No. Purple and Enigma were machine ciphers. The Bible Code, if it exists, is more like steganography.
The intervals were chosen in the (so called) Bible Code by first deciding on the word they were looking for, finding the first letter, finding the second letter x spaces further on, then checking if the third letter was 2x spaces from the first and so on.
Not quite as simple as that, because the language isn’t English and doesn’t quite work the same, but that’s the essence of it. The same feat can be done with any sufficiently large and varied text.
Further, Purple and Enigma are real and the Bible Code is hokum.
This Wikipedia article on Enigma gives a decent overview to the methodology of creating and decyphering codes (such as the Wehrmacht code, the Japanese diplomatic Purple Code and the somewhat more important Japanese Naval code, JN-25).
These are all substitution codes used to send and receive genuine messages.
In contrast, the “Bible Code” is an ad hoc reinterpretation of an existing text by people who want to imagine that the “ancients” left messages for us (that conveniently switch back and forth between Hebrew and English or whatever language the “decoder” wants to play with). Our own C K Dexter Haven produced a good debunking of the “Bible Code” in the Staff Report What’s up with the “Bible Code”?.
Enigma and Purple were ciphers. JN25 was a code.
That Wikipedia article is actually one of the best I’ve seen on Enigma.
More detailed info on how the Enigma was “broken” can be found at the National Security Administration’s website. Have a look at the mathematics of the device and the “Bombe” machines used to break the code.
An addendum about that website: if you’re in the Baltimore-DC area you can see the exhibit at the National Cryptologic Museum. I highly recommend it.
Magnetout:
[quoye]The intervals were chosen in the (so called) Bible Code by first deciding on the word they were looking for, finding the first letter, finding the second letter x spaces further on, then checking if the third letter was 2x spaces from the first and so on.
[/quote]
Not quite. The Bible Code is more specific than that: it searches for all equidistant letter patterns of that word, and then only considers the one with the smallest letter distance. That’s why the original papers behind it (not the more popular book, which played faster and looser with rules) found the interposition of related words to be significant - because only one instance (the minimal distance) of a given word was ever considered.
That’s not to say that I endorse the Bible Code wholeheartedly. But by oversimplifying the way you did, it sounds a lot dumber than it should.
But it’s still dumb. It’s based on the strong form of the Law of Fives.
Weak Form: Everything, everywhere, has something to do with the number five.
Strong Form: The weak form becomes more apparent the harder you look.
[QUOTE=cmkellerBut by oversimplifying the way you did, it sounds a lot dumber than it should.[/QUOTE]
Oh? :dubious: Not to trigger a Great Debate or even a Pit thread but, regardless how the count is done, how can the Bible Code sound dumber than it really is?
I’m not sure of the answer to the OP’s question, but I do note a secret message contined therein. Using the number of apostles (12) as a key, I get:
WerethePurpl
eCodeandt**h**eE
ni**g**maCode**a**ny
th**i**nglike**t**he
Bi**b**leCode**s**an
dhowar**e**thein
terval**s**foreq
uidis**t****a**ntlet
tersp**a****c**ingsd
eterm**i****n**edint
heBib**l****e**Codes
Clearly, there is a message “encased” here (what are the chances af a six-letter word being randomly found in such a short post?) – and probably encased backwards. However, I’m not sure why the Bible is “big”, nor why it has a “tail”. And “hats”? I just don’t understand.
Silly, the OP is obviously predicting the rise of the Catholic Church.
The Bishops wear big hats, and their robes are so long they could be wearing a coat with tails under them.
Not quite. The Bible Code is more specific than that: it searches for all equidistant letter patterns of that word, and then only considers the one with the smallest letter distance. That’s why the original papers behind it (not the more popular book, which played faster and looser with rules) found the interposition of related words to be significant - because only one instance (the minimal distance) of a given word was ever considered.
That’s not to say that I endorse the Bible Code wholeheartedly. But by oversimplifying the way you did, it sounds a lot dumber than it should.
[/QUOTE]
I didn’t know that, thanks.
Ditto. Cryptology is a fascination for me, and I thoroughly enjoyed the Museum. Especially using an Enigma machine.
dropzone:
Well, I’ll let you decide between the two ways (incorrect and correct) that it’s been presented:
Incorrect way: The Bible Code is based on being able to find words in skip-patterns of letters in close proximity to one another. Of course, you can find any word in skip patterns anywhere, if you’re willing to look.
Correct way: The Bible Code is based on being able to find words in a skip pattern that can only occur once in the entire Bible in close proximity to one another.
Now, without this becoming a Great Debate…doesn’t the second sound different to you at all? It doesn’t have to be thought of as proof of divine origin in order to sound at least somewhat unusual.
There used to be a private girls school known as Mount Vernon Seminary located at Ward Circle in Washington, DC, kitty corner from American University and just down the block from was (and still is) the Japanese Embassy. In December 1941 the girls went home for Christmas and returned in early 1942 to find that the military had taken over the school due to its proximity to the embassy. Staffed largely with code-breaking WACs and On the Roof Gang graduates it played a significant role in breaking Code Purple. It later became known as Naval Security Station, and was in the process of being transferred over to SPAWAR when I transferred out in the early 1990s. There’s a little history and some photos here. It’s an interesting place that just about no one outside of the intelligence community will ever see.
It’s also right next door to Washington’s NBC affiliate and we could see Willard Scott do his Today Show birthday segment from the barracks. 
Mildly intriguing but lacking the education to confirm or deny and basing my choice on my knowledge of human nature and a belief that the Kabbalah can be classified as Probably BS I default to the belief that the burial of messages in the Bible or the Torah is, at best, imagined by the gullible or, at worst, perpretrated by the cynical. Your mileage WILL vary and I still respect you as a person who knows much more than I about his faith but this is one topic from which I must excuse myself before I get any more condescending. 
dropzone:
As I said earlier, I myself am not totally sold on the Bible Codes. However, it at least makes sense to know what you’re disagreeing with. The Bible Codes (which, incidentally, do not have anything to do with Kabbalah) is not just some parlor game of word-find.
I guess I’m just a little confused… wouldn’t the embassy have been closed by 1942 due to the war and rendered the school’s prime location moot?
JN-25 was both, an encyphered code. A codebook would be used to ‘translate’ words and phrases into five-digit codes. ‘Admiral’ for example might be 12250. A smaller encyphering book would then be used to alter the encoded message. These smaller books had 100 5-digit groups per page. The operator would choose a page, line, and position to start, and add that book’s group to the original group, discarding carries. 63493 added to 12250 would yield 75643. The next original group would get the next encyphering group added to it, and so on. The starting point used in the encyphering book and which book would be included twice, in specific locations in the message. The JN-25 code was changed a few times in the course of the war, the encyphering books rather more often.
DD