Gematria

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Gematria (/ɡəˈmeɪtriə/; Hebrew: גמטריא or gimatria גימטריה, plural גמטראות or גימטריות, gimatriot)^[1] is the practice of assigning a numerical value to a name, word or phrase by reading it as a number, or sometimes by using an alphanumerical cipher. The letters of the alphabets involved have standard numerical values, but a word can yield several values if a cipher is used.

According to

The most common form of Hebrew gematria is used in the Talmud and Midrash,^[2][3] and elaborately by many post-Talmudic commentators. It involves reading words and sentences as numbers, assigning numerical instead of phonetic value to each letter of the Hebrew alphabet. When read as numbers, they can be compared and contrasted with other words or phrases – cf. the Hebrew proverb נכנס יין יצא סוד (nichnas yayin yatza sod, lit. 'wine entered, secret went out', i.e. "in vino veritas"). The gematric value of יין ('wine') is 70 (י=10; י=10; ן=50) and this is also the gematric value of סוד ('secret', ס=60; ו=6; ד=4)‎.^[4]

Although a type of gematria system ('Aru') was employed by the ancient Babylonian culture, their writing script was logographic, and the numerical assignments they made were to whole words. Aru was very different from the Milesian systems used by Greek and Hebrew cultures, which used alphabetic writing scripts. The value of words with Aru were assigned in an entirely arbitrary manner and correspondences were made through tables,^[5] and so cannot be considered a true form of gematria.

Gematria sums can involve single words, or a string of lengthy calculations. A short example of Hebrew numerology that uses gematria is the word חי (chai, lit. 'alive'), which is composed of two letters that (using the assignments in the mispar gadol table shown below) add up to 18. This has made 18 a "lucky number" among the Jewish people.

In early Jewish sources, the term can also refer to other forms of calculation or letter manipulation, for example atbash.^[6]

Etymology

Classical scholars agree that the Hebrew word gematria was derived from the Greek word γεωμετρία geōmetriā, "geometry",^[7] though some scholars believe it to derive from Greek γραμματεια grammateia "knowledge of writing".^{[citation needed]} It is likely that both Greek words had an influence on the formation of the Hebrew word.^[8][1] Some hold it to derive from the order of the Greek alphabet, gamma being the third letter of the Greek alphabet ("gamma tria").^[7]

The word has been extant in English since at least the 17th century from translations of works by Giovanni Pico della Mirandola. It is largely used in Jewish texts, notably in those associated with the Kabbalah. Neither the concept nor the term appears in the Hebrew Bible itself.^[1]

History

The first documented use of gematria is from an Assyrian inscription dating to the 8th century BCE, commissioned by Sargon II. In this inscription, Sargon II states: "the king built the wall of Khorsabad 16,283 cubits long to correspond with the numerical value of his name."^[9]

The practice of using alphabetic letters to represent numbers developed in the Greek city of

According to Proclus in his commentary on the Timaeus of Plato written in the 5th century, the author Theodorus Asaeus from a century earlier interpreted the word "soul" (ψυχή) based on gematria and an inspection of the graphical aspects of the letters that make up the word. According to Proclus, Theodorus learned these methods from the writings of Numenius of Apamea and Amelius. Proclus rejects these methods by appealing to the arguments against them put forth by the Neoplatonic philosopher Iamblichus. The first argument was that some letters have the same numerical value but opposite meaning. His second argument was that the form of letters changes over the years, and so their graphical qualities cannot hold any deeper meaning. Finally, he puts forth the third argument that when one uses all sorts of methods as addition, subtraction, division, multiplication, and even ratios, the infinite ways in which these can be combined allow virtually any number to be produced to suit any purpose.^[22]

Some scholars propose that at least two cases of gematria appear in the New Testament. According to one theory, the reference to the miraculous "catch of 153 fish" in John 21:11 is an application of gematria derived from the name of the spring called 'EGLaIM in Ezekiel 47:10.^[23][24][25] The appearance of this gematria in John 21:11 has been connected to one of the Dead Sea Scrolls, namely 4Q252, which also applies the same gematria of 153 derived from Ezekiel 47 to state that Noah arrived at Mount Ararat on the 153rd day after the beginning of the flood.^[26] Some historians see gematria behind the reference to the number of the name of the Beast in Revelation as 666, which corresponds to the numerical value of the Hebrew transliteration of the Greek name "Neron Kaisar", referring to the 1st century Roman emperor who persecuted the early Christians.^[27] Another possible influence on the use of 666 in Revelation goes back to reference to Solomon's intake of 666 talents of gold in 1 Kings 10:14.^[28]

Gematria makes several appearances in various Christian and Jewish texts written in the first centuries of the common era. One appearance of gematria in the early Christian period is in the Epistle of Barnabas 9:6–7, which dates to sometime between 70 and 132 CE. There, the 318 servants of Abraham in Genesis 14:14 is used to indicate that Abraham looked forward to the coming of Jesus as the numerical value of some of the letters in the Greek name for Jesus as well as the 't' representing a symbol for the cross also equaled 318. Another example is a Christian interpolation in the Sibylline Oracles, where the symbolic significance of the value of 888 (equal to the numerical value of Iesous, the Latinized rendering of the Greek version of Jesus' name) is asserted.^[29] Irenaeus also heavily criticized the interpretation of letters by the Gnostic Marcus. Because of their association with Gnosticism and the criticisms of Irenaeus as well as Hippolytus of Rome and Epiphanius of Salamis, this form of interpretation never became popular in Christianity^[30]—though it does appear in at least some texts.^[31] Another two examples can be found in 3 Baruch, a text that may have either been composed by a Jew or a Christian sometime between the 1st and 3rd centuries. In the first example, a snake is stated to consume a cubit of ocean every day, but is unable to ever finish consuming it, because the oceans are also refilled by 360 rivers. The number 360 is given because the numerical value of the Greek word for snake, δράκων, when transliterated to Hebrew (דרקון) is 360. In a second example, the number of giants stated to have died during the Deluge is 409,000. The Greek word for 'deluge', κατακλυσμός, has a numerical value of 409 when transliterated in Hebrew characters, thus leading the author of 3 Baruch to use it for the number of perished giants.^[32]

Gematria is often used in

In standard gematria (mispar hechrechi), each letter is given a numerical value between 1 and 400, as shown in the following table. In mispar gadol, the five final letters are given their own values, ranging from 500 to 900. It is possible that this well-known cipher was used to conceal other more hidden ciphers in Jewish texts. For instance, a scribe may discuss a sum using the 'standard gematria' cipher, but may intend the sum to be checked with a different secret cipher.^[citation needed]

A mathematical formula for finding a letter's corresponding number in mispar gadol is:^{[citation needed]}

${\displaystyle f(x)=10^{\left\lfloor {\frac {x-1}{9}}\right\rfloor }\times ((x-1\mod 9)+1),}$

where x is the position of the letter in the language letters index (regular order of letters), and the

Vowels

The value of the Hebrew vowels is not usually counted, but some lesser-known methods include the vowels as well. The most common vowel values are as follows (a less common alternative value, based on the digit sum, is given in parentheses):

Sometimes, the names of the vowels are spelled out and their gematria is calculated using standard methods.^[38]

Other methods

There are many different methods used to calculate the numerical value for the individual Hebrew/Aramaic words, phrases or whole sentences. Gematria is the 29th of 32 hermeneutical rules countenanced by the Rabbis of the Talmud for valid

• Mispar hechrachi (absolute value) is the standard method. It assigns the values 1–9, 10–90, 100–400 to the 22 Hebrew letters in order. Sometimes it is also called mispar ha-panim (face number), as opposed to the more complicated mispar ha-akhor (back number).
• Mispar gadol (large value) counts the final forms (sofit) of the Hebrew letters as a continuation of the numerical sequence for the alphabet, with the final letters assigned values from 500 to 900. The name mispar gadol is sometimes used for a different method, Otiyot beMilui.
• The same name, mispar gadol, is also used for another method, which spells the name of each letter and adds the standard values of the resulting string. For example, the letter aleph is spelled aleph lamed peh, giving it a value of ${\displaystyle 1+30+80=111}$.
• Mispar katan (small value) calculates the value of each letter, but truncates all of the zeros. It is also sometimes called mispar me'ugal.
• Mispar siduri (ordinal value) with each of the 22 letters given a value from 1 to 22.
• Mispar bone'eh (building value, also revu'a, square[41]) is calculated by walking over each letter from the beginning to the end, adding the value of all previous letters and the value of the current letter to the running total. Therefore, the value of the word achad (one) is ${\displaystyle 1+(1+8)+(1+8+4)=23}$.
• Mispar kidmi (preceding value) uses each letter as the sum of all the standard gematria letter values preceding it. Therefore, the value of aleph is 1, the value of bet is 1+2=3, the value of gimel is 1+2+3=6, etc. It is also known as mispar meshulash (triangular or tripled number).
• Mispar p'rati calculates the value of each letter as the square of its standard gematria value. Therefore, the value of aleph is 1 × 1 = 1, the value of bet is 2 × 2 = 4, the value of gimel is 3 × 3 = 9, etc. It is also known as mispar ha-merubah ha-prati.
• Mispar ha-merubah ha-klali is the square of the standard absolute value of each word.
• Mispar meshulash calculates the value of each letter as the cube of their standard value. The same term is more often used for mispar kidmi.
• Mispar ha-akhor – The value of each letter is its standard value multiplied by the position of the letter in a word or a phrase in either ascending or descending order. This method is particularly interesting, because the result is sensitive to the order of letters. It is also sometimes called mispar meshulash (triangular number).
• Mispar mispari spells out the standard values of each letter by their Hebrew names ("achad" (one) is ${\displaystyle 1+8+4=13}$ etc.), and then adds up the standard values of the resulting string.
• Otiyot be-milui ("filled letters", also known as mispar gadol or mispar shemi), uses the value of each letter as equal to the value of its name.^[42] For example, the value of the letter aleph is ${\displaystyle (1+30+80)=111}$, bet is ${\displaystyle (2+10+400)=412}$, etc. Sometimes the same operation is applied two or more times recursively. In a variation known as otiyot pnimiyot (inner letters), the initial letter in the spelled-out name is omitted, thus the value of aleph becomes 30+80=110.
• Mispar ne'elam (hidden number) spells out the name of each letter without the letter itself (e.g., "leph" for aleph) and adds up the value of the resulting string.
• Mispar katan mispari (integral reduced value) is used where the total numerical value of a word is reduced to a single digit. If the sum of the value exceeds 9, the integer values of the total are repeatedly added to produce a single-digit number. The same value will be arrived at regardless of whether it is the absolute values, the ordinal values, or the reduced values that are being counted by methods above. For example, the value of word emet (truth - אֶמֶת) is aleph + mem + tav: ${\displaystyle 1+40+400=>1+4+4=9}$, Emet - Emet is ${\displaystyle (1+4+4)+(1+4+4)=18<=>1+8=9}$, emet - emet - emet is ${\displaystyle (1+4+4)+(1+4+4)+(1+4+4)=27<=>2+7=9}$, etc
• Mispar musafi adds the number of the letters in the word or phrase to their gematria.
• Kolel is the number of words, which is often added to the gematria. In case of one word, the standard value is incremented by one.

Related transformations

Within the wider topic of gematria are included the various alphabet transformations, where one letter is substituted by another based on a logical scheme:

• Atbash exchanges each letter in a word or a phrase by opposite letters. Opposite letters are determined by substituting the first letter of the Hebrew alphabet (aleph) with the last letter (tav), the second letter (bet) with the next to last (shin), etc. The result can be interpreted as a secret message or calculated by the standard gematria methods. A few instances of atbash are found already in the Hebrew Bible. For example, see Jeremiah 25:26, and 51:41, with Targum and Rashi, in which the name ששך ("Sheshek") is thought to represent בבל (Babylon).^[1]
• Albam – the alphabet is divided in half, eleven letters in each section. The first letter of the first series is exchanged for the first letter of the second series, the second letter of the first series for the second letter of the second series, and so forth.
• Achbi divides the alphabet into two equal groups of 11 letters. Within each group, the first letter is replaced by the last, the second by the 10th, etc.
• Ayak bakar replaces each letter by another one that has a 10-times-greater value. The final letters usually signify the numbers from 500 to 900. Thousands is reduced to ones (1,000 becomes 1, 2,000 becomes 2, etc.)
• Ofanim replaces each letter by the last letter of its name (e.g. peh for aleph).
• Akhas beta divides the alphabet into three groups of 7, 7 and 8 letters. Each letter is replaced cyclically by the corresponding letter of the next group. The letter
  Tav
  remains the same.
• Avgad replaces each letter by the next one. Tav becomes aleph. The opposite operation is also used.

Most of the above-mentioned methods and ciphers are listed by Rabbi Moshe Cordevero.^[43]

Some authors provide lists of as many as 231 various replacement ciphers, related to the 231 mystical Gates of the Sefer Yetzirah.^[44]

Dozens of other far more advanced methods are used in Kabbalistic literature, without any particular names. In Ms. Oxford 1,822, one article lists 75 different forms of gematria.

, which has the standard value of 5, can be produced by combining ${\displaystyle 1+1+1+1+1}$, ${\displaystyle 2+1+1+1}$, ${\displaystyle 3+1+1}$, ${\displaystyle 4+2}$, ${\displaystyle 2+2+1}$, or ${\displaystyle 2+3}$, which adds up to ${\displaystyle 30}$. Sometimes combinations of repeating letters are not allowed (e.g., ${\displaystyle 2+3}$ is valid, but ${\displaystyle 3+1+1}$ is not). The original letter itself can also be viewed as a valid combination.

Variant spellings of some letters can be used to produce sets of different numbers, which can be added up or analyzed separately. Many various complex

As a former member of the Golden Dawn, Aleister Crowley used the transliterated cipher extensively in his writings^[49] for his two magical orders the A∴A∴^[50] and Ordo Templi Orientis (O.T.O).^[51] Many other occult authors belonging to various esoteric groups have either mentioned the cipher or published it in their books, including Paul Foster Case of the Builders of the Adytum (B.O.T.A).^[52]

Use in non-Semitic languages

Greek

According to Aristotle (384–322 BCE), isopsephy, an early Milesian system using the Greek alphabet, was part of the Pythagorean tradition, which originated in the 6th century BCE.^[12]

Plato (c. 427–347 BCE) offers a discussion in the Cratylus, involving a view of words and names as referring (more or less accurately) to the "essential nature"^[53] of a person or object and that this view may have influenced—and is central to—isopsephy.^[54][55]

A sample of graffiti at Pompeii (destroyed under volcanic ash in 79 CE) reads "I love the girl whose name is phi mu epsilon (545)".^[56]

Other examples of use in Greek come primarily from the Christian literature. Davies and Allison state that, unlike

During the

In 1525, Christoph Rudolff included a Classical Latin gematria in his work Nimble and beautiful calculation via the artful rules of algebra [which] are so commonly called "coss":

A=1  B=2  C=3  D=4  E=5  F=6  G=7  H=8  I=9  K=10  L=11  M=12

N=13 O=14 P=15 Q=16 R=17 S=18 T=19 U=20 W=21 X=22  Y=23  Z=24[58]

At the beginning of the Apocalypisis in Apocalypsin (1532), the German monk Michael Stifel (also known as Steifel) describes the natural order and trigonal number alphabets, claiming to have invented the latter. He used the trigonal alphabet to interpret the prophecy in the Biblical Book of Revelation, and predicted the world would end at 8am on October 19, 1533. The official Lutheran reaction to Steifel's prophecy shows that this type of activity was not welcome. Belief in the power of numbers was unacceptable in reformed circles, and gematria was not part of the reformation agenda.^{[58]: 44, 60 [60]}

An analogue of the Greek system of isopsephy using the Latin alphabet appeared in 1583, in the works of the French poet

English Qabalah refers to several different systems^{[61]: 24–25} of mysticism related to Hermetic Qabalah that interpret the letters of the English alphabet via an assigned set of numerological significances.^{[62][63]: 269} The first system of English gematria was used by the poet John Skelton in 1523 in his poem "The Garland of Laurel".^[64]

The

References

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