Talk:Gematria

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I corrected the reference to the "666 1st Beast"/Antichrist

In reading over the lead section, the question in my mind that never got answered was "the mechanics are described but why do this at all?" What was this used for? How are the numeric values interpreted? What meanings, if any, were derived from numerical values of words? This wasn't clear. ~Anachronist (talk) 01:26, 9 September 2023 (UTC)[reply]

I'm not even sure it's described in the body of the article. I know occultists use a dictionary arranged numerically such as 777 and Other Qabalistic Writings of Aleister Crowley. The number is interpreted in terms of (all?) the words which also add up to the same number. Don't think Crowley's the best source for this though, and I'm not aware of any more traditional numerical dictionaries, but one would think they must exist in the traditional Kabbalistic schools. Skyerise (talk) 12:49, 9 September 2023 (UTC)[reply]

Surely there is some purpose to doing this other than engaging in some arbitrary analysis? If different words represent the same number, what of it? The point of engaging in gematria isn't clear in this article. I am not sure that the primary sources you alluded to would help either, because they likely already assume the reader knows the purpose. ~Anachronist (talk) 17:39, 9 September 2023 (UTC)[reply]

The idea is that the true meaning of a passage may have been disguised by replacing a word with one having the same value. Perhaps this is covering in the main article, Kabbalah? I'll look into it when I have a chance. Search-wise, probably "Kabbalistic exegesis", maybe? Skyerise (talk) 17:42, 9 September 2023 (UTC)[reply]

Historically, the first text to describe the process from outside Judaism is probably Johann Reuchlin's De Arte Cabbalistica (1517). Skyerise (talk) 17:59, 9 September 2023 (UTC)[reply]

That formula is not correct. The easiest counter-proof is that f(0) through f(9) all output zero. 2601:180:8300:B8D0:F5AA:F23E:37F4:24A6 (talk) 23:50, 27 October 2023 (UTC)[reply]