Yakov Rambsel is intriguing. I have not found any credible ‘debunking’ of him yet. He wrote an entire book about Bible Codes. Here's what intrigues me:
One place he felt led to was the Beginning, Genesis 1:17 — God created light. He found out that 94 letter skips reveal the following code: “Lighthouse speed conceived”. In that same area he found another code, a number: “186,282”. That's the speed of light in terms of ‘miles per second’.
Drosnin [the most famous and notorious Bible Code researcher] hit the ‘big time’ with his book, Bible Codes. He was even on Oprah. After all, He found “Yatzhik Rabi,” “assassin will assassinate,” “Amir,” and “1995.” He believed it was a prophesy that the Prime Minister of Israel would be assassinated. Drosnin was concerned enough to warn Israeli Intelligence. “Amir” didn't mean much until the 1995 assassination: it was the assassin's name! As predicted.
What's also as amazing is that Drosnin isn't ‘all there’. He's not a great scholar by any means [as sloppy as me in other words] and actually thinks that Bible Codes were inserted by aliens. Man, those would have to be pretty amazing aliens, wouldn't they?
His codes were so badly worked out that they were aped and mocked by a team led by McKay who could make other books like Moby Dick seem just as ‘amazing’ with ‘Moby Dick codes’. It appeared that Bible Codes were debunked, even after a miraculous prophesy like that. Drosnin blew it, but it ‘aint that simple to debunk Bible Codes.
There are all kinds of Bible Codes that McKay hasn't ‘gotten around to’. He did halfway try to debunk one but has yet to succeed:
“Gushing from above, Jesus is my mighty name, and the clouds rejoiced.”
That was a Bible Code that caused some Jews to convert to Christianity. [Oh boy, were we Christians really asking for it!] McKay nitpicked it as best he could and the Associated Press gleefully reported his ‘debunking’:
“This 22-letter-long code appeared in the highly controversial passage of Isaiah 53, with a skip of minus 20 (-20). McKay and Thomas had noted that in some Hebrew texts, the last letter of this code would be different — because of a letter difference in verse 5. ‘With only 21 letters it falls apart,’ concluded McKay.”
The reason why 21 letters supposedly made the code ‘fall apart’ was because ‘the’ clouds became ‘my’ clouds in a different version of scripture. First off, he ‘changed the rules’ by choosing different books to test the code on. It still worked anyway in BOTH versions. God can claim ownership of any cloud He wants to. And ‘cloud’ often means ‘swarm’, especially from an ancient perspective. [Hebrews 12:1-2 for example.]
Software for Bible Code research kept advancing, and the Bible Code Digest used new software to recheck the code. McKay was ‘kinda’ right — it was not 22 letters long, it was FORTY letters long! They were able to extend the code:
“Gushing from above, Yeshua [Jesus] is my mighty name, and my clouds rejoiced. [...and...] Where? At the mountain, said Levi. Their light came. God is in it.”
Practically double in size now. While a code under 30 letters might arguably be a coincidence, it's hard to find an ‘accidental’ straightforward ELS FORTY letters long in any book. [Convoluted codes could always be tinkered out of a book of course.] It's no surprise that McKay has been silent on it so far.
[next post I’ll deal the the latest critic talking point —’coincidences are common’.]
As for Drosnin’s “Space Alien” theory ...
Much of the early Bible was based on oral traditions prior to having been written. The Hebrew language did not yet exist.
And while Drosnin may not have know about Yucov’s work, the coded prophesy about light speed — miles per second. English miles were not developed yet, and I don’t believe that the measurement of seconds was known during the oral traditions of Genesis. So time traveling space aliens would have been very busy to put this all together.
No, it makes much more sense to believe in the obvious — a Divine Force, a mischevious individual who delights in bringing mystery to our lives. This individual likes to confound the learned and scholarly among us:
Matthew 11:25 At that time Jesus answered and said, I thank thee, O Father, Lord of heaven and earth, because thou hast hid these things from the wise and prudent, and hast revealed them unto babes.