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Hidden
Treasures in the Scriptures
by John P.
Pratt
The
scriptures say that when Jacob arrived in Egypt, his descendants
there numbered 70, yet there appear to be only 69 listed. In this
logic puzzle, our science editor asks, "Who is the missing descendant?"
The scriptures
are filled with many plain and precious truths which gladden the
heart and enlighten the mind. But the scriptures also contain many
hidden treasures. By this I mean precious treasures which have been
purposely hidden. The Lord hides many truths for various reasons
to come forth in his own due time. "It is the glory of God to conceal
a thing: but the honour of kings is to search out a matter" (Prov.
25:2). This article includes what appears to be a first class logic
puzzle found in the scriptures, which the reader is invited to search
out. Searching the scriptures in this manner can lead to delicious
fruit which has been hitherto unknown.
Why would the
Lord purposely hide anything in the scriptures? There are many reasons:
One is to hide precious truths from the understanding of non-believers,
often to prevent "casting pearls before swine." Another is to try
the faith of his people with prophecies which are hard to understand,
and sometimes even misleading, until after they have been fulfilled.
And yet another reason to hide truth is to keep the meat of deeper
doctrine away from newcomers to the gospel until they have digested
the milk of the plain and simple parts of the gospel. When we are
ready, the Holy Spirit can enlighten us to understand the more difficult
principles.
The parables
of Jesus are an excellent example of purposely hidden truths. Sometimes
it is said that Jesus taught in parables to make his meanings more
clear by speaking in the language of the people, but just the opposite
is true. Jesus taught in parables to obscure the true meaning from
the spiritually unprepared. After giving a parable, he would often
say, "Who hath ears to hear, let him hear" (Mat. 13:9). When the
disciples asked the Savior why he taught in parables he explained:
"Because
it is given unto you to know the mysteries of the kingdom of heaven,
but to them it is not given.
"For
whosoever hath, to him shall be given, and he shall have more abundance:
but whosoever hath not, from him shall be taken away even that he
hath.
"Therefore
speak I to them in parables: because they seeing see not; and hearing
they hear not, neither do they understand." (Matthew 13:11-13)
An excellent
example of a difficult prophecy intended to try someone's faith
is the case of two separate prophecies given to Zedekiah, the last
king of Judah. The prophet Jeremiah prophesied that Zedekiah would
see Nebuchadnezzar face to face and then be taken captive to Babylon
(Jer. 32:4-5). On the other hand, his contemporary Ezekiel prophesied
that Zedekiah would never see Babylon (Ezek. 12:13).
Because these
prophets apparently disagreed, Zedekiah refused to believe them,
even on the many other points on which they did agree. Before rejecting
the words of the prophets, Zedekiah would have done well to ask
himself if there was any way that the statements of both prophets
could be totally true. In other words, how could it be that 1) Zedekiah
would see Nebuchadnezzar, 2) he would then be taken captive to Babylon,
but also that 3) he would never see Babylon. One solution to that
puzzle is that Nebuchadnezzar could have made Zedekiah blind just
before he was taken to Babylon, and hence he would never be able
to actually see that city. That may sound like being very picky
with words, but that is exactly what happened (2 Kings 25:7). The
Lord has told us repeatedly that he chooses his words very carefully.
The Lord may
have given those two prophecies for several reasons. First, the
apparent contradiction would try Zedekiah's faith. Note that it
really does look like it was purposely made to appear contradictory
because of Jeremiah's mentioning that Zedekiah would "see" Nebuchadnezzar
face to face. Zedekiah had seen him before, so that part is apparently
there to make it clear that there would be nothing wrong with Zedekiah's
sight. Another reason for the revelations could be that if Zedekiah
did really have enough faith to deduce how both could be true, then
he would be warned of exactly what would happen to him if he rebelled.
In other words, exercising his faith could lead him to discover
a hidden treasure in the prophecies, namely, exactly what would
be his fate. And in that case, the apparently deceptive reference
to Zedekiah's "seeing" Nebuchadnezzar would actually turn into a
big clue explaining exactly when he would be blinded. Another reason
for giving the prophecies could be to show all of us a witness of
the precise foreknowledge of God: he knew that Zedekiah would not
be blind when captured, but that he would be shortly thereafter.
One final example
illustrates how the Lord also can give apparent contradictions in
order to squelch hecklers. When the Sadducees asked him which of
seven brothers would have the wife they shared during life, he astonished
them by declaring that they didn't understand the scriptures because
in heaven there is no marriage nor giving in marriage (Mat. 22:23-30).
They were confounded and soon all the questions to trap him stopped.
But what did he mean? Is that true that there is no marriage in
heaven? His answer was consistent with modern reveal truth from
at least two different perspectives. First, the people mentioned
in the question would not have been married for eternity in the
temple and hence would have remained separate in the next world.
And secondly, there really is no marriage in heaven. It is an earthly
ordinance and must be done by mortals standing as proxies for those
who have died. But the Savior had no desire to actually enlighten
his antagonists, nor to tell them that the wife could belong to
the first husband to whom she could later be sealed in the temple.
The answer he gave served his purpose well, although it hid part
of the truth.
With these
examples in mind, let us now consider what appears to be a first
class logic puzzle found in Genesis. I discovered it a few years
ago when what appeared to be a blatant mistake in arithmetic jumped
out at me. The account of Jacob going to Egypt states that 66 of
his descendants made the trip with him, and that Joseph and his
two sons were already there, for a total of 70 (Gen. 46:26-27).
Such an obvious apparent error was amazing because no mistakes in
arithmetic had been found in a detailed analysis of all of the ages
of the patriarchs. So then I decided to read carefully the boring
list of all the names of his 70 descendants. The result was the
discovery of what appeared to be another mistake! The number of
names on the descendant lists did not all match the numbers given.
Could it really be that there are two mistakes in the same story
a few verses apart from each other, or could there be a "solution"
to this puzzle in which there would be no mistake at all?
It now appears
to me that this story is indeed a classic logic puzzle which was
purposely included in Genesis to hide some information. This puzzle
has been on my web site for three years now and many people have
solved it to varying degrees. It is included here for you to try.
The answer is a hidden treasure worth knowing. After trying
to solve this on your own, you can find the answer here.
Here is the
puzzle for you to try:
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Jacob's
Missing Descendant
Jacob's extended family at the time he moved to Egypt is listed
in the Bible, but some information about one descendant may
have been purposely hidden. If there is no mistake in the
following summary and interpretation of the Biblical account,
what can you logically deduce about the identity of Jacob's
missing descendant?
1. All
seventy living souls of the house of Jacob, including all
of his living male and female descendants, were in Egypt when
he arrived there with those who accompanied him. (Gen. 46:6,
27).
2. Sixty-six
of Jacob's descendants came to Egypt with him. This count
includes only Jacob's literal offspring; none of his sons'
wives is included (Gen. 46:26).
3. Except
for Joseph and his two sons, who already resided in Egypt
(Gen. 46:27), Jacob took with him all of his son(s), his sons'
son(s), his daughter(s), his sons' daughter(s) (Gen. 46:7),
and all of his great-grandchildren ("little ones," Gen. 46:5).
4. These
are the names of Jacob's descendants when they had all arrived
in Egypt, along with subtotals for each of his four wives
(Leah, Zilpah, Rachel, and Bilhah):
a.
Leah had 33 living descendants. Her sons were Reuben, Simeon,
Levi, Judah, Issachar, and Zebulun, and her daughter was Dinah.
Reuben's sons were Hanoch, Phallu, Hezron and Carmi. Simeon's
sons were Jemuel, Jamin, Ohad, Jachin, Zohar, and Shaul the
son of a Cannaanitish woman. Levi's sons were Gershon, Kohath
and Merari. Judah's sons were Er, Onan, Shelah, Pharez, and
Zerah, but Er and Onan had died previously. Pharez' sons were
Hezron and Hamul. Issachar's sons were Tola, Phuvah, Job and
Shimron. Zebulun's sons were Sered, Elon and Jahleel (Gen.
46:8-15).
b.
Zilpah had 16 living descendants. Her sons were Gad and Asher.
Gad's sons were Ziphion, Haggi, Shuni, Ezbon, Eri, Arodi,
and Areli. Asher's sons were Jimnah, Ishuah, Isui and Beriah,
and Serah was their sister. Beriah's sons were Heber and Malchiel
(Gen. 46:16-18).
c.
Rachel had 14 living descendants. Her sons were Joseph and
Benjamin. In Egypt, the sons of Joseph and his wife Asenath,
daughter of an Egyptian priest, were Manasseh and Ephraim.
Benjamin's sons were Belah, Becher, Ashbel, Gera, Naaman,
Ehi, Rosh, Muppim, Huppim, and Ard (Gen. 46:19-22).
d. Bilhah
had 7 living descendants. Her sons were Dan and Naphtali.
Dan's son was Hushim. Naphtali's sons were Jahzeel, Guni,
Jezer and Shillem (Gen. 46:23-25).
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The only "hint"
is to find a solution that makes every statement be completely true,
just as we did in the case of Zedekiah above. In other words, you
need to explain the apparent discrepancies of whether there are
69 or 70 descendants and exactly why one appears to be missing.
But remember, your explanation must show how every statement could
be true, with no mistake. References to the Bible are given so that
you can check for yourself that it really is there, but do not try
to do the puzzle directly from the Bible. Ambiguities of translation
have been resolved, so you can solve it best by just looking at
the summary given here. Knowing that these hidden treasures exit,
and perhaps even trying this puzzle, might awaken in us a desire
to more diligently search and ponder the scriptures, to feast on
the delicious hidden fruit found there.
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