Bible Code Digest.com

Bible Code Digest—
January/February 2024

In This Month's Issue:

Briefing

Correspondence

Unmasking The Da Vinci Code

The Controversy Over Mosaics: Round Five

A Table of Terms About The Da Vinci Code

Briefing

BCD's Summary of Opinions Posting Updated

Two changes have been made to BCD's posting, Summary of Opinions About Bible Codes.

We have added David Thomas to the ranks of code skeptics—in recognition of his authorship of a number of articles on Bible codes in Skeptical Inquirer magazine.

Also, at Barry Roffman's request, we have moved him from the advocate to the moderate category. He is the author of Ark Code.

Correspondence

Length of Bible Increases Chances

Your website stresses how unlikely it is that a cluster, such as the one found in Isaiah 53, would occur by chance, especially since the coded phrases correspond so closely with the meaning of the surface text. However, considering that the Bible is quite lengthy, consisting of approximately 1,500 pages, is it really that unlikely for such a cluster to appear by chance in one or more places in the Bible? Clearly, the longer the text, the greater the chances are for such anomalies to occur. If every page of the Bible contained such clusters, your premise would be quite compelling, but they do not. The way to test the chances of such clusters occurring is indeed to analyze other works, and see how often these cluster anomalies occur, compared to how often they occur in the Bible. You could also perform the experiment on several or more randomly selected books of shorter length (than the Bible), which together, equal the length of the Bible. If the combination of books has more pages than the Bible, exclude the extra pages in the experiment.

I agree that one should not disregard the significance of smaller clusters that are also improbable, even though they are not as improbable as the Isaiah 53 cluster. The probability question is really this: What are the odds that all of the clusters found in the Bible, with due regard for their various lengths and densities, would occur in a text as long the Bible, (i.e., having the same number of letters as the Bible)? More generally, the question is: What does all of the data taken together tell us?

I am very anxious to read your new book!

Craig W. Beidler
Wadsworth, OH

Director Ed Sherman's Reply:

Thank you for your very thoughtful questions. We have tested a non-Biblical text, a Hebrew translation of Tolstoi’s novel, War & Peace, and have measured the probability of finding ELSs of different lengths within a non-encoded text, given how many ELSs have been searched for. This analysis, along with parallel analyses of the Bible, form the basis of our claims.

You will find as you read the book that we deal with the question of text length carefully and, we believe, appropriately.

Your proposed probability question at the end of your e-mail is excellent theoretically, but is not feasible. The problem is that no program exists to do what you propose—because it would require, at a minimum, a program with the ability to take any string of Hebrew letters and to determine the longest portion of that string that represented intelligible, grammatically correct Hebrew phrases and/or sentences that appeared sequentially within that string. And it would also have to provide reliable translations of all the optimally lengthy strings from Hebrew to English.

Absent such a program, we must settle for the drawing of samples, the employment of a Hebrew expert and the application of probability estimation techniques. That is what we have done, and the results from the samples we have drawn from the Bible are so far beyond what chance could produce from a non-encoded text, that we should conclude that coding exists in the Bible.

Sir Isaac Newton

Why is your society named after Isaac Newton? Didn't he renounce the idea of the Trinity later in life?

Anonymous

Our Comments:

Sir Isaac Newton was arguably the greatest scientist who ever lived, and yet he spent a tremendous part of his life studying the Bible and searching for possible codes in the Bible. Bible Code Digest presents the findings of a group of scientists and researchers of different faiths, including Trinitarian Christians, an Orthodox Jew and an agnostic Jew, who are trying to objectively investigate the phenomenon of Bible codes. We have also published the findings of a Jehovah's Witness researcher, who is not a Trinitarian. So whether Newton himself was a Trinitarian or not is not a matter of great concern to us.

For more on Isaac Newton, look to the right on the Bible Code Digest home page and click on the purple rectangle with Newton's picture that reads, "Did Isaac Newton Seek Bible Codes?" This will take you to a page that describes Newton's life and research in more detail.

A Comment on "Update From Bible Code Digest"

Dear Ed:
Got your latest email. You don't need to respond to this one, but I'm going to make a suggestion. I think if people understood where and how donated money was used, they might be more inclined to give. For example, is this your only income/salary? Do you have another job, and this is just a hobby on the side? Are there travel expenses involved where you have to, say, go to Israel to consult with others? Or are there expenses involved in promoting Bible codes and educating the public? If so, what are your long-range plans besides the book? Are you hoping to break into mainstream media such as Trinity Broadcasting Network or CBN or the Christian music festival circuits like the Cornerstone Festival in IL? These are just some questions off the top of my head. I can only imagine what others wonder. If we had a feel for the business side of your society, we might be more inclined to help out financially. By the way, I just ordered your book from Amazon to give to my non-believing but mathematically inclined brother for Christmas.

Lynne Whelden
Williamsport, PA

Our Comments:

Last year, BCD received about $12,000 in donations. This covered about one-third of our total costs. About 75% of our expenditures are for the salaries of staff who respond to e-mails, handle administrative matters regarding our 12,500 subscribers, update and maintain the BCD web site, and assist in research projects. About 10% of our expenses are payments to independent research associates and 15% for out-of-pocket expenses. Mr. Sherman does not draw any salary, but is reimbursed for some expenses.

We are seeking to become better known in various media, but progress is slow because the credibility of the whole area has been damaged by leading authors whose books present trivial examples that skeptics can easily discredit.

Re: Bible Code Bombshell

Dear Mr. Sherman,
Your book has really changed my life. It confirms everything I ever believed, and now I have something to put a finger on. God bless you and your team for bringing this phenomenon to light. I have two questions about your book that I hope you will answer for me. First, is the first chapter of your book about Shakespeare's play Much Ado About Nothing having codes about Princess Diana for real or is that just a fictitious example of how codes are found? Second, why hasn't this explosive news about the Isaiah 53 and Ezekiel 37 clusters gotten out in the media? Thank you again for your work and your time.

Greg Powell
Savannah, GA

Our Comments:

The Princess Diana examples in the first chapter of Bombshell are fictional. However, on page 67 of Grant Jeffrey's The Mysterious Bible Codes, he presents actual findings about Diana.

Why hasn't the media picked up on our findings? We have issued a press release, but the media in general is skeptical of the phenomenon because of various (justifiable) attacks previously made on Drosnin's two books. The short ELSs presented in his books have done a major disservice to the entire area of Bible codes.

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