Numbers- Greek, Hebrew, Latin

*The last three symbols are finals not letters.

There are 24 Greek letters but to make up for the necessary number equivalents the final "s" or  ς, called "stigma", was designated for the number 6.  For some unexplained reason it was taken as a number symbol for 6 out of the letter sequence.  Two arbitrary symbols were also added called respectively Koppa, for 90, and Sampi, for 900. All these symbols are now obsolete and are no longer included in the Greek alphabet.

Stigma (uppercase Ϛ, lowercase ς) is a ligature of the Greek letters "sigma" and "tau". The lower case stigma is similar in appearance to final sigma (ς), but the top loop tends to be larger, and extends farther to the right.

Qoppa(uppercase Ϙ, lowercase ϙ) is also an obsolete letter of the Greek alphabet and had a numeric value of 90. It has been attested in early Aeolic and Boeotian scripts, but became altogether extinct by pre-Classical times. There are two very different glyphs for qoppa: "archaic Qoppa" (Ϙ, ϙ) used to write words and "Numeric Qoppa" (ϟ, Ϟ) used in modern Greek legal documentation. Qoppa was originally borrowed from the Phoenicians, who had q in their language. It was later imported into the Etruscan alphabet, and was eventually adopted into the Latin alphabet in its current form, "Q". It was also adopted into the early Cyrillic alphabet as koppa.

Sampi (uppercaseϠ, lowercase ϡ) is an obsolete letter of the Greek alphabet that had the numerical value of 900 when used as a mathematical character. The name "sampi" seems to come from [o]sàn pî: "like pi." Another name formerly used for this archaic letter was Disigma because of the phoneme it represented, /ss/ or /ks/.

 

Greek Alphabet and English Equivalent

A

B

C

D

E

F

G

H

I J

K

L

M

N

O

P

Q

R

S

T

U

V

O

X

Y

Z

Α

Β

Χ

Δ

Ε

Φ

Γ

Η

Ι

Κ

Λ

Μ

Ν

Ο

Π

Θ

Ρ

Σ

Τ

Υ

Ω

Ξ

Ψ

Ζ

α

β

χ

δ

ε

φ

γ

η

ι

κ

λ

μ

ν

ο

π

θ

ρ

σ

τ

υ

ω

ξ

ψ

ζ

In Greek majuscule (uppercase) JESUS = ΙΗΣΟΥΣ

5 is the number of "grace" in the symbolism of numbers in Scripture.  The 5 Greek words ΙΗΣΟΥΣ  Χριστοζ,  Θεου  ϒιοζ  Σωτηρ form the acrostic phrase "Jesus Christ, God's Son Savior," taking first letter in Greek from each word makes the word "fish": Iota, Chi, Theta, Upsilon, Sigma = ΙΧΘϒΣ (ichthys), FISH, which became an symbol for Christ and a secret symbol for identifying Christians.

* last 5 symbols are finals not letters.  The Hebrew alphabet consists of 22 letters.  The 5 finals were added to make up three series of 9 or 27 symbols to provide adequate number equivalents.

 

Hebrew - English Letter Character Equivalents

Hebrew letter name	Letter symbol	English equivalents	Hebrew letter name	Letter symbol	English equivalents
1. aleph	א	ah (')	12. lamed	ל	l
2. bet	ב	b, v	13. mem	מ	m
3. gimel	ג	g	14. nun	נ	n
4. dalet	ד	d	15. samek	ס	s
5. he	ה	h	16. ayin	ע	ah (')
6. vau (waw)	ו	v	17. pe	פ	p, f
7. zayin	ז	z	18. tsaddi      (sadhe)	צ	ts
8. cheth	ח	ch	19. qoph	ק	k
9. tet	ט	t	20. res	ר	r
10. yod	י	y	21. s[h]in	ש	sh
11. kap	כ	k, ch	22. tau (taw)	ת	t

 

In addition to the study of the symbolic significance of different numbers in Scripture is the study of the numbers formed by the letters of words or names which is known by the Greek word gematria.  This is the study of the words formed of letters of the alphabet used as number figures.  The Hebrews, Greeks, Romans, and many other ancient peoples used their alphabets for numbers.  The Hebrews used all 22 letters of their alphabet plus 5 finals.  The Greeks used the 24 letter alphabet and 3 additional finals.  The Romans only used 6 letters of their alphabet and their combinations to form numbers: I= 1, V = 5, X = 10, L = 50, C = 100, D = 500.  The number 1,000 was formed by two D's (combined to form an M like figure).  The Apostle John, writing during the time of the first great Roman persecution of Christians, recorded in the Book of Revelations that the number of the Beast was 666.  Most ancient MSS (hand-written manuscripts) of the book of Revelation record 666 as the number while others have the number 616.  Is it a coincidence that all 6 of the Roman letters which also had numerical value added together total 666 (excluding 1,000 which was not a separate letter/ number)?  Is it also a coincidence that the gematria for Neron Caesar (an alternate Hebrew spelling of the Emperor's name in wide use in the 1^st century) totals 666 while the Greek spelling of Nero Caesar totals 616?  In the symbolism of numbers in Scripture, six is the number of the beasts and of man (both created on the 6^th day).  Six is also the symbolic number of man's rebellious nature resisting God's sovereignty and authority.  Three is the number of perfect completion for the Jews, and for Christians the number three symbolized the perfection of the Godhead = Trinity.  Eight is the number of salvation.  It is the number of Christ, of rebirth, of the resurrection, and of the Second Coming of Jesus as Righteous judge and Bridegroom.  The gematria of the name Jesus in Greek (the language of the Old Testament) is 888:  a trinity of eights, the fullness of salvation!  As a matter of fact, every name identifying the second person of the Trinity is a multiple of 8 in Greek: Jesus Christ = 1480 (8 x 185); Lord = 800 (8 x 100); Savior = 1,408 (8 cubed x 4); Emmanuel = 25,600 (8 cubed x 50); Messiah = 656 (8x 82);  Son 880 (8 x110).

Significant numbers hidden in Matthew's Toledoth

1. The Hebrew gematria for Abraham's name is 808
2. The Hebrew gematria for David's name is 14 (double spiritual perfection)
3. The Greek gematria for Jesus' name (language of New Testament) is 888 (8= salvation)
4. Abraham's name is mentioned 7 times the Gospel of Matthew (spiritual perfection) and 3 times in Matthew's chapter 1 toledoth.  3 is fullness and completion and in NT trinity.
5. David's name is mentioned 5 times in Matthew's toledoth.  5 is the number of grace.

Matthew's manipulation of the list of Jesus' ancestral line

Matthew manipulates the names of Abraham's descendants into 3 sets of 14 individual male descendants or as he tells us in Matthew 1:17 "The sum of generations is therefore: fourteen from Abraham to David; fourteen from David to the Babylonian deportation; and fourteen from the Babylonian deportation to Christ."  He manipulates the list to get 3 sets of 14 generations each to create 42 names of the list of the descendants of Abraham to bring attention to the link between the names and the covenant promise to Abraham and David by Yahweh. David's name is # 14 in the list and the gematria of his name is the number 14.  The number 42 also has significance.  42 divided by 12, the number of Israel, yields 3 ½.  This is a prophetic number in both Daniel chapter 12 and in Revelation.  See Daniel 12:1-13 (focus on verse 7 which adds up to 3 ½ ).  3 ½ is half of 7.  It is an imperfect number. Note: both St. Jerome and Pope St Gregory the Great wrote extensively about gematria and its significance in Scripture.  Sir Isaac Newton wrote more about gematria and numbers in Scripture than he did about the theory of gravity.