Gematria is the study of the numeric equivalents of Hebrew and Greek letters in order to find hidden meanings in the words. 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.

Various numbers are supposed to have spiritual meanings. Here are a few examples:

• 4 is the number of creation (the earth mentioned on the fourth clause of the Lord’s Prayer; North, East, South, West; four corners of the earth)
• 5 is the number of grace
• 6 is the number of man (man was created on the 6th day; the sixth commandment says “Thou shall not murder)
• 7 is the number of spiritual perfection
• 8 is the number of new beginnings (eight people on Noah’s Ark; a baby is circumcised on the 8th day; Jesus rose on the first day (8th) of the week)
• 9 is the number of judgment
• 39 is the number of mercy
• 40 of testing and judgment
• 666 is the number of the antichrist, the numeric value of his name in Greek equivalent gematria.

There are some amazing numeric patterns found in the Bible.

• “There are 21 Old Testament writers whose names appear in the Bible (3 x 7). The numeric value of their names is divisible by seven. Of these 21, seven are named in the New Testament: Moses, David, Isaiah, Jeremiah, Daniel, Hosea, and Joel. The numeric values of these names are 1554 (222 x 7). David’s name is found 1134 times (162 x 7).” (www.wordworx.co.nz/panin.html)
• The gematria of the name “Jesus” in Greek results in 888. In John 21:11, after the resurrection, the disciples caught 153 fish. The word “fish” in Greek is ‘ixthus’ which has a numerical equivalent of 1224, or 8 x 153. Also, 153 people received a blessing from Jesus in the four gospels (not counting the 5000 and examples like that).
• The Greek word for “law” is nomos which has a gematria of 430. Paul says that the Law came 430 years after Abraham went to Egypt (Gal. 3:17). The Jews were in Egypt for 430 years and after being freed, they received the Law of Moses (Exodus 12:40).

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 the form of the letter found when it occurs at the end of a word.

Greek Letter	Greek Name	English Letter	Numeric Value		Greek Letter	Greek Name	English Letter	Numeric Value
A,α	alpha	father	1		N,ν	nu	new	50
B,β	Beta	boy	2		Ξ,ξ	xi	box	60
Γ,γ	Gamma	god	3		O,o	omikron	off	70
Δ,δ	delta	dog	4		Π,π	pi	pet	80
E,ε	epsilon	end	5					90 is
					Ρ,ρ	rho	rat	100
					Σ,σ, ς*	sigma	sam (s,V)	6, 200
Z,ζ	zeta	zebra	7
H,η	eta	hey	8		T,τ	tau	test	300
Θ,θ	theta	thick (q)	9		Υ,υ	upsilon	up	400
I,ι	iota	it	10		Φ,φ	phi	phone (f)	500
K,κ	kappa	kit	20		Χ,χ	chi	bach	600
Λ,λ	lamda	low	30		Ψ,ψ	psi	cups (y)	700
M,μ	mu	mike	40		Ω,ω	omega	orange (w)	800
								900 = sampsi

There are many Gematria relationships found in both the Old and New Testament writings. As you can see from the citations given above, mystical interpretations could be discovered as well as “inferred” by examining the mathematical equivalents of various numeric words and then attempting to discover what those mathematical relationships might mean. Though it does seem that there are some very legitimate and interesting Gematria relationships found in the Bible, we can also see that Kabbalists could take the phenomena too far in their esoteric and mystical explanations of Scripture.