How to Encode and Decode Using a Bible Cipher

A message that uses the Bible to code a message is a Bible cipher. The Bible is a great book to encode and decode from because of its length and number of words. Ciphers are fun to use to create secret messages.

Instructions

Difficulty: Easy

Things You’ll Need:

• Bible
• Bible concordance or online database

1. Decide on the version of the Bible and the code for the titles of the books of the bible with the person trading messages with you. For example, use letters for the books. Use "A" for Genesis, "B" for Exodus, "AA" for Daniel and "AAA" for 1 Timothy. Numbers instead of the books' titles work too.
2. Use a Bible concordance or an online database to find specific words. The Bible Gateway website lets you search any word or phrase in 50 versions of the bible. This allows you to find the words in specific verses for your cipher.
3. Write the message out on a piece of paper. Skip every other line on the paper. This gives you space to write the verses the words are located in.
4. Look up each word in the Bible concordance or database to find the verses. Count the words in the verse up to the word you are looking for.
5. Write each location under the word. For example, if using the King James Bible, looking for the word created. It may look like this: A1-1 5.
6. Decode each message received with the same cipher. For example AR2-23 18 the word is "hands."

Tips & Warnings

• The translations of the Bibles must match or the messages do not match.