Hands down, Drosnin (a former reporter for the Washington Post and Wall Street Journal) wins all awards for 1997's stupidest book about the Middle East.
He rearranges the 304,805 Hebrew letters of the Jewish Bible into a continuous letter strand and discovers in his much-hyped study that - lo and behold - the holy book contains patterns of letters referring to virtually every modern event. "Napoleon" turns up encoded along with "France," "Waterloo," and "Elba." The main leaders of World War II appear jointly. "Economic collapse" appears along with "5690" (which equals the common year 1929). The moon landing is dated to the correct day. Leading cultural figures ("Beethoven" and "Rembrandt") are correctly identified. Every major assassination of the past two centuries was "accurately detailed" in the Bible. It predicted the precise day when the Kuwait war would begin and even includes an event so small as the capture and murder of an Israeli policeman in December 1992.
As might be expected, Drosnin often stretches facts to fit his scheme. Finding February 25, 1996 associated with the warning "all his people to war," he finds vindication in an Arab act of terrorism against Israel on that date. His patterns are sometimes barely visible. But perhaps most charmingly idiotic about his all-so-serious book is how the computer programmer who wrote the Bible already knew the modern Hebrew neologisms for such words as "autobus," "subway," "airplane," "electricity," "lightbulb," and "computer" - all of which appear in its supposed code.
But predicting the past is the easy part: What comes next? Well, Drosnin found the Jewish year 5757 (which ended in October 1997) associated with "holocaust" - a seemingly wrong call. Other prophesies, yet to be determined: that Binyamin Netanyahu will not live out his term as prime minister and a world war will begin in either 2000 or 2006.
July 7, 1999 update: Netanyahu finished his term as prime minister very much alive.
Jan. 1, 2001 update: The year 2000 came and went without a world war.
Apr. 25, 2004 update: In a New York TImes Magazine article about Yasir Arafat, David Rieff points to the Palestinian leader's increasing eccentricity, starting with his interest in Mel Gibson's movie, Passion of the Christ and then going on the book under review here:
Less easy to explain is his apparent interest in a book called The Bible Code and its sequel, Bible Code II, which claim that contemporary political events were secretly predicted in code in the Pentateuch. Its author, a former Wall Street Journal reporter named Michael Drosnin predicts the imminent destruction of humanity (and claims to have predicted the assassination of Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin as well as the attack on the World Trade Center on 9/11); he also asserts that the codes contained in the Bible must have been the work of a superior (read extraterrestrial) species. Arafat has received Drosnin at the Mukata -- a cause for embarrassment even among his staunchest supporters.
As an aside: how interesting that Drosnin now claims to have predicted 9/11; too bad he did not mention it before the event.
Jan. 1, 2007 update: The year 2006 came and went and no world war broke out; another Bible Code prediction unfulfilled.
Oct. 8, 2013 update: I admire Pastor John Hagee and the important work he has done at Christians United for Israel but I very much regret that he has published today a book called Four Blood Moons: Something Is about to Change (Worthy). (Blood-moon refers to a lunar eclipse, when it appears red.) Here's the publisher's blurb:
Inspired by NASA projections and recorded history, Pastor John Hagee reveals direct connections between four upcoming blood-moon eclipses and what they portend for Israel and all of humankind. Over the last 500 years, blood-red moons have fallen on the first day of Passover three separate times. These occurrences were connected to some of the most significant days in Jewish history: 1492 (the final year of the Spanish Inquisition when Jews were expelled from Spain), 1948 (statehood for Israel and the War of Independence) and 1967 (the Six-Day War). Every heavenly body is controlled by the unseen hand of God, which signals coming events to humanity. There are no solar or lunar accidents. The next series of four blood moons occurs at Passover and Sukkot in 2014 and 2015. In this riveting book, Hagee explores what these blood moons mean and why Christians must understand these signs and what they bode both for Israel and the world.
No, lunar eclipses do not portend anything for Israel or all of humankind. Developments in Iran and elsewhere will not be driven by the accidents of sun-earth-moon alignment.
Jan. 1, 2016 update: Both 2014 and 2015 passed without any of "the most significant days in Jewish history" taking place.
Aug. 30, 2024 update: Eliyahu Rips, the statistician behind Drosnin's work, died at age 75. His biography makes for an interesting read.
