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| The Athbash SceneThe ancient Hebrews created a code called Athbash. Broterhood makes use of this cipher. By breaking the Hebrew alphabet in two, and placing one half under the other, one would have the following :
K I T Ch Z V H D G B A L M N S O P Tz Q R Sh Th The name Athbash derives its name from the four letters on the far right of the table ( A, Th, B, Sh ). Using athbash the ancient Hebrews would replace a 'T' with an 'N', an 'M' with an 'I', a 'G' with an 'R', etc.. Imagine these two sets of letters being placed on two circular wheels, one inside the other. With such a "prayer wheel," a spy could easily turn one wheel to match letters and decode a message. |
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The key to deciphering the message was knowing exactly at what point to line up the inner and outer wheels, and then in which direction to rotate the inner wheel to begin the decoding process. Without that information - and the coding wheel - deciphering a message written in Athbash was nearly impossible. An added advantage to the use of the athbash disk was that, to a non-Hebrew, the device could simply be explained as a "prayer wheel." Thus, if the athbash disk were to be found with anyone other than a Hebrew, explaining how they got it would prove difficult. That was why Troas's elaborate plan called for passing his cousin off as a Hebrew. Reuben had decoded almost all of the message; only a few words yet remained. The intent, however, was clear. So far, what he had said: "Daniel must be assassinated. Jehoiakim has learned that Daniel will ask Nebuchadnezzar to install Zedekiah as king and depose Jehoiakim. Gain our friend's help. Tell them the assassination is an internal Hebrew affair." Reuben worked quickly to decode the remaining phrase, smiling to himself at the beauty of Troas's plan. Quickly, he changed his clothing to something more suitable for an audience with Timnah.
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Reuben had not stopped to eat dinner since the courier had delivered the message from Troas. Because he had taken care to code the message in Athbash, Reuben had had to spend the last several hours decoding the message. As he worked, Reuben thought again of the beauty of this simple, yet powerful cipher. No matter how many times he had to go through this process, he never lost his amazement for the ingeniousness with which the Hebrew scribes had used the Hebrew language to disguise a code which could only be broken by those who held the key. To decode the message, Reuben worked with a device called an "athbash disk", a wheel the size of a man's fist attached to a handle. An inner wheel held by spokes attached to the outer rim would rotate along an axis. On both the rims of the outer and inner wheels, the Hebrew alphabet appeared, with one difference. Along the outer wheel, the Hebrew alphabet read from right to left, with the first letter appearing at the top of the wheel. On the inner wheel, however, the letters read in reverse order, with the last letter at the top of the wheel, and read from left to right.