Introduction

In the end of June, I sent to several Internet page operators dealing with the subject, for commentary and discussion, a study on a strange code [1, 2]. I called it ‘strange’ because I have used an approach that differs from the standard usage of Hebrew letters for denomination of years. I looked for AD 2000 using a way of writing out of the number 2000 that combined the Hebrew (in terms of numeric values) and the Roman (absence of the letter denoting current millennium) standards. Thus expressed, 2000 is an 8-letter string. It appears only once in the Torah, with a positive skip. Much to my surprise, however, the letter following the string denoted, as a 9-letter sequence already, the number 2006. I managed to find some items with a very high overall significance. The crucial three items, which formed a true key to the code, were the words “for a time, times and a half” (Dan. 12:7; turquoise ovals in Fig. 1), except for the two letters yod (י ) and mem (מ ) that denote the plural for times. All these were present, distinctive, in the matrix. (In order to facilitate the reference, I have slightly rearranged and reproduced the matrix in this study as Figure 1.) But there is an additional item in Figure 1 here: the name Jesus in its contemporary Hebrew 4-letter spelling, י ש ו ע , at skip 2 (purple ovals). It is off the left border of the original matrix. I have missed it in my previous study.

Although by no means it diminished the significance of the Jewish nation (Israel is present in a central place in the matrix), the code as a whole proved to be basically oriented to the Gentiles. Therefore, I haven’t ceased since to contemplate on it, recurring to the matrices every now and then. I do not like to play the prophet, so pointed out that a 3-letter word equivalent to Bush in Hebrew spelling has a dual meaning and could denote something else, which was in tune with the other items. But the US presidential elections are over and Mr. George W. Bush was re-elected for a second mandate. This is not a decisive corroboration of the presence of his name in the matrix, but makes it more plausible. At first, I was not absolutely certain that the code includes AD 2006 and assumed that it may end, say, in AD 2000. The US election results, however, inspired me to proceed with looking for more evidence that the code relates to timing.[1]

As I wrote previously, the Book of Daniel is one of my favourite Old Testament books because it corresponds most closely to the Book of Revelation in the New Testament. And we know that the Revelation is related generally to the End Times. One specific characteristic of the end times that is present in both books is the termination of the kingdom of Man and its replacement with the Kingdom of God. And there is a typical example of destruction of an empire that is a historic truth documented in Daniel chapter 5. This historic event was the fall of Babylon. Therefore, if AD 2006 is to be a crucial period of human history, it should correspond somehow to the termination of the Babylonian empire. Chapter 5 is an account of this, probably most significant in its fatality, night in the history. There are few more accounts of this event in the works of Greek historians Xenophon and Herodotus. None of them mentions a prophetic sign in a written form, given immediately before the event. It is found in Daniel alone: the writing on the wall.

The Shortest-Term Major Prophecy in the Bible

The writing on the wall is extraordinary both as execution (invisibility of the person: just fingers of a man’s hand were seen while writing on a wall of a candles’ or torches’ lit great hall in a king’s palace) and mysteriousness of its meaning. And it couldn’t be otherwise. This writing was so flabbergasting to all the wise men of Babylon that they could not read the writing, nor make known to the king the interpretation thereof (v. 8). It was so impressive feat that has been immortalized in numerous pictures drawn or painted by artists ever since.

The episode with the description of the situation in the king’s palace in the last night of the Babylonian empire is in the portion of the Book of Daniel that was written in Aramaic. It consists of three words but the first one is repeated twice: The words are also Aramaic, being close in spelling to corresponding Hebrew words. Daniel himself had to spell out the strange words. He gave a separate explanation of each word. We will discuss his interpretations in the course of our study.

So, having found another widely discussed and interpreted verse, I was absolutely convinced that the writing on the wall must be there, in the matrix. All the more that it has already proved to be of great importance in the real history as an “end-date” portent.

The writing on the wall, Mene Mene Tekel Upharsin, is a well-known text. In the Hebrew Bible (but written in Aramaic!) it runs as follows:

ו פ ר ס י ן ת ק ל מ נ א מ נ א

Daniel the prophet was the first one both to read and interpret it. Since then, many scholars tried to interpret these fifteen letters. Nowadays, one can find scores of meanings suggested by enthusiastic authors. Most of the readings proposed are eccentric and it is usually difficult to follow the authors’ sophisticated reasoning.

Although most of the prophecies in the Bible have dual meanings, sometimes being even ambiguous, there is always a key implication, which is clear from the historical background at the times of release and fulfillment and from the object of implementation. Therefore, the interpretation of Daniel should be the authentic primary acceptation. And what Daniel told to Belshazzar the king implied that these words denote measures of weights and division.

Double meaning can be discerned in all three words. Mene (מ נ א ) means to measure. In the writing on the wall, it is given in its Aramaic spelling. The Hebrew spelling differs in the third letter: it has he (ה ) instead of aleph (א ). This interpretation is reasonable because Daniel himself refers to mene as numbered (v. 26). Some authors reasonably believe that mene is also the Babylonian coin mina. It contained probably 50 tekels (that is, shekels in Hebrew), though some authors mention 60 tekels. Tekel (ת ק ל ) is a smaller coin in value, probably equivalent in weight to the shekel (ש ק ל ). Here, again, there is one letter that makes the Aramaic spelling differ from the Hebrew. Tekel also means weighed. The meaning of the third word, upharsin, will be discussed later.

We have established in [1] that, in a way, the letters of the prophecy about the time, times and a half, could be handled as weights equalizing a balance. Moreover, the Hebrew word standing for ‘time’, moed (מ ו ע ד ), has been used mostly to denote ‘congregation’. The remarkable fact is that in the handwriting on the wall, units of weight have been used once more to represent ‘time’ (the days of a kingdom numbered). This detail convinced me that the writing on the wall should be present somehow in the matrix with AD 2006.

[1] I didn’t know Mr. George W. Bush’s biography in details. It was quite recently when I came to know that he was born in July 1946. Now, if we follow the diagonal with his name in Fig. 1 (green ovals), the letter next to the last letter in Bush (ב ו ש ), shin, is tav (ת ), the oval contour in Fig. 1. If we read three letters from this tav back, i.e. including the last 2 letters of Bush, at skip = -14,964, we obtain tav-shin-vav (ת ש ו ). The numerical value of these 3 letters is 400+300+6 = 706. Incidentally, July 1946 happened to be in the year 5706, according to the Jewish calendar. That year started in September 1945 and ended in September 1946.