Bible Hebrew Time Meter Characteristics
Bible Hebrew meter is a major rhetorical style, vital to hermeneutics and textual criticism. It has gone unrecognized, for centuries. How is it, that despite three centuries of debate among Bible scholars, none have found the pervasive âmeterâ in Old Testament Hebrew? They impose Western ideas of meter upon Bible text. So, they claim Bible has no meter. If instead they merely counted the syllables, they would find the style this writeup covers. Meter is designed for children and common folk, to test oral memorization. So even a child can learn what the scholar, can't discover?
One must be blunt about a 2000-year lapse in scholarship. Everyone quoting everyone else, no one reading Scripture de novo, everyone in the name of Christian unity playing nice â so a major doctrine like this goes missed for two millennia? When Scripture understanding is a casualty of 'brotherly love', the latter must be censured. But not for long. Fact is they messed up, yet Bible provides a way to correct the problem and move on. So let's move on.
But scholars will dig in their heels, for Bible is a political football. Only interpretations that agree with them, will be admitted. This meter supports Dispensationalists, but tweaks their mistakes. It also vindicates classical scholarship on many Bible dates, and reproves slipshod scholarship. It proves preterism anti-semitic and inept. It proves the Judaic calendar, apostate. Yet it vindicates the 'Ages' which Jews (but not Dispensationalists) recognize, correcting mistakes in Jewish doctrine. Most of all, it vindicates the timeline of Messiah as a 1500-year Biblical tradition from Moses to John. Thus it vindicates some sects among the Messianics, and chides Jews who despise them.
This meter style is the Bible's, not brainout's. So when you see it yourself, you own it, and never have to name me, k?
This same style persists in the New Testament Greek. It thus becomes invaluable to textual criticism and Bible interpretation, deciphering Bibleâs own dates, and its prophecy. Millions of dollars wasted can instead be saved or put to better use, if one but counts syllables and audits passages for the meter, as explained below.
So this writeup will summarize Bible meter characteristics. Test these characteristics on whatever Bible text you wish, thus eliminating the usual cry for âexpertâ sanction; for Bible meter is designed for the Joe Schmoe to learn and memorize, for best grasp and retention. Bible scrolls were heavy. Memorization was and remains, a convenience anyone of any age, can learn.
A full display of the meter (using BibleWorks) is in my âbrainoutyâ videos on Youtube, and in Ephesians1REPARSED. Additionally, the Magnificat and Zechariasâ speech, both in Luke 1, are metered, the Greek following the same Hebrew meter pattern as Moses established in Psalm 90. Those videos demonstrate more simply, how to spot Bible meter, and how to test it.
Purpose of Bible meter is to supply a timeline. It is thus a Time Accounting Meter of doctrinal value, not Bible codes or similar nonsense. A âtime poemâ is created. The reader is expected to count the syllables, then interactively use the text with the meter, to know where he is on Godâs âtime mapâ, so to better orient and use Bible Doctrine. This âtime mapâ employs a years-to-Millennium dating system, often as part of the âdatelineâ segment of the time poem (covered below).
Bible meter balances, so you approach it with a mindset similar to balancing your checkbook. The meters form âtransactionsâ which must make sense. That is how I learned what is written below. Audit Bible meter by the text, not by what someone says about the text. So variants will matter much, here. You should be able to prove which variants âbelongâ in a text by this auditing, i.e., Isaiah 53 has no words missing in Hebrew; the BHS text we have, perfectly balances.
The sophisticated characteristics listed below, are the result of observing the meter patterns in Old Testament and New. Since Iâm still learning their nature from the text, the listing below is neither complete nor completely accurate. The distinctive feature of Bible meter is its self-auditing quality. So mistakes, stick out. Hence continual auditing of the characteristics is ongoing.
To comprehend the examples listed below, some facts regarding how God Orchestrates Time, must be absorbed (or assumed, if you want to grasp what follows). Bible meter is designed to remind the reader about the Rules For Time. It is a basic doctrine learned on motherâs knee which survives in Judaism, in garbled form; but the doctrine is completely unknown, to Christendom.
- God designs Time itself to run as follows: 490 + 70 + 490 = 1050 year 'civilization' unit. It is the basic housing unit of Time. Each segment must be âqualifiedâ to exist via someone super-maturing spiritually during each 490, and via enough believers mass voting to learn God, during the 70. Else, Time ends. This is the basic doctrine behind the Flood, Sodom and Gomorrah, The Exodus, Temple Down, Rapture and Tribulation: too few votes. Time is on loan. You have only x-amount of time to vote for being saved, vote to learn God.
- Overlaying that structure, is a 1000 + 50. This is a Civilization Time structure, including unbelievers, an allotment for them to live. The last 50 years are a crisis mass voting period for unbelievers to believe in God, or mass death follows. A believer must super-mature enough during a 1000, for it to be granted. Else, Time ends.
- Two units of 1050 were allotted to the Gentiles, and two units to the Jews. At the end of which, Messiah was to come and pay for sins and then Return, Inaugurate the Millennium during which Israel would be Queen of the Nations. Then Time was supposed to end, and Eternity would begin.
- However, Abraham super-matured 53.5 years prior to the Gentile allotment's end; so 'Age of the Jews' began early. Hence Jewish Time must end with a âcreditâ for the Gentiles, of the same amount.
- This debit/credit for Abraham, gave rise to the Jubilee and Pentecost doctrines in the Mosaic Law, plus the Tribulation (paying back Passion Week, so to speak). Total was 50 + 7 = 57 years; 56, is the time between. It was represented in the Jewish calendar (which ran 30 days per month excepting Adar which ran 35-36 days, per Bible). The start of Passover to Pentecost, was 57 days; from Pentecost to 9th Av, another 57 days. The extra 3.5 days are related to the Temple starting late, 3.5 years after Davidâs age 77 death in 1 Kings 6:1; so Time books still balance, despite that lateness. (Scholars eschew Bible and instead go with the errant Josephus, assuming David died at age 70.)
- Messiah, therefore, must be born by the 1000th anniversary of Davidâs United Kingship, must die by the 1000th anniversary of David's death; and, must die 57 years before the scheduled Millennium. All these dates converge, as David died at age 77. Thus Christ is given 40 years to live, equaling Davidâs rule. Christâs death is to be followed by 50 years to Harvest the Gentiles; the last 7, is the Tribulation. It 'reimburses' 3.5 years to Gentiles (first half), and 3.5 years to Jews (second half). Hence the last half is called the Time of Jacobâs Trouble.
- For all Time revolves around Israel, since all Time revolves around Christ, Deuteronomy 32:8 and Hebrews 1:2 (Greek, itâs mistranslated). So Bible meters are designed to demonstrate this orbiting around The Singularity.
Hebrews 1:2 áźĎáž˝ áźĎĎόĎÎżĎ Ď῜ν ៥ΟξĎ῜ν ĎοὝĎĎν áźÎťá˝ąÎťÎˇĎξν ៥ΟáżÎ˝ áźÎ˝ Ď áźąáżˇ, á˝Î˝ áźÎ¸ÎˇÎşÎľÎ˝ κΝΡĎον὚Οον ĎόνĎĎν, δΚួ οὠκι὜ áźĎοὡΡĎξν ĎÎżá˝şĎ Îąáź°áżśÎ˝ÎąĎ¡
Bible meter references and reinforces the above Time structure, so Jews can always know their moâeds (appointments) with Destiny. Because, they were required to memorize Bible orally (Deuteronomy 6-30), so the syllable counts were often organized as time poems, to remind them of the Meaning of Time, interacting with the text. Further, all date verses in Bible (i.e., the Genesis 5 begats) are hubbed to these timeline rules. They are mapped in GeneYrs.xls.
There are many time poems in the Bible, but Iâve only had time đ to demonstrate a few major ones. Not included (because not yet parsed), are Genesis 49, sections of Job, other passages in Moses like Deuteronomy 32, probably 1 Kings 8-9 sections on the contract regarding the Temple, Messianic Psalms like Psalm 22, Psalm 89, probably Psalm 110, and large sections of Isaiah, Ezekiel, Zechariah, and probably the minor prophets. You will be able to âsmoke outâ a time poem by testing a passage using the characteristics below. Key: If the text seems timeless and repetitive, has a rhythm, has tinges of sarcasm and/or is syrupy in translation, it is likely a time poem. This is especially true, for prophetic passages.
Bible text references these rules axiomatically; so unless you know the rules first, the text might go unrecognized. The begats, all dates regarding the patriarchs, Temple, kings, Daniel 9:24-27, Acts 13 (Paulâs recounting of Egyptian slavery until David), Christâs use of the 70 Ă 7 rule for forgiveness, Matthew 1 and Luke 3âs use of 42 and 77 respectively, Galatians 4:4 and even Lamechâs boast about being avenged in Genesis 4, are examples of these rules in explicit text.
Characteristics
Note: characteristics which you should test early on to save analysis time, are highlighted in teal.
- Definition of âsyllableâ: 1 consonantal sound (with 1-3 consecutive consonants) + 1 vowel sound (with 1-3 consecutive vowels). Accentuation is not relevant; neither is speed of pronunciation (i.e., elongating or truncating a syllable for dramatic effect), excepting elision (defined below). Diphthongs with vowel endings generally count as one vowel sound, just as multiple consecutive consonants count as one sound. For Hebrew, it may matter whether the shewa is silent or voiced. You will know, as you parse for meter.
- Elision: in Hebrew, the waw is often elided. So too, when a word ends with a vowel sound but the next word begins with a vowel sound, or consonant like aleph, ayin, waw. However, never assume elision. First parse the text as if no elision. When you see a pattern, then you will know where elision is employed. It is generally quite sparse.
In Greek, the usual practice of elision or crasis for that period's speech pattern, pertains; but again, first parse the text assuming no elision, and let the emerging pattern, âshowâ you where to elide. Elision increases where Attic style is engaged, despite koine words; for in Attic and Greek of Mary's day, elision and crasis were deemed elegant. Expect more elision where Attic styles are employed, i.e., verbs are converted to participles or verbal nouns or dropped, case endings are used in lieu of prepositions, heroic accusative is used, etc. [I did not yet test LXX for Hebrew meter patterns, but the New Testament exhibits them. This meter is in addition to whatever Greek meter styles might be used. New Testament authors employ Greek meters also, often layering them with the Hebrew metric style, i.e., in Hebrews 11:1, Philippians 3:14.]
- Meter pattern is Sevened. Doctrine of Prophecy Fulfilled, âpromise timeâ. So a time poem will utilize âparagraphsâ in factors of seven. Parse syllables both cumulatively, and syntactically per clause (see #5, below). Ignore modern verse endings. A good example is Psalm 90, where the modern verse endings happen to follow the Hebrew (see below).
Psalm 90's palindromes
Isaiah 53's palindromes
- One syllable equals one solar year. Bible never uses lunar or soli-lunar years; it only measures years based on anniversaries, i.e., birthdays. Only solar accounting can âmatchâ an anniversary. Moreover, Years-from-Adam is the âabsoluteâ backdrop calendar, measured from the âbirthdayâ of Adamâs Fall (joke using min preposition in Genesis 3:22). So 130 solar years after Adamâs fall, Seth = Appointed to Carry the Name, was born. It is not years from Creation; Bible never defines when the Earth âbeganâ. Thus you must first construct the Genesis 5 calendar, to get a correct Anno Mundi (versus the incorrect am calendar scholars use); at which point, the 490-year Time Grant system God invented at Adamâs fall, becomes obvious (i.e., Enoch born 490 years after Seth, Isaac 490 years after Shem, Abraham received his covenant 490 years after Noah got his, etc).
To avoid confusion with the Anno Mundi convention, maybe we should call the Bibleâs grand history calendar âFAFâ, meaning âFrom Adamâs Fallâ. Solar years elapsed, since the date of his fall.
Bible meter accounting is precise. When you expect the value to be higher or lower, ask what month is referenced. Bible will add 1 if accounting from the start of a year, and subtract 1 if accounting from the end of the year. But it also measures actual time between both events. So in years where two events overlap which are accounted on separate tracks, to âbalanceâ the timeline, you might have +2 or â2. As you work with the meter, youâll know what and why you must add or subtract, to balance. Entries you must adjust are often stressed, and the adjustment serves as a mnemonic for that event.
- Meter divides naturally and syntactically. Never break syllables in the middle of a word; never break between prefix and noun or verb (i.e., donât break syllables between HaShem, bâdato, or wâasher) or the middle of a phrase. So the sevening occurs at the end of a phrase, as a complete syntactical unit. Again, meter is designed for oral memorization, and to adjunctively interact with the text, to teach the student about God's Rules for Time. So it never breaks artificially, and is not like the modern Sephardic practice of Bible recitation. (Bible Hebrew recitation downloads from the internet, are awful. The reciter breaks the text in the middle of a word, and his pronunciation is more like Arabic, very harsh and stilted.)
- The first divisible by 7 paragraph in a time poem is a dateline. The first time cumulative syllables are divisible by 7, tells you when the author writes. The when is measurable backward to a significant prior date in Bible history which doctrinally ties to the subject of the time poem. For example, Psalm 90 first sevens, at syllable 63. That represents 63 sevens backwards from when Moses writes, 441 years (beginning of that year). He measures from when Israel went into slavery under Amenhotep II, just after Joseph retired (see Case Study in Flawed Dating of Exodus or GeneYrs.xls for details). It is also â if you did your Genesis 5 through 11 begetting math â the start of the 1051st year after the Flood. Future Bible writers (here Isaiah, Daniel, Paul) will play on this dateline.
Dateline meters also stand alone, usually at the start of Bible books, i.e., Isaiah 1:1 and Revelation 1:1-3, are metered datelines. John uses the dual dateline (#7 below), but Isaiah used only one. Isaiah commences his ministry in the 42nd year of Uzziah; John writes 58 years after Christ dies, which is also 84 years after Israel became a province of Rome. So you must know the underlying history, to âreadâ the metered datelines. This was no problem for those getting the messages fresh, at the time. For us moderns, it will require more analysis, since our BC/AD system is a mess.
- The second divisible by 7 paragraph in a time poem might also be a Dateline. Sometimes it neednât be divisible by 7. Although Psalm 90's second such paragraph totals 84 syllables, it isn't a second dateline. It is instead, a decree to explain why the last paragraph (in Psalm 90:16-17) is 14 syllables short. Isaiah then plays on this balancing short by splitting the 84 syllables into two sets of 42, to bookend Isaiah 53 (which actually begins at Isaiah 52:13, in Hebrew). So Isaiah uses 42 (his first sevened paragraph) to point the reader back to Isaiah 1:1 (his call to ministry, 42nd year under Uzziah), as his own dateline in Isaiah 53 (he writes the latter, in 42nd year of his ministry).
Matthew 1 and Luke 3, play off the Isaiah bookends. Matthew 1 uses the 42 and hence three 14âs, to craft his honor roster of progenitors; Luke 3 uses the first 77 syllables in Isaiah 53 (representing Davidâs age at death), to make his roster of 'Christ as 77th Son'. Itâs wry humor: Isaiah 52:13-14 covered Messiah and the Jews, but verse 15 is about the Gentiles (totalling 77 syllables at verse end). Itâs tempting to speculate that Isaiah was 77 years old when he wrote Isaiah 53, but I donât know any way to prove that idea. Isaiah 53âs metrical theme is First Davidâs Birth to Last Davidâs Death.
By contrast, both Daniel 9 and the Magnificat, employ dual datelines: Danielâs first dateline is a 49 (years elapsed since Temple Down), in Daniel 9:4; his second dateline is not sevened (cleverly saying Time is out of sync), in Daniel 9:5, 73 syllables total (representing 73 sevens from Psalm 90âs endpoint). Maryâs Magnificat similarly employs a first dateline at 35 syllables, and a second dateline at 42 syllables, to craft a back-and-forth timeline: all time centers on messiah.
- So the Dateline(s) will set the theme of the Time poem, starting with its doctrinally related time characteristic. Thus Dateline, is the second-most important trait to vet. The Dateline governs how to interpret the text both doctrinally and prophetically. Often you canât âseeâ the dateline meaning until you have parsed the entire time poem and it has passed almost all other tests. So there is much trial-and-error. Yet when you get the right meter, the dateline will jump out at you; suddenly both meter and text will form a cohesive, doctrinal whole. Examples:
- Psalm 90âs theme is God Orchestrates Time, so Moses' 5 Ă 70 meter runs from Adam through the end of the (then-scheduled) Millennium. My Psalm 90 playlist in Youtube covers this. So his dateline reference ties back to both Israelâs slavery and the Flood (Jewish and Gentile Time thus incorporated). He then meters from Adam in Psalm 90:5-8, thence to Noah in Psalm 90:9-11, next to his own âvoteâ in Psalm 90:12-15; he finally ends with a future in jeopardy (Purim period aftermath) in Psalm 90:16-17, when the yet-future Temple and Jerusalem, will be in danger.
- Isaiah 53âs theme is First David to Last David, so his 77 Ă 7 Ă 2 meter runs from Davidâs birth to Messiahâs death. So his dateline picks up where Moses leaves off, 42 Ă 7 = 294 years after 1050 BC, when he was called to ministry (same year as Isaiah 1:1, and nearly the same year as Bible scholars claim, nearly the same as Roman AUC founding year).
- Daniel 9âs theme is Temple Restores History, so his meter runs from David Crowned at Hebron to Millennial end. So his first dateline picks up 49 years after the Temple fell (the number of missed sabbatical years, from Rehoboam forward), but his second (syllable 73) dateline picks up where Mosesâ meter leaves off (73 sevens = 511 years = 1050 BC â 511 = 538 BC, early that year). So he starts with a 40-year timetrack ellipsis from 1050, versus Isaiah's 10 years.
- Magnificatâs theme is Christ the Center of History, so Maryâs meter runs from initial Chanukah (73 years after Danielâs endpoint on his Time Track 2, how cute) to then-scheduled Millennium. So her Dateline at 35, is either her age or the regnal year of Herod (more likely, both), and her 42 Dateline is from Caesarâs taking over the Levant. Actually, both numbers balance to over a dozen other datelines, starting at Davidâs Hebron Kingship, then forward to balance Abraham's credit and Millennium: see charts on pp.11 and following of Luke 1:46-55, 'Magnificat' Meter of Time. Mary uses an Anno Domini accounting. Paul will vastly enlarge this same technique, in Ephesians.
- Ephesians 1:3-14âs theme is Church Age = 62nd week, so his meter runs from Christâs Birth (picking up where Mary leaves off) to a date which is equidistant from his Dateline of Christ age 56 (just before His 57th birthday), and 490 (same ending style as Daniel uses). More about this equidistance trait will be covered in point #12.
- The time poemâs cumulative syllables end, at a value divisible by 7. This value sets the scope of the time poemâs interpretation, and is the most important characteristic to vet. If the passage in question is not divisible by seven at its ending, then it is either not a time poem, or you made a mistake in parsing. So to save time, first count the total syllables, because: a) it is poetic in meaning or vocabulary, b) the text seems gnomic, timeless (always applicable), and c) the text seems prophetic in some key way. Meter-count mistakes within paragraphs might still occur, but if the total ends as a factor of seven, it should become obvious, quickly. Use 1 John 1:9 while parsing, or youâll make mistakes and waste time.
Psalm 90 ends at 350 syllables; Isaiah 53, 462 syllables; Daniel 9:4-19, 742 syllables; Daniel 9:24-27, 231 syllables; Magnificat, 217 syllables; Ephesians 1:3-14, 434 syllables. It was easy to find these sevened totals, but a nightmare to parse the submeters. So this #9 step helps you prioritize what to vet.
- Moreover, the ending cumulative syllable count may operate on two time tracks, one of which is a straight annual chronology forward from the Dateline. This style's complexity helps you audit the time poemâs ending syllable count. If there are two time tracks, both will tie doctrinally to the Dateline Theme; both will balance to what we now know, as past history per the Bibleâs own dates (and often outside Bible, too). See page 4 of Daniel 9:4-19, Hebrew with Meter Parsing and Notes, for a detailed example of how Daniel metrically created two time tracks. Simplest two-track version, is Psalm 90.
- The author will create years in ellipsis which are not explicitly part of the syllable count, but are part of the timeline set by the Dateline Theme; these ellipses always make sense. Ellipsis might be accomplished by further sevening, or by âtaggingâ another time poemâs syllable count or ellipses. Purpose of bifurcated time tracks, is to Balance juridical issues which link the two tracks together, as covered by the text.
Examples:
- Psalm 90âs theme is Godâs Orchestration of Time, so his meter runs 350 syllables. Since his dateline starts 441 years after Israel was enslaved, it ends in 1050 BC, with Samuel anointing Saul. Hence book of Judges âtiesâ to Psalm 90, as the latterâs text serves also as an annual commentary on the 350 years future. Now for the second timetrack: that same 350 symbolizes five 70âs (not seven 50âs), which are the number of voting periods in a 5250-year span from Adamâs fall to Millennium end. So the years between voting periods are elided. (490 + 70 + 490 = 1050, so with five 1050âs, the ellipsis pattern is 490, elided; then 70; then 980 elided; then 70; then 980 elided; then 70; and a final 980 elided; then 70 again, and lastly 490, taking you to the Millenniumâs start, 4200 years after Adamâs fall, the times of gentiles and jews, scheduled end. Last 1050 then has a 70 year period in the middle, represented by the 70 embedded in the 84 of Psalm 90:1-4.)
- Isaiah 53âs theme is First David to Last David, technically 462 syllables, but with ellipses to emulate Mosesâ sabbatical accounting, from Davidâs birth to Messiahâs death:
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- 1078 years (start of the 1078th year after Davidâs birth, Messiah was then-scheduled to die).
- The ellipses are between Isaiah 52:15 and Isaiah 53:1, 252 years = 252 - 33 (Solomon) + 126 in Isaiah 53:1-4 = 345 = period during which the sabbatical years were missed;
- Then 364 years between Isaiah 53:10 and Isaiah 53:11 (reimbursed Temple Standing Time).
- So Isaiahâs chronology is annual, but with these two ellipses.
- Daniel will use those ellipses in his own meter, as juridical basis for his Restoration Petition.
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- Daniel 9âs theme is Temple Restores History, so his meter annually tracks to Isaiah 53; he likewise bifurcates on two time tracks, running 742 syllables. There are 750 sevens from Adamâs Fall to then-scheduled Millennium (5250/7). Daniel omits 56 (eight sevens) at the end, to âadmitâ the shortfall caused by the 49 missed sabbatical years. (An extra 7 sabbatical years accrue on the missed 49, so two sevens must play post-First Advent. Scholars miss this, since: a) they misaccount Daniel 9 as lunar years, and b) they heed Eusebius' error that 70 sabbatical years were missed, ignoring the Bible đ¤Ś. Any fool can see 70 years could not have been missed, for Israel returns to the Land 49 years after Temple Down!) God will âreimburseâ the 49 in Daniel 9:25-27, which is also metered (at 231 syllables, how cute) to match Danielâs 49-syllable bookends (Daniel 9:4 and Daniel 9:13). Daniel creates his second track, by tagging Isaiah 53âs syllable counts, at important juridical points. Daniel's two time tracks are best seen in the text on its page 4 chart.
- Magnificatâs theme is: Christ the Center of History, so Maryâs total runs 217 syllables = years from initial Chanukah, to then-scheduled Millennium. (Cute yet profound: she debits 14 from the 231, as if expecting her Future Son to die early, just as Daniel had done.)
In ellipsis, are 73 years after Danielâs endpoint on his Time Track 2 (bringing the timeline forward to the first Chanukah where her discourse begins), and another ellipsis of 40 years atop the 217, to âreimburseâ for Time Messiah was then scheduled to live; timeline ends at the start of then-scheduled Millennium. Her larger time track is accessed by clever math sevenings via the 35 and 42 datelines; see pages 11ff of Luke 1:46-55, 'Magnificat' Meter of Time.
- Ephesians 1:3-14âs theme is Church Age = 62nd week, so his meter runs 434 syllables with 56 in ellipsis at the end, to âtagâ Danielâs 62nd week; when Christ was supposed to die, but instead died 7 years earlier. So Church history is in a time loop akin to our âGroundhog Dayâ, exhibiting the same historical trends as in Daniel 9:26âs text â until the Rapture. Theologians miss this fact, since they insist on using the non-Biblical idea of lunar years. 490 soli-lunar years equals 483 solar years, so they miss the overage. So whether preterist or Dispensational, theologians following Jewish practice instead of Bible practice, have missed this seven-year âhanging chadâ in Daniel 9:26.
- Equidistance clarifies the Dateline. It âbracketsâ the time poem. It will express as the same number of years before and after the year/date of the time poemâs terminus, via some doctrinally significant formula. Often there are multiple equidistances both fore and aft, the former serving as a macro-spiritual GPS, God's Prophetic Schedule reminder. For example, Psalm 90âs written 1050 years after the Flood; when its annual chronology of 350 years = syllables ends, there were 1050 years left until Messiahâs deadline for Birth. (Deadline is cut 3.5 years, owing to late Temple construction, 1 Kings 6:1.)
Equidistance examples for Psalm 90, Isaiah 53, Daniel 9 and Ephesians 1 were charted side-by-side, see page 3 of God's Play of History: Psalm 90, Isaiah 53, Daniel 9 and Ephesians 1:3-14. Magnificat equidistance is even more sophisticated, as shown in Luke 1:46-55, 'Magnificat' Meter of Time and following.
- Total syllables with equidistance, must also divide by 7. This helps audit the dateline, as there will be more than one doctrinally-meaningful date in Israelâs pregnant history, which seems to âfitâ. Examples:
- Psalm 90âs total becomes 1050 + 350 + 1050. Stresses Deuteronomy 32:8 meaning.
- Isaiah 53, becomes 294 + 462 + 294 = 1050. Stresses Decree, Time Grant. (David had three overlapping 1000-year time grants based on his regency, retirement, and death).
- Daniel 9 is more sophisticated. He prays at the start of his own 71st year of captivity, which began 20 years before Temple went down; he prays 70 years before the next historical voting period. So watch this clever math: 49 + 742 + 49 = 840, balancing from his own captivity to that next voting period (which began 467 BC, so ellipsis is 160 in total). Stresses 1 Kings 8 and 1 Kings 9, when someone prays toward the Temple, God will hear and restore. Restore Temple. Restore Time due to Temple, the theme of Daniel's prayer. Prayer is a type of voting, get it?
- Magnificat equidistance is complex: see the page 11 chart. 35 years before she speaks, God voted she be born. Now she's 35, it's her turn to vote Christ be born. For she could have refused Gabriel, as Zecharias initially did.
- Pauline equidistance is 56, tagging both Mary and Danielâs meters: 434 + 56 = 490, basic promise unit of time since Adamâs Fall. Paul dates the 490 from Christ's Birth. (So does Mary. I'll have to revise GeneYrs.xls for that fact, and see what new trends occur as a result. That worksheet dates new 490s from His Death, so all my post-Cross benchmarks may be 33 years too late. However, David's Time grants were measured from his Kingship dates and death, so perhaps only an additional layer of 490-year measures is needed for the post-Cross section of the worksheet.)
- The sum of ellipses (i.e., equidistance) and time poem syllables, include Gentile time. For promises relate to Gentiles, too; Messiah is the Savior of all. Youâve seen that, in #11-13. Isaiah 53 doesnât seem to encompass Gentile time, until you recognize his equidistant years-to-Temple-Fall when he writes Isaiah 53:1 (712 BC), 126 years; Temple falls 126 years short of its own allotment (950 BC dedication in 1 Kings 9 â 490 years, to 460 BC, six years within the historical voting window). So equidistance formulae counting Gentile time, can be creatively expressed. (Temple Down means Israel not a nation, so treated as Gentile Time for purposes of reimbursement due, the 70 years from 516-446 BC, ârepayingâ the 70 years from 586-516 BC. Total? 140 years, 14 greater than allotted! Godâs Reimbursing Time in Daniel 9:26, is based on the 126 plus the 364 years the Temple stood.)
- Each divisible by 7 paragraph within a time poem, must be doctrinally significant to the text. The meter itself has a doctrinal value: it is a title. We all know âsevenâ = âpromiseâ, 40 = Testing, 120 = judging AKA four generation curse, 1000 = Millennium proper (without the appended 50-year voting period for unbelievers). So audit meter by how its metaphorical value, ties to the text. Meter always interacts with the text to elucidate, make text memorable; analogous to a free verse poem on world history, parsed at noteworthy years in world history. Text associated with those syllables = years, would be easier to grasp and recall.
Examples: 35 is ½ of 70; the latter = sabbatical years in 490. So 35 means ½ of a vote: Godâs. Paul plays on this in Galatians 3:20, presaging his witty Galatians 4:4 use of ΧĎĎνοĎ. 56 = days between Passover start and Pentecost. (Judaic calendar does not follow Bible. Modern Judaic Counting of the Omer is incorrect; Bible's count begins piggybacked on the last day of Passover week.) Also, 56 = days between Pentecost and Tish bâAv. Bible months are each 30 days, excepting Adar, see the priestly courses in 1 Chronicles 24. (David keyed to a 24-hour day, so all priests equally serve at Temple, 365.25 hours annually) More numerical metaphor examples are catalogued on page 68 of Ephesians 1:3-14 (with Meter-Matching Translation).
- Text and meter interaction are antiphonal. Bible antiphonal couplets are well recognized, but scholars don't know meter is antiphonal. A sevened paragraph belongs to an âactorâ; text = actorâs âlinesâ; the âplayâ occurs during the depicted segment in the timeline. Example: Psalm 90:5-8 epitomizes humans during Adamâs time. The text is their testimony. It is âansweredâ by the next metered segment from Noahâs time, Psalm 90:9-11; its âactorâ repeats similar sentiments, so you know why the Flood was needed. Psalm 90:12-15 are autobiographical. In Psalm 90:1-4, Moses spoke for God; in Psalm 90:12-15 he recounts what he asked of God while in the wilderness, before God appointed him to speak to Pharaoh.
Similarly, Isaiah 53 is a series of actors. In Isaiah 52:13-14, Isaiah recites God's decree; then plays actor witnessing fulfillment of prophecy to the Gentiles, Isaiah 53:15; Isaiah 53:1 is autobiographical, but Isaiah 53:2 he narrates what happens to Christ in childhood, then how negative Jews despise Him in adulthood, quoting them: No Incarnation, Him! Etc.
Daniel 9 portrays a lawyer representing his client to The Judge, a closing statement, today known as summary of the case; so every syllable he utters is tagged to a particular year, beginning at Daniel 9:6 with David at Hebron.
Mary blocks text antiphonally, first playing Hanna (same keywords), then weaving other testimonies in Old Testament, notably Psalms and God's words in Haggai 2, Zechariah 4. She thus reconciles Doctrine of His Birth to Time, so ends with a parade of Abraham and the patriarchs. Zecharias mimics both her keywords (i.e., Hanna's prayer in other sections) and meter, through syllable 217. He uses antiphony by linking related verses (which Luke quotes, as they deftly wrap to Matthew 1 and Matthew 2).
Paul of course, makes each metered clause represent an 'actor' giving a 'testimony', first of past and then future Church periods, like Daniel did for Israel; but Paul wraps his meter to Mary's, stressing generational metaphors like: 7, 14, 21, 28, 42. And of course, 56 + 35 = 91.
- Meter and text, therefore, serve to âcommentâ on the period referenced by the meter. This is usually satirical, whether historical (as in Daniel, from 9:6-9:13), or prophetical (Daniel 9:15-19, Isaiah 53:2 onward, Ephesians 1:4b onward). The text alone has its own significance; the same text serves as a past or future commentary on history. Which history, is determined by the meter 'attached'. For details per passage, refer to the URLs in the bottom menu (or Poetic Meter Index above). Syllable-by-syllable details are provided for Daniel 9 and Ephesians 1. The other passages are explained in their respective video playlists (for Psalm 90: in each Isaiah 53 Meter Hypothesis and Yapping Most High for Isaiah, then Magnificat).
Subtle textual nuances distinguish the time, i.e., âfloodâ in Psalm 90:5, âsethâ sound play in Psalm 90:8. So now read Psalm 90:5-8, as if spoken by a âchorusâ from Adamâs day, first voting period, 490-560 years post-Fall.
Isaiah 53:2's ya'al, is Manasseh's childhood; he grew up well, at first. Then came to despise God, as the text relates. See: on the surface, the text is about Christ; but it also depicts attitudes of Israel's kings, syllable-by-year. When he gets to Isaiah 53:4a, it's Josiah's attitude; end of Isaiah 53:4, Temple goes down; so text reads God, Violated! Christ on Cross pays for us, end of Isaiah 53:6; that's also when Cyrus dies, 530 BC; Israel was secularly healed due to him, just as promised, back in Isaiah 45. 14 syllables = years later, mid-Isaiah 53:7: despite oppression, Israel no longer complained but rebuilt the Temple, Haggai and Zechariah doing the talking.
Daniel 9:11-12's meter is also timed to Manasseh, since he was juridical impetus for Temple Down (1 Kings 21:10ff). So Daniel 9:11 reads: "all Israel passed over (literally, hebrewed) Your Law", just as 2 Chronicles 33:11-17, says (Jeremiah wrote Chronicles).
Mary looks back at the first 12 years after initial Chanukah, when Maccabees sold both priesthood and Royal family to the Greeks, fulfilling Jewish anti-Christ role Daniel warned against in Daniel 11. It's not a little ironic that she, now pregnant with the Rightful Heir, would exclaim at that juncture, my soul magnifies by multiplying the Lord!
Paul peppers Ephesians 1:3-14 with sublime doxology-turned-sarcasm, when he uses meter to benchmark past and future Roman history, for Church. Like, keying 'Father' to the year Augustus dies; poor Caligula is only áźÎ˝ ĎÎżáżĎ áźĎÎżĎ - when he dies, not quite Îżá˝ĎÎŹÎ˝ÎšÎżĎ (áźĎÎżĎ ĎινίοΚĎ) đ¤Ł. The θξΟξΝΚĎĎĎĎ anaphora stops at the eta (Ρ) each time, to Mark a dying emperor whose newly-appointed heir, undoes what the deceased intended; or, himself dies, too. Paul's wit is droll, like Euripides; for Ephesians is rhetorically based on that playwright's Ion, to show God's Superior Begetting. A syllable-by-year future accounting of Church history and Paul's wry commentary on it, begins in the 'ChronoChart' section.
- Since text interacts with meter, and meter spans long periods; since text has standalone meaning: the text itself on the surface, will be generic, even syrupy, ironic or satirical. Idea of circle, recurrent pattern, back to where it started, Everything returns to God, Psalm 90:3. You wonât get the satire lesson if you donât know the meter. History repeats itself, mankind doesnât learn past lessons, but Godâs policy is the same; so as each year depicted plays âonstageâ, it often repeats the same themes.
- In keeping with #18, the meter will cycle. From the dateline, the meter will either: a) function as a circle, going back in time, thence to present, and end at the beginning or end of then-scheduled Millennium; or b) the dateline will overlay a straight chronology; with the dateline itself, circling to a future point in the text.
Examples:
- Psalm 90:3 Dateline employs combined a) and b) styles. 441 years post-slavery, 63 sevens. Psalm 90:1-4 denotes Millennial completion of history. So Moses, when Israel's poised to enter the Land â overlays 'now', with that future completion of history. Next, he goes back to Adam in Psalm 90:5, then cycles through Noah; next, comes full circle to his own vote pre-Exodus, Psalm 90:12-15. So he parallels his own time in that wilderness, with Israel now about to leave it. He then skips to the final future voting period, to show future-in-jeopardy (Purim aftermath), Psalm 90:16-17: when Temple and Jerusalem, will be in peril. So he truncates those verses to a pregnant 56; the extra 14 syllables = years, are embedded in Psalm 90:1-4.
- Psalm 90:1-17 BHS Text, parsed Meter +Metered English Translation
- Psalm 90 Meter (Videos)
- Isaiah 53âs (Isaiah 52:14) dateline is 42 sevens from Moses, b) overlay style. So Isaiah employs a straight-line chronology, starts Isaiah 52:13 back where Moses left off: David born 10 years after Saul crowned. So the first 10 years, are another ellipsis; but it isn't part of the total meter. Ending Isaiah 52:15 with Davidâs death, Isaiah then uses a 252-year ellipsis between Isaiah 52:15 and Isaiah 53:1, to come full circle to his own ministryâs beginning (last 42 syllables of the ellipsis). Isaiah 53:1 picks up at his time with Hezekiah, from 712 (or 714) BC onward, which is the 42nd year of his own ministry. He then annually plots the future parading failure of Israel via its kings, to Messiahâs then-scheduled death. Isaiah 53:1-4 annual future coverage is here.
- Daniel 9:4 segments his meter, a) circle style. First 73 syllables are exclusively dateline: 49 years, seven sevens from Temple Down, 73 sevens from where Moses left off. Danielâs meter next goes back to David crowned at Hebron. Daniel then comes full circle to his own capture on two time tracks, first as straightforward annual, full-circle at the end of verse 14; but the second track is syncopated to Isaiah 53âs syllables, tracing juridical cause of Temple Down; Daniel comes full-circle to his own prayer date on that second track, at his own Daniel 9:13, tying to Isaiahâs syllable 252 (cute way to mimic the Isaiah ellipsis style). Then Daniel goes forward, playing off the Man of Time in Daniel 2 and Daniel 7. These tracks are charted: Daniel 9:4-19, Hebrew with Meter Parsing and Notes.
- Magnificatâs dual Dateline is the b) overlay style. Her own age and/or Herodâs 35th year as tetrarch, is also 42 years after Caesar went through the Levant; her meter is a simple chronology, starting at initial Chanukah (73 years after Danielâs endpoint on his Time Track 2, how cute); it ends at then-scheduled Millennium. So she comes full circle to her own birth at Luke 1:51b, then goes forward. Luke 1:46-55, 'Magnificat' Meter of Time.
- Ephesians 1:3-14âs dateline âtagsâ Maryâs b) overlay: Christ at age 56, just before His 57th (Chanukah) birthday. So Paul's meter runs annually from Christâs Birth, just as Isaiah 53 ran from Davidâs birth; Paul plays on the Last David; then Paul plots future Church history, pregnantly ending at 434 with 56 in ellipsis, idea that Church can fail to complete. That future chronology is a trend, a cycling 62nd week, repeating until Church completes. Idea that the same trends in Paulâs day, remain throughout Church Age. So time 'returns' to the initial 56, over and over and over. To quickly see this: Ephesians1REPARSED. Note that meter in Ephesians 1:13-14 only divides by seven, at '91'.
- Because (#19) the meter cycles, it must balance to the future endpoint. In Israelâs day, âendâ was the Millennium. The Gentiles were allotted 2100 years, the Jews were allotted 2100 years; Messiah was then to inaugurate the Millennium, the last 1050 years of history. We call it âSecond Adventâ, today. So Bible meter always accounts from that endpoint; even when its schedule changed due to the insertion of Church. For Church is itself a cycle of the 62nd week, no prophecy governing except the terminus, which is undateable (Rapture).
So Bible meter balances to the Millennium, but via the fact Abraham super-matured 53.5 years early, in year 2046 FAF, rather than year 2100. For Noah had a 490-year time grant which ran out; so Abraham had to super-mature by the end of Noah's grant. So now, a 53.5-year credit exists which must be paid. So when Abraham matured, the world had 2154 years on its clock, to Millennium. So all time poems reconcile at 4200 FAF, minus 53.5. Examples:
- Psalm 90âs 350 syllables represent five 70âs, 5250 years. Psalm of Godâs Orchestration of Time. So Psalm 90:16-17's verses are truncated to the pregnant 56 syllables; and the extra 14, are embedded in Psalm 90:1-4. Foretelling, that Israel will be 14 years short of her allotment when her Time ends. Recurrent warning of what could be avoided. So the theme: Time âhiddenâ in the Future Messiah will come to pass, and the Millennium will occur. But maybe not, on schedule. What happens during the last 56 years, can change the timing of the outcome.
- Isaiah 53âs 462 syllables, update the Mosaic 14 debit embedding. Total syllables with ellipsis are 1078, again reaffirming that Messiah will arrive and die by the deadline, which by Isaiahâs day was known to be 1000 years after Davidâs death. But of course if He dies early, then the 14 will still be a problem; which Isaiah recognizes by debiting 28 from 490, representing 14 lost, made up by an added 14, to balance. Starting in Isaiah 53:1, he annually plots the parading failure of Israel via its kings to Messiahâs then-scheduled death, to show why the shortfall will occur. So the theme: Time âhiddenâ in the Future Messiah will come to pass owing to Temple Down â theme of Isaiah 40 onward â and may still occur on schedule.
- Daniel 9 updates Isaiahâs forecast, to Danielâs own past and the future owed: his 742-syllable (= sevens) meter is the basis of Godâs reply in the same meter, which is also explicitly numbered in the text, of Daniel 9:24-27. Here, the Man of Time visions Daniel received, are interwoven with Israelâs past failures. So the theme: Daniel petitions for the Time âhiddenâ in the Future Messiah, to come to pass owing to Temple Rebuilding â so both Advents may still occur on schedule.
- God's reply is metered at 56 Ă 3 + 54, 231 syllables. Text balances to Millennium, rather than meter; but the meter, reflects the Abrahamic balance piece, the 56 Daniel left out; the remaining two 56's reflect the double-14 debit in Isaiah 53, where Isaiah also used two 56's, pairing up Manasseh (Isaiah 53:1-2) with post-Temple downtime and reconstruction (Isaiah 53:5-6). 56 of course, is 49 + 7. Psalm 90:9-10, 16+17 pairs are also 56 syllables.
- Magnificat keys off Daniel 9:19, plots Time to Tribulation, 217 + 35 syllables = years = 252th anniversary of initial Chanukah (73 years after Danielâs endpoint on his Time Track 2, how cute). So the theme: Mary recognizes the Time âhiddenâ in the Future Messiah, so both Advents may still occur on schedule.
- Ephesians 1:3-14 keys off Maryâs 217 endpoint of Christ at age 56, just before His 57th (Chanukah) birthday. So Paulâs meter runs annually from Christâs Birth, plots future Church history to syllable = year, 434: ending 56 in ellipsis, idea that Church can fail to complete. So 50 of the 56, elongates into however long it takes for Church to mature, just as Christ petitioned in John 17:20ff. Theme: Time âhiddenâ in Past Messiah, so Rapture may still occur on old pre-Church schedule. Paulâs meter thus charts what-if-Raptured dates to what we call the rise of Odovacer. Text wryly describes each such future period, covered at length in the 'Chronology Chart' with many independent links to Roman writers and history, in.
- Because (#19) the meter cycles, its submeters must be palindromic. That is, the submeters will mirror each other. This is a type of chiasmus, bookending text; so you know how paragraphs relate in combination. To see this, you must âmapâ the text meter patterns. There must be at least one palindrome pair in the time poem. Palindromes easily attest to correct parsing, and speed meter detection.
Examples:
- Psalm 90âs palindromes. Its main subparagraphs are structured: 84, 70, 70, 70, 56; but there are multiple smaller palindromes within it, i.e., 14 Ă 3 in Psalm 90:11-13. Matthew 1's genealogy, plays to it.
- Isaiah 53âs palindromes. Its main subparagraphs are: 42, 35, 56, 70, 56, 70, 28, 35, 28, 42.
- Daniel 9 has only one overt palindrome, 58 + 58 syllables, in Daniel 9:11-12. His theme is about how Israel missed her moâeds, so the 58's are pregnant for being late: doubled. (Pun: 57 days from Passover start to Pentecost, and another 57 from Pentecost to 9th Av, when the Temple went down.) Else, he bookends his meter simply, rather than making palindromes. Because, she missed her appointments, so Temple went Down.
- Magnificatâs palindromes are: 35 + 7 + 21 + 35 + 7 + 28 + 42 + 42. Notice how, if you added the 35âs to the sevens, you get: 42 + 21 + 42 + 28 + 42 + 42. Thatâs deliberate, since 42 is the generation number, and Mary is pregnant. Cute.
- Ephesians 1:3-14âs palindromes. Paul's pattern is complex, with variant palindromes. Example from Ephesians metering:
56 + 21+ 7 + 21 + 28 + 14 + 28 + 56 + 7 + 14 + 49 + 7 + 35 + 91 (nested 91's)
56 77 84 105 133 147 175 231 238 252 301 308 343 434
- Since the submeters are palindromic, so too the text. Time poem text has a timeless, recurrent quality. You could read the end as if a start, backwards to the start as if an end. So take the last line of Psalm 90, Isaiah 53, Daniel 9, the Magnificat or Ephesians 1:3-14, and try reading the text in reverse order.
- Submetered sevened text is coherent, standing alone. Like, a paragraph. Even if the text is part of a larger unit, even if the sevening doesnât end the sentence â if the metered section is read alone, it makes sense alone; as if a full sentence, paragraph, or verse. Often you find the text reads like couplets in the Psalms. Grammatically, you know that sections tie to text before and after the sevened submeter; yet if you ignore that fact, the text itself has coherence by itself. This test is important, because we versify Bible post-production. To see how a native reader might have noticed text patterns, requires ignoring our own versification (which is often competent).
A good example, is the Magnificat. Under "Zecharias' Soliloquy, Luke 1:68-79" read only the âblueâ highlighted sections. Then read only the âboxedâ sections. Then, only the âyellowâ sections. Notice how each section forms a coherent conceptual unit, with a related but larger meaning, than if you viewed the Magnificat at its lowest level, merely a woman praising God. Surely Mary praises God; but the meter helps us see she ties what she says, to all history.
- Submetered sevened text of the same meter, âtalks backâ to other text of the same meter. The topics are the same. For example, Isaiah 52:15 and Isaiah 53:10 each are metered at 35 syllables; 35 signifies God's Vote. So, each talks about atonement. Isaiah 52:15âs yazzeh, plays on the Hebrew sound for atone and shock, how apt. His shock in paying, we cannot imagine. The contract to pay, is Isaiah 53:10. God-Father pleased to crush Him, He substitutes His Soul for Sin, and God-Son thus agrees to take on Hands in order to pay and thus succeed. So now compare Psalm 90:10 with Psalm 90:17, which are each metered at 35 syllables. Cute tie, huh: what we do with our own hands, only ends up in trouble; we die futile, like sparks fly upward. Yep, you got it; Isaiah matched his own meter to those verses in Psalm 90.
- Submetered text âtagsâ other verses of the same individual meter. Every time poem metrically tags its related time poems, this way. This helps you interpret or decipher, both meter and context for a passage. Here the âtagâ is metrical, but often keyword tags will also be present; as we just saw in #24, with respect to âhandsâ in Psalm 90:17, and working of trouble, shock of sudden ending, in Psalm 90:10.
- Submetered text âtagsâ other related verses of the same cumulative sevened meter. Isaiah tagged Mosesâ 84, and then created two 42-syllable âbookendsâ, from it. Daniel, Mary, Paul played on them. So did Matthew 1. Hence the 42âs, are decree-related, since Psalm 90:1-4, is a decree. Isaiahâs own text is âtaggedâ at syllable 133, 203 and 252 by Daniel, to make his second time track. Mary also cleverly tagged Isaiahâs syllable 133: itâs about how we despised Him (Isaiah 53:2âs end). Maryâs syllable 133 is on how those who think too highly of themselves, are made low. She quotes and alludes, to Haggai 1-2 and Zechariah 4 when she speaks, but also ties to Isaiah, metrically.
Youâd miss that, if you didnât know Isaiah's meter. And you would know, if you had to memorize it. Paul does the same thing in Ephesians 1:6, so Paul links the glorification of Christ, to the humiliation of Him by man. Which is of course, what Isaiah 53:10-12, says. So meter tagging is never divorced from the text, but rather enhances oneâs ability to rightly interpret the text. Like, a concordance or cross-reference system. This tagging feature is extensively documented in the poetic meter pages. Since each time poem has a unique meter-and-text sequence, it becomes easy to tell which among them, is 'tagged'.
- Submetered text ties historically to the timeline it references. #6 - #8 covered the dateline criteria, in order to establish when the time poem is written, and when it measures time either sabbatically, or annually (or both). Thus the Theme of the time poem can be established. Next, since (#4) one syllable equals one year, when the text (#5) subdivides syntactically, that âbenchmarkâ year (or period) must be historically significant. Sometimes the benchmark year is one or two more or less than youâd expect, i.e., Isaiah 53:9âs syllable 343 represents 446 BC, tagging Nehemiahâs return (text reads with the rich man). Itâs not at the end of the clause; rather, the clause ends 443 BC, so with the rich man in His Deaths. Dispensational scholars deem Nehemiahâs return as 444 BC. The '49' in Daniel 9:25, begins in 446 BC.
This feature is of enormous help when deciphering elision or troubleshooting syllable counts. Since the text subdivides syntactically, the end of a clause, will tie to a significant date. So if you've been tying to dates but suddenly cannot, then you know to revisit your parsing for the clause which seems out of kilter. Since, ideally, you first learned your sevened total (#9), you have a rough idea of the histo-prophetical period the author covers; the text will help you decide what events would be tagged. The right event should pop out at you; then you know where to revise your meter.
This was exactly how I learned to revise Isaiah 53's meter. Those orange dots, represent the revisions. The Isaiah 53 Meter Hypothesis records my 'journey' in learning the meter from the text. Once I had the right meter, all the clauses obviously represented important historical benchmarks, beginning in Isaiah 53:1. (I'm still not sure what they represent in the first 77 syllables.)
- Submetered text ties historically to other time poemsâ timelines via metrical tags, to explain prophecy. Daniel tagged Isaiah 53:2âs end; in Isaiahâs chronology, that was Manassehâs repentance. So Daniel benchmarked it, to set up his second time track; Daniel next tags Isaiah syllable 203 at the end of Isaiah 53:4 = 586 BC; finally, Daniel comes full circle to his date of prayer, tagging Isaiah's syllable 252 in Isaiah 53:6 = 538 BC. Isaiah's text there reads, and God threw on Him. Cute, huh. So Daniel identifies what God threw on him, with what will happen to Christ. Seven years later, end of Isaiah 53:6, Cyrus will die.
Daniel tagged Isaiah's timeline to show its fulfillment, and to create his legal basis for petition. In essence, Daniel claimed the promise of Isaiah 53, to justify asking God to Rebuild the Temple. As he says at the end, it's not due to our righteousness that we ask. When Mary tags Daniel's end, she creates an equidistance from his dateline (the 73 in Daniel), treating it as an opening ellipsis (so treating Daniel as 73 + 742 + 73, but counting the ending historical date as his Time Track 2 with + 73 years later, not based on the meter itself). So this tagging can be quite creative.
- A time poemâs meter interlinks with its fellows, so you know how to read the time poems in what order. As with the Gospels, you can tell which is written in what order â namely, Matthew Luke Mark then John â by how the text of each Gospel âwraps aroundâ what Gospels went before. Luke wraps Matthew, Mark wraps both Luke and Matthew, and John wraps the prior three. Keywords accomplish this âincorporation by referenceâ, so you can know the published ârolloutâ order of those books. Similarly, a time poem will dateline itself in terms of a predecessor, if there is one, and move forward from that. Thus when you have enough time poems assembled and parsed, you can tell in what order to read them. Just as with the Gospels, knowing proper order and precedence, greatly aids interpretation.
This tagging helps you learn that Psalm 90, Isaiah 53, Daniel 9 and Ephesians 1 together form a Four-Act Play of History. John then metrically tags Ephesians 1, to show the Apocalypse AKA Revelation, updates Ephesians 1:3-14. Since the latter charted successive what-if-Raptured scenarios, and how Church history would fare so poorly, Rapture wouldn't happen as expected, the Greek reader of Revelation knows â since John tags Ephesians 1 â how to read Revelation. Ephesians' theme: Rapture depends on Church maturing like Christ, Ephesians 4:12-13. So, Paul's Ephesians 1 meter tagged backwards and then wryly commented on history forward, to show why Church would not mature as expected; and what Church history would become, due to its retardation.
When testing this Four-Act fit, I kept having trouble with Paul's '91'. Why did he use it?
- True, Psalm 90:5-9, and Psalm 90:12-16, are '91' in summed combination, but why piggyback voting periods (Noah (Psalm 90:9) to Adam, Purim (Psalm 90:16) to Moses, respectively). Didn't make sense, for Paul to play on that structure.
- Isaiah 52:15 through Isaiah 53:2 also runs 91 syllables, so what? That's another piggyback, with a 252-year ellipsis in between. Why play on it? Didn't make sense.
- Aha, Isaiah 53:9-11 is 91 syllables, 56 sandwiches 35 â text quite apt to Paul's. But Paul's last 91 didn't have subcomponents (Ephesians 1:13-14 are not sevened until 91).
- Then, I learned the Magnificat. She ends with Christ age 56, and leaves the dateline 35 in ellipsis. Wow: 56 + 35 = 91, the Year of Christ when Tribulation was to begin. How clever.
Mary uses an undivided 84 to close her time poem. But she debited the 14 (217 + 14 = 231, the number of syllables in God's Reply of Daniel 9:24-27). So Paul credits the seven which plays out during Church. Moreover, he plays on Noah's four quarters in the Ark (using LXX text of Genesis 7-8, not Hebrew). Daniel had done that, too. So now I know Paul plays off both Daniel and Mary; ergo, the Four-Act link above, should be called 'Five'. Or at least, Four Plus intermezzo. Will have to revise!
See: Bible Hebrew meter is self-auditing. Mistakes or omissions, stick out.
- And finally, a time poemâs metered text is antiphonal to other time poems, as well as within itself; and, in a threaded, coordinated way. Just like any other book of Scripture, to prove a time poem's Divine Authenticity, it must weave in previously-known Divine Writ. We just saw an example above, in #29. Pauline 91's are thematically related to Isaiah 53:9-11, and numerically based on Christ's age, so 'tag' Mary's accounting. So, Paul's meter 'talks back' to those other time poems, via the '91'. Of course, the meters and keywords are many, so a comprehensive, threaded 'answer' is woven.
The text, once metrically diagrammed, will internally manifest much as the Psalms, with swatches of text âtalking back toâ related sections, much like one chorus might sing to another. Like, an anthem. Moreover, with the metrical tags, you know where the âlinesâ of an actor/chorus begin and end; there is a parallel antiphonal quality âansweringâ the prior time poems, again marked by the meter so you know which âchorusâ is replying to which prior âchorusâ.
Troubleshooting Time Poem Diagnosis
It can be time-consuming (đ) to parse a time poem. In addition to the teal-highlighted timesavers, here are some tips that saved me a ton of time in auditing.
- Use 1 John 1:9 like breathing. Holy Spirit wonât fill a defiled temple (you, when sinning), so you canât âhearâ Him. 1 John 1:9 puts you back online with God. This is the greatest timesaver, since if youâre between sins you can get Godâs direction, and He knows where the time poems are. He will save you a lot of time, since He knows how to parse, etc. In every case, I first learned from Him where the time poem even was, because I was between sins and the thought hit me that âsuch-and-such is metered.â Frankly, I didn't want to examine the passages, because it's a hassle.
So then, I had to go through the academic task of proving it out. Like when your math teacher gave you theorems and proofs, so you knew the answer first, but not why it was the answer. So then you had to do a lot of digging. Same thing, here.
Yet instead of asking God, we try to answer things in our own power. Why? It's supposed to be supernatural, for crying out loud. Did you save yourself? No, you were supernaturally saved. So do you live spiritually in your own power? No you need God to do it to you. And He won't do it, if you're in a state of sin, Psalm 32:5, Psalm 66:18, Hebrews 5:11 through Hebrews 6:13 (sarcasm), Philippians 3:18-19, 'carnal' New Testament verses and their kindred, like 1 Corinthians 1. Christian theology is in the playpen, even after 2000 years, just as retarded today as the bilious 'Church Fathers'? Why? We don't ask God and don't use 1 John 1:9. So even a 'brainout' finds stuff scholars haven't seen but debated, for 300 years? Shameful. It's supposed to be scholars who discover big doctrines, not the brainouts â right?
Besides, you need feedback on where and what to search. Pray about it, use 1 John 1:9 or you will waste time. God hits you with insight and thought, never the silly voice stuff. This is post-Christ Adult spirituality, not the babyish Old Testament voice-and-vision stuff. But the communication, is just as real. So take advantage of it, lest you spin your wheels and waste Godâs and your, time.
- Count all the syllables in the passage first, without regard to elision or whether you made mistakes. Youâre just looking for an estimated nearness to 490, to 1000, countdown to Millennium, some litmus that justifies spending more time in diagnosis. Donât try for too long. If you donât see it within 30 minutes or an hour, set it aside. At the right time (đ), God will suddenly resolve your conundra. This is His way of teaching you the Time Doctrine itself, as you learn to diagnose a time poem. Hands-on training, so to speak.
I remember knowing that Isaiah 53's meter was based on Psalm 90 long before I knew how to parse Psalm 90. I'd try to parse it, and come up with a big blur. Then one day while watching a YouTube video which merely quoted Psalm 90:4, I suddenly knew the meter pattern. So then I had to drop everything and make the Psalm 90 videos. The first 21 times I did it, I did it wrong. Even an atheist noticed the videos were wrong, so I had to delete 21 videos and start all over. Yeah, because I wasn't asking God before posting the now-deleted videos! Hopefully you won't be as stubborn as I was.
- Subdivide the clauses syntactically. You can always go back and âmergeâ clauses that belong together. But for starters, treat each clause as if it were a meter of its own. For in the beginning, youâll not be sure where the sevening is intended. It usually breaks in tandem with our versification, but not always. So to be sure of catching the right breakpoints, just submeter each clause. If youâre not sure where to submeter the clause, just guess. To save time, I just meter at every 10-15 syllables, and then correct later.
- Count syllables for meter cumulatively, as well as individually per clause. That will alert you to sevening patterns more quickly.
- Check for trebled meters. Sevening is the main meter of a time poem, but Trinity metering is also rife, and usually the combination of trebled meters with sevening, reveals patterns that would otherwise go unnoticed. For example, Daniel 9:24-27 is 231 syllables. That's really cute: 77 threes, 33 sevens. You get the numeric puns, right? David died at age 77, Christ is the 77th Son, obviously both by Divine Trinity Decree. Christ died at age 33, perfectly on time, Galatians 4:4. Paul thus uses this meter to craft his extremely-sophisticated, trebled anaphora, in Ephesians 1. Of course, Mary had debited 14 from the 231, so she was aware of the Daniel metering, too.
See the âanaphoraâ in Ephesians 1:3-14 (with Meter-Matching Translation) to get a comprehensive idea how trebled meters work with the sevening. Itâs a meter tandem that serves as a master balance sheet of your entire meter diagnosis. Every Bible writer uses trebled meters in tandem with sevening. In my writeups, trebled meters are in purple, sevened meters are in orange.
- When diagnosing Datelines, first balance from the pre-Church Millennium, for New Testament text; from the Crucifixion + 7, for Old Testament text. If youâre still not sure when the Crucifixion was, use â37 ADâ. Something about the dateline will be equidistant from the Cross + 7, or the Millennium â the favored balance adjustment is Millennium-56, 4143 years from Adam's fall â and from the start point of the text in question. This is the hardest calculation to master, but it unlocks the entire meter of the time poem. If after 10-15 minutes trying you are frustrated, try figuring out what histo-doctrinal significance âought to beâ the end or start point, based on the text.
Of course, if you donât know the Bibleâs timeline, you wonât know how to balance the Datelines. So here are some time-saving tips on how to properly know the Bibleâs timeline, which is surprisingly garbled in Christendom and Judaism.
- Use only Bible, nothing external (like scholar estimates, stars, etc); count as solar years; tally the count from Adamâs Fall. Bible only begins to date Time, post-Fall. Never use lunar or soli-lunar years. Also, imbalances occur due to our BC/AD system. You canât just add 3 years to AD and balance. Scholar dating cannot be used, as each scholar makes his own adjustments, so you have a consistency problem in using one date from one scholar, versus another date from a different scholar. These dates often are not based on Bible, but on astronomy or other dating systems, and have many errors. God doesnât use the stars/eclipses, etc. To date anything; itâs prohibited under Deuteronomy 18. Your goal is to use only Bible for dates. You can later corroborate with secular systems, but first you must know the Bible's own dating style. So use its Adamic calendar, which is solar; start in Genesis 5.
Never use the Judaic calendar: its months are wrong, and its years cut out 346 years of real time; moreover, it claims to be dated from creation, which is flat untrue. Look up Seder Olam Rabbah on the internet, for details on why the calendar cut out those years.
See, when we care more about 'tradition' AKA being nice to people, than we care about getting Bible right, millennia pass with generation after generation, perpetuating needless error. Then Bible is blamed for our mistakes! Countless numbers have lost faith in Bible, since they can't find the 400 year span of slavery to Exodus, because they think it occurred under Ramesses II. Inept scholarship! And no one fixes it? Instead, that lie is taught to kids in school (my high school textbook says the same lie, not to mention the world-famous repetition of it, in The Ten Commandments starring Charlton Heston). This is a travesty which only pride preserves. At the expense of seeing Bible brilliance?! Criminal!
- Use the LXX not Greek text, for Noahâs entry, exit, and time in the Boat. The Hebrew text has mistakes. Paul uses the LXX. Daniel had the right Hebrew, which the LXX preserved; but we donât. Canât tell you how much time and discourse has been wasted, simply because people wonât use the LXX here.
- 2026 Update: I find this statement from 'Brainout' to be inaccurate. If the Hebrew text was ruined beyond repair or missing entirely, the Angelic Conflict would come to a close as Matthew 4:4 would become a lie. If there are problems with the Hebrew text, it would just need to be sleuthed out and repaired from its metering. With that said, the LXX is always going to be easier and Bible authors do quote and use it, but it's also not inspired (only 'quasi-inspired' if you consider the fact they build upon some of its concepts and translations) and not metered itself.
- Use Hebrew not Greek text, for the Genesis begats. Some fool messed with the LXX text, adding years to the beginning age, then subtracting from the ending age, to balance. He tired out, so before Genesis 5 ends in the LXX, the numbers no longer balance. It was a botched attempt, which most scholars know.
- Time after Abraham is no longer measured solely by the begats. So, you must find the key Bible verses which knit the timeline together. A sampling, is in brainoutFAQ.htm#6a. Timeline is plotted out, in GeneYrs.xls.
- Use Bible not Josephus, to date Davidâs age at death. Age 77 was when he died. Your timeline will be messed up if you assume David died at age 70. That scholar error cost me wasted time. Bible says what David did post-retirement, during his last seven years in 1 Chronicles 22 and following., 1 Kings 1:1 through 3 years after his death in 1 Kings 2:39; so âfourth year of Solomonâ in 1 Kings 6:1, begins the 11th year of Solomonâs rule. So you know the co-regency overlap, easily grasp Davidâs 40 yearsâ rule, ended in retirement, not death. So how can scholars waffle or puzzle over 1 Kings 6:1?
- Use Bible not 'scholars', to discover Whose Decree is in Daniel 9:25. Daniel 9:24, tells you Whose Decree: God's. Not any human king. The scholar mistake claiming a human king's decree, cost me wasted time. Context tells you God makes the Decree in question, in Jeremiah 25:11-12 and Jeremiah 29:10; which Daniel was reading, when he began to pray (Daniel 9:2). 70 allotted years. So
- The decree measures from 586 BC, not from Nehemiah.
- In ellipsis (known from the Isaiah meter timeline), is 70 + 70 years, meaning 140 years will pass before Daniel 9:25 kicks in. Seventy loss years reimbursed by seventy gain years, if the Temple is rebuilt during the loss years.
- God doesn't have to say this in Daniel 9, because Isaiah already put that timeline in Isaiah 53: 70 years prior to Temple Down were bad under Manasseh and his progeny (excepting Josiah), so Jerusalem is down for 70 years.
- They aren't allowed to start rebuilding Temple until the 49 missed sabbatical years elapsed; Daniel prays at the beginning of the 49th year.
- That same year, they return, and build the foundation the year after that. Finishing on what will become Chanukah, Haggai 2. So the foundation was completed in 537 BC.
- So after the 140 years end, the 49 can be reimbursed too.
- So look: 70 + 497 = 126, the palindromic pair Isaiah used, its syllables tracking the time exactly, such that at the end of Isaiah 53:4, it's 586 BC and his text reads, Elohim, umunneh! God, Violated! Yeah, His House destroyed when it had 126 years left on its 490-year time grant... with an overpayment of what? 14 (140 - 126).
- Use Bible not 'scholars', to calculate a 50-year gap between Daniel 9:26 and Daniel 9:27. A few scholars do know the difference between Gentile and Jewish Time accounting, who'll tell you a 50-year gap is not counted in the 490, since the 50 years belongs to the Gentiles. It was enshrined in the Law as Jubilee and Pentecost, both signifying Harvesting The Gentiles.
- This 50 years is the last 50 years of the 2100 allotted to the Jews, AKA the last 1050, with the last 50 years signifying the greatest period of evangelism. We call its ending, 94 AD.
- Via meter, Mary and Paul call it Christ's Year 98, meaning His 97th Birthday.
- The Tribulation was supposed to begin in His Year 91.
- He was scheduled to die 50 years before that, in what we call 37 AD.
- He actually died 7 years before that;
- so the 50 years for the Gentiles, was interrupted, elongated by His Appointment to die for yet-future Church,
- which He announced He would build upon himself in Matthew 16:18, and ratified in John 17:20ff as Father's Discretion; since He was about to pay for future souls Father would ordain to exist.
- For, the 62nd week did not complete. So, as Paul's Ephesians 1 meter shows, we are still in it. Recurring Groundhog Day.
As you can see, much angst over Bible dates is due to scholar errors. These errors persist century after century, because people think it 'unchristian' to fess up to the errors of respectable people. Yeah, and it's okay to thus trash the Bible? For the Bible ends up the casualty of our covering up past and ongoing ineptitude. Every day some seminary perpetuates the lie of lunar years, of Eusebius' errors, lie of some 'star' over Bethlehem, etc. Ad nauseam. Millions upon millions of dollars have been wasted! What do you think God will say to those perpetuating the errors... on Judgment Day? If you died, wouldn't you want someone to fix your errors made down here?
It's not about making mistakes, that's normal. It's about not admitting the mistakes, but blaming the Bible as 'inscrutable', etc., instead. But that's what we've done, for 2000 years. There's a time and place, for being soft and nice. This ain't it.