(Raziel Hamalach, Amsterdam, Kabbalah book, 1701)

The Tenach, Bible, Gematria, and Names

My classmate (three years of Hebrew language together), gave an awesome presentation this past semester on Hebrew names in the Tenach (Torah) and Bible with their translations and meanings.  I knew some of the names and their meanings, but her research was so in-depth that it was completely engrossing and gave me things to contemplate.  

I started to think about the Tenach and Bible from a literature and oral tradition standpoint and how fascinating it can be, even for someone nonreligious, nontheist, atheist, or ignorant of Judeao-Christian traditions.

Hebrew names in the Torah and Bible symbolize or represent their characters/personality and hint at actions within the respective books.  The names hold meaning and, from a literature standpoint, the stories would appear to have come first and the names created afterwards.  The origin of the stories can find their roots in ancient creation stories and myths of Mesopotamia/Sumeria and they are presumed to be passed down generations through oral traditions of storytelling, which is fascinating in itself: thousands of years of storytelling… it’s appealing to a literature freak like myself.  This storytelling culture is not unique to the middle east and I could go off on a tangent here about it… but I won’t right now.  

To give an example of a symbolic name, we can look at “ישראל” or “Israel,” the name given to Jacob (Yakov) in the Tanach by God after his battle with the angel.  There are at least two interpretations of his new name when we break it down to the root words.  The first three characters of his name, “ישר” (yish-arr), means “straight/honest” and the last two characters, “אל” (al), means “God,” so his name in this context means “honest to God” and portrays his changed character and showing Israel’s loyalty to God.  Another way to look at the name is to see the “י” or “ih” at the beginning of the word to reference the future sense of the word, “שר” (shar), meaning “minister.”  In keeping the last two characters, “אל” (al) meaning “God,” putting the words together makes “Israel” mean “he will be the minister of God” showing his future with just his name.  It was a little difficult to explain this, so I hope it’s not too confusing.   

Anyway, to add complexities to the matter, Gematria comes along (associating numbers with Hebrew letters: א=1, ב=2) and names of the biblical characters take on more or added meaning.  We talked about how the infamous 666 came from Revelations and that John, who is attributed with writing it, could have been influenced in associating the anti-christ with the Roman emperor Nero, who is infamous for his horrendous acts AND… when computing gematria to the emperor’s name, it equates to 666. So… no devil, only the infamous Nero, don’t worry, he’s dead.  

Regardless of your feelings or beliefs on religion, this is pretty damn neato.