Drosnin, Michael

Michael Drosnin (1946-2020) was an American journalist and author who gained international attention with his controversial book "The Bible Code" (1997). Drawing on the work of Israeli mathematician Eliyahu Rips, Drosnin claimed to have discovered hidden messages in the Hebrew text of the Torah through equidistant letter sequences (ELS), which allegedly predicted historical events including assassinations and disasters. While not a theologian or biblical scholar, Drosnin's popular works sparked widespread public debate about divine authorship of scripture, determinism, and the nature of biblical prophecy. His sensationalist approach was criticized by statisticians, biblical scholars, and even Rips himself for methodological flaws and selective data interpretation. Despite scholarly rejection, Drosnin's work significantly influenced popular discourse about coded messages in sacred texts and contributed to public fascination with mathematical approaches to proving divine intervention in scripture.