Puzzles in the Bible and History By John Q. Boyer

Puzzles in the Bible and History By John Q. Boyer

The mind of man, even from the beginning of the history of the world, has been of a curious turn. History, both sacred and secular, yields numerous instances of how man has tried to outwit man by some enigmatic proposition or perplexing problem.

The Bible furnishes many stories of this kind and the Sacred Book is noted for its connection with matters of hidden thought other than religious. Propounding puzzles was an ancient practice, but the story of Adam attempting to baffle Cain and Abel, his sons, is set down in history as a mere legend. But the title of the "Father of Riddles" goes to Samson. He is recorded as proposing his riddle to the young men of the Philistines, as found in the book of Judges, chapter XIV, and going to the extent of offering a prize of thirty sheets and thirty changes of garments. This was recorded about 3,300 years ago.

King David next appears as a puzzle devotee, and his CXIX Psalm is a type of alphabetical acrostic, known as the Abecedarian Psalm. Then followed the "wisest man in all the earth"—Solomon, the royal son of David.

In the Second Book of Chronicles we read that the Queen of Sheba came to visit Solomon, "to prove him with hard questions." It is noted that fragments of the writings of Dius, the Phoenician historian, inform us that Hiram, King of Tyre, and Solomon had a contest in riddles. Solomon, so the story relates, won a large sum of money, but subsequently lost it to Abdemon, one of Hiram's subjects.

In the early Bible days riddles were proposed at marriage feasts and enigmas were used as a special feature at banquets, all nations of antiquity being fond of the riddle or enigma. The Arabs, the descendants of Ishmael, had their books of riddles, emblems and ingenious devices; and the Chaldees and Persians likewise had their riddles. The soothsayers and astrologers of those ancient races were famous men indeed.

The Hebrews of the Bible deserve special mention. Isaiah and Jeremiah were Judahite puzzlers; Joseph and Daniel dream interpreters. The handwriting on the wall, "Mene, Mene, Tekel, Upharsin," and the parables of the Saviour, are examples of Biblical enigmatism. The last-mentioned parables were forms of enigmas and rank high in puzzle literature. The Jewish Cabalists had their "lesser enigmas," with their references to numbers; while Rev. XIII: 18, with its "number of the beast," is an enigma that has long puzzled the world.

The Jewish rabbis made common use of the device of the arrangement of letters to conceal certain statements, a form of the cryptogram. An example of sacred cabalism is in Isaiah VII: 6, where Tabeal is written for Remaliah, and in Jeremiah XXV: 26, the prophet writes Sheshach for Babel (Babylon). Regarding these occult writings as used by David, Isaiah and Jeremiah, it would appear that secret messages were used even before the time of Samson, the ancient riddle-maker.

The Latin inscription on the cross, I N R I, lends itself to the acrostic, while the anagram is noted as being recognized among the Hebrews. The law as given to Moses was called "Cabbala," and was largely a volume of alphabetical revolution. Certain magical words on the seal of Solomon had weird meaning to the Cabalists. The emblematic acrostic of the Fish, carved on the monuments in the Roman Catacombs to designate the burial-places of Christians, is famous in history.

The hieroglyphs of the Phoenicians and Egyptians are connected with the rebus, and in their most ancient forms were of an alphabetical character. The symbols of the rebus were used in Ephesus as early as 600 B. C, and are mentioned in Acts XIX: 19. Abraxas (Abracax) and Abracadabra are symbols of Persian and Assyrian rebuses, respectively.

The ancient Egyptians held puzzling as a religious rite, the Sphinx being their goddess. They likewise excelled in the riddle, and such was their secret religion that all their priests were riddlers, their religion "one vast enigma."

The mythological riddle of the Grecian Sphinx is a classic: "What is that animal which in the morning goes forth on four feet, at noon on two, and in the evening on three?" The answer is "Man." The famous wise men of Greece exchanged puzzles. Here is the riddle, offered by the fishermen of Ios to Homer, who was "done to death" by the enigma: "What we caught we threw away, what we could not catch we kept," the answer being "Fleas." This is the "sophism" designated by the ancients as "The Liar:" "If you say of yourself, 'I lie,' and in so saying tell the truth, you lie; if you say, 'I lie,' and in so saying tell a lie, you tell the truth." This perplexed Aristotle considerably, and it is said that Philetas, the Grecian grammarian and poet of Cos, puzzled himself to death over his attempt to solve it.

The ancient riddle on "The Year" has three renditions. Cleobulus, one of the Seven Wise Men of Greece, puts it in this way: "A father had twelve children, and each child had thirty sons and daughters, the sons being white and the daughters black, and one of them died every day, and yet became immortal." In a similar manner one "from the East" refers to a tree with twelve branches, each with thirty leaves, black on one side and white on the other. Necbatano, King of Egypt, proposed his to Lycerus, King of Babylon, regarding "a grand temple," with its single column, encircled by twelve cities; each with thirty flying buttresses; each with two women, one white, one black, that go round it in turns.

Riddles are found in the Koran of Muslims, and books of them are anciently known in Arabia and Persia. The peoples of India and China were devotees of the puzzleistic Art, with Brahma and Confucius apostles, respectively. The Egyptian mystics, the Gnostics and the early Fathers were solvers of enigmas. The Grecian oracles furnished many examples of ancient enigmas, consulted upon all important occasions. The oracle of the Thebans foretold the self-destruction of the Sphinx.

In ancient Rome the Mystic Art flourished in Nero's time. Virgil quotes a riddle proposed by Dametas to Menacles, still remaining unsolved. Latin riddles have held attention through many years, Symposius, Aldhelm and Tatwine, Archbishop of Canterbury, being noted authors. Julius Caesar and Augustus made use of the cryptogram, while down to the Council of Nice in 325 secret characters were used, and in the ninth century messages in cipher were known. In the Middle Ages sovereigns kept expert decipherers in their service.

The cipher was used by Napoleon; Louis XVII's reign furnished intricate cryptographs; and Ignatius Donnelly, J. G. Pyle, and Edgar Allan Poe are moderns in the realm of the cryptogram, with De Mille and Verne and Macaulay as writers on the subject. Literature furnishes ample references to similar endeavors.

Down through history the Puzzle Art has lived, with seasons here and there of lulling. During the first centuries of the Christian era puzzling waned, but again there were periods of awakening, notably in the second half of the seventh century, known as the Age of Symposius. With the decline of literature, about the third or fourth century A. D., puzzling also declined. The "Reformation" of Luther marked a check, but did not stop the pastime. In the sixteenth century it again came into general favor and popularity. Shakespeare introduced puzzle references into his plays and Isaac Watts was fond of the mental exercise.