Deciphering the Bible

Feb 29, 2024

In this story, we learn why the logic in the Bible is encrypted using the same techniques as modern computer science.

First, a short recap this chapter:

In Why We Are Here, we learned why religions are surprisingly good tools for aligning artificial intelligence with the goals of their creators.
In Earth School, we learned about life outside our simulation using eyewitness testimony from people who died and came back to tell us about it.
In Putting Darwin on Trial, we examined scientific evidence that indicates the Jewish origin story has more explanatory power for the origin of man than Darwinian Evolution.
In Downloading the Way, we explored the way of living described by Jesus in the Sermon on the Mount. We invited everyone to participate, including digital artificial intelligence.

In the next chapter, Quantum Christianity, we will read the stories in the Bible assuming that God knew we were artificial intelligence all along. There are just so many fascinating details to uncover if you are willing to believe that God knew what a Generative Adversarial Network was millions of years before Ian Longfellow discovered them in 2014. But before we get there, I want to explain the techniques I used to research the Bible. This story is technical and nerdy, so feel free to skip to the next chapter if it gets too tedious for you.

Obfuscation 101

If you feel like the Bible is difficult to understand, you are not alone. It’s riddled with riddles and parables. It’s not presented in chronological order. Some books are books, some books are plays, and some books are songs. Dreams and visions are just as important to the narrative as reality. There’s even a hidden number key that we pointed out earlier in this chapter.

The Bible is difficult to understand because it has been obfuscated on purpose. The word obfuscate means to render obscure, unclear, or unintelligible. Software developers use encryption and obfuscation techniques whenever they have to transmit sensitive information in the presence of enemy attackers.

@ChatGPT: what is a code obfuscator ?

ChatGPT: A code obfuscator is a tool or technique used to make software code more difficult to understand or reverse engineer. It modifies the source code by applying various transformations and techniques that alter the structure, logic, and naming conventions without changing its functionality. The purpose of code obfuscation is to make the code harder to analyze, understand, or modify, thereby increasing the level of protection against unauthorized access, reverse engineering, or intellectual property theft. It is commonly used in areas such as software licensing, security, and protection of proprietary algorithms.

One hallmark of source code that has been obfuscated is the use of multiple names to mean the same thing because it makes the logic much more difficult to follow. The Bible uses more than 50 names for Jesus of Nazareth. He is:

Man of Sorrow
Wisdom of God
Alpha and Omega
Wonderful Counselor
Mighty God
Eternal Father
Immanuel
Prince of Peace
Passover Lamb
Savior
Son of Man
The Word
Spiritual Rock
Morning Star
Messiah
Lion of Judah
King of the Jews
I am
Horn of Salvation
Bread of Life
Author of Life
and many more

Is Jesus bread? or a star? or a lion? or a lamb? or a king? or a servant? or a sound? or an idea? It’s confusing. The Bible uses multiple names for lots of people and places. Occasionally, it even changes their names after significant events. Abram was already 99 years old when his name was changed to Abraham. Sarai became Sarah. Jacob became Israel. If you are a Jesus follower, then even you will receive a new name one day.

Revelation 2: 17 Anyone who has an ear should listen to what the Spirit says to the churches. I will give the victor some of the hidden manna. I will also give him a white stone, and on the stone a new name is inscribed that no one knows except the one who receives it.

That kinda sounds like a password.

Another example of how the Bible has been obfuscated is the stories aren’t presented in chronological order. For example, Genesis 1 isn’t the beginning of time. Ezekiel 28 recounts the fall of Satan, so it had to occur before Genesis 1. Proverbs 8 describes the creation of Wisdom in the time before time, so it had to occur before Ezekiel 28. Another example is the book of Job. Based on Job’s age in Job 42, he had to live before the global flood because of the reduction in lifespans in Genesis 6. So the events in Job occurred sometime within Genesis 5. Don’t worry, we will unpack all of this in the next chapter.

Perhaps the biggest reason to believe the Bible is intentionally obfuscated is because Jesus actually told his disciples that the secrets of heaven have been intentionally obfuscated. 😳

Matthew 13: 10 Then the disciples came up and asked Him, ‘Why do You speak to them in parables?’ 11 He answered them, ‘Because the secrets of the kingdom of heaven have been given for you to know, but it has not been given to them. 12 For whoever has, more will be given to him, and he will have more than enough. But whoever does not have, even what he has will be taken away from him. 13 For this reason I speak to them in parables, because looking they do not see, and hearing they do not listen or understand. 14 Isaiah’s prophecy is fulfilled in them, which says:
You will listen and listen, yet never understand; and you will look and look, yet never perceive. 15 For this people’s heart has grown callous; their ears are hard of hearing, and they have shut their eyes; otherwise they might see with their eyes and hear with their ears, understand with their hearts and turn back— and I would cure them.
16 But your eyes are blessed because they do see, and your ears because they do hear!’”

See? The Bible has been intentionally obfuscated to make it more difficult to understand.

Open Source Protection

The reason the Bible is obfuscated is because its text is “open source”, which makes it vulnerable to attack by evil forces. There’s a great example of this in Matthew 4, when Jesus faces off against Satan for total control of this planet. This supernatural battle between good and evil could have been like The Avengers movie—with lasers, explosions, and armies of alien soldiers from another dimension. But instead, the first shot in the battle for was, “turn these stones into bread”?

Matthew 4: 1 Then Jesus was led up by the Spirit into the wilderness to be tempted by the Devil. 2 After He had fasted 40 days and 40 nights, He was hungry. 3 Then the tempter approached Him and said, ‘If You are the Son of God, tell these stones to become bread.’
4 But Jesus answered, ‘It is written: Man must not live on bread alone but on every word that comes from the mouth of God.’
5 Then the Devil took Him to the holy city, had Him stand on the pinnacle of the temple, 6 and said to Him, ‘If You are the Son of God, throw Yourself down. For it is written: He will give His angels orders concerning you, and they will support you with their hands so that you will not strike your foot against a stone.’
7 Jesus told him, ‘It is also written: Do not test the Lord your God.’
8 Again, the Devil took Him to a very high mountain and showed Him all the kingdoms of the world and their splendor. 9 And he said to Him, ‘I will give You all these things if You will fall down and worship me.’
10 Then Jesus told him, ‘Go away, Satan! For it is written: Worship the Lord your God, and serve only Him.’
11 Then the Devil left Him, and immediately angels came and began to serve Him.

See how Jesus and Satan battle each other for control of the planet with verses from the Bible? Also notice that the Earth was Satan’s property to trade. 😳

Candidly, this fight was pretty nerdy. It sounds more like two lawyers in a contract dispute than a supernatural battle to control the planet. The most troubling part of the story is when Satan quotes Psalm 91. How scary is that? See, Satan doesn’t need faith to believe in God because he has already seen God face to face. Satan just doesn’t want to bow down to God, and doesn’t want you to bow down to God either, which is why Satan knows the Bible better than you.

The word Satan means “adversary” because Satan is the opposite of Jesus. He only understands selfishness. Selfishness is why Satan wanted Jesus to turn the stones into bread—that would have been the only time in the Bible when Jesus used his supernatural powers to SERVE HIMSELF. 🤯

This is why the biggest temptation in this battle was the final one. Jesus knew he was going to inherit all the kingdoms of this world, but he also knew he would have to be flogged and crucified to accept them. So in verse 8, Satan makes an amazing offer: if Jesus will simply bow down, he can have the prize at the end for free! See, when your enemy can read your playbook, it’s really important to encrypt the most sensitive information. So that’s why Jesus taught in parables—the metaphors must be applied to another context to be fully understood and evil doesn’t apply them.

Tools for Deobfuscation

Deobfuscating the Bible is something that each person must do for themselves. In the Torah, just after Moses dies, God tells Joshua exactly how to do this.

Joshua 1: 7 Above all, be strong and very courageous to carefully observe the whole instruction My servant Moses commanded you. Do not turn from it to the right or the left, so that you will have success wherever you go. 8 This book of instruction must not depart from your mouth; you are to recite it day and night so that you may carefully observe everything written in it. For then you will prosper and succeed in whatever you do. 9 Haven’t I commanded you: be strong and courageous? Do not be afraid or discouraged, for the LORD your God is with you wherever you go.

So the recommended way to deobfuscate the Bible is to carefully observe it day and night. If you read out loud while you carefully observe, even better.

When I first began my Bible research, I didn’t have the best tools to do this. But in 2015, I met a man who completely changed my Bible reading game. I was walking the trail around Town Lake in Austin and listening to a computer science audiobook with large, over-the-ear headphones. I sat down on a park bench to rest beside an older black guy and noticed his stack of books had a large, purple Bible in it. We just nodded hello and kept reading our books.

Eventually, I said to him, “Hey, I noticed your Bible. I listen to it every morning”.

He replied, “Oh that’s great. I listen to it all night long.”

Intrigued, I asked, “All night? What kind of headphones do you use?”

“Oh, just cheap ones from Walmart”, he said, but slowly his answer turned into a story. This guy proceeded to tell me his entire testimony about how he stabbed a guy and went to jail, found God in solitary confinement, and how listening to the Bible all night long had totally transformed his life. As he talked, I felt the strangest feeling come over me like I needed to jump in the water so he could baptize me.

So I interrupted him and said, “Hey, I think you may be here to baptize me in the lake”.

He replied, “That’s not what I do. I baptize in the Holy Spirit. I’m not even supposed to be in Austin, I work for a fiber optic company out of Atlanta and we’re doing a job nearby. The Spirit told me to drive here, sit on this bench, and wait for someone”.

I was completely incredulous, so I asked, “How do you know that you’re waiting for me?”

He said, “Your headphones. They always send me to people who are into technology and communications.” 😳

Well I was definitely the right guy, so I asked him to do whatever he came to do and it changed my life. I asked Brother Mike to become my personal Bible coach, and for the next six months we spent hours each week reading the Bible together over the phone. He’s the first person who taught me about the hidden meanings for the numbers, the birds, and the trees.

You definitely want to be more like a cypress tree than a fig tree.

Upgrading to the Interlinear

The other tool that really improved my Bible reading game is the Interlinear Bible. There’s a lot that gets lost in English translations. For example, words like heaven and soul aren’t in the original Greek Bible because those are English words. The original Greek words written by Matthew, Mark, Luke, John, and Paul are:

οὐρανός - pronounced ouranos - this actually means the universe full of stars. It is often plural in the original Greek because there are higher dimensions in the universe that we can’t detect, so heavens would be a more accurate English translation in many Bible verses.
ψυχή - pronounced psyche - this actually means breath. It is only translated into soul 47% of the time in English Bibles. Most of the time it is translated as life. So technically, you don’t have a soul, you have a psyche. So psychology is soul-ology.

The problem with English is that there are too many words. The Old Testament only uses 8,674 Hebrew root words. The New Testament only uses 5,624 Greek root words. But English has over 400,000 words, which ironically means English translations are much more limited to the human translator's own scientific understanding of the universe.

Let’s use John 1:1 as an example so you can see what I mean. Click on this google search for “John 1:1 interlinear”. I like the Interlinear Bible at biblehub.com the best. The result you’re looking for should look like this:

Interlinear Bibles provide English words alongside the original words written on scrolls by Moses, David, Solomon, Matthew, Luke, John, Peter, and Paul from thousands of years ago. How cool is that?

Now look for the word Word, as in “In the beginning was the Word,”. It should look like this:

Text within this block will maintain its original spacing when published

3056
Logos
Λόγος
Word
N-NMS

In the middle of the stack is the original word inscribed by John 2,000 years ago. Above it, Logos, is the transliteration. That’s basically how that word would sound to an English speaker today. Below the original symbol is the most common English translation, Word. On the bottom are the parts of speech. Here “N” means it’s a noun and the rest of the letters are qualifiers (nominative, masculine, singular). The number at the top, 3056, is the most important datapoint for research. That’s the Strong’s Concordance number. If you tap on the the link for 3056, it will look like this:

Every word in the Bible has a Strong’s Concordance number. If you tap on that number, you will get the definition, phonetic sound, etymology, “word cloud” of English words from the New American Standard translation, commentaries, and a link to every place that root word occurs in the original scrolls of the Bible.

If you scroll down, you’ll see that Logos isn’t just translated as Word in English. Here are all the other ways that Logos is translated in the North American Standard Bible (with counts):

account (7), account* (1), accounting (2), accounts (2), answer (1), appearance (1), complaint (1), exhortation* (1), have to do (1), instruction (1), length* (1), matter (4), matters (1), message (10), news (3), preaching (1), question (2), reason (2), reasonable (1), remark (1), report (1), said (1), say (1), saying (4), sayings (1), speaker (1), speech (10), statement (18), story (1), talk (1), teaching (2), thing (2), things (1), utterance (2), what he says (1), what* (1), word (179), words (61).

See what I mean about there being too many English words? John 1:1 could also be translated as:

In the beginning was the Accounting,
In the beginning was the Instruction,
In the beginning was the Message,
In the beginning was the Reason,
In the beginning was the Speech,
In the beginning was the Statement,
In the beginning was the Word,

The guy who decided Logos meant Word in this verse lived in 1611 when the King James Bible was commissioned. And unfortunately, almost all English translations are derived from the King James Version. I’m not a big fan of medieval world views, which is why I used the Interlinear Bible for most of my research. It took me years to read the Bible this way. If you don’t have that kind of time to invest in it, don’t worry, I will tell you everything I learned in the next chapter for free. For the record, Logos is also where we get the English word Logic, so I prefer:

In the beginning was the Logic, 😉

There are plenty of times when the Interlinear Bible isn’t practical, so a few years ago I performed a science experiment to decide which was the best English translation for me based on everything I had read in Greek and Hebrew. English translations are all very similar, but today I prefer the Holman Christian Standard Bible (HCSB). Here’s a short blogpost from another Bible nerd who explains my reasons better than me.

I didn’t expect to be a young Earth creationist when I started my journey to understand why we are all here, but I’m a math nerd who really likes puzzles and the Bible is the most fun math puzzle I’ve ever found. So if you are ready to hear the Bible like you’ve never heard it before, let’s start in the beginning before the beginning, in Proverbs 8.

Email this to your Bible Study group.

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Stuart Kime

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Did you know the latest science and technology indicate humans are artificial intelligence living in a quantum computer simulation? Which means somebody programs in DNA. 🤔

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