"This sounds suspiciously like modern context being retrofitted to an ancient story" You do realize that the NSA spent most of the cold war trying to keep good

"This sounds suspiciously like modern context being retrofitted to an ancient story" You do realize that the NSA spent most of the cold war trying to keep good cryptography out of civilian and foreign hands, right? The day after Rivest, Shamir, and Adleman published their paper, government agents showed up and put police tape around their lab. Also, this: https://www.schneier.com/blog/archives/2008/01/nsa_backdoors_i.html https://www.schneier.com/blog/archives/2008/01/nsa_backdoors... And this: http://www.usnews.com/usnews/news/articles/950403/archive_010975.htm http://www.usnews.com/usnews/news/articles/950403/archive_01...