»License Plates«

Nobody seemed to have reported Trinity's motorcycle plate PS356.

Psalm 3: 5-6
I lie down and sleep;
I wake again, because the LORD sustains me.
I will not fear the tens of thousands
drawn up against me on every side.

Keep in mind how Trinity died: lying down. And how Neo reawakens her.

This is taken from Suzanne Buljan's [graphic designer for the Matrix sequels] interview from the official matrix website,

MATRIX: Where do the numbers on the plates come from?

SUZANNE: They’re all biblical passages. Trinity’s motorcycle plate PS356 is psalm 3 dot 5 point 6 from the Bible.

Now THAT is clever! How smart are they, and detail oriented!

I have a suggestion on the license plate TC123 seen on the big black "gangster car" seen in Merv's garage right after Morpheus shoots at the Twin that's holding Trinity, and Trinity releases herself and is standing besides Morpheus. Right there <freeze>, and you'll see the plate.

From the New Testament Apocrypha there is the Book of Thomas the Contender, sometimes abbreviated ThomCont, which maybe what "TC" stands for. The "123" is trickier. I haven't found that ThomCont is partitioned in any regular way into chapters and verses, but the text is divided into the regular academic way into the original page number and line number that reflects its place in the original book, from line 1 on page 138, to line 23 on page 145.

So there are different possibilities of deciphering "123" :
page 1, line 2-3,
page 1, line 23
line 123
page 12, line 3
page 123

The last two are non-existent. The text on line 23 page 1 doesn't make much sense, and not line 123 either. The text on lines 2-3 page 1 were interesting, but then "123" could just of well mean line 1, 2, and 3, which is:

Quote:

The secret words that the savior spoke to Judas Thomas which I, even I, Mathaias, wrote down, while I was walking, listening to them speak ...

Remember: Neo's Matrix name is Thomas Anderson. Mathaias (Matthew most probably) overheard the conversation between Christ and Thomas and wrote down what he heard. Well these were actually "secret words", and that's what the Merv & Co were mainly doing: information trafficers, handling secret information. They most probably knew what was going on between Morpheus, Trinity, and Neo: they had certainly bugged their conversations.

And yes truely, Thomas (aka Neo) was The Real Contender!

I believe ThomCont is considered "half-gnostic". Here is the continuation, the first paragraphs:

Quote:

The secret words that the savior spoke to Judas Thomas which I, even I, Mathaias, wrote down, while I was walking, listening to them speak with one another. The savior said, "Brother Thomas while you have time in the world, listen to me, and I will reveal to you the things you have pondered in your mind. "Now, since it has been said that you are my twin and true companion, examine yourself, and learn who you are, in what way you exist, and how you will come to be. Since you will be called my brother, it is not fitting that you be ignorant of yourself. And I know that you have understood, because you had already understood that I am the knowledge of the truth. So while you accompany me, although you are uncomprehending, you have (in fact) already come to know, and you will be called 'the one who knows himself'. For he who has not known himself has known nothing, but he who has known himself has at the same time already achieved knowledge about the depth of the all. So then, you, my brother Thomas, have beheld what is obscure to men, that is, what they ignorantly stumble against."

Don't you get those Matrix vibes reading this!

/z

Amazing post zynxamek. I get more than just Matrix vibes reading that, it seems a great illustration of Merv and Neo. I'm not entirely convinced it was intentional by the Brothers, but still a great find nonetheless.

ypersist wrote:

Nobody seemed to have reported Trinity's motorcycle plate PS356. Psalm 3: 5-6 I lie down and sleep; I wake again, because the LORD sustains me. I will not fear the tens of thousands drawn up against me on every side. Keep in mind how Trinity died: lying down. And how Neo reawakens her. This is taken from Suzanne Buljan's [graphic designer for the Matrix sequels] interview from the official matrix website, MATRIX: Where do the numbers on the plates come from? SUZANNE: They’re all biblical passages. Trinity’s motorcycle plate PS356 is psalm 3 dot 5 point 6 from the Bible.

Quote:

I will not fear the tens of thousands drawn up against me on every side.

sounds like the smiths in the super burly brawl...remember neo realizes what he must finally do from trinity's death....obtain peace

I tend to agree that the license plate thing is not so much symbolic as it is a sort of 'easter egg' for us who have the obsession. It's fun.

I also want to point out just how many different versions, translations, publications, and collections of Biblical books there are.... To point to a page number is really stretching the limits of credibility.

The Wachowskis definitely used Christian symbolism; I think that is clear. However, the only religion they admit to taking from in interviews is Buddhism. Since Buddhism is pretty much gnostic ('knowing') in nature, it has more in common with Christian Gnosticism, and therefore, there is likely to be a lot of THAT influence, moreso than the literalist orthodoxy we've all come to know and loathe -- love, I meant love. Many scholars now think that the Gnostics were actually the first Christians, but we won't get into that.

I just checked, and I definitely see BO231 on the Firebird. ...However, it could read B0231 (zero instead of 'o'). Either way, I can't find anything in any Christian or Jewish text, nor anything in the Qur'an, to correlate.

The only think I can come up with is that maybe BO231 is a sort of twisted ('hacker') anagram for 'Niobe':

21OB3 (rotate the '2' 90 degrees for 'N'; rotate the '3' 180 degrees for 'E').

there are dozens of other license plates. I don't have any idea what 'CL002' (the car Niobe hits after the Agent's truck hits her) or 'BC042' (the Agent's truck) could be, either. Some are probably as random as plates in our own world.

annaerullo:

Quote:

To point to a page number is really stretching the limits of credibility.

I would totally agree to that, ....though in the case of such documents like Thomas the Contender there are no chapters and verses to refer to, as
far as I know of. The pages refered to are the pages in the original archeological codex or book that they found in Egypt together with the rest of the Nag Hammadi library. And likewise the line number is the actual lines on the original codex pages. That's the way scholars would reference passages from the book if there are no conventional chapter-and-verse system in place. ...And that would be the only way anyone else on the film team would be able to reference from a work like Thomas the Contender.

(The Dead Sea Scrolls I possess is partitioned in a likewise manner beginning with cave# !).

(Gospel of Thomas is more widely spread and widely commented, so there's been a chapter-and-verse system for some time for that gospel. There are similar systems used for the Gospel of Philip and the Gospel of Truth, thought not as standardized...)

So page+line is "chapter&verse" if there are no standardized chapter-and-verses to refer to...

Just wanted to point that out...
cheers!
/z

I liked that twisted "hacker" anagram, annaerullo, on Niobe's Firebird. Feels very Niobe-esque !

Hello.

I know it's a bit out of topic, but it also carries references to the bible - in this case to several parts of the MARK gospell. These are the plaques of the overcrafts from within the trilogy:

Neb - Mark III, 11 - 2069

Osíris - Mark VI, 16 - 2079

Logos - Mark XIV, 14 - 2101

Vigilant - Mark XIII, 32 - 2106

Mjolnir - Mark XIV, 62 - 2111

Another one:

It was hidden in the comic - "Hunters and colectors"

It's the plaque of a ship called "Pequod":

Pequod - Mark III, 9 - date - 2026

Hope this may help...

The car that carries Neo, Trin and Morph in both M1 and M3:

AA032

Some inspiring thoughts?

I thought it could be from the Acts of the Apostols - but it's quoted as "Act" in the bible, so...

As, I'm Portuguese, I would thank for someone to put the respective quotes from the bible in English (if I try to translate them I'll do a messy work );

If you may help a bit more and give the quotes from the plaques of the Overcrafts?...

Sorry, I've made a mistake with the plaque from the car I refered in the last post:

It's not AA032 but AA034.

It's the bad thing of using memory - It's tricky

lucida, "Acts" is an abbreviation for "The Acts of the Apostles", so "AA" is quite appropriate!

The zero in "AA034" seems redundant, but if you take it backwards you get "430AA" which could stand for Acts 4:30:

Quote:

"...by stretching out Your hand to heal, and that signs and wonders may be done through the name of Your holy Servant Jesus." [NKJV]

It's part of a prayer to God for Him to stretch out his hand. Neo surely stretches out his hand several times: stopping bullets, healing Trinity, stopping the sentinels in M2 and M3. Any connection?

/z

... someone could post the quotes from the gospell of Mark, as we see them in the overcrafts plaques.

I remember the one in the Neb talked about the demons scared with HIM, falling under HIS feet, recognizing he was the son of God...

This could be refering to Neo...

And I remember the one of the Osíris was a refference to Herod, admiting that maybe Jesus was the reincarnation of Jonh the Baptist - this could be a refference to Morph...

DA203 (Morph,Trin...) - Book of Daniel 2:3 (question)
BD224 (Black car, shot up) - Book of Daniel 2:24 (answer) (Daniel 2:24 - 2:45)

BO231 (Niobe, Ghost) - Book of Hosea 2-3:1 (2:1 - 3:1)
(in polish Hosea is Ozeasz)

-----------------------------------------------------------------------
===BO231==
002:001 Say ye unto your brethren, Ammi; and to your sisters, Ruhamah.

002:002 Plead with your mother, plead: for she is not my wife, neither
am I her husband: let her therefore put away her whoredoms out
of her sight, and her adulteries from between her breasts;

{"Neo: What is it between them?
Trinity: Morpheus and Lock? Niobe.
Neo: Captain Niobe?
Trinity: She used to be with Morpheus. Now she's with Lock.
Neo: What happened?
Trinity: Morpheus went to the Oracle. After that everything changed.
Neo: Yeah, she can do that".}

002:003 Lest I strip her naked, and set her as in the day that she was
born, and make her as a wilderness, and set her like a dry
land, and slay her with thirst.

002:004 And I will not have mercy upon her children; for they be the
children of whoredoms.

{in mithology Niobe had 14 children;
in matrix is probably 14 hovercrafts:
"Niobe: Bye, baby. Take good care of them." (about Logos)
"Niobe: Easy, baby." (about Hammer)
"Niobe: Come on, baby." (about Hammer)}

002:005 For their mother hath played the harlot: she that conceived
them hath done shamefully: for she said, I will go after my
lovers, that give me my bread and my water, my wool and my
flax, mine oil and my drink.

002:006 Therefore, behold, I will hedge up thy way with thorns, and
make a wall, that she shall not find her paths.

002:007 And she shall follow after her lovers, but she shall not
overtake them; and she shall seek them, but shall not find
them: then shall she say, I will go and return to my first
husband; for then was it better with me than now.

002:008 For she did not know that I gave her corn, and wine, and oil,
and multiplied her silver and gold, which they prepared for
Baal.

002:009 Therefore will I return, and take away my corn in the time
thereof, and my wine in the season thereof, and will recover
my wool and my flax given to cover her nakedness.

002:010 And now will I discover her lewdness in the sight of her
lovers, and none shall deliver her out of mine hand.

002:011 I will also cause all her mirth to cease, her feast days, her
new moons, and her sabbaths, and all her solemn feasts.

002:012 And I will destroy her vines and her fig trees, whereof she
hath said, These are my rewards that my lovers have given me:
and I will make them a forest, and the beasts of the field
shall eat them.

002:013 And I will visit upon her the days of Baalim, wherein she
burned incense to them, and she decked herself with her
earrings and her jewels, and she went after her lovers, and
forgat me, saith the LORD.

002:014 Therefore, behold, I will allure her, and bring her into the
wilderness, and speak comfortably unto her.

002:015 And I will give her her vineyards from thence, and the valley
of Achor for a door of hope: and she shall sing there, as in
the days of her youth, and as in the day when she came up out
of the land of Egypt.

002:016 And it shall be at that day, saith the LORD, that thou shalt
call me Ishi; and shalt call me no more Baali.

002:017 For I will take away the names of Baalim out of her mouth, and
they shall no more be remembered by their name.

002:018 And in that day will I make a covenant for them with the
beasts of the field and with the fowls of heaven, and with the
creeping things of the ground: and I will break the bow and
the sword and the battle out of the earth, and will make them
to lie down safely.

002:019 And I will betroth thee unto me for ever; yea, I will betroth
thee unto me in righteousness, and in judgment, and in
lovingkindness, and in mercies.

002:020 I will even betroth thee unto me in faithfulness: and thou
shalt know the LORD.

002:021 And it shall come to pass in that day, I will hear, saith the
LORD, I will hear the heavens, and they shall hear the earth;

002:022 And the earth shall hear the corn, and the wine, and the oil;
and they shall hear Jezreel.

002:023 And I will sow her unto me in the earth; and I will have mercy
upon her that had not obtained mercy; and I will say to them
which were not my people, Thou art my people; and they shall
say, Thou art my God.

003:001 Then said the LORD unto me, Go yet, love a woman beloved of
her friend, yet an adulteress, according to the love of the
LORD toward the children of Israel, who look to other gods,
and love flagons of wine.

--------------------------------------------------------------------
Polish Matrix Forum
fantasyworld.pl... (the wingless = qbiter)

DA203 (Morph,Trin...) - Book of Daniel 2:3 (question)
BD224 (Black car, shot up) - Book of Daniel 2:24 (answer) (Daniel 2:24 - 2:45)

---------------------------------------------------------------------
===DA203===
002:003 And the king said unto them, I have dreamed a dream, and my
spirit was troubled to know the dream.

{Nabuchadnezzar's dream}

----------------------------------------------------------------------
===BD224===
002:024 Therefore Daniel went in unto Arioch, whom the king had
ordained to destroy the wise men of Babylon: he went and said
thus unto him; Destroy not the wise men of Babylon: bring me
in before the king, and I will shew unto the king the
interpretation.

002:025 Then Arioch brought in Daniel before the king in haste, and
said thus unto him, I have found a man of the captives of
Judah, that will make known unto the king the interpretation.

002:026 The king answered and said to Daniel, whose name was
Belteshazzar, Art thou able to make known unto me the dream
which I have seen, and the interpretation thereof?

002:027 Daniel answered in the presence of the king, and said, The
secret which the king hath demanded cannot the wise men, the
astrologers, the magicians, the soothsayers, shew unto the
king;

002:028 But there is a God in heaven that revealeth secrets, and
maketh known to the king Nebuchadnezzar what shall be in the
latter days. Thy dream, and the visions of thy head upon thy
bed, are these;

002:029 As for thee, O king, thy thoughts came into thy mind upon thy
bed, what should come to pass hereafter: and he that revealeth
secrets maketh known to thee what shall come to pass.

002:030 But as for me, this secret is not revealed to me for any
wisdom that I have more than any living, but for their sakes
that shall make known the interpretation to the king, and that
thou mightest know the thoughts of thy heart.

002:031 Thou, O king, sawest, and behold a great image. This great
image, whose brightness was excellent, stood before thee; and
the form thereof was terrible.

002:032 This image's head was of fine gold, his breast and his arms of
silver, his belly and his thighs of brass,

002:033 His legs of iron, his feet part of iron and part of clay.

002:034 Thou sawest till that a stone was cut out without hands, which
smote the image upon his feet that were of iron and clay, and
brake them to pieces.

002:035 Then was the iron, the clay, the brass, the silver, and the
gold, broken to pieces together, and became like the chaff of
the summer threshingfloors; and the wind carried them away,
that no place was found for them: and the stone that smote the
image became a great mountain, and filled the whole earth.

002:036 This is the dream; and we will tell the interpretation thereof
before the king.

002:037 Thou, O king, art a king of kings: for the God of heaven hath
given thee a kingdom, power, and strength, and glory.

002:038 And wheresoever the children of men dwell, the beasts of the
field and the fowls of the heaven hath he given into thine
hand, and hath made thee ruler over them all. Thou art this
head of gold.

002:039 And after thee shall arise another kingdom inferior to thee,
and another third kingdom of brass, which shall bear rule over
all the earth.

002:040 And the fourth kingdom shall be strong as iron: forasmuch as
iron breaketh in pieces and subdueth all things: and as iron
that breaketh all these, shall it break in pieces and bruise.

002:041 And whereas thou sawest the feet and toes, part of potters'
clay, and part of iron, the kingdom shall be divided; but
there shall be in it of the strength of the iron, forasmuch as
thou sawest the iron mixed with miry clay.

002:042 And as the toes of the feet were part of iron, and part of
clay, so the kingdom shall be partly strong, and partly
broken.

002:043 And whereas thou sawest iron mixed with miry clay, they shall
mingle themselves with the seed of men: but they shall not
cleave one to another, even as iron is not mixed with clay.

{Nabuchadnezzar's kingdom = perfect matrix (ver. 1.0)
"another kingdom inferior to thee" = second matrix (ver .2.0) (Architect:"...I redesigned it based on your history...")
"third kingdom of brass" = (versions from 3.1 to 3.7) (majority of the trilogy = 3.6, end of Revo = 3.7)
"the fourth kingdom" = (iron = machine, clay = human)}

002:044 And in the days of these kings shall the God of heaven set up
a kingdom, which shall never be destroyed: and the kingdom
shall not be left to other people, but it shall break in
pieces and consume all these kingdoms, and it shall stand for
ever.

002:045 Forasmuch as thou sawest that the stone was cut out of the
mountain without hands, and that it brake in pieces the iron,
the brass, the clay, the silver, and the gold; the great God
hath made known to the king what shall come to pass hereafter:
and the dream is certain, and the interpretation thereof sure.

Whoa!

Friend wingless (may I call you Seraph?...), your post is very well written, has lots of good points and some light upon this subject. Tells us about the complex thread of the matrix trilogy and gives a bit of support to us - crazy researchers - searching within the Matrix for some answers...

Thanks a lot!

zynxamek wrote:

lucida, "Acts" is an abbreviation for "The Acts of the Apostles", so "AA" is quite appropriate! The zero in "AA034" seems redundant, but if you take it backwards you get "430AA" which could stand for Acts 4:30: Quote: "...by stretching out Your hand to heal, and that signs and wonders may be done through the name of Your holy Servant Jesus." [NKJV] /z

could this not be a referance to the way that they always travel in that one car, the three of them together, each time going to see the orical before they start to fight again.