Luke: brothers and sisters

Family histories are more concealed than revealed. Hypothetical genealogies are presented by two gospel writers (Matthew 1:1-17 and Luke 3:23-38) and the Sadducees debate a theoretical family that generates no offspring (Luke 20:27-40). What can we discern about prominent players with speaking parts revealed by biblical authors and others that are concealed by a biblical numbering system? The names Elizabeth, Martha and Peter may offer clues.

Mark opens the synoptic series with the preaching of John but Luke dramatizes family history by recollecting the story of John's parents: Zacharias and Elizabeth. Just as Matthew conceals "LORD" as the 666th word of the Greek Testament (2:13), Luke does the same for Elizabeth (1:41) and similarly for Peter (22:61), whose name appears 18 times and the third last as book word 17666. Our focus on the family history of Martha is tantalizingly hinted at by the number 8.

Jesus is expressed numerically as 888 in the values assigned the six letters of his Greek name (ΙΗΣΟΥΣ). "Name" is book word 8888 at Luke 10:38. In the same verse eight words earlier, "Jesus" is replaced by the emphatic personal pronoun "himself" as book word 8880 and 8988 as the simple pronoun at 10:42. Martha is as definitively tied to the Rabbi and as strongly as the mysterious woman in Matthew 26:12 who anoints him. In that verse, "ointment" is book word 15888.

Martha is named with Mary by both John and Luke and they agree on the numbers associated with these women. John writes of the "sisters" of Lazarus: the plural (Martha and Mary) is book word 8244 (11:3) and the singular is 8288 (11:5). Three women share the most popular feminine name in the gospels and the "sister" of Martha is the one whom Jesus loved, Mary Magdalene. Luke even suggests Peter's family (Mark 1:30, Matthew 8:14, Luke 4:38) by using "mother-in-law" as book word 10888 and "herself" as talk word 188 in 12:53 ["mother" is book word 10880]. Mary is the "mother" serving at the marriage at Cana of Galilee as book word 844 (John 2:1) and four verses and 44 words later, the verb "says" is book word 888 ["bride" is talk word 44 in column 555, all nouns in Luke 12:53]. Though it is not a true occult number, the two figures of the five that are not eights do add up to eight. Mary, wife of James is book word 18788.

"Brother" is book word 15888 in the Sadducee argument about a physical resurrection (Luke 20:28-38). The Herods were dominant brothers during the gospel period and the generation following in Acts of the Apostles. Presumably, Luke is hiding histories that are revealed by numbers attached to such universal words as "bride," "daughter," "mother" and "mother-in-law" (all four in the 26 words of 12:53 and all marked by fours or eights). This is mirrored in the rhetoric of Sadducees with a bookending of sevens ("brother" is book word 15877 as the 7th of 77 words and "woman" is the 77th). Fours and eights mark both words as well as "the seven" ("οἱ γὰρ ἑπτὰ") at 20:33 as book word 15944. "Woman" is book word 15880 and "brother" is 15888 (both in 20:28). Only one other verse in Luke is as short as 20:30: "and the second | καὶ ὁ δεύτερος" (the noun is talk word 40). This poetic license allows "the third one | ὁ τρίτος" to be talk word 44 in the next verse. Talk word 66 is "the resurrection" in 20:33. The numbering in the Rabbi's response is similar.

Playing the Pharisee, Lord Jesus responds with two words less than the question. Describing the present as "the aeon this! | τοῦ αἰῶνος τούτου," the noun is book word 15955 (20:34) and a resuscitation of "the sons | οἱ υἱοὶ" in a future "the aeon that! | τοῦ αἰῶνος ἐκείνου," book word 15966 is the demonstrative pronoun in 20:35. They are then to become "equal-angels | ἰσάγγελοι" (an exclusive Luke word) as "Sons of God | υἱοί ... θεοῦ," (the 18th of 18 verbs "they are" is book word 15988 at 20:36) and in 20:37, are "raised" (talk word 44).

The symmetry of seven brothers coupling with an apparently barren woman is aptly realized with the feminine noun used seven times in the 77-word question. This design seems to emphasize the third one (talk word 44) and may identify which Herod brother is referred to as the eighth word in Luke 23:11. A word used eight times in the Greek Testament only appears once as a gendered plural noun. Luke 23:11 has "the Herod with the armies | ὁ Ἡρῴδης σὺν τοῖς στρατεύμασιν" and that word is book word 17988.