Hidden Messages

and the Bible Code

"Hidden messages" can be found anywhere, provided the seeker
is willing and able to harvest the immense field of possibilities.
But do they mean anything?

DAVID E. THOMAS

Bible Code: The Book

A
new book entitled The Bible Code (Drosnin 1997)
came out last June and has occupied the bestseller
lists since then. It is written by journalist Michael
Drosnin, who claims that the Hebrew Bible contains a very
complex code that reveals events that took place thousands
of years after the Bible was written. Drosnin contends that
some foretold events later happened exactly as predicted.
The book has been reviewed widely and has stimulated
pieces in Newsweek and Time. Drosnin has also been making
the rounds of the talk-show circuit, including the Oprah
Winfrey Show in June. Time said that Warner has reportedly
bought the movie rights (Van Biema 1997).
Drosnin's technique is heavily based on that of Eliyahu
Rips of Hebrew University in Israel, who published an arti-
cle entitled "Equidistant Letter Sequences in the Book of

November/December 1997 SKEPTICAL INQUIRER

Genesis" in the journal Statistical Science (Witzrum, Rips, and SANDMYDA U G H Tj E R S T H 0 U H
Rosenburg 1994). Like Rips, Drosnin arranges the 304,805 M Y D A U G H T E ils T H 0 U H A S T N
Hebrew letters of the Bible into a large atray. Spaces and punc-
tuation marks are omitted, and words are run together one
UGHTERST H 0 ©H AS T N 0 W D 0
ERSTHOUH A sT Ni0 W D 0 N E F 0
after another. A computer looks for matches to selected names
or words by stepping to every nth letter in the array. One can HOUHASTN 0 wD OjN E F 0 O L I S
go forward or backward; and for each value of "step distance," ASTNOWDO u E©0J 0 L I S H L YI
77, diere are n different starting letters. Drosnin's match for OWDONEFO 0 L I SjH L Y I N S 0 D
"Yitzhak Rabin" had a step value n equal to 4,772. N E F O O L I S j H L Y IjN S 0 D 0 I N G
Both Rips and Drosnin work with the original Hebrew O L I S H L Y l ! N S @ D l0 I N G I T I S
characters, which are said to have been given by God to Moses
H L Y I N S O D j 0 I N Gj I T I S I N T H
one character at a time, with no spaces or punctuation, just as
they appear in "the code." The code is considered to exist only Figure 2. Matrix or "crossword puzzle" for "Roswell/UFO" hidden in KJV
in the Hebrew Bible and not in translations or any other Genesis.
books. The code concept, however, can be easily demonstrated
with English characters. Consider the following verse from the TE[R]STH|OJG)H A { | ] T N 0@D 0 N[f]|g)0 o[I] I S H0Y I N S@DO
King James Version (KJV) of the Book of Genesis:
Figure 3. "Roswell" and "UFO" hidden in KJV Genesis 31:28.
31:28 And hast not suffeted me to kiss my sons and my
daughters? thou hast now done foolishly in so doing. linear form in Figure 3. This match is as stunning as any
If you start at the R in "daughters," and skip over three let- described in Drosnin's book—yet none claim that the Bible
ters to the O in "thou," and three more to the S in "hast," and code would have translated gracefully over to the KJV Genesis.
so on, the hidden message "Roswell" is revealed! This message Drosnin claims mathematical proof that "no human could
has a step value of 4, as shown in Figure 1. have encoded the Bible in this way" (Drosnin 1997, 50-51).
He says, "I do not know if it is God," but adds that the code
G H T E[R]S T H[0]U H A [ | ] T N O[W]D 0 N [ | ] F 0 o [ I ] l S H[T|Y I N S proves "we are not alone."

Figure 1. "Roswell" hidden in KJV Genesis 31:28. Hidden Messages

When Drosnin finds a name or word match for a given step Some believe that these "messages" in the Hebrew Bible are not
value n, he then rearranges the letters into a huge matrix (which just coincidence—they were put there deliberately by God. But
he calls a "crossword puzzle"). The matrix is n leners wide, and if someone finds a hidden message in a book, a song played
inside this puzzle, the letters for the "hidden message" line up backwards, funny-looking Martian mesas, or some other object
together vertically. (Sometimes, a slightly different procedure is or thing, does that prove someone else put the message there
used to make the hidden wotd run diagonally, every other row, intentionally? Or might the message exist only in the eyes of the
and so forth.) The analyst ot the computet can then look for beholder (and in those of his or her followers)? Does perception
more keyword-related "hits" around the given hidden wotd. of meaning prove the message was deliberately created?
Secondary matches can be picked off vertically, horizontally, or Most of the data cited in favor of the purported intelligent
diagonally. Drosnin found the word "Dallas" (connected with alien construction of the "Face on Mars" is based on mathe-
keywords "President Kennedy") in one of his puzzles by start- matical relationships among various Martian structures and
ing at a D, and then picking the next letters by moving one locations. For example, author Richard Hoagland finds the
space over to the right and three spaces down several times. "Cydonian" ratio (the "face" lies on the Cydonia plains region
An example of such a matrix for the "Roswell" mention in of Mars), e/jr, in the tangent of the face's latitude of 40.868
KJV Genesis appears in Figure 2. The letters of "Roswell" now degrees north, in the ratios of angles of the D&M Pyramid,
appear vertically at the center of the puzzle. The actual matrix and in numerous other places (Hoagland 1992). Does that
of unique leners is only four characters wide here (dashed mean the "face" and "city" on Mars were "designed" for the
box), but I took the liberty of showing extra letters for context. express purpose of spreading that very message? Hoagland
A companion hidden message—"UFO"—is indicated within emphatically says, "Yes!" My inner skeptic says, "Not so fast!"
circle symbols. This "UFO" is itself a hidden message with a In my research into such phenomena, I have found numer-
step value of 12. Drosnin accepts any such messages, even
words running horizontally (i.e., the actual words of the Bible David £ Thomas works as a physicist in Albuquerque. He is a
strung together). If eithet "Roswell" or "UFO" had been graduate of New Mexico Institute of Mining and Technology and
found encoded in the Hebrew Bible, Drosnin would not have is currently vice president of the New Mexicans for Science and
hesitated to use wotds from the direct text as a "match" (for Reason. He is also a new SKEPTICAL INQUIRER consulting editor.
example, the words "thou hast now done foolishly.") He can be reached at P.O. Box 1017, Peralta, NM 87042-1017,
The unusual pairing of "Roswell" and "UFO" is shown in or by e-mail at [email protected].

SKEPTICAL INQUIRER November/December 1997 3 1

ous instances of Hoagland's Martian ratios on objects we know the Hebrew Bible would simply not make it into the King
were not designed or built by aliens, such as the U.S. Capitol James Version, much less into Edwards. And since the Hebrew
rotunda (Figure 4). Does that prove that Martians built this alphabet doesn't include vowels, it should be much harder to
structure? Or is this phenomenon related mainly to the deter- find matches in the English texts, because an additional char-
mination and skill of the person looking for a special message? acter match is required for each vowel.
Any special message? Drosnin's control was the Hebrew text of War and Peace.
There are dozens of books Drosnin claims that when they searched for words (such as
about Nostradamus. In one "comet," "Jupiter," etc.) in the Bible, they often found them
(Hewitt and Lorie 1991), the there, but not in War and Peace.
authors find hidden predic- I picked a set of names carefully. The list contained five
tions by scrambling the seer's names of four letters, five of five letters, five of six letters, five of
quatrains (in French, no less), seven letters, and five of either eight or nine letters. I was more
and then decoding according whimsical in my choice of subjects and chose talk show hosts,
to an extremely complicated scientists, and just plain folks as well as political or historical fig-
and mysterious formula. The ures. I found thousands of hidden occurrences of these names in
back cover prominently dis- both Genesis and Edwards. The results appear in Table 1.
plays one such unscrambled It is striking that tens of thousands of hidden occurrences
prediction: "1992—George were found for the twenty-five names submitted, for both
Bush re-elected." (Wrong.) Genesis and Edwards. More matches were found in the former,
The authors should have but it does have 50,000 more letters to work with. Another
Figure 4. The "Martian" ratio e/n •
A/B, hidden in the Capitol rotunda known that it's much safer to important observation is immediately apparent in Table 1—
(precise measurements of A and B find hidden predictions of short names like "Leno" or "Reed" were found much more fre-
yield A/B > 0.863, while e/n -
2.71828/3.14159 • 0.865, an error of events that have already hap-
less than one half of one percent). pened. Length Name Genesis Edwards
Some critics of Drosnin Deer 7440 3255
say the journalist is just "data mining." Mathematician Dole 2692 1349
Brendan McKay of Australian National University and his col-
4 Letters Leno 3353 2836
leagues searched Hebrew texts besides the Bible. They found
Newt 2554 1026
fifty-nine words related to Chanukah in the Hebrew translation
Reed 7340 3326
of War and Peace. But McKay doesn't think someone engi-
neered this remarkable feat for his or anyone's benefit. Since Gould 5 4
then, McKay has responded to me following challenge Drosnin Oprah 49 31
made in Newsweek: "When my critics find a message about the 5 Letters Regis 51 71
assassination of a prime minister encrypted in Moby Dick, I'll Rosie 202 341
believe them" (Begley 1997). McKay found assassination "pre- Sagan 107 62
dictions" in Moby Dick for Indira Gandhi, Rene Moawad, Leon
Asimov 1 0
Trotsky, Rev. M. L. King, and Robert F. Kennedy (see
Darwin 3 1
http://cs.anu.edu.au/-bdm/diIugim/moby.html). Eliyahu Rips
himself has denied Drosnin's implication that they worked 6 Letters Hitler 18 13
together, and has said, "I do not support the book as it is or the Romero 6 1
conclusions it derives" (Van Biema 1997). Stalin 15 10
Clinton 0 0
Hidden Names in KJV Genesis and Frazier 0 0
Edwards v. Aguillard 7 Letters Gardner 0 1
Hillary 0 0
I have very recendy carried out a study on finding hidden
Kennedy 0 0
names in both the KJV Genesis and the U.S. Supreme Court's
1987 ruling on Edwards v. Aguillard (a well-known ruling on Einstein 0 0
creationism, hereafter referred to as simply Edwards). I used Gingrich 0 0
the same set of rules for both the KJV Genesis (about 150,000 8or9 Churchill 0 0
Letters
characters) and Edwards (about 100,000 characters). I loaded Letterman 0 0
a list of preselected names and let the computer search for each Matsumura 0 0
one in turn, for equidistant letter sequences with step distances
from 2 to 1,000, and for every possible starting letter. I Sum 23836 12327
searched forward only. Table 1. Counts of hidden words found in KJV Genesis and Edwards v.
One would expect that special biblical messages hidden in Aguillard. at steps of 1,000 or less, forward only.

32 November/December 1997 SKEPTICAL INQUIRER

quently than long names like "Gingrich" or "Matsumura." Genesis Letter Counts
("Matsumura" is, of course, Molleen Matsumura of the
National Center for Science Education, in Berkeley, and 20000
"Romero" is Albuquerque boxer Danny Romero). "Martin
Gardner" was found hidden in Edwards, much as Gardner
anticipated could happen in his discussion of gcmatria and the
work of Rips and his colleagues (Gardner 1997). 15000
The results are clear and compelling, and certainly not sur-
prising. It is much easier to find short names fiian long names.
There might be thousands of occurrences of the four-letter
name "Rich," for example. But matching "Gingrich" is much 10000
harder, since few or none of the thousands of instances of
"Rich" will be preceded by "Ging" at exacdy the right step
locations. But there are 2,554 hidden occurrences of "Newt"
in KJV Genesis, so one could imagine that the Speaker of the
House is certainly mentioned copiously. 5000
There is, of course, another factor in the success of hidden
word searches. Simply put, some letters are more common
than others. Figures 5a and 5b give the relative frequencies for
the letters in Genesis and Edwards.
A B C D E F G H I JKLMNOPQRSTUVWXY2
The charts show that certain letters (such as A, D, E, H, I,
N, O , R, S, and T) appear more often than others. Obviously, Figure 5a. Frequencies of letters of the alphabet in KJV Genesis.

words made with these "hot" letters (such as "Reed," "Deer,"

"Stalin," or "Hitler") have a better chance of being found than
words containing any "cool" letters like J or Q. "Rosie" had
Edwards v. Aguillard Letter Counts
202 Genesis matches, more than the 49 for "Oprah"—but 15000
"Oprah" contains a cool P. (I also searched for "Harpo," which
is just "Oprah" backwards, and found 62 hits).
When 1 performed a separate search for "Roswell" in KJV
Genesis, I only found one hidden match for this seven-letter 12000
word. But I found 5,812 matches for "UFO," 187 for "disk,"
5 for "MOGUL," 4,798 for "NYU," 2 for "weather," 1,552
for "gear," 77 for "crash," 4 for "dummy," 295 for "alien," and 9000
2 for "saucer." I couldn't find "Roswell" in Edwards at steps of
1,000 or less, but I did find most of the others, and in similar
numbers.
6000
How Unusual Are Paired Messages?

Drosnin and odiers sometimes admit that finding isolated hid- 3000
den names or messages can be the product of random chance.
But they claim that finding linked pairs or triples of names or
words is so improbable that doing so proves the supernatural,
divine, or alien origin of the "message." In Drosnin's words. A B C D E F G H I JKLMNOPQRSTUVWXYZ
Consistently, the Bible code brings together interlocking Figure 5b. Frequencies of letters of the alphabet in Edwards v. Aguillard.
words that reveal related information. With Bill Clinton,
President. With the Moon landing, spaceship and Apollo ! 1.
With Hider, Nazi. With Kennedy. Dallas. I developed a computer program that takes various words
In experiment after experiment, the crossword puzzles were already located as hidden codes (such as "Hitler" and "Nazi")
found only in the Bible. Not in War and Peace, not in any and plays them against each other to find the best-linked pairs.
other book, and not in ten million computer-generated test
cases. (Drosnin 1997. 26) The starting letters and equidistant steps provide all the neces-
sary information, provided one learns how to manipulate it.
Perhaps there was a bug in Drosnin's computer program. Or I then used this approach to develop the puzzles shown in
perhaps he didn't really want to find hidden message pairs out- Figure 6a (Genesis, step = 500) and Figure 6b (Edwards, step
side of the Hebrew Bible. All I know is that I was able to easily = 157), both with direct coded linkages of "Hider" and
produce complex hidden messages in all the texts I worked with. "Nazi." These puzzles are striking counterexamples of

SKEPTICAL INQUIRER November/December 1997 33

Drosnin's claims. COMEAFLOODTODESTROYALLFLBSHANDTBEBOWSBALLBEINTBECLOUDANDIW
In response to Drosnin's challenge, I NA@BEWASUNCOVEREDWITB I N B I STENTANDH AMTHEFATHEROFCANAANSAWT
decided to look for "Hider" and "Nazi" INTBETENTSOFSBEMANDC^IAANSBALLBEBISSERVANTANDNOABLIVEDAFTE
linked in Tolstoy's War and Peace as INTBEIRNATIONSANDTBESONSOFHAMCUSBANDHI§}«AIMANDPBUTANDCANAA
well. I found an English translation of
UDIHANDANAMIMANDLE[H]ABIMANDNAPBTUBIMANDPATBRUSIHANDCASLUB[I]H
die epic novel on the Internet, and
IESANDINTBEIRNATQUNSUNTOSBEHALSOTBEFATBEROFALLTHECBILDRENO
downloaded the first twenty-four chap-
ters of Book 1, giving me about ONSOFJOKTANANDJT^EIRDWELLINGWASFROMMESBAASTBOUGOESTUNTOSEPB
167,000 characters. By the time I got to FORSTONEANDs£)lMEBADTHEYFORMORTERANDTBEYSAIDGOTOLETUSBUILDU
steps of just 750, I already had found UP0NTHEFAC|]0FAI.LTHEEARTHANDTHEYLEFT0FFT0BUILDTHECITYTHEREF
more than half a dozen excellent puzzle LIVEDTHlQrYYEARSANDBEGATEBERANDSALAHLIVEDAFTERBEBEGATEBERF
linkages of "Hider" and "Nazi." The
DAFTERBEBEGATNABORTWOBUNDREDYEARSANDBEGATSONSANDDAUGBTERSA
best appears in Figure 7: this entire puz-
zle text spans just five paragraphs of Figure 6a. Step matrix for Genesis, "Hitler/Nazi," step • 500.
Chapter 2 of Book 1 of Tolstoy's novel.
Drosnin uses many methods to
improve the odds of "impossible-by- UISIANADEPARTMENT0FEDUCATIONTBESCB00LSUPERINTENDENTSIN
chance" linkages. For one, he uses hor- ED I N T @ E S T A T U T E A B O U T P E R C E N T O F L O U I S I A N A S S U P E R I N T E N D E H T S S
izontal words taken direcdy from die I N T E N D E N T S 0 N T E R P R E T E D C R E A T I O N S C I E N C E A S D E F I N E D B Y T H E A C T T
original text. For example, when C H I N G T H E V I E W T H A [r)r H E U N I V E R S E W A S M A D E B Y A C R E A T 0 R I D A T E T H E C 0
Drosnin found "Clinton" linked to
GTHEINTENTOFTHELEGIS0ATURECONTEMPORANEOUSTOTHEPASSAGEO
"president," the word "president" was
TBATF0UNDSTATESTATUTEST0BguNC0NSTITUTI 0NALHAVEBEENDISP
just the Hebrew word for "chief," taken
from its actual context in the original 0NNORJOINSCONCURRINGIWRITESEP A|]A TELYT0N0TECERTAI@ASPEC
Bible. Secondly, Drosnin found some RETIONACC0RDEDSTATEANDLOCALSCH00L0FFICIALSINTBESELECTI
hidden dates referring to die Hebrew E R H I N E W B E T B E R A P A R T I C U L A R S T A T E A C T I 0 N V I 0 L |A] T E S T B E E S T A B L I S
calendar; for example, Gulf War activ- INVOLVINGTBESENSITIVERELATIONSBIPBETWEENGOVERNMENTANDR
ity on January 18, 1991, was found in
ARLEGISLATIVEPURPOSELEMONVKURTJDMANSUPRAATSEECOMHITTEEF
the words "3rd Shevat." But, he found
other dates referring to the Gregorian TBEESTABLISBMENTCLAUSEIATBESTARTINGPOINTINEVERYCASEINV
calendar, such as that of the Oklahoma NCE DTREATHENTF0RCREAT0O NSC I ENC EANDEV0LUT I0NSC I ENCEACTA
City bombing, which was linked in the TREATMENTTOCREATIONSCIENCEANDTOEVOLUTIONSCIENCEBALANCE
Bible by the hidden date "Day 19," and
interpreted as a reference to both April Figure 6b. Step matrix for Edwards v. Aguillard. "Hitler/Nazi," step = 157.

19, 1995, the date of the bombing, and

April 19, 1993 (Waco). And finally,
WITHQUICKSHORTSWAYINGSTEPSHE
Drosnin takes full advantage of die eccentricities of die Hebrew
ESSSATDOWJNJONASOFANEARTHESILV
language, in which words can be condensed and letters occa-
HERSELFANDTOALLAROUNDHERIHAV
sionally dropped.
My study generated several other examples that are just as RBAGANDADDRESSINGALLPRESENTM
spectacular, and just as unlikely (if not more so), dian most of C KONMESHEJAIDDEDTURNINGTOHERHO
Drosnin's matches. Now, Drosnin and his colleagues would P T I O N A N D J U S T S E E H O W B A D L Y IAMDR
probably say that the "Roswell/UFO" connection in KJV H A ISTEDLACETRIMMEDDAINTYGRAY
Genesis was just a lucky break and couldn't happen again. But REASTSOYEJZJTRANQUILLELISEYOUW
I found 5,812 hidden "UFO's" in Genesis, and dozens of diese NNAPAVLOVNAYOOKNOWSAIDTHEPRI
happen to be flying right around and through the hidden word TURNINGTOAGENERALMYHUSBANDIS
"Roswell." As die puzzle step is changed, linked matches appear LMEWBATTH|I]SWRETCBEDWARISFORS
and disappear with astonishing frequency. Three such examples ITINGFORANANSWERSBETURNEDTOS
appear in Figure 8, for steps of 88, 589, and 753. Hoagland
ELIGBTFULWOMANTBISLITTLEPRIN
claims multiple discoveries of die same hidden message are
THENEXTARRIVALSWASASTOUTBEAV
indicative of "redundancy" used by the code-maker to assure us
the message is real (Hoagland 1992). But all that is really hap- A ClESI0EL[i]GB0Co[]oR0OBE]EECHES
pening here is that codes can be engineered—made to happen. ROWNDRESSCOATTHISSTOUTYOONGM
You just have to know how to harvest the field of possibilities. LKNOWNGRANDEEOFCATBERINESTIH
Figure 9 is .mother striking linkage I found in KJV Genesis,
Figure 7. War and Peace, "Hitler/Nazi," puzzle step = 69. "Hitler" step =
42:18 through 45:21. Here, die name "Regis" appears at a step 3, "Nazi" step = 207.

34 November/December 1997 SKEPTICAL INQUIRER

THEEAWAYHITHMIRTHANDWITHSONGSWIT of hidden words. The puzzle below is literally dripping with
A ® G HTE^|STH^]UHA^]TNOC]DONE]FOOE]ISHE]Y additional hidden surprises. Rips himself appears in "spirit"
R(?)A T H E R S P A K E U N T O H E Y E S T E R N I G H T S A Y read backwards. "Pour," "Alan," and "sash" run vertically. And
N@H T H O U G H T H O U W O U L D E S T N E E D S B E G O N E diagonal messages of varying complexity lurk everywhere. Can
ASTTBOOSTOLENMYGODSANDJACOBANSWE you find the "apes" swinging between "data" and "Reed"?
"Love" intersecting with "nude"? How about "Arcs," "reel,"
Figure 8a. Step matrix for Genesis, "RoswellAJFO." step • 88. "deft," "lion," "dogs," "pony," "hard," "diet," "trace," "card,"
"Poe," and "wan"? They are all in there—and more.
ALLTHERICHESWHICHGODHATHTAKENFRO There are dozens of linked messages in the puzzle above.
R B T H R E N W I T H H I H A N D P©R S U E D A F T E R H I H But how are we to know which words are linked by the secre-
E(R]S T H0©H A[S]T N O0D O NQ|)O 001 S H0Y I N S©D tive author? Is the "real" message "Nazi sent pure hate here,"
E R V A N T S T E N T S B U T H E F@U N D T H E H N O T T H E or is it "Deion pins nude Oprah?" All of these hits are authen-
EHTYYEARSHAVEIBEENWITHTHBETHYEWE tic, encoded names that have lurked inside the text of the King
James Version of Genesis for hundreds of years. But the whim-
Figure 8b. Step matrix for Genesis, "Roswell/UFOAJFO," step = 589. sical combinations they appear in show that these surprises are
simply lucky breaks, and not authentic messages from above.
K A N D S A I D U N T O T H E H I S E E Y O U R F A T H E R
L T H A T L A B A N D O E T H @ N T 0 T H E E f£)A H T H E G
What Are the Odds. Really?
O L D H I M N O T T H A T H E (£)L E D S O U E f£)L E D W I T
G H T E 0 S T H 0 U H A 0 T N@@D 0 N E ] F 0[64L] I S H [D Y Drosnin and his colleagues say that getting linked matches by
HEDAL-LTHETENTBUTFOUNDTHEHNOTAN coincidence is statistically impossible and cite the odds against
such coincidences as more than 3,000 to 1 (and sometimes
Figure 8c. Step Matrix for Genesis, "Roswell/UFCVIFO," step = 753. much more). Using numbers like these, the Bible code pro-
moters try to convince their readers that the existence of God
USALITTLEFOODANDJUDAHSPAK is now proven statistically beyond the shadow of a doubt, simply
EREDSURELYNOWWEHADRETURNE because they can find linked pairs like "Clinton" and "chieP
N D T H E M E N W E [ R ] E A F[R]A I D B E C A U S E in the same general area of the Bible.
BABDTBEYHAD|R|»DYTHEPIIESE But their core conclusions are based on severely flawed
EEGYPTIANSMI^JHTNOTEATBREA probability arguments. Drosnin's formulation of the improba-
bility of the occurrence of linked pairs is implicitly based on
BYINDEEDHEDE]V[I]NETHYEHAVED
the assumption that you have only one opportunity to get the
R O U N D A N D J O | E P H[S]A I D U N T O T H E match. But, with the help of the computer, Drosnin gets to
ESAIDUNTOMYLORDTHELADCANN take advantage of billions of opportunities.
ANTSSHALLBRINGDOWNTHEGRAY Let's look at Drosnin's approach with a lottery analogy. The
probability of winning a lottery with a single ticket is very
Figure 9. Step matrix for Genesis, first "Regis" at step = 808, second
"Regis" at step = 810 (puzzle step = 809).
small, and Drosnin says the probability of getting an improb-
able match (such as "Clinton" and "president") is also very
distance of 808, but also at a step of 810, which makes a nice small. But what happens if you buy more than one ticket?
"X" pattern if the puzzle step is 809. (Perhaps someone should In the New Mexico "Daily Millions" lottery, the odds of
notify Regis Philbin and agents Mulder and Scully). winning the $1 million jackpot with just one ticket are about
If you work at any given puzzle for a while, large numbers of ten million to one against. With two tickets, the odds plum-
unexpected names and words invariably turn up. Consider the met, to about five million to one. If you buy one million tick-
puzzle of Figure 10. This text is a contiguous rendition of Genesis ets, your odds drop to only about ten to one against. And if
41:38-46. This particular puzzle is easy for the reader to verify you invest $10 million in tickets, the odds become approxi-
manually, since it has a relatively small step of 40. The puzzle mately two to one in your favor! Most people can't afford to
itself is 41 characters wide, so the rightmost column is a repeti- buy millions of tickets. Those who do have that kind of money
tion of die leftmost. I used the computer to find several diago- usually don't dump it on the lottery, because you almost always
nal messages here: "Deer," "Regis," "Nazi," "Leno," "Dole." end up losing.
Many vertical messages were simple enough to be found just by But in Drosnin's game, you don't have to win more than you
poring over die puzzle: for example, "Oprah," "here," "Leia," lose. You don't even have to break even. All you need for success
"Hale," "sent," "nude," "pure," "hate," "data," "Roe," "Reed," is to win every once in a while. And, you can have what amounts
"Meg," "hood," "pins (snip)," "Deion," and "lone." "Newt" is in to millions of "free lottery tickers" simply by running a com-
there too, but at an offbeat step that makes for a jilted arrange- puter program, or poring over crossword-puzzle printouts.
ment. And then, there are all those horizontal words too! Drosnin routinely tests billions of letter sequences for matches to
I suspect that with diligence, one could find enough selected words or names, and goes to steps of many thousands.
matches to make almost all of the characters in the puzzle parts By using steps lower than 1,000 only, I limited myself to using

SKEPTICAL INQUIRER November/December 1997 3 5

SSERVAHTSCANWEFINDSUCHAONEASTHISISAMANINW j t h i n k ^ fea| q u e s t i o n s n o u y ^
WHgMTHESPlRiTOFGODisgNDPHAgAOHSAlDUHTOJOS "How could such coincidences not be
SEJPJBFORASHUCHASGODHA&JHSHEWEJDTHEEALLTHISTH the inevitable product of a huge
H E S J E I S N O N E S Olftl S C R E E T | A ] N D W I S E 1 A S T H 0 U A R T T H 0 U S sequence of trials on a large, essentially
ranao
S B B L T B E O V E R H Y B O U Bj(£) A N g A C C O R g l N G U N T O T H Y W O R D "' OaOOUet
_ _ ._, „ „ A Once I learned how to navigate in
© S M I A L L A LiLiM Y P E 0 P LiEiB E RJU LE)D 0 N L Y I N T H E T H R 0 N E W I . ~ ,. „. ,.,.b„
v •=' o CJ ^ puzzle-space, rinding incredible pre-
I L L I B E G R g A T EfR)T B A g T B § U A N D P B AfR)A 0 B S A I D U N T 0 J 0 d i „ i o m became a routine affair. I found
O S E P B S E E g B A V E S B T g B [£)g O V E R A L 0 T B E L A N D O F E G Y P T " c o m e t , " " H a l e , " a n d " B o p p " l i n k e d in
T A N D P B A R jAJ 0 B T 0 0 K 0 P F B I S R I N |S)F R 0 M B I S B A N g A ® D P u KJV Genesis, along with "forty" and
U T I T u P§)N J O S E P B S B A g D A N D A R R A Y g o H£)M I N v g s T U R E "died" w h i c h c o u l d •* interpreted as
E S 0 F F I H E L I N E N A N D P $ T A G 0 L D C B A I H A B 0 U T B £]&* E c K an obvious reference to Heavens Gate.
I found Trinity, Los Alamos,"
K A N D B E H A D E B I H T O R I D J E I N T B E S E C O gt>;C B A R I D J T W B I C
"atom," and "bomb" encoded together
C B g E B A D A H D T B E Y c R I § D B E F 0 R E B I H B giw T B E K | s §]®N D in flfc^ i n a section containing ref-
DB§iMADE^]iHRU|^lEROVERALLTBELANDgFEGYiJTASJDPH erences to "security," "test," and "anti-
BAfcjAOBSJAJI D U N T 0 J 0 S EJjp] B I A M P B A R A O S ] A N D W 5 ] T B 5 ] U T I fascist." And I found "Hider" linked to
T H g E S H A g L H 0 H A H L I F g g p H I S B A N D 0 R F 0 0 T I g A I, g T H E " N a z i " d o z e n s of times in several books.
B L A • D 0 P JSJG Y P T A • D P H H g A 0 H C A L L E D J 0 8 B P H g > » M E ©A * £ • J f <>« » ™gin«r a "hidden
„_, „ code link of code and "bogus" in
A P B N A T B P A A N E A B A N D H E1G A V E B I uMiT 0 K I F E A S E N A T B T B „,., „ . . ,. ,
"J*" KJV Genesis, I was able to produce
BEDAUGBTEROFPOTIPBERABPRlpjSTOFONANDJOSEPB s i x t y c | OS ely linked pairs. And every sin-
B W E N T O U T O V E R A L L T B E L A N D O F E J 3 J Y P T A N D J O S E P B W A S g l c o n e o f t h e s e p a i r s c o u l d fit i n s i d e a
S T B I R T Y Y E A R S O L D H B E N B E S T O O D B E F O R E P B A R A O B K ® r e a s o n a b l y sized p u z z l e .
The source of the mysterious
FigurelO. Genesis 41:38-46. multiple matches, step = 40. "Bible code" has been revealed—it's
homo sapiens.
Now
only about 3 percent of the potential of Genesis or Edwards. somebody go tell Oprah.
Brendan McKay (in personal communication) showed me how
to find hidden words much more efficiendy, and a search of KeTerences
KJV Genesis at all possible steps for my list of twenty-five names Bcglcy s h a r o n m7 Seck ind yc sha „ find Nemweek J u n e 9_ p p s^-,
came u p with over o n e million additional matches. T h e s e Drosnin, Michael. 1997. The Bible Code. New York: Simon and Schuster.
include sue hits for "Clinton," fifteen for "Gardner," three for Gardner, Martin. 1997. Farrakhan, Cabala, Baha'i, and 19. Skeptical Inquirer
21 (2): 16-18. 57.
"Hillary" and "Einstein," and two for "Kennedy." Hewitt, V. J., and Peter Lorie. 1991. Nostradamus: The End of the Millennium.
New York: Simon and Schuster.
Hoagland, Richard C 1992. The Monuments of Mars: A City on the Edge of
Conclusion Forever. Berkeley, Calif.: North Atlantic Books.
Van Biema. David. 1997. Deciphering God's plan. Time. June 9. p. 56.
The promoters of hidden-message claims say, How could w,mam_ D o r o n , E] ivanu p ^ a n d Yoav iWnburg. 1994. Equidistant let-
such amazing coincidences be the product of random chance?" ter sequences in the Book of Genesis. Statistical Science 9 (3). D

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36 November/December 1997 SKEPTICAL INQUIRER