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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 INTUITION NETWORK COMPUTER CONFERENCE SYSTEM Personal help (i.e., to unsubscribe): friend@intuition.org Intuition Network website -- www.intuition.org Thinking Allowed website -- www.thinking-allowed.com Intuition Magazine website -- www.intuitionmagazine.com EOF
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