The stories of Old Testament figures often foreshadow the stories of New Testament figures who share the same name. In some instances their actions were similar. For example, Judah in the Old Testament suggested selling Joseph into slavery, and Judas in the New Testament was paid to betray Jesus.

In other instances the New Testament story is an almost perfect reversal of the Old Testament story. In the Old Testament, King Saul killed himself with his sword rather than be captured by the Philistines. In the New Testament, the Apostle Saul, also called Paul, cried out to stop the Roman jailer from killing himself with a sword. King Saul preferred suicide to captivity, Paul preferred to be a captive rather than have his jailer commit suicide.

These parallels exist for at least eight major New Testament figures: Jesus, Joseph, Simon-Peter, Paul, John the Baptist, John the Apostle, Doubting Thomas, and Judas. Admittedly there was no Thomas in the Old Testament. But "Thomas" meant "twin," and there are interesting parallels between Thomas and the twins of both the Old and New Testaments.

The relationships discussed here may have been difficult to see because many Old and New Testament figures who had the same Hebrew name they have different names in English translations, for example, Jesus and Joshua, and James and Jacob. Usually this is because many New Testament names were translated first from Hebrew into Greek and then from Greek into English while Old Testament names were translated directly from Hebrew into English.

This foreshadowing or typology maybe a miracle or prophesy. This provides evidence or proof that God is behind the Bible. Check it out and decide for yourself. You can tell me what you think in the guest book

Twins Follow a Pattern

The parallels involving Doubting Thomas and the three sets of twins mentioned in the Bible are perhaps the most impressive example of foreshadowing or typology. In each case the Bible discusses human twins a hand or an arm was examined to determine someone's status or identity. The pattern is clear in the Doubting Thomas story (John 20:24-29). The name Thomas means twin and the Bible says that Thomas was called the twin. The other apostles told Thomas that Christ had risen from the dead. Thomas said he would not believe unless he put his fingers in the nail holes. Christ appeared to Thomas and the other disciples and offered his hands to Thomas, who made an immediate profession of faith, "My Lord and My God."

There are two sets of twins in the Old Testament. Esau and Jacob the sons of Isaac and Rebekah were the first set. In Genesis 27, Jacob stole Esau's blessing. Isaac asked Esau to kill some game and cook it the way Isaac liked. Isaac promised he would give Esau a blessing after Isaac ate the meal. Jacob's mother, Rebekah, convinced Jacob to steal the blessing by pretending he was Esau. Jacob killed a kid from the flock, cooked the kid, and tied the kid's skins to his arms. When Jacob served the meal to Isaac, Isaac recognized Jacob's voice so he asked to feel Jacob's arms. The goat skins convinced Isaac that Jacob was Esau, and he gave Jacob the blessing due his first born son, Esau. As in the Doubting Thomas story a person's arm is inspected to determine their identity or status.

Zerah and Perez are the second set of twins in the Old Testament (Genesis 38:27-30). Zerah's hand came out of the womb first, and the midwife tied a thread around it, but Zerah pulled his hand back into the womb. Then Perez came out followed by Zerah with the thread still tied around his wrist. I assume the thread was used to determine who was the first born. The point is, once again, someone's hand or arm was checked to determine their identity or status.

So far, I have discussed three stories that shared two elements of the pattern have been discussed: twins and someone checking a hand or arm to determine who another person is. But there is a third element, the color red or scarlet.

Red first appears in the Bible in the story of Jacob and Esau (Genesis 25:25-31). Esau came out of the womb red and hairy. Esau sold his birth right to Jacob for a bowl of red pottage, and therefore he was called Edom which means red. The first 24 chapters of the Bible do not use the word red or scarlet once, then within six verses red is used three times.

Scarlet, which means red, first appears in the story of the second set of twins, Zerah and Perez. The thread tied around Zerah's wrist was scarlet.

The blood from Christ's wounds would also have been red though the Bible makes no mention of blood in the wounds of the risen Christ.

So there are three elements in a pattern repeated three times, twins, someone investigates a second person's forearm or hand to determine identity or status, and red or blood which is red.

Up until now we have been speaking of human twins, but Castor and Pollux, the Gemini twins are also mentioned in the Bible. They were the figurehead on the bow of the ship that took Paul away from Malta (Acts 28:11). According to one tradition in Greek mythology Castor and Pollux were the twin sons of Zeus and a human mother. This maybe the tradition that the Bible in the original Greek is referring to because it calls them the son's of Zeus.

A few verses earlier in the same chapter (Acts 28:3-6) Paul carried a load of wood up to a fire. A serpent came out of the wood and latched onto Paul's arm, but Paul shook the serpent into the fire. The people of Malta said that Paul must be a murder because, even though he had escaped the ship wreck, the gods were punishing him. But Paul did not die, and his arm did not even swell, so they decided Paul must be a god. Note the similarity between this and Doubting Thomas's profession of faith, "My Lord and My God."

But, more to the point the pattern has reoccurred for a forth time. Again there is the twins theme, again a person's hand or arm is inspected to determine his identity or status, and again there is a wound and therefore blood which is red. In conclusion, there is a pattern involving all the human twins and half human twins in the Bible which is extremely unlikely to have happened by chance.

Note that there are two New Testament books, the Gospel of John, and Acts with the pattern by two different authors, John and Luke. Luke does not include the story of Doubting Thomas in his Gospel, which you might expect him to if he was intentionally setting up a pattern.

Nevertheless, one could attempt to explain the pattern by claiming the writers intentionally created it. Still it is surprising none of the many other authors who wrote the many other books of the Bible related a story involving human twins that did not follow the pattern. The probability that this pattern was recreated in four stories about twins by pure chance is vanishingly small.

This pattern applies to human twins or twins that are part human and part god. Here is a discussion of the pattern in animal twins.

The patterns involving Thomas and twins may be the most impressive, perhaps the second most impressive set of parallels are those that tie together King Saul and the Apostle Saul, better known as Paul.

King Saul and Saul-Paul

Particularly impressive is the similarity between the conversion of Paul on the road to Damascus and King Saul's attempt to capture David at Ramah. Paul was given letters authorizing him to arrest Christians and bring them back to Jerusalem (Acts 9:1-6). Just before Paul reached Damascus he had a supernatural experience and ultimately a conversion.

In the Old Testament there is a very similar story about King Saul. David went to live with Samuel in Ramah at Nai'oth. (I Samuel 19:18-24). Saul sent agents to capture David but as the approached Nai'oth the agents were overcome by the Holy Spirit and prophesied. They were unable to carry out their mission. This happened three times until King Saul himself went. As King Saul approached Nai'oth he too was overcome by the Holy Spirit and prophesied. King Saul stripped off his cloths and lay naked all that day and night at Nai'oth. Paul remained blind and similarly helpless for three days until Anini'as healed him.

In this case the similarity between New and Old Testament stories is overwhelming. In both cases the object was to capture the servant or servants of God and bring them back to Jerusalem. In both cases the individuals are overcome by the power of God as they approach the person or people they seek to capture.

The story of Paul's conversion on the way to Damascus also ties in with two other stories of King Saul's pursuit of David. King Saul with an army of three thousand men chased David around the countryside (1 Samuel 24). Note that the Apostle Paul's conversion experience is in the countryside. King Saul went into a cave to relieve himself. David was hiding in the recesses of the cave and could easily have killed Saul. Instead he cut off a piece of the border of Saul's cloak. When Saul left the cave David followed him and showed him the piece he had cut off. David argued that he meant Saul no harm because he could have killed Saul in the cave but did not. Saul agreed and repented of his plan to kill David.

On another occasion David again showed Saul that he could have killed him but did not (1 Samuel 26). Saul set out again to kill David with the help of three thousand men. David and one his men crept into Saul's camp when Saul and his men were asleep. Instead of killing Saul, David took his spear and water jar. Then standing on a mountain a long way from Saul's camp David shouted back to Saul calling Saul's attention to the fact that he had Saul's spear and water jar. By doing this, David proved to King Saul once again that he could have killed him but did not.

In the Old Testament stories, David, who foreshadows Jesus, showed that he could have killed Saul but did not, thus demonstrating both power and mercy. Jesus also demonstrated his power and mercy. He demonstrated his power by blinding Saul and his mercy by healing him.

In all cases the man named Saul repented. In the Old Testament King Saul returned to his earlier desire to kill David after the first demonstration of mercy. David moved to Philistine territory after the second reconciliation so King Saul was not given a chance to turn against David after David's second act of mercy. In the New Testament, Paul's conversion was permanent. It is often the case that the New Testament story is a triumph where the Old Testament story is a tragedy.

Still another story which is closely tied to the conversion of Paul is King Saul's visit to the witch at En-dor. King Saul ordered the execution of all who practiced witchcraft. The Apostle Paul persecuted Christians. Therefore both King Saul and Saul-Paul were persecuting people.

King Saul asked the witch at En-dor to call up the Prophet Samuel from the dead. Ananias was called upon to heal Paul of his blindness and ultimately to baptize him. In both cases someone from the persecuted group was called upon to help a man named Saul in a supernatural way.

Finally, both stories involve communication with someone who had experienced physical death, Samuel in the Old Testament and Christ in the New.

Many elements of Paul's conversion are foreshadowed in the several stories of King Saul discussed above. Also note, Old Testament tragedy often foreshadows New Testament triumph.

Another case of Old Testament tragedy foreshadowing New Testament triumph was the death of Saul (2 Samuel 31:4). Rather than be taken captive by his enemies, the Philistines, Saul killed himself with his sword.

In the New Testament (Acts 16:26-28) Paul preferred to remain a captive rather than have his jailer commit suicide. An earthquake shook the prison where Paul and Silas were being held. The doors of the prison flew open, and the chains dropped from the prisoners. The jailer woke up, saw the doors of the prison open, and thinking he would be tortured to death for allowing the prisoners to escape, picked up his sword to kill himself. But Paul called out, "Don't do yourself any harm: we are all here." The Apostle Paul preferred to be a captive rather than have the jailer commit suicide. This was an almost perfect reversal King Saul's suicide.

Paul saving the jailer also ties into the story mentioned above where David and one of his men crept into Saul's camp while Saul and his men were sleeping. After David managed to sneak out of Saul's camp with Saul's water jar and spear, David made a speech to Saul. Part of that speech was a suggestion that Abner, Saul's general, had been negligent in letting David get in and out of camp and should therefore be killed. David was at very least putting Abner's life at risk, this contrasts with Paul who was quick to protect the life of the jailer. The Romans would have tortured the jailer to death if Paul and his associate had escaped, that is why the jailer was about to kill himself. Paul did not escape and voluntarily faced the Roman officials the next day.

Note that Old Testament tragedy is once again replaced by New Testament triumph. Paul the reformed villain of the New Testament followed a higher standard than David the Old Testament hero who in many ways foreshadows Christ.

In summary, several Old Testament stories concerning King Saul's attempts to capture David, and the events leading up to King Saul's suicide foreshadow just two stories concerning the Apostle Paul, the story of Paul's Conversion, and Paul's heroic decision to save the jailer.

Of Simeon, Simon, and Swords

Simon-Peter's Hebrew name was Simeon. Simon was a Greek name commonly adopted by men named Simeon. Simeon's reaction to the rape of his sister, Dinah, and Simon-Peter's actions at the Last Supper and the Garden of Gethsemane have several things in common.

In Genesis 34 Jacob and his household were passing through an area ruled by Hamor when Hamor's son, Shechem, raped Jacob's daughter, Dinah. Shechem asked to marry Dinah, and Jacob's family agreed to the marriage and the unification of the two groups if Hamor, Shechem, and the men of Hamor's country were circumcised. They all agreed and were circumcised. While they were still recovering, two of Jacob's sons, Simeon and Levi, took swords and killed Hamor, Shechem, and their countrymen.

In the Gospel of Luke (22:35-38), Christ told the disciples to go and buy swords. The disciples said they had two swords, and Christ said this is enough. Note, Simeon and Levi killed the followers of Hamor with two swords. Luke mentions that one of the disciples struck the high priest's servant and cut off his right ear (22:50-51). Then Jesus healed the ear. Luke fails to tell us which disciple welded the sword, but John (18:10-22) reveals that is was Simon-Peter.

Note that the stories are about Levi the founder of the clan which became the Old Testament priesthood and Simon-Peter the first leader after Christ of the new priesthood.

Note also that it is only by using both the Gospel of Luke and the Gospel of John that the full pattern is revealed. Of course Luke and John had no way of knowing that their work would eventually be included in a Bible, so if they wanted to establish a pattern why didn't they include all the elements in their own gospel.

Joshua, Jesus, of Kings, Stones, Caves, and Trees

The Old Testament version of the name Jesus is Joshua, there are once again a number of parallels between Jesus and Joshua. Joshua was the son of Nun. Nun refers to a plant which was a symbol of the eternal. So Joshua son of Nun could be loosely translated as Jesus son of the eternal.

There is an interesting set of parallels between the death, burial, and resurrection of Jesus and Joshua's execution of five kings (Joshua 10:16-27). When five kings who had allied themselves together lost their battle against Israel, they hid in a cave. Joshua ordered stones rolled over the cave's mouth and men posted to guard it. After the Israeli army finished slaughtering the five kings' armies, Joshua had the stones rolled away and the kings brought out. Joshua killed them and had them hung from trees. At sunset Joshua had them cut down and thrown back into the cave, and great stones were laid at the cave's mouth.

This story about Joshua foreshadows many elements of the death and resurrection of Christ. The kings corpses hanging from trees foreshadow Christ hanging on the cross. In five verses in the New Testament the Crucifixion is referred to as hanging on a tree (Acts 5:30, 10:39, 13:29, Galatians 3:13, 1st Peter 2:24). The kings act of hiding in the cave and their ultimate burial in the cave both foreshadow the burial of Christ in a tomb recently hewn from rock. The stones placed at the cave's mouth foreshadow the stone rolled in front of the tomb of Christ. The guard ordered by Joshua foreshadows the Roman guard that guarded Christ's tomb. The emergence of the kings from the cave foreshadows the Christ's emergence from the tomb. The fact that the five kings were kings foreshadows Jesus role as king. Finally the fact that the king who initiated the alliance of the five kings was King of Jerusalem foreshadows Christ's role as the heir to the line of David which ruled from Jerusalem.

It has also been argued that many elements concerning Joshua and the entrance of the Children of Israel into the Promised Land foreshadow the entrance into the ultimate promised land, Heaven.

It is my impression from a conversation that I had many years ago that the following argument circulates among some Evangelical Protestants.

It is symbolic that Moses was not allowed to lead the Children of Israel into the Promised Land because Moses brought the law to Israel and it is not by the law but only by grace that we may enter Heaven. So it was left to Joshua to lead the children of Israel into the Promised Land.

Catholics have also seen parallels between the entry into the Promised Land and entry into Heaven. There are several interesting parallels between Joshua and his partner Caleb, and Jesus and his mother Mary. Joshua and Caleb were the only adult men who left Egypt who were allowed to enter the Promised Land. According to Catholic tradition Jesus and Mary were the only two individual's who did not sin and therefore were worthy of going to the New Testament promised land, Heaven. Thus in both New and Old Testament only two were found worthy to enter the promised land, and in each case one of them had the same name, Jesus from the Greek New Testament, Joshua from the Hebrew Old Testament.

Gerry Matatics independently discovered this parallel and covered it in a tape. He also pointed out that only Jesus and Mary went into Heaven body and soul, Jesus in the Ascension and Mary in the Assumption.

Many of these parallels have probably been discovered by other people. What to the best of my knowledge is original to me is the idea that most of the names in the New Testament are tied to Old Testament names thus forming one very large set of interconnected patterns.

Beyond the parallels discovered by Gerry Matatics there are several other parallels between Mary and Caleb. In Numbers 14:24 Yahweh says, "But my servant Caleb is of another spirit. Because he has obeyed me perfectly," and in Joshua 14:9 Caleb quotes Moses as saying " . . . you have done the whole will of Yahweh my God." As Catholic teaching says that only Jesus and Mary were without sin these words seem to apply even more to Mary than Caleb.

Secondly, there is also evidence that Mary and Caleb were both protected from the aging process. In the Old Testament, Caleb claims in Joshua 14:10-11 that he is as strong at eighty five as he was at forty when he went to reconnoiter the Promised Land. It is an infallibly taught tradition of the Catholic Church that Mary was born without the stain of original sin and never committed a sin. There is also a tradition that is not an official teaching of the Catholic Church that Mary did not age, which is one affect of original sin. This tradition appears to have been widely believed because many artists have painted the Assumption of Mary and to the best of my knowledge all painted her as young women. Therefore, there is a tradition that both Mary and Caleb were protected from at least some aspects of aging, and in both cases this protection was related to their doing the will of God.

It might be further added that in both cases their ability to do the will of God was related to their willingness to trust God. Caleb knew full well the strength of the people of Canaan, but trusted God to deliver the land to the Hebrews, and Mary also trusted that God would deliver what he promised her.

Finally it is interesting to note, Mary and Miriam had the same name in Hebrew, and the chapter in which Miriam's name is used most often, Numbers 12, is the chapter immediately preceding the chapter in which Caleb is introduced, Numbers 13. In conclusion, in several different way Caleb foreshadows Mary, and Joshua foreshadows Jesus.

But what of the others who entered the Promised Land and Heaven. The second generation, the men younger than 20, did eventually enter the Promised Land with Joshua and Caleb. This second generation maybe a type for the New Testament second generation, those who have been born again through baptism in water and the Holy Spirit.

Judah, Judus, and the Monetary Value of Friends and Relatives

As mentioned above, the stories of Judah in the Old Testament and Judas in the New provide another interesting parallel. Judah in the Old Testament suggests that Joseph should be sold into slavery (Genesis 37:26-27). The price was twenty pieces of silver. Judas in the New Testament sells Christ for the famous thirty pieces of silver.

Joseph Dreams and Egypt

The parallels between Joseph the son of Jacob in the Old Testament and Joseph the husband of Mary in the New Testament are obvious enough that they are commonly noted. God communicated with both Josephs in dreams and both lead their families to Egypt.

John and Jonathan Good Friends and the Passing of the Torch

Finally there are parallels between John the Baptist and John the Apostle and Jonathan in the Old Testament. It should be noted that John and Jonathan are not the same name but both names do have the same root. Jonathan was a son of the old dynasty, and John the Baptist was a son of the old priesthood. Jonathan recognized David the founder of the new dynasty, and John the Baptist recognized Jesus the founder of the new priesthood.

The great example of the friendship between two men in the Old Testament is David and Jonathan, while the great example of friendship between two men in the New Testament is Jesus and the John the disciple that Christ loved.

Summary and So What

We have looked at most of the major figures in the New Testament and found that there are similarities between their experiences and the experiences of Old Testament figures with the same name. In the case of Doubting Thomas it is particularly clear that these go far beyond the bounds of coincidence.

Furthermore, even if we take a very cynical view of the Evangelists, the writers of the four Gospels and Acts, it would have been far to difficult for them to manipulate all the facts to fit a pattern this complex even if they had considerable freedom to manipulate.

But their freedom to manipulate was limited. They were, after all, writing about what their contemporaries regarded as true events. It is hard to imagine the Evangelists going to the other believers and saying, "Well we know what really happened, but if we can change this name and that event it will fit into a pattern with Old Testament events so we can fool future generations." Even if the church leaders were totally unscrupulous, what would have mattered to them would have been the scandal the manipulation would have caused in their own generation. It would be a strange sort of unscrupulous leader who was willing to sacrifice his own power and influence for the sake of spreading his ideas among future generations.

But what right do we have to assume that the apostles were unscrupulous hoaxers? Most or all died martyr's deaths, not a mass suicide which would be relatively easy, but martyr's deaths that often involved torture separated one from another by decades and thousands of miles.

Finally most of the patterns I am discussing here are not even touched upon by most sophisticated modern commentaries. Were these relatively uneducated men that much more sophisticated than modern scholars?

But of course many people will not be convinced, they will suggest that I am very imaginative, or Jesus and/or the Apostles were very tricky. But perhaps it is not the point of any one miracle to decide the matter beyond all contention. Rather, miracles invite people to investigate the faith more carefully, to check out other miracles and the rational argumentation that supports the faith. Finally, miracles invite people to pray for the gift of faith.

Though I have not gotten any complaints, some may think my work reflects badly on the Christian and or Catholic faith. Remember that this is simply the work of a layman. I discovered the pattern on my first reading of the Old Testament. There are many other apologetic arguments produced by professionals and scholars. You can check those out at the web sites for This Rock Magazine, Envoy Magazine, or numerous Catholic web sites on the Internet. If you go before God on Judgment Day and say I read an essay on some guy's Geocities web site and it turned me off to Christianity, God may say you failed to seriously search for his truth.

Well that is my essay, what follows is a summary of the reaction.

Professors, Editors, and the Public Reacts

Professors and Experts

I visited several professors who were Bible experts at the Graduate Theological Union, GTU, in Berkeley. GTU is a collection of nine religious colleges, three Catholic, six Protestant. It has what they describe as "the most comprehensive theological library in the country." GTU is one of the most distinguished, if not the most distinguished center of theological study in the country.

When I told several professors at GTU about the Miracle of Old and New Testament names a couple were impressed and suggested that I should see the most distinguished professor on the Bible at GTU, Wilhelm Wuellner. It was quite an honor that a couple of professors at one of the most distinguished centers of theological sturdy would want me to show the material to the most distinguished professor in Bible study. I think it is reasonable to say that Wuellner would probably have won the Nobel Prize in Bible studies if there was a Nobel in Bible studies.

Wuellner claimed that he had seen the material over a life time spent in the library, but that it was amazing that I had collected it just by looking at a Bible and a concordance. With out thinking much I said that it had taken me a half an hour. It must have taken considerably longer than that, but it did not take long, perhaps a couple of hours.

The patterns were discovered when I was reading the Old Testament for the first time. I saw enough to get the idea that perhaps every or most New Testament figures were tied to Old Testament figures with the same name. Then I quickly found most of what is in the essay.

Wuellner could not give me sources for the connections in the essay, and I have not been able to find sources so I doubt that many of the connections have been published anywhere, though some clearly have been published. Nevertheless, I am fairly sure the idea that many New Testament names are connected to their Old Testament equivalents in the ways discribed by the essay is original.

I sent the material to Gerry Matatics, who has been a professor at several univeristies. Matatics is interested in exactly this kind of thing. His first reaction was that it was simply impossible. People have been trying to discover things like this for two millennia. Then when he looked at it again he said it was amazing but I had done it. He thought I had quite a gift that should be developed.

Note that Matatics took a different position from Wuellner. Wuellner is more distinguished, but this is exactly Matatics' area of study, so perhaps Matatics is the more relavent expert.

Matatics pushed me to send it to This Rock magazine. I did not think This Rock would be interested, and unfortuantely I was right. There are few if any advantages to predicting failure.

I sent a copy to Matatics to be published in his news letter. I never found out if he published it.

Matatics also said that the material should be submitted to an academic journal. I suggested we could cooperate on that and he was interested in that. But I lost contact with Matatics and had not been able to contact him for years.

As a result of this web site I have finally got back into contact with Gerry Matatics. I heard several speeches in Sacramento and ate lunch with him and several others who attended. I may have been the only one at the table who attends the New Mass in English on a regular basis. I have never been to a Latin Mass.

We did not discuss this essay at his seminar, but when he contacted me by e-mail he seemed to remember it is some detail.

I am still interested in submitting the material to an academic journal if I can find a Biblical scholar who wants to do that. So far I have not found any takers.

Editors and Publications

This Rock magazine was not at all impressed by the material. The editor said it was not apologetics. Apologetics is a systematic defense of the faith and this is a systematic defense of the faith, so it actually is apologetics. The fact that college professors and other experts and intellectuals find it so interesting reinforces the point that it is a systematic defense of the faith. Furthermore this type of defense of the faith was used extensively in the Bible, so apparently some Saints and God thought it was a fairly effective way to defend the faith.

Still I did not think that it was This Rock style apologetics so I was not surprised that they rejected it. Each magazine has its own style and area, if what you are sending them is not their style and they reject it does not mean it is wrong or bad anymore than a biology paper rejected by a chemistry journal is wrong or bad, its just the wrong place to send it. Not that I apologize for submitting it to This Rock, Gerry Matatics had worked for Catholic Answers so I was perfectly justified in following his advice and he insisted that I submit it to This Rock.

I also sent the material to Vin Lewis who runs All Roads Ministries. He gave me my best rejection letter yet. Vin said do not keep trying, watch television instead.

I sent the material to one of those supermarket tabloids where they report that Saddam and Bin Laden have just adopted an ape, no I did not make that up. The tabloid never responded.

I sent an e-mail to a Catholic periodical that concentrates of miracles, but not this kind of miracle. The editor did not respond.

I have to admit the editors may have been showing some wisdom in rejecting this material. Many people hit on the web pages on the names and foreshadowing but the evidence suggests that less than one in ten read the work all the way through. The essay is more interesting to the experts than the average person. The average person probably figures that determining if this has value is the experts job and they will let them do it.

Skeptics and Unbelievers

I also sent the material to someone associated with the Skeptical Inquirer. I contacted the Skeptical Inquirer and asked who I should send my miracle for debunking. They gave me an address, probably an e-mail address, and I sent it. A graduate student responded and said he was too busy. He suggested I could send the material to the Skeptical Inquirer for publication but they would probably not be interested. He did not seem to grasp that I was challenging him to debunk the miracle. So far it would seem that skeptics are not actually attempting to disprove miracle stories, they simply ignore them, but perhaps I am unfair. We will see if any skeptics contest the theory now that it is on the net.

I showed an earlier version of the names essay to a graduate student in Biology at UC Davis who said that it was reasonably impressive but he had seen things with numbers that he was more impressed with. I think he had seen something like Theomatics or the Bible Codes, but that was many years ago before the famous Bible Codes book came out. Neither system convinced him or made him give up his unbelief. Perhaps I need to get some formulas and math into this as scientists are suspicious about anything that lacks numbers and formulas.

I also discussed the stories of the twins with a statistics professor whom I had taken a class from at the University of California at Davis. One can begin to get some type of statistical handle on this and our initial back of the envelope calculations suggested that there is very little chance of it happening by chance. This did not convince him to become interested in the faith.

Ordinary People

There was one lay person who saw this many years ago, thought it was great and asked for copies to distribute. I gave her several. By linking to this page from a web site, or telling people where to find it you can do much the same thing more easily.

I can not say there has been a huge interest in this among ordinary people. Many ordinary people probably feel that evaluating claims like this is best left to the experts. Many times the experts do not have the time, which may leave a role open for the educated lay person, but for most people their decision seems reasonable. If however experts decide that this is an interesting argument and give their seal of approval ordinary people and perhaps popular publications may become interested.

Internet Readers Reactions

On July 12th this page recieved about 40 hits so apparently a group was interested on that day. The previous week had averaged about 6 hits a day. If any of you read this thanks.

Beyond the hits, I have had several notes in my guest book. Here they are. I have left off the names to completely protect the writers. If you want your comment taken off this page, or want your name on it to take credit, you can contact me.

Some people are saying so what. For example, "Interesting, but beyond recognizing the pattern and its unlikelihood of being incidental, can you discern a greater meaning to it? How do I apply this?"

I am not trying to draw any moral or theological conclusions from this. I probably would not trust them even if I saw them. The argument is purely apologetic. The names miracle is another reason among many to take the Christian faith seriously. As to how you can apply this, I suppose you could show it to people who do not believe in God, and then report back to me on the results.

Another person wrote, "The NT to OT name comparisons are interesting, although somewhat contrived. Not sure what of value comes from this- for example the assertion that twins and scarlet appear related... so what?"

If the ideas are totally contrived, my work rather than God's, then the only significance is that this shows what amazing things people can come up with in a relatively short time if they are looking for patterns. If God created the pattern then there must be a God, and he seems to be pointing to the Bible as important.

Another person wrote that I had not shown that God wrote the Bible, rather I have shown that people invented the Jesus story. Does this mean there was no Jesus and a person or group just invented the whole thing, all the different gospels and letters as a hoax. Then they somehow convinced everyone that there had been a church which had continued in existence since the time of Christ and they were the last remnants of the Church. People fell for this and Christianity was born. Seems pretty far fetched. I cover these issues near the end of the essay.

Still these responses represent three of the standard options. A miracle might be a mistake, perhaps I just saw patterns where none existed, a fake, the early Christians set the patterns up intentionally, or the real thing, God has done a miracle. There are other options, for example, the devil, or Loki did it. Then there can be variations on the above, for example, the apostles picked events that really happened and emphasized those elements that would produce a pattern when compared to the Old Testament.

Some people liked the work. "Interesting site. Enjoyed reading typology. I`m impressed, never saw that before. Everything in the Bible means something. How it all goes together proves God's hand is in it." Another wrote, "You have found some interesting details, that I have enjoyed. O/T and the N/T do connect in varied ways. Good stuff!" A third said, "Your article and thoughts are interesting. I believe they are valid as to the types and symbols you draw from them. Thank you for putting them online!" A fourth said, "Excellent stuff. Typology has made a big difference in my appreciation and truth of scripture I am striving to be an amateur apologist and it has been a great help." Finally, a lawyer friend of mine said "Today I enjoyed your pages on the names miracle. Thanks."

I do not think that my article lead to the conversion of any of these writers, they no doubt were already Christians, but it is encouraging to get positive feed back.

I do not know if this final comment was referring to the names miracle, or something else. I often get these comments, where I am not sure what they are referring too. "If there is a God why would you need to know her/him/it by religion? Why not know God by science?" This is a good question, and I have lots of good answers. I wrote a long answer to the question. I think we went back and forth. Perhaps I should write some web pages dealing with this question. If you would like to see this you can leave a note in the guest book.

Your Response

You can leave one or more notes in my guest book. Do not write much beyond the little box they give you, they will simply cut off the last part or your message, just put a second and as many messages as you need in the guest book. If you leave an e-mail I will usually contact you. Then you can reply to that and develop your argument if that is useful or necessary.

More Evidence to Encourage More Investigation

More on names, the genealogies of Luke and Matthew are different. I have new explanation for the difference. Luke was writing to a Roman official and wanted to de-emphasize the idea of Jesus as a political king.

I am writing some essays on science and religion. The first is on methodological materialism. The second is on miracles and science.

Educated people are less likely to say they believe or that God is important in their life, but more likely to say they attended church last week. Education is negatively correlated with religious talk, but positively correlated with religious action. Read more.

A change was made July 28, 2007