Re: The Bible codes nonsense - Jardim's message

[Mark Perakh <perakh@xxxxxxxxxxx>]

Jardim referred to a specific kind of the alleged code - that consisting of the
so-called ELS, which stands for Equidistant Letter
Sequences.  This alleged code was claimed by Witztum et al and has been a
subject of an endless shower of postings and publications
all propagating that unexisting code. The most popular and sensational
publication about those codes was the book by Drosnin which
has made him a millionaire, but which is full of such nonsense that even Rips
and Witztum had to repudiate it.  For example,  the most
sensational code claimed by Drosnin was a set of ELS allegedly predicting the
assassination of Rabin by Amir.  I had no problem to
locate a similar, and actually a better set of ELS looking as a prediction of
Rabin's assasination by Amir, in a book by a contemporary
Israeli writer Dan Ben Amotz, titled Screwing is Not Everything.  There are
also some other kinds of alleged codes such as the so-called
theomatics propagandized by Del Washburn, and others. Proponents of each
version of the alleged codes are contemptuous of all other
versions but push their own with a relentless vigor. For example, the code
proponents who approach it from a Chrisitan
standpoint claim to find codes about Jesus being the Messiah, whereas those
code proponsnts who are believing Jews as vigorusly dispute those claims,
calling them nonsense, but stubbornly defending their own claims.  Regarding
the code suggested by that Finnish writer Nick refers to, I am not familiar
with it, but I have seen so many various alleged codes, all of which turned out
to exist only in their proponents' imagination, that I prefer to remain
skeptical. After all, as Nick
says, they were unsuccessful in locating those hidden treasures.  Recently I
saw an excellent paper on the Internet by some very
intelligent writer from Sri Lanka who studied the claims about the numerical
coincidences in the Quran and demonstrated that all of them
can be found as well in an ancient poem by some medieval writer famous in his
country.  I don't remember the URL of that site, but if
there is interest, I can go through my mail and locate it.  Cheers, Mark

Nick Pelling wrote:

  I have no doubt that the "Bible codes" as normally understood are nonsense.

  But crypto-wise, there have been plenty of people throughout history that
  believed that they have found encrypted text within the Bible.

  For example: in 1909, a Finnish poet called Walter Juvelius believed that
  he had decoded a section of an ancient version of the Book of Ezekiel to
  reveal the whereabouts of King Solomon's treasure beneath Jerusalem: this
  led to a well-funded and well-documented (but ultimately unsuccessful)
  excavation there through 1910-1911.

  Unfortunately, no records remain of how Juvelius thought that he had
  cracked the code, which is a shame. Now *that* I wouldn't mind seeing
  on-list... :-)


Nick Pelling wrote:

> I have no doubt that the "Bible codes" as normally understood are nonsense.
>
> But crypto-wise, there have been plenty of people throughout history that
> believed that they have found encrypted text within the Bible.
>
> For example: in 1909, a Finnish poet called Walter Juvelius believed that
> he had decoded a section of an ancient version of the Book of Ezekiel to
> reveal the whereabouts of King Solomon's treasure beneath Jerusalem: this
> led to a well-funded and well-documented (but ultimately unsuccessful)
> excavation there through 1910-1911.
>
> Unfortunately, no records remain of how Juvelius thought that he had
> cracked the code, which is a shame. Now *that* I wouldn't mind seeing
> on-list... :-)
>
> Cheers, .....Nick Pelling.....