Tangled Up in Quasi-Truth

We just saw it from a different point of view
Tangled up in blue¹

I must admit I sometimes feel blue. At times there seems to be no reason for it. Other times there is.

When writing Christian apologetics—from the Greek word apologia, as found in 1 Peter 3:15 (…always ready to provide a defense to everyone who asks…)—it is imperative to do so with utmost integrity. We must uphold truth when defending the Truth. When I see quasi-truths and pseudo-truths in apologetics, I sometimes literally shake my head in sadness. Sometimes I get a bit angry. It’s disconcerting.

In this disinformation age, we are bombarded with partial truths and outright lies. Discerning truth from fiction can be quite difficult. Consequently, when assessing questionable conspiracy theories,² we must be very careful not to fall into the same trap of connecting unrelated things in our critiques of them.³ I’m reminded of the cautionary words of Rabbi Samuel Sandmel:

It would seem to me to follow that, in dealing with similarities we can sometimes discover exact parallels, some with and some devoid of significance; seeming parallels which are so only imperfectly; and statements which can be called parallels only by taking them out of context.⁴

Recently, I came across On Point Preparedness, a ministry delving in end times (eschatology) and apologetics. I want to think Mike—the sole writer and vlogger—is sincere in his endeavors. Perhaps it would be fair that I give him as much benefit of the doubt as he gives the subjects in his critiques. In any case, I found a number of issues with some of his analyses, some egregious enough to induce me to write this blog post.

Going Off Point⁵

I’ve timestamped the clip below where On Point Preparedness (OPP) displays audio and video of a President Trump Rally just before the song “Sympathy for the Devil” is played.⁶

The clip provides lyrics to accompany the song for a bit. Then the vlogger segues to a snippet of a Bob Dylan interview, which OPP prefaces with these words:

Oh, and by the way, this song by Bob Dylan “Sympathy for the Devil”—yeah. You remember this interview where he said that he serves Satan, right?

Now, this is the part where I shake my head in dismay, disappointment. And then I get angry. This is extremely sloppy “journalism”. First of all, in the clip of Dylan’s words, the songwriter just does not say he “serves Satan”. The vlogger puts those words in Dylan’s mouth. Either that, or OPP meant to paraphrase Dylan’s supposed intended meaning. Can this meaning be inferred? Perhaps. But before making such a charge, intellectual integrity demands a search for the larger context in order to provide sufficient evidence to justify it.⁷ And further below, I provide such larger context, illustrating there is more likely a very different meaning intended here.

To outright assert that someone said thus-and-such without explicit proof is just inexcusable. And potentially libelous. Dylan’s lyrics below are appropriated for my purposes here:

Someone’s got in for me
They’re planting stories in the press
Whoever it is I wish they’d cut it out quick
When they will I can only guess.⁸

Oh, and by the way, this song “Sympathy for the Devil”—whatever one thinks of it—was written by Mick Jagger and Keith Richards of THE ROLLING STONES, and the song in the clip was performed by this same band. Though Bob Dylan most certainly wrote and performed the song “Like a Rolling Stone”, he just as certainly is not THE ROLLING STONES. There is absolutely no excuse for this kind of carelessness (confirmation bias?).⁹ Similar to the above, journalistic integrity requires a quick search to verify information before publishing. Even if the rest of his content was just fine, merely this one slip can render the entire document suspect by some viewers. But this is not the only issue here.

Below is the larger context of the interview—a 60 Minutes interview with Ed Bradley on November 19, 2004. At the time of original airing, the songwriter had just recently published his book Chronicles, Volume One (September 5, 2004). Take special note of the use of the word “destiny”. Italics indicate the portion OPP selected for his vlog (near the end); bold is my emphasis:

Ed Bradley: You use the word “destiny” over and over throughout the book. What does it mean to you?
Bob Dylan: It’s a feeling you have that you know something about yourself that nobody else does – the picture you have in your mind of what you’re about will come true. It’s kind of a thing you kind of have to keep to your own self, because it’s a fragile feeling. And if you put it out there, somebody will kill it. So, it’s best to keep that all inside.
—
EB: Let me talk a little bit about your relationship with the media. You wrote, “The press, I figured, you lied to it.” Why?
BD: I realized at the time that the press, the media, they’re not the judge—God’s the judge. The only person you have to think about lying twice to is either yourself or to God. The press isn’t either of them. And I just figured they’re irrelevant.
—
EB: As you probably know, Rolling Stone magazine just named your song, “Like a Rolling Stone,” the number one song of all time. 12 of your other songs are on their list of the Top 500. That must be good to have as part of your legacy.
BD: Oh, maybe this week. But you know, the list, they change names, and you know, quite frequently, really. I don’t really pay much attention to that.
EB: But it’s a pat on the back?
BD: This week it is. But who’s to say how long that’s gonna last?
EB: Well, it’s lasted a long time for you. I mean you’re still out here doing these songs, you know. You’re still on tour.
BD: I do, but I don’t take it for granted.
EB: Why do you still do it? Why are you still out here?
BD: Well, it goes back to that destiny thing. I made a d-, bargain with it, you know, long time ago. And I’m holding up my end.
EB: What was your bargain?
BD: …to get where, uh, I am now.
EB: Should I ask who you made that bargain with?
BD: [laughs] With the Chief Commander.
EB: On this earth?
BD: [laughs] In this earth and in the world we can’t see.

When Dylan states, “…bargain with it…”, to what does the “it” refer? By the context, the referent is “destiny”. So, who is the “Chief Commander” that is “in this earth and in the world we can’t see”? Note that earlier in the interview Dylan referred to “God”, stating He is the Judge, and the only One—besides yourself—that you should carefully consider before lying twice to. Could that help define “Chief Commander” here?

To this analysis the critic must also consider Dylan’s professed conversion to Christianity in 1979. The artist made three overtly Christian-themed albums: Slow Train Coming (1979), Saved (1980), and Shot of Love (1981).¹⁰ The first of the three recordings opens with his Grammy-winning “Gotta Serve Somebody”, featuring these lyrics in the chorus:

But you’re gonna have to serve somebody, yes
Indeed you’re gonna have to serve somebody
Well, it may be the devil or it may be the Lord
But you’re gonna have to serve somebody

Closing this same album, “When He Returns” includes words taken (paraphrased) from Scripture: Like a thief in the night, he’ll replace wrong with right when he returns. And then there’s this clip “Bob Dylan – The Gospel Interview”, an excerpt from the documentary Bob Dylan – Both Ends Of The Rainbow 1978-1989.

Was this all just a ruse, a hoax? That seems very unlikely, for Dylan had not a few angry fans during this time claiming he was preaching at them in concerts. John Lennon even went so far as to write the parody “Serve Myself” in response. Assuming, then, that Dylan’s conversion was genuine, did he subsequently reverse course? Did he renounce his profession of Christian faith to the extent he now “serves Satan” instead? Can evidence be found for this? If so, I’d like to see it. (And see this new blog post Bob Dylan’s New Christian Themed Album.)

The vlogger later circles back to his earlier assertion about Bob Dylan, this time claiming he is “the guy that sold his soul to the devil”. This prefaces his syllogistic position that Dylan’s new song “Murder Most Foul” is somehow related to “Q”, and, by extension, implicitly “QAnon”, because the track is ~17 minutes long, and—well—Q is the 17^th letter of the English alphabet, and there’s been an established connection between QAnon and the number 17.¹¹ More on this below.

The song is about the assassination of JFK. For OPP it’s the following lyrics providing some sort of smoking gun:

The day that they killed him, someone said to me, “Son,
The age of the Antichrist has just only begun”

The vlogger focuses on “The age of the Antichrist”, as if these words in this context provide some sort of proof of malevolent spiritual connection to OPP’s (unproven) assertion that Dylan “sold his soul to the devil”. I can only guess how the vlogger connects this to QAnon.¹²

Besides the illogic, and nebulous nature of any sort of connection, there are other problems here and more things to factor in.

By illogic, I mean why would Dylan write a lyric about “the age of the Antichrist” if he had “sold his soul to the devil”? Wouldn’t he—or, more specifically, the supposed malevolent spirit guiding him—be more inclined to conceal this fact about “the age of the Antichrist” having begun? Since John’s first epistle indicates that the ‘age of Antichrist’ had already begun by the time that letter was penned (1 John 2:18), this means if we take the song at face value, JFK’s assassination would more likely be the revealing of the Antichrist, aka “the lawless one” (2 Thessalonians 2:8). If “the lawless one” has been revealed (to discerning Christians), then who is it? Frankly, I think OPP needs to acquire a better grasp of the nature of poetry and songwriting.

The vlogger also implies Dylan was aware of this ‘Q = 17’ connection, yet fails to provide any sort of evidence for this.¹³ But this does not stop OPP from making further tenuous connections based on this unproven link.

OPP makes a big deal out of the song’s ~17 minutes length (“which is incredibly odd”, per the vlogger), but is this really so out of the ordinary? Dylan has recorded quite a few lengthy songs throughout his career. While “Murder Most Foul” is the longest song in Dylan’s discography, there is a close second: “Highlands” from Time Out of Mind, at 16:31.¹⁴ Comparatively, “Murder Most Foul”, as hosted on Dylan’s own YouTube channel, clocks in at 16:56, just 25 seconds longer. In listening to the song, it is packed full of lyrics, with no instrumental break, a very brief intro, and a 30 second outro. Thus, even if it were sung a cappella at the same tempo, it would be nearly 17 minutes long. So, it is not as though the song was stretched out in an effort to reach ~17 minutes.

More to the point, if I was Dylan and I wanted to link the song to Q as suggested by OPP, I’d make darn sure that it was exactly 17 minutes—not a second over or under. If Q = 17, then Q ≠ 16:56. For me, this fact alone is a fatal flaw in his analysis.

But that’s not all.

In the first comment to the above hyperlinked video (audio) of the song is this statement by Dylan, pinned by the songwriter himself:

This is an unreleased song we recorded a while back that you might find interesting. Stay safe, stay observant and may God be with you.

Setting aside the final clause (bolded above), Dylan recorded this song “a while back”.¹⁵ To assume it was recorded within the past 3 or so years—to coincide with the era of QAnon—is to assume too much.

Finally, after “Murder Most Foul” Dylan put out two more songs. And concurrent with his most recent song release “False Prophet” (on May 8, 2020), the songwriter announced the near-future release of a new album, which will contain all three songs. Thus, “Murder Most Foul” didn’t ‘come out of nowhere’ as some sort of mysterious one-off. The timing of the release—and the subsequent releases—was obviously calculated to build interest for his forthcoming full-length album. This is a pretty standard marketing ploy.

¿Qué?¹⁶

Perhaps the intent is not so much to link Bob Dylan specifically to QAnon, but to “Q” more generally. In this sense, per OPP, “Q” would then be the spiritual glue binding all these seemingly—in the mind of the vlogger—disparate pieces together. The video below makes such a connection:

OPP bases this on (a) a false equivalency, which results in (b) a dubious connection to (c) a questionable claim in a self-published book (@ 10:02):

When I saw that, I was like, “OK, that is pretty amazing.” That’s really the spiritual influence of why “Q” has been adopted.

This will require a bit of explanation. I’ll start with (c), the questionable claim in the book.

Catherine R. Proppe, in her 2013 book Greek Alphabet: Unlock the Secrets, claims that each Greek letter of the alphabet has a “secret meaning” attached. The author has her own webpage, and since the koppa (Ϙ) is the subject here, I will direct now to that specific page on her blog. Proppe appears to have some proficiency with Greek, but I must question her claim that the koppa means “piercing-the-veil” (as per the link) or “PIERCING-THE-VEIL of ignorance and separation” (as per the book). Viewing the above hyperlink to the author’s webpage, note how Proppe provides web-links as support for some of her statements.¹⁷ Yet, the writer provides no such reference, no documentation for this “secret meaning” for koppa. Same with the book.

A quick internet search yields no specific results for “piercing the veil” except its use in a legal sense as a shortened form of “piercing the corporate veil”. However, though interpreted differently, the word “veil” is found in contexts related to the tearing of the Temple veil at Jesus’ death (Matthew 27:51; Mark 15:38; Luke 23:45) in various esoteric and occult works of the past century.¹⁸  A quick scouring of my Greek resources finds no reference to this “secret meaning” as of yet. Thus, I would agree that the esoteric concept of crossing some sort of veil has been in existence for a while, but so far nothing suggests that this specific phraseology is at least somewhat commonly used currently, or had been used previously in antiquity, in relation to the Greek letter koppa.

The bottom line: I find no substantiation for Proppe’s claimed “secret meaning” for the Greek letter koppa. To be clear, this does not necessarily render the claim false. But without supporting evidence for the author’s assertion, I remain unconvinced. For the vlogger to uncritically accept this claim is problematic. We must always verify the veracity of material to the extent possible. Especially if it is used to negatively characterize individuals or works.

Now, turning to (a), the false equivalency—providing some historical background on the koppa will be necessary.

The Greek alphabet underwent some changes throughout its history, with some letters deleted, others added. Today there are 24 letters—the same 24 as from the pre-NT era. At one point in antiquity (ca. 6^th – 5^th BC?) there were 27 letters. During this time the Greeks adopted an alphanumeric system in which each letter corresponds to a number.  This system is still in place today. The first nine letters are numbered sequentially (1 through 9). The next nine letters are consecutive multiples of 10. The koppa was sequentially the 18^th letter, and thus represented the number 90. That is, Ϙ = 90.

Shortly after the establishing of the alphanumeric system, the koppa was deleted from the alphabet (ca. 5^th century BC).¹⁹ But it was retained solely for their alphanumeric system (the Greeks had no other way of expressing numbers at the time except to fully write them out, such as, e.g., the English ninety).

The first Greek alphabet was modeled after the Phoenician. The koppa came from the similar looking Phoenician qoph. The history of the English Q is something like this:

Phoenician qoph > Greek koppa (Ϙ, similar to qoph) > Old Italic Etruscan (same as koppa) > Old Latin (~Q) > Classic Latin (~Q) > Old English (~Q) > Modern English (Q)

An important point to reiterate is that the Greek koppa has not been used as a letter since about the 5^th century BC—except for rare carry-overs, and even these were phased out well before the NT era. As an example and an interesting side note: I learned from Proppe’s book, via the vlog above, that the city of Corinth (as in I and II Corinthians), was first spelled with an initial koppa (Ϙ)²⁰—appropriate for the time. Before the NT era, it was replaced with the kappa (K). But the koppa (Ϙ) letter remained on Corinthian coinage for a time. See it just below the winged Pegasus in the image.

Koppa under Pegasus

Given that the koppa ceased in use as a letter, this is another reason I remain skeptical of Proppe’s claims. Strictly speaking, the koppa hasn’t been in the Greek alphabet since ~5^th century BC. Moreover, when used as a number, it is identified as such by additional markings or different renderings of the character.²¹ Thus, the writer’s implicit claim that it is part of the Greek alphabet (as in the title of the book) is anachronistic, or imprecise, at best. At worst, it is just wrong. In short, the information is unreliable.

Setting aside the murky nature of the author’s characterization of the koppa, OPP begins his discussion by making the claim that the English letter Q means “piercing the veil” (@ 8:58), even though the words on the page are about the Greek koppa (Ϙ) instead. He continues to conflate the Greek koppa with the English Q throughout. But Proppe never, not once, makes a connection to the English Q on the page.²²

Thus, there is no basis to assume Proppe intended her “secret meaning” be imported to the English letter Q, much less to the current cult of Q (whether it be QAnon or any of the others he attempts to connect). Yet, this scarcely prevents the vlogger from syllogistically assuming it does, leading him to his dogmatic assertion that “The [English] letter Q is about ‘PIERCING-THE-VEIL of ignorance and separation’” (@ 9:56).

This (a) false equivalency (Ϙ = Q) leads to (b) the dubious connection to (c) a questionable claim (as regards “PIERCING…”), leading OPP (d) to syllogistically conclude: “That’s really the spiritual influence of why Q has been adopted…” (@ 10:07). This is a non sequitur. Even if a definitive link were established between the koppa and the Q and if Proppe’s “secret meaning” were true, this does not necessarily mean that all the associations of “Q” must come from this meaning. There are numerous possible reasons for the use of “Q”. One might speculate that this could be a possible connection (again, had there been a definitive link between koppa and Q as well as substantiation for Proppe’s “secret meaning” for the koppa), but to make an explicit claim that this-is-definitely-that in this case is both illogical and irresponsible.

Taking all the above, I hope the reader can see that Bob Dylan has been unfairly mischaracterized based on nebulous connections.

At 10:55 OPP states, “…Now you just can’t really make this stuff up…” as part of his conclusion. Now if I were to apply some of the methods used throughout the two vlogs referenced above, I could take just this statement and apply it to him. That is, taking the words “you just can’t really make this stuff up”, I could counter that the vlogger did, in fact, do just that—by wresting various words from their original contexts to create pretexts, using false equivalencies, making syllogistic connections to reach his own conclusions, etc. But that wouldn’t be right, would it?

Digressing for a moment, and being a bit tongue-in-cheek, I can just envision New Apostolic Reformation (NAR) “Apostle” Chuck Pierce embracing all this. He has not one, but two points (pun intended) of connection! Not only is his last name Pierce (Pierce-ing the veil!) his “ministry” is headquartered in Corinth, Texas! He could substitute either the Greek koppa or the English “Q” in place of the English “C” in Corinth! In fact, it’s rather curious that he hasn’t done so, given the analysis here by OPP. That is, if “this is really the spiritual influence of why ‘Q’ has been adopted”, surely Chuck Pierce would be aware of all these “connections”.

But Seriously

This was one of the most difficult blog posts—if not the most difficult one—I’ve written. I wanted to be fair to OPP, to everyone involved. It can be difficult to be completely objective in the best of circumstances. With this in mind, I must admit—and I did above—that I became a bit angry at times when analyzing the material. I hope it was righteous anger—in response to what I felt was unfair treatment to some individuals and the material. And I hope it didn’t negatively cloud the results. My sporadic injections of a bit of sarcasm and humor were attempts to diffuse it, I suppose. I’ll let the reader be the judge of the analyses.

One of my goals is to bring awareness to our predisposition (1) to read things strictly through our own perspectives and (2) to fall into logical fallacies. Everyone does these things. This means we all must take a few steps back when analyzing data to see if it can be read a bit differently and to be sure our conclusions follow the data. We must be careful that we don’t construct our own questionable conspiracy theories.

Preparing Christian apologetics is hard work. Disentangling problematic apologetics takes just as much if not more effort.

As apologists, defenders of the Christian faith, we should do our very best to get it right the first time, doing so with intellectual honesty and the utmost integrity. And humility.

ps:

Comments, whether pro or con, are welcome. I ask that they relate to the main subjects presented in this post. I don’t wish to get bogged down with discussions regarding QAnon, for example. That is NOT why I posted this; that is only peripheral to my main objective, which was to present a more balanced view of the material analyzed, particularly as it relates to Bob Dylan.

______________________________________

¹ “Tangled Up in Blue”, Bob Dylan, from the 1974 album Blood on the Tracks (Columbia Records PC 233235), published by Rams Horn Music, 1974.

² Here I use the modifier “questionable” because the term conspiracy theory has become a pejorative, a means by which to stifle conversation about a topic with which a person or group disagrees. When police detectives uncover racketeering—organized crime—it is after having an initial theory of a conspiracy, a hunch about individuals conspiring together in crime. In the beginning stages of the investigation, it is a conspiracy theory. Though the term should be neutral, in today’s socio-political environment and vernacular, it’s mostly used to disparage adherents to a particular theory.

³ Thereby creating our own questionable conspiracy theories.

⁴ “Parallelomania”, Journal of Biblical Literature Vol 81 (1962): 1-13, p 7

⁵ I must confess that I stumbled upon the music linked to here. I was searching to see if “off point” had a meaning in today’s lingo, which I see it does. I kinda like the song, but more importantly the lyric here is apropos: Connect all disparate dots and label them as true / you’re straying off point / fixed kaleidoscopic views.

⁶ The vlogger attempts to make a direct connection of a nefarious nature between this song and President Trump (and Rally attendees?), as if Trump specifically requests this song and is sympathetic to the devil himself. Prior to this, he selectively quotes a line from The Animals song “House of the Rising Sun” in an attempt to malign Trump. The line he chooses as his proof-text is spend your lives in sin and misery, as if the song is glorifying this sort of life (who would want “sin and misery”?!). However, when the lyrics are put into proper context, the intention is the exact opposite: Oh mother, tell your children / Not to do what I have done / Spend your lives in sin and misery / In the House of the Rising Sun… And it’s been the ruin of many a poor boy / And God, I know I’m one. This is what passes for “journalism” in this vlog.  This pseudo-truth is the first tenuous connection I am exposing in my blog post here, but since I do not wish to bog down this article with the myriad issues in the vlog, thereby making this post intolerably long, I am relegating information unrelated to my main subject—the unnecessary maligning of Bob Dylan centering on a conspiracy theory surrounding the letter Q—to footnotes.

⁷ In checking around the internet, there are a number of vloggers and bloggers taking just this segment from the interview to arrive at their presumed prejudged conclusion. Perhaps this vlogger, after seeing one or more of these, decided that if this was good enough evidence for others, this was good enough for him.

⁸ “Idiot Wind”, from Blood on the Tracks. To my mind, the lyrics quoted here are true, autobiographical; and, the next few lines are hyperbolic, thereby analogically illustrating the ridiculous lengths the media would sometimes go to mischaracterize Dylan. This then sets up his caustic chorus.

⁹ I’m reminded now of lyrics in a Neil Young song: sometimes I see what really isn’t there—taken from “Will to Love”, from the 1977 album American Stars and Bars (Reprise Records MSK 2261), published by Silver Fiddle-BMI, 1977. In the context of Young’s song, the line refers to wishful thinking, aka confirmation bias.

¹⁰ To digress for a moment, I once had a discussion (ca. 2009) with another Christian man who confidently asserted that the 1974 album Blood on the Tracks—an album with which I’ve been well-acquainted with since the mid-‘70s—was a Christian record, presumably on the strength of Dylan’s Christian-themed records here. When I objected, given my strong familiarity with the record—it’s probably my favorite Dylan album—and providing evidence to the contrary via some of its lyrics and the fact that Dylan’s profession of Christian faith first occurred in 1979, he yet remained steadfast. It seems many will just stay comfortably in their false beliefs, despite evidence contradicting them.

¹¹ Some have already associated QAnon with the letter Q, and by extension, the number 17. Also, President Trump has been presented with jerseys with his name and the number 17 on it. But, this only proves that the maker(s) of the shirts made the connection, not necessarily that Trump has (though maybe he has, and what would that prove, anyway?). But, this is all tangential, for, more importantly, the vlogger fails to provide any evidence that Dylan was even aware of this Q = 17 connection.

¹² And (in the mind of the vlogger), by further extension, President Trump?

¹³ That is, besides the implied circular logic of Q = 17, and the song is ~17 minutes, which must be a reference to Q, which means Dylan is aware of the connection. But, I digress. In any case, absent any proof, I am unwilling to grant this.

¹⁴ I have the album (gasp!), so I was already aware of its timing.

¹⁵ Though it is possible it was recorded in the past 3 or so years—during the time of QAnon—I note that Dylan’s last album of his own material (as opposed to covers of others’ works) Tempest was released in 2012. It could be that “Murder Most Foul” was from the Tempest recording sessions or perhaps earlier. His most recent album (which only includes works written by others), while it lists no recording date, was released March 31, 2017. All this to say, the song most likely was recorded before QAnon came on the scene. But we just don’t know.

¹⁶ Spanish for What? It is used here because some confuse “que” (or qué) with the spelling for the English letter “Q” (which is cue), thus implicitly analogically illustrating the confusions and conflations of the vlogger. It’s a play on words relating to the entire section. (Unfortunately, this is the kind of thing that tends to lose its impact when explained.)

¹⁷ No matter how tenuous those connections might be, e.g.: The constellation Pegasus is best visible during the month of October, the month immediately following the fall equinox, when nighttime hours first exceed daylight hours, enabling better viewing of the stars which pierce-the-veil of the night sky. Though I like the poetic phrasing here (the stars which pierce-the-veil of the night sky), I don’t see how any of this relates to the koppa. Perhaps it is something like the following. Since the Corinthians used the koppa as a symbol for their city (see further below), and the koppa was placed on the back of coins under the winged Pegasus—which is associated with local mythology—this, I presume, means the author should connect the constellation of Pegasus to koppa because, by syllogistic extension, its stars “pierce-the-veil” of the sky at night (by using the bottom point of a koppa?). Or something like that.

¹⁸ In some it is a metaphysical spin on the tearing of the veil in the Temple at the time of Jesus’ death: E.g. “veil”, Unity School of Christianity, Metaphysical Bible Dictionary, 8^th ed. (Lee’s Summit, MO: Unity School of Christianity, 1955 [1931]), p 673. Other esoteric works put a metaphorical meaning on the tearing of the Temple veil instead: E.g. Alice A. Bailey The Rays and the Initiations © 1960 Lucis, NY, 2^nd paperback ed. (Albany, NY: Fort Orange Press, 1976), pp 475, 491, 702. Cf. the section titled The Two Realms of the Manifested Son of God for the quote from a Bill Britton booklet here: Assessing Bill Johnson’s “Eternally God” Declarations Amidst His Other Christological Statements. Still others take the entire Biblical tearing of the veil phrase figuratively to refer to something else: E.g. Alice A. Bailey The Externalisation of the Hierarchy, © 1957 Lucis, NY (Albany, NY: Fort Orange Press, 6th printing, 1981), pp 4, 6. I find no use of the term in the glossaries of Blavatsky’s books; and, while this does not mean the term is not found in those works, it does indicate that, if used, it likely has little significance.

¹⁹ Or the koppa had previously been deleted and subsequently placed back into its former spot strictly for the alphanumeric system. 27 letters were needed to fill out the alphanumeric system (nine single digits, nine tens, and nine one-hundreds). The koppa sounded much like the kappa—like the English K—and thus was redundant.

²⁰ That I have learned something new, something of particular interest to me, makes the time and effort spent on this well worth it.

²¹ See here.

²² Yes, the author briefly associates the Greek koppa with the Latin letter Q, but not once does the writer state anything at all about English and, by extension, the English Q. Her subject is the Greek koppa.