Tickling Ears (or) Seeking the Biblical Wow-Factor --------------------------------------------------------- Tim Hegg TorahResource 2014 It requires diligence and due effort to handle the inspired text of the Bible accurately. After all, we are removed by thousands of years from the languages, the cultures, and the historical settings within which the Scriptures were being composed. Add to this the fact that the writing of Scripture spans millennia, and the task is a significant one indeed. Yet in spite of these apparent hermeneutical hurdles which must be overcome to arrive at a proper interpretation, the task is not an impossible one. And given the fact that properly understanding the message of the Scriptures is essential if we intend to walk in the footsteps of Messiah, we must never weary of searching out biblical truth and relying upon the Ruach to aid us as we incorporate the Bible s teaching into all aspects of our lives. It is a real sorrow, then, when we see how often contemporary teachers and preachers give in to tickling ears rather than accepting the message of the inspired text itself as that to which God desires the people to pay attention. I m talking about the growing tendency of Bible teachers to import into the biblical text something that is clearly not there, something that (apparently) is thought to bring the wow-factor which otherwise would be lacking. Or to put it another way, when the word of God becomes ho-hum to the modern ear, many teachers seek for an attention grabber, something that will really tickle the ears. Any more I m not surprised when I see this. The phenomenon is everywhere on the internet and has become common place in the mega-church movement. Nor am I surprised to see this kind of thing filling messianic blogs and websites. But I have to say I was a bit nonplused when I saw FFOZ peddling this kind of thing. Generally I thought that the writers and teachers at FFOZ would be less vulnerable to jumping on the sensationalist band wagon that when they heard something that seemed almost too good to be true, they would do the research to verify the claims before incorporating them into their own teachings and encouraging their constituents to believe them. What I m talking about is the audio teaching by D. Thomas Lancaster which FFOZ offered this year on their website as an audio teaching for Purim, entitled Purim 1946 (http://ffoz.com/purim-1946.html). When I first listened to the teaching, I just kept shaking my head in unbelief: How could someone honestly think that orthographic anomalies in late manuscripts of Esther could hold secret, prophetic encoding that detailed the execution of 10 Nazi criminals in 1946? I knew that this esoteric, mystical interpretation was something that was well off the mark, not only because it relies on a very bad hermeneutic, but also because nearly all of the small and large letters (upon which this teaching depends) were incorporated into the biblical manuscripts in the 14th Century or later, most likely being the result of rabbinic midrash. In a nutshell, the teaching to which I m referring is this: that in the Hebrew manuscripts of Esther, the writing of the names of the ten sons of Haman in Esther 9:7-9 contain some letters written much smaller than normal, and one letter written much larger. These, so the teaching goes, contain a hidden code decipherable only after the event so prophesied takes place. Taking the numerical value of the small letters and combining it with the value represented by the one large letter, the year 5707 of the Hebrew calendar is derived, which corresponds to 1946 of the Gregorian calendar, the very year that 10 Nazi leaders were sentenced to death. The upshot of the teaching is that the book of Esther, from the very first time when it was written, contained a hidden code that prophesied the execution of 10 Nazi criminals, even as the 10 sons of Haman were executed. Such a teaching sounds too incredible not to be true! So I decided to look at the text itself, since I already knew that my copy of BHS (Biblia Hebraica Stuttgartensia) had no small or large letters in the megillah of Esther. Further, I knew that the book of Esther has not been found at Qumran, so there was no need to look at the Dead Sea Scrolls. Nor does the Aleppo Codex include Esther since the last section of the codex, which originally contained the book of Esther, is missing. So the first place I went was to the Leningrad Codex which contains the oldest extant copy of Esther in Hebrew (ca 1008 CE). Here s what I found: ~ 1 ~
This is a photocopy of the section of the Leningrad Codex containing Esther 9:7 9, the list of Haman s ten sons. As you can plainly see, all of the letters in the names of the ten sons are of normal size none smaller or larger than usual. So I wondered where this teaching began? At what texts were people looking when they came up with the idea that three letters written small and one written large contained a hidden code? I also wondered if the rabbinic sources could shed any light on this question. I first went to my shelf of Hebrew Bibles to begin my search. The following table contains the data I found. Source Photo Copy Text פּ ר מ שׁ תּ א ו א ת א ר יס י ו א ת א ר ד י ת, ש, ת, ז Letters: Four small The Old Testament (5 vols) - C. D. Ginsburg, 1926 Second Rabbinic Bible (Blomberg), 1524-25 Mikra ot Gedolot ~ 2 ~
פּ ר מ שׁ תּ א ו א ת א ר יס י ו א ת א ר ד י תורה, נביאים וכתובים edited by Meir Halevi Letteris (Hebrew Pub Co), 1852 ת, ש, ת, ז Letters: Four small Biblia Hebraica, edited by Everardo Van Der Hooght, 1839 תנ ך הכתר חורב The Keter Crown Bible (Horev Pub/ Feldheim Pub), 2004 Beyond the data contained in the above table, a number of the printed editions of the Hebrew Bible note other letters which are written smaller in some manuscripts. For instance, in the Van Der Hooght Bible as well as the Letteris Bible, it is noted that the ר in the name פּ ר מ שׁ תּ א (v. 9) is written minuscule in some manuscripts. We see, then, that in terms of minuscule letters, three traditions are evidenced in the later manuscripts and printed Hebrew Bibles for Esther 9:7 9. 1) Letters ת, שׁ, ז are minuscule; 2) Letters ת, שׁ, ת, ז are minuscule; 3) Letters ת, ר, שׁ, ז are minuscule. How the Purim 1946 Teaching Is Derived The so-called Purim 1946 hidden code from Esther 9:7 9 is derived by relying upon published Hebrew Bibles which have three small letters:, שׁ,ת and ז and the one large letter,.ו Assigning a numerical value to each of these letters, the code yields the following: Three small letters: 7 = = 400 שׁ, =,300 ז.ת Thus, 400 + 300 + 7 = 707 One large letter: ו = the 6th millennium (which begins with the Hebrew year 5000) Thus: 5000 + 707 = 5707, the Hebrew year corresponding to 1946, the year 10 Nazi criminals were executed. But there are two main problems with this calculation. First, why is the large vav said to represent the 6th millennium rather than standing for 6 years? It seems just as feasible that the number could be 400 + 300 + 7 + 6 = 713. Who decided that the vav should represent millennia rather than years? This sounds a lot like making the data fit one s conclusion. ~ 3 ~
But the second problem is even more difficult for the Purim 1946 teaching to overcome: What about the other editions of the printed Hebrew Bible which have four (or even five) small letters rather than three? If, for instance, one were to consider the Tanach edited by Ginsburg or the well-respected Letteris edition of the Hebrew Bible, then the calculations would yield an entirely different result: Four small letters: 7 = = 400 ש, = 300 ת, =,400 ז.ת Thus, 400 + 300 + 400 + 7 = 1107 One large letter: ו = the 6th millennium (which begins with the Hebrew year 5000) Thus: 5000 + 1107 = 6107, the Hebrew year corresponding to 2346! So who decided which one of the printed Hebrew Bibles was the authentic one which contained the authentic hidden code? It s obvious that whoever made such a decision did not investigate the manuscripts, for if they had, they would have realized that the oldest manuscript of Esther had no small or large letters! But even if they were willing to accept the later medieval manuscripts, they would have been confronted with a number of conflicting scenarios and would have realized the impossibility of their claim when faced with such dispersant data. And there is another important detail to consider: When I looked in the rabbinic literature for explanations of the small letters in Esther 9:7 9, I found nothing. No mention of the small letters in the names of Haman s sons is to be found in the Mishnah, Tosefta, Bavli, Yerushalmi, or the Midrash Rabbah even though the large vav is mentioned along with the unique manner in which the names of Haman s sons are written in a single column: And Parshandatha... the ten sons of Haman. R. Adda from Joppa said: The ten sons of Haman and the word ten [which follows] should be said in one breath. What is the reason? Because their souls all departed together. R. Johanan said: The vav of vay e zata mustו י ז ת א be lengthened like a boat-pole of the river Libruth. What is the reason? Because they were all strung on one pole. R. Shila, a man of Kefar Temarta, drew a lesson from this saying, All the songs [in Scripture] are written in the form of a half brick over a whole brick, and a whole brick over a half brick, with the exception of this one and the list of the kings of Canaan which are written in the form of a half brick over a half brick and a whole brick over a whole brick. What is the reason? So that they should never rise again from their downfall. 1 If it were a scribal tradition during the Talmudic era to make some of the letters in the names of Haman s sons minuscule, surely there would have been some discussion in the rabbinic literature discussing their import. That the lengthened or enlarged vav is mentioned only strengthens this argument. Why would the Bavli include discussion of the enlarged vav but say nothing about the three or four small letters? The only reasonable answer is that the tradition of writing some of the letters as minuscule did not exist in the Talmudic era but was something added much later. Conclusion Once again, this whole Purim 1946 teaching, supposedly based upon the Hebrew text of Esther, is a fine example of junk scholarship, of teachers publishing ear tickling hidden secrets without doing the necessary investigation to find out if the teaching has any substance in reality. And the reality is this: the Purim 1946 teaching can only be derived from the Hebrew text of Esther if one is willing to start with a hermeneutic that posits hidden secrets in the biblical text, and is also willing to disregard honest textual criticism in order to pick and choose between late, conflicting readings to derive one s own concocted conclusions. But Moses teaches us that there are no hidden, coded messages in the Torah, and if not in the Torah, then surely not in the Prophets and Writings, which are built upon the foundation of the Torah. For this commandment which I command you today is not too difficult for you, nor is it out of reach. It is not in heaven, that you should say, Who will go up to heaven for us to get it for us and make us hear it, 1 b.megilla 16b. ~ 4 ~
that we may observe it? Nor is it beyond the sea, that you should say, Who will cross the sea for us to get it for us and make us hear it, that we may observe it? But the word is very near you, in your mouth and in your heart, that you may observe it. (Deut 30:11 14) We therefore should not be approaching the inspired biblical text with the presupposition that we need to find hidden, coded messages there. It is this very misguided notion that makes people vulnerable to believe and follow the teachers who fill their messages with sensationalism in order to capture the eager soul looking for secrets. Rather, we should be feeding upon God s word as that which He gave to us in plain, historical languages which carry His divine, inspired message. Further, this Purim 1946 teaching is a perfect example of how the hermeneutic that seeks a deeper-codedmeaning does its work. In order to find the Purim 1946 secret in Esther 9:7-9, one must first disregard or count as unworthy the testimony of the oldest Hebrew manuscript of Esther, i.e., the Leningrad Codex, which contains neither the small (minuscule) nor the large (majuscule) letters incorporated in the later published Hebrew Bibles. Next, one would have to posit that the later, edited and published Hebrew Bibles contain something missed by the earlier texts. And finally, one would have to pick and choose between the available Hebrew Bibles, since only some of them fit the Purim 1946 scenario while the others simply do not. In the end, if one does only a little investigation when confronted with such claims, one will be spared the embarrassing situation of having been led down the primrose path of deception by slick teachers who either know better but don t care, or who have decided it s not worth their time to do the hard work of investigating the claims that sparkle and entice, but vanish as a vapor in the light of truth. You might be asking why I would spend time explaining why this Purim 1946 teaching is wrong. Does it really matter? Who cares if some people think there is a code hidden in the book of Esther that anticipated or prophesied the execution of Nazi criminals? Well, I m glad you asked that question! The reason that I think this is something worthy of a straightforward, head-on response is because it s a perfect example of how the messianic movement is being diluted with mediocre teaching and claims the glitter but don t last. My challenge to you, the reader, is to test all that you hear against a basic touch-stone of truth that the word of God, the Bible, is the final and ultimate test of all that is right and all that is wrong, and that God gave us His inspired word, not in coded message, but in human language that is straightforward and therefore understandable to anyone who gives himself or herself to read and study it and, by the power of the Ruach, apply it to their lives. So don t be fooled. Hold to that which is true and feast upon the clear, inspired, and eternal word of God. May it be like honey in your mouth (Ezek 3:3) and shalom to your soul (Ps 119:165). Every scripture is inspired by God and useful for teaching, for reproof, for correction, and for training in righteousness, that the person dedicated to God may be capable and equipped for every good work. (2Tim 3:16 17, NET Bible) Forever, ADONAI, Your word is settled in heaven. (Ps 119:89, NASB) ~ 5 ~