Greek
Isopsephia
Isopsephia
(iso meaning "equal" and psephos meaning
pebble") is the name for the practice of adding up the number
values of the letters in a word or a phrase to form a number. A Greek
synonym for the word "pebbles" is kalkuli and is
the origin of the word "calculate." The early Greeks used
pebbles arranged in patterns to learn arithmetic and geometry. Here
are some famous examples of ancient isopsephia riddles and one of
my new discoveries.
Nero
= The Mother Killer
The
Roman historian Suetonius recorded this isopsephia riddle in his account
of the Roman Emperor Nero, who reigned from 54-68 AD. After the people
learned that Nero ordered the assassination of his own mother (59AD)
the following piece of graffiti was written on the walls of the city:
Calculate
the number of the letters in the name of "Nero"
and in "killed his own mother" ... the sum is the
same!
Suetonius,
The
Twelve Caesars, circa 110 AD
The
isopsephia value of Nero (Nerwn
= 50+5+100+800+50) and "killed his own mother" (idian
mhtera apekteine =
75 + 454 + 476) both add up to "1005."
The
Sibylline Jesus Riddle
Here
is an isopsephia riddle from the Christian Sibylline Oracles which
the early Church falsely claimed were written before the time of Christianity
and which were widely touted as prophesies of the new religion:
When
the virgin shall give birth to the Word of God the Most
High, she shall give to the Word a Name, and from the east
a star will shine in the midst of day gleaming down from
heaven above proclaiming to mortal men a great sign. Yes,
then shall the Son of the Great God come to men, clothed
in flesh like mortals on earth. He has four vowels
and in him, twofold the consonants ... and now I will
declare to you the whole number ... eight monads, and to
these as many decads, and eight hundreds his name will show.
The
Sibylline Oracles, circa 150 AD
To
solve the riddle, the son of God has to have a name with four vowels
and two consonants plus the numerical value of all the letters in
his name have to add up to 8 + 80 + 800. Of course the only name that
matches all these conditions is the Greek name Iesous.
Jesus
= IhsouV
= 10+8+200+70+400+200
The
four vowels are I, E, O, U ... the two consonants are the letter S
... and all six Greek letters add up to "888."
The
Caulacau and Abraxas Riddles of Basilides
Basilides
was a Gnostic scholar who taught in Alexandria during the reign of
Hadrian 117-138 AD. He wrote the Exegetica in the 130's, a work of
24 volumes of which only a few fragments have been preserved in quotes
from Clement, Origen, and Irenaeus. Here are some examples of isopsephia
riddles unknowingly recorded by the early Church father Ireneaus in
his tirade against the Gnostic doctrines of Basilides:
These
men, moreover, practice magic and use images,
incantations, invocations, and every other kind of curious
art.
Coining also certain names as if they were those of the angels,
they proclaim some of these as belonging to the first, and
others to the second heaven; and then they strive to set forth
the names, principles, angels, and powers of the three
hundred and sixty five
imagined heavens. They also affirm that the barbarous name in which
the Savior ascended and descended, is Caulacau.
... The multitude, however, cannot understand these matters,
but only one out of a thousand, or two out of ten thousand.
They declare that they are no longer Jews, and that they are
not yet Christians; and that it is not fitting to speak openly
of their mysteries, but that it is right to keep them secret
by preserving silence. ... They make out the local position of
the three hundred and sixty five heavens in the same way as do
mathematicians. For, accepting the theorems of these latter,
they have transferred them to their own type of doctrine. They
hold that their chief is Abraxas;
and, on this account, that word contains in itself the
numbers amounting to three hundred and sixty five.
Irenaeus,
Against Heresies, 1.24.5-7, circa 180 AD
Basilides
was absolutely famous for combining mathematics with religion. Orthodox
Christians viewed the practice of isopsephia as a kind of "number
magic" and the graphing of diagrams (images) as "another
kind of curious art." There are three isopsehia riddles hidden
in Irenaeus's account:
-
The
barbarous name "Caulacau" is a pun on Isaiah 28:9-13
which reads ... "To whom would God impart knowledge (gnosis)?
To whom would he convey the message? ... for them the Word of
the Lord shall be: command upon command, line upon line, here
a little there a little." The Hebrew pronunciation for
the words "command" and "line" is SAU-LASAU
and CAU-LACAU! Amazingly, it appears no one before me has bothered
to compute the isopsephia value of the Greek spelling for the
name Cau-la-cau (Kaeu-lae-kaeu). The
answer is "888," the same number as Jesus! The "coined
name" Caulacau is thus a clever Gnostic riddle that
equates the name Jesus with gnosis (knowledge)!
-
The
next riddle states that the multitude (humanity) can not understand
the mystery of the name Caulacau but only the one
out of a thousand, or two out of ten thousand. This
same riddle appears in Saying 23 in the recently discovered Gospel
of Thomas! The answer is revealed in the little detail of Caulacau
(888) descending and ascending. This corresponds to the number
of Jesus descending from 8880 to 888 then ascending back up to
8880: ... In the numbers from 1 to 10,000, the number of Jesus
(888) appears for the first time in the consecutive numbers from
1 to 1,000. Then, in the consecutive numbers from 1,001 to 10,000,
the number of Jesus (8880) appears the second time. This satisfies
the mystery ... in the numbers from 1 to 10,000 Jesus (888 and
8880) only appears twice! The
number of the Jesus who descended from heaven to
live on the earth is "888" while the number of the Jesus
who was raised from the dead and ascended back into
heaven is "8880."
-
The
next riddle states that their chief (Archon) is named Abraxas
(ABRAXAS), whose number is "365".
(In Greek isopsephia A = 1, B = 2, R
= 100, A = 1, X = 60, A = 1, S
= 200 which totals 365.)
The
Sarapis Riddle
Here
is an example of an isopsephia riddle that can be found in pseudo-Callisthenes'
biography of Alexander the Great. On the occasion of his ordering
the Egyptian city of Alexandria to be built, a God appeared to Alexander
in a dream and gave him this oracle:
The
city of Alexandria that you are building will be coveted by the
world and I shall be its protecting deity for all time to come.
You shall dwell there when you are dead and living for this city
will be your grave. I shall quickly prove to you where you were
meant to be. Take two hundred and add one, then one hundred and
add one, then four times twenty, and ten, and take the first number
and make it the last. Now learn for all time what god I am.
The
Life of Alexander, circa 3rd century AD
Alexander
allegedly solved the riddle by writing down the string of numbers
given to him in the dream (200 + 1 + 100 + 1 + 80 + 10 + 200) and
then switching each number for its corresponding Greek letter to spell
out the name Sarapis (SARAPIS). Like so
many ancient historiographies, the story was a fabrication because
the god Sarapis didn't exist when Alexander was living. Sarapis was
created by order of Ptolomy (Alexander's successor) so that the new
god would share the attributes of two Egyptian gods (Osiris and Apis)
and two Greek gods (Apollo and Zeus) for the purpose of uniting the
religious beliefs of the Greek ruling class with its Egyptian subjects.
The
Calculation of Strato
Anus
and Gold have
the same numerical value: I once discovered this while casually calculating.
The
Musa Puerilis of Strato of Sardis, epigram XII, 6.
The
Greek word proktos (prwktoV = 1570)
means "anus" and Chrusos
(crusoV = 1570) means "gold."
The
Secret Meaning of the 318 Males Circumcised by Abraham
Learn
therefore, children of love, concerning all things abundantly, that
Abraham, who first appointed circumcision, looked forward in the spirit
unto Jesus, when he circumcised having received the ordinances of
three letters. For the scripture says: And Abraham circumcised of
his household eighteen males and three hundred. What then was the
knowledge given to him? Understand that He said the "eighteen"
first, and then after an interval "three hundred." In the
eighteen 'I' stands for ten, 'H' for eight. Here you have JESUS (IHSOUS).
And because the cross in the 'T' was to have grace, he said "three
hundred. So he revealed Jesus in the two letters, and in the remaining
one the cross.
Epistle
of Barnabas 9:6-7, circa 71-131 AD
Barnabas
is refering to the 318 men born in the house of Abram whom he sent
on a rescue mission (Genesis 14:14). The traditional rabbinic explanation
is that 318 is the isopsephia value of the Hebrew name Elizer, Abram’s
chief servant and heir who was also the captain of the 318 men. Barnabas
explained that the number 318, through Greek isopsephia, secretly
stood for the first two Greek initials of Jesus (I
H = 10 +8) and that the Greek letter Tau (T
= 300) because of it's appearance, represented the cross upon which
Jesus was crucified.
