Theological Term of the Day

Gemmatria

Gematria is the study of the numeric equivalents of Hebrew and Greek letters. In both Hebrew and Greek (the languages in which the Bible was written), there are only alpha characters. There are no numeric characters. Therefore, when a Hebrew would want to write a number, he would use the corresponding Hebrew letter.

Hebrew Letter	Hebrew Name	English Letter	Numeric Value		Hebrew Letter	Hebrew Name	English Letter	Numeric Value
א	aleph	silent (א)	1 or 1000		ל	lamed	low	30
ב	Bet	boy	2		מ),ם)*	mem	mike	40 (600)
ג	gimel	god	3		ן),נ)*	nun	new	50 (700)
ד	deled	dog	4		ס	samech	sam	60
ה	heh	hi	5		ע	ayin	silent	70
ו	vav	very, up	6		ף),פ)*	pey	pet, phone	80 (800)
ז	zayin	zebrea	7		ץ),צ)*	tzadi	nets	90 (900)
ח	ches	bach	8		ק	kuf	q, kit	100
ט	tes	test	9		ר	reish	race	200
י	yod	you	10		ש	shin	sam, shem	300
ך),כ)*	chof	kit	20 (500)		ת	tof	test	400

*final form is form of letter found when it occurs at the end of a word. Greek Letter Equivalents

Greek Letter	Greek Name	English Letter	Numeric Value		Greek Letter	Greek Name	English Letter	Numeric Value
A,a	alpha	father	1		N,n	nu	new	50
B,b	Beta	boy	2		X,x	xi	box	60
G,g	Gamma	god	3		O,o	omikron	off	70
D,d	delta	dog	4		P,p	pi	pet	80
E,e	epsilon	end	5					90 is
					R,r	rho	rat	100
			6 is sigma, V final form		S,s,V*	sigma	sam (s,V)	6, 200
Z,z	zeta	zebra	7
H,h	eta	hey	8		T,t	tau	test	300
Q,q	theta	thick (q)	9		U,u	upsilon	up	400
I,i	iota	it	10		F,f	phi	phone (f)	500
K,k	kappa	kit	20		C,c	chi	bach	600
L,l	lamda	low	30		Y,y	psi	cups (y)	700
M,m	mu	mike	40		W,w	omega	orange (w)	800
								900 = sampsi

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