INTERCONNECTIONS GALORE

By George Card

One thing that the astute observer notices about the Bible is the amount of links between all the books. Genesis sets the background and the start, but then after that, in the next book the connections to Genesis begin, and then it keeps on going. In Revelation we find a reversal of Genesis, like the ending goes all the way around back to the beginning.

The book of Matthew is the perfect book to start the New Testament for the numerous references to the Old Testament make it the perfect bridge between the Old Testament and the New Testament. As you keep on going in the New Testament you start to realize that the New Testament is a sort of commentary on the Old Testament.

In plenty of places the Bible repeats itself, sometimes it repeats the ideas already expressed in other books using the exact same words while sometimes it repeats the same idea but using different words. I believe that if we remove all the repetitions found in the Bible, it would be probably be reduced greatly. In computer programming we have something called a pointer; where instead of giving the data or information it simply points to another place where the information is. If we simply put a pointer instead of repeating the phrase like it is currently done, we definitely would reduce the Bible in almost half.

Not only are sentences and ideas repeated but words are often repeated thru the whole Bible. With some computer programming effort, I can reduce the Bible into less than half of its size just by substituting its words with special codes. I would use 1 to 3 character ASCII alphanumeric code substitution. Here is a very simple character substitution demonstration I created.

1 In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth.  2 Now the earth was formless and empty, darkness was over the surface of the deep, and the Spirit of God was hovering over the waters. 3 And God said, “Let there be light,” and there was light.  4 God saw that the light was good, and he separated the light from the darkness. 5 God called the light “day,” and the darkness he called “night.” And there was evening, and there was morning—the first day.	1 ! @ !A # !B @ !C $ @ !D. 2 % @ !D ^ !E $ !F, !G ^ !H @ !I of @ !J, $ @ !K ? # ^ !L !H @ !M. $ # !N, “& !O * !P,” $ !O ^ !P. 4 # ( ) @ !P ^ !Q, $ < !R @ !P !S @ !T. 5 # !U @ !P “>,” $ @ !T < !U  “!V.” $ !O ^ !W, $ !O ^ !X—@ !Y >.	In = !
		The = @
		God = #
		And = $
		Now= %
		was = ^
		Let = &
		Be = *
		saw = (
		that = )
		He =<
		day= >
		of =?
		Beginning = !A
		Created = !B
		Heavens = !C
		Earth = !D
		Formless = !E
		Empty = !F
		Darkness = !G
		Over = !H
		Surface= !I
		Deep =!J
		Spirit =!K
		Hovering =!L
		Waters= !M
		Said= !N
		There = !O
		Light = !P
		Good=!Q
		Separated=!R
		From= !S
		Darkness=!T
		Called=!U
		Night=!V
		Evening=!W
		Morning =!X

Anyone can count and see that in the first 5 verses of the Bible we have 372 characters, while in the second coded column there are 144 characters, a difference of 228 characters in length. This is a savings of almost 61 % percent in characters. A major reason I can do this kind of reduction is because the vocabulary of the Bible is not extensive for often it reuses the same words.

To most people the second encoded text looks like nonsense or gibberish writing, but a computer expert will probably see it for what it is, some sort of encrypted text. Of what use could such an encoding be? Simple to transport biblical text where the Bible is prohibited then you simply decode it when you arrive at your destination. For this to work as a secret code, you need to keep the code tables separate from the encoded text, then correlate and substitute them at the other end.

Not only in repetition but also in motifs do we find connections in the Bible. Like similar events happening more than once or even in the same location. The interconnections even go further down to individual words. You can see the same exact words often used frequently in some sections of the Bible, they often form a threefold cord which can not easily be broken.

We have four gospels that basically tell the same story. Because of the amount of repetition in them some have attempted to fuse or meld them into a single narrative. Early on Tatian created the Diatessaron in an effort to combine the story of Jesus into a single narrative. What some do not realize is that there is actually a purpose for having four similar accounts. Each of those gospels is directed or focused on a particular type of audience and roles of Jesus. Matthew (Jews, The Messiah), Mark (Romans, The Servant), Luke (Greeks, The Son of Man), John (Christians, The Son of God).

The central point of the entire Bible is Jesus Christ. All the stories, events and teachings ultimately link to him. Sometimes directly and other times indirectly but everything revolves around the person of Jesus Christ. He is there in types, shadows and literally, and everything connects to him.