GEMATRIA:
HOW IT WORKS
Bonnie Gaunt has been for me the premier "gematrician". She has several books covering many different areas a study, including Stonehenge, the Great pyramid and the solar system, just to name three. If ever there was a proof of God's reality, it is in Bonnie Gaunt's work with gematria.
Gematria is very simple, but I thought it appropriate to include a page telling how it works. The following is taken from Bonnie Gaunt's book, "The Stones Cry Out", appendix I. Thank you, Bonnie.
All creation, from the largest to the smallest. can always be reduced to numbers. Pythagoras, the
father of mathematics, discovered a great truth when he said 'Numbers are the language of the
universe." In the writings of the ancient philosophers there is common agreement that the purpose
of number is for the investigation of the universe. From the atom to the galaxy in the heavens, the
same unchanging laws apply the laws of arithmetic, the language of number.
Just as the hand of God spread the vast expanse of the heavens by number, so too His written word
can be reduced to number; and those who have tried it have stood in awe of the intricacy and beauty
of the design. It was an intentional design.
The secrets locked up in the Number Code of the Bible are there for all to behold; and down
through the centuries many have unlocked those secrets and revealed to us the unspeakable beauty
of the intended design. Part of the numerical design of the scriptures is the science of Gematria.
The Old Testament was originally written in the Hebrew language, and the New Testament in
Greek. These two languages used the letters of their for symbols of amount. Their alphabets were
called "dual character systems", one of sound, or phonetics, and the other of amount, or number.
Tobias Dantzig1, a professor of mathematics at the University of Maryland (U.S.A.) explained the
phenomenon thus:
"The sum of the numbers represented by the letters of the word was the number of the word,
and from the standpoint of Gematria two words were equivalent if they added up to the same
number. Not only was Gematria used from the earliest days for the interpretation of Bible
passages, but there are indications that the writers of the Bible had practiced the art. Thus
Abraham proceeding to rescue his brother Eliasar drives forth 318 slaves. Is it just a
coincidence that the Hebrew word Eliasar adds up to 318?"
Within the first century A.D., Barnabas, the traveling companion of the Apostle Paul, wrote
concerning this-number code in Greek.
"For the scripture says that Abraham circumcised three hundred and eighteen men of his
house. But what therefore was the mystery that was made known unto him? Mark, first the
eighteen, and next the three hundred. For the numeral letters of ten and eight are I H. And
these denote Jesus. And because the cross was that by which we were to find grace;
therefore he adds three hundred; the note of which is T (the figure of his cross). Wherefore
by two letters he signified Jesus, and by the third his cross."
Barnabas leads us to realize that the knowledge of the use of Gematria in the word of God is not
something of modem discovery.
One of the best-known demonstrations of Gematria in the Old Testament is the section headings of
Psalm 119. Any student of the Old Testament is aware that the names for these sections are in fact
the sequential letters of the Hebrew Alphabet. These letters were simply used to number the
sections. The some Bibles the word for the letter is spelled out, (such as aleph, while in other
translations, the single letter is used - both of these translate, by Gematria, to the number 1.
Gematria among the Greeks was in common use at the time of the writing of the New Testament. A
copy of one of these early manuscripts, called papyri, (because they were written on papyrus) exists today in Dublin, Ireland in the Chester Beatty Collection. It is the earliest known copy of the book of Revelation extant. It is dated somewhere between 200 and 300 A.D. This manuscript uses Gematria for every number in the book of Revelation.
The re-discovery of these Number Codes is not new. The noted Bible expositor, E. W. Bullinger,
was among the many who have added to our understanding of this subject. His book Number in
Scripture, published in 1894, shows the supernatural design in the use of numbers, both in the
works of God and in the word of God.
The number equivalents for the Greek alphabet can be found in any Webster's Dictionary.
The Greek Alphabet
The Greek alphabet used twenty-six letters, two of which have become extinct. The current twenty-four are listed below. There were once letters for 6 and 90, but they became obsolete through time, and finally dropped from the alphabet.
The letter standing for the number 6 was called "stigma." It looked similar to sigma. The only use for the letter stigma in the New Testament is in Revelation 13:18 where it gives the number of the one who comes as the imposter of Christ. In the old manuscripts it was written as 600, 60, 6. Thus when added they become 666.
The Hebrew Alphabet
The Hebrew alphabet is, in many ways, quite similar to the Greek. However, rather than 24 letters, it uses only 22 letters.
Notice there are five finals. These letters are shaped differently when they appear as the final letter in a word. In the Cabala these five finals are given higher numbers, namely, 500, 600, 700, 800 and 900. In my search of the Gematria of the Bible, I do not find this additional assigning of the numbers to be part of the original design. It was an addition to the system, which was adopted later.
It should be noted that according to the rules of Gematria, one unit called colel could be added or
subtracted from a word or phrase without changing its meaning.
Tobias Dantzig, Number; the Language of Science, Doubleday Anchor Books, New York; NY, 1930, p.4O.
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