The First Prime: 1 or 2?

[RAMcGough]

... the question regarding: 1 being the first prime ...

Modern mathematicians have settled on the idea that the number 2 is the first prime. There are very good reasons for this choice. Here's a brief summary:

1. Many definitions and theorems would become needlessly complicated and awkward (and certainly less beautiful) with "except for 1" if we included the number 1 as prime. For example, the current definition of the Fundamental Theorem of Arithmetic (Unique Factorization Theorem) says "Every integer greater than 1 has a unique prime factorization (up to ordering of factors)". We would have to modify that to say ""Every integer greater than 1 has a unique prime factorization (up to ordering of factors and not counting powers of 1)."

2. In ring theory / abstract algebra the situation becomes even clearer: 1 is the multiplicative unit (the neutral element for multiplication). Units are deliberately not regarded as prime or irreducible in any ring, because they trivialize too much of the structure. Mathematicians have identified three classes of numbers: Units (invertible elements: e.g. +/- 1 in Z), Primes, Compositions.

Now it's true that we could choose to define 1 as prime and just modify our definitions and theorems, but that's not elegant and elegance is a primary aspect of beauty, and beauty is an aspect of truth. The best mathematicians have a strong instinct that recognized both beauty and simplicity.

Now consider this: God is the greatest possible mathematician. Would he not follow the principles of beauty, simplicity, elegance and truth that He used to design the universe? I think this should settle the issue. Grok summarized these points for me in the image below.

But here's another reason: Genesis 1:1 = 37 x 73, a pair of mirrored primes (God is a big fan of symmetry, which is fundamental to the laws of nature that He designed). When 2 is counted as the first prime, then the indexes of 37 and 73 are also 12 and 21, which are also mirrors of each other. This feels deep, especially when we recall that the numbers 37 and 73 are a hex/star pair created by the symmetric self-intersection of tenth triangle T(10) with it's mirrored inverse of itself:

[Glen]

The English words praise + Jesus
appear precisely 1221 times in the Entire King James Bible


Click Image to Enlarge

The LORD GOD G3588 G1203 G2316 ο δεσποτης θεος (Greek Standard) 1221
The English word Christ appears exactly 555 times in the Entire King James Bible.


1221 + 555 = 1776


The English phrase the LORD God
appears precisely 471 times in the Old Testament (Verify Here)!



The number 471 appears at decimal position 1221 in Pi.
8583616035637076601047101819429555961989467
........................................................................................................................^ <-- 1221st digit


The English words In the beginning was _ the Word _ and the Word was with God
appear 471 times in 454 Verses in the Entire King James 1769 Bible (Verify Here)!


471 + 454 = 925


------------------------------------------------------------------
Jesus Christ (Plain English Standard) = 925
------------------------------------------------------------------

Bk Chapter Verse 111 = 7 Hebrews Words 28 Hebrew Letters.png (11.29 KiB) Viewed 6889 times

7 x 28 = 196


The English name Jesus Christ
appears exactly 196 times in the Entire King James Bible (Verify Here)!


--------------------------------------------
Lucifer, the morning star said:
--------------------------------------------

Isaiah 14:14 I will ascend above the heights of the clouds; I will be like the most High. 14x14 = 196


-----------------------------------------------------------------------
the most High לעליון elyown (Original Text) 196
-----------------------------------------------------------------------


Bk 1 Genesis 1:1 Original Text = 2701 x 196 = 529,396 = 529 + 396 = 925 Jesus Christ


The first occurrence of 1221 in Phi appears at position 1072.
02295309423124823552122124154440064703405657
.......................................................................................................................^ <-- 1,072nd digit


1072 (Mirror Image) 2701 | 1072 + 2701 = 3773


living (English Reduce) 37
living (English Ordinal) 73


The first occurrence of 7337 in Pi is preceded by the # 196.
46995565761218656196733786236256125216320862
.......................................................................................................................^ <-- 9,176 digit


The number 86 appears after 7337!
God H430 אלהים elohim ( Gen 1:1) = 86
Following the number 86 is the number 236.


Appearing at decimal position 236 in Pi is the number 8!
34461284756482337867831652712019091456485
.......................................................................................................................^ <-- 236th digit


Jesus Christ Ιησους Χριστος 2368


Bk 23 Isaiah 44:24
Thus saith the LORD, thy redeemer, and he that formed thee from the womb, I am the LORD
that maketh all things; that stretcheth forth the heavens alone; that spreadeth abroad the earth by myself;

-------------------------------------------------
2344 + 24 = 2368 Jesus Christ
-------------------------------------------------

[RAMcGough]

The English words praise + Jesus
appear precisely 1221 times in the Entire King James Bible

Thanks Glen,

That word count remains true whether or not we define 1 as the first prime. But if we take 1 as the first prime, then it would break the "connection" to the indexes of the primes found in Genesis. So if we want to use this as support for one or the other, we would need to ask what happens with the new indexes?

If we take the number 1 as prime, then 37 would be the 13th prime and 73 would be the 22 prime. Those are very nice numbers that are also strongly related to Genesis 1:1, perhaps more than 12/21. For example, 13 x 37 = 481 = H GENESIS in Greek! That seems pretty significant.

And Genesis 1:1 is verse 1 of chapter 1 of book 1 of the Bible, and it is the beginning of "Day One" of the Seven Days. The word "one" in Genesis 1:5 is "echad" = 13. This is a very significant number in the Bible. It defines the structure of the Shema, the Greatest Commandment that declares God (Elohim = 86) is One (Echad = 13). And that's the value of the entire verse!

Sum of Shema = 1118 = 13 (ONE/Echad) x 86 (God/Elohim). See The Unity Holograph

Likewise, the number 22 immediately reminds us of the 22 Hebrew letters, and the central word of Genesis 1:1 which is Aleph Tav (1st + 22nd letters). And if we take the initial letter of each word, we get BBAAHVH = 22.

So what do you think? Is this method of "post hoc" pattern finding sufficient to determine whether the number 1 should be considered prime or not? I have my doubts. We can find endless "connections" between numbers. How do we determine which "connection" trumps another? I frankly can't tell which of these competing patterns would be more "significant".

But it's not hard to choose 2 as the first prime. For me, the logic used by mathematicians who defined the very concept of "prime number" is compelling. The patterns that follow from it are interesting, but leave me feeling that they are generally unconvincing either way.

[Glen]

---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Yes, it is sort of a dilemma, since the first letter in the Torah is a Bet/Vet
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------


Is it possible to think of God as prime? Don't know. I leave that up to the Old School Hebrew Scholars to debate.

[RAMcGough]

---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Yes, it is sort of a dilemma, since the first letter in the Torah is a Bet/Vet
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------


Is it possible to think of God as prime? Don't know. I leave that up to the Old School Hebrew Scholars to debate.

The Jews have a lot to say about the first letter being Bet rather than Aleph. Have you heard of the "Alphabet of Rabbi Akiva"?

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alphabet_of_Rabbi_Akiva

He told a story (Midrash) of how each letters asked God to be first in the Torah.

And yes, God could be considered "prime" in the normal (non-mathematical) sense of the word. God (Elohim) is associated with Aleph above all other letters, and one version of the midrash even says that Aleph suggests "God Himself as Aleph, Prince and Prime of all existence." This is curious, because I went to that wiki article because of Rabbinic tradition about the first letter in the Torah, and it just happened to mention God as Prime! Synchonicities like this feel like the Spirit of the Lord at work. I love it!

So yes, it's easy to think of God as Prime for Prime He is! And God is one. But those are very different than the mathematical definition of prime in terms of the unique factorization theorem.

[Glen]

I get what you are saying Richard. I spent a lot of time thru out the years trying to comprehend how
the Father, the Word, and the Holy Ghost are one. But these days I just focus on Jesus since:

For in him dwelleth all the fulness of the Godhead bodily Colossians 2:9

Much easier on my brain.

[RAMcGough]

I get what you are saying Richard. I spent a lot of time thru out the years trying to comprehend how
the Father, the Word, and the Holy Ghost are one. But these days I just focus on Jesus since:

For in him dwelleth all the fulness of the Godhead bodily Colossians 2:9

Much easier on my brain.

That's a fine focus! Christ is the Mediator between God and man. He told Philip "If you've seen me, you have seen the Father". The Book of Hebrews confirms, He is "the brightness of his glory, and the express image of his person, and upholding all things by the word of his power". He is the Word of God - and what is the "word" if not the mediator of meaning? God the Father reveals Himself through His Son, Jesus Christ our Lord. And the Holy Spirit makes the presence of the Triune God real to use in our Spirit, dwelling in our heart.

I think Thomas said it well after he quit doubting: "And Thomas answered and said unto him, My Lord and my God." John 20:28

I love the Gospel and the God it reveals. Amen!

[bluetriangle]

... the question regarding: 1 being the first prime ...

Modern mathematicians have settled on the idea that the number 2 is the first prime. There are very good reasons for this choice. Here's a brief summary:

1. Many definitions and theorems would become needlessly complicated and awkward (and certainly less beautiful) with "except for 1" if we included the number 1 as prime. For example, the current definition of the Fundamental Theorem of Arithmetic (Unique Factorization Theorem) says "Every integer greater than 1 has a unique prime factorization (up to ordering of factors)". We would have to modify that to say ""Every integer greater than 1 has a unique prime factorization (up to ordering of factors and not counting powers of 1)."

2. In ring theory / abstract algebra the situation becomes even clearer: 1 is the multiplicative unit (the neutral element for multiplication). Units are deliberately not regarded as prime or irreducible in any ring, because they trivialize too much of the structure. Mathematicians have identified three classes of numbers: Units (invertible elements: e.g. +/- 1 in Z), Primes, Compositions.

Now it's true that we could choose to define 1 as prime and just modify our definitions and theorems, but that's not elegant and elegance is a primary aspect of beauty, and beauty is an aspect of truth. The best mathematicians have a strong instinct that recognized both beauty and simplicity.

Now consider this: God is the greatest possible mathematician. Would he not follow the principles of beauty, simplicity, elegance and truth that He used to design the universe? I think this should settle the issue. Grok summarized these points for me in the image below.

But here's another reason: Genesis 1:1 = 37 x 73, a pair of mirrored primes (God is a big fan of symmetry, which is fundamental to the laws of nature that He designed). When 2 is counted as the first prime, then the indexes of 37 and 73 are also 12 and 21, which are also mirrors of each other. This feels deep, especially when we recall that the numbers 37 and 73 are a hex/star pair created by the symmetric self-intersection of tenth triangle T(10) with it's mirrored inverse of itself:

image.png

image.png

I think you've pretty much covered all the ground with this post! We like things to be simple and superficially, it seems more elegant to regard 1 as prime and I initially wondered myself if some abstract definition was needlessly complicating things. But when regarded from a wider perspective it become clear that 1 has unique properties, such as being its own power, and it is more elegant to place it in a class of its own among the natural numbers and regard 2 as the first prime.

Even 2 is unique in that it is even, setting apart from every other prime. Geometrically 1 and 2 are the only non-figurate numbers, unless you count digons as figurate. 1 begins every sequence of figurate numbers, but is of course formless, every figure and none, a symbol of Unity and Divine potential.

I think it is also significant that nearly all the fundamental numbers that can be extracted from Genesis 1.1, 2701, 37, 73, 28, 298, 82, etc, can be reduced to 1 by cross adding the digits until only a single digit is left.

So 2701 gives 2 + 7 + 0 + 1 = 10; 1 + 0 = 1.

The number 1 has honors enough in Genesis 1.1 and in mathematics and doesn't require to be added to the list of primes!

[Geert van den Bos]

Of interest might be that the name of the second letter, "beit", with which the Torah begins, does mean "house" - and might allude to "house of the Lord"

Psalms 27:4,
One [thing] I ask of the Lord, that I seek-that I may dwell in the house of the Lord all the days of my life, to see the pleasantness of the Lord and to visit His Temple every morning.

the Lord, "hashem" the four letter name, by whom the sixth and the seventh day ae united

https://biblehub.com/topical/t/the_sign ... _house.htm

[Geert van den Bos]

Of interest might be that the name of the second letter, "beit", with which the Torah begins, does mean "house" - and might allude to "house of the Lord"

Psalms 27:4,
One [thing] I ask of the Lord, that I seek-that I may dwell in the house of the Lord all the days of my life, to see the pleasantness of the Lord and to visit His Temple every morning.

the Lord, "hashem" the four letter name, by whom the sixth and the seventh day ae united

https://biblehub.com/topical/t/the_sign ... _house.htm

So when Jesus said "In the house of my father are many mansions" (John 14:2) he in fact meant "2 is the first prime"