The Genesis 1:1 Letter Products

The products relating to each of the 7 words of this verse are detailed below:

Observe that the only primes involved in the Hebrew alphabetic scheme of numeration are 2, 3, 5 and 7. It therefore follows that the product of two or more letter values must be of the form

p = 2^s . 3^t . 5^u . 7^v (where all the exponents are positive integers)

Clearly, provided s, t, u and v are multiples of 3 (zero included) then p will be a cube. Under normal circumstances the probability of this happening in each of the four components is 1 in 3, and in the aggregate, 1 in 81. But, since none of the words of this first verse include the 7th or 16th letters (values, 7 and 70, respectively), the likelihood of a cubic product is just 1 in 27 - a modest, but measurable, conclusion].

Vernon Jenkins MSc

2006.12.20