I write this node not to make noders "believe," but rather to bring more information into the picture (and also to force myself to read the rest of The Bible Code). Do I believe it? I don't know. I'd like learn ancient Arabic and analyze the original قرآن; learn ancient Hebrew and go through the original Apocrypha (which doesn't exist any more); look at the first copy of the Tipiṭaka; then get back to you. Also, reading this will be a bit easier if your browser'll let you see Unicode Hebrew letters, and it might even make sense if you speak Hebrew.
Thoughts taken from and inspired by The Bible Code:1
Isaac Newton tried to find a code like this in the Bible, considering this effort more important than his Theory of the Universe. He learned Hebrew and spent half his life searching through the Bible for such a code, wanting to "read the riddle of the Godhead, the riddle of past and future events divinely fore-ordained" (Newton, from source 1) Without a computer, however, he didn't get very far. In the 1940s, Rabbi H. M. D. Weissmandel noticed that if you skip fifty letters from the first ת in the beginning of Genesis, write down the letter, skip another 50, write down that letter, &c., you get the word תורה ("Torah"). Same with Exodus, Numbers and Deuteronomy. He never published this little discovery of his, but there is mention of it in a book2 by some students of his, which Drosnin found in the National Library in Israel.
Drosnin posits that the Bible is indeed a code that was to remained locked until humans invented the computer. According to legend, Moses recieved the Word of God as one continuous length of Hebrew letters, without spaces or accents, 304,805 letters long. A Torah missing even one of the letters, or with an extra one, or with one in the incorrect place, is considered invalid. We can stick this sequence of letters into a computer, analyze it, and find completely new "words of God" in a book we've had for thousands of years. Drosnin also suggests that since the technology available at the time of the Bible's appearance (i.e. reading and writing) allowed one interpretation of the Bible (as it is), and today's technology (computers) allows another interpretation (the Bible code), what's to prevent us from thinking that a future technological development might allow us yet another interpretation of the Bible? Some technology as strange to us as computers would be to desert nomads from 1000 BCE, and a message as magical and mysterious to us as the prediction of the future would seem to those nomads? You know, like that monolith of Arthur C. Clarke's?
Skeptics (whom I will refer to as "skeptics" for lack of a better objective word) point out that the Hebrew text used is most likely not the exact text Moses "recieved." See links in the "Hang on a minute" section below for more information.
The books of Daniel and Revelation contain predictions of horror to be revealed when a secret book is finally opened at the "end of days": "And I saw in the right hand of him that sat on the throne a book written within and on the backside, sealed with seven seals. And I saw a strong angel proclaiming with a loud voice, 'Who is worthy to open the book, and to loose the seals thereof?' And no man in heaven, nor in earth, neither under the earth, was able to open the book, neither to look thereon" (Revelation 5:13). In the book of Daniel, intersecting the year '5757' (the Hebrew year from September 1996 to September 1997*) and after the verses "for you the encoded" and "hidden secrets," an angel says "but thou, O Daniel, shut up the words, and seal the book, even to the time of the end: many shall run to and fro, and knowledge shall be increased" (Daniel 12:4) (n.b.: the phrase used for "run to and fro" has the connotation of "investigate," and "knowledge" in this case can also mean "wickedness"). In Genesis, "the end of days" intersects '5756' (1996) and 'computer' (מחשב). This implies that 1996 was the end of days and the "book...sealed with seven seals" was opened that year. Is the Bible code that "book"? "Sealed before God" intersects 'Bible code' (צפותוכ) in one place, and encoded elsewhere in the Bible is the phrase "He encoded the Torah and more" (צפנתורהועוד). When God gives Moses "the tablets of stone, and the Torah," He said "behold, I make a covenant: before all thy people I will work miracles" (Exodus 34:10) within these words of God appears 'computer'. 'Computer' appears six times throughout the Bible as part of the word "thought" (מחשבה). Four of the six appearances are in verses describing the Ark of the Covenant, which held the Commandments. Hidden in the verse "and the tablets were the work of God, and the writing was the writing of God, engraved on the tablets" (Exodus 32:16) is the phrase 'it was made by computer' (מוחשב).
Joseph is one of the prophets of the Bible. In Genesis 41, he told the Pharaoh (probably the Hyksos king Aphophis) that a dream of his predicted a famine, and the Pharaoh makes him Regent and dubs him Zaph-nath-paaneah (צפנת פענח). The Bible Code says the name has been said to mean "revealer of secrets" or "the god speaks and lives" (other sources say it means "the savior of the world" or "the one who furnishes the nourishment of life"3), but according to Drosnin, the name means "decoder of the code" in Hebrew. In the book of Daniel, the king tells Daniel, "truly your God must be the God of gods and the Lord of kings, and the revealer of secrets, to have enabled you to reveal this secret" (Daniel 2:47; underline mine); however, the underlined verse may also be translated as "...and he revealed the secrets enough that you were able to reveal this secret scroll" that is, the code. Isaiah even reveals that "for you this whole vision is nothing but words sealed in a scroll" (Isaiah 29:11).
One of the main foci of the book is (if the code is accepted as true) whether or not the events foretold in the code can be changed. Drosnin remains hopeful that this is the case, since the letters representing the Hebrew year 5756 also spell 'will you change it', and the word 'delayed' appears throughout descriptions of many disastrous events. Near one appearance of 'holocaust of Israel' are the years '5756' (1996) (also 'will you change it', remember) and '5760' (2000), but the last letter of '5760' starts the phrase "you delayed." In another place, "Israel and Japan" is intersected by "they delayed the year of the plague." Near the words 'world war', a part of Deuteronomy 31:29 ("evil will befall you in the end of days") is preceeded by a hidden message: 'you knew it will be delayed'.
Without further further ado...
Events "predicted" in The Bible Code that have occurred:
The only time the full name 'Itzhak Rabin' (יצחקרבינ) appears in the code, it is intersected by 'name of assassin who will assassinate'. Close by is the name 'Amir' (עמיר) and the phrase 'name of assassin'. Running across Amir's name is "he changed the nation, he will make them evil." In another place, 'Rabin assassination' appears near '5756' (Hebrew year 19951996), 'Tel Aviv' (תלאביב) and 'Amir'. Nearby is 'he struck, he killed the prime minister' and 'his killer, one of his people, the one who got close'.
'Sadat' is crossed by "he will assassinate," near "8 Tishrei" (October 6 in 1981), and 'Chaled will shoot Sadat' appears in another place.
'M. Gandhi' appears, immediately followed by "he will be killed."
'President Kennedy' (נשיאקנדי) appears once, near 'to die' and 'Dallas' (דאלאס). In another place, 'Oswald' (אוזוולד) appears near "marksman," "he will strike in the head, death," and "name of assassin who will assassinate," the same phrase that appears near the mention of Rabin's assassination. Near Oswald's name is the name of his killer, 'Ruby' (רובי), and the phrase "he will kill the assassin." Near President Kennedy's name also appears 'R. F. Kennedy' (רפקנדי) as well as 'S. Sirhan' (ססרחאנ) and "second ruler will be killed."
'A. Lincoln' appears in Genesis and Deuteronomy, crossed in one place by three occurrences of 'Booth' and in the other by 'assassinated'.
Just after fighting began in Ramallah in late September 1996, "Ramallah...fulfilled a prophecy" was found crossing 'atomic holocaust'.
'Oklahoma' (אוקלהומח) appears near 'terrible frightening death' and "there will be terror." Elsewhere, 'Murrah building' is crossed with "desolated/slaughtered," "killed/torn to pieces" and "death." In the book of Exodus, a passage starting with "he ambushed he pounced terror" contains 'day 19', 'on the 9th hour', 'in the morning', 'his name is Timothy' (שמוטימותי) and 'McVeigh' (מקוויי) all appear.
'Prime Minister Netanyahu' (רהמנתניהו) is intersected by "death, July, to Amman," and nearby is "his soul was cut off" and "murdered." The word "delayed" appears three times, twice near Netanyahu's name and again by "murdered." Netanyahu's July 25, 1996 trip to Amman was delayed by ten days.
'Aum Shinrikyo' appears near 'subway', 'plague', and two occurrences of 'gas'. 'Tokyo will be evacuated', 'Tokyo, Japan', '5756' (1996), the Biblical word for 'plague', and 'flying weapon' also appear, supposedly a prediction of what would have happened if the cult hadn't been put to a stop (documents in the cult's headquarters mention a massive attack on Tokyo involving helicopters spraying ebola).
'Shoemaker-Levy' (שומכרלוי) appears twice, once in Genesis and again in Isaiah. In both places' 'Jupiter' crosses the name of the comet, and in Isaiah, '8th Av' (July 16 in 1994) is nearby.
'Clinton' (קליטונ) touches 'president'.
'Goldstein' (גלדשטינ) and 'Hebron' (חברונ) appear near "man from the house of Israel who will slaughter."
'Captivity of Toledano' (שבייתטולידנו) appears near "Lod," "he will die," and "don't shed blood." After Toledano's body was found following his kidnapping in Lod, one of the kidnappers recalled that he told the others, "don't shed blood."
The only time 'communism' appears, it is near 'fall of', 'Russian', and 'in China next'.
In Genesis, near where God tells Abraham "Look now toward Heaven, and count the stars, if thou be able to number them" (Genesis 15:5), appear 'man on the moon', 'spaceship', 'Apollo 11' and even the date the landing occurred (July 20, 1969). The phrase 'done by mankind, done by man' crosses 'moon', reflecting Armstrong's famous first words on the moon.
Near 'Watergate' (ווטרגית) is 'who is he president but was kicked out'.
'Economic collapse', 'depression', 'stocks' and '5690' (1929) appear together.
The Hebrew year corresponding to 1906 appears twice, once with 'S. F. Calif' and again with "fire, earthquake." 'S. F. Calif' appears again, with "fire, earthquake" and the year 1989. 'L. A. Calif' (לאקליפ) appears with 'great earthquake' and the years '5754' (1994) [and '5770' (2010)], and elsewhere with "fire earthquake 5770." 'Great earthquake' appears near three other parts of the world (along with '5760' and '5766'): 'China' (סינ), along with '5736' (1976); 'Japan', specifically 'Okushiri July will be shaken', and 'Kobe, Japan' (קובהיפנ) with '5755' (1995) and 'the big one'.
War and revolution:
'America', 'revolution' and '5536' (1776) appear together.
'Napoleon', 'France', 'Waterloo' and 'Elba' appear together.
'Russia', 'revolution' and '5678' (1918) appear together.
In Genesis 14, 'missile', 'war', 'enemy', and 'Saddam' (סדמ) all appear near 'Hussein (picked a day)' and 'fire on 3rd Shevat', which in 1991 was January 18. In another place in Genesis, 'Hussein', (חסינ) 'Scuds' and 'Russian missile' appear together.
The verse reading "all his people to war" (near the mention of Rabin's assassination) begins with "from 5th Adar." In 1996, the 5th of Adar was February 25; that day a Palestinian suicide bomber blew up a bus in Jerusalem, the first of three bombings over nine days, killing more than 61. 'Autobus', 'bombing' and 'Jerusalem' appear together. 'Jaffa Road' and 'Adar 5756' (FebruaryMarch 1996) appear near 'terror'. In another location, 'autobus' is near passages reading "fire great noise they awoke early and they will ride and there will be terror," and "dead bodies." The name of one of the bombed places, 'Dizengoff', appears near 'Tel Aviv' and 'terrorist'. Another 'Tel Aviv' appears near 'terrorist bombing'. Intersecting '5756' is 'Hamas bomb'.
The Holocaust/World War II:
'Hitler' (היטלר), 'evil man', 'Nazi and enemy' and 'slaughter' appear together. 'Eichmann', 'ovens' and 'extermination' appear together. 'In Auschwitz' appears near a Bible passage saying "the end of all flesh" and "the earth is filled with violence" (Genesis 6:13). 'Zyklon B' appears near 'Eichmann' in another place.
'A. Hitler', 'holocaust', the names of the major countries involved in WWII (Germany, England, France, Russia, Japan, and the United States) appear near the verse "this world devastated world war."
'Roosevelt' (רוזוולט), 'Churchill', 'Stalin' and 'Hitler' appear together. Near 'Roosevelt' is the verse "president...he gave the order to strike on the day of the great defeat." "Destruction of the fortress" is crossed with 'Pearl Harbor', called the location of "the fleet," near 'world war', 'Hiroshima' (with a skip sequence of 1945) and the date corresponding to December 7th, 1945. Where the Bible declares "and it repented the Lord that He had made man upon the earth and it grieved Him at His heart" appears 'Hiroshima to end shooting whole world'. 'Atomic holocaust' appears by "5705" (1945) and 'Japan' (ייפננ).
In the text of the mezuzah, the phrase 'in 5700, the cremator came' appears. 5700 is the Hebrew year from 19391940. The mezuzah is three passages of the Old Testament which God instructed should be placed on every household and every person, memorized and taught to all children, and recited twice a night so it is never forgotten.
Great writers, musicians, artists, inventors and scientists:
'Homer' and 'Greek poet' appear together. 'Shakespeare' (שקספיר), 'Macbeth' (מקבת), 'Hamlet' (המלט) and 'presented on stage' appear together.
'Beethoven' and 'Johann Bach' appear near 'German composers'. 'Mozart' appears near 'composer' and 'music'.
'Rembrandt', 'Dutch' and 'painter' appear together. 'Picasso' is near 'the artist'.
'Wright brothers' (אחימריט) and 'airplane' appear together. 'Edison' (אדיסונ) appears near 'electricity' and 'lightbulb'. 'Marconi' appears near 'radio'.
'Newton' (ניוטונ) appears near 'gravity' and even 'Bible code', his obsession. The one time 'Einstein' (איינשטיינ) appears, it is near 'science', 'theory of relativity' and 'add a fifth part', and is intersected by passages reading "he overturned present reality," "a new and excellent understanding," and "they prophesied a brainy person."
Atomic holocaust/WWIII-related events seemingly foretold (or just mentioned) in The Bible Code:
"In the end oy days" and 'end of days' both appear next to 'Arafat' (ערפאת).
'Prime Minister Netanyahu' (רהמנתניהו) appears near 'elected', two instances of 'murdered', and the verses "surely he will be killed" and "his soul will be cut off in a battle." Near three instances of Netanyahu's name is the verse "for the great horror" (a phrase reserved for referring to events so "awful" they have no equivalent beyond the scope of the Bible), and one of those pairs appears near 'atomic holocaust'. 'The next war' appears near 'Itzhak' and the passages "it will be after the death [of] prime minister" and "another will die, Av, prime minister."
In Genesis, 'holocaust of Israel' appears, starting in a verse in which Jacob tells his sons about the end of days. '5756' (19951996) intersects 'holocaust of Israel'. In another place, 'holocaust of Israel' appears near '29 Elul', along with 'atomic weapon'.
'Atomic holocaust' appears once, near the years 1945, 1996, 1997, 2000 and 2006, 'atomic holocaust', three occurrences of 'Libya' (לוב), and the passage "all his people to war," which is also written near the prediction of Itzhak Rabin's assassination. 'World war' also appear near dates: 2000 (twice) and 2006, along with a warning: "it will bombard your country, terror, devastation, it is being launched." 'Terrorism' appears near 'world war', and below the word "third" is 'war to the knife'. 'Atomic holocaust' and 'world war' both appear in the text of the mezuzah. The only name of a city that appears near 'atomic holocaust' or 'world war' is 'Jerusalem', and it appears in God's threat to punish Israel: "I, the Lord, thy God, am a jealous God, punishing the children for the sins of the fathers to the third and fourth generation of those who hate me" (Exodus 20:5). "Your city will be destroyed by an act of terrorism" runs across 'atomic holocaust'. "Jerusalem" also crosses 'atomic weapon' in another place, immediately followed by the words "scroll" and "he opened it." 'Ariel' (אריאל), an ancient name for Jerusalem, appears between 'world war' and the verse "9th Av is the day of the third." The 9th of Av is a significant date: Jerusalem was destroyed that day in 586 BCE (by Babylon), and again in 70 CE (by Rome).
'Libyan artillery' appears near '5756' (1996) and 'Qaddafi' (Libya's leader), near the passage "The Lord shall bring down a nation against thee from afar, which will swoop down like a vulture" (Deuteronomy 28:49, thanks Lometa!).
'Atomic artilleryman' intersects the passage "under the slopes of the Pisgah," a mountain range in Jordan. Near the first mention of the Pisgah is a verse reading "weapon here, in this place, camouflaged." Directly above the intersection is the passage "in order that you prolong thy days on Earth." The phrase "in order that you prolong" (למענתאריכ) can also be read as "address date." Given that the letters spelling the year 5756 (התשגו) can also be read as "will you change it," it seems to imply that an attack can be prevented.
The first mention of the "end of days" appears near '5756'. The second mention appears where Moses tells the Israelites "all the things that will come upon thee at the end of day." The third is near Moses' warning that "evil will befall you in the end of days." The fourth is near 'world war', 'atomic holocaust' and Balaam's statement about "what this people shall do to thy people in the end of days." The fifth is also near '5756', which is the only date that appears near two occurrences of "end of days." 'Plague', 'peace' and 'save' appear next to two verses discussing "the end of days."
The years 5760 (2000), 5766 (2006), and 5873 (2113) appear often near verses mentioning earthquakes ("for everyone the great terror fire earthquake," "great earthquake") and the names of the United States, China and Japan. Japan appears near a whole mess of trouble: 'economic collapse' with "fire, earthquake struck Japan"; 'year of the plague' with "Israel and Japan" (ישראלניפנ).
'Swift-Tuttle', a (very) large comet that could strike Earth in 2126, appears near '5753' (1992, the year it was noticed that it could collide with Earth) and 'comet' (ככבשביט). Elsewhere, the date 'eve of new year' (of 5753, that is September 27, 1992) is immediately followed by 'Swift' (סוויפט). In another place, 'Swift' is encoded near '5886' (2126) and "in the seventh month, it came." 'Comet' also appears with '5770' (2010), with "days of horror" running through the date and "darkness" and "gloom" running through 'comet'. 'Comet' crosses '5766' (2006) elsewhere, and where they cross is the ominous message "year predicted for the world." 'Comet' appears near "it will be crumbled/I will tear it to pieces, 5772" (2012) and "earth annihilated" in another place.
Interesting to note is one way time is described in the Bible. In the original Hebrew of the Tanakh, the past is described with verbs in the future tense, and the future is described with the past tense. Scholars do not agree on the reason behind this, but Drosnin notes a meeting with Rabbi Adin Steinsaltz, a well-known Hebrew scholar, who pointed him to a verse in Isaiah (maybe 46:10?) that said one needs to look at the past to see the future. He specifically mentions 41:23, "Tell us the things that are to come hereafter, that we may know that you are gods; yes, do good or do evil, that we may stare in astonishment and be dismayed as we behold [the miracle] together!" The phrase "tell us the things that are to come hereafter" can also be translated as both "they told the future backwards" or even "tell the letters in reverse," and directly below it, written backwards, the code reads '5756' (1996) and 'they changed the time'. And perhaps most tellingly is the message spelled plainly between the encoded 'atomic holocaust' and "in the end of days": "code will save."
Hang on a minute:
Arguments countering the methods and results of the book point out the vast database of letters and sequences available in the original Hebrew of the Old Testament, as well as noting flaws in the math used to calculate the chances of many of the words appearing together. Bible scholars have pointed out that the version of the Bible used to find the code is most likely not the original text. For more on the arguments against the code, see:
- Scientific Refutation of the Bible Code (and some good links):
- Statistics scholars renew debate over "Bible code":
- Hidden Messages and The Bible Code:
- The Bible "Codes": A Textual Perspective:
- There's even a book criticizing the code, called Cracking the Bible Code:
* These days, Rosh Hashanah (the Hebrew new year's day, 1st of Tishrei) falls in September, so Hebrew years go from September of one year to September of the next. I have "translated" the Hebrew years as the "next" year, so I refer to 5757 as just 1997.
1: The overwhelming majority of the info is from Michael Drosnin's The Bible Code (Touchstone, New York, NY: 1997).
2: Torat Hemed, Yeshiva Mt. Kisko: 1958.
Uncredited quotations in single quotes are found encoded in the Bible, and are therefore all found in The Bible Code. Quotations in double quotes are direct passages from the Bible.