16 September 2008
New Bible Codes on Barack Obama
Posted by MSH under: Bible Code .
Finally — a reason to remind readers why the Bible code is utter nonsense. My thanks to “Pastor Harry” for some drivel that gives me a rationale for showing readers why the Bible code is DOA.
The Achilles Heel of the Bible code, of course, is the fact that there are tens of thousands of letter sequence differences in existing Hebrew manuscripts. Most of this concerns spelling and scribal corrections, but there are also clear scribal errors (some scribes even noted them in the margins of manuscripts). The historical commentary of the manuscript transmission process by the scribes themselves ALL unequivocally testify that the preservation of the every-letter sequence of Hebrew letters is uncertain.
One Bible code supporter, Dr. Jeffrey Satinover, psychiatrist and author of Cracking the Bible Code, has claimed that if 77 letters were lost from the text sequence upon which the Bible code is based, the code would statistically collapse. My book The Bible Code Myth DOUBLES this number through actual examples from manuscript disagreements and notes of the scribes themselves – all exclusively drawn from the Torah. You don’t need to know how to read Hebrew either – just how to count!
- Examples of the Torah’s Textual Uncertainty from The Bible Code Myth
Another problem for the Bible code are the Dead Sea Scrolls. These texts, which are our closest textual witnesses to the actual composition of the Hebrew Old Testament, have a markedly different way of spelling. In just a few verses there might therefore be dozens of letter differences. The significance of this is illustrated in two ways. First, we have no way of knowing WHICH text to use for a coded letter string. Bible code proponents like Grant Jeffrey can’t seem to grasp this fact. Jeffrey claims to have found dozens of coded names associated with Jesus in Isaiah 52:13-53:12, the Old Testament prophecy of a suffering Messiah. You hardly need a Bible code for this idea (uh, you could just read the Bible as it is). This nonsense is easily shown for what it is by comparing the letters in these these fifteen verses. There are 115 letter differences between the text Jeffrey and other Bible-coders use and the Dead Sea Isaiah Scroll – the text closest to Isaiah’s own time. Want proof?
- Click HERE to see these texts laid side by side.
If anyone is interested in my book, The Bible Code Myth (Only in PDF), you can order it here ($6).
6 Comments so far...
OJA Says:
17 September 2008 at 5:11 PM.
Mike, What about this one:
MSH Says:
17 September 2008 at 10:02 PM.
@OJA: All Bible codes suffer from the same problem: the uncertainty of the every-letter sequence of the text (which is different from the words of the text, but that is also unstable, to a far lesser degree). The issue is the letters. Anyone who believes in a Bible code, no matter how well meaning, knows next to nothing about how we got the biblical text. Not a slam, just a fact. Not everyone bothers to study this.
Debra Says:
18 September 2008 at 12:35 PM.
Hi Mike~ It’s true I’ve always been known for my “quest-ioning spirit” and it’s definitely not stopping here. I’d like to preface before stating my next question that it is NOT my intention for it to initiate a thread-starting discussion (yikes!!) There is a numerical issue due to a problem with the letters iota and xi in the P. Oxy. LVI 4499: is it ‘616′ or otherwise? Is it relative to copy and/or translation?
MSH Says:
24 September 2008 at 10:33 AM.
@Debra: I’ll post on this.
DrFix Says:
29 September 2008 at 7:54 AM.
I’m a firm believer that when something in the Christian/Biblical arena pops up to either glom onto or refute some worldly nonsense… i.e. The DaVinci Code, then we’re long past anything rational and are only into marketing. That you have to work, as in your own book, to straighten these people out is truly sad. Not knocking it just thinking out loud that your time could better be used but if it helps get someone clear then more power to you!
MSH Says:
11 October 2008 at 1:11 PM.
@DrFix: Boy, I hear you!
