The advent of computers has spawned a new way of reading the Bible, one that imagines God to be texting us in hidden revelation only available through software programs. Such is the Bible Code, published by some Israeli statisticians in 1994 and popularized by journalist Michael Drosnin four years later. This is a uniquely "tech take" on a more ancient belief that the Bible reveals prophetic insights through any number of means, from explicit prophecies of authorized seers like Jeremiah and Ezekiel to the more esoteric hidden scripts of apocalyptic literature (remember Daniel's interpretation of the dream of the statue, or Matthew's embedding of King David's name in the number 14 in his genealogy).
We begin our final week with Drosnin's thesis. Skim his article, and then read the critique by Christian scholar J. Paul Tanner (critiques by statisticians and mathematicians are in the links below). From both articles, be able to answer the following questions:
Describe the method of the Bible code. How does it (supposedly) work?
From your own reading of Drosnin and from Tanner's piece, be able to identify six problems with these Bible codes.
In class, we'll discuss these questions, and also talk about why these kinds of theories are so popular in our scientific era.
Assigned Readings
Primary: Michael Drosnin, "The Bible Code," in The Bible Code (New York: Touchstone, 1998) 14-51 (skim; on Camino)
Secondary: J. Paul Tanner, "Decoding the 'Bible Code,'" Bibliotheca Sacra 157 (2000) 141-59 (Camino); online class prep
Michael Drosnin
is an American journalist and author, best known for his book, The Bible Code.
J. Paul Tanner
is Middle East Director for BEE World (Biblical Education by Extension). An evangelical Christian, he has published several articles and is currently completing the Evangelical Exegetical Commentary on the Book of Daniel. He has taught for extended periods in Singapore and Jordan.
Video Links:
The Secrets of Kabbalah - Provides an introduction to the roots of Jewish mysticism and explains the place of numerology in this millennia-old Jewish tradition. This tradition is not directly linked to the thesis of The Bible Code, but demonstrates the persistence of an attraction to mysticism in Jewish tradition.
3.47
Further Reading
Jackson, Allyn. "Book Review: The Bible Code, by Michael Drosnin." Notices of the American Mathematical Society 44:8 (September 1997) 935-8. Online, http://www.ams.org/notices/199708/review-allyn.pdf, accessed 28 November 2015.
Kass, Robert E. "Introduction to 'Solving the Bible Code Puzzle' by Brendan McKay, Dror Bar-Natan, Maya Bar-Hillel and Gil Kalai." Statistical Science 14:2 (1999) 149.
McKay, Brendan, Dror Bar-Natan, Maya Bar-Hillel and Gil Kalai. "Solving the Bible Code Puzzle." Statistical Science 14:2 (1999) 150-73.
Sternberg, Shlomo. "Comments on The Bible Code." Notices of the American Mathematical Society 44:8 (September 1997) 938-9. Online, http://www.ams.org/notices/199708/review-allyn.pdf, accessed 28 November 2015.
Witztum, Doron, Eliyahu Rips and Yoav Rosenberg. "Equidistant Letter Sequences in the Book of Genesis." Statistical Science 9:3 (1994) 429-38.
Links
The Case Against the Codes - Barry Simon's refutation, archived on the Wayback Machine/Internet Archive.
Mathematicians' Statement on the Bible Codes - A brief statement by 55 mathematicians and statisticians discounting the Bible codes; the list includes several scholars who discount the codes despite also holding to the belief that the Torah was "divinely written" (including hte statement's author, Dr. Barry Simon, IBM Professor of Mathematics and Theoretical Physics at the California Institute of Technology).
