Sat Feb 8 18:30:27 1997

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Date: Sat, 8 Feb 1997 17:14:19 -0700
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From: "Robert B. Waltz" 
Subject: Re: Equidistant letters
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On Sat, 8 Feb 1997, "Lewis Reich"  wrote, in part:

>The Bible Review article stated the conclusion of the JRS article was 
>that "words [were] encoded into the Hebrew text that could have not 
>been accidental - nor placed there by human hand".

Which is, of course, not true. It is the nature of coincidences that
*they happen*.

Note that I don't say this is false -- merely that it is meaningless.

>This rather 
>unfortunate slant extends to the title of the BR article:  "Divine 
>Authorship?  Computer reveals startling word patterns".  The 
>subsequent SS article is described as yielding "results [that] do not 
>reveal any secret messages encoded in the Bible, but they do 
>demonstrate certain sequences of letters forming words that cannot be 
>the result of chance."    The BR article quotes the editor of SS as 
>saying:  "Our referees were baffled: their prior beliefs made them 
>think the Book of Genesis could not possibly contain meaningful 
>references to modern day individuals, yet when the authors carried 
>out additional analyses and checks the effect persisted.  The paper 
>is thus offered to *Statistical Science* readers as a challenging 
>puzzle."

Ouch. I'll believe *this* when I see some real evidence.

Thanks for the explanation.

-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-

                            Robert B. Waltz
                         waltzmn@skypoint.com

Want more loudmouthed opinions about textual criticism?
Try my web page: http://www.skypoint.com/~waltzmn
(A very rough draft of part of the Encyclopedia of NT Textual Criticism)

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