IamJoseph

Baptism is what the Hebrew bible refers to as a Mikvah. The Hebrew bible cannot be added or subtracted to [a mandated commandment], and one easily checked for such errors - the alphabets also have numerical values, and the sum of all those alphabets is used as a verification. A single error pops up as a mathematical glitch.

IamJoseph

Voltaire is 16th Century, by which time 1500 years of the church deeds happened. I think a good debate would be why was the church so steeped in antisemitism, if it proposed being a follower of someone jewish, and also took up the Hebrew bible as its foundation. But this may be off topic because it has no bearing on the scrolls.

bacht

I'm not sure the treatment of the Jews in medieval Europe was simply anti-semitic. They had an unique status, neither Christian nor heathen, and were not officially included in the feudal order, but worked as doctors, bankers etc. Eventually they were banished from Western Europe due to economic competition from the fourth estate (burghers, merchants, moneylenders) and driven into the Slavic territories.

If Voltaire only knew Eastern Hasidic Judaism then he reason to be critical. But they had come after Talmudism, Karaites, Kabalism, Spinoza... a millenium of scholarship and philosophy. Like the Muslims there was a spectrum of ideas, not a static monolithic institution. Voltaire probably used the Jews for his own purpose of undermining religion in general (?)

IamJoseph

My understaing is by the time of Voltaire, almost all vocations were forbidden to Jews by the medevial church, which followed the Roman empire's antisemitism. The factor of money lending came by default - it was not on the list of vocations forbidden to Jews, and became one of few items left open. It culminated in modern banking.

Jayhawker Soule

What on earth are you babbling about? You need to read a good deal more about the Masoretes before you manage to embarrass yourself beyond recovery.

IamJoseph

Abstract, non-specified adjectives can confound anyone.

Or do you have a problem that a writing which also contain numerals are easier to spot errors - like a superfluous 'B' - aka '2' - which gives a different total?

Jayhawker Soule

(I always hate to admit when spin is right - but this flake is being moved to the head of my ignore list.)

spin

( )


spin

DCHindley

Are you refering to "gematria"? For others reading and scratching the head, this is not "bible code" talk so much as a theory popularized about a century ago by Ivan Panin (1855-1942), and other work on biblical numerology by Ethelbert W Bullinger (1837-1913, Numbers in Scripture, 1894).

In 1890, Panin believed he had discovered amazing patterns in the Hebrew text of the Psalms, and soon afterwards in the Greek text of the New Testament. In 1899 Panin sent an Open Letter to the New York Sun challenging a discussion about the truth of Christianity.

Thereafter, until his death in 1942, he was to devote over 50 years of his life to painstakingly exploring the numerical structure of the Scriptures, generating over 43,000 detailed, hand-penned pages of analysis. A sampling of his discoveries were published, and are still being published repeatedly.

Outside reviews of his work doubt on the value of his findings. A review of his work on the Gospel of Mark suggests that he freely picked and chose from various alternative readings of manuscripts, and that any patterns he claimed to have found were in fact his own creation. However, Panin used only one version of the New Testament, the Westcott and Hort Greek edition. Another criticism is that the same kind of numeric patterns can be found from any text.

Published works
1903: Aphorisms
1914: The New Testament from the Greek Text as Established by Bible Numerics. New Haven: Bible Numerics Co.
1918: The Writings of Ivan Panin
1923: Bible Chronology
1934: The Shorter Works of Ivan Panin
New Testament in the Original Greek The Text Established By Means of Bible Numerics
Bible Numerics
The Last Twelve Verses Of Mark
A Holy Challenge For Today - On Revision of the New Testament Text
Verbal Inspiration Of The Bible Scientifically Demonstrated
The Inspiration Of The Scriptures Scientifically Demonstrated
The Inspiration Of The Hebrew Scriptures Scientifically Demonstrated
The Gospel And The Kingdom - What About Dispensationalism?
Once In Grace, Always In Grace? - A Review of First Principles

Published Letters
1899: Inspiration Of The Scriptures Scientifically Demonstrated – Letter to the New York Sun

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ivan_Panin

For a good example of what IamJoseph is referring to (each Hebrew and Greek letter also had a numeric value and what can be done with them) see: Inspiration Of The Scriptures Scientifically Demonstrated – Letter to the New York Sun http://trf.org.au/The_Inspiration_of...monstrated.asp

DCH

Huon

François-Marie Arouet (21 November 1694 – 30 May 1778), better known by the pen name Voltaire, was a French Enlightenment writer.

Voltaire is 18th Century, not 16th Century. It makes a difference.