Divine Dimensions and God’s Golden Ratio

Slightly different tack here…thought I’d explore an ancient mystery of celestial numbers and The Golden Ratio. I hope you enjoy reading about this legend!

The true meaning of Phi?

When the great cathedrals were being built, who drew up the plans? How were the dimensions decided upon? Some say that the cathedrals were built using a mathematical formula called the Golden Ratio (In math, it is 2 numbers whose ratio is the same as the ratio of their sum to the larger of the two quantities. It is represented by the Greek symbol for Phi Ф). Please don't ask me to explain this because I really suck at math. I have added a link to a theology blog explaining this. Or, if you're really math savvy, you can go look it up and work it out for yourself!

 If you read “The DaVinci Code” or other such novels, or you’ve seen the Nova special on PBS “Building The Great Cathedrals”, you may be somewhat familiar with this legend. The Golden Ratio alluded to the perfection of a universe that could only be designed by God. Could there really be a hidden mathematical code that unlocks the secrets of Gothic cathedrals embedded in the stone and stained glass? Witness the labyrinth on the floor of Chartres Cathedral. Another mystery.

Experts have explored an interesting theory: a hidden mathematical code, taken from pages of the Bible, and used as a blueprint for designing the great cathedrals. “People were using the proportions by which God had created the universe”, states Jacqueline Jung from Yale University, and an expert in Gothic cathedrals. Medieval priests saw God as the Supreme Mathematician, a Divine Geometer, who used these sacred dimensions when creating the universe.

This theory was tested using present day technology. Stefaan Van Lieffering, a physicist and art historian, and his associates, used a laser scanner to measure two floors of Notre Dame de Paris. The height of each floor was 32.8 ft top to bottom. However, it had to be taken into account that the Medieval builders used a slightly different measurement called the Royal foot (which is 12.789 inches). So, upon conversion, the height of Notre Dame’s two floors were each 30 Royal feet, bringing the total to 60 Royal feet.

An illustration of what the Temple of Solomon may have looked like.

Van Lieffering did some research. He came upon a 12th century manuscript and found this passage, taken as a quote from the Old Testament in the Bible, “It was 30 cubits high, up to the first floor, upon which a second dwelling was built up to the second floor, also 30 cubits” (1 Kings 6:2-11). It was describing the Temple of Solomon, in Jerusalem. However, it also was describing the Cathedral of Notre Dame de Paris. Joan Branham of Providence College adds, “We can analyze medieval manuscripts that show the Temple of Solomon, and guess what it looks like? It looks like a Gothic church.” Abbot Suger believed that his church, The Abbey Church of St. Denis, had recalled the glory of what the Bible calls God’s house on Earth, the Temple of Solomon. Joan Branham explains further, “Abbot Suger associates St. Denis with biblical prototypes, especially the Temple of Solomon….”

Stephen Murray, professor emeritus of Medieval Art History at Columbia University, has gone looking for further answers on the divine dimensions. He went to Amiens Cathedral, where he starts  measuring the area at the very center of the cross, where the four central columns form a square. “The geometric code that gives the shape of this building involves a great square that sits right here in the middle.” It would seem that each side of the central square measures almost exactly 50 Roman feet, the same unit of measurement used by the Medieval builders of Amiens. Fifty also happens to be an important number from the Bible because God tells Noah to build an ark that is 50 cubits wide, to save him from the flood. Murray goes on to explain “Noah’s ark was 50 cubits. This is 50 feet. And this lies at the heart of the building.” It looks like the Medieval builders who constructed the cathedral at Amiens used a measurement from the Bible in which to build their cathedral.

Murray and his colleagues decide to measure the height of the cathedral down to the nearest millimeter. They choose one of the keystones and drop a plumb line to the floor below. Their measurement, 42.55 meters. They convert the number to Medieval units of measurement and come up with the number 144. In the Bible, the Book of Revelations, Heaven is referred to as The City of God. It’s height…144. Murray explains this, “This is the Book of Revelation, the vision of Saint John the Divine: As John measures the city, he finds it’s 144 cubits.”

The investigation continued to the other cathedrals in the region. Their findings were exactly the same. The builders at both Amiens and Beauvais used the height of God’s heavenly city in the Bible to design the height of their cathedrals. The experts believe that it was possible that medieval architects used the measurements from the Bible as a blueprint for building their cathedrals. By using these “sacred numbers” it would seem that Gothic engineers tried to make their cathedrals a sort of Heaven on Earth, a sacred place for medieval minds to take a break from their daily lives to replenish themselves in the lofty heights of these heavenly sanctuaries.

There is quite a bit more, but this is the gist of it. Much of this was taken from the Nova/PBS documentary “Building The Great Cathedrals”. I hope you enjoyed the topic! I may do more in the future.

• https://www.pbs.org/wgbh/nova/video/building-the-great-cathedrals/ 

• https://www.goldennumber.net/theology/