved the world through his perfect sacrifice. If Jesus had a symbolic number, it would be 777 - by assigning 666 to the "number of the beast," the author of Revelation is warning Christians to beware of Satan's "cheap imitation of Christ"  

BY DAVE ROOS

Would you buy a used car with a license plate ending in 666?

Or take a job at an office tower in New York City with the address 666 Fifth Avenue?

After all, 666 is the infamous "number of the beast," allegedly Satan's secret code for evil.

In the biblical apocalyptic book of Revelation 3:18, it reads, "Here is wisdom. Let him who has understanding calculate the number of the beast, for the number is that of a man; and his number is 666."

Is 666 really "the devil's number," or is there a more down-to-earth
explanation for these three digits?

From that passage, it sure sounds like 666 is Lucifer's lucky number.

But when you dig deeper into the Bible and its historical context, there's evidence that the author of Revelation was using numbers to send his early Christian readers a coded message.

When Letters Are Also Numbers

"The beast" was a reference to an evil-looking creature that the author of Revelation saw rising out of the earth in a vision (Revelation 13:11-18).

This creature could perform miraculous things, would demand that everyone be "marked" with its name or number in order to buy and sell anything; and would also kill those who did not worship it.

So, who was this?

Over the centuries, people have wondered whether this beast referred to someone who has come and gone, was yet to come or to no person in particular.

The book of Revelation was written in Greek, the language of the Christian world in the first and second century C.E.

There were no numbers in Greek, at least not the numbers that we'd recognize today. (Our so-called "Arabic numerals" — 0, 1, 2, 3, etc. — were developed centuries later.)

Instead, each letter of the Greek (and Hebrew) alphabet had a numeric value. For example:

alpha = 1

beta = 2

pi = 80

psi = 700

For the Greek-speaking Christians reading Revelation, they would have been very comfortable reading letters as numbers.

That's how numbers were displayed in the market or in legal documents.

They also would have been comfortable turning numbers back into letters thanks to a practice called isopsephy.

Word Games With Numbers

Isopsephy, in Greek, means "equal in numeric value," and was a popular way of playing with words in the first century.

The trick was to add up the numeric value of one word and then find a second word or phrase that added up to the same number.

Words that were numerically equal were thought to have a special connection.

One of the best-known first-century isopsephies was referenced by the Roman historian Seutonius.

"A calculation new: Nero his mother slew." In this case, the emperor's name "Nero" equals 1,005, the same value of the phrase "his mother slew."

For Romans who suspected that the ruthless emperor had murdered his mother, this isopsephy was the proof.

Archaeologists have even discovered ancient Roman graffiti that substituted numbers for names, says Thomas Wayment, a classics professor at Brigham Young University.

"There's graffiti at Smyrna and Pompeii that says, 'I love her whose number is 1,308,'" says Wayment.

"That's pretty common. And hopefully everybody did their math correctly and could make the connections."

'666' Was a Coded Message

Wayment and most other biblical scholars have no doubt that the author of Revelation intended 666 to be an isopsephy solved by his first-century readers.

"The author says, this is the number of a man, which is a classic isopsephy formula," says Wayment, who recently co-wrote an article on Revelation 13:18 and early Christian isopsephies.

"Christians would have known right away, this is a coded message."

Revelation is famously cryptic and was meant to be that way, even to its original audience.

Wayment says that in apocalyptic writings, an angel or other heavenly messenger often reveals their meaning through coded speech.

"As a reader, you're seeing something through the eyes of the visionary and he's telling you, 'you need to make sense of this,'" says Wayment.

"That's part of your experience and participation in the vision."

According to most scholars, 666 was yet another coded reference to Nero, a "beastly" emperor who brutally persecuted early Christians in the Roman Empire.

To solve the isopsephy and equate Nero to 666, you need to use the full name "Caesar Nero" in Greek.

If Caesar Nero is transliterated into Hebrew as nrwn qsr or "Neron Kesar" and then calculated, the numbers add up to 666.

Interestingly, some early manuscripts of Revelation have the number written as 616 instead of 666.

The common explanation is that "Caesar Nero" is written differently in Greek and Latin, another language spoken by early Christians.

In the Latin version, the letters only add up to 616.

Other Readings of '666': Satan's Perfect Imperfection

Not all Bible scholars are convinced that 666 is simply an isopsephy.

James M. Hamilton, a professor of biblical theology at the Southern Baptist Theological Seminary and author of "Revelation: The Spirit Speaks to the Churches," sees powerful symbolism in the repetition of the number 6.

In biblical symbolism, Hamilton says, the number seven represents "completeness" or "perfection."

True completeness was only achieved by Jesus Christ, who saved the world through his perfect sacrifice. If Jesus had a symbolic number, it would be 777.

By assigning 666 to the "number of the beast," the author of Revelation is warning Christians to beware of Satan's "cheap imitation of Christ," says Hamilton. "That's the best Satan can do, one short of perfection."

For Hamilton, those "false Christs" raised up by Satan could take the form of a corrupt emperor like Nero or even modern cultural norms that are in rebellion against God.

"If participating in that culture entails worshiping false gods or denying something that the Bible teaches, Christians need to say, 'I'm not going to take the number or name of the beast,'" says Hamilton.

NOW THAT'S COOL

Third-century Christians picked up the habit of signing letters with the number 99, the numeric value of "Amen."

Dave Roos

CONTRIBUTING WRITER

Dave is a freelance journalist who has contributed hundreds of articles to HowStuffWorks since 2007, with a specialty in personal finance, economics and business. Raised in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, he attended Duke University where he earned the B.A. in comparative religious studies that has served him so well.

Dave began freelancing when he and his wife moved to Mexico in 2003, publishing articles about Mexican food and culture in The New York Times, the Los Angeles Times and Newsweek. Nearly 15 years and three kids later, Dave and his family recently moved back to Mexico and just might stay a while.

https://history.howstuffworks.com/history-vs-myth/666.htm