IS THE BIBLE WRITTEN IN CODE?

By George Card

 

Some have speculated that the Old Testament was written by God in a kind of cosmic code, and that it has many secrets, which can be revealed by finding the secret code. Also some have pointed to the New Testament book of revelation as containing secret codes. This is like the systems used by Governments when sending secret messages thru a technique called Encryption.

      Before discussing this esoteric issue, we must first reaffirm the literal meaning of the O.T. as actually true; we cannot simply go running in some other direction without a firm grounding upon the actual literal truth of the word of God.

      I believe that if indeed there is truly a secret code in the O.T. it will reaffirm the plain literal meaning and perhaps reveal more about Jesus Christ, baptism in his name and other similar doctrines. However we Christians should be like the noble Bereans and be skeptical of anyone claiming to have discovered a secret code or system that will allow them to decipher all the secrets in the Biblež

 

Is he a God of secrets? Yes, our God absolutely has secrets, only he knows the day of his return. But “He reveals the deep and secret things.”, “He reveals mysteries,” >Dan 2:22, Job 12:22 God reveals in his holy word, his secrets to his servants, but not openly. Satan knows the word of God, he even quoted it to Jesus, but he cannot understand it, for it is hidden from him, for if he knew the secret plans of God, then he would stop or alter them.

      When a person has secrets that need to be transmitted to friends but that cannot be understood by adversaries, then that person must find a way to transmit such messages in an encoded way. God does that with his word, for baptism in the name of Jesus is mentioned multiple times in the scriptures yet the message somehow is not understood by many false teachers. If you are a true disciple of Jesus, then “The knowledge of the mysteries of the kingdom of heaven has been given to you.” >Mat 13:11 But God has hidden these things from the wise and the intelligent. >Mat 11:25ž

 

Encryption was known by the ancients: Sending a secret message is done by using encryption, which was used by the Egyptians as far back as 1900 BC. The Emperor Julius Caesar used it in his letters; that way if an enemy captured the messenger, the enemy could not read the message and the messenger could not tell the content of the message, even if tortured. Even Jeremiah the prophet used a simple encryption code known as the Atbash Cipher in Jer 51:1, 51:41ž

 

Hidden in plain sight: My study and use of encryption (for government work) has taught me that the best way to hide something is to hide it in plain sight, which means that everybody can see it, but only the recipients can understand it. One simple example is to write a letter in a foreign language. There are basically two types of messages that can be hidden in plain sight, visual messages and textual messages.

      Visual messages can be given using different means. The Underground Railroad used quilt patterns to give safe routes and other valuable information to fleeing slaves.  Some people create visual code systems which use symbols or simple geometric patterns to pass secret messages, like Egyptian hieroglyphs, oriental Hanzi and Kanji characters, or modern emoticons.

      Textual messages can be sent using numbers or letters or a mixture. There many encryption systems some are hard and others easy. A secret message can be written first and then text added to disguise it or a text selected and then the secret message is added. The line below has an easy message, can you decipher it?
7H15 M3554G3 53RV35 2 PR0V3 U C4N D0 GR8 7H1NG5!

 

A sealed book: The Bible is a book that is in plain view of everyone and that all can read but in reality it is a sealed book. (Isa 29:11) Many learned men with doctorate degrees read it but they can’t make ends or tails out of it. A secret message can be sent by smoke signals, drums, lights, or some other method but a book is the perfect vehicle.

      In order to hide secret textual messages in plain sight you need to have a long enough string size of letters. The longer a text is, the easier for the message to get thru unnoticed. It is clear that the Old Testament which is three times longer than the New Testament is the perfect size in which to send many secret messagesž

 

Encryption methods: There is a large encyclopedia of Cryptography which is the science of encryption; below are a few ways to hide messages in plain text;

A.) Rotating words; this is done by simply rotating or scrambling words using a system like Rot 13, which means knowing how many rotations to execute.

B). Replacing words; this is done by replacing some letters for other letters, of course you must have a table that tells you which letters were changed.

C.) Using numbers; the simplest type of these is to use the numerical position in the alphabet to substitute each letter with its corresponding number. A table or prearranged numeric system provides the key to convert the numbers into letters.

      Actually God uses variations of these systems in his scriptures. He rotates words by reversing names or reversing the order of events or instructions. Per example, Gen 6:8 Noah is the same word as grace but backwards. (A Semordnilap)

He replaces words by using different names or titles for the same person or item (Satan/Lucifer/God of this world).

He uses numbers in diverse ways in the scripture to provide information, in Mat 13:3 “some an hundredfold, some sixtyfold, some thirtyfold.” But in Mrk 4:20 it is reversed. “Some thirtyfold, some sixtyfold, some an hundred.”

      Besides these there are many other ways to hide messages within a textž

 

The Bible format: The format or way a message is arranged can be used to send secret messages. Have you considered why is the Bible written the way it is written? What do I mean by that? Well, why give us 66 books, instead of just one? Why distribute the word to 40 writers, why not just let one person write it all? Why God does not simply tell us outright everything he wants us to do at once? Why does he reveal us his word in a piece meal or progressive manner? Why does Genesis starts they way it does? Why could not God simply tell us in his own word his creation? Genesis 1:1 would read “In the beginning I created the Heaven and the earth.” There must be reasons why the Bible is written the way it is written, and one of those reasons might be to provide information to his people, while concealing it from the devil who is the enemy of Godž

 

The styles of the Bible: Why does the Bible employ such things as stories, parables, songs, and many other literally styles? Why does the Bible uses a great number of grammatical tools like pictograms, anagrams, puns, palindromes, acrostics, riddles, and some other play on word devices? Some examples are in Genesis 6:8, 17:5, 27:36. Such idioms are not encrypted but they can serve to hide messages. In repressive regimes people send each other innocent sounding messages, but often such messages deliver secret information. The riddle of Samson has a secret messagež

 

Extraneous trivia: The Tanakh calls itself the word of God and it has great information and a life changing message, yet it also provides what appears like trivialities. In there we read about Saul looking for lost donkeys, that Caleb had a daughter named Axa, what to do if you find a bird’s nest, and many other details that just do not seem that important. What is so important about the name of Caleb’s daughter that it is included when thousands of the names of other daughters are omitted in most accounts?

      Of course, some details might appear insignificant to some of us, but to someone else they might be important. Archeologists might consider the mention of a certain obscure city important, and linguistics experts might consider a word meaningful.   

      I wonder, would the wisest intelligence there is, create a sacred book with lots of basically trivial information when he could have given us more useful information? There is indeed something puzzling in there. I believe that perhaps there is a method to this madness; the Bible tells us that the foolishness of God is wiser than men.

      Could there be more in the text which says that David got 5 stones and only used one on Goliath. Or that we should not mix certain fabrics? I doubt that God wanted to load his message with minor details or odd information, so maybe we need to look deeper. Could all of the extra details be a way to hide some unfathomable secret messages in some type of celestial code? I could be mistaken, but I believe that it is possible that perhaps the O.T. has a secret codež

 

Biblical oddities:         Another thing that gives credence to the belief that the Bible holds a special hidden code, is the oddities or strange passages in the Bible, like; dream interpretation >Gen 40, Dan 2, repetition of names >Gen 22:11, Exo 3:4, God’s direct slaying of some people >Gen 38, Exo 28:1, different numeric counting >2Sm 24:9 and 1Ch 21:5, unusual lists, >Num 7, 2Ks 7:6, and a few other peculiar textsž

 

Biblical interrelationships: We can sometimes get insights or revelations by looking at the interrelationships in the scriptures. The Bible is like a giant word puzzle where one text in one book will illuminate or solve a mystery in another. Once you understand that it all connects, you can often put two different scriptures together and see something new. Jesus was a master at conflating texts from different parts of the O.T. to provide an answer or to make a statement. In Mat 21:13, he combined Isa 56:7 and Jer 7:11 to reprove the priests. This usage is a common rabbinical methodž

 

Mirror passages: Mirror writing is done by writing a message in the reverse way. This is a very ancient type of cipher or code writing. The best example I can give you is the Book of Genesis and the book of Revelation. If you look carefully, you will see the same message that is in Genesis is given in Revelation but in reverse form.

In Gen there is darkness but in Rev we end up with light and no night.

In Gen there is a sea but in Rev we have no sea.

In Gen there is a sun but in Rev there is no sun. + Many others

There are many other places in the scriptures that have opposite parallel passagesž

 

Dispersed words: “He hath dispersed, he hath given to the poor.”>Psm 112:9 The Old Testament prophecies about Jesus provided details and even the times and places were given, and everyone could read them, but it still caught people by surprise when they actually happened. One of the reasons is that those scriptures were scattered in many places of the O.T. God hid bits and pieces of the future in different stories. If you are studying a subject or topic in the O.T., sometimes you need to gather all the relevant texts and look at them as a whole to get the whole picturež

 

God of Order: The Bible says that God is a God of order. The creation is given in an orderly account of six days of creation, and one of rest. The Ten Commandments are given in orderly fashion. Throughout the Old Testament we can see the story of God proceeding in an orderly fashion. The O.T. is not just a bunch of writings thrown together, but it has an intrinsic order.

      When you read a book from the Old Testament look at how it is structured, what is the order of it? If some of the texts in the Bible appear chaotic, it is only because you have not understood their order or purpose. Strange at it may seem but order can also be an indicator of some type of secret messages. When you read the stories in there, try to find the order or structure, they may reveal more than it appears at firstž

 

The duality principle: In the Bible there are dualities. You can see variations of this duality principle in the story of creation; let me show you some examples.

1.      Dualities: Gen 1:1 - the heavens (1) and the earth (1) 1+1 = 2; Gen 1:20 - the Fish (1) and the fowl (1) 1+1 = 2, two items mentioned.

2.      Opposites: Gen 1:4 - light (1) and darkness (0) where one item is the opposite of the other.

3.      Binaries: Gen 1:5 – the morning (1) and the evening (0), in a binary system both things cannot exist at the same time.

4.      Pairings: Gen 1:27 - Adam-male (1) and Eve-female (1) 1 +1 = 2 a pairing, in a pairing often the two things complement each other.

There are different variations of this principle, like in Genesis 2:4 where it first lists the heavens and the earth and then reverses it. Maybe there are times when we can combine or perhaps transpose these dualities to get a different message. There are other ways to apply this principle; one is in interpretation of the text actual literal meaning and its spiritual meaning. I often find dual meanings in the scriptures and sometimes even more than twož

 

The meaning of names: One feature of the Hebrew language is that names have meanings. That includes the names of people, cities, rivers and anything that is named. Sometimes the meaning of a name can give insight into certain ideas or characteristics not ready noticeable. Sometimes when we look carefully at names we get some amazing insight. Here is just one interesting message, hidden in the names in the early genealogy in Genesis 5.

Adam                 Man

Seth                    Appointed

Enosh                 Mortal

Kenan                 Sorrow

Mahalalel            The Blessed God

Jared                   Shall come down

Enoch                 Teaching

Methuselah         His death shall bring

Lamech              The despairing

Noah                  Rest or Comfort

Put it together and it says. Man is appointed to mortal sorrow; the blessed God shall come down teaching and his death shall bring the despairing comfortž

 

The picture words in the Hebrew language: In many languages the letters are simple just letters, but in the Hebrew language the letters are quite descriptive. Hebrew uses pictographic images for each letter and it is read from right to left. The first word in the Bible is “Bereshit” translated in English with 3 words as “in the beginning”. By assigning the image for each letter in “Bereshit” it reveals an interesting message “The head of the house of God destroyed by his own hand on the cross” or “The son of God destroyed by his own hand on the cross”.

      There are hundredths of other places where the word pictures that the Hebrew language uses give us messages. Look at the name of Jesus in Hebrew Yeshua.

Yod: Making or Creating

Shin: Consuming or Destroying

Vav: Adding, Securing or Saving

Ayin: Knowing, Seeing or Experiencing

There are a few different ways to interpret these pictographs; a possible way is to interpret his name is as follows: The one who makes/creates and consumes/destroys the one who secures/saves and who knows/sees

      Let us look at another example of this concept. Look at the Hebrew pictographs for the word Messiah. (Mem, Shin, Yod, Chet)

Mem: Mighty/Blood/Water
Shin: Consume/Destroy
Yod: Works/Hand
Chet: Tent wall/Separation

A combination of these pictographs yields. “His mighty blood and water destroyed the works of our hands and the wall of separation.”

      As we can see from these two prior examples, various meanings can be derived from even the letters in the Hebrew languagež

 

The EDS Bible code finds Jesus’ name in many places: The (Equal Distant Spacing) EDS Bible code is a discovery by some Jewish theologians that counting every certain number of letters in the O.T. you could find certain phrases or names encoded within the Bible, this is like an encryption scheme.
According to Bible teacher, Grant R Jeffrey, using the Hebrew scriptures.

In Gen 3:20 counting every 9th letter it spells "Yoshiah" meaning "He will save" a variation of the name Yeshua (Jesus)

In Isaiah 53 counting every 12th letter it spells “Yeshua is my name”

In Prv 30:4 counting every 22nd letter it spells “Yeshua the gift”

 

I like that this code found the name of Jesus in the Old Testament, but before accepting EDS as legitimate we must understand that it does not fit the typical profile of an encryption code, but just because it uses a different scheme does not disqualifies it as legitimate. The EDS code findings could be explained as strange coincidences because there were no vowels in the Hebrew Alphabet, which reduces the number of letters in the Hebrew Alphabet to 22. The smaller number of letters plus the fact that vowels are absent increases the odds of finding a repeating pattern.

      There are some who believe this EDS Bible code is real. I studied encryption for military related work and because I understand how encryption actually works I am somewhat skeptical that EDS is real, but I am open to the possibility of it being real. This EDS system may be real or not, but it is interestingž

 

Peter had the key: Jesus told Peter that he would give him the key to the kingdom of heaven. Since Peter had the key, then we must look at the pattern of what Peter did to understand what was that key. In cryptography the key is what opens the secret message. I see the key of Peter as a sort of cryptographic key, which can decipher all the messages in the O.T. That key is that Jesus is the son of the living God, the name of Jesus is the key to use for everything in the O.T.

If you want to understand the O.T., use the name of Jesus.

In Romans 10:4 Paul says that Christ is the end of the Law, which actually means that Christ is the whole purpose of the Law, and if Christ was the goal of the Law, then it is reasonable to believe that his name is the key to unlock the Lawž

 

Jesus is the key: He said, the Scriptures point to me! >Jhn 5:39 VNLV Therefore, he must be in the O.T. I have noticed that Jesus is indeed like a secret cryptographic key, for if you put the name of Jesus in some texts, they glow with fresh meaning.

 

Gen 49:18 I have waited for Thy salvation, O Lord!

Gen 49:18 I have waited for Thy Yeshua, O Lord!

 

Exo 15:2 The LORD is my strength and my defense; he has become my salvation

Exo 15:2 Jesus is my strength and my defense; he is my salvation

Exo 15:2 The LORD is my strength and my defense; he has become Yeshua

 

2 Sam 2:47 The LORD lives, and blessed be my Rock

2 Sam 2:47 Jesus lives, and blessed be my Rock; + Many Othersž

 

Sudden insights: I have noticed when studying the O.T. and also the N.T. suddenly I will see things in there that I had not seen before, despite reading the same passages many times. In unexpected places God has hidden in his words some great wisdom but a lot of people when reading it miss much of that wisdom that is right before their eyes. The word of God sometimes hides things in a similar manner like a chameleon blends in but it is there if you pay careful attention to the text. I remember some optical illusion pictures that one could look and see nothing there, but a bunch of strange drawings, which were actually hidden optical illusions, that if you stay focused on, eventually a clear image would come into focusž

 

Keep an open mind: In this section I have mentioned much about reading the Old Testament with an open mind. That Jesus is inside the O.T. in many different manners. I have also mentioned some ideas of how God could be hiding secret messages inside his word.

      Before we leave this study, let me mention something interesting. God says in Isa 52:6 “Therefore my people shall know my name: Therefore they shall know in that day that I am he that doth speak: behold, it is I.” It is clear from this text that his people at the time of Isaiah did not know the secret name of God, and even today many do not know the name of God, well I will tell what the name is; it is Yeshua >Zechariah 14:9, Habakkuk 1:5ž

 

Believe it or not but his Secret name that God had been hiding for ages was YESHUA.