The Connection of the Bible Codes to Kabbalistic Thought

I have said before that I am not a believer in the Bible Codes.  I think that some simple code sequences  can clearly be shown to exist (see the sample below), but the more advanced codes which Israeli computer researchers are finding depend on very artificial manipulations of the text like skipping uneven numbers of letters between consecutive letters, etc.  It might be a case of finding codes because you are searching for them.  The patterns might have occurred by mere chance.

In Genesis 1:22-26; the name of Abraham is spelled out (from the top line down, enclosed in the added boxes) by the letters in the passage with each letter of the name separated from the preceding letter by forty-nine (seven times seven; seven was a sacred number, Genesis 2:2, 4:24, 21:28)) intercalary letters.  In each of the forty-nine letter sequences, אֱלֹהִים (elohim/God, backlit in gray) appears.

Also, the researchers insist that the codes cannot be used to predict the future.  My question is, if the codes are real, why not?  God is not bounded by time.  Tomorrow is the same to Him as The Creation.  It is all Now.

The Israeli researchers also insist that the codes cannot prove that Jesus is the Messiah.  Are they afraid that the codes, if real, might do this?  Rabbi Jacob Rambsel, a Messianic Jew, insists that he has found a code, "Jesus is my name," in the Suffering Servant passage in Isaiah 53.

The most strict theory of the codes is that they apply only to the Torah, the first five books of the Bible.  This is because one Jewish tradition insists that God dictated the Torah letter by letter. 


Because it is important for us to understand the Jewish background of our faith,  I will talk tomorrow about the direction in which one stream of Judaism, the Kabbalists, has taken these concepts.

Jesus, the Suffering Servant

Yacov Rambsel, a Messianic Jewish rabbi, claims to have found the name Yeshua (Jesus) embedded in every major Old Testament messianic prophecy.  No matter what you think about the possibility of the reality of the Bible Codes, this is very interesting.  I am still very undecided on this.

Rabbi Rambsel says that in the "Suffering Servant" passage in Isaiah 53, counting every twelfth letter, the following is spelled out, "Jesus is my name."

Christians

At some time during their lives, the following people have publicly identified themselves as Christian.   Inclusion in this list does not indicate approval or disapproval of the person, of their orthodoxy or lack of it, or of their actions.  Readers are encouraged to suggest persons who should be included on this list.  This is a recurring segment in this blog.

Lisa Diane Whelchel: (b. 1963, Texas, USA) Actress, singer, writer.  From 1977-1978 she was a Mouseketeer on The New Mickey Mouse Club.

James Spann: (b. 1986, Alabama, USA) Television meteorologist.

Solomon Halevi: (b. ca 1350, Spain - d.1435; aka: Pablo de Santa Maria) HaLevi was the Rabbi of Burgos, Spain, theologian, bishop.  In 1391, he converted to Christianity and claimed to be a descendant of the line of Mary.   He became the Bishop of Burgos and the Chancellor of the King of Castille.  Jewish tradition vilifies him as an apostate.

Diego Sarmiento de Valladares: (b.1615,Spain – d 1695) Roman Catholic Bishop, Grand Inquisitor of Spain (1669-1695).  In 1681, he declared that the Spanish nobility could not hire Jewish converts to Christianity to act as wet nurses for their infants because their milk would ruin the children.

Edward Drinker Cope: (b. 1840, USA – d. 1897) Paleontologist, comparative anatomist, herpetologist, and zoologist.  He published over 1400 scientific papers and discovered, described, and named over 1000 vertebrate species.  Quaker.

Humor in the Bible

The Bible speaks to every aspect of human life, including humor. Part of our problem in seeing humorous elements in the Bible is because we are reading it in translation. Oftentimes, humor is one of the hardest things to translate.

One of my coworkers, a man from Gujarat State in India, will tell me a joke and burst out giggling before he can deliver the punchline. Often, my response is "Huh?"

All languages, even those from the same language group (ie. Indo-European, Semitic, Uralic, Uto-Aztecan, Muskogean, Slavic, etc.) are structured differently from all others. As similar as English and German are, there are still things which can be easily expressed in one language but which are totally obscure in the other. For languages with entirely different ancestries the phenomenon is amplified.

Koine Greek (the popular "people's Greek" of the New Testament, as opposed to the classical literary Attic Greek, is concerned more with types of action (ongoing, conditional, intended, completed, etc) than with what English speakers understand as tense (past, present, and future).

Ancient Hebrew, a Semitic language of the Afro-Asiatic family, is based on three-consonant root words (and a few two and four letter ones). The roots are made into nouns, adjectives, and verbs by adding prefixes, suffixes, or infixes. The word, "Hebrew," is derived from "YBR," "to cross over." As one could guess, humor in Hebrew texts would be expressed very differently than in English.

In my ongoing series of posts on religious humor (see the Labels list below and look for the lightbulb jokes) I will begin including humorous scriptural verses stating their literary type and explaining why the verse is considered to be humorous, which does not always mean Young Frankenstein type roll on the floor laughing out loud funny. That's not its purpose.

A sentence on the Jews for Jesus website states it well: "The purpose of the Bible is not to entertain, but to instruct and so its subtle humor serves a purpose - to show people what ought to be in comparison to what exists." http://jewsforjesus.org/publications/issues/17_08/04

The humor in the Bible is expressed in several ways, which include insults, parables, riddles, puns, crude humor, subversive wit, sarcasm, irony, parallels and contrasts, and hyperbole. The humor is never there just for its own sake; it always serves a purpose. It makes you think.

Ir Ovot, Israel

     Ir Ovot is a kibbutz in the Israeli Negev (Hebrew = "desert"). The name means "City of Oboth."  This anti-Zionist kibbutz was formed in 1967 by Messianic Jews led by Simcha Perlmutter, of  Miami, Florida.  He had been a law student and court clerk. 

     The kibbutz has an evangelical ministry called "Blossoming Rose" and is a 501(c)3 charity which promotes educational travel to Israel.