The Bible Code (book)

"The Bible Code" is a best-selling controversial book by Michael Drosnin, first published in 1997. A sequel, "The Bible Code II", was published in 2002 and also reached best-seller status.

Drosnin describes an alleged "Bible code", in which messages are encoded in the Hebrew bible. The messages are purported to be hidden in the Torah, and can be deciphered by placing the letters of various Torah passages at equal intervals in a text that has been formatted to fit inside a graph.

Drosnin suggests that the Code was written by extraterrestrial life (which he claims also brought the DNA of the human genetic code to Earth). Drosnin elaborates on this theory in "The Bible Code II", suggesting that the alien who brought the code left the key to the code in a steel obelisk. Drosnin attempted to find this obelisk, which he believes is buried near the Dead Sea.

Drosnin's book is based on the technique described in the paper "Equidistant Letter Sequences in the Book of Genesis" by Professor Eliyahu Rips of the Hebrew University in Israel with Doron Witztum and Yoav Rosenberg.

"The Bible Code" makes numerous predictions and post-diction, such as the coming (at the time of the writing) of the apocalypse in 2006, and "proof" that Lee Harvey Oswald was destined to assassinate John F. Kennedy.

ee also

*Bible code, which has many more links.

External links

;Promoting bible codes:
* [http://www.bible-codes.org/sars_bible_code-2.htm Postdiction of SARS epidemic] , from [http://www.bible-codes.org/ Numbers] , a bible codes website in Scarborough, ON, Canada.
* [http://www.biblecodedigest.com/page.php/303 Postdiction of Christmas Tsunami] , from [http://www.biblecodedigest.com/ Bible Code Digest] , an apparently distinct website (but offering very similar material)

;Skeptical:
* [http://cs.anu.edu.au/~bdm/dilugim/torah.html "Scientific Refutation of the Bible Codes"] by Brendan McKay (Computer Science, Australian National University) and others
* [http://www.math.toronto.edu/~drorbn/Codes/ Bible Code page] from Dror Bar-Natan (Mathematics, University of Toronto)
* [http://www.ams.org/notices/199708/review-allyn.pdf The Bible Code: A Book Review] by Allyn Jackson, "Notices of the AMS" September 1997, who ascribes the "Statistical Science" paper mentioned in the article to "sloppy refereeing and poor editorial policy"; this review is immediately followed by "Comments on the Bible Code" by Shlomo Sternberg, who calls this paper a "hoax"; the American Mathematical Society is the professional society for mathematicians in the United States
* [http://www.math.toronto.edu/~drorbn/Codes/Nations/ On the Witztum-Rips-Rosenberg Sample of Nations] , by Dror Bar-Natan, Brendan McKay, and Shlomo Sternberg
* [http://www.math.washington.edu/~greenber/BibleCode.html THE BIBLE CODE] from Ralph Greenberg (Mathematics, University of Washington)
* [http://www.csicop.org/si/9711/bible-code.html Hidden Messages and The Bible Code] from [http://www.csicop.org Committee for the Scientific Investigation of Claims of the Paranormal] , publisher of Skeptical Inquirer Magazine
* [http://www.nmsr.org/biblecod.htm#drosnin2 Shocking New Codes Found in Drosnin Sequel!] , from [http://www.nmsr.org New Mexicans for Science and Reason] , more debunking by exhibiting silly "coded messages"

;Media coverage:
* [http://www.bbc.co.uk/science/horizon/2003/biblecodetrans.shtml The Bible Code] , transcript of a story which aired on "BBC Two", Thursday 20 November 2003, featuring comments by Drosnin, Rips, and McKay.

Related literature

* Michael Drosnin. "The Bible Code". (USA Simon & Schuster, 1997. ISBN 0-684-81079-4) (UK Weidenfeld & Nicolson, 1997 ISBN 0-297-81995-X)
* Michael Drosnin. "The Bible Code II: The Countdown". (USA Viking Books, 2002 ISBN 0-670-03210-7) (UK Weidenfeld & Nicolson, 2002 ISBN 0-297-84249-8)
* Michael Drosnin. "The Bible Code III: The Quest". (UK Weidenfeld & Nicolson, Forthcoming 2006 ISBN 0-297-84784-8 )
* Jeffrey Satinover: "Cracking the Bible Code". Wm Morrow, 1997. ISBN 0-688-15463-8. Appeared slightly later, follows a more historical and traditional route.