Numerology and Prefiguration

Some of you may have seen GG33 (‘Gary the Numbers Guy’) on your timeline recently. He’s a numerologist that claims to be able to predict the future based on numbers (such as one’s birthdate). In the clip below, he explains what drew him to numerology:

While I disagree with his conclusions, GG33 is right that specific dates have been selected for their historical significance — but only when the decision is between an arbitrary date and a historically significant one.

Hans Blumenberg discusses this phenomenon in his unpublished chapter on prefiguration (from the word ‘prefigure’, which means to imagine or anticipate something before it occurs).

As Eric Auerbach explains in his essay, ‘Figura’, prefiguration, or what he calls, ‘figural phenomenal prophecy’, was most commonly used in the theological study of ‘types’ (i.e. biblical typology): ‘the aim of this sort of interpretation was to show that the persons and events of the Old Testament were prefigurations of the New Testament and its history of salvation’. An example would be Moses prefiguring Christ. The former is the ‘figure’…