About the four methods
Every method is a tradition that assigns the Torah's pesukim (verses) to stretches of world history. The baseline is the Jewish reckoning that the world runs about 6,000 years — Psalm 90:4 and Sanhedrin 97a describe a day of God as a thousand years, so six millennia are the six "days" of creation, and the seventh is the world's Shabbat.
The methods start from different anchors, so for any given year they usually land on different pesukim. That is not a contradiction to resolve — it's the point of the project. Each is a lens.
The counts behind everything
The Masoretic text has 5,846 pesukim in total:
- Bereishis — 1,533 pesukim (starts at #1)
- Shemos — 1,210 pesukim (starts at #1,534)
- Vayikra — 859 pesukim (starts at #2,744)
- Bamidbar — 1,288 pesukim (starts at #3,603)
- Devarim — 956 pesukim (starts at #4,891)
One Year, One PasukMethod A
5846 pesukim = 5846 years
The famous tradition (circulated in the name of the Vilna Gaon): each pasuk of the Torah corresponds to one year, starting from the first. Year 1 = pasuk 1, ... year 5846 = the final pasuk.
How the math works
pasukIndex(year) = year, clipped to the Torah's range.
Each pasuk of the Torah corresponds to exactly one year: year 1 → pasuk #1, and year 5846 → pasuk #5846 (the very last). Years beyond 5846 have no 1:1 pasuk; we show the final pasuk as a marker.
Source: Vilna Gaon (attributed), '5846 pesukim, each = its year'
Scaled to 6000Method B
Torah spans the full 6000-year arc
Rescales the whole Torah to the 6000-year world-clock (Sanhedrin 97a / Zohar: six millennia = six days). Each pasuk ≈ 1.026 years, so the Torah's final pasuk reaches the year 6000 and the seventh 'Shabbat' millennium.
How the math works
pasukIndex(year) = round(year ÷ 6000 × 5846), clamped to 1..5846
The whole Torah is rescaled across the 6000-year world-clock, so each pasuk ≈ 1.026 years. The Torah's last pasuk lands at year 6000, on the boundary of the seventh ("Shabbat") millennium.
Source: 6-millennia world-clock (Sanhedrin 97a, Zohar, Pirkei deRabbi Eliezer)
Sefer to MillenniaMethod C
Each book = an era of history
Structural mapping by the Tanna d'vei Eliyahu 3x2000 scheme: Bereishis → the first ~2000 years (creation to Avraham), Shemos/Bamidbar → the 'Torah' 2000 years, Devarim → the sixth millennium. Each book gets its own years-per-pasuk density.
How the math works
Each sefer covers a fixed block of years with its own density. The Tanna d'vei Eliyahu 3×2000 scheme:
- Bereishis → years 1–2000 (Tohu / creation to Avraham)
- Shemos → years 2001–3700 (Egypt, Exodus, Matan Torah)
- Vayikra → years 3701–4400 (The Service / Kedushah)
- Bamidbar → years 4401–5000 (Wilderness, toward the Land)
- Devarim → years 5001–6000 (The Sixth Millennium — Moshe's final words)
Within a book, pasuk = floor( (year − yearStart) ÷ span × pesukimInBook ).
Source: Tanna d'vei Eliyahu Rabbah (2000 tohu / 2000 Torah / 2000 Moshiach) + book themes
Devarim, 10 CenturiesMethod D
The Gra's Devarim → sixth-millennium map
The Vilna Gaon's specific tradition: the 10 parshiyos of Devarim correspond to the 10 centuries of the sixth millennium (5000–6000). Pick a year in 5000–6000 and get the pasuk within the matching century-parsha.
How the math works
The 10 parshiyos of Devarim map to the 10 centuries of the sixth millennium (5000–6000). Nitzavim & Vayelech count as one, so there are 10 parshiyos (not 11). For a year >= 5000, find the century-parsha it falls in, then the pasuk at the same proportional position within that parsha.
- Devarim (Keter) → years 5000–5099 — Moshe's opening words and retelling of the journey
- Va'eschanan (Chochmah) → years 5100–5199 — The Aseres Hadibros and the Shma
- Eikev (Binah) → years 5200–5299 — Reward and reproof; the second paragraph of the Shma
- Re'eh (Chesed) → years 5300–5399 — Practical mitzvos: kashrus, shemittah, the festivals
- Shoftim (Gevurah) → years 5400–5499 — Judges, kings, prophecy and war
- Ki Seitzei (Tiferes) → years 5500–5599 — The largest single block of mitzvos in the Torah
- Ki Savo (Netzach) → years 5600–5699 — Bikkurim, the covenant, and the Tochachah
- Nitzavim-Vayelech (Hod) → years 5700–5799 — Return, covenant, and the transfer of leadership to Yehoshua
- Ha'azinu (Yesod) → years 5800–5899 — The song of Ha'azinu
- VeZos HaBerachah (Malchus) → years 5900–6000 — Moshe's blessings and the close of the Torah
One honest limit. This method can reach 860 of Devarim's 956 pesukim, and no mapping of this shape can reach more: a century holds 100 years, while six of the ten century-parshiyos hold more pesukim than that. Those ~96 verses therefore have no year under method D. It is an arithmetic consequence of the tradition's own counts, not a defect in the data — the same reasoning is asserted in methodD-boundaries.test.ts.
Source: Vilna Gaon (see TORCH 'Deuteronomy and the Sixth Millennium'; torahone.com 'The Last Ten Centuries')
A note on all this
These mappings are documented traditions, study aids, and reflective tools — not predictions, not halachah, and not a literal timeline to be trusted for decision-making. They are presented as what they are: beautiful ways the tradition has read the shape of history through the text of the Torah. Use them for inspiration and curiosity.