The idea is to start with some letter in the text and then skip ahead by some fixed number of letters to spell out. In a nutshell, the 'secret code' by which Dronin claimed the Bible revealed hidden messages was that of the 'Equal Letter Skip,' or ELS for short. Once proprietary, many of these software programs are now available for purchase or offered as free downloads. Jewish and Christian researchers are now using dedicated computer software to search the Scriptures for new codes, and to computer their statistical significance. Soon, Christian researcher began to find codes in the Christian Bible. Bible code researchers began to develop software specifically developed to perform such searches. The invention of computers and computer software made it possible to carry out searches for codes in seconds that would have previously taken hours or days. Believers in the Bible code, or Torah code, would spend their lives researching the text, seeking out the patterns, and trying to decode the Torah. Torah scribes were cautioned that just one letter lost in their work could have dire consequences. The tradition developed that everything and everyone that ever was or will be is recorded in the text of the first five books of the Bible. Bible code research dates back to the 12th century, when rabbinical scholars first wrote about having discovered words and meaningful messages hidden in the Hebrew text of the Torah.
