Sh’moneh - The Number 8 in Hebrew – Part I

Recently, a Great Lakes Theorists sent me an article he had posted on his website regarding the number 8 in relation to the number of barges the Jaredites used to reach the Western Hemisphere. His argument was that the number 8 had no significance in Hebrew and that in all his research he had never found any meaning in Hebrew at all for the number 8 in Hebrew. Therefore, the number 8 for the barges had to be in error.

His argument was that he felt the use of the number 8 in the Book of Mormon showed an inaccuraacy in specifics—that is, exact numbers, words, etc., in the record could not be counted on to be exact, therefore, the west sea or east sea were not meant to be exact terms and, therefore, there was no conflict in his argument that the Great Lakes or Heartland model of the Book of Mormon geography did not conflict with the text.

Pardon me, but after I stopped laughing, I sat down and wrote him back. In essence, this is what I wrote: “There are two answers to your article:

First, the Jaredites were not Hebrews. The Hebrew genealogy (Genesis 11:10-17) came through Noah, Shem, Aram, Arpachshad, Shelab, Eber, and Peleg. In the next few verses, we see the Hebrew line from Reu through Abraham. However, Eber had two sons mentioned, one was Peleg (through whose genealogy Christ came), Joktan, whose descendancy is never mentioned in the Bible other than the fact he had 13 sons. The fourth son, Jerah, is another Mesopotamia spelling for Jared, through whom the Jaredites descended. Therefore, while Heber and Jared were cousins, their descendants were through two entirely different lines—Peleg was the line that we know of as Hebrews in the Bible, and Joktan, unknown in the Bible, can be found in the Book of Ether of the Book of Mormon, who came to the Western Hemisphere.

Thus, when the “earth was divided” in Peleg’s day, it is likely that division was in the birthright, for Heber inherited the eastern hemisphere, which is where his descendants lived and the chosen line of Israel is mentioned. The other division was for the western hemisphere through Jared, and his lineage and descendants are covered in the Book of Mormon (See the details of this in Chapter 11, The Brother of Jared in the Old Testament, of my book, “Who Really Settled Mesoamerica?”). The point is, the number 8 to Jaredites would have nothing to do with the number 8 to Hebrews.

However, the number 8, despite what this person wrote, is a very significant number in Hebrew. First of all, Hebrew numbers are formed differently from Western or European numbers. In the west, only 10 digits are used, and the position of the digit indicates its value in powers of 10 beginning at 1. But Hebrew numbers simply add the values of each letter together and the position doesn't matter. They are generally written from largest to smallest, which in the right-to-left Hebrew script, means the largest is right-most.

For numbers greater than 799, tav (ת 400) is repeated. Numbers are formed by choosing the Hebrew letter with the largest value that doesn't exceed the number, and then selecting the next largest valued letter that reduces the remainder. For example, to represent 765, the largest valued letter is tav (400 ת) leaving a remainder of 365. Adding the letter shin (300 ש) leaves 65. Adding somekh (60 ס) and he (5 ה) eliminate the remainder. So 765 is represented by tav, shin, somekh, he: תשסה. There is one exception—numbers ending in 15 or 16 would be written as yud-he (10+5) and yud-vav (10+6), but the letters "yud he vav he" spell out the name of God and for religious reasons are not used. Instead, by convention, tet-vav (9+6 טו) and tet-zayin (9+7 טז) are always used.

With that said, let us take a look at the significance of the number 8 in Hebrew. To do this requires more space than available here, so in the next post, Sh’moneh - The Number 8 in Hebrew – Part II, we will cover the importance of that number anciently.