ANSWERS TO POSSIBLE QUESTIONS

  1. In the section entitled "How It All Adds Up," I give the transliterated Hebrew spelling of the name Mohammed. How can I explain this transliteration when the modern Hebrew version of the name has no Yod? 

    Yes, there is no Yod (Yud) in the modern Hebrew version of the name. However, that is not to say that the name St. John saw in his vision (circa A.D. 95), and recorded as 666 in Revelation 13:18, did not have a Yod in it. Since the grapheme Yod has both consonantal and vowel qualities, it may be, at times, phonetically pronounced somewhat similar to a "long" English e (accent macron) and, at other times, like a "short" English e (accent breve). In addition to Yod having consonantal and/or vowel qualities, it can even be quiescent. To be sure, the subscript vowel points used as vowel cues in modern Hebrew were not used by the ancients. Hence, it is reasonable, and defensible, to include Yod as the sixth grapheme/phoneme in "Mohamed." Since that name did not originate in ancient Hebrew, modern Hebrew cannot claim to accurately represent its purest graphemic form (nor, for that matter, can modern Hebrew accurately reproduce all phonemes associated with the ancient Yud and its various dialectical forms). Moreover, modern transliterators do not always do a good job; just think of how horribly far the modern English "Solomon" is from the ancient Hebrew "Shlomo."

  2. Mem usually has a value of 40 associated with it. Why have I assigned a value of 600 to it? 

    First, what I list as having a value of 600 is a final Mem, not an initial Mem (which always has a value of 40). When I lived in Chicago some years ago, I researched this in the Asher Library at the Spertus Institute of Jewish Studies. There, I found a Kabbalistic (Qabbalistic or Cabbalistic) precedence for assigning a numerical value of 600 to a final Mem. This is further substantiated in Kabbalah by Charles Ponce (Quest Books, Wheaton, 1978, page 33, ISBN 0-8356-0510-8), which, incidentally, I purchased at Spertus.

  3. Why do I have the name Mohammed written backwards? 

    It is my belief that the name Mohammed was given to St. John in cryptographic form. Writing backwards (which is to say, writing letters in reverse order) has long been a way to mask, or hide, words and messages from casual observers, which I believe was the intent of the Holy Spirit in the identification of the name that is numerically identified as 666 in Scripture.

  4. Does it make a difference in Gematria (Hebrew or Jewish kabbalistic numerology) if the Hebrew form is transliterated from the English spellings "Mohammed" or "Muhammed?" 

    No, although there is a phonemic difference between the "long o" sound (accent macron as in "Mohammed") and the "oo" sound (diphthong "oo" as in "Muhammed"), there would be no numerologic difference between the Hebrew transliterated forms of "Mohammed" and "Muhammed" (provided, of course, that the "vav" or "waw" is still there). To be sure, the modern Hebrew form of the word, regardless of English transliteration, is still written with a "vav" or "waw." That there is a difference in vowel points between the "long o" and "oo" phonemes in Hebrew does not change the numeric value of the grapheme so cued (in this case, "vav"). More specifically, although the vowel point "cholem" would be used in the transliterated form of "Mohammed" and the vowel point "shuwreq" would be used in the transliterated form of "Muhammed," the indicated "vav" or "waw" is present either way and would still have the numeric value of 6 (six).

  5. What about the double letter "m" representation in "Mohammed?" Does this require that a double grapheme "mem" be used when that word is transliterated from English to Hebrew? 

    No, the use of double letters in English or other languages that use the Roman alphabet was instituted more as a convenience for lexicographers, compositors, publishers, and linguists who desired convenience in dividing words by syllables or who wanted to emphasize that a particular sound was sustained as a bridge between two vowel-based syllables (syllables are always vowel-based).

  6. How can I contact the author? 

    You may contact him by writing: Dr. Joseph A. Pearson, P.O. Box 7469, Phoenix, Arizona, 85011, USA.


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