01: Over the summer, the number one best-selling book in religion on the list of Publisher’s Weekly has been Michael Drosnin’s The Bible Code (Simon & Schuster, $25.00).
Endorsed by some eminent scholars such as two members of the Israeli Academy of Arts and Sciences and members of the U.S. National Academy of Sciences, the work claims to have found in the Hebrew Bible an intentional code which when deciphered would deliver accurate prophecies of forthcoming major world events.
02: The August issue of the Bible Review features articles that directly challenge the authenticity of the work.
Ronald Hendel of Southern Methodist University states the Bible Code is a “hoax”. Rabbi Shlomo Sternberg , a specialist of computerized mathematics at Harvard, likens “The Bible Code” to current interest in “UFO sightings, astrology, psychic counseling and the like”. Both scholars agree Dronin misuses Hebrew texts inexcusably, brings a late twentieth century mindset to writings several millennia old, and utilizes a computer mathematics form of logic which falls short of being as scientific as the author claims.
They conclude that nowhere in Old Testament writings is there evidence of interest in encoding predictions of future events into the text of the scriptures.
For more information on this issue of the Bible Review, write: 4710 41st St.NW, Washington, D.C. 20016
— By Erling Jorstad, RW contributing editor.