Cracking the Bible Code

Prophecy online

by Jason Gay

The World Wide Web is brimming with sites dedicated to Bible codes and other hidden-message phenomena. The best site, "Mathematical Miracles in the Qur'an or the Bible?" (http://www.math.gatech.edu/~jkatz/Religions/Numerics/) serves as a launch pad for several dozen different hidden-code links, as well as critical responses from the mathematics community. There, you can find both scientific and lay analyses of Bible and Koran codes, along with several other spinoff code theories involving numerology. It also offers a dose of fun: the site features links to a handful of code satires, including programs which "prove" that both Barney and Microsoft's Bill Gates are Satan.

Another funny site, http://www.media-cafe.com/camilleg/666/, allows you to translate almost any person's name into the Number of the Beast. Convinced your boss/roommate/relative is the Devil incarnate? Here's the evidence you've been looking for.

Though it's easy to joke about The Bible Code, a number of religious groups are taking the book quite seriously. One site, an online religion bulletin board called Prophezine (http://www.prophezine.com/BBS/bbs_forum.cgi) has dedicated a special discussion forum to the book, with an area to post responses. If you wish to stay updated, you can also get yourself on a Bible Code mailing list by sending an e-mail request (address it to tcode-request@postman.ior.com).

One religious group taking the Bible Code story quite seriously is Aish HaTorah, which organizes Discovery, an international seminar dedicated to helping secular Jews pursue a more Orthodox lifestyle. Discovery's website (http://www.discoveryseminar.org/cgibin/var/aishdisc/index.html) features several discussion areas and articles about the phenomenon.

Christian groups have also utilized Bible-code theories to recruit new members, and there are several websites offering the code as irrefutable evidence of God's existence. Two of the more interesting sites are Bible Prophecy 1997 (http://www.geocities.com/ athens/acropolis/4162/) and the Bible Prophecy Page (http://webster.skypoint.net/members/pheo/BibleProph.html).

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Jason Gay can be reached at jgay[a]phx.com.