Customer Reviews

The Mysterious Bible Codes

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Grant Jeffery does a good job updating the building upon the arguments he made in THE SIGNATURE OF G-D and THE HANDWRITING OF G-D. Unlike Michael Dorinsn in his book THE BIBLE CODE Jeffery does not attempt to predict the future with the Bible Code. Rather, he gives an overview of the nature of the Bible Codes, how they work and where to find them. If that wasn't enough, he gives examples from Christian, Jewish and Secular sources confirming the Bible Codes, as well as several examples, most of them important to the and directly related to the Bible, but other codes of interest as well (i.e., the Hitler Codes and the Rabbis Codes). Even though it does repeat some information found in Jeffery's other books, there's good stuff to be read here. Recommended.

This book does an amazing job of disproving the skeptics of the Bible Codes. In response to Mr. Rogers' review I would like to remind him that although he may be right about shorter words being easier to find, he seems to have forgotten the torah codes. Since these codes are spelled out throughout 4 of the 5 books of the torah, the chances of these codes being found is astronomical. As for the accuracy of the text, the codes are spelled out through all of Genesis proving that a change in the text could not have thrown these codes into existence unless the entire text was changed. Also, Mr. Rogers seems to be forgetting that not only was the word princess found, but all around it were other words relating to the Death of Princess Diana. When you stated that the Bible was a book of fables and stories you could not have sounded more ignorant. In fact many of the events desribed in the Bible are documented by historians as actual historical events. In the future I hope you will not slander something that you are most certainly not qualified to speak of. Besides, even without the existence of the codes there are still bundles of proof that the Bible is true.

This book does a good job of explaining exactly what the "bible codes" are and how they relate to modern events. If you're looking for hard evidence that the bible is truthful, this is a very convincing book to read. I am by nature a very skeptical person, yet all of my skepticisms were answered by this interesting book and truly astonishing "rediscovery" of the encoded words in the bible. If you are a Christian trying to convince that unbelieving friend of yours, buy them this book! It speaks for itself

A reviewer wrote In "The Credulous Codesters" below that there are "hundreds of thousands of variant readings in the thousands of ancient Greek and Hebrew Bible manuscripts". Based on that, he takes issue with those who claiming that we have a reliable enough Hebrew text to legitimize the ELS codes.

I don't have figures for Hebrew manuscripts, but there is excellent information on this topic from Lee Strobel's interview with Bruce Metzger ('The Case for Christ'). What follows is taken from Chapter 3, "The Documentary Evidence".

Metzger agreed that there are tens of thousands of variants among the ancient New Testament manuscripts that we have, perhaps as many as 200,000. However, he emphasizes that this is a bit misleading because of the way variants are counted. For example, if the same word is misspelled in 2,000 manuscripts, that's counted as 2,000 variants.

The grand total of ancient New Testament manuscripts (in Greek, Latin Vulgate, Ethiopic, Slavic and Armenian) in existence is about 24,000. Thus if just one word is misspelled in each of these manuscripts, that's counted as 24,000 variants.

Variants found in NT manuscripts do not put any doctrines in jeopardy and tend to be minor rather than substantive. Any good Bible will have notes that will alert the reader to variant readings of any consequence. But again, these are rare. The NT has not only survived with almost embarassingly more manuscripts than any other book from antiquity, but it has survived in a purer form than any other great book - a form that is 99.5% pure.

If you are going to buy your first book on this subject and have not bought any of Jeffrey's other books, you will like this one. However, if you have read his other works or those of Yacov Rambsel you are likely to be disappointed to some extent. Jeffrey borrows heavily from previous works for this book. If I was a betting man, the fact that he got a "Big Name" (i.e. Word Publishing) to publish his book led to his choice of borrowing. Very little new items show up in this text. Buy the other ones I have listed, you'll be glad you did.

The Equidistant Letter Sequence (ELS) Codes are a fascinating subject and possibly one of Man's greatest "archaeological" finds. There appears to be much to learn yet, but this discovery cannot be dismissed.

Grant Jeffrey's, 'THE MYSTERIOUS BIBLE CODES' is an interesting although flawed look at the ELS Codes, which he has touched upon in some of his earlier books. The cornerstone of this publication is chapters 6 & 7 which address the discovery of the Aramaic name for Jesus (Yeshua) encoded in Old Testament passages concerning the coming Messiah and Redeemer of Mankind. For example, amazingly, "JESUS IS MY NAME" is encoded in the "Suffering Servant" prophecy of Isaiah 53. It appears here and only here.

Twice in the year 2000, I wrote to Mr. Jeffrey. I related how I was a volunteer for a Prison Outreach Program and sometimes utilized his book - making it available to inmates - but I needed clarification on a couple of flaws or typographical errors concerning ELS Codes that he claimed could also be found in some of the Greek New Testament passages.

On page 171 (hardcover) he states that the Greek name for Jesus is located at a 5-letter skip interval in 1st John 5:13, but I was unable to find it in the Greek passage illustrated there. Also, on page 173 he states that the second smallest skip interval for "Jesus" is encoded every 8th letter in Matthew 24:30, which contradicts his later claim on page 176 that the second smallest skip interval for "Jesus" is encoded every 7th letter in John 21:17. These are mutually exclusive statements. I did include a self-addressed, stamped envelope with my queries, but I have yet to receive a reply. I know we call it "snail mail" for a reason, but this is ridiculous!

Jeffrey delights in pointing out how the names of all the apostles and other personages close to Jesus can be found encoded in Isaiah's "Suffering Servant" passage. While it IS intriguing that "Judas" does NOT appear in this passage, Jeffrey neglects to inform his readers that these same names consist of such few letters that they also appear well over 1000 times throughout the book of Isaiah!

Some of Jeffrey's books do contain valuable information and are worth reading. But because he tends to sensationalize and because most of his facts can be found in the books of other writers, it may be advantageous to search other sources first. In his book, 'THE MILLENNIUM MELTDOWN' (1998), Jeffrey stated that the Y2K computer problem WOULD precipitate "a global crisis, the scope of which we have not experienced since World War II....this appointment with destiny cannot be postponed or avoided." THAT BOOK (which thankfully I bought for only an inflated 25 cents in 2002) damaged his credibility forever in MY BOOK!

While I wholeheartedly recommend that you explore the ELS Bible Code topic, I suggest that you acquire 'BIBLE CODE BOMBSHELL' by R. Edwin Sherman instead. Sherman's book is easily the best on the subject as of this date.

Grant Jeffrey opportunistically cranks out nearly a book a year that is second-rate because it never includes an index. ('The Mysterious Bible Codes' is no exception.) Also, each book closes with a proselytizing chapter which (while he may feel it is his obligation to The Great Commission) I find grating. I feel that if the facts are persuasive, they will bring the open-minded to Christ without excessive cajoling.

I read the Bible from Genesis through Revelation every year and still I find much of Jeffrey's contemporary Christian dogma unsupported by Scripture. I don't think he would appreciate that. But then I didn't appreciate my polite enquiries being ignored either. I guess Grant and I have now balanced our BOOKS. (Galatians 6:7)

In 1994, three Israelis (Witztum, Rips, and Rosenburg) published a study in Statistical Science claiming to have discovered "codes" in the Hebrew text of the Torah. These "codes" are found via computers and are equidistant letter sequences (ELSs) which spell out putatively hidden messages in the text concerning various VIPs. These Torah "codes" have stirred up much debate, and Jeffrey's book is but one of numerous publications on this phenomenon.

Although Jeffrey asserts that these Bible codes "prove to this present, skeptical generation that the Bible is truly the inspired Word of God," he is still rational enough to insist that these ELSs are worthless for foretelling the future, contain no "hidden theological or doctrinal messages," could not have been purposely produced by the Bible's human authors, and should be placed "in their proper context," along with questions in the Bible concerning history, archeology, prophecy, science, and medicine. He believes, however, that nothing in science controverts anything in the Bible. Apparently, he would insist that modern astronomy does not controvert the following verse: "[The red dragon's] tail sept down a third of the stars of heaven and threw them to the earth" (Rv 12:4). These stars cannot be taken as references to meteors, because falling meteors cannot reduce by a third the number of stars in the sky, and because the text calls them "stars," not meteors. Thus, I agree with Jeffrey that these Bible "codes" need to be placed in their "proper context," for such ELSs can in no way remove the absurdities of Bible cosmology or any of the many other problems with the Bible. Moreover, there is no reason to conclude that these ELSs are really codes.

The fact is that ELSs can be found not only in the Hebrew Torah but also any text of sufficient length. This has been amusingly proven on the Internet by Australian mathematics professor Dr. Brendan McKay. It is therefore no surprise that Jeffrey claims in his book to also have found "codes" in the Greek New Testament (NT), but his thinking lacks cogency.

He says he found 19 NT verses containing ELSs for "Jesus" with skip intervals of no more than 22 letters. He also says that the 7,914 NT verses "cover a remarkable number of subjects" and then goes on to say, "Significantly,...most of these nineteen ELS codes spelling the name Jesus are found in very important verses that clearly deal with teachings about Jesus or key statements by Christ Himself." However, excluding three instances (Ac 7:45; Heb 4:8; Col 4:11) where "Ieesous" (Greek for "Jesus") does not refer to Christ, Jesus' name occurs 975 times in the NT. Thus, "Jesus" occurs on average once in every 8.1 verses of the NT. If we include the numerous places where Jesus is referred to as "I," "he," "son of man," "rabbi," "Christ," "son of David," etc., this reference rate will obviously exceed one in eight verses, and if we include the numerous verses where Jesus is supposedly speaking, we see that Jesus is not merely one of "a remarkable number of subject" dealt with in the NT. On the contrary, he is the overwhelmingly dominant subject of the entire NT! Indeed, any ELSs found in the NT could hardly avoid Jesus and his sayings. Therefore, it is not "significant," as Jeffrey says, that most of his 19 Jesus "codes" occur where Jesus or his sayings are dealt with; it is unavoidable! Thus, Jeffrey -- wanting like most believers to believe rather than to know -- sees significance where none exists. The real knockout blow to the Bible codes, however, is the problem of contradictory texts.

Since a textual error of only one letter could destroy or even create an ELS, the validity of an ELS being a "code" put there by God depends on our having absolutely inerrant copies of the Greek and Hebrew scriptures. There are, however, hundreds of thousands of variant readings in the thousands of ancient Greek and Hebrew Bible manuscripts. Nevertheless, in his first chapter, Jeffrey tries to claim that we have a reliable enough Hebrew text to legitimize these ELS "codes." His assurances are nothing but lip gloss. If God didn't keep the copyists from errors, we cannot know that he kept even the original hands from making errors as well. The only escape from this problem is to make the absurd claim that God inspired not only the original autographs but also the errors in the copies which creat the "codes"!

What The Mysterious Bible Codes shows is not God-inspiration of the Bible but the capacity of believers to create a pseudo science supportive of their wishes.

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