Published: January 02, 2026
The Echoes Bible Story (Part 3: Want to take a guess?)
By Bob O’Dell
President, Echoes Bible Foundation
Sitting in that hotel lobby in the Old City of Jerusalem, John David Pitcher continued telling me his story about how he had not only discovered a connection between 2 Timothy & Numbers, but had also found the very same pattern linking 1 Timothy & Deuteronomy.
David said, “I stopped and thanked God again for the grace to discover that there is a connection between 1st Timothy & Deuteronomy. Only this time, after I finished my prayer of thanks, I added a question to the end of it.
‘Am I done?’
‘No, you’re not!’ was the answer.
“And so, I thought to myself how God had led me to take this course on the three Pastoral Epistles of Paul—1 Timothy, 2 Timothy, and Titus. It suddenly seemed obvious that my focus should now turn to Titus. Next, I considered that the theme of all three Pastoral Epistles was “the inheritance of Eternal Life.” Then I recalled that the theme of Numbers, Deuteronomy, and Joshua was “the inheritance of the land.”
So I decided my next step would be to check whether the same pattern existed between Titus and Joshua.
And it did.
And then after that I prayed another thanksgiving prayer, like I did for the other books—but this time I posed it less as a question than an expectation.
‘Thank you, God, for the grace to discover that there is a connection between Titus and Joshua. I’m not done, am I?’
And this time God seemed to say, ‘David, you’ll know.’
So now it seemed very fitting that if Paul had found a way to use books four, five, and six of the Old Testament, he would have probably also found some way to use the first three as well—Genesis, Exodus, and Leviticus.”
“What connects to the first three books?” I asked.
David recalled that God’s answer seemed to indicate that some work on his part was going to be required, before he would know. And indeed, while the first three discoveries came in quick succession, the next three would take several years.
The fourth discovery was that Galatians was paired with Exodus. The seed of this idea in David’s mind was that Exodus is about freedom from physical slavery, while Galatians is about freedom from the slavery of sin. Once he had that idea, it didn’t take too long for David to work that one out.
The next one was harder.
David had noticed that Hebrews makes a number of references to Melchizedek. It was initially just a hunch, but he began analyzing the shared Greek words—and found a surprising number of matches, appearing in sequence. David went on to do a full study and began to see that Hebrews was shedding light on certain passages in Genesis in ways he had never considered before.
“Do you believe that Paul wrote Hebrews?,” I interjected.
“I believe he did,” David replied, “but even if he didn’t, the author of Hebrews was using a similar technique to Paul in composing that letter.”
David concluded his story of discovery by saying, “The most complex pairing to work out was of Romans & Leviticus. So I didn’t finish until 2012.”
“So these six discoveries were all made between 2008 and 2012?” I asked.
“Yes.”
“Is this your speaking topic tonight?”
“Yes,” David replied, “but I’m not going to talk about the process of discovering them. Instead, I want to focus on some of the gold nuggets that have come from them especially from the pairing of Genesis and Hebrews.”
That evening, in the Old City of Jerusalem, both David and I were scheduled to speak. It was the Feast of Succot in 2015, and much of the excitement at the conference was centered on the Blood Moons and their implications. In fact, Gidon Ariel and I had just released a book called Israel FIRST! About the Blood Moons, Shemitah, Jubilee, and Promises to Israel.
I spoke first, and the audience was clearly energized and attentive.
When David’s turn came, however, I began to wonder if I had drained some of the energy from the room. Then I worried that a few of the nuggets David was sharing might be going over people’s heads. From where I was sitting, the only two people I could see
following him closely were myself and Christian leader Christine Darg, the conference organizer. Her ministry, Exploits, was hosting the entire “Movable Feast of Tabernacles” event—and each evening we gathered at a different location within the Old City.
As David finished speaking, I felt a knot in my stomach. Something wasn’t wrong, exactly—but something was needed.
I stood up and hurried over, catching Christine just before she stepped onto the podium. I asked if I might be able to say a few words. The look on her face was unmistakably surprised, but she must have sensed my good intentions. She smiled and said yes.
So there I was, standing at the front of the room, when the words suddenly burst out of me:
“Hi everyone, I’d like to say something. I know that many of you were interested in my talk about the Blood Moons, but I feel I need to put David’s talk into the proper context. I had the chance to meet with David earlier this afternoon and hear the story of his discoveries, one by one. And I just want to say to you that if what he is saying is true—and I’m not claiming it is true, because I haven’t studied it—but if what he is saying IS TRUE—then David has just made the most important biblical discovery since the Dead Sea Scrolls. And if it IS TRUE, it makes my talk look like child’s play. Thank you.”
And then I went back to my seat.
It didn’t take long for me to realize that I would need to study this for myself.
In the annual reading cycle of the Jewish people, the Feast of Sukkot concludes with Simchat Torah—the holiday when Deuteronomy is finished and the book of Genesis begins again. So for the next three months, as I read Genesis, I studied David’s notes on Hebrews. When I moved on to Exodus, I studied his notes on Galatians. And after a final three months working through Leviticus alongside Romans, I contacted David and told him, “OK, I’m convinced—it’s real.”
But I didn’t stop there.
Week after week, as I read the Torah portion along with the Jewish people, I continued studying David’s discoveries. I spent hours going through the Greek word pairings between 2 Timothy & Numbers, and 1 Timothy & Deuteronomy.
In 2018, circumstances came together for me to interview David on camera for Root Source, and Gidon graciously allowed me to help David launch his discoveries to thousands of people through that platform. The second half of that video explores some of the gold nuggets David uncovered.
For five years, I continued studying these discoveries, and I found myself getting to know Paul in a way I had never expected. Along the way, I began to develop a technique of my own for pairing Paul’s verses with Old Testament books using thematic resonance. I also discovered something interesting: Paul’s topics never crossed a Torah-portion boundary.
And then, in 2020—after five years of studying David’s discoveries week by week, alongside the Torah portion—a new thought came to me.
It was a very old thought.
A very old word from God.
But I was seeing it in a completely new way.
I’m going to share that thought first thing next week in what I expect will be the concluding segment of this series.
Want to join the treasure hunt???
Want to guess what my new idea was???
(HINT: You already have enough information in this three-part series to discover my new thought. It’s not very complicated—but it took five years to think of it! If you want the joy of your own discovery—the same one I made—all you have to do is reread the series and make a guess. Jot down your notes, and I’ll see you next week!)
TO BE CONCLUDED NEXT WEEK!
The Echoes Bible Foundation has just launched the first three volumes of The Echoes Bible on Amazon for just $6.99 each.
Leviticus & Romans (Vol. III)
Numbers & 1 Corinthians (Vol. IV)
Deuteronomy & 2 Corinthians (Vol. V)
For learn more go to https://echoesbible.org/ and https://echoesbible.com/
Bob O’Dell is an entrepreneur-turned-writer, a pro-Israel Christian who has been working with Israeli Jews since 1988, and with Gidon Ariel since 2014. Bob is President of the Echoes Bible Foundation, a non-profit ministry dedicated to the discovery, dissemination, education and application of literary connections between the inspired books of the Bible. He has authored or co-authored multiple books including Five Years with Orthodox Jews, The LIST: Persecution of Jews by Christians Throughout History, Forty Days of Repentance, Jubilee Now, and Israel FIRST!