Finding patterns is one of the ways that humans attempt to make sense of the world around
them.
We seek meaning in the often-overwhelming chaos by connecting symbols and occurrences.
Sometimes these are significant findings that lead to good science and breakthrough insights.
Sometimes these patterns lead nowhere, yet they nevertheless help us focus our energies
on what is vital.
The Bible is an intriguing source of patterns that has emerged as a result of technological
progress.
Countless historians and enthusiasts have researched and analyzed the Bible phrase by
phrase, as it is one of humanity's oldest and possibly most influential pieces of writing.
But what computers have allowed us to do, due to the work of Israeli mathematicians,
is to recognize that the ancient text may be not simply an intricately weaved collection
of spiritual stories and teachings but a code that speaks to the inner workings of history.
However, what have experts recently discovered about the Bible, and what secrets does it
contain?
Stay tuned till the end to find out everything!
"The Bible Code," a book written by reporter Michael Drosnin in 1997, popularized the concept.
His book claimed to foretell the death of Israeli Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin, the
Gulf War, and comet crashes using the earliest passages of the Bible.
It also appeared to contain knowledge about the Holocaust, as well as earlier assassinations,
such as those of JFK and his brother Robert.
It also hinted to a nuclear war, a theme the author revisited in later volumes in the "Bible
Code" series.
Drosnin's book was inspired by mathematicians Doron Witztum, Eliyahu Rips, and Yoav Rosenberg's
1994 paper "Equidistant Letter Sequences in the Book of Genesis," which was published
in the journal Statistical Science.
They offered statistical proof that information about prominent rabbis' lives had been encoded
in the Hebrew language of the Book of Genesis hundreds of years before those rabbis appeared.
Dr. Eliyahu Rips is one of the world's leading experts on group theory and is the scientist
most closely identified with the "Bible Code" notion, despite the fact that both Rips and
Witztum devised the software needed to conduct the word search.
Later, Rips distanced himself from Drosnin's book.
In a 1997 comment on the subject, he stated that he did not make or support some of the
specific predictions made by Drosnin.
Nonetheless, Rips wrote quite clearly that “the only conclusion that can be drawn from
the scientific research regarding the Torah codes is that they exist and that they are
not a mere coincidence.”
The Equidistant Letter Sequence (ELS) was the approach that the researchers took in
order to arrive at their conclusions.
To get a term with some meaning, this method calls you to pick a starting point in a text
and a skip number.
Then, each time, begin selecting letters while skipping the same number of spaces (pretty
much in any direction).
If you're lucky, a sensible word will be spelt out.
This method works effectively if letters are placed in an array.
Timothy Smith, an author and fourth-generation antiques specialist, has recently brought
the Bible Code back into the public eye.
His 2017 book "The Chamberlain Key" reveals how following 25 years of investigation, he
unlocked a "God code" in the Bible.
He calls his work "the Da Vinci Code on steroids, but it's true."
Smith's decoding effort is based on his own ancient copy of the Bible termed "The Leningrad
Codex" - it's the earliest complete manuscript of the Hebrew Old Testament.
Smith employed a computer-driven application of the ELS approach, as well as code-breaking
techniques and his extensive understanding of ancient and aboriginal ceremonial objects
like scepters, crowns and thrones to arrive at his reading of the Bible.
Smith is a devoted Christian, and his findings are centered on Christian themes.
He claims to have discovered precise information concerning Jesus' birth, crucifixion, and
resurrection within a Genesis text.
"Tim's quest is the ultimate treasure hunt for one of history's greatest mysteries, and
his map is an ancient text that could possibly be talking to us," said David McKillop, executive
producer for Jupiter Entertainment, which is making the TV series.
While the Bible or "Torah Codes" have been criticized, there is scholarly evidence that
ancient Bible writers, such as Matthew, "consciously used numerical patterns or codes in their
compositions," according to Dr. Randall Buth, director of the Biblical Language Center and
lecturer at Hebrew University in Jerusalem.
Another thing to remember is that our perception of how time and history work is heavily influenced
by our frame of reference.
If time flows differently, as hypothesized by the Block Universe Theory, all bets are
off, and a book may theoretically contain the code of both past and future history.
The search for a hidden meaning in the Bible is alluring, and it has a long history with
many Christian and Jewish supporters.
Is there any proof that the Bible has a hidden message or code?
Chuck Missler was one of those who answered in the affirmative (1934–2018).
Mr. Missler was an exceptionally bright individual who had a background in the information sciences
(computers, cryptography, etc.).
He taught that there is a hidden meaning in Scripture in some of his written works and
lectures on bible codes.
Chuck Missler provides a nice template for illustrating some of the flawed reasoning
that underpins the notion that the Bible includes a hidden message.
Some people look for a secret meaning in the arrangement of names in the Bible.
For example, Chuck Missler believed that the meaning of the names in Genesis 5 contained
a prophecy of redemption.
Others have reasoned similarly, suggesting that the names of Genesis 5 offer a concealed
message promising redemption.
The secret message of Genesis 5 is as follows: Man (is) appointed mortal sorrow; (but) the
blessed God shall come down teaching his death shall bring the despairing comfort (or rest).
The Hebrew language differs from English in terms of verb usage and word order.
If you're assuming a secret message, the above message would most likely be read in Hebrew
rather than English.
As a result, the message should be interpreted as "Man, the appointed one of mortal sorrow,
is the blessed God."
(If you didn't notice, this is heresy!).
In the Hebrew language, the verb comes before the subject, therefore the last phrase would
presumably read, "The teaching shall come down, his death to bring despair and rest."
But this is all speculation because there are numerous alternative ways it could be
translated because all nouns are indicated as names and are not supposed to be treated
as verbs.
The fundamental issue is that a translation of the name sequence assumes what it is attempting
to prove by using English rather than Hebrew.
Only with the development of computer software has there been a rebirth and widespread influence
of biblical codes, as well as a fresh desire for a secret message.
However, the desire to discover a "deeper meaning" or a hidden message has always existed.
Many of those looking for this hidden message have good intentions.
The truth is that the search for a hidden message in the Bible is merely a diversion
from the vital encouragement and guidance provided in a plain reading of Scripture.
Paul himself advised Timothy to be approved by "rightly handling the word of truth" (2
Tim 2:15).
This was in stark contrast to people who devoted themselves “to myths and endless genealogies,
which promote speculations rather than the stewardship from God that is by faith” (1
Tim 1:4).
To rightly handle the Word means to read it in line with the author's intent, without
searching for some unique or secret message.
Moving on, an ancient copy of the Bible containing banned teachings was recently discovered in
Egypt.
The oldest known copy of a manuscript claiming to represent Jesus' instructions to his brother
James was discovered in an ancient Egyptian rubbish dump, among mounds of fifth-century
papyrus, ancient tax receipts, and bills of sale for wagons and donkeys.
According to a statement, the book is a rare Greek-language copy of an apocryphal New Testament
account called The First Apocalypse of James, which was previously assumed to be preserved
exclusively in the Coptic language (an indigenous Egyptian language formed from hieroglyphics).
According to Brent Landau, a religion studies lecturer at the University of Texas at Austin,
the work was most likely composed in the fifth or sixth century.
Landau presented these findings along with Geoffrey Smith, a religious studies scholar
at UT Austin, at the Society of Biblical Literature Annual Meeting in Boston.
The discovery is part of a collection of over 200,000 papyrus texts kept at Oxford University
in England, which were discovered in the late 19th century in a waste dump in the Egyptian
town of Oxyrhynchus.
Earlier this summer, Smith and Landau pieced together the document from six separate papyrus
fragments in the collection.
For more than two years, the two had been researching the Oxyrhynchus results.
Landau believes the document is significant for several reasons.
For one thing, he explained, it's written in Greek.
"Greek was the earliest language that the original Christian writings were composed
in because it was sort of the universal language of the Roman empire at that time," Landau
explained.
"It's extremely rare to find [apocryphal texts] in Greek — it was definitely the original
language."
In other words, while this is not the earliest copy of the First Apocalypse of James to be
discovered, it is most likely the oldest.
The only other known version of the text was discovered in Egypt in 1945 in the Nag Hammadi
library, a collection of 13 Coptic Gnostic volumes.
The Nag Hammadi texts, buried in jars underground, were most likely secreted for safekeeping
after A.D. 367, when Athanasius, bishop of Alexandria, determined the canon of 27 books
known today as the New Testament.
Another odd characteristic, given the manuscript's forbidden status, is that it looks to be a
teaching edition.
"Nearly all of the syllables are divided with these little mid-dots — little dots right
in the middle of the line," Landau explained.
Manuscripts of the time were frequently written in a continuous, fluid style.
The fact that the syllables are so neatly split shows that the book was created as a
teaching tool to help students learn how to read and write in Greek.
Gnostic texts, such as The First Apocalypse of James, were likely forbidden because of
their "different understanding" of the significance of Jesus, according to Landau.
"They understood Jesus much more in terms of being a revealer of human wisdom than as
a messiah," Landau added.
"According to these Gnostic texts, Jesus taught people that the material world was actually
a prison crated by an evil god — a lot like the movie 'The Matrix,' essentially."
In The First Apocalypse of James, Jesus recounts this prison to his brother.
He discloses that the universe is guarded by demonic figures known as archons, who stand
in the way of the transition from the material world to the afterlife.
Let’s hear your thoughts in the comments down below.