"The Bible Code" : Truth or Myth?
By: A. Mohamed
Over the last few decades there have been numerous claims made by writers claiming to have found hidden messages or codes in the Bible. The Bible Code by Michael Drosnin is one of the more popular such books. Since the claims presented in all these books exhibit the same flaws found in Drosnin's book, the discussion here is confined to his methods.
1- Tool employed: Drosnin's codes are found by eliminating spaces between words and then conducting a computer search called Equidistant Letter Sequence (ELS). This technique allows the programmer to skip five letters or 100 (or any number of letters). It is entirely up to him and is not restricted by any rules. In effect, through a process of trial and error, different ELS values are used until something cooks up! Using every 50th letter in Genesis 1, for example, produces the word Israel!
Before pointing out the most basic problem with this technique, let us point out that this methodology is infallible only as far as producing what the author wants. You determine what you will accept, and you keep trying different ELS values until you get what you want. Brendan McKay, an Australian mathematician, found that using this method on Moby Dick could predict (after the event) the assassinations of Gandhi and Somoza (Ben Witherington, "A Cracked Code" Christianity Today, July 12, 1999, page 20).
2- The Direction of letters: With regards to the Bible, we are faced with another problem. Hebrew, which is the original language, is written from right to left. Drosnin and most other biblical code claimants have worked out their analysis left to right (as is done in English). This immediately raises a crucial question: Who were the codes written for? Were they instilled only for people who read the English translation? Would not a code or sign in a Hebrew Scripture be written in the original Hebrew text?
3- No original Hebrew Bible exists! Drosnin and others claim to use a universally accepted original Hebrew text as the basis for their studies. The problem is that no such document exists! In the original Hebrew texts, there were no vowels. Drosnin and others usually use a text in which vowels have been supplied. This is a conscious choice which again means that the person doing the search is controlling what will be used and what will not for the purpose of producing specific desired results.
4- Order of words: In addition to the vowel problem, there are numerous biblical manuscripts where the order of words is not the same in all documents, or where an explanation was added by a scribe writing at a later date. That is why in many Bibles we may have an indication that a phrase was "not in the earliest manuscript".
5- Deliberate alterations of translations have been done to make ELS work: Ronald Hendel, writing in Bible Review, August, 1997, reported that deliberate mistranslations had been used to get desired results. One example Hendel gave was Genesis 25:11 where your Bible will say "After Abraham's death" Drosnin used "After the death of the Prime Minister". The Hebrew Abraham was divided to Ab and raham making two words, and the ELS connection was Rabin!
The Quran Code
1- Tool employed: Contrary to the (ELS) method used in Biblical researches and which is devised by men, the code of the Quran is based on a Scripture-given tool which is the prime number 19. This number is specifically mentioned in the Quran and is the tool which is used to prove that the Quran is the Word of God (see 74:30-31). The code of the Quran does not exist by eliminating words or letters from the script. On the contrary, some of the numerous features of the Quranic miracle are based on the actual counts of letters and words, and not by eliminating them.
2- The Direction of letters: The miracle in the Quran does not exist by programming the text in a reverse order as the researchers have done to deduce the Bible code. The Arabic language of the Quran is from right to left and this is how the miracle stands. The Quranic miracle is based on the Arabic language of the Quran and not the language of any translation.
3- The unaltered Arabic Quran exists! As mentioned above, despite the claims of Drosnin and others, there is no universally accepted Hebrew text, this is not the case with the Quran. There is only one Arabic Quran and it has been unaltered for the last 14 centuries.
4- Order of words: Once again, and contrary to the problem of numerous biblical manuscripts where the order of words is not the same in all documents, or where an explanation was added by a scribe writing at a later date, the Quran in Arabic remains a universally accepted script.
5- Deliberate alterations of translations: The Quranic miracle is not based on any translation, and therefore this problem does not exist with regards to the code of the Quran.
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In addition to these features, the Quranic miracle is based on an intricate design. Not only does this design take into account the number of letters, chapters and other data, but also the gematric values of individual letters and words.