The Bible Code: Scientific Evidence of Hidden Messages in the Torah

One of the most astonishing phenomena is the existence of codes embedded throughout the Torah. There are many forms of encoding known to the sages of Israel since the giving of the Torah at Sinai, but modern science is currently aware of only one form, known as the “Equidistant Letter Sequence” (ELS).

These embedded codes cover every field and detail of creation, from the dawn of history until the end of time. Words and phrases containing specific pieces of information related to the same subject often appear close to one another or intersect within the text, such as events and their details; names of people together with encrypted references to events in their lives, including birth and death dates; laws from the Oral Torah; information about the plant kingdom; and much more.

Physicist Doron Witztum and mathematician Professor Eliyahu Rips, from the Institute of Mathematics at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, conducted a scientific study of the Bible Code. Their work gained worldwide attention in both scientific circles and the media.

One of the unique features of the Torah’s embedded codes is the proximity of related expressions to one another. In the Bible Code research, the team prepared a list of 34 pairs of related expressions — such as a person’s name and their date of birth or death, and tested whether these pairs appeared in close proximity within the text.

Dr. Moshe Katz, in his book The Torah Was Given in Its Letters, writes about the study: “All 34 pairs of expressions from the list were examined. The statistical value of each proximity was calculated. The findings showed that the probability of such proximities occurring by chance is an astronomically small likelihood.”

The closeness of related encoded expressions is a phenomenon with virtually zero probability of occurring by coincidence.

Dr. Katz adds that comparison tests were performed: researchers attempted to find, using the same ELS method, similar proximities of related expressions in other lengthy texts — such as in a text of equal length to the Torah, or in the Torah text itself after its letters had been randomly rearranged by computer. In every case, the phenomenon of related encoded proximities did not appear in any other text.

This discovery drew global attention as the research expanded. Harold Gans, a senior cryptanalyst for the Pentagon, reviewed the findings in an attempt to disprove them. His conclusion was striking: “A chill went down my spine. I came to disprove the code, but in the end, I proved it.”

In 1994, American journalist Michael Drosnin, author of The Bible Code, identified a code that warned of the assassination of Yitzhak Rabin. He sent a letter of warning to the Prime Minister’s office, but it was ignored. In his letter, Drosnin wrote about the discovery of a hidden Torah code by an Israeli mathematician, revealing details about events that would occur thousands of years after the Torah was written: “I am telling you this,” he wrote, “because this is the only time your full name Yitzhak Rabin, appears encoded in the Bible, and the words ‘assassin who will assassinate’ cross your name.”

In his book, Drosnin recounts: “When I heard that Rabin had been assassinated, I was in shock, not because of the murder itself, but because I realized the code was real.”

Robert J. Aumann, a member of the U.S. National Academy of Sciences, examined the Bible Code research and remarked: “Statistically, this is far beyond what is normally required. The strictest scientific standard ever applied is 1 in 1,000. Professor Rips’ results are significant to at least 1 in 100,000. You simply don’t see results like this in ordinary scientific experiments. The Bible Code is simply a fact.”

The only reasonable conclusion is that there exists a Higher Power who foresaw and knew all of history and the unfolding of creation, and encoded it in non-human ways into the very verses of the Torah.