Comparisons of Trump and the Messiah are not new. Another one popped up in the news earlier this week.

A secretly-recorded video was released on Saturday in which President Trump is once again compared to the Messiah. The video was recorded using a cell phone in April 2018.during a fund-raising dinner at which American businessmen Lev Parnas and Igor Fruman were seated with President Trump.

Both Parnas and Fruman were born in the former U.S.S.R. and are American citizens. The pair, along with former New York City mayor Rudy Guliani, have been implicated in the Trump-Ukraine scandal. Breaking Israel News previously reported on a Christianity Today op-ed in which the magazine’s Editor-in-Chief Mark Galli called Trump’s conduct in Ukraine “profoundly immoral.”

But for redemption watchers, the more interesting piece of the 83-minute recording was a statement Parnas made to President Trump. 

On January 26, 2020,  JTA reported that “Parnas presents to Trump what he says is a gift from ‘the head rabbi of Ukraine’ and some rabbis in Israel. He explains that according to Jewish numerology, known as gematria, the letters in Trump’s name add up to 424, which is the same total as the Messiah.”

At the 1:12:30 mark, in heavily Russian-accented English, Fruman is heard explaining, “It [the name Donald Trump] has the same numbers as Messiah. Is not good. Is like best. Is like miracle!”

Trump is heard asking, “Why 424?” and Furman repeats, “Is like name of Messiah.” Through overlapping voices, it is clear that President Trump’s table companions are trying to explain to him the significance of gematria (Jewish numerology).

Parnas clarifies that the Messiah is, “the person that comes to save the whole world.  So it’s like you’re the savior of the Ukraine.”

Furman adds, “It’s amazing. All Jew people in Ukraine, they are praying for you.”

The recording is unclear in parts, especially when multiple people are speaking at once, but Parnas and Furman, who are excited to share this finding, suggest that Trump should speak to Jared Kushner, his Jewish son-in-law, for a clearer explanation of the significance.

Gematria is a system used by Jewish scholars to assign a numerical value to Hebrew names, words and phrases. When that numerical value matches the numerical value of a different name, word or phrase, it is assumed that there is a relationship between the two.

Gematria is one of the tools scholars use to demonstrate how many hints God embedded in the Hebrew language that are lost when the Bible is translated into another language.