What is the Gematria?


The word 'Gematria' comes from the Hebrew word "guematria". It is a process used mainly by the kabbalists that consists in replacing the letters of a word or a sentence by their numerical value and then adding them in order to obtain a total value which will be associated with this word or to this sentence. The words of the same value possess a close sense that the kabbalists use in order to know the hidden deep meaning behind the word. The Cabal associates with 22 letters of the Hebrew alphabet a particular number. But the gematria is not only used for the texts written in Hebrew: the Greeks, Arabs and Chinese had also the habit of this form of study. However only the Greek and Hebrew alphabets are listed here.

There are several schools of thought about the attribution of numbers to letters. Let us say simply that we distinguish the regular numeration (referred here to the gematria in "N") and the simple numeration (referred here to the gematria in "n").

For Hebrew letters, the range of numbers of the regular numeration spreads 1 to 400 for 22 first letters. Appear then five other letters which have a form and a different numerical value when they are located at the end of a word. They are the final "kaph" with 500, the final "mem" with 600, the final "nun" with 700, the final "phe" with 800 and the final "tzade" with 900. For the Greek alphabet, the range is 1 to 900, with 9 units, 9 tens and 9 hundreds.

The numeration simplified is more modest! The numerical values follow directly the order of each letter in the alphabet. Thus the letters in the Hebrew alphabet have each a value from 1 to 27, and the Greek alphabet, 1 to 24. This numeration is called here gematria in "n".


Hebrew alphabet

Name of the
Hebrew Letter
Gematria
in 'N'
Gematria
in 'n'
aleph
1
1
beth
2
2
guimel
3
3
daleth
4
4
he
5
5
waw
6
6
zain
7
7
heth
8
8
teth
9
9
yod
10
10
kaph
20
11
lamed
30
12
mem
40
13
nun
50
14
samekh
60
15
ayin
70
16
phe
80
17
tzade
90
18
qoph
100
19
resh
200
20
shin
300
21
taw
400
22
kaph final
500
23
mem final
600
24
nun final
700
25
phe final
800
26
tzade
900
27


Greek alphabet

Name of the
Greek Letter
Gematria
in 'N'
Gematria
in 'n'
alpha
1
1
beta
2
2
gamma
3
3
delta
4
4
epsilon
5
5
stigma
6
zeta
7
6
eta
8
7
theta
9
8
iota
10
9
kappa
20
10
lamda
30
11
mu
40
12
nu
50
13
xi
60
14
omicron
70
15
pi
80
16
koppa
90
rho
100
17
sigma
200
18
tau
300
19
upsilon
400
20
phi
500
21
chi
600
22
psi
700
23
omega
800
24
sampi
900




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Last modification: December 19, 1998

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