“So the last will be first, and the first will be last.”
`(Matthew 20:16)
AtBash is an English Transliteration of The Hebrew name (the graphic above) for a code that occurs in the Bible (Jeremiah 51: 41). The letters in the graphic are (Left to Right) Aleph-Tau-Bet-Shin.
The letters explain how the code “works”:
Aleph, the first letter of the (Hebrew) Alphabet is swapped with the last letter of the Alphabet (Tau).
Bet (Beth or Beit as in Beth-Lehem and as in Mac-Beth (yes Shakespeare uses codes)), is swapped with the second last letter of the Alphabet, Shin.
Bet and Shin (2nd and 2nd last letters) are swapped
(cf. Psalm 119 in most Bibles – the Psalm usually shows the Hebrew Alphabet).
The Code continues the same way, 3rd letter swapped with the third last, fourth with the fourth last etc., until the 11th letter is swapped with the 12th (or “11th last) letter.
In this code, the 5th Letter (Heh) is awapped with the 5th last letter, (the 18th letter in the 22 letter AlphabetTsade.
The same “algorithm” of the last swapping with First, Second last swapping with Second, etc., means that the 10th Letter, Yod or Yud, is swapped with the 10th last letter, i.e. the Mem, equivalent to the European letter “m”.
So the last will be first, and the first will be last.