Gematria

Gematria (from Hebrew גימטריה gimatr-ja ), also Gematria or Gimatria , is the hermeneutic technique of interpreting words with the help of numbers. Here are letters transferred to different keys into their corresponding numerical values in order to develop from these meanings and establish relationships.

Numerical values in the Hebrew alphabet
Letter		value
Aleph	א	1
Beth	ב	2
Gimel	ג	3
Daleth	ד	4th
Hey	ה	5
Waw	ו	6th
Zajin	ז	7th
Chet	ח	8th
Tet	ט	9
iodine	י	10
Cap	כ	20th
Lamed	ל	30th
Mem	מ	40
Now	נ	50
Samech	ס	60
Ajin	ע	70
Pe	פ	80
Tzade	צ	90
Koph	ק	100
Resch	ר	200
Shin	ש	300
Taw	ת	400
Cape (final)	ך	500
Meme (final)	ם	600
Well (final)	ן	700
Pe (final)	ף	800
Tzade (final)	ץ	900

history

The gematria based on the fact that the Greek and Hebrew alphabet letters particular because of their position in the alphabet numerical values are assigned (see also. Abjad numerals numbers in Arabic , also) - in addition to other systems of digits - to display numbers could and can be used. Therefore, each word can be read as a group of numerals and given a sum for them. Their proportional structure, the sum of their individual values or a value obtained through other arithmetic operations then stands for the word and can be related to other numbers, words and word proportions. Gematria can be found in many cultures, and it appears particularly pronounced in the Jewish tradition.

The word Gematria is a Hebrew loan word from the Greek . However, the exact derivation is unclear. The Greek γεωμετρία ("geometria", "land surveying") was probably the godfather. However, derivatives of τὸ γράμμα or γραμματεία (Greek for “written”) with a relieving change of consonants were also considered.

For the first time, the word becomes tangible in the mixed natractic sayings of the fathers (פרקי אבות"Pirqe Abot"), which states: "Astronomy and Gematrien are extras every wisdom" (Abot III). It is doubtful whether this already means gematria in a later sense, since the parallel mention of astronomy seems to address the contrast between heaven ( astronomy ) and earth ( geometry ). In the Terumot treatise of the Jerusalem Talmud it says: “Here we felt astray like the blind man's stick until we got through itחשבון גימטריאopened up ”(pTer V, 1). The Hebrew expression used here means something like: "gematrical calculation".

In many passages of the Old Testament there are interpretations about a possible gematric background. Gematria refers exclusively to the consonant letters of a text; the actual smaller vowel symbols were added to the Hebrew and Aramaic Bible text later. However, in certain cases in the original text, long vowels in the final syllable are indicated by consonant letters as placeholders ( matres lectionis ), e.g. B. means the letterו( Waw ) at the beginning of the syllable [w], in the final syllable [u:] or [o:]. The "long" "plenum" of a word is often optional according to the orthographic rules and can alternate with the short "defective spelling". Occasionally, different versions of the masoretic text have come down to us in different old manuscripts , or a different original spelling is hypothetically used in order to achieve a certain number result in the mathematical conversion. This opens up a wide field for speculation.

There are few serious references to gematria in the Old Testament:

In Gen 14:14 EU is of 318 servants of Abraham , the speech he his nephew to rescue Lot unleashing. This corresponds to the numerical value of Eliezer (אליעזר), the supreme servant and confidante of Abraham Gen 15.2-3 EU . The meaning of Eliezer is again "my God is help". So it is a "speaking name".
In 1 Kings 5.12 EU it is reported that the wise King Solomon composed 1,005 songs. This corresponds to the numerical value ofשיר למלך שלמה "Songs of King Solomon".

These two relatively plausible examples of gematria in the Old Testament are also not undisputed in biblical exegesis and, if the interpretation is correct, may have originated in the late period of the Old Testament.

In the New Testament, an example of a gematric interpretation is often assumed in the Gospel according to Matthew : According to Mt 1.17 EU there are 14 families from Abraham to David , 14 families from David to the Babylonian captivity and 14 families from the Babylonian captivity to Christ; 14 corresponds to the numerical value ofדוד "David".

The explicit use of Hebrew letters as numbers is not in the Hebrew Bible and in non-biblical Judaism only in the 1st century BC. Chr. Attested. At that time, however, Greek numerical letters had already been in use for at least two hundred years, so that one assumes in research that gematria goes back to Greek influences, in particular to the Pythagorean number mysticism . It should be noted that the Hebrew and the Greek script developed from the Phoenician alphabet and were subject to similar developmental tendencies from there.

Numerical values in the Greek alphabet
Letter		value
alpha	α	1
beta	β	2
gamma	γ	3
delta	δ	4th
epsilon	ε	5
Digamma	ϝ	6th
Zeta	ζ	7th
Eta	η	8th
Theta	θ	9
Iota	ι	10
Kappa	κ	20th
Lambda	λ	30th
My	μ	40
Ny	ν	50
Xi	ξ	60
Omicron	ο	70
pi	π	80
Qoppa	ϟ	90
Rho	ρ	100
Sigma	σ	200
dew	τ	300
Ypsilon	υ	400
Phi	φ	500
Chi	χ	600
Psi	ψ	700
omega	ω	800
Sampi	ϡ	900

Procedure

Gematria is a method of hermeneutics with which a passage or a word is interpreted taking into account its numerical structure. Rabbi Eliezer ben Jose Hagaleli mentions it as the 29th of the 32 rules of interpretation.

Various methods are used in the design. This includes, for example, the following calculations:

Formation of the sum of the numerals of a word and reference to words with the same value
Taking into account the full value of each letter, with the letter again being read and counted as a whole word.
Atbasch : The letter value is taken as the value of the letter that appears as a mirror image in the order of the alphabet. The value of the first letter is exchanged with the value of the last, that of the second with the value of the penultimate, and so on.

Gershom Scholem cites over 70 different keys to implementation. Such dimensions result in a multitude of possible combinations that open up almost unlimited possibilities for understanding. This makes easy access to the methods more difficult and has also led to accusations of imaginative arbitrariness. The discovery of relationships and connections between concepts is, however, also understood in Judaism as a mystical meditation that consciously works with means of association.

Artemidor's dream book testifies that the gematrical interpretation of personal names was sometimes based on the thesis values of the letters, if the milesic values otherwise common for such purposes would have been unsuitably high.

Examples

Gematria cannot be found in the Torah itself, although a lot is explained etymologically there. Here are some equations according to the rabbis' gematrical method:

צמח (Semach - germ) = מנחם(Menachem - comforter): The numerical value of both words is 138. This identical value should justify the messianic statement “The comforter is a germ”.
משיח (Maschiach - anointed, Messiah) = נחש (Nachasch - snake): The numerical value of both words is 358. From this it is concluded that the snake's cunning consists in appearing to man as savior.
יהוה( YHWH ) =מקום(Makom - place): Makom is also used in Judaism as a descriptive term for God. The numerical value of Makom is 186. The same value is the sum of the squares of the individual letters of YHWH (10-5-6-5 → 100 + 25 + 36 + 25 = 186).
In the biblical expression “a land flowing with milk and honey”, the word chalav , the Hebrew word for milk, has a numerical value of 8 + 30 + 2 = 40. This is said to indicate the 40 days that Moses spent on Mount Sinai .

The most popular and effective biblical example of gematria can be found in the Revelation of John in the New Testament ( Rev 13:18 EU ). There the “number of the beast”, an anti-divine mythical figure, is given as “ six hundred and sixty-six ”. The most common resolution of this number suggests it to the Hebrew transcription נרון קסרfor the Greek name " Emperor Nero ".

In the course of the COVID-19 pandemic , the epidemic was interpreted as a divine punishment on posters in ultra-Orthodox communities in Jerusalem in 2020, among other things because the numerical value for both the "Corona epidemic" (מגיפת קורונה) as well as for "lack of decency" (חוסר צניעות) Is 900. Other Orthodox clergy rejected the idea of gaining knowledge about the pandemic from gematria.

literature

Otto Böcher : Art. Gematria . In: Neues Bibellexikon , Volume 1. Zurich 1991, ISBN 3-545-23074-0
Franz Dornseiff : The alphabet in mysticism and magic. 2nd Edition. Teubner, Leipzig 1925. Reprint Teubner, Berlin 1994, ISBN 3-8262-0400-X . Pp. 91-117
Shmuel Sambursky: On the Origin and Significance of the Term Gematria . In: Journal of Jewish Studies , 29, 1978, pp. 35-38
Friedrich Weinreb : Creation in Word. The structure of the Bible in Jewish tradition . Thauros, Weiler 1994, ISBN 3-88411-028-4

Individual evidence

^ S. Sambursky, "On the Origin and Significance of the Term Gematria"
↑ Hermann Leberecht Strack , Günter Stemberger : Introduction to Talmud and Midrash . 8th edition. CH Beck, Munich 1992, ISBN 978-3-406-36695-6 . P. 38.
↑ כ = ך; see. Carl Steueragel, The number of proverbs and songs of Solomon (1. Reg 5:12) . In: ZAW 30 (1910), pp. 70f. With regard to the “3,000 sayings” of Solomon in v. 12, Steueragel points out that the sum of the natural phenomena mentioned in the following verse (when a word is written in plenum) results in the numerical value 3,000.
↑ So z. B. interpreted by Peter Stuhlmacher : The birth of Immanuel. The Christmas stories from the Gospels of Luke and Matthew , Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht, Göttingen 2005, p. 94.
↑ George Ifrah: Universal History of Numbers . Frankfurt / New York 1991, ISBN 3-593-34192-1 . P. 295.
↑ O. Böcher: Gematria . Sp. 777.
↑ Gershom Scholem , The Jewish Mysticism in Her Main Streams. Suhrkamp, Frankfurt 1980, p. 147 ISBN 3-518-07930-1 .
↑ Cf. Debarim Rabba 11 , 10 on the number 515.
^ Friedrich Weinreb, Creation in the Word , p. 169.
↑ Sam Sokol: "Slammed by COVID-19, ultra-Orthodox Jews try to understand what God hath wrought" Times of Israel, May 13, 2020.
↑ Moshe Wistuch:הקיצוניים משוכנעים: הקורונה - באשמת הנשים 'The ultra-orthodox are convinced that women are to blame for Corona' . In: Israel HaYom . April 6, 2020,accessed August 21, 2020(Hebrew).

[1] S. Sambursky, "On the Origin and Significance of the Term Gematria"

[2] Hermann Leberecht Strack , Günter Stemberger : Introduction to Talmud and Midrash . 8th edition. CH Beck, Munich 1992, ISBN 978-3-406-36695-6 . P. 38.

[3] כ = ך; see. Carl Steueragel, The number of proverbs and songs of Solomon (1. Reg 5:12) . In: ZAW 30 (1910), pp. 70f. With regard to the “3,000 sayings” of Solomon in v. 12, Steueragel points out that the sum of the natural phenomena mentioned in the following verse (when a word is written in plenum) results in the numerical value 3,000.

[4] So z. B. interpreted by Peter Stuhlmacher : The birth of Immanuel. The Christmas stories from the Gospels of Luke and Matthew , Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht, Göttingen 2005, p. 94.

[5] George Ifrah: Universal History of Numbers . Frankfurt / New York 1991, ISBN 3-593-34192-1 . P. 295.

[6] O. Böcher: Gematria . Sp. 777.

[7] Gershom Scholem , The Jewish Mysticism in Her Main Streams. Suhrkamp, Frankfurt 1980, p. 147 ISBN 3-518-07930-1 .

[8] Cf. Debarim Rabba 11 , 10 on the number 515.

[9] Friedrich Weinreb, Creation in the Word , p. 169.

[10] Sam Sokol: "Slammed by COVID-19, ultra-Orthodox Jews try to understand what God hath wrought" Times of Israel, May 13, 2020.

[11] Moshe Wistuch:הקיצוניים משוכנעים: הקורונה - באשמת הנשים 'The ultra-orthodox are convinced that women are to blame for Corona' . In: Israel HaYom . April 6, 2020,accessed August 21, 2020(Hebrew).