This is the main web site which examines the Bible Codes (also called Torah Codes) from the point of view of the mathematicians and other experts who have examined them critically.

A brief summary of the codes claims is that the Hebrew text of the Bible (especially of the Torah, the first five books) contain intentional coincidences of words or phrases that appear as letters with equal spacing. More details of the claims from the Jewish point of view can be found here, and from the Christian point of view here. Both those sites present a pro-codes viewpoint.

A brief summary of the result of our very extensive investigation is that all the alleged scientific evidence for the codes is bunk. This page presents much of the evidence for that assertion.

The famous rabbis experiment

The most serious claim of scientific evidence for the Codes was made by three Israelis: Doron Witztum, Eliyahu Rips, and Yoav Rosenberg (WRR). They claim that biographical information about medieval rabbis is "encoded" in the Hebrew text of Genesis. Specifically, the rabbis' names and other appellations are claimed to be encoded closer to their dates of birth and death than should be expected by chance. WRR's "experiment" appeared in the respectable journal Statistical Science in 1994.

WRR's paper

The first serious attack on WRR's paper was published by mathematicians Dror Bar-Natan and Brendan McKay. They found that a small change in the choice of appellations for the famous rabbis can lead to War and Peace performing just as well as Genesis. The final edition of this work is accompanied by an extremely detailed disproof of Witztum's alleged refutation.

performing just as well as Genesis. The of this work is accompanied by an extremely detailed disproof of Witztum's alleged refutation. In May 1998, a semi-technical presentation of the case against the famous rabbis experiment was published in Chance , a magazine of the American Statistical Association. The authors are Maya Bar-Hillel, Dror Bar-Natan, and Brendan McKay. The paper is available here in Postscript or PDF format.

, a magazine of the American Statistical Association. The authors are Maya Bar-Hillel, Dror Bar-Natan, and Brendan McKay. The paper is available here in Postscript or PDF format. The discovery of a recording of a lecture given by Eliyahu Rips about 1985 cast doubt on the official history of the famous rabbis experiment. A transcript and some analysis are available.



about 1985 cast doubt on the official history of the famous rabbis experiment. A transcript and some analysis are available. Finally, an extensive refutation of the famous rabbis experiment, and of many other alleged experiments, was published by the same journal that published WRR's paper. The paper, by Brendan McKay, Dror Bar-Natan, Maya Bar-Hillel, and Gil Kalai, appeared in the May 1999 issue of Statistical Science (printed in September). It is available here together with frequently updated discussion .

(printed in September). It is available here together with . An amusing look at the flexibility of Hebrew spelling.

Other claims by WRR or Gans, and our replies

Several other papers of WRR exist, though none have been published in journals. More claims continue to appear regularly (especially here). Given our demolition of all of WRR's early work, we do not feel obliged to answer every new claim. Nevertheless, some of the claims have been answered by us in detail.

Independent experiments

We have performed many independent scientific tests of the Bible Codes claims. All of them failed to detect anything not easily explained by random chance. These experiments are not to be confused with the demonstrations of trickery that we have constructed in War and Peace.

A summary of our major experiments can be found in our paper in Statistical Science.

The famous rabbis experiment, replacing the day and month of birth or death (all that WRR used) by the year, or by the day and month written in other legal manners. Similarly, the dates can be replaced by the names of famous books or by the cities of birth or death.

The famous rabbis experiment, with the data prepared by an independent expert. Several variations were performed, including a detailed re-enactment of WRR's experiment in the manner they claim it was performed.

An experiment with the names and dates of birth or death of Israeli presidents, prime-ministers, and Knesset speakers.

All of those experiments, and all the other experiments we have conducted, failed to find any "codes" above chance levels.

Expert Opinions

Our opinions page presents a selection of opinion articles by noted experts. For example, mathematician Professor Barry Simon gives convincing reasons for rejecting the claims of the codes proponents and even designed a serious experiment to be sure. Noted Bible scholars Professor Menachem Cohen and Professor Jeffery Tigay explain why the history of the Bible text makes it implausible that codes exist today even if they existed in the original text. Also, there is a public statement of more than 50 professional mathematicians and statisticians who have studied the evidence and found it lacking.

We now have the first part of a new article by Professor Menachem Cohen about the codes business and the people who support it.

Michael Drosnin's books

The center-piece of the book is a "prediction" of the assassination of Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin.

Miscellaneous

Ever since the work of Witztum and Rips became known, claims have been made that messages of Christian theological relevance can be also found in the Hebrew text. Most of these claims have little merit due to lack of any scientific discipline. The only scientific experiment we are aware of, by Jim Ober, Guy Cramer, and Lori Eldridge, failed to find any statistical evidence that the name of Jesus is encoded in the passages of the Hebrew Bible regarded as messianic prophesies. Their report can be found archived here.

theological relevance can be also found in the Hebrew text. Most of these claims have little merit due to lack of any scientific discipline. The only scientific experiment we are aware of, by Jim Ober, Guy Cramer, and Lori Eldridge, failed to find any statistical evidence that the name of Jesus is encoded in the passages of the Hebrew Bible regarded as messianic prophesies. Their report can be found archived here. Some of the Hebrew and English texts used for codes experiments and demonstrations, plus some information about programs , can be found here.

used for codes experiments and demonstrations, plus some information about , can be found here. Some photos and brief biographies of codes people can be found here.

can be found here. A film Secrets of the Bible Code Revealed , by Grizzly Adams Productions, is reviewed here.

, by Grizzly Adams Productions, is reviewed here. If humans really wanted to encode messages as ELSs, they could do much better than anyone has yet claimed for the Bible.

A Belorussian translation of this page can be found here.