Rating: 
Summary: It never hurts to keep an opened mind...
Review: After watching this subject on the History Channel I wanted to know more about this Bible Code which is the reason why I purchased this book. I read it in several hours cover to cover with an open mind and it was easy to read and pretty well written, despite the fact that I caught the author repeating himself several times throughout the book. I also felt at times that the author might have been looking for accolades as "the man who tried to save the world". Be that as it may, I don't exactly know what to make of the Code itself, except to say that I think the odds of finding words and phrases in such close proximity to each other, as they were found throughout the Torah relating to past historic events falls out of the scope of "coincidence". The odds are just too great. It cannot be "coincidence" as the skeptics claim. For those who are asking for a Hebrew dictionary to prove the translations, all I can tell you is what I saw on the History Channel. The translations are confirmed by Hebrew scholars. That is all the validity I need. I know from reading some of the reviews here that some of you are claiming that this book was a disappointment becaused it failed to predict the future. I believe the author had stated early on that it is almost impossible to find things in the Code unless you know what to look for which is why they are now searching for the Code Key to break the entire Code. This explains why it is easier for them to find things in the Code that have happened in the past than it is to find things that have not yet happened, simply because they have no idea what to search for in the Code. You cannot find an event that hasn't happened yet. Clearly what they have managed to find in the Codes pertaining to the future is a warning of things perhaps to come. At best, this book may be the vehicle which will bring us to the brink of something spectacular yet to be discovered. At worst, this book allows us to view life from yet another perspective and in that event you really have nothing to lose. I say read it for yourself and draw your own conclusions. It never hurts to keep an opened mind.
Rating: 
Summary: Just one question
Review: If this stuff is for real, as Drosnin claims... Why didn't he tell us about September 11th in Bible Code I? :P
Rating: 
Summary: *sigh*
Review: Aliens, DNA, the Bible Code, Arafat, nuclear war in 2006, ancient Hebrew, statistics the author obviously has no clue of ... and then the author says over and over again: "I am a journalist." Ah thanks for telling us. But: a journalist in what? And for what? Despite the fact that this book is an insult to human evolution (according to Drosnin, you should bow down to Aliens when you think about evolution), it is frightening that someone like Drosnin has been, or still is, a journalist whose article I may unwittingly read. The guy obviously lost his brain somewhere on his way to the bank where he cashes in on other people's (and his own) shere stupidity. Frightening.
With people like these, the idea of the end of times looks really promising. It can only get better next time. Maybe those aliens Drosnin makes responsible for human intelligence should have a special service for people like Drosnin who obviously wasn't around when intelligence and talent was given to mankind.
So give intelligence a chance and don't buy this book. It is not even funny. It is boring and stupid.
Rating:
Summary: No specific predictions
Review: So far no one has made any specific predictions with the Bible code and all of the authors are using it to promote their own beliefs and agendas.
Rating: 
Summary: Where is the code key?
Review: I found the book fascinating at first. Some of his findings were remarkable. Sometimes he attributed meaning to a certain word, only to later find it was part of a larger sentence. Many Hebrew words have several different meanings, but the Bible codes do not appear to be random.
So Mr. Drosnin needed a Code Key to decipher the Bible Code. It was like something out of Indiana Jones, the way he pinpointed the location at Lisan where the Key could be found. The fact that he published this book without finding the Code Key either means
1) He's an idiot because boatloads of archiologists have since combed Lisan for the key OR
2) He has found the key, but needed time to learn it secrets before publishing ($$$) his findings in Bible Code 3.Either way, the last few Chapters were repetitive in the extreme. I was getting madder and madder as I reached the last couple of Chapters. I said to myself - he better not end this book without finding the Code key. It was like bad "To be continued" TV. QUESTION: At one point, he says the Bible Code and DNA code could be from the same recipe. Since only a small percentage of human DNA has a function, does this mean that the useful code in the Bible is mixed in with a ton of garbage? ANOTHER QUESTION: How come he never found his own name 'Drosnin' in the Bible Code? Or maybe he did find it, but didn't like the $$$ signs next to his name.
Rating:
Summary: Author constantly repeats himself
Review: This book could have easily been 10 pages instead of 279 pages. The author continually repeats himself to the point of boredom. The author claims that God gave Moses the Torah, and he strongly believes in the Torah and the hidden truth, but he doesn't believe in God. Where is the logic here? The author is very politically driven in this book. Arafat is a saint, but Sharon and Bush are warmongers. The Republican Supreme Court judges gave Bush the election from Gore. The part about the 3 recounts was left out. Save your money. Here is the whole book in a nutshell. Arafat will be assassinated and nuclear holocaust in 2006.
Rating:
Summary: Here's what's wrong with this book
Review: 1) The book's theme is that the end of the world is nigh (2006), so our hero author must travel the world and get everyone to understand that the Middle East conflict must be resolved so that the PREDICTIONS OF THE BIBLE CODE DO NOT COME TO PASS. That's right. Without ever explaining why, he concludes that the code's message is just a warning and that we can change it. He even says that it encodes all possible outcomes. If that's the case then it is utterly meaningless, since an infinite number of false futures would be encoded. This claim is totally at odds with the book's theme. According to the author, there is only one year where the words "End of Days", "nuclear holocaust", etc, are encoded with a year: 2006. So does that mean that if we can avoid self-destruction in 2006, then humanity is saved for eternity from nuclear holocaust. Obviously, the more rational conclusion is that the code, if it is real, is absolutely written in stone, and the holocaust will occur on schedule in 2006, notwithstanding the heroic globetrotting our the author. 2) It's political. Arafat is a warm fellow and a true believer, Sharon is a war monger, and George Bush stole the election from poor Al Gore. His political bias is incredibly transparent. 3) He wonders out loud whether the aliens that planted our DNA here 4 billion years ago were still around. That's a long time for a civilization to last. Since he doesn't believe in God, who does he think gave Moses the tablets (code) on Mount Sinai? Either it was God or aliens, but the death of our progenitor is simply not a logical option. 4) He tells us about a zillion times that he doesn't believe in God. He apparently thinks his secularism gives the book a sheen of credibility. Actually, it makes him look like a fool. The Torah claims to be the Word of God. So why would the subliminal code underlying the plain text contradict that claim. He apparently believes that the Torah itself is just a bunch of ridiculous tales and lies, but encoded within it is ultimate truth. This guy needs to take a remedial course in Logic. 5) The author repeats himself endlessly. The book could have been one-third as long as it is. 6) All his leads end up as dead-ends. He drones on endlessly about Lisan, but of course, doesn't find the code key. 7) I only recall four predictions made in the book. The 2006 nuclear war, the assassination of Arafat, and the worldwide economic depression beginning in 2002, and the proliferation of nuclear weapons by Libya. Two of those predictions can now be evaluated. Since we are in a robust economic recovery, and since Libya has abandoned its WMD programs, it looks like the author is 0 for 2. You can't get much worse than that. Bottom line: The book is worth reading because the evidence that Bible codes are real is very compelling, from a mathmatical point of view. I'm convinced. I'm equally convinced that the author used this esoteric knowledge to tell us nothing we didn't already know, and is lousy at predicting the future.
Rating:
Summary: *sigh*
Review: Aliens, DNA, the Bible Code, Arafat, nuclear war in 2006, ancient Hebrew, statistics the author obviously has no clue of ... and then the author says over and over again: "I am a journalist." Ah thanks for telling us. But: a journalist in what? And for what? Despite the fact that this book is an insult to human evolution (according to Drosnin, you should bow down to Aliens when you think about evolution), it is frightening that someone like Drosnin has been, or still is, a journalist whose article I may unwittingly read. The guy obviously lost his brain somewhere on his way to the bank where he cashes in on other people's (and his own) shere stupidity. Frightening.
With people like these, the idea of the end of times looks really promising. It can only get better next time. Maybe those aliens Drosnin makes responsible for human intelligence should have a special service for people like Drosnin who obviously wasn't around when intelligence and talent was given to mankind.
So give intelligence a chance and don't buy this book. It is not even funny. It is boring and stupid.
Rating:
Summary: The OBVIOUS CODE could be a title
Review: Who is the encoder of the Bible Code? God! The author says that, yet refuses to acknowledge that. The author describes himself as one who doesn't believe in God yet writes that God told Moses what to write. Thus, Mr. Drosnin should become a believer -- at least in what he writes. Drosnin is a reporter... he wants hard facts! If he was a believer like Dr. Eliyahu Rips -- a prize-winning mathematication who's a devout Jew and the founder of the Bible Code -- he would know he has hard facts. Instead, Drosnin spends his time making observations of the obvious -- that the world has nukes and terrorists could use them -- and writing countless letters to leaders who file them away. Drosnin is cashing in on Dr. Rips work by following his knowledge of the Code for all it's worth. It's probably been worth millions by now. I can't wait for after 2006 when Code III is released. That's the year to watch out, says Drosnin, who will probably find new codes to excuse his findings from this work. What I learned from this book is that: 1) iron/metal won't rust in the Dead Sea because of the density of salt and lack of oxygen ... 2) many of Israel's leaders and/or higher powers are secular, or non-believers in God, or don't let Drosnin know they are ... 3) Arabs believe -- like common knowledge has let most Westerners suspect that some Arabs can be terrorists and Israeli leaders actually act like Westerners knew they really acted ... 4) I wish I could read ancient Hebrew to understand the text of the many, many, many charts presented to fill pages ... and 5) I got ripped off for the purchase price of this book. In the 1st volume, Bible Code I, Drosnin made his money by finding in the code a year in advance that former Israeli Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin would be assassinated during 1995. He warned Rabin, who really didn't take action. What was Rabin supposed to do, spend the year in a bunker? Rabin was a leader in the peace process! After Rabin's death Drosnin finally finds the assassin's name in the Code, etc. Yadda yadda yadda... Drosnin also spent a bunch of space on the comet hitting Jupiter. That was informative, perhaps the best part in the overall perspective. Here in Code 2 he spends a bunch of time repeating himself over and over, and telling us how he burdened a bunch of world leaders by telling them in letter form and bothering their higher aides the obvious -- that war could be destructive, regardless of how starts it, that terrorists can get nukes thanks to the Soviet empire's meltdown. Editing here isn't that great. One paragraph identifies Dr. Rips first as Rips, then at Eli Rips and finally as Dr. Eli Rips. That's known in journalism as the inverted pyramid inverted. If Drosnin ever gets to start his dig for "the code key buried in Lisan," I'm sure he will find it saying something like "Jesus saves." I got that idea from somewhere in the Bible. I believe it was called prophecy. If only Drosnin was a believer, then ... but he's not. He claims he's a journalist and wants hard facts. LOL!!! Him, all the way to the bank... me, in my living room with his book!
Rating:
Summary: Another Good Read - But weak science.
Review: .
Summary: Again, like his first book (see my previous review) this is an area that can produce great fruit, but unfortunately, Drosnin really does the entire study a great disservice with his poor research, explanations and examples. Drosnin follows up his first book with the same interesting presentation, but baseless science. And, while he continues his attempt to portray himself as an objective reviewer, he is anything but that. If he came to me with his unquestionably correct information, like he continues to go to others, I would not listen to him either. And, I am a believer in the codes. My perception of his writing it similar to when I read a newspaper story about an incident that I know a lot about...somehow newspaper writers only get the straight forward facts about 60% correct; with their conclusions generally fully deficient. Well, Drosnin is a good newspaper reporter and does not disappoint those statistics! True Background: Rabbi Eliyahu Rips published one of the most arduously peer reviewed statistical analyses of all time. (Rips, et al, "Equidistant Letter Sequences in the Book of Genesis," Statistical Science, The Institute of Mathematical Statistics, August, 1994.) This publication revealed that the TORAH (the first 5 books of Moses - Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers, Deuteronomy) had the property to be analyzed via recent computer technology to reveal significant information that is very highly improbable. Note: These properties have not really been proven for the rest of the bible, although the other books have some extra-ordinary and unique properties that are well beyond chance. There is no question of the stats. They exist and have been fully accepted by experts who really could not accept the premise. Unfortunately, (or, fortunately) the premise and statistics are correct, and those experts (including some hefty cryptographers) readily acceded that in wonderment. In my own quest to test the subject, I purchased the software and found some interesting things. And, found the items demonstrated by Rips and others, proving that they did not just make this up. But, I am not a statistician, so I simply accept the profound conclusions presented by the experts in that journals publication. Book Review: When I got the book at the airport, I was again excited. I thought he might have put more effort into this one and thus have made it more plausible. I read most of it on the plane home, and a flight attendant spoke to me about it saying, " I wish he really put some real information in there. I believe in the subject, but I can't accept his work." If I did not do my other research, I would have concluded that this entire area is very weak and somewhat full of baloney. And, that is the problem with Drosnin's second book. Thus while it is interesting and easy to read and understand, he doesn't back anything up. I tried to pursue some of his findings, but could not obtain them. It would have been great if he gave more information so these things could be confirmed beyond his repeated statement that Rabbi Rips declares the finding to be highly unique and improbably. FYI: To date, I have never found anything written, or presented by Rips to confirm Drosnin's persistent relationship and testing. But that does not mean it did not exist. Drosnin could have shared some very specific information: Specifically what software did he use? Where did he find these specific codes?
What process did he use to find the conjoined hidden codes?
What bible text did he use? Etc. Also, his index if very weak and unsupportive, and his reference section is hard to follow with the text. Recommendation: If you question this subject, but want to find the truth, go someplace else. Read Missler's book on "Cosmic Codes" It has much more explanation, research and basis. You can substantiate his presentations (with just a little effort). If you have already done you homework on this subject, then get this book because it is interesting. If you got this book, or are getting it, and want to read it, but wanted to find truth, then, please take Drosnin's work with a grain of salt as you would in reading any New York Times article. He is just a reporter, and by far NOT an expert! Finally, if you are like Drosnin, don't try to interpret and explain the bible without reading it. That is just plain ignorant and dangerous. Final Point: Drosnin presents the final atomic conflict arising out of the failed middle east peace efforts. I really don't think anyone needs a prophecy to see that one coming. Perhaps idealists may "prefer" to look at it that way, but very few realists view the millenia old hatred as something that can be swept away with economic development, or by swapping land for peace. For every Muslim (middle eastern) I have spoken to, it is not the location of Israel, it is their existence that is problematic. Peace treaties are therefore only opportunities for war, not a solution for war.
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