Wikipedia
The Bible code (Hebrew: צפנים בתנ"ך), also known as the Torah code, is a purported set of secret messages encoded within the Hebrew text of the Torah. This hidden code has been described as a method by which specific letters from the text can be selected to reveal an otherwise obscured message. Though Bible codes have been postulated and studied for centuries, the subject has been popularized in modern times by Michael Drosnin's book The Bible Code.
Many examples have been documented in the past. One cited example is that by taking every 50th letter of the Book of Genesis starting with the first taw, the Hebrew word "torah" is spelled out. The same happens in the Book of Exodus. Modern computers have been used to search for similar patterns and more complex variants, and published in a peer-reviewed academic journal in 1994. Proponents hold that it is exceedingly unlikely such sequences could arise by chance, while skeptics and opponents hold that such sequences do often arise by chance, as demonstrated on other Hebrew and English texts
Other types of Bible codes
Another example of an alleged prediction coded in the text of the Bible, which is also attributed to Rabbi Chaim Michael Dov Weissmandl (who was mentioned above),concerns the hanging of 10 Nazi leaders on October 16, 1946 following the Nuremberg Trials. Rabbi Weissmandl claimed that this event was predicted by the Biblical story about the hanging of the 10 sons of Haman, also as a final consequence of a (failed) genocidal plan against the Jews. The "coded" aspect of his speculation is that in the Masoretic text of the Bible, three letters within the list of Haman's sons are marked as small letters: the tav ת of Parshandatha, the shin ש of Parmashtha and the zayin ז of Vajezatha. Rabbi Weissmandl pointed out that if you combine the three small letters together they form the word תשז, which in the accepted Hebrew notation for year numbers (using Gematria) corresponds to the Jewish year 707 Anno Mundi, which is the Jewish year that the 10 Nazi leaders were executed (October 16, 1946 corresponds to Tishrei 21, 5707, the day known as Hoshanna Rabba, the day of severe judgments for the nations of the world, according to the Jewish calendar). Many people criticize various aspects of this speculation. They point out that there are several different traditions about what are the small letters in the names of Haman's sons. Also they point out that the proponents only mention the similarities between the cases, but ignore the many differences. More in general they point out that this is not exactly an a priori prediction, but rather a postdiction, and therefore the statistical significance of it, if there is any at all, cannot be reliably calculated.
Former reporter for the Wall Street Journal, Michael Drosnin spoke about the Bible Code, and the various prophetic messages that have been gleaned from it. Based on a computer software program developed by the Israeli mathematician, Prof. Eliyahu Rips, the Bible Code finds hidden messages or phrases in equidistant letter sequences in the Hebrew language version of the first five books of the Bible. What convinced Drosnin of its reality was the correct prediction of Yitzhak Rabin's assassination, which he discovered about a year before it happened. He recounted how he tried to warn Rabin beforehand, and now meets with various intelligence agencies such as the Mossad.
A year before the 2008 election, Drosnin said he found the phrase "B. Obama is President" in the Bible Code, and also learned that there was danger that could be prevented for Obama. He related this information to Oprah Winfrey, who was said to pass this on to Obama. Drosnin also said that according to the Bible Code, it was Barack Obama's destiny to help prevent a nuclear terrorist attack, and that he will be re-elected in 2012.
After the 9-11 attacks, Drosnin said he found references to it in the Bible Code, with such phrases as "twin towers," "airplane," "terror attack," and "it knocked down," all encoded within a few verses. Currently, he is searching for a "code key," which might help unravel some of the mysteries of the Bible Code, such as who created it. According to the Bible Code, the code key is connected to an obelisk in Jordan, he revealed.
Biography:
Michael Drosnin is a former reporter for the Washington Post and Wall Street Journal. He is the author of three New York Times bestsellers which include Citizen Hughes, The Bible Code, and Bible Code II: The Countdown. His book, Citizen Hughes is based on exclusive access to nearly everything that Hughes ever put in writing. In fact, the book is half in his own words. So, it's really Howard telling his own story of the hidden years, the secret life of the world's richest and most secretive man, from the only reliable source, Hughes himself. It's also the only Hughes book that was a bestseller, in fact outsold all the other 20 Hughes books combined. Michael currently lives and works in New York City.
