Preliminary notes:
- You might want to review the earlier “Bible Codes” post before reading this.
- I’m deliberately skipping details about gematria, which involves assigning a number to each alphabet letter, in this case Hebrew, then trying to find significant names/dates/events in certain combos.
- I’m not detailing the problem of Hebrew-to-English-only—except to say: It seems that if God encoded a secret, universal message into an ancient Hebrew manuscript, it would be discoverable in every language, not just in English. And what about the fact that letters in one language (i.e., Hebrew) don’t necessarily have exact equivalents in other languages (e.g., the guttural “ch” in Hebrew is not found in English)?
Hebrew Manuscripts of the Old Testament
If the idea behind Bible codes is that there are secrets within actual Hebrew manuscripts of the Old Testament, it assumes that the Lord did this intentionally. We don’t expect hidden messages within, say, the Gettysburg Address or Aunt Mildred’s cookbook. Perhaps it seems spooky cool to think of God hiding codes in the Bible. But the Lord is super clear that he “detests” and forbids “divination” (ex: Deuteronomy 18:9-14). Divination involves trying to see future events or uncover hidden knowledge. Think of tarot cards, horoscopes, Ouija board, interpreting omens or “signs,” gazing at a mirror/candle flame/water… One critic of the Bible code idea put it bluntly: “Why would [the Lord] turn the Bible into some kind of crystal ball?”
Hebrew Alphabet in General
To look further into the idea of secret messages just within the Hebrew alphabet itself… well, the trend leans into all kinds of techniques for finding these supposed secrets. One involves reversing the alphabet. (If we did this English, A would become Z; so z-o-o becomes a-l-l.) Other strategies skip every second letter—or third or fourth, trying different things… Mercy! How could you do all that and NOT find something interesting?
I couldn’t resist randomly tossing out some Scrabble pieces to see what would happen. In just one toss, several words lined up. Three were very close together: RAT, JAB, CLAW. Hmm… Has the Scrabble god revealed that I’m about to be jabbed by a rat’s claw?
Some promoters describe how each Hebrew letter represents (or looks like) a certain body part. At least one source advised believers to place each of the 22 Hebrew letters on its “corresponding” body part “while synchronizing with the breath.” The goal? To transfer/channel spiritual energy. Another promoter said to get into a Hindu corpse pose for some kind of meditation on the Hebrew alphabet. Do you see? We’re taking one tiny idea (that letters are pictures) and manufacturing a formula: if you do this and this and this… something magical must happen. That’s sorcery.
If promoters believe the Hebrew alphabet is magic simply because it was the language of the Old Testament, perhaps they’re thinking God himself, rather than humans, created the Hebrew alphabet. (You can look up the history of this language.) And if the confusion of languages in Genesis 11 indicates that God himself created the various languages, then Hebrew wouldn’t be unique.
As for those traditions that say the Hebrew letters are actual pictures, yes, some Hebrew word makeups are interesting. For example, I read that the Hebrew word for truth seems to be spelled aleph (meaning “beginning”), mem (“middle”), tav (“end”). We could imagine it representing that real truth begins and ends with God. But wouldn’t that be a natural thing for the language of people who believed in God?
What’s more amazing to me are things found within the languages of pagan peoples. For example, kanji characters are pictographs in the Japanese language. These characters are borrowed from the Chinese; they are very, very ancient. Certain ones seem to represent Bible ideas. Like, the kanji for ship [船] combines three characters: the number eight [八] + mouth/person [口] + boat [舟]. Hmm… In the Genesis flood, eight people were saved on a boat. So this kanji character is a logical representation of the concept of ship—IF the account of Noah’s ark was widely known (which it surely was). There are many other kanji characters that similarly seem to represent Bible ideas. (For more on this topic, check out The Discovery of Genesis by Kang and Nelson.)
It’s intriguing that the language of a nonbelieving culture contains pictures so obviously related to Bible accounts/concepts. But intriguing doesn’t mean magic. Should we paste kanji characters somewhere on our bodies, get into a Hindu corpse pose, and breathe a certain way so that ___?
English ABCs also seem to have been adapted from ancient language symbols/pictures. (You can look up the history.) If we’ve decided that ancient equals magic… well, my sarcastic side imagines putting our English ABCs on certain body parts to channel spiritual energy. Like, maybe A goes on the Ankle, B on the Butt…
As indicated in the earlier post on this topic, the Lord hasn’t hidden what he wants us to know. Let’s ditch the endless search for supposed secrets to focus on legit study of (and gratitude for!) Bible truth.
