A strange collection of biblical codes that lacks wide appeal.
A debut book offers a key to figuring out the numerical codes embedded in the Bible.
The practice of gematria, or the discovery and decoding of meaningful numerical values embedded within nonnumerical alphabets, is an ancient discipline that was eventually adopted by more mystical strains of Judaism. In this volume, Stone provides a mathematical legend of sorts that decodes various phrases and names from the Bible along these lines. The work includes an “English end-time decryption table” and decodes alternate names for God (“The Ultimate One,” “The Deity”), religious concepts (“Our Salvation”), and a host of other seemingly random notions (“The Big Kahuna,” “Tears of a Clown”). More than once, the author presents the decryption of his own name, birthdate, and Social Security number. In the introduction, Stone writes: “The task at hand is to present Immanu-el (GOD with us), the Creator, etc., and make the specifics verifiable. The onion has many layers and subtleties as the number nine (9) suggests. But this book is a journey, and the end is the realization of God’s human/Divine identity.” The volume subdivides into 12 chapters, but what precisely distinguishes the subject matter of each of them is both unstated and generally inscrutable. This is a short book—only 64 pages—and very little commentary is included. The subject is certainly intriguing. Some sense of the historical and theological significance of such encoding would have been both edifying and interesting to the reader. As it stands, most of the chapters provide decryption without any accompanying explanation, and so this is essentially a reference guide without instructions with regard to its use. And, given the fact that the Bible was not originally composed in English, what is the religious significance of the decoding of an English alphabet translation? The author never addresses this issue. In Chapter 11, Stone inexplicably turns political: “President George Herbert Walker Bush, as Hitler, proclaimed in Japan the New World Order as Hitler had done. President Bush promptly fell on his face: Divine Intervention.” Even for the most ardent religious enthusiasts and those intensely fascinated by such codes, this volume promises little insight into the practice or even the author’s ultimate intentions. In other words, this is less a book than a catalog of puzzles.
A strange collection of biblical codes that lacks wide appeal.Pub Date: Jan. 12, 2016
ISBN: 978-1-4809-6661-1
Page Count: 72
Publisher: Rosedog Books
Review Posted Online: June 16, 2016
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
Worthwhile reference stuffed with facts and illustrations.
A compendium of charts, time lines, lists and illustrations to accompany study of the Bible.
This visually appealing resource provides a wide array of illustrative and textually concise references, beginning with three sets of charts covering the Bible as a whole, the Old Testament and the New Testament. These charts cover such topics as biblical weights and measures, feasts and holidays and the 12 disciples. Most of the charts use a variety of illustrative techniques to convey lessons and provide visual interest. A worthwhile example is “How We Got the Bible,” which provides a time line of translation history, comparisons of canons among faiths and portraits of important figures in biblical translation, such as Jerome and John Wycliffe. The book then presents a section of maps, followed by diagrams to conceptualize such structures as Noah’s Ark and Solomon’s Temple. Finally, a section on Christianity, cults and other religions describes key aspects of history and doctrine for certain Christian sects and other faith traditions. Overall, the authors take a traditionalist, conservative approach. For instance, they list Moses as the author of the Pentateuch (the first five books of the Hebrew Bible) without making mention of claims to the contrary. When comparing various Christian sects and world religions, the emphasis is on doctrine and orthodox theology. Some chapters, however, may not completely align with the needs of Catholic and Orthodox churches. But the authors’ leanings are muted enough and do not detract from the work’s usefulness. As a resource, it’s well organized, inviting and visually stimulating. Even the most seasoned reader will learn something while browsing.
Worthwhile reference stuffed with facts and illustrations.Pub Date: Sept. 1, 2005
ISBN: 978-1-5963-6022-8
Page Count: -
Publisher: N/A
Review Posted Online: May 23, 2010
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
This a book of earlier, philosophical essays concerned with the essential "absurdity" of life and the concept that- to overcome the strong tendency to suicide in every thoughtful man-one must accept life on its own terms with its values of revolt, liberty and passion. A dreary thesis- derived from and distorting the beliefs of the founders of existentialism, Jaspers, Heldegger and Kierkegaard, etc., the point of view seems peculiarly outmoded. It is based on the experience of war and the resistance, liberally laced with Andre Gide's excessive intellectualism. The younger existentialists such as Sartre and Camus, with their gift for the terse novel or intense drama, seem to have omitted from their philosophy all the deep religiosity which permeates the work of the great existentialist thinkers. This contributes to a basic lack of vitality in themselves, in these essays, and ten years after the war Camus seems unaware that the life force has healed old wounds... Largely for avant garde aesthetes and his special coterie.
Pub Date: Sept. 26, 1955
ISBN: 0679733736
Page Count: 228
Publisher: Knopf
Review Posted Online: Sept. 19, 2011
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Sept. 1, 1955
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