Biblical Hebrew Forum

[peter_kirk AT sil.org]

Dear Wondell,

We discussed this one on the list a few months ago. I don't think 
anyone on the list thought very much of the idea. To me, the strongest 
argument against such codes is that "hidden messages" can easily 
appear by pure chance. It is quite easy to show by simple statistics 
that a four or five letter consonantal form of someone's name will 
appear many times as a chance pattern in a random Hebrew text of the 
length of the Bible, and will often be accompanied by some sort of 
meaningful message (as almost any sequence of Hebrew consonants can be 
taken to mean something!). So I consider that such "secret codes" are 
in fact generated just by chance. This is quite apart from the serious 
textual problems with the hidden messages concept and the difficulty 
about how they could have been generated.

Peter Kirk


______________________________ Reply Separator 
_________________________________
Subject: Secret Codes
Author:  gs02wmr AT panther.Gsu.EDU at internet
Date:    13/06/1999 23:07


Shalom Alaikhim

I would like to know what do list members think about the so-called Secret 
Codes in the Hebrew text of the Bible. Is there any validity to these 
claims that certain letters match up in numerical patterns to spell out 
prophecies, names of events, and the name of the Jewish Messiah?

I know of one Hebrew Scholar ( can't remember his name) who was 
interviewed about the "Bible Code" phenomenom, and he seemed pretty 
adamant about the messages the letters spelled out. Is it in any way 
grammatical or is it just superstition, coincidence, and fallacious 
scholarship?

Shalom!

Wondell M. Rachman



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