All language subtitles for Holy.Marvels.with.Dennis.Quaid.S02E05.1080p.WEB.h264-EDITH_track3_[eng]

[dramatic music]

- Tonight, mysterious codes

hiding in plain sight.

- At least as far back

as the first century BC,

people have been searching

for coded messages.

- From works of art-

- People start
trying to find codes

in "The Last Supper" itself.

- Who knows how many
more could be out there

waiting to be found?

- to sacred texts-

- The more the
manuscript is studied,

the more mysteries
it seems to raise.

- Dozens try to crack it,

even Alan Turing,

who famously helped break
the Nazi Enigma code.

- to the desert sands.

- This has to have deep
spiritual importance

to justify all the
manpower that it took.

- What messages are
they trying to convey?

- If we look closely, we
begin to see a pattern.

- They suspect
that these carvings

are perhaps symbols of warning.

- Now, the remarkable stories

behind history's most
confounding hidden codes.

[dramatic music]

One of the world's
greatest artists,

Leonardo da Vinci,

left behind more than
just masterpieces,

secrets are embedded
in all of his works.

Symbols and codes

whose meaning remains
debated today.

[pensive music]

- Leonardo da Vinci
is the painter

behind one of the most famous
religious artworks ever made,

"The Last Supper."

Not to mention, he also painted

the most famous work in history,

"The Mona Lisa."

- A significant portion
of da Vinci's work

is religious in nature,

"Saint Jerome,"
"Virgin and Child,"

"The Adoration of the Magi."

This is because he
worked on commission,

and he was painting
for the church

and for wealthy patrons
in Italy and France.

- da Vinci's genius is
not just in the art world.

As he's developing his
reputation as a great painter,

he's also filled 13,000
pages of journal entries

with scientific ideas

that are way ahead
of their times.

He comes up with designs
for flying machines

and military equipment
and scuba gear,

even robots.

- [Dennis] Within these pages,

da Vinci shows off
another surprising skill.

- da Vinci invents
a kind of code.

He writes backwards in
a mirror-image script

combined with his own made-up
shorthand and symbols.

We still don't know what
inspired da Vinci to do this,

but it seems like he just
came up with it on his own.

- Whatever the reason,

Leonardo da Vinci has become
almost as famous for his codes

as he has for anything
else he's done.

Pop culture has totally run wild

with this idea of da Vinci
as a master cryptologist.

[inquisitive music]

- [Dennis] Perhaps none have
received as much attention

as one of his most
famous paintings,

"The Last Supper."

- Starting at about 1494, 1495,

da Vinci begins painting

his fresco depicting
"The Last Supper,"

Jesus dining with
his 12 apostles.

The painting is commissioned
by Ludovico Sforza,

and it's to hang in the Convent
of Santa Maria delle Grazie

in Milan.

- [Dennis] But over
the next two decades,

the masterpiece begins to fade.

- We have to remember
that this is a fresco.

This is on the wall of a
convent exposed to everybody,

and within 20 years,

the paint begins to flake off.

By 1652, the painting is
all but unrecognizable,

so much so that
workmen think nothing

of cutting a doorway
right in the center of it.

- It's not until 1726

that da Vinci's "Last
Supper" is first restored,

and it's been touched
up periodically

over the years since.

The most major restoration

takes place in the late
1970s and early 1980s,

and the area around the painting

is finally sealed and
climate controlled.

- [Dennis] The restoration
allows the public

to view this masterpiece
in a whole new light.

- Given da Vinci's propensity
for mathematics and numbers

and his love of codes,

starting in the 1980s,

people start studying
and researching

and publishing papers

trying to find codes embedded

in the fresco "The
Last Supper" itself.

[pensive music]

- One of the more famous
alleged coded messages

is revealed by British computer
scientist and archivist,

Peter J. Vis

on a personal blog in the 1990s.

- Vis's observation has
to do with the arrangement

of the figures in the scene.

Yes, they are all sitting
on one side of the table,

which they need to be in
order for us to see them,

but Vis says there's
more to it than that.

If we look closely, we
begin to see a pattern.

- The composition of "The Last
Supper" is very intentional.

It's groupings of three,
three, one, Jesus,

three and three.

- Vis believes that
this specific code

comes from the Book of
Lamentations 331:33,

which states that,
"For no one is cast off

from the Lord forever."

Multiple writers believe
that this could refer

to Judas's betrayal

and that even he
could be forgiven.

- After Vis writes about the
connection to Lamentations,

other authors expand on his work

and suggest the Bible verse
may hold an even deeper meaning

about da Vinci himself.

He'd been accused
of homosexuality

as a young man in Florence.

In fact, one of the definitive
biographies of da Vinci

by Walter Isaacson

strongly suggests da Vinci

was a homosexual
his entire life.

- This Bible verse
from Lamentations

could refer to da Vinci himself

seeking redemption for
what was at the time

considered a sin and a scandal,

so that he himself won't
be cast off forever.

- [Dennis] This may
not be the only message

hidden in da Vinci's
great painting.

- This same biblical
event, "The Last Supper,"

had been depicted countless
times before by other artists,

but they always showed
halos above everyone's head.

da Vinci paints
them without halos,

not even Jesus has one.

da Vinci may be
relaying his belief

that Jesus and his disciples

are all ordinary
men and not divine.

- In his day,

a suggestion like that
is quite shocking.

It's a bold statement
when you consider

that he's painting
it larger than life

on the wall of a convent.

- [Dennis] There's
another famous object

conspicuously missing
in "The Last Supper."

- In the gospel of Matthew,

Jesus shares bread
with his followers,

and he says, "Take,
eat, this is my body."

He then holds up a cup of wine,

and says, "Drink all of
it, for this is my blood.

Do this in remembrance of me."

Now, this cup,

which we all know is the
famous Holy Grail,

isn't there among the
glasses on the table.

- [Dennis] But
according to Dan Brown,

author of the 2003
bestselling book,

"The Da Vinci Code,"

it is.

- According to "The
Da Vinci Code,"

the missing cup from the
table was done on purpose,

and it's part of the
complicated coded message

that puts Leonardo da
Vinci at the center

of one of the most incredible
conspiracies in history.

- Brown writes that the Holy
Grail is there after all,

and according to
da Vinci's code,

it's not a cup, it's a person.

- While most scholars believe

that the person seated
to the right of Jesus

in "The Last Supper"

is John the Apostle.

Dan Brown suggests something
radically different,

that it is a woman

and is in fact Mary Magdalene

and that she represents
the Holy Grail.

[dramatic music]

- The position of Jesus

and the figure in question

form an M shape.

Brown goes on to suggest that M

Implies that Jesus and
Mary Magdalene are married.

- Between the two,

the empty space forms a V shape.

Brown's novel interprets that

as a symbol suggesting
that Mary's womb

is the true Holy Grail

and she had a child with Jesus.

[pensive music]

- The plot of the novel

follows a secret society

entrusted with protecting the
secret of Jesus's lineage.

This conspiracy involves
the Knights Templar

and Leonardo da Vinci himself.

- It's an exciting story,

but unfortunately that's
all it is for now,

a story.

There's no historical evidence

that Jesus had a child

or that Leonardo da Vinci

was one of a string of
protectors of that bloodline,

and it's unlikely
da Vinci would risk

anything as blasphemous

as putting Mary
Magdalene next to Jesus

if he wanted to keep
his career going.

- One thing Dan Brown's
book accomplished

is that it got a whole
new army of researchers

interested in digging
into "The Last Supper"

and da Vinci's other work.

And from here, the theories
really start to take off.

- In the aftermath of Dan
Brown's 2003 bestseller,

many more researchers

start looking for
hidden messages

in da Vinci's work.

His paintings, engineering
drafts and drawings

are all carefully scrutinized

for what could be secret clues.

[inquisitive music]

- All kinds of fringe
theories eventually come out.

Things like da
Vinci's coded messages

reveal secret knowledge

that he learned from
aliens or time travel.

They're a ton of fun to read,

but they don't carry a
lot of scientific weight.

- [Dennis] Then, in 2010,

one new announcement
gets a lot of attention

because it comes from an
actual Vatican researcher.

- Sabrina Sforza Galizia

says that she's taken
an all-new approach

to decoding "The Last Supper,"

and has discovered
a hidden message

that's not about Jesus

or secret biblical history,

it's about the future.

[pensive music]

- While most researchers
focus on the people

and the objects in the painting,

Galizia actually takes a look

at a part of the painting

that most of us would ignore,

which is the background.

[inquisitive music]

She believes that the
windows and the doorways

actually depict mathematical

and astrological codes.

- These codes are based on
the 12 signs of the Zodiac,

the 24 letters in
the Latin alphabet

and the 24 hours in the day.

And when deciphered,
according to Galizia,

they reveal that
da Vinci foresaw

a universal flood that
would destroy the world.

And this is supposed to
happen on March 21st, 4006.

- Of course, it's impossible
to verify her claims,

but in his notebooks,

da Vinci is known to write

what are called prophecies.

These are mostly just riddles,

but some speculate that
he really did dabble

in predictions of the
future in his artwork.

- By the time Galizia
makes our announcement,

da Vinci code mania
is in full effect.

And so rabid is the
fascination with da Vinci

that some legitimate
researchers and scientists

decide to get in on the fun.

- [Dennis] Experts next hone in

on da Vinci's most
famous artwork,

"The Mona Lisa."

[suspenseful music]

- "The Mona Lisa" is
generally believed

to be a painting
of Lisa Gherardini,

also known as La Gioconda.

the wife of Florentine
silk merchant,

Francesco del Giocondo.

After Leonardo's death,

"The Mona Lisa" is
bought right away

by King Francis I of France,

and it even ends up in
Napoleon's bedroom for a while.

Nowadays, it's
housed at the Louvre.

- [Dennis] People travel
from all over the world

to admire "The Mona Lisa."

But in 2010, Italian
researchers take a closer look

and find something unexpected.

- Researchers at Italy's

National Committee
for Cultural Heritage

see two tiny letters

hidden in one of the
eyes of the painting,

the letters LV.

At the time, they speculate

that this is a relatively
straightforward hidden message.

LV is Leonardo da
Vinci's initials.

[inquisitive music]

- But there's more to this code

that we still don't understand.

In the background
of the painting,

there is a bridge,

and in the arch of the bridge,

there is what appears
to be the number 72.

[pensive music]

- [Dennis] A year
later, in 2011,

Italian author Carla Glori

is able to make more
sense out of these clues.

- Glori believes that this
solves a longstanding mystery

about the painting.

The location of the countryside

we see in the background,

it's been speculated

to be everywhere from
Lake Como to China.

- [Dennis] According to Glori,

da Vinci's hidden 72

reveals the answer.

[dynamic music]

- In 1472, a bridge in Italy

is famously damaged
by severe flooding

and then rebuilt.

This bridge is in
the town of Bobbio

in the Trebbia river valley.

It's a place Ernest
Hemingway once described

as the most beautiful
in the world.

Glori finds all the features

of the painting's
background match Bobbio

in da Vinci's time.

- Bobbio is the territory
of Ludovico Sforza,

who is the duke of Milan.

And Glori believes
that this painting

depicts his daughter, Bianca.

So it might not be
"The Mona Lisa" at all,

it might be "The Mona Bianca."

And a hidden code
helped figure that out.

[serene music]

- Leonardo da Vinci
isn't the only one

using artwork to hide messages,

a mysterious culture in Peru

draws their own strange codes

into the earth itself.

- In 1927, a
Peruvian archeologist

named Manuel
Toribio Mejia Xesspe

goes for a hike in
the Nazca Desert.

And he climbs a large foothill

to get a better
view of the plateau,

and he sees something
astonishing below,

a massive geometric shape

that is somehow drawn
into the landscape.

- Soon more are found.

There are dozens of these lines

crisscrossing the desert floor.

But it's not just patterns,

there's also figures.

We see animals, monkeys,

spiders, among others.

Mejia Xesspe soon
shares his findings

with the scientific community,

who begin mapping these
lines on the earth,

which are called geoglyphs.

They become known
as the Nazca Lines.

[pensive music]

- It's not until a few years

after Mejia Xesspe's
find in the 1930s,

as airplanes first take
to the skies over Peru,

that the true scale of
these geoglyphs is realized.

There are over 3,000 carvings

spanning over 200 square miles.

- They're massive.

The hummingbird
is 295 feet long.

And there is the
outline of a condor

with a wingspan of 450 feet.

- One trapezoid covers
62 square miles,

and some of the straight lines

run up to 30 miles long.

- [Dennis] But what could
these ancient lines mean?

[dynamic music]

- There are no written records

of what civilization did this,

or how, or why,

but whoever made these lines

did it with a lot of
planning and intention.

Creating these on
such a large scale,

it would be dusty,
backbreaking work

in the heat of a dry desert.

- So this has to mean
something, right?

This has to have deep
spiritual importance

to justify all the
manpower that it took.

- So the Nazca Desert

is kind of a layer cake.

It's got a dark
red volcanic soil

on top of a lighter soil.

So the way they create the lines

is by actually removing
that dark soil from on top,

about 12 inches of it,

exposing that light line.

And they did this for miles.

- Even by today's standards,

the sheer scale of the
Nazca Lines is incredible.

So it's not surprising
that these have become

a source of fascination,
a fixation for many,

trying to uncover just
what these lines mean.

[dynamic music]

- Since their discovery in 1927,

a series of ancient lines

carved into the earth

has fascinated scientists
and archeologists.

The lines are so large

that they can only fully
be seen from above.

The question is, who made them?

And why?

- In 1929, archeologist
Julio Cesar Tello

discovers an necropolis.

[ominous music]

A burial site of
an ancient culture

that lived near the lines.

They're dubbed the Paracas

after a nearby peninsula.

- They've got textiles,
pottery, skeletons,

and it's determined that
they lived in this area

from 800 BC to about 200 AD.

Researchers find
other nearby sites

filled with artifacts as well.

And these come from
slightly later,

more like 100 BC
to about 700 AD.

This culture, which slightly
overlapped the Paracas,

is called the Nazca.

[pensive music]

- Starting in the 1920s,

archeologists begin
to uncover the remains

of a 370-acre city

on the southern end
of the Nazca Lines.

It's called Cahuachi,

and it's full of small
ceremonial buildings

and other sites.

- It's a huge place,

but it has a very small
permanent population.

This means it's a
site of pilgrimage.

People come to the
city in large numbers

who don't live there.

But why?

And could this finally explain

what these massive
drawings are for?

[suspenseful music]

- [Dennis] In 2020,
one high-tech team

claims they've found the answer.

- Archeologists from
the Institute of Nazca

at Yamagata University in Japan

use high-resolution aerial
photography and drones

to map some of the Nazca Lines

in the northern desert.

- They find fainter
and older lines,

likely made by the
Paracas culture,

who often put their
drawings on hillsides.

The Japanese team
finds that the lines

actually seem to run from
one valley to another,

connecting cities to
significant religious sites,

like Cahuachi.

- In their opinion,

this is basically
a map for pilgrims.

The glyphs upon the hillside,

you can see them from

the ground level,

and they would be unmistakable

landmarks for travelers.

[pensive music]

- The map idea is
pretty ingenious,

but there are a lot of drawings

that don't figure into it.

In other parts of the desert,

the Nazca also
create long lines,

shapes and animals,

but their geoglyphs are made
mostly on the flat plateaus.

That means people
walking at ground level

can't possibly see the designs.

- The coded message here

can't be a map for pilgrims

because it could only be seen
from way, way up in the sky.

- [Dennis] Anthropologist
Johan Reinhard

believes there's a
divine reason why.

- The Nazca live in a desert,

one of the driest
places on Earth.

Reinhard says that
their religion

is based on rainfall
and agriculture.

For the Nazca, some
of these creatures,

like the monkey and the spider,

are Gods of fertility and water.

So these giant figures
could be prayers,

prayers to the
gods who live above

and can bring the rain.

- These geoglyphs
aren't just symbolic,

they're interactive.

A worshiper would walk or dance

inside the figures
in ritual prayer.

[pensive music]

- In 1997, Dr. Markus Reindel

of the German
Archeological Institute

takes some soil samples of
the earth between the lines.

What he finds is the soil
has been heavily compacted,

as if thousands of people

had been dancing their
way along the lines.

- [Dennis] If these newer
lines are a prayer for rain,

it seems to work.

- Between about 200 and 500 AD,

the Nazca civilization
flourishes and booms.

And the human remains that
we find from that time period

indicate that they were
generally well-nourished

and healthy.

- Soil analysis has revealed

that this was not
always a desert.

You know, back then,
you had arable soil,

lush green valleys,
horongo trees everywhere.

- [Dennis] That all starts
changing around 400 AD.

- The Nazca begin
cutting those trees down,

clearing room for
crops and cotton

to feed and clothe their
growing population.

- Then, around 500 AD,

a cataclysmic El
Nino cycle hits.

[storm bellowing]

Bringing a
once-in-a-thousand-year

level of rainfall.

Without tree roots to hold
in the soil and the moisture,

there are flash floods.

Mudslides devour
entire villages.

- [Dennis] But eventually
the rainstorms subside.

- What follows are
decades of extreme drought

and probably starvation.

To make matters worse,
around that time,

there's evidence of catastrophic
earthquakes as well.

- What can the Nazca do?

They send more desperate
messages to their gods.

They make more of
these geoglyphs

and they start filling
them with valuable objects,

like pottery, perhaps as
offerings to the gods.

- [Dennis] It's not enough to
save the Nazca civilization

from total collapse.

- Starting around 600 AD,

the Nazca move over 100
miles away, to the Andes,

abandoning their geoglyphs.

And it's not for 1,300 years

until they're rediscovered.

- [Dennis] Despite our
greater understanding today,

researchers are
quick to point out

that the Nazca code still
isn't fully deciphered.

- We have good evidence that
part of it was for mapping

and that part of it was for
communicating with the Gods,

but there remain
dozens of drawings

that don't fit
either hypothesis.

- Even though these Nazca
Lines are over 2,000 years old,

they're discovering
new ones all the time.

Over 100 have been found in
the last five years alone.

- And with new technology,

drone, lidar, AI,

who knows how many
more could be out there

waiting to be found?

You might say that we have
barely scratched the surface

of this ancient
geological marvel.

[dramatic music]

[pensive music]

- Deep beneath the quiet
English town of Royston

lies a secret chamber

that's puzzled historians
since its discovery

four centuries ago.

Why it was built and by whom

remains a mystery.

- In 1742, workmen in the
town of Royston, England,

are building a new bench

in the town's butter market.

The workmen are
digging in the ground

and they hit something hard,

and they eventually uncover
a large circular stone.

- They lift it up,

and underneath, there's
a deep, manmade shaft

carved into the chalk bedrock.

But it's too dark to see

how far down it goes.

- They recruit this small boy,

and they lash a rope around him

and lower him down into
the depths of this tunnel.

[eerie music]

- A local minister
named Reverend G. North

documents what the boy finds,

a round bottle-shaped chamber,

16 feet wide and 16 feet deep.

From top to bottom
are dozens of carvings

of strange, expressionless,
mostly human figures.

A few carvings depict forms
of torture or execution.

- One of these
carvings is a figure

that's holding a
candle in one hand

and a skull in the other.

And they suspect
that these carvings

are perhaps symbols of warning

or of defending something
precious within,

a treasure of some sort.

- Eventually, they
hit rock bottom

about 26 feet from the top.

And all they find is an
old brown earthenware cup

with a few yellow dots,

a few scattered bones

and a human skull.

No treasure.

[dramatic music]

- [Dennis] News
about the discovery

called the Royston Cave

soon starts to spread.

And right away,
researchers are eager

to figure out what it's for.

- Later that same year, 1742,

an historian named
William Stukeley

investigates the Royston Cave.

He's already famous
for pioneering

the study of Stonehenge.

- Stukeley identifies
some of the carvings

as religious figures.

There's the virgin Mary,

St. Catherine with the
wheel she was tortured

and executed on,

and St. Lawrence
with the griddle

on which he was roasted alive.

- There are depictions of
the crucifixion of Jesus,

and a sword pointing
to 13 figures,

possibly Jesus with
the 12 disciples,

and an image that might be Jesus

lying in his shroud
in the Holy Sepulchre.

[pensive music]

- There are secular
political figures too,

King Richard I, Henry II,

all rulers in the 12th century.

- [Dennis] A century later

and no closer to answers,

local historian Joseph Beldam

takes a more thorough look
at the strange symbols.

- Beldam notes there are
military themes in the carvings.

[dramatic music]

Soldiers in armor with
swords and shields

adorned with crosses.

- He guesses that the cave

was actually used
as a meeting place

for soldiers who were returning

from the crusades
in the holy land.

- In 1992, archeologist
Sylvia Beamon

takes Beldam's theory
one step further.

She argues that
there's symbolism

in the cave that points

to the most famous
group of crusaders,

the Knights Templar.

- Among the coded
Templar symbols

on the walls of the
cavern are hearts,

and what might be the image

of two soldiers
on a single horse.

These were well-known
Templar signs.

- One carving might
represent Jacques de Molay,

the last leader of
the Knights Templar,

who was burned at
the stake in 1314.

[pensive music]

- Historical records note

that starting in the 1140s,

a group of Templars live
in the town of Baldock,

just eight miles away.

They trade in the
Royston market,

but have violent disputes

with local monks
over market fees.

So Beamon believes that
they needed a place in town

where they could secretly meet

and conduct their
required daily prayers

completely under the radar.

- Others disagree with
Beamon's interpretation.

Some see that some
of the drawings

represent knights
in full-plate armor,

which didn't exist
until the 1400s,

almost 100 years after
the Knights Templar

were officially disbanded
by the church in 1307.

- So even if these are images
of the Knights Templar,

it's unlikely that the Templars
themselves carved them.

- [Dennis] In 2020, archeologist
Keith Fitzpatrick-Matthews

uncovers evidence
that might shed light

on the mysterious cave.

- Fitzpatrick-Matthews
cites town records

of a hermit living near
this crossroads in Royston

around the year 1500.

And after the hermit
of Royston dies

sometime around
the year of 1550,

his hermitage is
converted into a prison.

[pensive music]

- There are small holes in
the walls of the Royston Cave

that could indicate
where bars or posts

had been added to
create jail cells.

- If Fitzpatrick-Matthews
is right,

what's carved in that cave

might not be a
secret code at all.

- It could be that
these mysterious symbols

are the work of a
religious-minded hermit,

later embellished further

by the doodles of
bored prisoners.

But the idea of Royston Cave

as some kind of coded
message has persisted.

- Many still believe
in Beamon's analysis

that a Knights Templar code

is hidden in the drawings.

According to Royston
Cave's website,

it remains the most
popular answer.

- Whatever the meaning,

whoever created Royston Cave

wanted it to be
shrouded in mystery,

and they did a really
good job making it happen.

[dramatic music]

- Many believe
the Bible contains the

literal word of God,

but could this sacred text

reveal a different
kind of divine wisdom,

a hidden code
predicting the future?

[pensive music]

- The first five books
of the Old Testament

make up the Pentateuch.

Penta meaning five.

Those books also make up
the Hebrew Bible, the Torah.

- And according to the
Jewish interpretive tradition

known as the Mishna,

it's during the 40 years of
wandering in the wilderness

that God sets these words down

and gives them to Moses.

So in a very real sense,

God is the author

and Moses is merely the scribe.

- This leads some to speculate

that the text could hold secrets

beyond our understanding.

- At least as far back
as the first century BC,

people have been searching

through the Pentateuch
for coded messages.

This so-called Bible code

has fascinated
researchers for millennia.

[inquisitive music]

- The most popular technique

for finding codes in the Bible

is called equidistant
letter sequences, or ELS.

It was pioneered at least as
far back as the 13th century

when a Spanish rabbi
named Bachya ben Asher

starts writing about it.

- Here's how ELS works.

You can use any number,

but let's say,
for example, five.

So you start by counting
five letters ahead,

you land on first character.

Then you count another
five letters ahead,

that's your second.

And you do this
so on and so forth

until it reveals
a hidden message.

- The idea is, if you do this
with the original Hebrew text,

you can find God's
secret messages.

[inquisitive music]

- It becomes a popular pursuit

into the Renaissance and beyond.

Even Isaac Newton plays
around with Bible codes

and believes that he locates

the date of the end
of the universe,

which is in the year 2060.

- [Dennis] In the 20th century,

new technology kicks
Bible code breaking

into high gear.

- Computers can find these codes

much faster than people can.

In the 1980s, mathematician and
computer expert Eliyahu Rips

begins ELS research on
the book of Genesis.

- He's at home in Israel

studying one day
in January of 1991

when he finds a
code that suggests

an attack is going to
happen on a particular date

in the Hebrew calendar.

It says, "Missile,
war, Saddam Hussein,

fire on third Shevat."

This date translates to
January 18th of the same year.

- And sure enough, on this day,

Iraq fires missiles into Israel.

Rips describes a feeling of
being horrified, of course,

but also a feeling
of scientific joy

because he's convinced that
the codes have actually worked.

- [Dennis] Three years later,

author Michael Drosnin takes
Rips' work a step further

when he publishes

"The Bible Code."

- This bestselling book
and two subsequent sequels

reveal even more
shocking predictions

decoded from the Pentateuch.

- Drosnin claims to
have found Bible codes

regarding the 1969 Moon Landing,

the Watergate scandal,

Bill Clinton's election,

the Oklahoma City bombing.

In another section, he finds,

quote, "Twin Towers, knocked
down, twice, airplane,"

what seems to him to
be a clear prediction

of the September 11th
terrorist attacks.

- Now, if true, this
would be incredible.

These are events
thousands of years

after Genesis was written,

foretold by God,

hidden in the Torah's words.

- [Dennis] Drosnin also
reveal a few things

that haven't yet happened.

- In 2003, Drosnin
publishes a work

in which he claims to
have found the phrases,

"Atomic Holocaust,"
and, "End of days,"

along with the date 2006,

just three years later.

- When 2006 doesn't turn out
to be the end of the world,

Drosnin goes back to
the original Hebrew text

to look for a new date,

thinking he miscalculated.

Drosnin was still
working on the code

at the time of
his death in 2020,

trying to figure
out a new timeline.

- If there is
anything to this idea

that there is future knowledge

hidden in the original
text of the Bible,

the race is on.

Biblical scholars are gonna try

everything at their disposal,

any technology they can use

to try to figure out

what those hidden
messages might be,

before it's too late.

[explosion booming]

[dramatic music]

- The shelves of Yale
University's rare book

collection hold a manuscript
known as MS 408.

It's a small, unassuming
journal bound in goatskin,

but its pages hold
a remarkable secret.

[pensive music]

- In 1912, a Polish
rare books dealer

named Wilfrid Voynich

visits a Jesuit
college in Italy.

He buys a number of texts,

including, almost
as an afterthought,

a small nine-by-six-inch
handwritten manuscript

about 240 pages in length.

- This book is in a language
no one has ever seen.

Now, Voynich himself is familiar
with dozens of languages,

but he can't make heads or
tails of this manuscript.

- [Dennis] Adding
to the confusion,

there are hundreds
of strange drawings.

[dynamic music]

- Some pages show what seem
to be astrological symbols

and mythological creatures.

Other pages depict
plants and herbs.

Others show nude,
possibly pregnant women

bathing in pools,

and buckets interconnected
by strange tubes.

- If the pictures
match the words,

then the books must be
about some combination

of religion and myth

combined with science.

- Included in the book is a
letter dated August 19th, 1665.

It's addressed to a
Jesuit scholar named

Athanasius Kircher.

The letter begins, "Reverend
and distinguished sir,

Father in Christ."

- The author of the letter

is the court physician
of the Holy Roman Empire,

Johannes Marcus Marci.

He says Emperor
Rudolph owned the book,

and believes it to be the work

of a famous monk
named Roger Bacon.

- [Dennis] Bacon is
a Franciscan friar

who lived in the 13th century.

He's known as one of
the first scholars

to combine the Catholic faith

with scientific thinking.

- If this is an unknown
work by Roger Bacon,

it would have incredible
religious significance.

- In the text, there seem to
be about 20 distinct characters

that vary and repeat in
patterns consistent with words.

It looks very much like
letters and sentences.

But the letters themselves

are not from any
language on Earth.

[pensive music]

- Whoever wrote the manuscript

appears to be using some kind
of substitution code or cipher

that no historian,
linguist or cryptographer

has ever seen before.

- Dozens try to crack it,

even Alan Turing,

who famously helped break
the Nazi Enigma code.

No one can figure out
what these words say.

No one can confirm if
it's Bacon's work either.

- [Dennis] Eventually,
the mysterious book

becomes known as the
Voynich Manuscript.

- Some consider whether Voynich

created a volume
of pure gibberish

as a hoax or as a fake
to score a big payday.

- He's even looked into by the
US Bureau of Investigation,

which is the precursor
to today's FBI.

They're worried that
if he has this book

that is full of these
weird secret codes,

that he might be a spy.

- Ultimately, the FBI
determines Voynich

isn't involved in espionage,

but he never manages
to sell the book.

After his death,

it winds up in the collections
of Yale University in 1969.

- [Dennis] Once the Voynich
Manuscript lands at Yale,

it becomes a sensation.

The biggest breakthrough
in understanding it

occurs in 2009.

- Yale lets the
University of Arizona

perform radiocarbon dating.

They find the book dates
to between 1404 and 1438.

- This finally rules
out a hoax by Voynich.

This is a genuine
600-year-old book.

But this also means it's
not Bacon's work either.

He died 100 years before
the book was made.

- [Dennis] Yale has recently
scanned the entire manuscript

and posted it online.

- In March of 2024,

Macquarie University researchers

Keagan Brewer and Michelle Lewis

announce they found a new clue

by reviewing the scans.

- They may have figured out

where the book was written.

In the book, there
is an actual drawing

of a castle silhouette

that has within it an
architectural feature

they see called the
Swallowtail Merlon,

and that detail is
found throughout castles

in Southern Germany
and Northern Italy.

[pensive music]

- They note the Voynich
Manuscript's sketches

of human anatomy,

especially women,

and they compare those

with other books from Southern
Germany and Northern Italy

around the same time,

and there are quite a
lot of similarities.

- One author who was writing
around the same place and time

is the 15th-century
physician, Johannes Hartlieb.

He was concerned
what women might do

if they were to get
control over their bodies.

And so he advocated

that any medical text about
the bodily functions of women

should be written in code.

- Because of all this evidence,

Brewer and Lewis conclude

the manuscript is a
15th-century medical guide

to the female
reproductive system.

It's part of a tradition among

Christian male doctors
of the era

who believed women's
secrets should be encoded,

alongside other taboo subjects,

such as alchemy, or
magic, or demons.

- [Dennis] It's a
compelling idea,

but there won't be
any conclusive answers

until we can finally
decipher the text.

- Maybe, as Emperor
Rudolph hoped,

the manuscript does
contain holy secrets.

What we can say for certain

is that the more the Voynich
Manuscript is studied,

the more mysteries
it seems to raise.

[dramatic music]

- Some were created to warn us,

others to guide us,

but whatever their purpose,

the hidden messages
embedded in everything

from sacred books
to great paintings

will, with luck,
be decoded one day.

I'm Dennis Quaid,

and thank you for
watching "Holy Marvels."