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Statement from Harold Gans, Mathematician, N.S.A.


I have reviewed the book "The Bible Code" by Michael Drosnin.

1.The book states that codes were found in the book of Genesis by
Doron Witztum and Eliyahu Rips. An experiment was performed using
scientific protocols specified by independent reviewers. The results
of the experiment provided extremely strong statistical evidence for
the existence of the encoding of great Jewish sages' names and dates
of birth and death in the Hebrew text of the book of Genesis. This is
all true.

2. The book states that I undertook an independent evaluation of the
Witztum - Rips experiment. I duplicated their experiment and provided
corroboration of their results. This is correct.

3. The book states that I also performed a new experiment, using the
same methodology of Witztum and Rips, in which I found that the sages'
names were also encoded in Genesis with their respective cities of
birth and death. The statistical results obtained were even stronger
than that obtained for the first experiment. This is all true.

4. The book also indicates that in spite of concerted efforts by many,
no fatal mathematical flaw has been uncovered in the Witztum - Rips
experiment. This too, is correct.

5. The book states that the codes in the Torah can be used to predict
future events. This is absolutely unfounded. There is no scientific or
mathematical basis for such a statement, and the reasoning used to
come to such a conclusion in the book is logically flawed. While it is
true that some historical events have been shown to be encoded in the
Book of Genesis in certain configurations, it is absolutely not true
that every similar configuration of "encoded" words necessarily
represents a potential historical event. In fact, quite the opposite
is true: most such configurations will be quite random and are
expected to occur in any text of sufficient length. Mr. Drosnin states
that his "prediction" of the assasination of Prime Minister Rabin is
"proof" that the "Bible Code" can be used to predict the future. A
single success, regardless of how spectacular,  or even several such
"successful" predictions proves absolutely nothing unless the
predictions are made and evaluated under carefully controlled
conditions. Any respectable scientist knows that "anecdotal" evidence
never proves anything.

6. A plethora of books have appeared over the last several months,
concerning the codes. Unless the work is reviewed by qualified
scientists or mathematicians, the reader accepts such a book at his
own risk.

7. After exhaustive analysis, I have reached the conclusion that the
only information that can be derived from the codes discovered in
Genesis is that they exist, and the probability that they are mere
coincidence is vanishingly small.

Harold Gans, 
June 3, 1997