About Gematria

Having written about the well-known "666" of Revelation possibly being Arabic letters that say "in the name of Allah," followed by the symbol of the crossed swords which means military might, and having received a comment that told me that Gematria is also used in English, I decided to look a little further into the history of Gematria rather than just knowing it is an occult practice. I found the historical information presented from the following sources.

"Gematria: History and Principles - The Magickal Correspondences of Words and Numbers" by Lisbeth Cheever-Gessaman

"Some Notes on the History of Isopsephia (Gematria)" by John Opsopaus

"Gematria" by Alan G. Hefner

The earliest record that exists of the use of Gematria is from the 8th century BC where it is written that King Sargon II of Babylon built the wall of Khorsabad the distance of the Gematria or numerical value of his name, which was 16, 283 cubits. Gematria was a well-known practice in the Mesopotamian area as all of the "gods" had numbers. From Babylon its next recorded use is in Greece. This would make sense, as the history of the pagan gods show that they originated in the Babylonian area and then their worship migrated outward to Greece, India, etc. As to how Gematria came to be used by the Hebrews, there are two ways. While it is clearly probable that Gematria was incorporated into Judaism through Qabalah (Kabalah) during the Babylonian captivity, the historical evidence seems to show that it did not really take hold in Judaism until the 1st century BC and is more inclined to be used the way the Greeks used it. This would infer that while they clearly would have been exposed to it in Babylon, it really began being utilized under the Greek influence. The Hebrews used Gematria for divination ( a major sin). That this was a real problem is easily found simply by reading the Tanakh or Old Testament. Israel was influenced by pagan practices from the Exodus on. Using pagan practices was such a perpetual sin that the ten northern tribes of Israel were dispersed by God for several thousand years until the end times (of which we are close to entering), when He will again bring them back to Israel. Not only did Judaism incorporate Gematria (only one of many occult practices that they were exposed to and brought back from Babylon), but early Christianity did the same. As mentioned in previous blogs, both Judaism and Christianity are full to overflowing of pagan practices, all which need to be removed.

As mentioned in the comment by Aviv to my post, Gematria made its way into the English language, as early as the 1500s. One of the most well-known authors and users of English Gematria was Aleister Crowley, one of the world's most famous occultists. He was known as "The Great Beast", and founded the religious philosophy known as Thelema. He also founded the Hermetic Order of the Golden Dawn and The Ordo Templi Orientis, both occult organizations. People have even used Gematria to try to find hidden messages in Shakespeare.

The purpose of all of this history is to merely show that Gematria is an occult practice and should not be considered a method of interpretation of the Scriptures.