Posted on 02/14/2005 5:29:01 PM PST by Quix
GREETINGS,
[The following posts are from the JAN/FEB BIBLE CODES DIGEST. I have their standing permission to post them on FR. The one to follow this one is an interesting discussion of codes seemingly about the “Da Vinci Code.” More to follow . .[“QxEmph”= Quix emphasis added] Some paragraphing was added when original paragraphs were long and included more than one significant topic.Quix]
Correspondence
Length of Bible Increases Chances
Your website stresses how unlikely it is that a cluster, such as the one found in Isaiah 53, would occur by chance, especially since the coded phrases correspond so closely with the meaning of the surface text. However, considering that the Bible is quite lengthy, consisting of approximately 1,500 pages, is it really that unlikely for such a cluster to appear by chance in one or more places in the Bible? Clearly, the longer the text, the greater the chances are for such anomalies to occur. If every page of the Bible contained such clusters, your premise would be quite compelling, but they do not.
The way to test the chances of such clusters occurring is indeed to analyze other works, and see how often these cluster anomalies occur, compared to how often they occur in the Bible. You could also perform the experiment on several or more randomly selected books of shorter length (than the Bible), which together, equal the length of the Bible. If the combination of books has more pages than the Bible, exclude the extra pages in the experiment.
I agree that one should not disregard the significance of smaller clusters that are also improbable, even though they are not as improbable as the Isaiah 53 cluster. The probability question is really this: What are the odds that all of the clusters found in the Bible, with due regard for their various lengths and densities, would occur in a text as long the Bible, (i.e., having the same number of letters as the Bible)? More generally, the question is: What does all of the data taken together tell us?
I am very anxious to read your new book!
Craig W. B
Wadsworth, OH
Director [of the “Isaac Newton Bible Code Research Society—publishers, originators of the BCD] Ed Sherman's Reply:
Thank you for your very thoughtful questions. We have tested a non-Biblical text, a Hebrew translation of Tolstoi’s novel, War & Peace, and have measured the probability of finding ELSs of different lengths within a non-encoded text, given how many ELSs have been searched for. This analysis [Link here: http://www.biblecodedigest.com/page.php/186 SEE POSTED BELOW THIS CORRESPONDENCE], along with parallel analyses of the Bible, form the basis of our claims.
You will find as you read the book that we deal with the question of text length carefully and, we believe, appropriately.
Your proposed probability question at the end of your e-mail is excellent theoretically, but is not feasible. The problem is that no program exists to do what you propose—because it would require, at a minimum, a program with the ability to take any string of Hebrew letters and to determine the longest portion of that string that represented intelligible, grammatically correct Hebrew phrases and/or sentences that appeared sequentially within that string. And it would also have to provide reliable translations of all the optimally lengthy strings from Hebrew to English.
Absent such a program, we must settle for the drawing of samples, the employment of a Hebrew expert and the application of probability estimation techniques. That is what we have done, and the results from the samples we have drawn from the Bible are so far beyond what chance could produce from a non-encoded text, that we should conclude that coding exists in the Bible.
Abstract
A set of 100 equidistant letter sequences (ELSs) were drawn, equally from the Hebrew text of the book of Ezekiel and a control text (a Hebrew translation of Tolstoy’s novel War and Peace). Each of these initial ELSs (that was the name of an Islamic nation) was reviewed for possible extensions by a Hebrew expert who was blind regarding the source text of each letter string. The number of extensions discovered in Ezekiel was more than 50% higher. A Markov chain model based on the indicated extension discovery rate from the control text (19.4%) was used to determine the expected range in the number of ELSs consisting of three or more extensions that would be discovered from the search for possible extensions around 295 initial ELSs in Ezekiel 37. Although only 5.95 ELSs consisting of three or more extensions were expected, 33 were actually discovered. The greatest number of ELSs with three or more extensions produced from 1 million trials of the Markov chain model simulation was 21. It is evident that the null hypothesis that the Ezekiel 37 findings were due to chance should be rejected.
A similar comparison was made assuming the much higher discovery rate (27.0%) indicated from the Ezekiel text of the Islamic Nations experiment. The null hypothesis was still rejected at the 0.001 level.
Introduction
In 1994 the paper, "Equidistant Letter Sequences in the Book of Genesis," was published in the journal Statistical Science. In it three Israeli mathematicians, Dr. Eliyahu Rips of the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, Dr. Doron Witztum and Yoav Rosenberg of the Jerusalem College of Technology, [QxEmph] described the results of an experiment in which the proximity of such sequences (ELSs) for related topics tended to be in closer proximity in the book of Genesis than in randomized re-orderings of that text. The ELSs studied were the names of 66 of the most famous rabbis in Jewish history and their dates of death or birth. ELSs are formed by eliminating the spaces between words in the Hebrew text of the Old Testament and then by selecting every n-th letter from the compacted text, where n is the skip of the ELS. For example, within the letter string n e w j e r s e y, "wes" is an ELS with a skip of +2 and "sewn" is an ELS with a skip of –2.
Once an initial ELS such as "wes" has been found at a given skip, an extended ELS can be sought by continuing to extract letters from the literal text at the given skip of the initial ELS. From the sentence, "People say New Jersey was wonderful," the following search string around the "wes" ELS is extracted:
The word "yawn" appears after "wes" in the string, but this is rejected as a valid extension since it doesn’t form a proper phrase in English. If the second to the last letter in this string had been a "d" instead of an "f," "yawned" would have been a valid extension of the "wes" ELS.
In 1997 Michael Drosnin authored the book, The Bible Code, which topped the New York Times best seller list for many weeks. An atheistic Jew, Drosnin claimed that the Bible was filled with ELS codes about numerous current events and that this was proof that some super-human intelligence who knew the future, had written the Old Testament.
Numerous mathematicians have argued heatedly that the Witztum Rosenberg Rips paper was flawed while others have staunchly defended it. [QxEmph] Drosnin’s book was repudiated by Dr. Rips, and dozens of mathematicians, since it presents dozens of trivial examples that are so simple that comparable examples could be extracted from any Hebrew book or random sequence of Hebrew letters.
Four years ago Mr. Sherman began examining this phenomenon, strongly suspecting that there was nothing to it. [Qx Emph] After developing formulae to estimate the probability of chance occurrence of different purported Bible code phenomena, he concluded that virtually all examples from published books were not at all improbable. A few published examples were borderline in terms of improbability, so the help of a Hebrew expert, Dr. Nathan Jacobi 2 , was sought to enable the search for more extensive ELSs in the same vicinity as the published examples of Hitler codes from Genesis 8 (from Drosnin) and Jesus codes from Isaiah 53 (from Christian author Grant Jeffrey). Dr. Jacobi discovered numerous lengthy ELSs in the Isaiah 53 cluster.
Mr. Sherman was forced to reverse his negative position on Bible codes, which he had been presenting on a website, and he changed the site to biblecodedigest.com. During April 2003 this website received 1.3 million hits as the result of interest generated by the war in Iraq and the posting of hundreds of ELSs regarding current events on that site.
In the past two years our research team has located over 120 lengthy ELSs by starting with short initial ELSs of key words about current events, centering on the terrorist attacks and related developments, that are all located in the 37th chapter of Ezekiel. The initial formulae were too simple to gauge the probability of chance occurrence of a code cluster as extensive as the one in Ezekiel 37, so another estimation approach was developed and applied. It is presented in this paper.
The Islamic Nations ELS Extension Experiment
To directly address the question of the purported validity of Bible codes, there has been a clear need for an impartial comparison of a collection of Bible codes with a parallel set of codes from an admittedly ordinary book. This paper presents the results of this experiment. Dr. Jacobi was given 100 pre-defined initial ELSs, equally drawn from the Hebrew text of Ezekiel and from a Hebrew translation of Tolstoy’s War and Peace. Dr. Jacobi searched for extended ELSs around each initial ELS—absent any knowledge of the source of each letter string. The two collections of extended ELSs were then compared and analyzed. This is the first such experiment of this type we have conducted.
Using the Hebrew spellings of a group of Islamic nations3, INBCRS researchers 4 located ELSs (with the five shortest skips) of these names of nations in a 78,064-letter portion of War and Peace and the 74,500-letter book of Ezekiel 5 provided with Codefinder software 6 .
Dr. Jacobi was sent five occurrences with the shortest skips from Ezekiel (and five occurrences from War and Peace) of the name of each of the Islamic nations as an ELS. He was asked to document whether letters before and after the terms created longer terms. Throughout the experiment, and up until June 2003, Dr. Jacobi has not known which of the initial ELSs and surrounding letter strings were from which source text.
The experiment was conducted from August 2002 through January 2003 by intermittently including portions of both sets of letter strings. Dr. Jacobi never knew when we started doing so and when we finished. We continued to submit to him our regular supply of letter strings from other parts of the Bible on other topics as part of a number of research projects. His task was always the same—to indicate whether letters before and/or after the terms created longer terms. During that period approximately one-third of letter strings he examined were part of the experiment.
All ELS extensions found around 50 initial ELSs in Ezekiel and 50 initial ELSs in War and Peace were examined and recorded. An extension is a phrase or brief sentence that appears entirely on one side of an existing ELS. The extension must represent a grammatically reasonable continuation of the existing ELS. As such, it could either incorporate part of the existing ELS or be a stand alone phrase or sentence that could reasonably precede or follow the existing ELS.
The average extension found in this experiment consisted of two Hebrew words that totaled seven letters. It is of course possible to find several extensions around an initial ELS to form one lengthy final ELS. For example, the following 53-letter-long ELS from Ezekiel 37 was formed by eight extensions found around the initial ELS of the Hebrew word for "combat":
1) The island was restful, elevated
2) and it happened.
3) Where is Libya?
4) And you have disrupted the nation.
5) She changed a word.
6) He answered them with combat.
7) Why the navy
8) and the smell of the bottom of the sea?
Table 1 provides a comparison of the search results on three different bases.
Appendix A provides a listing of all ELS extensions found in both search texts.
A key statistic estimated in this experiment is the ELS extension discovery rate. It is defined as the ratio of the actual number of extensions found to the number of opportunities available for finding an extension. At the beginning of each search of a new letter string, there are two opportunities to find an extension—one before the initial ELS and one after. If an extension is found, one new opportunity to find yet another extension is created. That opportunity will consist of the new letters that are now next to the extension that had just been discovered. There is no new opportunity on the other side of the ELS where an extension wasn’t found, since that opportunity has already been counted.
The discovery rate in the control text was 19.4% (=24/124). In Ezekiel, it was 27.0% (=37/137), which is 39.2% higher7. A standard statistical test of the null hypothesis that there is no difference in the underlying discovery rates (proportions) indicated that there was a 12.35% probability that the indicated difference could be due to chance. Therefore, the null hypothesis held up at the 0.10 significance level.
It has been our observation in the last four years of investigation that, if anything, the difference in the discovery rates is generally greater than the 8.1 %-age points indicated in this experiment, and appears to be in the range of 10% to 15%. If the 8.1 %-age differential were to hold up under a larger sample of initial ELSs, then the probability of chance occurrence of a differential as large as 8.1 % would drop below standard thresholds.
For example, if the names of 82 (rather than 50) Islamic nations were included in the experiment, the differential were to remain at 8.1%, then p would drop below the 0.05 significance level. If the names of 140 Islamic nations were included, p would drop below the 0.01 significance level. This possibility suggests the potential value of expanding the sample size in an enlarged version of this experiment. Of course, it is possible that the addition of more initial ELSs might result in a diminution of the differential.
The possibility that differences in letter frequencies between the two texts might account for some of the difference in discovery rates was considered. A visual comparison of the individual letter frequencies indicated a very strong similarity between the two texts. The correlation between the two sets of frequencies was quite high (0.964827).
The services of another Hebrew expert, Moshe Shak, a Canadian engineer, were retained to investigate the degree to which the indications might be affected by differences in translations between Hebrew experts. The results are displayed in Table 2.
The discovery rate from Shak’s War and Peace extensions (18.7%) was very close to, but somewhat lower than, that from Dr. Jacobi’s extensions (19.4%).
1 R. Edwin Sherman is a Fellow of the Casualty Actuarial Society and a Member of the American Academy of Actuaries. He received a B.A. and M.A. in Mathematics from the University of California at San Diego, and passed three Ph.D. qualifying exams. He has 30 years of experience as a consulting actuary in serving numerous Fortune 500 corporations, major public entities, law firms and insurance companies in applying probability, statistics and econometric forecasting to risk management problems. He was a Principal with Pricewaterhouse Coopers, the world’s largest accounting and consulting firm, for seven years. He has authored five professional papers in actuarial journals and over 70 articles in trade publications. He directs the biblecodedigest.com website. 2Dr. Nathan Jacobi was educated in Biblical and contemporary Hebrew in Israel. He holds a B.Sc. in Mathematics and an M.Sc. in Physics from Bar-Ilan University. He received a Ph.D. in Physics from the Weizman Institute of Science. He has over 20 years of experience in research, development and scientific computing in applied physics, aerospace and geophysics. He currently teaches an intermediate Hebrew class in Ashland, Oregon. 3Algeria, Abu Dhabi, Bahrain, Dubai, Kuwait, Lebanon, Libya, Qatar, Somalia, Sudan and Yemen. Major islamic nations (Iraq, Iran and Saudi Arabia) were excluded because they had already been the subject of ELS extension searches in the book of Ezekiel. Originally only 10 nations were selected. However, for two of them less than five total ELSs were found, so Somalia was added to bring the total number of ELSs examined up to 50 for each text. 4Isaac Newton Bible Code Research Society. Researchers included Mr. Sherman, Dr. Jacobi and Mr. David Swaney. 5The final search text used extended from Jeremiah 51:52 through Ezekiel to Hosea 1:9. The last chapter from Jeremiah and the first chapter of Hosea were first added to expand the search text, and then as many final verses from the second to last chapter of Jeremiah were added as were needed in order for the Ezekiel Plus search text to have the same size (approximately) as the War and Peace search text. 6www.research-systems.com. 7The 39.2% differential for the discovery rates is lower than the 54.2% differential in the total number of extensions. This occurs because the denominators of the two discovery rates are not the same. Each new extension opens up a new opportunity to find yet another extension. Hence, there were many more opportunities to find new extensions in Ezekiel because more extensions were initially found in Ezekiel.
CONTINUE AT:
Please read the rest of the article here: http://www.biblecodedigest.com/page.php/187
Knowledge in and of itself tends to become an idol. We begin to delude ourselves that our 'knowledge above average, above that of the masses' . . . will protect us; give us status; be our savior.
True, the people perish for lack of knowledge. But THAT is knowledge OF HIM and of
It's NOT concerned with knowledge ABOUT HIM as a distant object.
Satan's garden seduction was that God-forbidden-knowledge would FREE us when he knew it would ENSLAVE us. It is still the same today in too many ways.
When our knowledge about THINGS--even about God's plans--exceeds our KNOWLEDGE OF AND APPLICATION OF HOW TO BE INTIMATE !!!!WITH!!!! GOD, then we end up enslaved instead of freed. And part of that enslavement is virtually always some level of delusion.
Some of the delusion takes the form that IF/WHEN we know enough KNOWLEDGE, we can PROTECT OURSELVES. God alone is to be our high tower, our defense, our refuge.
Some of the delusion becomes that we ARE BETTER than the ignorant, less washed, 'less religious,' 'less spiritual,' less diligent, less educated, less intellectual, . . . . And, that BECAUSE we have, by our inate brilliance and hard brain work--EARNED this lofty station in life and the cosmos, God will protect us more because we deserve it. Pride goes before a fall. And from such an ignorant height, the fall can be great indeed.
Some of the delusion becomes that our knowledge has EARNED us a station in the cosmos amongst the closest to God--virtually a jr God. And therefore, God will protect us above average.
Not only so, we can pronounce edicts and vain pronouncements upon our lessers and upon the cosmos and God will have to effect and confirm them because we have earned such a lofty jr godship. Satan's garden--'you'll become like God, knowledge-wise' has struck again. And yet again, we are set-up for a thunderous fall.
-------------------------
GOD DOES eagerly invite us into and graciously grant us uncommon knowledge about HIM--particularly about intimacy with Him--TO THOSE WHO SEEK HIM FIRST.
He even grants some of those of broken and contrite heart particularly diligent about intimacy WITH HIM, uncommon knowledge about the cosmos and for some even about others their ministry laden lives cross paths with. But the priorities have to be in God's order. And, if they are not there and maintained there, then there is trouble.
Ecclesiastes is still right about knowledge in and of itself.
However, the Apostle Paul instructed all the individual members of the corporate Body of Christ to seek to prophecy. At least, if gifted with tongues, to seek to be able to interpret. There is Biblical, Spirit-led merit in walking routinely in an uncommon level of God's knowledge--IF AND WHEN one's priority of INTIMACY WITH GOD FIRST, is in order. God LOVED to share things with HIS FRIEND Abraham that He shared with few to no others. But God is NOT AT ALL interested in us putting knowledge before HIM--even knowledge about Him.
And, in context, he could not have been speaking merely of forth-telling when he was talking about prophecying. The emphasis would have been pointless. Paul was anything but pointless. -----------------------------
PING NOTE: Those after logos are part of my DREAMS, VISIONS AND END TIMES PING LIST. If you want on or off that ping list, please let me know. The rest of you were personal, one time pings to this post because I thought you might be interested.
-----------------------------
TO Alamo-Girl about the Kabalah:
EXTREMELY WELL SAID, imho.
I greatly agree. THX.
Thanks much, Ex Soldier.
I believe he is right about this:
------------------------------
The second theory (which I am convinced is the most accurate) is that the Temple was built north of the Dome of the Rock. Dr. Asher Kaufman developed this theory, using certain archeological evidences that he found before the Muslim's destroyed them. However, the most important archeological sign is the position of the Eastern Gate. According to ancient accounts of the Temple, its east-west centerline passed through the center of the Eastern Gate.
We have absolute evidence as to where the ancient Eastern Gate stood. I have viewed personally the remains of the ancient Eastern Gate, which is located under the modern Gate that was built on top of its ruins.
While photographing the area in 1983 for my book, "A Prophetical Walk Through The Holy Land," I sought to verify Dr. Kaufman's theory. I established the east-west centerline from the Eastern Gate. Then I received one of the most supernatural visitations of my life. My mind was suddenly flooded with a couple of verses that had been a mystery to me.
This is what I was shown. "I was given a reed like a measuring rod and was told, 'Go and measure the temple of God and the altar, and count the worshipers there. But exclude the outer court; do not measure it, because it has been given to the Gentiles. They will trample on the holy city for 42 months.'" (Revelation 11:1-2 NIV) So I measured off the distance from the centerline to the point where the wall of the inner court would stand. There was at least 6 meters clearance from the nearest points of the Dome of the Rock and the Temple inner-court wall. The Apostle John clearly predicts that "the outer court was not to be included in the rebuilt Temple, because it was given to the Gentiles."
So what does all this mean? The Temple can be rebuilt and stand alongside the Dome of the Rock without disturbing it. And since the outer court, also known as the Court of the Gentiles, is given to the Gentiles in this period just before the Messiah comes, it infers that there would be a Gentile building there, i.e., the Dome of the Rock.
The fact that a re-established Sanhedrin is now considering the rebuilding of the Temple after 2,000 years is extremely important to students of Bible prophecy. I believe that we are very near the final climactic events that end with the Second Coming of Christ.
---------------------------
And, I believe that anyone doubting the import of the news at your link . . . is uninformed . . . myopic . . . spiritually . . . anemic . . . or otherwise not Biblically 'with it.' LOL.
I think they will also be caught with their spiritual pants down and due for some serioius shocks in the not too distant future.
BTW--END TIMES PING LIST et al: Is anyone else feeling some very heightened spiritual antennae alert about a very close looming additional natural disaster??? I !THINK! it's a natural disaster, I don't think it's a political/terror disaster. A number of folks I know are feeling this way in their spirits and I'm wondering how many FREEPERS are.
Thanks.
Adds up to 702. I must've goofed up on one or more of the symbols. But even if it did add up to 666, (were they even supposed to?) what do the characters mean? Are they initials? Sounds? Whole words? And what do they symbolize?
Beside the end-time significance of the event (whatever it may be), one of the things that bugs me is that I just know that the libs will caterwaul; (hear: spoiled rotten whiney voices) "Bush's fault."
Maybe not that big of a deal in the larger picture, I guess I'll have to find 'comfort' in that, plus knowing that that'll be the libs' reaction (for political points and power - not out of any real concern)....but there it is.
The Mountain of the Lord
1 This is what Isaiah son of Amoz saw concerning Judah and Jerusalem:
2 In the last days the mountain of the LORD's temple will be established as chief among the mountains; it will be raised above the hills, and all nations (goyim) will stream to it.
3 Many peoples will come and say,
"Come, let us go up to the mountain of the LORD , to the house of the God of Jacob. He will teach us his ways, so that we may walk in his paths." The law (Torah) will go out from Zion, the word of the LORD from Jerusalem. 4 He will judge between the nations and will settle disputes for many peoples. They will beat their swords into plowshares and their spears into pruning hooks. Nation will not take up sword against nation, nor will they train for war anymore.
5 Come, O house of Jacob, let us walk in the light of the LORD .
Yonah 2
8 They that observe lying vanities forsake their own mercy.
9 But I will sacrifice unto thee with the voice of thanksgiving; I will pay that that I have vowed. Salvation is of the LORD.
Christmas trees (see: Jeremiah 10) or Chanukah?
Start climbing…(Isaiah 2)
THANKS.
Appreciate your posts.
I do think the Zion being above all the mountains will be after or just prior to Christ arriving for His reign of peace.
I too have felt that New York City was headed for probably a nuke and at least a major quake. Still no sense on the timing of such.
THX
Thank you so very much for the encouragements and all the information!
Check the link again. Those aren't kaf's.
Are they initials? Sounds? Whole words? And what do they symbolize?
With a Strong's concordance, you can look up the words in the index. Then seeing what the words mean, you could look them up in the Bible.
BTTT
Wrong tree.
Revelation 2:7 He who has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches. To him who overcomes, I will give the right to eat from the tree of life, which is in Gan Eden.
The Kabbalah Tree of Life
http://www.ucalgary.ca/~elsegal/Sefirot/Sefirot.html
Yeshua relates to the Tree of Life.
On the left side is…
Din, Gevurah / Judgment, Might, Power
On the right side…
Hesed, Gedullah / Love, Lovingkindness, Compassion, Greatness, Grace
Yeshua is related to Tiferet (not enough room to elaborate)
Two men were crucified with Yeshua, the one on the left received Din, the one on the right received Hesed.
The sheep go on the right, and the goats go on the left…
THX.
Thanks for the information and ping!
I believe this has a lot of accuracy to it.
I think a lot of us are overdue for this!:
EVERYTHING WILL BEGIN TO FEEL EASY!
As we draw near to Him and wait, with expectation, for a renewal of strength and supernatural empowerment, an entire new level of grace will be experienced. Everything will begin to feel easy. The toil and anxiety of the things that have hard pressed us in 2004 will be lifted off.
A new sense of ease and release will come to those who draw close to Him, and swift acceleration of His purposes will be accomplished in our lives.
Isaiah 40:28-31 (NKJV)
"Have you not known? Have you not heard, that the everlasting God, the LORD, the Creator of the ends of the earth, faints not, neither is weary? His understanding is unsearchable. He gives power to the faint; and to them that have no might he increases strength. Even the youths shall faint and be weary, and the young men shall utterly fall: But they that wait upon the LORD shall renew their strength; they shall mount up with wings as eagles; they shall run, and not be weary; and they shall walk, and not faint."
Find fresh strength in Him and soar in 2005! His promise is true -- cling to it and believe for His miracle breakthrough.
Hope to see you at one of our schools or events this coming year.
Waiting . . . and mounting up!
PATRICIA KING
Extreme Prophetic Television
patricia@extremeprophetic.com
www.extremeprophetic.com
Amen. Thank you, Quix.
Proverbs 14: 26
In the fear of the LORD there is strong confidence, And His children will have a place of refuge.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.