[Aaron]

Feel free to discuss all the different types of ciphers that seem to be found in bibles and other religious texts.

Also, please refrain from any personal vendettas against other forum members about religion; we are here to discuss ciphers, not start religious flamewars.

[Stun90]

Sorry I did not see this thread here. Didn't we just have a new member lately that was interested in Bible cyphers. Might make for an interesting subkect. Maybe he/she might bring up a subject or perhaps toss a gauntlet before us. What are they interested in Bible cyphers? Noone has to hold a degree in cryptology. just bring up a subject of interest and see where we can take it.

[Aaron]

Yeah, I started this section because they expressed desire to learn more about it; we have at least two members that are fairly interested in the topic as far as I know.

One interesting cipher I found about relatively recently is the "true name of God", and how the syllables are all encrypted in the beginning books of the Bible. However, nobody knows exactly how to pronounce this supposed name, though the syllables are all there. Incidentally, I believe this is where the name Yahweh originates.

This site talks about the 72 names of God and how they are derived: http://www.hebrew4christians.com/Names_of_G-d/Esoteric/esoteric.html

[Dutch]

   There is a type of cipher found in the Bible known as the Atbash.  It is simply the Hebrew alphabet (the first half on the upper line and the last half on the lower line).  This like A = N, N = A, B = O, O = B, etc.  There is one example where it reads "How Sheshach is taken."  The "SH, SH, CH"   In Atbash, this would be "B, B, L" or Babel (short for babylon.)  I believe I remember that there was at least one more such occurance of this sort of thing.  At the time that the prophet wrote his message, it would have been counted as treason to say that Babylon would be overthrown.  Thus, it had to be hid in the Atbash method. 

Dutch

[Aaron]

Interesting... so the Bible ended up being dual-purpose, telling people how to act morally while conveying spy messages to a large amount of people with only a few knowing how to translate the true hidden meaning.

[milogardner]

Prior to 800 AD and the introduction of Hindu-Arabic numerals into the Hellene, Arab and  medieval worlds, all numerals were ciphered. In the Hellene and Coptic eras 1 =apha, 2 = beta, ... such that 1/2 = beta' and so forth forth.
This code was used by Hebrews to sum of the numerical value of each letter to one number per line of ancient text.

Those are the only two codes that I am aware of that were commonly used in the Bible. More subtle codes go beyond my pays grade.

Milo