Ten examples of Gematria that astonished us...
We thought it would be cool to show people a 'top ten' list of amazing gematria calculations that we've found over the past decade.
Which ones are your favorites?
Working backwards from 10th to first place...
[Abbr: b.g biblical gematria. r.c reversal cipher. s.c standard cipher.]
I've transliterated the letters for these sums rather than wrestle with the interface that gets very confused when you have brackets, numerals and a right to left writing script. Perhaps two of the oldest phrasings of numerical grammar accompany those of blessings and curses. A blessing is a multiplication by two, for instance the Sabbath is the 'blessed day' and in Exodus Israel would collect a double portion of manna to cover this day. A curse is the opposite - a division by two or a halving of the portions allotted.
The calculation in the tablet’s text requires that you replace אתה with ישראל, “Israel”, because the curse is against Israel. There are established conventions for using the אתה in this fashion in Biblical texts. The resulting totals are multiplies of אל (31) which means 'God'. 248 is also the value of the name אברהם Abraham, and is a value of a prominent great gate of the Merkabah when multiplied by 10.
310 = 10 × אל
248 = 8 × אל
If you accept the recent translation of the Mount Ebal curse tablet by distinguished Professor Gershon Galil (and not everyone does) then the mathematics of the tablet is proof the methodology predates the exile by centuries, possibly into the late Bronze age, and it demonstrates that even in these early days the practice was coherent, rule-based, mathematical exegesis. All I can contribute to the debate over the readings is this - if Galil is to be accused of pareidolia then he has chosen to see an arrangement which, completely unknown to him, included a lovely bit of mathematics.
Given that the words 'kill' and 'destroy' are operators that mean subtraction, there's always some difficulty believing the plain (peshat) meaning of any biblical text that discusses killing. Indeed, there are some calculations that appear to negate the peshat meaning by producing a sum of 0, which may indicate that some details may be there simply for their story and/or numerical value.
The value 860 is significant because אלהים is 86 and 860 is 10 × 86.
930 is אל ('God') × 3 × 10.
93 is the gate value of the final Heh of the Holy Name on the Merkabah.
I like these calculations because they remind me to be cautious when biblical writers start compiling lists, because they're usually for the purposes of calculation.
Not the most complicated piece of gematria you'll ever see, but it demonstrates how sometimes true names and complimentary names of biblical characters can be concealed with the reversal cipher. For Keturah (incense), we have Elsheba אלסבע, and the gematria is crafted to unfurl only with the cipher word.
Note: ויסף 'and again' indicates to double the next word which is 'Abraham'. קיא is only the value of 111, and not a word. It is the pre-set value of the word אשה 'woman' or 'wife'.
One might think that after hundreds of years of intense study, Revelation 13:18 would have nothing left to divulge, but you'd be wrong. It has a lovely example of notariqon with a value exactly matching the gematria of 9:11 to reveal the name of the Beast.
The value of '13' hundred may correspond to it becoming an 'unlucky number' due to the fact it was the 13th disciple 'Judas' which betrayed Jesus for the infamous 30 pieces of silver.
But the reason I love this pair is that 9:11 deliberately mixes the two writing scripts. You need to use the Hebrew word for Abaddon (אבדון) along with the Greek words for 'king' + 'angel' + 'abyss' + 'Apollyon'. These verses seem almost playful, for all their grim subject matter.
In biblical times, Gematria was a formal system of math that had rules and conventions to make it verifiable.
Behold has everything you need to find gematria in biblical texts and use it to read the Bible in its proper context.
Learn the meaning of the Hebrew letters and of their origins in ancient Egypt, and find out how thousands of years later, Kabbalists and Occultists would use the Holy Chariot and ancient gematria ciphers in their own writings.
These three lines are called the Shemhamphorash, which means "the explicit name", which was originally a Tannaic term for the Tetragrammaton. There is no need to publish separate gematria for these verses, because the entirety of the three lines is computed as one sum.
In the Sefer Raziel HaMalakh, the 72-fold name is derived from Exodus 14:19–21, when it is read read boustrophedonically to produce 72 names of three letters. According to Kabbalist legends, the 72-fold name was used by Moses to cross the Red Sea, and that it could grant later holy men the power to cast out demons, heal the sick, prevent natural disasters, and even kill enemies.
I think this calculation was created to celebrate the symbolic birth of the nation of Israel. As we see from Genesis 2, the creation of Eve, who is traditionally believed to have been the first 'birth' occurs under the letter Tsade (90). The multiplication of the 90 a hundredfold symbolizes the expansion of the term to cover the birth of a people, rather than a single individual.
The idea behind reading the lines boustrophedonically may have come from a stray reference to a "reversal" of line twenty by Rashi, but this may have been a reference to the reversal of the cipher (i.e. the reversal cipher). Later writers naturally assumed that the Shemhamphorash should be read boustrophedonically to reveal 72 angelic names.
This calculation includes the set-value of the letter Resh for 'Pharaoh' (200). At first glance it appears straightforward enough ... until you realize the calculation is using the three lettered name of God YHW. That’s a forensic watermark for dating layers of the Tanakh. It signifies the calculation was probably written in the late Bronze age or early Iron age.
The winner is (of course) the first line of the Book of Genesis, because without doubt it is one of the most complex and sublime gematria sums in history, and for that reason it deserves a special article to itself, so you can appreciate its true awesomeness:
THE HOLY NAME & GENESIS 1:1