By STACY LIBERATORE, US SCIENCE & TECHNOLOGY EDITOR
Centuries before his birth, the Old Testament foretold hundreds of prophecies about Jesus, every single one fulfilled according to the New Testament.
These predictions have long raised questions among scholars and scientists about how one person could accidentally match so many specific details.
Mathematician Peter W Stoner tackled this question in his 1960 book Science Speaks, calculating the odds of a single first-century individual fulfilling just 48 of these prophecies by chance.
The result was staggering: one in 10 followed by 157 zeros, a number so vast it far exceeds the total number of electrons in the observable universe.
To make the math easier to grasp, Stoner began with eight key prophecies, including being born in Bethlehem, descending from David, and performing miracles.
Using simple probability, multiplying the chance of each prophecy occurring randomly, he found that even fulfilling these eight by accident alone is about one in 100 million.
Extending the calculation to all 48 prophecies, the odds shrank to levels almost impossible to imagine. Stoner illustrated this with a real-world analogy, as covering the state of Texas two feet deep with silver dollars, mark one coin, and try to pick that coin blindfolded, a feat roughly as likely as one person fulfilling all eight prophecies by chance.
In 2025, researchers Will Best and Robin Lovgren from Belmont University revisited Stoner’s work, confirming that even under very conservative assumptions, the probability of a single individual fulfilling these prophecies by chance is ‘staggeringly low.’
They added that this analysis ‘highlights the remarkable alignment between the predicted characteristics and the historical record of Jesus’ life, death, and resurrection.’