Thursday, January 12, 2006

PHILOLOGOS ON GEMATRIA:
Numerology is the belief in the significance of numbers in non-mathematical contexts. (If I say two times 12 adds up to 24, that's arithmetic; but if I say that the 12 tribes and the 12 signs of the Zodiac add up to the cosmic mission of Israel, that's numerology.) The Hebrew word for numerology is gematria, an ancient rabbinic term that comes from Greek geometria (the measuring of the earth), from which also derives our English "geometry." Although it may seem odd to think of geometry as having to do with numbers, since it is the one part of most people's mathematical education that has nothing to do with them, this was not true of the ancient Greeks; having no knowledge of algebra, they used geometry to solve algebraic problems, thus introducing numbers into it.

The column gives lots of interesting examples.

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