Cypher Numbers
In the movie Cypher, the hero is secretly given a phone number by being told a reference to a Bible verse. To dial the number he simply has to enter the first letter of each word in the verse using the letter keys on a phone. The verse was Job 13:17
Hear diligently my speech, and my declaration with your ears.
This gives the 10-digit number 4367263993.
Of course each Bible verse gives a number. You can try entering the first letter of each word of a verse into your mobile phone and look at the number that appears on the screen. We'll call such a number a Cypher number. Some of these numbers will be prime numbers, Cypher primes. Which is the largest Cypher prime?
Largest Cypher Prime
For the English King James version, a search found the verse 15:18 in 1 Kings:
Then Asa took all the silver and the gold that were left in the treasures of the house of the LORD, and the treasures of the king's house, and delivered them into the hand of his servants: and king Asa sent them to Benhadad, the son of Tabrimon, the son of Hezion, king of Syria, that dwelt at Damascus, saying,
The corresponding 60-digit Cypher number for this verse is
828287284895488684685288685423848464725278828768876456783237
This is a prime number, and the largest Cypher prime in the English King James bible.
Smallest Cypher Prime
The classic sentence Jesus wept (John 11:35) gives the number 59, the smallest Cypher prime in the English King James bible.
Largest Cypher Number
The largest Cypher number (corresponding to the verse with the most words) comes from Esther 8:9
Then were the king's scribes called at that time in the third month, that is, the month Sivan, on the three and twentieth day thereof; and it was written according to all that Mordecai commanded unto the Jews, and to the lieutenants, and the deputies and rulers of the provinces which are from India unto Ethiopia, an hundred twenty and seven provinces, unto every province according to the writing thereof, and unto every people after their language, and to the Jews according to their writing, and according to their language.
The resulting 90-digit number
is clearly not a prime (since it it divisible by 5). It's full prime factorization is
5 × 337 × 1663 × 1164363394136078458876459 × 275405318700074019975206396096879916970070799632673496031213
Note that the original Cypher number, 4367263993, is not a Cypher prime since 4367263993 = 3793 × 1151401.
Note that there are actually different standards around the world for the arrangement of letters on telephone key pads. We have used the International Standard for this work.