''The Bible Code'' is a book by

Michael Drosnin Michael Alan Drosnin (January 31, 1946 – June 9, 2020) was an American journalist and author, best known for his writings on the Bible Code, which is a purported set of secret messages encoded within the Hebrew text of the Torah. Drosnin was bo ...

, first published by

Simon & Schuster Simon & Schuster () is an American publishing company and a subsidiary of Paramount Global. It was founded in New York City on January 2, 1924 by Richard L. Simon and M. Lincoln Schuster. As of 2016, Simon & Schuster was the third largest publ ...

in 1997. A sequel, ''Bible Code II: The Countdown'', was published by

Penguin Random House Penguin Random House LLC is an Anglo-American multinational corporation, multinational conglomerate (company), conglomerate publishing company formed on July 1, 2013, from the merger of Penguin Group and Random House. On April 2, 2020, Bertels ...

in 2002, and also reached New York Times Best-Seller status. In 2010, ''Bible Code III: Saving the World'' was published by Worldmedia, Inc., completing a trilogy.

''The Bible Code'' and its interpretation of Bible Code theory

Drosnin describes an alleged "

Bible code The Bible code ( he, הצופן התנ"כי, ), also known as the Torah code, is a purported set of encoded words within a Hebrew text of the Torah that, according to proponents, has predicted significant historical events. The statistical like ...

", in which messages are encoded in the

Hebrew Bible The Hebrew Bible or Tanakh (;"Tanach"
''Random House Webster's Unabridged Dictionary''. Hebrew: ''Tān ...

. The messages are purported to be hidden in the

Torah The Torah (; hbo, ''Tōrā'', "Instruction", "Teaching" or "Law") is the compilation of the first five books of the Hebrew Bible, namely the books of Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers and Deuteronomy. In that sense, Torah means the s ...

, and can be deciphered by placing the letters of various Torah passages at equal intervals in a text that has been formatted to fit inside a graph. Drosnin suggests that the code was written by

extraterrestrial life Extraterrestrial life, colloquially referred to as alien life, is life that may occur outside Earth and which did not originate on Earth. No extraterrestrial life has yet been conclusively detected, although efforts are underway. Such life might ...

(which he claims also brought the DNA of the human

genetic code The genetic code is the set of rules used by living cells to translate information encoded within genetic material ( DNA or RNA sequences of nucleotide triplets, or codons) into proteins. Translation is accomplished by the ribosome, which links ...

to Earth). Drosnin elaborates on this theory in '' Bible Code II: The Countdown'', suggesting that the alien who brought the code left the key to the code in a steel obelisk. Drosnin attempted to find this obelisk, which he believes is buried near the

Dead Sea The Dead Sea ( he, יַם הַמֶּלַח, ''Yam hamMelaḥ''; ar, اَلْبَحْرُ الْمَيْتُ, ''Āl-Baḥrū l-Maytū''), also known by other names, is a salt lake bordered by Jordan to the east and Israel and the West Bank ...

. Drosnin's book claims to be based on the technique described in the 1994 paper "Equidistant Letter Sequences in the

Book of Genesis The Book of Genesis (from Greek ; Hebrew: בְּרֵאשִׁית ''Bəreʾšīt'', "In hebeginning") is the first book of the Hebrew Bible and the Christian Old Testament. Its Hebrew name is the same as its first word, ( "In the beginning") ...

" by

Eliyahu Rips Eliyahu Rips ( he, אליהו ריפס; russian: Илья Рипс; lv, Iļja Ripss; born 12 December 1948) is an Israeli mathematician of Latvian origin known for his research in geometric group theory. He became known to the general public fo ...

Doron Witztum Doron may refer to: People Given name * Doron Almog (born 1951), Israeli soldier * Doron Ben-Ami (born 1965), Israeli archaeologist * Doron Egozi (born 1980), Israeli Olympic sport shooter * Doron Galezer (born 1952), Israeli journalist * Doron Ga ...

, and

Yoav Rosenberg Joab (Hebrew Modern: ''Yōʼav'', Tiberian: ''Yōʼāḇ'') the son of Zeruiah, was the nephew of King David and the commander of his army, according to the Hebrew Bible. Name The name Joab is, like many other Hebrew names, theophoric - deriv ...

, who have all denounced the conclusions drawn in ''The Bible Code''.

Criticism

The general construction of alleged "Bible codes" and Drosnin's methodology in particular have been criticised by mathematicians and others.

Acquisition of ''The Bible Code'' by Warner Bros. Pictures and "Code" screenplay

In May 1997,

Warner Bros. Pictures Warner Bros. Pictures is an American film production and distribution company of the Warner Bros. Pictures Group division of Warner Bros. Entertainment (both ultimately owned by Warner Bros. Discovery). The studio is the flagship producer of liv ...

acquired the film rights to ''The Bible Code''. At the time of acquisition, " e studio's production presidents,

Lorenzo di Bonaventura Lorenzo di Bonaventura (; born January 13, 1957) is an American film producer and founder and owner of Di Bonaventura Pictures. He is best known for producing the G.I. Joe and ''Transformers'' film series. The films he produced have earned over ...

and

Bill Gerber Bill Gerber (born April 30, 1957) is an American film and television producer. He was President of Production at Warner Bros. Pictures, before establishing an existing and long-standing producing deal with the studio. Bill is known for producing ...

, said that the work 'addresses the age-old questions of our purpose on Earth, the meaning of the Bible, and our uniqueness in the universe – all issues that have stimulated the imagination for thousands of years'." Drosnin, collaborating with filmmaker and writer Ruth Rachel Anderson-Avraham (née Yvonne Michele Anderson), an English Language and Literature and Religious Studies major from the

University of Virginia The University of Virginia (UVA) is a Public university#United States, public research university in Charlottesville, Virginia. Founded in 1819 by Thomas Jefferson, the university is ranked among the top academic institutions in the United S ...

who had then taken time off from her interdisciplinary graduate studies, including quantitative work and the pursuit of graduate degrees at

HEC Paris HEC Paris (french: École des hautes études commerciales de Paris) is a business school, and one of the most prestigious and selective grandes écoles, located in Jouy-en-Josas, France. HEC offers Master in Management, MSc International Fi ...

and

Harvard Law School Harvard Law School (Harvard Law or HLS) is the law school of Harvard University, a private research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Founded in 1817, it is the oldest continuously operating law school in the United States. Each class ...

, completed a screenplay entitled "Code" for Warner Bros. Pictures in 1998."Code"
IMDb.com / IMDbPro.com, Los Angeles. For the full reference for a screenplay which has not yet been greenlit, produced, or released, one must have access to the IMDbPro.com site."Written after the terrorist bombing of the World Trade Center on February 26, 1993, but prior to September 11, 2001, the screenplay includes a plot line recalling the 1993 Al Qaeda attack on the Twin Towers, at a time when the tragic events of

9/11 The September 11 attacks, commonly known as 9/11, were four coordinated suicide terrorist attacks carried out by al-Qaeda against the United States on Tuesday, September 11, 2001. That morning, nineteen terrorists hijacked four commercial ...

were 'unimagineable'."The action of the story was set in New York City and

Jerusalem Jerusalem (; he, יְרוּשָׁלַיִם ; ar, القُدس ) (combining the Biblical and common usage Arabic names); grc, Ἱερουσαλήμ/Ἰεροσόλυμα, Hierousalḗm/Hierosóluma; hy, Երուսաղեմ, Erusałēm. i ...

. Notwithstanding, this screenplay was never greenlit by Waner Bros. Pictures, and the rights eventually reverted to the author. In 2010, Relativity Media purchased the film rights to The Bible Code series, then a trilogy including ''The Bible Code'', ''Bible Code II: The Countdown'', and ''Bible Code III: Saving the World''. Relativity Media had hoped to produce a Bible Code film for release in 2012, but this project never came to fruition.Kilday, Gregg
"Relativity Buys Film Rights to 'Bible Code' Book Series"
''

The Hollywood Reporter ''The Hollywood Reporter'' (''THR'') is an American digital and print magazine which focuses on the Cinema of the United States, Hollywood film industry, film, television, and entertainment industries. It was founded in 1930 as a daily trade pap ...

'' (online), Los Angeles, 4 November 2010.

Bibliography

* ''The Bible Code''. (US, Simon & Schuster, 1997, ); (UK, Weidenfeld & Nicolson, 1997, ) * ''The Bible Code II: The Countdown''. (US, Viking Books, 2002, ); (UK, Weidenfeld & Nicolson, 2002, ) * ''The Bible Code III: The Quest''. (UK, Weidenfeld & Nicolson, 2010, ) *

Related literature

Jeffrey Satinover Jeffrey Burke Satinover (September 4, 1947) is an American psychiatrist, psychoanalyst, and physicist. He is known for books on a number of controversial topics in physics and neuroscience, and on religion, but especially for his writing and pu ...

: "Cracking the Bible Code". Wm Morrow, 1997. . Appeared slightly later, follows a more historical and traditional route.

References

External links

The Bible Code
transcript of a story which aired on ''BBC Two'', Thursday 20 November 2003, featuring comments by Drosnin, Rips, and McKay * {{DEFAULTSORT:Bible Code, The (Book) Bible code 1997 books 1997 in religion Simon & Schuster books Weidenfeld & Nicolson books