What is the Meaning of Gematria?

Where x is the position for the letter in the language alphabet index, and where floor and modulo are used. Gematria is still used in many parts Asia and Africa. Gematria has been mentioned by many scholars in the Hebrew Bible.

Each letter in the standard gematria version is assigned a numerical value between 1 to 400. The table below shows this. In the Mispar gadol variation, 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. A scribe might discuss a sum using the standard gematria cipher, but may want to check the sum with a secret cipher.

Greek Philosophy

Achbi divides alphabet into two equal groups, each with 11 letters. Within each group, the first letter is replaced by the last, the second by the 10th, etc. The Hebrew term may have been derived from the Greek geometria Geometria, “geometry”, although some scholars believe it comes from the Greek grammateia Gramateia, “knowledge of writing”. It is possible that both Greek words influenced the formation of the Hebrew word.

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The final four letters are given number values that increase by a factor of one hundred from 100 to 400. In Hebrew, gematria is often used as an alternative to Arabic Numerals when recording numbers. Mispar Katan Mispari refers to situations where the total numerical value for a word is reduced down to one digit. If the sum exceeds 9, the integer numbers of the total are multiplied to create 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.

Statistics For Gematria

Plato (c. 427-347 BC), offers a discussion in The Cratylus. It involves a view that words and names refer to the “essential nature”, and this view may have influenced the – and is centrally related to – Greek gematria. Rabbi Moshe Cordevero lists most of the ciphers and methods mentioned above. Akhas Beta divides alphabet into three groups: 7, 7 and 8. Each letter is replaced cyclically with the letter of the next group.

• It is possible that this well-known cryptogram was used to hide other ciphers in Jewish texts.
• This method is especially interesting because it is sensitive to the order in which letters are placed.
• Each letter is replaced cyclically by the corresponding letter of the next group.
• Some also hold it to derive from the order of the Greek alphabet, gamma being the third letter of the Greek alphabet.
• Although the term is Hebrew it could be derived from the Greek gemetria geometria, “geometry”, although some scholars believe it comes from the Greek grammateiagrammateia, “knowledge of writing”.

The first ten letters are given number values that increase consecutively from 1 to 10. The numbers for the next eight letters increase by a factor ten, from 20 to 90.

Similar systems have been used in languages and cultures that are derived or inspired from Hebrew gematria, Arabic abjad numerals and English gematria. There is no consensus academically as to which Greek isopsephy or Hebrew gematria was first. Gematria, a Jewish form numerology, is where the Hebrew alphabet letters are replaced with the corresponding numbers.

The remainders represent a specific Zodiac sign or planet. Each letter is replaced by the last letter in its name by Ofanim (e.g. “Fe” stands for “Aleph”. 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. Mispar ha-Merubah Ha-Klali is the squared of the standard absolute value for each word.

Gematria: History and Etymology

Others believe it derives from the Greek alphabet order, with gamma the third letter in the Greek alphabet. The first numerical cipher that is known to be assigned to the English Alphabet was by Cornelius Agrippa in 1533, in his work De Occulta Philosopha. To determine the astrological influences of a person, Kabbalistic Astrology uses specific methods. According to one method, the gematria of the person’s name is added to the gematria of his or her mother’s name; the result is then divided by 7 and 12.

The Milesian numeral system was the first alphanumeric alphabet to appear in ancient Greece as early as the 6th Century BC. It was eventually adopted by the public.

in contexts such as divinatory Greek magic, prophecy, and so forth. According to Proclus, Theodorus learned these methods from the writings of Numenius of Apamea and Amelius.

Albam – The alphabet is divided in half with 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.

Definition Of Gematria

His second argument was that letters change in form over time, so their graphical properties cannot be understood. Variant spellings of some letters can be used to produce sets of different numbers, which can be added up or analyzed separately. Rabbi David ha-Levi’s methods also take into account the numerical values and other properties that the vowels have. Since the death of Aleister Crowley (1875-1947) a number of people have proposed numerical ciphers for the purposes of numerology with the Book of the Law. Mispar Gadol counts Hebrew letters in the final form of the alphabet as a continuation to the numerical sequence for that alphabet. The final letters are assigned values ranging from 500 to 900.

Proclus refutes these methods and appeals to the arguments made by Iamblichus, a Neoplatonic philosopher. The first argument was that certain letters have the opposite meaning but the same numerical value.

Gematria

Mispar Katan calculates each letter’s value, but strips out all zeros. You should — there are more than 200,000 words in our online dictionary. However, you are searching for one that is only in the Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary. Etc. Etc. Mispar Siduri, each of the 22 letters being given a value between 1 and 22.

A single word can yield several values depending on the cipher which is used. Mispar ha-Akhor: The value of each letter depends on the cipher used. It is the standard value multiplied with the position of the letter within a word or phrase in ascending or descending order. This method is particularly interesting, because the result is sensitive to the order of letters. It assigns the values 1-9 to the Hebrew letters in the order of the 1090, 100-400, 100-400, 100-400, and 1-9 to the Hebrew letters. Sometimes the names of vowels are spelled out, and their gematria calculated using standard methods. Mispar Misafi adds the number of the letters in the word or phrase to their gematria.

Namespaces

Mispar Gadol can sometimes be used to refer to a different method called Otiyot beMilui. The ancient Babylonian culture used a type gematria system (‘Aru) but their writing script was logographic and their numerical assignments were to whole words. These words had a completely arbitrary value and correspondences were made using tables. Therefore, they cannot be considered true gematria. Aru was quite different from the gematria systems of the Hebrew and Greek cultures that used alphabetic writing scripts.