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The Mysterious Bible Codes by Grant R. Jeffery
Using techniques made available through computer programs, the author presents evidence that contemporary history was predicted in the Bible.
- GenresChristian
Hardcover
First published October 1, 1998
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About the author
Grant R. Jeffrey
58 books39 followersGrant R. Jeffrey is internationally recognized as a leading author on Bible prophecy, history, and apologetics. More than 3.5 million readers have read Grant's 12 best selling books.
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Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews
September 6, 2024
'THE POPULAR WRITER EXPLAINS THE CONTROVERSIAL "EMBEDDED CODES"
Grant Reid Jeffrey (1948-2012) was a Canadian Bible teacher of Bible prophecy and biblical archaeology; he wrote a great number of books, such as 'His Name is Jesus: The Mysterious Yeshua Codes,' 'The New Temple and the Second Coming,' 'Jesus: The Great Debate,' etc. He also wrote the Foreword to 'Image of the Risen Christ: Remarkable New Evidence About the Shroud.'
He wrote in the Introduction to this 1998 book, "The whole world is talking about the remarkable phenomenon known as the Bible Codes... Is it possible that God has actually hidden a series of encoded words in the text of the Bible that reveals His supernatural knowledge of historical and current events? ... Are the claims about the Bible Codes true? If they are, the Bible Codes phenomenon provides powerful additional evidence that the Bible is truly the inspired Word of God." (Pg. 1) He adds, "With powerful apologetic evidence such as this, Christians can challenge the skeptics in our generation to consider the claims of the Bible to be the supernatural Word of God." (Pg. 16)
He states, "Some criteria for establishing legitimate Bible Codes are...: 1. A significant number of thematically linked low-interval ELS [equidistant letter sequence] encoded words that appear clustered together in one or two paragraphs of the biblical text... 2. A genuine ELS code or a cluster of related ELS codes found at the minimal skip interval within a short Bible passage... 3. A series of encoded words in a particular text that can be statistically calculated as unlikely or improbable to occur by random chance... 4. An ELS word encoded in a particular Bible passage that specifically related to the topic or theme of the encoded word." (Pg. 18-19)
He notes about methodology, "Although the Hebrew alphabet contains twenty-two individual letters, it also uses several final forms of some letters when they occur at the end of a word. These final-form letters represent the same letter as the regular form and do not change the meaning of the word. Bible Codes analysis treats the regular form and the final form of a letter identically." (Pg. x) He explains, "the intervals in the Yeshua codes that [Yacov] Rambsel and I have published range from a high interval of 612 letters (two occurrences) to a low interval of only 2 letters. Fifty of the seventy-two Yeshua codes have intervals of 50 letters or less." (Pg. 140)
He observes, "It was fascinating to discover that God has encoded in every one of the five books of the Torah the Hebrew words for 'equidistant letter sequence,' shalav a'ot... the actual phrase used by modern Israeli researchers to describe the Bible Codes phenomenon." (Pg. 27) Later, he adds, "It is significant that no Jewish researcher (including our critics) has denied that the Yeshua codes exist in the specific passages that we have cited. Many pastors and rabbis ... have examined the text of the Hebrew Bible and verified our documented claims." (Pg. 139)
He admits, "I offered a challenge of $1000 to the first person to demonstrate to me in writing that he or she has purposely encoded twenty-five names of trees within an English text of similar length as Genesis 2 without using a computer program. In January 1998, eighteen months after I first offered the challenge, Gidon Cohen, from the United Kingdom, became the first person to successfully complete my challenge and collected the $1000 prize (please don't send me any other attempts)." (Pg. 86-87)
He cautions, "the Bible Codes can confirm that the Scriptures contain encoded data about historical events that occurred centuries after the Scriptures were written, but they cannot be used to foretell future events... There are no secret sentences, detailed messages, or theological statements in the encoded words. God's message of Salvation and his commandments for holy living are found only in the open text of the Scriptures. The Bible Codes only reveal key words... that can be used as evidence to confirm the supernatural inspiration and origin of the Scriptures." (Pg. 58-59)
The Bible Codes are controversial, and their methodology can be called arbitrary (e.g., using different Hebrew word forms; using such a wide range of letter intervals, etc.); but Jeffrey's book is at least one of the most interesting and engagingly-written examples of the genre.
Grant Reid Jeffrey (1948-2012) was a Canadian Bible teacher of Bible prophecy and biblical archaeology; he wrote a great number of books, such as 'His Name is Jesus: The Mysterious Yeshua Codes,' 'The New Temple and the Second Coming,' 'Jesus: The Great Debate,' etc. He also wrote the Foreword to 'Image of the Risen Christ: Remarkable New Evidence About the Shroud.'
He wrote in the Introduction to this 1998 book, "The whole world is talking about the remarkable phenomenon known as the Bible Codes... Is it possible that God has actually hidden a series of encoded words in the text of the Bible that reveals His supernatural knowledge of historical and current events? ... Are the claims about the Bible Codes true? If they are, the Bible Codes phenomenon provides powerful additional evidence that the Bible is truly the inspired Word of God." (Pg. 1) He adds, "With powerful apologetic evidence such as this, Christians can challenge the skeptics in our generation to consider the claims of the Bible to be the supernatural Word of God." (Pg. 16)
He states, "Some criteria for establishing legitimate Bible Codes are...: 1. A significant number of thematically linked low-interval ELS [equidistant letter sequence] encoded words that appear clustered together in one or two paragraphs of the biblical text... 2. A genuine ELS code or a cluster of related ELS codes found at the minimal skip interval within a short Bible passage... 3. A series of encoded words in a particular text that can be statistically calculated as unlikely or improbable to occur by random chance... 4. An ELS word encoded in a particular Bible passage that specifically related to the topic or theme of the encoded word." (Pg. 18-19)
He notes about methodology, "Although the Hebrew alphabet contains twenty-two individual letters, it also uses several final forms of some letters when they occur at the end of a word. These final-form letters represent the same letter as the regular form and do not change the meaning of the word. Bible Codes analysis treats the regular form and the final form of a letter identically." (Pg. x) He explains, "the intervals in the Yeshua codes that [Yacov] Rambsel and I have published range from a high interval of 612 letters (two occurrences) to a low interval of only 2 letters. Fifty of the seventy-two Yeshua codes have intervals of 50 letters or less." (Pg. 140)
He observes, "It was fascinating to discover that God has encoded in every one of the five books of the Torah the Hebrew words for 'equidistant letter sequence,' shalav a'ot... the actual phrase used by modern Israeli researchers to describe the Bible Codes phenomenon." (Pg. 27) Later, he adds, "It is significant that no Jewish researcher (including our critics) has denied that the Yeshua codes exist in the specific passages that we have cited. Many pastors and rabbis ... have examined the text of the Hebrew Bible and verified our documented claims." (Pg. 139)
He admits, "I offered a challenge of $1000 to the first person to demonstrate to me in writing that he or she has purposely encoded twenty-five names of trees within an English text of similar length as Genesis 2 without using a computer program. In January 1998, eighteen months after I first offered the challenge, Gidon Cohen, from the United Kingdom, became the first person to successfully complete my challenge and collected the $1000 prize (please don't send me any other attempts)." (Pg. 86-87)
He cautions, "the Bible Codes can confirm that the Scriptures contain encoded data about historical events that occurred centuries after the Scriptures were written, but they cannot be used to foretell future events... There are no secret sentences, detailed messages, or theological statements in the encoded words. God's message of Salvation and his commandments for holy living are found only in the open text of the Scriptures. The Bible Codes only reveal key words... that can be used as evidence to confirm the supernatural inspiration and origin of the Scriptures." (Pg. 58-59)
The Bible Codes are controversial, and their methodology can be called arbitrary (e.g., using different Hebrew word forms; using such a wide range of letter intervals, etc.); but Jeffrey's book is at least one of the most interesting and engagingly-written examples of the genre.
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November 28, 2008Interesting book. I read it about ten years ago and more research has came out about the ELS(Equidistant letter sequence) that can somewhat discredit the arguments that this book makes.
March 9, 2010
Just finished this. It's very good!!
Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews