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It is the glory of God to conceal a thing: but the honour of kings is to search out a matter.
Proverbs 25:2
It may come as a surprise to many that there are ciphers encrypted in the Bible. Some are hidden; some, when revealed, are a key part of the narrative.
One of the first examples of deciphering a mysterious code-and certainly one of the most dramatic-occurred in Babylon during the fifth century B.C.
A Jewish prodigy by the name of Daniel was called into a royal celebration to decipher a baffling cryptogram which had interrupted the imperial festivities by mysteriously appearing on the wall of the banquet room.
His decipherment of this strange message declared the impending fall of the dominant world empire of the time.
This episode, recorded in the Bible in Daniel Chapter 5, has even resulted in several household idioms which still echo in our everyday language: “The handwriting on the wall,” “your number is up,” “you have been weighed and are found wanting,” etc.
The Babylonian Empire
In 606 B.C. Nebuchadnezzar succeeded in his siege of Jerusalem and King Jehoiakim of Judah became his vassal. 1 The Prophet Jeremiah had predicted that the Babylonian Captivity of the Jews was to last 70 years, and it did; to the very day. 2
It was a result of this siege that Daniel and three of his friends were deported as teenagers to be educated and to serve at the Babylonian court.
These “hostages” would help assure the continued loyalty of the vassal king in Jerusalem.
Upon taking his throne, the young Nebuchadnezzar put his palace advisors to a test regarding an unusual dream which troubled him. 3
Daniel distinguished himself in describing and interpreting the dream, and this led to his ascendancy in the Babylonian court. This apparently also began an unusual relationship between Daniel and King Nebuchadnezzar. During a seven-year period of incapacity, Daniel was his personal attendant. 4
Nebuchadnezzar’s
Successors
Nebuchadnezzar’s death was followed by a steady weakening of the regime. After one subsequent coup d’etat after another, ultimately Nabonidus came to the throne. However, Nabonidus indulged in foreign adventures in Palestine and Northern Arabia, leaving his son Belshazzar as co-regent in Babylon.
In the last year of Nabonidus the idols of the cities around Babylon, except Borsippa, Kutha, and Sippar, were brought in, which was an action taken only at the sign of impending war. Inscriptions also confirm Daniel as “the 3rd Ruler in the kingdom.” 5
The Rise of Cyrus
Cyrus II (“the Great,” 559-530 B.C.) was the founder of the Achaemenid Persian Empire that continued for two centuries until the time of Alexander the Great (331 B.C.). Young Cyrus succeeded in welding the Medes and Persians into a unified nation.
Babylon was in no position to resist a Medo-Persian invasion in the year 539 B.C. During the preceding fourteen years, Nabonidus the king had not so much as visited the capital city, leaving the administration of the metropolis to his profligate son Belshazzar, to whom he also “entrusted the kingship.” 6
Toward the end of September, the armies of Cyrus, under the able command of Ugbaru, district governor of Gutium, attacked Opis on the Tigris River and defeated the Babylonians. This gave the Persians control of the vast canal system of Babylon. On October 10, Sippar was taken without a battle and Nabonidus fled. Two days later, on October 12, 539 B.C., Ugbaru’s troops would be able to enter Babylon without a battle. The stage was now set for the strangest banquet in history.
The Banquet of Banquets
Instead of preparing to meet the Persian threat to his kingdom, Belshazzar decided to throw a royal party for a thousand of his lords. 7 To some extent, Bel-shazzar’s overconfidence is understandable. Babylon was square, about 15 miles on each side. It boasted of an outside wall 87 feet wide-Herodotus records chariot races around the wall six abreast!
Inside this wall was a second wall, with a moat between them, and 250 watchtowers. The river Euphrates crossed the city, providing the water for both the protective moat and for survival purposes during a siege. Babylon was widely regarded as impregnable.
Belshazzar called for the vessels which had been taken from the Jewish Temple, captured by his grandfather Nebuchadnezzar 70 years earlier, to be exploited in the festivities. But just as the party seemed to really get rolling, giant fingers appeared, writing what was to become the most famous cryptogram of all time.
The Handwriting on the Wall
In the same hour came forth fingers of a man’s hand, and wrote over against the lamp-stand upon the plaster of the wall of the king’s palace: and the king saw the part of the hand that wrote.
Then the king’s countenance was changed, and his thoughts troubled him, so that the joints of his loins were loosed, and his knees smote one against another.
Daniel 5:5, 6
It is hard to improve on the quaint King James English! (Belshazzar’s embarrassing lack of sphincter control also was a fulfillment of an ancient prophecy! We will review this shortly.)
In the ensuing panic, the king’s advisors were at a loss to explain or interpret the strange writing. 8 But Nebuchadnezzar’s widow reminded them of the previously demonstrated skills of Daniel-then possibly in retirement-and suggested that they call on him to address the enigma.
After an eloquent eulogy on his patron, Nebuchadnezzar-and a put-down of the young upstart-Daniel then deciphered the mysterious writing:
[24] Then was the part of the hand sent from him; and this writing was written.
[25] And this is the writing that was written, MENE, MENE, TEKEL, UPHARSIN.
The Talmud suggests that the writing was vertical and backwards. (Click for diagram.) Aramaic, like Hebrew, reads from right to left. (All languages seem to flow toward Jerusalem: those west of Jerusalem-the European languages-flow from left to right; those east of Jerusalem flow from right to left: Hebrew, Aramaic, Arabic, Chinese, etc.)
There is also a Hebrew tradition that this was an application of atbash, a form of encryption reviewed in last month’s article. 9 (The deferral of any description of the text until its interpretation also implies something of that sort.)
MeNe, MeNe, TeKeL, PeReS. In Aramaic and Hebrew, vowels are absent and must be inferred. (This is also a common cryptographic practice used as a mechanism to reduce redundancy; the implications of this will be explored in future articles.)
[26] This is the interpretation of the thing: MENE; God hath numbered thy kingdom, and finished it. (“Your number is up.”)
[27] TEKEL; Thou art weighed in the balances, and art found wanting.
[28] PERES; Thy kingdom is divided, and given to the Medes and Persians.
Peres was previously rendered “upharsin”: “u” is Aramaic for “and”; “pharsin” is the plural form of “peres.” It means “broken” or “divided.”
(By implying a different vowel, “paras” rather than “peres,” this also becomes a play on words: paras was the word for Persia.) 10
[29] Then commanded Bel-shazzar, and they clothed Daniel with scarlet, and put a chain of gold about his neck, and made a proclamation concerning him, that he should be the third ruler in the kingdom.
However:
[30] In that night was Belshazzar the king of the Chaldeans slain.
The Fall of Babylon
Herodotus describes how the Persians had diverted the river Euphrates into a canal up-river so that the water level dropped “to the height of the middle of a man’s thigh,” which thus rendered the flood defenses useless and enabled the invaders to march through the river bed to enter by night. 11
Cyrus was able to boast that the conquest was virtually bloodless with no significant damage to the city. 12
God’s Personal Letter to Cyrus
After Cyrus’ triumphal entry into the city, Daniel then presented to him the writings of Isaiah13 that includes a letter addressed to Cyrus by name, written 150 years earlier: read it in Isaiah 44:24 – 45:6. Note particularly Isaiah 45:1,
Thus saith the LORD to his anointed, to Cyrus, whose right hand I have holden, to subdue nations before him; and I will loose the loins of kings, to open before him the two leaved gates; and the gates shall not be shut;
Notice the detail, “loose the loins of kings.” Belshazzar’s “brown britches” was also a fulfillment of prophecy! (This allusion to Cyrus also seems to confirm the public nature of Belshazzar’s embarrassment.)
By calling him by name-written before he was born-Cyrus would realize that this was from God Himself. He was astonished. Wouldn’t you be?
Cyrus was so stunned with the description of his entire career, including the circumstances regarding the fall of Babylon, that he arranged for the Hebrew captives to be released and permitted to return to Jerusalem. The Jews were actually encouraged by Cyrus to return and rebuild their temple. 14 He gave them back the vessels that Nebuchadnezzar had plundered from Solomon’s Temple 70 years earlier and he contributed financially to the construction of their second temple. About 50,000 Jews responded to this royal proclamation and returned to Jerusalem under the leadership of Zerubbabel just seventy years after the captivity began, just as Jeremiah had predicted.
Babylon’s Subsequent History
Serving as a secondary capital during the Persian and Greek Empires, Babylon ultimately atrophied to an insignificant byway. Another major Biblical enigma arises from the predictions by both Isaiah and Jeremiah15 that call for Babylon’s ultimate destruction in terms that have never occurred in history. Some regard the language as merely poetic or allegorical. Those that take the Bible more seriously look for Babylon to re-emerge in world history and ultimately receive the literal destruction described by the prophets. The recent rebuilding of Babylon begun by Saddam Hussein provides us an empirical test of this view. 16
* * *
This series of articles is being excepted from Chuck’s forthcoming book, Cosmic Codes, scheduled for publication this spring.
Jer 25:1. Nebuchadnezzar’s first expedition was before he ascended to the throne; Nebuchadnezzar’s first year was concurrent with Jehoia-kim’s fourth year.
Jer 25:11, 12. Failure to keep the Sabbath of the land for 490 years (70 times 7) was the cause for the particular period of 70 years of captivity. (2 Chr 36:21, cf. Mt 18:22.)
The dramatic episode is detailed in Daniel Chapter 2.
This is recorded in Daniel Ch. 4, written by Nebuchadnezzar himself. The Talmud indicates that Daniel provided his care during this period.
The Babylon Chronicle, British Museum: this cylinder, one of 4 bearing the same text found at the four corners of the ziggurat at Ur, is inscribed in Babylonian cuneiform and mentions “Belshazzar, the son first (born) the offspring of my heart (body).”
;”Verse Account of Nabonidus,” Pritchard, Ancient Near Eastern Texts, 313.
This banquet hall (about 56 x 173 feet) has been reconstructed today and has been used by Saddam Hussein for affairs of state since 1987.
Also, they may reflect a series of coins in use: a mina, a tekel (1/60th of a mina), and a peres, (a mina). Dr. Cyrus Gordon has suggested an American equivalent: “You will be quartered, halved, and cent to perdition.” (David Kahn, The Code-breakers, Macmillan Company, NY, 1967, p.80.)
Herodotus, 1.191.
The famous Steele of Cyrus carries the inscription, “…without any battle, he entered the town, sparing any calamity…I returned to sacred cities on the other side of the Tigris, the sanctuaries of which have been ruins for a long time…and established for them permanent sanctuaries. I also gathered all their former inhabitants and returned to them their habitations.” This cylinder, discovered by Hormuzd Rassam in the 19th century, can presently be examined in the British Museum in London.
Josephus, Antiquities, XI, i.2.
2 Chr 36:22; Ezra 1:1-4.
The great prophecies concerning the city of Babylon in Isaiah Ch. 13 and 14 and Jeremiah 50 and 51 have never been fulfilled. Yet.
For a detailed exploration of these issues, see The Mystery of Babylon, or Chuck Missler’s Expositional Commentary on Daniel, both available from Koinonia House.
**ADDITIONAL RELATED RESOURCES**
Cosmic Codes – Now In Paperback – Chuck MisslerRead the implications of our finite universe and the shocking discoveries of quantum physics at the very boundaries of reality and learn their significance to our origin and personal destinies!
Daniel – Audio Commentary – Chuck MisslerExplore Daniel verse-by-verse with Chuck Missler. This is a 2 volume set with eight audios in each volume including notes.
The Mystery Of Babylon: An Alternate View – Chuck MisslerChuck Missler reviews the origin, rise, and fall of historical Babylon, as well as the prophecies concerning its future rebuilding and destruction.
There has been a flurry of interest in “Bible Codes.” Many sensationalistic books have been published making extravagant claims;1 there have also been skeptical detractors with their erudite guffaws.2
Some truly provocative books have been published highlighting some amazing discoveries that would seem to validate the supernatural origin of the Biblical text,3 but very few have written from the standpoint of a cryptographic background.4
Are the so-called “Bible Codes” real? Or are they artifacts of random behavior within the normal characteristics of natural language? Are there really “hidden codes” behind the surface of the Biblical text?
The Science of Cryptology
People never cease to be fascinated by “secret writing,” or secret codes. Ever since the earliest times, military, political, and personal messages have been communicated by various means to restrict their contents to those to whom the message is intended and to deny them to others.
From the ancient palaces of our earliest civilizations to the “black chambers” of our most modern command posts, the art of secret writing – and the science of their decipherment – has tumbled proud thrones and turned the tide of major wars.5
Cryptology – the study of secret codes and ciphers – has, of course, been stimulated by its use in literature. Edgar Allen Poe’s The Gold Bug probably remains unequaled as a work of fiction, his tale turning upon a secret coded message.6
Sir Arthur Conan Doyle’s Sherlock Holmes encounters ciphers three times in his uniquely distinguished career, demonstrating his thorough knowledge of the subject in The Adventure of the Dancing Men, where he recognizes little stick figures as cipher symbols.7 Jules Verne heightened the excitement of three of his novels with the mysteries of secret writing.8
The amazing ability to break a seemingly unintelligible cipher has always appeared mystical to the uninitiated. It undoubtedly was a major source of power to the priesthoods of the ancient empires.
It was not surprising that the famed American coup over the Japanese naval codes in World War II was called “MAGIC.”9
The art of encryption has its roots in manipulations of the Biblical text-including the Kabbalah of Jewish mysticism. It was these techniques which led to cipher wheels and mechanical aids, which ultimately led to the computer.
It seems fitting that it is now the computer which appears to be opening up secrets hidden within the Biblical text since its inception.
Encryptions in the Bible
It comes as a surprise to many Bible scholars that there are a number of classic encryptions within the Biblical text. Hebrew tradition lists three different transformations in the Old Testament.
One of these, known as albam, employs a substitution system in which the Hebrew alphabet is split into two halves and equates the two halves. Thus, the first letter of the first half, aleph, substitutes for the first letter of the second half, lamed, and vice versa. The second letter of the first half, beth, substitutes for the second letter of the second half, mem, and vice versa, and so on. The term albam derives from the first four letters of this arrangement; aleph-lamed & beth-mem.
In Isaiah Chapter 7, we encounter the scheming of Rezin, the king of Syria, and Pekah, the son of Remaliah, king of Israel, who were confederating against King Ahaz of Judah.
Regarding verse 6, the Midrash notes that Tabeal, t b’ l is encrypted using the method of albam, resulting in the name, r m l – Remala (for Remaliah).10
(Remember, Hebrew reads from right to left. All languages seem to flow toward Jerusalem: Languages of the nations west of Jerusalem-English, French, German, Italian, etc.-read from left to right. Languages of the nations east of Jerusalem-Hebrew, Aramaic, Arabic, Chinese, etc.-read from right to left.)
The plan of the conspirators in Isaiah 7 was apparently to establish the son of Tabeal as the king should their plot have succeeded.11
Another alternative encryption form found in the Old Testament is atbash, in which the alphabet is folded back over itself, with the second half reversed, as in figure 2.
The label atbash derives from the very procedure it denotes, since it is composed of aleph, tau, beth, and shin-the first, last, second, and next-to-last letters of the Hebrew alphabet.
In Jeremiah 25:26 and in Jeremiah 51:41, we encounter the name Sheshach. The context implies that this is somehow related to Babylon, and some commentators assume it was a suburb, or the equivalent.
However, it appears that Sheshach, sh sh k, is simply Babel, b b l, encrypted using the method of atbash.12
Confirmation that Sheshach is really a substitute for Babel and not an entirely separate place name also comes from the Septuagint and the Targums.
In Jeremiah 51:1, we also find l b q m i, leb kamai, “heart of my enemy,” is substituted for k sh d i m- Kashdim, “Chaldeans.”
Hebrew literature records a third form of letter substitution, called atbah. Like albam and atbash, its name derives from its system. It is based on the property that each Hebrew letter also has a numerical value. The first nine letters would be substituted so that their numerical value would add up to ten. The next ten letters were paired on a similar system, totaling to the Hebrew digital version of 100. What happens to the remaining letters is not clear. This rather confusing system is not used in the Bible, but there is at least one use in the Babylonian Talmud.13
To students of cryptography, the substitution ciphers in the Bible are all simply historical novelties. However, to one who recognizes the supernatural origins of the Biblical text, the presence of encrypted elements in the Holy Scriptures is extremely provocative, indeed.
In our next article we will explore some of the more significant “Bible Codes.” In our forthcoming reviews we will focus primarily on those codes which you do not need a computer to figure out!
* * *
This series of articles is being excerpted from Chuck Missler’s forthcoming book, Cosmic Codes, scheduled for publication in Spring 1998.
Michael Drosnin, The Bible Code, Simon and Schuster, NY, 1997.
Ronald S. Hendel and Shlomo Sternberg, “The Bible Code-Cracked and Crumbling,” Bible Review, Vol XIII, No. 4, August 1997; includes “The Secret Code Hoax,” by Hendel, and “Snake Oil For Sale,” by Sternberg. Hugh Ross, “Cracking the Codes,” Facts & Faith, Vol 11, No. 3, 3rd Qtr 1997, Reasons to Believe, P.O. Box 5978, Pasadena, CA.
Grant Jeffrey, The Handwriting of God, a sequel to his Signature of God, both published by Frontier Research, Toronto, Canada, 1997; also, Yakov Rambsel, His Name is Jesus, also published by the same publisher.
A worthy exception is by Jeffrey Satinover, M.D., Cracking the Bible Codes, William Morrow & Company, New York, 1997.
Much of this background is well covered in David Kahn’s comprehensive history, The Codebreakers, Macmillan Company, NY, 1967.
Poe’s stories, employing an intellectual chain of logic to solve a central problem, resulted in their being regarded as the first detective stories. The Gold Bug remains a classic despite its being full of absurdities and errors: the survival of the parchment despite the decay of the timbers of the boat; the fact that the invisible ink-cobalt nitrate-would also be soluble in water; the intricate geometry between the skull sighted between the rift in the trees after 150 years of arboreal growth, etc. Still, it remains a classic.
Holmes, having solved the cryptogram, composes a message out of the cipher symbols he has recovered that leads to the culprit’s arrest. Holmes may have borrowed this scheme from Thomas Phelippes, who had in 1587 forged a cipher postscript to a letter of Mary, Queen of Scots, to learn the names of the intended murderers in the Babington plot against Elizabeth. Holmes’ other encounters occur in The Gloria Scott, where the great detective discovers a secret message hidden within an open-code text as every third word; and in The Valley of Fear where he receives a numerical code message from an accomplice of his arch rival, Professor Moriarty.
In Voyage to the Center of the Earth, Verne opens with a three-step cryptogram of runic letters.
It is interesting that the very word Magic derives from the Persian Magi, and the first cryptanalyst who was appointed the head of the ancient priesthood. This will be explored in a subsequent article.
Midrash Rabbah, Numbers 18:21.
Some authorities regard Tabeal as a corruption or some form of contemptuous epithet and dispute this as albam. (Albam works for the first two letters; the third, lamed, retains its identity because it would otherwise be transformed into a silent aleph.)
The kaf, k, is one of five letters with a modified form if it is the last letter in a word. The employment of unique “final forms” is a characteristic which yields parsing advantages when used in extraterrestrial communication. This and related characteristics will be addressed in subsequent articles.
Seder Mo’ed, Sukkah, 52b. This example plays on the word “witness” and its atbah substitution “master” to make a moral point.
**ADDITIONAL RELATED RESOURCES**
Cosmic Codes – Now In Paperback – Chuck MisslerRead the implications of our finite universe and the shocking discoveries of quantum physics at the very boundaries of reality and learn their significance to our origin and personal destinies!
Cosmic Codes Audio – Volume One – Introduction – Chuck MisslerScientists continue to scan the heavens for a message from out there. Have we already received a message of extraterrestrial origin? Why do some scientists believe that the Bible contains just such messages?
Cosmic Codes Audio – Volume Two – Microcodes – Chuck MisslerWhat would an interstellar language require? What makes Biblical Hebrew uniquely adapted for extraterrestrial communication? What secrets are hidden in the ‘jots & tittles’ Jesus talked about?
Cosmic Codes Audio – Volume Three – Macrocodes – Chuck MisslerHow can a message from outside our space-time authenticate itself? How certain can we really be? Are there messages from the stars? Is our future hidden in an ancient calendar? Is there an aerial view hidden within the Bible text?
Cosmic Codes Audio – Volume Four – Metacodes – Chuck MisslerIn this fourth volume of this series, Chuck Missler explores the history of cryptography – the study of secret codes – and the background of proposed interstellar languages.
A new book by Michael Drosnin, The Bible Code, has stirred up further controversies about “codes” in the Bible. Very effectively promoted by Simon and Schuster, and including extremely aggressive claims by the author, the book has become a major topic of conversation and a source of more “millennium mania,” as the press likes to characterize the more bizarre topics emerging as the year 2000 approaches. Warner Bros. has reportedly picked up the movie rights.
The discovery of ostensibly “hidden” messages occurring among equally spaced letters (“equidistant letter sequences” or ELS) in the Biblical text has been discussed in a number of our previous publications.1
Originally observed by Rabbeynu Bachayah in the 14th century, and explored manually by Michael Dov Weissmandl over 50 years ago, the advent of computerized text has recently made these the subject of a number of professional articles in recognized mathematical publications.
A paper was published in 1988 in the scholarly Journal of the Royal Statistical Society, entitled “Equidistant Letter Sequences in the Book of Genesis.” In 1994 Israeli mathematicians Eliyahu Rips, Doron Witztum, and Yoav Rosenberg published some landmark articles in the journal Statistical Science that started the current craze.
Drosnin’s book suffers from the embarrassment that, although he presents Eliyahu Rips as the “discoverer” of the codes, Rips has disavowed him and has distanced himself from the book.
Where Drosnin seems to derail himself is in his attempt to present-chillingly-fanciful claims to predicting the future. His colorful exploitation of the assassination of Yitzhak Rabin is a variation on a (now) well-known theme.2
For those of you desiring to look into this more substantively, we recommend Grant Jeffrey’s book, The Signature of God, or his double-video by the same name. Grant does a good job putting these remarkable discoveries in better balance-testifying to the evidence of design in the Word of God, but not trying to exploit them in foretelling the future, etc.
Other Examples
There are a number of other incredible discoveries of hidden designs in the Biblical text. Our exploration of the genealogy of Noah in Genesis 5 should be well-known to our readers.3 The remarkable acrostics on the names of God in the Book of Esther are also well known in the Talmudic literature.4
Also remarkable are the discoveries of Ivan Panin who, without the aid of a computer, spent 50 years and 43,000 handwritten pages of calculations, to give us his incredible discoveries.5 Perhaps less well known, except to serious students of cryptography, are the encryptions hidden in the texts of both Isaiah and Jeremiah.6
All of these discoveries should bring us to a reverent awe as we continue to explore the Word of God. But we must be careful not to fall into the trap of attempting to exploit the Biblical text as some kind of mystical “Ouija board” in an attempt to predict the future. This misses the point and violates the injunctions of God.7
While we do, indeed, stand in amazement as we discover God’s handiwork in the design of the text, and we marvel as we discover that when a thing comes to pass, He had declared the “end from the beginning,” we need to focus our attention on the straightforward disclosures aided by the Holy Spirit.
Mark Twain said it well: “It’s not the parts of the Bible I don’t understand that bother me. It’s the parts that I do understand that disturb me.”
Even Time magazine closed its review suggesting that “believers seeking divine enlightenment may not want to substitute code for prayer just yet.”8
Personal UPDATE, May 1993, p.5-8; Feasts of Israel, p.9-11; Expositional Commentary of Matthew, vol 1, p.64. See our briefing package, The Bible: An Extraterrestrial Message, for further discussion.
Personal UPDATE, January 1996, p.4-5; Sovereignty of Man, p.3-6.
Personal UPDATE, February 1996, p.19-23; Footprints of the Messiah, p.3; Flood of Noah, p.2; The Christmas Story, p.13-14; Countdown to Eternity, p.103-106.
Personal UPDATE, March 1996, p.5-9; Beyond Coincidence, p.15-21.
Personal UPDATE, February 1995, p.12-15; Also, our Expositional Commentary on Matthew, vol 3., p.47-54.
Discussed in our Expositional Commentary on Isaiah, vol 1, p.15-16; from David Kahn, The Code Breakers: the Story of Secret Writing, Macmillan, New York, 1967.
Deut. 18:10; Jer 14:14; Ezek 13:6, 7; Ezek 21:21-23.
Time, June 9, 1997, p.56.
**ADDITIONAL RELATED RESOURCES**
Cosmic Codes Audio – Volume One – Introduction – Chuck MisslerScientists continue to scan the heavens for a message from out there. Have we already received a message of extraterrestrial origin? Why do some scientists believe that the Bible contains just such messages?
Cosmic Codes Audio – Volume Two – Microcodes – Chuck MisslerWhat would an interstellar language require? What makes Biblical Hebrew uniquely adapted for extraterrestrial communication? What secrets are hidden in the ‘jots & tittles’ Jesus talked about?
Cosmic Codes Audio – Volume Three – Macrocodes – Chuck MisslerHow can a message from outside our space-time authenticate itself? How certain can we really be? Are there messages from the stars? Is our future hidden in an ancient calendar? Is there an aerial view hidden within the Bible text?
Cosmic Codes Audio – Volume Four – Metacodes – Chuck MisslerIn this fourth volume of this series, Chuck Missler explores the history of cryptography – the study of secret codes – and the background of proposed interstellar languages.
We frequently use the familiar term, gospel, or good news. Where is the first place it appears in the Bible? The answer may surprise you.
An Integrated Message
The great discovery is that the Bible is a message system: it’s not simply 66 books penned by 40 authors over thousands of years, the Bible is an integrated whole which bears evidence of supernatural engineering in every detail.
The Jewish rabbis have a quaint way of expressing this very idea: they say that they will not understand the Scriptures until the Messiah comes. But when He comes, He will not only interpret each of the passages for us, He will interpret the very words; He will even interpret the very letters themselves; in fact, He will even interpret the spaces between the letters!
When I first heard this, I simply dismissed this as a colorful exaggeration. Until I reread Matthew 5:17 and 18:
“Think not that I have come to destroy the Torah and the prophets; I have not come to destroy but to fulfill.
For verily I say unto you, Till heaven and earth pass, one jot or one tittle shall in no wise pass from the law, till all be fulfilled.”
(A jot and tittle are the Hebrew equivalent of our dotting an i and the crossing of a t.)
An Example
A remarkable example of this can be glimpsed in Genesis Chapter 5, where we have the genealogy of Adam through Noah. This is one of those chapters which we often tend to skim over quickly as we pass through Genesis it’s simply a genealogy from Adam to Noah.
But God always rewards the diligent student. Let’s examine this chapter more closely.
In our Bible, we read the Hebrew names. What do these names mean in English?
A Study of Original Roots
The meaning of proper names can be a difficult pursuit since a direct translation is often not readily available. Even a conventional Hebrew lexicon can prove disappointing. A study of the original roots, however, can yield some fascinating insights.
(A caveat: many study aids, such as a conventional lexicon, can prove rather superficial when dealing with proper nouns. Furthermore, views concerning the meanings of original roots are not free of controversy and variant readings.)
Let’s take an example.
The Flood Judgment
Methuselah comes from muth, a root that means “death”;1 and from shalach, which means to bring, or to send forth. The name Methuselah means, “his death shall bring”.2
Methuselah’s father was given a prophecy of the coming Great Flood, and was apparently told that as long as his son was alive, the judgment of the flood would be withheld; but as soon as he died, the flood would be brought or sent forth.
(Can you imagine raising a kid like that? Every time the boy caught a cold, the entire neighborhood must have panicked!)
And, indeed, the year that Methuselah died, the flood came.3
It is interesting that Methuselah’s life, in effect, was a symbol of God’s mercy in forestalling the coming judgment of the flood.
Therefore, it is fitting that his lifetime is the oldest in the Bible, speaking of the extensiveness of God’s mercy.
The Other Names
If there is such significance in Methuselah’s name, let’s examine the other names to see what may lie behind them.
Adam’s name means man. As the first man, that seems straight forward enough.
Seth
Adam’s son was named Seth, which means appointed. Eve said, “For God hath appointed me another seed instead of Abel, whom Cain slew.“4
Enosh
Seth’s son was called Enosh, which means mortal, frail, or miserable. It is from the root anash, to be incurable, used of a wound, grief, woe, sickness, or wickedness.
It was in the days of Enosh that men began to defile the name of the Living God.5
Kenan
Enosh’s son was named Kenan, which can mean sorrow, dirge, or elegy. (The precise denotation is somewhat elusive; some study aids unfortunately presume that Kenan is synonymous with Cainan.)
Balaam, looking down from the heights of Moab, uses a pun upon the name of the Kenites when he prophesies their destruction.6
We have no real idea as to why these names were chosen for their children. Often they may have referred to circumstances at birth, and so on.
Mahalalel
Kenan’s son was Mahalalel, from Mahalal which means blessed or praise; and El, the name for God. Thus, Mahalalel means the Blessed God. Often Hebrew names include El, the name of God, as Dan-i-el, “God is my Judge”, etc.
Jared
Mahalalel’s son was named Jared, from the verb yaradh, meaning shall come down.7
Enoch
Jared’s son was named Enoch, which means teaching, or commencement. He was the first of four generations of preachers. In fact, the earliest recorded prophecy was by Enoch, which amazingly enough deals with the Second Coming of Christ (although it is quoted in the Book of Jude in the New Testament):
Enoch also, the seventh from Adam, prophesied of these, saying, “Behold, the Lord cometh with ten thousands of his saints,
To execute judgment upon all, and to convince all that are ungodly among them of all their ungodly deeds which they have ungodly committed, and of all their hard speeches which ungodly sinners have spoken against.” Jude 14, 15
Methuselah
Enoch was the father of Methuselah, who we have already mentioned. Enoch walked with God after he begat Methuselah.8 Apparently, Enoch received the prophecy of the Great Flood, and was told that as long as his son was alive, the judgment of the flood would be withheld. The year that Methuselah died, the flood came.
Enoch, of course, never died: he was translated 9 (or, if you’ll excuse the expression, raptured ). That’s how Methuselah can be the oldest man in the Bible, yet he died before his father!
Lamech
Methuselah’s son was named Lamech, a root still evident today in our own English word, lament or lamentation. Lamech suggests despairing.
(This name is also linked to the Lamech in Cain’s line who inadvertently killed his son Tubal-Cain in a hunting incident.10)
Noah
Lamech, of course, is the father of Noah, which is derived from nacham, to bring relief or comfort, as Lamech himself explains in Genesis 5:29.
The Composite List
Now let’s put it all together:
Hebrew
English
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.
That’s rather remarkable:
Man (is) appointed mortal sorrow; (but) the Blessed God shall come down teaching (that) His death shall bring (the) despairing rest.
Here’s the Gospel hidden within a genealogy in Genesis!
(You will never convince me that a group of Jewish rabbis conspired to hide the Christian Gospel right here in a genealogy within their venerated Torah!)
Evidence of Design
The implications of this discovery are more wide spread than is evident at first glance.
It demonstrates that in the earliest chapters of the Book of Genesis, God had already laid out His plan of redemption for the predicament of mankind. It is a love story, written in blood on a wooden cross which was erected in Judea almost 2,000 years ago.
The Bible is an integrated message system, the product of supernatural engineering. Every number, every place name, every detail every jot and tittle is there for our learning, our discovery, and our amazement. Truly, our God is an awesome God.
It is astonishing to discover how many Biblical controversies seem to evaporate if one simply recognized the unity the integrity of these 66 books, penned by 40 authors over thousands of years.
It is remarkable how many subtle discoveries lie behind the little details of the text. Some of these become immediately obvious with a little study; some are more technical and require special helps.
Look behind every detail: there’s a discovery to be made! God always rewards the diligent student. What other messages lay hidden behind the names in the Bible? Check it out.
**FOR A MORE IN-DEPTH STUDY**
Cosmic Codes – Now In Paperback – Chuck MisslerRead the implications of our finite universe and the shocking discoveries of quantum physics at the very boundaries of reality and learn their significance to our origin and personal destinies!
25 The liberal soul shall be made fat: and he that watereth shall be watered also himself.
So backward we are to works of charity, and so ready to think that giving undoes us, that we need to have it very much pressed upon us how much it is for our own advantage to do good to others, as before, v. 17.
1. We shall have the comfort of it in our own bosoms: The liberal soul, the soul of blessing, that prays for the afflicted and provides for them, that scatters blessings with gracious lips and generous hands, that soul shall be made fat with true pleasure and enriched with more grace.
2. We shall have the recompence of it both from God and man: He that waters others with the streams of his bounty shall be also watered himself; God will certainly return it in the dews, in the plentiful showers, of his blessing, which he will pour out, till there be not room enough to receive it,Mal. iii. 10. Men that have any sense of gratitude will return it if there be occasion; the merciful shall find mercy and the kind be kindly dealt with.
3. We shall be enabled still to do yet more good: He that waters, even he shall be as rain (so some read it); he shall be recruited as the clouds are which return after the rain, and shall be further useful and acceptable, as the rain to the new-mown grass. he that teaches shall learn (so the Chaldee reads it); he that uses his knowledge in teaching others shall himself be taught of God; to him that has, and uses what he has, more shall be given.
24 There is that scattereth, and yet increaseth; and there is that withholdeth more than is meet, but it tendeth to poverty.
Note, 1. It is possible a man may grow rich by prudently spending what he has, may scatter in works of piety, charity, and generosity, and yet may increase; nay, by that means may increase, as the corn is increased by being sown. By cheerfully using what we have our spirits are exhilarated, and so fitted for the business we have to do, by minding which closely what we have is increased; it gains a reputation which contributes to the increase. But it is especially to be ascribed to God; he blesses the giving hand, and so makes it a getting hand, 2 Cor. ix. 10. Give, and it shall be given you.
2. It is possible a man may grow poor by meanly sparing what he has, withholding more than is meet, not paying just debts, not relieving the poor, not providing what is convenient for the family, not allowing necessary expenses for the preservation of the goods; this tends to poverty; it cramps men’s ingenuity and industry, weakens their interest, destroys their credit, and forfeits the blessing of God: and, let men be ever so saving of what they have, if God blast it and blow upon it, it comes to nothing. A fire not blown shall consume it,Hag. i. 6, 9.
23 The desire of the righteous is only good: but the expectation of the wicked is wrath.
This tells us what the desire and expectation of the righteous and of the wicked are and how they will prove, what they would have and what they shall have.
1. The righteous would have good, only good; all they desire is that it may go well with all about them; they wish no hurt to any, but happiness to all; as to themselves, their desire is not to gratify any evil lust, but to obtain the favour of a good God and to preserve the peace of a good conscience; and good they shall have, that good which they desire, Ps. xxxvii. 4.
2. The wicked would have wrath; they desire the woeful day, that God’s judgments may gratify their passion and revenge, may remove those that stand in their way, and that they may make an advantage to themselves by fishing in troubled waters; and wrath they shall have, so shall their doom be. They expect and desire mischief to others, but it shall return upon themselves; as they loved cursing, they shall have enough of it.
22 As a jewel of gold in a swine’s snout, so is a fair woman which is without discretion.
By discretion here we must understand religion and grace, a true taste and relish (so the word signifies) of the honours and pleasures that attend an unspotted virtue; so that a woman without discretion is a woman of a loose and dissolute conversation; and then observe,
1. It is taken for granted here that beauty or comeliness of body is as a jewel of gold, a thing very valuable, and, where there is wisdom and grace to guard against the temptations of it, it is a great ornament, (Gratior est pulchro veniens de corpore virtus–Virtue appears peculiarly graceful when associated with beauty); but a foolish wanton woman, of a light carriage, is fitly compared to a swine, though she be ever so handsome, wallowing in the mire of filthy lusts, with which the mind and conscience are defiled, and, though washed, returning to them.
2. It is lamented that beauty should be so abused as it is by those that have not modesty with it. It seems ill-bestowed upon them; it is quite misplaced, as a jewel in a swine’s snout, with which he roots in the dunghill. If beauty be not guarded by virtue, the virtue is exposed by the beauty. It may be applied to all other bodily endowments and accomplishments; it is a pity that those should have them who have not discretion to use them well.
21 Though hand join in hand, the wicked shall not be unpunished: but the seed of the righteous shall be delivered.
Observe,
. That confederacies in sin shall certainly be broken, and shall not avail to protect the sinners: Though hand join in hand, though there are many that concur by their practice to keep wickedness in countenance, and engage to stand by one another in defending it against all the attacks of virtue and justice,–though they are in league for the support and propagation of it,–though wicked children tread in the steps of their wicked parents, and resolve to keep up the trade, in defiance of religion,–yet all this will not protect them from the justice of God; they shall not be held guiltless; it will not excuse them to say that they did as the most did and as their company did; they shall not be unpunished; witness the flood that was brought upon a whole world of ungodly men. Their number, and strength, and unanimity in sin will stand them in no stead when the day of vengeance comes.
2. That entails of religion shall certainly be blessed: The seed of the righteous, that follow the steps of their righteousness, though they may fall into trouble, shall, in due time, be delivered. Though justice may come slowly to punish the wicked, and mercy may come slowly to save the righteous, yet both will come surely. Sometimes the seed of the righteous, though they are not themselves righteous, are delivered for the sake of their godly ancestors, as Israel often, and the seed of David.
20 They that are of a froward heart are abomination to the LORD: but such as are upright in their way are his delight.
It concerns us to know what God hates and what he loves, that we may govern ourselves accordingly, may avoid his displeasure and recommend ourselves to his favour. Now here we are told,
1. That nothing is more offensive to God than hypocrisy and double-dealing, for these are signified by the word which we translate frowardness, pretending justice, but intending wrong, walking in crooked ways, to avoid discovery. Those are of a froward heart who act in contradiction to that which is good, under a profession of that which is good, and such are, more than any sinners, an abomination to the Lord,Isa. lxv. 5.
2. That nothing is more pleasing to God than sincerity and plain-dealing: Such as are upright in their way, such as aim and act with integrity, such as have their conversation in the world in simplicity and godly sincerity, not with fleshly wisdom, these God delights in, these he even boasts of (Hast thou considered my servant Job?) and will have us to admire. Behold an Israelite indeed!
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