The Hebrew Alphabet - EZ Construction Estimator



The Hebrew Alphabet

Understanding the Hebrew alphabet is critical to Scripture interpretation as the Bible is written from a Jewish perspective, especially the Old Testament. The Hebrew alphabet consists of 22 letters or symbols representing both letters and numbers. The original Hebrew language did not contain a decimal or number system; therefore, each symbol or letter had an absolute value and an ordinal value representing a number. The absolute value of the first letter is 1 with the absolute value of the last letter in the alphabet being 400. On the other hand, the ordinal value of the first letter is 1 with the ordinal value of the last letter being 22. Due to the complexity of the absolute values they will not be addressed in this paper; however, some combinations of the ordinal values are provided. And finally, each letter has a name and an associated meaning as seen in the chart below.

The extensive use of the Hebrew alphabet and associated numbers that appear in the textual content of the chapters of the Bible often leave one to puzzle over the true meaning of the message. Although this paper is not designed to get into great detail regarding the meaning of the use of the Hebrew alphabet from this perspective it will nonetheless provide some insight into why the numbers and letters appear as written.

A good example of the Hebrew alphabet used as numbers appears in Psalm 119. This Psalm is sometimes described as God’s Laws, and contains 22 laws each headed by the character or symbol of the alphabet followed by the name of the letter. The heading for verse 1 contains the first character of the Hebrew alphabet followed by the name of the character, in this case Aleph, which has an ordinal value of 1. Therefore, verse 1 through verse 8 is defined as law number 1, and titled “Keepers of God’s law”. The next law, Beth is in verses 9 through 16 and is defined as “Purity, the fruit of the law.” Thus, in the case of Psalm 119 the letters of the Hebrew alphabet are used as numbers with ALEPH as number 1, BETH as number 2, GIMEL as number 3, and finally with TAU as number 22.

The following chart provides some insight into the Hebrew alphabet with its values and names and meanings, thus addressing the Biblical numerics of the Old Testament in order to understand the deep meaning within the text of Scripture. Herein we will apply some of the Hebraic numbers with which you are familiar.

The following Hebrew alphabet is listed by name, ordinal value, and meaning.

Aleph, 1, unity or God

Beth, 2, opposite or division

Gimel, 3, resurrection, divine completeness and perfection

Daleth, 4, creation or world

He or Hei, 5, grace or God’s goodness

Vav or Waw, 6, man

Zayin, 7, completeness, spiritual perfection

Chet or Heth, 8, new birth, new creation or new beginning

Tet or Teth, 9, fruit of the Spirit, Divine completeness

Yod, 10, testimony, law of responsibility

Kaf or Kaph, 11, judgement and disorder

Lamed, 12, government

Mem, 13, depravity and rebellion

Nun, 14, deliverance or salvation

Samech or Samek, 15, rest

Ayin, 16, love

Peh or Pe, 17, victory

Tzade or Tsadde, 18, bondage

Koof or Qoph, 19, faith

Resh, 20, redemption

Shin, 21, exceeding sinfulness of sin

Tav or Tau, 22, light

From this it is hard to see how these values can be translated into the large numbers we see in the Old Testament. To aid in this understanding some representations are provided as follows:

1. The next number in the above sequence would be 23, however there is no 23 listed. Therefore, 23 must by definition be a combination of several letters. In this case ten and thirteen – Yod and Mem.

2. When reading Scripture we do not see a large number such as a million for there is no such number in the Hebrew system. The text representing a million in the Bible is a thousand thousands. In Hebrew this is written as aleph’alpiyn representing a thousand thousands or one million as found in Daniel 7:10.

There are other number combinations we are familiar with in Scripture; therefore, the following additional units will address these. However, keep in mind that these numbers are combinations of the basic alphabet as delineated in item 1 above.

a. 23, death

b. 24, priesthood

c. 25, forgiveness of sins

d. 26, Gospel of Christ

e. 27, preaching of the Gospel

f. 28, eternal life

g. 29, departure

h. 30, blood of Christ – dedicated

i. 31, offspring

j. 32, covenant

k. 33, promise

l. 34, naming of a son

m. 35, hope

n. 36, enemy

o. 37, the Word of God

p. 38, slavery

q. 39, disease

r. 40, trials, testing

s. 42, Israel’s oppression

t. 45, preservation

u. 50, Holy Spirit

v. 60, pride

w. 70, restoration

x. 100, children of promise

y. 144, Spirit guided life

z. 200, insufficiency

aa. 600, warfare

ab. 666, mark of the beast

ac. 1000, divine completeness and glory of God

There is much, much more data relating to the use of the Hebrew alphabet as it is applied within Scripture as numerical values, but hopefully these examples will get you started.

Carleton Dowdle, 8-24-05, updated 10-4-07

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