Excerpt from

Oswald Thompson Allis, Bible Numerics.
Moody Bible Institute of Chicago, 1944.

p18                                           

Many other features found in the OT group of 21 "writers" might well be
considered. According to "Feature Six" (Sabiers), of the 21 names of
"writers," 7 only are "named" in the NT (Moses, David, Isaiah, Jeemiah,
Daniel, Hosea, Joel). This ignores Solomon and Jonah, both of whom are
included in the list of 21 writers and they are certainly "named" in
the NT. This invalidates three of the ten "features" stressed by
Sabiers. It is remarkable that both Panin and Sabiers should have made
such an obvious slip.

The "Writer" James

Turning our attention to the five NT "writers," we notice something
that is worse than a slip. These writers are James, Peter, Jude, Paul,
John. Since these are NT writers and their names all appear in the NT,
their names are either Greek or have a Greek form. We are entitled to
expect them to be used as they are spelled in the NT. In the Greek all
five end in "s"; and James, Peter, and Paul all have the ending "os" of
the so-called second declension. This ending has the numeric value of
270. We observe with no little surprise that in the case of the names
Peter (755) and Paul (781), this ending is included in the total. In
the case of the name James (ie. Iakobos) the ending "os" is not
counted. With the ending, the name James would have the value 1103;
without it the value is 833. 1103 is not, as is 833 (7x119); a multiple
of 7. If used, it would change the total for the 5 NT writers and for
the 26 biblical writers to one which would not be divisible by 7. Why
then is this ending omitted in the case of the name James?

p19

The answer to this question is to be carefully considered because it
shows with the utmost clearness the extremes to which a convinced
numericist may be prepared to go in his quest of numeric factors. 833
is not the numerical-value of the name James, as that name is spelled
in the NT. It is not the numerical value of the name Jacob as that name
is spelled in the Hebrew of the OT. It is the spelling in the NT of the
OT patriarch, Jacob. It is arbitrarily used in this list of NT writers
in preference to the NT spelling of the name of the writer James simply
because it lends support to that theory of numeric value which the
other spelling would oppose. But it is not fair to "juggle" with words
in this case. In the NT the spelling without the ending always refers
to the patiarch Jacob; and the name then appears as Jacob in our
English Bible. The name spelled with the ending is used of James the
son of Zebedee and of the others bearing that name in the NT, notably
of the author of the epistle of James. Whether this inconsistency goes
back to Panin or the blame is to be
placed on Sabiers we do not know. In Panin's booklet, Inspiration of
the Hebrew Scriptures Scientifically Demonstrated (1928); only the OT
writers are discussed; and the features that are pointed out differ
considerably from those given by Sabiers. But whoever is responsible,
such a gross inconsistency should be corrected. It is misleading to
those who are ignorant of the facts. To those to whom the facts are
known it is an illustration of ingenuity in manipulating the facts
which is decidedly damaging to the theory which these alleged facts
are cited to prove.

 [Note from Brendan McKay: the writings of Sabiers that this extract
  refers to were taken by Sabiers from Panin's writings.]

Overview on numerical features in different scriptures
Answering Islam Home Page