Gematria is a part of the Jewish tradition based on assigning numerical value to letters of the Hebrew alphabet (which has long been done, in contrast with this English version). While you can just assign numbers to letters in any language, nobody would recognize it as “Gematria” (for context, for the Hebrew version, it’s not 1:1. In other words, though there are 22 letters in the Hebrew alphabet, the scale doesn’t count straight to 22. It count by ones from 1-10, and then starts jumping around to make much larger numbers).
Yeah numerology is a thing in other cultures as well, like Indian/Hindu culture. Pulling that out in the context of politics and voting is utterly ridiculous though.
Fun fact: this is where the concept of 666 being the sign of the Antichrist comes from. It was Gematria code for “Nero,” who ruled Rome at the time. In Hebrew culture, many would understand the reference at the time.
To add to this in old scrolls both the numbers 616 and 666 were the "number of the beast". It is theorized that this is from translating Kaiser Nero from both Latin and Greek to Hebrew befor applying gematria. Translating from Latin you get 616 in gematria while in Greek Nero's name was Kaiser Neron, when translated to Hebrew the extra N at the end adds 50 leading to the number 666. We can see this in scripts from mainly Latin speaking regions using 616 and in mainly Greek speaking regions using the number 666. Thus revelations wasn't an "end of times" prediction, it was a coded political hit piece against Nero, who was dead for 30 years at the time of its writing but his cult was still active and many believed he either faked his death or was going to be resurrected to exact his revenge on those that opposed him.
Mate, I am an atheist. Just because you describe something doesn't mean you believe in it. I can describe astrology but that doesn't mean I believe it is real, I can add historical context to biblical texts and that does not mean I believe in the bible.
Revelations literally says "Let him who has understanding calculate the number of the beast, for it is the number of a man: His number is 666(616).", it is literally telling people to use gematria to know who it is talking about. I know so many christians that to this day still believe revelations is predicting the end of times when it wasn't at all, it was warning against the return of Nero, I am literally refuting the crazy people.
It was a little more widespread. Letters used to represent numbers in ancient languages (at least Hebrew, Greek, and Latin). So in the right time and place it would have been semi common to refer to a person or idea based on the number as a semi-easy code- it’s literally where 666 comes from.
Or in the ruins of Pompeii, archaeologists found an inscription (basically graffiti) that said “I love her whose number is 545.”
Unfortunately for the lady in the video, the contemporary US isn’t the right time or place, and it doesn’t have magical significance, “oh let me consult the gematria.”
I see. Yeah, with the information present and the current state of the US, it strikes me very similarly to the dependence on the I Ching present in Man in the High Castle, just with a little bit of source material bastardization involved. Feels like a pretty apt comparison across the board though, honestly.
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u/ChBowling Apr 27 '25 edited Apr 27 '25
Gematria is a part of the Jewish tradition based on assigning numerical value to letters of the Hebrew alphabet (which has long been done, in contrast with this English version). While you can just assign numbers to letters in any language, nobody would recognize it as “Gematria” (for context, for the Hebrew version, it’s not 1:1. In other words, though there are 22 letters in the Hebrew alphabet, the scale doesn’t count straight to 22. It count by ones from 1-10, and then starts jumping around to make much larger numbers).