Category:Bible Code (subject)

From 4 Enoch: : The Online Encyclopedia of Second Temple Judaism, and Christian and Islamic Origins
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Bible Code

Overview

The idea that a set of secret messages is encoded within the Hebrew text of the Torah, is very ancient in both Christianity and Judaism and can be traced back in ancient times in some allegorical interpretations, as the ones we find in the Jewish Hellenistic traditions of the Letter of Aristeas and Philo, and in the Christian Letter of Barnabas.

Example of gematria are numerous both in the Rabbinic and Christian reading of the Torah. In Hebrew and Greek, each letter possesses a numerical value. Gematria is the calculation of the numerical equivalence of letters, words, or phrases, and throughout history, many Jewish and Christian scholars have attempted to find hidden or coded messages within the Bible's text based on gematria. Especially in mystical and cabalistic circles, such an approach to Scripture was very popular as capable of generating "hidden" revelations beyond the letter of the text.

In contemporary times, the application of computer science to the biblical text has led to the "discovery" of coincidental sequences of words, interpreted as a secret code encoded in the text.

From a purely historical perspective, there is no value in such speculations; it is very simple to manipulate words to create almost any message. Nonetheless, the search for hidden secret codes is a fascinating chapter in the history of the interpretation of the Bible.

Some books supporting the existence of a Bible Code

Fictional works supporting the existence of a Bible Code