I would like to draw attention to the following fine Wayne
Jackson article. Should Christians get involved in real or
imagined Bible codes?.....or should we concentrate on better
understanding the clearly written Word of God
itself?
Robin A. Brace, 2002.
THOSE BOGUS "BIBLE CODES"
By Wayne Jackson
Christian Courier: Feature
Saturday, June 1, 2002
Description
In recent years much publicity has been given to certain
“Bible codes” that are reputed to predict future
events. Some even claim that these codes are evidence for the
divine origin of the Scriptures. What are the facts? Wayne
Jackson addresses this in this month's Feature article.
The idea that certain pieces of literature are characterized by
numerical codes that smuggle important messages to those who are
able to decipher them, has roots that reach far back into
antiquity. Within the past few years, interest in this issue has
emerged again – with considerable sensationalism.
Ancient Theories
At ancient Khorsabad, a wall was supposed to have been
constructed according to the numerical value of the name of
Sargon the king.
Generally, the mystical use of numbers is traced to the Greek
mathematician, Pythagoras (c. 569-500 B.C.), who founded a cult
based upon the idea than numbers were basic to nature, and that
any phenomenon could be explained in terms of numbers (see John
J. Davis, Biblical Numerology, Baker, 1968, pp. 125ff).
There may be a reflection of this ideology in the Jewish
apocryphal book, The Wisdom of Solomon, written by an unknown
Alexandrian Jew in the late 2nd century B.C. (or later). A
passage in that work states that God “by measure and number
and weight” ordered all things (11:20).
Certain ancient Jewish writers attempted “exegetical
wizardry” by the mystical use of numbers. For example in
the Hebrew Talmud (B. Shabbat 70a), Nathan interprets the
statement “these are the words” (in Exodus 35:1) in
the following fashion. The Hebrew is eleh haDebarim, which is
supposed to signify thirty-nine different categories of work
forbidden on the Sabbath. “Thirty-nine” is derived
“from the numerical equivalent of eleh – thirty-six
– plus two for the plural form debarim and one more for the
definite article ba” (Jacob Neusner, William S. Green,
Dictionary of Judaism in the Biblical Period, Hendrickson, 1996,
p. 245). The absurdity of such a procedure is evident on the very
face of it.
In the post-apostolic age, some of the “Church
Fathers” were mesmerized by the mystical use of numbers.
Others, however, opposed such speculations as a fanatical
misappropriation of the sacred text (see Irenaeus - c. A,D,
130-200, Against Heresies, II.XXIV).
In Medieval times theologians began to imagine that they had
discovered symbolic meanings in numbers. And while there is some
basis to believe that occasionally numbers are used as symbols
(e.g., “seven” in the book of Revelation), the
mystical numerologists went much too far with their baseless
views.
The Modern Resurgence
Within the last decade, highly publicized claims about mysterious
numerical codes, hidden within the Bible texts, have heightened
curiosity concerning this topic.
In the early 1990’s, some Israeli mathematicians contended
they had discovered certain “letter codes” in the
Pentateuch (the first five books of the Old Testament).
Exploiting these claims, Michael Drosnin, a popular journalist
(formerly affiliated with The Washington Post and The Wall Street
Journal, produced a book that was titled, The Bible Code (Simon
& Schuster, 1997). This volume quickly made the best-seller
lists. The publisher boasted: “For three thousand years a
code in the Bible has remained hidden. Now it has been unlocked
by computer – and it may reveal our future.”
The following year, Grant Jeffrey, a popular “prophet of
hysteria” of the “millennial-mania” community
(who holds an “honorary doctorate” from Louisiana
Baptist Theological Seminary), published a volume called, The
Mysterious Bible Codes (Word, 1998), which made equally
outrageous claims. Significantly, though, Jeffrey dismissed
Drosnin’s efforts as not representative of
“legitimate Bible Code research” – though his
own procedure is as bizarre as his competitor’s, and they
utilize some of the same ridiculous examples for
“proofs.”
As mentioned above, Drosnin’s work alleges that secret Old
Testament messages, hidden for centuries, have now been unlocked
by means of computer technology. The “discovery” was
touted as a phenomenon that “may change the world.”
Supposedly, these obscured messages were prophetic in nature,
foretelling such events as World War II, the Holocaust, the
bombing of Hiroshima, and the exploration of the Moon. Reputedly,
the assassinations of John F. and Robert Kennedy, the Watergate
scandal, the Oklahoma City bombing, the exact date of the
beginning of the Gulf War, and the assassination of
Israel’s Prime Minister, Yitzhak Rabin also have been
“decoded.” (See Note below.)
The Methods Employed
Oddly, in order to find these coded messages, one must go here
and there in the books of the Torah (Law), making a “skip
search” to assemble the coded words. A “skip
search” attempts to frame terms by looking at sequential
letter-occurrences, e.g., every 10th letter, 20th letter, 3,000th
letter, etc., until a pattern seems to appear. The sequence can
go forwards, backwards, up or down – even diagonally
– in the computer-generated text, until the coveted
“match” is located.
For example, the message about the great “economic
collapse” of “1929,” it is said, must be
located in the records of both Exodus and Deuteronomy, while
“Holocaust,” “Japan,” and
“1945” must be assembled from the books of Numbers
and Deuteronomy.
Jeffrey’s work expands upon Drosnin’s, supposedly
unraveling messages that are “encrypted” in both the
Old and New Testaments, and involving an even greater variety of
prophetic names and events.
For instance, in connection with the Gulf War, coded messages in
Genesis and Numbers reputedly contain the names George Bush,
Norman Schwarzkopf, and even Peter Arnet, the CNN reporter!
Allegedly, there are other detailed prophecies, including such
events as the Oklahoma City bombing, and the death of Princess
Diana!
Consider, for example, Jeffrey’s claim about the Oklahoma
City bombing. He asserts that by sequencing certain letters in
the context that begins in Genesis 34:18, and continues through
44:4, one can locate the following encoded words.
“Oklahoma” and “terror” are in (35:5);
“Murrrah” – the name of the Federal building is
in (36:8), while “building” is in (36:24).
“Slaughtered” and “death” are in (35:7).
The name “Timothy” is (44:4), while
“McVeigh” is back at (34:21). Then “day
19” is found at (32:13), while “ninth hour” is
in (34:18). The phrase, “in the morning” comes two
chapters later (36:10).
The only surprise is that one doesn’t find Timothy
McVeigh’s Social Security number, or phone number, in the
prophetic-mix!
Jeffrey argues that these are evidences of the divine origin of
the Bible. Yet, disagreeing with Drosnin, he affirms that one
cannot discover these “prophecies” to see into the
future; he can only decode them after the fact! That is directly
the opposite of the biblical position. The prophet Isaiah
challenged the pagans of his day:
“Declare the things that are to come hereafter, that we may
know that you are gods” (Isa. 41:23).
Such outlandish claims are more inclined to produce infidels than
believers! The Scriptures do not need this sort of
“hocus-pocus” apologetics for verification.
Responses to the “Code” Claims
Responses to these fabulous claims have been swift and
devastating. For example, some of the world’s foremost
mathematicians have disputed Drosnin’s theory (and, by
implication, Jeffrey’s as well). One document, signed by 55
scholars, all of whom hold the Ph.D. degree, states:
“There is a common belief in the general community to the
effect that many mathematicians, statisticians, and other
scientists consider the claims [of Drosnin and the Israeli
scholars upon whom he relied] to be credible. This belief is
incorrect. On the contrary, the almost unanimous opinion of those
in the scientific world who have studied the question is that the
theory is without foundation” (See: Mathematicians’
Statement on the Bible Codes).
Critics of the “Bible Code” theories point out that
if one has a substantially lengthy text, and he does enough
computer searches, if he can go anywhere in any direction in the
text, he can “find anything.” Professor Don Foster of
Vassar College, who specializes in using computers to analyze
ancient texts, says that code searchers, employing the same
techniques, could secure the identical results from “a
telephone directory” (John Barry and Adam Rogers,
“Seek and Ye Shall Find,” Newsweek, June 9, 1997, p.
66).
In 1997, in defense of his methodology, Drosnin issued this
challenge: “When my critics find a message about the
assassination of a prime minister encrypted in ‘Moby
Dick’ I’ll believe them” (Barry/Rogers, p.
67).
Be careful about making rash challenges!
Professor Brendan McKay, of the Department of Computer Science at
Australian National University, accepted Drosnin’s
challenge. Running computer searches similar to those employed by
Drosnin, he scanned the text of Moby Dick. By the Drosnin/Jeffrey
method, he was able to construct “prophetic” messages
foretelling the deaths of Abraham Lincoln, Indira Gandhi, Rene
Moawad, Leon Trotsky, Martin Luther King, Sirhan Sirhan, John F.
Kennedy, and Princess Diana! Must one now conclude that Moby Dick
was inspired of God by means of the pen of Herman Melville?
McKay even found a “prophetic” utterance of the
future grotesque murder of Michael Drosnin himself! See The
Demise of Drosnin on McKay’s web site.
So much for Drosnin’s arrogant challenge, and for Grant
Jeffrey’s boast that this coding business reflects the
“signature of God.” Incidentally, Jeffrey’s
book originally sold for $21.99; now the volume has been dumped
on the market by Christian Book Distributors for $4.99.
For a kindly but devastating critique of Jeffrey’s work,
see the book, Who Wrote The Bible Code?, by Randall Ingermanson,
Ph.D., (Waterbrook, 1999). Dr. Randall suggested that
Jeffrey’s “scholarship” was very sloppy; he ran
his own “code” checks on three Greek texts of the New
Testament (the Textus Receptus, the Byzantine Textform, and
Nestle’s Twenty-sixth edition), and “found no
evidence of a Bible code in the New Testament.”
Conclusion
These weird “code” theories bear no relation to the
valid evidence found in genuine biblical prophecy. When God
wanted to reveal who would issue the decree, releasing Israel
from Babylonian captivity, he called Cyrus by name – some
three centuries before the monarch’s birth (Isa. 44:28
– 45:1). He did not need to “encode” the
message.
(This article authored by Wayne Jackson comes from the
CHRISTIAN
COURIER.COM website, and is their property).
The reader may also wish to read:
THE
BIBLE CODE - REAL OR NOT?
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