A Short History of Gematria
From ancient inscriptions to Greek isopsephy, rabbinic interpretation, medieval mysticism and modern online calculators.
Gematria is old, but its history is easy to overstate. Here is what can reasonably be said, and what is more speculative.
Early number play
Cultures that wrote numbers with letters naturally noticed that words had numeric values. An inscription of the Assyrian king Sargon II is often cited as an early example, because it gives the length of a wall as 16,283 cubits, said to equal the value of his name. The reading is debated.
Greek isopsephy
In the Hellenistic and Roman periods Greek writers used isopsephy: adding up the letters of a word. It appears in graffiti, inscriptions and literature, often playfully.
Rabbinic interpretation
Classical Jewish literature contains many readings based on letter values, such as the midrash that links Abraham's 318 men with the name Eliezer (318). Gematria is named in later lists of methods of interpretation.
Medieval and modern mysticism
Medieval Jewish mystics, including the German Pietists and later Kabbalists, used gematria extensively to link verses, names and ideas. Christian and Islamic writers developed their own forms with Greek letters and the Arabic abjad system.
English ciphers and the web
In the last century writers adapted the idea to English by building new tables. Online calculators in the 2000s made it easy to compare thousands of phrases, and that is the setting for most people today.
For the how-to, read how to calculate gematria or start with the beginner's guide.