(Gēmaṭrīyā'). A peculiar application of numbers which was in great favor with the later Jews and some of the early Christians and is not absolutely unknown to the Bible, is Gematria, that is the use of the letters of a word so as by means of their combined numerical value to express a name, or a witty association of ideas. The term is usually explained as an adaptation of the Greek word geōmetría, that is, “geometry,” but Dalman (Worterbuch, under the word) connects it in this application of it with grammateía. There is only one clear example in Scripture, the number of the beast which is the number of a man, six hundred sixty and six (Revelation 13:18). If, as most scholars are inclined to believe, a name is intended, the numerical value of the letters composing which adds up to 666, and if it is assumed that the writer thought in Hebrew or Aramaic. Nero Caesar written with the consonants nūnנ = 50, rēshר = 200, wāw = 6, nūnנ = 50, ḳōphכ = 100, ṣāmekhס = 60, rēshר = 200: total = 666, seems to be the best solution. Perhaps the idea suggested by Dr. Milligan that the 3-fold use of 6 which just falls short of 7, the number of sacred completeness, and is therefore a note of imperfection, may have been also in the writer’s mind. Some modern scholars find a second instance in Genesis 14:14 and Genesis 15:2. As the numerical value of the consonants which compose Eliezer in Hebrew add up to 318, it has been maintained that the number is not historical, but has been fancifully constructed by means of gematria out of the name. This strange idea is not new, for it is found in the Midrash on Genesis 43 in the name of a rabbi who lived circa 200 AD, but its antiquity is its greatest merit.
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Author: International Std. Bible Encyclopedia
Keywords: Gematria, number of the beast, 666, 660, count, counting, count the number of the beast, mark of the beast, number of a man, beast's number, Greek alphabet, Greek letters
Bible reference(s): Gen 14:14, Gen 15:2, Rev 13:18
Source: James Orr (editor), The International Standard Bible Encyclopedia, 5 volume set.
Page indexed by: inWORD Bible Software.