Picture Bible Code
Objections to the Bible Codes
Also see: Unraveling the Codes:
What about, "Consistency, scribal mother-vowels,
and the importance of the Bible numeric?"
(Part three of four parts)
Words of Caution and Instruction:
-1- Personal word of caution
-2- Weaknesses of the Bible Codes
-3- Answering objections
-4- Struggling with unbelief
Please read Seven Warnings!
Why are the bible codes? (Click here for this article.)
What about the "mother-vowel" insertions?
All arguments against the bible codes can be reasonably answered. The best argument against the bible codes is the issue of the "mother-vowel" insertions. Quasi-consonantal letters were inserted into the already existing Bible texts as substitutes for vowels. This practice occurred for about a thousand years, ending around the time of Christ. This was done for the sake of clarity and for preservation of proper pronunciation. While these insertions did not disturb the meaning of the text, it certainly did affect the bible codes since one letter added or left out might destroy a bible code---especially at large letter skips. But even this incontrovertible fact, (that a great many vowel-letters have been inserted into the text up until the time of Christ)---even this can be reasonably answered. For this does not disprove the bible codes, it only proves that if such codes do exist, then they did not appear until about the time of Jesus Christ. For, it was by this time that the text was settled into basically the same as we have today. (This is confirmed by the Dead Sea Scrolls.)
Actually, the mother-vowel insertions are the glory of the bible codes: They are the DNA, so to speak, that kept the bible codes hidden until Christ, (Revelation 5). After that, even though they were 'opened,' they were hidden by the power of God until now. (The wonderful mystery concerning these four mother-vowels will be explained in an forthcoming article.)
What about the minor changes to the text made after Christ?
There were still some minor insertions or deletions made within the text after the time of Christ. But these are relatively few. They especially can affect ELS above about 150-letter skips. The bible-codes researcher should, therefore, keep an eye on variant readings. Very long letter-skips, therefore, are suspect since they are very likely to come into conflict with many textual variants. This is especially true for books of the bible other than the Torah, (i.e., the 5 books of Moses). (Most of our bible codes are from the Torah---Thus, they are "Torah Codes."). However, it is important to note that if a bible code remains intact even despite textual variants, or if a very similar bible code reemerges, then that textual variant poses no problem. For sometimes only a letter or two is altered in a string of ELS, which produces a complimentary bible code to the first one that has virtually the same meaning as before!
What if God has chosen to make His power known by causing the bible codes to remain intact even with the minor textual variants that have crept in over the past 2000 years? What if God should cause the flaws of man to reveal His power by His ability to override these scribal blunders and cause a bible code to read in several, yet complementary, versions of the same message? This is what I have found to be the case for those bible codes at low-level skips (ELS).
The 'flag-pole' to the right is but one of many examples of this. The one-letter variant that occurs during the length of the 'pole' causes it to be severed exactly in the middle, in agreement with what the message along the pole is saying! The severing is due to some manuscripts that leave out the yod in the word, "you-were-weighed," (Daniel 5:27, instead of ), and this causes the line of 37 letters of this -3 ELS to therefore be broken. But the spot that it is broken is perfectly situated to be in the middle! Moreover, it is a 'yod' that causes the severing, and a 'yod' means a 'hand' in Hebrew. (Every Hebrew letter means something pictorially in Hebrew.) And it was a 'hand' that wrote on the wall announcing that Babylon was to be "divided (in half)"' (Daniel 5:28). See the banner-pole picture bible code for further details.
I use the Koren Hebrew text, by the way, as my standard text. This is the practice of most bible-codes researchers. However, the differences between texts, especially in the Pentateuch, are minuscule. Masoretic manuscript differences are not as much a problem (for low level ELS's) as some like to imagine. After all, sometimes just a letter may be affected in the spelling of a Hebrew word, but not the number of letters in that word---this would rarely affect a bible code. Or, sometimes a letter is inserted in one spot and then another deleted somewhere else---thus negating the net-difference in the number of letters with no affect, therefore, on the bible code. And still at other times, as said, a bible code is altered at some minor point, but the meaning is the same, or only slightly different, evenly complimentary! This is why low-letter ELS's are barely affected by textual variants. The bible codes researcher should look the problem straight in the face and and not run from the issue. He may be surprised to find that the bible code is enhanced by the variant, and not destroyed by it.
What about blasphemous bible codes?
All other arguments against the existence of bible codes---such as the supposed blasphemous codes---can be easily answered.
For instance, Genesis 1:1, with the spaces between the words removed, can read, "In the beginning, the sea god created..."
Now then, does this blasphemous one-letter ELS prove that Genesis 1:1 is not, in and of itself, a true sentence? Hardly! So likewise, neither does the existence of negative codes prove anything other than the fact that the decoder has decoded incorrectly! The onus is on the antagonist to come up with an extremely complex unscriptural (yet logical) bible code of the caliber presented in, say, the mene-tekel bible code, if they wish to prove their point.
What about the number of random ELS words in other Hebrew texts?
Others point to the fact that there are no more words hidden in the Hebrew bible than that above any other secular Hebrew text of comparable size. The reasoning goes, that if the bible contained hidden codes, then it should have a greater ELS word-count then say a randomly permuted text of the same size.
However, the fact that there are no more words present in the bible (by ELS) than in any other text of comparable size may simply mean that the bible codes are well hidden, and nothing more. This would be a simple task for God, would it not? Doesn't the bible teach that He conceals His secrets from men, (Luke 10:21-24)?
However, when you think about the fluidity of the Hebrew language, why should there be an increased word-count anyway? The Hebrew text (unlike many other languages) is already completely saturated with purely random ELS words. Why should the existence of bible codes hidden in the text increase this word-count? Saturation is saturation! This very saturation makes Hebrew the perfect language for hiding complex bible codes in the first place!
If I were to tinker with the bible (or any book) to wittingly create a few thousand new ELS words hidden in the text, would this necessarily increase the overall word count? No! It would simply mean that in adding a few thousand ELS words of my own concoction, I would likely have destroyed about the same number of random words that were there before I ever tinkered! So the net difference of hidden words in the text, on average, would be nil.
Also see: Unraveling the Codes:
What about, "Consistency, scribal mother-vowels, and the importance of the Bible numeric?"To fourth of four parts: My struggle with unbelief
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See also Do long bible codes prove that they are valid?
(Also, "Why I do not use the scientific method to find bible codes!"
And, "A confession about the inherent weakness of bible codes.")