Beginning next week, readers of the Baptist Message will find ScriptureCrypto in the place of Bibliocipher, which had been a weekly feature of the newspaper.
Beginning next week, readers of the Baptist Message
will find ScriptureCrypto in the place of Bibliocipher, which had been
a weekly feature of the newspaper.
Created by Cheryl Vaughn, circulation manager for
the Baptist New Mexican, ScriptureCrypto, like Bibliocipher, offers
readers an opportunity to exercise their knowledge of the Bible through
the use of cryptography.
Bibliocipher was provided free of charge to the
Baptist Message, and other state Baptist papers, by Charles Marx of
Hattiesburg, Miss., who died Feb. 29, 2004. Since his final illness and
death, the newspaper had continued publishing his puzzles in the
Baptist Message until two weeks ago, when the supply on hand was
exhausted.
According to the Baptist New Mexican, Marx provided
the inspiration for ScriptureCrypto. That also has been communicated
with his widow, Ernestine, who expressed her pleasure that his legacy
would continue through a similar puzzle with a different name.
Marx, a Mississippi Baptist who held doctorates in
both law and political science, served as a college professor, as
Mississippi Gov. Bill Allain’s chief of staff and as chairman of the
Mississippi Tax Commission. He developed an interest in cryptography as
a young man, during his years in the military.
His brother, Harold, told the Baptist Message in a
July 18, 2002, article that though he never heard his brother say he
considered the Bibliociphers a calling from God, he did know that “at
one time, he told me it was something he could do that the Lord gave
him to do. …
“He felt like the Bibliociphers would get people who
like crossword puzzles to work the puzzles and read the Bible more.”
(The Baptist New Mexican contributed to this report).