The numbers · 08 of 08 · An English tally
Four hundred and forty-seven
Blood is the only English word that appears 447 times. Sin appears 448 times. Truth reaches 447 only when the word and is counted in front of it.
For the life of the flesh is in the blood, and I have given it to you on the altar to make atonement for your souls.
Where it shows up
01Sin at the door
The first time this English Bible says “sin.” If you do not do well, sin is crouching at the door. The word arrives before anyone is counting it.
02The blood cries
This is the first time this English Bible says “blood.” Abel’s blood cries from the ground, in the same chapter as the first “sin.” The two words meet in a story, not in a total.
03The life is in the blood
God says why blood matters. The life of the flesh is in the blood, and He gave it on the altar to make atonement. That is the teaching. It is not a word count.
04I will pass over you
The blood on the door is a sign. When God sees the blood, He will pass over that house. The covering is something you can point to. It does not require a total.
05The word that moves the tally
This King James says “all his sin.” Some older printings say “sins.” That one letter moves the English word sin from 448 down to 447. The Hebrew in the verse is singular. The matching number comes from a printing, not from the Hebrew.
06No forgiveness without blood
Under the Law almost everything is cleansed with blood, and without the shedding of blood there is no forgiveness. Hebrews says the sentence the posts are reaching for.
07The blood cleanses from all sin
The blood of Jesus, God’s Son, cleanses us from all sin. John does not say it cleanses us from 447 sins. He says all. The covering is a Person.
08And faithfulness
The Lord is abounding in loving devotion and faithfulness, hesed and emeth. The word and is the Hebrew letter vav, and that letter is worth 6. Truth by itself adds up to 441. With the and in front of it, that one word adds up to 447. The verse does not need the sum. God is speaking His name.
09Deal kindly and truly
Abraham’s servant asks the family to show hesed and emeth, kindness and faithfulness, to his master. It is the same pair as Exodus 34. The number sits on the word and. The request itself is the story.
10My God is God
Eliel is a name in David’s lists, and in other lists in Chronicles. The name means “My God is God.” Centuries later a concordance numbered that name 447. The name is older than the card.
11I will never leave you
The Greek word is aniemi, which means to let go, or to leave. God says He will never leave you and never forsake you. A later concordance numbered that word 447. The promise was already a promise before it had a shelf number.
12A robe dipped in blood
The last “blood” in this King James. He is clothed in a robe dipped in blood, and His name is the Word of God. The tally ends where the Name begins.
The post
Sin and blood, and a hidden set on 447.
This page
Blood stands alone at 447. Truth is 441 until the word and is added.
Read it this way
People say the word sin and the word blood each appear exactly 447 times in the King James Bible, as if there were enough blood to cover every sin.
In the King James on this shelf, the word blood appears 447 times, from Abel’s blood crying out of the ground to a robe dipped in blood. The word sin appears 448 times. The extra occurrence is in 2 Chronicles 33:19, which says “all his sin.” Some older printings say “sins” in that verse. If that one letter s is left off, the two words meet. The match also depends on ignoring sins, sinned, and bloody. Once those words are counted, the pair falls apart. That is a choice a printer made. It is not a number in the Hebrew.
The Hebrew words do not agree with the English total either. Dam (דָּם) means blood, because the life of a creature is in the blood. Under the Hebrew on this shelf it appears 360 times, not 447. Chatta’ah (חַטָּאת) means sin, and it also means the offering brought for sin. It appears 295 times. The Greek words for blood and for sin, haima and hamartia, do not share a count either. In another English Bible those two words can meet again, but on a different number. A total that changes when the English changes was never hidden in the original.
There is more attached to 447, and most of it is ordinary. In this King James, blood is the only exact English word that appears 447 times. The word cities appears 448 times, the same as sin. The word life appears 450 times.
In Hebrew, dozens of spellings add up to 447, and almost all of them are an ordinary word with a small letter added at the front, such as them, hundreds, or and you. The spelling a preacher would notice is ve-emeth, which means “and faithfulness.” Emeth (אֱמֶת) means truth, or faithfulness. By itself it adds up to 441, from the letters aleph, mem, and tav. The letter vav means and, and it is worth 6. Put that and in front of truth, and the word adds up to 447. God already said the pair without any arithmetic. He is abounding in hesed and emeth, which is loving devotion and faithfulness.
Much later, a man named James Strong gave the number 447 to two dictionary cards. One card is Eliel, a name in the lists of Chronicles, and the name means “My God is God.” The other card is the Greek word aniemi, in the promise “I will never leave you,” in Hebrews 13:5. The cards are useful for finding a word. The number is only a shelf number. The words were already on the page.
What the page says out loud is simpler. The life of the flesh is in the blood, and that blood was given to make atonement. Without the shedding of blood there is no forgiveness. The blood of Jesus cleanses us from all sin. That covering does not need two English words to land on the same number.
Some saySin and blood are both exactly 447, and they are not the only pair. Truth, a name, and a promise sit on the same number, if you know how to count.
The cover is a verse, not a tally. Faithfulness is a word God already spoke. The and in front of it is not a code.