KOINONIA HOUSE

Coeur d’Alene, Idaho 83816-0347

COSMIC CODES

Copyright © 1999 by Koinonia House

Revised 2004

P.O. Box D

Coeur d’Alene, ID 83816-0347

Web Site: http://www.khouse.org

Second Printing 2004

Third Printing 2011

ISBN 978-1-57821-072-5

Design and production by Koechel Peterson & Associates, Minneapolis, Minnesota.

Scripture quotations in this book are taken from the King James Version of the Bible.

All rights reserved. No portion of this book may reproduced in any form without the written permission of the Publisher.

Printed in the United States of America.

“Cosmic Codes was the authoritative resource that we relied on in the research of our PAX-TV/Discovery Channel television special Secrets of the Bible Code Revealed. It’s absolutely packed with fascinating factual information on all of the Bible-related codes.”

DAVID W. BALSIGER

PRODUCER, SECRETS OF THE BIBLE CODE REVEALED

“Chuck Missler writes from a technological and Biblical background in this cutting-edge analysis of the hidden codes of the Bible. This thoroughly researched book assists those investigating the inerrancy of the Word of God.”

JOHN ANKERBERG

ANKERBERG THEOLOGICAL RESEARCH INSTITUTE THE JOHN ANKERBERG SHOW

“Chuck Missler has searched the entire range of the Bible and documented the presence of messages held beyond a simple reading of the text. For many, the information in Cosmic Codes: Hidden Messages from the Edge of Eternity will open very new meanings to this very old book.”

GERALD L. SCHROEDER, PH.D.

INTERNATIONALLY RENOWNED NUCLEAR PHYSICIST AUTHOR OF “GENESIS AND THE BIG BANG”

TABLE OF CONTENTS

Preface

SECTION I: INTRODUCTION

Chapter 1: Secret Codes

Chapter 2: Codes from Other Worlds

Chapter 3: Basic Discoveries

Chapter 4: The First Cryptanalyst

SECTION II: EVIDENCES OF HIDDEN DESIGN

Chapter 5: A Hidden Message

Chapter 6: Hidden Acrostics

Chapter 7: The Magic of Sevens

SECTION III: MICROCODES: JOTS AND TITTLES

Chapter 8: The Hebrew Alphabet

Chapter 9: Assassination Predicted?

Chapter 10: The Skipping of Letters

SECTION IV:

THE EQUIDISTANT LETTER SEQUENCES

Chapter 11: The Torah Codes

Chapter 12: The Yeshua Codes

Chapter 13: The Dark Side

SECTION V:

MACROCODES: THE STRATEGIC STRUCTURE

Chapter 14: The Use of Macrocodes

Chapter 15: Cosmic Macrocodes

Chapter 16: Measuring Confidence

Chapter 17: The 70 Sevens

Chapter 18: The Once and Future Calendar

Chapter 19: The Apocalypse Codes

Chapter 20: On the Fringe: Numerics and Gematria

SECTION VI:

METACODES: BEYOND OUR HORIZON

Chapter 21: Advanced Design Considerations

Chapter 22: The Code of Life

Chapter 23: Our Digital Universe

SECTION VII:

TREASURE HUNTING ON YOUR OWN

Chapter 24: Your Personal Adventure

Chapter 25: The Ultimate Code: You

APPENDICES

A. Rhetorical Devices (List)

B. List of Major Types (Macrocodes)

C. Old Testament Allusions in Revelation

D. List of Sevens in the Bible

E. An Eschatological Summary

F: The Last 12 Verses of Mark

G: The Mathematics of Beauty

H: Hidden Genealogy in Genesis 38

I: The Universal Constants, π and e

Endnotes

Index

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

This book draws on over 50 years of collecting snippets from a hobby of discovery, as well as a technical career in the information sciences. It is certain that there remains indebtedness that has gone unacknowledged. As one accumulates personal notes from lectures, conferences, and other encounters—many of them private—and then assembles them into various informal presentations over several decades of speaking, some of the source annotations are inevitably lost.

For historical background, we have drawn heavily from David Kahn’s Codebreakers. We are indebted to Rabbi Yakov Rambsel for his personal initiatives at highlighting many provocative discoveries hidden within the Biblical text. Certainly no one has been more effective at popularizing the “equidistant letter sequences” in a more constructive way than Grant Jeffrey’s Signature of God and its sequel, The Handwriting of God. For rabbinical background, we are indebted to many sources, but none more than Jeffrey Satinover’s Cracking the Bible Code, which uniquely demonstrated the necessity for cryptographic background to fully appreciate the issues involved.

It was through the personal tutelage of Gerry Schroeder in Jerusalem (and his book, Genesis and the Big Bang) and the insights of Michael Denton, Evolution: A Theory in Crisis, that my awe for the “Cosmic codes” was stimulated and my technical horizons were broadened.

Specific bibliographic references have been included in each chapter and in the extensive endnotes appended.

My most critical indebtedness is to Pastors Charles Schmitz and Theodore B. Hax, and William E. Biggs, who instilled an early passion for the Holy Scripture, and to Pastor Chuck Smith, Walter Martin, and Hal Lindsey, who as my personal mentors patiently endured my growing pains.

PREFACE

The interception and breaking of secret codes have tumbled proud thrones and determined the outcome of major wars since the dawn of history. The decipherment of hidden messages has turned the tide of history on more occasions than one can enumerate. Even today they continue to have more of an impact than any of us can possibly imagine.

Dedicated scientists continue to scan the heavens in their search for signals from distant galaxies. Committed teams of microbiologists and computer specialists continue their efforts to further decipher the genetic codes in our DNA. And now we discover that all this time there apparently have been hidden codes in the most widely distributed document on the Planet Earth—the Bible.

Is there a connection between all of these? Is there a relationship between the “Bible Codes” and the digital error-correcting codes hidden in our DNA? Is there a relationship between these digital codes and the discoveries of quantum physics at the very boundaries of reality itself?

Do these hidden codes hold the key to our personal odyssey in this interval between the miracle of our origin and the mystery of our destiny?

We also live in a time in which academic scholarship has seriously attacked the integrity of the Biblical text. No generation in history has been more skeptical of the notion that the Bible is anything more than a very constructive but specious collection of folklore and traditions. It is extremely provocative that modern technologies appear to have revealed discoveries that are desperately needed for our cynical and skeptical times.

This book will attempt to explore some of the recent discoveries that seem destined to impact each of us in ways that will eclipse all of our other priorities. We will, of course, begin by laying a foundation upon which we will attempt to build a balanced perspective.

There are actually many types of hidden codes in the Bible, and the recently controversial equidistant letter sequences are but one of them. There are those who are irrepressibly enthusiastic about the equidistant letter sequences in the Bible. There are others who dismiss these incidences as simply statistical oddities that will occur in any extensive corpus of text. And there are some who even regard the pursuit of these codes as having a sinister portent.

However, very few of the popular treatments of this intriguing subject evidence any background in cryptology, which is precisely the science at issue. Having spent a 30-year career in both military and civilian pursuits in advanced communication and information science technologies—including deeply classified ventures in the intelligence field—and, also, having more than three decades in serious Biblical studies, I felt that a broader approach to the subject of hidden messages was appropriate.

Are there really hidden messages in the Bible? If so, why?

We will, of course, also explore the controversial equidistant letter sequences, their potential significance, and their latent dangers. And yet the most astonishing codes are of the kind for which you do not need a computer.

We will explore some remarkable discoveries about the alphabets used in the Biblical texts and the microcodes which reveal some surprising aspects hidden behind the text itself.

But beyond the “jots and tittles” of the microcodes, we will also explore some far more profoundly significant macrocodes—codes that reveal the strategic structure of the composite messages, codes that transcend the time domain of the message segment itself—and which have irrefutable implications regarding the source of these messages and their significance.

We will begin our review by exploring some background in the art of cryptology, the study of secret writing, and some of the efforts which have been devoted to the pursuit of extraterrestrial communication—the attempts to discern signals from outside of our space-time.

What characteristics would an extraterrestrial communication require? How would we recognize an extraterrestrial message if we encountered one? How could we authenticate it—to distinguish it from a fraud, a contrivance, or an accident of chance circumstances?

We will also take a peek beyond our own horizon and explore the metacodes—those broader insights from the information sciences and the remarkable advances in microbiology which have permitted the deciphering of the “codes of life” within our own DNA. We will also explore some of the deeply disturbing insights of quantum physics which are confronting our very concepts of reality.

We will be on a path pursuing the most dramatic discoveries of our time—and while we will deal with some of the most challenging insights ever to confront mankind, the necessary technical background is within the grasp of any diligent reader. It will be an entrance to the most engaging adventure conceivable, and you will be challenged to participate personally.

It will, however, be of paramount importance to first “blindfold your prejudices” and presuppositions. This could well prove to be the most personally impacting book you have ever read. It might even alter your own personal destiny.

It will be helpful to carefully review the Table of Contents, noting the major sections of the book, to maintain an awareness of the overall structure as we begin our adventure.

Fasten your seat belts. It should prove to be great fun!

Chuck Missler

Coeur d’Alene, Idaho

SECTION I

Chapter 1

Secret Codes

Chapter 2

Codes From Other Worlds

Chapter 3

Basic Discoveries

Chapter 4

The First Cryptanalyst

1

CHAPTER 1

People never cease to be particularly fascinated by “secret writing,” or secret codes. A “code,” in the broadest sense, is any word or symbol which we agree corresponds to an element of experience of either a physical or a conceptual nature. Codes form the basic units of our language and of our thoughts and dreams. Most of the codes we encounter are open, direct, and fulfill pragmatic purposes. Some, however, we discover are hidden behind, or underneath, our day-to-day traffic of ideas. The ones which are hidden usually reveal an ulterior intent or purpose.

Cryptography is the science of writing messages that no one except the intended receiver can read. Cryptanalysis is the science of reading them anyway. Ever since the earliest times, military, political, and personal messages have been communicated by various means to restrict their contents to those intended and deny them to others. From the ancient palaces of our earliest cultures to the super-secret “black chambers” of our most modern command posts, the art of secret writing— and the science of their decipherment—have determined the course of history.

Cryptology—the study of secret codes and ciphers—has also been stimulated by its use in literature. Edgar Allen Poe’s The Gold Bug probably remains unequaled as a work of fiction, his tale turning upon a secret coded message.1 Sir Arthur Conan Doyle’s Sherlock Holmes encounters ciphers three times in his uniquely distinguished career. He demonstrated his thorough knowledge of the subject in The Adventure of the Dancing Men, where he recognized the use of little stick figures as cipher symbols.2 Jules Verne heightened the excitement of three of his novels with the mysteries of secret writing.3 Carl Sagan exploited an extraterrestrial code in his novel Contact, the subject of a recent major movie. (Extraterrestrial codes will be explored in the next chapter.)

The amazing ability to break a seemingly unintelligible cipher has always appeared mystical to the uninitiated. It undoubtedly was a major source of power to the priesthoods of the ancient empires. It was not surprising that the famed American coup over the Japanese naval codes in World War II was called “MAGIC.”4 (It is interesting that the very word derives from the Persian Magi and that the most famous cryptanalyst of all history was ultimately appointed to head this ancient priesthood. This will be explored in chapter 4.)

The best codes are those hidden behind an ostensibly innocuous message. Just how does one discover that such a code even exists? This is the very enigma that is taxing the greatest minds available today. But we are getting ahead of ourselves.

BASIC VOCABULARY

Every vocation has its unique vocabulary, and we should first review some basics. Plaintext refers to the message that will be put into a secret form. The message is hidden in two basic ways: methods of steganography, and cryptography. Steganography attempts to conceal the very existence of the message physically, with techniques such as invisible inks, microdots, hollow shoe soles, or satellite bursts, etc.

(However, sometimes the most effective codes are those which are “hidden in plain sight,” Edgar Allan Poe’s The Purloined Letter being a classic example from literature. The Cardano Grille and its close cousin, the equidistant letter sequences, can be considered as related cryptographic examples “hidden in plain sight,” to be discussed later in this chapter.)

Methods of cryptography, on the other hand, do not necessarily conceal the presence of the message but rather attempt to render it unintelligible to outsiders by various transformations of the plaintext.

To pass a plaintext through these transformations is to encipher or encode it, as the case may be. What results is the ciphertext; and the final secret message may also be called a cryptogram.

To decipher or decode involves persons legitimately possessing the key or system to reverse the transformations and thus reveal the original message. It contrasts with cryptanalysis, or codebreaking, in which persons who do not possess the key or system—a third party, the “enemy”—attempt to break down or solve the cryptogram.

CODES

Among systems of substitution, a code is distinguished from a cipher. In a cipher the basic unit is the letter, or group of letters. A code consists of a list of words, phrases, letters or symbols in which codewords, codenumbers, or codegroups, replace the plaintext elements. A portion of a code might look like this:

Codenumber

plaintext

3964

emplacing

1563

employ

7260

enable

8808

enabled

3043

enabled to

A code operates on linguistic entities, dividing its raw material into meaningful elements like words or phrases, whereas a cipher does not.5 A cipher operates at the letter level; it would split the t from the h in the, for example.

Perhaps the best known “code” was the one employed by Paul Revere:

1 = “one if by land”

2 = “two if by sea.”

This couldn’t have been cracked by the British even if they had had the best of modern computers available.

A popular form of field code is the book code. Both the sender and the receiver obtain identical copies of the same edition of a published book. To encode a word, the sender uses its page/line/word number. (Rare or specialized words can be spelled out using some previously agreed-upon convention.) The ubiquitous Gideon Bibles in hotel rooms are obvious candidates (perhaps too obvious).

CIPHERS

In contrast to cryptographic codes, ciphers involve transformations on the plaintext itself. Two basic cipher transformations exist: transposition, in which the letters of the plaintext are jumbled and their normal order is simply disarranged, such as in an anagram;6 and substitution, in which the letters of the plaintext are replaced by other letters, numbers, or symbols. And, of course, the two basic forms can be combined.

One of the earliest forms of transposition ciphers is called the Skytale (rhymes with “Italy”). It employed a mechanical aid. The originator took a straight rod and wrapped around this rod a long, thin, narrow strip of parchment in spiral fashion, with the edges touching. He would then write his message on the text running along the rod, each line following around the rod, as suggested in Fig. 1-1:

Figure 1-1:Skytale sketch

The recipient would use a similar rod of exactly the same diameter to reassemble the stream of letters into words and sentences. This was simply a mechanical means of a rendering rows of the plaintext into a vertical (columnar) presentation. (It is, of course, an easy code to break, and it also happens to be, in the example, equivalent to a “skipped letter sequence” with an interval of six. These will be explored further in chapter 11.)

(The Skytale is part of the logo of the American Cryptogram Association, the society of amateur cryptanalysts.)

Another simple form of a transposition cipher is called the Railfence Cipher and is shown below. The plaintext (“PLEASE HELP ME NOW”) is written in a series of “V’s” as shown, and the ciphertext is then read off in horizontal rows.

Plaintext: PLEASE HELP ME NOW.

Ciphertext: PHNLE EEOES LMWAP

(In most ciphers it is common practice to eliminate the spaces between words as they can yield too many clues for the analyst attempting to break the cipher. It is also normal practice to segment the ciphertext letters in groups of five for ease in counting.)

Another form of transposition is the Skipping Tramp. (“Transposition” is awkward to abbreviate; “transp” is too hard to pronounce, so it has evolved to “tramp” as the trade slang equivalent.) The Skipping Tramp simply exploits an agreed-upon series of numbers, such as 2-3-4-1-5, and the plaintext is excerpted applying this sequencing repeatedly until exhausted. It is a tedious and error-prone procedure that is also easily defeated. (The equidistant letter sequences being uncovered in the Biblical text can be considered one of the simplest forms of a Skipping Tramp.)

More sophisticated transposition ciphers can take the form of a columnar tramp. The example below is a message that is first written in six columns:

Plaintext: “Cinderella be home before midnight.”

123456

CINDER

ELLABE

HOMEBE

FOREMI

DNIGHT

These columns are then shuffled in accordance with a previously agreed-upon keyword. The letters of the keyword are then alphabetized to determine the column order; e.g., a keyword like “DARKLY,” alphabetized as “ADKLRY,” would indicate six columns taken in the order of 2, 1, 4, 5, 3, 6:

DARKLY

ADKLRY

2 1 4 5 3 6

The columns are then copied (vertically) in that order. It is usual to divide the resulting ciphertext into groups of five letters to mask any parsing information (such as column or word breaks) from an intruder. Thus, our example would encipher as:

ILOON CEHFD DAEEG EBBMH NLMRI REEIT

Incidentally, when the last row is short, resulting in columns of unequal length, that is an advantage since an incomplete columnar tramp is more difficult to break.

Most letters have preferred positions within words. Techniques of cryptanalysis include vowel distribution methods,7 geometric means, analysis of variances, digram frequencies, and other sophisticated statistical tools.

One of the ways that the history of cryptography has advanced has been to recognize the regularity and patterns that remain. Another way to increase the difficulty of breaking a cipher is to employ double transposition—to impose the above process a second time on the resulting ciphertext.8

Other forms of transposition ciphers include the Cardano grille and its close cousin, the turning grill, which will be discussed shortly.

SUBSTITUTION CIPHERS

In a substitution cipher, the order of the plaintext isn’t changed, but new letters (or symbols) are substituted for the ones in the plaintext. A Caesar Cipher, is a very simple cipher in which each letter in the plaintext is replaced by a letter a fixed number of positions later in the alphabet, say three:

Plaintext:

THIS IS A FASCINATING BOOK.

Ciphertext:

WKLVL VDIDV FLQDW LQJER RN

Substitution systems are generally much more diverse and important than transposition systems. They typically rely on the concept of a cipher alphabet, a list of equivalents which are used to transform the plaintext into the secret form.

An example of one-to-one mapping is shown below:

plaintext letters:

a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r s t u v w x y z

cipher letters:

B Q A C S R D T O F V M H W I J X G K Y U N Z E P L

Thus, enemy would become SWSHP, and RIS would reduce to foe. (Notice that the repetition of the S’s hint of the repeated e’s, incidentally. This preservation of frequency effects is a key weakness.)

Sometimes a cipher alphabet will provide for multiple alternative substitutes for a letter. These alternates are sometimes called homophones. (Strangely, these even show up in genetic codes, such as our DNA, which will be explored in chapter 22.)

Sometimes a cipher alphabet will also include symbols that mean nothing, called nulls, which are simply included to confuse any interceptors.

Substitution ciphers come in four basic varieties:

1) Monoalphabetic, where letters are the basic unit of encipherment and each symbol in the ciphertext stands for a unique plaintext letter. (There can be more than one ciphertext equivalent for any given plaintext letter.)

2) Polyalphabetic, where single letters are the basic unit, but a number of alternative substitution alphabets are utilized in rotation (or some other scheme) to encipher successive letters of the plaintext. Thus, in one part of the ciphertext, the letter “X” might stand for the plaintext “m” while in another place the cipher letter “X might stand for the plaintext “g,” etc.

3) Polygraphic, where two or more plaintext letters form the unit of encipherment.

4) Block Substitution, which includes Fractionating schemes. The government’s Data Encryption Standard is of this type.

POLYALPHABETIC SYSTEMS

As long as only one cipher alphabet is in use, as above, the system is called monoalphabetic. The intrinsic weakness of monoalphabetic systems is that the frequency patterns of the letters in the plaintext are carried over into the ciphertext. (This is even evident in the trivial examples above.) The use of multiple and dynamically changing alphabets was a major advance in cryptology. One type of polyalphabetic substitution ciphers was considered to be unbreakable for well over four centuries. It is called the Vigènere Polyalphabetic Cipher, based on a scheme originally invented by Leon Battista Alberti around 1466, which has been modified and improved since then.9 It was not until the 19th century that Kasiski developed a method of cracking the system regularly.

The polyalphabetic cipher involves the use of a key word in which each of the letter’s cardinal positions repetitively shift a Caesar cipher for each letter of the plaintext. This is usually accomplished through a table such as shown in Fig. 1-2.10

The keyword is repetitively written above the plaintext, and then the letters of both the keyword and the plaintext are used as entries into the table to obtain the ciphertext letters. Using “Darkly” as a keyword:

Keyword:

D a r k l y D a r k l y D a r k l y D a

Plaintext:

T h i s i s a s a m p l e m e s s a g e.

Ciphertext:

W H Z C T Q D S R W A J H M V C D Y J E

Thus, a given ciphertext letter may stand for different plaintext letters. (In the example, W stands for T in one case, M in another. H stands for H in one case, E in another. J for L in one case, G in another. With a five-letter keyword, five different cipher alphabets are used. The longer the keyword or keyphrase, the better. The ultimate keyword, or keyphrase, is one which is as long as the message itself.)

Figure 1-2: Vigenére Table

This denies the cryptanalyst two of his most powerful tools: letter frequencies and digram (letter pairing) frequencies. All letter frequencies (and digrams) are thus blurred by being enciphered by many different alphabets.

Blaise de Vigènere didn’t invent the polyalphabetic cipher that bears his name—Alberti did—but somehow his name has become attached to it. However, in 1585 he did come very close to inventing the most modern form of polyalphabetic cipher, which is called the one-time-pad. The only truly unbreakable cipher is one whose key is as long as the message, is totally random, and is never reused.

POLYGRAPHIC SYSTEMS

In most ciphers the basic unit is a single letter, but sometimes they exploit a letter-pair (digraph or digram) or larger groups of letters (polygrams). Perhaps the most well-known example of digraphic encipherment is the Playfair Cipher. (It was actually invented by Charles Wheatstone, but its enthusiastic promotion by Lyon Playfair, first Baron Playfair of St. Andrews, a scientist and public figure in Victorian England, caused it to be known in the War Office as “Playfair’s Cipher,” and the name has stuck to this day.)11

The Playfair Cipher is a simple, practical system which requires no special equipment, and properly used, provides a high level of protection for modest messages. It is based on a 5 x 5 matrix of the alphabet (our alphabet of 26 having been reduced to 25 by combining I and J as a single letter). The plaintext is then divided into pairs of letters (with an X inserted between any double letters).12 The plaintext letters are replaced as follows: if they occur in the same row or same column, they are replaced with the letters below, or to the right, respectively. If they are in different rows or columns, they define the corners of a rectangle and are replaced with the letters on the opposing diagonal. Decipherment is accomplished by simply reversing the process. An example is shown in Fig. 1-3.

Plaintext:

MUST COME NOW

MU ST CO ME NO WX

Ciphertext:

RP XY ND BP ST BC

RPXYN DBPST BC

Figure 1-3: The Playfair Code

To simplify the example, the alphabet was inserted in the matrix without a keyword. Normally the letters are inserted following a prearranged keyword, each letter in alphabetic order with no repetitions, and the unused letters following.13

The power of the method is that it obliterates the single-letter characteristics and undercuts monographic methods of frequency analysis. Encipherment by digraphs also halves the number of elements available for frequency analysis. Furthermore, the number of potential digraphs is far greater than the number of single letters, and consequently the linguistic characteristics are more widespread and have substantially less opportunity to individualize themselves.14

This method was very attractive as a field cipher: it required no special tables or apparatus. It required only a keyword that could be easily remembered and readily changed, and it was so simple that it could be easily executed in any hotel room. It was first used by the British War Office in the Boer War. It was also used when corresponding with T. E. Lawrence (of Arabia).15 It was also used by German spies during World War II who used Gideon Bibles, which could be found in any hotel room, for the keyphrases, drawing typically on the Book of Proverbs, using the chapter and verse corresponding to the day and the month, respectively. (The Book of Proverbs has 31 chapters, and no chapter has fewer than 12 verses.)

BLOCK SUBSTITUTION SYSTEMS

The difference between a stream cipher and a block cipher is that in the former you can obtain each ciphertext letter as each plaintext letter is read in, whereas in the latter you have to accumulate a block of letters before you encipher anything. Transposition ciphers are all of the block kind, as exemplified by the turning grilles, etc. In modern computer and communication use, dealing with entire blocks of letters is not a problem and can give rise to more highly advanced methods.

The National Bureau of Standards’ Data Encryption Standard (DES) involves a 64-bit key that controls 17 stages of polyalphabetic substitution, each alternated with 16 stages of transposition. Cryptanalysis involves an exhaustive search of all 2^64 keys.

(It was the author’s pursuit and personal support in developing this standard into a microchip that was singularly responsible for bringing Western Digital Corporation out of bankruptcy, and from which it has since grown into a Fortune 500 company.)

Fractionating schemes are also a form of block substitution cipher in which fractions—or sub-parts—of letters are treated as units of encipherment. They are best understood as combinations of substitution and transposition such as Bifid ciphers or Trifid, its close cousin, in which letters are referenced by the row and column numbers of a matrix of a scrambled alphabet, and these coordinates are then scrambled by various mathematical schemes.

Attacking such codes requires Chi-square analysis, indices of coincidence, and other advanced statistical techniques, but these are far beyond the scope of this brief survey.

ONE-WAY KEYS

In 1976, Whitfield Diffie and Martin E. Hellman of Stanford University forever changed the cryptographic landscape with their open publication of one-way keys. In conventional cryptosystems, a single key is used for both encryption and decryption. Such systems are called symmetric. The weakness of these systems is their requirement of protecting any exchange of such keys over a secure channel, which is inconvenient at best. (If a secure channel were available, why use encryption in the first place?)

The introduction of Diffie and Hellman to asymmetric keys made possible the concept by “public key cryptography,” which allows the participants to communicate without requiring a secret means of delivering the keys. It is possible to have a system in which one key is used for encryption and a different key for decipherment. One can publish the encryption key widely for those who would send a message. The encryption key is useless for decipherment. When the message is received by the intended recipient, his private complementary key is used for deciphering the message. This private key is available to no one.

Asymmetric cryptosystems are based on mathematical techniques that are easy to compute in one direction but excessively onerous and slow to solve in the reverse. The two main public-key algorithms are the Diffie-Helman (and its variants such as the Digital Signature Standard from the National Institute of Standards and Technology, ElGamal, and elliptic curve approaches) and RSA, developed at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology by Ronald L. Rivest, Adi Shamir, and Leonard M. Adleman. A fairly advanced form of encryption technology is known as “PGP,” for “Pretty Good Protection,” and is readily available over the Internet for the diligent.16 These systems can also be adapted for authentication and electronic “signatures” for approving documents, contracts, and the like over email, etc.

The ability to communicate through the Internet, within which a gigantic and dynamically changing data base is simultaneously available to both a sender and a receiver, also makes practical, reasonably secure encryption widely available for industrial and private uses. Symmetric systems are still the most efficient, and the public key techniques, while involving more substantial computational loads, make the conveyance of the necessary keys secure. The ability to share extensive, dynamically changing keys, accompanied by necessary sophisticated software at both ends, makes practical protection readily available to anyone. The open availability of this technology leaves those who abhor privacy—especially governments and extreme “liberals”—very uncomfortable.

The computing power presently available on the author’s own desk exceeds the computing power which was available to him when he headed up the Computer Center of the Ford Motor Company in the 1960s The mathematical sophistication now available to an encryptor, and demanded by the would-be cryptanalyst, staggers the imagination.

It is interesting to review the development of mechanical aids to cryptographic techniques from a historical perspective.

CIPHER DISKS

Single-step monoalphabetic substitution ciphers generally prevailed until the 15th century. Then there emerged a series of advances that not only transformed cryptology, but laid the foundation for both advanced statistics and the computer. Among those advances was the appearance of the “cipher disk,” generally attributed to the first of the “Renaissance men,” Leon Battista Alberti (1404-1472), who became known as “the father of cryptology.”17 By taking two copper disks, a larger stationary one on the same axis as a smaller movable one, and inscribing each with a sequence of letters, it made simple substitution ciphers more convenient and easier to use.

The crucial addition was the ability to change the position of the index during the message, resulting in the modern polyalphabetic cipher which was vastly more complex that those which were previously in use. The Wheatstone Disk and Thomas Jefferson’s Cipher Wheels were also mechanical variations of such devices. Modern cipher machines produce polyalphabetic ciphers that can exploit millions of cipher alphabets.

The U.S. army form of Jefferson’s wheel cipher

Figure 1-4: Cipher Disks

(There are some scholars who speculate that Ezekiel’s “wheels within wheels” may be a hint of polyalphabetic applications hidden within the Biblical text.18)

AUTOKEYS

Most ciphers employ a key, which specifies such things as the arrangement of the letters within a cipher alphabet, the pattern of shuffling in a transposition, or the settings on a cipher machine.

Blaise de Vigènere, in 1585, invented the “autokey” in which the encrypted message itself makes up the key. After the first letter (or word or phrase), known to both the sender and the recipient, the deciphered plaintext becomes the key for the subsequent encipherment of the remaining ciphertext. Using an Alberti cipher disk, for example, after a key word, the deciphered letters of the plaintext continue to tell the recipient of this polyalphabetic cipher how the inner wheel should be turned against the outer.

THE CARDANO GRILLE

Another of the remarkable “Renaissance men” was Girolamo Cardano of Pavia in the 16th century. A highly successful physician,19 Cardano was also an outstanding mathematician, publishing the earliest solutions for cubic and quadratic equations.20 One of Cardano’s contributions to cryptology reflected his background in kabbalistic encoding and decoding—skipping letters within an otherwise plausible ciphertext. (His method also anticipated a form of masking used in computer instruction processing.) His method consisted of a mask (“grille”) with precut holes. The encoder writes his plaintext in the holes, removes the mask, and then fills the remainder with blind text (nulls), preferably retaining the appearance of an innocuous message.

To decipher the message, the recipient must possess a mask (or “grille”) identical to the sender’s, or must know the spacing that created it.

Figure 1-5: Cardano Grille

(The “equidistant letter sequences” which have been discovered in the Bible are the equivalent of a simplified Cardano Grille and will be explored in chapter 11.)

The primary difficulty with this method is, of course, that any awkwardness in the phrasing of the cover message may betray the existence of a hidden message.21 Such “awkwardness,” however, can also be deliberate to enlist the attention of the specially informed to look deeper. (Such a clue is called a remez, and will also be explored in chapter 11.)

A close cousin of the Cardano Grille was the Turning Grille used by the Germans. A turning grille is usually a square sheet of cardboard divided into cells. One quarter of these are punched out in a pattern such that when the grille is rotated to its four ordinal positions, all the cells on the paper beneath will be exposed and none will be exposed more than once. A 6 x 6 grille and its application for a 36-letter message is shown in Fig. 1-6, which follows.

This is laid over a sheet of paper and the first nine letters are written through the apertures. Then it is turned 90°, the next nine letters written through the openings, and so on for two more turns. By then each of the 36 cells on the paper will have a letter inscribed in it. Then the letters can be taken off in any predetermined order.

Figure 1-6: The Turning Grille

Grille systems are particularly susceptible to multiple anagramming, which is the general solution for transposition systems. They are not very effective for purposes of secrecy; the German use of grilles against the French only lasted four months.22 (However, such grilles can serve as a subtle means of authentication. We will explore this application of anagrams, acrostics, and related techniques in subsequent sections of this book.)

MATHEMATICAL STATISTICS

The pursuit of cracking an unknown code increasingly relies on the techniques of mathematical statistics. While the development of mathematics has many very ancient roots, the field of mathematical statistics is of a much more recent vintage. It wasn’t until the 17th century that Sir John Wallis, England’s preeminent cryptologist, driven by the advent of polyalphabetic ciphers, laid the foundations for calculus and the binomial theorem, a crucial element in the science of statistics.

But it was a French contemporary of Wallis, Blaise Pascal, who was to lay the foundation for modern statistical science and who is also venerated by many as the “father of the computer.” The Pascal computer language was named after him.23 Having completed the equivalent of a doctoral education in the humanities, arts, and sciences by the age of 12, he was breaking new ground in calculus and conic sections^24 by the age of 16. But as a mathematician, Pascal is best known for having laid the groundwork for the theory of probability, the cornerstone of the field of statistics.25

It should be understood that mathematics is generally deterministic: two times two always equals four. Engineers and scientists are the beneficiaries of Western civilization which is largely deterministic in its physics, relying on a conceptual model of “cause-and-effect.” It takes a special insight and training to deal with stochastic (probabilistic) variables, and the skills and talent to successfully deal with statistical models are relatively rare. (The paradoxes which have emerged from quantum physics, and from the departure from “cause and effect” determinism, will be explored in chapter 23.)

THE ANALYTICAL ENGINE

One of the most remarkable cryptologists of the 19th century was Charles Babbage, the Lucasian Professor of Mathematics at Cambridge University.26 His fascination with statistical phenomena led to a lifelong attempt to apply machinery to the calculation of mathematical tables. By “reversing” the cryptographic machines to focus on more general calculations, he devised a series of “difference engines.” The logical design of his now-famous “Analytical Engine” led to the designs of the modern electronic computers of today.

WORLD WAR II

From Alberti’s cipher disks and Cardano’s autokey were derived the more sophisticated encoding machines developed by the Germans, known as ENIGMA, in World War II. These, in turn, would also pressure the development of the modern computer.

ENIGMA was the supposedly invulnerable Nazi war code. Extremely clever, this code seemed to elude all previous attempts to decipher it. One of the best-kept secrets of World War II was not revealed until 1974 when it was disclosed by the National Security Agency (NSA) that the Poles had quietly broken the vaunted Enigma encryption scheme. Its continued evolutions were monitored by ULTRA, a top-secret project in London. By incorporating mathematical, statistical, and machine-based computing advances, including those which came out of the atomic bomb project at Los Alamos, the British and their allies were able to keep one step ahead of the continually mutating ENIGMA scheme.

The uncanny ability of General Erwin Rommel to anticipate the Allies’ every move was the result of the German cryptologists having cracked the American military code known as “BLACK.”27 When the cracking was discovered, in the fall of 1942, the tables turned and on October 23, 1942, Rommel’s vaunted Afrika Korps was defeated at El Alamein. “Before Alamein,” said Winston Churchill, “we never had a victory; after Alamein, we never had a defeat.”28

The Japanese had also adapted the ENIGMA machine into their own advanced variation, known among the Allies as “PURPLE.” Through the brilliance and dedication of William Friedman, head of the fledgling Signal Intelligence Service (the predecessor to the present National Security Agency), after 20 months of intense effort (and resulting in his subsequent mental collapse), the code was broken.

A German official had been leaked news of the cracking of PURPLE and had passed this information on to Tokyo. Fortunately, the Japanese refused to believe it. But the Japanese weren’t the only skeptics. It is disturbing to learn that the Signal Intelligence Service had warned their superiors about the Japanese plans for Pearl harbor—to the day and hour—but these warnings were dismissed.29

(There seems to be an eerie parallel in the present willingness by many to dismiss the controversial “Bible codes” as well.)

The abrupt vanquishing of the Nazi North Atlantic submarine wolfpacks, the air interception of Japan’s Admiral Yamamoto—who had devised the attack on Pearl Harbor—and the pivotal destruction of the Japanese carrier fleet at the Battle of Midway, were all results of the breaking of secret codes.

THE ADVENT OF THE COMPUTER

The recognition and urgency of the development of ever more sophisticated techniques in cryptology, computation, and mathematical statistics led to the ULTRA project. Two of the quiet heroes of the ULTRA endeavor were Alan Turing in London and John von Neumann at Los Alamos, both world-renowned mathematicians. Turing became known as the “father of computing software” and the theory of automata; Von Neumann, the “father of the modern computer” itself. It was Turing and Von Neumann who developed, from scratch, the high-speed computers and the sophisticated statistical techniques that could be applied to the decryption of complex codes, as well as the intensely iterative methods of advanced physics essential to the development of the atomic bomb.

A computer can be viewed as simply a calculator that pushes its own buttons. It was the architectural concept that programs, as well as data, could be stored in memory, which could thus lend themselves to self-modification, that distinguishes a computer from a simple calculator. This capability for self-modifying programs has led to the astonishing capabilities of today’s machines and the potential of the more generalized cognitive abilities of the infinite state machine. (Some of these implications will be explored in Section VI.)

The urgency of unequaled cryptographic sophistication has continued to increase as our military assets include space vehicles which require absolute controlling links via open communication channels with the ground and with the emergence of the battlefield of the future in which the electronic warfare tends to be won or lost on the drawing boards many years prior to any actual engagement.

It is interesting to notice how the cycle of cryptographic development has closed. The art of encryption had its roots in textual manipulations of the Kabbalah of Jewish mysticism (to be discussed in chapter 13). These techniques led to cipher wheels and other mechanical aids of the Renaissance, which ultimately led to the computer. It seems fitting that it is now the computer which appears to be opening up secrets which may have been hidden there long before our history began.

The ultimate challenge still remains before us. Beyond the manipulations by military or political figures, even beyond the defense aspects, the more provocative question is, are there more cosmic codes—codes of extraterrestrial origin? These will turn up in the most surprising place imaginable! Indeed, hidden in plain sight.

SUGGESTIONS FOR FURTHER READING:

Kahn, David, The Code Breakers, MacMillan, New York, 1967. Contains 1167 pages of history of codes and ciphers from ancient times to the present day, with emphasis on the people involved.

Gaines, Helen Fouche, Cryptoanalysis, Dover, New York, 1939. The amateur cryptanalyst’s bible.

Sinkov, Abraham, Elementary Cryptanalysis, The Mathematical Association of America, 1966. Analysis of the mathematics involved.

Ohauer, M. E., Cryptogram Solving, The Etcetera Press, Columbus, Ohio, 1973.

Bowers, William M., Practical Cryptanalysis, 3 Vols., The American Cryptogram Association, 1960. See below.

Winterbotham, F. W., The Ultra Secret, Futura Publications Ltd., London, 1974. How the Allies broke the German ciphers in World War II.

Clarke, Ronald, The Man Who Broke Purple, Little, Brown, Boston, 1977. The biography of William Friedman.

Zimmerman, Phil, PGP© for Personal Privacy, Network Associates, 2805 Bowers Avenue, Santa Clara, CA 95051. (408) 988-3832, internet: www.nai.com

JOURNALS:

Cryptologia, Albion College, Albion, Michigan 49224. The scholarly journal of the field.

The Cryptogram, American Cryptogram Association, 1007 Montrose Avenue, Laurel, Maryland 20810. Official publication of the amateur society.

2

CHAPTER 2

The ultimate challenge for the cryptologist is the message from an unknown culture. These can include records left by a lost civilization or a message from a world beyond our own.

PARACRYPTOLOGY

The decipherment of lost or unknown writing of ancient civilizations shares many of the techniques with cryptanalysis. The saga of brilliant and dedicated men, whose diligence unlocked the treasures of past civilizations, shares the same frustrations and challenges—and draws upon many of the same skills—as the cryptanalysts exploit in the depths of the National Security Agency at Fort Meade.

In one way the linguistic problem is easier because there has been no deliberate concealment. In another way, however, it is far more difficult because an entire language must be reconstructed. But how do you read the unknown writing of a civilization long dead? How can one give voice to mute stones long silent?

Egyptian hieroglyphics are a classic example. (“Hieroglyph” means “sacred carvings.”) The domination of Egypt by foreign conquerors, beginning with Persian conquest of 525 B.C. and continuing with the Greeks under Alexander, severed this intriguing script from its original political roots. As the people began to write in the Greek alphabet of their rulers, the uniqueness of hieroglyphics became increasingly limited and gradually became the professional secrets of the priests. The hieroglyphic vocabulary contracted, inscriptions grew increasingly stereotyped, and the hieroglyphic tradition ultimately flickered out.

THE ROSETTA STONE

Scholars continued to be fascinated with hieroglyphs over the centuries but generated more fanciful folklore than insight. However, quite by accident, a stone that exhibited three different scripts—hieroglyphic, demotic, and Greek—was discovered by members of Napoleon’s expedition to Egypt in 1799, a few miles north of Rashid (French, Rosette; English, Rosetta) on the Mediterranean Coast 30 miles east of Alexandria. The Greek text stated clearly that the document set forth the same text in the sacred hieroglyphic script (Old Egyptian), the folk or popular Demotic script (New Egyptian), and Greek.30

Despite the fact that the stone provided three parallel language versions of the same text, it remained for Jean-François Champollion, several decades later, to solve the riddles of this cryptic language. His success was due to his recognition that hieroglyphic writing, exactly like the hieratic and demotic scripts derived from it, did not constitute a writing system of symbols but rather a phonetic script. Starting, as had his predecessors, from Ptolemy and Cleopatra, both ring-enclosed royal names, and adding the hieroglyphic spelling of Ramses’ name, Champollion determined, essentially correctly, the phonetic values of the signs. Soon after, he also learned to read and translate a large number of Egyptian words. Since then, precise research has confirmed and refined Champollion’s approach and most of his results. By recognizing its phonetic character, he was able to release the sounds and insights from the inscriptions which had been struck dumb through the erosion of time and guarded only by the Sphinx through the succeeding ages of silence.

THE BEHISTUN BILLBOARD

Similarly, Henry C. Rawlinson, clinging like Indiana Jones to the sheer rock face of the high precipitous cliff of Behistun in Iran, copied the trilingual inscription that had been emblazoned on it. Written in Babylonian, Old Persian, and Elamite, the inscription records the way in which, after the death of Cambyses II (reigned 529-522 B.C.), Darius I (reigned 522-486 B.C.) killed the usurper Gaumata, defeated the rebels, and assumed the throne.31 The organization of the Persian territories into satrapies or provinces is also recorded. This giant billboard from antiquity solved the Old Persian cuneiform and laid the foundation for the solution of the syllabic cuneiform used to write Akkadian, the ancient language of Babylonia and Assyria.

EXTRATERRESTRIAL COMMUNICATION

Among the most intriguing possibilities which haunt (and in some cases, obsess) modern man are the prospects of codes or signals from worlds beyond our own. The detection of a communication from another realm of existence is widely regarded as the greatest event which could happen in human history. The discovery that other beings may inhabit the same corner of eternity as man would profoundly alter human thought, and it is anticipated by many that it would open unimaginable vistas of technical, philosophical, and theological perspectives.32

This book was motivated by the discovery of what might prove to be just such a communication which is presently in our possession and which is just beginning to be understood. But first, let’s review some background.

PROJECT OZMA

In 1960 an attempt was undertaken to detect radio signals from outer space. Named the Ozma Project (after the Princess of Oz in Frank Baum’s imaginative tales), it was conducted by attaching a special receiver to the 85-foot radio telescope at the U.S. National Radio Astronomy Observatory at Green Bank, West Virginia. The telescope was aimed at two nearby stars, Epsilon Eridani and Tau Ceti,33 both about 11 light years from Earth, and the receiver tuned to the wavelengths of interstellar hydrogen. However, after about 150 hours of observation over a four-month period, no recognizable signals were detected.

A second experiment, called Ozma II, was conducted at the same observatory by Benjamin Zuckerman and Patrick Palmer, who intermittently monitored more than 650 nearby stars for about four years, 1973-1976.

Despite the lack of any success in these efforts, an intrepid optimism has continued.

CETI

In September 1971, 84 of the world’s top scientists gathered at the Byurakan Astrophysical Observatory, Yerevan, Armenia, for a conference on Communication with Extraterrestrial Intelligence (CETI), jointly sponsored by the U.S. National Academy of Sciences and Akademiiâ nauk SSSR, the Academy of Sciences of the USSR. Within daily sight of Mount Ararat, on which Noah’s Ark is believed to be beached, they explored their various views on the prospects of encountering extraterrestrial communication. The proceedings of this conference make fascinating reading as they pooled their informed insights from the many fields of scientific endeavor which were so competently represented.34

The framework for the conference was provided by a formulation, originally proposed by Frank Drake of Project Ozma, and known as the Green Bank formula,

N = R*fpneflfifcL

where N is the number of extant civilizations in the Milky Way Galaxy at or beyond our level of technological advancement, expressed as the product of seven factors:

R*

is the rate of star formation, averaged over the lifetime of the galaxy, in units of number of stars per year;

fp

is the fraction of stars which have planetary systems;

ne

is the mean number of planets within such planetary systems which are ecologically suitable for life;

fl

is the fraction of such planets on which the origin of life actually occurs;

fi

is the fraction of such planets on which, after the origin of life, intelligence in some form arises;

fc

is the fraction of such planets in which the intelligent beings develop to a communicative phase; and

L

is the mean lifetime of such technical civilizations.

The factor R* is the province of astrophysics, as is fp; ne is determined at the boundary between astronomy and biology; fl is largely a topic of organic chemistry and biochemistry; fi is largely a topic in neurophysiology and the evolution of advanced organisms; fc is a topic in anthropology, archaeology, and history. The last term, L, includes the very nebulous area of predicting the future of societies; it involves psychology, psychopathology, history, politics, sociology, and many other fields.

The conventional view is that there are about 2 x 10^11 stars in our galaxy, which has an estimated age of about 10^10 years, yielding an R* of 10 stars per year as a reasonably informed guess. Synthesizing the contemporary theories of star formation, origin of planets, and the countervailing factors of distance, temperature, etc., it is typically inferred that fpne is about one. Assigning the optimistic value of one to fl still leaves fifc, for which some evolutionary biologists would consider an estimate of 10-2 as conservative. L is even more problematical, but even an estimate of about 10 years leads to the conclusion that there is only one technical civilization in our galaxy—our own.35

Despite the conspicuous competence of the outstanding CETI participants—representing the world’s “best of the best” in each of their fields—the heady discussions could, ultimately, only aspire to cascading further subjective probabilities for each of the factors. The profound and far-ranging discussions, while intellectually stimulating, could not escape the acknowledgment that life on Planet Earth remains a unique event, a singular discovery with no other empirical data points—“a miracle rather than a statistic.”36 Furthermore, it was acknowledged that life is a matter of information, not unaided energy alone.37

The ultimately pessimistic outlook which emerged from the conference was, of course, derived from incredible uniqueness emerging from the delicate balance between the virtually innumerable factors that conspire to permit life on Planet Earth—interestingly labeled the “anthropic principle”—which renders any rational estimate of other civilizations as extremely unlikely.38

THE ANTHROPIC PRINCIPLE

Scientists, compiling the many physical and mathematical subtleties which make up our universe, have discovered that a slight variation in any of them militates against the existence of life. At the cosmic level, if Earth was either closer or more distant from the sun; if Earth was larger or smaller; if the sun was larger or smaller; any of these variations would render life impossible. Even at the atomic and sub-atomic level, the slightest variation in any of the primary constants of physics—some as sensitive as one part in 10,000—causes life to be impossible. They call this appearance of ostensible design the “anthropic principle” since it gives the appearance that the universe was designed specifically for man. The application of this perspective has even been the basis for some surprising new discoveries.39

The CETI conference struggled to end on an optimistic note but without any supporting evidence. However, our continuing ventures into various space programs are fueled by an intrepid optimism on the part of many, so the search efforts continue.

SETI

Substantial resources are, of course, continuing to be directed toward the Search for ExtraTerrestrial Intelligence (SETI). Elaborate radio telescopes continue to search the heavens for signals from, it is hoped, other civilizations. This was the obsession of Carl Sagan before he died and is the subject of a number of popular movies, such as Contact, a dramatization of Sagan’s own provocative novel.

The Million-channel ExtraTerrestrial Assay (META) at the Harvard/Smithsonian observatory is fed by a 26-meter, steerable Cassegrainian radio telescope which became operational in 1985. After five years of scanning for narrow-band radio signals (near the 1420 MHz line of neutral hydrogen), the META hardware has searched more than 60 trillion channels. During that time there have been 37 candidate “events” received which have exceeded the average detection threshold. These “events” were, in fact, electromagnetic signals of varying duration that were determined to be of non-Earth origin. However, they were published with no fanfare in the Astrophysical Journal.40 When we inquired as to why the anomalous signals were not considered extremely significant, public relations officials at SETI in Palo Alto, California, stated that they were not repeatable events; that is, when the anomalous regions were re-scanned, the signals did not repeat.41 No explanation for the signals was given other than they were “unidentified.”

(For a more comprehensive discussion on the history and prospects of extraterrestrial intercepts, see Alien Encounters, by Chuck Missler and Mark Eastman, from this same publisher.)

EXTRADIMENSIONAL COMMUNICATION

Even so, considering the light years of separation between potential communicants, and assuming that the limitation of the speed of light is an apparently intractable limit, conversations would have to proceed at very leisurely pace.

(Recent speculations, however, suggest that gravity waves may not be subject to the same limitations. Gravity may not be tied to the permittivity and permeability of free space as velocity of light is and thus may not be subject to the same kinds of restrictions.42)

Another possibility of extraterrestrial communication would be extra-dimensional rather than simply intergalactic. Having its source from outside of our space-time, such communication would also be outside of some of the restrictions which constrain us. (We will explore just such communication in our next section.)

All of this, of course, would require more than simply the reception and recognition of a signal. It would require the interpretation of the communication to yield any meaningful insights. Yet, how could we understand a message from beings so utterly remote from us, whose modes of thought are likely to be so distant from our own experience?

EXTRATERRESTRIAL LANGUAGES

How would we communicate to worlds beyond our own? What would the language of transmission be? There would seem to be limited opportunity for a show-and-tell type of approach.

As for the language for the text, no one on Earth can really make a useful guess. It would seem that the overriding principle would be to make the message as clear as possible. It would be coded, but coded for clarity, not for obscurity. It would be cryptography in reverse. A knowledge of letter frequencies, Kerckhoff’s superimpositions, and other cryptanalysis tools are useless on the plaintext of an unknown language.

In the pursuit of a suitable interstellar language, speculations have been offered through the centuries by Descartes, Leibnitz, Dalgarno, and others. Russian linguist N. D. Andreyev of the Leningrad Academy of Sciences has suggested pursuing statistical combinatory techniques. Others have suggested sounds, colors, or pictures. Jean-François Sudre proposed a seven-note/seven-color scheme which was adapted for Steven Spielberg’s blockbuster movie, Close Encounters of the Third Kind.

Near the end of the 19th century, the Italian mathematician Giuseppe Peano sought to reduce as much as possible of the language used in mathematics and logic to formulas. His ideas were picked up by Alfred North Whitehead and Bertrand Russell whose revolutionary Principia Mathematica exposed the foundations of mathematics and showed those of logic to be identical. Today, mathematical logic, an outgrowth of their work, boasts a large vocabulary of syntactical terms with which to express the relations between ideas.

This syntax could also serve as the skeleton of the interstellar language based on logic. The flesh of such a language is formed by its vocabulary, and this is the work of Dr. Hans Freudenthal, professor of mathematics at the University of Utrecht in the Netherlands. Freudenthal designed it more as an exercise in logical language rather than as a serious proposal for interstellar communication, though he believes it could fulfill such a function. He called his language “Lincos” from lingua cosmica. Its use would consist of radio signals of various lengths and frequencies; its word-divisions and punctuation consist of pauses of varying duration. His plan is rather elaborately developed in his book, Lincos: Design of a Language for Cosmic Intercourse.

Lancelot Hogben, a Fellow of the Royal Society, editor of The Loom of Language, is also an inventor of an interstellar language. He agreed with Freudenthal concerning the establishment of temporal signals, but emphasized the need to establish a common factual framework based upon mutual experience, which he assumes would have to be celestial phenomena. His own proposal was called “Astraglossa,” responding to an invitation of the British Interplanetary Society in the early 1950s.

Any proposed schema would, of course, inevitably impose significant cryptological skills on the participants at both ends.

PICTORIAL PROPOSALS

A pictorial approach has the appeal of concreteness. In the computer industry we often quip that “a picture is worth 1024 words.” Arthur C. Clarke suggested a pictorial language from the model of television. Writing itself began as a series of pictures. In China, a script that consists of formalized pictures is read and understood to mean identical things by Chinese whose speech is mutually unintelligible.43 A skull and crossbones on a medicine bottle means the same thing to an American, a Frenchman, or a German. Many other pictorial symbols serve to communicate between persons whose languages differ: road signs, chemical formulas, notes of music, Arabic numerals.

The earliest suggestions to signal man’s presence on Earth to creatures of another planets proposed giant diagrams. The German mathematician Karl Friedrich Gauss suggested planting broad lanes of forest in Siberia in the form of a gigantic right-angled triangle, filling the inside with wheat to make it stand out more clearly. This would clearly be an artificial creation. Man could drive the point home by erecting squares on each side of the triangle to illustrate the Pythagorean theorem.

Figure 2-1: Frame 35A72 of Viking I

Viennese astronomer Josef Johann von Littrow proposed digging canals in the Sahara to form geometric figures with 20-mile sides. At night kerosene was to be poured upon the water and set ablaze. Charles Cros in France suggested the idea of a huge mirror to reflect sunlight, like a giant heliograph, toward Mars.

Some believe that the structures on the Planet Mars, photographed by Viking 1 in 1976, are just such structures.44 The controversial, but intriguing mile-wide “face” is among the anticipated resolutions expected from the current Mars missions.

Some of the recent returns seem to indicate that the structures are, in fact, natural; however, there are still many enthusiasts that insist that there is more there to be discovered.

In 1972, the U.S. launched Pioneer 10 on a trajectory to fly by Jupiter with sufficient remaining velocity to become, on June 13, 1983, the first man-made object to pass beyond the known limits of the solar system. On board was a plaque for communication with any intelligence which it might subsequently encounter.

On the plaque a man and woman stand before an outline of the spacecraft. The man’s hand is raised in a gesture of good will.45 The physical makeup of the man and woman were determined from results of a computerized analysis of the average person in our civilization.

The key to translating the plaque lies in understanding the breakdown of the most common element in the universe—hydrogen.

Figure 2-2: Pioneer Plaque

This element is illustrated in the left-hand corner of the plaque in schematic form showing the hyperfine transition of neutral atomic hydrogen. Anyone from a scientifically educated civilization having enough knowledge of hydrogen would be able to translate the message. The plaque was designed by Dr. Carl Sagan of Cornell University and drawn by his wife, Linda Salzman Sagan.

(Another example of an existing transfinite diagram, from a source transcending our own time dimension, will be explored in chapter 15.)

All of these devices would accomplish little more than herald that intelligent life exists on Earth. They are also limited to visual contact. To express any real information, it would seem to be necessary to use radio signals, requiring the reassembly of a one-dimensional string of signals into a multidimensional array.

EXTRATERRESTRIAL SIGNALS

In the movie Contact, made from Carl Sagan’s novel, after signaling with a series of prime numbers, a stream of digital bits are ultimately assembled into a multidimensional array which included its own translation dictionary and the keys for its decipherment.

The design of a language suitable for transmission is a challenging assignment. Establishing the basic alphabet raises fundamental questions of phonemes (sounds), or ideographs (conceptual symbols). Assembling the alphabet into sememes (basic elements of meaning), orchestrated with a suitable syntax (grammatical structure), and its parsing into modules (words and sentences), are daunting challenges. One also has to deal with the proper use of redundancy—balancing the need to minimize the bandwidth required against the suitable insulation from effects of noise (dropouts and jamming). This also includes the need for mechanisms for error detection and correction.

It may come as a surprise that such a language exists, which will be explored in chapter 8. It probably also comes as a surprise to discover that we are already in possession of a collection of messages which are verifiably of extraterrestrial origin, and they are contained in the most widely circulated volumes on Planet Earth.

But first, would we even recognize such a message if we encountered one? How would we authenticate a candidate message as “extraterrestrial”? How would we determine if it was genuine, rather than a fraud, a contrivance, or an echo from a local prank or hoax of some kind?

That is the subject of the next chapter.

SUGGESTIONS FOR FURTHER READING:

I. S. Shklovskii and Carl Sagan, Intelligent Life in the Universe, Holden-Day, San Francisco, California, 1966.

A.G.W. Cameron, ed., Interstellar Communication, Benjamin, New York, 1965.

Walter Sullivan, We Are Not Alone, McGraw-Hill, New York, 1964.

(These first three references include a summary of the first conference on extraterrestrial intelligence held in the U.S. in 1961.)

G. M. Tovmasyan, ed., Extraterrestrial Civilizations, Armenian Academy of Sciences, Erevan; English translation by Z. Lerman, Israel Program for Scientific Translations, IPST 1823, 1967.

Carl Sagan, ed., Communication with Extraterrestrial Intelligence, (CETI), The MIT Press, Cambridge, Massachusetts, and London, England, 1973.

S. A. Kaplan, ed., Extraterrestrial Civilizations: Problems of Interstellar Communication, Moscow, 1969; English translation by Israel Program for Scientific Translations, IPST 5780, NASA Technical Translation TT F-631, 1971.

Carl Sagan, The Cosmic Connection, Doubleday, New York, 1973.

Pope, Maurice, Decipherment, Scribner’s, New York, 1975. History of Champollion and others deciphering dead languages.

3

“ People like us,

who believe in physics, know that

the distinction between past,

present, and the future is only

a stubbornly persistent illusion.”

ALBERT EINSTEIN

CHAPTER 3

It seems a strange irony that an extraterrestrial message has been received from beyond our space-time, and it appears in the most ubiquitous of all the books in the entire world—the Bible. It has, from the beginning, maintained that its origin was from outside the space-time of Planet Earth.

The most significant book in human history clearly is, without question, the Bible. Samuel Taylor Coleridge wrote that the best and wisest of men have born witness to its great influences in civilization, law, science, and morality, and “have declared it to be beyond compare with the most perfect instrument of humanity.”

President Ulysses S. Grant spoke of our debt to the Bible “for all the progress made in true civilization.” I. Friedlander noted its system of morality “has become the cornerstone of human civilization.”

Abraham Lincoln called it “the best gift God has given to man.” Patrick Henry said, “It is worth all other books which were ever printed.” William Gladstone noted that “an immeasurable distance separates it from all competitors.” Rousseau admitted, “The majesty of the Scriptures astonishes me.”

Immanuel Kant declared, “The Bible is the greatest benefit which the human race has ever experienced,” and, “A single line in the Bible has consoled me more than all the books I ever read besides.”

Henry De Lubac wrote, “The Bible makes an extraordinary impression on the historian.… Nowhere else can be found anything in the least like it.”

A. M. Sullivan observed, “The cynic who ignores, ridicules or denies the Bible, spurning its spiritual rewards and aesthetic excitement, contributes to his own moral anemia.”46

With centuries of such widespread veneration, it really shouldn’t surprise us to discover that its origin is demonstrably from outside our own space-time.

Sir Isaac Newton, one of the most famous scientists in history, who invented calculus, figured out the mechanics of the solar system and gravity, was also a deeply committed student of the Scriptures. Most of the million words left in Newton’s own handwriting were not about mathematics, mechanics, or astronomy, but about theology.47 He was also convinced that there were hidden codes in the Biblical text and that the entire universe was a “cryptogram set by the Almighty.” He spent half of his life searching for Biblical codes.

As we continue our exploration of “cosmic codes”—messages from outside our terrestrial constraints—we will uncover two basic discoveries which should alter every other priority in our individual lives:

1) That the 66 books which make up the Bible, while having been penned by over 40 authors over a span of almost 2,000 years, are an integrated message, evidencing skillful and comprehensive design; and

2) That the origin of this integrated message is verifiably from outside the constraints of our space-time domain. A cosmic message, indeed!

THE NATURE OF HYPERSPACE

If you add up the angles in any triangle, what is their sum? The answer which we all learned in school is 180°. But suppose someone went out into a large field with a transit and laid out a very large triangle, and when he brought back the angles they added up to more than 180°! What would you conclude?

(That he screwed up, is a probable answer! No; you check the work, and it is correct.)

What had he encountered? The curvature of the earth.

When you take a course in navigation, you have to learn spherical trigonometry, where you can have a triangle in which the angles add up to more than 180°. The rule we learned in school was for a universe of only two dimensions: plane geometry and plane trigonometry. When that rule appears to be violated, it is a hint that we have encountered an additional dimension. (If the angles add up to less than 180°, it is in a concave surface; if they add up to more than 180°, it is a convex surface.)

This was the kind of insight that Dr. Albert Einstein had when he was grappling with the nature of our physical reality. He realized that we live in more than three dimensions—and that time is an additional dimension. This led to his famed Theory of Relativity.

BEYOND EUCLID

After the Bible, Euclid’s Elements was probably the most influential book of all time. For over 2,000 years the keenest minds of Western civilization have marveled at the elegance of its basic geometry. We all have wrestled with Euclid’s theorems, the value of π (“Pi”)48 and its relationship with a circle, the degrees in a triangle, etc.

However, on June 10, 1854, the most important lecture in the history of mathematics was given at the University of Göttingen, Germany. Georg Bernhard Riemann was the son of a Lutheran pastor, an intense Bible student, and had been mentored by Karl Friedrich Gauss, the “Prince of Mathematics.” In one masterful stroke Riemann uncovered the mathematical foundation of geometries of higher dimensional spaces and thus opened the door to modern physics. Riemann recognized that “forces” were a consequence of a distortion of geometry, and he presented his metric tensors as a technique of dealing with them.

Within six decades of Riemann’s pivotal lecture, Einstein would use four-dimensional Riemannian geometry for his famed Theory of Relativity. Within seven decades, Theodr Kaluza at the University of Koenigsberg, Germany, would use five-dimensional Riemannian geometry to integrate both gravity and light. Light is now viewed as a vibration in the fifth dimension. Oskar Klein made several improvements, including the calculation of the size of the fifth dimension—the Planck length, 10-33 centimeters—much too small to detect experimentally. One hundred thirty years after Riemann’s famous lecture, physicists would extend the Kaluza-Klein constructs to develop ten-dimensional geometry in their attempt to unite all the laws of the physical universe.49

THE NATURE OF TIME

While philosophers throughout history have debated almost every idea under the sun since the world began, the one thing that they all have presumed—from the beginning—is that time is linear and absolute. Most of us assume that a minute a thousand years ago is the same as a minute today and that we live in a dimension in which time inexorably rolls onward yet is totally intractable to any attempt to glimpse ahead.

We move forward and can look back, but we can’t look ahead or move back. (Does anyone “remember” tomorrow?) Traversing the dimension of time remains the ever-popular realm of fiction writers—and, apparently, a few strange experiments of the particle physicists.50

This linear view of time is exemplified by our frequent resort to “time lines.” When we were in school, our teachers would draw a line on the blackboard. The left end of the line might represent the beginning of something—the birth of a person, or the founding of a nation, or an era. The right end of the line would demark the termination of that subject—the death of a person or the ending of an era.

Therefore, when we consider the concept of “eternity,” we tend to view it as a line of infinite length—from “infinity” on the left and continuing toward “infinity” on the right.

When we think of “God,” we naturally assume that He is someone “with lots of time.”

But this linear view suffers from the misconceptions carried over from an obsolete physics. Today we owe a great debt to the efforts of Dr. Albert Einstein.

It was the insight of Dr. Einstein, in considering the nature of our physical universe, that we live in more than just three dimensions, and that time itself is a fourth physical dimension. This insight led to his famous Theory of Relativity—and the discovery that time itself is also part of our physical reality.

“People like us, who believe in physics,

know that the distinction between past, present, and the future

is only a stubbornly persistent illusion.”

Albert Einstein

THE DIMENSIONS OF REALITY

We now realize that we live in (at least) four dimensions—not just of three spatial dimensions of length, width and height, but also with an additional physical dimension of time.51 Time is now known to be a physical property—and that time varies with mass, acceleration, and gravity.

A time measurement device in a weaker gravitational field runs faster than one in a stronger field. Near the surface of Earth the frequency of an atomic clock increases about one part in 10^16 per meter, and, thus, a clock 100 meters higher than a reference clock will have a frequency greater by one part in 10^14.

In October 1971, J. C. Hafele, of Washington University in St. Louis, and Richard Keating arranged to borrow four atomic clocks from the U.S. Naval Observatory, where Keating worked. These were cesium-beam clocks of the sort that create our daily time signals. They loaded the clocks onto commercial airliners and flew them around the world, first eastward and then westward. As airliners travel at less than one-millionth of the speed of light, the timewarp on board was very small: about a microsecond per day of flying. The four eastward flying clocks lost an average of 59 nanoseconds (0.059 microsecond) with respect to a set of standard atomic clocks at rest at the Observatory. The westward traveling clocks gained averaged 273 nanoseconds (0.273 microsecond). When the Earth’s rotation was also included with the airliners’ motion, the time dilation observed confirmed the predicted relativistic effects.52

THE TWIN ASTRONAUTS

Most discussions of the physics of time will also include the interesting case of two hypothetical astronauts born at the same instant. One remains on Earth; the other is sent on a space mission to the nearest star, Alpha Centauri, about 4 1/2 light years distant. If his vehicle travels at a speed of half the velocity of light, when our traveler returns to Earth he will be more than two years younger than his twin brother!53

If that doesn’t bother you, you weren’t paying attention! This example is often used to illustrate the dilation of time. Time is a physical property, part of the same dimensionality that gives us mass and the three spatial dimensions so familiar to us all.

OUR COMMON MISCONCEPTION

Is God subject to gravity? Is He subject to the constraints of mass or acceleration? Hardly.

God is not someone “who has lots of time”; He is outside the domain of time altogether. That is what Isaiah means when he says, “It is He who inhabits eternity.”54

Since God has the technology to create us in the first place, He certainly has the technology to get a message to us. But how does He authenticate His message? How does He assure us that the message is really from Him and not a fraud or a contrivance?

One way to authenticate the message is to demonstrate that its source is from outside our time domain. God declares, “I alone know the end from the beginning.”55 His message includes history written in advance. This is called “prophecy.”

An illustrative example is that of a parade. As we might sit on the curb and observe the many bands, marching units, floats, and other elements coming around the corner and passing in front of us, the parade is—to us—clearly a sequence of events. However, to someone who is outside the plane of the parade’s existence—say, in a helicopter above the city—the beginning and the end can be simultaneously in view.

(It is amazing how many theological paradoxes evaporate when one recognizes the restrictions of viewing our predicament from within our time dimension.)56

A MESSAGE OF

EXTRATERRESTRIAL ORIGIN

We are in possession of this collection of 66 books which we call The Bible, written by more than 40 authors over several thousands of years, yet we now discover it is an integrated message from outside our time domain. It repeatedly authenticates this uniqueness by describing history before it happens. And this discovery totally shatters our traditional concepts of reality.

There are numerous publications which document the many amazing examples of Biblical predictions which have been fulfilled in history.57 The entire history of Israel is an astonishing testimony to the supernatural origin of the Bible. Israel is the lens through which the Bible presents both the past and the future. One of the greatest miracles in the Bible is before our very eyes: the Jew. The history of his people—their origin, their successes, their failures, and their dispersion throughout the world—all was pre-written. The regathering of Israel into their own homeland—this second time^58—is the key to understanding the times in which we live. The libraries are full of volumes which detail the many incredible examples which demonstrate how God has repeatedly authenticated His messages through fulfilled prophecies regarding the nation Israel.

Perhaps even more amazing are the detailed prophecies concerning the person of Jesus Christ. Over 300 prophecies concerning His birth, ministry, and sacrificial death are detailed in the Old Testament and fulfilled in the New Testament. Yet, there are several thousand which remain to be fulfilled upon His return!59

This all becomes even more compelling when we discover that you and I are apparently being plunged into a period of time about which the Bible says more than any other period of time in history— including the time when Jesus walked the shores of the Sea of Galilee and climbed the mountains of Judea. The recognition that we are, indeed, emerging into a period of history that has been pre-written in the classic pages of the Biblical record shatters the comfort of our pre-conceptions about time, our universe, and our physical reality.

Furthermore, the mysteries surrounding this amazing collection of codes include encrypted messages which are still being discovered.

ENCRYPTIONS IN THE BIBLE

It comes as a surprise to many Bible scholars that there are numerous encryptions in the Biblical text. Some of these are simple transpositions; some are subtleties hidden within the letters themselves (microcodes); others are far more encompassing and provocative (macrocodes).

Hebrew tradition includes three different transpositions in the Old Testament. One of these, known as albam, employs a simple substitution system in which the Hebrew alphabet is split into two halves and equates the two halves. Thus, the first letter of the first half, aleph, substitutes for the first letter of the second half, lamed, and vice versa. The second letter of the first half, beth, for the second letter of the second half, mem, and vice versa; and so on. The term albam derives from the first four letters of this arrangement.

Figure 1. Albam

In Isaiah chapter 7, we encounter the scheming of Rezin, the king of Syria, and Pekah, the son of Remaliah, king of Israel, who were confederating against King Ahaz of Judah. Regarding verse 6, the Midrash notes that Tabeal, , is encrypted using the method of Albam resulting in the name, , Remala, (for Remaliah).60

(Remember, Hebrew reads from right to left. It is strange to notice that all languages seem to flow toward Jerusalem. Languages of the nations west of Jerusalem—English, French, German, Italian, etc.—read from left to right. Languages of the nations east of Jerusalem—Hebrew, Aramaic, Arabic, Sanskrit, Chinese, etc.—read from right to left.)

The plan of the conspirators in Isaiah 7 was apparently to establish Pekah, the son of Remaliah (“Tabeal”) as king, if their plot would have succeeded.61 But it didn’t, so why has this been included in the sacred text? It would seem to be a remez, a hint of something hidden, something deeper.

Another alternative encryption form found in the Old Testament is atbash, in which the alphabet is folded back over itself as in figure 2.

Figure 2. Atbash

The label atbash derives from the very procedure it denotes, since it is composed of aleph, taw, beth, and shin—the first, last, second, and next-to-last letters of the Hebrew alphabet. (An echo of this pattern, applied to individuals personally, is recorded in Luke 13:30: “And, behold, there are last which shall be first, and there are first which shall be last.”)

In Jeremiah 25:26 and in Jeremiah 51:41, we encounter the name Sheshach. The context implies that this is somehow related to Babylon, and some commentators assume it was a suburb, or the equivalent. However, it appears that Sheshach, , is simply Babel, , encrypted using the method of Atbash.62 Confirmation that Sheshach is really a substitute for Babel and not an entirely separate place also comes from the Septuagint and the Targums.

In Jeremiah 51:1, we also find , leb kamai, “heart of my enemy,” is substituted, via atbash, for , Kashdim, “Chaldeans.”

Hebrew literature records a third form of letter substitution, called atbah.63 Like albam and atbash, its name derives from its system. It is based on the property that Hebrew letters each also have numerical value. The first nine letters would be substituted so that their numerical value would add up to ten. The next ten letters were paired on a similar system totaling the Hebrew digital version of 100. What happens to the remaining letters is not clear. This rather confusing system is not used in the Bible, but there is at least one use in the Babylonian Talmud.64

(Further discussion of the numerical values of Hebrew letters will be found in chapter 20.)

IMPLICATIONS

To students of cryptography, the substitution ciphers in the Bible are simply historical novelties. However, to one who discerns a supernatural origin of the Biblical text, the discovery of encrypted elements in the Holy Scriptures proves to be extremely significant.

The methods of “permutation of letters” were based on mystical lore of an intense religious tradition. However, these methods were condemned as fatally flawed by the rising dominant Gentile culture and were written in a language that would soon be regarded as dead. The persecutions of the Jews drove these methods increasingly underground. Thus, these techniques would be invisible to the world at large until the language was revived and the methods were rediscovered.

The prophet Ezekiel, among others, detailed a time when the nation Israel would be regathered.65 The prophet Isaiah focused specifically on their re-establishment as a nation “the second time”—the first being their regathering after their Babylonian captivity in the sixth century B.C.66 One of the dominant aspects of modern history has been this regathering, beginning near the end of the 19th century and climaxing with the reformation of the State of Israel in May 1948.

It is interesting that the prophet Zephaniah predicted that when the nation of Israel would be resurrected, they would return to pure Hebrew as a language.67 The adoption of Hebrew by the modern State of Israel is the first time in history that a “dead” language has been revived.

We will explore some of the relevant aspects of the Hebrew language for extraterrestrial communication in chapter 8.

But first, is it true that there are hidden codes in the Bible? We will review the colorful narrative of the earliest cryptanalyst in the next chapter.

SUGGESTIONS FOR FURTHER READING:

Chuck Missler and Mark Eastman, The Creator Beyond Time and Space, The Word for Today, Costa Mesa, California, 1996.

A. E. Wilder-Smith, The Time Dimension: Its Relationship to the Origin of Life, The Word for Today, Costa Mesa, California, 1993.

Paul Davies, About Time—Einstein’s Unfinished Revolution, Simon and Schuster, New York, 1995.

Peter Coveney and Roger Highfield, The Arrow of Time, W. H. Allen, Great Britain, 1990.

Rudy Rucker, The 4th Dimension—Toward a Geometry of Higher Reality, Houghton Mifflin Company, Boston, Massachusetts, 1984.

4

“It is the glory of God

to conceal a thing:

but the honour of kings

is to search out a matter.”

PROVERBS 25:2

CHAPTER 4

It may come as a surprise to many that there are ciphers in the Bible. Some are hidden; some, when revealed, are a key part of the narrative itself.

One of the first examples of the deciphering of a mysterious code—and certainly one of the most dramatic—occurred in Babylon during the fifth century B.C. when a Jewish prodigy by the name of Daniel was called into a royal celebration to decipher a mysterious cryptogram which had interrupted the imperial festivities by dramatically appearing on the wall of the banquet room.

His decipherment of this strange message declared the impending fall of the dominant world empire of the time. This episode, recorded in the Bible in Daniel chapter 5, has even resulted in several household idioms which still echo in our everyday language: “The handwriting on the wall,” “your number is up,” “you have been weighed and are found wanting,” etc.

But let’s properly set the stage for this remarkable episode by profiling the circumstances which led up to it.

RISE OF THE BABYLONIAN EMPIRE

The fabled city of Babylon was originally founded by the first world dictator, Nimrod, and is mentioned over 300 times in the Bible.68 It is still located 62 miles south of the present city of Baghdad. Nimrod built the famous Tower of Babel as the centerpiece of his rebellion against God.69 (“Bab” = gate; “El” = God. Thus, Babel = “Gateway to the gods.”)

(This ziggurat was subsequently rebuilt by Nebuchadnezzar as Etemenanki, “the building which is the foundation of heaven and earth.” The original Biblical significance associated with the zodiac (or, in Hebrew, the Mazzeroth) was corrupted by the Babylonian religious system and continues in all cultures to this day. (We will explore some of these issues in chapter 15.)

THE EARLY YEARS

Assyria rose to power in the second millennium B.C. and emerged as the dominant power until the rise of the Chaldeans in the seventh century B.C. During the first millennium B.C., Babylon endured as a minor tribal center and a mere pawn of Assyrian politics.

In 627 B.C. a governor of the region,70 Nabopolassar, rallied the tribes and cleared Babylon from the Assyrians for the last time. Nabopolassar’s son, Nebuchadnezzar, used the city as a base from which he marched on many campaigns against Syria and other surrounding nations. He was destined to bring the Chaldean dynasty’s finest hours and Babylon’s most famous period.

In 612 B.C. the combined forces of Babylonians, Medes, and Scythians attacked and destroyed the Assyrian capital of Nineveh. The only remaining power of significance were the Egyptians. The Babylonian Chronicle records the defeat of Pharaoh Necho and the Egyptians at the famous Battle at Carchemish, and thus the known world was then under Babylonian rule.

CONQUEST OF JERUSALEM

In 606 B.C. Nebuchadnezzar succeeded in his siege of Jerusalem, and King Jehoiakim of Judah became his vassal. During the siege, Nebuchadnezzar’s father died and he returned to take the throne.71 This initiated a 70-year period known Biblically as the “servitude of the nation.” The prophet Jeremiah had predicted that the Babylonian captivity of the Jews was to last 70 years, and it did…to the very day.72

It was a result of this first siege that Daniel and three of his friends were deported as teenagers to be educated and to serve at the Babylonian court. These “hostages” would help assure the continued loyalty of the vassal king in Jerusalem.

Despite Jeremiah’s warnings, Jehoiakim rebelled three years later^73 after the Egyptians had beaten the Babylonian army in open battle. Nebuchadnezzar besieged Jerusalem a second time, seized Jehoiakim, and appointed another king of his own choice, Zedekiah.74

Skilled craftsmen from Judah were deported to assist the immense building program then current at Babylon, where in Esagalia and other temples the spoils of war were presented on display on state occasions.75 This practice was indulged in on the eve of Babylon’s fall.

Again, despite Jeremiah’s repeated warnings, Zedekiah also ultimately rebelled, which led to the third and final siege by Nebuchadnezzar, and the complete destruction of Jerusalem.76

DANIEL’S RISE TO FAVOR

Upon taking his throne, the young Nebuchadnezzar put his palace advisors to a test regarding an unusual dream which troubled him.77 Daniel distinguished himself in describing and interpreting the dream, and this led to his ascendancy in the Babylonian court. This apparently also began an unusual relationship between Daniel and King Nebuchadnezzar. During a seven-year period of his incapacity, Daniel was his personal attendant.78

Nebuchadnezzar’s death was followed by a steady weakening of the regime. His successor, Amel-Marduk,79 ruled but two years and was replaced in 560 B.C. after an army coup by the commander-in-chief, Neriglissar,80 son-in-law of Nebuchanezzar. After frequent absences from active service, he was, in turn, ousted, and his weak son Labashi-Marduk lasted only a few months before another coup d’etat brought Nabonidus to the throne.

Soon after his election, Nabonidus led the army to Palestine and Northern Arabia, leaving his son Belshazzar as co-regent in Babylon. Due to his unpopularity at home, Nabonidus decided to stay in Arabia and establish a settlement there with exiles from Palestine.

In the last year of Nabonidus the idols of the cities around Babylon, except Borsippa, Kutha, and Sippar, were brought in, which was an action taken only at the sign of impending war. Inscriptions also confirm Daniel had risen to be “the third ruler in the kingdom.”81

THE RISE OF CYRUS

Cyrus II (“the Great,” 559-530 B.C.) was the founder of the Achaemenid Persian Empire that continued for two centuries until the time of Alexander the Great (331 B.C.).

Cyrus’s father, Cambyses I (600-559 B.C.), was king of Anshan, a region in eastern Elam. His mother was Mandane, a daughter of Astyages, king of Media (585-550 B.C.). When Cambyses I died in 559 B.C., Cyrus inherited the throne of Anshan and, after unifying the Persian people, attacked his maternal grandfather, the weak and corrupt Astyages. The Median general Harpagus, whom Astyages had previously wronged, deserted the king and brought his army to the side of the young Cyrus. Astyages was soon captured, and the Persians took the capital city of Ecbatana in 550 B.C. without a battle. (This was also to be the result at Babylon 11 years later.)

Cyrus succeeded in welding the Medes and Persians into a unified nation. Moving swiftly to the west, he absorbed all the Median territories as far as the Halys River in Asia Minor. When Croesus, the fabulously wealthy king of Lydia, refused to recognize the sovereignty of Medo-Persia, Cyrus defeated him in battle and took over his empire in 546 B.C. Seven years later, he was ready to launch the great assault against great Babylon itself.

Babylon, however, was in no position to resist a Medo-Persian invasion in the year 539 B.C. During the preceding 14 years, Nabonidus the king had not so much as visited the capital city, leaving the administration of the metropolis to his profligate son Belshazzar, to whom he also “entrusted the kingship.”82 Nabonidus further weakened the empire by incurring the displeasure of the powerful Babylonian priesthood.

Toward the end of September, the armies of Cyrus, under the able command of Ugbaru, district governor of Gutium, attacked Opis on the Tigris River and defeated the Babylonians. This gave the Persians control of the vast canal system of Babylon. On October 10, Sippar was taken without a battle and Nabonidus fled. Two days later, on October 12, 539 B.C., Ugbaru’s troops would be able to enter Babylon without a battle.

The stage was now set for the strangest banquet in history.

THE BANQUET OF BANQUETS

Instead of preparing to meet the Persian threat to the kingdom, Belshazzar decided to throw a royal party for a thousand of his lords. (This very banquet hall, about 56 x 173 feet, was reconstructed by Saddam Hussein and was used for affairs of state during his regime.)

To some extent, Belshazzar’s overconfidence is understandable. Babylon was square, about 15 miles on each side. It boasted of an outside wall 87 feet wide. Herodotus records that a four-horse chariot could turn on the top of the wall. Inside this wall was a second wall with a moat between them and 250 watchtowers. The River Euphrates crossed the city, providing the water for both the protective moat and for survival purposes during a siege. Babylon was widely regarded as impregnable.

Figure 4-1: Map of Babylon

Belshazzar called for the vessels which had been taken from the Jewish Temple, captured by his grandfather, Nebuchadnezzar, 70 years earlier, to be exploited in the festivities. But just as the party seemed to really get rolling, giant fingers appeared, writing what was to become the most famous cryptogram of all time.

THE HANDWRITING ON THE WALL

“In the same hour came forth fingers of a man’s hand, and wrote over against the lampstand upon the plaister of the wall of the king’s palace: and the king saw the part of the hand that wrote. Then the king’s countenance was changed, and his thoughts troubled him, so that the joints of his loins were loosed, and his knees smote one against another.”

Daniel 5:5, 6

(Please indulge me with a slight diversion before we continue…)

There is a story told about Lord Nelson, the fabled Admiral of the British Admiralty. He was in his cabin one day when the midshipman came in and announced, “Lord Nelson, sir, there is a Spanish galleon off the starboard bow!”

Lord Nelson responded, “Sound general quarters! And get me my red waistcoat!” Lord Nelson put on his red waistcoat, engaged his adversary, and succeeded in sinking the enemy warship.

A few days later, the midshipman again announced, “Lord Nelson, sir, there are two Spanish galleons off the port quarter!”

Lord Nelson again responded, “Sound general quarters! And get me my red waistcoat!” Again, he put on his red waistcoat, engaged the enemy and ultimately sank the two Spanish galleons.

The next day the midshipman entered Lord Nelson’s cabin and asked, “Sir, I request permission to ask a question.”

“Granted. That’s the way you learn, son. What is your question?” Lord Nelson acquiesced.

“I notice that each time we go into a battle, you always put on your red waistcoat. Why is that, sir?” The midshipman asked.

“Good question, son. I always wear my red waistcoat during battle stations in case I personally should sustain a hit. I don’t want my crew to be distracted or demoralized by seeing any of my blood spilled during the engagement,” the famous admiral patiently explained.

A few days later, the midshipman announced, “Lord Nelson! Lord Nelson! The entire Spanish Armada is on the horizon!”

Lord Nelson responded, “Sound general quarters! And get me my brown britches!”

* * *

Returning to Belshazzar’s party, it is hard to improve on the quaint King James English! In a more casual vernacular, Belshazzar apparently needed his brown britches! (It may come as a surprise to discover that even this embarrassing detail was a fulfillment of an ancient prophecy! We will review this shortly.)

“The king cried aloud to bring in the astrologers, the Chaldeans, and the soothsayers [his staff advisors]. And the king spake, and said to the wise men of Babylon, Whosoever shall read this writing, and shew me the interpretation thereof, shall be clothed with scarlet, and have a chain of gold about his neck, and shall be the third ruler in the kingdom. Then came in all the king’s wise men: but they could not read the writing, nor make known to the king the interpretation thereof.”

Daniel 5:7, 8

But Nebuchadnezzar’s widow reminded them of the previously demonstrated skills of Daniel and suggested they call him to address the enigma.

“O king, live for ever: let not thy thoughts trouble thee, nor let thy countenance be changed:

“There is a man in thy kingdom, in whom is the spirit of the holy gods; and in the days of thy father light and understanding and wisdom, like the wisdom of the gods, was found in him; whom the king Nebuchadnezzar thy father, the king, I say, thy father,83 made master of the magicians, astrologers, Chaldeans, and soothsayers;

Forasmuch as an excellent spirit, and knowledge, and understanding, interpreting of dreams, and shewing of hard sentences, and dissolving of doubts, were found in the same Daniel, whom the king named Belteshazzar:84 now let Daniel be called, and he will shew the interpretation.

“Then was Daniel brought in before the king. And the king spake and said unto Daniel, Art thou that Daniel, which art of the children of the captivity of Judah, whom the king my father brought out of Jewry?

“I have even heard of thee, that the spirit of the gods is in thee, and that light and understanding and excellent wisdom is found in thee.

“And now the wise men, the astrologers, have been brought in before me, that they should read this writing, and make known unto me the interpretation thereof: but they could not shew the interpretation of the thing:

“And I have heard of thee, that thou canst make interpretations, and dissolve doubts: now if thou canst read the writing, and make known to me the interpretation thereof, thou shalt be clothed with scarlet, and have a chain of gold about thy neck, and shalt be the third ruler in the kingdom.”

Daniel 5:10-16

It is interesting to observe Daniel’s disdain for the King:

“Then Daniel answered and said before the king, Let thy gifts be to thyself, and give thy rewards to another; yet I will read the writing unto the king, and make known to him the interpretation.”

Daniel 5:17

But first he contrasts the young upstart with a real king:

“O thou king, the most high God gave Nebuchadnezzar thy [grand]father a kingdom, and majesty, and glory, and honour:

“And for the majesty that he gave him, all people, nations, and languages, trembled and feared before him: whom he would he slew; and whom he would he kept alive; and whom he would he set up; and whom he would he put down.

“But when his heart was lifted up, and his mind hardened in pride, he was deposed from his kingly throne, and they took his glory from him: And he was driven from the sons of men; and his heart was made like the beasts, and his dwelling was with the wild asses: they fed him with grass like oxen, and his body was wet with the dew of heaven; till he knew that the most high God ruled in the kingdom of men, and that he appointeth over it whomsoever he will.”

Daniel 5:18-21

Nebuchadnezzar had suffered from lycanthropy, a mental delusion which had incapacitated him for seven years.

“And thou his son, O Belshazzar, hast not humbled thine heart, though thou knewest all this; but hast lifted up thyself against the Lord of heaven; and they have brought the vessels of his house before thee, and thou, and thy lords, thy wives, and thy concubines, have drunk wine in them; and thou hast praised the gods of silver, and gold, of brass, iron, wood, and stone, which see not, nor hear, nor know: and the God in whose hand thy breath is, and whose are all thy ways, hast thou not glorified.”

Daniel 5:22, 23

Having said his piece, Daniel now interprets the writing:

“Then was the part of the hand sent from him; and this writing was written.

“And this is the writing that was written, MENE, MENE, TEKEL, UPHARSIN.”

Daniel 5:24, 25

The Talmud suggests that the writing was vertical and backwards. There is also a deeper Hebrew tradition that this was an application of atbash, a form of encryption reviewed in chapter 3. (The deferral of any description of the cipher until its interpretation also implies something of this sort.)

Ciphertext:

Plaintext:

Mene, Mene, Tekel, Peres.

In both Aramaic and Hebrew vowels are absent and must be inferred. (This is also a common cryptographic practice used as a mechanism to reduce redundancy. This will be discussed in chapter 8.)

Mene: numbered, reckoned. “God hath numbered thy kingdom and finished it.” Your number is up.

Tekel: weighed. “Thou art weighed in the balances, and art found wanting.”

Peres: (Also rendered “upharsin,” “u” is an Aramaic conjunction, “and”; “pharsin” is the plural form of “peres.”) broken, divided. “Thy kingdom is divided, and given to the Medes and the Persians.” (By inferring a different vowel, “Paras” rather than “Peres,” it also becomes a play on words; paras was the word for Persia. Such puns and word play are frequent in the Biblical text. This is an example of remez, hints provided by variations in vowelization or word breaks.)

Also, they may reflect a series of coins in use: a mina, a tekel (1/60th of a mina), and a peres (1/2 mina). Dr. Cyrus Gordon has suggested an American approximation: “You will be quartered, halved, and cent to perdition.”85

“Then commanded Belshazzar, and they clothed Daniel with scarlet, and put a chain of gold about his neck, and made a proclamation concerning him, that he should be the third ruler in the kingdom.”

Daniel 5:29

However:

“In that night was Belshazzar the king of the Chaldeans slain.”

Daniel 5:30

THE FALL OF BABYLON

Herodotus describes how the Persians had diverted the River Euphrates into a canal upriver so that the water level dropped “to the height of the middle of a man’s thigh,” which thus rendered the flood defenses useless and enabled the invaders to march through the riverbed to enter by night.86

Cyrus was able to boast that the conquest was virtually bloodless with no significant damage to the city. The famous Stele of Cyrus^87 carries the inscription, “…without any battle, he entered the town, sparing any calamity…I returned to sacred cities on the other side of the Tigris, the sanctuaries of which have been ruins for a long time…and established for them permanent sanctuaries. I also gathered all their former inhabitants and returned to them their habitations.”

Figure 4-1: Stele of Cyrus

GOD’S PERSONAL LETTER TO CYRUS

Daniel (who lived at least until the third year of Cyrus) presented Cyrus with the writings of Isaiah^88 which includes a letter addressed to Cyrus by name, written 150 years earlier. Can you imagine his reaction?

“I am the LORD that maketh all things; that stretcheth forth the heavens alone; that spreadeth abroad the earth by myself;

“That frustrateth the tokens of the liars, and maketh diviners mad; that turneth wise men backward, and maketh their knowledge foolish;

“That confirmeth the word of his servant, and per-formeth the counsel of his messengers; that saith to Jerusalem, Thou shalt be inhabited; and to the cities of Judah, Ye shall be built, and I will raise up the decayed places thereof:

“That saith to the deep, Be dry, and I will dry up thy rivers:

“That saith of Cyrus, He is my shepherd, and shall perform all my pleasure: even saying to Jerusalem, Thou shalt be built; and to the temple, Thy foundation shall be laid.”

Isaiah 44:24-28

“Thus saith the LORD to his anointed, to Cyrus, whose right hand I have holden, to subdue nations before him; and I will loose the loins of kings, to open before him the two leaved gates; and the gates shall not be shut.”

Isaiah 45:1

Notice the “loose the loins of kings.” Belshazzar’s need for “brown britches” was a fulfillment of prophecy! (This allusion to Cyrus also seems to confirm the public nature of Belshazzar’s embarrassment.)

“I will go before thee, and make the crooked places straight: I will break in pieces the gates of brass, and cut in sunder the bars of iron:

“And I will give thee the treasures of darkness, and hidden riches of secret places, that thou mayest know that I, the LORD, which call thee by thy name, am the God of Israel.

“For Jacob my servant’s sake, and Israel mine elect, I have even called thee by thy name: I have surnamed thee, though thou hast not known me.”

Isaiah 45:2-4

By calling him by name, Cyrus, he would realize that this was from God Himself. He was impressed. Wouldn’t you be?

“I am the LORD, and there is none else, there is no God beside me: I girded thee, though thou hast not known me:

“That they may know from the rising of the sun, and from the west, that there is none beside me. I am the LORD, and there is none else.”

Isaiah 45:5, 6

Cyrus was so stunned with the description—written long before he was born—of his entire career, including the circumstances regarding the fall of Babylon, that he arranged for the Hebrew captives to be released to return to Jerusalem.

The Jews were actually encouraged by Cyrus to return to Jerusalem and to rebuild their temple.89 Furthermore, he gave them back the vessels that Nebuchadnezzar had plundered from Solomon’s Temple 70 years earlier, and he contributed financially to the construction of their second temple. About 50,000 Jews responded to this royal proclamation and returned to Jerusalem under the leadership of Zerubbabel.

The return of Jewish exiles under Zerubbabel got under way just 70 years after the captivity began just as Jeremiah had predicted. The foundations of the second Temple were laid by the spring of 536 B.C.90

Daniel finds favor at the Persian court and ultimately is appointed to rule the hereditary priesthood of the Medes known as the Magi. (The resentment of a Jew being put in charge of this hereditary priesthood seems to be behind the intrigues which led to the famed lions’ den incident in Daniel chapter 6.) Daniel apparently established a cabal among the Magi to preserve, and ultimately respond to, a prophecy which led to the famous visit honoring Christ at His birth.91

BABYLON’S SUBSEQUENT HISTORY

Serving as a secondary capital during the Persian and Greek Empires, Babylon ultimately atrophied into an insignificant byway. Another major Biblical enigma arises from the predictions by both Isaiah and Jeremiah^92 that call for Babylon’s ultimate destruction in terms that have never actually occurred in history. Some regard the language as poetic or allegorical. Those who take the Bible more seriously look for Babylon to re-emerge in world history and ultimately receive the literal destruction described by the prophets. The recent rebuilding of Babylon begun by Saddam Hussein may put the literalists to an empirical test.93

OTHER HIDDEN MESSAGES?

As our opening quote highlighted,

“It is the glory of God to conceal a thing: but the honour of kings is to search out a matter.”

Proverbs 25:2

Are there other messages hidden within the Biblical text? Indeed, and just as the remarkable letter to Cyrus did, they testify to its transcendence beyond the space-time of Planet Earth, Some of these hidden messages are the subject of the next section.

SUGGESTIONS FOR FURTHER READING:

Chuck Missler, Expositional Commentary on the Book of Daniel, 2 Vols., Koinonia House, Coeur d’Alene, Idaho, 1994.

Chuck Missler, The Mystery of Babylon: An Alternate View, Koinonia House, Coeur d’Alene, Idaho, 2004.

SECTION II

Chapter 5

A Hidden Message

Chapter 6

Hidden Acrostics

Chapter 7

The Magic of Seven

5

“[He] had deposited the letter

immediately beneath the nose

of the whole world,

by way of best preventing

any portion of that world

from perceiving it.”

EDGAR ALLEN POE

The Purloined Letter

CHAPTER 5

HIDDEN IN PLAIN SIGHT

Are there hidden messages in the Bible? Some say no. Let us look further.

It comes as a surprise to many that there are numerous hidden messages in the Bible, and one of the most remarkable is hidden in a genealogy in Genesis chapter 5.94 This is one of those chapters which we often tend to skim over quickly as we pass through Genesis; after all, it’s only a genealogy of ten people, from Adam to Noah.

But God always rewards the diligent student. Let’s examine this chapter more closely.

In our Bible, we read the ten Hebrew names: Adam, Seth, Enosh, Kenan, Mahalalel, Jared, Enoch, Methuselah, Lamech, and Noah. Since these are proper names, they are not translated, but only transliterated to approximate the way they were pronounced. But what do these names signify in English?

ORIGINAL ROOTS NEEDED

The meaning of proper names can be a difficult pursuit since a direct translation is often not readily available. Even a conventional Hebrew lexicon can prove disappointing. Many study aids, such as a conventional lexicon, can prove superficial when dealing with proper names. A study of the original roots, however, can yield some fascinating insights. (However, views concerning the meaning of original roots are not free of controversy and variant readings.)

THE MYSTERY OF METHUSELAH

Here is a question to ask your Biblically literate friends: If Methuselah was the oldest man in the Bible, how could he die before his father? That’s a real puzzler to most people!

That’s because since most people forget who his father was: His father was Enoch, who didn’t die, but was caught up directly to heaven.95 Enoch also happens to be one of the most fascinating characters in the Old Testament.

The Flood of Noah did not come as a surprise. It had been preached on for four generations. But something strange happened when Enoch was 65, from which time “he walked with God.” Enoch was given a prophecy of the coming Great Flood and was apparently told that as long as his son was alive, the judgment of the Flood would be withheld; but as soon as he died, the Flood would be sent forth.

Enoch named his son to reflect this prophecy. The name Methuselah comes from two roots: , muth, a root that means “death,”96 and from , shalach, which means “to bring,” or “to send forth.” Thus, the name Methuselah signifies, “his death shall bring.”97

(Can you imagine raising that kid? Every time the boy caught a cold, the entire neighborhood must have panicked!)

And, indeed, in the year that Methuselah died, the Flood came.

Methuselah was 187 when he had Lamech, and he lived 782 years more. Lamech had Noah when he was 182.98 The Flood came in Noah’s 600th year.99 187 + 182 + 600 = 969, the year Methuselah died.100

Figure 5-1: Timeline Diagram

It is interesting that Methuselah’s life was, in effect, a symbol of God’s mercy in forestalling the coming judgment of the Flood. It is therefore fitting that his lifetime is the oldest in the Bible, symbolizing the extreme extensiveness of God’s mercy.

THE OTHER NAMES

Since there is such significance in Methuselah’s name, let’s examine the other names to discover what may lie behind them.

The first name, Adam, , adomah, means “man.” As the first man, that seems straightforward enough.

SETH

Adam’s son was named Seth, , which means “appointed.” When he was born Eve said, “For God hath appointed me another seed instead of Abel, whom Cain slew.”

ENOSH

Seth’s son was called Enosh, , which means “mortal,” “frail,” or “miserable.” It is from the root anash: to be incurable, used of a wound, grief, woe, sickness, or wickedness.

It was in the days of Enosh that men began to defile the name of the Living God.101

KENAN

Enosh’s son was named Kenan, from which can mean “sorrow,” “dirge,” or “elegy.” (The precise denotation is somewhat elusive; some study aids unfortunately presume that Kenan is synonymous with “Cainan.”)

(Balaam, looking down from the heights of Moab, employed a pun upon the name of the Kenites when he prophesied their destruc-tion.102)

We have no real idea as to why these names were chosen for their children. Often they may have referred to circumstances at their birth, etc.

MAHALALEL

Kenan’s son was Mahalalel, from , which means “blessed” or “praise,” and , El, the name for God. Thus, Mahalalel means “the Blessed God.” Often Hebrew names included El, the name of God, as Dani-el, “God is my Judge,” Nathani-el, “Gift of God,” etc.

JARED

Mahalalel’s son was named Jared, , from the verb yaradh, meaning “shall come down.” Some authorities suggest that this might be an allusion to the “Sons of God” who “came down” to corrupt the daughters of men, resulting in the Nephilim (“Fallen Ones”) of Genesis 6.103

ENOCH

Jared’s son was named Enoch, , which means “teaching,” or “commencement.” He was the first of four generations of preachers. In fact, the earliest recorded prophecy was by Enoch, which amazingly enough deals with the Second Coming of Christ (although it is quoted in the Book of Jude in the New Testament):

“And Enoch also, the seventh from Adam, prophesied of these, saying, Behold, the Lord cometh with ten thousands of his saints,

“To execute judgment upon all, and to convince all that are ungodly among them of all their ungodly deeds which they have ungodly committed, and of all their hard speeches which ungodly sinners have spoken against him.”

Jude 14, 15

METHUSELAH

Enoch was the father of Methuselah, already mentioned. Enoch walked with God after he begat Methuselah.104 Apparently, Enoch received the prophecy of the Great Flood and was told that as long as his son was alive, the judgment of the Flood would be withheld. The year that Methuselah died, the Flood came.

LAMECH

Methuselah’s son was named Lamech, , a root still evident today in our own English word “lament,” or “lamentation.” Lamech suggests “despairing.” (This name is also linked to the Lamech in Cain’s line who inadvertently killed his son Tubal-Cain in a hunting incident.105)

NOAH

Lamech, of course, is the father of Noah, , which is derived from nacham, “to bring relief ” or “comfort,” as Lamech himself explains:

“And he called his name Noah, saying, This same shall comfort us concerning our work and toil of our hands, because of the ground which the LORD hath cursed.”

Genesis 5:29.

THE COMPOSITE LIST

Now let’s put it all together:

HEBREW

ENGLISH

Adam

Man

Seth

Appointed

Enosh

Mortal

Kenan

Sorrow

Mahalalel

The Blessed God

Jared

Shall come down

Enoch

Teaching

Methuselah

His death shall bring

Lamech

The despairing

Noah

Rest, or comfort

That’s remarkable:

“Man (is) appointed mortal sorrow, (but) the Blessed God shall come down teaching (that) His death shall bring (the) despairing rest.”

Here is a summary of God’s plan of redemption, hidden here within a genealogy in Genesis! You will never convince me that a group of Jewish rabbis deliberately “contrived” to hide the “Christian Gospel” right here in a genealogy within their venerated Torah!

What other “messages” lay hidden behind the names in the Bible?

EVIDENCES OF DESIGN

The implications of this discovery are far more deeply significant than may be evident at first glance. It demonstrates that in the earliest chapters of the Book of Genesis, God had already laid out His plan of redemption for the predicament of mankind. It is the beginning of a love story, ultimately written in blood on a wooden cross which was erected in Judea almost 2,000 years ago.

This is also one of many evidences that the Bible is an integrated message system, the product of supernatural engineering. This punctures the presumptions of many who view the Bible as a record of an evolving cultural tradition, noble though it may be. It claims to be authored by the One who alone knows the end from the beginning,106 despite the fact that it is composed of 66 separate books, penned by some 40 authors, spanning several thousand years.107

It is astonishing to discover how many Biblical “controversies” seem to evaporate if one simply recognizes the unity—the integrity— of these 66 books. Every number, every place name, every detail— every jot and tittle—is part of a tightly engineered design, tailored for our learning, our discovery, and our amazement.

In the next chapter we will discover some surprising evidences of design hidden beneath the text itself.

SUGGESTIONS FOR FURTHER READING:

Eastman, Mark, and Missler, Chuck, The Creator Beyond Time and Space, The Word for Today, Costa Mesa, California, 1995.

Jones, Alfred, Dictionary of Old Testament Proper Names, Kregel Publications, Grand Rapids, Michigan, 1990.

Kaplan, Rabbi Aryeh, The Living Torah, Maznaim Publishing Corporation, Jerusalem, 1981.

Pink, Arthur W., Gleanings in Genesis, Moody Bible Institute, Chicago, Illinois, 1922.

Missler, Chuck, Beyond Coincidence (audio briefing package with notes), Koinonia House, Coeur d’Alene, Idaho, 1994.

Rosenbaum, M., and Silbermann, A., Pentateuch with Onkelos’s Translation (into Aramaic) and Rashi’s Commentary, Silbermann Family Publishers, Jerusalem, 1973.

Stedman, Ray C., The Beginnings, Word Books, Waco, Texas, 1978.

6

CHAPTER 6

Another way to hide things within a text is by means of an acrostic. An acrostic is a systematic sequence of letters within a text which also can have a meaning or significance of its own. It is a code of skipping letters.

One of the simplest forms of an acrostic is the repetition of the same or successive letters of the alphabet at the beginning of words or clauses. A number of the Psalms are acrostics of the Hebrew alphabet, such as Psalms 37, 111, 112, and 119.108 (In Psalm 119, all eight verses of each paragraph begin with the same letter; each successive paragraph begins with next letter of the Hebrew alphabet.) Proverbs 31:10-31 includes a special emphasis with each of the 22 verses beginning with the 22 letters of the Hebrew alphabet. In the Book of Lamentations each of the four chapters is organized around the 22 letters of the alphabet.

MNEMONIC ACROSTICS

Another simple form of acrostic can be an abbreviation or an aid to memory. The National Aeronautics and Space Administration becomes “NASA,” for example. The North Atlantic Treaty Organization becomes “NATO.” Another from World War II was “Radio Detection and Ranging” which became “RADAR.” Entire collections of “acromania” have been published.109

The Hebrew term for the Old Testament, the Tanakh, is an acrostic from the Torah, the Nebhi’im, and Kethubhim: the Pentateuch, the Prophets, and hagiographa.

ZIPF’S LAW

When a team of technicians, or members of any community, begin to use a cumbersome phrase frequently enough, an abbreviation or slang term will always emerge which will more efficiently facilitate communication by optimizing the communication space available—called the “bandwidth” of the communication channel. It is interesting to note that this conforms to mathematical laws to most efficiently utilize the bandwidth (communication space) available.

In the field of linguistics, it has been observed that in any substantial corpus of text, when the vocabulary (or phonemes) used is ranked in order of frequency of use, the rank order of a term times the frequency of its use always approximates a constant. This phenomenon is called Zipf’s Law, named after George K. Zipf, a lexicographer who first discovered this phenomena. It also turns out that deviations from this phenomena are always less efficient, therefore it is also called The Principle of Least Effort.

An understanding of languages and the optimum (and non-optimum) use of communication devices is a technology critical to today’s information-intensive world. Communication includes elements that are redundant—more than are absolutely necessary. The essence of cryptography is to exploit redundancies to “break” an unknown cipher.

Alternatively, the inclusion of redundancy can be essential if one anticipates noise or hostile jamming. It is astonishing to discover that virtually all known techniques—as well as some just recently discovered— are anticipated in the designs underlying the Biblical text. (We will deal with some of these in chapter 21.)

ACROSTICS AS HIDDEN MESSAGES

An acrostic can also be a mechanism for including a hidden message. In the Book of Esther we encounter some remarkable surprises. It has been noted by many commentators that Esther is the only book of the Bible in which there does not appear the name of God, or any divine title, anywhere in the book. (Martin Luther favored eliminating it from the Bible on this basis.110) However, the name of God does appear in a number of places if one knows how and where to look!

Incidentally, it is significant that the name of the book itself, Esther, means “something hidden!”111 The foiling of the wicked plot of Haman to blot out the Jews is, of course, one of the more dramatic narratives in the Bible. In addition to the surprises in the plot, there are also some surprises hidden within the text itself.

A TALE OF RETRIBUTION

Orphaned as a child and brought up by her cousin, Mordecai, Esther was selected by King Ahasuerus to replace the queen when Vashti was disgraced.

Haman, the prime minister, persuaded the king to issue an edict of extermination of all the Jews in the Persian Empire. Esther, on Mordecai’s advice, endangered her own life by appearing before the king, without her being invited, in order to intercede for her people.112

Seeing that the king was well disposed toward her, she invited him and Haman to a private banquet, during which she did not reveal her desire but invited them to yet another banquet, thus misleading Haman by making him think that he was in the queen’s good graces. Her real intention was to take revenge on him.

During a second banquet, Queen Esther revealed her Jewish origin to the king, begged for her life and the life of her people, and named her enemy.113

Angry with Haman, King Ahasuerus retreated into the palace garden. Haman, in great fear, remained to plead for his life from the queen. While imploring, Haman fell on Esther’s couch and was found in this ostensibly compromising situation upon the king’s return. He was immediately condemned to be hung on the very gallows which he had previously prepared for Mordecai.

The king complied with Esther’s request, and the edict of destruction was then changed into permission for the Jews to avenge themselves on their enemies.

The Feast of Purim was instituted by Mordecai to celebrate the deliverance of the Jews from Haman’s plot to kill them. Our Jewish friends continue to celebrate this feast to this day, which is based on the events in the Book of Esther. Purim (from Akkadian, puru, “lots”) is so called after the lots cast by Haman in order to determine the month in which the slaughter was to take place.114

THE INVISIBLE PROTECTOR

God had declared that if His people forsook Him, He would hide His face from them.115 Here, in this very episode, that threat was fulfilled. But even though He was hidden from them, God still was working for them.

The name of God is hidden no less than eight times in acrostics in the text. Four times it appears as an acrostic, the (the famed Tetragammaton, “YHWH” or “Yahweh” or “YeHoVaH”); once as (“EHYH” or “I AM”). Also, Meshiach (“Messiah”), Yeshua (“Jesus”), and El Shaddai (“The Almighty”), also appear as equidistant letter sequences.

THE FIRST ACROSTIC

The first acrostic, in verse 1:20, is shown below:

Remember, Hebrew goes from right to left. It is formed by initial letters, for the event was initial; but the name is spelled backward because God was turning back the counsels of man.

THE SECOND ACROSTIC

The second acrostic, in verse 5:4, is shown next:

It is formed by the initial letters as God is initiating His action, and the name is spelled forward because He is ruling and causing Esther to act.

THE THIRD ACROSTIC

The third acrostic, in verse 5:13, is shown below:

It is formed by the final letters, for Haman’s end was approaching. But it is spelled backward since God was overruling Haman’s gladness and turning back Haman’s counsel.

THE FOURTH ACROSTIC

This fourth one, in verse 7:7, like the third is formed by the final letters, for Haman’s end had come. But it is spelled forward like the first, for God was ruling and bringing about the end He had determined.

THE OVERALL DESIGN

Each of these four acrostics, revealing the YHWH, involves the utterance of a different speaker:

1. Memucan, 1:20;

2. Esther, 5:4;

3. Haman, 5:13;

4. By the writer, 7:7.

The first two acrostics are a pair, having the name formed by the initial letters of the four words. The last two are a pair, having the name formed by the final letters of the four words.

The first and third acrostics are a pair having the name spelled backward. The second and fourth are a pair, having the name spelled forward. They thus form an alternation:

Backward

Forward

Backward

Forward.

The first and third, in which the name is formed backward, are from text spoken by Gentiles. The second and fourth, in which the name is formed forward, are from text spoken by Israelites.

The first and second form a pair connected with queens and banquets. The third and fourth are a pair being connected with Haman. Here, then, is an introversion:

1) Words spoken concerning a queen;

2) Words spoken by a queen;

3) Words spoken by Haman;

4) Words concerning Haman.

In the two cases where the name is spelled backward, God is seen overruling the counsels of the Gentiles for the accomplishment of His own purposes. Where the name is spelled forward, He is ruling directly in the interests of His own people, although it was unknown to them at the time.

It is remarkable also that in the two cases where the name is formed by the initial letters, the facts recorded are initial also; and on an occasion in which God’s overruling was initiated. In the last two cases where the name is formed by the final letters, the events are final also and lead quickly to the end toward which God was working.

A FIFTH ACROSTIC

There is still another acrostic, in verse 7:5, which does not spell YHWH (“Yahweh”) but rather the remarkable EHYH (“I AM”). It is formed by final letters, and the name is spelled backward.

It appears in the dramatic moment when the king seeks the identity by asking, “Who is he, and where is he, that durst presume in his heart to do so?” (That is, to arrange for the destruction of Queen Esther and her people). Hidden in this phrase is the very name that God announced from the burning bush:

This is the “I AM,” the very name God announced when He delivered His people out of the land of Pharaoh^116 in the past and who has now come to deliver them again out of the hand of Haman.

These five acrostics are well known within the Talmudic literature. I am indebted to Rabbi Yakov Rambsel, a dear friend, who was kind enough to point out a few equidistant letter sequences in addition. (Yakov’s discoveries regarding the Yeshua Codes will be explored in chapter 12.)

THE MESSIAH

In Esther 1:3, by starting with the first mem (), in l’malko (), “of his reign,” counting eight letters to the shin (), eight more to the yod (), eight more to the chet (), spells , Meshiach or Messiah.

Eight is the number of a new beginning (like a new octave). It is interesting to see it also appears in several of these structures. This is an “acrostic” made up of equally spaced letters—an equidistant letter sequence—a technique which will specifically explored in Section IV.)

Eight is the number of the new beginning. Eight people began the new beginning after the Flood of Noah, on the very anniversary, in anticipation, of Christ’s resurrection. (This will be reviewed in chapter 18.)

YESHUA

In Esther 4:17, starting with the last yod () and counting every eight letters, in reverse, you come to the shin (), the vav (), and the ayin (), spelling Yeshua (), the Hebrew name of the Messiah.

“What a coincidence.”

THE ALMIGHTY

In Esther 4:2, beginning at the fourth aleph (), count seven letters to the lamed (), and continue this and you will spell (), El Shaddai. El is the familiar name of God; Shaddai, from the root for “breast” or “provider”; thus, Almighty.

The seven shouldn’t surprise us; it’s the reckoning for “completion.” (I don’t believe it is even possible to count all the number of “sevens” in Scripture! A list of some of them have been included in Appendix D.)

A FINAL SURPRISE

Perhaps the most amusing acrostic of all is found in Esther 3:11, 12. This one’s a crack-up.

By starting with the first heh () in verse 11, and counting every six letters ten times, you will have the phrase , haman v’satan ray’yach which means “Haman and Satan stink.”

(Six is the well-known number of man or Satan—one less than seven, or incomplete. This is epitomized in the famed “666” as the number of the final World Leader.117 We will explore numeric codes in chapter 20.)

We can see Satan working in Haman’s life, yet Yeshua Ha Meshiach, Jesus the Messiah, is always in the background, watching over His people, even today. And He always is victorious. We need to remember this as we watch the terrifying world horizon and the tragic decay of our own national heritage. Our citizenship is with Him.

As Gentiles, we also need to remember that we are grafted into the true olive tree by the skin of our teeth.118 We must not forget that we were joined into what was a Jewish church—with Jewish leaders, a Jewish Bible, and are worshipping a Jewish Messiah. Baruch HaShem, .

Bless His Name!

EVIDENCE OF DESIGN

In these acrostics we have something far beyond coincidence. (The rabbis claim that “coincidence is not a kosher word!”)

All of this, of course, could simply be the highly skillful manipulations of a clever scribe of the past. And yet, for those who take the Bible seriously, it comes a shock to many to discover that the Holy Scriptures contain hidden designs. Are they simply an artifact of the past? Or are they a hint of something deeper? Are there other acrostics, or even more subtle designs, for which we should be searching?

The more we look, the more we realize that there is still much more hidden, and thus reserved for, the diligent inquirer. (Would you expect anything less in the Word of God?)

“It is the glory of God to conceal a thing: but the honour of kings is to search out a matter”

Proverbs 25:2

We possess 66 books, penned by 40 authors over thousands of years, yet the more we investigate, the more we discover that the books of the Bible are actually elements of a highly integrated message system in which every detail, every number, every name, even the elemental structures within the text itself, are clearly the result of intricate and skillful “engineering.”

While we would never develop any doctrine from these oddities, they would seem to testify of His handiwork. His presence, ever working for His people and accomplishing the fulfillment of His purposes, is often hidden from view, just as it appears to be here.

NEW TESTAMENT ACROSTIC?

In the New Testament there also appears to be a possible Hebrew acrostic that generally goes unnoticed.

When Jesus was crucified, Pilate wrote the formal epitaph that was nailed to the cross. The particular wording he chose displeased the Jewish leadership, and they asked him to change it. He refused. There are some interesting aspects to this incident that are not apparent in our English translations.

“And Pilate wrote a title, and put it on the cross. And the writing was, Jesus Of Nazareth The King Of The Jews.

“This title then read many of the Jews: for the place where Jesus was crucified was nigh to the city: and it was written in Hebrew, and Greek, and Latin.

“Then said the chief priests of the Jews to Pilate, Write not, The King of the Jews; but that he said, I am the King of the Jews.

“Pilate answered, What I have written I have written.”

John 19:19-22

The chief priest’s distress highlights something we might otherwise miss. Notice that Pilate refused to revise the epitaph he had composed. This may have more significance than is apparent in our English translations. The Hebrew is shown below (remember, Hebrew goes from right to left):119

Jesus the Nazarei and King of the Jews.

What we don’t notice in the English translation is the potential acrostic made up of the first letter of each word which would spell out the Tetragammaton, YHWH, Yahweh:120

If Pilate had rewritten it in the manner they had requested him to, it would not have spelled out the Name of God. Did Pilate realize this? Was it deliberate? If so, did he do it just to upset the Jewish leadership, which he realized had delivered Him up for envy?121 Or was he beginning to suspect that there was more going on here than he previously realized?

It is interesting that Jesus’ enemies recalled that He promised to rise on the third day. When they later requested a special guard for the tomb, Pilate also responded with an enigmatic remark, “Make it as sure as you can.”122 What did he mean by that? Had he begun to suspect that Jesus really was who He said He was? Was Pilate really surprised when Jesus was resurrected after three days? One wonders.

Some would argue that the features we have noted in this chapter could easily have been contrived by a clever scribe or editor. In our next chapter we will explore some discoveries behind the Biblical text that would seem to go beyond any human manipulations.

SUGGESTIONS FOR FURTHER READING:

Rabbi Meir Zlotowitz, The Megillah, a commentary anthologized from Talmudic, Midrashic, and Rabbinic sources, Mesorah Publications, Ltd., Jerusalem, 1976.

E. W. Bullinger, Appendix to The Companion Bible, Marshall, Morgan, and Scott, Ltd., London, 1964.

Ray C. Stedman, The Queen and I, Word Books, Waco, Texas, 1977.

Also, Rabbi Yakov Rambsel, private correspondence.

March and June 1994 and July 1995 issues of Personal UPDATE.

Missler, Chuck, Beyond Coincidence, pp. 15-21.

Missler, Chuck, Expositional Commentary on Esther, Koinonia House, 1999.

7

“God does not play dice.”123

ALBERT EINSTEIN

(If He did, He’d win.)

CHAPTER 7

Some of the observations we’ve encountered so far could conceivably be the result of deliberate contrivance on the part of an individual scribe or editor. There are, however, aspects of the Biblical text which would seem to preclude such an easy explanation.

THE HEPTADIC STRUCTURE

The recurrence of seven—or an exact multiple of seven—is found throughout the Bible and is widely recognized. The frequent occurrence of the number seven is conspicuous even to a casual reader.

We encounter the seven days of creation in Genesis, the seven feasts of Israel, seven days of rain after Noah enters the ark, seven days between the doves, Jacob serves seven years for each of his two wives, seven kine and ears of corn in Pharaoh’s dreams (seven good years and seven famine years), seven lamps of the Menorah, the seven elements of furniture in the Tabernacle, seven days of the Feast of Unleavened Bread, the repeated use of seven in the Levitical priestly instructions, the seven weeks to the Feast of Weeks, the seven months between Nisan and Tishri (and the seven years of the sabbatical year, and the seven times seven to the Jubilee Year), the seven priests with seven trumpets circling Jericho seven times in the Book of Joshua, seven nations of Canaan, Solomon was seven years building the Temple, Naaman washed seven times in the river, seven loaves fed the four thousand, etc.

In the Book of Revelation we encounter seven churches, seven lampstands, seven stars, seven seals, seven horns, seven spirits of God, seven angels, seven trumpets, seven thunders, seven crowns, seven last plagues, seven bowls, seven kings, and there are many more sevens, much more subtle in their presence.

The more closely one examines the text, the more evident is the recurrence of seven. (A list of some of the “sevens” have been included in Appendix D.)

Even in the interior design of the text, we continue to encounter this heptadic structure. Take the opening verse in Genesis chapter 1, for example:

In the beginning God created the heaven and the earth.

Number of Hebrew words:

seven

Number of letters:

28 = 4 x 7

First three words:

14 letters, 2 x 7

Last four Hebrew words:

14 letters = 2 x 7

Fourth and fifth words have

seven letters

Sixth and seventh words have

seven letters

Three key words: God, heaven, earth have

14 letters = 2 x 7

Four remaining words have

14 letters = 2 x 7

(Hebrew letters also each have a numerical value [gematria], so even the numerical values of the letters [and words] are provocative. The numeric value of first, middle, last letters = 133 = 19 x 7; the numeric value of the first and last letters of all seven words is 1393 = 199 x 7. Gematria will be explored in chapter 20.)

We also find this in the New Testament.

A DESIGN CHALLENGE

Consider the following assignment. Try designing a genealogy, even from fiction, which meets the following criteria:

1. The number of words in it must be divisible by seven evenly. (In each of these constraints, it is assumed that the resulting divisions are without any remainders.)

2. The number of letters must also be divisible by seven.

(Not too difficult so far? But let’s include a few more constraints:)

3. The number of vowels and the number of consonants must also each be divisible by seven.

(Getting more challenging? Let’s add a few more.)

4. The number of words that begin with a vowel must be divisible by seven.

5. The number of words that begin with a consonant must be divisible by seven.

(Let’s add some frequency constraints:)

6. The number of words that occur more than once must be divisible by seven.

7. The number of words that occur in more than one form shall be divisible by seven.

8. The number of words that occur in only one form shall be divisible by seven.

(Now let’s add some constraints on the grammatical structure:)

9. The number of nouns shall be divisible by seven.

10. Only seven words shall not be nouns.

11. The number of names in the genealogy shall be divisible by seven.

12. Only seven other kinds of nouns are permitted.

13. The number of male names shall be divisible by seven.

14. The number of generations shall be 21, also divisible by seven.

A challenging assignment, indeed! Could you do it?

If you encountered such a genealogy, would you attribute such characteristics as these to random chance?

These have all been met in the first 11 verses (in the Greek) in the genealogy of Jesus Christ in Matthew chapter 1.

The heptadic (sevenfold) structure of the Bible has been much studied and the subject of numerous volumes in the past,124 but none are more provocative than the works of Dr. Ivan Panin.125

DR. IVAN PANIN

Ivan Panin was born in Russia on December 12, 1855. Having participated in plots against the Czar at an early age, he was exiled and after spending some years in study in Germany, came to the United States and entered Harvard University.

After graduation in 1882, he converted from agnosticism to Christianity. In 1890 he discovered some of the phenomenal mathematical design underlying both the Greek text of the New Testament and the Hebrew text of the Old Testament. He was to devote over 50 years of his life to painstakingly—exhausting his health—exploring the numerical structure of the Scriptures, generating over 43,000 detailed, hand-penned pages of analysis. He went on to be with the Lord in his 87th year, on October 30, 1942.

Ivan Panin noted the amazing numerical properties of the Biblical texts. These are not only intriguing to discover, they also demonstrate an intricacy of design which testifies to its supernatural origin!

VOCABULARY

One of the simplest—and most provocative—aspects of the Biblical text is the vocabulary used. The number of vocabulary words in a passage is, of course, different from the total number of words in a passage. Some words are repeated. It is easy, for example, to use a vocabulary of 500 words to write an essay of 4,000 words.

For example, the first 17 verses of the Gospel of Matthew are a logical unit, or section, which deals with a single principle subject—the genealogy of Christ. It contains 72 Greek vocabulary words in these initial 17 verses.

(The verse divisions are man’s allocations for convenience, added in the 13th century.)

The number of words which are nouns is exactly 56, or 7 x 8.

The Greek word “the” occurs most frequently in the passage: exactly 56 times, or 7 x 8. Also, the number of different forms in which the article “the” occurs is exactly seven.

There are two main sections in the passage: verses 1-11 and 12-17.

In the first main section, the number of Greek vocabulary words used is 49, or 7 x 7. (Why not 48 or 50?)

The number of these 49 words which begin with a vowel is 28, or 7 x 4. The number of words which begin with a consonant is 21, or 7 x 3.

The total numbers of letters in these 49 words is 266, or 7 x 38 exactly! The number of vowels among these 266 letters is 140, or 7 x 20. The number of consonants is 126, or 7 x 18 exactly.

The number of these 49 words that occur more than once is 35, or 7 x 5. The number of words that occur only once is 14, or 7 x 2.

The number of these 49 words which occur in only one form is exactly 42, or 7 x 6. The number which appear in more than one form is seven.

The number of the 49 Greek vocabulary words which are nouns is 42, or 7 x 6.

The number of words which are not nouns is seven.

Of the nouns, 35 are proper names, or exactly 7 x 5. These 35 names are used 63 times, or 7 x 9. The number of male names is exactly 28, or 7 x 4.

These male names occur 56 times or 7 x 8.

The number which are not male names is seven. Three women are mentioned—Tamar, Rahab, and Ruth. The number of Greek letters in these three names is 14, 7 x 2.

The number which are compound nouns is seven. The number of Greek letters in these seven nouns is 49, or 7 x 7.

Only one city is named in this passage, Babylon, which, in Greek, contains seven letters.

GEMATRIA

There even more features in the numerical structure of the words themselves. Both Hebrew and Greek use the letters of the alphabet for numerical values. Therefore, any specific word—in either Hebrew or Greek—has a numerical value of its own by adding up the values of the letters in that particular word. The study of the numerical values of words is called gematria, and will be addressed in chapter 20.

The 72 vocabulary words add up to a gametrical value of 42,364, or 7 x 6,052. Exactly. If one Greek letter was changed, this would not happen. The 72 words appear in 90 forms—some appear in more than one form. The numeric value of the 90 forms is 54,075, or 7 x 7,725. Exactly.

We will defer further discussion of gematria to chapter 20, but it becomes immediately obvious that hidden below the surface are aspects of design that cannot be accidental or ascribed to coincidence.

UNIQUE VOCABULARIES

There are words in Matthew that occur nowhere else in the New Testament. They occur 42 times (7 x 6) and have 126 letters (7 x 18). Again, always an exact multiple of seven. How could this possibly have been organized?

Even if Matthew contrived to include this characteristic into his Gospel, how could he have known that these specific words—whose sole characteristic is that they are not to be found in the other New Testament books—were not to be used by the other writers? If this was the result of a deliberate design on his part, how could he have organized this?

Unless we assume the absurd hypothesis that he had a prior agreement with all of the other writers, he must have had the rest of the New Testament before him when he wrote his book. This characteristic would thus imply that the Gospel of Matthew, then, must have been written last.

It so happens, however, that the Gospel of Mark exhibits the same phenomena. This, too, suggests that the Gospel of Mark would also have had to be written “last.”

The same phenomena is found in Luke. And in the writings of John, James, Peter, Jude and Paul. Each would have had to write after the other in order to contrive these vocabulary usages! You can thus demonstrate that each of the New Testament books had to have been “written last.”

Was this due to “Chance,” or was it the result of deliberate, skillful design? There is no human explanation for this incredible and precise structure. It appears to have all been supernaturally designed or edited. We simply gasp, sit back, and behold the skillful handiwork of the Ultimate Author.

And we are indebted to the painstaking examinations and lifetime commitment of Dr. Ivan Panin for uncovering some of these amazing insights.

The magic of seven squared will be explored in chapter 10. The magic of 70 x 7 will be explored in chapter 17.

But in the next section, we will explore the Microcodes—the “Jots and Tittles” that Jesus Himself announced “would not pass away until they all would be fulfilled.”

SUGGESTIONS FOR FURTHER READING:

GENERAL:

McCormack, R., The Heptadic Structure of Scripture, Marshall

Brothers Ltd., London, 1923. Rambsel, Yakov A., Yeshua: The Hebrew Factor, Companion Press, Messianic Ministries Inc., P.O. Box 27213, San Antonio, Texas 78227, 1996.

PANIN:

Panin, Ivan, The Inspiration of the Scriptures Scientifically Demonstrated and other various works.

——, The Writings of Ivan Panin, The Book Society of Canada, Ltd., Agincourt, 1972.

For a source of all of Ivan Panin’s works, write to John W. Irwin, Bible Numerics, 81 Bayview Ridge, Toronto, Ontario, Canada, M2L 1E3, (416) 415-3243 ph/(416) 445-4060 fax.

SECTION III

Chapter 8

The Hebrew Alphabet

Chapter 9

Assassination Predicted?

Chapter 10

The Magic of Seven Times Seven

8

“Not one jot

nor one tittle

shall pass from the law

until all be fulfilled.”

CHAPTER 8

The Jewish rabbis say that they will not understand the Scriptures until the Messiah comes. But when He comes, He will not only interpret each of the passages for us, He will interpret the very words; He will even interpret the very letters themselves; in fact, He will even interpret the spaces between the letters!

When I first heard this, I simply dismissed this as a colorful exaggeration. Until I reread Matthew 5:17 and 18:

“Think not that I have come to destroy the Torah and the prophets; I have not come to destroy but to fulfill.

For verily I say unto you, till heaven and earth pass, one jot or one tittle shall in no wise pass from the law, till all be fulfilled.”

Now a jot is the smallest letter of the Hebrew alphabet, comparable to our apostrophe (’). A tittle is the tiny decorative hook on certain letters. Together these are somewhat the Hebrew equivalent of our dotting an “i” and the crossing of a “t.”

From this declaration by Jesus Christ Himself, it would seem that the attitude of the rabbis is far closer to the mark than any of us realize. The implications for the precision of Biblical expression needs our careful attention. This chapter will explore the nature of the Hebrew alphabet and the subtle hints of more below the surface of the text itself.

EXTRATERRESTRIAL SPECULATIONS

In chapter 2 we explored extraterrestrial communication and the nature of “extraterrestrial languages.” Would we recognize such a language if we saw one? What would its characteristics include? Would its alphabet be phonetic—as most of ours are—or would it be conceptual or pictorial? (In the computer industry we often quip that a picture is worth 1,024 words.)

Assuming that such a language is likely to be encountered as a stream of characters, What features might the language include to facilitate parsing itself into separable elements? How would it be parsed into words? Would it be segmented into sentences?

Would it be one-dimensional—like a stream of characters—or would it be two-dimensional, like an array or a page? Or would it be three-dimensional, like the message that was featured in the movie Contact?

Would it be dense—highly specific—to maximize the information transfer within the available bandwidth, or would it be highly redundant to minimize, or recover from, errors, noise, or even hostile jamming? Or, would it be dense and rely on other elements (macrocodes or transforms) to protect against noise and jamming?

THE ROLE OF REDUNDANCY

Some of the pillars of the field of mathematical theory of communications and cryptology are the results of the efforts of Dr. Claude Elwood Shannon. His monumental works at M.I.T. and Bell Labs gave birth to information theory. It was Dr. Shannon who developed the concepts of redundancy.

Redundancy means that more symbols are transmitted in a message than are actually needed to bear the information. English, for example, is about 75% redundant. That is, English could express the same things with 1/4 of its present letters if it were wholly nonredundant.

Here’s an example that demonstrates how very few letters can carry most of the information of a text while the others are somewhat redundant.

Using the top and central letters, “A cursed fiend wrought death, disease and pain.” Using the bottom and central letters, “A blessed friend brought breath and ease again.”

The top message is actually antithetical to the bottom one. In this example, 65% of the letters are in the central row and serve both contradictory meanings equally well. They add nothing to the information carried in the passage, all of which is determined in the remaining 35%.

Redundancy in language occurs because of grammatical rules, the need to establish or confirm a context, etc. The lower the redundancy, the more efficient will be the use of the available communication space (called “bandwidth”). The higher the redundancy, the more immunity there will be to errors, partial loss of message segments, misunderstandings, etc.

The lower the redundancy, the more difficult it is to solve a cryptogram. This is why many cryptographers often remove vowels in the plaintext before encrypting. Vowels can usually be omitted without essential loss to reduce redundancy.

(It is interesting that Hebrew does not use vowels. They are inferred. Modern Hebrew has added tiny marks below the letters to assist the pronunciation. Such text is called “pointed” text, but these were added after the sixth century B.C.)

Reducing redundancy increases the vulnerability to errors or “noise.” “Noise” in information theory has a special meaning. Noise is any unpredictable disturbance that creates transmission errors in the channel of communication. Examples are static on the radio, “snow” on a television screen, misprints on a teletypewriter, background chatter at a party, fog, a bad connection on a telephone, a foreign accent, or even mental preconceptions. One of the best ways to provide comprehensive protection against noise is through “macrocodes.” These will be explored in Section V.

EARLIEST LANGUAGES

Pictograms are forms of writing where pictures are combined to form a concept that describes the intended word, such as those found in Chinese or ancient Egyptian writings. It may come as a surprise to discover that the original Chinese pictograms had their original roots in the Genesis account.126

To explore the roots of the Chinese characters, we need to go back before the first century B.C. when Buddhism was introduced, and even before the fifth century B.C. when Taoism and Confucianism were introduced. We need to go back an additional 2,000 years to the dispersion of all peoples at the Tower of Babel. Up to that time the world was of one speech and one language.127

In the enumeration of the descendants of Noah in Genesis 10, we find a reference to a tribe called the Sinites,128 from a root suggesting “thorns.” (Also the Greek, sinae, and the French Late Latin, Sinae.) This labels a people living at the extremity of the known world commonly identified as China, which proudly claims the distinction of 4,500 years of unbroken civilization.

The label Sinim derives from Ch’in, the feudal state of China that unified China and built the Great Wall, 897-221 B.C. In later eras, the Ch’in boundaries were always considered to embrace the indivisible area of China proper. It is from this dynasty that the name China is derived. Thus we have sinology, the study of Chinese language, literature, history and culture.

The peoples that journeyed from Babel to the extreme Far East, although geographically isolated by the mountain ranges and vast deserts, initially retained an accurate knowledge of the historical events from the beginning of time, since the period spanned was only three patriarchal lifetimes: Adam to Methuselah to Shem.129

Sealed off from outside influences, however, they developed their own characteristic culture, undisturbed for 2,000 years. Yet they retained some of the original influences from their former homeland in the region of ancient Babel, including the seven-day week which they used.130

The origin of their pictographic and ideographic language system is believed to have been initiated about 2500 B.C.131 A record of successive reigning emperors has been kept from the beginning of the Hsia Dynasty in 2205 B.C. During the first three dynasties of Hsia, Shang, and Chou, from 2205 to 255 B.C., the Supreme Heavenly Ruler, ShangTi, was venerated.132

THE SHU CHING

One of the most venerated manuscripts of ancient China is the Shu Ching (“Shoo King”), the Book of History. Its contents, amazingly, date back nearly to the time of Noah and consist of a number of records of the first three dynasties, Hsia, Shang, and Chou, and several of their predecessors, embracing the period from the middle of the 24th century B.C. to 721 B.C. (It was found secreted in the wall of Confucius’ house when it was pulled down in 140 B.C.)

Ancient writings had attracted the attention of Confucius when he was at the court of Chou, and selecting those things he considered valuable, he compiled the Book of History. It contains the foundation of their political system, their history, religious rites, and the basis of their tactics, music and astronomy.133

The Shu Ching records that Emperor Shun, in 2230 B.C., sacrificed to ShangTi. ShangTi has been identified as the same Supreme Being of the Genesis record.134 The traditional “Border Sacrifice” to his honor was practiced from before the first dynastic rule (2205 B.C.) until the Manchus were deposed in 1911.135

Figure 8-1: ShangTi

THE SINITIC LANGUAGES

The Sinitic (Chinese) languages have in common a number of features, many of which are typological in nature: monosyllabicity, tonality, affixation, indistinct word classes, use of noun classifiers, and strict word order. Phonological correspondences in shared vocabulary have proven to be important evidences in the argument that all Sino-Tibetan languages derive from a common source.

SURPRISING ORIGINS

It is remarkable that there is a correspondence between certain characters of the Chinese language and elements of the Genesis account of man’s earliest days.136 Some of the following examples depend upon an original familiarity with the events of the early chapters of Genesis.

During the Ch’in dynasty, the first governmental standardization of characters was instituted and involved some 3,000 characters. (Although dictionaries of over 40,000 characters have been compiled, the number of absolutely necessary characters today is estimated at fewer than 4,000.)

The Ch’in characters have to a large degree remained the standard to the present day. The Communist government has introduced a new phonetic system, pinyin zimu, for transliterating Chinese into the Latin alphabet. It is hoped that Pinyin will gradually replace the traditional characters altogether.

ANCIENT HEBREW IDEOGRAPHS

The Bible suggests that God gave Adam the original language when He had Adam name all the animals.137 Augustine suggests that Hebrew was the original language until the confusion of tongues at Babel.138

The ancient Hebrew language was unique in that it was composed of an alphabet of ideographs which combined pictographs that carried basic conceptual values and ideas (sememes) as well as the phonemes which carried the sounds of the spoken language.139

Moses and David wrote in Hebrew letters that were vastly different from the ones used today. The squared-off form of letters presently used in modern Hebrew are known as Aramaic square script, which emerged during the Babylonian exile. These were easier to write but were somewhat distanced from the original pre-Babylonian pictographs used previously. The ancient Hebrew characters were found on the Moabite Stone^140 and continued in use to 139 B.C. but were gradually replaced by the modern square Hebrew characters in use today.

Fortunately, the ancient script was never fully lost. The Samaritans, who never went into exile, still use a derivative for their scriptures today. The Phoenician angular script also echoes many of the earlier pictographs. A list of the letters follows.

It is interesting that the prophet Zephaniah predicted that when the nation of Israel would be re-established they would return to pure Hebrew as a language.141 The resurrection of Hebrew by the modern State of Israel is the first time in history that a “dead” language has been revived.

AN EXAMPLE

The first letter of the Hebrew alphabet is Alef, which is currently written as , but in earlier times was written as

intended to represent an ox, and thus this initial letter symbolized “first,” “strength,” or “leader.” That seems straightforward enough.

When this letter was written later, as it is today, the picture concept was lost.

The next letter in the Hebrew alphabet is Beth, which you may recognize from such Hebrew words as Beth Lehem (the House of Bread) or Beth El (the House of God). Beth, originally written as

meant a house and symbolizes the family or that which was inside. (You can easily infer how it was eventually rotated to become our “b.”)

Knowing these simple letter-pictures, we can now explore our first Hebrew word. (Remember, Hebrew goes from right to left. Always “towards Jerusalem!”) Our first word will be Ab, written originally as

This word means (A) the leader of (b) the house or family: thus, Father. You may recognize its more familiar form as “Abba.”142

Notice that these ancient letters themselves yield the meaning of the word—not just the sound—and from the Author’s view of what it should be. But there’s more.

Another letter is named Heh, originally written as H, representing a man with hands lifted up, or an open window. The letter symbolizes “behold” or “revealed.” It also suggests a breeze, wind, or spirit.

If the letter is placed in the middle (the heart) of a word, it portrays the heart, or essence, revealed. The Hebrew word Ahav () comes from the word-picture which suggests the heart [of the father] revealed, which is the Hebrew word for Love! Indeed, the ultimate example of the God the Father is:

“For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life.”

John 3:16

THE BREATH OF LIFE

Most of us may remember the scene in Alan J. Lerner and Frederick Loewe’s My Fair Lady, the musical adaptation of George Bernard Shaw’s satire involving the English language, Pygmalion,143 in which Elisa Doolittle must develop the breath of her “H’s” by laboriously repeating “In Hartford, Hariford, and Hampshire, hurricanes hardly happen.” It is interesting that the Hebrew equivalent, , the heh, is also employed as an abbreviation for the Ruach, (“breath,” or “spirit”), the Spirit of God.144

In Genesis 17, when the names of Abram^145 () and Sarai^146 were changed to Abra(H)am^147 and Sara(H) ,148 it was accomplished by simply inserting the heh into their names, marking the involvement of the Spirit of God into their lives.

The use of , the heh, as a symbol or sign for Spirit of God will prove to be a key element in the chapter which follows.

SELF-PARSING LANGUAGE

Hebrew has 22 letters, but five of those letters have a different form if they are the last letter of a word.

And due to the presence of these final forms, the language is self-parsing. In the days of Moses, the words did not have spaces between them; the spaces were inferred. This form of text is called scripta continua. Ancient tradition maintains that this was the form in which Moses received the Torah and archaeologists have discovered ancient parchments written in this way. In 1985 archaeologists found a 22-line inscription in scripta continua near the city of Sidon dating to the Biblical era. Spaces appear to have been added in the days of Ezra, many centuries later.

Dr. Stan Tenon has noted that with the 22 regular letters plus the five final forms, there are a total of 27 letters. Exploring the mathematical implications, 27 is the cube of three: 3 x 3 x 3 = 27. Placing the 27 letters of Hebrew in the 27 cells of such a cube, Dr. Tenon reports that there exists a mathematical spiral that intercepts those cells to spell out the first verse of the Torah, Genesis 1:1.149 This also is claimed to occur with the last verse in the Torah, Deuteronomy 34:12.

THE FIRST AND THE LAST

There is an interesting identity that God uses of Himself in Isaiah 41:44:

“…I the Lord, the first, and with the last; I am he.”

And again in Isaiah 44:6:

“Thus saith the Lord the King of Israel, and his redeemer the Lord of hosts; I am the first, and I am the last; and beside me there is no God.”

And again in Isaiah 48:12:

“Hearken unto me, O Jacob and Israel, my called; I am he; I am the first, I also am the last.”

This identity is continued in the Book of Revelation:

“Saying, I am Alpha and Omega, the first and the last.…”

Revelation 1:11

“I am Alpha and Omega, the beginning and the end, the first and the last.”

Revelation 22:13

“The First and the Last” is, thus, also expressed in the New Testament as the “Alpha and Omega,” which are the first and last letters of the Greek alphabet. These are also continued as an identity:

“I am Alpha and Omega, the beginning and the ending, saith the Lord, which is, and which was, and which is to come, the Almighty.”

Revelation 1:8

“And he said unto me, It is done. I am Alpha and Omega, the beginning and the end. I will give unto him that is athirst of the fountain of the water of life freely.”

Revelation 21:6

That this identity is clearly the Jesus of the New Testament as further clarified in Revelation 1:17, 18:

“And when I saw him, I fell at his feet as dead. And he laid his right hand upon me, saying unto me, Fear not; I am the first and the last: I am he that liveth, and was dead; and, behold, I am alive for evermore, Amen; and have the keys of hell and of death.”

And also in Revelation 2:8:

“These things saith the first and the last, which was dead, and is alive.…”150

AN UNTRANSLATED WORD?

In the Old Testament there is an interesting passage in Zechariah 12:10:

“And I will pour upon the house of David, and upon the inhabitants of Jerusalem, the spirit of grace and of supplications: and they shall look upon me whom they have pierced, and they shall mourn for him, as one mourneth for his only son.…”

This passage is remarkable since it presents the Messiah of Israel as the “One Whom They Have Pierced,” an allusion to the crucified Messiah.151

It is even more remarkable when one examines the Hebrew text. Following we have an excerpt from a Hebrew Interlinear Bible, in which the English translation for each word is just below it. (But remember, the Hebrew goes from right to left.)

Notice that there is an untranslated word between the “me” and the “whom.” It is simply two letters, the aleph and the tau, the first and last letters of the Hebrew alphabet. The aleph can signify the first in a list or rank; the tau, the last, or completing, element in a list or rank.

This would seem to suggest a more insightful translation could be:

“…and they shall look upon me, the Aleph and the Tau, whom they have pierced.…”

This would be the Hebrew equivalent of the Greek, “Alpha and Omega.”152

It should also be noted that the is normally used as a grammatical element to indicate a direct object, so this example is viewed by many skeptics as coincidental or contrived. However, the Greeks had many prepositions, but the Hebrews had few. Hebrew prepositions in the Old Testament have many various meanings which had to be inferred from the context. (When is used to indicate a direct object, it is usually accompanied by a maqqeph, a kind of “connector dash,” which bonds two words together into a single unit.)

There are also instances, however, where is used as an indefinite pronoun; where it is used as a pronoun to indicate the second person masculine singular; where it is used to mean a ploughshare; and other applications. This could also be an idiomatic use of a preposition^153—a grammatical pun, if you will, or more precisely, a hypocatastasis. (A hypocatastasis, from the Greek for “putting down underneath,” designates a hidden but declarative implied metaphor, expressing a superlative degree of resemblance. That, indeed, appears to be its function in the passage below!)154

Figure 8-6: Zechariah 12

We find the same thing occurs in Genesis 1:1.

In the beginning God, (), created the heaven and the earth.

Again we have that same two letters, the aleph and the tau. In fact in Genesis 1 you will find the aleph and the tau seven times in the process of creation. Again, it is generally assumed to relate to the grammatical structure, or it may be a hypocatastasis, amplifying the identity of the Creator.

The attribution of the creation to Jesus Christ is confirmed in several Scriptures,155 notably in the opening verses of John’s Gospel:

“In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. The same was in the beginning with God. All things were made by him and without him was not anything made that was made.”

John 1:1-3

Created by whom? By Jesus Christ. “The Word” (, Logos) is one of His titles. One could call it the “code name” of the Author! (It is interesting that the “Creator” title is one suggestive of the information sciences. We will explore this further in chapter 23.) It is only when we comprehend who Christ is that the Bible really begins to make sense.

“And in him was life; and the life was the light of men. And the light shineth in the darkness; and the darkness comprehended it not.”

John 1:4, 5

This is the ultimate code which we all desperately need to “decipher.”

HYMNS OF THE COSMOS?

Is there also an architectural similarity between the Hebrew language and the structure of music? Is there some fundamental cosmic link echoed in both Hebrew and the musical scale?

In the Bible, the number eight also signifies a new beginning;156 in music we also repeat the scale when we encounter the Octave.157

Hebrew verbs, and roots, are typically derived from groups of three letters. Musical chords also derive from three basic notes, which determine the voice, mood, and key.

Jean-François Sudre proposed a seven-note/seven-color scheme for communication with extraterrestrials. In Sudre’s scheme, “do-mi-sol” signified “God”; “Sol-mi-do” meant “Satan.”158 A similar notion was adapted for the mysterious five notes featured in Steven Spielberg’s science fiction novel, Close Encounters of the Third Kind, which Columbia produced as a blockbuster movie. Spielberg used the five notes, “Do-re-mi-do-do (one half the first)-sol,”159 to establish communication with the alien visitors.

Is there some cosmic fundamental behind the physics and structure of music and the linguistic structures of the Hebrew language? We’ll defer such further conjectures for those who are more qualified to explore this field of study.

It may even go beyond that. There has persisted a traditional belief among the ancient Hebrew sages that the Torah is the preexistent blueprint of creation itself.160

In the next chapter, we’ll explore how some of the subtle characteristics of the Hebrew may harbor some prophetic surprises.

9

CHAPTER 9

There has been much promoted in recent publications about the possibility that the assassination of Prime Minister Itzhak Rabin was predicted in the Bible.161 While this example of the exploitation of “Equidistant Letter Sequences” has been extensively rebutted,162 these particular types of codes will be explored later in chapter 11. However, there may be another possible reference to this assassination event anticipated in the Scriptures.

ESSENTIAL BACKGROUND REVIEW

As we highlighted in the previous chapter, in the days of Moses, the words did not have spaces between them; the spaces were inferred. This form of text is called scripta continua. Spaces between the words appear to have been added in the days of Ezra, many centuries later.

Also as we noted in the previous chapter, the Hebrew letter heh is used as an abbreviation for God. It was the “breath” (ruach, spirit) that was added to change the name of Abram to Abraham; Sarai to Sarah.

THE TORAH READING

As some of you may know, the Jewish synagogues throughout the world follow, together, a Torah reading, beginning at Rosh Hashanah (the Jewish New Year) and continuing together throughout their year. In accordance with their annual reading schedule, in November 1995 the Jewish world was reading from Genesis 15, where God confirms to Abram the covenant of the land to his descendants. In verse 17, it reads:

“And it came to pass, that, when the sun went down, and it was dark, behold a smoking furnace, and a burning lamp that passed between those pieces.”

Genesis 15:17

In Hebrew it reads as follows:

Taking the phrase,

…but remember, it was originally with no spaces between the words: and simply altering the inferred spaces between the words, it then reads (remember, Hebrew goes from right to left):

“An evil fire (twice) into Rabin God decreed…”

On the very day that this passage was being read throughout the Jewish world, Prime Minister Itzhak Rabin was assassinated, with two shots fired into him!

This is even more remarkable since the very passage in question deals with the occasion when God covenanted the Land to Israel, and Rabin was viewed by a majority of Israel’s population as having betrayed their God-given right to the land in his promotion of the so-called “Peace Process.”

A DECADE OF DECEIT

Israeli Prime Minister Itzhak Rabin made the following promises before and after his election in June 1992:

1. He said he would never negotiate with the PLO. Yet he began secret talks with them within weeks of being elected.

2. He said he would never allow the creation of a Palestinian state. Yet in fact he had agreed to turn over vast portions of Judea, Samaria, and Gaza to the PLO.

3. He said he would protect 136,000 Jewish residents of the settlements of Judea, Samaria, and Gaza, and not uproot their communities. Ever. But in fact, since 1992 he has instituted a housing freeze and cut off all government funding to these communities and then insisted they leave and turn their lands and homes over to the PLO.

4. He said he would never surrender the Golan Heights to Syria. Anyone who has been there will confirm the untenable nature of defending the area without this essential high ground. Denying Israel a conventional response when their very survival is at stake is forcing a preemptive nuclear response. (My personal contacts at NATO’s headquarters in Brussels believe that a war is inevitable.)

5. He promised he would preserve a united Jerusalem under Israel’s sovereignty as Israel’s capital. But in fact he had agreed to negotiations over Jerusalem. His deputy foreign minister subsequently announced a willingness to turn over east Jerusalem—including the Western Wall—to the PLO.

6. In his 1994 Independence Day speech Prime Minister Itzhak Rabin publicly stated:

“I would take down settlements for peace. I don’t presume we look at the Bible as the map of the State of Israel.”

7. On October 5, 1995, incident to the Oslo Peace Agreement, he confirmed his position that

“The Bible is not Israel’s title deed.”

(Wrong, sir. If the covenant of Genesis 15 isn’t applicable, what are you doing there?)163

Thirty days later he was killed—on the very day that the worldwide Torah reading dealt with God’s unilateral covenant with Abraham concerning Land.

IMPLICATIONS

What does one do with this peculiar observation? Is it just a coincidence? (The rabbis are fond of pointing out that “coincidence” is not a kosher word! There are no accidents in God’s kingdom.) Or is this a hidden prophecy?

One has to draw one’s own conclusions.

However, it should be pointed out that in no way does a prophecy relieve the perpetrator of his own responsibility. Judas was prophesied as the betrayer of Christ^164 and yet he was fully accountable for his actions.

“It is impossible but that offenses will come: but woe unto him, through whom they come!”

Luke 17:1

In no way should we condone violence, and the shock of this act shattered Israel.

But this possible prophecy again raises the perennial paradox of predestination and free will that continually perplexes our perceptions and understanding. Are we the pawns of a predetermined fate or are we really able to determine our own course of action? Is our ultimate destiny really a result of our own choices? Can we be held accountable for what has been predicted in advance?

In theological terms, this leads to the struggle between the pre-determinism of Calvinism and the personal responsibility of Arminianism. (This is a paradox only when viewed from within the dimension of our own time domain.)

The libraries are full of volumes on the “sovereignty of God,” and the prerogatives of our Creator are pretty obvious. As the children’s riddle goes, “Where does the gorilla sleep in the forest?”

“Anywhere he wants to…” is the anticipated response.

And He has declared in detail (in His Word) the responsibilities He desires of His people. The Bible lays out just how He desires to be worshiped, etc.

OUR AWESOME GIFT

Beyond the mysteries associated with the “sovereignty of God,” there emerges what is to many of us an even more troubling mystery—the sovereignty of man and the awesome gift God has given us: our own free volition!165

If we are smart, we do best to give it right back to Him! It is a courtship, after all.

MORE HIDDEN CODES?

In our next chapter we will explore the background which has led to the current interest in “Bible Codes,” specifically, the “equidistant letter sequence” discoveries that have created such a stir, and have ignited the current debates. There, too, we also confront the paradox of an ostensibly pre-written history which would seem to constrain our own personal degrees of freedom—and, consequently, the extent of our own responsibilities.

It should be mentioned, however, that the popular book by Michael Drosnin, The Bible Code, while well promoted and very financially successful, is not taken seriously by the competent experts. Among his provocative claims is the prediction of the assassination of Prime Minister Rabin on an entirely different basis than has been presented here. Drosnin’s book deals with the controversial “equidistant letter sequences,” and many of his translations and treatment are regarded as contrived.166 These controversial “codes” will be explored in the next several chapters.

10

“The Messiah will even

interpret the spaces

between the letters.”

RABBINICAL PROVERB

CHAPTER 10

A TRADITION COMMITTED

TO PERFECTION

In our modern era of printing presses, xerography, facsimile machines, tape recorders and computer disk storage, we easily lose sight of the difficulties—and the heroic commitment—of the ancient Hebrew scribes in making and preserving copies of manuscripts. The rigorous extremes of perfection adhered to by these committed perfectionists reflected the very existence and purpose of the Jewish people. The result of this uncompromising rigor has been preservation of the ancient texts with astonishing accuracy.

The three Torahs in use worldwide among the Jews—the Ashkenazi, the Sephardi, and the Yemenite—have only nine letter-level variations total in the entire 304,805 letters of the text!167

When the Dead Sea Scrolls were discovered, including the complete scroll of Isaiah, the most remarkable aspect was the absence of discrepancies when compared with our current copies of Isaiah. Only a handful of single-letter or punctuation differences were found! It was this rigor that has preserved the remarkable encodings that are still with us today. (The recent code discoveries in the Isaiah text will be explored in Chapter 12.)

MYSTICAL TRADITIONS

Intensifying this commitment has been a traditional belief among the ancient Hebrew scribes that the Torah is the preexistent blueprint of creation.168 There was an ancient belief that the entire Torah consists of permutations of the names of God.169 Of Bezaleel, the craftsman who crafted the Ark of the Covenant and the other implements of the Tabernacle,170 it was said, “He knew how to combine the letters of the Divine Names with which heaven and earth were created.”171

The high point of speculations regarding the Torah codes was the flowering of the Spanish Kabbalah that took place in the Middle Ages. Eleazar ben Judah of Worms (1165-1230) discussed the creation of the universe through the operation of the 22 letters of the Hebrew alphabet.172 The next generation included the most mysterious of the medieval Jewish mystics, Rabbi Abraham ben Samuel Abulafia (b. 1240), who specifically focused on combinations and permutations of letters such as the first letters of successive words such as acrostics, notarikon, and the like.173 In 1274, Abulafia’s most gifted student, Joseph ben Abraham Gikatilla of Castile and Segovia published his compilation of methods of gematria (the numeric value of letters). Gematria will be discussed in Chapter 20.

Towering behind all of these was one of the greatest Jewish sages of all time, Rabbi Moses ben Nachman of Gerona in Catalonia, born in 1194. Known as Nachmanides—and by the acronym Ramban—he maintained that all of Israel’s history can be found in the Song of Moses in Deuteronomy 32. He believed that the 6,000 years of history prefigured in the Torah would draw to a close at the dawn of the seventh millennium—the Sabbath Millennium, or Day of the Lord—about a thousand years following his own era. (This view has also had its adherents among Christian enthusiasts to the present day; this is likely to intensify as we approach the year 2000.)

(Nachmanides also inferred, from Genesis 1, that our universe has ten dimensions. This appears to anticipate the very insights currently recognized by particle physicists and will be reviewed in Chapter 23.)

At the end of the 12th century, a new wave of persecution by the Crusaders broke out against the Jewish communities of Central Europe. It was against the continual background of terror that the mysteries of the codes were further hidden and secreted in the terrors of persecution.

(The many techniques resorted to by the Jewish mystics developed into the cryptographic methods which emerged in the Renaissance period. In turn, the cipher wheels, and the like, led to the Enigma machines and their competitors in World War II, and, of course, ultimately, the computer. As we will see in Chapter 11, the technical evolution seems to have come full circle.)

VILNA GAON

One of the greatest sages of Jewish history was a prominent 18th century Lithuanian rabbi, Eliyahu ben Shlomo, “the genius of Vilna”— Vilna Gaon (1720-1797). He wrote, “All that was, is, and will be unto the end of time is included in the Torah, the first five books of the Bible.… And not merely in a general sense, but including the details of every person individually and the most minute details of every thing that happened to him from the day of his birth until his death; likewise of every kind of animal and beast and living thing that exists, and of herbage, and of all that grows or is inert.”174

This extreme belief has reflected itself through a long line of scholarship through the centuries of rabbinical commitment and has been encouraged through numerous anecdotal examples.

MAIMONIDES

Rabbi Moses ben Maimon—widely known by his acronym, RMBM or Rambam—was a 12th century astronomer, mathematician, codifier of Jewish law, and a physician to the court of Egypt, and is generally regarded as the greatest of all Jewish sages in the post-Biblical era. Once Gaon, responding to a challenge by a visitor, pointed to Exodus 11:9:

“And the LORD said unto Moses, Pharaoh shall not hearken unto you; that my wonders may be multiplied in the land of Egypt.”

= RMBM: Rabot (may be multiplied) Moftai (my wonders) B’eretz (in the land of) Mitzraim (Egypt). This text was viewed as linking “Moses” and “wonders” in both medieval Egypt as well as Biblical Egypt.175

WEISSMANDL

All of these influences were brought together by a more recent prodigy, Rabbi Michael Ber Weissmandl, of the small town of Nitra in Slovakia, not far from Bratislava. At the age of 13, he acquired a Torah commentary written by a 13th century sage, Rabbenu Bachya ben Asher of Saragossa, in Spain. Fascinated by Bachya’s cryptic asides, and allusions to decryptions (literally, kabbalah, in Hebrew), for the rest of his life, Weissmandl maintained his certainty that divinely ordered information was embedded within the Torah by means of Bachya’s description of the skipping of equal intervals of letters.176 Even as a youth Weissmandl wrote out the entire 304,805 letters of the Torah in 10 x 10 grids (a common practice in cryptanalysis to facilitate the identification of skipped-letter sequences).

Weissmandl took the Vilna Gaon’s discovery of “Rambam” in Exodus one step further. Applying Bachya’s “equidistant letter-skip encoding,” in that same passage was encoded the title of Rambam’s most significant work, his Misne Torah. This is the work that codified the Jewish practice of observing the 613 commandments that obligate the observant Jews to this day. The passage in question happens to be the one that involves the “first command given to all Israel” on the eve of Passover, to mark the “beginning of months.”177 With 613 letters between the beginning of the two words, both the Mishnah and the Torah are encoded at intervals of 50 letters. Between the giving of this first commandment in Egypt and the 613th given at Sinai transpired exactly 50 days, an interval which is commemorated in the Feast of Weeks, or Pentecost. (This will be explored further in Chapter 18.)

It would be Weissmandl’s rediscoveries of the ancient sages that subsequently inspired the Israeli researchers, 60 years later and armed with computers, to uncover what has now erupted into the modern-day controversies, codes which appear to describe events which transcend the time period they were written: the events surrounding the revolt of the Maccabees; the storming of the Bastille during the French revolution; the treatment of diabetes; a description of AIDS; and many specifics of current history. (Some of these will be explored in the next chapter.)

Weissmandl’s pursuit of these mysteries ostensibly hidden in the Torah was interrupted by the arrival of the Nazis, his escaping from the train taking him and his family to Auschwitz, and his subsequent exploits in organizing Schindler-like ransom efforts to extricate Jews from their tragic fates.178

WEISSMANDL’S STRANGE LEGACY

(The following was first revealed to me by my friend, Dr. Gerald Schroeder, the famed atomic physicist who presently resides in Jerusalem.179)

Here is the opening verses in the Book of Genesis in Hebrew:

The word Torah, in Hebrew, is four letters, . If you go to the first (tau, which is similar to our “T”) and count an interval of 49 letters, the next letter is a (vav, operating here like an “O”); count another interval of 49 letters and you will find a (resh, like our “R”); and then count another interval of 49 letters and you will find a (heh, or “H”). We find the word , or Torah, spelled out with 49 letter intervals. Rather strange. It would seem that someone has gone to some remarkable effort, and yet some argue that it is just a chance coincidence.

And when we examine the next book, the Book of Exodus, we discover the same thing again! Here are the first few verses of Exodus:

Could this also be a coincidence again? Just what are the chances of such a coincidence? The word might, on merely a statistical basis, appear in Genesis quite a few times depending on the range of intervals chosen. The total number of letters in Genesis is 78,064, and the amount of the letter , is 4152; , 8448; , 4793, and , 6283. Indeed, appears three times in Genesis at the interval of 50, which is what might be statistically expected from a book of that length and of similar concentration of these four letters. But there is no reason why these should begin with the first of the book, and why this should happen in both Genesis and Exodus. The probability of such a coincidence has been estimated at about one in three million!

In the next book, the Book of Leviticus, this 49-letter interval doesn’t seem to appear. (We’ll return to reexamine an alternative discovery.)

When we examine the next book, the Book of Numbers, we discover that it happens again if we spell Torah backwards!

When we examine the final book of the Torah, the Book of Deuteronomy, a similar thing happens,180 but again, backwards!

This seems to be too deliberate to be ascribed simply to chance. But why has this ostensibly deliberate arrangement been composed? What are the implications?

When we return to examine the Book of Leviticus, we discover the square root of 49, seven, yields a provocative result. After the first yod (), after an interval of seven, taking the next letter yields , the tetragrammaton, the ineffable name of God, the YHWH.

It appears that the Torah always points toward the Ineffable Name of God!

This seems to hint of a hidden signature. Just as certain authors adopted a trademark, or “shtick,” such as Alfred Hitchcock always appearing as an extra in his famous movies, or J.M.W. Turner’s secret signature on his venerated water colors, or the fabled hidden signature of Shakespeare in Psalm 46,181 we detect here evidence of hidden but deliberate design.

As we discovered in Chapter 5, within the first of the five books of Moses, known in Hebrew as the Torah, God’s redemptive program was anticipated in the hidden message in the genealogy of Noah. Even the very name of this most venerated part of the Old Testament, highlights God’s program. Drawing on what we learned in Chapter 8, the word “Torah,” , embodies some most provocative elements: the Tav (originally, a cross), the Vav (a nail), the Resh (a head of a man), and the Heh, the breath or Spirit of God. Thus, Man, with the Spirit of God, nailed, on the cross! Now this term was in existence well before Messiah walked on the earth.

It is an interesting summary of the climax of God’s love story which was nailed on a cross erected in Judea 2,000 years ago. The entire Biblical drama records the extremes our Creator has resorted to in order to redeem man from his predicament.

Could this hidden design be simply an accident? There are those that argue that this is all a result of random chance. There are others who simply ascribe this remarkable structure to some ancient “diddling” by a clever scribe. However, we will discover that this all appears to be part of an even larger design. This discovery by Weissmandl appears to be only a remez, a hint of something hidden or something deeper.

SEVEN TIMES SEVEN

This same square of seven, 49, also seems to emerge in many other places in the text. In Leviticus 23:17 we discover that the Israelites were required to count 49 days from the Feast of First Fruits until the celebration of the Feast of Weeks, or Shavout, (also called the Feast of Pentecost); this was called the “counting the omer.” We will explore this further in Chapter 18.

Another interesting instance occurs in Genesis 38 which tells the story of Judah and Tamar who give birth to Perez and Zerach. From the Book of Ruth we learn that Boaz was descended from Perez. Boaz married Ruth and had a son named Obed, who in turn had a son, Jesse, the father of David. What is astonishing is that these names are also hidden, within the text of Genesis 38, at 49-letter intervals—and in chronological order!182 The probability of all five names to show up at a given interval has been estimated to be about one in 6500; however, for them show up in chronological order is estimated to be about one in over 800,000. (See Appendix H for more information.)

The names of Abraham and Elohim are also interwoven in the text of Genesis 1:22-26 at 49-letter intervals.183 Further astonishing discoveries of numerous equidistant letter sequences have been revealed using the computer and are the subject of the next chapter.

THE ELLIPSIS NOW CLOSES

It is fascinating to reflect on the history of the codes. From the Hebrew scribe’s obsession with textual precision emerged a mystical tradition that also led, intensified by the crucible of persecution, to the arcana of cryptography, which, when assisted with mechanical devices, ultimately led to the modern computer, which is now apparently revealing the codes hidden there from the very beginning. These Equidistant Letter Sequences, which have sparked such intense controversies, are the subject of the next section.

SUGGESTIONS FOR FURTHER READING:

Jeffrey Satinover, Cracking the Bible Code, William Morrow and Co., New York, 1997.

Gerald L. Schroeder, Genesis and the Big Bang, Bantam Books.

BRIEFING PACKAGES:

Beyond Coincidence, a briefing package by the author.

Creator Beyond Time and Space, with Mark Eastman.

SECTION IV

Chapter 11

The Torah Codes

Chapter 12

The Yeshua Codes

Chapter 13

The Dark Side

11

“The secrets of

the Torah are revealed…

in the skipping

of the letters.”

RABBI MOSES CORDEVARO,

16th CENTURY

CHAPTER 11

THE COMPUTER WINDOW OPENS

As computers were born in the cradle of the cryptography, the ellipsis of history now seems to be closing. It was the sequential development of three areas of modern interest—cryptology, mathematical statistics, and machine computation—that has emerged from the ancient encoding techniques of the Jewish sages who first discovered codes in the Torah so long ago.

Has God now raised up a unique rebuttal to leave a most skeptical generation without excuse? Several of the most accepted myths of our modern culture have been debunked by recent scientific advances; Is the comfort of cynical skepticism towards the Biblical text next?

Cosmology has clung to the notion of the “Big Bang” as a pseudo-explanation of the origin of the universe: “first there was nothing, and then it exploded!” The discovery that the universe is finite should embarrass anyone who has tried to deny the pre-existence of a transcendent Creator.184 The inability to identify either infinity, in either the macrocosm of the telescope or the microcosm of quantum physics, or even true randomness in the physical world, will be explored in Chapter 23.

Naturalistic science, in its desperate attempt to explain the origin of mankind without the intervention of a transcendent Creator has chosen to ignore the entropy laws and has ascribed the universe, and Man himself, to the random machinations of unaided chance. Current discoveries in microbiology, however, have demonstrated, through the elusiveness of the existence of any “simple cell,” the untenable foolishness of random chance as the designer of life. This will be explored in Chapter 22.

Has cryptography now also joined these other sciences to reveal what Bible scholars have been trumpeting for generations? Is the Bible really a message from beyond the edge of infinity, carrying a preemptive personal relevance for each of us?

PIERCING THE VEIL

Weissmandl’s legacy was destined to be a topic more conveniently explored with the mechanical assistance of advanced information processing equipment. But it has opened a Pandora’s box of controversy very wide, indeed!

At the center of the maelstrom appear several brilliant mathematical explorers who have unleashed one of the most fascinating controversies in modern science: Doron Witztum, an ultra-Orthodox Jewish Torah scholar who had been a graduate student specializing in general relativity; Eliyahu Rips, a Lithuanian émigré and world-class mathematician in group theory; Prof. Daniel Michelson, maintaining appointments both in the Department of Mathematics at UCLA as well as the Hebrew University in Jerusalem; and Gerald Schroeder, an MIT physicist, a participant in six atomic bomb tests, and who has worked for the Department of Defense, the Atomic Energy Commission, and the UN. (I had the delightful privilege of celebrating Passover in Gerry’s home in Jerusalem many years ago, and it was he who first introduced me to the “Torah codes.”)185

The first apparent breakthrough occurred in 1982 when Dr. Eli Rips of the Institute of Mathematics at the Hebrew University, Dr. Moshe Katz of the Haifa Technion, and Dr. Doron Witzum, used the computer to continue the searches begun during World War II by Rabbi Weissmandl. They set up the program to search for hidden occurrences of the word Israel, , in the first 10,000 letters of Genesis, at equal intervals from -100 to +100. The computer program revealed that the word is spelled out, in equidistant letter sequences, only twice, at intervals of seven and 50, both occurrences clustered in verses 1:31 to 2:3.186

What astounded them was that this very passage constitutes the Kiddush which is recited over a cup of wine every Friday night to sanctify the Sabbath. What makes these intervals so suggestive is that seven and 50 are the only numbers in the Bible which are related to the Sabbath: for the seventh day of Creation and for the Jubilee year which occurs in the year after seven Shmitas (the seven sabbath years of the land): 7 x 7 + 1 = 50.

The probability of the word appearing once at a given interval in the above verses is about one in 1200. The chance of two appearances at the specific intervals of seven and 50, either backward or forward, is about one in 400,000. But it was also the ostensible relevance to the Sabbath observances that could not be overlooked.

A veil seemed to be in the process of being lifted and many more surprises were in store for the astonished investigators. And, not surprisingly, so were anguished attacks of the skeptical—from among both the Biblically informed as well as from the secular materialists.

One of the first publications to highlight the “Equidistant Letter Sequence” codes was by Prof. Daniel Michelson, in B’Or Ha ‘ Torah, published by the Association of Religious Professionals from the Soviet Union and Eastern Europe in Jerusalem in 1987.187 His provocative article included some of the other surprising discoveries revealed by the computer searches.

In addition to the search for words at varying intervals, there is also the critical aspect of clustering: finding related words hidden together, and in relevant places . As an example, beginning with Genesis 1:29,

“And God said, Behold, I have given you every herb bearing seed, which is upon the face of all the earth, and every tree, in the which is the fruit of a tree yielding seed; to you it shall be for meat.…”

…and ending with

“And out of the ground made the Lord God to grow every tree that is pleasant to the sight, and good for food; the tree of life also in the midst of the garden, and the tree of knowledge of good and evil.”

Genesis 2:9

All seven edible species of seed-bearing fruit in the Land of Israel are found encoded, as well as the 25 trees delineated by Old Testament tradition.188 The names, (and their intervals) are listed below: (“-” indicates an interval counting backward, from left to right.)

It is the presence of all of these in this chapter (635 words in English), and their clustering around the very verses which introduces them in the Creation, which eludes any traditional statistical analysis.190

The skeptics are quick to point out that Hebrew, particularly, lends itself to this kind of word play: its alphabet is short, consisting primarily of consonants, with the vowels only inferred. This density and resulting lack of redundancy tends to induce these kinds of phenomena.

THE DEBATE IGNITES

An early progress report of the computer discoveries began to stir up interest when it was published in the eminent Journal of the Royal Statistical Society.191 Eight years later, Rips, Witztum, and Yoav Rosenberg, a young computer scientist, published their landmark article in the highly respected, and refereed, journal, Statistical Science.192

Included in their study, the researchers had selected the names of 34 of the most prominent rabbis and Jewish scholars who lived during the thousand years leading up to eighteenth century.193 They programmed the computer to search for their names, and dates of their birth and death (using Jewish reckoning, of course.) The computer located every one of them in the text of Genesis, paired with their birth or death. The odds of this occurring by random chance has been calculated as only one chance in 775 million.

Understandably, the scholars refereeing for Statistical Science Journal were astonished. It was manifestly impossible for the ancient text to have included allusions to events that transpired thousands of years after the text had been written. The existence of such a record would shatter our notions of time itself.

They demanded an additional run on the next 32 most prominent sages listed in their reference source. Again, the computer test revealed the same results for all 32; 66 famous rabbis had apparently been anticipated in the text of Genesis! After an extensive six-year review, they reluctantly accepted the report for publication. The article concluded with the following assessment:

“We conclude that the proximity of the ELS’s (Equidistant Letter Sequences) with related meanings in the Book of Genesis is not due to chance.”

If not chance, then how did these occur? Never before had there been such a rigorous scientific examination in the defense of metaphysical codes. (All of the refereeing scholars have subsequently become believers in the codes.)

Further public awareness was then added with Dr. Jeffrey Satinover’s article in Bible Review in October 1995.194 Dr. Satinover is an expert in mathematics, physics, and clinical psychiatry; he is a former Williams James lecturer in Psychology and Religion at Harvard; has degrees from MIT, Harvard Graduate School of Education and the University of Texas. He reported that the mathematical probability of these 66 names of Jewish sages, with the dates of their birth or death, in an ancient text such as Genesis, was less than one chance in 2.5 billion.

Attempts to find truly equivalent codes in other Hebrew texts, other than the Bible, have proven elusive. These attempts included the Samaritan Pentateuch (which is similar, but has subtle variants), Hebrew apocryphal books written during the four centuries before the birth of Christ, and even a Hebrew translation of Tolstoy’s famous War and Peace (chosen because it was the same length as the Book of Genesis).

(Provocative ELS sequences that appear somewhat analogous to the Bible ELS’s have been found, however, and these will be discussed subsequently.)

THE EXPLOITATION BEGINS

It was inevitable that exploitative and sensationalistic promotional publications would soon appear. The remarkably successful promotion of Michael Drosnin’s book, The Bible Code, by Simon and Schuster in 1997, ignited wide popular interest.195 Within a few months, Simon and Schuster’s web page on the Internet had over 231 book reviews listed. Warner Brothers has even acquired the film rights.

Unfortunately, however, this appears as a somewhat contrived and exploitative book, (written by an apparent atheist), and it quickly became substantially discredited by many critics.196 Both skeptics and endorsers of the codes have denounced the book. (Even Eli Rips, presented by Drosnin as sort of a semi-collaborator in the book, has publicly denounced it.) Even the more competent proponents of the ELS codes feel that Drosnin and other popular treatments misrepresent and distort the serious research and bring disrepute to the entire field of study. Many of the critics of the ELS codes focus their attacks on Drosnin’s book rather than the real issues. Called everything from “a journalistic hoax,” to “numerological hogwash,” Drosnin’s book proves to be an easy target and has done little more than obfuscate an already complex and tense situation.

So the debate has been ignited.

Are these codes real? Are they valid evidence of an origin which transcends the abilities of human reason? Are they an authentication of the Bible as a message from God?

Or are they a surprising, but natural, occurrence intrinsic to the language? Hebrew lends itself to such things with its density, the shorter alphabet, and the inferred vowels. Or was the language designed to facilitate the codes in the first place?

In contrast to those who have successfully exploited the sensationalistic potential of the ELS (Equidistant Letter Sequence) codes, a number of more competent books have become increasingly available.197 Some are committed to restricting their horizon to traditional Talmudic Judaism; others have discovered what appear to be remarkable allusions to the New Testament record hidden in the Old Testament.198 We are, of course, indebted to each of them in compiling this superficial summary.

And yet, the “puck is on the ice,” and the controversies about the validity of the “Equidistant Letter Sequences” continues from all quarters. There are those who are irrepressibly enthusiastic. There are those who are guardedly cautious. And there are many who insist that the “codes” are statistically irrelevant.

Erudite papers have been, and will continue to be, published. The debate is not likely to be settled in the near future.

THE BIG GUNS TAKE A LOOK

Dr. Harold Gans has been a senior mathematician with the most prestigious cryptology institution in the world, the National Security Agency (NSA). (NSA used to suggest “No Such Agency.” Now some bemoan that it has come to mean, “Not Secret Anymore.”) Headquartered at Fort Meade, Maryland, NSA’s intellectual and pragmatic resources are legend and second to none in the world.

Dr. Gans is a brilliant mathematician who has published over 190 technical papers (most of them classified), and has headed up teams of the top mathematicians, cryptanalysts, programmers, and engineers, solving problems previously considered virtually uncrackable.

Determined to resolve this ELS controversy for himself, Dr. Gans personally programmed his desktop computer at home to execute his own calculations to disprove the outrageous claims that the Israeli scientists had made and to resolve the turmoil that this ostensible discovery was causing within his own field of specialization. To his joyful shock, the calculation—taking 440 hours (19 days)— yielded the astonishing result: there was less than one chance in 62,500 that the results obtained were due to random chance alone.199

Dr. Gans was so skeptical that he conducted a subsequent test including the respective cities of their birth and death as well. In a public statement, Gans wrote, “The statistical results obtained were even stronger than that obtained for the first experiment. After exhaustive analysis, I have reached the conclusion that the codes discovered in Genesis…exist, and the probability that they are mere coincidence is vanishingly small.”200

Dr. Satinover has summarized this well: “These results are especially striking when you consider that in the original experiment, the “internal” control was the elegant randomization procedure suggested by [Persi] Dianconis: The rabbis’ names were matched up with 999,999 different sets of wrong dates. Think of those dates as simply strings of letters. With these “wrong” strings the phenomenon was utterly erased. Surely if there was an underlying flaw in the procedure, or if the phenomenon was due to inadvertent tinkering over the years in which the compactness measure was “fitted” to those particular data (or vice versa, or both)—or if the codes themselves simply do not really exist—then matching the rabbis’ names with a different set of letter strings (the cities) should have produced results nearly identical to the mismatched names and dates.”201

Dr. Harold Gans, now retired, presently teaches classes in synagogues around the world, alleging that the codes prove the divine Authorship of the Torah .

Many former critics now agree with the response that Dr. Jeffrey Satinover gave to those who were skeptical in his article in Bible Review:

“The robustness of the Torah Codes findings derives from the rigor of the research. To be published in a journal such as Statistical Science, it had to run, without stumbling, an unusually long gauntlet manned by some of the world’s most eminent statisticians. The results were thus triply unusual: in the extraordinariness of what was found, in the strict scrutiny the findings had to hold up under; and in the unusually small odds (less than one in 62,500) that they were due to chance.”202

Even the most respected mathematician in Israel, a former skeptic, became convinced. Robert J. Aumann is a member of both the Israeli and U.S. Academy of Science, and on March 19, 1996, he told the Israeli Academy of Science, “The Bible code is an established fact.”

THE HOLOCAUST CODES

Subsequent searches have uncovered a number of even more provocative candidates.

It probably shouldn’t have come as a surprise that the greatest tragedy in the history of the Jewish people, the Nazi Holocaust, also seems to show up as well. In passages of Deuteronomy, there are several clusters of codes that include:203

But these are only a few, and they emerge from a simple “one-dimensional” view of the letter sequences. When one converts a string of letters into a two-dimensional array, such as on this page, the vertical alignments will, of course, depend upon what line length is chosen. Even more clusters often emerge with more sophisticated analyses.

In Genesis 46:3, 4, we find the minimum ELS of , Eichmann, at an interval of only two, as opposed to the previous incidence above at 9670. It would seem that among a plurality of occurrences, the minimal spacing should prove the more significant. Here we also find , he consumed, at interval of two; and , a great people, at an interval of one.

Yet this dense encryption also seems to anchor a number of additional arrays depending upon what line length is chosen. We also find , in Auschwitz, at an interval of 300. With a line length of 300 (which then reveals “Auschwitz” vertically), we also find, nearby, , by the hand of the SS, also appearing vertically with an interval of 300. When we change the width of the array to 120, we encounter , Zyklon B, and , gas. With a line length of 25, we find , one third of my people, which did, indeed, perish in the Holocaust. (The six million were one third of the Jewish population at the time.)204

It would appear that the codes discovered so far may be only scratching the surface of what may lie beneath the text itself. So far we have only been dealing with a linear equation with one-dimensional streams of letters. When one begins to explore with multidimensional arrays, and perhaps with higher order equations, a stream of new discoveries should not be that surprising. But we’ll see.

Among the sensational claims in Drosnin’s book is the allegation that the assassination of Itzhak Rabin was revealed to the author a year in advance. (This is a totally different reference to the one previously discussed in Chapter 9.) However, the Drosnin reference hasn’t passed scrutiny as the translation is contrived and is in total contrast to the context from which it is drawn.205

Other provocative codes have been reported and the floodgates have now been opened. One can find ostensible references to diabetes and AIDS,206 the assassination of Anwar Sadat (including the first and last names of his assassin and the date),207 the 1991 Persian Gulf War (the types and dates of the Scud missiles),208 Yassir Arafat and the PLO,209 and even the Oklahoma City bombing.210 Other examples include the Great Depression of 1929; the moon landing and the date that Neil Armstrong stepped out on the Lunar surface, July 20, 1969; the collision of comet Shoemaker-Levy with Planet Jupiter; the American Revolution; the French Revolution; several of Shakespeare’s plays; German composers, Dutch painters, and the Pearl Harbor attack in 1941. One can easily understand the widespread astonishment caused by these reports which keep increasing.

CAUTION FLAGS FLYING

However, substantial caution appears advisable. Skeptics have shown that using ostensibly similar techniques, one can find similar “crossword puzzles” in any lengthy text. There are many who maintain that it is this density—and lack of redundancy—in the Hebrew that makes it so susceptible to word play of all kinds.

Allusions to the assassinations of not only Itzhak Rabin, but also Indira Gandhi, Leon Trotsky, Martin Luther King, both Robert Kennedy and John F. Kennedy, Abraham Lincoln and six others have been found in Herman Melville’s classic, Moby Dick.211 This wasn’t presented to suggest any particular features of the text of Moby Dick; rather, it was simply a demonstration to suggest that one can find almost anything in any text if it is long enough.

Brendan McKay has even found “Rabin” in the software license text on the envelopes enclosing Microsoft software products!

It is argued by the skeptics that all of this is a chance artifact of any substantial corpus of text in any language, especially Hebrew, which is extremely compact—free of redundancy—in which even the vowels are inferred. With the ELS codes, it is argued, you can find— or “prove”—anything. And it is axiomatic that something which can prove anything, proves nothing.

However, taken in the extreme, this would imply that the entire field of advanced cryptology might just as well be ignored. It is not simply the presence of a provocative word or phrase appearing within equidistant letter sequences; it is the combination of the multidimensional clustering, the extended relevancies with the plaintext, and other features, that should ultimately tip the scales toward indicating skillful, deliberate design. But the starting gun has been fired and the race is on.

THE CRITICS SPEAK OUT

Many books have been, and will continue to be, published condemning the “Bible codes” (referring specifically to the ELS phenomenon) as being meaningless or worse. Most of these focus specifically on Michael Drosnin’s The Bible Code, which is easy prey.212 Some of the critics are also prominent academics such as Dror Bar-Natan, a renowned quantum physicist at Hebrew University; Alec Gindis, Arieh Levitan, and Brendan McKay, a computer specialist at the Australian National University.

Attempts to replicate the initial studies posted on the Internet claim to have failed to find any trace of the phenomena. However, when the errors in both the critics’ and principals’ data are corrected, the results are reported to turn out results ever more strongly in favor of the ELS codes.213

Obviously, the controversy is destined to continue. Numerous books are in the works on both sides of this controversial issue. What would you expect? In Israel they are fond of pointing out that where you have two Jews, you have three opinions!

Prof. David Kashdan, Chairman of the Department of Mathematics of Harvard University, has summed it up well: “The phenomenon is real; what it means is up to the individual.”214

PHASE II

There was understandable excitement throughout the Jewish community from the discovery of the “Torah Codes,” and many, many people—including some of the most brilliant scientists in the world— have returned to take their sacred Scriptures more seriously.

But then the controversies surrounding the “Bible Codes” took an even more surprising turn. And that’s the subject of the next chapter.

SUGGESTIONS FOR FURTHER READING:

Satinover, Jeffrey, Cracking the Bible Code, William Morrow & Co., New York, 1997.

Schroeder, Gerold, Genesis and the Big Bang, Bantam Books, New York, 1990.

Professor Daniel Michelson, “Codes in the Torah,” B’Or Ha’Torah, No. 6, 1987, published by the Association of Religious Professionals from the Soviet Union and Eastern Europe in Israel, Jerusalem, pp. 7-39.

Wiztum, Doron, Eliyahu Rips and Yoav Rosenberg, “Equidistant Letter Sequences in the Book of Genesis,” Journal of the Royal Statistical Society 151:1 (1988), pp. 177, 178. (Also prepublished in Statistical Science, The Institute of Mathematical Statistics, 3401 Investment Blvd., Suite 7, Hayward, California 94545).

Satinover, Jeffrey B., “Divine Authorship? Computer Reveals Startling Word Patterns,” Bible Review, 10/95, pp. 28-31, 44, 45 (4710 41st Street NW, Washington, DC 20016).

12

“The volume of the book is written of me.”

PSALM 40:7

“Search the Scriptures

for in them ye think

ye have eternal life,

and they are they

which testify of me.”

JOHN 5:39

CHAPTER 12

The stir from the discovery of the Equidistant Letter Sequence (ELS) codes became, understandably, a major buzz in Israel. But then came an even more disturbing shift in the tide of events. People like Rabbi Yakov Rambsel suggested, what about the name of Yeshua (the Hebrew for Jesus)? Does this name appear hidden behind any of the text of the Old Testament? Of all the names that would be most expected by Christians—and most denied by orthodox Talmudic Judaism—this name would clearly be the most controversial of all.

For the serious student of the Bible, this becomes the ultimate “litmus test:”

“Hereby know ye the Spirit of God: Every spirit that confesseth that Jesus Christ is come in the flesh is of God….”

1 John 4:2

To the Christian, a necessary—albeit not necessarily sufficient— condition of the equidistant letter sequence (ELS) technique is, do they— the ELS codes—magnify Jesus of Nazareth in His divine role as Messiah of Israel, the Kinsman-Redeemer of mankind?

Investigations have now revealed that the name Yeshua appears to lie encrypted behind every major Messianic prophecy! This, of course, does not sit well with many Jewish authorities, even among some of the highly competent proponents of the ELS codes. So the scholarly debates continue, with this additional embarrassment lurking in the background.

Part of the difficulty emerges from the intrinsic characteristics of Hebrew. The name Yeshua, , has only four letters, two of which, the yod (), and the wav (), are the most common in Hebrew. The remaining two letters, the shin (), and the ayin (), are also quite frequent, appearing individually about 5% and 4% respectively. A frequency table is shown in Table 12-1.215

Thus, the composite occurrences of the letters making up the name Yeshua, , would also be expected to enjoy an unusually high frequency of occurrence. Just counting the letter intervals up to 100, the name Yeshua occurs in over 5,538 instances in the Old Testament, 2919 going forward (including 136 with no intervals at all), and another 2619 reckoning in reverse, from left to right.216

Figure 12-1: Hebrew Letter Frequencies

While the high frequency of Yeshua codes may seem to argue in favor of the skeptics, it should really not come as a surprise since Jesus Himself declared, “The volume of the book is written of me.”217 He also challenged, “Search the Scriptures for in them ye think ye have eternal life, and they are they which testify of me.”218

But the enigma remains, are these coded occurrences significant? Is this phenomena a subtle authenticating signal of some kind? Or is it just intrinsic “noise” deriving from the density and lack of redundancy of the Hebrew language? It is a non-trivial issue to investigate the “signal-to-noise” aspects and come to a competent conclusion. The heated debates are not likely to be resolved soon, with intense efforts continuing from all quarters.

RELEVANT CLUSTERS

The discovery of certain names and phrases, in themselves, are not necessarily significant. Similar instances are being discovered in any corpus of text of sufficient size. What makes the ELS codes provocative is their grouping into relevant clusters which relate to the plaintext in ways that would not result from simply an ambient “noise” level intrinsic to the language in the absence of deliberate intent.

In the opening verse of Genesis 1:1, we find Yeshua Yakhol, “Yeshua is able.”219 This would seem to be a confirmatory code underlying the Creation narrative which is consistent with the New Testament record.220

When Adam and Eve attempted to “cover themselves” with aprons of fig leaves,221 God replaced them with “coats of skins,” teaching them that by the shedding of innocent blood they would (ultimately) be covered.222 This concept would later become ordained in continuing Biblical narrative. Behind this foundational text lies an equidistant letter sequence, Yoshiah, “He will save.”223 (This will also be explored in the next section on Macrocodes.)

In the prophetic passage of Zechariah 11:12 in which the bribe for betrayal, the 30 pieces of silver, is predicted, we find Yeshua as a 24-letter interval code. (The possible significance of the number 24 will be explored in Chapter 19.)

The definitive presentation of the role of the Kinsman-Redeemer is in the Book of Ruth, without which one cannot really understand Revelation chapter 5. (This will be explored in Chapter 19.) The Book of Ruth opens with the five-letter interval sequence, Yeshua.

The famed “70-Week” prophecy that the angel Gabriel gave Daniel in Daniel chapter 9 includes a 26-letter interval sequence encrypting Yeshua. (This prophecy is the most amazing passage in the Bible and will be specifically explored in Chapter 17.)

It seems that the name Yeshua can be found underlying every major Messianic passage of the Old Testament. The appearance of the “Yeshua codes” intensifies the tension between the traditional Talmudic views and those who take the New Testament declarations seriously. Many conscientious Jewish scholars have reached the conclusion that Jesus Christ is, indeed, the Messiah of Israel.224 However, centuries of Talmudic Judaism, intensified by the ruthless persecution the Jews have received under the guise of “Christianity,” has taken its tragic toll. A Jew migrating to Israel can be a Buddhist, or practically anything else, even a Muslim; but if they find out that he is a Christian, he loses all kinds of rights and privileges.

The “Yeshua Codes” have erupted a reaction from the Orthodox rabbis who probably now wish they had kept the codes a secret as their forefathers had. It is interesting that even this Talmudic “blindness” was specifically predicted in the Scripture. It will not endure into perpetuity, and we will also explore this in Chapter 17.

When some of these discoveries were first published, Grant Jeffrey recalls how he received troubled phone calls from Jerusalem.

“Yeshua is a common word; it simply means salvation,” was the plaintive rebuttal.

Grant replied, “When you discovered ‘Hitler,’ you accepted it as a name, didn’t you? I understand your problem. But it’s your problem!”

But there’s more.

THE PINNACLE TEXT

OF THE OLD TESTAMENT

For many scholars, the most majestic—and most Messianic—book of the Old Testament is the Book of Isaiah. The majesty of its language, and the sweep of its vision, is unequaled anywhere. And the high point of this book is the famed 53rd chapter, called by many “the Holy of Holies” of the Old Testament text.

The passage presents the Messiah of Israel as the Suffering Servant and includes a description and role of the crucifixion that is without equal in the entire Bible. The clarity of the prophetic presentation of chapter 53 of Isaiah is so anticipatory of the New Testament message that some of the Ashkenazi Jews had this passage removed from their Scriptures. (However, the Sephardic Jews retained it.)

When the Dead Sea Scrolls were discovered in 1947, among the most prized treasures included was a complete scroll of Isaiah, and guess what was right there in the middle of it: chapter 53. You can see it for yourself when you visit Jerusalem in the specially built Shrine of the Book, which is adjacent to the Israeli Museum.

In addition to the Great Isaiah Scroll, dating from about 100 B.C., fragments representing another 21 copies were found. The scroll was one which might have been in use at the very time that Jesus opened His public ministry by reading from an Isaiah scroll in the synagogue in Capernaum.225 Furthermore, since it was a copy, it may have reflected a text that went back to within only a generation or so of the prophet Isaiah himself.226 When a comparison was made between the Isaiah Scroll and the Masoretic Text, it became evident that the two were almost identical, even though the Qumran text was more than six centuries older than the text of the Masoretes.227

As reported in their highly popular books, both Rabbi Yakov Rambsel and Grant Jeffrey describe how the complete phrase, Yeshua shmi, “Jesus is my name,” appears uniquely behind the text in the key passage of Isaiah 53.228 This full phrase occurs only here, and appears to clearly endorse the identity of the Suffering Servant portrayed in this pivotal text.

But the simple presence of the name Yeshua is not where it ends. Yakov Rambsel has made the startling discovery that not only Jesus Christ, but over 40 names of individuals and key places appear to be encoded behind this critical text.

Before we explore some of the specific details, let’s examine the famous passage of Isaiah 53 itself. (The chapter break occurs three verses too late; it is well recognized that the thrust of this remarkable passage actually begins at Isaiah 52:13.)

“Behold, my servant shall deal prudently, he shall be exalted and extolled, and be very high. As many were astonied at thee; his visage was so marred more than any man, and his form more than the sons of men: So shall he sprinkle many nations; the kings shall shut their mouths at him: for that which had not been told them shall they see; and that which they had not heard shall they consider.

“Who hath believed our report? and to whom is the arm of the Lord revealed? For he shall grow up before him as a tender plant, and as a root out of a dry ground: he hath no form nor comeliness; and when we shall see him, there is no beauty that we should desire him. He is despised and rejected of men; a man of sorrows, and acquainted with grief: and we hid as it were our faces from him; he was despised, and we esteemed him not. Surely he hath borne our griefs, and carried our sorrows: yet we did esteem him stricken, smitten of God, and afflicted. But he was wounded for our transgressions, he was bruised for our iniquities: the chastisement of our peace was upon him; and with his stripes we are healed. All we like sheep have gone astray; we have turned every one to his own way; and the LORD hath laid on him the iniquity of us all. He was oppressed, and he was afflicted, yet he opened not his mouth: he is brought as a lamb to the slaughter, and as a sheep before her shearers is dumb, so he openeth not his mouth. He was taken from prison and from judgment: and who shall declare his generation? for he was cut off out of the land of the living: for the transgression of my people was he stricken. And he made his grave with the wicked, and with the rich in his death; because he had done no violence, neither was any deceit in his mouth. Yet it pleased the LORD to bruise him; he hath put him to grief: when thou shalt make his soul an offering for sin, he shall see his seed, he shall prolong his days, and the pleasure of the LORD shall prosper in his hand. He shall see of the travail of his soul, and shall be satisfied: by his knowledge shall my righteous servant justify many; for he shall bear their iniquities. Therefore will I divide him a portion with the great, and he shall divide the spoil with the strong; because he hath poured out his soul unto death: and he was numbered with the transgressors; and he bare the sin of many, and made intercession for the transgressors.”

Isaiah 52:13—53:12

This is an astonishing passage in its own right. It is unequaled in its clarity of presentation of the significance of the crucifixion of Christ. The details included summarize the New Testament presentation in undeniable terms, even though it was penned over 700 years before the events transpired. And it was part of the Septuagint translation completed in the third century before Christ was born. And the apparent codes certainly would not have been tailored into the text by any rabbis, even if they could have!

With this background, let’s review a few of the remarkable discoveries which appear to lie behind the text itself.

The label “Nazarene,” (Netzer, ) is also a well-known identity of Jesus.229 While this term appears a dozen times in the Book of Isaiah, it seems significant that it, too, appears here in this key Messianic passage. The term Galilee also appears twice.230 As isolated events, these “encoded” labels don’t seem that significant. But appearing in combination, they seem to rise above any ambient noise level.

The time of Passover, the location of Mount Moriah, and the names of Herod and Caesar also seem to make their appearance. Both the names of Annas and Caiaphas, the high priests,231 also appear. Annas was the former high priest and the uncle of Caiaphas. Both of them figure prominently in three of the six trials endured by Jesus following the arrest in Gethsemane.232

The most startling discovery has been the names of essentially all of the disciples and the others who were at the foot of the cross that fateful afternoon. While the specific names involve relatively frequent combinations of letters individually, their appearance in combination, and their relevance to the text, would seem to argue against their occurring by unaided chance alone.

The name of Peter (Kepha, ) appears in Isaiah 53:3, beginning with the second letter of the fifth word and counting every 19th letter from right to left. With over 300 occurrences in the Book of Isaiah, this incidence in isolation wouldn’t seem especially significant; but the coincidences are piling up.

The name of John (Yochanan, ) also appears in Isaiah 53:10, starting with the fourth letter in the 11th word and counting every 28th letter from left to right. This is a bit more significant since this code appears only nine times in the entire Book of Isaiah. There are some other aspects to the specific location that will be discussed shortly.

The name of Andrew (And’drai, ) appears in Isaiah 53:4, beginning with the first letter of the 11th word, counting every 48th letter from left to right (in reverse). Since there are only five such occurrences in the entire Book of Isaiah, its appearance here compounds the evidence against this all occurring by unaided chance alone.

The name of Philip (Pilip, ) also appears in the passage. Since there are only 15 such appearances in the entire Book of Isaiah, its inclusion in this cluster adds additional weight to the inference of deliberate design.233

Thomas (Toma, ) also appears in Isaiah 53:2, starting with the first letter in the eighth word and counting every 35th letter from right to left. As there are over 200 appearances of this code in the Book of Isaiah, in isolation this doesn’t seem that compelling; but, again, clustering with the others they collectively are seen to be rising above any residual noise level.

Simon (Zelotes), the Canaanite, (Shimon, ) appears in Isaiah 52:14, beginning with the first letter in the second word and counting every 47th letter from right to left. With only 15 such occurrences in the entire Book, its inclusion here seems significant.

Thaddaeus (Taddai, ) appears in Isaiah 53:12, beginning at the first letter of the eighth word and counting every 50th letter from left to right. (This high frequency combination appears nine times in this passage and would be deemed to have little relevance on its own. Again, it’s the composite collective appearances that appear profoundly significant.)

THE TWO JAMESES

The name James (the English equivalent of the Greek Jacobus, or the Hebrew Ya’akov ) appears twice behind the text, at intervals of -20 and -34 (that is, in reverse). James, or Ya’akov, was a common name in that period.234 What makes this double occurrence particularly provocative, however, is that there were apparently two Jameses present at the cross.

One of them was James, the son of Zebedee^235 and the brother of John,236 with whom he was called by Jesus to be one of the Twelve.237 Jesus nicknamed James and John “Boanerges,” meaning “sons of thunder.”238 These two are very prominent in the various lists of the Twelve,239 and were clearly on the inside circle. With Peter, they were present when Jesus raised Jairus’s daughter,240 at the transfiguration,241 at a confidential briefing on Jesus’ Second Coming,242 and were with Jesus in the Garden of Gethsemane.243 James was among the first martyrs by decapitation at the command of Herod Agrippa I.244

The other James was the son of Alphaeus, another of the 12 apostles.245 He is usually identified as “James the younger.”246

There was also a third James, who apparently was not present at the cross. He was the Lord’s half brother, who, along with his brothers Joses, Simon and Judas,247 apparently did not accept the authority of Jesus before His resurrection.248 After the risen Jesus had appeared to him,249 he became a leader of the Jewish-Christian church at Jerusalem.250 A few years later James suffered martyrdom by stoning at the instigation of the high priest Annas during the interregnum after the death of the procurator Festus in A.D. 61.251

It is interesting that the name James appears to be encoded precisely twice in this critical text.

THE THREE MARYS

Mary (Miryam, ) was also a relatively common name in that period, and there were three Marys at the cross with John:

“Now there stood by the cross of Jesus his mother, and his mother’s sister, Mary the wife of Cleophas, and Mary Magdalene.

“When Jesus therefore saw his mother, and the disciple standing by, whom he loved, he saith unto his mother, Woman, behold thy son!

“Then saith he to the disciple, Behold thy mother! And from that hour that disciple took her unto his own home.”

John 19:25-27

Grant Jeffrey has noted that in Isaiah 53:11, starting with the fifth letter in the ninth word and counting every 20th letter from left to right spells Ma ‘al Yeshua Shmi ohz, “exceedingly high, Yeshua is my strong name.”252 It is this yod () in Yeshua’s name that is the same letter than encodes Yochanan, John, noted earlier.

In Isaiah 53:11, beginning with the first letter in the first word and counting every 42nd letter from left to right spells “Messiah,” Meshiach, From the mem, in the word “Messiah,” counting every 23rd letter from left to right spells “Mary,” In Isaiah 53:10, all three Marys use the letter yod () in the word, ya’arik This is the same letter yod () that forms the first letter of the encoded names “Yeshua” and “John.” Despite the fact that the combination of letters which make up Mary, are extremely frequent (there are over 11,000 in the Old Testament, over 600 in Isaiah and over a dozen in this passage), it is this intimate interlinking of the three Marys with both Yeshua and John that is rather striking.

AN OMINOUS OMISSION

There is also a surprising omission among the names apparently encrypted in Isaiah 53: Judas. This combination of letters appears over 50 times in Isaiah and yet does not appear in Isaiah 53.

His replacement, Matthias, (Mattiyah, ), however, does appear.

Here is a summary of some of the codes that Rabbi Yakov Rambsel and Grant Jeffrey have reported.253

Over 40 relevant names in 15 sentences. It is the density, and the relevance to the plaintext, which would seem to defy attribution to unaided random chance alone.

For those who might like to explore some of these themselves, the Hebrew text of Isaiah 52:13—53:12 follows:

Isaiah 52:13-53:12

So the enigma remains. To the skeptics, these are all simply chance occurrences deriving from the density and lack of redundancy of the Hebrew text. To the proponents of the codes, they appear as astonishing confirmations of the supernatural origin of the text. Some of the best minds are still struggling to resolve this debate. It is not as simple as it first seems. Fortunately, there are some accessible tools to help us develop our personal perspective.

AN INSTRUCTIVE EXAMPLE

It is from the statistical behavior within a candidate text that its secrets may be revealed. For an illustrative example, consider very carefully the following seemingly innocuous paragraph:

“Upon this basis I am going to show you how a bunch of bright young folks did find a champion: a man with boys and girls of his own; a man of so dominating and happy individuality that Youth is drawn to him as is a fly to a sugar bowl. It is a story about a small town. It is not a gossipy yarn; nor is it a dry monotonous account, full of such customary “fill-ins” as “romantic moonlight casting murky shadows down a long, winding country road.” Nor will it say anything about twinklings lulling distant folds; robins caroling at twilight, nor any “warm glow of lamplight” from a cabin window. No. It is an account of up-and-going activity; a vivid portrayal of Youth as it is today; and a practical discarding of that worn-out notion that ‘a child don’t know anything.’ ”

Did you notice anything unusual about this paragraph? Examine it carefully and see if you can perceive an astonishing characteristic before reading any further.

There is not a single e in this passage! Would you attribute this unusual characteristic to random chance? Hardly. (Try composing even a single sentence yourself without using a letter e.)

The science of cryptology depends heavily on the statistical behavior of language. For example, the expected frequency of e’s, in English, is around 13%, with a ±2% deviation well within the range expected by chance. (It was sensitivity to this frequency distribution of the English alphabet that led to Samuel Morse’s design of his familiar Morse Code: the high frequency E is simply a single dot; T, a single dash; etc.)

What would you conclude if you were to discover that this paragraph was excerpted from a complete novel without a single e in it? Would you attribute that to coincidence or to the result of deliberate, skillful, diligent effort?

The quoted paragraph comes from a 267-page book entitled Gadsby, A Story of Over Fifty Thousand Words Without Using the Letter E, published in 1939 by Ernest Vincent Wright.260 The author’s perseverance in his self-imposed task is a tale in itself. He could never use the or the pronouns he, she, they, we, me and them. He could not use such seemingly indispensable verbs as are, have, were, be, and been. He couldn’t use such basic words as there, these, those, when, then, more, after and very. He actually had to tie down the e bar of his typewriter to make it impossible for one to slip in.

The comparable task of authenticating a series of messages by encoding relevant codes within the message itself, while maintaining the sense and validity of the narrative enclosing it, represents an even more prodigious task than simply the avoidance of the use of any individual letter. By contrast, the ELS codes do appear to be a dynamic, multilevel, interactive Cardano grille, designed not to conceal but rather to reveal and authenticate.

Res ipsa loquitur. “The thing speaks for itself,” as some lawyers might conclude.

The difficulty lies in that the ELS codes appear, to most, to fall somewhere in-between; they are too provocative to dismiss, yet not definitive or systematic enough to fully accept. Much more careful and skillful research remains to be done.

The ELS codes appear to be relevant only if they do, in fact, reveal attributes beyond the capabilities of human authorship. The strange discoveries in Israel may eventually prove to be contributions to the most significant scientific research that has ever been undertaken. They would appear to confirm the view that precisely 50 days after the Exodus from Egypt the Torah was dictated directly to Moses in a precise letter-by-letter sequence. And if these codes are valid, and portray events occurring in the future when received, the Source of this dictation would have to come from outside our domain of space-time. Furthermore, the continuing intervention throughout the centuries implies a supernatural stewardship that also demands our serious attention.

BUT ARE THE ELS CODES REAL?

It must be kept in mind that coincidental codes have been claimed for any long segment of text, even in English. The skeptics point out, with substantial validity, that the ELS codes are facilitated by the nature of the Hebrew language and its density due to the shorter alphabet and its absence of vowels. This is especially true for Yeshua, , which has only four letters, two of which, the yod, (), and the wav, (), are the most common in Hebrew.

The rebuttal to their being simply a chance phenomenon are their occurrence behind relevant plaintext, the clustering of related codes, and the absence of any significant alternative candidate names within the cluster.

The more restrictive alphabet of Hebrew—only 22 letters compared to English with its 26—is far more significant than is commonly recognized. It is not just a matter of English involving 15% more letters in its alphabet. The number of available permutations are determined by the factorial of the alphabet available. Factorials (indicated by an “!” used as a mathematical symbol) are the cumulative products of each member of the series:

1! =1

2! =2

(1 x 2)

3! =6

(1 x 2 x 3)

4! =24

(1 x 2 x 3 x 4)

5! =120

(1 x 2 x 3 x 4 x 5), and thus,

n! = (1 x 2 x 3 x…n) available permutations.

In an alphabet of 10 letters there are 3,628,800 available combinations. For an alphabet of 22 letters, 1.124 x 10^21 available combinations. For an alphabet of 26 letters, 4.033 x 10^26 available combinations. Thus, English allows about 358,800 times as many combinations as Hebrew. Some could argue that gives “chance occurrences” a greater opportunity to occur in English. This can be offset by the presence of redundancy in English—about 65%, especially due to its inclusion of vowels, in contrast to Hebrew.

So when skeptics can find “interesting” strings of letters in English, these would seem to cast a cloud on the relevance of occurrences of similar strings within the much more dense (and less redundant) Hebrew. But the occurrences of provocative strings of letters alone are not the only factor; it is the associated clustering, especially when apparently linked with relevant covering text containing the codes, that is the focus of competent researchers.

But there remain valid questions about the ELS codes in general. Are the codes simply the result of the characteristics of Hebrew? Or, was Hebrew designed to facilitate such codes? Could it be that we have here a kind of “anthropic principle” in the original source of Hebrew itself which was designed to lend itself to such self-authentication features within the text? Isn’t it also possible that the facilitation of “codes” by the intrinsic design of the Hebrew language might also be an anticipatory design to render them feasible?

THE RISKS OF ERROR

There are mathematically defined risks in any analysis. A hypothesis being explored may be either true or false. Our analysis should lead us to conclude whether that candidate hypothesis is true or false. If our analysis is correct, we learn some truth. If our analysis is faulty, it can expose us to two potential types of errors:261

Type I. The rejection of a true hypothesis. Or,

Type II.The acceptance of a false hypothesis.

The resolution of exposure to these two types of errors ultimately leads to an entire branch of mathematical statistics called The Design of Experiments. While the erudite mathematics involved in statistical experimental designs are beyond the scope of this brief survey, clearly an appreciation of the two types of potential errors is appropriate.

In considering the hypothesis that the ELS codes are valid, our exposure to these two types of errors might well be carefully considered. The rejection of a true hypothesis, in this case, carries little risk since we simply would be denying ourselves the additional encouragement which might derive from this confirmation of their ultimate source. The astonishing presence of complex codes below the surface of the Biblical text also would trigger staggering implications regarding the precision of the Biblical record and the validity to the view that the very letters were dictated by God for a reason. If the hypothesis is true and we personally reject it, while we would thus be denied its blessings, our risks are somewhat constrained.

THE DARK SIDE OF THE “CODES”

However, the acceptance of a false hypothesis as true, on the other hand, in this case can lead to very serious jeopardy. If we embrace the ELS codes as valid, and if they are not, we can be stepping into a very deep quagmire. There is a dark side to the ELS codes and a grave jeopardy for the reader that must also be seriously considered. That is the subject of our next chapter.

SUGGESTIONS FOR FURTHER READING:

Jeffrey, Grant, The Signature of God, Frontier Research Publications, Toronto, Ontario, Canada, 1996.

Jeffrey, Grant, The Handwriting of God, Frontier Research Publications, Toronto, Ontario, Canada, 1997.

Yakov Rambsel, Yeshua—The Hebrew Factor, Frontier Research Publications, Toronto, Ontario, Canada, 1996.

Yakov Rambsel, His Name Is Jesus, Frontier Research Publications, Toronto, Ontario, Canada, 1997.

For an excellent software package for exploring ELS codes yourself, see Bible Codes Plus, Computronic Corporation Ltd., P.O. Box 102, Savyon 56530, Israel. Internet: www.biblecodesplus.com. (In U.S.: Bibletech Corporation, 763 Stelton Street, Teaneck, NJ 07666 USA 1 (800) 549-4330).

13

“The phenomenon is real;

what it means is up

to the individual.”

PROF. DAVID KASHDAN, CHAIRMAN

Department of Mathematics,

Harvard, 1996^262

CHAPTER 13

Many people today enjoy the stimulation and challenge of solving a crossword puzzle. Others gain the same enjoyment from, what is to them, the ultimate crossword puzzle—a cryptogram. We have before us the ultimate cryptogram—the “Bible Codes.”

We frankly anticipate that there will be increasing evidences and more convincing studies continuing to support the reality of the ELS codes, despite the heated controversies erupting around them. Time will tell.

The ELS codes have, unfortunately, also generated a great deal of confusion. And, as any Biblically literate observer will point out, God is not the “Author of confusion.”263

A SANCTUARY FOR THE ELITE?

It is not God’s “style” to put us at the mercy of experts, or elitists of any kind. He chose fishermen, tax collectors, and common people to carry His message. And the continuing drama through the ages has been the continual rediscovery of the Scriptures by common people, repeatedly being wrested away from the exclusivity and arcana of a restrictive priesthood.

Certainly God’s principal truths are, indeed, not restricted to any elite—as some infer the ELS codes seem to be leading to—and Jesus explicitly confirmed this:

“In that hour Jesus rejoiced in spirit, and said, I thank thee, O Father, Lord of heaven and earth, that thou hast hid these things from the wise and prudent, and hast revealed them unto babes: even so, Father; for so it seemed good in thy sight.”

Luke 10:21

Paul emphasizes the same thing.

“For ye see your calling, brethren, how that not many wise men after the flesh, not many mighty, not many noble, are called:

“But God hath chosen the foolish things of the world to confound the wise; and God hath chosen the weak things of the world to confound the things which are mighty; and base things of the world, and things which are despised, hath God chosen, yea, and things which are not, to bring to nought things that are:

“That no flesh should glory in his presence.”

1 Corinthians 1:26-29

Indeed, God’s most essential truths are communicated in ways that anyone can understand.

SCRIPTURAL MYOPIA

There are some serious concerns over the ELS codes. Among these, however, are some concerns which we feel are disturbingly myopic. There are some critics of the ELS codes who feel that God has nothing in His Word that the common person cannot understand. This places a strange constraint upon God. Some feel that the emergence of the codes places His truth into the restrictive hands of an elite who have the fastest computers and the latest software.

AN UNFATHOMABLE DEPTH

But it is very myopic and naive to infer that only things which can be understood by the rank and file are in God’s Word. I would expect that His Word is unfathomable by our puny intellects, however enlightened. “While safe enough for a child to wade in, it is a reservoir deep enough for even an elephant to bathe in.”264 If, indeed, it is the Word of God, would you expect it to be any less?

Let us remember that while God is extremely jealous of His Name, there is one thing that He elevates even above His Name: His Word.265 Furthermore, there are many mysteries deliberately put there as challenges to man.

“It is the glory of God to conceal a thing: but the honour of kings is to search out a matter.”

Proverbs 25:2

We continually discover that advanced findings of science have been already anticipated by the Word of God—many vastly beyond the ken of the average person. Why try to limit the expressions of God in His Word to the puny horizons of our own experience?

VERSES OF DISCOVERY

Matthew Fontaine Maury was born in Spotsylvania County, Virginia, in 1806. As an avid Bible reader, he was struck by the reference in Psalm 8 to “the paths of the seas.” He also noticed that Isaiah wrote of a “path through the mighty waters.”266 Are there pathways in the seas? Who could imagine such a thing? The pursuit of this enigma became Maury’s lifetime quest.267

He entered the Navy in 1825 as a midshipman. By 1842 he was placed in charge of the Depot of Charts and Instruments, out of which grew the U.S. Naval Observatory and Hydrographic Office. To gather information on maritime winds and currents, Maury distributed to ship captains specially prepared logbooks from which he compiled pilot charts, enabling him to shorten the time of sea voyages. In 1848 he published maps of the main wind fields of the Earth. Maury was ultimately able to produce charts of the Atlantic, Pacific, and Indian Oceans, a profile of the Atlantic seabed, and the first modern oceanographic text. He is internationally recognized as the “Father of Oceanography,” and Maury Hall at the U.S. Naval Academy is named in his honor.268 All because of a remez, a hint of something deeper, in a verse of the Psalms.

There are numerous examples of technical allusions contained in the Scriptures that preceded the insights of mankind, and that may well reach beyond the understanding of the average reader. Nachmanides recognized the ten dimensions of our space-time in Genesis 1. Job spoke of the Earth as a “sphere hanging on nothing.”269 The sub-visible nature of atomic realities are identified in the Epistle to the Hebrews,270 etc. (Some of these will be explored in Chapter 23.)

CAN WE TRUST THE MESSAGE?

What is the message of the ELS Codes?

Is the message that the Bible is God-breathed? Is the message that God knows the end from the beginning? Indeed. And yet there are far more convincing evidences to demonstrate this than these.

Are the ELS codes a window into some unique previously unperceived truth? Ah, there’s the rub. Here is the very key point concerning the “codes”: no one should advocate relying on the codes—or anything other than the plaintext (pun intended) of the Scripture—for matters of doctrine or theology. God’s applicable truths are revealed clearly and are reconfirmed repeatedly throughout Scripture, a text which even evidences advanced communication methods designed to anticipate hostile jamming. (These topics will be explored in Chapter 21.)

Mark Twain expressed it succinctly: “It’s not what I don’t understand about the Bible that bothers me. It’s what I do understand that bothers me.”

But there is a darker side to the ELS codes. There remain aspects that clearly constitute a very grave jeopardy for the uninitiated. They harbor an almost irresistible temptation to extend their application into occultic regions.

A PANDORA’S BOX

According to the Greek legend, Pandora, despite warnings by Zeus not to, yielded to her curiosity and opened the forbidden box and thus inadvertently released all manner of evils which flew out to cover the Earth. The lure of the occult takes many forms.

Many impressionable enthusiasts, encouraged by Drosnin’s book, and other exploitative writers, are now pursuing the ELS codes in the hopes of gaining a glimpse of the future. Time Magazine humorously summarized the current craze rather well: “The mix of Christian Scripture, Jewish mysticism, Cyberwizardry and existential dread is Year 2000 catnip.”271

THE DANGERS OF DIVINATION

Anyone with a modicum of Biblical literacy should realize that divination is expressly prohibited in the Scriptures. Scripture condemns by name spiritism, mediumism (“channeling”), and necromancy,272 various forms of sorcery and divination,273 including astrology,274 and magic.275 The principal folly of Israel was the adoption of pagan practices holding out the lure of divination. In ancient Israel, divination was a capital crime; if someone was caught casting a horoscope, or other occultic practice, he or she was put to death. Why?

Because God is jealous of His uniqueness, and He alone knows what the future holds.276 To intrude on this office is to attempt to intrude on His glory.277 Occult activity courts deception and betrayal from the demonic realm, and promotes evil under the guise of legitimate religious practice. Occult involvement will eventually lead to judgment for those who refuse to forsake it.278

Sir Isaac Newton, widely acclaimed as the greatest scientist that has ever lived—having virtually invented the entire sciences of mechanics, optics, and calculus—also considered his daily study of the Bible as part of his expertise. He wrote over a million words of commentary on it.279 He believed the books of prophecy were provided so that, as they were historically fulfilled, they provide a continuing testimony to the fact that the world is governed by the Providence of God. He objected to the use of prophecy in attempts to predict the future.

“The folly of Interpreters has been to foretell times and things by this Prophecy, as if God designed to make them Prophets. By this rashness they have not only exposed themselves, but brought the Prophecy also into contempt. The design of God was much otherwise. He gave this and the Prophecies of the Old Testament, not to gratify men’s curiosities by enabling them to foreknow things, but that after they were fulfilled they might be interpreted by the event, and his own Providence, not the Interpreters, be then manifested thereby to the world.”280

(It is interesting that Newton’s strong belief in individual freedom to learn about God without restraints from any other individual or from a church or government once almost caused him to give up his position as Lucasian Professor at Cambridge. The matter was resolved when King Charles II made the exceptional ruling that Isaac Newton would not be required to become a member of the Church of England.)

THE LURE OF THE OCCULT

Even the Greeks recognized the “Siren call” of this passion of the human soul. In Homer’s Odyssey, Ulysses had himself lashed to the mast to preclude his succumbing to the alluring call of the Sirens. It’s crucial to lash ourselves to the mast of known truth and prepare to pass through turbulent waters that have “bested the best” of the mariners of the past.

MYSTICISM

Mysticism applies whenever a person is convinced that it is possible to establish direct contact, apart from sense perception and intellectual apprehension, with the Divine—a reality undefined by pure logic and believed to be the ultimate ground of being. The boundaries are not clearly defined which separates mysticism from metaphysics (basic nature or structure of being) and cosmology (study of the origin of the universe), theosophies (systems of conjectures into the divine nature), and occultism (the study and control of supernatural powers), theurgy (the art of compelling or persuading supernatural powers) and magic (often of the lowest kind).

Each of these, unless securely lashed to the tether of the revealed Word of God, ultimately ends up in direct conflict with the plaintext of the Biblical record. Non-Biblical mysticism is always essentially incompatible with the teachings of Judaism and Christianity. In their classical and normative forms, these both promote a faith in a sole God who created the universe and who chose to reveal Himself and communicate the rules of life through which the relationship with Him is to be exclusively established. Clearly, John and Paul were mystics in the sense that our union with Christ was their highest desire; but their aspirations and pursuits were always within the safeguards of Scripture.

Extra-Biblical speculations on the origin and order of the universe, influenced by correspondences in ancient and medieval science, led to mysticism in various forms, including the Kabbalah of Judaism and the Gnostic heresies of Christianity, each increasingly divergent from its foundational source. Mysticism invariably ends up contradicting or contravening the Biblical record.

PYTHAGORAS

In the sixth century B.C., the famed Greek philosopher and mathematician Pythagoras migrated to southern Italy and established his academy at Croton. He was well traveled having visited Babylon, India, and Egypt. While he is credited with the theory of the functional significance of numbers in the objective world and music, the bulk of his intellectual tradition belongs to mystical speculations rather than scientific scholarship. (The famed Pythagorean theorem regarding the length of the hypotenuse of a right triangle was probably developed later in the Pythagorean school he founded.) Number mysticism will be explored specifically in Chapter 20.

Pythagorean doctrine applied number relationships to music theory, acoustics, geometry, and astronomy, and deeply influenced the development of classical Greek philosophy and medieval European thought, including the astrological belief that the number harmony of the universe decidedly affects all human endeavor. (Copernicus even acknowledged that Pythagorean astronomical concepts were a forerunner of his hypothesis that the Earth and other planets rotate in orbits around the sun.)

THE RISE OF JEWISH MYSTICISM

The speculations of the early Jewish writers didn’t seem to fully lose their moorings in normative Judaism until after their rejection of Jesus as their Messiah, and the subsequent destruction of the Temple in A.D. 70. Their adherence to the primary teachings of their Scriptures was then increasingly amended with “oral traditions” and rabbinical opinions which ultimately reached its peak in the so-called geonic era in the 12th century. Judaism, while traditionally having relied on the substitutionary sacrifices of the Torah, but then stripped of both a Messiah and the Temple, gradually evolved to become a program of ethical and moral efforts of the Jews to acquit themselves before God. It was also during this evolution that mystical speculations began to flourish, from the first century to its peak in the 12th century. Constant ideological readjustment involved the infiltration of concepts from external sources, including Babylonian and Greek mysticism, and the reactions against them.

The Talmud and the Midrash (rabbinical legal and interpretative literature) tended to obliterate the earlier traditions as the veneration of various sages and commentators tended to eclipse the primary texts of the Tanakh (the Old Testament) itself. Interpretive exegesis and the veneration of contemporary sages opened up increasing opportunities for matters of inner experience and personal speculations.

Interestingly, in the eighth century, a deviant group known as the Karaites broke off from Talmudic Judaism, rejecting the over-dependence on “oral traditions” and insisting that only the written Scriptures were a reliable guide. They so distanced themselves from Talmudic Judaism that in Russia they were exempted from the double taxation imposed on the Jews as well as the pogroms.

THE KABBALAH

The Kabbalah (, from , “to receive;” literally, “the received lore,” or “tradition”) is a term used several ways.281 Originally it comprised the entire traditional lore, in contradistinction to the written law (the Torah), and therefore included the prophetic and hagiographic books of the Bible, as “received” by the power of the Holy Spirit. At first consisting only of empirical lore, it later assumed, under the influence of Neoplatonic and Neopythagorean philosophy, a highly speculative character. From the 13th century onward, the Kabbalah branched out to include extensive esoteric Jewish speculations alongside of, and ultimately in opposition to, the Talmud. It grew to include esoteric or mystic doctrine, asserting to have come down as a revelation to elect saints, preserved for a privileged few.

In the ancient esoteric literature of Judaism, the Sefer Yetzira (Book of Creation) was one of the early speculations emphasizing that language, including the 22 letters of the Hebrew alphabet, was not only a means of communication but even the operational instrument of creation.

It was in the Provence-Languedoc region of southern France that the concepts of both the Sefer ha-bahir (Book of Brightness) and the School of Isaac the Blind converged to lay the foundation of the classical Kabbalah. It was in this synthesis that the classical ten Sefirot (numbers) and their mystical “Tree of Life” first became established.

In the first half of the 13th century, the School of Gerona (in Catalona, Spain) emerged as the primary seat of esoterism and Kabbalistic development. This highly influential community included such masters as Ezra ben Solomon, Azriel of Gerona, Jacob ben Sheshet, Moses ben Nachman (or Nachmanides), the famed commentator and mystical philosopher who was also a poet and a physician.

But even Nachmonides shrouded his mystical interpretations in ambiguity. For an early version of his widely respected Commentary on the Torah, Nachmonides seemed to have been prepared to discuss his kabbalistic insights in detail, but “he fell ill and was informed in a dream that he should desist.”282

Figure 14-1: The Tree of Life

Abulafia, while focused on the abstruse formulations of the kabbalah, was strenuously opposed to the wild imaginings and unfettered abuses to which kabbalah inevitably lent itself.283

While all this was emerging in the south of France and Spain (1150-1250), a parallel development in Jewish mysticism was emerging in northern France and in the Rhine and Danube regions of Germany: Ashkenazic Hasidism. The ascetic morality of the work of Eleazar ben Judah of Worms (1160-1238) and the Sefer Hasidim (Book of the Pious) would mark Jewish spirituality, esoteric or not, from then on.

However, the primary fountain of creativity in Jewish mysticism was situated in Spain from the 13th century until 1492 when all the Jews were expelled.284 It was here that Moses ben Shem Tov de León produced, over a period of 30 years, a series of pseudepigrapha (writings ascribed to other authors, usually in past ages) including the Sefer ha-zohar (Book of Splendor), commonly called the Zohar. This literary hoax of Moses de León was not immediately accepted, but over half a century, the Zohar, with contemporary imitations of it appended and incorporated into it, slowly gained influence. Although the critics were never fully silenced and the authenticity of the Zohar continued to be questioned into the 15th century, the myth created by Moses de León and his imitators became a spiritual reality for the majority of the believing Jews. The Zohar was believed to be based on supernatural revelations (including automatic writing and other occultic involvements) and came to be regarded as the canonical book of the Kabbalah. It would serve as the primary support and reference for all Jewish theosophies in the centuries ahead.285

An eclectic amalgam of pantheism and other Eastern pagan concepts, the Kabbalah endorses an unbiblical view of God. The God of the Old Testament is inferior to the supreme unknowable Ein Hof, the ultimate focus of Kabbalahism. With practices parallel with Indian (Tantric kundalini) yoga and Muslim sufism, one of the goals is the manipulation of the divine nature.

Jewish historians of the 19th century, while conceding the Kabbalah’s significant role, considered it to have been overwhelmingly negative, even catastrophic, but the appraisal of the 20th century Jewish historiography has been far more positive.286

With the rise of interest in the occult today, the resurgence of interest in the Kabbalah is no exception.287

CHRISTIAN MYSTICISM

The role played by the Kabbalah and Hasidism was not limited to the Jewish community. The Kabbalah transcended the frontiers of Judaism and influenced Christian mysticism from the Renaissance to the present. Under the influence of Jewish converts from Spain and Italy, Kabbalistic documents, touched up as necessary, or even forged, provided arguments supporting Christian doctrinal issues or deviations. The occult philosophy of the 16th century, the “natural philosophy” of the 17th and 18th centuries, and the occult and theosophic theories even today—including the practices of Freemasonry— borrow from the amalgam of the Kabbalah.

BIBLICAL WARNINGS

AGAINST THE OCCULT

The occult is on the rise in all segments of our society.288 There is great power in the occult.289 However, the Bible warns against the occult.290 Occult practice constitutes trafficking with demons, from which flow other concerns: idolatry, spiritual deception, the likelihood of possession, psychological, spiritual and physical harm, immoral teachings and consequences.

Spiritual warfare is a reality.291 We have serious enemies that are extremely resourceful and malevolent. The Bible warns of a personal devil and myriads of demons who should be regarded as cunning enemies.292 Satan and his hordes are active in the affairs of the Planet Earth.293 In fact, the whole world lies in the power of the Evil One,294 and his forces are behind all occult involvement, idolatry, and false religion.295

All supernatural manifestations are to be tested by the Word of God.296 The devil’s tactics include masquerading as an “angel of light” and a servant of righteousness.297 False teachers and false prophets are linked to evil spirits, and there are “doctrines of demons.”298 Demons work through people by giving them psychic abilities.299

(We will take up some of the many pitfalls—literally, unfortunately—of defective hermeneutics in Chapter 24.)

AUTHENTICATION

Imagine that you are an undercover agent in enemy territory. Your hosts are counterfeiting some of the messages you are receiving, ostensibly from your “Control.” Many of these are contradictory and diversionary. You desperately need to be able to discern the real ones from the counterfeit ones. Your personal survival would depend on correctly resolving these ambiguities.

How do you tell which ones are really from him? You would look for codes for authentication as well as for codes of content. Isn’t it essential to employ a code structure which will provide authentication, verification, validation, and other functions in addition the operational content?

The ELS codes—at their optimistic best—cannot yield new insights or meaning. But they may confirm existing ones. This could prove to be the evidential application of the codes: the empirical demonstration that they may prove to have a source from beyond any human abilities. They may ultimately prove valid in an adjective sense, rather than in a substantive sense. It’s even possible that they may have served an ancient historical role in confirming their origins to the scribes who were so obsessively devoted to the preservation of the holy texts.

So far, curious as they are, they can do no more than authenticate that which is already known, and simply underscore the direct, primary, explicit presentation of the plaintext. If they do prove to be a uniquely Biblical phenomenon, they do, indeed, constitute an impressive fingerprint of the Originator Himself. If they can be established as valid, then they would be just another authentication that the message we have in our hands is, indeed, from Him. And we should magnify and praise His Name!

It would seem that, to some extent, so far they have failed somewhat since the skeptics appear to be able to produce ostensibly equivalent results from profane sources. But simply encountering chance names or phrases are not sufficient or really equivalent. And herein lies the debate, a debate destined to continue for some time. That leaves us with a paradox.

We suspect that the really interesting codes are yet to be uncovered. So far, the ELS codes are a simple linear equation—with a constant skip sequence. What will be the results when more complex transpositions are tried? What other kinds of “Skipping Tramps” (with a formula rather than a constant) are there tucked away within the Biblical text? What happens if higher-order equations are involved? I suspect that the game is only beginning. Film at 11.

The paradox remains unresolved. Are they real? Or are they just an interesting accident?

PARADOX RESOLUTION

For those trained in paradox resolution, there are some proven tools. Consider this classic problem: Euler wrote in 1735:

“In the town of Koenigsberg is an island called Kneiphof, with two branches of the River Pregel flowing around it. There are seven bridges crossing the two branches. The question is whether a person can plan a walk in such a way that he will cross each of the bridges once but not more than once.”300

Here is a diagram of the seven bridges of Koenigsberg:

Figure 13-2: The Seven Bridges of Koenigsberg

The solution to this classic problem relies on not accepting the limits we instinctively impose on the problem. The solution involves thinking one level higher—in this case, taking a path around the source of the river. One of the basic techniques of paradox resolution is to ascend “up a level” and challenge the implied (or inferred) limits, constraints, and presumptions which we ourselves are imposing upon the problem.

This is exactly how Dr. Albert Einstein came to recognize that we live in more than three dimensions. This is the same approach which led to the Kaluza-Klein and the Yang-Mills models which have expanded our understanding of the nature of the universe: by recognizing that additional dimensions may be involved and stepping “up” a level.

A BROADER VIEW

Let’s step back from the knotty threads of the ELS code controversies and examine the larger tapestry. In a sense, we will exchange our microscope for a wide-angle lens.

The resolution of the ellipses and paradoxes of the ELS codes can be better resolved in a larger context by a much more comprehensive validation device—the macrocodes. Macrocodes are codes for which we will not need a computer and will not need any elitist experts to screen and interpret the truth for us. If codes are really from God, one would expect them to be totally beyond the capacity of man to create yet wholly within the capacity of man to perceive and respond to.

Let’s take a look at codes which clearly have had to originate from outside the dimension of time itself.

SUGGESTIONS FOR FURTHER READING:

John Ankerberg and John Weldon, The Coming Darkness, Harvest House Publishers, Eugene, Oregon 1993.

John Weldon, Decoding the Bible Code, Harvest House, Eugene, Oregon, 1998.

Missler, Chuck and Eastman, Mark, Alien Encounters, Koinonia House, Coeur d’Alene, Idaho, 1997.

SECTION V

Chapter 14

The Use of Macrocodes

Chapter 15

Cosmic Macrocodes

Chapter 16

Measuring Confidence

Chapter 17

The 70 Sevens

Chapter 18

The Once and Future Calendar

Chapter 19

The Apocalypse Codes

Chapter 20

On the Fringe: Numerics & Gematria

14

CHAPTER 14

THE STRUCTURE

OF LANGUAGE

Any language involves signs, or symbols, that carry the basic elements of meaning, called sememes, and the rules for their combination, called syntax.301 The study of the non-causal, imputed relations (rules) between the signs, or sememes, and that which they designate, or denote, is called semantics.

Spoken language involves basic phonetic elements called phonemes, and most alphabets simply codify the available phonemes. (The fact that Hebrew is distinctive in employing a semantic alphabet was explored in Chapter 8.)

In a previous section we explored microcodes, the coding elements which operate denotatively, that is, which affect the unit sememes which specify precise segments of meaning. Stripped of all excess redundancy, these sememes constitute the basic building blocks which lay down the foundational elements of meaning and operate as the primary workhorses of a message system. They comprise the individual brush strokes of the artist. (Some subtleties in the assembly of microcodes have been included in Appendix A.)

WHAT IS A MACROCODE?

A macrocode is a collection of coding elements which anticipate a structural concept not otherwise expressed in the language system. It reflects the macroscopic aspects of a system or ensemble of elements. It deals with aspects that transcend the specific elements which make up the message.

In computer programming, macrocodes are employed to express—and thus implement—the structural aspects of the program. Macrocodes typically anticipate how a series of forthcoming elements are to be laid out or related to one another.

Often in a word-processing application, macrocodes (called “macros”) are used to anticipate a template for a letter, or a fax, or a special report form. They convey a structural intent not necessarily evident without them. They often are used to lay out a composite design, the fonts to be used, special instructions to the printer, etc.

MACROCODES IN A MESSAGE SERIES

The use of macrocodes in a message series results in a form of higher-level redundancy which can overcome “noise,” errors, distortions, and even enemy countermeasures by conveying the overall strategic perspective over a much broader horizon. These can serve to confirm or validate the message and its source.

In a series of message segments, the evidence of macrocodes can reveal the broader intent of the designer of the series. As we stand further back from the artist’s canvas, the overall design becomes evident which can confirm the strategic plan, and overall structure, and can provide a supplemental perspective which validates our perceptions of the artist’s intent.

It is from this higher-level overview that we uncover the exploitation of macrocodes—such as similes, metaphors, analogies, allegories, and other rhetorical devices—which can substantially transcend the immediate context and provide additional conceptual links integrating (and validating) the individual message segments.

Macrocodes which are chronologically anticipatory reveal that the source of a message is extraterrestrial—i.e., from outside our space-time. In fact, it is this exploitation of this extratemporal characteristic of the message series that is used by the Source to authenticate its origin. He alone knows the end from the beginning.302

MULTILEVEL DESIGN

One of the simplest of such devices is the acronym, some examples of which we explored in Chapter 6. Another is the inclusion of a hidden message that outlines, in anticipation, the subsequent messages—an outline in advance, or autokey—as we explored in Chapter 5. Other validations can be provided by the mathematical structures being followed by the various texts as highlighted in Chapter 7.

Careful analysis of our candidate message should include attention to the skillful exploitation of figures of speech and the many rhetorical devices used to embroider or editorialize the collective corpus of texts, and convey meaning beyond the precise denotations of the unamplified expressions themselves. Of particular significance are similes, metaphors, allegories, parables and types. The Biblical text declares that such techniques have been included:

“I have also spoken by the prophets, and I have multiplied visions, and used similitudes, by the ministry of the prophets.”

Hosea 12:10

A simile is a comparison by resemblance. A metaphor is a comparison by representation. An allegory is a continued metaphor or continued representation. A parable is a continued resemblance. (Appendix A enumerates over 200 different types of such devices exploited in the Bible.)

Sometimes a parable is instructional; however, surprisingly, other times a parable is employed to restrict the communication to the specially initiated, excluding those “outside” the circle of initiates.303

Some of the most important insights result from perceiving the broader application of an event or series of actions in the record. The most profound form of macrocode is called a type, a figure used to portray something in the future; a foreshadowing; an anticipation of the antitype.304

In our common vernacular, we often use a “model.” If we plan a house, particularly one with multiple levels, we often construct a model first to facilitate the visualization of space and other relationships. In modern engineering, we frequently use mathematical computer models to explore the implications of a design, etc. We will also develop a precedent prototype before finalizing a design. Types in Biblical texts are the designation for an anticipatory “model” of a future event or person. Some of these are among the most astonishing aspects of the Biblical Scriptures.

THE AKEDAH

Perhaps the most startling example of a “type” is the famed incident of Abraham offering his son Isaac in Genesis chapter 22, called in Hebrew, the Akedah.

“And [God] said, Take now thy son, thine only son Isaac, whom thou lovest, and get thee into the land of Moriah; and offer him there for a burnt offering upon one of the mountains which I will tell thee of.”

Genesis 22:2

This is a strange call. Does God hereby endorse child sacrifice? Hardly! But then, what is going on? This episode has confused some scholars for centuries.

“And Abraham rose up early in the morning, and saddled his ass, and took two of his young men with him, and Isaac his son, and clave the wood for the burnt offering, and rose up, and went unto the place of which God had told him.”

Genesis 22:3

By the time Abraham gets to Genesis 22, he has learned many lessons. Notice that he doesn’t dally; he starts on his journey the very next morning!

Notice also that there are four going on the trip: Abraham, Isaac, and two young men, as well as the donkey.

“Then on the third day Abraham lifted up his eyes, and saw the place afar off.

“And Abraham said unto his young men, Abide ye here with the ass; and I and the lad will go yonder and worship, and come again to you.”

Genesis 22:4, 5

It takes 3 days to get the place now known as Mount Moriah. Notice also that the two young men remain at the base of the hill as the father and son climb up it. (Is Abraham’s prediction about both of them returning just a “stall,” or is it a prophecy?)

“And Abraham took the wood of the burnt offering, and laid it upon Isaac his son; and he took the fire in his hand, and a knife; and they went both of them together.

“And Isaac spake unto Abraham his father, and said, My father: and he said, Here am I, my son. And he said, Behold the fire and the wood: but where is the lamb for a burnt offering?”

Genesis 22:6, 7

Good question, Isaac. You can appreciate the lad’s concern. Notice Abraham’s response:

“And Abraham said, My son, God will provide himself a lamb for a burnt offering: so they went both of them together.”

Genesis 22:8

“God will provide” who? Himself! Was this also just a stall? Did Abraham realize that he was acting out a prophecy? Two thousand years later—on that very spot—another Father would offer His Son as the offering of all time!

Figure 14-1: “Abraham’s Sacrifice”, etching by Rembrandt van Rijn, 1655. An angel holds Abraham’s hand as he is about to follow God’s command to sacrifice his son, Isaac.

TOPOGRAPHY OF MOUNT MORIAH

Figure 12-1 is a topographical map of Mount Moriah. Mount Moriah is a ridge system between the Mount of Olives to the east and Mount Zion to the west. It is bounded by the Kidron Valley on the east, the Tyropean Valley on the west, and the Hinom Valley to the south.

Figure 14-2: Topological map of Mount Moriah

The ridge begins at the south at about 600 meters above sea level and rises to a peak as one goes northward. At the base of this ridge was the town of Salem at which Melchizedek was both the king and the priest.305 This later becomes Ophel, the city of David, and ultimately, Jerusalem.

Higher on the ridge, at about 741 meters above sea level, is a saddle point where Ornan later owned a threshingfloor which would eventually be purchased by David to become the site of Solomon’s Temple.306

(A threshingfloor was not necessarily at the peak; it was typically a saddlepoint which enjoyed a prevailing wind which could be used to separate the chaff from the grain when threshed at harvest times.)

The peak of the Mount is a bit further north, at about 777 meters above sea level, at a place which would later become known as Golgotha—the exact spot where Jesus Christ would be crucified as the offering for sin 2,000 years later.307

As we realize the typology of this narrative, we begin to appreciate the subtleties in the account. Abraham had an earlier son, Ishmael, but for God’s purposes here, Isaac is viewed as “[his] only son.”308

Careful students of the Scripture have noticed The Law of First Mention—that the first occurrence of a word in the Scripture is usually very significant in the overall design. It is profoundly significant that this account includes the first occurrence of the word love in the Scripture.309

“And they came to the place which God had told him of; and Abraham built an altar there, and laid the wood in order, and bound Isaac his son, and laid him on the altar upon the wood.”

Genesis 22:9

We are all victims of our Sunday School coloring books; we always picture Isaac as a small boy. Some scholars maintain that Isaac was about 30 years old.

“And Abraham stretched forth his hand, and took the knife to slay his son.

“And the angel of the LORD called unto him out of heaven, and said, Abraham, Abraham: and he said, Here am I.

“And he said, Lay not thine hand upon the lad, neither do thou any thing unto him: for now I know that thou fearest God, seeing thou hast not withheld thy son, thine only son from me.

“And Abraham lifted up his eyes, and looked, and behold behind him a ram caught in a thicket by his horns: and Abraham went and took the ram, and offered him up for a burnt offering in the stead of his son.”

Genesis 22:10-13

Thus, we encounter the substitutionary ram. When Adam and Eve “fell” in the Garden of Eden, God, even then, taught them that by the shedding of innocent blood they would be covered.310 All of the Levitical sacrifices in the Torah were designed to anticipate the climactic sacrifice for all time, foreshadowed here. We are the beneficiaries of a love story, written in blood on a wooden cross which was to be erected in Judea some 2,000 years later.

“And Abraham called the name of that place Jehovahjireh: as it is said to this day, in the mount of the LORD it shall be seen.”

Genesis 22:14

Abraham then gave the location a prophetic label. It appears that he somehow knew that he was acting out a prophecy!

Abraham also knew that Isaac, if offered, would have to be resurrected since God had previously promised Abraham that Isaac would have numerous descendants.311 (It is interesting that Isaac was “dead” to Abraham for three days—from the time the commandment came until he was freed by the angel.)

Here, in this “type,” we have Abraham cast in the role of the Father and Isaac as the Son. God the Father and His Son are the referents or designata to which this historical narrative appears to be alluding. There is another subsequent example in which, again, the roles, or referents, are the same.

A BRIDE FOR ISAAC

Later, in Genesis 24, Abraham commissions his “eldest servant” to gather a bride for Isaac. He then travels to the designated place, qualifies the woman (Rebecca) by a well, and offers her the opportunity to marry the bridegroom she has never seen, and she accepts. She ultimately meets her bridegroom at the Well of LaHai-Roi, the “Well of the Living Water.”

Here, again, Abraham is a type of the Father; Isaac, the Son; and Rebecca, his bride, suggestive of God’s specially chosen, the Church.312

The designation “Eldest Servant” is misleading to us. He was Abraham’s business partner and would have inherited all that Abraham possessed if Abraham had not had any issue. He is cast, here, as a type of the Holy Spirit, called to gather the bride for Isaac. He is not named here, but we know from previous passages that his name was Eleazer, which means “Comforter.”313

A REPRISE

Returning to our earlier review of Genesis 22, immediately after the substitutionary offering, we come to verse 19:

“So Abraham returned unto his young men, and they rose up and went together to Beersheba; and Abraham dwelt at Beersheba.”

Notice that in the list of who came down from the mountain to return home, only Abraham and the two young men at the bottom of the hill are listed. Where’s Isaac?

Naturally, we infer that Isaac also joined them and that there were four who traveled back to Beersheba. But that’s not what the text says! It appears that Isaac has disappeared; the person of Isaac has been edited out of the record, from the time that he is offered on the mount until he is united with his bride, two chapters later!314 It would seem that the text has been subtly tailored so as to fit the broader design, to be consistent with the larger picture; a type—or macrocode—highlighting the climax to come.

This one of the examples which demonstrate that

The New Testament is in the Old Testament concealed, and The Old Testament is in the New Testament revealed.

The Bible is one book—even though it consists of 66 separate books, penned by over 40 authors over thousands of years; yet it evidences a consistent cosmic design and includes history written in advance as a demonstration that the origin of this message is from outside our time domain. There is no other way to explain it.

Entire books have been written attempting to compile the numerous “types” that have been noted. The more familiar you are with the Biblical text, the more evident they become. (See the list in Appendix B.)

OTHER MACROCODES

In addition to “types,” there are other rhetorical constructions which include transcendent meanings. There are over 200 different kinds of “figures” listed in Appendix A. Many of these are simply skillful mechanisms to illuminate or editorialize the primary text itself. Others add insights that contribute to a broader design that was beyond the horizon of the writer himself and evidences a supernatural influence weaving a broader tapestry.

There is an important caveat in exploring macrocodes. It is easy to contrive tangents and infer meanings not intended. They can illuminate, confirm, and clarify but will always be congruent with direct revelation elsewhere in the design. (These issues will be discussed further in Chapter 24.)

SUGGESTIONS FOR FURTHER READING:

Risto Santala, The Messiah in the Old Testament in the Light of Rabbinical Writings, and also The Messiah in the New Testament in the Light of Rabbinical Writings (translated from the Finnish; first published in Hebrew), Keren Ahvah Meshihi, Jerusalem, 1992.

Mark Eastman, The Search for the Messiah, The Word for Today, Costa Mesa, California, 1993.

Walter Lewis Wilson, Dictionary of Bible Types, Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing Co., Grand Rapids, Michigan, 1957.

Patrick Fairbairn, Typology of Scripture, 2 vols., Funk & Wagnalls, New York, 1900.

15

“The heavens declare

the glory of God;

and the firmament

proclaims his handiwork.”

PSALM 19:1

CHAPTER 15

Any time that we glance at the heavens, or peer through a telescope, we cannot deny our awe at the unlimited majesty of the universe. Our Milky Way galaxy contains 100,000 million stars: so large a number that counting one star every second would take 2,500 years! And it is just one among innumerable other galaxies. (The radio galaxy 3C 236 alone is 200 times the size of our Milky Way galaxy.)

As we attempt to grasp the staggering glory of the heavens, we can’t help but confront the paradox of our own place in the universe. On the one hand, we can’t escape the incomprehensible magnitude of it all. On the other hand, we also discover that if any physical parameter, from cosmic sizes and distances to subatomic particles and forces, were altered the slightest fraction, we could no longer exist! Scientists call this the “Anthropic Principle,” since it would appear that everything in the universe has been uniquely tailored for man!315

Scientists continue to search the skies with increasingly advanced equipment in the hope of a contact with some extraterrestrial intelligence, undaunted by their lack of success and unhindered by their unspoken doubts. Some even regard this, potentially, as the search for the Creator Himself.

There is an irony in these efforts; it is the Creator who has searched us out! We have in our possession a message from Him that provably transcends our space-time. We shouldn’t be surprised that the very heavens that humble us so completely also appear to include cosmic macrocodes authenticating the message which we have in hand.

SIGNS IN THE HEAVENS

The overwhelming quantity of stars—literally innumerable by man— each have names!316

“Lift up your eyes on high, and behold who hath created these things, that bringeth out their host by number: he calleth them all by names by the greatness of his might, for that he is strong in power; not one faileth.”

Isaiah 40:26

And many of these names appear in the Bible.317 Furthermore, we are told that they were made for signs.318 It really shouldn’t surprise us to encounter these cosmic macrocodes endorsing and validating His central message.

VIEWPOINT EARTH

The apparent path of the sun through the sky is called the ecliptic. The band 15° on either side of this path is called the zodiac, from a primitive Hebrew root, sodi, (“the way” in Sanskrit).319 The zodiac is divided into 12 segments called the “Signs of the Zodiac.” Each “Sign” has, in addition to its principal constellation, three associated constellations called “decans,” for a total of 48 constellations associated with the Zodiac.

The familiar names of the constellations go back to the Tower of Babel—with its “top attempting to reach the heavens.”320 It is significant that the names for the constellations of the Zodiac remain essentially the same in all the ancient nations of the world—Chinese, Chaldean, the Temples of Denderah and Esneh in Egypt, all echoing their origin at Bab-El, the precursor to ancient Babylon.

Astronomers and navigators still use these classic labels for convenience in designating the various regions of the sky—not to be confused with the occultic speculations associated with astrology.

THE HEBREW MAZZEROTH

The Hebrew name for the zodiac is the Mazzeroth.321 The ancient Hebrew names hold the key to the original designations that were later corrupted at the Tower of Babel and that continue even to today.322

It is amusing to see planetarium shows still spreading the notion that the various pictures associated with the constellations were ancient imaginings taken from the arrangement of the stars. If you have carefully explored that conjecture, it is easily discarded as fanciful and absurd. Have you ever tried to visualize the “bear” in Ursa Major, known more commonly as the “Big Dipper”? Or tried to “see” a “lady chained to a chair” in the bent-W known as Cassiopeia?

The key to the original concepts lying behind the various “signs” were the names of the stars associated with each sign, in their order of brightness (magnitude). The names of the stars recounted a story, summarized in the name and the associated picture of each “sign.” These were convenient mnemonics (aids to memory) to recalling and teaching the overall narrative. Ancient Persian and Arabic traditions ascribe the invention of astronomy to Adam, Seth, and Enoch.

Deciphering these “cosmic macrocodes” depends upon discovering the Hebrew names of the stars involved. Unfortunately, many of these have been lost in antiquity. Often, however, we can gain clues from Arabic and other ancient roots.

Let’s take an example.

VIRGO

Virgo is traditionally pictured as a woman with a branch in her right hand and an ear of corn in her left. Named from the Latin for virgin, in Hebrew she is called Bethulah, a virgin.

The brightest star is Spica, an ear of corn.323 In Hebrew, it is Zerah, the Seed (the “Seed of the Woman”).324 In Egyptian, it is Aspolia, the seed.

The second brightest is, in Hebrew, Tsemech, the Branch, a title of the Messiah.325 Other stars include Zavijaveh, gloriously beautiful,326 and Al Mureddin, who shall have dominion.327

The three constellations (decans) that are associated with Virgo are Coma (the Desired One), Centaurus (the Despised One), and Bootes (the Coming One).

Coma is, in Egyptian, Sheznu, the Desired Son.328 It is usually depicted as a woman with an infant. (What is a woman with an infant doing in the sign of the virgin?)

Centaurus in Hebrew is Bezeh, the Despised One.329 Another name in Hebrew is Asmeath, the sin offering.330 In the Greek traditions there is the name Cheiron, which means the Pierced One.331 One of the stars is, in Hebrew, Toliman which means here, before, and hereafter, similar to the identity given in the Burning Bush, the “I Am.”332

Notice the dual nature—God, and yet despised. The double nature is imbedded in the idea of the sin offering of the despised one at the same time being a ruling King. (In 1893 we found out that the star Tsemech is a double star.)

Figure 15-1: The Constellation of Virgo

Bootes, the Coming One,333 includes the principal stars of Arcturus, He cometh;334 Al Katuropos, the branch that is trodden under foot; Mirac, preserver, guarding; Muphride, he who separates; Nekkar, the Pierced One.335

It is significant that the Sign of Virgo is also associated with the tribe of Zebulun, where Nazareth is located.336 (Nazarene and Netzer [branch or shoot from a stump] are puns.337 A Nazarite is also a separated one.338)

Every Christmas season our thoughts turn to the birth of Christ and to His mother, Mary. The story is so familiar that, to some extent, we all take the nativity for granted. But why was Jesus born of a virgin?

THE SCARLET THREAD BEGINS

Adam was created perfect, but with the ability to make his own choices. He blew it, yielding his allegiance to a rival. The entire cosmic panorama deals with a plan of redemption from this tragic choice. We are all heirs to this primeval mistake. (We continue to carry this as a genetic defect to this day. It isn’t HIV; it is SIN. The good news is that there is a “blood cure,” and it is available for the asking.)

It was also in the Garden of Eden that God declared war on Satan.

“I will put enmity between thee and the woman, and between thy seed and her seed; it shall bruise thy head, and thou shalt bruise his heel.”

Genesis 3:15

The “Seed of the Woman” thus begins the thread of literally hundreds of prophetic revelations of the Coming One, and thus becomes one of the prophetic titles of the Messiah. The term “Seed of the Woman” is both a grammatical and biological contradiction (the seed is in the man), and thus this is the first hint, here in the earliest chapters of Genesis, of the virgin birth.

One answer, of course, is not only to fulfill the prophecy of Genesis 3:15, but also the one later given to Isaiah:

“Therefore the Lord himself shall give you a sign; Behold the virgin shall conceive, and bear a son, and shall call his name Immanuel.”

Isaiah 7:14

A sign, indeed. And a prophecy. But this is more descriptive than it is causal. Why was this necessary?

There are, of course, many profound theological issues inherent in the virgin birth. However, one way to approach this issue is to address one of the problems it solves.

THE PROBLEM

God announced very early that His plan for redemption involved the Messiah being brought forth from the tribe of Judah^339 and specifically from the line of David.340

The succession of the subsequent kings of Judah proved to be, with only a few exceptions, a dismal chain. As the succeeding kings went from bad to worse, we eventually encounter Jeconiah (also known as Jehoiachin) upon whom God finally pronounced a “blood curse”:

“Thus saith the Lord, Write ye this man childless, a man [that] shall not prosper in his days: for no man of his seed shall prosper, sitting upon the throne of David, and ruling any more in Judah.”

Jeremiah 22:30

This created a rather grim and perplexing paradox: the Messiah had to come from the royal line, yet now there was a curse on that very blood line!

(I always imagine that there must have been a celebration within the councils of Satan on that day. Surely Satan must have surmised that God was now caught in a quandary. But then I visualize God saying to the angels, “Watch this one!”)

THE SOLUTION

The solution is revealed in the different genealogies of Jesus Christ recorded in the Gospels.

Matthew, as a Levi, focused his Gospel on the Messiahship of Jesus and presents Him as the Lion of the Tribe of Judah. Thus Matthew traces the legal line from Abraham (as any Jew would) through David, then through Solomon (the “royal” line, through the first surviving son of Bathsheba) to Joseph, the legal father of Jesus.341

On the other hand, Luke, as a physician, focused on the humanity of Jesus and thus presents Him as the Son of Man. Luke traces the blood line from Adam (the first Man) through to David— and his genealogy from Abraham through David is, of course, identical to Matthew’s. But then after David, Luke departs from the path taken by Matthew and traces the family tree through another son of David (the second surviving son of Bathsheba), Nathan, which carries it down through Heli, the father of Mary, the mother of Jesus.342

Thus, Jesus is “of the house and lineage of David” but not heir to the blood curse pronounced upon the descendants of Jeconiah.

The genealogy of Jesus Christ is summarized on the next page.

THE DAUGHTERS OF ZELOPHEHAD

There is also a peculiar exception recorded in the Torah, the result of a petition by the daughters of Zelophehad, which provided for inheritance through the daughter, if no sons were available and she married within her tribe.343 It’s remarkable how many commentaries fail to recognize that the inheritance of Jesus through Mary depends upon this specific exception deriving from the daughters of Zelophehad. There is nothing “trivial” or irrelevant in the Bible. Indeed, we discover that every detail in the Scripture is there by design and ultimately points to Jesus Christ.

THE GOSPELS IN MULTIPLE DIMENSIONS

Carl Sagan’s popular novel, Contact, recently released as a movie, exploited the idea of an extraterrestrial transmission containing a three-dimensional message. It is interesting that the classic Gospels in the New Testament evidence a four-dimensional design structure and that they, too, exploit idioms carried in the stars themselves!

We have already noted that Matthew and Luke each designed their Gospels to reflect a particular aspect of the Christ. Matthew, being a Jew, presented Jesus as the Messiah of Israel, the Lion of the Tribe of Judah. Not only his genealogy, but every aspect of his record highlights that aspect: the first miracle (the cleansing of a leper),344 his most frequent expressions, and his closing on the resurrection, all reflect the fulfillment of Christ as the Lion of the Tribe of Judah.

Ahaziah, Joash, and Amaziah all died violent deaths, God thus dealing with idolatry literally “to the third and fourth generations” (Exodus 20:4, 5), their names therefore “blotted out” according to the Law (Deuteronomy 29:20). Jehoiakim and Jechoniah likewise, since the kingdom ended as an independent kingdom with Josiah’s death at Megiddo. Thus these were “blotted out” of the groups of “14 generations” in Matthew’s account. (Cf. E. W. Bullinger’s Companion Bible, Appendix 99.)

Luke, focusing on Christ’s humanity, presents Him as the Son of Man. The genealogy from Adam, the first man, through his blood relationship through Mary; his emphasis of the promise of the Holy Spirit (setting the stage for Luke’s sequel, the Book of Acts) all focus on Christ as the Son of Man.

Mark (Peter’s amanuensis, or secretary) presents Jesus as the Servant. As we generally are not concerned with the pedigree of a servant, Mark’s Gospel is the only one without a genealogy.

John presents Jesus specifically as the Son of God, and so declares.345 John also presents a genealogy, of sorts, of the Pre-Existent One in the opening three verses of his Gospel.346

“In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.

“The same was in the beginning with God.

“All things were made by him; and without him was not any thing made that was made.”

John 1:1-3

It is interesting that John uses, as the title of the Creator Himself, an expression of information—the Ultimate Code—The Word, , Logos.

The prophet Micah also emphasizes His pre-existence when he announces His birthplace:

“But thou, Bethlehem Ephratah, though thou be little among the thousands of Judah, yet out of thee shall he come forth unto me that is to be ruler in Israel; whose goings forth have been from of old, from everlasting [eternity].”

Micah 5:2

(This, and a number of other prophecies carrying on the continuing thread of Messianic clues, as well as the mathematical confidence one can assume, will be the subject of the next chapter.)

A summary of the structural design of the four Gospels is given on the following page.

THE FOUR FACES

Each time we encounter a view of the Throne of God,347 we notice the same strange living creatures, somehow associated with the protection of His Throne, His holiness, etc. We also notice the same four faces: a Lion, a Man, an Ox, and an Eagle. It has been suggested that they also appear to summarize the four viewpoints of the Gospel structure above. We will also encounter them in a key role among the tribal standards of the 12 tribes of Israel.

Each of the 12 tribes was associated with one of the 12 signs of the Hebrew Masseroth. Each of them had a tribal standard with a symbol of their associated sign.348 Four of these will prove extremely provocative, as we shall see.

THE CAMP OF ISRAEL

In Numbers chapters 1 and 2 we encounter the census of the people and the detailed instructions for their encampment. Why? What hidden insight lies behind them?

Of course there are many valid historical reasons for the inclusion of these details in the Torah (the five books of Moses), but our premise is that there isn’t any detail included that isn’t there by deliberate design. If we examine these details more closely, some remarkable insights emerge.

THE TABERNACLE

When Moses received the Ten Commandments on Mount Sinai, he also received detailed specifications and instructions for the building of a portable sanctuary, the Tabernacle, or tent of Meeting.349 The purpose of this unusual facility was to provide a place for God to dwell among His people.350

The Tabernacle was always set up at the center of the Camp of Israel, facing eastward. The tribe of Levi was assigned to care for it and encamped around it. Moses, Aaron, and the priests camped on the east side next to the entrance. The three families of the tribe of Levi (Merari, Kohath, and Gershon), camped on the north, south, and west side, respectively.

The remaining 12 tribes were grouped into four camps around the Levites.

A BAKER’S DOZEN

It is helpful to realize that there were really 13 tribes, not just 12. This can be confusing to the uninitiated reader.

Jacob had 12 sons, each becoming the founder of one of the 12 tribes. However, Joseph was sold into slavery and subsequently emerged as the prime minister of Egypt.351 In Egypt, Joseph married Asenath and had two sons, Manasseh and Ephraim. When Jacob and the rest of the family ultimately joined them in Egypt, Jacob adopted his two grandsons as his own.352 With the tribe of Joseph then in two parts, we have an “alphabet” of 13 from which to choose.

The 12 tribes of Israel (Jacob) are listed 20 times in the Old Testament.353 They are listed by mother (Leah, Rachel, Zilhah, and Bilhah), their numeration, their encampment, order of march, their geographical relations, etc. Each time they are listed in a different order.

The Levites were exempt from military duties. When the order of military march is given, there are still 12 listed, excluding Levi. This is accomplished by dividing Joseph into two: Ephraim and Manasseh.

(Levi is thus omitted on four occasions. In a similar manner, Dan is omitted on three occasions, the most notable one in Revelation 7.)

THE FOUR “CAMPS”

The 12 remaining tribes, excluding the Levites, were grouped into four “camps.”354 Each of these groups, of three tribes each, were to rally around the tribal standard of the lead tribe.

Judah’s tribal standard was, of course, the lion. Reuben’s ensign was a man; Ephraim’s the ox; Dan’s, ultimately, the eagle. It is interesting to note that these four primary tribal standards—the lion, the man, the ox, and the eagle—are the same as the four faces of the strange living creatures (“super angels?”) that always appear surrounding the Throne of God.

It would seem that the camp of Israel—with the tabernacle in the middle—would appear to be a model of the Throne of God: His presence in the center (represented by the tabernacle), encircled by the four faces, this all surrounded by His people.

By there’s even more. Why the specific numbers?

THE CENSUS

The numbering of the tribes is detailed in Numbers chapter 1. The actual population represented is obviously somewhat larger than these enumerations, since only men over 20, able to go to war, were counted. Most analysts assume that women, children, and the elderly would multiply the count factor by three or whatever. The total camp would thus appear to approximate two million.

While the numbers of each tribe may not seem very revealing, the totals for each of the four camps will prove to be.

CARDINAL COMPASS POINTS

Each of the camps, of three tribes each, was to encamp on one of the four cardinal compass directions (N, S, E, or W) with respect to the camp of the Levites enclosing the tabernacle.355

We can only guess at how much space was required by the Levites, whether it was 100 feet on a side, 100 yards, or whatever. But whatever it was, we’ll assume that length as a basic unit.

To fully appreciate all of the implications, you must try to think like a rabbi; you need to maintain an extremely high respect for the precise details of the instructions. They resorted to heroic measures in their attempt to comply with the letter of the law.

The tribes of Judah, Issachar, and Zebulon—collectively called the Camp of Judah—had to encamp east of the Levites. This poses a technical problem. Notice that if the breadth of their camp was larger than that of the Levites, the excess would be southeast or northeast, not east. Therefore, if they were to comply strictly to their instructions, their camp could only be as wide as that of the Levites, and they then would have to extend eastward to obtain whatever space they required.

The camps of Reuben, Ephraim, and Dan had the same constraint on the south, west, and north respectively. The length of each leg would thus be proportional to the total population in each camp.

THE AERIAL VIEW

If we assemble what we can infer from the Torah account, we can imagine what the camp of Israel looked like from above: the tabernacle and the Levites in the center, surrounded by the four faces of the tribal standards, and each of the four camps of Judah, Ephraim, Reuben, and Dan, stretching out in the four cardinal directions.

We can also tally the size of each tribe to total the relative length of each camp as they stretched out in each of the four directions. See the plan view, on a relative scale, which follows.

It would appear that when the Israelites encamped, they formed a giant cross! This is a macrocode, indeed! And this is from the Torah, not the New Testament!

Again, The New Testament is in the Old Testament concealed, and

The Old Testament is in the New Testament revealed.

The next chapter will continue to explore some examples of the continuing “Scarlet Thread” of prophetic hints concerning the Coming One, and also attempt to mathematically analyze just how sure we can be of our view.

Figure 15-3: Camp of Israel

Figure 15-4: Camp of Israel

SUGGESTIONS FOR FURTHER READING:

FOR THE MAZZEROTH:

Missler, Chuck, The Signs in the Heavens, Koinonia House, 1991.

Bullinger, E. W., The Witness of the Stars, Kregel Publications, Grand Rapids, Michigan, 1967 (reprint of London edition, 1893).

Seiss, Joseph A., The Gospel in the Stars, Kregel Publications, Grand Rapids, Michigan, 1972 (reprint of Primeval Astronomy, 1882).

Spencer, Duane Edward, The Gospel in the Stars, Word of Grace, San Antonio, Texas, 1972.

Allen, Richard H., Star Names, Their Lore and Meaning, Dover Publications, New York, 1963 (republished from Stechert, 1899).

Kunitzsch, Paul, and Smart, Tim, Modern Star Names and Their Derivations, Harrassowitz, Wiesbaden, 1986.

Block, David, Star Watching, Lion Publishing Plc, Icknield Way, Tring, Herts, England, 1988. Among an extensive collection, one of my favorites. (Cf. p. 98.)

FOR THE CAMP OF ISRAEL :

Fruchtenbaum, Arnold G., Israelology: the Missing Link in Systematic Theology, Ariel Press, Tustin, California, 1989.

Missler, Chuck, Expositional Commentaries on Genesis, Revelation, Joshua Koinonia House, Coeur d’Alene, Idaho, 1995.

Missler, Chuck, Briefing Packages: Signs in the Heavens, The Prodigal Heirs, The Romance of Redemption (Ruth), Daniel’s Seventy Weeks, Koinonia House, Coeur d’Alene, Idaho, copyright individually.

16

“Until we can

measure a thing,

we really know

very little about it.”

WILLIAM THOMSON

(Lord Kelvin)

CHAPTER 16

Regarding the “Equidistant Letter Sequences,” the scholastic debate has been ignited and is likely to continue for some time. Their spectacular revelations are likely to encourage the proponents and galvanize the skeptics. So be it.

THE RISKS OF ERROR

As we discussed earlier, there are mathematically defined risks in any analysis. A hypothesis being explored may be either true or false. Our analysis should lead us to conclude whether that candidate hypothesis is true or false. If our analysis is correct, we learn some truth. If our analysis is faulty, it can expose us to two potential types of errors:356

Type I. The acceptance of a false hypothesis. Or,

Type II. The rejection of a true hypothesis.

If our candidate hypothesis has to do with the identity of Christ, then the acceptance of what could prove to be a false hypothesis—the reality of who He really is—should put us into no real jeopardy, except, perhaps, our continuing efforts to investigate further.

However, the other type of error—the rejection of a true hypothesis—has staggering implications for our very lives. Our personal destinies will be determined by our conclusions. Thus, it behooves us to consider these claims with extreme care.

THE ROLE OF THE MACROCODES

It is the macrocodes—structures that unify the whole, that transcend the time dimension—that are the ultimate problem for the skeptic. The ultimate macrocode is the primary thread—the links, or theme—that ties all of the 66 books together into the unified whole. The question is, what has been the experience? How have these predictive macrocodes proven themselves over the available histories of the centuries?

The entire history of Israel itself is an astonishing testimony to the supernatural origin of the Bible. Israel is the lens through which the Bible presents both the past and the future. One of the greatest miracles in the Bible is before our very eyes: the Jew. The regathering of the Jews into their own homeland—the second time^357—is the key to understanding the times in which we live. The libraries are full of volumes which detail the many incredible examples which demonstrate how God has repeatedly authenticated His messages through fulfilled prophecies regarding the nation Israel.

An even more specific theme of the entire Biblical panorama is the presentation of The Coming One, the central person whom the Hebrews call the Messiah. He turns out to be the key that unlocks all the macrocodes and microcodes.

“The volume of the book is written of me.”

Psalm 40:7 (also quoted in Hebrew 10:7)

“Search the Scriptures; for in them ye think ye have eternal life: and they are they which testify of me.”

John 5:39

His story is a love story written in blood on a wooden cross that was erected in Judea about 2,000 years ago. Declared in advance in the Garden of Eden at the dawn of history, He made His debut in a manger in Bethlehem, paid a cosmic price on our behalf at the cross, and now appears ready to finalize His climax on our near horizon.

In the Biblical record, every detail, every place name, every number, has been tailored by deliberate design. And they all point to Him. He is on every page, intricately hidden in every detail of the text. Deciphering these codes is our ultimate challenge.

Jesus confounded the religious leaders of His day when they couldn’t “break the code” of the Old Testament text:

“While the Pharisees were gathered together, Jesus asked them, saying,

“What think ye of Christ? whose son is he?

“They said unto him, The Son of David.

“He said unto them, How then doth David in spirit call him Lord, saying,

“The LORD said unto my Lord, Sit thou on my right hand, till I make thine enemies thy footstool?”

(Jesus is quoting Psalm 110:1.)

“If David then call him Lord, how is he his son?

“And no man was able to answer him a word, neither durst any man from that day forth ask him any more questions.”

Matthew 22:41-46

They couldn’t “break the code.” It is essential for each of us to make sure we don’t fall into the same trap.

It is no wonder that the first rabbinical presentation after the resurrection was on that Sunday afternoon walk to Emmaus, during which Jesus, “beginning at Moses and all the prophets, expounded unto them in all the Scriptures the things concerning himself.”358 Jesus led them in a Bible study entirely from the Old Testament, highlighting the very things that had so shaken them in the previous few days.

In his second letter, Peter, after making the reminder that he was an “eyewitness to His majesty,” having been personally present at the astonishing events during Christ’s ministry, goes on to point out that “we have the (even) more sure word of prophecy.”359 What did he mean by that? What could be even more convincing than having actually “been there?”

One analysis of the Biblical text has catalogued 8,362 predictive verses which include 1,817 specific predictions on 737 separate matters.360 Over 300 of these specify, with astonishing precision—centuries in advance—the details of His genealogy, His birth, His ministry, and His sacrificial death recorded in the documents making up the New Testament. This makes the Bible unique. No other book on Planet Earth has the audacity to place its veracity on its record of prophetic predictions. Not the Koran of Islam, the Veda or the Bhagadgita of the Hindus, nor the Book of Mormon, even claim to.

HOW SURE CAN WE BE?

Peter suggests that we “have the more sure word” of prophecy. He points to the predictive text as even more effective than his own eye witness accounts. But just how sure can we really be? How do we know that we have not “followed cunningly devised fables?” Is it actually possible to measure the assurance to which Peter alludes? How does one measure confidence levels?

Peter Stoner, in his book, Science Speaks, suggested an interesting approach to this issue.361 We will adapt his approach by taking a brief sampling of some of the prophecies which were recorded in the Old Testament and fulfilled in the New, and attempt to examine them quantitatively.

First, let’s recognize that the Old Testament was translated into Greek about 270 B.C. In those days, even a Jew generally didn’t have facility with Hebrew; Greek was the international language. A Jew had as much facility with Hebrew as a Catholic has with Latin. Hebrew was, in those days, a language somewhat confined to religious uses. So 72 of the most eminent Hebrew scholars were commissioned by Ptolemy II Philadelphus in Alexandria, in 285 B.C., to translate the Tanakh (the Old Testament) into the common language of that day. The result of that effort is now known as the Septuagint (“70”) version of the Old Testament.

The point is simply that the compilation we know as the Old Testament was documented several centuries before the birth of Christ. So from that footing, let’s review a few of these prophecies and attempt to estimate the likelihoods that they were mere happenstances or accidents of chance. We will briefly examine just eight of the more than 300 prophecies available.362

PROPHECY NUMBER 1

“But thou, Bethlehem Ephratah, though thou be little among the thousands of Judah, yet out of thee shall he come forth unto me that is to be ruler in Israel; whose goings forth have been from of old, from everlasting.”

Micah 5:2

This is the passage that Herod resorted to in order to respond to the inquiry by the Magi, “Where is he that is born king of the Jews?” (It is understandable that this was a tension-producing question since Herod was a non-Jew appointed into his position by Rome.)

This passage specifies that the Coming One will be born in Bethlehem. What is the likelihood that any person, selected at random, in the world over, has been born in Bethlehem?

The best estimate which we might make would be to estimate the average population of Bethlehem, from the time of Micah to the present day, and to divide it by the average population of Earth during the same period. The population of Bethlehem has averaged less than 10,000, and assuming that the population of Earth has averaged about two billion, a reasonable estimate could be expressed as 2,000,000,000/10,000 or about one in 200,000 having been born in Bethlehem. To be really conservative, let us cut that in half, and adopt an assumption of less than one in 100,000 for our analysis. (How many people that you know have been born in Bethlehem?)

PROPHECY NUMBER 2

“Rejoice greatly, O daughter of Zion; shout, O daughter of Jerusalem: behold, thy King cometh unto thee: he is just, and having salvation; lowly, and riding upon an ass, and upon a colt the foal of an ass.”

Zechariah 9:9

This prophecy announces that the Coming One will present Himself as King by riding a donkey into Jerusalem. (Some startling aspects of this actual event will be the focus of the next chapter; but here we will only focus on His means of transportation.)

One man in how many, who has entered Jerusalem as a ruler, has entered riding on a donkey? While we have no record of anyone but Christ who did so, let us allow for unrecorded possibilities and adopt an estimate of less than one in a hundred, which is extremely conservative but will serve our purposes.

PROPHECY NUMBER 3

“And I said unto them, If ye think good, give me my price; and if not, forbear. So they weighed for my price thirty pieces of silver.”

Zechariah 11:12

This one seems simple enough: Of all the people who have ever lived, one in how many have been betrayed or sold for exactly 30 pieces of silver? This was, of course, the precise amount which Judas received for his betrayal of Jesus Christ.363

This seems extremely rare, a “one in a million” kind of thing. (Can you name any others?) For our purposes, we will be cautious and adopt an estimate of less than one in 1,000.

PROPHECY NUMBER 4

“And the Lord said unto me, Cast it unto the potter: a goodly price that I was prised at of them. And I took the thirty pieces of silver, and cast them to the potter in the house of the Lord.”

Zechariah 11:13

This one is extremely specific. It describes the amount of the transaction (30 pieces of silver), the location of the transaction (the house of the Lord, the Temple), and who ends up with the money (a potter).

You may recall that Judas, in his remorse, attempted to undo his bargain and return the 30 pieces of silver, but the priests would not accept them, so he threw them down on the floor of the Temple and went out and hanged himself. The priests could not put the money into the treasury as there was a prohibition against the use of “blood money.” But they apparently had excellent accountants and realized that there existed a loophole; they could use it to prepay anticipated expenses. The Temple was responsible to bury any foreigners who might die in their precincts, so they purchased an available potter’s field for that purpose.364

The precision with which this transaction is described is amazing:

The amount:

30 pieces of silver

The location:

the Temple

Who ends up with the money?

The potter

We now need to estimate. One man in how many, after receiving a bribe for the betrayal, attempted to return the money, had it refused, had thrown it on the floor of the Temple, and then had it ultimately end up in the hands of a potter?

Estimating this one is problematical. This is also a “one in a million” situation; but we will adopt an estimate of less than one in 100,000, and we are being very generous.

PROPHECY NUMBER 5

“And one shall say unto him, What are these wounds in thine hands? Then he shall answer, Those with which I was wounded in the house of my friends.”

Zechariah 13:6

This one is one of my favorites for some personal reasons. When I first encountered this verse, early in my love affair with the Scriptures, I was on a Bible memorization kick. The reference to “wounds in the hands” caught my attention, so I added it to my pack of cards to commit to memory. But as I examined it more closely, I became more puzzled: I couldn’t visualize a group of Roman soldiers, driving spikes into the timbers of the cross, as being “in the house of my friends”!

However, you may recall that after the resurrection, when Jesus first appeared to the disciples, Thomas was not present. When the disciples told Thomas of the visit, Thomas said,

“Except I shall see in his hands the print of the nails, and put my finger into the print of the nails, and thrust my hand into his side, I will not believe.”

John 20:25

Eight days later, when again they all were assembled—including Thomas—Jesus again appeared and gave Thomas the opportunity to fulfill his request.

Now, when we go back and review the provocative glimpse given us by Zechariah, we realize that it wasn’t the nails that are the wounds being referred to, but Thomas’ unbelief! Ouch.

But for our purposes, we will confine our focus to the wounds in the hands. How many, the world over, have been wounded in their hands in the house of their friends? We will use an estimate of one in a 1,000 for our purposes.

PROPHECY NUMBER 6

“He was oppressed, and he was afflicted, yet he opened not his mouth: he is brought as a lamb to the slaughter, and as a sheep before her shearers is dumb, so he openeth not his mouth.”

Isaiah 53:7

After His arrest in the Garden of Gethsemane, Jesus was subjected to six trials: three Jewish and three Roman—all of them illegal in every respect.365 Finally, after attempting every administrative ploy available, and pronouncing Him “without fault,” the personal representative of the ruler of the world, nevertheless, sentenced him to be executed.366

One man in how many, on trial for his life, though innocent, will make no defense for himself? This is another “one in a million” situation. But, we will adopt an estimate of 1 in 1,000 for our purposes, and we are being really conservative!

(Many wonder why Jesus made no defense. He couldn’t! He was in our shoes. His mission was to be our substitute, and we are guilty.)

PROPHECY NUMBER 7

“And he made his grave with the wicked, and with the rich in his death; because he had done no violence, neither was any deceit in his mouth.”

Isaiah 53:9

Jesus died between two thieves and was buried in new grave reserved for the richest man in the region. Joseph of Arimathea was apparently among the richest in the area and was personally received by Pilate to request the body.

There is an apocryphal story that Pilate was stunned by Joseph’s request. “You have this new tomb for your family, and you want to give it to this criminal?”

“Oi Vey; it’s just for the weekend!” was Joseph’s reported reply.

Seriously, one man in how many died among the wicked yet was buried with the rich? Again, for our purposes, we’ll adopt one in 1,000 as a cautious estimate.

PROPHECY NUMBER 8

“For dogs have compassed me: the assembly of the wicked have inclosed me: they pierced my hands and my feet.”

Psalm 22:16

Psalm 22 reads as if it was dictated—first person singular—by Christ Himself as He hung on the cross (even though it was penned about eight centuries before He was born). He quotes the taunts by His detractors;367 He watches as they divide His possessions;368 and His detailed description has been the subject of medical journal articles about the effects of this unique form of execution.369

What makes this passage particularly astonishing is that crucifixion wasn’t invented until 700 years after this was written. It was invented by the Persians in 90 B.C. and then widely adopted by the Romans. Furthermore, the official form of execution in Israel was stoning, nothing else. The graphic description in Psalm 22 stands as an astonishing preview of the events of that fateful afternoon.

For our purposes here, what proportion of men, the world over, have been crucified? We will adopt the estimate of one in 10,000 and we are being extremely conservative.

COMPOSITE PROBABILITIES

Our next challenge is to estimate the probability that one single individual could fulfill all eight of these conditions. We need to combine these eight separate estimates into a composite probability. This requires a little introduction to combinatorial analysis.

Suppose we have an auditorium full of people, and let’s assume for purposes of this illustration that there is an equal number of men and women in the room. If we selected a person at random, what would be the probability that the person is a male? Assuming that there is an equal number of men and women, the chance of randomly selecting a male would be 50%, or a probability of 0.5.

Suppose in this same population, we have an equal number of left-handed and right-handed people, and, for the purposes of discussion, let’s assume that this characteristic is also uniformly distributed. If, again, we select a person at random, what would be the probability that the person is right-handed? Again, the probability would be 50%, or 0.5.

What would the probability be of selecting a person at random that is a male and also a right-handed? 50% times 50% = 25%, one chance in four. Or, more conventionally, 0.5 x 0.5 = .25. We obtain the combined probability by multiplying the individual probabilities.370

If each of these two conditions had a 10% probability, together they would have a 1% likelihood, or one in a 100: .1 x .1 = .01, or 10^1 x 10^1 = 10^2, etc. If I wanted to dramatize a chance of “one in a hundred,” I could take a large vase containing 100 silver dollars and mark one of them. I then would mix them thoroughly, and then have a blindfolded person reach in and draw one. The chance that he drew out my marked silver dollar would be one in 100.

With this in mind, let’s examine the list of the eight prophecies we’ve chosen:

SUMMARY:

1. Born in Bethlehem

100,000

2. Presented as king on a donkey

100

3. Betrayed for 30 pieces of silver

1,000

4. Return refused; Temple, Potter, etc.

100,000

5. Wounds in hands

1,000

6. No defense though innocent

1,000

7. Died among wicked; buried with rich

1,000

8. Crucified

10,000

or: 10^5 x 10^2 x 10^3 x 10^5 x 10^3 x 10^3 x 10^3 x 10^4 = 10^28

or 10 with 28 zeroes after it. (The easy way to multiply this column of numbers is simply to count the 0’s.)

This answers the question of one man in how many men could have fulfilled these eight prophecies. But what we really want to know is, what is the chance that any particular man might have lived from the day of these prophecies down to the present time and have fulfilled all of these specific prophecies? To estimate this we must divide our 10^28 by the total population of the people who have lived since the time of these prophecies.

The best information available estimates this number to be about 8.8 billion, or 8.8 x 10^10. We will simplify the calculation by rounding this up to 10^11. Dividing 10^28 by 10^11 = 10^17.

That is still a very big number. Let us try to visualize the size of this chance or likelihood. It will take some extensive imagination to visualize 10^17 silver dollars. If we took the entire State of Texas, those dollars would fill it all to a depth of two feet. Now mark one of the silver dollars and stir the entire mass thoroughly—all over the state. Blindfold a man, let him travel as much as he pleases, but he must pick the one marked silver dollar. What are his chances? The same chance that the prophets would have had of writing these eight prophecies and having them all come true in any one person—from their day until the present time—assuming that they wrote them in their own wisdom, unaided by a transcendent source from outside our time domain.

Think about it. Collectively, these eight passages are, in effect, macrocodes that require a perspective of events from outside our time dimension. Any alternative conjecture must be deemed absurd.

If these prophets were simply relying on their own knowledge, they had just one chance in 10^17 of having them come true in any particular man, but they all came true in Jesus Christ. Anyone who rejects the reality of Christ fulfilling His Biblical role is, in effect, gambling his personal destiny on the notion that this event occurred by chance alone.

But, we have examined only eight prophecies from a list of over 300.

16 PROPHECIES

Let’s take an additional eight prophecies from our list of 300 candidates and combine them with the first eight we examined. To simplify our analysis, let’s assume that the likelihoods of these next eight are essentially the same as the first eight.

(Actually, as we reach deeper into our inventory of 300 prophecies, they will inherently become more technical—more specific—and thus be less likely to occur by unaided chance alone. But our simplifying assumption will suffice for our purposes.)

Now we have 10^28 x 10^28/10^11 = 10^45.

This is, of course, an even bigger number. The chance of a single person fulfilling all 16 prophecies, even with our simplified approach, is far more unlikely than with only eight. But just how big a number are we dealing with? What kind of imaginary model can be suggested to dramatize this likelihood?

Again, we’ll use silver dollars, but this time Texas isn’t big enough. Not even the entire United States. To represent 10^45 silver dollars, we’ll need to make a ball of silver dollars with a diameter 60 times the distance from Earth to the sun!

Imagine marking one of those silver dollars, mixing them so as to give every silver dollar an equal chance of being selected, commissioning a blindfolded (space-suited?) astronaut to travel through this ball and select—randomly—the marked one. The chance that he successfully selects the marked one is the same chance that the prophets had in predicting that these events would all be fulfilled in a single individual, without the aid of someone who “knows the end from the beginning”—someone from outside our time domain.

But again, we have only explored 16 of over 300 available. Let’s try this just once more. This time we’ll explore three times as many, a total of 48. Again, the next group will include prophecies which will be ever more specific, highly technical, and individually even less likely that our initial eight. But, again, we’ll simplify our estimate by assuming no decrease in likelihoods among them and apply the probabilities estimated for the first group.

Now we have: 10^28 x 10^28 x 10^28 x 10^28 x 10^28 x 10^28/10^11 = 10^157

Now, this is a big number. It will, of course, really stretch our imagination to try to grasp just how big it is.

This time, silver dollars are just too big for our imaginary experiment. We will resort to the smallest thing which we might try to imagine: an individual atom. We will imagine a “ball” of atoms the size of the largest thing we can hope to conceive of—the entire universe! Scientists generally estimate that there are about 10^66 atoms in the universe, so our ball contains 10^66 atoms.

But we need to get to 10^157, so let’s imagine making such a ball, as described above, for every atom in the universe—10^66 of them!

So now we have 10^66 x 10^66 = 10^132. We’re still short.

Let’s repeat this entire procedure, once every second, since the universe began! Assuming about ten billion years for the purposes of our model, that’s still only 10^17 seconds, so we are still only to 10^149—far short of our 10^157!

We need to repeat this entire procedure 100,000,000 times to obtain the imaginary “sample size” we need! Now mark an atom, etc.

This escapade simply dramatizes how unlikely—in fact, how absurd^371— it is to attribute the fulfillment of 48 prophecies of this kind to chance. And we have only considered 48 out of 300—and made grossly cautious estimates throughout our model.

Some will say that our estimates of the probability of the fulfillment of these prophecies are too large and that the numbers should be reduced. Have the skeptic suggest his own numbers; if they are smaller than these which we have used, we can add a few more—from our inventory of 300—and we arrive at the same conclusion.

For example, even if one adopts the ridiculously low estimate of one in four for all the prophecies: one in four of having been born in Bethlehem; one in four of these children taken to Egypt to avoid slaughter (implying that Herod was astonishingly ineffective); one in four made their home in Nazareth; one in four was ultimately betrayed by a friend; one in four kings presented themselves to Jerusalem riding a donkey; one in four declined to defend themselves when indicted for a capital crime, even though innocent; one in four were crucified on a cross; one in four were then buried in a rich man’s tomb; and so on, for all 300 prophecies. You will then still be confronted with an even more remote composite probability than the one we explored from the 48 we have assumed.

In the field of physics, there is the frequent confrontation of extremely rare occurrences. It is commonly assumed that any probability smaller than 10-50 is manifestly absurd, and thus it is defined as such.

To attribute the fulfillment of the specific Messianic prophecies by Jesus Christ to the coincidental actions of unaided chance alone is, by standard scientific definition, absurd.

CONCLUSION

The fact that Jesus Christ is the fulfillment of prophecy—the intentional subject of numerous macrocodes—can be established with a certainty that is unmatched by any other fact in our possession. These macrocodes constitute definitive proof of the extraterrestrial source of the Bible, a source from outside our space-time, a proof so definite that the universe itself is not large enough to hold the evidence! Any person who rejects the supernatural origin, ministry, and destiny of Jesus Christ as the Messiah of Israel is rejecting a fact established, perhaps, more absolutely than any other fact in the world.

There still remain several thousand prophecies which ultimately deal with His return. The cosmic message presented in the Bible reveals that we—you and I—are pawns in an unseen warfare and that our individual destinies are entirely determined by our personal relationship with the Ultimate Victor in this warfare.

In the next chapter, we will examine just one passage that eclipses all others in its astonishing precision and which happens to hold the key to unlocking all of the other prophecies dealing with the period of time just ahead of us.

SUGGESTIONS FOR FURTHER READING:

Peter W. Stoner, Science Speaks, Moody Press, Chicago, Illinois, 1963.

Chuck Missler, Footprints of the Messiah, Koinonia House (not to be confused with the book, Footsteps of the Messiah, by Arnold Fruchtenbaum, one of the most comprehensive treatments of end-time prophecy.)

17

THE MOST AMAZING PASSAGE IN THE BIBLE

“Seventy sevens

are determined

upon thy people and

upon thy holy city….”

DANIEL 9:24

CHAPTER 17

Next we will explore one of the most astonishing passages in the entire Bible. It will not only demonstrate the incredible precision with which the Bible details “history in advance,” thus authenticating its origin from outside our time domain, this passage also holds the key to understanding the period emerging on the horizon just ahead of us. We are presently being thrust into the period of time about which the Bible says more than it does about any other period of time in history, including the time that Jesus walked the shore of Galilee and climbed the mountains of Judea.

Four disciples came to Jesus privately for a confidential briefing about His Second Coming. His response was so important that it is recorded in three of the four Gospels.372 In this briefing, Jesus highlighted a passage in Daniel chapter 9 as the key to end-time prophecy.373

The book of Daniel was part of the Old Testament, and, as such, was translated into Greek in 270 B.C. as part of the Septuagint translation of the Hebrew Scriptures. Although Daniel is one of the most authenticated books of the Bible, this simplifying observation will serve to establish the undeniable existence of the book long before the events it so precisely predicts.

Daniel had been deported as a teenager and then spent the next 70 years in captivity in Babylon. He was reading the prophecies of Jeremiah^374 from which he understood that the 70-year period of captivity which had been predicted was coming to an end, and so he then committed himself to prayer. During his prayer, the angel Gabriel interrupted him and gave him the most remarkable prophecy in the Bible. The last four verses of Daniel chapter 9 are this famed “70-Week Prophecy of Daniel.” It will behoove us to examine this passage very carefully.

THE 70 WEEKS

The last four verses of Daniel 9 also outline the fourfold structure of the passage:

9:24 The scope of the entire prophecy;

9:25 The 69 weeks (of years);

9:26 An interval between the 69th and 70th week

9:27 The 70th week

The key to understanding this passage is to recognize that the 70 “weeks” are not all contiguous and that verse 26 includes an explicit interval between the 69th and 70th weeks.375

VERSE 24: THE SCOPE

“Seventy weeks are determined upon thy people and upon thy holy city, to finish the transgression, and to make an end of sins, and to make reconciliation for iniquity, and to bring in everlasting righteousness, and to seal up the vision and prophecy, and to anoint the most Holy Place.”

Daniel 9:24

Seventy shabu’im (sevens, or “weeks”) speaks of weeks of years. This may seem strange to us, but the Hebrew traditions include a week of days, a week of weeks (shavout), a week of months,376 and a week of years.377 Seventy sevens of years are determined, or “reckoned” (hatak), upon Daniel’s people and the city of Jerusalem. Notice:

First, the focus of the passage is on the Jews, not the Church nor the Gentile world. Second, there are six major items which have yet to be completed:

1. to finish the transgressions;

2. to make an end of sins;

3. to make reconciliation for iniquity;

4. to bring in everlasting righteousness;

5. to seal up (close the authority of) the vision;

6. to anoint the Godesh Godashim, the Holy of Holies.

The fact that all of these have not yet been fulfilled in 2,000 years also demonstrates that the time periods are not contiguous.

360-DAY YEARS

All ancient calendars were based on a 360-day year—those of the Assyrians, Chaldeans, Egyptians, Hebrews, Persians, Greeks, Phoenicians, Chinese, Mayans, Hindus, Carthaginians, Etruscans, Teutons, etc. All of their calendars were originally based on a 360-day year; typically, twelve 30-day months.

The calendar in ancient Chaldea was based on a 360-day year, and it is from this Babylonian tradition that we have 360° in a circle, 60 minutes to an hour, 60 seconds in each minute, etc. (We will discuss this further in Chapter 20.)

In 701 B.C., all calendars seem to have been reorganized.378 Numa Pompilius, the second King of Rome, reorganized the original calendar of 360 days per year by adding five days per year. King Hezekiah, Numa’s Jewish contemporary, reorganized the Jewish calendar by adding a month in each Jewish leap year (on a cycle of seven every 19 years.379).

In any case, the Biblical calendar, from Genesis to Revelation, uses a 360-day year.380

VERSE 25: THE 69 WEEKS

“Know therefore and understand, that from the going forth of the commandment to restore and to build Jerusalem unto the Messiah the Prince shall be seven weeks, and threescore and two weeks: the street shall be built again, and the wall, even in troubled times.”

Daniel 9:25

The city of Jerusalem, at the time this was received, was in ruins, but destined to be rebuilt. Thus, Gabriel gave Daniel a mathematical prophecy:

(7 + 62) times 7 times 360 = 173,880 days

(Why the 69 weeks was separated into seven and 62 remains a point of scholastic conjecture. It has been suggested that seven weeks of years was the duration of the Temple being rebuilt.)

Between the commandment to rebuild Jerusalem until the presentation of the Meshiach Nagid 173,880 days would occur. The initiating trigger, the authority to rebuild the city of Jerusalem, was the decree of Artaxerxes Longimanus, given on March 14, 445 B.C.381 (There were several decrees concerning the rebuilding of the Temple, but only one granted the authority to rebuild the walls of the city.)

The milestone to complete the 69 weeks was the presentation of the Meshiach Nagid, the Messiah the King.382 But when was Jesus ever presented as King? On several occasions in the New Testament, when they attempted to make Jesus a King, He invariably declined, saying, “Mine hour is not yet come.”383 Then, one day, He not only permits it, He arranges it.384

THE TRIUMPHAL ENTRY

Jesus deliberately arranged to fulfill the ancient prophecy which Zechariah had recorded 500 years earlier:

“Rejoice greatly, O daughter of Zion; shout, O daughter of Jerusalem: behold, thy King cometh unto thee: he is just, and having salvation; lowly, and riding upon an ass, and upon a colt the foal of an ass.”

Zechariah 9:9

This was the only day He allowed Himself to be proclaimed as King.385 The enthusiastic disciples were declaring Jesus as the Messiah by singing Psalm 118.386 The Pharisees expressed their concern since the crowd, in their enthusiasm, was, in their view, blaspheming by thus proclaiming Jesus as the Messiah the King.

Jesus then declared:

“I tell you that, if these should hold their peace, the stones would immediately cry out.”

Luke 19:40

This occurred on the 10th of Nisan,387 or April 6, 32 A.D.388 When you convert the Hebrew text into the terms of our calendar, we discover that there were exactly 173,880 days between the decree of Artaxerxes and the presentation of the “Messiah the King” to Israel! Gabriel’s prophecy, given to Daniel five centuries before—and translated into Greek three centuries before the fact—was fulfilled to the exact Day!

(A descriptive chart of this famous prophecy is on the next page.)

This astonishing anticipation of such precise historical details is one of the most dramatic demonstrations of the extraterrestrial origin of the Biblical text. There is no other way to account for it. We are indebted to the classic work of Sir Robert Anderson, a former head of Scotland Yard, for these insights.389

NATIONAL

BLINDNESS PREDICTED

What is also shocking is that Jesus held them accountable to recognize this day. It was this national rejection that led Christ to declare a national blindness that we observe continuing even to this day

“If thou hadst known, even thou, at least in this thy day, the things which belong unto thy peace! but now they are hidden from thine eyes.”

Luke 19:42

The rise of Talmudic Judaism, with its emphasis on human commentary, has replaced the previous commitment to the original text itself, and has thus obscured and replaced the Messianic recognition that seems so obvious to the unbiased, diligent inquirer.390

Are these things “hidden” (or blinded from Israel) forever? No. Paul tells us how long:

“For I would not, brethren, that ye should be ignorant of this mystery, lest ye should be wise in your own conceits; that blindness in part is happened to Israel, until the fulness of the Gentiles be come in.”

Romans 11:25

“The fulness of the Gentiles come in?” Where? This appears to be a reference to the controversial issue of the , harpazo, the “snatching up,” or “Rapture,” of the Church.

(This is from 1 Thessalonians 4:17, where the Greek verb signifies to catch up, take by force, catch away, pluck, to seize, carry off by force, to seize on, claim for one’s self eagerly, to snatch out or away.391 In the Latin Vulgate translation, it was translated rapiemur, from rapturo, from which we derive the common label, the “Rapture” of the Church—that is, the collecting of the believers in Christ.)

This corporate, or national, “blindness” of Israel is thus predicted to endure until after the sudden and mysterious removal of Christ’s own, and an entire global scenario of strange and terrifying events will ultimately result in Israel’s awakening to the realities of their long-awaited Messiah.392 (A brief summary of various eschatological views has been included in Appendix E.)

THE DESTRUCTION

OF JERUSALEM FORETOLD

Jesus went on to predict that Jerusalem would be destroyed because the Jews did not recognize this specific day that Daniel had predicted:

“For the days shall come upon thee, that thine enemies shall cast a trench about thee, and compass thee round, and keep thee in on every side, And shall lay thee even with the ground, and thy children within thee; and they shall not leave in thee one stone upon another; [Why?]…because thou knewest not the time of thy visitation.”

Luke 19:42-44

Thirty-eight years after Jesus declared this, the Fifth, Tenth, Twelfth and Fifteenth Roman Legions, led by Titus Vespasian, laid siege upon Jerusalem which resulted in over one million men, women, and children being slaughtered.393

During the battle, a torch thrown through a window started a fire inside the Temple. The extensive gold furnishings and fixtures melted and Titus had to order every stone taken down to recover the gold. Thus, the specific words of Jesus were fulfilled in the fall of Jerusalem in A.D. 70.

Why was Jerusalem destroyed in A.D. 70? There are many answers, but the one Jesus gave is the most provocative: “…because thou knewest not the time of thy visitation.” He held them accountable to know the prophecy that Gabriel had given Daniel.

But Gabriel’s disclosure to Daniel even went further.

VERSE 26: THE INTERVAL

“And after threescore and two weeks shall Messiah be cut off, but not for himself: and the people of the prince that shall come shall destroy the city and the sanctuary; and the end thereof shall be with a flood, and unto the end of the war desolations are determined.”

Daniel 9:26

Verse 26 deals with events after the 62 weeks (therefore, also after the earlier seven, thus making it after the total of 69 weeks), and yet before the 70th week begins, which will be subsequently dealt with in verse 27. It is important to recognize that there are specific events specified between the 69th and 70th week, and, thus, not all the weeks are contiguous.

One of the events is that the Messiah shall be “cut off” (karat, execution; death penalty). It comes as a surprise to many to discover that the Old Testament predicts that the Messiah of Israel was to be executed.394

Other events that intervene between the 69th and 70th week include the destruction of both the city and the sanctuary. Indeed, just as Jesus had predicted, after the end of the 69th week, under Titus Vespasian the Roman legions destroyed the city and the sanctuary in A.D. 70.

While there are these specific events that required at least 38 years between the 69th and 70th weeks of Daniel, this interval has now lasted almost 2,000 years.395 This interval is that period of national blindness for Israel^396 which Jesus announced. It is also the period that includes the Church (used here in its mystical or spiritual sense rather than in any organizational sense), a mystery kept hidden in the Old Testament.397

(It appears that the Lord deals with Israel and the Church mutually exclusively. A chess clock, with its two interlocked but mutually exclusive representations, is an illustrative example; one clock is stopped while the other is running.)

The evidence is accumulating that this interval may be about over and the famed “70th Week” may be about to begin.

There is one remaining verse which details the final “70th Week” of this prophecy. This seven-year period is the most documented period of time in the entire Bible. Many scholars believe that the Book of Revelation, from chapters 6 through 19, is simply a detailing of this terrifying period on Earth. This will be explored in Chapter 19.

SEVENTY TIMES SEVEN?

It has been suggested that the “70 sevens” of Daniel are the fourth such period of 490 years in Israel’s history; in each case the years of servitude or domination by others is excluded.398 See Chart 17-1.

There are occasions when there seems to be a remez, a surface hint of something deeper.399 An example might lie behind Jesus’ answer to Peter:

“Then came Peter to him, and said, Lord, how oft shall my brother sin against me, and I forgive him? till seven times?

“Jesus saith unto him, I say not unto thee, Until seven times: but, Until seventy times seven.”

Matthew 18:21, 22

We generally assume that Jesus’ expression was that our forgiveness should be without limit. (“So who’s counting?”) And yet that’s not what He actually said. Is there a deeper insight hidden behind what is usually taken simply as a figure of speech? Is it possible that Jesus’ famed remark is a remez? One must come to his own conclusion.

CHRONOGRAPHIC MACROCODES

Having discovered the astonishingly specific calendarization contained in the message in the “70 sevens” of Daniel 9, it should not surprise us to discover that the Bible includes many such chronological references—in advance of the events—which further authenticate its origin from outside our space-time. Some of these are the subject of the next chapter.

SUGGESTIONS FOR FURTHER READING:

Sir Robert Anderson, The Coming Prince, Hodder & Stoughton, London, 1895. Also available in modern versions.

Chuck Missler, Expositional Commentary on Daniel, 3 Vols., Koinonia House, Coeur d’Alene, Idaho, 1994.

Chuck Missler, The Seventy Weeks of Daniel, Koinonia House, Coeur d’Alene, Idaho, 1994.

18

“The Jew’s catechism

is his calendar. ”

SAMSON RAPHAEL HIRSCH

CHAPTER 18

In contrast to microcodes, macrocodes can embrace an entire structure; they can transcend the frame of reference of the individual document segment itself. Thus they are anticipatory. They look forward in time. These codes, originating from outside our own time domain, demonstrate their unique origin by presenting the structure of future events in advance, which is one of the properties of the Biblical record that establishes its uniqueness. Nowhere is this more evident than in the use of the Jewish calendar ordained in the Bible.

Just as timing information is critical to the qualifying of military intelligence, it is no less relevant in understanding the Biblical message. Again, the integrity of the whole is astonishing.

THE APPOINTED TIMES

“And God said, Let there be lights in the firmament of the heaven to divide the day from the night; and let them be for signs, and for seasons, and for days, and years.”

Genesis 1:14

The word , HaMoyadim, here translated “seasons,” means “the appointed times.” The longer the word, the smaller its chances to be found in the text at any given interval. The word , HaMoyadim, when searched for as an ELS, an equidistant letter sequence, in the Book of Genesis, appears only once, at the interval of 70, clustering exactly where the word is spelled explicitly in the text and where the sun and moon, and thus the calendar, are established. There are only 70 specially appointed times for holy days in a year called , HaMoyadim, as defined by Leviticus 23: 52 sabbaths, seven days of Pesach (encompassing Passover, the Feast of Unleavened Bread and Feast of First Fruits), one day for Hag Ha Shavuot (Feast of Pentecost), one day for Yom Teruah (Feast of Trumpets, which is coincident with Rosh Hashanah), one day for Yom Kippur (Day of Atonement), seven days for Sukkot (Feast of Booths), and one day of Shmini Atzeret (Eighth Day of Assembly).400

52 + 7 + 1 + 1 + 1 + 7 + 1 = 70. The very interval where HaMoyadim, “the appointed times,” is encrypted in the text. Coincidence?

Statistically, the word HaMoyadim would be expected to occur only five times in the 78,064 letters of Genesis. In fact, it appears in hidden form only once in Genesis. On that sole occasion its equidistant letter interval is exactly 70, and centered within that span of that hidden appearance is precisely its only open appearance in the text.401 The odds against this occurring by chance alone have been estimated at more than 70,000,000 to one.402

THE SEVEN FEASTS OF ISRAEL

The Torah—the five books of Moses—details seven feasts during the Hebrew calendar:403 The first three feasts are celebrated in the spring, in the month of Nisan: Passover (Peshach), Feast of Unleavened Bread (Hag haMatzah), and the Feast of First Fruits. (Colloquially, these are all connotatively included in the celebration of Passover.)

Fifty days later there is the Feast of Weeks, Shavout, also known as Pentecost (“50”). It was celebrated the day following the “counting of the omer” (49 days + 1), 50 days after the Feast of First Fruits.

There are three remaining feasts in the fall, in the month of Tishri: the Feast of Trumpets (Yom Teruah), the Day of Atonement (Yom Kippur), and the Feast of Tabernacles (Succoth).

While each of these feasts has an historical commemorative role, they also each have a prophetic role. When God set their feast times, the very terms He used are suggestive: , mowed, which means “to keep an appointment,” and , mikraw, which means “rehearsal.”404 Paul emphasized this^405 and also highlighted their predictive role as “a shadow of things to come.”406 Jesus also pointed to His personal role in their fulfillment:

“Think not that I am come to destroy the law (Torah), or the prophets: I am not come to destroy, but to fulfill.”

Matthew 5:17

This is another of these instances in which

The New Testament is in the Old Testament concealed, and

The Old Testament is in the New Testament revealed.

The first three feasts are celebrated in the spring, in the month of Nisan: Passover (Peshach), Feast of Unleavened Bread (Hag HaMatzah), and the Feast of First Fruits.

PASSOVER

The celebration of Passover commemorates the deliverance of Israel from the bondage of Egypt,407 spoken of there as God’s “firstborn.”408 This deliverance had been predicted to Abraham 430 years earlier.409

The climax of the series of plagues which God sent upon the Egyptians was the death of the firstborn.410 The blood of the lamb sacrifice was put on the doorposts on that fateful eve so that the Angel of Death would “pass over” the house. (It was the blood, not their nationality, that delivered the people of the house from the terrifying judgment. Even this detail is a “macrocode” which anticipates the love letter which was written in blood on a wooden cross erected in Judea over a thousand years later.)

This “passing over” was reckoned as “between the evenings” of the 14th of Nisan on the Jewish calendar, in which each new day begins at sundown. On the Egyptian calendar, however, this was still Friday the 13th, a grim day from the Gentile point of view, which continues to cast its shadow in various superstitions even to this very day.411

The Jews were instructed to commemorate their deliverance from that day forward, and it still remains as one of the most significant observances in their national life. The details of this observance are very instructive.

The lambs to be sacrificed were to be presented for inspection on the 10th of Nisan and were to be slain “between the evenings” of the 14th. Nothing was to be left to the next day.412 And, interestingly, “not a bone was to be broken.”413

MESSIANIC FULFILLMENT

Entire books have been written on the numerous details of the various feasts which appear to have been fulfilled in the New Testament. None are more dramatic than those associated with the Feast of Passover.

When John first introduced Jesus publicly, twice he announced, “Behold the Lamb of God that taketh away the sin of the world.”414 This is a very Jewish label. Paul also describes Jesus as “our Passover.”415

As we explored in the previous chapter, Jesus presented Himself on the 10th of Nisan, the very day that the lambs were being presented for inspection at the Temple. He was deemed “without blemish,”416 and the personal representative of the ruler of the world declared, “I find no fault in him.”417

It is also interesting that, contrary to the instructions from their military commander, the soldiers exempted Him from the breaking of the bones which had been ordered to hasten the otherwise lengthy process.418 Victims of crucifixion, in some cases, have been known to take many days to expire; but in deference to the impending holidays, the process was to be completed before sundown—“between the evenings.”

The shedding of His blood was also anticipated in His last supper with the disciples in the giving of wine.419 In the traditional Passover observance, there are four cups labeled “Bringing out,” “Delivering,” “Redemption or Blessing,” and “Taking Out.” Apparently it was with the third cup that Jesus administered the communion,420 and then He said,

“But I say unto you, I will not drink henceforth of this fruit of the vine, until that day when I drink it new with you in my Father’s kingdom.”

Matthew 26:28

This supper is regarded by some scholars as yet to be completed upon His return. It is interesting that the fourth cup is called the “Taking Out.”

In present-day Judaism, the Passover wine is mixed with warm water.421 Why?

“But when they came to Jesus, and saw that he was dead already, they brake not his legs: But one of the soldiers with a spear pierced his side, and forthwith came there out blood and water.

John 19:33, 34

It is also interesting that even the language of the Lord in the Torah hints that this was (to be) done “unto me”:

“And thou shalt shew thy son in that day, saying, This is done because of that which the LORD did unto me when I came forth out of Egypt.”

Exodus 13:8

There are literally hundreds of anticipatory details coded into the Old Testament in anticipation of the climactic event of the crucifixion. Perhaps few are as graphic as the bronze serpent that Moses erected during the wilderness wanderings. As a remedy for a plague of serpents that threatened Israel, God told Moses to raise a bronze serpent on a pole, and anyone who looked at it would be healed of the venomous bites of the serpents.422 This would seem to be a rather strange approach for a remedy. Why was this peculiar procedure ordained?

Jesus explained it to Nicodemus, predicting His own death:

“And as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, even so must the Son of man be lifted up: That whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have eternal life. For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life.”

John 3:14-16

The adoption of a brazen serpent is certainly a strange emblem, indeed. The use of brass or bronze always suggests judgment, as it was the metal associated with fire.423 The serpent was, of course, a symbol of the curse of sin.424 It comes as a shock to most of us to realize that Jesus, although without blemish, “was made sin for us.”425

FEAST OF UNLEAVENED BREAD

Closely associated with Passover—and commonly regarded as part of the same observance—was Hag haMatzah, the Feast of Unleavened Bread.426 It was one of three of the feasts distinguished by the compulsory attendance by every able-bodied male Jew.427

In order to understand the Levitical practices, it is important to recognize that leaven was symbolic of sin. It seems to be an unusually apt metaphor since it “corrupts by puffing up,” and the source of all sin is pride.428 This symbol (or code) is consistently used in the Old Testament^429 and in the New.430

Part of the Passover observance, even today, is the Bedikat hametz: the ritual search for leaven in the home. A small amount is usually “hidden” for the children to discover as part of the family observance.431

It is interesting that the Matzah, the unleavened bread used in the Passover observance, has stripes and is pierced.432 There are three, and the middle one is broken, wrapped in a cloth and hidden. Isn’t that suggestive?

Then were there two thieves crucified with him, one on the right hand, and another on the left.

Matthew 27:38

And when Joseph had taken the body, he wrapped it in a clean linen cloth, and laid it in his own new tomb, which he had hewn out in the rock: and he rolled a great stone to the door of the sepulchre, and departed.

Matthew 27:59, 60

These “codes,” or metaphors, such as the “unleavened bread,” are intriguingly consistently applied throughout the Scriptures. Jesus also declared, “I Am the Bread of Life.”433 This can also be linked to the provision of the manna during Israel’s wanderings in the wilderness^434 and other relevant incidents.

The bread and wine together, as anticipatory “codes,” are also seen when Melchizedek, as priest of the Most High God, received tithes from Abraham and then administered bread and wine.435 When Joseph was cast into prison, he encountered these same elements when confronted with the dreams of the baker and the wine steward.436 It is interesting that “three days” are also part of the mystical imagery and that the bread baker was “broken” while the wine led to Joseph being ultimately redeemed.

The more one carefully examines the Old Testament narratives and declarations, the more evident is the skillful and deliberate inclusion of “macrocodes” detailing events—and their significance—in the distant future. These evidences are both irrefutable authentication of their extraterrestrial origin and are inexhaustible in their import.

FEAST OF FIRST FRUITS

The Feast of First Fruits is generally regarded as simply a harvest celebration, but it contains some startling hidden surprises. It was, indeed, to celebrate a harvest, but it also looks forward to a harvest of a very different kind.

This unique observance was to occur “on the morning after the Sabbath” after Passover.437 This would always be a Sunday morning. There was a particular Sunday morning that, while the smoke was curling heavenward from the Temple offerings of the Feast of First Fruits, a group of disciples was discovering an empty tomb. Jesus is presented in the New Testament as the ultimate “first fruit.”438

THE NEW BEGINNINGS

There is another very provocative “macrocode” that rewards the diligent inquirer. When did the Flood of Noah end?

When God sent the judgment of the Great Flood, He chose to save nine people for the new beginning after the Flood: Enoch was removed in advance. Noah, his three sons, and their four wives were preserved by means of the famed ark. In Genesis chapters 6 and 7 we have the detailed narrative of the Flood, but then we come to the end of the Flood and the beginning of the new era in chapter 8:

“And the ark rested in the seventh month, on the seventeenth day of the month, upon the mountains of Ararat.”

Genesis 8:4

If you are a normal, well-adjusted, reader, when you encounter this verse you simply read on. But if you have been to one of my Bible studies, you are no longer a normal, well-adjusted reader! You will recall my emphasizing that the entire Bible—the 66 books, penned by over 40 authors over thousands of years—constitutes an integrated message system, and there is nothing trivial in it. Every detail is there by deliberate design. So you might ask yourself, why did the Author want you to know that the ark came to rest on the 17th day of the seventh month?

THE TWO CALENDARS OF ISRAEL

The Jewish “New Year”—Rosh Hashanah, the “head of the year”—is celebrated in the fall, on the first of Tishri. However, when God established the Passover, He also instructed Moses to make Nisan, in the spring, “the beginning of months.”

“This month shall be unto you the beginning of months: it shall be the first month of the year to you.”

Exodus 12:2

Thus, the Jews have two calendars: their traditional civil calendar starting in the fall, in their month of Tishri, and their religious calendar beginning in the spring, in the month of Nisan. In Genesis we are still using the traditional Jewish calendar which begins in the month of Tishri. It isn’t until the Book of Exodus that we have the “new” religious calendar instituted.439 What is the “seventh” month?

MONTHS

OLD

NEW

Tishri, (Ethanim)

1

7

Cheshvan, (Bul)

2

8

Chisleu

3

9

Tevet

4

10

Sh’vat

5

11

Adar

6

12

Nisan, (Aviv)

7

1

Ilyar (Zif)

8

2

Sivan

9

3

Tammuz

10

4

Av

11

5

Elul

12

6

So the “seventh month” of Genesis, the month of Nisan, becomes the “beginning of months” in Exodus. Christ was crucified on Passover, specified to occur on the 14th of Nisan, becoming “our Passover.”

How long was Jesus in the grave? Three days.440 14 + 3 = 17. The day of His resurrection was, thus, the 17th day of the “seventh” month. Thus, God arranged for His “new beginning” of Planet Earth in the days of Noah to occur on the “anniversary”—in advance—of our “new beginning” in Christ!

As the rabbis are fond of pointing out, “coincidence is not a kosher word.” There are no accidents or coincidences in God’s kingdom. As we will discuss in Chapter 23, the experts have recently discovered that the mathematical concepts of both randomness and infinity appear to have no actuality in our physical universe.

The Feast of First Fruits is also associated with Israel’s beginning, the crossing of the Red Sea on the 17th of Nisan (three days into the desert). In their flight after Passover, Israel retrieved the body of Joseph from his tomb.441 Three days after this later Passover, Jesus was retrieved from another Joseph’s tomb on this very anniversary. Interesting “coincidence.”

Prophetically, the first three feasts, occurring in the first month, appear to speak of Christ’s first coming. Now let’s examine the final three feasts in the fall which are widely associated with Christ’s Second Coming.

FEAST OF TRUMPETS

The first of Tishri is the Jewish New Year, Rosh Hashanah (“Head of the Year.” But, it is also Yom Teruah, or the Feast of Trumpets.442 (In the Torah, it was a one-day celebration; in about 500 B.C. a second day was added.)

As the label suggests, this celebration involved the blowing of trumpets. It wasn’t the usual silver Temple trumpets; it was the Shofar, or ram’s horn.443 This is related to the Akedah, Abraham’s offering of Isaac.444 The celebration involves a series of trumpet blasts, completed with “the great blowing,” Teki’ah Gedolah, as the climax. This was not the short blasts of “alarm,” but the long blast signaling “victory.”

Traditionally, some hold that the left horn of Abraham’s ram was identified with the “first trump,” the right horn with the “last trump.” There are some who suggest a possible allusion in Paul’s mention of the “last trump” heralding the Second Coming of Christ.445 We happen not to hold this view.

(Some identify the “last trump” with the seventh of the series of Trumpet Judgments in Revelation.446 However, we don’t happen to hold this view, either. The seventh trumpet judgment is not the last trumpet to be sounded; they will also blow trumpets throughout the Millennium which follows. The event in 1 Corinthians 15:51, 52 is the same one that Paul details in 1 Thessalonians 4:13-18, which specifies the Trump of God, a phrase which occurs in only two passages in the Bible—here and in Exodus 19. This suggests a quite different possibility which will be highlighted when we discuss the Feast of Weeks.)

Following the Feast of Trumpets are the Yomim Noraim, the (seven) Days of Affliction, to prepare for Yom Kippur which follows. Some also attempt to identify this period with a prophetic period known as “the time of Jacob’s trouble,”447 which Jesus also labeled “the Great Tribulation,”448 as prelude to Israel’s national repentance.449

YOM KIPPUR

Yom Kippur, the Day of Atonement,450 is observed on the 10th of Tishri. This day was a national day of repentance, with sin offerings and numerous other rituals as it was the most solemn of all the observances.

This was the day—the only day—that the High Priest was able to enter the Holy of Holies,451 and then only after elaborate ceremonial washings, offerings, and associated rituals.

This was also the day that two goats were selected, one for an offering, and one as the “scapegoat.”452 (The lottery box, used to select which goat was to serve in which capacity, has been fashioned for service in the forthcoming Temple, and may be seen today during a visit to the Temple Institute in Jerusalem.)

As many aspects of the feasts were prophetic, the scapegoat is also Messianic.453

Since the loss of the Temple in A.D. 70, the God-centered observances of the Torah have tragically been replaced with a man-centered, good works system of appeasement through prayer, charity, and penitence. However, it appears that a return to the traditional ways is on the horizon with the plans to rebuild the Temple in Jerusalem.454

SUCCOTH (THE FEAST

OF TABERNACLES)

Five days after Yom Kippur, on the 15th of Tishri, is the final Torah feast of the religious year: Succoth, the Feast of Booths, or the Feast of Tabernacles. This lasts for eight days and is one of the three feasts that were compulsory for all Jewish males.455

It is fascinating to visit Israel at this time and observe them build their temporary “booths” in the traditional way, leaving deliberate gaps in the branches to view the stars at night and for the wind to blow through during the day. This is intended to remind them of the wilderness wanderings.

This feast also involved a daily processional to the Pool of Siloam to fetch water for the Temple. This ceremonial procession is the setting for the events of John 7, where Jesus alternatively offers them “living water.”456

This procession involved four types of branches: the willow, the myrtle, the palm, and a citrus.457 The willow has no smell and no fruit. The myrtle has smell, but no fruit. The palm has no smell, but bears fruit. The citrus has both smell and bears fruit. (This sounds somewhat reminiscent of the four soils of the first “kingdom parable” of Matthew 13, doesn’t it?458) Also, at the transfiguration, there seemed to be a hint by Peter in his suggestion to build three “succoths.”459

After the end of the eight days, they leave their temporary dwellings to return to their permanent homes. Prophetically, this is usually associated with the Millennium, the establishment of the Kingdom.460

This day, traditionally, is also the day on which Solomon dedicated the first Temple.

SHAVOUT, THE FEAST OF WEEKS

The first three feasts occur in the first month and were also prophetic of the Christ’s first advent. The final three feasts occur in the seventh month and appear to be prophetic of Christ’s Second Coming. Between these two groups of feasts is Hag HaShavuot, the Feast of Weeks, also called, Hag HaKazir, the Feast of Harvest (“the first Harvest”).

This feast was to be observed on a strange formula:

“And ye shall count unto you from the morrow after the sabbath, from the day that ye brought the sheaf of the wave offering; seven sabbaths shall be complete: Even unto the morrow after the seventh sabbath shall ye number fifty days; and ye shall offer a new meat offering unto the LORD.”

Leviticus 23:15-22

In other words, they were to begin counting on the day of the Feast of First Fruits (“the morrow after the Sabbath,” always a Sunday!), seven weeks (49 days) plus one, and thus celebrate this unusual feast also on a Sunday. Counting these 49 days is also called “Counting the Omer.” (This “50-day” formula also gives this celebration its alternate label, “the Feast of Pentecost.”) It was also one of three which were obligatory for all males (Deuteronomy 16:16).

It is interesting to notice the intervals of 49 (7^2) in the Torah codes.

Historically, this feast is viewed as commemorating the birth of the nation and the giving of the Torah at Mount Sinai.

(It is worth noting that recent discoveries seem to indicate that the actual Mount Sinai has been discovered in Arabia, at what is currently known as Jabal al Lawz. The details and various confirmations are startling and likely to perturb the traditions that would place this in the “Sinai Peninsula.”461)

This is also reckoned by the rabbis as follows. The Passover in Egypt was on the 14th of Nisan, the crossing of the Red Sea three days later on the 17th. They are viewed as arriving at Mount Sinai on the third day of the third month,462 ostensibly on the third of Sivan, 46 days later. Moses is told to prepare for the “third day.”463 (This brings us to the traditional sixth of Sivan but actually ignores the “morrow after the Sabbath” reckoning specified in the Torah . This date is also traditionally reckoned as the date of the death of David.)

The observance of this feast is unique in that it includes two loaves of leavened bread—the only use of leavened bread in the Levitical specifications. This would seem to hint of a Gentile application, in contrast to the unleavened bread emphasized in the Passover. Two lambs were to be offered (Jew + Gentile?).

There is a widespread recognition that the Feast of Weeks (or Feast of Pentecost) is prophetic of the mystery of the Church. And, indeed, the Church was “born” on this feast, the Feast of Pentecost.464

It is significant that each event that seems to be “coded” by the calendar and ordinances involved in each feast was actually fulfilled on the very day that the feast is observed: the Crucifixion on Passover, the Feast of First Fruits on the following Sunday, etc. Therefore, the birth of the Church in Acts 2 is extremely provocative. However, it may be myopic to assume that this feast has been completely fulfilled in the birth of the Church alone.

RAPTURE PROPHECY?

The sudden “gathering out” of the Church (harpazo in the Greek, “rapture” from the Latin) may be also hidden behind this Feast.

The first three feasts, in the first month, appear predictive of the first “coming” of Jesus Christ. The last three feasts, in the seventh month, are viewed as predictive of the Second Coming. And there are many who look to the Feast of Trumpets or the Feast of Tabernacles as predictive of the “Rapture” of the Church. These views, however, fail to discriminate between the “Rapture” of the Church and the Second Coming. (Some background on the associated eschatological controversies is summarized in Appendix E.)

Furthermore, there would seem to be an intrinsic contradiction in attempting to apply the Jewish feasts to the Church. As we noted in the previous chapter, there is a clear distinction between Israel and the Church—a distinction that unfortunately has been blurred in views that fail to recognize the unconditional nature of God’s commitments to Israel. Paul, in his definitive statement of Christian doctrine which we call the Epistle to the Romans, spends three chapters emphasizing that God is not through with Israel.465 In his Epistle to the Ephesians he also reveals that the mystery of the Church was hidden from the Old Testament.466 (This also is indicated in the parables of the Matthew 13.467)

From our perspectives from the previous chapter, it appears that the Church period occurs in a gap—or interval—in the very Jewish timeline of the Old Testament. In fact, these “gaps” occur 24 times in the Scripture (an observation that will be dealt with in the next chapter.) A provocative possibility is that the Feast of Weeks may be predictive of both the birth and the removal of the Church in God’s program.

There is also an interesting tradition which surrounds the fascinating character, Enoch.

ENOCH AS A MODEL?

Enoch is one of the most interesting characters in the misty early chapters of the Bible. The first prophecy uttered by a prophet was a prophecy of the Second Coming of Jesus Christ, and it was proclaimed before the Flood of Noah!468 (The unique prophecy of the Flood was also embodied in the naming of his son, Methuselah, as was explored in Chapter 5.) He is also distinctive in that he did not suffer death; he was “translated” (“raptured”?).469

Three groups of people were facing the Flood: those that perished in the Flood; those that were preserved through the Flood; and those removed before the Flood, namely Enoch. There are some who view Enoch as a foreshadowing of the Church being removed prior to the global ordeal known as the Great Tribulation.

It is interesting that there is a tradition—apparently born from Kabbalistic grounds—that Enoch was born on the day that was later celebrated as the Feast of Weeks. What makes this even more interesting is the associated tradition that he was translated (“raptured”) on his birthday.

Is it possible that this is all a foreshadowing of the gathering of the Church? It may be argued that Enoch was only one person, but so is the Church; it is signified by “the Body of Christ.”470 There would seem to be a logical consistency if the same feast that “stopped” the Jewish clock was the same event that “resumes” it.

Critical to the observance of all of the feasts was the identification of the New Moon.

THE MYSTERY OF THE NEW MOON

The calculations involving the duration of the synodical months (the time between two successive conjunctions of sun and moon as seen from Earth) is a form of the elusive three-body problem, one of the most difficult in mathematics. Even with computers, it can only be solved by successive approximations.

In Chapter 10 we mentioned that the famed Weissmandl was inspired by Rabbi Bachya’s commentary. The specific reference involved regarded the dating of the new moon. The encoding that Bachya had written about seems disarmingly simple on the surface but had astounding implications as an application of “equidistant letter sequences.” Bachya’s code was composed of four letters, (B), (H), (R), (D), spaced 42 letters apart, beginning with the opening passage of Genesis:

“In the beginning God created the Heaven and the earth….”

Ancient tradition maintained that, in addition to the creation in overview, properly decoded, this passage would reveal critical astronomical events and cycles. Bachya’s four letters were taken as a number from which one could calculate the length of the lunar month which is critical to the Biblical feasts and rites practiced to this day.471

Up until the fourth century, this system had been kept secret. It had been used in the past only to check the observations and testimonies of witnesses and to determine the beginnings of the spring season. However, when oppression and persecution threatened the continued existence of the Sanhedrin, Hillel II took an extraordinary step to preserve the unity of Israel and to enable a scattered Jewry to celebrate their new moons, festivals and holidays. He made public the system of calendar calculation.472

The length of the lunar month consistent with this encryption differs from all the astronomy-based calculations of other ancient cultures, summarized in figure 18-1:

DURATION OF SYNODICAL MONTHS^473

fifth century B.C., Greece

29d12h42m45.22s   29.52969 days

fourth century B.C., Babylon

29d12h44m05.05s   29.53061

second century B.C., Greece

29d12h43m56.06s   29.53051

fourth century A.D.

(Jewish system revealed)

12th century A.D., Rambam

29d12h44m02.69s   29.53059

16th century A.D.,Copernicus

29d12h44m03.17s   29.53059

1996, Satellite

29.530588

What is notable is that although this length of the lunar cycle differs slightly from other ancient calculations, yet it is identical to modern scientific estimates, to values obtainable only by satellite, within two parts in one million! Could this procedure, taken from ancient equidistant letter sequence encoding, be coincidental? If this was a contrived insertion, what was their source of the information?

THE SABBATICAL YEARS

The Jewish calendar has not only weeks of days, with the seventh day ordained as the Sabbath, but this calendar also has a week of weeks (ordained in Shavout) and a week of months (from Nisan to Tishri for their “Appointed Times”), and it also has a week of years, called Shmitta. They were to till the ground for only six years and leave the seventh as a year of rest for the land.474 It was the failure of Israel to observe the Sabbath of the land that specifically led to their 70 years of captivity in Babylon.475

THE JUBILEE YEAR

After seven “weeks of years”—49 years—the following year was also ordained as the Jubilee Year, in which all debts were forgiven, all slaves went free, and the land returned to its original owners.476

(Since the land of Israel belonged to the Lord, and they were only tenants subject to obedience, when they “sold” property it wasn’t in fee simple as we are used to. It was actually a lease for its use, subject to redemption under certain conditions. This is essential to understand to follow the events of the Book of Ruth, a form of macrocode to unravel Revelation chapter 5 and following. This will be explored in the next chapter.)

The Jubilee Year was the “time of the restitution of all things.” This is also the phrase that Peter used regarding the Second Coming of Christ.477 There are many speculations regarding the possible implications of the forthcoming “70th Jubilee,” but they are encumbered by the absence of any sound basis of reckoning since there is no reliable record of the historical keeping of the Jubilee years and their subsequent correlation to our contemporary calendars. There are rabbinical controversies as to their precise interval (49 or 50) and their reinitiation since the Diaspora, etc. We will simply have to wait and see.

It is provocative that the Jubilee did not begin at the first of Tishri, as one might expect, but on Yom Kippur, ten days later.478 The ultimate Jubilee will follow their national repentance.479

THE FEAST OF HANUKKAH

It is interesting that in addition to the Torah feasts, there are other observances on the Jewish calendar: Purim, commemorating the events of the Book of Esther, and Hanukkah, celebrated about the time of the Gentile Christmas season.

In John chapter 10, after the famous “Good Shepherd” discourse, we find a peculiar insertion:

“And it was at Jerusalem the feast of the dedication, and it was winter.”

John 10:22

When was “the Feast of Dedication?” There were only two Temples—Solomon’s and the second one built in the days of Nehemiah, subsequently expanded by Herod and standing at the time of Jesus’ ministry. Solomon’s temple was dedicated in the fall;480 Nehemiah’s was dedicated in the spring.481 This passage adds the detail that “it was winter.” What does this refer to?

It may come as a surprise to Gentile Bible students to discover that this is an allusion to Hanukkah in the New Testament. Hanukkah is a post-exile feast celebrating the rededication of the Temple after its desecration by Antiochus Epiphanes. Antiochus IV, in his obsession to oppress the Jews, made the reading of the Torah a capital crime, slaughtered pigs on the sacred altar, and, finally, erected a pagan idol in the Holy of Holies. This event has a technical label—the Abomination of Desolation.

In the Bible, the term “abomination” always alludes to a form of idolatry or idol worship. Any worship other than the worship of the Living God is, to Him, an abomination. The ultimate instance of such an offense is to worship an idol on the most sacred spot on the earth— in the most sacred spot in the Temple itself, the Holy of Holies. This was the “Abomination of Desolation.” This has occurred only once before, when Antiochus IV (“Epiphanes”) erected the idol in the Holy of Holies in 167 B.C.482

This so incensed the Jews that it led to the Macabbean revolt which successfully threw off the yoke of the Seleucid Empire and ushered in the period of history known as the Hasmoneans. Three years after the infamous desecration by Antiochus IV, the Temple was rededicated, which is commemorated to this day in the celebration of Hanukkah.

Our operative premise is that every detail in the Bible—every place name, every number, every subtlety—is there by design. Then why did the Ultimate Author include this strange reference in the New Testament?

This surprising reference seems to have been included to decipher a technical milestone—the Abomination of Desolation—that Jesus Himself indicated was essential to understanding end-time prophecy.483 When Jesus gave the four disciples His confidential briefing on His Return, He pointed to a repeat of this critical milestone, which had occurred two centuries earlier, as the key to trigger an unprecedented time of persecution known as the “Great Tribulation.” This is the last half of a seven-year period known as the “70th Week” of Daniel, which we explored in the previous chapter.

For there to be a repeat of the desecration enacted by Antiochus, there must be a Temple standing. This is why there is so much significance to the current plans to rebuild the Temple in Jerusalem. While the political turmoil continues over the issue of Jerusalem, we know that the Temple will be rebuilt. Jesus, Paul, and John all make reference to it as a prerequisite condition precedent to the Second Coming.484 The present plans anticipating the rebuilding of the Temple would appear to be preparing for this final climax.

“Yea, the stork in the heaven knoweth her appointed times; and the turtle and the crane and the swallow observe the time of their coming; but my people know not the judgment of the Lord.

“How do ye say, We are wise, and the law of the Lord is with us? Lo, certainly in vain made he it; the pen of the scribes is in vain.”

Jeremiah 8:7, 8

“So teach us to number our days, that we may apply our hearts to wisdom.”

Psalm 90:12

The ultimate decoding challenge in the Bible is, of course, the Book of Revelation. This is the subject of the next chapter.

SUGGESTIONS FOR FURTHER READING:

Missler, Chuck, The Feasts of Israel, Koinonia House, Coeur d’Alene, Idaho, 1993.

Booker, Richard, Jesus in the Feasts of Israel, Destiny Image Pub., Shippensburg, Pennsylvania, 1987.

Buksbazen, Victor, The Feasts of Israel, Christian Literature Crusade, Fort Washington, Pennsylvania, 1954.

Chill, Abraham, The Minhagim, Sepher-Hermon Press, New York, 1979.

Edersheim, Alfred, The Temple, Its Ministry and Services, Wm. Eerdmans Publishing Co., Grand Rapids, Michigan, 1958.

Fuchs, Daniel, Israel’s Holy Days, Loizeaux Bros., Neptune, New Jersey, 1985.

Glaser, Mitch & Zhava, The Fall Feasts of Israel, Moody Press, Chicago, Illinois, 1987.

Good, Joseph, Rosh HaShanah and the Messianic Kingdom to Come, Hatikva, Port Arthur, Texas, 1989.

Hertz, Dr. J. H., Pentateuch & Haftorahs, Soncino Press, London, 1989.

Kaplan, Rabbi Aryeh, The Living Torah, Maznaim Publishing Corp., Jerusalem, 1981.

Rosen, Ceil & Moishe, Christ in the Passover, Moody Press, Chicago, 1978.

19

“The Revelation of Jesus Christ,

which God gave unto Him,

to shew unto his servants things

which must shortly come to pass;

and He sent and signified it by his angel

unto his servant John.”

REVELATION 1:1

CHAPTER 19

The ultimate challenge in the Bible is the last book, the Book of Revelation: the Apocalypse (Greek for the “Unveiling”). Notice that it is “The Revelation” singular, not plural. It is the “unveiling” of Jesus Christ.

Revelation is the only book of the Bible that promises a special blessing to those who read it. All through the Bible there are many admonitions to read the Bible, but only this one book has the chutzpah (“audacity”) to say, “Read me, I’m special.” Yet it is strangely the most neglected, which is ironic since it is not a sealed book as portions of the Old Testament were.485

Very few pay enough attention to the very first sentence. Notice to whom God gave it: “unto him.” That is, unto Jesus Christ! And it was Jesus who then “signified it” (rendered it into signs or codes) and sent it by His (aggelos, messenger) unto His servant John.

“Signified,” (, semaino), “to render into signs, codes, or signals,” is from sema, from which we get the term “sememe,” or the basic unit of meaning in communication theory. Each of the signs, or codes, links to other amplifying passages. Deciphering each of the codes in this book will require one to look into every other book of the Bible. There are 404 verses in Revelation, yet they include over 800 allusions from the rest of the Bible! (These have been listed in Appendix C.)

This leads to one of the principal blessings of this book. It seems so foreign to our understanding because we haven’t established adequate familiarity with the Old Testament. The Book of Revelation assumes an intimacy with the rest of Scripture.

I remember so vividly—although it was over 50 years ago— attending a lecture in which the speaker pointed out that the Book of Revelation is in code but that every code is explained somewhere else within the Bible itself. I became so fascinated with that discovery which not only opened the book to my understanding but also dramatized the fact that the entire collection of 66 books we call the Bible is actually an integrated, deliberate, detailed design—even though the books were penned by over 40 guys over a period of almost 2,000 years. It became the obsession of my life—my primary hobby during my “executive” career and my full-time commitment during the past few years. I have been adventure-driven for most of my life, but the astonishing discoveries of the Scriptures and their personal implications are the ultimate adventure, indeed!

THE HEPTADIC STRUCTURE

In even a superficial reading of the book, one cannot avoid being struck with the frequent use of sevens throughout the book. In chapter 1 we have seven churches, seven lampstands, seven spirits before His throne, seven “title-pairs,” etc.

Each of the seven letters in chapters 2 and 3 is organized on a seven-fold structure, with seven titles, seven commendations, seven administrations, seven promises to the overcomer, etc.

The remainder of the book continues with seven seals, seven trumpets, seven angels, seven bowls, seven thunders, seven personages,486 the seven new things, seven beatitudes,487 seven songs, etc. There are literally dozens more subtly hidden within the text. (These have been included in the list in Appendix D.)

EVIDENCES OF STRATEGIC DESIGN

Everything which was begun in Genesis has its completion or resolution in Revelation.

In Genesis, Earth is created;488 in Revelation, Earth passes away.489 In Genesis, we see the sun governs the day;490 in Revelation there is no need of the sun.491 In Genesis, the darkness is called night;492 in Revelation, there is no night there.493 In Genesis, the waters He called seas;494 in Revelation, there is no more sea.495

In Genesis, we see man in God’s image;496 in Revelation, we see man headed by Satan’s image.497 In Genesis, we see the entrance of sin;498 in Revelation, we see the end of sin. In Genesis, we see the curse pronounced;499 in Revelation there is no more curse.500 In Genesis, death enters;501 in Revelation, there is no more death.502 In Genesis, man is driven out of Eden;503 in Revelation, man is restored.504 In Genesis, the Tree of Life is guarded;505 in Revelation, man is given the right to the Tree of Life.506 In Genesis, sorrow and suffering enter;507 in Revelation, there is no more sorrow.508 In Genesis, Babylon is founded;509 in Revelation, Babylon falls.510 In Genesis, we see man’s dominion cease and Satan’s begun;511 in Revelation we see Satan’s domain ended and man’s restored through the Ultimate Man.512

In Genesis, we see a bride for Abraham’s son;513 in Revelation, we see a bride for Abraham’s seed.514 In Genesis we have the marriage of the first Adam;515 in Revelation we have the marriage of the Last Adam.516

THE BASIC STRUCTURE

The Book of Revelation also provides its own outline of its overall organization:

“Write the things which thou hast seen,

and the things which are,

and the things which shall be hereafter.”

Revelation 1:19

The “things which thou hast seen” is the vision of chapter 1. This view of the risen Lord includes identity codes which are then used throughout the remainder of the book.

The “things which are,” are the letters to the seven churches of chapters 2 and 3. These were actual churches in existence at that time, but they also comprise a macrocode embracing all of church history.

The “things which shall be hereafter (meta tauta)” occupy the rest of the book, chapters 4 through 22. The partitioning term meta tauta, “after these things,” opens chapter 4. John is then caught up into the Throne Room of the Universe, and in chapter 5, observes the closing of the most profound escrow of all history: the unsealing of the Title Deed to the Earth.

THE SEVEN LETTERS TO SEVEN CHURCHES

Chapters 2 and 3 are seven letters by Jesus Christ Himself to seven select churches: Ephesus, Smyrna, Pergamos, Thyatira, Sardis, Philadelphia, and Laodicea. Why these seven churches? These letters were written 63 years after Pentecost. By then there were over 100 churches to choose from, including Rome, Jerusalem, Antioch, Colosse, Philippi, Galatia, Iconium, Lystra, Derbe, Miletus, Hierapolis, Troas, et al. It turns out that these particular seven letters encompass the entire church history in both prophetic as well as spiritual terms.

Each letter is a “report card” crafted around seven elements:

1. The name of the church (which turns out to be significant);

2. A title of Jesus, specifically selected to fit the theme of the letter;

3. A commendation: the good news;

4. A criticism: the bad news;

5. An exhortation for correction;

6. A parenthetical control phrase: “He that hath an ear, let him hear what the Spirit saith unto the churches;” and

7. A special promise to the overcomer.

These seven letters turn out to have at least four levels of meaning:

1. Local: These were actual churches with valid needs at the time. Thanks to the archaeological efforts of Sir William Ramsey and others, discoveries have unearthed a great deal of background on each of them.

2. Admonitory: “Hear what the Spirit saith to the churches [plural].” Each letter is crafted around a particular spiritual need which characterized that specific church. All churches can be profiled comprehensively from this seven-fold paradigm. Each of these seven letters can be fruitfully taken to heart in every church.

3. Homiletic (at the personal level): “He that hath an ear.…” That’s each of us. We each can take good advantage by applying the letter to our own spiritual deficiencies.

4. Prophetic: These seven letters profile all of church history in advance! (If they were in any other order, they wouldn’t.) The Book of Acts chronicles the first 30 years of early church history; these seven letters profile the next 2,000. It is interesting that each church was apparently surprised by the assessment that the Lord provided. The Lord saw them very differently than they saw themselves. That should give us all cause for reflection.

To develop the themes of each letter properly would involve more analysis than is appropriate in this cursory survey.517 Each letter draws on background from both the Old and New Testament texts and is a substantial study in itself. Furthermore, there are some surprising parallels between this seven-fold paradigm and the seven kingdom parables of Matthew 13, as well as the seven churches to which Paul wrote. To attempt to summarize each letter without developing the relevant background would prove superficial, inherently deficient and misleading. The reader is encouraged to undertake a specific study with any of the more competent resources available.518

THE BOOK OF RUTH AS A MACROCODE

One cannot really comprehend what is going on in Revelation chapter 5 unless one understands the events involved in the Book of Ruth in the Old Testament. This tiny four-chapter romance has been venerated in college classes for its elegance as literature, but it also reveals a craftsmanship of prophetic anticipation unrivaled anywhere in Scripture.

The story involves a hero, Boaz, who is in the role of a goel, or Kinsman-redeemer, whose ultimate commitment of redemption returns the land in Bethlehem to its disenfranchised former owner, Naomi, and who also takes a Gentile bride, Ruth. To follow the plot, one must understand the Law of Redemption. Remember that in ancient Israel, land wasn’t sold in fee simple,519 as we are used to. As we pointed out in the previous chapter, since God was the landowner, Israel was simply a tenant under conditions of obedience. When land was “sold,” what the buyer received was only the use of the land, not clear title. There were conditions under which a kinsman of the seller could “redeem” the land for the original family. These conditions were typically noted on the outside of the scroll defining the transaction.520

The scroll in Revelation chapter 5 was written “within and on the backside.” The Kinsman of Adam, in His role as Redeemer, is taking possession of what He had already purchased with His blood as the sacrificial Lamb. He not only purchased the land; He also purchased a Bride.

In the Book of Ruth, Naomi is in the role of Israel, exiled from her land; Boaz is her kinsman who performs the redemption; and Ruth (a Gentile) is also purchased for a wife.521 This “macrocode” extends to virtually every detail of the book. It is interesting that Ruth is introduced to Boaz through an unnamed servant (as we highlighted in chapter 14). The Gentile bride is introduced to the ultimate kinsman-redeemer by the Holy Spirit here, too.

It is interesting that Ruth learns how to deal with this situation from Naomi. We learn God’s plan of redemption through His dealings with Israel. It is also provocative that, in the story, Naomi learns of Boaz through Ruth. (The implications of that subtlety is left to the diligent.)

The exposition of the almost inexhaustible “coding” aspects of this tiny book exceeds the space available here.522 It is also interesting that this pivotal book is also associated with the Feast of Shavout, the Feast of Pentecost. Coincidence? Hardly.

Chapters 6 through 18 of the Book of Revelation detail the strange and climactic events which precede the establishment of Christ’s kingdom upon Earth. These are simply an expansion of the final seven-year period also known as the 70th week of the prophecy Gabriel delivered to Daniel.523

JOSHUA AS A MACROCODE

The Book of Joshua in the Old Testament also appears to be an anticipatory structural model of the Book of Revelation. The very name is Yehoshua, a variant of the Hebrew name Yeshua which has been Anglicized from the Greek to get “Jesus.” Joshua was the military leader leading God’s people to possess the land that God had given them, dispossessing the usurpers. The Book of Revelation casts Jesus Christ in the identical role: dispossessing the usurpers from Planet Earth.

When God told Abraham that his descendants would inherit the land,524 Satan had 400 years to lay down a minefield. The Rephaim and other tribes (“giants”) planted in Canaan were post-Flood Nephilim that again were his attempt to thwart the plan of God.525 Joshua was the military warrior who led a seven-year campaign to deal with the seven (of an original ten) nations.

The Amorites were the largest of the seven tribes, and the first battle was against the capital of the Amorites, Jericho.526 But who really was the leader at the battle of Jericho? With all due deference to the famed song, it wasn’t Joshua that “fought the battle of Jericho.” Joshua yielded to a warrior-leader that was the “Captain of the Lord’s Host.”527 This was not an ordinary angel; angels do not allow themselves to be worshiped. This one not only commands worship, he used the very words that Joshua would recognize from his previous encounter at Mount Sinai 40 years earlier.528 It was an Old Testament appearance of Jesus.529

Before the attack on Jericho, Joshua sends in two “spies.” Why? Some assume that two were sent because 40 years earlier, when Moses sent in 12, only two were fruitful! Ten were intimidated by the Nephilim in the land, and the timidity of the people resulted in their being condemned to wilderness wandering for 40 years.530

But just what did the two “spies” accomplish? They certainly didn’t bring back military intelligence that resulted in the peculiar battle plan. Can you imagine Joshua’s meeting with his general staff, presenting his strategy to take the city? “We are going to march around the city once a day for six days, keeping silence. Then on the seventh day, we are going to march around seven times, then blow our horns, and the walls will fall down.” Sure. No problem. (Bill Cosby could have had a blast with this one after his humorous rendering of Noah!)531

The only thing the two “spies” accomplished was to get Rahab saved. Could they be analogous to the two “witnesses” that precede the tribulations of Revelation in chapter 11?

The battle of Jericho itself is a collection of mysteries. It seems to have violated every ordinance of the Torah. The Levites were exempt from military duties, yet they led the procession.532 They were supposed to work for six days but rest on the seventh, yet at Jericho they marched seven times on the seventh day.

This seems to follow the pattern anticipating the seven trumpet judgments in Revelation 8 and 9. It is interesting that Joshua instructed them to maintain silence until the final series of seven on the seventh day.533 In Revelation we have a strange period of silence prior to the seven trumpets.534

Joshua ultimately encounters an alliance of nations under a leader who calls himself Adoni-Zedek (“Lord of Righteousness”), who is finally defeated in the battle of Beth-Horon with signs in the sun and moon,535 in which the kings hide themselves in caves, etc.536 The parallels in Revelation are striking.

(What do the Gaza strip, Hebron, and the Golan Heights have in common today? It is interesting that these were the places where Joshua failed to totally exterminate the Rephaim and Anakim (Nephilim); these were the strongholds of Israel’s enemies then and remain so today!537)

THE SECOND COMING OF CHRIST

The climactic event in the Book of Revelation is, of course, the Second Coming of Jesus Christ. He promised He would return, and His return may be sooner than most people think. Furthermore, He is committed to establishing a literal rule upon Earth. This is what we pray for in the Lord’s Prayer: “Thy kingdom come.”

There are at least 1,845 references to Christ’s rule on the earth in the Old Testament.538 A total of 17 Old Testament books give prominence to the event.

Of 216 chapters in the New Testament, there are 318 references to the Second Coming. It is mentioned in 23 of the 27 books (excepting three that are single-chapter letters to private individuals and Galatians).

For every prophecy relating to His first coming, there are eight treating His Second Coming. They are denied by the unbelievers; they remain a remote abstraction to the casual Christian; but they constitute the ultimate certainty for each of us. We each have a destiny that awaits this consummate event.

THE MYSTERY OF 24

Some numbers in the Scripture appear to have a special significance. The number seven is so prevalent that there have been numerous books written about it. Others seem to appear frequently and consistently enough to have acquired a characteristic symbolic significance. There is a number, however, that appears so uniquely that it seems to have a distinction of its own. The number is 24.

Twenty-four Elders are enthroned around the Throne of God, and their identity proves to be a pivotal—and controversial—issue. (Some presume that these simply represent the 12 apostles and the 12 tribes. However, these are not isomorphic, like mixing apples and oranges, and this view seems to be without clear Scriptural support.) Elders ( presbuteros) were the highest rank in the New Testament church,539 and these elders also indicate that they represent the redeemed.540

It is significant that throughout the Old Testament the kingship and the priesthood were maintained separately. The royal tribe was Judah; the priestly tribe, Levi. There are only three exceptions to this concept clearly singled out in the Scripture: Melchizedek,541 the Messiah,542 and the Church.543

We find that the principal Old Testament appearance of the number 24 occurs when David organizes the priesthood into 24 “courses,” or divisions.544 It is widely inferred that the 24 Elders represent the Church, which shares Christ’s uniqueness in being both kings and priests.

In chapter 17 we noted that there is a strange interval in Israel’s chronology between the 69th and 70th “weeks” of years during which the Church occurs.545 This interval has lasted about 2,000 years, and many scholars have published their reasons why they suspect that it is about completed. It is provocative that this same interval is implied in a surprising number of passages throughout the Biblical text.

One of the more conspicuous instances was in the synagogue in Nazareth when Jesus opened His public ministry by announcing His mandate by reading a specific portion from Isaiah:

“The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because he hath anointed me to preach the gospel to the poor; he hath sent me to heal the brokenhearted, to preach deliverance to the captives, and recovering of sight to the blind, to set at liberty them that are bruised,

“ To preach the acceptable year of the Lord.”

Luke 4:18, 19 (Cf. Isaiah 61:1, 2)

He then declared, “This day is this Scripture fulfilled in your ears.”546 What is quite striking is to note the specific place that Jesus stopped reading. When you compare the Gospel account with the portion of Isaiah He had chosen,547 you discover that He ceased reading at a comma. He did not read the next clause:

“…and the Day of Vengeance of our God.”

He read only the portion that outlined His ministry for that day. The remainder awaits His return. That “comma” has lasted almost 2,000 years.

It seems that the same interval which occurs in Daniel’s 70-week prophecy is also evident here. Subtle, but clearly detectable. What is even more surprising is that this same subtle hint occurs 24 times in the Biblical text.548

It is also interesting that the first three chapters of Revelation introduce 24 titles, or identity codes, of Jesus Christ that are then used as identifiers throughout the remainder of the book. They are listed in Figure 19-1:

24 IDENTITY CODES

1

the faithful witness

2

the first begotten of the dead

3

the prince of the kings of the earth

4

Alpha and Omega^549

5

the beginning and the ending

6

which is, and which was, and which is to come

7

the Almighty

8

the first and the last

9

the son of Man

10

he that liveth, and was dead; and, behold, I am alive for evermore

11

he that holdeth the seven stars in his right hand

12

who walketh in the midst of the seven golden candlesticks

13

he which hath the sharp sword with two edges

14

the Son of God

15

who hath his eyes like unto a flame of fire

16

and his feet [are] like fine brass

17

he that hath the seven spirits of God

18

he that is holy

19

he that is true

20

he that hath the key of David

21

he that openeth, and no man shutteth; and shutteth, and no man openeth

22

the Amen

23

the [faithful and] true witness

24

the beginning of the creation of God

Figure 19-1: 24 Identity Codes

SPECIFIC IDENTITY LINKS

The reader is encouraged to undertake a specific study of the Book of Revelation, using a concordance^550 to look up each “code” in the book. Some of the codes are identified within the book itself.551 Most of them are drawn from the Old Testament.552 (The list in Appendix C should also prove helpful.) A really thorough study will take you into virtually every book of the Bible. This alone will dramatically demonstrate the integrity of the total structure.553

WHENCE NEXT?

The role of numbers, numerics, and numerology is unquestionably among the most problematical of all the codes. These are the topics addressed in the next chapter.

SUGGESTIONS FOR FURTHER READING:

Chuck Missler, Expositional Commentary on Revelation, 4 Vols., Koinonia House, Coeur d’Alene, Idaho, 1995.

Chuck Missler, Expositional Commentary on Joshua, 3 Vols., Koinonia House, Coeur d’Alene, Idaho, 1996.

Chuck Missler, The Romance of Redemption—Gleanings from the Book of Ruth, Koinonia House, Coeur d’Alene, Idaho, 1993.

20

“From the intrinsic

evidence of his creation,

the Great Architect

of the Universe

now begins to appear

as a pure mathematician.”

SIR JAMES JEANS^554

CHAPTER 20

OUR NUMERICAL UNIVERSE

The universe exhibits a numerical structure that has long puzzled scientists. This includes the nature of integers in general and their role in the periodic table in particular. The role of eight in the energy levels of the atom. The numerical symmetries in botany. And now, the role of 8 + 2 and 24 + 2 in the mathematics of superstrings. Scientists even use the concept of numerical “beauty” as a comfort zone in evaluating alternative theories. The elegance of the Kaluza-Klein and the Yang-Mills hyperspace models are contemporary examples.

Sir Fred Hoyle even predicted, and then discovered, in 1954, the previously unknown energy levels in the Carbon-12 atom from his sensitivity to the prevalent patterns of numerical design in the universe.555 The astonishing precision of these relationships is called the “anthropic principle” and was discussed on page 31.

It should not surprise us that the same evidences of deliberate numerical design also appear hidden behind the Biblical text.

SECRET NUMBERS

When Daniel was given a special prophecy by a “certain holy one” (a special angel),556 this special messenger was called , palmoni, which is annotated in the margin as “the numberer of secrets.” This appears to be a specialist which has to do with numbers. Numbers as well as words appear to hold a particular significance in the works of God. Whenever we search out the secrets of God, we are doing a royal and honorable work:

“It is the glory of God to conceal a thing: but the honour of kings is to search out a matter.”

Proverbs 25:2

This chapter will explore codes involved with numerology, numerics, and gematria. The study of numerology (from the Latin, numerus, a number, and logy, science or study) is the general study of numbers, their nature, purpose and applications. In addition to the study of numbers (amounts, quantity of units, or mathematical values) and numerals (the term designating a figure, symbol or word expressing a number), it also includes examining the structural use of numbers in the design of a corpus of text.

Numerics refers to the study of the symbolical, cryptic, or mystical use of numbers.

Gematria involves the application of numerical values assigned to the letters of the alphabet. It is often, but not necessarily, associated with mysticism.

This chapter has been deferred until the end of this section because it, too, retains an enigmatic character despite the many volumes having been published in this area. Zealous devotees assert fanciful mystical claims, on the one hand, and skeptics go too far the other way in total denial. Clearly these “codes” appear to be real, and yet they remain to be convincingly resolved in any systematic manner. Furthermore, numbers can play an important role in the area of hermeneutics,557 as they not only convey mathematical data but are also important in identifying literary stylisms.

ANCIENT NUMBERS

Number (quantity) and numeral (a symbol representing a number) are two concepts that have been found in every tribe and culture examined since the founding of anthropological science.558 The Sumerians of the alluvial plains of southern Iraq apparently were among the world’s first literate people. This remarkable culture evidenced addition, subtraction, multiplication, division, extraction of roots, raising to higher powers as well as handling a number of types of fractions. The suddenness of the appearance of writing, numbers, and other concepts has given rise to the many fanciful speculations of Zechariah Sitchen, Erik von Daniken, and others.559

THE BASE 60

Have you ever wondered why there are 60 minutes to the hour and 60 seconds to the minute? The Sumerians’ numerical reckoning was sexagesimal rather than decimal. The base was not ten (10^2=100, 10^3 = 1,000, etc.), but 60 (60^2 = 3600, 60^3 = 216,000, etc.). Fractions were also expressed with 60 as the denominator.

This may have been derived from the original 360-day year which is predominant in most of the ancient calendars. This sexagesimal system was well adapted to performing calculations on the circle as astronomical quadrants into degrees, minutes and seconds of arc. Thus, the sexagesimal system was utilized extensively for the two great protosciences of the Sumer civilization: astronomy and the calendrical cults (astrology).

It also proved admirably superior for weights and measures. Almost all early metrology in the Near East and the Mediterranean was sexagesimal. (There may have been a convenient method of counting on the joints of four fingers with the thumb, yielding 12, then tabulating with the other hand: times 5 = 60.) It was also adapted by the other peoples of antiquity—Hittites, Akkadians, Greeks, and others. And, of course, it remains with us today.

There is also another possibility. There may have been an earlier leadership which was six-fingered. The strange passage in Genesis chapter 6 indicates that there were—both before the Flood of Noah and subsequently—some strange hybrids called, in Hebrew, the Nephilim, which were, among other things, six-fingered.560 (For a more comprehensive discussion of the origins of these strange beings and the possible implications for today, see Alien Encounters by Dr. Mark Eastman and this author, available from this publisher.)

EGYPTIAN MATHEMATICS

The mathematics of the Sumerians predated the decimal notations and arithmetical operations of Egypt. Egyptians arrived at an approximation of π, namely 3.16, and, not surprisingly, a correct formula for the volume of a pyramid. In time, Egyptian mathematicians, the scribes entrusted with the royal enumerations, formalized the linear epigraphical script of hieroglyphics into a cursive set of ligatured signs. Numbers and their associated operations were handled in the same manner.

The increasing mood of conservatism and intransigence which characterized the last millennium of Pharaonic Egypt took its toll on the development of numbers and the understanding of the concepts of numbers. They used their clumsy system to record enumerations as high as 1,422,000. The geometry of Egypt, like that of early Ionic Greece, was based largely on construction. Even the rudiments of algebra were never approached.

The early Egyptians used a base-10 system that had a different symbol for each power of 10 up to 10^6, but it lacked a place-value notation and an explicit number zero. Zero was a later Hindu invention, which, when combined with Arabic numbers and positional notation, constituted the subsequent breakthrough. The technology of a numbering system can have a profound influence on a society. (Have you ever tried doing long division with Roman numerals?)

BABYLONIAN MATHEMATICS

The sexagesimal system of Sumer and the decimal system of Egypt were both known to the Akkado-Babylonians, who were dedicated businessmen and traders, and their rigorous life-style forced cooperation and authoritative planning for irrigation and defense. The Babylonian mathematical tablets are some of the finest exact scientific treatises from the ancient world.

(The Babylonian system was an incomplete sexagesimal (base-60) positional notation. It used only two symbols instead of the 60 distinct ones that a base-60 system could use and thus suffered from ambiguities in representing value that could be resolved only by analyzing the context.)

Apparently on the verge of discovering some of the chief mathematical tools of later ages, such as functions and algebra, they were centuries beyond any of their contemporaries. There are texts from about 1700 B.C. that are remarkable for their mathematical suppleness. Babylonian mathematicians knew the Pythagorean relationship well and used it constantly. They could solve simple quadratic equations and could even solve problems in compound interest involving exponents. From about a millennium later there are texts that utilize these skills to provide a very elaborate mathematical description of astronomical phenomena. Under the Kassite kings, astronomy and astrology were the foremost pursuits. Under the Babylonian and Assyrian rulers, astronomical lists flourished, and great strides were made in the accuracy with which observations of the heliacal rising of fixed stars, ephemerides of the planets, and eclipses of the sun and moon were recorded. With the conquest of Babylon by the Persians in 539 B.C., Babylonian mathematics passed to Iran.

A final flowering of astronomical observation, simple algebra, and the tables for lunar, planetary and solar cycles took place after the conquest of Mesopotamia by the Greeks in 333 B.C. This led to the age of Pythagoras and his mystical school. The last vestige of the mathematical tradition was passed on in the Seleucid and Aracid era and then died out in the Medieval period.

MODERN NUMERICAL NOTATION

We take our modern numerical notation for granted. The distinguishing characteristics of a modern number system are its use of base position notation (place value), zero as a number, and a point or comma to separate the parts of numbers greater and less than one.

The use of zero as a numeral appeared sporadically in Egyptian number systems. It was used, however, only between two numbers to indicate an empty position, never at the end of a number. While the early Chinese did not have a symbol for zero, the invention and use of their abacus suggests that they had an implied appreciation for positional base notation and zero as a number. The Mayans did have a zero symbol, but their inconsistency in base notation rendered it virtually useless for computations.

The bulk of the credit for our modern decimal, or base-10, number system goes to the Hindu-Arabic mathematicians of the eighth to 11th centuries A.D. The first use of zero as a place holder in positional base notation was due probably to Muhammad ibn Musa al-Khwarizmi (c. 780-850). This use of zero and the use of western Arabic (Gobar) numerals were spread throughout Europe in the tenth century principally by the efforts of Gerbert, who later became Pope Sylvester II.

Before the adoption of positional base notation, zero, and the point, calculations such as multiplication, division, and root extraction had to be relegated to a handful of experts. By the 1100s the algorists, using base-10 notation, were successfully challenging the abacists (those using the abacus) in the speed and accuracy of calculations and had the advantage of a permanent written record of their results. The beginning of our modern notation is attributed to the work Liber abaci published by Leonardo of Pisa (Fibonacci) in A.D. 1202. The development and widespread use of a number system with these components greatly enhanced the precision and ease of calculations needed in fields such as astronomy, manufacturing, and navigation. It eventually led to even more efficient forms of handling data such as logarithms, slide rules, mechanical and electrical calculators, and, of course, computers.

BIBLICAL ACCURACY

It is important to remember that regarding the Biblical texts, we “see through a glass darkly,” filtered by the fog of the centuries. Fortunately, the design of the text in anticipation of both noise and even hostile “jamming,” was also augmented by the obsessive commitment of the scribal traditions. The diligent attention of the copyists of the Biblical texts was audited by the use of numbering the sums of each of the letters for each of the pages, similar to the “checksums” and “parity checks” used in computer transmissions today.

The appearance of the large sexagesimal numbers in the early chapters of Genesis proves beyond the shadow of a doubt the antiquity of the text and the literary tradition utilized by Moses. Ancient mason’s marks and tallies have also been excavated in Israel.

While there are ostensible difficulties in the Biblical transmission of numbers pointed to by critics, they all have substantial responses that support the fundamental accuracy of the Biblical text.561 The numbers in the Biblical texts are usually spelled out phonetically, but there is no reason to assume that a more direct numeral system was not also available.

ALPHANUMERIC RECKONING

The use of alphanumerics (using the alphabet for numbers) was employed by both the Hebrews and the Greeks. These are listed in Fig. 21-1.

The Romans did not use their entire alphabet: only six letters, D, C, L, X, V, and I, for 500, 100, 50, 10, 5, and 1, respectively. These six numbers add up to 666, incidentally. (The use of M was introduced in later years.)

An illuminating example of the Hebrew alphanumeric alphabet involves the circumference of a circle.

THE VALUE OF PI

When I was a teenager, I was challenged by a skeptic (a Unitarian, actually) concerning an alleged discrepancy in the Old Testament. The passage deals with Solomon’s temple and the products of Hiram the bronze worker:

Figure 20-1: (For numbers 15 and 16, the combinations of 9 + 6 and 9 + 7 were often used to avoid the short forms of the divine name, and .565)

“And he made a molten sea [brazen laver], ten cubits from the one brim to the other: it was round all about, and his height was five cubits: and a line of thirty cubits did compass it round about.”

1 Kings 7:23

Figure 20-2: Laver or “Molten Sea”

The huge cast bronze basin was ten cubits^566 in diameter, and its circumference is said to have been 30 cubits, which is mathematically inaccurate. Almost any schoolboy knows that the circumference of a circle is not the diameter times three, but rather, the diameter times the well-known constant π (“Pi”). The real value of π is 3.14159265358979 but is commonly approximated by 3 1/7.

This is assumed, by many, to be an “error” in the Old Testament record, and so it is often presented by skeptics as a rebuttal to the “inerrancy” of the Scripture. How can we say that the Bible is inerrant when it contains such an obvious geometrically incorrect statement? How do we deal with this?

In this case, the Lord ultimately brought to our attention some subtleties usually overlooked in the Hebrew text.567 (We will also suggest some powerful techniques for resolving such dilemmas in chapter 24.)

In Hebrew, it reads:

A SPELLING LESSON

The common word for circumference is ; qav. Here, however, the word seems to be misspelled. The spelling of the word for circumference, , qaveh, adds a heh (h). (The text above each word also has a leading w as a conjunction for the masculine singular noun.)

In the Hebrew Bible, the scribes did not alter any text which they felt had been copied incorrectly. Rather, they noted in the margin what they thought the written text should be. The written variation is called a kethiv, (here as ); and the marginal annotation is called the qere (here, ).

To the ancient scribes, this was also regarded as a remez, a hint of something deeper. This appears to be a clue to treat the word as a mathematical formula.

NUMERICAL VALUES

The Hebrew alphabet is alphanumeric; each Hebrew letter also has a numerical value assigned and can be used as a number. The has a value of 100; the has a value of 6; thus, the normal spelling of this word would yield a numerical value of 106.

The addition of the , with a value of five, increases the numerical value to 111. This suggests the adjustment to the ratio of 111/106, which results in 31.41509433962 cubits.

Assuming that a cubit was 1.5 ft.,568 this 15-foot-wide bowl would then have had a circumference of 47.12388980385 feet. This Hebrew “code” results in 47.12264150943 feet, or an error of less than 15 thousandths of an inch!

This error is 15 times better than the 3 1/7 estimate that we were accustomed to using in school!

How would they even know this? This accuracy would seem to vastly exceed the precision of their instrumentation. Why was it encoded into the text?

Beyond simply these engineering insights from Solomon’s day, there are more far-reaching implications of this passage.

1) The Bible is reliable. The “errors” pointed out by skeptics usually derive from misunderstandings or trivial quibbles.

2) The numerical values of the letters are legitimate and apparently can carry hidden significance.

This, in itself, is a major controversy among some. There are some who maintain that the numerical assignments in the Hebrew alphabet were borrowed from the Greek alphabet in a later period, perhaps from the influence of Pythagoras, et al. (580-500 B.C.).569 There are some popular references that maintain that no special signs can be demonstrated before the Babylonian exile,570 but this has all been refuted.571

The Hebrew use of an alphanumeric alphabet clearly predates these assumptions.572 It appears that all peoples in the Fertile Crescent area employed at least two notation systems, the symbols and the fully written words.573

Numerical symbolism is one of the most difficult subjects one must deal with in the science of hermeneutics. But before we get into the controversies involved, let’s first explore simple numerics.

BIBLICAL NUMERICS

The basic study of numerics emerges simply from the inductive inferences compiled from the occurrences and uses of numbers in the text. The conspicuous use and reuse of specific numbers in various contexts have attracted reverent minds throughout the centuries and clearly indicate that there lies a deliberate design and deeper significance behind them. Unfortunately, it is difficult to find sources that diligently draw conclusions from thorough and comprehensive examination, while remaining free of contrived or fanciful spiritualizations.574 It is of paramount importance not to give up facts for theories nor to abandon truth for conjectures.

Numerous volumes have been compiled analyzing the use of numbers in the Bible. Some of these are idiomatic arrangements for rhetorical purposes.575 Others evidence the intricate numerical designs underlying the Biblical text. We will sample a few of them.

Sevens are certainly uniquely prominent in the Scripture.576 Sevens occur in about 600 passages in the Bible.577 Sevens are so manifest—and also hidden—that they testify to a unified design of the whole and indicate a careful and skillful editing which transcends the independent efforts of over 40 authors spanning almost 2,000 years. (We have already commented on them in Chapters 7 and 19, and we have appended a more comprehensive list—but still incomplete—in Appendix D.) Seven appears to imply completeness or perfection. (It is not necessarily “divine” as is often inferred; Satan has seven heads.)

Six—one short of seven—also appears to be used with subtle but definable consistency. It always alludes to an inadequacy: the sinfulness of man; the evilness of Satan, etc. Examples include the six fingers of the Nephilim and Anakim; the six steps to Solomon’s throne; the 666 shekels of Solomon’s salary; the “seal of Solomon” itself—known today as the Magen David; and, of course, the 666 of Revelation.

The number two seems to point to the idea of witness, or testimony. The two witnesses of Revelation 11. The two angels at the resurrection. The two angels at the ascension. The two angels at Sodom and Gomorrah. The two Testaments, Old and New. The requirement for a plurality of witnesses to establish a thing before a judge,578 etc.

Several more focused examples were already discussed: the “70 times seven” (chapter 17) and the 24 Elders (chapter 19). Clearly the most provocative enigma of all is three-in-one, as it appears in what we call the “Trinity”—the concept of plurality retaining perfect unity. The presentation of the “three-in-one” pervades the entire Old Testament as well as the New, but that’s a discussion which goes far beyond our opportunity here.579

TRANSCENDENT

NUMERICAL STRUCTURES

Perhaps the most provocative numerical structures are those that bridge the individual books of the Bible—even the Old and New Testaments. These deliberate designs “stitch” the composite tapestry together in a manner that no living human authors or editors could have contrived. There are 36 authors who (unknowingly) maintained their composite seven-fold (heptadic) structures across the Old Testament and New Testament boundaries:580

Figure 20-3

One example is the term, Hallelujah, “Praise Yahweh” (Greek, Alleluia). It occurs 28 times (4 x 7) in the Bible, a sevenfold structure bridging the Old and New Testaments. It occurs 24 times in Psalms 146-150 and four times in the Book of Revelation.

These patterns do exist. Are these patterns deliberate? How could these design motifs have been maintained? They are too consistent to have occurred by accident. They appear deliberate and yet could not have been contrived by the authors unaided. Their pervasiveness and intricacy have significant implications. They constitute irrefutable evidence that underscores the integrity of the entire “message system” and thus also confirms its extratemporal and transfinite origins.

CAVEATS

On the one hand, the consistency of the use of numbers and numerical structures within the Biblical text is too manifest to deny. 581 On the other hand, an over-emphasis on their mystical implications has also proven to be a quagmire that can easily lead to doctrinal quicksand. Contrariwise, the fanciful conjectures applied to Biblical numbers has reinforced the reactions in the opposite direction, maintaining that mystical implications of numbers have no validity whatsoever.582 Who said it would be easy?

The Gnostics relied heavily on mystical numerology for their heretical views. Early church fathers also made it part of their apologetic.583 Irenaeus, among others, made valiant attempts to stem the tide of theological mysticism and allegorical interpretation in the early church.584 Advances in mathematics, with its imaginative connotations, also had theological impact.

PYTHAGOREAN INFLUENCE

From the early days of the Ionian philosophers, the Greek world considered numbers as worthy of the highest and most sustained study. In the age of Plato and Aristotle (c. 300 B.C.) the great mathematical insights of the Greek civilization were brought forth. The roots of numerological manipulation of numbers among the Greeks is generally dated from Pythagoras (c. 582-500 B.C.). When Pythagoras returned from travel and study in Babylon and Egypt, he founded a secret cult in southern Italy based on the numerical explanations for the phenomena of the universe.

Legend has it that Pythagoras became convinced of the primacy of numbers when he realized that the musical notes produced by a monochord were in simple ratio to the length of the string. Qualities (tones) were reduced to quantities (numbers in integral ratios). Thus was born mathematical physics, for this discovery provided the essential bridge between the world of physical experience and that of numerical relationships.

The Pythagoreans considered numbers to be the elements and origin of everything. This mystic brotherhood of disciples eroded whatever objective scientific value their teacher’s labors may have held and plunged his name and teachings into a veritable swamp of magic and ritual. After Alexander’s conquests, this residue settled upon the ancient Semitic states of the Near East.

The impact of Plotinus and Neo-Platonism energized this mystic trend to the point that gematria was practiced widely among various schools of Hellenistic thought. This numerical mysticism also was embraced in the rise of Gnostic heresies which plagued the early church and which were passed on to the post-Nicene church and the Medieval Era. Numerical mysticism is also deeply involved in Freemasonry and other occultic practices.

Ironically, it was the allegorical interpretations of Origen and the stamp of approval by Augustine and others that led to the subsequent subjective speculations which opened the door to the twin errors of mysticism on the one hand and liberalism on the other. Having lost its moorings in the bedrock of Scripture, we should not be surprised at the diversity of views within the church today.

“Knowing this first, that no prophecy of the scripture is of any private interpretation.

“For the prophecy came not in old time by the will of man: but holy men of God spake as they were moved by the Holy Ghost.”

2 Peter 1:20, 21

GEMATRIA

Compounding the numerics themselves are the speculations of gematria. Both the Hebrew and Greek alphabets exploited the letters for assigned numerical values.585 Gematria (a corruption from the Semiticized “geometria”) is the substitution of numbers for letters of the Hebrew alphabet.

There are numerous examples which clearly imply an astonishing elegance of design which integrates the Hebrew alphabet, its numerical values, and the associated sememes. The Hebrew word for “year” is , shaneh, which has a gematrical value of 355. Remember, the Hebrew calendar is on a lunar year which has 355 days! The Hebrew word for pregnancy is , haryon, and has a gematrical value of 271; there are 271 days in a nominal pregnancy.

However, gematria became a popular method exploited by the medieval Kabbalists to derive mystical insights into sacred writings or to develop new interpretations of the texts. It is the pursuit of hidden meanings—particularly when in disregard of the plaintext—that leads to subjective conjectures beyond the moorings of the directly revealed Scripture.

Gematria is widely regarded as having risen in the Hellenistic age,586 but this a scholastic presumption that appears to be without substance. The Babylonians employed “gematria” (the numerical values of letters and words) during the time of Sargon II. The wall at Khorsabad was supposed to have been built according to the numerical value of Sargon’s name.587

It was the view of Hermippus that mystical numerology originated with the Jews from which Pythagoras copied it.588

But the blossoming of Jewish gematria reached its seminal period during the 12th and 13th centuries. Rabbi Joseph ben Abraham Gakatilla of Castile and Segovia, published a compilation of the methods of gematria, nokarikon (initial letters of sentences), and temurah (permutation of letters) in 1274.589 While much of the Kabbalistic literature may strike us as fanciful conjectures, there are some instances that are quite provocative. Let’s review a few examples.

THE SIGNATURE OF GOD: 961

El, is a Hebrew name for God. Some Kabbalists believe they have rediscovered the ancient “Law of the Square.” They feel that the occurrence of the square of a key number is especially significant. has a gematria value of 31, and 31^2 = 961. (13^2 = 169, which is also curious; it is one of the very few occasions in which the reversal of the order of the integers of the root also reverses the order of the integers of its square. Reversing 13 to 31 yields the squares of 169 and 961, respectively.) The number 961 seems to emerge in so many critical instances that some have come to call 961 “the Signature of God”—as an example, when the was added to Abram and Sarai (see chapter 8):

Abraham

248

Sarah

505

Isaac

208

961 = 31^2, “the Signature of God”

There are other traditional examples that are a bit more specious:

ABRAHAM’S ARMY OF 318

In Genesis 14, an alliance of four armies, led by Chedorlaomer (an Elamite, whom we know as a Proto-Persian) successfully subjugated five armies for a period of 12 years. However, in the 13th year the five rebelled. In the 14th year Chedorlaomer and his armies, after defeating the four tribes of giants, as well as the Amalekites and the Amorites, also clobbered the five rebel kings of the south. Obviously, they were a very formidable military force to be reckoned with.

In the subsequent taking of spoils by Chedorlaomer and his forces, Abram’s nephew, Lot, was taken as a hostage. Abram, in alliance with Amorite tribes and armed with 318 trained servants, took after them and succeeded where the other armies had failed. (An ancient predecessor to the more recent raid at Entebbe!)

Since Abram’s head-servant’s name was Eliezer, which happens to have a gematria value of 318, some argue that this indicates that the “318 servants” were simply Eliezer himself.590 This, however, contradicts the text and the “dividing of forces” indicated in verse 15. This could simply be a just a coincidence; or, alternatively, it could be an allusion to the involvement of the Holy Spirit. The name Eliezer means “Comforter,” as was discussed in chapter 14).

What about the New Testament?

THE 153 FISHES OF JOHN 21

A much discussed, but unresolved, allusion involves the 153 fishes in John 21:11. It seems a strange detail to include in the Holy Scriptures, and many have attempted to penetrate its potential significance. There have been over 20 different interpretations over the years, even including attempts by Augustine.591 Mysterious as it seems, none of the suggestions known to this author have been very convincing or merit enumeration here.

And then there is the most infamous enigma of all:

THE MARK OF THE BEAST: 666

People who know little else about the Bible have heard of the “666.” Even scholars who assertively deny the application of numerical symbolism in the Bible reluctantly acknowledge this declaration in Revelation 13:18 as an apparent exception.

“Here is wisdom. Let him that hath understanding count the number of the beast: for it is the number of a man; and his number is Six hundred threescore and six.”

Revelation 13:18

Most authorities take for granted that this riddle is to be addressed through gematria, and libraries have been filled with volumes of speculations throughout the centuries. Martin Luther, among others, tied it to the Vatican regime.592 There are contrived suggestions linking it to virtually every personage throughout history—and, of course, in our day as well.

Many contrive gematrical structures around English or Latin, conveniently overlooking the fact that only Hebrew and Greek have an alphanumeric tradition that lends itself to such practices.

The earlier occurrences of 666 in the Biblical text are restricted to the tribute paid to Solomon.593 As we noted earlier, the number six is associated with him in many other ways and seems always to hint of a sinister character.

Furthermore, there are other ideological aspects of the history of both the numerics and the derived geometrical symbolism of the past. The traditional Jewish hexagram—known today as the Magen David, or “Shield of David”—had an earlier occult history. Its adoption as a symbol of Judaism is only traceable since the 14th century.594 Its earlier history was as a symbol known as the “Seal of Solomon” and was used in occultic practices.

Figure 20-3: Seal of Solomon

From the context of Revelation 13:18, it is clear that the identity of the person(s) involved will be quite manifest at the time they need it. The worship and obeisance of the leader involved results in a total ineligibility for salvation. This certainly indicates that this is not likely to depend on any subtleties or mysticism. We believe, from a careful exegesis of 2 Thessalonians 2, that this identity will not be revealed until the post-Church era. (A brief summary of the principal views of the “end times” has been summarized in Appendix E.)

888

Also well-known among “Gematrists” is that 888, in contrast to 666, seems to emerge in many expressions which relate to Jesus Christ. (Jesus, = 888.)595

Perhaps the most provocative is the discovery that equidistant letter sequences at intervals of seven also seem to result in 888 behind many of the Messianic passages.596

A VARIETY OF METHODS

What makes the study of gematria so subjective and inconclusive is that, to further complicate matters, there are seven (naturally) classical methods of Gematria:

Ragil (nominal). Notice that there are 27 letters, including the five “final forms.”

Kolel, the ragil values plus the number of letters in the word.

Katan, small values, also called “reduced” values: all tens and hundreds reduced to 1-9 by summing the digits.

Hakadmi, nominal values plus the values of each letter preceding it.

Hameruba Haklali, the value of the word squared.

Hameruba Haperati, the sum of the squares of each individual letter.

Miluy, the sums of the values of the names of each letter that makes up the word. Also called “filling.”

Some authorities even list 22 alternative methods of enumeration.597 It becomes pretty obvious that one can “prove” almost anything by various manipulations. And they do.

It is somewhat reminiscent of an adage in the information processing industry: “If you torture the data long enough, it will eventually confess to anything!”

Gematria remains one of the “fringe” areas in which there so seem to be too many provocative occurrences to ignore and yet no systematic, objective methodology which yields consistent results. It is therefore no surprise that reactions tend to become polarized into two extremes: those who totally reject these techniques out of hand and those who seem to become obsessed with them to extremes.

Perhaps more systematic investigation and objective analysis may yield more constructive fruit than the fanciful explorations to date. We have seen the use of error-correction techniques in the lexemes of the text; perhaps eventually we will discover that the numerical properties such as gematria may yield sememe redundancy as well.

But, the deeper question remains. Does the Bible use numbers in a mystical sense? The Kabbalists held that every detail in the Torah was significant. So did the Lord (Matthew 5:17, 18).

THE HAZARDS OF “MYSTICISM”

Many will, of course, accuse us of “mysticism,” and we make only faint apology. Paul and John clearly were “mystics.” For them the ultimate experience was union with Christ. The recurring phrase “in Christ” implies a personal union, a participation in His death and resurrection. This is especially emphasized in the farewell discourse (John chapters 15 and 16) where Jesus speaks of His impending death and His ultimate return to unite Himself with His followers. In His intimate prayer of John 17 He speaks of the interpenetrating union of souls in which all who are one with Christ share His perfect union with the Father. You can’t get more mystical than that!

It will, however, prove difficult to confine our investigation to revealed truth and not allow ourselves to get lost in the bramble of contrived and compounded conjectures.

In instrument flying, a pilot gets his references from six basic instruments: the airspeed indicator, the altimeter, the rate of climb (or descent), the turn-and-bank indicator, the heading indicator or compass, and the artificial (gyro) horizon. The way a pilot gets into trouble is to yield to the natural tendency to fixate on any one of these. The well-known remedy among instrument pilots is the emphasis on “cross-check”—constantly comparing what any one instrument seems to be telling you with all of the others.

And this is the way we need to keep our bearings and positional attitude: by “cross-checking” everything with “the whole counsel of God.”598 We must cling to the whole of Scripture as our fixed point of reference.

With speculative possibilities with gematria, we are skirting the fringes of our understanding regarding the potential role of numbers with regard to the very sememes, and we need to be aware that this same fuzziness has also emerged in our understanding of the very nature of matter, consciousness, and reality. Before we focus too intensely on the interconnectedness of the textual codes, we also need to take another step back—or upward—and explore an even broader context than the macrocodes: the metacodes. These are the subject of the next section.

SUGGESTIONS FOR FURTHER READING:

E. W. Bullinger, Number in Scripture, Kregel Publications, Grand Rapids, Michigan, reproduced from 1894 edition, 1967.

John J. Davis, Biblical Numerology, Baker Book House, Grand Rapids, Michigan, 1968.

SECTION VI

Chapter 21

Advanced Design Considerations

Chapter 22

The Code of Life

Chapter 23

Our Digital Universe

“ To follow knowledge, like a sinking star, Beyond the utmost bound of human thought.”

ULYSSES

21

“One,

if by land;

and two,

if by sea.”

HENRY WADSWORTH LONGFELLOW,

The Midnight Ride of Paul Revere

CHAPTER 21

DIGITAL VERSUS

ANALOG DESIGNS

Our natural world is an “analog” world. Our quantitative world is relative to various things. The store is twice as far away as the school. Our sister is not as tall as her brother. Most of our early instrumentation were “analogs” of the things that were being measured. A thermometer is an analog design; the temperature indicated is proportional to the level of the measuring fluid. Most speedometers are analog designs; the speed is indicated by how far the needle has moved to the right. Early computers were also mechanical or electrical analogs or models for specialized purposes.

Today, we take digital presentations for granted. A digit is a symbolic representation of a quantity. Digits are combined according to rules. Digital presentations rely on a language. (The odometer on your car is digital; it relies on Arabic numerals.)

The design of a language is independent of the design of the media in which it is conveyed. The technology of ink and paper has little to do with the language a book is written in—English, French, etc.

DIGITAL CODES

Longfellow’s Midnight Ride of Paul Revere employed the famous code “One if by land; two if by sea.” Why? There was nothing intrinsic or analogous in the application of these symbols. It simply relied on a pre-agreement between the sender and the receiver that this would be the arrangement.

The use of any language implies a design, a pre-arrangement among its users. The first lantern in Old North Church communicated little more than that the sender had not fallen from his horse or ladder on the way there! It was a “presence bit” or carrier. It was the presence (or absence) of the second lantern that carried the significant content of the message: the discovered route of the British military.

It was a single digit binary code; two digits would have allowed four possibilities. The use of the extra lantern is a form of redundancy. This can be exploited for purposes of error detection, and even error correction.

ERROR DETECTION

It is conventional to include some extra bits within computer representations for the purposes of detecting errors. An example of error detection is the use of a “parity bit” in the transmission of alphanumeric information. It has been conventional practice to add an additional bit so that the result is always, say, an even number. If an odd number is encountered, it signals a lost or corrupted bit and a retransmission can be solicited.

Other forms of error detection can be organized where only numbers or letters are expected, or numbers within certain ranges, etc. Any departure from an expected pattern would indicate an error, noise, jamming, or compromise.

ERROR CORRECTING CODES

By adding a few more bits, it is possible to also determine the location of an offending bit and reverse it. One example of an error-correcting code would employ 3 extra bits, as below:

The supplemental bits are labeled 9, 10, and 11 (with 8 remaining as an overall parity bit). By including selective (simultaneous) parity checks on the bits indicated, the resulting binary code in bits 9 through 11 will correspond to the position of the offending bit which can then be reversed and thus corrected.

The first solid-state Air Defense computer, the AN/FSQ-27, which replaced the fabled vacuum-tube AN/FSQ-7 SAGE machine, exploited this type of error-correcting design. During demonstrations, we were fond of actually removing circuit cards while the machine was running, without interrupting its operation!

(The original “Q-7” SAGE machine still remained the most impressive computer to visit. We would take our visitors down aisles and aisles of floor-to-ceiling cabinetry—aisles labeled “Memory Section” and “Arithmetic Processor,” etc. It required an entire additional building just to supply the air conditioning. Modern machinery is, of course, miniaturized through the miracle of advanced semiconductor advances. Computers were primarily miniaturized, not to save floor space, but to reduce the travel time of the electrons which were constraining their speed of operation.)

The incredible ingenuity of the error-correcting design obviously did not occur by chance; it was the result of tedious, skillful efforts of brilliant design teams. Yet it is staggering to discover that our own DNA codes are also digital, error-correcting codes! We will explore these in chapter 22. Where did their design come from? It is absurd to cling to the myth that mutually dependent subsystems can “evolve” by unaided chance alone (although in the catechism of politically correct science, one retains more rational views at one’s own career peril; it seems one must emulate the White Queen in Through the Looking Glass, who practiced believing impossible things several times a day.599).

We have already discussed the landmark contributions to communication theory through the efforts of Dr. Claude Shannon of Bell Labs. He formulated most of what we know about the role of redundancy in communications, and he recognized that redundancy is the essence of cryptography. On the one hand, it is necessary to minimize redundancy to most efficiently use the available bandwidth, and, in cryptographic environments, to minimize the possibility of compromise. On the other hand, the characteristics of the communication channel may also require a level of redundancy to maximize reliability and durability of the channel.

There are many forms of redundancy, and their proper use results in the effectiveness of the communication system. As noted earlier, Hebrew is remarkably compact with little extraneous redundancy. Its implied vowels, its self-parsing final forms, and other features seem to betray a teleology (purposeful design) specifically for its use in the Biblical text. The absence of redundancy makes it efficient but leaves it vulnerable to noise, were it not for other forms of redundancy at a higher level. We have explored the remarkable utility of macrocodes in this regard, and the more we explore the characteristics of the Biblical text, the more we become aware of evidence of even broader designs.

ANTICIPATION OF COUNTERMEASURES

An engineer who is designing a communication system in anticipation of hostile jamming, or other countermeasures, needs to employ several critical techniques to be effective. In addition to taking advantage of available error detection and correction techniques, he will also attempt to spread his message throughout the available bandwidth. He will avoid clustering his message into areas which would increase his vulnerability to jamming or interference.

It is provocative to notice that the Biblical text evidences these same techniques. Where is the chapter on baptism? Or salvation? Or any specific critical doctrine? Every major theme is spread throughout the 66 books making up the total message. This design intent of distributing the vital elements throughout the entire message system is even highlighted by Isaiah:

“Whom shall he teach knowledge? and whom shall he make to understand doctrine? them that are weaned from the milk, and drawn from the breasts.

“For precept must be upon precept, precept upon precept; line upon line, line upon line; here a little, and there a little.”

Isaiah 28:9, 10

FOURIER TRANSFORMS

There are mathematical transforms that can alter the domain of a message or image into a form that has unusual and attractive properties. We took advantage of the Lorentz Transform when we calculated the time dilation of our hypothetical astronauts in chapter 3. Engineers frequently exploit Fourier Transforms to change a time series into a frequency series, the use of frequency response curves in the evaluation of audio equipment being an example.

One of the most remarkable examples of a Fourier Transform is the hologram. The principles were first formulated in 1947 by Dennis Gabor (who later won a Nobel Prize for his efforts) as he was trying to improve the electron microscope, then a primitive and imperfect device. His approach was a mathematical one, leaning on a type of calculus invented by an 18th century Frenchman, Jean B. J. Fourier.

Fourier had developed a mathematical way of converting any pattern, no matter how complex, into a language of simple waves. He also showed that these wave forms could be converted into the original pattern, just as a television set converts those frequencies into the original images. The equations he developed are known as Fourier Transforms.

THE HOLOGRAM

In the movie Star Wars, Luke Skywalker’s adventure begins when a beam of light shoots out of the robot R2D2 (“Artoo Detoo”) and projects a miniature, three-dimensional image of Princess Leia. Luke watches spellbound as the ghostly sculpture of light begs for someone named Obi-wan Kenobi to come to her assistance. The image is a hologram, a three-dimensional picture made with the aid of a laser.

The Department of Defense had a program to develop “Non-Lethal Weapons” which included projection holography. This program went “black” (deeply classified) in 1994. Some suspect that the sighting of a giant V-shaped UFO over major parts of Arizona on March 13, 1997, may well have been a covert military test of projection holography.600

A hologram is a form of lens-less photography. A laser is positioned to simultaneously illuminate an object and a piece of film. (In the Diagram, this is arranged by a beam splitter and mirrors.)

Figure 21-1: Holography sketch

The film records the interference between the light waves hitting it directly and the light waves reflected from the object. It is, in effect, a frequency record rather than a spatial image. When processed, the result, known as a hologram, looks like a nondescript, cloudy piece of film. When examined under normal (noncoherent) light, it looks like a darkroom mistake.

However, when the hologram is illuminated with a laser, the result is astonishing; it appears as a window into a space containing a three-dimensional image of the original object! As one moves their eye, one can see around corners, etc.

(The hologram is a Fourier transform of the image space. It is a recording of the frequency information rather than the space-time information recorded by conventional photographic techniques.)

The hologram exhibits some very profound properties beyond the three-dimensional image. In fact, it is one of the most profound means to distribute information throughout a given media. All of the information it contains is distributed over the entire image surface. One can remove a portion of the hologram without losing the image! Drill a hole in the hologram and one can still view the entire object by simply moving one’s eye to a more convenient angle. (Some resolution, or sharpness, will be lost, however.) Cut the film into pieces and each piece contains the complete image.601

THE BIBLICAL ANALOGY

It is remarkable that the Biblical record exhibits a somewhat similar property. There is no concentration of any critical element in any single location. There is no specific chapter on baptism, for example, or on any specific doctrine. The critical elements are spread throughout the entire text. One can tear out a surprising number of pages and still not lose visibility of the essential message. (Some resolution or clarity would be lost, however.)

When one examines a hologram in natural (uncollimated, noncoherent) light, it has neither apparent form nor attractiveness. However, when one examines it with the laser with which it was formulated, a three-dimensional image appears. When one examines the Bible in unaided, natural light, it “has no form nor comeliness that we should desire it.”602 But when we examine it illuminated by the Spirit of God who put it all together in the first place, we see an image: the image of the One that every detail in it illuminates, the promised Messiah Himself.

From Genesis to Revelation, God’s program for the redemption of mankind is carefully distributed throughout 66 books,603 penned by more than 40 different individuals spanning several thousand years! And, indeed, this abused collection has survived the jamming and interference of its enemies over many centuries without material damage!

(However, if we illuminate the hologram with a laser of a different frequency, it will yield a false or distorted image. So, too, the Scripture!)

And there are knowledgeable, resourceful adversaries that are very committed to preventing it from achieving its objective. And you are the target of their malicious designs. Lies and deceit are their primary weapons.604 And, surprisingly, religion has been the deceptive packaging to prevent mankind from perceiving the truth of God’s grace and mercy.

(Jesus Christ was the most anti-religious person who has ever walked the earth. The only hostility He ever evidenced—and He almost invariably did so—was toward the professional religionists of that day.) Religion is man’s attempt to reconcile himself to God. It began when Adam and Eve attempted to clothe themselves to hide their nakedness.605 God’s response was to replace their efforts with coats of skins,606 teaching them that they would ultimately be covered by the shedding of innocent blood. The concept of a substitutional sacrifice, which would later be codified in the Levitical system, and climaxed at Golgotha, was introduced before they left the Garden of Eden. You and I are also the beneficiaries of that love letter, written in blood on a wooden cross that was erected in Judea about 2,000 years ago.

But the holographic paradigm also serves as a most provocative model of interconnected relationships which goes far beyond simply a curiosity of imagery. It may provide us with a totally different insight into consciousness; it may even give us a glimpse into the very nature of reality itself.

In the next chapter we will depart from our exploration of the Biblical texts and explore another domain entirely—the very codes of life itself.

22

“An honest man, armed with

all the knowledge available to us now,

could only state that in some sense,

the origin of life appears at the moment

to be almost a miracle, so many

are the conditions which would have

had to have been satisfied to get it going.”

FRANCIS CRICK^607

CHAPTER 22

In previous chapters we explored basic structural concepts of language, consisting of signs, or symbols, and its syntax (the formal rules governing their combination).

A symbol, or sign, requires a form of consent between the sender and the receiver. Communication requires the sharing of a common set of unambiguous rules whereby messages are converted from one representation to another. Language represents evidence of pragmatic agreement among the elements it serves.

In computer engineering, the design of a suitable language needs to precede the design of the engines that will process it. To assume that the design of the language and the design of the specific engines to respond to it can evolve in anything other than a highly coordinated fashion simply demonstrates that the proponent has never participated in any serious design team.

THE MYTH OF SPONTANEOUS DESIGN

If I told you that the wristwatch on my wrist was the result of painstaking design, brought about by a team of engineers assisted by specialized technicians and skilled manufacturing resources, you would probably believe me. But suppose I told you that it was not like that at all.

“Actually, millions and millions of years ago, random atoms were milling about, driven by cosmic winds, which eventually—by unaided random chance alone—were brought together to comprise the various materials involved; and then with the accidental combinations of the various forces of nature, the various parts were shaped and formed, which ultimately assembled themselves into the watch on my wrist… and it has kept perfect time ever since…”

You would, of course, discard this explanation in the junkyard of the absurd. And rightly so.

And yet the wrist upon which the watch resides is vastly more complex than the watch which resides on it. From a system design standpoint, the watch is a simple “open loop” design. The wrist, in contrast, is composed of a maze of complex systems that stagger the imagination—even in terms of today’s technologies. My wrist is part of a complex closed loop servo system with more than four degrees of freedom of motion, which adapts to ambient conditions, fights off invaders, and is, in large measure, self-repairing. Try giving that assignment to your design team!

It was Bishop William Paley in 1818 who pointed out that a watch, with its gears, springs, and other mechanisms could never arise by the actions of random chance alone. However, David Hume offered his classic rebuttal:

“Living systems only have the appearance of machines. Unless it can be proven that living systems are indeed machines at the molecular level, then Paley’s watchmaker argument is irrelevant.”

Of course, modern microbiology has now revealed that even the simplest organisms are complex machines beyond our imagining. Science has refuted Hume and totally vindicated Paley. The distinguished scientist, Sir Fred Hoyle, summarized it well:

“The speculation of The Origin of the Species turned out to be wrong. It is ironic that the scientific facts throw Darwin out, but leaves Paley the ultimate winner.”

Even the assumption that there is such a thing as a “simple cell” turns out to be a myth. As Michael Denton highlighted:

“Although the tiniest bacterial cells are incredibly small, each is in effect a veritable micro-miniaturized factory containing thousands of exquisitely designed pieces of intricate molecular machinery, made up of 100,000,000,000 atoms, far more complicated than any machine built by man and absolutely without parallel in the non-living world.”608

Before we explore the surprises emerging from a living cell, it is helpful to have a perspective of system design.

THE HIERARCHY OF SYSTEM DESIGN

The wristwatch is an example of the simplest level of system design— an open loop design. There is no internal correction mechanism. We occasionally have to intervene in its operation to correct for the accumulation of errors, etc.

The next level of complexity is a closed loop design, in which a sensor detects deviations from a datum of some kind and the mechanism responds to minimize any difference.

An example is an altitude-holding autopilot. The altimeter itself is an open-loop design. Incorporating it into a more complex system which can actually manipulate the aircraft to hold a designated altitude is, obviously, more complex by order of magnitude.

Not many engineers have been trained in the specialized tools required to optimize a closed-loop system with feedback loops. The principal difference between an amplifier and an oscillator is the feedback relationship. There is probably fewer than one engineer among a thousand who knows how to apply the Nyquist Criterion to design and tune a stable feedback loop properly.

The next level of complexity is an adaptive design which includes elements to permit monitoring its own performance and making appropriate incremental adjustments to improve. It actually “learns.”

From here the levels of complexity escalate to self-modifying systems and programmable machines, like a computer, which are infinite-state machines and capable of simulating cognitive processes, self-programming machines, and other categories of automata.

And it doesn’t end here. One can keep climbing the ladder of increasingly sophisticated design levels with self-diagnostic systems, self-protecting systems (from external threats),609 self-repairing systems (from internal threats); self-reproducing systems, etc. Each successive level of design complexity is at least an order of magnitude more challenging than the previous one. We find in nature more complex designs than we have the capability to even understand fully, let alone replicate.

The assumption of self-organization violates the entropy laws. Order requires the external input of information. Furthermore, complex assemblies of subsystems require that all subsystems must be functional for the survival of the total system. This precludes any such subsystems evolving “on their own” by chance or random events. To accept the premises of our current evolutionary myths seriously is analogous to believing that a tornado passing through a junkyard could create and leave behind a fully functional Boeing 747 aircraft.

Our present level of technology comes nowhere near the system sophistication which is observed in biological systems.

THE MYTH OF THE SIMPLE CELL

Consider a model of a “simple” cell. Let’s imagine a model 1,000 million times larger than actual size. Each atom would be about the size of a tennis ball. We will need ten million million atoms (10^13), and our model would have to be over ten miles in diameter! If we counted the atoms at one per minute, it would take 50 million years to complete the count.

This “simple” cell turns out to be of unparalleled complexity and adaptive design. It is filled with automated factories and assembly plants with processing units connected to a central memory bank. Hundreds of thousands of specific types of robot machines (protein molecules) are everywhere, each composed of over 3,000 parts in three-dimensional configurations.

DIGITAL LANGUAGE PROCESSING

These automated factories employ digital languages and decoding systems, using memory banks for information storage. We find elegant control systems regulating the automated assembly of components, exploiting prefabrication and modular construction. We even discover error-correcting fail-safe coding and proof-reading devices for quality control.

The technology we find there is unequaled in any factory on earth. What is even more staggering, it proves capable of replicating its own entire structure within a matter of a few hours!

This is the “simple cell” that just happened by unaided chance alone? If you really believe that, I have some property I’d like to sell you.

THE LIBRARY MOST OFTEN READ

What is the most frequently—and most thoroughly read library? It consists of a highly skilled digital code design that is error-correcting. The most read book—and the most thoroughly read—in the world is You. Your DNA. It is also a code of cosmic origin.

It was in 1953 that Watson and Crick first published the famous discovery of Deoxyribonucleic acid (DNA), and its matched Ribonucleic acid (RNA). The structural relationships are diagramed below:

(master blueprint)

transcription

(photocopy)

translation

(functional machines)

The DNA constitutes the master blueprints as a form of central library; these are transcribed into a working “photocopy” which is then translated into the functional machines made up of complex proteins. (Incidentally, the transcription process extracts equidistant code sequences to decipher the DNA into the RNA.)

The basic functional machines are protein chains of 100 to 500 amino acids. Each protein is a micro-miniaturized machine that must be magnified a million times before it is visible to the naked eye. Protein molecules tailor, transform, and transport other proteins in multiple roles far more complex than any of our modern computercontrolled factories. These multi-function machines change their specialization as required. They consist of a long linear sequence of amino acids whose specifications, coded in the DNA, do not allow for approximations. The specificity involved staggers the imagination.

A single double-helix contains the complete coded building instructions for synthesizing a human being, and his offspring; it has been compared to a library of 1,000 volumes of 500 pages each.

It should be borne in mind that there are two different kinds of order: physical, such as tangible hardware, ink, paper, etc.; and conceptual, such as language, information, software, etc.

Inorganic materials contain no biological teleonomy, logical concepts, replication systems, plans, machinery, etc. To convert the raw materials into the functionality in place in even relatively simple machines requires external information input called design.

The famed double-helix typically includes three billion rungs of a digital, error-correcting code. A digital (symbolic) code derives its significance from arbitrary, but consistent, definitions. A digital language requires context, conventions external to the code itself. An effective digital code demands careful, skillful, design.

The genetic alphabet is a three-out-of-four design employing four nucleic acids: Adenine, Thymine, Guanine, and Cytosine, for DNA (Uracil is substituted for Thymine in the RNA). (These will be abbreviated as A, U, G, and C, in the chart that follows.) Sugar molecules (ribose or deoxyribose) bind the chemical alphabet; phosphate molecules bind the sugar molecules together to form the now famous double helix.

There are 20 amino acids that are assembled into the over 100,000 various functional proteins observed. The DNA/RNA code is shown in Fig. 22-4.

Figure 22-4: DNA/RNA Codes

The genetic alphabet of the four nucleotides is taken three at a time to form one of 64 possible triplets. Each triplet has a specific meaning: 61 specify one of the 20 amino acids; three are used as punctuation codes to parse its sentences. UAA, UAG, and UGA are used as “stop” codes; AUG, and GUG, depending upon their position in the molecule, can also act as “start” codes. There is also redundancy in the form of homonyms (alternative codes for a given amino acid) to improve its error-correction characteristics.

(It is interesting that evidence to date indicates that this alphabet and its associated codes have not changed throughout the history of the earth. The fact that they are digital explains why things reproduce “each after their own kind.”)

These codes are stored in the DNA “master blueprint” and are copied by transcription machinery into the working copy of RNA, which is then translated into the “sentence” which assembles the proper amino acids into the correct order to make the necessary proteins. The translation process is similar to a magnetic recording head reading a computer tape. Most proteins involve a specific amino acid chain between 100 to 500 amino acids long.

THE TANGLED SKEIN OF LIFE

Have you ever been frustrated by the propensity of cords or strings to weave themselves into inextricable tangles as soon as your back is turned? Suppose you were asked to take two long strands of fisherman’s monofilament line—125 miles long—and then form it into a double helix structure and neatly fold and pack this line so it would fit into a basketball. Furthermore, you would need to ensure that the double helix could be unzipped and duplicated along the length of this line, and the duplicate copy removed, and the master returned, all without tangling the line. Possible?

This is directly analogous to what happens in the billions of cells in your body every day. Scale the basketball down to the size of a human cell and the line scales down to six feet of DNA. Although each cell is about one fifth the size of what the eye can see,610 it has to keep its six feet of DNA neatly coiled and free of knots, tightly packed into the tiny compartment that is the cell’s nucleus.

The DNA is a dynamic databank; its “tape” is continually being unwound and then rewound at thousands of different sites as the genes are made accessible and their information is copied by the cell’s transcription machinery. Whenever the cell needs to divide, the entire tape must be split apart, duplicated and then repackaged for each daughter cell.

All this DNA must be packed so that the regulator proteins that control making copies of the DNA have access to it. The DNA packing process is both complex and elegant and is so efficient that it achieves a reduction in length of DNA by a factor of one million.611

No one knows exactly how cells solve this topological nightmare. But the solution clearly starts with the special spools on which the DNA is wound. Each spool carries two “turns” of DNA, and the spools themselves are stacked together in groups of six or eight. The human cell uses about 25 million of them to keep its DNA under control.612

As shown in Figure 22-5, DNA is wound around histones to form nucleosomes. These are organized into solenoids, which in turn compose chromatin loops. Chromatin makes up the fine structure of chromosomes.

The human cell has 23 pairs of chromosomes. Chromosomes are then packed into the cell nucleus. Each element in this complex, highly organized arrangement is carefully designed to play a key role in the cell replication process.)

CELL REPLICATION

Whenever the cell needs to manufacture a new protein, it must retrieve a copy of the protein’s specifications from the coiled stacks of its DNA library. Cell replication requires the synthesis of an exact copy of the cell’s DNA. The details are too complex to be described in detail here, but a brief summary will illustrate the incredible process involved:613

An initiator protein must locate the correct place in the strand to begin copying. The initiator protein then guides an “unzipper” protein (helicase) to separate the strand, forming a fork area. This unwinding process involves speeds estimated at approximately 8000 rpm, all done without tangling the DNA strand!

The DNA duplex kinks back on itself as it unwinds. To relieve the twisting pressure, an “untwister” enzyme (topoisomerase) systematically cuts and repairs the coil. Working only on flat, untwisted sections of the DNA, enzymes go to work copying the strand. (Two complete DNA pairs are synthesized, each containing one old and one new strand.) A stitcher repair protein (DNA ligases) then connects nucleotides together into one continuous strand.

READING AND WRITING

This is just the beginning. While the unwinding and rewinding of the DNA takes place, an equally sophisticated process of reading the DNA code and “writing” new strands occurs. The process involves the production and use of messenger RNA.

The DNA coding sequences are separated by intervening sequences, known as introns, which must be detected and removed. (This is similar to the “equidistant letter sequences” described in Section IV). The remaining code sequences, known as exons, are then spliced together to form the messenger RNA molecule.614

AN EXAMPLE OF SPECIFICITY

The DNA/RNA coding system arranges the amino acids into specific sequences to form each specific protein. While similar to letters of an alphabet in sentences, only a specific sequence of amino-acids will produce the essential result. The precision of this sequence is its specificity. Since they involve a fixed alphabet in a very specific sequence, it is quite straightforward to analyze the specificity mathematically.

One of the most important proteins—perhaps the most important—is hemoglobin. It is responsible for both the red color of our blood and for the oxygen chemistry based on our breathing. The Torah notes that “life is in the blood.”615

The formula for hemoglobin is detailed in Table 22-6.

There is only one specific sequence of the above that is hemoglobin. Hemoglobin Opathy occurs if even one amino acid is replaced; it is usually lethal (sickle cell anemia being but one example).

Using the formula for alternate linear arrangements^617 of the above amino-acids indicates that there are about 10^650 permutations possible, but only one of them is hemoglobin.

(The actual number is 7.4 x 10^654. There are indications that some of the amino acid positions may be “neutral,” like spaces, which are less significant. The current research indicates that these may be up to 10% of such positions, which would indicate that there are only 516 rather than 574 significant amino acid positions, in which case the specificity would reduce to 7.9 x 10^503.)618

This is still a pretty good finite approximation for infinity; the likelihood of this sequence occurring by chance is clearly absurd.619 (In physics, any likelihood more remote than 10-50 is, by definition, absurd. Our excursions in chapter 16 should have made it clear that 10-500 is a very, very, very remote number! In speculating about obtaining this precise sequence by 10500+ random trials, also remember that there have been only about 10^17 seconds in the generally accepted age of the universe, so you would have had to work rather quickly. Also, realize that there are only about 10^66 atoms in the universe, so you can’t waste material on false tries!)

THE EIGHTH DAY

Speaking of blood, the rite of circumcision was instituted by God in the Torah.620 Abraham was told to circumcise the newborn male infant on the eighth day, the day of “new beginning.” But why the eighth day?

CHEMICAL COMPOSITION OF HEMOGLOBIN^616

AMINO-ACID

NUMBER OF AMINO ACIDS:

Glycine

36

Alanine

68

Serine

31

Tyrosine

30

Proline

25

Valine

56

Isoleucine

1

Leucine

69

Phenylainine

28

Threonine

14

Trytophan

4

Cysteine

5

Methionine

6

Asparagine

47

Glutamine

29

Arginine

12

Histidine

32

Lysine

43

Amide N*

38

*includes Aspartic and Glutamic acids

A remarkable discovery by 20th century scientists has shed new medical light on this procedure. We now know that the newborn infant has a peculiar susceptibility to bleeding between the second and fifth days of its life. A cut or injury in its first few days of life can result in excessive bleeding.

The clotting of blood is affected by Vitamin K, which is not formed in the normal amount until the fifth to the seventh day. The first safe day is the eighth day.621 This is also related to the production of prothrombin, an important blood clotting factor. On the third day it is only 30% of normal. It peaks at 110% on the eighth day; then levels off to 100% of normal. The medically optimum day for circumcision is clearly on the eighth day.

How did Moses know this? Did he determine this by trial and error?

Other cultures also practice circumcision on the first, fourth, sixth, seventh, and 20th days of life. Or was Abraham told this by our Designer?

PRIESTS REQUIRE LEVI GENES

Also in accordance with the Torah, only a descendant from the tribe of Levi—in fact, a descendant of Aaron—is qualified to be a priest to serve in the Temple. Although the Temple was destroyed in A.D. 70, we know that it will be rebuilt. Paul, John, and Jesus all made reference to it being standing at Christ’s Second Coming.622

One of the world’s premier scientific research publications^623 has announced that scientists have recently discovered a persisting genetic difference in DNA between Cohanim and all other Jews, demonstrating their common descent from a single individual, Aaron.

There are presently several hundred such young men presently undergoing training in anticipation of serving in a rebuilt Temple in Jerusalem. The plan to rebuild the Temple is one of the fascinating factors to watch. It is one of the many events on the horizon that suggest that the “70th week of Daniel” may not be very far off.

AN INCOMPLETE MODEL

Our understanding of DNA is still very incomplete. There are active pursuits attempting to create a comprehensive “map” of the human genome in the near future.

The DNA mechanisms are beginning to be understood regarding the production of proteins. There are some hints that there are additional, but elusive, dimensions to the DNA yet to emerge. But, there are some major deficiencies even in our architectural perspectives. There is, however, an even deeper problem.

When the human egg is fertilized by the sperm and becomes a zygote, mytosis (cell division) begins. The single cell splits to become two identical cells. They, in turn, split to become four. Then eight, then 16, etc. The process continues as the embryo is formed.

Soon, however, a dark line begins to develop down the center, which ultimately becomes a spine. Gradually, the cells which are dividing are no longer identical. They begin to specialize into various tissues: bone, muscle, corticle tissue, whatever. But where is the information to guide the formation of specialized tissues? And how do the tissues become organs? There are many aspects to the DNA structure that have yet to be discovered. But the dilemma goes even deeper. And how are the numerous systems—circulation, lymphatic, nervous, et al.—coordinated?

Suppose we had a group of 50 people, each of whom was skilled in playing every instrument in an orchestra. Suppose each one was provided a comprehensive set of orchestrations for a symphony. Would we then have a symphony? No.

Independent of the availability of the resources required, someone has to initiate and control the process. In computers, we call this conflict resolution logic. In the example, someone has to decide who is going to be first violin, who is going to be percussion, etc. We need a conductor to “orchestrate” the various activities to provide a harmonious result. Having each component possess the total information doesn’t resolve the need for coordination.

If one attempts to build an information model of the process, it would appear that a continuing external information input is required. There are some that are convinced that God is personally involved in each cell division. Every hair on your head is numbered (in my case it is an inventory continually being depleted!). A sparrow cannot fall to the ground without His knowing. How much more significant is a human personality that can magnify His name!

THE HUMAN BRAIN

As we explore the incredible codes and designs underlying our physiological systems, none is more staggering and mysterious than the human brain. It has been estimated that it is composed of 10^10 nerve cells, each with 10^4 to 10^5 connecting fibers, thus approaching 10^15 separate connections.

To try to imagine a 10^15 equivalent, imagine a forest half the size of the United States—about one million square miles. Assume there were 10,000 trees per square mile, each with 100,000 leaves on each tree. That’s a bunch.

The human brain’s network is a highly organized network of uniquely adaptive communication channels. If only 1% of the connections were specifically organized pathways, it would still represent a greater number of connections than the entire communications network on the Planet Earth.

THE ORGANIZATION OF THE BRAIN

It has been generally believed that memories were localized in the brain. The research conducted by Canadian neurosurgeon Wilder Penfield in the 1920s had offered convincing evidence that specific memories did have specific locations in the brain. In his book, The Mystery of the Mind, published just before his death, he concluded that everything we have ever experienced is recorded in our brain, a sequential record of consciousness that was spatially recorded.624

However, Karl Pribram, a neurophysiologist at Stanford University and author of the classic neuropsychological textbook Languages of the Brain, became convinced that this model was inadequate because of the failure of standard theories of the brain to explain various neurophysiological puzzles. He discovered that removal of parts of the brain didn’t eradicate memories. He came to believe that memories were not localized at specific brain sites but were somehow spread out or distributed throughout the brain as a whole.

Indiana University biologist Paul Pietsch set out to disprove Pribram’s theories. In a series of over 700 operations on salamanders, he discovered that their learned behavior was not affected by repositioning, reversing, or even shuffling the brain. After recovering from the operation, their behavior returned to normal.625

HOLOGRAPHIC MODEL?

When Pribram discovered holography, he was ecstatic. If it was possible for every portion of a piece of holographic film to contain all the information necessary to create a whole image, then it seemed equally possible for every part of the brain to contain all of the information necessary to recall a whole memory.

The holographic paradigm also explains how our brains can store so many memories in so little space. The brilliant physicist and mathematician John von Neumann, whom we met in chapter 1, once calculated that over the course of the average human lifetime, the brain stores something on the order of 2.8 x 10^20 bits of information. (Accepting the traditional estimate of the age of the universe as about ten billion years, that’s 1,000 bits for every second in the entire history of the universe!) This is a staggering amount of information, and brain researchers have long struggled to come up with a mechanism that could explain such a vast capability.

In the field of neurophysiology numerous studies have corroborated Pribram’s various predictions about the holographic nature of memory and also of perception. There is also accumulating evidence that the brain processes images by some kind of internal holograms. Berkeley neurophysiologists Russell and Karen DeValois discovered that the visual cortex processed patterns by Fourier transformations of the patterns.

(Over a century before the DeValoises’ discovery, the German physiologist and physicist Hermann von Helmholtz had shown that the ear was a frequency analyzer. More recent research has revealed that our sense of smell seems to be based on what are called osmic frequencies.)

And yet, the distributed nature of memory and vision is not the only neurophysiological puzzle the holographic model seems to explain. The mysteries of pattern recognition, eidetic (“photographic”) memories, transference of learned skills from one part of the body to another, the sensations of a phantom limb which has been amputated, all involve mysteries which seem to yield to the virtual imaging of a holographic model.

It is obvious that our feelings of love, hunger, anger, etc., are internal realities; the sound of an orchestra playing, the warmth of the sun, the smell of bread baking, etc., are external realities. But it is not clear how our brains enable us to distinguish between the two. Creating illusions where they are not is the quintessential feature of a hologram. The hologram is a virtual image, an image which appears to be where it is not. It requires no more real space than the three-dimensional image you see of yourself in a mirror.

Furthermore, the notion of the “mind” is broader than simply the organ we call the brain. There are aspects to imagination, inspiration and creativity that go far beyond the mechanisms for storage, recall, and processing. Is there more to our being than falls within the realm of physiology? Is there a “holy of holies” in our own being that doesn’t lend itself to x-rays, ultrasound or electron microscopes? Is there a hyperdimensional transformer or transfer function that connects us to another dimension beyond those of our consciousness?

(The architecture of our personality, which goes far beyond just the “mind,” has, in fact, been mapped out by the Designer and has been explored by other publications involving the author but which go far beyond the discussion at hand.626)

Next, let’s explore the nature of the physical reality in which we live, and move, and have our being. Is it also some kind of giant hologram?

SUGGESTIONS FOR FURTHER READING:

Missler, Chuck and Eastman, Mark, The Creator Beyond Time and Space, The Word for Today, Costa Mesa, California, 1996.

Michael Denton, Evolution: A Theory in Crisis, Adler & Adler, Bethesda, Maryland, 1986.

John Gribbin, In Search of the Double Helix, Bantam Books, New York, 1987.

Karl Pribram, Languages of the Brain, Wadsworth Publishing, Monterey, California, 1977.

J. Collier, C. B. Burckhardt, and L. H. Lin, Optical Holography, Academic Press, New York, 1971.

23

“The entire universe

is a cryptogram

set by the Almighty.”

SIR ISAAC NEWTON

CHAPTER 23

What is the significance of symmetry and numerical design in the universe? Is there a parallel significance of the symmetry between the Biblical text and the design of the universe?

What do the nonlocality discoveries of physics tell us about the ultimate metacodes? Is our universe itself digital? Is our “reality” only a virtual one?

THE FINITE UNIVERSE

The startling discovery of modern science is that our universe is finite.

Scientists acknowledge that the universe had a beginning. They call the singularity from which it all began the “Big Bang.” While the details among the many variants of the theories remain quite controversial, the fact that there was a definite beginning has gained widespread agreement.627 This is, of course, what the Bible has maintained throughout its 66 books.

From thermodynamic considerations, it also appears that all processes in the universe inevitably contribute their losses from their inefficiencies to the ambient temperature, and thus the universe ultimately will attain a uniform temperature in which no work—all of which derives from temperature differences—will be able to be accomplished. Scientists call this final ultimate physical destiny the “heat death.”

Mankind, therefore, finds itself caught in a finite interval between the singularity that began it all and a finite termination. The mathematical concept of infinity—in any spatial direction or in terms of time—seems astonishingly absent in the macrocosm, the domain of the astronomers and cosmologists.

In the microcosmic domain, there also appears to be an even more astonishing boundary to smallness. If we take a segment of length, we can divide it in half. We can take one of the remaining halves, and we can divide it in half again. We naturally assume that this can go on forever. We assume that no matter how small a length we end up dealing with, we can always, at least conceptually, divide any remainder in half. It turns out that this is not true. There is a length, known as the Planck length, 10-33 centimeters, that is indivisible.

The same thing is true of mass, energy, and even time. There is a unit of time which cannot be further divided—10-43 seconds. It is in this strange world of subatomic behavior that scientists have encountered the very boundaries of physical reality as we experience it. The study of these subatomic components is called quantum mechanics, or quantum physics.

The startling discovery made by the quantum physicists is that if you break matter into smaller and smaller pieces, you eventually reach a point where those pieces—electrons, protons, etc.—no longer possess the traits of objects. Although they can sometimes behave as if they were a compact little particle, physicists have found that they literally possess no dimension.

Another discovery of the physicists is that a subatomic particle, such as an electron, can manifest itself as either a particle or a wave. If you shoot an electron at a television screen that has been turned off, a tiny point of light will appear when it strikes the phosphorescent chemicals that coat the glass. The single point of impact which the electron leaves on the screen clearly reveals the particle-like side of its nature.

But that is not the only form the electron can assume. It can also dissolve into a blurry cloud of energy and behave as if it were a wave spread out over space. When an electron manifests itself as a wave it can do things no particle can. If it is fired at a barrier in which two slits have been cut, it can go through both slits simultaneously. When wavelike electrons collide with each other they even create interference patterns.

It is interesting that in 1906, J. J. Thomson received the Nobel Prize for proving that electrons are particles. In 1937 he saw his son awarded the Nobel Prize for proving that electrons were waves. Both father and son were correct. From then on, the evidence for the wave/particle duality has become overwhelming.

This chameleonlike ability is common to all subatomic particles. Called quanta, they can manifest themselves either as a particle or a wave. What makes them even more astonishing is that there is compelling evidence that the only time quanta ever manifest as particles is when we are looking at them.

The Danish physicist Niels Bohr pointed out that if subatomic particles only come into existence in the presence of an observer, then it is also meaningless to speak of a particle’s properties and characteristics as existing before they are observed. But if the act of observation actually helped create such properties, what did that imply about the future of science?

Anyone who isn’t shocked by quantum physics

has not understood it.

Niels Bohr

It gets worse. Some subatomic processes result in the creation of a pair of particles with identical or closely related properties. Quantum physics predicts that attempts to measure complementary characteristics on the pair—even when traveling in opposite directions—would always be frustrated. Such strange behavior would imply that they would have to be interconnected in some way so as to be instantaneously in communication with each other.

One physicist who was deeply troubled by Bohr’s assertions was Albert Einstein. Despite the role Einstein had played in the founding of quantum theory, he was not pleased with the course the fledgling science had taken. In 1935 Einstein and his colleagues Boris Podolsky and Nathan Rosen published their now famous paper, “Can Quantum-Mechanical Description of Physical Reality Be Considered Complete?”628

The problem, according to Einstein’s special Theory of Relativity, is that nothing can travel faster than the speed of light. The instantaneous communication implied by the view of quantum physics would be tantamount to breaking the time barrier and would open the door to all kinds unacceptable paradoxes. Einstein and his colleagues were convinced that no “reasonable definition” of reality would permit such faster-than-light interconnections to exist and therefore Bohr had to be wrong. Their argument is now known as the Einstein-Podolsky-Rosen paradox, or EPR paradox for short.

Bohr remained unperturbed by Einstein’s argument. Rather than believing that some kind of faster-than-light communication was taking place, he offered another explanation. If subatomic particles do not exist until they are observed, then one could no longer think of them as independent “things.” Thus Einstein was basing his argument on an error when he viewed twin particles as separate. They were part of an indivisible system, and it was meaningless to think of them otherwise. In time, most physicists sided with Bohr and became content that his interpretation was correct.

One factor that contributed to Bohr’s following was that quantum physics had proved so spectacularly successful in predicting phenomena, few physicists were willing to even consider the possibility that it might be faulty in some way. The entire industries of lasers, microelectronics, and computers have emerged on the reliability of the predictions of quantum physics.

The popular CalTech physicist Richard Feynman has summed it up well:

“I think it is safe to say that no one understands quantum mechanics.… In fact, it is often stated that of all the theories proposed in this century, the silliest is quantum theory. Some say that the only thing that quantum theory has going for it, in fact, is that it is unquestionably correct.”

When Einstein and his colleagues first made their proposal, technical and other reasons prevented any empirical experiments being actually performed. The broader philosophical implications were, ironically, ignored and swept under the carpet.

THE COSMOS AS A HYPER-HOLOGRAM?

There seems to be evidence to suggest that our world and everything in it are also only ghostly images, projections from a level of reality so beyond our own that the real reality is literally beyond both space and time. The main architect of this astonishing idea includes one of the world’s most eminent thinkers—University of London physicist David Bohm, a protégé of Einstein’s and one of the world’s most respected quantum physicists.

Bohm’s work in plasma physics in the 1950s is considered a landmark. Earlier at the Lawrence Radiation Laboratory, he noticed that in plasmas (gases composed of high density electrons and positive ions) the particles stopped behaving like individuals and started behaving as if they were part of a larger and interconnected whole. Moving to Princeton University in 1947, there too he continued his work in the behavior of oceans of particles, noting their highly organized overall effects and behaving as if they knew what each of the untold trillions of individual particles were doing.

Bohm’s sense of the importance of interconnectedness, as well as years of dissatisfaction with the inability of standard theories to explain all of the phenomena encountered in quantum physics, left him searching. While at Princeton, Bohm and Einstein developed a supportive relationship and shared their mutual restlessness regarding the strange implications of current quantum theory.

One of the implications of Bohm’s view has to do with the nature of location. Bohm’s interpretation of quantum physics indicated that at the subquantum level location ceased to exist. All points in space become equal to all other points in space, and it was meaningless to speak of anything as being separate from anything else. Physicists call this property “nonlocality.”

THE BELL INEQUALITY

Bohm’s ideas left most physicists unpersuaded, but they did stir the interest of a few. One of these was John Stewart Bell, a theoretical physicist at CERN, the center for atomic research at Geneva, Switzerland. Like Bohm, Bell had become discontented with the quantum theory and felt there had to be some alternative.

When Bell encountered Bohm’s ideas, he wondered if there was some way of experimentally verifying nonlocality. Freed up by a sabbatical in 1964, he developed an elegant mathematical approach which revealed how such a two-particle experiment could be performed—the now famed Bell Inequality. The only problem was that it required a level of technological precision that was not yet available. To be certain that particles, such as those in the EPR paradox, were not using some normal means of communication, the basic operations of the experiment had to be performed in such an infinitesimally brief instant that there wouldn’t be enough time for a ray of light to transit the distance separating the two particles. Light travels at about a foot in a nanosecond. This meant that the instruments used in the experiment had to perform all the necessary operations within a few nanoseconds (thousand millionths of a second).

As technology improved it was finally possible to perform the two-particle experiment outlined by Bell. In 1982, a landmark experiment was performed by a research team led by physicist Alain Aspect, Jean Dalibard, and Gérard Roger at the Institute of Theoretical and Applied Optics in Paris. They produced a series of twin photons by heating calcium atoms with lasers, allowed each photon to travel in opposite directions through 6.5 meters of pipe and pass through special filters that directed them toward one of two possible polarization analyzers. It took each filter 10 nanoseconds to switch between one analyzer or the other, about 30 nanoseconds less than it took light to travel the entire 13 meters separating each set of photons. In this way Aspect and his colleagues were able to rule out any possibility of the photons communicating by any known physical process.

The experiment succeeded. Just as quantum theory predicted, each photon was still able to correlate its angle of polarization with that of its twin. This meant that either Einstein’s ban against faster-than-light communications was being violated or the two photons were nonlocally connected.

This experiment demonstrated that the web of subatomic particles which compose our physical universe—the very fabric of “reality” itself—possesses what appears to be an undeniable “holographic” property. Paul Davis of the University of Newcastle upon Tyne, England, observed that since all particles are continually interacting and separating, “the nonlocal aspects of quantum systems is therefore a general property of nature.”629

It may come as a surprise to learn that the first direct technological implementation of these strange principles of quantum mechanics is in cryptology. British researchers have constructed a device for quantum key encryption and decryption. The device allows a key to be secretly distributed in such a way that should the key become known to an unintended listener, both the transmitter of the key and all designated recipients of it will instantaneously know that illicit knowledge has come into existence and can thus immediately avoid using that key. Limitation of present technology severely restricts the distances over which this is practical, but the encryption among agencies within a major metropolitan area, or a nation’s capital, is already attainable.630

THE NATURE OF REALITY

One of Bohm’s most startling suggestions is that the tangible reality of our everyday lives is really a kind of illusion, like a holographic image. Underlying it is a deeper order of existence, a vast and more primary level of reality that gives birth to all the objects and appearances of our physical world in much the same way that a piece of holographic film gives birth to a hologram. Bohm calls this deeper level of reality the implicate (“enfolded”) order, and he refers to our level of existence as the explicate (unfolded) order.631

This view is not inconsistent with the Biblical presentation of the physical world as being subordinate to the spiritual world as the superior reality.632

Many physicists remain skeptical of Bohm’s ideas. Among those who are sympathetic, however, are Roger Penrose of Oxford, the creator of the modern theory of black holes; Bernard d’Espagnat of the University of Paris, one of the leading authorities on the conceptual foundations of quantum theory; and Cambridge’s Brian Josephson, winner of the 1973 Nobel Prize in physics. Josephson believes that Bohm’s implicate order may someday even lead to the inclusion of God within the framework of science, a view which Josephson supports.633

The holographic paradigm is still a developing concept and riddled with controversies. For decades science has chosen to ignore evidences that do not fit the standard theories. However, the volume of evidence has now reached the point that denial is no longer a viable option. The holographic model has also opened the door to a wide range of phenomena so elusive that they generally have been categorized outside the province of scientific understanding—telepathy, precognition, mystical feelings, psychokinesis, etc.

The Bible, incidentally, is unique in that it also presents a universe of more than three dimensions,634 and reveals a Creator that is transcendent over His creation.635 It is the only “holy book” that possesses these contemporary insights.

THE MATHEMATICS OF CHAOS

Classical science generally divides things into two categories: those that possess order in the arrangement of their parts and those whose parts are disordered, or random, in arrangement. Snowflakes, computers, living things are all ordered. The pattern of a handful of tacks spilled on the floor, the debris left by an explosion, a series of numbers generated by a roulette wheel, all appear disordered, or “random.” Our mathematics is divided between that which is deterministic (traditional equations) and that which is stochastic (which deals with “random” variables.)

Mathematicians, however, have been unable to prove the physical existence of randomness. The study of ostensibly random effects has emerged as a field of mathematics known as Chaos Theory. Even the ambiguous comfort of true randomness within the physical world has been called into question by the new math of Chaos Theory.

The inability to confirm the existence of either infinity—in either the macrocosm of the astronomer or the microcosm of quantum physicist–or randomness, has placed an unwelcome limit on our cosmological speculations.

It is interesting that the Bible has maintained all along that

“The lot is cast into the lap; but the whole disposing thereof is of the LORD.”

Proverbs 16:33

Einstein said, “God does not play dice.” (If He did, He’d win.)

HYPERSPACES

In chapter 3 we explored the discovery of additional spaces beyond the three spatial dimensions with which we are familiar. From Einstein to Kaluza-Klein to Yang-Mills, scientists now tell us that we exist in (at least) ten dimensions. The pursuit of “superstrings” (one dimensional “strings” vibrating in ten dimensions) is in the current hope for a “theory of everything,” the physicist’s quest for a General Unified Theory to integrate all of the physical universe. Particle physicists have recently concluded that we live in ten dimensions. Three spatial dimensions and time are directly discernable and measurable; the remaining six are “curled” in less than the Planck length (10-33 centimeters) and thus are only inferable by indirect means.636

It is interesting that the ancient Hebrew scholar Nachmonides, writing in the 12th century, concluded from his studies of the text of Genesis that the universe has ten dimensions, that four are knowable and six are beyond our knowing.

FRACTURE IN GENESIS 3?

There is a provocative conjecture that these ten (or more) dimensions were originally integrated but suffered a fracture as a result of the events deriving from the “fall of man” summarized in Genesis chapter 3. The resulting upheaval separated them into the “physical” and “spiritual” worlds.

There appears to be some Scriptural basis for an original close coupling between the spiritual and physical world. The highly venerated Onkelos translation of Genesis 1:31 emphasizes that originally “…it was a unified order.” The suggestion is that the current physics, including the entropy laws (“the bondage of decay”), were a result of the fall.637

The entropy laws reveal a universe which is “winding down.” It had to have been initially “wound-up.” This windup—the reduction of entropy, or the infusion of order (information)—is described in Genesis 1 in a series of six stages. The terms used in this progressive reduction of entropy (disorder) are erev and boker, which have led to their being translated “evening” and “morning.”

Erev is dark, obscure, randomness—maximum entropy. As darkness envelopes our horizon, we lose the ability to discern order or patterns. The darkness was “without form and void.” From this term we derive the current sememe for “evening,” when the encroaching darkness begins to deny us the ability to discern forms, shapes, and identities.

Boker is the advent of light, where things begin to become discernable, visible, order begins to appear. This relief of obscurity and the attendant ability to begin to discern forms, shapes, and identities have become associated with dawn or “morning,” as the early twilight begins to reveal order and design.

Evening-and-mornings constituted the principal stages of creation. Six “evenings” and “mornings” became the “Days” constituting the creation “week.” However, what we know about the physical universe is only from observing the universe after the upheavals of Genesis 3.

THE SPEED OF LIGHT

The field of physics worships at the altar of c, the velocity of light. It is regarded as the inviolate constant which affects all things—from our knowledge of astronomy to the very behavior of subatomic particles. Even the basic relationship between mass and energy is known by every schoolboy as E = mc^2.

Greek philosophers generally followed Aristotle’s belief that the speed of light was infinite.638 Even Kepler (A.D. 1600) maintained the majority view that light was instantaneous.639 Descartes (who died in 1650) strongly held to a belief in the instantaneous propagation of light. He strongly influenced the scientists of the period and following.

It wasn’t until 1677 when a Danish astronomer, Olaf Roemer, announced that the anomalous behavior of the eclipse times of Jupiter’s inner moon, Io, could be accounted for by a finite speed of light. It took another half century for that notion to be accepted. It wasn’t until 1729 that James Bradley’s independent confirmation finally ended the opposition to a finite value for the speed of light. Roemer’s work, which had split the scientific community for 53 years, was finally vindicated. This emotional inertia concerning the velocity of light seems to continue to haunt the dogmas of physics.

The speed of light has been measured 163 times by 16 different methods over the past 300 years. However, Australian physicist Barry Setterfield and mathematician Trevor Norman, re-examining the known experimental measurements to date, have suggested a highly controversial discovery: the speed of light appears to have been slowing down!

1657: Roemer

307,600.

+/- 5400 km/sec

1875: Harvard

299,921.

+/- 13 km/sec

1983: NBS (laser method):

299,792.4358

+/- 0.0003 km/sec

The speed of light is now measured as 299,792.4358 kilometers per second.640 (This is approximately 186,000 miles/second, or one foot per nanosecond.)

The Canadian mathematician, Alan Montgomery, has reported a computer analysis supporting the Setterfield/Norman results. His model indicates that the decay of velocity of light closely follows a cosecant-squared curve, and has been asymptotic since 1958. If he is correct, the speed of light was 10-30% faster in the time of Christ; twice as fast in the days of Solomon; four times as fast in days of Abraham, and perhaps more than ten million times faster prior to 3000 B.C.

Needless to say, this view is highly controversial, and the majority of physicists intensely reject this hypothesis. Some confirmatory trends have been reported in 475 measurements of 11 other atomic quantities by 25 methods in dynamical time. It could again, as it did in the days of Roemer, take 50 years before it is resolved. But there is another most disturbing discovery that strangely may prove to support the Setterfield view.

THE SHIFT OF TIFFT

Ever since Edwin Hubble formulated his theory that the “red shift” observed in the spectra of stars was a form of the “Doppler Effect,” astronomers have built upon the assumption of an “expanding universe.” The universe itself—the space between the galaxies—may be expanding. Matter is now viewed as a distortion in space-time. Gravity is the influence of gravitational forces from curvature of space-time: “space tells matter how to move; matter tells space how to curve.” As light travels through expanding space, it is “stretched” to longer wavelengths, that is, to the red. A number of Biblical passages also seem to suggest this possibility.641

Some scientists worry that there may be yet other explanations for the red shift and that too much reliance may have been placed on Hubble’s Law. Halton Arp, an American astronomer based in Germany, has collected “discrepant” red shifts which appear to be in conflict with traditional views. Some galaxies are even moving towards us, such as the Andromeda Galaxy.

Furthermore, William Tifft, an astronomer at the University of Arizona, has been collecting data on red shifts for about 20 years, and it now appears that the universe might not be expanding. Tifft has discovered that galaxies exhibit only certain discrete values, rather than the more random distribution one would expect if the shifts were distance related. The red shifts appear to be quantized.

Strangely, this may prove to vindicate the Setterfield hypothesis concerning the decay of c. These red shifts appear in discrete quantum levels, similar to the energy states of subatomic particles in quantum physics. Specific values of c govern the quantization of the emitted wavelengths, and quantized red shifts would result.642

THE ADVENTURE OF IDEAS

Physics has always been the most “solid” of the sciences. The theoretical physicists have always been “audited” by the empirical physicists. It is interesting that this field is now being beset by major upheavals on all sides—at the macrocosmic level and the submicrocosmic level as well.

The disturbing insight from our present understanding of reality is that the universe may be some kind of a digital simulation, and its foundation is in the information sciences, not the physics as we have come to presume. Creation is an issue of information. It was expressed. It is significant that the fundamental title of the Creator is The Logos, the Word of God.643 He is that ultimate expression.

We are thus hemmed in by an unwelcome accountability. It is understandable that our high priests of science decline to acknowledge it. Denial, however, offers only a brief postponement. A Day of Reckoning will ultimately unequivocally resolve all residual uncertainties and doubts.

The ultimate adventure is the adventure of ideas. The ultimate conversation—the dialogue with our Creator. What could be more exciting? Our next section will attempt to enlist you, and assist you, in pursuing these topics on your own.

SUGGESTIONS FOR FURTHER READING:

Missler, Chuck and Eastman, Mark, The Creator Beyond Time and Space, The Word for Today, Costa Mesa, California, 1996.

Michio Kaku, Hyperspace, Oxford University Press, New York, 1994.

Davies, Paul, The Edge of Infinity, Simon and Schuster, New York, 1982.

Davies, Paul, God & The New Physics, Simon and Schuster, New York, 1983.

Hawking, Stephen W., A Brief History of Time, Bantam Books, 1988.

Ross, Hugh, The Fingerprint of God, Promise Publishing Co., Orange, California, 1989.

Dolphin, Lambert, Jesus: Lord of Time and Space, New Leaf Press, Green Forest, Arkansas, 1988.

SECTION VII

Chapter 24

Your Personal Adventure

Chapter 25

The Ultimate Code: You

24

“There is a tide in the affairs of men

Which, taken at the flood, leads on to fortune;

Omitted, all the voyage of their life

Is bound in shallows and in miseries.

On such a full sea are we now afloat,

And we must take the current when it serves,

Or lose our ventures.”

JULIUS CAESAR,

Act I V, Scene 3

CHAPTER 24

As you undertake the serious study of the Bible, you are embarking on the most exciting adventure, the adventure of ideas. It should be your personal journey of discovery in this odyssey between the miracle of your origin and the mystery of your destiny.

Why an “adventure” Because it isn’t a spectator sport; it involves participation! The most exciting “codes” will be the ones you discover for yourself. This is too important to be left to others. It’s the mystery of your personal destiny, after all. But there are some tools you may need to include for your journey.

HERETICAL HERMENEUTICS

Hermeneutics is the art of interpreting literature, especially the Sacred Scriptures, and it includes the recognition of the principles upon which a true analysis must proceed. It is to be distinguished from exegesis, which focuses on what the text actually expresses or intends to express.

(Many commentators tend to be like Humpty Dumpty in Lewis Carroll’s Through the Looking Glass, who maintained that, “When I use a word, it means just what I choose it to mean—neither more nor less.”644)

The classical approach to conservative Biblical hermeneutics usually emphasizes the following considerations.

1. The consideration of the purpose of the Bible as a whole;

2. The distinctive character of each book under consideration;

3. To whom a specific passage is addressed;

4. Exegesis: discovery of the exact meaning of the determinative words in the text (yet being alert to synecdoches, puns, et al.; see Appendix A.);

5. Consideration of the context;

6. Consideration of the all related Scripture on the given theme;

7. The necessity of blindfolding your personal prejudices.

These emphases yield good intellectual hygiene. They are the pillars upon which traditional doctrines are rigorously anchored. It is the unwavering enslavement to the grip of context, however, that can seem myopic at times.

Developing a suitable balance of creative reach, constrained by scholarly caution, is essential in addressing any serious work and certainly is a primary challenge with respect to any Biblical investigation. (Yet this may be where you may need to exchange your straitjacket for a flak vest!)

TOOLS OF DISCOVERY

The tools of the trial lawyer are quite different from those of the detective. The former are deductive; the latter are inductive. The seminary graduate, defending a doctrine, uses much more restrictive techniques than the inquisitive student who is simply seeking understanding. Proofs are based on deductive reasoning. “Seek the normal sense, seek no other sense, or else you will get nonsense,” is the traditional and secure advice.

But before any final, rigorous proof is formulated, many rehearsals take place, and in these it is not deductive reasoning but plausible reasoning that is practiced. Deductive reasoning becomes useful only when we know what to prove and how to prove it. Plausible reasoning is the logic of discovery. The methods of plausible reasoning include induction, analogy, generalization and specialization.645

As we examine carefully the use of passages as they are “decoded” by the Scripture itself, however, we find some disturbing but illuminating examples. It will become apparent that it is the integrity of the whole that provides the ultimate context which often transcends the local context entirely.

NONCONTEXTUAL ALLUSIONS

When Joseph and Mary were warned of Herod’s malicious intentions toward the baby Jesus, they fled to Egypt to escape his schemes.646 After Herod’s death, they were then free to return to their native Nazareth.647 In Matthew’s account, he specifically notes that the detour in Egypt was itself a fulfillment of a prophecy by Hosea:648

“Out of Egypt I have called my son.”

This appears to be a quote from Hosea 11:1, and yet when examined in its place, this application would appear to be extremely remote from the context one would infer from the source passage. Any attempt by Matthew to impute the constraints of the apparent context in Hosea seems contrived, indeed.

And again, in regard to the murder of the children in Bethlehem, Matthew draws upon a passage from Jeremiah as a prophecy being fulfilled:

“In Rama was there a voice heard, lamentation, and weeping, and great mourning, Rachel weeping for her children, and would not be comforted, because they are not.”

Matthew 2:18

This is taken from Jeremiah 31:15, which clearly has in view the return of the nation after the Babylonian exile. It is hard to see how the “context” has any bearing on the validity of Matthew’s application to the murders in Bethlehem.

In chapter 16 we reviewed a number of well-known prophecies that seem to emerge from the text despite the specific context that surrounded many of them. Paul, also, draws on some interesting “decodings” when he links, in 1 Corinthians 10:4, the concept of the “rock that followed” Israel in the wilderness to Jesus Christ Himself. He appears to be alluding to the two occasions during which they were provided their needed water to drink from the rock at Meribah.

From Paul’s clue, we can recognize a broader macrocode-type pattern in these two incidents. In fact, this broader perspective may clear up a mystery. In the first instance (Exodus 17:5-6), God instructed Moses specifically to strike the rock, which he did, and the water was then provided.

In the second instance (Numbers 20:7-11), God instructed Moses to speak to the rock.649 However, Moses, in his exasperation with his own people, struck the rock with his rod as he did on the previous occasion. What makes this situation so disturbing is that for Moses’ failure to follow God’s instructions precisely he was not allowed to enter the Promised Land!650 He was allowed to view it from Mount Nebo before his death but not allowed to accompany his charges during their entry. What a blow!

It is generally taught that Moses simply misrepresented God to the people in letting them think that God was angry; and, perhaps, also appearing to take credit for the provision.651 In any case, this strikes many as a bit severe. After 40 years of faithful, strenuous, and often frustrating service, this misfeasance denied him his lifetime dream.

But there is also an additional possibility. If Moses had followed God’s specific instruction, these two events might have served as a macrocode of the two comings of the Messiah, in which only the first occasion involved the rock being smitten. Paul reveals that, idiomatically, the “rock” was a code for Christ. Is it possible that one aspect of Moses’ unfortunate performance was that an intended macrocode was thus blown?

EXPOSITIONAL CONSTANCY

It is remarkable how consistent is the use of such metaphors and similes across the entire body of Scripture. It is one of the subtle, yet conspicuous, demonstrations of its unified design and its sole authorship. The “rock” allusion by Paul is echoed in similar phrases throughout the entire Bible as the Rock of our salvation,652 a rock of offense and stone of stumbling,653 and the very foundation (“upon this rock I will build my church”),654 each referring to Christ. This same “stone,”

“The stone which the builders refused is become the head stone of the corner.”

Psalm 118:22

This is quoted in Matthew 21:42, Mark 12:10, Luke 20:17, Acts 4:11, Ephesians 2:20, and 1 Peter 2:7, in each case referring to Jesus Christ Himself being the Chief cornerstone. Also,

“And he shall be for a sanctuary; but for a stone of stumbling and for a rock of offence to both the houses of Israel, for a gin and for a snare to the inhabitants of Jerusalem.”

Isaiah 8:14

This is quoted in 1 Peter 2:8, referring to Jesus Christ. And,

“Therefore thus saith the Lord GOD, Behold, I lay in Zion for a foundation a stone, a tried stone, a precious corner stone, a sure foundation: he that believeth shall not panic.”

Isaiah 28:16

This is quoted in 1 Peter 2:6 likewise. In the famous prophetic passage of Gentile dominion, we again see the “stone” idiom referring to Christ:

“Thou sawest till that a stone was cut out without hands, which smote the image upon his feet that were of iron and clay, and brake them to pieces.

“Then was the iron, the clay, the brass, the silver, and the gold, broken to pieces together, and became like the chaff of the summer threshingfloors; and the wind carried them away, that no place was found for them: and the stone that smote the image became a great mountain, and filled the whole earth.”

Daniel 2:34-35

This same idiom is quoted in Matthew 21:44 and Luke 20:18:

“And whosoever shall fall on this stone shall be broken: but on whomsoever it shall fall, it will grind him to powder.”

There are many other examples.

HIDDEN KEYS TO UNLOCK

Often the keys to unlocking a passage are tucked away in the strangest places. Local context is not always helpful in uncovering their implications. This is why it is such an incredible discovery to grasp the integrity of the entire collection—66 books that are an integrated message system. Once you discover that for yourself, innumerable difficulties disappear.

In Revelation chapter 9 we encounter strange “locusts” that have a king named Abaddon.655 Yet, Proverbs 30:27 tells us that the “locusts have no king.” Thus, we infer that the “locusts” of Revelation are not natural locusts but are idiomatic for demons. This same “code” is used in Amos 7:1 (in the Greek Septuagint) in which we learn that “Gog” is also a king of the demon locusts.656

There are hundreds of such subtleties that are too specialized for this overview and are best discussed within an expositional commentary of the specific passages involved.657

POT HOLES, PITFALLS, AND QUICKSAND

Once you discover the integrity of the whole, and who Jesus Christ really is, it is amazing how many controversies evaporate…and how much pseudo-scholarship can be dispensed with. Here are just a few to make your trip less troublesome.

PITFALL NO. 1: THE DOCUMENTARY HYPOTHESIS

There are those who do not believe that Moses wrote the first five books of the Bible, the Torah (in Hebrew) or the Pentateuch (in Greek). Many academics espouse what is known as the “Documentary hypothesis” (also called the “Graf-Wellhausen” hypothesis), which was first popularized by Julius Wellhausen (1876-77) and his colleagues. Discerning what they felt were textual style differences, they attributed various segments of the books of Moses to various redactors known as J, or Yahwist; E, or Elohist; D, for a Deuteronomic source; P, for a Priestly source, etc.

Wading through the erudite details can make this all seem quite scholarly, but it is simply skepticism draped in academic arrogance. And it makes Jesus a liar or deceiver.

In one of His first endeavors after His resurrection, Jesus gave a seven-mile, Old Testament Bible study on the road to Emmaus in which He attributed the Torah to Moses.658 Throughout the New Testament, the Torah is quoted and invariably attributed to Moses.659 And Jesus clearly declared they all speak of Himself.660 The New Testament relies heavily on the Torah, with 165 direct quotes and over 200 allusions. To deny the authorship of Moses is to build the New Testament record on a foundation of deceit.

Any sound commentary on Genesis will deal with this distraction.

PITFALL NO. 2: THE DEUTERO-ISAIAH HYPOTHESIS

A close cousin to the Documentary Hypothesis is the notion that there were really two Isaiahs. (Some variants even suggest three or more.) This emerges from a perceived difference in style between the first 39 chapters and the last 27. It is purported that the writer of “Isaiah I” and the writer of “Isaiah II” lived at different times and had different styles.

Each of the detailed assertions can be refuted by sound textual analysis, but this can derail you from a great deal of more fruitful study. Again, the Scripture itself comes to our rescue. (It’s really amazing how the Scripture anticipates every heresy that has emerged throughout history.)

In John 12:38 there is a quote from Isaiah chapter 53. In John 12:40 there is a quote from Isaiah chapter 6. Between these two verses, John 12:39 links them by saying, “that [same] Isaiah said again.…” John tells us that Isaiah I and Isaiah II are by the same author. If you recognize the integrity of the whole, you can keep from wasting a lot of energy going down the rabbit trails of the skeptical academics.

PITFALL NO. 3: ARGUMENTS FROM CHURCH HISTORY

If anyone sets out to take the Bible seriously, it can be treacherous to rely on the vagaries of church history as a reliable guide. The entire history of the church has been a chronicle of repeated deviations from the clear teachings of the Scripture and, ultimately, their eventual correction. In fact, the seven letters to the representative churches in Revelation chapters 2 and 3 caught all of them off guard. Each church was surprised to read its report card.

A stellar example is the issue of amillennialism: the denial that Christ is literally to return to the earth to rule on David’s throne. This is still commonly taught in many churches. (I apologize if this appears offensive; but if one takes the Bible seriously, one has to deal with what the Bible says, not what denominational traditions have clung to.)

The Old Testament clearly taught that the Messiah would rule on David’s throne. These promises were reconfirmed to Mary in Luke 1:32. David’s throne did not exist during Christ’s ministry. This is clearly yet future. But the issue is much broader than that.

When the Roman Empire adopted Christianity under Constantine in the fourth century, the emphasis that Christ was to ultimately return to rid the earth of its evil rulers was not a popular pulpit position for the Imperial leadership. The allegorization of the Scriptures was then resorted to in order to “spiritualize” the message into more politically correct terms. Amillennialism, the denial of a literal future 1000-year rule of Christ on the earth, began with Augustine (A.D. 345-430), built upon the allegorizations of Origen.

However, amillennialism would make God guilty of not keeping His unconditional covenants to the physical descendants of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob: the Jews.

• Promise of the land: Genesis 12:7; 13:15, 16; 17:7, 8.

• Promise of the land, a kingdom, and a greater Son of David (Messiah) as King: Psalm 89:27-37.

• Promise of restoration to the land of Israel from worldwide dispersion and the establishment of Messiah’s kingdom: Jeremiah 31:37; Ezekiel 36,37 38, 39, etc.

• Promises that a remnant of the Israelites will be saved: Romans 11:25-29; Zechariah 13:8,9; Isaiah 10:20-22.

When Augustine adopted the amillennial view, it became the dominant view of the Roman Catholic Church. Even after the Reformation, most of the Protestant reformers failed to challenge these views from the medieval church, and so they continue in many traditional denominations.

Amillennialism became a foundation for anti-Semitism (Jeremiah 31:35-37). Unfortunately, it is reviving again. It has, of course, proven tragic for the Jews. It has also proven tragic for the Church since it caused the Church to lose its Jewish roots and comprehension of the critical Old Testament perspectives.

There are many other ramifications that go far beyond this cursory review, and none of them is free of controversy. But this example was included as it is a conspicuous case where the Biblical text is quite clear and unambiguous, and yet church history has not proven to be a reliable guide to sound hermeneutics. There are many other examples, but we’ll let this caution flag suffice.

BEGINNING A SERIOUS STUDY

The best way to eat an elephant is one bite at a time. Pick a book of the Bible—any book will do—and really dig into it.

Many like to start with the Gospel of John. It is said to be “Shallow enough for a child to wade in, deep enough for an elephant to immerse in.”

Others like to begin at the beginning, Genesis, especially with a good scientific commentary as an aid.

My favorite place to start newcomers is in the Book of Revelation. Really. It is the only book with a special promise to the reader. Review chapter 19 for a lot of reasons that this is good place to start for the serious student. Then go to Genesis after completing Revelation.

Strangely, it doesn’t matter. Jump in and see for yourself.

RESOURCES

In preparing for any adventure, it is important to pack the right tools. And it is good to have a guide who’s “been there.” Any good Christian bookstore will have a selection of expositional commentaries that will be helpful. You will quickly develop your own favorites.

A good study Bible is also a good place to start. There are many excellent ones available. Look them over. Pick one, and wear it out.

Another of the most indispensable tools is an exhaustive concordance, like the Strong’s. With it you can find any verse you might be looking for; you can find out for any word which Hebrew or Greek word it was translated from and what it means—without having to know the languages. It is not expensive and will quickly help you find anything you’re looking for.

If you have a computer and are on the Internet, you have enormous resources available, and they are free. You will want to discover the “Blue Letter Bible,” which is a completely hypertexted Bible, with Hebrew and Greek also available; several Bible dictionaries and encyclopedias, all word-searchable; complete cross references, etc. Also, you can “click” on any verse and it will make available dozens of commentaries—classic and contemporary—in text or audio, and all of this is free. Drop in on www.khouse.org and take a look.

ON YOUR OWN

We called this chapter, Your Personal Adventure. Why an “adventure?” Because it isn’t a spectator sport; it involves participation! The most exciting “codes” will be the ones you discover for yourself.

One of the most important protections against error (and heresy) is to maintain a view of the broadest context possible—“the whole counsel of God.” It all fits into a carefully designed whole. No part is trivial. And there are no contradictions. When you think you have found one, remember that God always rewards the diligent. Search it out carefully and it will result in a discovery.

It is essential to remember that this is a spiritual exercise, not simply an intellectual one.661 A man may admire a sundial; he may admire the cleverness of its design and adornments. But if he holds a lamp in his hand or any other light emanating from himself or from this world, he can make it any hour he pleases and will never be able to tell the time of day. Nothing but the light from God’s sun in the heavens can reckon it properly. In fact, the most startling discovery is that the Author of the Book stands ready to transcend the barriers of space-time to tutor you personally!

Sound crazy? I challenge you to give it a try. But you should keep a careful record so that you can tell where you have been and how you got there.

YOUR PRIVATE LOG BOOK

Have you ever come across a passage in the Bible that you didn’t understand? Of course. We all have, many times.

There are times when it is essential to stop and track down the background, search supplemental references, etc., and not let the matter go undealt with. Other times it is more fruitful to note it but keep moving so as to not get bogged down in tangential issues.

I have a personal suggestion that may sound strange, but I believe you will find it a life-changing discovery. How would you like to conduct an empirical experiment in the supernatural? I mean a Biblical one, of course. In fact, this will be sort of a “laboratory” experiment in study methods.

Go to a stationery store and obtain a “journal,” a bound book with lined, but blank, pages—the kind intended for a personal diary or the like. (Girls know exactly what I am talking about; most fellows probably haven’t ever indulged in one.)

This will be for your eyes only. The commitment is that you will never show this to anyone else. (This is simply to ensure candor and intimate openness in compiling this very personal record. This will be very private and not intended for sharing.)

STEP ONE

The next time you come across a passage that you don’t understand, or one that confuses you, open your journal and note the date, the reference that is puzzling, and—this is the hard part—try to describe your “confusion” over the passage in question. Try to express—to yourself, but in writing—why it doesn’t seem to make sense or appears contradictory, etc.

STEP TWO

Now close your journal and take advantage of your 24-hour “hotline” to the Throne Room of the Universe. Seek clarification from the Author Himself. Pray to our Father about it. God has promised to answer our prayers, particularly where His Word is concerned. He even has put His Word above His Name!662

“But the Comforter, which is the Holy Ghost, whom the Father will send in my name, he shall teach you all things, and bring all things to your remembrance, whatsoever I have said unto you.”

John 14:26

He has also promised to send the Holy Spirit to “teach us all things”663—not just most of them, but all things. He is a God who makes—and keeps—His promises! Put the problem in His lap. It is always exciting to see what happens then!

STEP THREE

Now note carefully what will happen next. It may not be in the next 60 seconds. It may be tomorrow, or maybe next week, whenever. But something will happen. You will have an encounter which will be a response to your specific petition.

The answer may come from some other passage which you are reading in your devotional studies. It may come from the next Sunday’s sermon, or a session in a neighborhood home Bible study. Or, it may come from some tape cassette you happen to be listening to a few days later. It may be from something on the radio. Or even a conversation overheard in a restaurant, even one misunderstood; who knows?

But something will happen in your life to clarify and illuminate the problem passage!

STEP FOUR

The previously confusing passage will now become so clear—and that’s part of the difficulty: you will have trouble remembering how confused you were about it earlier. That’s where your log book comes in.

So now you are to open your journal to the appropriate page, enter the date and the means by which your plea was answered, and then highlight your new insights which appear in contrast to your original entry.

WHY BOTHER?

Why go through this little exercise? Why all the “paper work?”

This logging effort will develop into a unique treasure for yourself. Your journal will, frankly, be virtually meaningless to anyone else; it’s your own private turf. But to you, it will continue to grow more precious with each entry.

The days will come when you will be “down.” There will be times when you will go through your “Valley of Doubt.” There will be times when you will feel that it all seems so distant; that all of this seems so remote, or intangible. Maybe we have just gotten carried away with it all…

You will also discover that you are involved in an unseen warfare and there are spiritual forces that seek to separate you from truth, who will work to undermine your faith and inhibit your progress. There are sentient, malevolent, powerful beings who are your unseen adversaries. Their primary weapons seed doubt, deceit, and denial.664

When these doubts arise, and they will, you will then be able to go back to your private journal and review the numerous occasions when God the Holy Spirit Himself personally tutored you as you progressed through God’s Word. Each entry in your personal journal will be one of His “footprints” where He carried you along during your grand adventure.

Not only are you in possession of a message of extraterrestrial origin, the Sender is concerned for you personally and is available for counseling and guidance.

Hopefully this book has been useful in developing a new perspective of the very Word of God. It is a love letter, written in blood, on a wooden cross that was erected in Judea almost 2,000 years ago.

But the tomb is empty. He is risen, and has an agenda for you.

“For I know the plans I have for you, says the LORD, plans for your welfare and not for evil, to give you a future and a hope.”

Jeremiah 29:11

And He is waiting to hear from you.

SUGGESTIONS FOR FURTHER READING:

Some additional resources available from this publisher:

Chuck Missler, How to Study the Bible, a briefing package consisting of two audio tape cassettes and notes and references highlighting the experiences of a 40-year love affair with the Word of God.

Also, A Walk Thru the Bible, a briefing package which attempts—within two 90-minute cassettes—to provide a strategic grasp of the whole Bible, as an adjunct to the specific exploration of any particular book.

Subject Index to all Koinonia House publications, commentaries, news journal articles since 1991. (Revised annually).

Koinonia House also publishes Expositional Commentaries on audio tape cassettes, accompanied by extensive verse-by-verse notes, diagrams, charts, and references.

25

Thy eyes beheld my unformed substance;

in thy book were written,

every one of them,

the days that were formed for me,

when as yet there was none of them.

PSALM 139:16

CHAPTER 25

Have you ever wondered how God could resurrect our bodies after they have decayed and returned to dust? Or resurrect the sailors buried at sea, and the molecules have been recycled by marine chemistry? And what about those eaten by cannibals?

Steven Spielberg’s movie, Jurassic Park, gave us a glimpse into the technology of resurrection. The premise of the movie, which is not very distant from reality, is that all it took to resurrect the prehistoric monsters of the past was a piece of information—a dinosaur DNA, taken from a mosquito captured in a piece of amber. What the story dramatized was the fact that a sample of DNA was all that was needed to resurrect the entire living creature.

What we often fail to realize is that we are, indeed, made up of the same 17 elements that make up the dust of the ground, literally. The atoms that make up our various molecules are fungible; that is, the carbon atoms needed are readily available and chemically interchangeable with any other carbon atoms. And so are hydrogen and oxygen atoms chemically interchangeable with their counterparts. The molecules are made up from a readily available alphabet of elements. What the story of Jurassic Park illustrated was that all that is needed is a properly encoded piece of information, a copy of our DNA. Our DNA completely defines our physical self, including our genetic history.

Frank J. Tipler is the Professor of Mathematical Physics at Tulane University and is an expert in particle physics, cosmology, the information sciences, and a major theoretician in the field of global general relativity, that rarefied branch of physics created by Stephen Hawking and Roger Penrose. Like many modern scientists, Tipler was an atheist who gave little thought to questions of theology.

He undertook a project to reconcile the theories of the origin of the universe, the “Big Bang,” with a mathematical model of the end of the universe. In this ambitious undertaking, taking the better part of 17 years, Tipler attempted to reconcile all that we know from the fields of cosmology and particle physics into a unified view. In developing this model, using the most advanced and sophisticated methods of modern physics, and relying solely on the rigorous procedures of logic that science demands, Tipler came to two startling conclusions:

1. That God exists. (You may be saying, No kidding, Dick Tracy. But we shouldn’t ever dismiss, disparage, or demean any occasion when a Ph.D. pierces the veil of academia and manifests some common sense!) While his first conclusion may not surprise you, his second conclusion is even more remarkable—

2. That it is not only possible, but likely, that every human being who ever lived will be resurrected from the dead.

Tipler arrived at proofs not only of God’s existence, but of immortality, “in exactly the same way physicists calculate the properties of the electron.”665 He has published a book, The Physics of Immortality, but I don’t particularly recommend it unless you have an appetite for differential equations and heavy cosmological speculations. You can learn much more about this subject by reading the most important chapter of the Bible. Which would that be? First Corinthians 15. (First Corinthians 13 is the famed “love” chapter. First Corinthians 15 is the “resurrection” chapter. Paul declares that without the resurrection, we have nothing.)

A MATTER OF SOFTWARE

The broad familiarity with computers can provide us with another unusual insight. If you knew everything there is to know about every component, every circuit, every microchip, every item of hardware technology inside a modern personal computer, could you tell me anything about its behavior?

No. And why not? Because it is a matter of Software, not hardware. The hardware is simply an appropriate residence for the software. The software determines the computer’s characteristics; its behavior; and, within the limits of the hardware capabilities, its performance.

Most of us have encountered the common diskette, the little three-inch-square device that serves as a common medium of transmittal within the computer community. If we take a blank diskette and weigh it on a postal scale, it will weight about 0.7 of an ounce

If we spend hundreds of dollars and load that diskette with over a million bytes of software, what will it then weigh? The same 0.7 of an ounce. Why?

Software has no mass. (Its embodiment may have weight, but the software doesn’t. It is simply codes, information.) We can even send it through the airwaves from one point to another. It has no mass of its own.

If you and I were meeting face-to-face, I still would not be able to see the real you. I would only see the temporary residence you are occupying. The real you, your personality—call it soul, spirit, whatever—is not visible. It is software, not hardware. The codes—your history, your accumulated responses to the events of your life, your attitudes—are all simply informational, not physical. It is software only, and software has no mass.

The great insights of Dr. Einstein included the realization that time is a physical property. Time varies with mass, acceleration, and gravity. (We explored that in chapter 3.)

That which has no mass has no time. You are eternal. That is what the Bible has declared all along. And that, apparently, is the conclusion derivable from modern physics. You are eternal (whether you like it or not). In fact, that’s our ultimate challenge.

THE INCREDIBLE ADVENTURE

The comfortable simplicity of our three-dimensional geometry has now been set adrift in the seas of discoveries that we are but a small specialized subset in (at least) a ten-dimensional milieu which we can infer, but not truly grasp. It even eludes the mechanistic speculative reaches of our mathematics.

Since there are dimensions beyond our own, are there beings there? Are they benevolent? Or hostile? Or some of both? What is their agenda? If there are tensions and confrontations, what is our role? Are we pawns or prizes?

Can these transcendent beings participate in our own dimension? If not, why not? What constrains their interventions or potential mischief? Perhaps the speculative myths of the ancient Greeks bear a closer resemblance to the real reality than we have ever dared to acknowledge.666

The Biblical view is unequivocal. We are engaged in an unseen warfare.

“For we wrestle not against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this world, against spiritual wickedness in high places.”

Ephesians 6:12.

Set aside the ambiguities and fanciful speculations of the ELS codes, the numerics, gematria, et al. What is far more provocative are the macrocodes which reveal a predetermined, deliberate design from outside the restrictions of our own physical dimension of time. They reveal a message system which has survived the futile attempts to discredit or obfuscate it. It pierces the fog bank of the centuries and the curtain of disinformation hurled by its vigorous adversaries.

This collection of cosmic codes constitutes the most important strategic field orders for you and me as we journey through this adventure between the miracle of our origin and the mystery of our destiny. We do have one, you know. And it is important to understand the rules if you’re going to win the game.

C. S. Lewis gathers all this up very well in these words from Mere Christianity:

“God is going to invade this earth in force. But what is the good of saying you are on His side then, when you see the whole natural universe melting away like a dream, and something else—something it never entered your head to conceive—comes crashing in; something so beautiful to some of us, and so terrible to others, that none of us will have any choice left? For this time it will be God without disguise; something so overwhelming that it will strike either irresistible love or irresistible horror into every creature. It will be too late then to choose your side. There is no use saying you choose to lie down when it has become impossible to stand up. That will not be the time for choosing; it will be the time when we discover which side we have really chosen, whether we realized it before or not. Now, today, this moment, is our chance to choose the right side. God is holding back, to give us that chance. It will not last forever. We must take it or leave it.”

THE BOOK OF LIFE

The most important code in the Scriptures may be YOU. Are you written in the Lamb’s Book of Life? Is the Bible a code book that also anticipates your decision regarding His offer of redemption? The most exciting code to discover is your own.

We have learned that even randomness doesn’t exist in the universe. Your reading this book right now is not a coincidence, but may be an event of cosmic significance.

As we study our Bible, treat it with utmost respect. Don’t let anyone con you into allegorizing it or treating it as just a collection of cultural legends. These things have to be discerned by the Spirit of God. As you study your Bible, as you do it diligently, you will make the dramatic discovery that it is supernatural in its origin, it is supernatural in its design, and it is supernatural in its affect on you and your life. But that comes about if you realize that God means what He says and says what He means. Allegorize it, spiritualize it, as some people suggest, and it will quickly unravel into meaninglessness. It is the integrity of the whole that provides its own defense.

As you study, recognize that every piece impacts every other piece. And the real question, of course, is what does the Bible portray? What is the image it gets across? Jesus Christ, and on every page. The great discovery you will make, the more you know about Jesus Christ, the more you know about your Bible, the more you will find an aspect, an insight, a portrayal of Jesus Christ on every page—all the way through Genesis, all through the Torah, all through the entire Scriptures.

As you do, you will begin to understand the definition of truth. Truth is when the Word and the deed become one. As Adam and Eve were dismissed from the Garden of Eden, God prophesied that He would provide a redeemer—a kinsman redeemer—a kinsman of Adam. He gave a promise in Genesis 3:15, and that promise is amplified and extended page by page, generation by generation, century after century, and, of course was fulfilled in Judea 2,000 years ago.

And He is not through. The ultimate drama is about to come to its climax. He has promised to return, to take possession of that which He purchased so long ago. He described the circumstances that would prevail upon Planet Earth when He was to return. He indicated that Israel would have been restored in the land, they would have regained Biblical Jerusalem, and they will have rebuilt their temple. That temple will have been desecrated by a world leader, at a time when Europe would reemerge as a major power center again. A major peace plan would be established, probably on the heels of a nuclear event, triggered by a Muslim invasion of Israel.

Detail by detail by detail we are being plunged right now into a period of time about which the Bible says more than any other period of time than human history. And it isn’t any one thing; it is all of them. Every major theme of Bible prophecy—in Isaiah, Jeremiah, Zechariah, Daniel, the New Testament, etc.—is presently being moved into position before our very eyes.

And the question before us all individually and collectively is, What are you going to do about it? Is Jesus Christ the primary dynamic in your personal life? It doesn’t matter which church you go to. It doesn’t matter what background you come from. What does matter is your personal relationship with the King of Kings and the Lord of Lords. Is He the primary element in your life? Jesus Christ does not want to be number one on a list of ten. He wants to be number one on a list of one.

THE ULTIMATE CODE

You were on His mind before the foundation of the world.667 Is your name, personally, written in His Book of Life? He has a destiny for you that is so fantastic that there is no way you can earn it. It’s there for the asking! Talk to Him about it. He’s anxious to hear from you.

The Creator is, indeed, in love with His creation. But He’s given you the terrifying capability of refusing.

We have been exploring the hidden codes in the Bible. I can’t help but wonder, is it possible that some cosmic equation—not just the linear equations of the “equidistant letter sequences” but some nth-order equation—has your name hidden in it for an eternal inheritance beyond time and space, an inheritance destined in that real reality which transcends this temporary one?

You can tell if you’re written there—by your response to Him.

This book has not tried to be “objective.” I join the Apostle John in his posture:

“And many other signs truly did Jesus in the presence of his disciples, which are not written in this book: But these are written, that ye might believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God; and that believing ye might have life through his name.”

John 20:30, 31

Please drop me a line and let me know what you think. I’d like to pray for you.

A

APPENDIX A

RHETORICAL DEVICES

Many forms of multi-level and reflexive codes and rhetorical devices, such as puns, similes, analogies, and other figures of speech, are employed in communication and language, and the Biblical corpus of text is no exception.1 A figure is a legitimate departure from the usual laws of grammar or syntax for a special purpose. The exploitation of metaphors, analogies, similes, and types in the Bible^2 is particularly provocative in that they often reach across the individual books, the individual authors and the eras in which they were written. The Akedah, for example, anticipates the sacrifice on the cross at Golgotha 20 centuries later. (See Chapter 14; see also Appendix B.)

The ancient Greeks had several hundred of their Schema, and the Romans their Figura, but with the decline of learning in the Middle Ages, the study of such linguistic structures died out. Here is a list of some of the diverse devices employed in the Bible.3 (Some are subtle; some are structural; some operate at several levels; yet all demonstrate deliberate skillful design. Their use can also be forms of microcodes or macrocodes.)

Accismus: Apparent or assumed refusal (Matt 15:22-26).

Acrostic; or Acrostichion: Repetition of the same or successive letters at the beginning of words or clauses (Ps 111, 112, 119, and others; see Chapter 7). An acronym is an acrostic, usually employed for mnemonic purposes. See also, notarikon.

Enigma: a dark saying, or a truth expressed in obscure language (Gen 49:10; Judges 14:14).

Aetiologia: Cause shown; rendering a reason for what is said or done (Rom 1:16).

Affirmatio: Affirmation; emphasizing words to affirm what no one has disputed (Phil 1:18).

Aganactesis: Indignation; an expression of feeling by way of indignation (Gen 3:13; Acts 13:10).

Allegory: Comparison by representation (Gen 49:9; Gal 4:22, 24). See also Hypocatastasis, Metaphor and Simile).

Amoebaeon: Refrain; the repetition of the same phrase at the end of successive paragraphs, etc. (Ps 136).

Amphibologia: Double meaning; a word or phrase susceptible of two interpretations, both absolutely true (Ex 12:13).

Amphidiorthosis: Double correction; a correction setting right both hearer and speaker (1 Cor 11:22).

Ampliatio: Adjournment; a retaining of an old name after the reason for it has passed away (Gen 2:23; 1 Sam 30:5).

Anabasis: Gradual ascent; an increase of emphasis or sense in successive sentences (Ps 18:37, 38).

Anachoresis: Regression; a return to the original subject after a digression (Eph 3:14).

Anachoenosis: Common cause; an appeal to others as having interests in common (1 Cor 4:21).

Anacoluthon: Non-sequence; a breaking off the sequence of thought (Gen 35:3; Mark 11:32).

Anadiplosis: Like sentence endings and beginnings; the word or words concluding one sentence are repeated at the beginning of another (Gen 1:1, 2; Ps 121:1, 2). See also Anaphora.

Anagrams: (Greek, over again, and letter); transposing letters of a word to make a different word or phrase. In the Kabbalistic writings called temurah, change. Gen 6:8 can be viewed as a transposition of Gen 27:36; Isa 61:3 as a transposition of Ps 6:11; also 1 Chron 6:9.4

Anamnesis: Recalling; an expression of feeling by way of recalling to mind (Rom 9:3).

Anaphora: Like sentence beginnings; the repetition of the same word at the beginning of successive sentences (Deut 28:3-6). See also Anadiplosis.

Anastrophe: Arraignment; the position of one word changed, so as to be out of its proper or usual place in a sentence (Acts 7:48).

Anesis: Abating; the addition of a concluding sentence which diminishes the effect of what has been said (2 Kings 5:1).

Anteisagoge: Counter question; the answering of one question by asking another (Matt 21:23-25).

Anthropopatheia: Condescension; ascribing to God what belongs to human and rational beings, irrational creatures, or inanimate things (Gen 1:2; 8:21; Ps 74:11; Jer 2:13; Hos 11:10).

Anticategoria: Resorting upon another the very insinuation or accusation he has made against us (Ezek 18:25).

Antimereia: Exchange of parts of speech: Of the verb (Gen 32:24; Luke 7:21); of the adverb (Gen 30:33; Luke 10:29); of the adjective (Gen 1:9; Heb 6:17); of the noun (Gen 23:6; James 1:25).

Antimetabole: Counterchange; a word or words repeated in a reverse order, with the object of opposing them to one another (Gen 4:4, 5; Isa 5:20).

Antimetathesis: Dialogue; a transference of speakers, as when the reader is addressed as if actually present (1 Cor 7:16).

Antiphrasis: Permutation; the use of a word or phrase in a sense opposite to its original signification (Gen 3:22).

Antiprosopopoeia: Anti-personification; persons represented as inanimate things (2 Sam 16:9).

Antiptosis: Exchanges of cases; one case is put for another case, governing noun being used as the adjective instead of the noun in regimen (Ex 19:6; cp. 1 Pet 2:9).

Antistrophe: Retort; turning the words of a speaker against himself (Matt 15:26, 27)

Antithesis: Contrast; a setting of one phrase in contrast with another (Prov 5:17).

Antonomasia: Name change; the putting of a proper name for an appellative or common noun, or the reverse (Gen 31:21).

Aphaeresis: Front cut; the cutting off of a letter or syllable from the beginning of a word (Jer 22:24).

Apodioxis: Detestation; an expression of feeling by way of detestation (Matt 16:23).

Apophasia: Insinuation; when, professing to suppress certain matters, the writer adds the insinuation negatively (Philem 19).

Aporia: Doubt; an expression of feeling by way of doubt (Luke 16:3).

Aposiopesis: Sudden silence; associated with some great promise (Ex 32:32), anger or threatening (Gen 3:22), grief and complaint (Gen 25:22, Ps 6:3), or inquiry and deprecation (John 6:62).

Apostrophe: When the speaker turns away from the real auditory whom he is addressing to speak to another, such as God (Neh 6:9), men (2 Sam 1:24, 25), animals (Joel 2:22), or inanimate things (Jer 47:6).

Association: Inclusion; when the speaker associates himself with those whom he addresses, or of whom he speaks (Acts 17:27).

Asterismos: Indicating; employing some word which directs special attention to some particular point or subject (Ps 133:1).

Asyndeton: No ands; the usual conjunction is omitted, so that the point to be emphasized may be quickly reached and ended with an emphatic climax (Mark 7:21-23; Luke 14:13). Cf. Polysyndeton (Luke 14:21).

Battologia: Vain repetition; not used by the Holy Spirit, only by man (1 Kings 18:26).

Benedictio: Blessing; an expression of feeling by way of benediction or blessing (Gen 1:22, 28; Matt 5:3-11).

Brachylogia or Brachyology: A special form of ellipsis (Gen 25:32). See Ellipsis I.3.

Catabases: Gradual descent; the opposite of Anabasis. Used to emphasize humiliation, sorrow, etc. (Phil 2:6-8).

Catachresis: Incongruity; one word used for another, contrary to the ordinary usage and meaning of it: of two words where the meanings are remotely akin (Lev 26:30), of two words where the meanings are different (Ex 5:21), or of one word where the Greek receives its real meaning by permutation from another language (Gen 1:5, Matt 8:6).

Cataploce: Sudden exclamation; a parenthesis when it takes the form of a sudden exclamation (Eze 16:23).

Chiasmus: Chiastic structure; introverted correspondence; an inversion of the order of syntactical elements in the subsequent juxtaposed and syntactically parallel phrases or clauses (John 5:21-29; Epistle to Philemon; et al. See Bullinger’s Companion Bible for extensive examples throughout.)

Chleuasmos: Mocking; an expression of feeling by mocking or jeering (Ps 2:4).

Chronographia: Description of time; the teaching of something important by mentioning the time of an occurrence (Gen 8:4; John 10:22).

Climax or Graduation: Anadiplosis repeated in successive sentences (2 Pet 1:5-7). See Anadiplosis above.

Coenotes: Combined repetition; the repetition of two different phrases, one at the beginning and the other at the end of successive paragraphs (Ps 118:8, 9).

Correspondence: the term applied to the repetition of a subject or subjects which reappear in varying order, thus determining the structure of any portion of the Scriptures. It is found in the following forms:

1. Alternate. Where the subjects of the alternate members correspond with each other, either by way of similarity or contrast.

(a) Extended. Where there are two series, but each consisting of several members (Ps 72:2-17; 132).

(b) Repeated. Where there are more than two series of subjects, either consisting of two members each (Ps 26, 145), or consisting of more than two members each (Ps 24).

2. Introverted. Where the first subject of the one series of members corresponds with the last subject of the second (Gen 43:3-5; Lev 14:51, 52).

3. Complex or Combined. Where both alternation and introversion are combined together in various ways (Ex 20:8-11; Ps 105).

Cycloides: Circular repetition; the repetition of the same phrase at regular intervals (Ps 80:3, 7).

Deesis: Adjuration; an expression of feeling by oath or asseveration (Deut 4:26).

Deprecatio: an expression of feeling by way of deprecation (Ex 32:32).

Dialogismos: Dialogue; when one or more persons are represented as speaking about a thing, instead of saying it oneself (Isa 63:1-6).

Diasyrmos: Raillery; tearing away disguise, and showing up a matter as it really is (Matt 26:50).

Diexodos: Expansion; a lengthening out by copious exposition of facts (Jude 12, 13).

Double entendre: A word or phrase with a double meaning (often, but not necessarily, with a salacious or sensuous overtone) (Isa 52:13).

Ecphonesis: Exclamation; an outburst of words, prompted by emotion (Rom 7:24).

Eironeia: Irony; the expression of thought in a form that naturally conveys its opposite.

1. Divine irony, where the speaker is God (Gen 3:22, Judges 10:14).

2. Human irony, where the speaker is a human being (Job 12:2).

3. Peirastic irony, by way of trying or testing (Gen 22:2).

4. Simulated irony, where the words are used by man in dissimulation (Gen 37:19, Matt 27:40).

5. Deceptive irony, where words are clearly false as well as hypocritical (Gen 3:4, 5; Matt 2:8).

Ecaculatio: A parenthesis which consists of a short wish or prayer (Hos 9:14).

Eleutheria: Candor; the speaker, without intending offence, speaks with perfect freedom and boldness (Luke 13:32).

Ellipsis: Omission; when a gap is purposely left in a sentence through the omission of some word or words.

I. Absolute Ellipsis: where the omitted word or words are to be supplied from the nature of the subject.

1. Nouns and pronouns (Gen 14:19, 20; Ps 21:12).

2. Verbs and participles (Gen 26:7; Ps 4:2).

3. Certain connected words in the same member of a passage (Gen 25:32; Matt 25:9). Called brachylogia or brachyology.

4. A whole clause in a connected passage (Gen 30:27; 1 Tim 1:3, 4).

II. Relative Ellipsis

1. Where the omitted word is to be supplied from a cognate word in the context (Ps 76:11).

2. Where the omitted word is to be supplied from a related or contrary word (Gen 33:10; Ps 7:11).

3. Where the omitted word is to be supplied from analogous or related words (Gen 50:23).

4. Where the omitted word is contained in another word, the one word comprising the two significations (Gen 43:33).

III. Ellipsis of Repetition

1. Simple: where the ellipsis is to be supplied from a preceding or succeeding clause (Gen 1:30; 2 Cor 6:16).

2. Complex: where the two clauses are mutually involved, and the ellipsis in the former clause is to be supplied from the latter; and, at the same time, an ellipse in the latter clause is to be supplied from the former (Heb 12:20).

Enantiosis: Contraries; affirmation or negation by contraries (Luke 7:44-46).

Enthymema: Omission of premise; where the conclusion is stated, and one or both of the premises are omitted (Matt 27:19).

Epidiplosis: Double encircling; repeated Epanadiplosis (see below) (Ps 47:6).

Epanadiplosis: Encircling; the repetition of the same word or words at the beginning and end of a sentence (Gen 9:3; Ps 27:14).

Epanalepsis: Resumption; the repetition of the same word after a break or parenthesis (1 Cor 10:29; Phil 1:24).

Epanodos: Inversion; the repetition of the same word or words in an inverse order, the sense being unchanged (Gen 10:1-31; Isa 6:10).

Epanorthosis: Correction; a recalling of what has been said in order to substitute something stronger in its place (John 16:32).

Epibole: Overlaid repetition; the repetition of the same phrase at irregular intervals (Ps 29:3, 4, 5, 7, 8, 9).

Epicrisis: Judgment; a short sentence added at the end by way of an additional conclusion (John 12:33).

Epidome: Lingering; repetition in order to dwell upon, for the sake of impressing (John 21:15-17).

Epiphonema: Exclamation; an exclamation at the conclusion of a sentence (Ps 135:21).

Epipoza or Epistrophe in Argument: the repetition of the same word or words at the end of successive sentences used in argument (2 Cor 11:22).

Epistrophe: Like sentence-endings; the repetition of the same words at the end of successive sentences (Gen 13:6; Ps 24:10).

Epitasis: Amplification; where a concluding sentence is added by way of increasing emphasis (Ex 3:19).

Epitherapeia: Qualification; a sentence added at the end to heal, soften, mitigate, or modify what has been said before (Phil 4:10).

Epitheton: Epithet; the naming of a thing by describing it (Gen 21:16; Luke 22:41).

Epitimesis: Reprimand; an expression of feeling by way of censure, reproof, or reproach (Luke 24:25).

Epitrechon: Running along; a sentence, not complete in itself, thrown in as an explanatory remark; a form of parenthesis (see below) (Gen 15:13; John 2:9).

Epitrochasmos: Summarizing; a running slightly over by way of summary (Heb 11:32).

Epitrope: Admission; admission of wrong, in order to gain what is right (Eccles 11:9).

Epizeuxis: Duplication; the repetition of the same word in the same sense (Gen 22:11; Ps 77:16).

Erotesis: Interrogating; the asking of questions, not for information, or for an answer. Such questions may be asked (1) in positive affirmation; (2) in negative affirmation; (3) in affirmative negation; (4) in demonstration; (5) in wonder and admiration; (6) in rapture; (7) in wishers; (8) in refusals and denials; (9) in doubts; (10) in admonition; (11) in expostulation; (12) in prohibition or dissuasion; (13) in pity and commiseration; (14) in disparagement; (15) in reproaches; (16) in lamentation; (17) in indignation; (18) in absurdities and impossibilities; (19) double questions (Gen 13:9; Ps 35:10).

Ethopoeia: Description of manners; a description of a person’s peculiarities as to manners, caprices, habits, etc. (Isa 3:16).

Euche: Prayer; an expression of feeling by way of prayer, curse, or imprecation (Isa 64:1, 2).

Eupheismos: Euphemy; where a pleasing expression is used for one that is unpleasant (Gen 15:15).

Exemplum: Example; concluding a sentence by employing an example (Luke 17:32).

Exergasia: Working out; a repetition so as to work out or illustrate what has already been said (Zech 6:12, 13).

Exouthenismos: Contempt; an expression of feeling by way of contempt (2 Sam 6:20).

Gematria: exploiting the numerical value of the letters of a word (only valid for Hebrew and Greek) (1 Kings 7:23; see Chapter 20).

Gnome: Quotation; the citation of a well-known saying without quoting the author’s name.

1. Where the sense originally intended is preserved, though the words may vary (Matt 26:31).

2. Where the original sense is modified in the quotation or reference (Matt 12:40).

3. Where the sense is quite different from that which was first intended (Matt 2:15, as discussed in Chapter 24).

4. Where the words are from the Hebrew or from the Septuagint (Luke 4:18; cf. Isa 61:1, 2).

5. Where the words are varied by omission, addition, or transposition (1 Cor 2:9).

6. Where the words are changed by a reading, or an inference, or in number, person, mood, or tense (Matt 4:7).

7. Where two or more citations are amalgamated (Matt 21:13).

8. Where quotations are from books other than the Bible (Acts 17:28).

Hendiadys: Two-for-one; two words used, but one thing meant (Gen 2:9; Eph 6:18).

Hendiatris: Three-for-one; three words used, but one thing meant (Dan 3:7).

Hermeneia: Interpretation; an explanation immediately following a statement to make it more clear (John 7:39).

Heterosis: Exchange of accidence; exchange of one voice, mood, tense, person, number, degree, or gender, for another.

1. Of forms and voices (1 Pet 2:6).

2. Of moods (Gen 20:7; Ex 20:8).

3. Of tenses (Gen 23:11; Matt 3:10).

4. Of persons (Gen 29:27; Dan 2:36).

5. Of adjectives (degree) and adverbs (2 Tim 1:18).

6. Of nouns (number), adjectives, and pronouns (Gen 3:8; Heb 10:28).

7. Of gender (Gen 2:18; Heb 7:7).

Homoeoptoton: Like inflections; similar endings arising from the same inflections of verbs, nouns, etc. This figure belongs peculiarly to the original languages (2 Tim 3:2, 3).

Homoeopropheron: Alliteration; the repetition of the same letter or syllable at the commencement of successive words (Judges 5).

Homoeoteleuton: Like endings; the repetition of the same letters or syllables at the end of successive words (Mark 12:30). Used also of an omission in the text caused by such-like endings; the scribe’s eye going back to the latter of such similar words instead of the former (Josh 2:1).

Hypallage: Interchange; a word logically belonging to one connection is grammatically united with another (Gen 10:9; 1 Kings 17:14).

Hynerbaton: Transposition; the placing of a word out of its usual order in a sentence (Rom 5:8).

Hyperbole: Exaggeration; when more is said than is literally meant (Gen 41:47; Deut 1:28).

Hypocatastasis: Implication; an implied resemblance or representation; teaching a truth about one thing by substituting another for it which is unlike it (Matt 7:3-5; 15:13).

Hypotimesis: Underestimating; parenthetic addition by way of apology or excuse (Rom 3:5).

Hypotyposis: Word picture; representation of objects or actions by words (Isa 5:26-30).

Hysteresis: Subsequent narration; when a later record gives supplemental or new particulars, not inserted in the historical record (Gen 31:7, 8; Ps 105:18; 2 Tim 3:8; Isa 52:4). (No relation to the engineering term relating to alternative magnetic profiles.)

Hysterologia: The first last; a prior mention of a subsequent event (Gen 10, 11; 2 Sam 24).

Idioma: Idiom; the peculiar usage of words and phrases, as illustrated in the language peculiar to one nation or tribe, as opposed to other languages or dialects.

1. Idiomatic usage of verbs (Gen 42:38; 1 John 1:10).

2. Special idiomatic usages of nouns and verbs (Gen 33:11; Jer 15:16).

3. Idiomatic degrees of comparison (Luke 22:15).

4. Idiomatic use of prepositions (Luke 22:49).

5. Idiomatic use of numerals (Ps 103:2).

6. Idiomatic forms of quotations (Ps 109:5).

7. Idiomatic forms of questions (Luke 22:49).

8. Idiomatic phrases (Gen 6:2, 4; Matt 11:25).

9. Idioms arising from other figures of speech.

10. Changes of usage of words in the Greek language (Gen 43:18; Matt 5:25).

11. Changes of usage of words in the English language (Gen 24:21; 2 Kings 3:9).

Interjectio: Interjection; parenthetic addition by way of feeling (Ps 42:2).

Litotes: Understatement (Gal 5:24).

Maledictio: Imprecation; expression of feeling by way of malediction and execration (Isa 3:11).

Meiosis: Belittling; a belittling of one thing to magnify another (Gen 18:27; Num 13:33).

Merismos: Distribution; an enumeration of the parts of a whole which has been just previously mentioned (Rom 2:6-8).

Mesarchia: Beginning and middle repetition; the repetition of the same word or words at the beginning and middle of successive sentences (Eccles 1:2).

Mesodiplosis: Middle repetition; the repetition of the same word or words in the middle of successive sentences (2 Cor 4:8, 9).

Mesoteleuton: Middle and end repetition; the repetition of the same word or words in the middle and at the end of successive sentences (2 Kings 19:7).

Metabasis: Transition; a passing from one subject to another (1 Cor 12:31).

Metalepsis: Double metonymy; two metonymies, one contained in the other, but only one expressed (Gen 19:8; Eccles 12:6; Hos 14:2).

Metallage: Changing over; a different subject of thought substituted for the original subject (Hos 4:18).

Metaphor: Representation; a declaration that one thing is (or represents) another (a simile resembles it; a hypocastastasis implies it) (Matt 26:26).

Metastasis: Counter-blame; a transferring of the blame from one’s self to another (1 Kings 18:17, 18).

Metonymy: Change of noun; when one name or noun is used instead of another, to which it stands in a certain relation.

1. Of the cause. When the cause is put for the effect (Gen 23:8; Luke 16:29).

2. Of the effect. When the effect is put for the cause (Gen 25:23; Acts 1:18).

3. Of the subject. When the subject is put for something pertaining to it (Gen 41:13; Deut 28:5).

4. Of the adjunct. When something pertaining to the subject is put for the subject itself (Gen 28:22; Job 32:7).

Mimesis: Description of sayings; used when the sayings, etc., of another are described or imitated by way of emphasis (Ex 15:9).

Negatio: Negation; a denial of that which has not been affirmed (Gal 2:5).

Notarikon: an acrostic composed of the initial letters of successive sentences. (Song of Sol 6:3, Elul, the month of preparation before Tishri, an acrostic which contains the fall feasts. See Chapter 18.)

Oeonismos: Wishing; an expression of feeling by way of wishing or hoping for a thing (Ps 55:6).

Oxymoron: Wise-folly; a wise saying that seems foolish; a self-contradictory phrase (1 Tim 5:6).

Paeanismos: Exultation; calling on others to rejoice over something (Zeph 3:14).

Palinodia: Retracting; approval of one thing after reproving for another thing (Rev 2:6).

Parabola: Parable; continued simile; comparison by continued resemblance (Luke 14:16-24).

Paradiastole: Neithers and nors; the repetition of the disjunctives neither and nor, or either and or (Ex 20:10; Rom 8:35, 38, 39).

Paraeneticon: Exhortation; an expression of feeling by way of exhortation (1 Tim 2).

Paraleipsis: A passing by; when a wish is expressed to pass by a subject, which is notwithstanding, briefly alluded to subsequently (Heb 11:32).

Parallelism: Parallel lines; the repetition of similar, synonymous, or opposite thoughts or words in parallel or successive lines. (Cf. Correspondence.)

1. Simple synonymous, or gradational. When the lines are parallel in thought, and in the use of synonymous words (Gen 4:23, 24; Ps 1:1).

2. Simple antithetic, or opposite. When the words are contrasted in the two or more lines, being opposed in sense the one to the other (Prov 10:1).

3. Simple synthetic, or constructive. When the parallelism consists only in the similar form of construction (Ps 19:7-9).

4. Complex alternate. When the lines are placed alternately (Gen 19:25; Prov 24:19, 20).

5. Complex repeated alternation. The repetition of the two parallel subjects in several lines (Isa 65:21, 22).

6. Complex extended alternation. Alternation extended so as to consist of three or more lines (Judges 10:17).

7. Complex introversion. When the parallel lines are so placed that the first corresponds with the last, the second with the next to last, etc. (Gen 3:19; 2 Chron 32:7, 8).

Parecbasis: Digression; a temporary turning aside from one subject to another (Gen 2:8-14).

Parechesis: Foreign paronomasia; the repetition of words similar in sound but different in language (Rom 15:4).

Paregmenon: Derivation; the repetition of words derived from the same root (Matt 16:18).

Parembole: Insertion; insertion of a sentence between others which is independent and complete in itself (John 10:22; Phil 3:18, 19).

Parenthesis: Insertion of a word or sentence, parenthetically, which is necessary to explain the context (1 Pet 1:19).

Paroemia: Proverb; a wayside saying in common use (Gen 10:9; 1 Sam 10:12).

Paromoeosis: Like-sounding inflections; the repetition of inflections similar in sound (Matt 11:17).

Paronomasia: Rhyming words; the repetition of words similar in sound, but not in sense (Gen 18:27).

Pathopoeia: Pathos; the expression of feeling or emotion (Luke 19:41, 42).

Pathetic Fallacy: The ascription of feelings, emotion, or volition to an inanimate object (Rev 6:16).

Periphrasis: Circumlocution; when a description is used instead of the name (Gen 20:16; Judges 5:10).

Peristasis: Description of circumstances (John 4:6).

Pleonasm: Redundancy; where what is said is, immediately after, put in another or opposite way to make it impossible for the sense to be missed. The figure may affect words (Gen 16:8) or sentences (Gen 1:20; Deut 32:6).

Ploke: Word-folding; the repetition of the same word in a different sense, implying more than the first use of it (Jer 34:17).

Polynymia: Many names; persons or places mentioned under different names (Gen 26:34, 35; 2 Kings 23:13).

Polyptoton: Many inflections; the repetition of the same part of speech in different inflections.

1. Verbs (Gen 50:24; 2 Kings 21:13).

2. Nouns and pronouns (Gen 9:25; Rom 11:36).

3. Adjectives (2 Cor 9:8).

Polysyndeton: Many “ands”; the repetition of the word “and” at the beginning of successive clauses, each independent, important, and emphatic, with no climax at the end (Gen 22:9, 11; Josh 7:24; Luke 14:21). (Compare Asyndeton and Luke 14:13).

Pragmatographia: Description of actions (Joel 2:1-11).

Proecthesis: Justification; a sentence added at the end by way of justification (Matt 12:12).

Prolepsis (Ampliatio): Anticipation; anticipating what is going to be, and speaking of future things as present (Heb 2:8).

Prolepsis (Occupatio): Anticipation; answering an argument by anticipating it before it is used.

1. Open. When the anticipated objection is both answered and stated (Matt 3:9).

2. Closed. When the anticipated objection is either not plainly stated or not answered (Rom 10:18).

Prosapodosis: Detailing; a return to previous words or subjects for purposes of definition or explanation (John 16:8-11).

Prosopographia: Description of persons; a vivid description of a person by detailed delineation (Matt 3:4).

Prosopopoeia: Personification; things represented as persons.

1. The members of the human body (Gen 48:14; Ps 35:10).

2. Animals (Gen 9:5; Job 12:7).

3. The products of the earth (Nah 1:4).

4. Inanimate things (Gen 4:10).

5. Kingdoms, countries, and states (Ps 45:12).

6. Human actions, etc., attributed to things, etc. (Gen 18:20; Ps 85:10).

Protherapeia: Conciliation; conciliating others, by way of precaution, because of something we are about to say (Matt 19:16).

Protimesis: Description of order; the enumeration of things according to their places of honor or importance (1 Cor 15:5-8).

Puns: denotatively, a homonym; often with a humorous implication; connotatively, any double reference—not necessarily restricted to humor (John 3:14, cf. Num 21:8, 9).

Remez: a hint of something hidden or deeper; not merely a fluke or variation (1 Kings 7:23; cf. Chapter 20).

Repeated Negation: Many no’s; the repetition of divers negatives (John 10:28).

Repetitio: Repetition; repetition of the same word or words irregularly in the same passage (2 Chron 20:35-37; John 14:1-4).

Simile: Resemblance; a declaration that one thing resembles another (Gen 25:25; Matt 7:24-27). Cf. Hos 12:10. (Cp. Metaphor, above.)

Simulatneum: Insertion; a kind of historical parenthesis, an event being put out of its historical place between two others which are simultaneous (Rev 16:13-16). Frequent in Revelation between the sixth and seventh of a series.

Sylepsis:

1. Combination; the repetition of the sense without the repetition of the word (2 Chron 31:8).

2. Change in concord; a change in the grammatical concord in favor of a logical concord (John 21:12).

Syllogismus: Omission of the conclusion; the conclusion, though implied, is unexpressed in order to add emphasis to it (1 Sam 17:4-7).

Symbol: A material object substituted for a moral or spiritual truth (Isa 22:22).

Symperasma: Concluding summary; when what has been said is briefly summed up (Matt 1:17).

Symploke: Intertwining; the repetition of different words in successive sentences in the same order and the same sense (1 Cor 15:42-44).

Synathroesmos: Enumeration; the enumeration of the parts of the whole which has not been mentioned (1 Tim 4:1-3).

Synchoresis: Concession; making a concession of one point in order to gain another (Hab 1:3).

Syncrisis: Repeated simile; repetition of a number of resemblances (Isa 32:2).

Synecdoche: Transfer; the exchange of one idea for another associated idea.

1. Of the genus. When the genus is put for the species, or universals for particulars (Gen 6:12; Matt 3:5).

2. Of the species. When the species is put for the genus, or particulars for the universals (Gen 3:19; Matt 6:11).

3. Of the whole. When the whole is put for a part (Gen 6:12).

4. Of the part. When the part is put for the whole (Gen 3:19; Matt 2:4).

Synoeceiosis: Cohabitation; the repetition of the same word in the same sentence with an extended meaning (Matt 19:16, 17).

Synonymia: Synonymous words; the repetition of words similar in sense, but different in sound and origin (Prov 4:14, 15).

Syntheton: Combination; a placing together of two words by usage (Gen 18:27).

Tapeinosis: Demeaning; the lessening of a thing in order to increase and intensify that same thing (Gen 27:44; Rom 4:19) (Cp. Meiosis).

Thaumasmos: Wondering; an expression of feeling by way of wonder (Rom 11:33).

Timurah: A substitution cipher, substituting one letter for another; (atbash, albam, et al. See Chapter 1.)

Tmesis: Mid-cut; a change by which one word is cut in two and another word put in-between (Eph 6:8).

Topographia: Description of place; throwing light on the subject dealt with by alluding to locality (Isa 10:28-32).

Type: A figure or example of something future, and more or less prophetic, called the Antitype (Rom 5:14; Gen 22, 24; Ruth, et al. See Chapter 14 and Appendix B.)

Tzirur: A cipher composed by transposing letters; see Anagrams.

Zeugma: Unequal yoke; when one verb is yoked to two subjects, while grammatically a second verb is required.

1. Proto-zeugma, or ante-yoke or fore-yoke (Gen 4:20; 1 Tim 4:3).

2. Meso-zeugma, or middle yoke (Luke 1:64).

3. Hypo-zeugma, or end yoke (Acts 4:27, 28).

4. Syne-zeugmenon, or joint yoke (Ex 20:18).

SUGGESTIONS FOR FURTHER READING:

E. W. Bullinger, Figures of Speech Used in the Bible, Eyre and Spottiswoode, London, 1898.

The Jewish Encyclopedia, Funk and Wagnalls Company, London, 1901.

John Walker, Valiant Macbeth, The Might and Mirth of Literature, New York, 1875.

NOTES:

1 1 Cor 2:13; 1 Thess 2:13; 2 Tim 3:16; 2 Pet 1:21; etc.

2 Hos 12:10.

3 Many of these have been adapted from an appendix to The Companion Bible, by E.W. Bullinger, Zondervan Bible Publishers, Grand Rapids, Michigan, 1974. See also E. W. Bullinger, Figures of Speech Used in the Bible, Eyre and Spottiswoode, London, 1898.

4 The Jewish Encyclopedia, Vol I, p. 551.

B

B1: Listing of Types

B2: Joseph As a Type of Christ

B3: Jacob (Israel) As a Type of Nation

APPENDIX B

B1: LISTING OF TYPES

Major examples of types which have already discussed in the text include:

Abraham’s offering of Isaac

Pages 189-196

Eleazar’s gathering of a bride for Isaac

Pages 194-196

Boaz, Naomi and Ruth

Pages 151-152; 271-272

Enoch, Noah and family

Pages 258-259

The Book of Joshua as a model of the Book of Revelation

Pages 272-273

Rock, stone as idiomatic types

Pages 353-354

The coats of skins for Adam and Eve

Pages 161

The various feasts of Moses were addressed in Chapter 18.

Additional well-known examples of individuals as types foreshadowing Christ include:

Adam, in his headship over a new creation (Gen 1:28; Rom 5:17-19; 1 Cor 15:22, 45, 47; Heb 2:7-9);

Noah, in his saving life (Gen 6:13-14, 17-18; 1 Pet 3:18-22);

Melchizedek, as both king and a priest (Gen 14:18-20; Ps 110:4; Heb 5—8);

Moses’ prophetic ministry (Deut 18:15-18; Heb 3:5, 6);

Joshua, in his victorious life (Josh 1:3, 5-6, 8-9; John 10:17-18; 19:30);

David, as king (2 Sam 7:1-17; Mark 11:10; Rev 5:5; 22:16);

Elijah, as His forerunner (Isa 40:3-4; Matt 17:11-12);

Jonah, in His resurrection (Jonah 1:17; Matt 12:40; 16:4; Luke 11:20);

Jeremiah, in his sorrows (Jer 3:20; 5:1-5; 8:20-22; 9:1; 10:19; 11:19);

Daniel, in his acceptance by the Father (Dan 9:23; 10:11, 19; Matt 3:17; 17:5);

Ezekiel, in his parables (Eze 17:2; 20:49; Matt 13:3).

Joseph and Isaac are detailed below in Sections B2 and B3.

Other examples of events as types include:

Manna (Ex 16:14-22);

Ark and the Flood (Gen 6—8; 1 Pet 3:18-22);

Passage through the Red Sea (Ex 14; 1 Cor 10:1, 2);

The offerings of Leviticus 1—5;

Hagar and Sarah, as law and grace (Gal 4:23, 30, 31).

Types of the Antichrist include:

Nimrod, builder of Babylon (Gen 10-11; Rev 17-18);

Pharaoh and Egypt (Ex 1:8-22; Rev 12);

Nebuchadnezzar, forced worship of his image, the fiery furnace (Dan 3:1-7; Rev 13:15);

Antiochus Epiphanes (Dan 11:21-35; Matt 24:15).

Also, there are consistent idiomatic uses as leaven of sin; brass of judgment; silver of blood, etc.

The lists seem endless. The types in the Bible are virtually impossible to list exhaustively. The discussions and analyses of types constitute a majority of expositional commentary. (A few encyclopedic sources specifically on types have been appended.)

B2: JOSEPH AS A TYPE OF CHRIST

GENESIS

TYPE

FULFILLMENT

1) 30:24

Meaning of his name: Joseph (“adding”)

John 12:24; 14:3

41:45

Zaphnathpaaneah (“Revealer of Secrets”)

(Heart of God, John 1:18; heart of brethren)

Luke 2:34, 35

2) 37:2

Occupation: shepherd

(As Abel, Jacob, Joseph, Moses, David…)

Ps 23

3) 37:2

Opposition to evil

John 7:7

4) 37:3

His father’s love

(Solomon: Prov 8:22,30)

Son:

Name:

Matt 3:17

Matt 17:5

John 10:17

Phil 2:9

Rev 3:21

5) 37:3

Relation to his father’s age

Jesus: Son of Father’s Eternity

John 17:5

Col 2:9;

1 Tim 3:16

Micah 5:2

6) 37:3

Coat of “many colors” (of distinction)

Long robe with sleeves

Judges 5:30

2 Sam 13:18

7) 37:4

Hatred of his brethren

Because of who He was

John 1:11

John 5:18; 6:41;

10:30, 31

1 Cor 16:22

Ps 2:12

8) 37:4, 5, 8

Hated because of his words

John 7:7

John 8:40

9) 37:11

Prophetic future

Isa 9:6, 7

Luke 1:31-33

10) 37:7, 9

Future sovereignty foretold

Earthly and Heavenly

Matt 26:64

Rev 12:l, 5

2 Pet 3:4

11) 37:4, 11

Envied by his brethren

Matt 27:17, 18

Mark 12:6, 7

John 12:18, 19

Acts 7:9

12) 37:13

Sent forth by his father

1 John 4:10

Heb 10:7

13) 37:14

Seeks welfare of his brethren

Definite object of mission

John 1:11

Matt 15:24

John 3:17

Rom 15:8

14) 37:14

Sent forth from the vale of Hebron

Servant; fellowship, communion

Phil 2:6, 7

15) 37:14

Came to Shechem

Shoulder, saddleback

(divide waters: Jordan and Mediterranean)

Place of sin (34:25-30)

Gal 4:4

16) 37:15, 16

Became a wanderer in the field

(No place to lay his head)

Matt 13:38

John 7:53; 8:1

17) 37:17

Seeks until he finds his brethren

(in Dothan = law, custom)

Mark 9:8

18) 37:18

Conspired against

Matt 12:14

19) 37:19, 20

Words disbelieved

Matt 27:39-43

John 3:18, 36

20) 37:23

Insulted; stripped

Matt 27:27, 28

John 19:23

21) 37:24

Cast into a pit (no water)

Zech 9:11

Matt 12:40

22) 37:28

Bodily lifted up out of the pit

I Cor 15

23) 37:25, 27

Hypocrisy mingled with hatred

(Brothers heard cries: 42:21)

Matt 27:35, 36

John 18:28

24) 37:28

Sold (Judah negotiates bargain)

(Judas = Anglicized Greek equivalent)

Zech 11:12, 13

Matt 26:14-16

25) 37:31, 32

Blood presented to father

Sin offering.

Cf. Deception of Isaac

Heb 9:12, 23

Chapter 38: In Canaan.

Chapter 39: In Egypt.

Cf. Hos 11:1;

Matt 2:15

26) 39:1

Becomes a servant

Bondservant (Ex 21:5, 6)

Phil 2:6, 7

Ps 40 (ears digged)

27) 39:2, 3

Prospers as a servant

Ps 1:3

Isa 53:10

Isa 52:13

28) 39:4

Master was well pleased with him

John 8:29

29) 39:5

Made a blessing for others

30) 39:6

A goodly person, well favored

Matt 27:54

31) 39:7-12

Sorely tempted, yet sinned not

In Egypt (world). 2 Tim 2:22.

Luke 4

Ps 105:19

32) 39:16-19

Falsely accused

Matt 16:59, 60

33) 39:19

No defense presented

Isa 53:7

34) 39:20

Cast into prison, without verdict

John 18:38

35)

Suffers though innocent

Acts 7:9,10

Ps 105:17, 18

Isa 53:7-9

36) 39:20

Suffers at the hands of Gentiles

Acts 4:26, 27

37) 39:21

Won respect of his jailer

Potiphar = Captain of the guard

Luke 23:47

38) 40:1-3

Numbered with the transgressors

(Two)

Isa 53:12

39) 40:13,19

Means of blessing to one; judgment

to the other

3 days; hung on tree as cursed

Gen 49:10-12

Gal 3:13

40) 40:8

Knowledge of future from God

Every believer obligated to set forth the truth

he has

John 12:49

1 John 1:3

1 Pet 4:11

41) 40:20-22

Predictions came true

Matt 5:18

42) 40:14

Desired to be remembered

This do in remembrance of me…

Luke 22:19

43) 41:14

:20

Delivered from prison, in due time

Pharaoh’s birthday; third day

John 20:6, 7

Acts 2:24

2 Cor 1:9

2 Cor 1:9

44) 45:7-9

Delivered by the hand of God

2 years later: patience

Acts 2:24, 32

Acts 10:40

45) 45:16,25

45:28

Seen as a revealer of secrets

(Whole counsel of God, Acts 20:27)

Isa 46:10; Amos 3:7

John 12:49

John 8:28

John 17:8

Rev 1:1

46) 41:25-36

41:32

Warnings of Danger: urged provisions

Doubling: Verily, Verily; Amen, Amen

Matt 24—25

Gal 1:8, 9

47) 41:33-36

Wonderful Counselor

“Discrete”: only here in OT

(Diligently, direct, discern, eloquent, feel, inform instruct, have intelligence, know, look well to, mark, perceive, be prudent, regard, skill, teach, think; to get, give or have understanding; view, deal wisely…)

Col 2:3

48) 41:37-39

Counsel commended to officers

Matt 7:28, 29

Matt 13:54

John 7:46

49) 41:39, 40

Exalted and set over all Egypt

1 Pet 3:22

Rev 5, 20

50) 41:40-43

Seated on the throne of another

(Distinction between Father and Son’s thrones)

Rev 3:21

51) 41:38

Exalted because of personal worthiness

and service

Phil 2:6-9

52) 41:42

Invested in positional insignia

Acts 5:31

Heb 2:9

Rev 1:13

53) 41:43

Authority and glory publicly owned

Acts 2:36

Phil 2:10

54) 41:45

Received a new name

Phil 2:9, 10

Matt 1:21

Rev 3:12

55) 41:45

Has a wife (Gentile) given to him

Tamar - Canaanite

Rahab - Amorite

Ruth - Moabite

Bathsheba - Hittite

Rev 19:7, 8

56) 41:45

Marriage arranged by Pharaoh

(Cf. Jer 3:14, 20; Ezek 16:3, 31, 32; Jer 2:3)

Two sons: “forgetting” N. Kingdom, past

“fruitful” S. Kingdom, future

Matt 22:2

Jer 31:31-34

Ezek 16:62, 63

Hos 2:19-23

Isa 54:5-8

57) 41:46

Thirty years old when began work

Luke 3:23

58) 41:46

Went forth on his mission from Pharaoh’s presence

Luke 3:22

59) 41:46

Service was active and itinerant

Matt 4:23

Matt 9:35

60) 41:47-49

Exaltation followed by season of plenty

2 Cor 6:2

John 12:24

61) 41:53, 54

Exaltation followed by season of famine

(seven years: Jacob’s Trouble)

Rom 11:25

Jer 30:7

Dan 12:1

Mark 13:19, 20

Isa 55:6; Jer 8:20

Amos 8:11, 12

Isa 55:6

Jer 8:20

Rev 3:10

62) 41:55

Dispensing to a perishing world

John 14:6

Rom 11:11

63) 41:55

Alone dispenses the Bread of Life

Acts 4:12

John 6:26-59

John 14:6

64) 41:57

A Saviour to all peoples

(Every tribe…)

John 3:16

Rev 5:9

65) 41:49

Unlimited resources to meet the need

Eph 1:7; 2:7; 3:8

Col 2:9

Rom 10:12

Dispensationilly considered:

Gen 15:13

66) 42:1-3, 5

Brethren driven out of own land

Gen 15:13

Deut 28:63-68

67) 42:6, 8

Unknown and unrecognized by brethren

(20 years later)

John 1:11

Rom 11:25

68) 42:7

Brethren seen and recognized

Jer 16:17

Hos 5:3

Ps 103:14

69) 42:7, 17

Brethren punished

(v13: thought dead, but still in family)

(Simeon ringleader? Gen 49:15)

Hos 9:17

Matt 23:38, 39

Matt 23:35, 36

70) 42:17-19

42:24

Made known to them a way of deliverance

through substitution

Acts 2:21-41

71) 42:25

Made provision for his brethren while they

were in a strange land

Jer 30:11

Ezek 11:16

72) 45:1

Made known to his brethren at the second time

: Acts 7:13

Isa 65:1

(Always made known at second time)

Moses

Ex 2:11,12

Luke 19:14

Ex 2:14

Joshua

Num 13

Deut 34:9

David

1 Sam 17:17-18

1 Sam 17:28

73) 44:16

Brethren confess their guilt in the sight of God

Ezek 20:42, 43

Hos 5:15

(Israel to repent before He returns)

Acts 3:19, 20

74) 45:3

Brethren were initially troubled in his presence

Zech 12:10

75) 45:4, 5

45:15

Demonstrated marvelous grace

Zech 13:1

Isa 54:7, 8

76) 45:1-2

Revealed as a man of compassion

Wept seven times:

John 11:35

When brethren confessed

When he beheld Benjamin

When he made himself known

When brethren reconciled

Over his father, Jacob

At the death of his father

When his love was questioned

42:24

43:30

45:1, 2

45:15

46:29

50:1

50:15-17

77) 45:1

Revealed to Judah and brethren before rest

of Jacob’s household

Zech 12:7

78) 45:18

Jacob then sent for

Isa 66:20

79) 45:9, 13

Brethren go forth to proclaim his glory

Isa 66:19

Micah 5:7

80) 46:29

Goes forth in his chariot to meet Jacob

Isa 66:15

81) 47:27

47:6

Settles brethren in land of their own

(the best of the land)

Ezek 48

82) 50:18, 19

Brethren prostrate themselves before him

as a representative of God

Isa 9:6, 7; 25:9

Phil 2:10, 11

Evangelically Considered:

83) 42:5

42:2

Brethren dwelt in a land of famine…

That we may live and not die…

John 6:33, 35

84) 42:3

Brethren wished to pay for what they rec’d.

Gal 2:16

85) 42:7-11

Brethren assume a self-righteous attitude

before the lord of Egypt

Gal 2:20, 21

86) 42:17

Cast into prison three days

Isa 42:6, 7

Isa 61:1

Ps 142:7

87) 42:21

Smitten of conscience

(Cf. Ex 9:27, Ezra 9:6; Ps 40:12, Dan 5:6)

John 8:9

88) 42:25

Makes known that deliverance is by grace

Eph 2:8, 9

89) 42:26

Enjoys a brief respite

90) 42:27,28

Superficial peace disturbed

(Replenished: 43:1, 2)

Heb 12:6-11

91) 43:11,15

Brethren continue to manifest legal spirit

(doubled the money)

Gal 3:3

Luke 14:17

92) 43:16

43:33, 34

Brethren dine with him and make merry

Matt 13:20, 21

93) 44:1,2

Joseph determined to bring his brethren

into the light

John 1:4, 7-9

2 Pet 3:9

94) 44:4, 16

Brethren take their true place before God

1 John 1:7-9

95) 45:1

Makes himself known (alone)

1 Cor 13:12

96) 45:4, 7

Invites brethren to come near to him

Matt 11:28-30

97) 45:10,11

Brethren told of full provision for them

Phil 4:19

98) 45:15

Gives proof that he is fully reconciled

to them

Rom 8:31-39

99) 45:16

Joy shared by others

Rev 5:9-13

100) 45:9-13

Brethren now go forth seeking others

(“Haste” twice)

Acts 1:8

101) 45:24

Admonition as they go forth

2 Tim 2:24

B3: JACOB (ISRAEL)

AS A TYPE OF THE NATION

1. Object of God’s election: Rom 9:10 vs Deut 6:7; 10:15; Amos 3:2. (So are we! Eph 1:4.)

2. Loved before he was born: Rom 9:11-13; Jer 31:2, 3. (So are we.)

3. Both were the source of the 12 Tribes.

4. Would be “served”: Gen 25:23; 27:29 vs Isa 49:22, 23.

5. To receive earthly inheritance: Gen 27:28; 28:13.

6. Suffered determined effort to be robbed of his inheritance: Gen 27: Isaac and Esau.

7. Sought the blessing of God, but in carnal ways (opposed to faith): Gen 26:27 vs Rom 10:2, 3.

8. Exiled from the land as the result of sin: Gen 28:5.

9. Jacob spent much of his life as a wandering exile from the land; distinctly the wanderer among the patriarchs.

10. Experienced the sore chastenings of a righteous God.

11. Jacob had no “altar” in the land of his exile. Hosea 3:4.

12. Yearned for his homeland while in exile: Gen 30:25.

13. Unjustly dealt with in exile: Gen 29:23; 31:41, 42.

14. Jacob developed into a crafty schemer and used subtle devices to secure earthly riches: Gen 30:37, 43.

15. While in exile, receives promise from God that he shall return to the Promised Land: Gen 28:15.

16. Received no further revelation from God during all the years of his exile, until bidden by Him to return: Gen 31:3.

17. In exile was the object of God’s ceaseless providential care.

18. Became wealthy while in exile: Gen 30:43.

19. Incurred the envy and enmity among those with whom he sojourned: Gen 31:1.

20. Ultimately returned to the land bearing the riches of the Gentiles, Gen 31:18.

21. Seen at the end blessing the Gentiles and acting as God’s prophet: Gen 47:4, 49; Rev 7, 11, 14.

SUGGESTIONS FOR FURTHER READING:

J. Barton Payne, Encyclopedia of Biblical Prophecy, Harper & Row, New York 1973.

Walter Lewis Wilson, Dictionary of Bible Types, William B. Eerdmans Publishing Co., Grand Rapids, Michigan, 1957.

Patrick Fairbairn, Typology of Scripture, 2 Vols, Funk & Wagnalls, New York, 1900.

Arthur W. Pink, Gleanings in Genesis, Moody Bible Institute, Chicago, Illinois, 1922.

C

APPENDIX C

Demonstrating the dependency of the design upon the integrity of the other 65 books making up the Bible. The New Testament is in the Old Testament concealed; the Old Testament is in the New Testament revealed.

CHAPTER 1

1:1

Dan 2:28-29

1:4

Isa 11:2

1:5

Gen 49:11; Ps 89:27

1:6

Ex 19:6; Isa 61:6

1:7

Dan 7:13; Zech 12:10-14

1:8

Isa 41:4

1:12

Ex 25:37; 37:23

1:13

Dan 7:13; 10:5, 16

1:14

Dan 7:9; 10:6

1:15

Ezek 1:7, 24; 43:2;

Dan 10:6

1:16

Judges 5:31; Isa 49:2

1:17

Isa 41:4; 44:6; 48:12;

Dan 8:17-18; 10:9, 10, 12, 15, 19

1:18

Job 3:17; Hos 13:14

CHAPTER 2

2:4

Jer 2:2

2:7

Gen 2:9; 3:22-24; Prov 11:30; 13:12; Ezek 31:8 (LXX)

2:12

Isa 49:2

2:14

Num 25:1-3

2:17

Ex 16:33-34; Isa 62:2;

65:15

2:18

Dan 10:6

2:20

1 Kings 16:31-32;

2 Kings 9:7, 22

2:23

Ps 7:9; 26:2; 28:4;

Jer 11:20; 17:10

2:27

Ps 2:7-9; Isa 30:14;

Jer 19:11

CHAPTER 3

3:1

Isa 4:1

3:4

Eccles 9:8

3:5

Ex 32:32-33

3:7

Isa 22:22

3:9

Isa 43:4; 49:23; 60:14

3:12

Isa 62:2; Ezek 48:35

3:14

Gen 49:3; Deut 21:17

3:18

Isa 55:1

3:19

Prov 3:12

CHAPTER 4

4:1

Isa 26:20; Ezek 1:1

4:2

Isa 6:1; Ezek 1:26-28; Dan 7:9

4:3

Ezek 1:26, 28; 10:1

4:4

1 Chron 24:5

4:5

Ex 19:16; 25:37; Isa 11:2; Ezek 1:13

4:6

Ezek 1:5, 18, 22, 26; 10:1, 12

4:7

Ezek 1:10; 10:14

4:8

Isa 6:2-3; Ezek 1:18; 10:12, 14

4:9

Deut 32:40; Dan 4:34; 6:26; 12:7

4:11

Gen 1:1

CHAPTER 5

5:1

Ezek 2:9-10; Dan 12:4,9; Zech 5:1-4

5:2

Lev 25:23-25

5:5

Gen 49:9-10; Isa 11:1, 10; Hos 5:14

5:6

Isa 11:2; Zech 3:8-9; 4:10

5:8

Ps 111:2

5:9

Ps 40:3; 98:1; 144:9; 149:1; Isa 42:10; Dan 5:19

5:10

Ex 19:6; Isa 61:6

5:11

Dan 7:10

CHAPTER 6

6:2

Zech 1:8; 6:3

6:4

Jer 25:29; Zech 1:8; 6:2

6:5

Jer 14:1, 2; Zech 6:2

6:6

Lev 26:25-33; Ezek 4:10, 11

6:8

Jer 15:2-3; 24:10; 29:17; Ezek 14:21; Hos 13:14; Zech 6:3

6:12

Isa 50:3; Joel 2:10

6:13

Isa 34:4

6:14

Isa 34:4; Nah 1:5

6:15

Josh 10:16; Ps 48:4-6; Isa 2:10-12, 19

6:16

Hos 10:8

6:17

Ps 76:7; Jer 30:7; Nah 1:6; Zeph 1:14-18; Mal 3:2

CHAPTER 7

7:1

Isa 11:2; Jer 49:36; Ezek 7:2; 37:9; Dan 7:2; Zech 6:5

7:3

Ezek 9:4-6

7:4

Gen 49:1-28

7:9

Lev 23:40

7:10

Ps 3:8

7:14

Gen 49:11

7:15

Lev 26:11

7:16

Ps 121:5-6; Isa 49:10

7:17

Ps 23:1-2; Ezek 34:23

CHAPTER 9

8:1

Josh 6:10

8:2

Josh 6:4

8:3

Ps 141:2

8:4

Ps 141:2

8:5

Ezek 10:2; 8:5, 6; Ex 19:16

8:6

Ex 19:16

8:7

Ex 9:23-24; Josh 10:11; Ps 18:13; Isa 28:2

8:8

Ex 7:17-19; 8:10; Isa 14:12

8:10

Isa 14:12

8:11

Jer 9:15; 23:15

8:12

Josh 10:12; Isa 13:10

CHAPTER 8

9:1

Isa 14:12-14

9:2

Gen 19:28; Ex 19:8

9:3

Ex 10:12-15

9:4

Ezek 9:4

9:6

Job 3:21

9:8

Joel 1:6

9:9

Joel 2:5

9:11

Job 26:6; 28:22; 31:12;

Ps 88:11; Prov 15:11;

30:27; Amos 7:11 (LXX)

9:14

Gen 15:18; Deut 1:7; Josh 1:4

CHAPTER 10

10:1

Eze 1:26-28

10:2

Deut 11:24

10:3

Joel 3:16

10:4

Dan 8:26; 12:4-9

10:5

Deut 32:40; Dan 12:7

10:6

Gen 1:1; Deut 32:40; Neh 9:6; Dan 12:17

10:7

Amos 3:7

10:9

Jer 15:16; Ezek 2:8-33

10:11

Ezek 37:4, 9

CHAPTER 11

11:1

Ezek 40:3-4; Zech 2:1-2

11:2

Ezek 40:17-20

11:4

Zech 4:1-2, 11-14

11:5

Num 16:35; 1 Kings 18:37; 2 Kings 1:10-12

11:6

Ex 7:19-25; 8:12; 1 Kings 17:1

11:7

Dan 7:3, 7, 8, 21

11:8

Isa 1:9-9-10; 3:9; Jer 23:14; Ezek 16:49; 23:3, 8 19, 27

11:9

Ps 79:2-3

11:11

Ezek 37:9-10

11:15

Ex 15:18; Dan 2:44-45; 7:13-14, 27

11:18

Ps 2:1-3; 46:6; 115:13

11:19

Jer 3:16

CHAPTER 12

12:1

Gen 37:9-11

12:2

Isa 26:17; 66:7; Micah 4:9-10

12:3

Isa 27:1; Dan 7:7, 20, 24

12:4

Dan 8:10

12:5

Ps 2:8-9; Isa 66:7

12:7

Dan 10:13, 21; 12:1

12:9

Gen 3:1; Job 1:6; 2:1; Zech 3:1

12:10

Job 1:9-11; 2:4-5; Zech 3:1

12:14

Ex 19:4; Deut 32:11; Isa 40:31; Dan 7:25; 12:7; Hos 2:14-15

12:15

Hos 15:10

12:17

Gen 3:15

CHAPTER 13

13:1

Dan 7:3, 7, 8

13:2

Dan 7:4-6, 8

13:3

Dan 7:8

13:4

Dan 8:24

13:5

Dan 7:8, 11, 20, 25; 11:36

13:7

Dan 7:21

13:8

Dan 12:1

13:10

Jer 15:2; 43:11

13:11

Dan 8:3

13:13

1 Kings 1:9-12

CHAPTER 14

14:1

Ps 2:6; Ezek 9:4

14:2

Ezek1:24; 43:2

14:3

Ps 144:9

14:7

Ex 20:11

14:8

Isa 21:9; Jer 51:7-8

14:10

Gen 19:24; Ps 75:8; Isa 51:17

14:11

Isa 34:10; 66:24

14:14

Dan 7:13

14:18

Joel 3:13

14:19

Isa 63:1-6

14:20

Joel 3:13

CHAPTER 15

15:1

Lev 26:21

15:3

Ex 15:1-18; Deut 31:30- 32:44; Psa 92:5; 111:2; 139:14

15:4

Ps 86:9; Isa 66:23; Jer 10:7

15:5

Ex 38:21

15:6

Lev 26:21

15:7

Jer 25:15

15:8

Ex 40:34-35; Lev 26:21;

1 Kings 8:10-11; 2 Chron 5:13-14; Isa 6:1-4

CHAPTER 16

16:1

Ps 79:6; Jer 10:25; Ezek 22:31

16:2

Ex 9:9-11; Deut 28:35

16:3

Ex 7:17-25

16:4

Ex 7:17-21; Ps 78:44

16:5

Ps 145:17

16:6

Isa 49:26

16:7

Ps 19:9; 145:17

16:10

Ex 10:21-23

16:12

Isa 11:15-16; 41:2, 25; 46:11; Jer 51:36

16:13

Ex 8:6

16:14

1 Kings 22:21-23

16:16

Judges 5:19; 2 Kings 23:29-30; 2 Chron 35:22; Zech 12:11

16:19

Jer 25:15

16:21

Ex 9:18-25

CHAPTER 17

17:1

Jer 51:13; Nah 3:4

17:2

Isa 23:17

17:3

Dan 7:7

17:4

Jer 51:7; Ezek 28:13

17:8

Ex 32:32-33; Dan 12:1

17:12

Dan 7:24-25

17:16

Lev 21:9

CHAPTER 18

18:1

Ezek 43:2

18:2

Isa 21:9; 34:13-15; Jer 50:30; 51:37

18:3

Jer 51:7

18:4

Isa 52:11; Jer 50:8; 51:6, 45

18:5

Jer 41:9

18:6

Ps 137:8; Jer 50:15, 29

18:7

Isa 47:7-8; Zeph 2:15

18:8

Isa 47:9; Jer 50:31-32

18:9-19

Ezek 26:16-18; 27:26-31

18:9

Jer 50:46

18:10

Isa 13:1

18:12

Ezek 27:12-25

18:20

Jer 51:48

18:21

Jer 51:63-64

18:22

Isa 24:8; Jer 25:10; Ezek 26:13

18:23

Jer 7:34; 16:9; 25:10; Nah 3:4

CHAPTER 19

19:2

Deut 32:43; Ps 119:137; Jer 51:48

19:3

Isa 34:9-10; Jer 51:48

19:5

Ps 22:23; 134:1; 135:1

19:6

Ps 93:1; 97:1; Ezek 1:24; 43:2; Dan 10:6

19:11

Ps 18:10; 45:3-4; Isa 11:4-5; Ezek 1:1

19:13

Isa 63:3

19:15

Ps 2:8-9; Isa 11:4; 63:3-6

19:16

Deut 10:17

19:17

Isa 34:6-7; Ezek 39:17

19:18

Isa 34:6-7; Ezek 39:18

19:19

Ps 2:2; Joel 3:9-11

19:20

Isa 30:33; Dan 7:11

19:21

Ezek 39:19-20

CHAPTER 20

20:2

Gen 3:1, 13-14; Isa 24:21-22

20:4

Dan 7:9, 22, 27; 12:2

20:5

Isa 26:14

20:6

Ex 19:6; Isa 26:19

20:8

Ezek 38:2; 39:1, 6

20:9

Deut 23:14; 2 Kings 1:9-12; Ezek 38:22; 39:6

20:11

Dan 2:35

20:12

Ex 32:32-33; Ps 62:12; 69:28; Dan 7:10

20:15

Ex 32:32-33; Dan 12:1

CHAPTER 21

21:1

Isa 65:17; 66:22

21:3

Lev 26:11-12; Ezek 37:27

21:4

Isa 25:8; 35:10; 51:11; 65:19

21:9

Lev 26:21

21:10

Ezek 40:2

21:11

Isa 60:1-2; Ezek 43:2

21:12-13

Ezek 48:31-34

21:15

Ezek 40:3, 5

21:19-20

Ex 28:17:20;

Isa 54:11-12

21:23

Isa 60:19-20

21:24

Isa 60:3-5, 16

21:25

Isa 60:11; Zech 14:7

21:26

Isa 60:5, 16

21:27

Isa 52:1; Ezek 44:9; Zech 14:21

CHAPTER 22

22:1

Ps 46:4; Ezek 47:1; Zech 14:8

22:2

Gen 2:9; 3:22-24; Ezek 47:12

22:3

Gen 3:17-19; Zech 14:11

22:4

Ps 17:15; Ezek 9:4

22:5

Isa 60:19; Dan 7:18, 22, 27; Zech 14:7

22:10

Dan 8:26; 12:4, 9

22:11

Ezek 3:27; Dan 12:10

22:12

Ps 62:12; Isa 40:10; 62:11

22:13

Isa 44:6

22:14

Gen 2:9; 3:22-24; Prov 11:30

22:15

Deut 23:18

22:18-19

Deut 4:2; 12:32

22:19

Deut 29:19-20

SUGGESTIONS FOR FURTHER READING:

Missler, Chuck, Expositional Commentary on the Book of Revelation, Vols 1-3, Koinonia House, Coeur d’Alene, Idaho, 1995.

D

APPENDIX D

The recurrence of seven—or an exact multiple of seven—is found throughout the Bible and is widely recognized. The frequent occurrence of the number seven is conspicuous even to a casual reader.

Attempts to compile an exhaustive list are doomed to frustration. There have been entire books written exploring these occurrences, and Dr. Ivan Panin spent 50 years pursuing them. However, here at least is a suggestive listing to convey their pervasiveness. Some are obvious; many are subtle. Some are expressed directly;1 some are hidden beneath the structure or within rhetorical devices.

Seven days of creation in Genesis

Gen 1

Seven days until rain after Noah enters the ark

Gen 7:4, 10

Seven days between the doves

Gen 8:10, 12

Seven years Jacob serves for each of his two wives

Gen 28:18-20; 29:27-30

Seven ewe lambs at the well of Beersheba

Gen 21:28-30

Seven days pursuit of Jacob by Laban

Gen 31:23

Seven bows by Jacob meeting Esau

Gen 33:3

Seven kine and seven ears of corn in Pharaoh’s dreams (Seven good years and seven famine years)

Gen 41

Seven daughters of Reuel, Priest of Midian

Ex 2:16

Seven days the waters turned to blood

Ex 7:25

Seven lamps of the Menorah

Ex 25:37

Seven elements of furniture in the Tabernacle

Ex 25

Seven feasts of Israel

Lev 23

Seven days of the Feast of Unleavened Bread

Ex 12:15, 19; 13:6, 7; Lev 23:6

Seven days of the Feast of Tabernacles

Lev 23:34-36

Seven weeks to the Feast of Weeks

Lev 23:16

Seven months in the ecclesiastical year, from Nisan to Tishri

Seven years of the sabbatical year

Lev 25:4

Seven times seven to the Jubilee Year

Lev 25:8

the repeated use of seven in the Levitical priestly instructions

Ex 29:35, 37; et al.

Joshua and Jericho:

Seven priests with seven trumpets circling Jericho seven times

Josh 6

Seven nations of Canaan

Josh 3:10; 24:11

Solomon was seven years building the Temple

1 Kings 6:38

Naaman washed seven times in the river

2 Kings 5:10, 14

Seven loaves fed the 4,000

Matt 15: 32-39; Mark 8:1-9

Seven deacons in Acts

Acts 6:5

Seven sons of Sceva

Acts 19:14

The Gospel of John:

Seven miracles

Seven discourses

Seven “I AM” statements

SEVENS IN REVELATION

Seven items in the vision Christ (Chapter 1);

Seven lampstands

Rev 1:12, 13, 20

Seven Spirits before His throne

Rev 1:4; 3:1

Seven horns, seven eyes…

Rev 5:6

Seven Churches (Chapters 2 and 3);

Seven structural elements to each letter^2

1) The name of the church (each of which turns out to be significant);

2) A title of Jesus, specifically selected to fit the theme of each letter;

3) A commendation: the good news;

4) A criticism: the bad news;

5) An exhortation for correction;

6) A parenthetical control phrase: “He that hath an ear, let him hear what the Spirit saith unto the churches”;

7) A special promise to the overcomer.

(These seven churches are also suggestively parallel to the seven churches Paul wrote to: Ephesians, Philippians, Corinthians, Galatians, Romans, Thessalonians, and Colossians; as well as the seven parables of Matthew 13.)

Seven promises to the overcomer

Rev 2, 3

Seven commendations to Ephesus

Rev 2:2, 3

Seven seals

Rev 6

Seven trumpets

Rev 8, 9

Seven angels, with seven plagues

Rev 15:7;

Seven bowls

Rev 16; 1ff

Seven thunders

Rev 10:3, 4

Seven personages

Rev 12, 13

(The Woman, the Man-child, the Dragon, the seven-headed Beast, the False Prophet, the Michael, and the Lamb)

Seven New Things

Rev 2:17; 3:12;

5:9; 14:3; 21:1, 2, 5

Seven Beatitudes

Rev 1:3, 14:3, 16:15

19:9, 20:6, 22:7, 22:14

OTHERS:

Gospel of John

Seven miracles

Seven “I Am” statements

Seven discourses

Seven attestations

SEVEN “THE JUST ONE” TITLES

“The Just One”

Acts 22:14

Pilate’s wife, “Have nothing to do…”

Matt 27:19

Pilate, washing his hands

Matt 27:24

Centurian at the cross

Luke 23:46-7

Peter’s sermon

Acts 3:14

Stephen before the council

Acts 7:51-52

Peter’s letter: The Just for the unjust

1 Pet 3:18

RHETORICAL GROUPINGS:

Lists, clusters, and groupings are usually found in sevens (Gen 12:16; Ex 20:10; 20:17; Deut 4:34; 28:22; 12:17; Ezra 6:9; etc.).

There are also seven blessings for obedience (Deut 7:13); seven punishments for disobedience (Deut 28:22); seven things that defile a man (Matt 15:19); sevenfold ascriptions of praise (Rev 5:12; 7:12). There are seven “walks” in Ephesians; seven parousias (comings) in Thessalonians; seven “better things” in Hebrews; seven “precious” things in Peter; seven “blessed’s” in Revelation; etc.

There are seven promises to Abram (Gen 12:2, 3); seven promises to Isaac (Gen 26:3, 4); seven promises to Jacob (Gen 28:13-15); Isaac’s sevenfold blessing upon Jacob (Gen 27:28); sevenfold description of God’s character (Deut 32:4; Dan 2:20-22); seven kinds of false gods (Judges 10:6); seven things destroyed at Nob (1 Sam 22:19); seven occasions for prayer (1 Kings 8:31-46); seven kinds of presents for Solomon (2 Chron 9:24); seven blessings on him that considereth the poor (Ps 41:1-3); seven promises to him that loves God (Ps 91:14-16); seven acts of wisdom (Prov 9:1-3); seven invitations of wisdom (Prov 9:4-6); seven promises to the captives of Judah (Jer 24:6, 7); seven things done by the owner of the vineyard (Mark 12:1, 2); seven things done by the good Samaritan (Luke 10:33-35); seven “gifts” of Romans 12:6-8; seven things unprofitable without love (1 Cor 13:1-3); five series of sevens in 2 Corinthians 6 (passive suffering, 4-5a; active service, 5b-6a; means of endurance, 6b-8a; result, 8b-10; promises, 16-18); seven things Paul was as a Jew (Phil 3:5, 6); seven things Paul desired as a Christian (Phil 3:8-11); seven elements of armor of God (Eph 6:14-18); sevenfold charge to the rich (1 Tim 6:17, 18); etc.

There are also seven-related things not joined together, as the seven utterances of God in Eden after the fall; the covenant given to Abram seven times; seven weepings of Joseph; seven lists of furniture in the Tabernacle; seven weepings of the Israelites; seven servitudes of Israel and seven deliverances by the Judges; seven miracles of Elijah (and 14 by Elisha); seven trials of Job; seven prayers of our Lord in Luke; seven times Jesus spoke to the woman in Samaria; seven miracles of Christ on the Sabbath; seven visions of Paul; seven “mysteries” of Paul; seven emblems of the Holy Spirit; etc.

STRUCTURAL ASPECTS

There are also inexhaustible structural aspects of the Biblical text: the number of sentences may usually be divided into paragraphs or sections of seven each. The number of words or letters are usually seven or an exact multiple of seven. Parts of speech and inflections often exhibit the same heptadic influence. (See also Chapter 7 of the text.)

Perhaps the most provocative are the sevenfold occurrences which are only visible when the New Testament and the Old Testament are combined. These were discussed in Chapter 20.

A FINAL SEVEN?

Dr. Albert Einstein suggested that “God does not play dice.” However, the opposite sides of dice total seven.

SOURCES:

R. McCormack, The Heptadic Structure of Scripture, Marshall Brothers Ltd., London, 1923.

Ivan Panin, (various works), Bible Numerics, P.O. Box 206, Waubaushene, Ontario, Canada L0K 2C0

E. W. Bullinger, Numbers of the Scriptures, Kregel Publications, Grand Rapids, Michigan (reproduction from 1894).

NOTES:

1 “Seven,” appears 463 times; “sevens,” 2; “sevenfold,” 6; “seventh,” 120; “seventy,” 61.

2 Although two have no criticism, and two have no commendation, to emphasize their predicament.

E

“Eschatology seems

to suffer at the hands

both of its friends and foes.

Those who play it down

usually avoid assigning

specific meaning to prophetic texts.

Those who play it up often assign too much.”

DR. CHARLES C. RYRIE^1

APPENDIX E

There are few areas of more diverse—and intense—differences of opinion than in the area of eschatology (the study of “last things.”) Each of the various views essentially derive from the hermeneutics (principles of interpretation) with which one approaches his/her Biblical studies. Furthermore, one’s eschatological views derive from a total integration of a comprehensive understanding of the whole body of Biblical Scripture, as influenced by one’s willingness to depart from the literal rendering of the text. And, of course, there are outstanding scholars espousing each of the differing views.

The various “codes”—macrocodes in particular—can also have a significant impact on the assessment of alternative positions. While an analysis or defense of the alternative scholastic positions is beyond the scope this review, this brief precis has been included to assist the uninitiated reader.

There never has been a more exciting time to indulge in a serious study of this subject. The author joins the many Bible scholars who believe we are on the threshold of the most climactic era of all time. We appear to be entering a period about which the Bible appears to express more than any other time in history, including the time when Jesus walked the shores of the Sea of Galilee and climbed the mountains of Judea. There is a classic Biblical scenario, that has long been espoused by those that take the Bible literally, which may soon be subjected to a decisive empirical test.

There are at least 1,845 references to Christ’s rule on the earth in the Old Testament. A total of 17 Old Testament books give prominence to the event. Of 216 chapters in the New Testament, there are 318 references to the Second Coming. It is mentioned in 23 of the 27 books (excepting three that are single-chapter letters to private individuals and Galatians). For every prophecy relating to His first coming, there are eight treating His return.

THE MILLENNIUM

The primary dichotomy of eschatological views hinges on the Millennium, the reign of Jesus Christ on the Planet Earth.1 Millennium is from Latin, mille (1000) and annum (year). It is also referred to as chiliasm, from the Greek, which is the way the early church spoke of it.

This is the subject of numerous allusions in both the Old and New Testaments. Man has dreamed (and tried to achieve) a “utopia” on the Planet Earth and failed. Only Jesus, on David’s throne, will establish this perfect kingdom. Christ will reign over the nations of the earth and Israel will enjoy the blessings promised through the prophets. There is more prophecy in the Scripture concerning the Millennium than of any other period.

Those that take this reign to be literally fulfilled are known as premillennialists. This tends to be the view of those who take the Biblical text literally and inerrant in the original.

Those that take the Millennium as allegorical (or “spiritualized”) are known as amillennialists. They do not take the millennial reign of Christ in a literal sense. As discussed in Chapter 24, amillennialism has been the traditional view of most of the major denominations.

AMILLENNIALISM

Amillennialism would make God guilty of not keeping His unconditional covenants to the physical descendants of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob: the Jews.

1. Promise of the Land;2

2. Promise of the land, a kingdom, and a greater Son of David (Messiah) as King;3

3. Promise of restoration to the land of Israel from worldwide dispersion and the establishment of Messiah’s kingdom;4

4. Promises that a remnant of the Israelites will be saved.5

AUGUSTINE TO AUSCHWITZ

Amillennialism began with Augustine (A.D. 345-430), leaning upon the allegorizations of Origen. Upon conversion of Constantine, his Edict of Toleration made the Christian Church legal throughout the Roman Empire. Constantine’s successors later made it the official state religion. However, the traditional “premillennial” view—that the Lord Jesus Christ was going to return to rid the world of its evil leaders— was conspicuously unpopular with then current Roman leadership!

Allegorical methods, adopted by third century theologian Origen, led to Augustine developing the “amillennial view”—that Jesus was to rule “spiritually” rather than literally. This view ultimately became the dominant view of the Roman Catholic Church.

The Protestant Reformation, with its “back to the Bible” emphasis, dealt aggressively with the issues of salvation by faith, and other crucial doctrines, but failed to challenge adequately the eschatological views of the Medieval church. Thus, the amillennial views continued as the dominant perspective of many of the mainline Protestant denominations.

The amillennial view, with its failure to countenance the prophetic role for Israel, laid the foundation for anti-Semitism.6 Unfortunately, anti-Semitism is reviving again.

THE POST-MILLENNIAL VIEW

A “post-millennial” view—a variation of amillennialism espousing a form of optimistic self-improvement—was popular a century ago when optimists assumed that the world was getting better and better. It is rarely encountered today. The realities of the 20th century, the bloodiest century in human history, have rendered this view obsolete.

PREMILLENNIALISM

This view takes the “1000 year reign” of Christ literally, as the fulfillment of the numerous promises, in both the Old and New Testaments. The Millennium is essential for the fulfillment of the promises to Israel and Christ.7

Creation will be physically changed,8 the curse lifted,9 and the creation redeemed.10 The earth will have full of knowledge of the Lord.11 (Yet it is not to be confused by the subsequent eternal state; in the Millennium there will still be death and sin,12 each is to have land,13 and be fruitful.14

The prophetic destiny of Israel is obviously also a key issue. Premillennialists focus a significant degree of attention on the future prophecies affecting Israel and, accordingly, the current vicissitudes in the Middle East, etc. The Bible indicates that the entire world will ultimately go to war over this issue.15 If many experts are correct, it may be about to begin. Watch your newspapers.

THE TRIBULATION

The Bible also predicts, prior to the Millennium, a specific time of unparalleled trouble yet ahead, for the world in general and Israel in particular, known as The Great Tribulation.16 Specifically, this appears to be the last 3½ years of the seven-year period known as the “70th Week” of Daniel (as was discussed in Chapter 17). A major division among premillennialists concerns the relationship of the Church to this specific “Tribulation” period. The Bible alludes to a “snatching-out” (Greek, harpazo) of the Church, known as the “Rapture” (from the Latin Vulgate).

Those who believe that the Church will be removed prior to the seven-year period are known as pre-tribulationalists. Those who believe that the Church will be removed after the seven-year period are known as post-tribulationalists. (Most amillennialists are intrinsically post-tribulational.) Post-tribulationists would include Robert Gundry, George Ladd, Walter Martin, Pat Robertson, and Jim McKeever.

Those who believe that the Church will be removed in the middle of the seven-year period are known as mid-tribulationalists. The mid-tribulation view correctly discerns that the “Great Tribulation” is, indeed, only the last 3½ years of the seven-year period known as the “70th Week” of Daniel. The more common pre-tribulation view holds that the Church is excluded from the entire seven-year period for a number of reasons, including the apparent mutually exclusive aspects of the Church and Israel.)

The pre-tribulation view was popularized in large measure by Hal Lindsey’s bestseller, The Late Great Planet Earth, and has been well represented scholastically by C. I. Scofield, J. Dwight Pentecost, John F. Walvoord, Charles C. Ryrie, Charles L. Feinberg, M. R. DeHaan, Arnold Fruchtenbaum, Chuck Smith, Tim Lahaye, Dave Breese, Grant Jeffrey, and many others.

THE HARPAZO

The Harpázô, or “Rapture,” of the Church derives from Paul’s description in 1 Thessalonians 4:17.17 The English phrase “caught up” translates the Greek word harpázô, which means “to seize upon with force” or “to snatch up.”

As one begins to catalog the many references to the return of Jesus Christ recorded throughout the Bible, it becomes clear that they fall into two mutually contradictory categories:

TABLE I.

RAPTURE AND SECOND COMING PASSAGES

RAPTURE

SECOND COMING

John 14:1-3

Dan 2:44-45

Rom 8:19

Dan 7:9-14

1 Cor 1:7-8

Dan 12:1-3

1 Cor 15:1-53

Zech 14:1-15

1 Cor 16:22

Matt 13:41

Phil 3:20-21

Matt 24:15-31

Col 3:4

Matt 26:64

1 Thess 1:10

Mark 13:14-27

1 Thess 2:19

Mark 14:62

1 Thess 4:13-18

Luke 21:25-28

1 Thess 5:9

Acts 1:9-11

1 Thess 5:23

Acts 3:19-21

2 Thess 2:1, (3?)

1 Thess 3:13

1 Tim 6:14

2 Thess 1:6-10

2 Tim 4:1

2 Thess 2:8

Titus 2:13

2 Peter 3:1-14

Heb 9:28

Jude 14-15

James 5:7-9

Rev 1:7

1 Peter 1:7, 13

Rev 19:11—20:6

1 John 2:28—3:2

Rev 22:7, 12, 20

Jude 21

Rev 2:25

Rev 3:10

The principal contrasts between the two distinct events are summarized in Table II.

TABLE II.

RAPTURE AND SECOND COMING PASSAGES

RAPTURE

SECOND COMING

1. Translation of all believers

No translation at all

2. Translated saints go to heaven

Translated saints return to earth

3. Earth not judged

Earth judged; righteousness established

4. Imminent, any-moment, signless

Follows definite predicted signs including tribulation

5. Not in the Old Testament

Predicted often in Old Testament

6. Believers only

Affects all men on the earth

7. Before the day of wrath

Concluding the day of wrath

8. No reference to Satan

Satan bound

9. Christ comes for His own

Christ comes with His own

10. He comes in the air

He comes to the earth

11. He claims His bride

He comes with His bride

12. Only His own see Him

Every eye shall see Him

13. Tribulation begins (?)

Millennial Kingdom begins

14: Church believers only?

It appears that Jesus returns twice: first for the Church, then, subsequently, for Israel. Paul speaks of the Rapture as a “mystery,”18 that is, a truth not revealed until its disclosure by the apostles.19 The Second Coming, on the other hand, was predicted in the Old Testament.20 In fact, the oldest prophecy uttered by a prophet was given before the Flood of Noah and was of the Second Coming (by Enoch).21 The movement of the believer at the Rapture is from earth to heaven; at the Second Coming it is from heaven to earth. At the Rapture, the Lord comes for His saints,22 taking them to His Father’s House.23 However, at Christ’s Second Coming with His saints,24 He descends from heaven to set up His Messianic Kingdom on earth.25 The differences between the two events are harmonized naturally by the pre-trib position, while other views are not able to reconcile such differences adequately.

While there are a number of prerequisite events that will precede the Second Coming, the Rapture can occur at any moment. The doctrine of imminence is a key fundamental in the New Testament and was a characteristic of the early church. Ignatius, Polycarp, Justin, Augustine, and others all evidenced an expectation of Christ’s imminent return during their lifetimes. (There are at least 80 references among the Ante-Nicene documents, A.D. 325).

AN EARLIEST VIEW

There is a misconception among some that the “premillennial pre-tribulational” view is a recent development. There are some that attribute it uniquely to Emmanuael Lacunza (Ben Ezra), 1812; Edward Irving, 1816; Margaret McDonald, 1830; or J. N. Darby, 1820. While Darby was instrumental in popularizing this view, its history goes much deeper.

The perception of the interval of Daniel 9:26 appears in the Epistle of Barnabas, A.D. 100, and other early writings. Other early writers include Irenaeus, Against Heresies; Hippolytus, a disciple of Irenaeus, (second century);26 Justin Martyr, Dialogue with Trypho. The recent discovery of the writings of Ephraem of Nisibis (306-373) also evidences the pretribulational view.27

Other historical commentaries include Peter Jurieu, 1687, Approaching Deliverance of the Church; Philip Doddgridge’s Commentary on the New Testament, 1738; Dr. John Gill’s Commentary on the New Testament, 1 Thessalonians 4:15-17, 1748; James Macknight’s Commentary on the Apostolical Epistles, 1763; and Thomas Scott’s Commentary on the Holy Bible, 1792.28

The expectation that there will be a sudden “snatching-out” of the believers is, on the one hand, one of the strangest notions conceivable, and yet it appears to be the “litmus test” of taking the literal Biblical text seriously.

THE POST-TRIBULATION VIEW

Those that believe the Church will endure the Great Tribulation are categorized as post-tribulationists. There are at least four distinct types of post-tribulational views:29

1. Classic post-tribulationism (J. Barton Payne, et al.);

2. Semi-classic post-tribulationism (Alexander Reese);

3. Futuristic post-tribulationism (George E. Ladd);

4. Dispensational post-tribulationism (Robert H. Gundry).

These differing views are based upon differing approaches, presuppositions, and argumentation. In fact, they substantially contradict each other. As one insists on literalness, each of these views must embrace increasing difficulties:

1) The post-tribulation view requires that the Church will be present during the “70th Week” of Daniel^30 even though it was absent from the first 69. This is in spite of the fact that Daniel 9:23 indicates that all 70 weeks are for Israel. We believe the Church must depart prior to the 70th week, before the final seven-year period. (See Chapter 17.)

2) The post-tribulation view denies the New Testament teaching of imminency—that Christ could come at any moment, since there are intervening events required in that view. There are no signs that must precede the Rapture.

3) The post-tribulation view has difficulties with who will populate the Millennium if the Rapture and the Second Coming occur at essentially the same time. Since all believers will be translated at the Rapture and all unbelievers are judged, because no unrighteous shall be allowed to enter Christ’s Kingdom, then no one would be left in mortal bodies to start the population base for the Millennium.

4) Similarly, post-tribulationism is not able to explain the sheep and goats judgment after the Second Coming in Matthew 25:3-46. Where would the believers in mortal bodies come from if they are raptured at the Second Coming? Who would be able to enter into Christ’s Kingdom?

5) The Bride of Christ, the Church, is made ready to accompany Christ to earth^31 before the Second Coming. How could this reasonably happen if part of the Church is still on the earth awaiting the Second Coming? If the Rapture of the Church takes place at the Second Coming, then how does the Bride (the Church) also come with Christ at His return?

THE CHURCH AND THE TRIBULATION

The view that the Church will go through the Great Tribulation would also seem to confuse both the nature of the Church—in its mystical sense—and the purpose and role of the Tribulation. The Church was hidden from view in Old Testament prophecy.32 It occurs during the interval between the 69th and 70th “Weeks” of Daniel.33 This same interval is evident when Jesus opens His ministry quoting Isaiah as His mandate but stops at a comma in His declaration.34 (This was discussed in Chapter 18.)

Israel’s national blindness was declared by Christ^35 which Paul explains will endure until the completion (and rapture) of the Church.36 This will set the stage for the subsequent purging effect of the “Time of Jacob’s Trouble” that will then be terminated by the Second Coming.

Each of these fundamental and critical topics are beyond the scope of this brief review, and the diligent reader is urged to undertake a careful inquiry into both of these issues before framing his own views.

RAPTURE MACROCODES?

There are numerous suggestive potential macrocodes in the Old Testament. Here are a few:

1. Noah’s Flood: Three groups of people that faced the judgment of the Flood:

(1) Those that perished in the judgment;

(2) Those that were preserved through the judgment in the ark;

(3) Those that were translated (“raptured”?) prior to the judgment (Enoch). Could Enoch be a type of the Church?

2. Lot’s deliverance from Sodom prior to judgment. The angels seem to emphasize the prerequisite nature of his departure first.37

3. The preservation of the three young men in the fiery furnace (Daniel 3). Where was Daniel during this trial?

4. Israel and the Church appear mutually exclusive in the pivotal prophecy of Daniel 9. (See Chapter 17.)

5. Ruth was at Boaz’s feet during threshingfloor scene (Ruth 3).

These, of course, are very conjectural but seem to suggest a potential typological significance. There are also several explicit Old Testament references such as Isaiah 26:19-21 and Zephaniah 2:3 which are also provocative.

TIMING CAVEATS

The tendency for obsessive enthusiasts to attempt to “set dates” and attempt to predict the Rapture of the Church—despite the specific injunctions against such practices—has plagued mankind since the earliest times. Specific dates were predicted by Joachim of Flores in 1260; Militz of Kromeriz in 1365; Joseph Mede, 1660; John Napier, the famed mathematician, in 1688; Pierre Jurieu of France, 1689; William Whitson, 1715, then again in 1734, then again in 1866; J. A. Bengal, 1836; William Miller, 1843, again on October 22, 1844; Joseph Worlf, 1847; and C. T. Russell, 1874. Many of us may remember E. C. Wisenant’s “88 reasons for 1988.” And there continues to be others of even more recent variations.

As we approach the year 2000, we can expect even more hypotheses and expectant declarations by those who ignore the injunctions in the Scripture which clearly declare that “no man knows the day nor the hour.”38

Note: The author was also a contributor to The Dictionary of Pre-Millennial Theology, Mal Couch, Gen. Ed., Kregel Publications, Grand Rapids, Michigan, 1996.

SELECTED BIBLIOGRAPHY

(Selections from several thousand volumes of the author’s personal library, these have proven the most useful eschatological references.)

Mal Couch, Gen. Ed., The Dictionary of Premillennial Theology, a practical guide to the people, viewpoints, and history of prophetic studies, Kregel Publications, Grand Rapids, Michigan, 1996. (Chuck Missler was one of the contributors.)

J. Dwight Pentecost, Things to Come, a classic in Biblical eschatology, Zondervan Publishing House, Grand Rapids, Michigan, 1964.

John F. Walvoord, The Prophecy Knowledge Handbook, All the prophecies of the Scripture explained in one volume, Chariot Victor Publishing, Colorado Springs, Colorado, 1990.

Gerald B. Stanton, Kept From the Hour, Biblical evidence for the pre-tribulational return of Christ, Schoettle Publishing Co., Miami Springs, Florida, 1991.

Arnold G. Fruchtenbaum, Footsteps of the Messiah, a study in the sequence of prophetic events, Ariel Press, Tustin, California, 1982.

NOTES:

1 From his foreword to Arnold G. Fruchtenbaum’s Footsteps of the Messiah, Ariel Press, Tustin, California, 1982.

2 Rev 20; Isa 65; et al.

3 Gen 12:7; 13:15-16; 17:7-8.

4 Ps 89:27-37, et al.

5 Jer 31:31, 37; Ezek 36, 37, 38, 39, etc.

6 Rom 11:25-29; Zech 13:8, 9; Isa 10:20-22.

7 Jer 31:35-37.

8 Promised to David: 2 Sam 7:12-17; 23:5; under oath: Ps 89:34-37; predicted in the Psalms and the Prophets: Ps 2; 45; 110; Isa 2:1-5; 4:1-6; 11:1-9; 12:1-6; 30:18-26; 35:1-10; 60, 61:3-62; 66; Jer 23:3-8; 32:37-44; Ezek 40—48; Dan 2:44-45; 7:13-14; 12:2-3; Micah 4:1-8; Zech 12:10—14:21. Promised to Mary, Luke 1:32; Micah 5:2; Isa 9:6, 7; Dan 2:44; reaffirmed to apostles: Luke 22:29-30. Lord’s Prayer: “Thy Kingdom come”; “For thine is the kingdom”: Matt 6:10, 13; Acts 1:6; Ps 45, 46, 47, 48. Literal rule: Ps 2; 110; “Rod of Iron,” Rev 12:5; 19:15. “Every knee must bow, Phil 2:6-11. Melchizedek as a macrocode, Zech 6:13; the Millennial Temple, Isa 33:17, 22; Ezek 43:7; 44:2; 46:1-3; in Zion, Isa 2:2-4; Jer 23:3-6 (Cf. David? Ezek 37:24, 25; 34:23, 24; Jer 30:9; Hos 3:5; Walk of the Prince, Ezek 46:4-12).

8 Zech 4:9,10; Isa 35:1-10.

9 Isa 11:6-9.

10 Gen 3 vs. Rom 8:20-22.

11 Isa 11:9; Hab 2:14.

12 Isa 65:20.

13 Micah 4:15.

14 Amos 9:13.

15 Zech 12; Psalm 2; et al.

16 From Jesus’ quote in Matthew 24:21, quoting Dan 12:1.

Cf. Jer 30:7.

17 As well as allusions in 1 Corinthians 15:51, 52; John 14:1-3; etc.

18 1 Cor 15:51-54.

19 Col 1:26.

20 Dan 12:1-3; Zech 12:10; 14:4.

21 Jude 14, 15.

22 1 Thess 4:16.

23 John 14:3.

24 1 Thess 3:13.

25 Zech 14:4-5; Matt 24:27-31.

26 Ante Nicene Fathers, Vol v., p. 182.

27 Ice, Thomas D., and Demy, Timothy J., “The Rapture and Pseudo-Ephraem: An Early Medieval Citation,” Bibliotheca Sacra 152, July-September 1995.

28 Jeffrey, Grant, Apocalypse, Frontier Research Books, Toronto, Canada, 1992, pp. 313-322.

29 John F. Walvoord, The Blessed Hope and the Tribulation: A Biblical and Historical Study of Posttribulationism, Zondervan, Grand Rapids, Michigan, 1976, pp. 21-69. Post-tribulationism is not monolithic, but embraces many mutually contradictory views: amillennial post-tribulation view, post-millennial post-tribulational view, premillennial post-tribulational view, and post-tribulation views that equate the Rapture and the Second Coming, etc.

30 Dan 9:24-27.

31 Rev 19:7-8, 14.

32 Eph 3:3-7; Matt 13: 10-17, 35.

33 Dan 9:26.

34 Luke 4:16-21; cf. Isa 61:1, 2.

35 Luke 19:42.

36 Rom 11:25.

37 Gen 19:22.

38 Matt 24:36; also, 25:13; Mark 13:32; Matt 24:44.

F

APPENDIX F

There has been much controversy over the final 12 verses of the Gospel of Mark. Were these verses added by some scribe later (as many Bible have annotated)? Or were they deletions from earlier manuscripts? Behind this dispute lies some astonishing discoveries of profound significance.

The oldest existing manuscripts of the Greek New Testament text are three that had their origins in Alexandria in the 4th and 5th centuries.1 Since they are the oldest complete manuscripts (in our present possession), many regard them as having an eclipsing authority. There are a number of passages that do not appear in these Alexandrian manuscripts, and therein lies an intense ecclesiastical debate.

TEXTUS RECEPTUS

At the end of the 3rd century, Lucian of Antioch compiled a Greek text that achieved considerable popularity and became the dominant text throughout Christendom. It was produced prior to the Diocletain persecution (~303), during which many copies of the New Testament were confiscated and destroyed.

After Constantine came to power, the Lucian text was propagated by bishops going out from the Antiochan school throughout the eastern world, and it soon became the standard text of the Eastern church, forming the basis of the Byzantine text.

From the 6th to the 14th century, the great majority of New Testament manuscripts were produced in Byzantium, in Greek. It was in 1525 that Erasmus, using five or six Byzantine manuscripts dating from the 10th to the 13th centuries, compiled the first Greek text to be produced on a printing press, subsequently known as Textus Receptus (“Received Text”).

The translators of the King James Version had over 5,000 manuscripts available to them, but they leaned most heavily on the major Byzantine manuscripts, particularly Textus Receptus.

TEXTUS RECEPTUS DETHRONED

Brooke Foss Westcott and Fenton John Anthony Hort were Anglican churchmen who had contempt for the Textus Receptus and began a work in 1853 that resulted, after 28 years, in a Greek New Testament based on the earlier Alexandrian manuscripts.

Both men were strongly influenced by Origen and others who denied the deity of Jesus Christ and embraced the prevalent Gnostic heresies of the period. There are over 3,000 contradictions in the four gospels alone between these manuscripts. They deviated from the traditional Greek text in 8,413 places.

They conspired to influence the committee that produced The New Testament in the Original Greek (1881 revision) and, thus, their work has been a major influence on most modern translations, dethroning the Textus Receptus.

Detractors of the traditional King James Version regard the Westcott and Hort as a more academically acceptable literary source for guidance than the venerated Textus Receptus. They argue that the disputed passages were added later as scribal errors or amendments.

Defenders of the Textus Receptus attack Westcott and Hort (and the Alexandrian manuscripts) as having expurgated many passages, noting that these disputed passages underscore the deity of Christ, His atonement, His resurrection, and other key doctrines. They note that Alexandria was a major headquarters for the Gnostics, heretical sects that had begun to emerge even while John was still alive.2

(It is also evident that Westcott and Hort were not believers and opposed taking the Bible literally concerning the atonement, salvation, etc. If you read their personal writings you wouldn’t dream of letting them lead your Sunday School class!)3

THE LAST 12 VERSES OF MARK

Among the disputed passages are the final verses of the Gospel of Mark (16:9-20). (Look in your own Bible: you are likely to find an annotation that these were “added later.”)

The insistence that Mark’s Gospel ends at 16:8 leaves the women afraid and fails to record the resurrection, Christ’s final instructions, and the ascension. It is understandable why these verses were an embarrassment to the Gnostics, and why Westcott and Hort would advocate their exclusion and insist that they were “added later.”

However, it seems that Irenaeus in 150 A.D., and also Hypolytus in the 2nd century, each quote from these disputed verses, so the documentary evidence is that they were deleted later in the Alexandrian texts, not added subsequently.

But there is even more astonishing evidence for their original inclusion that is also profoundly instructive for broader reasons.

THE FINGERPRINTS OF THE AUTHOR

Let’s examine these verses and explore their underlying design. Just as we encounter fingerprint or retinal scanners to verify an identity in today’s technological environment, it seems that there is an astonishingly equivalent “fingerprint” hidden beneath the Biblical text that is still visible today, despite the veil of the centuries.

(Fasten your seat belts!)

HEPTADIC STRUCTURE OF SCRIPTURE

Everyone who explores their Bible quickly discovers the pervasiveness of “seven”: there are over 600 explicit occurrences of “sevens” throughout both the Old and New Testaments. As we pointed out in chapter 7 (naturally), there are also prevalent evidences of design hidden behind the text.4 The “Heptadic” (sevenfold) structure of the Biblical text is one of the remarkable characteristics of its authenticity. What about these disputed 12 verses?

There are 175 (7 x 25) words in the Greek text of Mark 16:9-20. Curious. These words use a total vocabulary of 98 different words (7 x 14), also an exact multiple of seven. That’s also rather striking.

Try constructing a passage in which both the total number of words and the number of unique words (vocabulary list) are precisely divisible by seven (with no remainder)! The random chance of a number being precisely divisible by 7 is one chance in seven. In seven tries, there will be an average of six failures.

The chance of two numbers both being divisible by 7 exactly is one in 7^2, or one in 49. (This is a convenient simplification; some mathematical statisticians would argue the chance is one in 91.5) This might still be viewed as an accidental occurrence, or the casual contrivance of a clever scribe. But let’s look further. The number of letters in this passage is 553, also a precise multiple of seven (7 x 79). This is getting a bit more tricky. The chance of three numbers accidentally being precisely divisible by seven is one in 7^3, or one in 343. This increasingly appears to be suspiciously deliberate.

In fact, the number of vowels is 294 (7 x 42); and the number of consonants is 259 (7 x 37). Do you sense that someone has gone through a lot of trouble to hide a design or signature behind this text?

As we examine the vocabulary of those 98 (7 x 14) words: 84 (7 x 12) are found before in Mark; 14 (7 x 2) are found only here; 42 (7 x 6) are found in the Lord’s address (vv.15-18); and 56 (7 x 8) are not part of His vocabulary there.

This is, conspicuously, not random chance at work, but highly skillful design. But just how skillful?

With ten such heptadic features, it would take 7^10, or 282,475,249 attempts for these to occur by chance alone. How long would it take the composer to redraft an alternative attempt to obtain the result he was looking for? If he could accomplish each attempt in only 10 minutes, working 8 hours a day, 40 hours a week, 50 weeks a year, these would take him over 23,540 years!

But there’s more. The total word forms in the passage are 133 (7 x 19); 112 of them (7 x 16) occur only once, leaving 21 (7 x 3) of them occurring more than once. In fact, these occur 63 (7 x 9) times.

If we examine more closely the 175 words (7 x 25), we discover that 56 (7 x 8) words appear in the address of the Lord and 119 (7 x 17) appear in the rest of the passage.

The natural divisions of the passage would be the appearance to Mary, verses 9-11; His subsequent appearances, verses 12-14; Christ’s discourse, verses 15-18; and the conclusion in verses 19-20. We discover that verses 9-11 involve 35 words (7 x 5). Verses 12-18, 105 (7 x 15) words; verse 12 and 14 (7 x 2) words; verses 13-15, 35 (7 x 5) words; verses 16-18, 56 (7 x 8) words. The conclusion, verses 19-20, contains 35 (7 x 5) words.

It gets worse. Greek, like Hebrew, has assigned numerical values to each letter of its alphabet. Thus, each word also has a numerical (“gematrical”) value (see Figure 20-1 on page 287).

The total numerical value of the passage is 103,656 (7 x 14,808). The value of v. 9 is 11,795 (7 x 1,685); v. 10 is 5,418 (7 x 774); v. 11 is 11,795 (7 x 1,685); vv. 12-20, 86,450 (7 x 12,350). In verse 10, the first word is 98 (7 x 14), the middle word is 4,529 (7 x 647), and the last word is 791 (7 x 113). The value of the total word forms is 89,663 (7 x 12,809). And so on.

Individual words also tell a tale. , deadly (v.18), is not found elsewhere in the New Testament. It has a numerical value of 581 (7 x 83), and is preceded in the vocabulary list by 42 (7 x 6) words, and in the passage itself by 126 (7 x 18) words.

This all is among the legendary results of the work by Dr. Ivan Panin (reviewed in chapter 7). In fact, he identified 75 heptadic features of the last 12 verses of Mark.6 We have highlighted only 34 heptadic features. If a supercomputer could be programmed to attempt 400 million attempts/second, working day and night, it would take one million of them over four million years to identify a combination of 7^34 heptadic features by unaided chance alone.7

AUTHENTICATION CODES

Just as we encounter coding devices in our high-technology environments, here we have an automatic security system that monitors every letter of every word, that never rusts or wears out, and has remained in service for almost two thousand years! It is a signature that can’t be erased and which counterfeiters can’t simulate.

Why are we surprised? God has declared that He “has magnified His word even above His name!” (Psalm 138:2). We can, indeed, have confidence that, in fact, the Bible is God’s Holy Word, despite the errors man has introduced and the abuse it has suffered throughout the centuries. It is our most precious possession—individually as well as collectively.

And it never ceases to unveil surprises to anyone that diligently inquires into it.

* * *

NOTES (7, NATURALLY):

1 Codex Alexandrinus: a 5th century manuscript containing the entire New Testament, brought to England in about 1630. Codex Siniaticus, discovered in St. Catherine’s Monastery at (the traditional) Mt. Sinai, has been dated around 350 A.D. Codex Vaticanus, dated about 325 A.D., had been in the Vatican Library since at least 1481, but was not made available to scholars until the middle of the 19th century.

2 1 John 1:1, 4:2, 3; et al.

3 For a sampling of their correspondence, etc., see our Briefing Package, How We Got Our Bible, from which this article was excerpted.

4 The discussion in chapter 4 on Matthew 1:1-11 should be reviewed in connection with this article.

5 Actually, it can be mathematically argued that it is 91. p = 1/7*[(n-1)/(7n-1)]*[(n-2)/(7n-2)]* … *[1/(7n-(n-1))] is far more restrictive than the assumptions here.

6 Ivan Panin, The Last Twelve Verses of Mark, B-761, Bible Numerics, John W. Irwin, 81 Bayview Ridge, Toronto, Ontario, M2L 1E3, (416) 445-3243 ph/ (416) 445-4069 fax

7 7^34 = ~5.4 x 10^28 tries needed. There are 3.15 x 10^7 sec/year; at 4 x 10^8 tries/sec, it would take about 4.3 x 10^12 computer-years.

G

APPENDIX G

It may come as a surprise to discover that there does exist a “mathematics of beauty.” Most of us assume that the rigors of mathematics, however elegant, are relegated to some kind of antithesis to “beauty,” which is, ultimately, deemed to be purely subjective. Not only does it appear that there is a strange brand of mathematical observations that are labeled thus, but they may well be fingerprints of the Creator Himself!

LEONARDO DA PISA

Regarded as the “greatest European mathematician of the Middle Ages,” his name was Filius Bonacci (“son of Bonacci”), shortened to Fibonacci. He was born in Pisa, Italy, the city with the famous Leaning Tower, in about A.D. 1175.

He was one of the first people to introduce the Hindu-Arabic number system— the positional system we use today based on ten digits with its decimal point and a symbol for zero—into Europe. His book on “how to do arithmetic in the decimal system,” Liber abbaci (meaning Book of the Abacus or Book of Calculating), completed in 1202, persuaded many European mathematicians of his day to use this “new” system.

But his book also discussed a hypothetical problem of rabbit populations that introduced a sequence of numbers that has come to be known as the “Fibonacci sequence,” where each succeeding number is the sum of the preceding two:

1, 1, 2, 3, 5, 8, 13, 21, 34, 55, 89, 144, 233, etc.

Several hundred years would pass before the extent and significance of this sequence would be recognized in nature.1

THE GOLDEN RECTANGLE

Inherent in the Fibonacci numbers is the “golden proportion,” sometimes designated as (Φ). The ratio between each pair of numbers will always approximate 1.618, which in turn, approximates the value of (1 + )/2. This ratio is only true for this sequence of numbers.

This ratio also defines a rectangle that has become known as the “Golden Rectangle,” in which the longer side is to the shorter side as the sum of the two sides is to the longer side. If the short side is x, the long side will be 1.618x. Mathematically, L/x = (x+L)/L (see graphic, below).

The Golden Rectangle is widely regarded as the most beautiful and satisfying to the human eye. Phideas, the Greek sculptor, and many others in ancient Greece and Egypt used this ratio in their works of art and architecture. Artists such as Leonardo da Vinci, Van Gogh, Vermeer, John Singer Sargent, Monet, Whistler, Renoir, Mary Cassatt, Gioto, Durer, and others employed the Golden Rectangle in their works of art. In contrast to static symmetry, the dynamic symmetry of the golden proportion yields growth, power, movement, and life to an artist’s work.

This pleasant rectangular shape was used in designing the Parthenon in Greece, the Great Pyramid in Egypt and the United Nations building. (The Great Pyramid is based upon (Φ), with π derived as a byproduct since

The Golden Rectangle is still found in numerous pictures, doorways, windows, statues, credit cards, playing cards, postcards, light switch plates, writing pads, 3-by-5 and 5-by-8 index cards, etc. Advertisers rely on its more attractive shape, more than any other, to appeal to potential buyers.

THE GOLDEN SPIRAL

The Golden Rectangle has the unusual property that if you cut off a square from one end, the remaining rectangle is also a golden rectangle: the ratios remain the same. Continuing this process leads to a nested sequence of golden rectangles, a “Golden Spiral,” fitting perfectly. It produces an angular, logarithmic growth pattern whose ratio of growth is such that its shape does not change as it gets larger. This is commonly observed in shells, of which Nautilus Pompilius, the chambered nautilus, is the best example.

This spiral is visible in things as diverse as hurricanes, spiral seeds, the cochlea of the human ear, a ram’s horn, the tail of a sea-horse, growing fern leaves, the DNA molecule, waves breaking on the beach, tornadoes, galaxies, the tail of a comet as it winds around the sun, whirlpools, seed patterns of sunflowers, daisies, and dandelions, and the construction of the ears of all mammals.

The growth pattern of the seeds of the sunflower form two spirals, one clockwise and the other counterclockwise. The number of spirals in each direction are adjacent Fibonacci numbers, usually 55 and 89, 89 and 144, or 144 and 233.

PHYLLOTAXIS

The study of the order and functionality of the spiral arrangement of leaves around a plant’s stem is called phyllotaxis. This spiral pattern is observed by viewing the stem from directly above, and noting the arc of the stem from one leaf base to the next, and the fraction of the stem circumference which is inscribed. In each case the numbers are Fibonacci numbers. In the elm, the arc is 1/2 the circumference; in beech and hazel, 1/3; apricot and oak, 2/5; in pear and popular, 3/8; in almond and pussy willow, 5/13; and in some pines either 5/21 or 13/34. (Palms bearing 4, 6, 7, 9, 10, 11, or 12 leaves are not known.) In studying 434 species among angiospermae and 44 species among gymnospermae, the spiral arrangement numbers all fall in the Fibonacci sequence.

Why? These patterns assure that each leaf will receive its maximum exposure to sunlight and air without shading or crowding from other leaves.

Not only do we discover this pattern in leaf arrangements, but we also consistently find this arrangement in flower petals: a lily and an iris have 3 petals; yellow violet, buttercup, and larkspur, 5; delphinium, 8; mayweed, corn marigold, and ragwort, 13; aster, chicory, and doronicum, 21; pyrethrum, 34; helenium, 55; and michaelmas daisy, 89.

The rows of bracts counted on pinecones and pineapples exhibit Fibonacci numbers: on pine cones there are two rows to count, 8 and 13. On a pineapple, there are three rows: 8, 13, and 21.

MUSICAL SCALES

Notice the piano keyboard and its relationship to the Fibonacci numbers and beauty in music: The black keys are in groups of 2 and 3, the Pentatonic scale. An octave is composed of 8 white keys, the Diatonic scale. The 8 white and 5 black keys, 13 all together, make up the Chromatic scale. These are all Fibonacci numbers: 2, 3, 5, 8, and 13 (see figure at right).

Most musicians regard the major and minor sixths as the most beautiful chords found in music. The major sixth (consisting of C and A) have vibrations per second of 264 and 440 respectively, which is a ratio of 3:5. A minor sixth (consisting of E and high C) have vibrations of 330 and 528 vibrations per second respectively, which is a ratio of 5:8. All of these are Fibonacci ratios.

Musicians such as Bach, Beethoven, Bartok and others would divide musical time into periods based on the same (“golden”) proportion to determine the beginnings and endings of themes, moods, texture, etc. These proportions not only look good to the eye and sound good to the ear, but also “feel right aesthetically,” are exact mathematically, and appear to be ubiquitous.

GALACTIC ORDER

These observations transcend biology alone. A great number of the galaxies are in a spiral configuration. In our own planetary system, the period of each planet’s revolution around the sun (in round numbers), beginning with Neptune and moving in, are in ratios of the Fibonacci numbers: 1/2, 1/3, 2/5, 3/8, 5/13, 8/21, 13/34.2 In planets with more than one moon, there is a Fibonacci correlation in the distances from the moons to the host planet.

It is deeply significant that the same design paradigms are seen in the telescope as well as the microscope. The “fingerprints” of the Designer are His signature and they appear everywhere throughout the universe.

AN INESCAPABLE PERSPECTIVE

Why are flowers beautiful? (Bees are colorblind.)

Why are corals and creatures in the deepest (darkest) part of the ocean colored? With no light, they can’t be seen. (Only the Designer Himself can enjoy them as His private amusement.)

To attribute phyllotaxis and similar results to unaided random chance in an attempt to deny the entropy laws is to fly in the face of empirical reality. Blindness to the elegance of design in the universe is, indeed, intentional and “willingly ignorant,” as Peter reminds us.3

It takes knowledge and wisdom of the highest order to produce such related phenomena. Penetrate nature wherever the scientist may, and he will find that thought has been there before him. And the creation itself is sufficient to hold us accountable, Paul reminds us.4

So, as John exhorts,

“Thou art worthy O Lord, to receive glory and honor and power: for thou hast created all things and for thy pleasure they are and were created.”

Revelation 4:11

NOTES:

1 Much of this article was excerpted from Frederick Wilson, “The Ubiquity of the Divine (Golden) Ratio and Fibonacci Numbers Throughout the Heavens and the Earth,” Proceedings of the Fifth International Conference on Creationism, August 4-9, 2003, Creation Science Fellowship, Pittsburgh PA, 2003. There are also numerous sites on the Internet devoted to various aspects of the Fibonacci numbers. (There are even sites that list all the other sites, etc.)

2 Wilson, p.48.

3 2 Peter 3:5.

4 Romans 1:20ff.

H

APPENDIX H

So often in the Bible we encounter genealogies which, to most of us, aren’t particularly exciting reading. And yet they often contain hidden treasures to reward the diligent, as we highlighted in chapters 5, 7, and 15. And yet there are many others…

THE BOOK OF RUTH

In the Book of Ruth, the joyous climax occurs when Boaz, the Kinsman-Redeemer and the hero of the narrative, redeems the land to Naomi and takes Ruth as his Gentile Bride. In addition to providing us a charming, romantic story, we quickly discover that this brief little book holds numerous insights and background essential to understanding God’s broader plan of redemption. (I feel that one cannot really understand Revelation chapter 5 until they have studied this fascinating book.)

In the festivities during the wedding celebration of Ruth and Boaz, someone ostensibly toasts,

“And let thy house be like the house of Pharez, whom Tamar bare unto Judah, of the seed which the LORD shall give thee of this young woman.”

Ruth 4:12

…an apparent reference to the events of Genesis 38.

(However, if you are familiar with that sordid episode, you might have been tempted them to exclaim, “Same to you, fella!”)

But there’s more to the tale.

JUDAH & TAMAR

In Genesis 38, Tamar had married Judah’s firstborn son, Er, who died without having any children. Under Mosaic law, Judah was expected to provide Tamar a brother to raise up issue and failed to do so.1 Tamar then resorted to posing as a prostitute and Judah unknowingly got her pregnant. When confronted with the evidence, he confesses that his sin was greater than hers.2

Tamar gives birth to two sons, Zarah and Pharez. Both are, of course, illegitimate. The Torah instructs that a bastard be cast out of the congregation for 10 generations.3 The strange remark in Ruth 4:12 was, in fact, a prophecy: the tenth generation from Pharez was none other than David. And to emphasize this, the book closes with David’s genealogy:

“Now these are the generations of Pharez: Pharez begat Hezron, And Hezron begat Ram, and Ram begat Amminadab, And Amminadab begat Nahshon, and Nahshon begat Salmon, And Salmon begat Boaz, and Boaz begat Obed, And Obed begat Jesse, and Jesse begat David.”

Ruth 4:18-22

The inheritance of David is here prophesied before the days of Samuel.4 But there’s more.

THE HEBREW TEXT OF GENESIS 38

One of the reasons that the sordid tale of Judah and Tamar has been included in the Scriptures is because this incident is included in the family tree of the Messiah.5 It is interesting that also hidden within the text of Genesis 38, at 49-letter intervals, are the names of Boaz, Ruth, Obed, Jessie, and David—in chronological order!

(See figure on next page; note that Hebrew goes from right to left, and the names are coded backwards.)

These names anticipate, five generations in advance, the next five generations climaxing in David, a total of ten generations. Here in the Torah we find the names of the principals of the Book of Ruth, and a delineation of their descendants leading up to the Royal line. How did Moses know all this centuries before the fact? (We know that Moses himself wrote the Torah: Jesus verified that very fact numerous times.6)

The presence of such features of the Biblical text is a profound demonstration of its supernatural origin. There is absolutely no way that these details could have been anticipated in advance except by Divine guidance and the control of the most subtle aspects of the recorded text—far outstripping any insights of the authors themselves. In addition to the astonishing specifics themselves, the discovery of these features underscores the confidence we may have in the precision of the text, and the overwhelming implications that it is a skillfully crafted integrated message—from Genesis 1 to Revelation 22.

The unfortunate promotional sensationalism by some authors over the “Bible Codes” has caused many conservative scholars, as well as unbelieving skeptics, to disparage—and overlook—the many authentic treasures hidden underneath the Biblical text. Truly,

“It is the glory of God to conceal a matter, and the honor of kings to search them out.”

Proverbs 25:2

* * *

SOURCE:

This discovery was first highlighted in an article by Daniel Michelson, “Codes in the Torah,” B‘Or Ha’Torah, Number 6, SHAMIR, Association of Religious Professionals from the Soviet Union and Eastern Europe in Israel, Jerusalem, Israel, 1987.

NOTES:

1 Deuteronomy 25:5-10.

2 Genesis 38:26.

3 Deuteronomy 23:2.

4 Ruth 1:1.

5 Matthew 1:1-11; (vv.5, 6).

6 Matthew 8:4; 19:7,8; 23:2; Mark 1:44; 10:3,4; 7:10; Luke 5:14; 16:19, 1; 20:37; 24:27,44; John 3:14; 5:39,45,46; 6:32; 7:19, 22,23.

I

APPENDIX I

The recent discovery that the speed of light is not a constant has created quite a stir—and rethinking—in both physics and cosmology. (Although the spate of recent articles always fails to credit Barry Setterfield for calling this to our attention over a decade ago!) However, there does appear to be at least two intrinsic constants in the universe: π and e. (They are both non-dimensional and independent of any measuring system: metric, English, et al.)

We all met π (“pi”) in school when we had to deal with the circumference of a circle and similar matters. “Pi are squared” sounds like bad grammar, but it is correct geometry for the area of a circle, πr^2. We approximated it with 22/7 until we got into engineering circles where we learned that, more precisely, it was 3.141592654… (It has recently been calculated to a trillion decimal places!1) As we have previously mentioned in chapter 20, π is also a “hidden treasure” in the Hebrew text of 1st Kings 7:23. When one corrects the letter values for a variation of the spelling, the 46-foot circumference of Solomon’s “molten sea” is specified to an accuracy of better than 15 thousandths of an inch!

NATURAL LOGARITHMS

Perhaps less well known to most of our less technical readers is the base of Napierian (“natural”) Logarithms, e.

Mathematician John Napier (1550-1617) was an activist for the Reformed and Protestant affairs in Scotland and was the inventor of Napierian Logarithms (Loge). The number e is most commonly defined as the limit of the expression (1 + 1/n)n as n becomes large without bound. This limiting value is usually approximated by 2.718281828… and shows up in myriads of places in advanced engineering and mathematics, such as:

A RABBINICAL TRADITION

The ancient Hebrew sages believed, of course, that God created the heavens and the earth. However, some of them even believed that the Word of God was the very template with which He did it.

This strikes some of us as simply a colorful exaggeration that goes beyond any direct evidence. But there some are hints here and there…

There are two well-known references to the creation in the Scripture: Genesis 1:1 and John 1:1. Let’s look “underneath” the text of each of these.

GENESIS 1:1

“In the beginning God created the heaven and the earth.”

Genesis 1:1

In Hebrew:

If you examine the numerical values of each of the Hebrew letters, and the numerical value of the words (for a listing see Figure 20-1 on page 287), and apply them to this formula:

You get 3.1416 x 10^17. The value of π to four decimal places! Hmm.

JOHN 1:1

“In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.”

John 1:1

In Greek:

Here again, if you take the numerical value of each of the Greek letters (see the same chart on page 287 again), and the numerical value of the words, and apply them to the same formula:

You now get 2.7183 x 10^65, the value of e to four decimal places. Curious!

SIGNIFICANCE?

Each of these is another of those puzzling, ostensible “coincidences” that is too astonishing to dismiss, and yet presents challenges in suggesting any real significance.2 And taken together, they do evoke some far-reaching conjectures.

There are, however, at least two problems: why just four decimal places (they both deviate from the fifth place onwards) and what do you do with all the “extra zeroes”? I frankly don’t know. The rabbis would probably suggest that each of these might simply be a remez, a hint of something deeper.

Let me know if you have any further suggestions. Meanwhile, let’s continue to praise our awesome Creator and Savior for His marvelous Word!

NOTES:

1 In September, 2002, Professor Yasumasa Kanada and nine other researchers at the Information Technology Center at Tokyo University calculated the value for pi, using over 400 hours of a Hitachi supercomputer, to 1.24 trillion decimal places.

2 This was first called to my attention by Dr. David Rosevear, and published by Dr. Peter Bluer, Ph.D., Creation Science Movement, PO Box 888, Portsmouth, PO6 2YD, UK, in November 2001.

ENDNOTES

1 Poe’s stories, employing an intellectual chain of logic to solve a central problem, resulted in their being regarded as the first detective stories. The Gold Bug remains a classic despite its being full of absurdities and errors: the survival of the parchment despite the decay of the timbers of the boat; the fact that the invisible ink—cobalt nitrate—would also be soluble in water; the intricate geometry between the skull sighted between the rift in the trees after 150 years of arboreal growth, etc. Still, it remains a classic.

2 Holmes, having solved the cryptogram, composes a message out of the cipher symbols he has recovered that leads to the culprit’s arrest. Holmes may have borrowed this scheme from Thomas Phelippes, who had in 1587 forged a cipher postscript to a letter of Mary, Queen of Scots, to learn the names of the intended murderers in the Babington plot against Elizabeth. Holmes’s other encounters occur in The Gloria Scott, where the great detective discovers a secret message hidden within an open-code text as every third word, and in The Valley of Fear where he receives a numerical code message from an accomplice of his arch rival, Professor Moriarty.

3 In Voyage to the Center of the Earth, Verne opens with a three-step cryptogram of runic letters.

4 Named by Rear Admiral Walter S. Anderson, Director of Naval Intelligence. David Kahn, The Code Breakers, MacMillan, New York, 1967, pp. 3, 93.

5 The Hebrew (heh) as a code for the Ruach Elohim, the Spirit of God, will be explored in Chapters 8 and 9.

6 These, and related topics, will be explored in Chapter 6.

7 English is about 40% vowels. That’s why the removal of vowels increases the difficulties in breaking a cipher.

8 This is sometimes called the “U.S. Army transposition” because it was used as a field cipher during part of World War I.

9 The Gronsfeld, Porta, and Beaufort systems are simply variations on the Vigènere and not as secure.

10 This is also commonly accomplished through a slide rule type of device, known as the St. Cyr Slide, named after the French military academy where the device was first used. These are also available in a more convenient circular form similar to the cipher disks described later in this chapter. The Wheatstone Disk and Thomas Jefferson’s Cipher Wheels were essentially mechanical variations of these approaches.

11 Kahn, p. 202.

12 Another significant enhancement can be gained by writing the plaintext in two rows and using the vertically aligned letters as the digraphs. This introduces a transposition before the substitutions and leaves the cryptanalyst very little to work with unless there is considerable text to work with or strongly probable words in the context.

13 A better scrambling technique is to write out the unused alphabet under the keyword, creating columns that are then taken vertically to fill out the matrix. The tendency for less popular letters to remain in a predictable order is easily exploited by a competent cryptanalyst.

14 With 26 letters there are 676 digraphs. The most frequent English letters, e and t, have mean frequencies of 12 and 9%. The two most frequent English digraphs, th and he, reach only 3¼ and 2½%.

15 Kahn, pp. 202, 312.

16 Phillip R. Zimmermann, “Cryptography on the Internet,” Scientific American, October 1998, pp.110-115. An excellent tutorial on contemporary cryptographic techniques in the public domain.

17 Kahn, p. 127. Alberti was a monk who was also an architect, athlete, mathematician, moralist, musician, painter, poet, sculptor, etc.

18 Ezekiel 1:15, 16;10:2ff.

19 Credited with an accurate clinical description of typhus, developed a treatment for syphilis, and invented a Braille-like system to permit the blind to read by touch.

20 A century before Pascal and Fermat, he published systematic computations for probabilities and statistics.

21 Kahn, p.144.

22 Kahn, p. 309.

23 When the author was CEO of Western Digital Corporation, one of its innovative developments was a microprogrammed microchip which directly executed Pascal (and, thus, ADA, a Department of Defense derivative).

24 Conic sections are the family of curves which result when a cone is intersected at various angles by a single plane—i.e., circles, ellipses, parabolas, and hyperbolas. The elegant relationship between three-dimensional geometry and two-dimensional algebra has fascinated mathematical minds for centuries and continues to do so today. These concepts can be extended to hyperspaces (spaces of more than three dimensions) through the application of metric tensors and Riemann geometry.

25 Pascal is even more widely known for his religious writings, especially Pensées (Musings), his preliminary sketches for a comprehensive defense of the Christian faith.

26 Kahn, pp. 204-207.

27 The compromise occurred by the successful photocopying of the BLACK code and its superencipherment tables from the American embassy safe in Rome. (Kahn, p. 472.)

28 Kahn, pp. 472-477.

29 Kahn, pp. 1-5.

30 E. A. Wallis Budge, The Rosetta Stone, Dover Publications, New York, 1989 (republication of 1929 edition).

31 Darius I, the Great, was an Achaemenid prince, the son of Hystaspes, who saved the Persian Empire in the revolt that followed the death of his predecessor, Cambyses II (530-522 B.C.), who in turn succeeded Cyrus the Great who founded the mighty Persian Empire which ruled the world for over two centuries (539-331 B.C.). It was this Darius who is so prominent in the datings of the books of Haggai and Zechariah, who is no less famous archaeologically.

32 Cf. Alien Encounters by this author and Dr. Mark Eastman, from this publisher.

33 “Ceti,” meaning “whale,” is in the constellation of the Whale.

34 Carl Sagan, ed., Communication with Extraterrestrial Intelligence (CETI), The MIT Press, Cambridge, Massachusetts, and London, England, 1973.

35 This rather typical summary was excerpted from Encyclopaedia Britannica, Vol. 22, p. 1001.

36 CETI, p. 66.

37 CETI, p. 64.

38 See also Beyond Coincidence, a briefing package available from this publisher. Also, Hugh Ross’s The Fingerprint of God is an excellent primer on this topic.

39 Sir Fred Hoyle even predicted, and then discovered, in 1954, the previously unknown energy levels in the Carbon-12 atom from his sensitivity to the prevalent patterns of numerical design in the universe.

40 Astrophysical Journal, 415:218, 1993.

41 Personal communication with SETI public relations department on May 28, 1997.

42 Tom Van Flandern, The Speed of Gravity: What the Experiments Say, Meta Research Bulletin, Vol. 6, No. 4, December 15, 1997. http://www.metaresearch.org. A summary was published in this publisher’s news journal, Personal UPDATE, in March 1998. (A gift certificate for a year’s subscription has been included in the back of this book.)

43 Pictographs will be explored in Chapter 8.

44 Randolfo Rafael Pozos, The Face on Mars, Evidence for a Lost Civilization?, Chicago Review Press, Chicago, Illinois, 1986; Mark J. Carlotto, The Martian Enigmas: A Closer Look, North Atlantic Books, Berkeley, California, 1991.

45 The American Indians apparently indulged in just such a gesture, ostensibly to permit a stranger to count fingers. For background on the fears associated with six fingers, see Alien Encounters by Dr. Mark Eastman and this author, available from this publisher.

46 Citations taken from Frank S. Meade, The Encyclopaedia of Religious Quotations; Rhoda Tripp, The International Thesaurus of Quotations; Ralph L. Woods, The World Treasury of Religious Quotations; Jonathan Green, Morrow’s International Dictionary of Contemporary Quotations, q.v., John Ankerberg & John Weldon, The Facts on the King James Only Debate, Harvest House Publishers, Eugene, Oregon, 1996.

47 Sir Isaac Newton, Observations Upon the Prophecies of Daniel and the Apocalypse of St. John, J. Darby & T. Browne, London, 1733.

48 The value of π (Pi) in the Scripture will be treated in Chapter 20.

49 These concepts are explored in Chuck Missler’s briefing package Beyond Perception, available from Koinonia House 1 (800) KHOUSE1.

50 There are examples in particle physics where a positron is understood to be an electron in a time reversal. See Beyond Time and Space and Beyond Perception, audio briefings with notes, from Koinonia House.

51 The ancient Hebrew scholar Nachmonides, writing in the 12th century, concluded from his studies of Genesis that the universe has ten dimensions; only four are knowable, with six beyond our knowing. It is interesting that particle physicists today have concluded that we live in ten dimensions. Three spatial dimensions and time are directly measurable. The remaining six are “curled” in less than 10-33 cm. and are only inferable by indirect means. (See Beyond Perception, Koinonia House.)

52 Paul Davies, About Time: Einstein’s Unfinished Revolution, Simon & Schuster, New York, 1995, p. 57.

53 Lorentz transformation:

54 Isaiah 57:15.

55 Isaiah 46:10.

56 Examples: The Sovereignty of Man, The Architecture of Man, or From Here to Eternity—The Physics of Immortality, all available from Koinonia House.

57 See the briefing package The Footprints of the Messiah and others from Koinonia House.

58 Isaiah 11:11.

59 There are an estimated 2,345 regarding Jesus’ Second Coming, over 320 in the New Testament alone.

60 Midrash Rabbah, Numbers 18:21.

61 Some authorities regard Tabeal as a corruption of some form of contemptuous epithet and dispute this as albam. (Albam works for the first two letters; the third, lamed, retains its identity because it would otherwise be transformed into a silent aleph.)

62 The kaf, , is one of five letters with a modified form, , if it is the last letter in a word. The employment of unique “final forms” is a characteristic which yields parsing advantages when used in extraterrestrial communication. This and related characteristics will be addressed in subsequent chapters.

63 There are also lesser known allusions to a form called Atbach, like atbash but with the alphabet divided in thirds. Rabbi Yitzchak Ginsburgh, The Hebrew Letters, Gal Einai Publications, Jerusalem, 1990.

64 Seder Mo’ed, Sukkah, 52b. This example plays on the word “wit- ness” and its atbah substitution “master” to make a moral point.

65 Ezekiel 36—37.

66 Isaiah 11:11.

67 Zephaniah 3:9.

68 It is first mentioned in Genesis 2:14, alluded to three times in Christ’s genealogy.

69 God disrupted this rebellious coalition through the “confusion of tongues” in Genesis 11. This rebellion against God is still with us. The residuals from Babylon include most of the traditions of idol worship, astrology, and the occult practices that continue to the present day.

70 Modern Kuwait.

71 Nebuchadnezzar’s first expedition was before he ascended to the throne; Nebuchadnezzar’s first year was concurrent with Jehoiakim’s fourth year (Jeremiah 25:1). This is in agreement with Clinton, Pussey, Anderson (pp. 229-240).

72 Jeremiah 25:11, 12. Failure to keep the Sabbath of the land for 490 years (70 x 7) was the cause for the particular period of 70 years of captivity (2 Chronicles 36:21; cf. Matthew 18:22).

73 2 Kings 24:1; Daniel 1:1, 2.

74 2 Kings 25:1; Jeremiah 39:1; 52:4; Ezekiel 24:1. (Babylonian Chronicle, as quoted in D. J. Wiseman, Chronicles of Chaldean Kings (626-556 B.C.) in the British Museum, 1956. The capture of Jehoiachin and his substitution by a Babylonian nominee, Mattaniah-Zedekiah, accords with the Biblical accounts of the same events (2 Kings 24:10-17; 2 Chronicles 36:5-10; Jeremiah 37:1).

75 2 Chronicles 36:7; Daniel 5:3. Tablets from the vaulted rooms by the Ishtar Gate include four listing rations given to “Yau’kin of Judah.” Five sons of Jehoichin are also mentioned as well as five carpenters from Judah, presumably captives from the siege of Jerusalem.

76 This initiated the period known as the “desolations of Jerusalem” that also lasted exactly 70 years. Many commentators make the mistake of treating the “servitude of the nation” and the “desolations of Jerusalem” as synonymous since they both were predicted to be 70 years in duration. The “desolations of Jerusalem” was a punishment for not yielding to the “servitude” (Jeremiah 27:6, 8, 11; 38:17-21. Cf. Jeremiah 29:10, Daniel 9:2).

77 The dramatic episode is detailed in Daniel chapter 2.

78 This is recorded in Daniel chapter 4, written by Nebuchadnezzar himself. The Talmud indicates that Daniel provided his care during this period.

79 “Evil-Merodach” of 2 Kings 25:27; Jeremiah 52:31.

80 “Nergal-Sharezer” of Jeremiah 39:3.

81 Daniel 5:29. The Babylon Chronicle, British Museum. This cylinder, one of four bearing the same text found at the four corners of the ziggurat at Ur, is inscribed in Babylonian cuneiform: “Prayer to the moon-god Sin, to whom the Ziggurat is consecrated.” It also mentions “Belshazzar, the son first (born) the offspring of my heart (body).”

82 “Verse Account of Nabonidus,” Pritchard, Ancient Near Eastern Texts, 313.)

83 Grandfather, actually. There was no term comparable to our rendering of precedent generations.

84 Belteshazzar was Daniel’s Babylonian name, not to be confused with Belshazzar the then coregent.

85 Kahn, p. 80.

86 Herodotus, 1.191.

87 This cylinder, discovered by Hormuzd Rassam in the 19th century, can presently be examined in the British Museum in London.

88 Josephus, Antiquities, XI, i.2.

89 2 Chronicles 36:22; Ezra 1:1-4.

90 It was a successor, Artaxerxes I (465-423 B.C.) who issued the specific decree concerning the rebuilding of the walls of Jerusalem. This decree was the trigger for one of the most remarkable prophecies in the Bible: the famous “70 Sevens” of Daniel 9.

91 For some remarkable background, see also The Christmas Story— What Really Happened, an audio book by the author and available from this publisher.

92 The great prophecies concerning the city of Babylon in Isaiah chapters 13 and 14 and Jeremiah 50 and 51 have never been fulfilled. Yet.

93 For a detailed exploration of these issues, see The Mystery of Babylon or Chuck Missler’s Expositional Commentary on Daniel, both available from Koinonia House.

94 Published in Personal UPDATE, most recently 2/96, pp. 19-23.

95 Genesis 5:24.

96 “Muth,” death, occurs 125 times in the Old Testament.

97 See Pink, Jones, and Stedman in the bibliography.

98 Genesis 5:25-28.

99 Genesis 7:6, 11.

100 Genesis 5:27.

101 Genesis 4:26 is often mistranslated. Targum of Onkelos: “…desisted from praying in the name”; Targum of Jonathan: “surnamed their idols in the name…”; Kimchi, Rashi, and other ancient Jewish commentators agree. Jerome indicated that this was the opinion of many Jews of his day. Maimonides, Commentary on the Mishna (a constituent part of the Talmud), A.D. 1168, ascribes the origin of idolatry to the days of Enosh.

102 Numbers 24:21, 23.

103 These were discussed in our book, Alien Encounters, from this publisher.

104 Genesis 5:21, 24.

105 Genesis 4:19-25; rabbinical sources: Kaplan, et al.

106 Isaiah 46:10; Revelation 21:6; 22:13.

107 Job was far earlier than even the books of Moses.

108 Psalms 9 and 10 are linked together by an acrostic. Psalms 25 and 34 are designedly incomplete. Psalm 145 is missing the letter Nun, which should come between verses 13 and 14.

109 Don Hauptman, Acronymania, Dell Publishing, New York, 1993.

110 Colloquia Mensalia, or The Table Talk of Martin Luther, trans. by William Hazlitt, World Pub. Co., 1952: “I am so great an enemy to the second book of the Maccabees, and to Esther, that I wish they had not come to us at all, for they have too many heathen unnaturalities. The Jews much more esteemed the book of Esther than any of the prophets; though they were forbidden to read it before they had attained the age of thirty, by reason of the mystic matters it contains.” (Error: that was Song of Songs. C.M.)

111 Ray C. Stedman, The Queen and I, Word Books, Waco, Texas, 1977.

112 Esther 4:16-17.

113 Esther 7:3-6.

114 Esther 9:26; 3:7.

115 Deuteronomy 31:16-18.

116 Exodus 2:23-25; 3:14, 15.

117 Revelation 13:18.

118 Romans 11:17-24.

119 Suggested by Peter A. Michas, Robert Vander Maten, and Christie P. Michas, God’s Master Plan: From Aleph to Tau, Messengers of Messiah International Ministries, P.O. Box 125, Troy, Illinois, 1994. There are, however, some who are uncomfortable with the wav conjunctive being included in an appositive construction.

120 Psalm 96:11 contains four Hebrew words that also make the same acrostic. The Massorah has a special rubric calling attention to this acrostic (E. W. Bullinger’s Companion Bible, Appendix 30).

121 Matthew 27:18; Mark 15:10.

122 Matthew 27:63-66.

123 The opposite sides of dice equal seven.

124 McCormack, R., The Heptadic Structure of Scripture, Marshall Brothers, Ltd., London, 1923; E. W. Bullinger, Numbers of the Scriptures, Kregel Publications, Grand Rapids, Michigan, reproduction from 1894; F. W. Grant, The Numerical Bible, (7 Vols.); Browne, Ordo Saeculoreium, et al.

125 Ivan Panin, (Various works), Bible Numerics, P.O. Box 206, Waubaushene, Ontario L0K 2C0.

126 Much of the background of the Chinese language was excerpted from the author’s briefing package The Sleeping Dragon Awakes, from this same publisher.

127 Genesis 11:1-9.

128 Genesis 10:17. They also appear in 1 Chronicles 1:15 and Isaiah 49:12.

129 Genesis 5:3-32; 10:25; 11:10-16.

130 Terrien De La Couperie, The Language of China Before the Chinese, Ch’eng-wen Publishing Co., Taipei, 1966, p. 114.

131 Raymond B. Bakney, A Course in the Analysis of Chinese Characters, The Commercial Press Ltd., Shanghai, 1926, p. 12. Also, Robert K. Douglas, The Language and Literature of China, Trubner and Co., London, 1875, p. 15; R. H. Mathews, Chinese-English Dictionary, Harvard University Press, Cambridge, Massachusetts, 1972, p. 984, col. 1, #6707, item 9; Joseph Edkins, The Evolution of the Chinese Language, Trubner and Co., London, 1888, p. v; Hsin Ceng Yu, Ancient Chinese History, Commercial Press, Taiwan, 1963, p. 6.

132 Also designated as T’ien, heaven, and occasionally Shen, a spirit.

133 Robert K. Douglas, The Language and Literature of China, Trubner and Co., London, 1875, pp. 66, 67.

134 C. H. Kang and Ethel R. Nelson, Discovery of Genesis, How the Truths of Genesis Were Found Hidden in the Chinese Language, Concordia Publishing House, St. Louis, Missouri, 1979, pp. 14-16. Also, see an update, going back to the ancient Chinese character forms (Bronzeware and Oracle Bone inscriptions), in Mysteries Confucius Couldn’t Solve, the analysis of ancient characters which share background with Hebrew Scriptures, by Ethel R. Nelson and Richard E. Broadberry.

135 Nelson & Broadberry, Mysteries, p. 1-18.

136 Kang, K. T., Genesis and the Chinese, Independent Printing, Hong Kong, 1950; C. H. Kang and Ethel R. Nelson, Discovery of Genesis, How the Truths of Genesis Were Found Hidden in the Chinese Language, Concordia Publishing House, St. Louis, Missouri, 1979.

137 Genesis 2:19, 20.

138 Genesis 11:6, 7.

139 Frank Seekins and Danny Ben-Gigi, Head of the Hebrew Department at Arizona State University, called my attention to this provocative discovery that not only enriches one’s understanding of the Bible but also proves to be a remarkable teaching aid in learning Hebrew. For more information contact Frank Seekings, Living Word Pictures, 3346 E. Charter Oak, Phoenix, Arizona 85032.

140 An ancient monument discovered by F. Klein in 1868 at Dîbân (the Dibon of the Old Testament) in Moab.

141 Zephaniah 3:9.

142 Mark 14:16; Romans 8:15; Galatians 4:6.

143 Pygmalion, in Greek mythology, was a king of Cyprus who fell in love with a statue of the goddess Aphrodite. The Roman poet Ovid, in his Metamorphoses, invented a more sophisticated version: Pygmalion, a sculptor, made an ivory statue representing his ideal of womanhood and then fell in love with his own creation.

144 This type of abbreviation was also a scribal resort in the New Testament as ‘IS’ was used for , Iēsous, Jesus, in the ancient texts.

145 “Exalted father.”

146 “Princess.”

147 “Father, or chief, of multitude.”

148 “Noblewoman.”

149 His web site is www.meru.org

150 These last two references may be upsetting to Jehovah’s Witnesses who have their own unique views on these identities.

151 There are numerous allusions in the Old Testament to the execution of the Messiah of Israel: Psalm 22; Isaiah 52:12— 53:12; Daniel 9:24-27; Zechariah 12:10. See Chapter 12.

152 This was excerpted from Personal UPDATE of September 1993, pp. 12-13.

153 E. W. Bullinger, Figures of Speech Used in the Bible, Eyre and Spottiswoode, London, 1898, p. 833.

154 ——, p. 744. For a list of figures of speech in the Bible, see Appendix A.

155 Cf. Colossians 1:16ff.

156 The world was repopulated with the eight people of Noah’s ark (Noah, his three sons—Ham, Shem, and Japheth—and their four wives. The eighth in a series very often begins a new group of seven, etc.).

157 In music there are also seven time-notes: Breve, semibreve, minim, crotchet, quaver, semiquaver, and demi-semiquaver.

158 Kahn, p. 953.

159 Steven Spielberg, Close Encounters of the Third Kind, Dell Publishing, New York, 1977, p. 225.

160 Rav Hoshaiah. Also the Babylonian Talmud, Pesachim 54a; Erubin 21a; Zohar II, 204a; I V, 141b. (q.v. Satinover, pp. 43, 44).

161 Michael Drosnin, The Bible Code, Simon & Schuster, New York, 1997, p. 13ff.

162 Grant Jeffrey, The Handwriting of God, Frontier Research Publications, Toronto, Ontario Canada, 1997; also John Weldon, Decoding the Bible Code, Harvest House, Eugene, Oregon, 1998.

163 Genesis 15:18-21; 17:8; Deuteronomy 34:1-4; Cf. Joshua 1:4.

164 Psalm 41:9.

165 This apparent paradox of predestination and free will is explored in our briefing package, The Sovereignty of Man.

166 For instance, the passage he takes as dealing with the “assassin will assassinate” is taken from Deuteronomy 4 which deals with manslaughter in contrast to willful, premeditated murder. There are also many other problems. Cf. John Weldon, The Bible Code: Can We Trust the Message?, Harvest House, Eugene, Oregon, 1998.

167 Daniel Michelson, “Codes in the Torah,” B’Or Ha’Torah, No. 6, 1987; also, Jeffrey Satinover, Cracking the Bible Code, p. 51. Between the traditional Jewish (Koren) text used by the Jews worldwide and the Biblia Hebraica Stuttgartensis (BHS), the critical text used by Bible scholars, there are 130 differences in the Torah (Pentateuch). Ibid, p. 321.

168 Rav Hoshaiah Also the Babylonian Talmud, Pesachim 54a; Erubin 21a; Zohar II, 204a; IV, 141b. (q.v. Satinover, pp. 43-44).

169 Zohar, Yitro 87 and Mishpatim 124.

170 Exodus 31:2-9; 35:30-35; 37:1—38:22.

171 Babylonian Talmud, Berachot 55a.

172 Sodei Razayya (Secrets of Secrets).

173 See Appendix A.

174 Satinover, p. 2.

175 Satinover, p. 3.

176 Bachya was not the first to notice encrypted information in the Torah.

177 Exodus 12:2 This will be explored in Chapter 18.

178 Satinover, pp. 56-65.

179 Dr. Gerald L. Schroeder, Genesis and the Big Bang, Bantam Books, New York, 1990.

180 In Deuteronomy, it starts from the fifth verse, not the first. Professor Daniel Michelson, in his famous article, “Codes in the Torah” in B’Or Ha’Torah, No. 6, 1987, writes: “The Vilna Gaon wrote in Aderet Eliyahu that Deuteronomy actually starts from the fifth verse, while each of its first four verses corresponds to the first four books. Indeed, the fifth verse reads ‘On the other side of the Jordan, in the land of Moab, Moses undertook to expound the Torah. He said...’ Also, the interval is 48 (skip-count of 49), not 49 (skip-count of 50). It is claimed that Moshe Rabbenu (Moses our Teacher) was given 49 out of 50 gates of wisdom. Since the subsequent explanation of the Torah is given from the mouth of Moshe, the word is spelled out at the beginning of Deuteronomy at a [skip-count] of 49.”

181 In Psalm 46, if you count 46 words from the beginning, you find “shake.” If you count 46 words back from the end, you find “spear.” The legend is that William Shakespeare, during the 1611 translation of what became the King James Version, hid this bid for immortality when celebrating his 46th birthday. Colorful, but not taken too seriously by scholars.

182 Michelson, p. 14.

183 Satinover, pp. 27-29.

184 See The Creator Beyond Time and Space, by Chuck Missler and Mark Eastman.

185 The legacy of Weissmandl appears in Gerry Schroeder’s book, Genesis and the Big Bang, Bantam Books, New York, 1990.

186 There are 66 occurrences: 58 going forward, including 43 direct (no interval) plaintext; eight in reverse. But only two, at intervals of +7 and -50, prior to Genesis 8:5 which lies at the 10,000 letter boundary selected.

187 Prof. Daniel Michelson, “Codes in the Torah,” B’Or Ha’Torah, No. 6, 1987, published by the Association of Religious Professionals from the Soviet Union and Eastern Europe in Israel, Jerusalem, pp. 7-39.

188 As listed in Yehuda Feliks, The Fauna and Flora of the Torah. (Ibid., p. 33.)

189 Considered related to the tree of knowledge.

190 ——, p.34. (Cf. Jeffrey, pp. 142, 143.)

191 Wiztum, Doron, Eliyahu Rips and Yoav Rosenberg, “Equidistant Letter Sequences in the Book of Genesis,” Journal of the Royal Statistical Society, 151:1, 1988, pp. 177, 178.

192 Doron Witztum, Yoav Rosenberg, and Eliyahu Rips, “Equidistant Letter Sequences in the Book of Genesis,” Statistical Science, The Institute of Mathematical Statistics, August, 1994.

193 They simply selected the 34 sages with the longest column inches in the respected Hebrew reference, M. Margalioth, ed., Encyclopedia of Great Men in Israel, Joshua Chachik, Tel Aviv, Israel, 1961.

194 Satinover, Jeffrey B. “Divine Authorship? Computer Reveals Startling Word Patterns,” Bible Review, October 1995, pp. 28-31, 44, 45.

195 Michael Drosnin, The Bible Code, Simon and Schuster, New York, 1997.

196 Ronald S. Hendel, and Shlomo Sternberg, “The Bible Code— Cracked and Crumbling,” Bible Review, Vol. XIII, No. 4, August 1997, pp. 22-25. Includes “The Secret Code Hoax,” by Ronald S. Hendel, and “Snake Oil for Sale,” by Shlomo Sternberg. Detailed in John Weldon’s recent book, Decoding the Bible Code, Harvest House Publishers, Eugene, Oregon, 1998.

197 Jeffrey Satinover, Cracking the Bible Code, William Morrow and Co., New York, 1997, which is cryptographically sophisticated while deeply rooted in a Talmudic Judaism perspective, being the best example.

198 More focused and competent is Grant Jeffrey’s The Handwriting of God, a sequel to his The Signature of God, each also drawing on the independent discoveries of our mutual friend, Rabbi Yakov Rambsel, as reported in his Yeshua—The Hebrew Factor, and his His Name is Jesus. (All published by Frontier Research Publications, Inc., Toronto, Ontario, 1996, 1997, respectively.)

199 Satinover, p. xvi.

200 Dr. Harold Gans, “Official Torah Codes,” June 3, 1997.

201 Satinover, pp. 224, 225.

202 Jeffrey Satinover, Bible Review, November 1995.

203 Jeffrey, Handwriting, p. 113.

204 Attributed to Doron Witztum, reported by Satinover, pp. 183-185.

205 ——, p.133.

206 Satinover, p. 162ff.

207 ——, p. 164.

208 ——, p.174. Also, Jeffrey, Handwriting, p. 134ff.

209 Jeffrey, p. 132.

210 ——, p. 136.

211 Internet: http://cs.anu.edu.au/~bdm/dilugim/moby.html.

212 John Weldon, Decoding the Bible Code, Harvest House, Eugene, Oregon, 1998, among the best.

213 Satinover, pp. 262, 263.

214 Satinover, p. 8.

215 The Old Testament consists of 1,196,921 letters; 305,485 words; in 23,204 verses.

216 Each interval in excess of one involves about the same number of hits. Mean hits per interval segment: 28.9.

217 Psalm 40:7 (quoted in Hebrews 10:7).

218 John 5:39.

219 An equidistant letter sequence of 521.

220 John 1:1, 2; Ephesians 3:9; Colossians 1:16, 17; Hebrews 1:2, 3, 10-12; Revelation 4:11.

221 Genesis 3:7.

222 Genesis 3:21. This becomes ordained in the Levitical rites, all pointing ultimately to the cross.

223 Cf. Matthew 1:21.

224 Risto Santala, The Messiah in the Old Testament in the Light of Rabbinical Writings, and The Messiah in the New Testament in the Light of Rabbinical Writings [translated from the Finnish; first published in Hebrew], Keren Ahvah Meshihi, Jerusalem, 1992; and Mark Eastman, The Search for the Messiah, The Word for Today, Costa Mesa, California, 1993.

225 Luke 4:16-21. Cf. Isaiah 61:1, 2.

226 Randall Price, Secrets of the Dead Sea Scrolls, Harvest House Publishers, Eugene, Oregon, 1996, p. 126.

227 E. Y. Kuscher, The Language and Linguistic Background of the Isaiah Scroll (1Q1saa), E. J. Brill, Leiden, 1974, and Elisha Qimron, Indices and Corrections, 1979.

228 Yakov Rambsel, Yeshua—The Hebrew Factor and His Name Is Jesus; and Grant Jeffrey’s The Signature of God and The Handwriting of God, all published by Frontier Research Publications, Toronto, Ontario, Canada, 1996 and 1997, respectively.

229 The common appellation of a “carpenter” may be a mistranslation. The term actually means builder.

230 Isaiah 53:4, 5, each with an interval of -32 (in reverse). The term is encoded 70 times in the Book of Isaiah.

231 Luke 3:2.

232 John W. Lawrence, The Six Trials of Jesus, Kregel Publications, Grand Rapids, Michigan, 1977.

233 Grant Jeffrey reports it as occurring in Isaiah 53:5, starting with the third letter in the tenth word, at intervals of -133 (in reverse). We couldn’t find it there, but it appeared in Isaiah 53:3 at a reverse interval of -82 and also in Isaiah 53:6 at a forward interval of 85.

234 This name appears, using intervals up to 100, 1,149 times in the Old Testament, forward 774 times (including 350 without any interval) and in reverse 375 times. In Isaiah, it appears 101 times (forward 73 times, in reverse 28 times).

235 Matthew 4:21; 10:2; Mark 1:19; 3:17.

236 Matthew 17:1; Mark 3:17; 5:37; Acts 12:2.

237 Matthew 4:21; Mark 1:19, 20; Luke 5:10, 11.

238 Mark 3:17.

239 Matthew 10:2-4; Mark 3:16-19; Luke 6:14-16; Acts 1:13.

240 Mark 5:37; Luke 8:51.

241 Matthew 17:1; Mark 9:2; Luke 9:28.

242 Mark 13:3.

243 Matthew 26:37; Mark 14:33.

244 Acts 12:2.

245 Matthew 10:3; Acts 1:13.

246 Mark 15:40.

247 Matthew 13:55.

248 Compare Mark. 3:21 and John 7:5.

249 1 Corinthians 15:7.

250 Galatians 1:19; 2:9; Acts 12:17.

251 Josephus, Antiquities, 20.9.

252 Jeffrey, Handwriting, p. 155.

253 Grant Jeffrey has also found a comparable list of codes in Exodus 30:16, a passage which deals with God’s commands regarding the atonement for sins. See Grant Jeffrey, The Handwriting of God, Frontier Research Publications, Toronto, Ontario, 1997, pp. 172, 173.

254 The prophetic role of the feast days will be explored further in Chapter 18.

255 Mount Moriah is the ridge that has Golgotha at its peak. See Chapter 14.

256 Mark 15:40.

257 It is interesting that the elements of bread and wine have the same interval.

258 It is interesting that a series of lineage items have the same interval.

259 Jonah was also a sign: three days and three nights in the tomb (Matthew 12:40).

260 Wetzel Publishing Company, Los Angeles, California, 1939. (q.v., Kahn, p. 740.)

261 After J. Neyman and E. S. Pearson, Transactions of Royal Society of London, A, 31, 1933, pp. 289-337.

262 Satinover, p. 8.

263 1 Corinthians 14:33.

264 See also, Chuck Missler, Expositional Commentary on the Gospel of John, 4 Vols., Koinonia House, Coeur d’Alene, Idaho.

265 Psalm 138:2.

266 Isaiah 43:16.

267 C. L. Lewis, Matthew Fontaine Maury: Pathfinder of the Seas, U.S. Naval Institute, Annapolis, Maryland, 1927.

268 As a graduate, I had to include this famous anecdote.

269 Job 26:7; Isaiah 40:22.

270 Hebrews 11:3.

271 “Deciphering God’s Plan,” Time, June 9, 1977.

272 Deuteronomy 18:9-12; 2 Chronicles 33:2, 3, 6.

273 Leviticus 19:26; Deuteronomy 18:9-12, 14; Hosea 4:12; Exodus 22:18; Isaiah 44:25; 29:8, 9; Ezekiel 21:21. Cf. 1 Samuel 15:23.

274 Deuteronomy 17:2-5; 2 Kings 17:15-17; Isaiah 47:9-14.

275 Acts 13:8; 19:16-19; Isaiah 47:9, 12.

276 Isaiah 46:10; 45:3, 5.

277 Exodus 19:12, 13; 1 Chronicles 16:22 (David quoting Psalm 105:15).

278 Revelation 22:15; 2 Chronicles 33:6.

279 Sir Isaac Newton, Observations Upon the Prophecies of Daniel and the Apocalypse of St. John, J. Darby & T. Browne, London, 1733.

280 ——, p. 251.

281 The mystical connotation is unknown in the Talmud. In the Talmud the word occurs in two other entirely different senses. The first refers to the prophets and the Hagiographa as distinct from, and in contrast to, the Pentateuch. The other, especially in its verbal form mekubbelani (“I have received a kabbalah”), is used to indicate oral traditions handed down either from teacher to disciple, or as part of a family tradition. From the Middle Ages the word kabbalah has also been used for the certificate of competence issued by a rabbi for a shoet, permitting the holder to perform kosher slaughter.

282 Encyclopedia Judaica, Vol. 12, p. 782.

283 Satinover, p. 74.

284 Columbus and his crew boarded their ships for his famous voyage at midnight on the date of the deadline. There is some evidence that they were Jewish.

285 For a comprehensive review of Jewish mysticism, see Encyclopedia Britannica, Vol. 22, pp. 462-470.

286 Encyclopedia Judaica, Vol. 10, p. 494.

287 “What Profits the Kabbalah,” Time Magazine, November 24, 1997.

288 Perhaps the strangest form is discussed in our recent book, Alien Encounters, available from this same publisher.

289 Isaiah 47:9.

290 Deuteronomy 18:9-12.

291 Ephesians 6:10-18; 2 Corinthians 2:11; 1 Peter 5:8.

292 John 8:44; 13:27; Matthew 6:13; 9:34; 12:24; Luke 8:12; 13:16; 2 Corinthians 4:4; Colossians 1:13; 2 Thessalonians 2:9; Acts 16:16-18; 2 Corinthians 2:11; 11:3; 2 Timothy 2:26.

293 Ephesians 2:2; Daniel 10:12, 13, 20.

294 2 Corinthians 4:4; 1 John 5:19.

295 Deuteronomy 32:16, 17; 1 Corinthians 10:19-21; Psalm 106:35-40; 1 Timothy 4:1; 2 Thessalonians 2:9, 10; Acts 16:16-19, et al.

296 1 John 4:1; Revelation 2:2; Acts 17:10-12; Deuteronomy 18:20-22; Matthew 24:24, etc.

297 2 Corinthians 11:13-15.

298 1 Timothy 4:1; 1 John 4:1.

299 Acts 16:16-19; Exodus 7:11, 22; 8:7.

300 Sherman K. Stein, Mathematics: The Man-made Universe, W. H. Freeman and Company, London, 1963, p. 105.

301 After R. Carnap, The Logical Syntax of Language, Kegan Paul, Trench, Trubner & Co., Ltd, London, 1937. Also, R. Carnap and Y. Bar-Hillel, “An Outline of a Theory of Semantic Information,” M.I.T. Research Lab. Electronics, Tech Rept. 247, 1953.

302 Isaiah 46:10; Acts 15:18. Cf. Isaiah 41:22, 23; 44:7; 45:21; Genesis 3:15; 12:2, 3; 49:10, 22-26; Numbers 24:17-24; Deuteronomy 4:24-31; 28:15.

303 Matthew 13:10-16.

304 We use the term “prototype” for an anticipatory model in engineering, etc.

305 Genesis 14:18-20.

306 1 Chronicles 24:15-28; 2 Chronicles 3:1.

307 Isaiah 53; Psalm 22; et al.

308 Genesis 22:2.

309 John 3:16.

310 Genesis 3:21.

311 Genesis 17:19; 21:12. Also, Hebrews 11:17-19.

312 It is interesting that of the numerous “Gentile bride” types in the Scripture, none of them has death recorded. Is this part of a macrocode design?

313 Genesis 15:2. It is instructive to notice that whenever the Holy Spirit emerges as a type, it is as an unnamed servant. Ruth, later to become the bride of Boaz, the Kinsman-Redeemer, is first introduced to him by his unnamed servant (Ruth 2:5, 6). Jesus explained why in John 16:13.

314 Genesis 24:62.

315 See Hugh Ross, The Fingerprint of God, Promise Publishing Co., Orange, California, 1989.

316 Cf. also Isaiah 13:10; Psalm 147:4.

317 Arcturus, Orion, Pleiades (Job 9:9); Ash, Cesil, Cimah (Job 38:31, 32); Pleiades and Orion (Amos 5:8); Castor and Pollux (Acts 28:11).

318 Genesis 1:14.

319 In the Book of Acts, the Christian path was called “the Way.” As we discover the significance of the Hebrew Mazzeroth, there may be a deliberate pun here.

320 Genesis 11:4.

321 Job 38:32.

322 Genesis 11:1-9.

323 John 12:23, 24, 27.

324 Genesis 3:15. See also Genesis 15:5 and Galatians 3:16 (seed is singular, not plural).

325 Isaiah 4:2: “The Branch of the Lord,” a title for Jesus Christ; Jeremiah 23:5 and 33:15: a royal King from line of David; Zechariah 3:8: servant of Jehovah; Zechariah 6:12: will build the Temple.

326 Isaiah 4:2.

327 Psalm 72:8.

328 Haggai 2:7.

329 Isaiah 53:3.

330 Jeremiah 33:10.

331 Zechariah 12:10.

332 Exodus 3:13, 14; Revelation 1:8.

333 Psalm 96:13; Revelation 14:14-16.

334 Job 9:9.

335 Zechariah 12:10.

336 For further study review our briefing package, Signs in the Heavens, or the other references in the bibliography.

337 Cf. Zechariah 6:12; Isaiah 4:2; 11:1.

338 Numbers 6:2.

339 Genesis 49:10.

340 Ruth 4:22; 2 Samuel 7:11-16.

341 Matthew 1:1-17.

342 Luke 3:23-38. According to Lachmann, Tischendorf, Tregelles, Alford, Westcott and Hort: nomi,zw, nomizo, reckoned as by law. Joseph was the son-in-law of Heli, having married his only daughter, Mary. (Jerusalem Talmud, Chag.77,4.) Cf. E. W. Bullinger, Number in Scripture, Kregel, Grand Rapids, Michigan, from the 1894 reproduction, p. 160 note.

343 Numbers 26:33; 27:1-11; 36:2-12; Joshua 17:3-6; 1 Chronicles 7:15.

344 Leprosy, in the Torah, carries a very Jewish symbolism for sin in general.

345 John 20:30, 31.

346 John 1:1-3.

347 Ezekiel 1:10; 10:14; Revelation 4:7. (Some feel that the seraphim in Isaiah 6 are the same.)

348 For an in-depth study of the 12 tribes, refer to our Expositional Commentary on Joshua, Volume 2.

349 Exodus 25—27; 36—38; 40.

350 For an in-depth study of the Tabernacle, review The Mystery of the Lost Ark Briefing Package.

351 Genesis 41:37-41.

352 Genesis 48.

353 Genesis 29, 35; 46; 49; Exodus 1; Numbers 1:1-15, 20-43; 2:7; 10; 13; 26; 34; Deuteronomy 27; 33; Joshua 13ff; Jude 5; 1 Chronicles 2:1; 2:3-8; 12; 27; Ezekiel 48; Revelation 7.

354 Numbers 2.

355 Numbers 2:3, 10, 18, 25.

356 After J. Neyman and E. S. Pearson, Transactions of Royal Society of London, A, 31, 1933, pp. 289-337.

357 Isaiah 11:11.

358 Luke 24:27.

359 2 Peter 1:19.

360 J. Barton Payne, Encyclopedia of Biblical Prophecy.

361 Peter W. Stoner, Science Speaks, Moody Press, Chicago, Illinois, 1963.

362 We are indebted to Peter Stoner for suggesting this approach and have taken the liberty to adapt his model for our presentation.

363 Matthew 26:15.

364 Matthew 27:3-8.

365 John W. Lawrence, The Six Trials of Jesus, Kregel Publications, Grand Rapids, Michigan, 1977.

366 Pilate’s intriguing titlon was treated in Chapter 6.

367 Psalm 22:7, 8.

368 Psalm 22:18.

369 Lumpkin, R., The Physical Suffering of Christ, Journal of the Medical Association of Alabama, 1978, Vol. 47:8-10; The Crucifixion of Jesus: The Passion of Christ from a Medical Point of View, Arizona Medicine, 1965, 22:183-187; Barbet, Dr. Pierre, A Doctor at Calvary, Doubleday Image Books, 1953; Bishop, Jim, The Day Christ Died, 1993 reprint by Galahad Books.

370 This is a convenient estimating approach. The application of Bayes Theorem would be more complex and would increase our confidence even more than this simpler method.

371 Scientists, faced with analyzing extreme probability distributions, actually define “absurd” to any likelihood less than one chance in 10^50.

372 Matthew 24, 25; Mark 13, 14; and Luke 21, 22.

373 Matthew 24:15.

374 Daniel 9:2; Jeremiah 25:11, 12.

375 For a more complete discussion, see our briefing package The Seventy Weeks of Daniel, two audio cassettes plus extensive notes. Also, Expositional Commentary on Daniel, 3 Vols., available from Koinonia House.

376 The seven months between Nisan and Tishri contain the seven feasts between Passover through Succot. See Chapter 17.

377 Genesis 29:26-28; Leviticus 25, 26. A sabbath for the land ordained for every week of years: Leviticus 25:1-22; 26:33-35; Deuteronomy 15; Exodus 23:10, 11. Failure to keep the sabbath of the land was basis for their 70 years of captivity: 2 Chronicles 36:19-21.

378 A fascinating conjecture as to the cause of this calendar change is detailed in Signs in the Heavens, a briefing package exploring the “long day” of Joshua and the possible orbital antics of Planet Mars.

379 The third, sixth, eighth, 11th, 14th, 17th and 19th are leap years, where the month Adar II is added. Originally kept secret by the Sanhedrin, the method of calendar intercalation was revealed in the fourth century, when an independent Sanhedrin was threatened, to permit the Diaspora Jews to observe in synchronization. Arthur Spier, The Comprehensive Hebrew Calendar, Feldheim Publishers, Jerusalem, 1986.

380 Genesis 7:24; 8:3,4, etc. In Revelation, 42 months = 3½ years = 1260 days, etc. We are indebted to Sir Robert Anderson’s classic, The Coming Prince, originally published in 1894, for this insight.

381 Nehemiah 2:5-8, 17, 18. There were three other decrees, but they were concerned with the rebuilding of the Temple, not the city and the walls: Cyrus (537 B.C.), Ezra 1:2-4; Darius, Ezra 6:1-5, 8, 12; Artaxerxes (458 B.C.), Ezra 7:11-26.

382 The English Bible translates Nagid as “prince.” However, it should be “king.” Nagid is first used of King Saul.

383 John 6:15; 7:30, 44; etc. 496 Appendices

384 Luke 19:29-48. Cf. Matthew 21, Mark 11.

385 Recorded in all four Gospels: Matthew 21:1-9; Mark 11:1-10; Luke 19:29-39; John 12:12-16.

386 The Hallel Psalm 118. Note verse 26.

387 This was the day that Passover lambs were being presented for acceptability Four days later, Jesus would be offered as our Passover Lamb.

388 Luke 3:1: Tiberius appointed, A.D. 14, + 15th year = A.D. 29. Fourth Passover, A.D. 32 (April 6).

389 Sir Robert Anderson, The Coming Prince, 1894.

390 See Risto Santala, The Messiah in the Old Testament in the Light of Rabbinical Writings, and The Messiah in the New Testament in the Light of Rabbinical Writings [translated from the Finnish; first published in Hebrew], Keren Ahvah Meshihi, Jerusalem, 1992; and Mark Eastman, The Search for the Messiah, The Word for Today, Costa Mesa, California, 1993.

391 is a verb, indicative future passive first person plural, from (aorist, passive), meaning to take by force; take away, carry off; catch up.

392 Hosea 5:15. See our briefing package The Next Holocaust and the Refuge in Edom for a summary of this view. Also, Arnold Fruchtenbaum, Footsteps of the Messiah, Ariel Press, Tustin, California, 1982.

393 Flavius Josephus, Wars of the Jews, Book VI, Chapter 1.

394 Leviticus 7:20; Psalm 37:9; Proverbs 2:22; Isaiah 53:7-9.

395 Interval also implied: Daniel 9:26; Isaiah 61:1, 2 (re. Luke 4:18-20); Revelation 12:5, 6. Also: Isaiah 54:7; Hosea 3:4, 5; Amos 9:10, 11; (Acts 15:13-18); Micah 5:2, 3; Zechariah 9:9, 10; Luke 1:31, 22; 21:24. There are actually 24 allusions to this interval, which may be linked to the 24 elders in Revelation. See Chapter 18.

396 Luke 19:42 until Romans 11:25.

397 Matthew 13:34, 35; Ephesians 3:5, 9.

398 E. W. Bullinger, Number in Scripture, Kregel Publications, Grand Rapids, Michigan, reproduction of 1894 edition, pp. 5, 6; Clarence Larkin, Dispensational Truth, Larkin Estate, Glendale, Pennsylvania, 1918.

399 See Appendix A.

400 Michelson, p. 31.

401 The open appearance has no “the.”

402 Satinover, p. 125.

403 Leviticus 23; Numbers 28-29; Deuteronomy 16.

404 Leviticus 23:4.

405 Romans 15:4; Galatians 3:24, 25.

406 Colossians 2:16, 17.

407 Exodus 12:1-14, 43-48; Leviticus 23:5.

408 Exodus 4:23. (“Firstborn” being a term of favored position and inheritance, not necessarily of direct issue.)

409 Genesis 15:13-16; Galatians 3:16, 17.

410 Contrary to the impression suggested by Cecil B. DeMille’s famous movie, The Ten Commandments, this was predicted by God when He first called Moses: Exodus 4:23.

411 Observed by Immanuel Velikovski in his noteworthy book, Worlds in Collision, published in 1950.

412 Exodus 12:1-13; Leviticus 23:4, 5.

413 Exodus 12:46; Numbers 9:12; Psalm 34:20.

414 John 1:29, 36.

415 1 Corinthians 5:7.

416 1 Peter 1:18-20.

417 John 19:4.

418 John 19:31-33, 36.

419 Leviticus 17:11; Matthew 26:27, 28.

420 1 Corinthians 10:16.

421 Mishna, Pes. VII 13.

422 Numbers 21:6-9.

423 The brazen altar, the bronze laver, etc. Everything outside the Tabernacle proper was brass. Everything inside was gold.

424 Genesis 3:14, 15.

425 2 Corinthians 5:21; 1 John 3:5.

426 Leviticus 23:6-8.

427 Deuteronomy 16:16.

428 This is generally attributed to its origin in the heart of Lucifer: Isaiah 14:12-14.

429 Exodus 12:15; 13:7; Leviticus 2:11; 6:17; 10:12.

430 Matthew 16:6; Luke 13:21; 1 Corinthians 5:6-8; Galatians 5:7-9.

431 The parable of The Woman and The Leaven (Matthew 13:33) is often misunderstood due to a lack of understanding of this background.

432 Isaiah 53:5 (q.v. 1 Peter 2:24); Psalm 22:16; Zechariah 12:10; John 19:34, 37; Revelation 1:7.

433 John 6:31-35, 47-51.

434 Exodus 16:15, 31-35; Numbers 11:6-9; Deuteronomy 8:2, 16.

435 Genesis 14:18.

436 Genesis 40:1-23.

437 Leviticus 23:11.

438 1 Corinthians 15:20-23; Matthew 27:52-53; Romans 11:16 (cf. Job 19:25-26).

439 Exodus 12:2.

440 Matthew 12:40. This opens the issue of the day of the week that Jesus was crucified—was it really on a Friday? Or Wednesday or Thursday? There are good scholars on both sides of this controversy. However, there are some substantial Scriptural evidences that it could not (despite the church traditions) have been on a Friday. Jesus, as an observant Jew, could not have indulged in the trip from Ephraim to Bethany on a Sabbath day the week before: John 11:54; 12:1.

441 Exodus 13:19, 20.

442 Leviticus 23:23-25.

443 Isaiah 58:1; 27:13.

444 Review Chapter 14 for background.

445 1 Corinthians 15:51, 52.

446 Revelation 8—9.

447 Jeremiah 30:7.

448 Matthew 24:21, quoting, in effect, Daniel 12:1.

449 This is held, by some, to also be symbolized by the idiom of the threshingfloor (Luke 3:16,17). This also seems to be prefigured by Ruth (the Gentile bride) being at Boaz’s (the kinsman-redeemer’s) feet during the threshingfloor event in Ruth 3:8, 9. This is particularly interesting if one happens to hold what is known as a “pretribulation rapture” point of view.

450 Leviticus 16:1-19; 23:26-32.

451 Hebrews 9:1-16.

452 Leviticus 16:20-34.

453 2 Corinthians 5:21; Isaiah 53:6; 52:15.

454 See The Coming Temple, or The Coming Temple Update.

455 The Feast of Unleavened Bread, the Feast of Weeks (Pentecost), and the Feast of Tabernacles were mandatory: Deuteronomy 16:16.

456 John 7:2, 10, 37-39.

457 Thanks to Doug Wetmore for this insight.

458 Matthew 13:3-9, 18-23.

459 Matthew 17:4.

460 Hosea 5:15—6:3; Zechariah 14:4, 9, 16.

461 Howard Blum, The Gold of the Exodus: The Discovery of the True Mount Sinai, Simon and Schuster, New York, 1998.

462 Exodus 19:1.

463 Exodus 19:11.

464 John 14:25, 26; Acts 1:8; 2:1-47.

465 Romans 9—11.

466 Ephesians 3:1-10.

467 Matthew 13:17, 34, 35. If they were “kept secret from the foundation of the world,” they are not explicit in the Old Testament.

468 Jude 14, 15.

469 Genesis 5:24; Hebrews 11:5.

470 Romans 7:4; 12:5; 1 Corinthians 12:12, 27; Ephesians 4:12; 5:23; Colossians 2:16, 17; and, perhaps, Revelation 12: 5.

471 Bachya attributed this to an earlier kabbalist, Nechunya ben HaKanah, who lived in first century Judea.

472 Arthur Spier, The Comprehensive Hebrew Calendar, Twentieth to Twenty-second Century, third rev. ed., Jerusalem, Feldheim, New York, 1989, p. 2.

473 Satinover, pp. 81-82.

474 Leviticus 25:2-6.

475 2 Chronicles 36:21; Daniel 9:2.

476 Leviticus 25, 27.

477 Acts 3:21.

478 Leviticus 25:9.

479 Hosea 5:15. See also our briefing package, The Next Holocaust and the Refuge in Edom, available from this publisher.

480 1 Kings 8:2. Ethanim is a synonym for Tishri, in the fall.

481 Ezra 6:15, 16. Adar is the month preceding Nisan, in the spring.

482 1 Maccabees 4:52, 59; Josephus, Antiquities 12:7.

483 Matthew 24:15.

484 Matthew 24:15, 2 Thessalonians 2:4; Revelation 11:1, 2.

485 Revelation 22:10; cf. Daniel 8:26; 12:4, 9.

486 In Revelation 12 we have the Woman, the Man-child, the Red Dragon, the seven-headed Beast, the False Prophet, Michael, and the Lamb.

487 Revelation 1:3; 14:3; 16:15; 19:9; 20:6; 22:7, 14.

488 Genesis 1:1.

489 Revelation 21:1.

490 Genesis 1:16.

491 Revelation 21:23.

492 Genesis 1:5.

493 Revelation 22:5.

494 Genesis 1:10.

495 Revelation 21:1.

496 Genesis 1:26.

497 Revelation 13.

498 Genesis 3.

499 Genesis 3:14-17.

500 Revelation 22:3.

501 Genesis 3:19.

502 Revelation 21:4.

503 Genesis 3:24.

504 Revelation 22.

505 Genesis 3:24.

506 Revelation 22:14.

507 Genesis 3:17.

508 Revelation 22:4.

509 Genesis 10:8-10.

510 Revelation 17, 18.

511 Genesis 3:24.

512 Revelation 22.

513 Genesis 24.

514 Revelation 21:2, 9; 22:17.

515 Genesis 2:18-23.

516 Revelation 19.

517 See Letters to Seven Churches, by this author from this publisher.

518 For a complete structural analysis, see The Letters to Seven Churches available from this publisher.

519 A fee simple estate of inheritance is one which devolves to the owner’s heirs and assigns forever without limitation.

520 An example of this was when Jeremiah, despite the impending Babylonian captivity, was instructed to purchase land from the son of his uncle, Hanameel. He, of course, would never benefit from this purchase. The deed was secreted in an earthen jar in anticipation when his heirs would return after the captivity and claim it. Jeremiah 32:6-15.

521 In addition to the Law of Redemption (Leviticus 25:47-50), one must understand the Law of Leverite Marriage (Deuteronomy 25:5-10).

522 See The Romance of Redemption—Gleanings from the Book of Ruth, from this publisher.

523 Daniel 9:24-27. See Chapter 17.

524 Genesis 15:13-21.

525 See Alien Encounters from this publisher.

526 Jericho is named after the Moon God. It is interesting that it is the base for the PLO today.

527 Joshua 5:13-15.

528 Exodus 3:5; Joshua 5:15. Cf. Revelation 19:10; 22:9. One angel did seek worship and caused a lot of trouble: Lucifer, now known as Satan (Isaiah 14:12-17; Ezekiel 28:12-19).

529 Joshua 5:13-15. Cf. Zechariah 14:3; Numbers 21:14.

530 Numbers 13—14.

531 Bill Cosby’s rendering of Noah was a classic of light humor.

532 Numbers 1:45, 49; Joshua 6:4ff.

533 Joshua 6:10.

534 Revelation 8:1.

535 Joshua 10:12, 13. Cf. Revelation 6:12; 8:12.

536 Joshua 10:16-24. Cf. Revelation 6:15, 16.

537 Joshua 11:22; 14:15; see Alien Encounters from this publisher.

538 J. Barton Payne, The Encyclopedia of Biblical Prophecy.

539 Titus 1:5; Acts 15:6; 20:28; 1 Peter 2:5, 9.

540 Cf. Revelation 1:6 with 5:9, 10. (The “us” is confirmed by Codex Siniaticus, Basilianus [Vatican], Latin Coptic and Memphitic texts; only Codex Alexandinus has “them,” which is in dispute but leaned on by some.)

541 Genesis 14:18.

542 Psalm 110:4. Quoted, Hebrews 5:6.

543 The Church is promised to reign with Him. Matthew 19:28; Luke 22:28-29; Romans 8:17; 2 Timothy 2:12. Cf. Revelation 1:6; 2:26, 27; 3:21; 20:4-6.

544 1 Chronicles 24:1-24.

545 Daniel 9:26 details events after the 69th week (v. 25) and prior to the 70th week (v. 27).

546 Luke 4:16-21.

547 Isaiah 61:1, 2.

548 Psalm 34:12-16 (quoted in 1 Peter 3:10-12); Psalm 118:22; Isaiah 9:6; Isaiah 53:10; Isaiah 61:2; Lamentations 4:21, 22; Daniel 9:26; Daniel 11:20, 21; Hosea 2:13, 14; Hosea 3:4, 5; Amos 9:10, 11; Micah 5:2, 3; Habakkuk 2:13, 14; Zephaniah 3:7, 8; Zechariah 9:9, 10; Matthew 10:23; Matthew 12:20; Luke 1:1, 32; Luke 4:18-20 (quoting Isaiah 61:1,2); Luke 21:24; John 1:5, 6; 1 Peter 1:11; 1 Peter 3:10-12 (quoting Psalm 34:12-16); Revelation 12:5, 6.

549 Alpha and Omega appears three times: Isaiah 41:4; 44:6; 48:12. It is interesting that Alpha is spelled out; the past is completed. Omega is not; it is yet to be.

550 An exhaustive concordance is an essential tool: it lists every occurrence of each word in the Bible. Strong’s is the de facto standard. Computer software packages are also an excellent way to find your way around.

551 The Red Dragon of Revelation 12:3 is identified in 12:9. Others are more subtle.

552 For example, in Revelation 1:4, 5, there is allusion to the Father, the Son, and “the seven spirits which are before his throne.” While unfamiliar to our ears, this is a reference to the sevenfold Spirit of God as listed in Isaiah 11:2.

553 A comprehensive Expositional Commentary on the Book of Revelation, on 24 cassette tapes with over 200 pages of notes, charts, and references from the author, all in four bound volumes, are available from this publisher.

554 Sir James Jeans, The Mysterious Universe, Cambridge University Press, 1930.

555 Missler, Chuck, Beyond Coincidence, a briefing package from this publisher, pp. 7, 8.

556 Daniel 8:13.

557 Hermeneutics is the art of interpreting literature, especially the Sacred Scriptures, and includes the recognition of the principles upon which a true analysis must proceed.

558 From an excellent review by Dr. William White, Zondervan Pictorial Encyclopedia of the Bible, Zondervan 1975, Vol. 4, pp. 452-61).

559 Zecharia Sitchin, The Earth Chronicles, Books 1 through 5; and Genesis Revisited, Avon Books, New York, 1990.

560 Genesis 6:1-4; 2 Samuel 21:20; 1 Chronicles 20:6.

561 Solo Baron, “The Authenticity of the Numbers in the Historical Books of the Old Testament,” Journal of Biblical Literature, XLIX, 1930, pp. 288-290.

562 The letter vau, with a value of 6, and koppa, with a value of 90, existed at one time but later became extinct. The letter koppa of the early Greek alphabet is replaced by kappa in the eastern Greek alphabet except for use as a numeral with the value of 90; it was retained in the western Greek alphabet and ultimately became the letter Q. The letter vau, sometimes represented by the letter sigma, appears in only one Biblical passage: Revelation 13:18.

563 The second letter is used as the final form, the last letter of a word.

564 The letter sampsi, with a value of 900, also became extinct.

565 Davis, p. 38.

566 Hebrew ammah (“mother of the arm”), the forearm, was the nominal distance from one’s elbow to the fingertip; the term “cubit” is from the Latin cubitus, the lower arm.

567 The answer to this difficulty was discovered by Shlomo Edward G. Belaga that appeared in Boaz Tsaban’s Rabbinical Math page on the Internet, <www.cs.biu.ac.il:8080/~tsaban/hebrew.html> and is also reported in Grant Jeffrey’s The Handwriting of God, Frontier Research Publications, Toronto, Ontario, 1997.

568 There were several “official” cubits in the ancient world, varying from about 18 inches to almost two feet. Some authorities assume 20.24 inches for the ordinary cubit and 21.888 inches for the sacred one. We have used 18 inches in the discussion.

569 Driver, Notes on the Hebrew Text and the Topography of the Books of Samuel, The Clarendon Press, Oxford, 1913, p. 97; R.A.H. Gunner, “Number,” The New Bible Dictionary, Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing Co., Grand Rapids, Michigan, 1963, p. 895.

570 William Taylor Smith, “Number,” The International Standard Bible Encyclopedia, Howard-Severance Co., Chicago, 1925, IV, p. 2157.

571 W. F. Albright, “The Lachish Letters After Five Years,” Bulletin of the American Schools of Oriental Research, No. 22, April, 1941.

572 Merrill Unger, Unger’s Bible Dictionary, Moody Press, Chicago, 1957, p. 799.

573 John D. Davis, A Dictionary of the Bible, Baker Book House, Grand Rapids, Michigan, 1954, p.546.

574 Clearly the refreshing exception are the works of E. W. Bullinger, as exemplified in his Number in Scripture, Kregel Publications, Grand Rapids, Michigan, which has reproduced his classic 1894 publication.

575 The arrangement of a numeral with its sequel within a clause, (x, x+1) either syndetically or asyndetically, is a common device to express intensification or progression. Cf. Davis, p. 93ff.

576 McCormack, R., The Heptadic Structure of Scripture, Marshall Brothers Ltd., London, 1923; E. W. Bullinger, Numbers of the Scriptures, Kregel Publications, Grand Rapids, Michigan, reproduction from 1894; Karl G. Sabiers, Astonishing New Discoveries, Robertson Publishing Co., Los Angeles, 1941; M. Mahan, Palmoni or Numerals of Scripture, D. Appleton and Co., New York, 1863; Ivan Panin, “Bible Numerics,” Things to Come, Horace Marshall & Sons, London, 1911, 1912, Vols. 17, 18; J. Edwin Hartill, Biblical Hermeneutics, Zondervan Publishing Co., Grand Rapids, Michigan, 1947; F. W. Grant, The Numerical Bible, (7 Vols.); Browne, Ordo Saeculoreium, et al. Also, Panin references in Chapter 7.

577 William T. Smith, The International Standard Bible Encyclopedia, IV, ed. James Orr, Howard-Severance Co., Chicago, 1915, p. 2159.

578 Deuteronomy 17:6; 19:15; Matthew 18:6; 2 Corinthians 13:1; 1 Timothy 5:19; Hebrews 10:28.

579 The author discusses the presentation of the Trinity in both the Old and New Testaments in his briefing package, The Trinity— The Mystery of the Godhead, available from this publisher.

580 Bullinger, pp. 42-44.

581 ——, pp. 42-44

582 John J. Davis, Biblical Numerology, Baker Book House, Grand Rapids, Michigan, 1968; O. T. Allis, Bible Numerics, 1961.

583 John J. Davis, Biblical Numerology, Baker Book House, Grand Rapids, Michigan, 1968, p. 129ff.

584 Against Heresies, Book II:25:1, Alexander Roberts and James Donaldson, eds., The Ante-Nicene Fathers, Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing Co., 1951, Vol. 1, p. 396.

585 These are in addition to their ordinal values, where each of the 22 letters are given an equivalent number from 1 to 22. Rarely used.

586 Davis, pp. 125-156.

587 Vincent F. Hopper, An Encyclopedia of Religion, Philosophical Library, New York, 1945, p. 62.

588 Origen, Against Celsus, Book I, Chap. XV, Alexander Roberts and James Donaldson, eds., The Ante-Nicene Fathers, Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing Co., 1951, p. 402.

589 Satinover p. 76.

590 Encyclopedia Judaica, Gen. R. 43:2; also, the Epistle of Barnabas.

591 Robert Morey, Bible Numerics: Fact or Fancy, Truth Seekers, Newport, Pennsylvania, 1997. Eighteen examples are also given by J. A. Emerton, “The One Hundred and Fifty-Three Fishes in John 21:11,” The Journal of Theological Studies, April 1958 (cited by Weldon, p. 38).

592 Davis, 132; 144ff.

593 1 Kings 10:14; 2 Chronicles 9:13.

594 W. Gunther Plaut, The Magen David, B’nai B’rith Books, Jerusalem, 1991, pp. 37-49; Asher Eder, The Star of David, Rubin Mass Ltd., Jerusalem, 1987, p. 15.

595 Jerry Lucas and Del Washburn, Theomatics, Scarborough House, Lanham, Maryland, 1977, is an example.

596 Bonnie Gaunt, Jesus Christ: the Number of His Name, (p. 174), points out that Isaiah 9:6 and 11:1 are conspicuous examples.

597 i.e., Jewish Encyclopedia, Vol. V, p. 592.

598 Acts 20:27; Hebrews 6:17.

599 Charles Lutwidge Dodgson (as Lewis Carroll), Through the Looking Glass and What Alice Found There, Macmillan & Co., New York, 1871.

600 See Alien Encounters by this author and available from this publisher.

601 This is only true for a hologram invisible to the naked eye. Synthetic holographic-like images used in normal light displays do not have these properties.

602 Isaiah 53:2.

603 Seventy, if one recognizes that the Book of Psalms is actually assembled from five books.

604 John 8:44, et al. This began in Eden when the adversary cynically inquired, “Yea, hath God (really) said…” (Genesis 3:1ff.).

605 Their “nakedness” may be referring to their loss of their original nature; they may have been clothed with light, walking with God, etc. There may be far more involved than most theologians have ever imagined.

606 Genesis 3:21.

607 Francis Crick, Life Itself, Simon and Schuster, New York, 1981, p. 88.

608 Michael Denton, Evolution: A Theory in Crisis, Adler & Adler, Bethesda, Maryland, 1986.

609 HAL, in the movie 2001, had a self-protection aspect that was a major plot element.

610 Human hair is about 70 to 100 microns, and a cell is only about 15 to 20 microns.

611 Jerry Bergman, “How Genes Manufacture Plants and Animals,” Creation Ex Nihilo Technical Journal, Vol. 11 (Part 2), 1997, pp. 202-211.

612 Nicholas Wade, “How Cells Unwind the Tangled Skein of Life,” New York Times, October 21, 1997, Tuesday, p. F1.

613 Bergman, pp. 202-211.

614 Denton, pp. 242, 243.

615 Leviticus 17:11.

616 Derived from C. U. M. Smit, Molecular Biology, p. 109, (q.v. David Foster, The Philosophical Scientists, Dorset Press, New York, 1985, p. 80.)

617 The formula for n things, p being alike of one kind, q alike of another kind, and r alike of another kind, etc., then the total number of ways in which all the n things can be arranged so that no arrangement is repeated is N = n!/(p!x q! x r!...), where “!” indicates a factorial.

618 In their book Evolution from Space, Sir Fred Hoyle and Professor N. C. Wickramasinghe use very similar arguments, but use a simplified formula for estimating biological specificities, 20n where 20 represents the alternative possible amino acids and n the number of amino acids in the chain. This estimate is less accurate than the one shown which takes into account the known proportions of each. Their formula results in an even higher estimates of 10^850 and 10^654, respectively.

619 “Absurd” has a mathematical definition in physics; any probability less than 1 in 10^50 is, by definition, absurd.

620 Genesis 17:12.

621 S. I. McMillen, M.D., None of These Diseases, Fleming H. Revell Co., Old Tappan, New Jersey, 1958.

622 Matthew 24:15; 2 Thessalonians 2:4; Revelation 11:1, 2.

623 Nature (Vol. 385, No. 6611, January 1997).

624 Wilder Penfield, The Mystery of the Mind: A Critical Study of Consciousness and the Human Brain, Princeton University Press, Princeton, New Jersey, 1975.

625 Paul Pietsch, Shufflebrain: the Quest for the Hologramic Mind, Houghton Mifflin, Boston, Massachusetts, 1981.

626 This is summarized in a briefing package (audio book), The Architecture of Man by the author, and is detailed in the book, The Way of Agape, by Chuck and Nancy Missler, each available from this publisher.

627 For a more complete discussion, see The Creator Beyond Time and Space by Chuck Missler and Mark Eastman, The Word for Today, Costa Mesa, California, 1996.

628 Albert Einstein, Boris Podolsky, and Nathan Rosen, “Can Quantum-Mechanical Description of Physical Reality Be Considered Complete?” Physical Review, 47 (1935), p. 777.

629 Paul Davis, Superforce, Simon & Schuster, New York, 1948, p. 48.

630 Paul D. Townsend, “Quantum Cryptography on Multi-user Optical Fibre Networks,” Nature, No. 385 (1997), pp. 47-49; Richard J. Hughes, “Quantum Security Is Spookily Certain,” Ibid., pp. 17, 18. Qv. Satinover, pp. 109, 110.

631 This is reminiscent of the Red King’s dream in Through the Looking Glass, in which Alice finds herself in deep metaphysical waters when the Tweedle brothers defend the view that all material objects, including ourselves, are only “sorts of things” in the mind of God.

632 2 Corinthians 4:18.

633 The Reach of the Mind: Nobel Prize Conversations, Saybrook Publishing Co., Dallas, Texas, 1985, p. 91.

634 Ephesians 3:18.

635 Eastman & Missler, The Creator Beyond Time and Space, The Word for Today, Costa Mesa, California, 1996.

636 Michio Kaku, Hyperspace, Oxford University Press, New York, 1994.

637 Hebrews 11:3; Romans 8:19-23; Psalm 102:25-27; Proverbs 16:33; Ephesians 1:11; Hebrews 1:2-3; Colossians 1:16, 17.

638 There were exceptions: Empedocles of Acragas (c. 450 B.C.); also, both Muslim scientists Aviecenna and Alhazen (A.D. 1000) believed in a finite speed of light.

639 Again there were exceptions. Both Roger Bacon and Francis Bacon (A.D. 1600) believed in a finite speed of light.

640 A dynamical second is defined as 1/31,556,925.9747 of the earth’s orbital period and was standard until 1967. Atomic time is defined in terms of one revolution of an electron in the ground state orbit of the hydrogen atom.

641 “The stretching of the heavens”: Isaiah 40:22; 42:5; 44:24; 45:12; 51:13; Jeremiah 10:12; 51:15; Zechariah 12:1; the heavens as a scroll: Isaiah 34:4; Revelation 6:14.

642 Barry Setterfield, Atomic Quantum State, Light, and the Red Shift, in publication (received by private correspondence). Also via dolphin@best.com.

643 John 1:1-3; Colossians 1:16, 17.

644 Charles Lutwidge Dodgson, (as Lewis Carroll), Through the Looking Glass and What Alice Found There, Macmillan & Co., New York, 1871.

645 G. Polya, Patterns of Plausible Inference, Vol. II of Mathematics and Plausible Reasoning, Princeton University Press, Princeton, New Jersey, 1954.

646 Matthew 2:13, 14.

647 Matthew 2:19-23.

648 Matthew 2:15.

649 Number 20:8.

650 Numbers 20:12; Deuteronomy 34:4.

651 Numbers 20:10.

652 Deuteronomy 32; 2 Samuel 22:2, 3, 32, 47; Psalm 18:31, 46; 95:1; et al.

653 Isaiah 8:14; Romans 9:33; 1 Peter 2:8.

654 Matthew 16:18.

655 Revelation 9:11.

656 The Septuagint (much older than the Masoretic from which our English is taken) reads that “one of the devastating locusts was Gog their king.” This clears up a number of mysteries concerning the leader Gog of the land of Magog of Ezekiel 38. See The Magog Invasion from this publisher.

657 Expositional commentaries by the author, on audio tape cassettes and accompanied with extensive notes, charts and references, are available from the publisher. See end leaves.

658 Luke 24:27.

659 Matthew 8:4; 19:7, 8; 23:2; Mark 1:44; 10:3, 4; 7:10; Luke 5:14; 16:19, 31; 20:37; 24:27, 44; John 3:14; 5:39, 45, 46; 6:32; 7:19, 22, 23.

660 John 5:39; Psalm 40:7; Matthew 5:17,18.

661 1 Corinthians 2:1-16.

662 Psalm 138:2.

663 John 14:26.

664 Ephesians 6:10-18.

665 Frank J. Tipler, The Physics of Immortality, Doubleday, New York, 1994.

666 For a provocative treatment of these subjects, see Alien Encounters by Mark Eastman and this author, available from this publisher.

667 Ephesians 1:4.

INDEX

A

Aaron 209

Abomination of Desolation 237, 261-2

Abraham 109, 117, 129, 206, 250

Abraham’s Army (318?) 295-6

Abraham’s Offering of Isaac 189-196

Absurd (mathematical definition) 326, note 371, 619

Abulafia, Rabbi Abraham ben Samuel 123-4, 178

Acacia tree 137

Academy of Sciences (US) 142

Achaemenid Empire 55f, note 31

Acronymania note 109

Acrostics 20, 77-88, 124, 377, note 108, 120

Acts, Book of 270

Acts 2 256

ADA computer language note 23

Adam 71, 72,74-5, 104, 141, 194, 201, 206, 397, note 605

Adaptive systems 317-8, 329

Adar (Jewish month) 252

Adenine 320-2

Adoni-Zedek 273

Against Heresies 431, note 604

Ahasuerus, King 80

Ahaz, King 48

AIDS 126, 144

Akademiia nauk SSSR 79

Akedah 189-196, 253

Akkadian language 28, 283

Al Katuropos 203

Al Mureddin 201

Alamein 22

Alanine 321, 325

Albam 47-8, note 61

Alberti, Leon Battista 11, 16, 18, note 17

Albright, W. F. note 571

Aldeman, Leonard 15

Aleph (letter) 107-8

Aleph-Tau 111-112

Alexander the Great 55

Alexandrian manuscripts 441-3

Alien Encounters 32, 283, note 32, 45, 103, 288

Allegories 188-9, 377

Allegorization 357, 371

Allen, Richard H. 214

Almond 137

Aloe 137

Alpha Centauri 45

Alphaeus 157

Alphanumeric reckoning 286-290

Amalekites 296

Amel-Marduk 55, note 79

American Cryptogram Association 8, 24

American Indians note 45

American Revolution 144

Amillennialism 357-8, 426-7

Amino acids 320-2

Amorites 272, 296

Anagram 7, 20, 378

Anakim 273

Analogies, analogs 188, 305

Analysis of variance 9

Analytic Engine 21

Anderson, Rear Admiral Walter S. note 4

Anderson, Sir Robert 236, 242

Andrew 156, 159

Andreyev, N. D. 33

Andromeda galaxy 345

Angiospermae 452

Ankerberg, John 182

Annas 155, 157, 159

Anshan 55

Ante-Nicene Documents 431

Anthropic Principle 31, 199, 281

Anti-Semitism 358

Antiochus IV (“Epiphanes”) 261, 398

Antitype 189

Aphrodite note 143

Apocalypse See Revelation

Arabic numbers 285

Arafat, Yassir 144

Arginine 321, 325

Aristotle 293, 343

Ark of the Covenant 123

Arminianism 120

Armstrong, Neil 144

Army transposition (U.S.) note 8

Arp, Halton 345

Artaxerxes Longimanus 235-237

Asenath 209

Asher, Rabbi Bachya ben 125

Asher, Tribe of 211

Ashkenazis 153

Ashkenazaic Hasidism 178

Ashkenazi Torah 123

Asmeath 201

Asparagine 321, 325

Aspartic acid 321, 325

Aspect, Alain 339-40

Asposlia 201

Ass’n of Religious Professionals from the Soviet Union and Eastern Europe 137

Astraglossa 34

Astrophysical Journal 32

Astrophysics 30

Astyages 55

Asymmetric keys 15

Atbah 49, note 63, 64

Atbash 48-9, 61, note 63

Augustine 294, 357-8, 431

Aumann, Robert J. 142

Auschwitz 126, 143-4

Authentication 20, 37, 179-180

Authentication codes 445

Autokeys 18, 21

Automata 23, 317-8

Av (Jewish month) 252

Azriel of Gerona 176

B

B’Or Ha Torah 137, note 180, 187

Bab-El, Tower of 103, 200

Babbage, Charles 21

Babel 104

Babylonian Empire 53-62, note 69

Babel/Sheshach 48

Babylon, Fall of 55-62, note 92, 93

Babylon, Later history 65

Babylon—map 57

Babylonian captivity 49, note 72

Babylonian Chronicle 54, note 74, 81

Babylonian language 28

Babylonian mathematics 284-5

Bachya 125, 258-9, note 176, 471

Bacon, Roger note 639

Baghdad 53

Bakney, Raymond B. note 131

Balaam 73

Bandwidth 37, 79, 102-3, 308

Bar-Hillel, Y. note 301

Bar-Natan, Dror 145

Barber, Pierre note 369

Barley 138

Baron, Solo note 561

Base 10 283-4

Base 60 282-4

Bastille 126

Bathsheba 205

Baum, Frank 29

Bayes’ Theorem note 370

Beaufort transposition note 9

Behistun 28

Belaga, S.E.G. note 567

Bell Inequality 339-40

Bell, John Stewart 339

Belshazzar 55-60, note 81, 84

Ben-Gigi, Danny note 139

Bengal, J. A. 434

Benjamin, Tribe of 211

Bergman, Jerry note 611, 613

Beth (letter) 108

Beth-Horon, Battle of 273

Bethlehem 207, 218, 220-1, 353

Bethulah 201

Betrayal of Christ 221-3

Bezaleel 123

Bezeh 201

Bhagadgita 219

Bible Code, The 120, 140, 145, note 161, 195

Bible Review, The 139, 142, note 194

Biblia Hebraica Stuttgartensis (BHS) note 167

Biblical accuracy 286

Bifid ciphers 15

Big Bang Theory 135, 335, 367

Big Dipper 200, 280

Biggs, William E. vi,

Bilhah 209

Binary code 305

Binomial theorem 20

Bishop, Jim note 369

BLACK code 22

Block, David 214

Block Substitution ciphers 11, 14-15

Blue Letter Bible 359

Blum, Howard note 461

Boanerges 157

Boaz 129, 206, 271-2, note 313

Boer War 14

Bohm, David 338-41

Bohr, Niels 336-7

Boker 343

Bonacci, Filius 449

Book code 7

Book of Life 370-1

Book of Mormon 219

Booker, Richard 263

Bootes 201, 203

Borshippa 55

Bowers, William M. 24

Boxthorn 138

Bradley, James 344

Brain, human 328-31

Bramble 138

Brazen Laver 288-290, 398

Breese, Dave 428

Bride for Isaac 194-196

British Interplanetary Society 34

Bronze Serpent 219

Buddhism 103

Budge, E. A. Wallis note 30

Buksbazen, Victor 263

Bullinger, E. W. 88, 206, 214, 300, 393, 421, note 120, 124, 153, 342, 398, 574, 576, 580, 581

Burckhardt, C. B. 331

Byurakan Astrophysical Observatory 29

C

c, velocity of light 32, 343-5

Caesar 155, 159

Caesar cipher 10

Caiaphas 155, 159

Calendars 234-5

Calvinism 120

Cambyses I 55

Cambyses II 28, note 31

Cameron, A. G. W. 38

Camp of Israel 208-213

Capernaum 153

Carbon-12 note 39

Carchemish, Battle of 54

Cardano, Girolamo 18

Cardano Grille 6, 10, 18-20, 162

Carlotto, Mark J. note 44

Carnap, R. note 301

Carroll, Lewis 307, 351, note 599, 644

Cassia 138

Cassiopeia 200

Centaurus 201

Central Europe 124

Cesium clocks 45

Ceti (star) note 33

CETI 29-31, note 36, 37

Chaldeans 53; see also Babylon

Chambered nautilus 451

Champollion, Jean-Francois 28

Channeling 172

Chaos Theory 341-2

Charles II 173

Checksums 286

Cheiron 201

Cherdorlaomer 295-6

Cheshvan (Bul) (Jewish month) 252

Chestnut 138

Ch’in 103-4

Chi-square analysis 15

Chill, Abraham 263

Chinese language 34, 103-5, 285, note 126

Chisleu (Jewish month) 252

Chou Dynasty 104-5

Christian mysticism 179

Christianity 174

Chromatic scale 452

Chromatin 323

Church 240, 257-8, 358, 434-4, note 543

Church history (arguments from)357-8

Church of England 173

Churchill, Winston 22

Ciphers 6, 7, 23

Cipher alphabet 10-12

Cipher, Block substitution11, 14-15

Cipher disks 16, 17, 21, 23

Cipher, monoalphabetic 10

Cipher, polyalphabetic 10-12

Cipher, polygraphic 11, 13-14

Ciphertext 6

Circumcision 326-7

Citron 137

Clark, Arthur C. 34

Clarke, Richard 24

Cleopas 157

Cleopatra 28

Close Encounters of the Third Kind 33, 113, note 159

Closed loop servo systems 316-7

Clustering 137, 138, 145, 151-2, 164

Coats of skins 151

Cobalt Nitrate note 1

Code 6-7

Codex Alexandrinus 445

Codex Siniaticus 446

Codex Vadicanus 446

Cohanim 327

Coincidences, indices of 15

Coleridge, Samuel Taylor 41

Collier, J. 331

Color, communication by 33

Columbus, Christopher note 284

Columnar transpositions 9

Coma 201

Comet Shoemaker-Levy 144

Commandments (613) 126

Computer 22-23

Conflict resolution logic 328

Confucianism 103, 105

Coniah 204

Conic Sections note 24

Constantine 357

Contact (Movie) 5, 32, 36-7, 205

Context, (hermeneutical) 351, 351-4

Copernicus 175, 259

Cordevaro, Rabbi Moses 133

Corinthians, First Epistle to the 170

Cosmology 135, 174

Couch, Mal 434, 435

Countermeasures 308

“Counting the Omer” 129, 246, 256

Coveney, Peter 50

Crick, Francis 313, 319, note 607

Croesus 56

Cros, Charles 35

Crucifixion of Christ 154-5, 225, note 151, 440

Crusades 124

Cryptanalysis 5, 6

Cryptogram 6

Cryptography 5, 6

Cryptologia 24

Cryptology 5

Cubit 288-9, note 566, 568

Curvature of the earth 42

Cyberwizardry 172

Cyrus II 55-6, 62-4

Cyrus, Letter to 63-4

Cysteine 320-2, 325

D

d’Espagnat, Bernard 341

Dalibard, Jean 339

Dan, Tribe of 208, 210-213

Dancing Men, The Adventure of 5

Daniel 53-65, 397

Daniel, Book of 57-62, 231, 233-42, 355-413

Darby, J. N. 431

Darius I 28

Dark Side of the codes 165, 167

Darwin, Charles 316

Data Encryption Standard (DES) 14

David 104-6, 129, 206, 208, 397, 458-9

David’s Throne 357

Davies, Paul 50, 346, note 52

Davis, John D. note 573, 575

Davis, John J. 300, note 582, 583, 586, 592

Davis, Paul 340, note 629

Day of Atonement 254

Day of the Lord 124

Day of Vengeance 275

De La Couperie, Terrien note 130

Dead Sea Scrolls 123, 153

Decipher, decode 6

DeHaan, M. R. 428

DeLubac, Henry 41

Demons 179

Demotic script 27

Demy, Timothy J. 436

Denton, Michael vi, 316, 331, note 608, 614

Depression, the Great 144

Descartes, Rene 33, 344

Design of Experiments 164

Deutero-Isaiah Hypothesis 356-7

Deuteronomy 124, 128

DeValois, Russel and Karen 330

Diabetes 126

Diaconis, Persi 142

Dialogue with Trypho 431

Diaspora 260; see also Holocaust, et al

Diatonic scale 452

Difference Engine 21

Diffie, Whitfield 15

Digital (vs. Analog) 305

Digital language 319, 320-2

Digital Signature Standard 15

Diagram, digraph 9, 12, 13, 14, note 12, 14

Dilation of time 45

Dimensions 43-4, 124, 342, note 51

Divination 172-3

DNA 307, 313-331, 367

DNA Topology 322-4

DNA-homonyms 10, 322

Documentary Hypothesis 356

Doddgridge, Philip 431

Dodgson, Charles Lutwidge See Carroll, Lewis

Dolittle, Eliza 108-9

Dolphin, Lambert 346

Donkey 221

Doppler Effect 345

Double transposition 9

Douglas, Robert K. note 131, 133

Doyle, Sir Arthur Conan 5

Drake, Frank 29

Driver, S. R. note 569

Dropouts 37

Drosnin, Michael 120, 140, 144-5, 172, note 161, 195

E

e 461-3

e’s missing 161-2

Eagle (symbol) 208, 210, 212

Eastman, Mark 32, 50, 76, 130, 182, 196, 283, 330, 346, note 32, 184, 224, 390, 627, 635

Ecbatana 56

Ecliptic 200

Eden, Garden of 194, 203, 218, 268, 311, 371, note 604

Eder, Asher note 594

Edersheim, Alfred 263

Edkins, Joseph note 131

Egypt, Egyptians 53, 126, 162, 200, 209, 247, 352, 398

Egyptian mathematics 283-4

Eichman, Adolf 143

Eidetic memories 330

Eight Eighty Eight 298

Ein hof 138

Einstein, Albert 39, 42-4, 89, 192, 337-8, 340, 342, 369, 420, note 628

El Alamein 22

El Shaddai 85

Elam 55

Elamite language 28

Eleazer 195

ElGamal public key 15

Elijah 397

Elizabeth, Queen note 2

Elohim 129

Elohist 356

Elul (Jewish month) 252

Embryo 328

Emerton, J. A. note 591

Emmaus 219

Empendocles of Acragas note 638

ENIGMA 21-22

Enoch 71, 73-5, 201, 206, 257-8

Enosh 71, 73, 74-5, 206

Entropy 135, 343

Ephesians, Epistle to 257, 369

Ephesus, Church of 269

Ephraem of Nisibis 431

Ephraim, Tribe of 209-213

Epistle to Barnabas 431

EPR Paradox 337, 339

Epsilon Eridani 29

Equidistant Letter Sequences (ELS) vii, viii, 8, 19, 117, 125-130, 136-139, 140, 145, 162-3, 169, 324

Erasmus 441

Erev 343

Error detection & correction 37, 305-7, 322

Errors, Type I & II 164, 217

Esagalia 54

Eschatology 425-434

Esther 261

Esther, Book of 80-88

Ethanim See Tishri

Euclid 43

Euler 181

Euphrates 56-7, 62

Eve 141, 194, note 605

Exodus, Book of 125-7, 162, 248, 251

Exons 324

Expanding Universe 345

Explicate order (after Bohm) 340

Extraterrestrial communication 28-37, 101-2

Ezekiel 397

Ezekiel’s wheels 18

Ezekiel: Israel’s regathering predicted 49

Ezra 117

F

Face on Mars 35

Fairburn, Patrick 196, 406

Fall of man 342

Feasts of Israel 91; See also specific feasts

Feast of Booths See Feast of Tabernacles

Feast of Dedication 261

Feast of First Fruits 129, 250-3, 255

Feast of Pentecost See Feast of Weeks

Feast of Purim 81, 261

Feast of Tabernacles 245, 254-5, 257, note 455

Feast of Trumpets 245, 253-4, 257

Feast of Unleavened Bread 246, 249-250, note 455

Feast of Weeks 129, 245-6, 255-8, 272, note 455

Feinberg, Charles L. 428

Feliks, Yehuda note 188

Fenman, Richard 338

Festus 157

Fibonacci (Leonardo of Pisa) 285,449

Fibonacci Sequence 449

Fiery furnace 434

Fig leaves 151, 194

Fig tree 138

Final forms 109, note 62

Finite universe 135, 335

“First and the Last” 109-113

Fishes, 153 296, note 591

Flood of Noah 71-2, 84, 257-8, 433-4

Ford Motor Company 16

Foster, David note 616

Four cups of Passover 248

Four Gospels (Design of) 208

Fourier, Jean B. 308-9

Fourier transforms 308-9, 330

Fractionating schemes 14

French Revolution 126

Freudenthal, Dr. Hans 33-4

Friedman, William 32

Fruchtenbaum, Arnold G. 214, 428, 435, note 392

Fuchs, Daniel 263

Fuhrer 143

G

Gabor, Dennis 308

Gabriel, Angel 233, 235, 239

Gad, Tribe of 210

Gadsby: Over 50,000 Words Without the Letter e 162

Gaines, Helen Fouche 24

Gakatilla, Joseph ben Abraham of Castile 124, 295

Galactic order 453

Galilee 155, 158

Gandhi, Indira 145

Gans, Dr. Harold 141-2

Gaon, Vilna 124-6

Garden of Eden 194, 203, 218, 268, 321, note 605

Gaumata 28

Gaunt, Bonnie note 596

Gauss, Karl Friedrich 34, 43

Gaza 118, 273

Gematria 92, 95, 124, 278-(299++) 464

Gematria—7 methods of 298-9

Gematrical 444

Genealogies 457

Genealogy of Christ 92-95, note 68

Genealogy of Noah 71

General Unified Theory (GUT) 342

Genesis, Book of (quoted) 117-118, 126-7, 189-195, 245, 251, 295-6, 342-3, 358

Authenticity of 356

Chinese language origins 103-5

Sexagesimal numbers in 286

49 letter intervals in 126-7

Genesis 1 91, 112

Ten dimensions 124, 342

Genesis 2 - trees encoded 137-8

Genesis 3 - Fracture of universe? 342-3

Genesis 5 71, 74-75

Genesis 6 73

Genesis 10 - Table of Nations 103

Genesis 11 note 69

Genesis 15 117-118

Genesis 38 129

Genesis vs. Revelation 268

Genocide 143

Gentile Bride 271-2, note 312, 449

Geometric means 9

Geonic era 175

Germany 143

Gershonites 209

Gethsemane 155, 157, 224

Gideon Bibles 14

Gill, John 432

Ginsberg, Rabbi Yitzchak note 63

Gladstone, William 41

Glaser, Mitch and Shava 263

Gloria Scott, The note 2

Glutamine 321, 325

Glycine 321, 325

Gnostics 174, 293

Gobar (Arabic) numerals 285

Goetingen, University of 43

Gog note 636

Golan Heights 118, 273

Gold Bug, The 5, note 1

Golden Rectangle 450

Golden Spiral 450

Golgatha 192-3

Good, Joseph 263

Gopherwood 138

Gordon, Dr. Cyrus 62

Graf-Wellhausen Hypothesis 356

Grant, F. W. note 120, 576

Grant, Ulysses S. 41

Grape 138

Gravity waves 32, 345

Great Pyramid 450

Great Tribulation 253-4, 258, 262, 427- 8, 433

Great Wall of China 103

Greek alphabet 27, 287, note 562

Green Bank Formula 29-30

Gribbon, John 331

Grille, Cardano 18-19

Grille, Turning 20

Gronsfeld transposition note 9

Guanine 320-2

Gulf War 144

Gundry, Robert 428, 432

Gunner, R. A. H. note 569

Gutium 56

Gymnospermae 452

H

Hafele, J. C. 45

Hag Ha Kazir (Feast of Harvest) See Feast of Weeks

Hag Ha Matzah See Feast of Unleavened Bread

Hag Ha Shovout See Feast of Weeks

Hagar 398

Hagiographia 79

Hakadmi (Gematria method) 298

Hallelujah 291

Halys River 56

Haman 80-85

Hameruba Haklali (Gematria method) 298

Hameruba Haperati (Gematria method) 298

Handwriting on the wall 57-62

Hanukkah, Feast of 260-262

Harpagus 55

Harpazo (Rapture) 238, 257-8, 428-33

Hartill, J. Edwin note 576

Harvard/Smithsonian Observatory 32

Haryon 294

Hasmoneans 261

Hauptman, Don note 109

Hawking, Stephen W. 346, 367

Hax, Theodore B. vi

Hazel 138

Heat death (of universe) 335, 367

Hebrew language 50, 307

Hebrew Alphabet 99, 107-113, 163-4, 287

Hebrew Letter Frequencies 150

Hebrews, Epistle to the 171

Hebron 273

Heh (letter) 108-9, 117, 129, 289

Heiroglyphics 27, 283

Heli 205-6, note 342

Helicase 324

Hellman, Martin E. 15

Helmholtz, Hermann vo 330

Hemoglobin 325-7

Hendel, Ronald S. note 196

Henry, Patrick 41

Heptadic structure 91, 268, 291-2, D, F

Hermeneutics 351-8, 425, note 557

Hermippus 295

Herod 155,157, 159, 220

Herodotus 56, 62, note 56

Hertz, Dr. J. H. 263

Hezekiah 235

Highfield, Roger 50

Hillel II 259

Hindus 219

Hinom Valley 192

Hippolytus 431

Hirsch, Samson Raphael 243

Histidine 321, 325

Histones 323

Hitchcock, Alfred 128

Hitler, Adolf 143, 152

Hittites 283

Hogben, Lancelot 34

Holmes, Sherlock 5, note 2

Holocaust codes 142-144

Hologram 308-311, 329-31, 338-9, 340-1, 345-6, note 601

Holy of Holies 234, 261

Homer 173

Homophones, homonyms 10

Hopper, Vincent F. note 587

Horoscopes 172

Hort, Fenton John Anthony 441-2

Hosea 352-3

Hoyle, Sir Fred 316, note 39, 618

Hsia Dynasty 104

Hubble, Edwin 345

Hughes, Richard J. note 630

Hume, David 316

Humpty Dumpty 351

Hyperspaces 92, 341-3

Hypocatastasis 111, 112, 386

Hypolytus 443

I

Ice, Thomas D. 436

Ideographs 37

Ignatius 431

Imminence, Doctrine of 431

Implicate order (after Bohm) 340

Indian yoga 178

Indians, American note 45

Inductive methods 352

Infinite-state machine 23

Infinity (elusiveness of) 335

Information model (cell) 328

Information sciences 30-31, 346, 367

Intercalation note 379

Internet 16, 145, 359

Interstellar languages 33-4

Introns 324

Io 344

Ireneus 431, 443

Irving, Edward 431

Isaac 206

Isaac offered 189-196

Isaiah, Book of 49, 63-64, 109-110, 123, 126, 152-61, 160, 199, 224, 275, 308, 354, 357

Isaiah - “Deutero” hypothesis 356-7

Isaiah Scroll, Great 153

Isoleucine 321, 325

Israel 46-7, 49, 118-9, 124, 136, 217, 240, 371

Israel, Camp of 208-213

Israeli Academy of Science 142

Issachar, Tribe of 210

Ilyar (Zif) (Jewish month) 252

J

J-source 356

Jacob 91, 206, 209

Jacob (as a type) 405

Jairus 157

James (2) 156-7, 159

James, Epistle of 96

Jamming 37, 80, 172, 286

Jared 71, 73-5, 206

Jeans, Sir James 279, note 554

Jeconiah 204, note 75

Jefferson, Thomas 17, 18, note 10

Jeffrey, Grant vi, 153, 158, 165, 428, 436, note 162, 190, 198, 203, 209, 210, 228, 233, 252, 253

Jehoiachin 206

Jehoiakim 54, 206, note 71

Jeremiah 48, 49, 64, 204, 262, 353, 363, 397, note 520

Jericho 272-3, note 526

Jerusalem 54, 64, 118, 234-239, 371

“Jerusalem, Desolations of” note 76

Jesse 129, 159, 206

Jesus Christ 47, 54, 75, 85, 87, 93-95 96, 112-113, 119, 204-8, 218-229, 239, 298, 311, 356, 371, 399-404, 425-35, note 144

Jewish mysticism172, 175-8, note 285

Joachim of Flores 434

Job 171, note 107

John 156, 158, 159, 174, 299

John, Gospel of 87, 96, 108, 112-3, 137, 158, 207, 218, 223, 239, 248, 261, 296, 357, 358, 361, 372

John I 112-3, 149

Jonah 159, 397, note 259

Jonathan, Targum of note 101

Jones, Alfred 76

Joseph 159, 206, 209, 250, 253, 352

Joseph (as a type) 397, 399-404

Joseph of Arimathea 224

Josephson, Brian 341

Josephus, Flavius note 88, 251, 393, 482

Joses 157

Joshua, Book of 91, 272-4

“Jots and tittles” 98, 101

Journal of the Royal Statistical Society 138, note 191

Jubilee Year 91, 136, 260

Judah 129, 206, 208-213, 274

Judah, Eleazar ben, of Worms123, 178

Judah, Tribe of 210

Judaism 174-5

Judas 119, 158, 222

Jude 74, 96

Judea 118

Julius Caesar 347

Jupiter 144, 344

Jupiter fly-by 35-6

Jurassic Park 367

Jurien, Pierre 431, 434

Justin 431

K

Kabbalah 125, 174, 176-8, 179, 294, note 281

Kabbalah, Spanish 123

Kabbalistic encoding 18, 23

Kahn, David vi, 24, note 4, 11, 15, 1, 21, 22, 26, 85, 158

Kaku, Michio 346, note 636

Kalhuz-Klein metric tensors 43, 182, 281, 342

Kaluza, Theodr 43

Kang, C. H. note 134, 136

Kang, K.T. note 138

Kant, Immanuel 41

Kaplan, Rabbi Aryeh 76, 263, note 105

Kaplan, S.A. 38

Karaites 175-6

Kashdan, Prof. David 146, 167

Kasiski 11

Kassites 289

Katan (Gematria method) 298

Katz, Dr. Moshe 135

Keating, Richard 45

Kehubbim 79

Kelvin, Lord 215

Kenan 71, 73-5, 206

Kennedy, John F. 145

Kennedy, Robert 145

Kepler, Johannes 343-4

Kethiv 289

Khorsabad wall 295

Kiddush 136

Kidron Valley 192

King, Martin Luther 145

King presented 221

Kingdom Parables (Matthew 13) 255, 270

Kings, First Book of (7:23) 288

Kinsman-Redeemer 149, 151, 271-2, 371, note 313

Klein, Oscar 43

Koenigsberg, Seven Bridges of 181

Koenigsberg, University of 43

Kohath 209

Kolel (Gematria method) 298

Koran 219

Kunitzsch, Paul 214

Kuscher, E. Y. note 227

Kutha 55

Kuwait note 70

L

Labashi-Marduk 55

Lacunza, Emmanuel 431

Ladd, George 428, 432

Lahaye, Tim 428

Lamb of God 247

Lamech 71, 74-5, 206

Lamentations, Book of 79

Language, design 315

Language of the Brain 329

Laodicea, Church of 269

Larkin, Clarence note 398

Last Twelve Verses of Mark 439-446

Late Great Planet Earth 428

Law of First Mention 193

Law of Redemption 271, note 521

Law of the Square 295

Lawrence, John W. note 232, 365

Lawrence, T. E. 19

Leaf arrangements 452

Leah 209

Least Effort, Principle of 80

Leaven 249, 256, 398

Leia, Princess 309

Leibniz, Gottfried Wilhelm 33

Leningrad Academy of Science 33

Leon, Moses Ben Shem Tov de 178

Leonardo of Pisa (Fibonacci) 285

Leprosy note 344

Lerner, Alan J. 108

Letter frequencies 12

Letters to Seven Churches 269-270, 351

Leucine 321, 325

Leverite marriage 271, note 521

Levi genes 327

Levites 159, 209-213, 274

Leviticus, Book of 127-8, 255

Levitical sacrifices 194, 398

Leviton, Arieh 145

Lewis, C. S. 370

Liber abaci 285, 449

Ligases 324

Light, Speed of 343-345

Lin, L. H. 331

Lincoln, Abraham 41, 145

Lindsey, Hal vi, 348

Lingua Cosmica (Lincos) 34

Lion (symbol) 208, 210, 212

Lion of the Tribe of Judah 204-6

Lion’s den 69

Living Water 195, 255

Locusts 355

Log book, personal 360-2

Logos 207, 346

Longfellow, Henry Wadsworth303, 305

Lorentz transform 308, note 53

Los Alamos 22

Lot 434

Lot (Abraham’s nephew) 296

Love: first occurrence of word 193

Lowe, Frederich 108

Lucian of Antioch 441

Lucifer See Satan

Luke, Gospel of 96, 119, 169, 205-7, 236, 238, 275, 355

Lumpkin, R. note 369

Lunar month 258-9

Luther, Martin 80, note 110

Lycanthropy 60

Lydia 56

Lysine 321, 325

M

Macbeth, John Walker Valiant 393

Maccabees 126

Macknight, James 432

Macrocodes viii, 47, 103, 185-229, 307, 353, 370, 425

Macrocodes (List of) 397-405

Magen David 296-8; see also Seal of Solomon

Magi 5, 64, 220

MAGIC (World War II code breaking) 5, n4

Mahalelel 71, 73-5, 206

Mahan, M. note 576

Maimon, Rabbi Moses ben See Maimonides; RAMBAM

Maimonides 125, note 101

Man (symbol) 208, 210, 212

Manasseh 209

Manasseh, Tribe of 211

Manchus 105

Mandane 55

Manna 250, 397

Maqqeph 111

Mark, Gospel of 96

Mark of the Beast: 666 296-8

Mars 35, note 378

Mars’ Face 35

Martin, Walter vi, 428

Martyr, Justin 431

Mary 205-7, 352

Marys (3) 157-9

Mary, Queen of Scots note 2

Masking 18-19

Masoretic text 153

Massorah note 120

Maten, Robert Vander note 119

Mathematical logic 33

Mathematical statistics 20-21

Matthew 159, 204-6

Matthew, Gospel of 93-96, 99, 101, 218-19, 242, 246, 248-9, 250, 352-3, 355

Matthews, R. H. note 131

Matthias 158-9

Maury, Matthew Fontaine 171

Mayan numbers 285

Mazzeroth 53, 200-1, 208, note 319

McCormach, R.96, 421, note 124, 576

McDonald, Margaret 431

McKay, Brendan 145

McKeever, Jim 428

McMillen, S. I. note 621

Meade, Frank S. note 46

Mede, Joseph 434

Medes 54, 55, 56, 61

Mediumism 172

Mein Kampf 143

Melchizedek 193, 250, 274, 397

Melville, Herman 145

Memucan 82

Menorah 91

Merari 209

Mere Christianity 370

Meshiach 84, note 151

Meshiach Nagid 235-7, note 382

Messiah 218

Meta Tauta 269

META (Million Channel ET Array)32

Metacodes viii, 301-46

Metaphor 188, 189, 387

Metaphysics 174

Methionine 321, 325

Methuselah u1, 72, 75, 104, 206

Metric tensors 43, 182, 281, 342, note 24

Micah, Book of 207, 220

Michelson, Daniel 136, 137, 146, note 167, 180, 182, 187, 400, 460

Michas, Peter & Charles P. note 119

Microbiology 135

Microcodes viii, 47, 187

Mid-Tribulationalists 428

Midrash 48, 175, note 60

Midway, Battle of 22

Militz of Kromeriz 434

Milky Way 30, 199

Millennial Theology, Dictionary of 434, 435

Millennium 255, 425-7

Miller, William 434

Miluy (Gematria method) 298

Mirac 203

Mishnah 126, note 101, 421

Missler, Chuck 32, 50, 65, 76, 88, 130, 182, 214, 214, 230, 242, 263, 277, 331, 346, 363, 414, note 32. 44, 184, 264, 555, 626, 627, 635

Mnemonic acrostics 79

Moby Dick 145

Model (type) 189

Molten Sea 288-290

Monoalphabetic ciphers 10, 11

Montgomery, Alan 344

Moon landing 144

Mordecai 80-5

Morey, Robert note 591

Mormon, Book of 219

Morse, Samuel 162

Moses 209, 353-4, 356, 397

Moyadim 245-262

Mt. Ararat 29

Mt. Moriah 155, 159, 189, 192, note 244

Mt. Nebo 353

Mt. Sinai 256, 272, note 461

Muhammad ibn Musa al-Khwaeizmin 285

Muphride 203

Musical scales 452

Musical structures 113, note 157

My Fair Lady 106-7

Mysteries of the Mind, The 329

Mystery of 24 274-6

Mysticism 174-180, 292-3, 299-300

Mytosis 328

N

Nabonidus 55-6, note 82, 87

Nabopolassar 54

Nachman, Rabbi Moses ben, of Gerona See RAMBAN, Nachmonides

Nachmonides 124, 176, 342, note 51

Names of God in Esther 80

Names of God—permutations 123

Naomi 271-2

Naphtali, Tribe of 211

Napier, John 434, 463

Napierian (natural) Logarithms 463

Napoleon 27

NASA 79

Nathan 205-6

National Academy of Sciences, U.S.29

National blindness 238, 433

National Bureau of Standards, U. S. 14, 344

National Radio Astronomy Observatory, U.S. 29

National Security Agency, U.S. (NSA) 21-2, 27, 141

NATO 79, 118

Nautilus Pompilius 451

Naval Academy, U.S. 171

Naval Observatory, U.S. 45, 171

Nazarene 155, 158, 203

Nazareth 203, 275, 352

Nazi holocaust 143

Nebhi’im 79

Nebuchadnezzar 54-5, 57-60, 398, note 71, 78

Necho, Pharaoh 54

Necromancy 172

Nekkar 203

Nelson, Ethel R. note 134, 135, 136

Neoplatonic 172, 174

Neopythagorean philosophy 174

Nephilim 73, 272-3

Neriglissar 55

Netzer 203

Neurophysiology 80

New moon 258-9

Newton, Sir Isaac 41, 173, 333, note 47, 279, 280

Neyman, J. note 261, 356

Nicodemus 249

Nimrod 53, 398

Nineveh 54

Nisan, (Aviv) (Jewish month) 252, 256, 260

Noah 74-5, 206, 397

Noah’s Ark 29, 91, 251, 397, note 156

Noise 37, 80, 150, 188, 286

Non-locality 335, 337-341

Noncontextual allusions 352-4

Norman, Trevor 344

Notarikon 124, 295

Nucleotides, nucleic acids 319-23

Nulls 10, 18

Numbers, Book of 128

Numbers, numerals 281

Numerical notation, modern 285

Numerics 279-300

Numerology 281

Nyquist Criterion 317

O

Oak tree 138

Obed 129, 159

Obi-wan Kenobi 309

Occult 172-180; see also Mysticism

Odyssey 173

Ohauer, M. E. 24

Oklahoma City bombing 144

Olive tree 138

One-time Pad 12, 15

One-to-one Mapping 10

One-way keys 15-16

Onkelos, Targum of 343, note 101

Opathy, Hemoglobin 326

Open loop system 315-7

Ophel, City of David 193

Opis 56

Oral traditions 175

Origen 357, note 588

Origin of the Species 316

Ornan 193

Osmic frequencies 330

Ovid note 29

Ox (symbol) 208, 210, 212

Ozma Project 29

P

Palestinian Liberation Organization (PLO) 118, 144

Paley, Bishop William 316

Palmer, Patrick 29

Palmoni (Angel of secret numbers) 281

Pandora’s Box 172

Panin, Ivan 93-6, 421, 446 note 576

Pantheism 178

Parables 188-9, A

Paracryptology 24

Paradox, EPR 337, 339

Paradox resolution 181-2

Paradox, Wave-particle 336-8

Parity checks 206

Parthenon 450

Pascal, Blaise 21, note 23, 25

Passover 155, 157, 245-7, 251, note 387

Pattern recognition 330

Paul 96, 174, 353

Paul, Epistles of 96, 299

Paul Revere 305

Payne, J. Barton 406, 432, note 360, 538

Peace Process 118

Peano, Giuseppe 33

Pearl Harbor 22, 144

Pearson, E.S. note 261, 356

Pekah 48

Penfield, Wilder 329, note 624

Penrose, Roger 341, 367

Pentecost, Feast of See Feast of Weeks

Pentecost, J. Dwight 428, 435

Pentateuch See also Torah

Pentatonic scale 452

Perez 129

Pergamos, Church of 269

Permeability 32

Permitivity 32

Persecution 124, 152

Persian Gulf War 144

Persian, Old (language) 28

Pesach See Passover

Peter 155, 157, 159, 207, 219

Peter, Epistles of 96, 194

PGP 15, 24

Phantom limbs 330

Pharaoh Necho 54

Pharaoh’s dreams 91

Pharez 457-8

Pharisee 159

Phelippes, Thomas note 2

Phenylainine 321, 325

Phi (Φ) 449

Phideas 450

Philadelphia, Church of 269

Philip 156, 159

Phonemes 37, 79

Phonetic alphabet 28

Photons 339-40

Phyllotaxis 452

Physics of Immortality 368

Pi(π) 43, 283, 286, 288-290, 461-4

Pictorial communication 34-6

Pierced 111-2, 225

Pietsch, Paul 329, note 625

Pilate, Pontius 86-7, 224

Pink, Arthur W. 76, 406, note 97

Pinyin zimu 105

Pioneer 10 (plaque) 35-6

Pistachio nut tree 138

Plagues 143

Plaintext 6

Planck length 43, 335, 342

Planetary systems 30

Plaut, W. Gunther note 594

Plasma 338

Plato 293

Playfair cipher 13-14

Playfair, Lyon 13

Plotinus 293

Podolsky, Boris 337, note 628

Poe, Edgar Allan 5, 6, note 1

Poland 143

Polya, G. note 645

Polyalphabetic ciphers 10-12, 16, 18

Polygraphic ciphers 10, 13-14

Pomegranate 138

Pompilius, Numa 235

Pope, Maurice 38

Poplar tree 138

Porta transposition note 9

Positional notation 285

Positron note 50

Post-Millennial view 427

Post-Nicene Church 294

Post-Tribulationalists 428, 432-3

Pozos, Randolfo Raphael note 44

Pre-Tribulationalists 428, note 449

Premillennialists 426-7

Pribram, Karl 329-31

Price: 30 pieces of silver 221-2

Price, Randall note 224

Priests 327

Principia Mathematica 33

Principle of Least Effort (Zipf’s Law) 80

Probabilities, composite 225-9

Proline 321, 325

Prophecy 47, 173, 219, 425-434

Prothrombin 327

Proverbs, Book of 45, 51, 65, 79, 86, 170, 281

Psalms 128, 171, 218, 224-5, 236, 262, 354

Psychopathology 30

Ptolemy 28

Ptolemy II Philadelphus 220

Public key cryptography 15-16

Purim, Feast of 81, 261

Purloined Letter, The 6, 64

PURPLE code 22

Pygmalion 108-9, note 143

Pythagoras 174-5, 284-5, 290, 293-4

Pythagorean theorem 34, 175, 284

Q

Qere 289

Quantum cryptology 340

Quantum physics 21, 335-346, 367

R

Rabin, Itzak 117-9, 144-5

Rachel 209

Radar 79

Radio Galaxy 3C 236 199

Radio telescope 32

Ragil (Gematria method) 298

Railfence cipher 8

RAMBAM 126, 259

RAMBAN 124, 171, 176

Rambsel, Rabbi Yakov vi, 84, 88, 96, 149, 153, 165, note 198, 228

Ramsey, Sir William 270

Randomness (elusiveness of) 342

Rapture (harpazo) 238, 257-8, 428-33

Rassam, Horanuzd note 87

Rawlinson, Henry C. 28

Rebecca 194-5

“Received Text” 441-2

Red King (Alice...) note 631

Red Sea Crossing 256, 398

Red Shift 345

Redundancy 37, 80, 102-3, 151, 187, 305, 307

Reese, Alexander 432

Reformation 358

Rehoboam 206

Relativity, Theory of 43, 44, 337, 367

Remaliah 48

Rembrandt von Rijn 191

Remez (something hidden) 19, 48, 62, 129, 171, 242, 289, 391

Rephaim 272-3

Resh 129

Reuben, Tribe of 208-213

Revelation, Book of 91, 110, 152, 260, 265-277, 296-7, 358-9, 365, 409-13

Revelation 2 & 3 See Seven Letters to Seven Churches

Revelation vs Genesis 268

Revere, Paul 7, 305

Rezin, King of Syria 48

Riemann, Georg Bernhard43, note 24

Rips, Eliyahu 136, 138, 140, 146, note 191, 192

Risks of Error, Type I & II 164, 217

Rivest, Ronald L. 15

RNA 319, 321-6

Robertson, Pat 428

Rock (codes) 353-4

Roemer, Olaf 344-5

Roger, Gèrard 339

Roman Catholic Church 358

Roman numerals 284, 286

Romans, Epistle to 238, 257

Rommel, General Erwin 22

Rosen, Cecil & Moishe 263

Rosen, Nathan 337, note 628

Rosenbaum, M. 76

Rosenberg, Yoav 138, 146, note 191, 192

Rosetta Stone 27, note 30

Rosh Hashanah 117, 251, 253

Ross, Hugh 346, note 38, 315

Rouseau, Jean-Jacques 41

RSA public key 15

Ruach, (Spirit, breath) 109, 117, note 5

Rucker, Rudy 50

Russell, Bertrand 33

Russell, C. T. 434

Ruth, Book of 129, 151-2, 260, 271- 2, 457, note 313 272- Ryrie, Charles C. 423, 428

S

Sabbath 136

Sabbath Millennium 124

Sabbatical years 260, note 72, 377

Sabiers, Karl G. note 576

Sadat, Anwar 144

Saddam Hussein 56, 65

Sagan, Carl 5, 32, 36, 38, note 34

SAGE computers 306-7

Salamander experiments 329

Salome 159

Samaria 118

Samaritan Pentateuch 139

Sanhedrin 256-260, note 379

Santala, Risto 196, note 224, 390

Sarah 109, 117398

Sardis, Church of 269

Sargon II 295

Satan 85, 179, 204, 258, note 528

Satinover, Jeffrey vi, 130, 139, 142, 146, note 167, 174, 175, 178, 183, 194, 197, 199, 201, 206-208, 213, 214, 262, 283, 402, 473, 589

Scapegoat 254

Schmitz, Charles vi

School of Gerona 176

School of Isaac the Blind 176

Schroeder, Gerald L. vi,126, 130, 136, 146, note 179, 185

Science Speaks 210, 230

Scofield, C. I. 428

Scott, Thomas 432

Scripta Continua 109, 117

Scriptural myopia 120

Scud missiles 144

Seal of Solomon 297, note 594; see also MagenDavid

Second (of time, defined) note 640

Second Coming of Christ 273-4, 425-434, note 59

Seder Moe’ed note 64

“Seed of the Woman” 203

Seekins, Frank note 139

Sefer Ha Bahir (Book of Brightness)176

Sefer Hasidim (Book of the Pious) 178

Sefer Yetzira (Book of Creation) 176

Seiss, Joseph A. 214

Seleucid Empire 261

Self-modifying programs 23

Self-organizing systems 318

Self-parsing language 109

Semantics 187

Sememes 37, 187, 267

Sephardic Torah 123

Septuagint Translation (LXX) 155, 220, 233, 355, note 656

Serine 321, 325

“Servitude of the nation” 54, 76

Seth 71, 73, 74-5, 201, 206

SETI 31-2, note 41

Setterfield, Barry 344-5, note 642

Seven 256, 290, app.

Seven Bridges of Koenigsberg 181

Seven Letters to Seven Churches 269-270

Seven times seven (49) 129

Seven Trumpet Judgments 273

Sevenfold structure 91

Sevens in the Bible 91, 417-420

Seventy Weeks of Daniel 231-242, 432, note 375

Sexagesimal numbers 283-4, 286

Shakespeare, William 128, 144, 349, note 181

Shamir, Adi 15

Shaneh 294

Shang Dynasty 104

ShangTi 104-5

Shannon, Claude Elwood 102, 307

Shauvot See Feast of Weeks

Shaw, George Bernard 108

Shem 104, 206

Shen (spirit) note 132

Sheshach/Babel 48-9

Sheshet, Jacob ben 176

Sheznu 201

Shiloh 158

Shklovskii, I. S. 38

Shlomo, Eliyahu ben See Vilna Gaon

Shmitas 136

Shu Ching 104-5

Sh’vat (Jewish month) 252

Sickle cell anemia 326

Signal Intelligence Service 22

Signal-to-noise ratio 151

Signature of God (961) 295

Signatures, electronic 16

Signs in the heavens 199-203, note 378

Silver, 30 pieces of 221-2, 398

Silvermann, A. 76

Simeon, Tribe of 210

Similes 188, 189, 391

Simon (Zelotes) 156, 159

Simon and Schuster 140

Simon Peter 157

Simple cell 135, 318-26

Sin (Moon god) note 81

Sinai, Mt. 126, 272

Siniatic language 106

Sinites 103

Sinology 104

Sinov, Abraham 74

Sippar 55, 56

Sirens (Homer) 173

Sitchen, Zechariah 282, note 559

Sivan (Jewish month) 252

Six 291

Six Sixty Six (666) 296-8

Six-fingered race 283

Skipping tramp 8, 180

Skytale 7-8

Skywalker, Luke 309

Slomon, Ezra ben 176

Smart, Tim 214

Smit, C. U. M. note 616

Smith, Chuck vi, 428

Smith, William Taylor note 570

Smyrna, Church of 269

Sodi 200

Sodi Razayya note 172

Software 368-9

Solenoids 323

Solomon 206

Solomon’s Temple 64

Song of Songs note 110

Sorcery 172

Sovereignty of God 120

Sovereignty of man 120

Specificity 325-6

Spencer, Duane Edward 214

Spica 201

Spielberg, Steven 113, 367, note 159

Spier, Arthur note 379, 472

Spiral arrangement of leaves See Phyllotaxis

Spiritism 172

Spiritual reality 341, 342-3

Spiritual warfare 179

Spontaneous design 315

Spread-spectrum techniques 308

SS 144

St. Cyr Slide note 10

Stanton, Gerald B. 435

Star Wars 309

Statistical Science 128-9, 142, note 192

Stedman, Ray C. 76, 88, note 97, 111

Steganography 6

Stein, Sherman K. note 300

Sternberg, Shlomo note 196

Stochastic models, variables 21, 341

Stone (as code) 354-5

Stoner, Peter W. 220, 230, note 361, 362

Stream ciphers 14

Stretching of the heavens note 641

Strong’s Concordance 359, note 550

Substitution ciphers 10-23

Sudre, Jean-Francois 33, 113

Sukkot See Feast of Tabernacles

Sullivan, A. M. 41

Sullivan, Walter 38

Sumerians 282-3

Sunflowers 451

Superstrings 342

Symmetric encryption 15, 16

Syntax 37, 187

Syria 54

T

Tabeal 48, note 61

Tabernacle 123, 209, note 350

Talmud 49, 61, 84, 175, 176, note 78, 101, 160, 171, 281, 342

Talmudic Judaism 140, 152, 175, 238, note 197

Tamar 129, 457-8

Tamarisk 137

Tammuz (Jewish month) 252

Tanakh 79, 175, 220

Taoism 103

Tau 129

Tau Ceti 29

Teki’iah Gedolah 253

Teleology 307, 320

Temple 91, 175, 193 222, 261, note 381

Temple to be rebuilt 262, 371

Temple Institute 254

Temple of Denderah 200

Ten-dimensional space 124, 342, 369, note 51

Tenon, Stan 109

Terebinth 137

Tevet (Jewish month) 252

Textus Receptus 441-2

Thaddeus 156, 159

Theosophies 174

Thermodynamics 335

Theurgy 174

Thomas 156, 159, 223

Thomas, William 215

Thomson, J. J. 336

Thornbush 138

Threonine 321, 325

Threshing floor 193, note 449

Through the Looking Glass 307, 351, note 631, 644

Thyatira, Church of 269

Thymine 320-322

Ti’en (heaven) note 132

Tifft, William 345

Tigris River 56

Time, nature of 43-47, 369, note 50, 640

Time of Jacob’s Trouble 253-4

Tipler, Frank J. 367, note 665

Tishri, (Ethanim) (Jewish month) 251-2, 260

Titus Vespasian 239

Toliman 201

Tolstoy, Leo 139

Topoisomerase 324

Torah 79, 109, 113, 117, 119, 123-129, 194, 205, 209, 246, 356, 167

Torah—blueprint of creation 123

Torah codes 133-135, 142-145, 162

Tovmasyan, G. M. 39

Townsend, Paul D. note 630

Tramp (transposition) 8, 180

Transcendent structures 291-2

Transposition ciphers 7-10

Tree of Life (Kabbalah) 176-7

Tribes, Twelve 209-213

Tribulation See Great Tribulation

Trifid ciphers 15

Trinity 291

Tripp, Rhoda note 46

Triumphal Entry 221, 236

Trotsky, Leon 145

Trumpet Judgments 253

Trytophan 321, 325

Tsaban, Boaz note 567

Tsemech 201

Tubal-Cain 74

Turing, Alan 23

Turner, J. M. W. 128

Turning Grille 10, 13-20

Twain, Mark 172

Twenty-four Elders 274-5

Twin astronauts 45

Two calendars of Israel 251-3

Two witnesses 273

Two-slit phenomenon 336

Type I & II errors 164, 217

Types 188-9, 194, 393

Tyropean Valley 192

Tyrosine 321, 325

U

UFO 309

Ugbaru 56

Ultra Project 22-3

Ulysses 301

Unger, Merrill note 572

Universal constants 461

Ur note 81

Uracil 320-2

Ursa Major 200, 280

V

Valine 321, 325

Vatican 297

Vav 129

Velocity of light 32, 343-5

Verne, Jules 5

Vigènere, Blaise 12, 18

Vigènere Polyalphabetic Cipher 11-12

Viking I (photo) 35

Vine 138

Virgo, Constellation of 201-3

Virtual images 330

Virtual reality 335

Vitamin K 327

Vocabulary, Biblical 93-96

Von Daniken, Eric 282

Von Helmholtz, Hermann 330

Von Littrow, Josef Johann 35

Von Neumann, John 23, 330

Vowel distribution methods 9

W

Wade, Nicholas note 612

Wallis, Sir John 20

Walvoord, John F. 428, 435, 436

War and Peace 139

Wave-Particle Paradox 336-8

Weissmandl, Rabbi Michael ben 125-6, 135, 136, 258, note 185

Weldon, John 182, note 46, 162, 166, 196, 212

Wellhausen, Julius 356

Westcott, Brooke Foss 441-2

Western Digital Corporation 14, note 23

Whale (Constellation of) note 33

Wheat 137

Wheatstone, Charles 13

Wheatstone Disk 18, note 10

Wilson, Frederick 454

White Queen (Alice) 307

White, William note 558

Whitehead, Alfred North 33

Whitson, William 434

Wickramsinghe, N. C. note 618

Wilder-Smith, A. E. 50

Willow 138

Wilson, Walter Lewis 196, 406

Wiseman, D. J. note 74

Wisenant, E. C. 434

Witztum, Doron 136, 138, 146, note 191, 192

Woods, Ralph L. note 46

Word (Logos) 207

Worlf, Joseph 434

Wright, Ernest Vincent 162

X

Y

Yahwist 356

Yamamoto, Admiral 22

Yang-Mills tensor 182, 281, 342

Yemenite Torah 123

Yeshua 47, 54, 84-5, 87, 96, 112-113, 119, 152, 204-8, 218-229, 239, 272-3

Yeshua codes 147-165

YHWH 81-83, 128

Yom Kippur See Day of Atonement

Yom Teruah See Feast of Trumpets

Yomim Noraim (Days of Affliction) 253-4

Yoshiah 151

You 370-372

Yu, Hsin Ceng note 131

Z

Zavijaveh 201

Zebulun, Tribe of 203, 210

Zechariah, Book of 111-12, 151, 221-3, 236

Zedekiah 54

Zelophehad, Daughters of 205

Zephaniah, Book of 50

Zerah 129, 201

Zero 284-5

Zerubbabel 64, 206

Zeus 172

Zilhah 209

Zimmerman, Phil 24

Zipf, George A. 80

Zipf’s Law 79-80

Zlotowitz, Rabbi Meir 88

Zodiac 53, 200-1

Zohar (Sefer Ha-Zohar, Book of Splendor) 178, note 160, 169

Zukerman, Benjamin 29

Zyklon B 144

ABOUT KOINONIA HOUSE

Koinonia House was founded in California by Chuck and Nancy Missler in 1973. Koinonia is a Greek word from the New Testament that means “communication,” “fellowship,” or “communion.” In 1992 the ministry was relocated to Coeur d’Alene, Idaho. Its mission is to “create, develop and distribute materials which stimulate, encourage and facilitate serious study of the Bible as the inerrant Word of God.”

Koinonia House (or “K-House” as it is affectionately called) publishes the monthly Personal UPDATE, which highlights the Biblical relevance of current events to over 50,000 subscribers worldwide. K-House also puts out a weekly email bulletin, eNews, which reaches over 55,000 households. The latest subscription program is the Berean Online Fellowship, which features subscriber-only access to online study materials and a message board for late-breaking news. Koinonia House also produces the 66/40 radio broadcast, Chuck’s daily verse-by-verse teaching program, which is carried on stations overseas as well as in the U.S., both in 30- and 60-minute formats.

Koinonia House has established the leading Christian presence on the Internet through its website, www.khouse.org. This site also links to the Blue Letter Bible, a free, comprehensive study resource. K-House products include topical studies and verse-by-verse commentaries in both audio cassette and CD-ROM formats, as well as videos, DVDs, and digital downloads off the website.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

A Naval Academy graduate who quickly rose to the upper ranks of the corporate world as CEO of several international high-technology corporations, Chuck combines a background in intelligence, cryptanalysis and informational sciences with over 40 years of Biblical teaching and research. This unique background— including his worldwide network of intelligence and research contacts—gives him unparalleled insight into global events from a Biblical perspective.

After leaving the corporate world in 1991, Chuck was encouraged by his close friend, Hal Lindsey (“Author of the Decade,” by the New York Times), to pursue his long-time love of teaching the Bible on a full-time basis. Chuck had spent over 25 years teaching the Word of God under Pastor Chuck Smith at Calvary Chapel in Costa Mesa, California. During that time he had acquired a large following and over six million of his teaching tapes had been distributed worldwide. Koinonia House was soon formed, and Chuck is now recognized as a leading expository Bible teacher.

Chuck and his wife Nancy live in Idaho and have four grown children. Nancy has her own ministry, called The King’s High Way.

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Table of Contents

Title

Copyright

Contents

Acknowledgments

Preface

Section I: Introduction

Chapter 1: Secret Codes

Chapter 2: Codes from Other Worlds

Chapter 3: Basic Discoveries

Chapter 4: The First Cryptanalyst

Section II: Evidences of Hidden Design

Chapter 5: A Hidden Message

Chapter 6: Hidden Acrostics

Chapter 7: The Magic of Sevens

Section III: Microcodes: Jots And Tittles

Chapter 8: The Hebrew Alphabet

Chapter 9: Assassination Predicted?

Chapter 10: The Skipping of Letters

Section IV: The Equidistant Letter Sequences

Chapter 11: The Torah Codes

Chapter 12: The Yeshua Codes

Chapter 13: The Dark Side

Section V: Macrocodes: The Strategic Structure

Chapter 14: The Use of Macrocodes

Chapter 15: Cosmic Macrocodes

Chapter 16: Measuring Confidence

Chapter 17: The 70 Sevens

Chapter 18: The Once and Future Calendar

Chapter 19: The Apocalypse Codes

Chapter 20: On the Fringe: Numerics and Gematria

Section VI: Metacodes: Beyond Our Horizon

Chapter 21: Advanced Design Considerations

Chapter 22: The Code of Life

Chapter 23: Our Digital Universe

Section VII: Treasure Hunting on Your Own

Chapter 24: Your Personal Adventure

Chapter 25: The Ultimate Code: You

Appendices

A. Rhetorical Devices (List)

B. List of Major Types (Macrocodes)

C. Old Testament Allusions in Revelation

D. List of Sevens in the Bible

E. An Eschatological Summary

F: The Last 12 Verses of Mark

G: The Mathematics of Beauty

H: Hidden Genealogy in Genesis 38

I: The Universal Constants, π and e

Endnotes

Index

About Koinonia House

About the Author