Gematria

In Hebrew and Greek character glyphs double as numerical glyphs. Gematria is the Hebrew term given to assigning a number to a word based on reading the letters as numerals and summing them. Below are the numbers assigned to various letters in Greek and Hebrew. Note the table is based on the numerical value and the two sounds in a row aren't necessarily similar. Greek uses some glyphs that had become obsolete as letters (6, 90, 900) and Hebrew uses glyphs of letters than appear different when they occur at the end of a word (500–900).

Number	Greek	Hebrew
1	Α	א
2	Β	ב
3	Γ	ג
4	Δ	ד
5	Ε	ה
6	Ϝ	ו
7	Ζ	ז
8	Η	ח
9	Θ	ט
10	Ι	י
20	Κ	כ
30	Λ	ל
40	Μ	מ
50	Ν	נ
60	Ξ	ס
70	Ο	ע
80	Π	פ
90	Ϙ	צ
100	Ρ	ק
200	Σ	ר
300	Τ	ש
400	Υ	ת
500	Φ	ך
600	Χ	ם
700	Ψ	ן
800	Ω	ף
900	ϡ	ץ

Jesus' genealogy

Matthew begins,

The book of the genealogy of Jesus Christ, the son of David, the son of Abraham. (Matthew 1:1)

This is reminiscent of Genesis which states,

This is the book of the generations of Adam. (Genesis 5:1)

Comparing Matthew to the Septuagint

• Βίβλος γενέσεως Ἰησοῦ Χριστοῦ (Matthew 1:1)
• αὕτη ἡ βίβλος γενέσεως ἀνθρώπων (Genesis 5:1)

These phrases in Genesis likely represent toledoth though this is the only occurrence where the word "book" is added. In the same way that Genesis 5 introduces tho story of man (or Adam), Matthew introduces the story of Jesus. It also means ancestry which Matthew subsequently gives, much as Genesis 5 gives the descendants of Adam. Prior to giving the ancestry of Jesus Matthew tells us that Jesus is the Christ, or Messiah, that is the anointed one that the Jews were anticipating. He is also saying that the Messiah was both a son of David and a son of Abraham. The first indicating confirming that the Messiah would indeed come from David's seed, and related to that his authority as a king; the second indicating he was of the promised line of Abraham, the progenitor of Israel and the father of faith. In Matthew's first sentence there is great depth of meaning for those steeped in the Jewish Scriptures.

Matthew then outlines an abbreviated and stylised genealogy of Jesus starting from Abraham. There are 3 sections of 14 names. Matthew possibly uses groups of 14 as the Hebrew gematria of David is 14.

Latin	Hebrew	Value
D	ד	4
V	ו	6
D	ד	4

The genealogy, while accurate in the names it contains, excludes several generations to keep 14 names in each list. The 3 groups are Abraham to David, David to the Babylonian Exile, and the Exile to Jesus.

#	Father	Son	#	Father	Son	#	Father	Son
				David	Solomon		Jechoniah	Shealtiel
1	Abraham	Isaac	1	Solomon	Rehoboam	1	Shealtiel	Zerubbabel
2	Isaac	Jacob	2	Rehoboam	Abijah	2	Zerubbabel	Abiud
3	Jacob	Judah	3	Abijah	Asa	3	Abiud	Eliakim
4	Judah	Perez	4	Asa	Jehoshaphat	4	Eliakim	Azor
5	Perez	Hezron	5	Jehoshaphat	Joram	5	Azor	Zadok
6	Hezron	Ram	6	Joram	Uzziah	6	Zadok	Achim
7	Ram	Amminadab	7	Uzziah	Jotham	7	Achim	Eliud
8	Amminadab	Nahshon	8	Jotham	Ahaz	8	Eliud	Eleazar
9	Nahshon	Salmon	9	Ahaz	Hezekiah	9	Eleazar	Matthan
10	Salmon	Boaz	10	Hezekiah	Manasseh	10	Matthan	Jacob
11	Boaz	Obed	11	Manasseh	Amon	11	Jacob	Joseph
12	Obed	Jesse	12	Amon	Josiah	12	Joseph
13	Jesse	David	13	Josiah	Jechoniah	13	Jesus
14	David		14	Jechoniah		14

It is uncertain whether the last list ends at 13 persons or whether Mary should be considered number 13 with Jesus number 14.

Matthew also includes 5 women ancestors. Mary Jesus' mother as mentioned. Also Tamar the mother of Perez by Judah; Rahab the wife of Salmon; Ruth the wife of Boaz; and the wife of Uriah (Bathsheba) who became the wife of David.

This is the ancestry of Joseph the husband of Mary the mother of Jesus. Compare Luke's list which is the ancestry through Mary. Luke starts his list thus,

Jesus, when he began his ministry, was about thirty years of age, being the son (as was supposed) of Joseph, the son of Heli,... (Luke 3:23 ESV)

This may possibly be better translated,

Jesus, when he began his ministry, was about thirty years of age, being the son, as it was supposed, of Joseph, but was actually the son of Heli,...

This seems to me to be a better option than the claim that Heli was the adoptive father of Joseph.

Thus this genealogy is that of Jesus via Mary which Luke traces back to Adam the son of God.

The number of the beast

This calls for wisdom: let the one who has understanding calculate the number of the beast, for it is the number of a man, and his number is 666. (Revelation 13)

I think it is likely that this number refers at least to Nero. If this is the case it has implications for the dating of the book of Revelation which I think was written prior to 70 AD.

In this passage we note the the number of the beast is the number of a man. This does not necessarily mean that the beast is a man, just that the number of the beast is the number of a man.

The number of a man may be the number of the name via gematria. Nero Caesar's number in Greek is 1337, but his number in Hebrew is 666. The call for wisdom may have meant that the number needed to be calculated in Hebrew, not Greek. The association with Nero is very ancient, almost certainly as old as the book of Revelation. Nero Caesar does not have a gematria in Latin (that I am aware of), the Latin numbering scheme does not lend itself to this. But transliteration of Nero Caesar from Latin to Hebrew gives the number 616 which is mentioned in several manuscripts of Revelation. This confirms that the authors of the variant manuscripts thought Nero was intended. Below are the calculations.

Greek	Number	Hebrew	Number	Latin	Hebrew	Number
Ν	50	נ	50	N	נ	50
Ε	5	-	-	E	-	-
Ρ	100	ר	200	R	ר	200
Ω	800	ו	6	O	ו	6
Ν	50	נ	50	-	-	-
-	-	-	-	-	-	-
Κ	20	ק	100	C	ק	100
Α	1	-	-	A	-	-
Ι	10	-	-	E	-	-
Σ	200	ס	60	S	ס	60
Α	1	-	-	E	-	-
Ρ	100	ר	200	R	ר	200
Total	1337		666			616

Though Nero's gematria in Greek is given by Suetonius without the Caesar resulting in 1005.

Hebrew and Greek numbering

In ancient Hebrew the letter glyphs doubled as numeral glyphs, the same symbol could be a letter or a number depending on the context. Written Hebrew did this several centuries before Christ. In Hebrew the glyphs for the numbers 400–900 are final forms (the alternate shape of letters when they are the last letter of a word) and I am uncertain how old they are, or if paleo-Hebrew had glyphs for higher numbers. The higher hundreds can be written as a combination of the lower hundreds glyphs.

Greek used a similar system called the Milesian (or Ionian) system which replaced the earlier Attic system. The Attic system was somewhat similar to the Roman system. Greek uses 3 glyphs that had become obsolete at the time it was used to allow numbering to 900; though the position of fau (Ϝ) leaves one curious as to whether it may still have been in use at the time the system was invented/ copied.

Below are the Hebrew and Greek glyphs for the corresponding numbers. The lower case Greek was non-existent at the time of the New Testament.

Hebrew Glyph	Number	Greek Glyph
א	1	Α α
ב	2	Β β
ג	3	Γ γ
ד	4	Δ δ
ה	5	Ε ε
ו	6	Ϝ ϝ
ז	7	Ζ ζ
ח	8	Η η
ט	9	Θ θ
י	10	Ι ι
כ, ך	20	Κ κ
ל	30	Λ λ
מ, ם	40	Μ μ
נ, ן	50	Ν ν
ס	60	Ξ ξ
ע	70	Ο ο
פ, ף	80	Π π
צ, ץ	90	Ϙ ϙ
ק	100	Ρ ρ
ר	200	Σ σ
ש	300	Τ τ
ת	400	Υ υ
ך	500	Φ φ
ם	600	Χ χ
ן	700	Ψ ψ
ף	800	Ω ω
ץ	900	Ͳ ͳ

Thus 23 is written ΚΓ, and 799 is ΨϘΘ.

Gematria is the association of words with numbers. The development of a word to number correspondence is understandable because the twofold sense of the glyphs. Every word has an associated number that is obtained by adding up the values of the glyphs read as numbers. For example the word king melek (מלך) is calculated as 40 + 30 + 20 = 90 (assuming 20 rather than 500 for kaph). David (דוד) is 4 + 6 + 4 = 14. This may be why Matthew included groups of 14 in his genealogy of Jesus.