Torah Codes - Equidistant Letter Sequences (ELS)

Princess Di in Moby Dick

This illustrates why we do not accept the Bible Codes theory.

Source: Brendan McKay (1997),

Physicist Challenges Hidden Bible Code

Nov. 8, 1999 - The new theatrical movie "The Omega Code" is based on the idea that there are hidden message codes in the Bible. "But according to physicist Randall Ingermanson, author of Who Wrote the Bible Code?, excitement over a hidden code is much ado about nothing."

Ingermanson, a theoretical physicist with a Ph.D. from the University of California at Berkeley, has worked as a computational physicist in San Diego since 1988. He has authored dozens of scientific articles and reports in quantum field theory, superstring theory and plasma physics. In addition to his scientific credentials, Ingermanson also reads Hebrew, and has read the Torah in its original language. This gives him a unique perspective on the Bible code controversy.

Dr. Ingermanson developed a computer program to measure the amount of "encoded" information in the Hebrew Bible. The result? The supposedly hidden messages could be accounted for by the laws of random chance.

Source: Maranatha Christian Journal (Story no longer online)

Why I Am No Longer Researching The Codes - by Lori Eldridge

October, 1998 - Prophezine (Story no longer online)

Code Breaker

April, 1997 - Guy Cramer discusses a refutation of the topic by Professor of Hebrew, Dr. James Price, and concludes:

The Bible ELS Codes go the way of Cold Fusion
The conclusions of Dr Price's research should end any further research, books, movies, t.v. shows and articles... into the ELS phenomenon. God did not hide ELS codes in the Bible. The ELS codes do not prove divine authorship of the Hebrew Bible. This phenomenon will occur in all texts and all literature. It is just a strange random phenomenon.

(Story no longer online)

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Earlier links- when the theory was new:

Understanding the Concept

Torah Codes Archive

Visit this PropheZine section to get up to speed with Lori Eldridge's three-part series "Torah Codes 101" and other helpful articles and links.

Discussion Forum on Torah Codes

Join a discussion of the significant developments in this field. After reading the instruction page, pick the option of Torah Codes.

Resources

This source includes a list of websites, audio tapes, computer programs, books, and other resources to aid in the study of this subject.

Source: Prophezine (Story no longer online)

Official Torah Codes

This is what Robert Kass, editor of Statistical Science had to say about the Witztum-Rips-Rosenberg codes experiment. The site also has many valuable links, including one to the original article (abridged) from the August 1994 issue of Statistical Science. (No longer on line)

The Signature of God by Grant Jeffrey

The Mysterious Hebrew Codes

This article from Grant Jeffrey, about his latest book, The Signature of God, shows that the recent discovery of hidden messages in the Torah can only be explained by God's direction in the writing of the Scriptures.

The Bible Code by Michael Drosnin

Excerpt from Chapter One

From publisher's site (Simon & Schuster) (Story no longer online)

Deciphering God's Plan

This June 9, 1997 article from Time Magazine is about The Bible Code, a book by Michael Drosnin that claims that the assassination of Yitzak Rabin was foretold in the hidden codes of the Torah, and that many other dreadful events of the near future may be predicted the same way. It is based on the system used by Israeli mathematician Eliyahu Rips, a respected professor. at Jerusalem's Hebrew University. However, Rips has denounced Drosnin's work and said that using the code to predict the future is futile.

Source: Time (Story no longer online)

Public Statement by Harold Gans

Gans, a retired Senior Cryptologic Mathematician, U.S. Department of Defense, is presently an independent mathematical consultant. His statement concerning Drosnin's book verifies that he supports the scientific basis of ELS but denies that it can be used to predict the future.

An Impartial Opinion on the "Torah Codes"

This critical article is by Bruce David Wilner, who describes himself as an "electrical engineer and computer scientist with a significant background in pattern recognition...[and] a highly competent mathematician, linguist, and Scripturist.

Mathematician critical of 'Bible Code' bestseller

June 4, 1997 - CNN article in which Eliyahu Rips, the Israeli mathematician from Hebrew University, debunks the idea that Yitzhak Rabin's assassination was foretold in the Torah. The article also provides a link to the CNN message board on this topic.

The Hidden Codes In The Bible

Roy A. Reinhold's article (July 1, 1997) picks up the findings from chapter 6 of Drosnin's book that could have implications for a great future war. He says that the term "world war" was encoded with the term "in 5766". In other places "in 5766 was associated with "atomic holocaust", "great earthquake," and "economic collapse." The Jewish year 5766 will start October 4, 2005. [The author himself stresses that this is only a possibility, and we at Prophecy Central urge readers not to set dates. See "Warnings and Cautions."]

Gematria - Another Kind of Code

The Pattern And The Prophecy - by James Harrison

This book, written by a Christian Mathematics teacher, illustrates the divine origin of the Bible by the use of the ancient science of gematria - adding the numerical value of a word's letters to arrive at a sum. Endless examples are given of meaningful results which can only be explained by the fact that the Bible is God's Word.

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I have reviewed the book "The Bible Code" by M. Drosnin.

1. The book states that codes were found in the book of Genesis by Doron Witztum and Eliyahu Rips. An experiment was performed using scientific protocols specified by independent reviewers. The results of the experiment provided extremely strong statistical evidence for the existence of the encoding of great Jewish sages' names and dates of birth and death in the Hebrew text of the book of Genesis. This is all true.

2. The book states that I undertook an independent evaluation of the Witztum - Rips experiment. I duplicated their experiment and provided corroboration of their results. This is correct.

3. The book states that I also performed a new experiment, using the same methodology of Witztum and Rips, in which I found that the sages' names were also encoded in Genesis with their respective cities of birth and death. The statistical results obtained were even stronger than that obtained for the first experiment. This is all true.

4. The book also indicates that in spite of concerted efforts by many, no fatal mathematical flaw has been uncovered in the Witztum - Rips experiment. This too, is correct.

5. The book states that the codes in the Torah can be used to predict future events. This is absolutely unfounded. There is no scientific or mathematical basis for such a statement, and the reasoning used to come to such a conclusion in the book is logically flawed. While it is true that some historical events have been shown to be encoded in the Book of Genesis in certain configurations, it is absolutely not true that every similar configuration of "encoded" words necessarily represents a potential historical event. In fact, quite the opposite is true: most such configurations will be quite random and are expected to occur in any text of sufficient length.

Mr. Drosnin states that his "prediction" of the assasination of Prime Minister Rabin is "proof" that the "Bible Code" can be used to predict the future. A single success, regardless of how spectacular, or even several such "successful" predictions proves absolutely nothing unless the predictions are made and evaluated under carefully controlled conditions. Any respectable scientist knows that "anecdotal" evidence never proves anything.

6. A plethora of books have appeared over the last several months, concerning the codes. Unless the work is reviewed by qualified scientists or mathematicians, the reader accepts such a book at his own risk.

7. After exhaustive analysis, I have reached the conclusion that the only information that can be derived from the codes discovered in Genesis is that they exist, and the probability that they are mere coincidence is vanishingly small.