Alphabet
It has often been said that one should read the Bible and while that is true, just reading the Bible is like taking a major highway from point A to point B. One will get to the right destination, but the most amazing points of interest are often off the main road and on the side trips that one can, and should, frequently take.
The same is true for scripture in that many of the most interesting points can only be found by studying the Bible instead of just reading it. We also miss a lot by not being able to read the scriptures in the origin Hebrew, Aramaic, and Greek. Even the common words such as the one above, alphabet, may have an interesting connotation.
In Hebrew, the word alphabet is composed of two Hebrew letters “Aleph” and “Bet*.” The first letter of each - A and B - spell the Hebrew word for father (e.g.: ABBA aka “God the Father”) indicating the Hebrew alphabet comes from God the Father.
In addition, in both the Hebrew and Greek, each letter has a numerical value so that the Aleph and Bet combined have a value of 523 as noted in the reference cited below. Also, the first and last letters of the Hebrew alphabet, the “aleph and tav” also have a numerical value of 523. This is the equivalent of the Greek where aleph and tav become Alpha and Omega - the first and last.
523 is also significant because, in Hebrew, it is the full numeric value of:
those who know your name trust you Psalm 9:10
Immanuel Isaiah 7:14
the virgin Matthew 1:23
As such, there is a mathematical connection between the three concepts above and all relate to the Messiah. Nuances that would never be found by just reading the Bible and not exploring the side roads along the way. It is in many ways a more complex book than we could ever really imagine.
Just a little something to think about.
*Adapted from Mysteries of the Messiah by Rabbi Jason Sobel, p.g.:XIV-XV
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