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TOP | OCCULTISM | DIVINATION | NUMEROLOGY | GEMATRIA

some history on gematria

To: 
From: danw@netmastersinc.com (Dan Washburn)
Subject: some history on gematria
Date: Thu, 12 Nov 1998 07:14:59 -0800

Here is some history on  gematria from my paper "Hidden Wisdom 
in Early Christianity".

 Numbers were used to write words and syllables in cuneiform 
as early as c. 2300 B.C.E.    There is evidence dating from the 
eighth century B.C.E. that a device similar to gematria was 
known in cuneiform hermeneutics.   There is also an inscription 
dating from the same period stating that the Assyrian king 
Sargon II built the wall of Khorsabad 16,283 cubits long to 
match the numerical value of his name.

  Greek letters came into official use as numbers in the third 
to second centuries B.C.E., although the system of 
correspondences was invented earlier.   By the time of the first 
two centuries of the Common Era gematria using the Greek alphabet
was being practiced in a variety of ways.  "I love her whose 
number is 545," is one of several examples found scribbled as 
graffiti on the walls of Pompeii.  

Leonidas of Alexandria wrote poems in which the sum of the 
numerical values of the letters is identical in each couplet.   
Artemidorus Daldianus recommended its use in dream 
interpretation.  For instance, if a sick man dreams of an old 
woman, it is a symbol for death, since the letter values for 
'old woman' and 'corpse removal' both equal 704.


 S. Lieberman has reviewed the evidence for when the Hebrew 
letters were first used as numbers in a recent paper and has 
concluded that a date for this event cannot as yet be 
determined.  Archaeologically, the clearest early use was on
coins dating from the reign of Alexander Jannaeus (103-76 B.C.E.), 
though there is a great deal of earlier evidence awaiting 
further clarification.   The conventional view is that Hebrew 
alphabetic numeration was taken over from Greek usage during 
the Hellenization of Palestine sometime prior to the first
century B.C.E.   Lieberman, however, thinks it reasonable to 
believe that Hebrew gematria was derived from its Mesopotamian 
parallel and that it is possible that the technique was employed 
in biblical texts.

  C. Levias, writing in The Jewish Encyclopedia, argues that 
the existence of atbash, the permutative cyphering of letters, 
in Jeremiah makes it likely that gematria also exists in OT 
scripture, and cites Gen 14:14, Deut 31:1-6, and Ezek 5:2 as 
probable examples.   A. G. Wright has suggested that examples 
of gematria can be found in the Book of Qoheleth (c. 250 B.C.E.)  
and P. W. Skehan has identified possible instances in Proverbs 
(c. 600 B.C.E.).   Skehan's reply to those who argue for a late 
assignment of numerical values to the Hebrew letters is 
illuminating:

	"...which is more likely: that the Greeks established 
	 this system for their borrowed alphabet by the 6th 
	 century B.C. (when digamma, or waw, and qoppa, or 
	 qoph, ceased to be functional for them except as the 
	 numbers 6 and 90), and then handed back their little 
	 invention to their Semitic neighbors at least three
	 centuries later; or that they found the Semitic 
	 alphabet, including waw and qoph, already being used 
	 in this way when they borrowed it about 800 B.C.?"

 Interpretations based on gematria were in use among the Tannaim 
of the second century.  As a method of interpreting the Torah it 
was listed as number 29 in the Baraita of 32 Rules of Rabbi 
Eliezer b. Jose, the Galilean (c. 200 C.E.).  Gematria was a 
significant element in Kabbalistic thought from the 12th through
the 19th centuries, where it underwent a complex elaboration.  
Moses Cordovero (1522-70 C.E.), the great systematic theologian 
of the Safed Kabbalah, lists nine different types of gematria.  
For example, Gershom Scholem writes that one of these variations 
mentioned by Cordovero was, "The addition of the number of 
letters in the word to the numerical value of the word itself, 
or the addition of the number "one" to the numerical value of 
the word."

 References:
  S. Lieberman, "A Mesopotamian Background for the So-called Aggadic
   'Measures' of Biblical Hermeneutics?"  Hebrew Union College 
   Annual 58(1987)186.
  Ibid., pp 174-76.
  From the article on Gematria in the Encyclopaedia Judaica 
   (Jerusalem: Macmillan, 1971) vol 7, col 369.  (Unless otherwise 
   cited information on the history of gematria comes from this 
   source.)  Cf. S. Lieberman, Ibid., p 192.
  J. Davis, Biblical Numerology (Grand Rapids: Baker, 1971)38.
  A. Diesman, Light from the Ancient East (New York: Hodder and 
   Stoughton, 1910) p 276.
  Reider Hvalvik, "Barnabas 9.7-9 and the Author's Supposed Use of 
   Gematria," NTS 33(1987)281, n.4.
  Ibid., p 276.
  S. Lieberman, "A Mesopotamian Background?" pp 193-98
  J. Davis cites several reasons for this view in his Biblical 
   Numerology p 45: the lack of early archaeological evidence, 
   what looks like a sequence of progressive development for the 
   Greek system, and the absence of the Hebrew system in OT and 
   Qumran writings.
  S. Lieberman, "A Mesopotamian Background?" pp 185, 218.
  The Jewish Encyclopedia (New York: Ktav, 1901) vol 5 p 389.
  A. G. Wright, "The Riddle of the Sphinx Revisited: Numerical 
   Patterns in the Book of Qoheleth," CBQ 42(1980)38-51.  
   "Additional Numerical Patterns in Qoheleth," CBQ 45(1983)32-43.
  P. W. Skehan, Studies in Israelite Poetry and Wisdom (CBQMS 1: 
   Washington Catholic Biblical Association, 1971)43-45.
  Ibid., p 45.
  Encyclopaedia Judaica vol 7, col 374.

Dan W.
     
     danw@netmastersinc.com (Dan Washburn)
     Please send private responses directly to the above address

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