Article author: Rob Rose
Article editor: JayMalakai (Links and format only)
2) The word of God
Before we delve into the Scriptures, let’s take a moment to understand how unique the Bible truly is. The Bible is a book, or more accurately, a collection of books which are rooted in geography yet contain a message that emerges from history.
The city-states of ancient Sumer
Empire.
Egypt of the pharoahs
The Bible did not arise from a single culture or time. For example, the Vedic writings of the Hindu may be a collection of various writings and traditions but they are all exclusively Indian. All characters are Indian and all locations are, as well. Likewise, Greek mythology is exclusively Greek and Egyptian mythology is exclusively Egyptian. The same can also be said for the legendary tales from ancient Mesopotamia. Whether you are looking at Native American myths or African tribal traditions, all of these histories remain centered around their respective people. The Bible is the only ancient record to account for ALL the ancient nations on the Earth and it is the only collection to emerge from several different cultures and continents.
The writings that make up the Bible were also written over a span of 2000 years. Its pages come to us from the ancient city-states of Sumer, Egypt of the Pharaohs, the pagan Canaanite culture, Israel of both the late Bronze and early Iron Ages, the royal courts of Persia, the rapid expansionist Hellenistic civilization, and the mighty Roman
The pagan Canaanite culture
The kingdom of Israel
The Bible is a series of books, letters, hymns, and prophecies as well as catalogued records and blueprints. It is a collected total of 66 separate documents written by a minimum of 40 different people. These people come from various social classes and careers. The authors include sages, kings, farmers, cupbearers, military generals, fishermen, Pharisees, exiles, governors, doctors, legislators, tax-collectors, priests, and prisoners. In addition, there are a wide variety of literary styles. Josh McDowell, author of, The New Evidence that Demands a Verdict, lists 14 separate styles:
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Poetry
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Historical narrative
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Song
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Romance
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Didactic treatese
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Personal correspondance
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Memoirs
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Satire
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Biography
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Autobiography
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Law
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Prophecy
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Parable
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Allegory
The Bible was also written in three different languages. The New Testament was written in koine Greek. The Old Testament was primarily written in Hebrew with a few small portions penned in Aramaic (Daniel 2:4-7:28, Ezra 4:8-6:18, 7:12-26). In addition, these writings come from three separate continents: Africa, Asia, and Europe. Yet in spite of these various authors from different cultures and continents spanning across a large period of time, there is a single unified Message contained within. It is this Message, God's Word, which weaves its way throughout the entire collection. The more you read the Biblical record, the more you become aware of its unifying theme. It’s this single Message, the Word of God, which confirms the Divinity behind the text of our Holy Scriptures.
The royal courts of Persia
Throughout the text of the Holy Scriptures and among the many styles of writing, we see God’s Word spoken time and time again through prophecy. Literally hundreds of prophecies have accurately been fulfilled throughout the past millennia, causing much hope and anticipation for those that remain to come to pass, as well. Prophecy is not for the purpose of trying to divine what will happen in our future rather it is one of the Lord’s methods of authenticating His Word and delivering His Message. I say prophecy is one method because even today, we are discovering other fascinating methods the Lord has used to authenticate His Word.
Iota
In Matthew 5:18, Jesus tells us, for truly, I say to you, until heaven and earth pass away, not
an iota, not a dot, will pass from the Law until all is accomplished. An iota is the smallest of the Greek letters, and the dot signifies just a portion of a letter
such as in our letters, i and j. Many Jewish rabbis have an interesting saying; "we will not understand the Scriptures until the Messiah comes. But when He comes, He will not only interpret each of the passages for us, He will interpret the very words; He will even interpret the very letters themselves; in fact, He will even interpret the spaces between the letters!" Bible teacher, Chuck Missler relates how he originally thought this to be just a cute turn of phrase when he first heard this. However, he would soon come to respect this viewpoint much more.
Torah in Hebrew explanation
The first five books of the Bible are called the Torah. Jewish history and tradition teaches these to
have been authored by Moses, himself. Of the entire Old Testament, The Torah is revered above all else in the Jewish mind. It is considered the foundation for the rest of the entire Scriptures and is the basis for Hebrew society. It means "instruction" or "teaching." In Hebrew, it is written תורה
These are the Hebrew letters which equate to T,O,R, and H, hence the name Torah. When we look at the actual Hebrew text of the books of the Torah, we discover some amazing things. Hebrew is read from right to left so the first Hebrew letter is a tav. It is similar in sound to our T. the second letter is a vav, which operates much like our O. This is followed by a reysh, comparable to our R, and finally we have a hey, much like our H.
Throughout Scriptures, the number 7 turns up in many ways and has come to be recognized as the number representing completion. For example, the seventh day completed the week of Creation.
The mighty Roman empire
Below is a diagram showing the opening verses of Genesis as written in Hebrew. (This diagram and all related material are taken from Dr. Chuck Missler's MP3 Bible Commentary on the Book of Genesis, published by Koinonia House. Click on any of the diagrams to be taken to the website, khouse.org, and straight to the Genesis Commentary catalog page.) In it is highlighted something very intriguing. If we go to the first tav, we can then count 49 letters down the script and we arrive at a vav. 49 is the product of 7 times 7. This is probably a bit of a coincidence and a possible stretch so let's see what happens when you count 49 more letters down the Hebrew text. We discover a reysh. Another coincidence? Perhaps. What happens when we go 49 letters further into the script? We land on a hey. The actual Hebrew word, TORH, is hidden within the text. This is called an equi-distant letter sequence.
Perhaps we can still regard what just happened in Genesis as a remarkable coincidence. Let us turn to Exodus, again in the original Hebrew text, and see what happens. Incredibly, we discover the same strange thing illustrated for us again. From the first tav, we count 49 letters to arrive at a vav. This trend continues until we spell out TORH once again!
Next we turn to Leviticus but we find that this equi-distant letter sequence occurrence of the word TORH does not repeat itself. You chuckle to yourself and realize we were probably getting carried away with this counting the Hebrew letters nonsense... until we turn to the Book of Numbers. Here, as illustrated in the diagram below, we find a bizarre twist. TORH is spelled backward! From the first hey we count 49 letters and arrive at a reysh. 49 more letters takes us to a vav, and you can guess where we go from there.
As you may well be expecting at this point, when we turn to the final book of the Torah, Deuteronomy, the Hebrew text offers us the same fascinating anomaly, the word TORH spelled backward in an equi-letter distant sequence of 49. Again, 49 is the equivalent of seven times seven.
This is too uncanny to have happened by chance. If you recall, this strange hidden code did not appear in Leviticus, neither forward nor backward. However, a closer inspection of the Hebrew text reveals another layer to this mystery. The number 7, as previously stated, is the square root of 49. Throughout the Old Testament, the Lord has revealed His name to be YHWH, which we translate as Yahweh, God’s covenant name with Israel. The YHWH is written in Hebrew like so: יהוה
The letters, written right to left are a yod, similar to our Y; a hey, similar to our H; a vav, which in this context can sound like a W or a V; followed by another hey. Knowing this, we can discover the final clue hidden within the Torah's book of Leviticus and decipher God's hidden Message within His Word.
Returning to the book of Leviticus, which is the central law of ancient Hebrew religious and civil society, we find the first yod written in the text. From there we count seven letters and discover a hey. Seven more letters reveals a vav, followed by another hey seven letters after that. In the very covenant of Moses, the Covenant name of God is hidden by an equi-distant letter sequence of seven. So, with the Torah spelled forward within the first two books and spelled backward in the final two books, what can that mean when combined with YHWH hidden in Leviticus? We find that the Torah always points toward the name of the Lord. The Law points to God!
Many questionable books have been written about the Bible codes, most notably those by Michael Drosnin. I personally wouldn’t recommend his as they are sensationalized, inaccurate, and a bit irresponsible. The books by Chuck Missler and Jeffrey Satinover which are referenced at the end of this article are good and responsible works on the matter. These deliberately hidden codes are tucked away in God’s Word not as a means for divining the future or uncovering new and unknown doctrines from the Lord. Rather they are simply further evidence for design and a means of authenticating the text as being authored from outside our time and world. These provocative nuggets are simply the fingerprints of God waiting to be discovered in His script. Their purpose is to bring glory to our Lord and Savior.
The Bible is a remarkable book. As we go through the Scriptures I will share more interesting supplements like this, as they arise. Some may be controversial and others simply provocative. References for further study and exploration will always be provided following the articles. Remember Acts 17:11 and don’t take my word for anything. Research these things for yourself. In the end, it’s not important if you believe anything I share. My goal is to pique your interest enough to investigate the Bible further and as a result consider the claims of Jesus for yourself.
Editor's comments
As a general rule, TGK discourages seeking "hidden messages" in the Bible, and we do not generally accept conspiracy theories. As Rob noted, however, this particular example does not add anything new. It doesn't identify Obama as the anti-Christ, or give us the exact date on which the rapture will occur, as some "hidden codes" often do. For that reason, and for the fact that it does not require any stretch of facts, I can openly endorse this fascinating example of evidence for the divine authorship of the Torah with a clear conscience, and highly reccomend further studies. May God bless Rob, and all his readers. Amen.
Sources and References for Further Study
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McDowell, Josh. The New Evidence That Demands A Verdict: Evidence I & II Fully Updated in One Volume To Answer The Questions Challenging Christians in the 21st Century, Nashville, TN: Thomas Nelson, 1999
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Missler, Dr. Chuck. Cosmic Codes: Hidden Messages from the Edge of Eternity, Coeur d'Alene, ID: Koinonia House, 2004
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Satinover, Jeffrey. Cracking the Bible Code, New York City, NY: Harper Publishers, 2003
Click here to visit From Marvel to Moses, a fascinating website run by Rob.