Letters that are also numbers
In the classical Hebrew system, each letter of the alphabet has a numerical value. The first nine letters, alef through tet, stand for 1 to 9. The next nine, yod through tsadi, stand for 10 to 90. The last four of the standard 22 letters stand for 100, 200, 300 and 400: qof is 100, resh 200, shin 300 and tav 400. Hebrew writers used this scheme for dates, page numbers and lists, much as other ancient peoples used their own alphabets.
Gematria is the practice of adding up the values of the letters in a word or phrase and then drawing a connection to other words or phrases with the same total. The method belongs to interpretation, not to the text of scripture itself, and it is mostly a feature of rabbinic literature and later commentary, including medieval mystical writing.
Where the word and the method come from
The origin of the word gematria is debated. A common view is that it is borrowed from Greek, possibly from a word related to geometry, and a similar practice among Greek speakers, usually called isopsephy, is well attested. The Greek letters also worked as numerals, as in the Milesian numerals, so the same kind of word-number play was possible in both languages. Scholars cannot say with certainty how much each tradition influenced the other.
Hebrew texts show interest in the numerical side of language early. A saying in the tractate Avot of the Mishnah refers to calculations of this kind as a sort of seasoning for wisdom, which is generally read as a sign that gematria was regarded as a secondary, supplementary technique and not a main way of establishing law.
Worked examples
Three well-known examples show how the arithmetic works.
- Chai (life) is spelled chet and yod, which is 8 + 10 = 18. This is the reason that gifts are often given in multiples of 18, a custom covered separately.
- Echad (one) is alef, chet, dalet: 1 + 8 + 4 = 13. Ahavah (love) is alef, heh, bet, heh: 1 + 5 + 2 + 5 = 13. Later writers have often noted that “love” and “one” share a value, and have read this as pointing to a connection between the two ideas.
- Eliezer, the name of Abraham’s servant, is alef, lamed, yod, ayin, zayin, resh: 1 + 30 + 10 + 70 + 7 + 200 = 318. Genesis says that Abraham pursued his enemies with 318 men, and a rabbinic reading in the Talmud connects the number to the servant’s name, so that the figure may refer to Eliezer alone. That is a homiletic reading, and the verse can also be read as a literal troop count.
In each case the match is a starting point for a lesson or a reflection, not a proof. A match between two totals is common in a language where many words are short and the totals fall in a fairly narrow range.
The main forms of the method
Several variants are described in the literature, and different authors use them in different ways.
- Standard value. Each letter has its fixed value, as above. This is the most common form.
- Ordinal value. Each letter is numbered by its position in the alphabet, 1 to 22.
- Reduced value. The digits of the standard total are added down to a single digit, or the tens and hundreds are ignored.
- Final forms. Five letters have a different shape at the end of a word. Some systems give those forms values of 500 to 900, while others keep the ordinary value.
- Related techniques. Substitution schemes in which one letter replaces another, such as swapping the first letter with the last, and the use of initials as abbreviations (notarikon), are often discussed alongside gematria but are different methods.
Because so many choices are available, a reader cannot tell in advance which method an author will use, and different methods give different totals for the same word. This is a point scholars stress when they evaluate gematria-based arguments.
In practice and in history
Gematria has been used in sermons, in commentary on the Torah and in mystical writings. It features in the work of medieval pietists and Kabbalists, who saw the letters as building blocks of creation, a belief that is separate from the arithmetic itself. The technique was not unique to Hebrew: Greek-speaking writers likewise played on the letter totals of words.
A famous example from the Christian world is the reading of the number 666 in Revelation by converting a name into Hebrew letters, treated in the article on the number of the beast. Another set of associations, quite separate from gematria, can be found in the Pythagorean number philosophy of ancient Greece, where numbers themselves were given meaning rather than letters. The two should not be confused.
Modern practitioners of numerology sometimes borrow the idea and apply it to names in English, and the history of numerology includes such borrowings. Those later systems are modern adaptations and do not carry the authority of the original rabbinic practice.
How to read gematria
Gematria is best approached as a way readers have found connections within the text, and in that sense it resembles wordplay or puns. It does not reveal hidden facts about events or people, and it cannot be used to predict anything. Scholars of Jewish literature study it as a historical technique that reveals how communities read scripture. The pleasure it gave readers, the sense of unexpected links between words, remains a good reason to study it.