BIBLE
DIGEST - Number 92 February
1999
THE BIBLE CODES
(Nostradamus with a Computer)
By Allon Maxwell
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This paper is
prompted by the flurry of recent publicity about claims that “computer
research” has discovered “Hidden Codes” in the Hebrew text of the Bible. According to
ancient Jewish tradition The Torah can be read at many levels. This was
thought to include the possibility that there might be “hidden text”. In the
late 1950s, Rabbi Michael Weissmandel used manual
methods to search for words spelled out by skipping equal numbers of letters
through the original Hebrew text. Weissmandel is
credited with naming the phenomenon as “Equidistant Letter Sequences” (ELS). In 1986, the
Jewish academic, Doron Witztum developed a method to check whether such ELS
could be scientifically evaluated. He was joined in the project by Eliyahu
Rips and Yoav Rosenberg. Rips created a mathematical system for measuring the
statistical significance of the results, and Rosenburg developed a computer
program to carry out the work. A paper
entitled “Equidistant Letter Sequences in the Book of Genesis", jointly
authored by Witztum, Rips and Rosenberg, was published in the journal
“Statistical Science”, in 1994.(1)
(Not for the average reader!) Since that
time, others have “extrapolated” from the original work to make the
extravagant claim that the so called “hidden codes” were deliberately put
there by God, and that they “prove” the authenticity of the Bible as the Word
of God. Others go even further to claim that the “codes” enable the future to
be predicted! Books have been
written (movie rights for one book have been sold); several commercial
computer programs are now available to do your own “research”; and a mass of
information has appeared on the Internet, arguing the claims, pro and con. This paper
summarises some of the available information and attempts to arrive at a
reasonable Biblical conclusion about the ELS phenomenon. NOTHING NEW UNDER
THE SUN! “There is no new thing under the sun. Is there anything
whereof it may be said, See, this is new? it hath been already of old time,
which was before us.” (Ecclesiastes
1:9-10) The wise man
was right! Truly, there is nothing new under the sun! Not even the supposed
recent discovery of “Hidden Codes” in the Torah. Around 300
years ago, the famous scientist, Sir Isaac Newton was amongst those who were
fascinated by the belief that the Bible contains some type of secret code. In the last
decade of the 19th century, the Russian, Ivan Panin, announced that he had
discovered amazing numerical patterns in the Hebrew text of the Psalms and
the Greek text of the New Testament. Until his death
in 1942, he devoted the rest of his life to this work. It is said that he
left over 40,000 pages of notes. Although largely disregarded and discounted,
some of his work is still being published by enthusiasts. In this century
the main “pioneer work” seems to have been that of Weissmandel
(mentioned above) working without the benefit of computer technology. However the
real origin of this belief that the Torah contains encrypted messages, in the
form of ELS, appears to be the ancient practise of kabbalah. THE KABBALAH The kabbalah
dates back at least to the 12th century and possibly long before that. The
medieval practitioners of this occult form of Jewish
mysticism, believed that there were 84 coding schemes in the Torah.(2) One of these
schemes was essentially the same system of ELS used by the latest
researchers. For example, the Kabbalists had discovered that choosing every
50th letter from the first Hebrew T ("Taf” in the Hebrew alphabet) in
Genesis, would consistently reveal the word "Torah." Another of
their favourite methods was Gematria. According to the
Encyclopedia Brittanica, this is a method of deciphering the Jewish sacred
writings, which substitutes numbers for letters of the Hebrew alphabet, and
then unravels “mystical insights” or “new interpretations” from the texts. One source has
this to say about kabbalah and gematria: This whole practice of bringing out hidden
messages in the Torah is openly admitted to be a form of Kabbalah, or Jewish mysticism,
which includes liberal use of numerology through "gematria" or assigning
number values to Hebrew letters. They use the revealed information to find guidance,
uncover secrets, tell the future and open spiritual "doorways" to power. Here in Israel, Kabbala is accepted in the
Jewish community as a spiritual power tool which especially "holy" people
can harness to do all the same things done in sorcery; in spite of Biblical prohibitions
it is considered "okay" because the Scriptures or the Holy Name are
being used (but it is acknowledged that things can often "backfire"
for the uninitiated. It is also admitted that Kabbalah taps into demonic powers,
but these are simply renamed the "dark side of G-d"). Numeric exercises
aside, the source of the Torah-code business is already defiled.
(3) Another Internet
source of information about the occult, says this about gematria: Gematria
is a part of the Jewish occult system known as Qabbalah
(a different spelling for kabbalah - "tradition") and is widely used
by modern occultists - Jewish or otherwise (e.g. it is central to many rites of
freemasonry). Probably the best way to explain the word gematria is to say that
it means “Hebrew numerology ”.(4) If it is really
true that the source of this modern work on ELS, is no more than an extension
of these ancient occult arts, it would amount to using a computer for a form “divination”!
Christians especially, would want to heed the warning in Deuteronomy 18:10-12, by avoiding any involvement in practises
which God calls abomination. TWO STREAMS OF RESEARCH! There are actually
two major streams in the continuing debate about the validity of
the ELS research. There is the original work on the Torah by the
Jewish scholars, Witztum, Rips, and Rosenburg; and there is the subsequent extrapolation
(and commercial exploitation) of that work by “other” sources (some
Christian and some not). The Jewish
Stream This is
represented by the three academics Witztum, Rips, and Rosenberg, already
mentioned above. They were led to this phenomenon by Rabbi Weissmandel's work in 1958. However Weissmandel and other earlier researchers were compelled
to use laborious manual methods. It was not until the 1980s that it became
possible to apply computer methods to the ELS research. The “discovery”
made by Witztum, Rips, and Rosenberg was that “Words that are conceptually
related to each other (e.g. via an historical event) are sometimes found
encoded in close proximity to each other ”.(5) Their
initial work related to specific names of famous Rabbinic personalities
(drawn from “The Encyclopedia of Great Men in Israel”) and the dates
of their birth or death. Harold Gans later related some of those same names
to the cities of their birth.(6) The original
work was done on the book of Genesis only. Other books
of the Pentateuch were either not tested, or were tested and failed, with
the test results going unpublished . The book of Isaiah was
definitely tested and failed. (7) All three of
these researchers have said that their work proves only that
the ELS do exist. They do not draw conclusions from their work. They do not
make any claims that their work “proves” the authenticity of the Bible.
Especially, we note that both Rips and Witztum have said definitely that the
use of the codes by “others” to predict the future, is based on an invalid
use of their methodology.(8) THE “OTHER”
STREAM(S) There have been
a number of attempts by others to “expand” the work of Witztum, Rips and
Rosenberg, using much more “elastic” methods. It appears that by making the
search criteria broader and manipulating the nature of the data fed to the
computer, it is possible to produce an amazing variety of
results! Amongst those
with a fairly high profile, are Grant Jeffrey, Yacov Rambsel,
and Michael Drosnin, who have all produced books. Drosnin's “The Bible
Codes”, has become a best seller, for which the movie rights have been
purchased by Warner Brothers. Jeffrey and Rambsel are professing Christians. Drosnin is Jewish but
says in his book that he is "not religious” and does not believe in God.(9) On the basis of
this “expanded work”, various spectacular claims are being made, such as: *
The “Codes” are God's “signature”,
validating the authenticity of the Bible. *
The name of “Yeshua” (Jesus) is
embedded throughout the Bible. *
Significant past historic events
are encoded. *
The “codes” are a tool for
predicting the future. THE MERU
PROJECT This does not
appear to be as well-known as those just mentioned above. However it should
be mentioned here, if only to highlight the point that claims to find “hidden
meanings” in the bible are not as unique as some would have us believe. Meru
dates back to the early 1980s. Director (Stan
Tenen) claims to have discovered “an extraordinary and unexpected
geometric metaphor in the letter-sequence of the Hebrew text of Genesis that
underlies and is held in common by the spiritual traditions of the ancient
world ”.(10) COMPUTER
SOFTWARE A number of
commercial computer programs have made their appearance. (Wouldn't you know
it!) These are
designed to enable the layman to do his own ELS “research”. A couple of them
search the Hebrew text and require that the user should at least know the
Hebrew Alphabet. But as any Hebrew scholar can tell you, this not
a job for the amateur. Given the way words are formed and the diversity of
possible different interpretations from the same set of consonants, there be
can great danger in that for the ignorant amateur! However,
another program is designed to search The English Text
of the King James Bible. If I have understood the reports correctly, it will
also search any other English text, religious or not! i.e. Find your
own “codes” in your own favourite book! TORAH CODES IN THE
KORAN? (And “War and Peace” and “Moby Dick”!) We should not
be surprised to learn that dedicated researchers have found codes in the
Koran, based on the number 19, which some Muslims now use to “prove” its
authenticity. Other
detractors from the work of Drosnin et al, claim to have found the same
“Christian Codes” (including the name of Jesus) embedded in the Koran in the
same way as in the Bible. More perplexing
still, are the serious claims that searches in Tolstoy's “War and Peace” and
in “Moby Dick”, have also produced the same ELS as found in the Bible! It all adds up
to another big caution ..... doesn't it? THE CONTINUING
DEBATE Although many
Christians have become very excited, these claims are being
vigorously refuted by other sources. The original
Jewish researchers, and their supporters, Harold Gans, and Daniel Mechanic,
have felt it necessary to publish statements rejecting the validity of the
methods and the broader claims made by the “others” (Drosnin especially). We
have already noted above, their rebuttal of all claims that the codes may
validly be used to predict the future. One outspoken critic
is Brendan McKay, an Australian mathematician from the Australian national University.
McKay agrees with Witztum et al, that Drosnin's work is defective. However, he
also claims to have found serious flaws in the methodology of Witztum, Rips, and
Rosenburg. He has published papers to this effect, (jointly authored with Dror
Bar-Natan, Alec Gindis, and Aryeh Levitan).(11) McKay claims to have run the same
tests as Witztum et al, without success. He identifies a number of highly technical
problems with the experiment that, he says, render it meaningless. Professor
Menachem Cohen, of the Bible Department at Bar-Ilan University, Israel, has
also written an opinion letter criticising the data used in the experiment of
Witztum and Rips.(12) THE
"STATISTICAL" CLAIMS It is most
unfortunate that the so called "Laws of Probability" and
"Statistical Mathematics", have been called upon in support of the
spectacular claims by some writers. Scientists and engineers do use those
tools in their professions to assess the probable meaning of some data. For
some purposes, they can be very useful. However, we
should also be aware that this is NOT an infallible, or precise science. The
results obtained by those methods, are not always reliable, and are easily
misunderstood, or incorrectly applied by unskilled operators. It is certainly
NOT a valid use of those tools to compute "impossible odds" for
something that has already happened, and then claim that the
event is miraculous, simply because of the very high "odds"
calculated against it! It should be obvious that if it has happened, it is
not as impossible as the calculations indicate. And if an event
happens repeatedly, in spite of the "impossible" odds
calculated against it, then either the method is invalid, or the calculations
are incorrect, or the input data is flawed, or we are dealing with a natural
event to which the so called "laws of probability" do not apply at
all! THE METHOD USED The text to be
searched is first stripped of vowels and spaces between the remaining
consonants. Next the text is rearranged into blocks with a selected number of
letters in each line. Then a starting point and a "skip distance"
must be selected. (e.g. If the skip distance is 50, then only every 50th
letter from the starting point is examined) Finally a
search is conducted to see whether the "orphan" consonants found by
that method, form the desired word. The search can be conducted horizontally,
vertically, or diagonally, and if desperate, even backwards! And if the
desired combination of consonants is not found, then line length, starting
point, and skip distance are "re-adjusted", and the search is
repeated until success is achieved! It all sounds a
bit like a gambler playing with a "loaded dice". He ALWAYS gets the
desired result! Of course, one
MAJOR problem is that in Hebrew, it is not at all uncommon for the SAME
consonants to appear in DIFFERENT words. If the consonants stand in isolation
without the vowels (as they do in the method quoted above) it is impossible
to tell which word is intended. It is the same in our English language -
compare for instance "read, "road", "reed",
"rued", "rude", "rid", "ride"
"rod", "rode", "red", "Reid",
"raid", "radio", and "rad". Using the
method described, independent searches for each of those words, would produce
EXACTLY the same result, by finding the same set of consonants, in the same
place in the text! But ..... which one would we claim that God had
deliberately "encoded"? LOOKING BEYOND
THE MATHEMATICS Of course, most
of us are mere laymen in this area. We are not qualified to evaluate the
highly technical nature of the mathematical debate. We will have to leave all
that to the “academic experts”, without being able to come to our own
"expert opinion", about the pros and cons of what they are saying. But we will
take note that the several camps of “experts” are presenting us with opposite
and confusing claims about "hidden things" that cannot be supported
or confirmed by any Scripture that we can read! We do not need to be skilled
mathematicians to evaluate the worth of that! The Bible has already done it
for us! DO THE
"ELS" REALLY EXIST? True Biblical
faith is founded firmly, and exclusively, on what is plainly written in the
Bible. The existence of the ELS is not mentioned anywhere at all in the
Scriptures. That in itself sounds a warning note for those who heed the
Biblical warnings about adding to the Scriptures. What then are
we to make of claims that the ELS do exist and can be found by a computer
search? The problem is
not that the ELS have been discovered. The real issue has more to do with how
they have been found; and whether we can rely on the usefulness of the
conclusions drawn by some of the more "creative" researchers. Reading between
the lines of the technical discussions, it seems clear that what is found depends
to a very large extent on how the text to be searched is
"configured" before it is fed to the computer, and then how the
computer is made to deal with that data. To find anything at all you
must first decide what you are looking for! Then you must "adjust"
the target and change the input search criteria as often as needed, until it
works! The more “elastic” the approach used, the more likely it is that the
desired "discovery" will eventually be made. Alas, that is
the nature of computers ..... isn't it? They are merely “servants” doing exactly
what they are told to do! THE IMPACT ON
THE JEWISH COMMUNITY Although
Witztum et al have tried to defuse claims that the ELS "prove" the
authenticity of the Torah, many Jews have concluded otherwise. There are
claims that that some Jews have converted to Orthodox Jewish Faith as a
result. (13) One Jewish
organisation is conducting seminars which include sessions on the “Torah
Codes”.(14) Daniel Mechanic
claims that Jewish anti-missionary groups are reporting unprecedented
proselytizing with this material. It is claimed that Christians have posted a
million pamphlets to Jewish homes all over Israel, claiming that the “Yeshua
codes" prove Jesus is the Messiah. Similar activities are reported in
New York and New Jersey, in USA. (15) CAN IT INCREASE
FAITH IN THE SCRIPTURES? The answer to
that must surely be a loud NO! Even the best mathematicians can only
SPECULATE about the meaning of the ELS. (assuming that they can agree amongst
themselves whether the methods used are valid.) And when IDENTICAL so called
"codes" can be found in other texts than the Bible, it hardly
inspires confidence that they represent an infallible proof of inspiration! Faith in the
existence of God, and in the Bible as the Word of God, does not depend on a
20th century computer program, using highly questionable mathematics which
most of us can never begin to understand. The real word for THAT is not
"faith". It is second hand "CREDULITY". IS IT PERHAPS
DIVINATION? I have read
some of the "scientific papers" and several of the books for and
against. Some are by Christians, some are by Jews, and some are by atheists.
And I am left with an uncomfortable "feeling" that a great deal of
it is nothing more or less than a computerised form of DIVINATION! CONCLUSION However the ELS
are found, it does NOT necessarily lead to the conclusion that they are
genuine premeditated “Hidden Codes”; or that they are a valid
method of “proving” the authenticity of the Bible; or that they represent a
Biblically acceptable basis for prophesying the future! That
would require a degree of "speculative subjectivity" which informed
Christians will want to avoid. “Bereans” (Acts 17:11) need more solid
Biblical evidence than the conclusions reached by a computer which is fed an artificially manipulated set of criteria. True faith is
not for the lazy who want others to do all the Bible Study for them! (Either
at a Bible college, or elsewhere with a computer!) True faith in
the word of God depends on things that are plainly written, and within the
reach of all who will personally, and prayerfully, and diligently study
"whether those things are so". The computer
and the silicon chip technology on which it is based, will eventually join
all those other archaic scientific discoveries which have already been
superseded. The ELS will
sooner or later be lost in the shadow of the next highly promoted "signs
and wonder" of our religious world. (Matthew
24:24, 2 Thessalonians 2:9) "But
the word of the Lord abides for ever." Notes: Internet addresses listed below were all current and were
visited, when this article was being researched. However even during the
relatively short time taken to complete the paper, some addresses had changed
when I went back to double check some information. Internet addresses often
seem to be a "moving target"! Consequently I cannot guarantee that
all addresses will remain current during the "life expectancy" of
this paper! However, if you find an address for any source is no longer
current, you may be able to locate a new address using the AltaVista search
engine. I would appreciate advice of any updated addresses you discover. 2024 Editor’s note. All the Internet addresses were recently
checked and found to no longer be available. A few were found to lead to
completely unrelated sites. All Hyperlinks have been removed (1) “Equidistant Letter Sequences in the Book of Genesis” by
Doron Witztum, Eliyahu Rips and Yoav Rosenberg http://www.cybermail.net/~codes/genesis.htm (2) Cracking God's Code - Maybe the Lord Did Write the Bible.
By Benjamin Wittes http://www.slate.com/Features/codes/codes.asp (3) Quoted from: “A Caution Concerning the Torah
Codes” by Uri Marcus http://www.best.com/~dolphin/torahcodes.htm (4) Qabbalistic Word Manipulation http://nic.funet.fi/pub/doc/religion/occult/qabalah/misc/gematria (5) Harold Gans - “Back To the Future” http://www.cybermail.net/~codes/index.htm (6) Public Statement By Harold Gans http://www.cybermail.net/~codes/public2.htm (7) Uri Marcus - “A Caution Concerning the Torah Codes” http://www.best.com/~dolphin/torahcodes.htm (8) Public Statement by Doron Witzum http://members.xoom.com/bcodes/witz.htm Public Statement By Eliyahu Rips http://www.thei.aust.com/torah/coderips.htm (9) "The Bible Code" by Michael Drosnin, pp.
14,18,57,79,103. Weidenfield
and Nicholson, London, 1997 (10) The Meru Foundation http://www.meru.org/Codes/biblcode.htm (See also Secrets Of The Hebrew
Letters, by Cynthia Gage http://www.meru.org/Press/Atlantisrising.htm) (11) Report on new ELS tests of Torah, 29 May 1997 Dror Bar-Natan, Alec Gindis, Aryeh
Levitan, Brendan McKay http://cs.anu.edu.au/~bdm/dilugim/report1.htm The New ELS Tests - A Rejoinder” ,
July 16, 1997 Dror Bar-Natan, Alec Gindis, Arieh
Levitan, Brendan McKay http://cs.anu.edu.au/~bdm/dilugim/rejoin1.htm (12) Letter from Prof. Menachem Cohen Faculty of Jewish Studies,
Department of Bible Studies, Bar-Ilan University http://cs.anu.edu.au/~bdm/dilugim/cohen_eng.htm (13) Cracking God's Code - Maybe the Lord did write the Bible. By Benjamin Wittes http://www.slate.com/Features/codes/codes.asp (14) One Day Jewish Discovery Seminars http://www.discoveryseminar.org/cgibin/var/aishdisc/index.htm (15) Jesus Codes: Uses and Abuses By: R. Daniel Mechanic (In
consultation with Doron Witztum and Harold Gans) http://www.discoveryseminar.org/response2.htm |