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The book purports to document research carried out by Jewish mathematicians, who are said to have discovered codes in the text of the Old Testament Scriptures. Some of these reported discoveries have been startling and directly concerned with events in recent world history. The concept of patterns and themes underlying the written word are as old as the Scriptures themselves. In relatively recent times, readers of The Companion Bible (with notes by Bullinger) for example, will find endless examples of these patterns and true Bible students have long enjoyed the study of types and parables which abound in Scripture. So it is not surprising that there are some modern students who have embraced the idea of `hidden' Bible codes with great enthusiasm. It is for the reader of such books as that written by Michael Drosnin to decide for themselves on the value of such codes. Without going into the claims of exponents of Bible codes, it is accepted that Hebrew and Greek alphabets have numeric values given to each letter. This practice (sometimes referred to as Gematria), is used by some Jewish Rabbis as a method of interpreting the Hebrew Scriptures. It has its critics and is not acceptable to many Jewish students of Scripture. Christadelphians would be the last people to discourage any from the study of God's Word, which the Psalmist tells us, He has magnified above His name. [Psalm 138.2] What then do we need in order to understand God's message to us? Whilst a computer can be very helpful when we are searching for this or that passage, especially when linked to a concordance or lexicon, Bible students for nearly 2,000 years since Christ's day have relied simply upon the written word. The Apostle Paul wrote this, concerning the Scriptures:
The Apostle Paul wrote to the young man Timothy:
We believe that the Bible has fulfilled that intended purpose. For thousands of years God has communicated to man, first the spoken and then the written word which has given its readers the information they need to understand God's purpose with mankind. The Word of God, found only in the Bible, has been given to us by His power - the Holy Spirit, inspiring the writers to record God's revelation to man. Paul suggests the way to study this message is to compare Scripture with Scripture and of course, modern computers can help us with this rewarding exercise. We should therefore dig deep into this priceless book.
The question must be asked - is the Word of God only something like a `word search puzzle?' Certainly not, because the instructions, the commandments and the doctrines essential for salvation from death are stated very clearly for all to read and understand. They have been translated from the original Hebrew and Greek text into almost every language so that we too can become `wise unto salvation.' [2 Timothy 3.15] |
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In very recent years as computers have become common in all aspects of life, it has been suggested that there are hidden messages in the Bible -messages that were not accessible to those who lived before the age of the computer. This has been much publicised in a book by Michael Drosnin entitled `The Bible Code' published by Weidenfeld & Nicolson in 1997.