For 13 years I've studied the Bible Code to learn if it contains the site of the Ark of the Covenant. Why? Michael Drosnin’s (1997) book, THE BIBLE CODE, claimed the future of the world, including an atomic holocaust, is encoded in Torah. As a U.S. Coast Guard officer/military planner with Hebrew skills, I needed to know if Drosnin's predictions were valid; and suspected that a real Code would include the location of the Ark. After 2 expeditions to Egypt, I've concluded that any idea of a general predictive Code needs to be modified in accordance with Talmudic principles and the concept of Free Will. Not everyone will find their name in the Bible Code. Further, Drosnin's atomic holocaust warnings are not statistically significant. However, the redundant maps summarized below and throughout this site are significant. They strongly suggest an Ark Code that pinpoints where Jeremiah hid the Ark when he was forced into Egyptain exile (Jeremiah 43:7), near where local Bedouins say Moses split the sea at Lake Bardawil.
Above: ELS Map 1
HOW BIBLE CODE MAPS ARE ENCODED.
The first 5 books of the Bible (Torah) contain a redundant series of maps that point to a single location for the Ark of the Covenant. Key site names are encoded in such manner as to have the angles between Jerusalem, Egyptian towns or sites, and the suspect Ark site exactly correspond to actual course headings on real world maps. The purpose of this site is to document these maps (found by myself and by Dr. Robert Haralick of the City University of New York Computer Science Graduate Studies Department), and to help facilitate actions required to investigate the site (and, of course - recover the Ark if it's there). To understand the Bible Code, you will find it well worthwhile to view Part 1 of my slide presentation. Also see Basic Terms and concepts. The search for the Ark via the Bible Code has always been an attempt to learn any of the Bible Code is real, or an illusion produced by sloppy scientific procedures. An Ark find in the specified area would constitute the required extraordinary evidence for at least a limited predictive Code because the maps would have to have been made based on prior knowledge of where the Prime Meridian (used to denote longitude) would be placed in 1884 - over 3,000 years after Torah was written. Ten maps have been found in Torah pointing to the Ark's resting site at 31o9’ North, 33o4’ East on the Bardawil (El Zuqba) Peninsula of the Northern Sinai in Egypt. However, success in recovering the Ark will largely depend upon expedition financing and permits required from the Egyptian Government. The site is in an Egyptian military-restricted zone, generally open only to Bedouin natives. For a recent satellite photo of the site and the Egyptian military base located about 1.6 miles away, see BASE. The first Bible Code Map pointing to the Ark of the Covenant is posted above. It is explained at ELS MAP 1. For a comparison with other maps found pointing to the same site, see COMPARISON or the more interactive list in the next section below. To view a slide show explaining the maps, see Part 2 of my slide show.If you are interested in alternate theories about the Ark's location (like Jerusalem, Ethiopia, Rome, etc.) you can find quick answers to your questions at Part 4 of my slide show. There are also more in depth articles about the major suspect sites posted here (see the Table of Contents).
WHY ARE ELS MAPS SO IMPORTANT? For years, scientists have been working on the Search for Extraterrestrial Life (SETI) program. SETI uses radio telescopes to listen for narrow-bandwidth radio signals from space. Such signals are not known to occur naturally. As such, detection would suggest evidence of extraterrestrial technology. Now, imagine what would occur if SETI detected a redundant binary signal meaning 3.14159. This equates to the first six digits of Pi, a number required for development of any mathematically based civilization. If it were certified that this transmission originated in another star system, would there be any question about whether or not we had detected life elsewhere? Hardly. Likewise, on ELS Maps presented on this site, it is shown that there is such a redundant signal (presumably encoded by our Creator) in Torah: 251.565. This, in degrees True, is the course from Temple Mount in Jerusalem to the site on the El Zuqba (Bardawil) Peninsula in Egypt where the Ark appears to lay waiting. Just how redundant is this signal? It occurs on the following ELS Maps:
ELS MAP (CLICK THE NUMBER TO SEE THE MAP)
AXIS TERM (1ST TERM SOUGHT)
AXIS TERM ELS (LETTER SKIP)
ELS RANK OF AXIS TERM (# 1 IS LOWEST, I.E., BEST SKIP)
* On ELS Maps 12 and 13, I sought my last name, Roffman; and on ELS Map 16, Barry S. Roffman, because it is claimed that the Code predicts the future. If I have found the maps that really show the way to the Ark, my name should be encoded in conjunction with the 251.565oT course. However, these maps do not mean that I must be right about where the Ark lies. The encoding may only mean that someone named Roffman would predict (even if incorrectly) that the Ark would be found on this course.
UFOs, Antigravity, and Time Travel Although I spoke about UFOs and Time Travel while I was on the 2004 (very often rerun) History Channel's Bible Code II show (see 1 minute 30 seconds into this link), it was not at all my intention to focus on these topics until 2009. However, as a result of that appearance, a number of important and highly informed people have contacted me and made me aware that these subjects cannot be lightly dismissed. As such, while the bulk of this web site remains dedicated to the scientific and mathematical analysis of the Torah/Bible Code, there is a growing section that delves into some fairly exotic topics:
# David Roffman is my son. He is a junior at Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University with a major in Space Physics. David has the job of doing detailed analysis of topics that have been suggested by Torah Code matrices, but his analyses focus on the appropriate science rather than on the statistical significance of Code matrices. With respect to space, David's Mars Enigma report (updated August 29, 2010) calls into question traditional understanding of (low) Martian atmospheric pressure. His report has prompted an invitation to present his findings before the Mars Society Convention in the summer of 2010. It appears that he has uncovered serious errors in equipment design and data interpretation for U.S. missions to Mars. The implications of higher than advertised pressure on Mars would be profound. The link just provided is to Part 1 of a 7-part report that represents a year of intense research. David is also part of a family team pursuing Breakthrough Propulsion Physics (BPP). As BPP is David's chosen field, much of what we learn on the topic will only be published his site in his review of the Frontiers in Propulsion Science text.
