Kim H. Veltman, Keynote, Christianity and the Alphabet, Human-Computer Interaction,
Tourism and Cultural Heritage (HCITOCH 2015). Strategies for a Creative Future with
Computer Science, Quality Design and Communicability, Ravenna, September 22 – 24, 2015.
http://www.ainci.com/HCITOCH-2015/workshop_hcitoch_2015_registration.html
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Abstract
There are several histories of Western alphabets. One claims that Hebrew was the source of
all Western alphabets, which makes them a product of the Judeo-Christian tradition. Another
claims that the Phoenicians invented an abjad, that the Greeks added vowels, thus creating the
first alphabet and subsequently Latin alphabets. In this narrative, vowel alphabets were
largely a pagan invention, through a Greco-Roman tradition, which is often contrasted or
opposed to a Judaeo-Christian tradition.
Historical evidence suggests a more complex story. In the 3rd century B.C., the Hebrew Old
Testament was translated into Greek as the Septuagint. This translation added alphabetic
vowels to an abjad tradition without vowels. In the centuries that followed, this Greek version
became the model for translations which also became the principal alphabets of the world:
Coptic, Latin, Armenian, Georgian, Arabic, Cyrillic, Chinese and even Sanskrit. So it is a
Greco-Christian tradition rather than a purely Judeo-Christian tradition that spreads the
alphabet.
At least five centres contributed to this story: Rome, Alexandria, Antioch, Constantinople and
Jerusalem, which were subsequently reduced to three centres of orthodox Christianity. These
centres did much more than translate the bible and develop new alphabets. The new alphabets
also became linked with new branches of Christianity. Adding vowels changed the names of
God, and the names of protagonists of the Bible. It also introduced new gematrias, linking
letters with numbers and cosmology. Hence each translation into a new alphabet also entailed
a new cosmology.
The Wolff-Sapir hypothesis claimed that the structure of languages affects concepts of the
world. The early alphabets suggest that the structure of alphabets affects not only
cosmological concepts but also varieties of religious belief. The essay explores some
implications for interfaces.
………………………………………………………………………………………………….
1. Introduction
2. Pre-Christianity
3. 5 Christianities
4. 3 Orthodox Christianities
5. Key Letters
6. North and South
7. Letters as Symbols
8. Changing Names
9. Changing Gematrias
10. Implications for Interfaces
11. Conclusions
1
1. Introduction
There are multiple histories of the alphabet.1 One claim is that Hebrew was the source of all
Western alphabets, which makes them a product of the Judeo-Christian tradition.2 This claim
is problematic because classical Hebrew is typically without vowels in an abjad of 22 letters.
Western alphabets typically have vowels and 24, 26, 28 or 32 letters.
Another claim is that the Phoenicians invented an abjad of 22 letters. The Greeks expanded
this to 24 letters, added vowels and thus created the first alphabet, which subsequently led to
Latin and Western alphabets. In the view of Havelock, “alphabetic literacy was chiefly, even
solely, responsible for the Greek Enlightenment and thus provided the foundations of Western
civilization.”3 Precisely when this happened is unclear. It is associated with Homer whose
dates range from 1102 B.C. to 875 B.C.4 Havelock associated it with Plato (c. 428 – 348
B.C.).5 The earliest Greek abecedary comes from Fayyum in Egypt (800 B.C.). 6 The ABCD
sequence was not introduced into Athens from Miletus in Ionia until 403 B.C.7
This Ionian Alphabet was listed by Duret as the second Phoenician alphabet,8 preceded by a
first which had its origins in Saracenum and ultimately in Assyrium.9 Hence, in terms of the
ABCD alphabet both Greek and Phoenician had their sources in Asia Minor and Asia rather
than the shores of the Mediterranean. So there are two limbs on the early alphabet tree: one
beginning in Assyria, going to Arabia (Saracenum), and Phoenicia; the other beginning in
Phoenicia, going to Ionia and Greece. In this view, vowel alphabets were largely a pagan
invention, through an Aryan, Greco-Roman tradition, which is often contrasted or opposed to
a Semitic, Judaeo-Christian tradition.10
The advent of the other principal alphabets appears to have another source. The Judaic
tradition has abjads with no vowels for the basic 22 letters.11 In the 3rd century B.C., the
Hebrew Old Testament was translated into Greek as the Septuagint. This translation added
alphabetic vowels to an abjad tradition. In the centuries that followed, this Greek version
became the model for translations, which also became the principal alphabets12 of the world:
Coptic, Latin, Armenian, Georgian, Arabic, Cyrillic, Chinese and even Sanskrit. So it is a
Greco-Christian tradition as much as a Judeo-Christian tradition that spreads the alphabet. To
understand this requires a closer look at pre-Christian and early Christian centres.
2. Pre-Christianity
According to the Wycliffe Bible translation timeline, the Old Testament began on 1 January,
1250 B.C. and the Septuagint translation in Alexandria into Greek was finished on 1 January
250 B.C.13 Some claim an earlier date (285 B.C.) and also explain the original rationale for
the translation:
The reason the Septuagint came about is because in Alexandria, Alexander the Great had come through
and conquered many of those nations, and Greek became the predominant language. So they took the
original Law, and translated it into Greek for those Jews that no longer spoke Hebrew, and also to
convert many of the Greeks over to Judaism. They translated the original into the Greek at
approximately 285 BC. 14
2
Hence, although the Hebrew tradition is typically characterized as relatively closed and nonproselytzing, Alexandrian Judaism was committed to converting Greeks to Judaism. While
the precise extent of Indian influences from the East is uncertain, these appear to have played
a direct role:15
Bauddhic missionaries traveled around the world and converted most Asians to Bauddha Dharma and
set up 2 major missions in the Middle East (the Essenes and the Therapeuts; “Thera-pada”) which
influenced Yahshua (“Jesus”) to incorporate some of their beliefs (non-violence, water immersion for
soul purification; “Baptism”) into the reformed Jewish religion he was promoting that later became a
new religion – Christianity.16
It is known, for instance, that the Jewish philosopher, Philo of Alexandria (25 B.C.-50
A.D.),17 who encountered and wrote about the Indian Therapeutae,18 also studied the
Septuagint.19 In any case, Alexandrian Judaism established “the principle of Scripture access
and use in the everyday language of the people.”20 Whereas, traditional Judaism had centred
around a sacred text in one language (Hebrew), Alexandrian Judaism introduced the idea of
making religion available in people’s native language, thus presaging the idea of Pentecost
when the Holy Spirit enabled speaking in tongues.21 It was thus a first important step in preChristianity, whereby religion is intended potentially for everyone and not simply for a small
group.
3. 5 Christianities
The rise of Christianity started during the life of Christ, even though the name Christianity
was not used until the year 37 A.D. At least five centres contributed to this story: Alexandria,
Antioch, Constantinople, Rome and Jerusalem.
3.1 Alexandria
The Patriarchate of Alexandria and of all Africa is said to have been founded by Saint Mark
the Evangelist (c. 33 A.D.).22 But there must clearly have been earlier connections since the
parents of Jesus, on the flight to Egypt, took him to Cairo, directly next to one of the oldest
Coptic Churches. In pre-Christian times, Greek was the official language. In the Christian era,
Coptic became the official language in a number of versions (e.g. 22, 24, 28, 30, 31, 32, 33,
34 letters). Greek had seven vowels. So too did Coptic, Abyssinian, Ethiopian, and Eritrean
(Geez, Tigrinya). So Alexandria fostered seven vowel alphabets. The seven vowels of Coptic
(Alpha, Ei, Ita, Iota, O, Epsilon, OA) recur as the 7 vowels of Duplex Iacobitanum (Alfa, E,
Eta, Ioda, O, Ye, Omega), also known as West Syriac Serṭā.
Alexandria as the Patriarchate of all Africa, fostered the Aphricanum alphabet, which was
basically the same as Arabic in the alfabai sequence. Alexandria also fostered a series of 5
vowel alphabets (cf. Rome below).
Theologically Alexandria was an important centre.23 Whereas Judaism professed a creation ex
nihilo, the Alexandrian school, developed traditions of gnosticism, whereby a monad evolved
through various emanations, and often created the physical world through an imperfect Demiurge, rather than the Supreme Being. Early exponents were the Ophites,24 Basilides
(Basilidians, fl. 117 to 138 A.D.)25 Valentinus (Valentinians, 100-180 A.D.) and his student
3
Marcus (Marcosians, 2nd c. A.D.),26 who applied gematria to Greek in combination with the
octad and dodecad to evolve a theory of creation through aeons, and letters of the alphabet.
Their theory explored how “created things were made after the image of things invisible,”27
reminiscent of the non-material creation of the prajapatis in India. Plotinus (204/5-270 A.D.)28
was the most famous of these emanationists, combining Egyptian traditions with neo-Platonic
thought. Cyril of Alexandria (c. 376 – 444)29 developed a concept of miaphysitism (one
nature) concerning God and Christ. Gnosticism30 -- also taught by the Essenes -- sought to
explain evolution from the one to the many (cf. Taoism).31 Hence, whereas Judaism of the
Old Testament theoretically32 began with the advent of physical creation, the Alexandrian
school explored metaphysical pre-creation, often in the form of a Monad, One, Demi-urge or
Aeons prior to physical creation.
The First Council of Constantinople (381) asserted the primacy of Constantinople over
Alexandria and Antioch.33 When the Council of Chalcedon (451) attempted to impose belief
in a dual nature of Christ of the Eastern Orthodox Church, the Patriarchates of Alexandria
(Coptic, Ethiopian, Eritrean Church) and Antioch (Syriac, Malankara Syrian or Indian
Orthodox Church, and Armenian Apostolic Church) remained true to Miaphysitism and
formed the Oriental Orthodox Church.34 As Roman Christianity became more codified,
Alexandrian gnosticism (cf. Nag Hammadi texts) along with Antiochian gnosticism (cf.
Essenes of Mount Carmel), of whom Saint Paul was said to be ringleader: Acts 24:5), were
treated as apocryphal and largely forgotten.35
3.2.Antioch
Paul of Tarsus converted to the new religion in 34 A.D., i.e. a year after the Crucifixion. He
was not one of the 12 Apostles. Indeed, he never met Christ. And yet it was he who decided to
expand the scope of Christianity from an esoteric sect for Jews, to a religion for Gentiles.
Accordingly, Saint Paul became Apostle of the Gentiles,36 while Saint Peter became Apostle
of the Jews.37 Saint Paul established the 7 churches of the New Testament in Turkey,
centuries before Rome had its 7 Christian basilicas. 14 of the 27 Books of the New Testament
are attributed to Saint Paul; 2 are attributed to Saint Peter.38
Saint Paul moved to Antioch and it was here that “the disciples were first called Christians”39
in the year 37 AD., whence “the Syriac Orthodox Church of Antioch claims the status as the
most ancient Christian church in the world.”40 Antioch (Antioch on the Orontes) was closely
related to Edessa (Antiochia on the Callirhoe).41
In the course of the next centuries, Antioch became the home of five churches. After the
Council of Chalcedon (451 A.D.) three remained linked with Roman Christianity (Melkite
Greek Catholic Church, Syriac Catholic Church, Syriac Maronite Church); one joined the
Eastern Orthodox Church (Antiochian Greek Orthodox Church), while one became part of the
Oriental Orthodoxy (Syriac Orthodox Church).42
3.3.Constantinople
The Eastern Orthodox Church traces its origins back to Pentecost in 33 A.D.43 It was based in
Byzantium (Constantinople, Istanbul). It integrated 4 early Patriarchates: Constantinople,
4
Alexandria, Antioch and Jerusalem. It included 11 Autocephalous Churches (Cyprus, Sinai,
Russia, Greece, Bulgaria, Serbia, Romania, Georgia, Poland, Albania and Czech Republic and
Slovakia),44and 3 Autonomous Churches (Finland, China and Japan).
Alphabetically, the Eastern Orthodox Church focussed on Greek (Koine Greek), thus
supporting the 7 vowels model, also found in Georgian, and Armenian as well as in
Antiochian (Jacobite, Iacobitanum, Maroniticum) and Alexandrian alphabets (Coptic,
Eritrean, Ethiopian, Abyssinian, Amharic, Geez).
The Eastern Orthodox alphabets also included Aramaic, Arabic and later Cyrillic (Old Church
Slavonic, Glagolitic). At the Council of Chalcedon (451 A.D.), Constantinople declared that
Christ “has two natures in one person and hypostasis; it also insisted on the completeness of
his two natures: Godhead and manhood.”45 In the short term (451 A.D.), this led to a
separation with views of the Patriarchate of Jerusalem, which continued its tradition of
monotheism and the patriarchates of Antioch and Alexandria which continued their traditions
of miaphysitism. In the longer term, differing definitions of the Trinity, contributed to the
Great Schism between Roman Christianity and the Eastern Orthodox Church (1054 A.D.)
3.4.Jerusalem
Jesus was born and lived in Galilee. As an Essene he was a member of an esoteric Hebrew
sect, quite separate from and opposed by the Pharisees and Sadduccees of Jerusalem.46 Even
so, Jerusalem as the place of the Last Supper and the Crucifixion was linked with Christianity
from the outset. Officially, it became linked with the new religion through the Apostle, James
the Just (37 A.D.).47 The Council of Jerusalem (50 A.D.)48 decided on the obligations of
Gentile converts to Christianity. There were assertions of Jerusalem as the mother of all
churches (cf. Antioch and Rome), but with the destruction of the second temple (70 A.D.) and
the Jewish exile (134 A.D.), Jerusalem’s role in early Christianity was more symbolic than an
everyday reality. Even so, Jerusalem saw the rise of Jewish Christianity which gradually
became distinguished from Judaism:
Christianity is rooted in Second Temple Judaism, but the two religions diverged in the first centuries of
the Christian Era. Christianity places emphasis on correct belief (or orthodoxy), focusing on the New
Covenant made through Jesus Christ, as recorded in the New Testament. Judaism places emphasis on
right conduct (or orthopraxy), focusing on the Mosaic Covenant, as recorded in the Torah and
Talmud.49
In Indian terms, Judaism resembled Karma Yoga,50 with justification through works of the
Law, while Christianity resembled Bhakti Yoga,51 with justification through faith. Within
Christianity, the Petrine approach of Roman Christianity was closer to Judaism, in contrast to
the Pauline approach of Eastern Orthodox Christianity in Constantinople and Antioch.
By the fourth century, the Metropolitan of Jerusalem was playing a role in the Syrian Church
in Malabar (325 A.D.).52 With the Council of Chalcedon (451 A.D.),53 Jerusalem became
independent of Antioch, and became a Patriarchate under Justinian (531 A.D.), when it
became one of the Pentarchy. Hereafter, it played a role as one of the five centres of
Christianity, even though the Pharisees and Sadducees had originally been opposed to
Christianity.
5
3.5. Rome
The earliest references to Christianity in Rome entail persecutions (49, 62 A.D.) and
references to the martyrdom of Saint Peter (64 A.D.) and Saint Paul (67 A.D.).54 Even so,
there is still debate whether Saint Peter ever lived in Rome. It is not until the fourth century
that Roman Christianity becomes significant. The basilica of Saint John Lateran, mother
church of all churches, was given to the Catholic Church by 311 A.D. Formal recognition of
Roman Christianity came after the conversion of Constantine and the Edict of Milan (313
A.D.), which decriminalized Christian worship.55 Constantine commissioned the building of
Saint Peter’s Basilica (318 A.D.). The First Council of Nicaea (325 A.D.) established the
Nicene Creed and Jerome’s Vulgate (381 A.D.) provided a systematic Latin translation from
the Greek (and Hebrew). Rome’s primacy over Constantinople was asserted at the fourth
Council of Constantinople (869 A.D.) and anew at the time of the Great Schism (1054
A.D.).56
Linguistically, Rome focused on Latin, which became the basis of Romance languages. These
were alphabets with 5 vowels (A E I O U) typically with the letter sequence 1 5 9 14 20. This
same sequence of letters and vowels is found in Egyptian Alphabets (Aegyptiacum,
Aegyptiorum, Isis, Mercurius Thoyt), Saracenum, Scythicum, Siriorum, Premier Alphabet
Phoenicien and Etruscan 2. Alternatively Latin vowels had the sequence 1 5 9 15 21, also
found in Egyptian, German, Fraktur and English.
4. 3 Orthodox Christianities
Christians as a term is said to have begun in 37 A.D. But the separation between Judaism and
Christianity was gradual:
Recently, some scholars have argued that there were many competing Jewish sects in the Holy Land
during the Second Temple period, and that those that became Rabbinic Judaism and Proto-orthodox
Christianity were but two of these. Some of these scholars have proposed a model which envisions a
twin birth of Proto-orthodox Christianity and Rabbinic Judaism rather than a separation of the former
from the latter. For example, Robert Goldenberg asserts that it is increasingly accepted among scholars
that "at the end of the 1st century AD there were not yet two separate religions called 'Judaism' and
'Christianity.’57
The ecumenical councils of the 4th and 5th centuries helped to define the boundaries of
Christendom and, in the process, created a series of divisions. The Council of Ephesus (325
A.D.) saw the Church of the East cut off from orthodoxy. The Church of the East was dubbed
as Nestorianism for its interpretation of a separation between the Divine and human nature of
Christ. Linguistically, the Church of the East spread the Syriac alphabet model across Asia.
Thus consonant alphabets spread to Syro-Chaldee, Karshuni and Uigur (Mongolian, Kalmuk,
Manchu).58
The Council of Chalcedon (451 A.D.) further split the Church into three orthodoxies: Roman
Christianity; Eastern Orthodox and Oriental Orthodoxy. Roman Christianity favoured a
trinitarian Monotheism. The Eastern Orthodox Church (Constantinople) favoured 2 natures.
Oriental Theology (Antioch and Alexandria) continued miaphysitism. Latin was the key
language of Roman Christianity. Koine Greek was the key language of the Eastern Orthodox
Church, while Coptic, Syriac, Ethiopian, and Eritrean were languages of Oriental Orthodoxy.
6
Sanskrit
a.Vowel 1 Vowel 12 Letter 33 Letter 20 Letter 26
A
Ai
H
V
Y
b. Vowel 1 Letter 33 Letter 20 Letter 26 Vowel 12
A
H
V
Y
Ai
Indiens Abyssins Letter 1
Letter 5
Letter 6
Letter 10 Letter 16
A
H
V
J
E
Alephu,
He
Vuauf
Jodo
e.
Syriac
Letter 1
a
Letter 5
h
Letter 6
v
Syriaque
Letter 1
Olaph
Letter 5
He
Letter 6
Letter 10 Letter 16
Vau/Vau Iod
Hoin
Samaritanorum Letter 1
Hebraicum A. Aleph
Letter 5
He
Letter 6
Vau
Indicum
Letter 13 Letter 1
A
H
A
Ha
Letter 15
V
Va
Letter 18 Letter 16
I
A
Ia
A
Ethiopien
Et Abyssin
Letter 13
A
Alph
Letter 1
H
Hoi
Letter 15
V
Vau
Letter 18 Letter 16
I
A
Iaman
Hain
Ethyiopique
Nubiens
a.Letter 13
A
b.Letter 1
A
A
Aleph
Letter 1
H
Letter 5
H
Ha
Ha
Letter 5
V
Letter 6
V
Va
Vau
Letter 26
Ha
Letter 5
Ha
Letter 27 Letter 28 Letter 18
Wa
Ya
Ain
Letter 6
Letter 10
Letter 16
Wa
Ya
Ain
Arabic
Arabic
Phoenician
Greek
Greek
a.Letter 1
A
b.Letter 1
A
Aleph
Heth
Waw
A
E
U
a.Letter 1
Letter 5
Letter 20
A
E
U
b.Letter 1
Letter 5
Letter 9
Gematria 1 5
10
A
E
I
Alpha
Epsilon
Iota
Letter 10 Letter 16
i
aa
Letter 10
Iod
Letter 18
I
Letter 10
I
Iud
Iod
Letter 16
Hain
Letter 16
A
Letter 18
A
A
Ain
Yodh
Ain
I
O
Letter 9
Letter 16 Letter 24
I
O
O
Letter 16 Letter 20 Letter 24
16
O
U
O
Omicron Upsilon Omega
Cyrillic
Letter 1
A
azu
Letter 5
E
esti
Letter 10
I
izei
Letter 16 Letter 22 Letter 24
O
U
O
onu
uku
otu
Latin
Letter 1
Letter 1
A
Letter 5
Letter 5
E
Letter 9
Letter 9
I
Letter 14
Letter 15
O
Letter 20
Letter 21
U
Table 1. Comparison of five key letters.
7
Each of the three orthodoxies thus had their own alphabets. The Eastern Orthodox and
Oriental Orthodoxy used 7 vowels. Roman Christianity used 5 vowels. Judaism, by contrast
used 5 consonants. Underlying these seemingly small differences was a subtle shift in letters.
What began as 2 vowels and 3 semivowels in Sanskrit, shifted to 5 consonants in Semitic
alphabets (e.g. Syriac, Aramaic, Hebrew), 7 vowels in Greek, Coptic and Cyrillic and 5
vowels in Latin alphabets.
5. Key Letters
The traditional Sanskrit alphabet has 50 letters. Of these two vowels (vowels 1 and 12: A, Ai)
and three semivowels (letters 33, 29, 26: ha va ya) acquired a particular significance (table 1).
In shuffled form, these became the letters A H V Y Ai. In the Alphabet des Indiens Abyssins,
these became the letters 1 5 6 10 16: A H V J E: Alephu, He, Vuauf, Jodo, e. In terms of
gematria this sequence leads to 92 (1 + 5 + 6 + 10 + 70 = 92), which is the gematria for
Elohim (God), Mohammed, King, son, great, heart. The same sequence of letters (1 5 6 10 16)
and gematria became the basis of Syriac (a, h, v, i, aa), Syriaque (Olaph, He, Vau/Vau , Iod,
Hoin). Alphabetum Samaritanorum and Hebraicum Antiquum (Aleph, He, Vau, Iod, Hain).
They become letters A H V I O in Chaldean (1, 2, 3, 5, 10, 13, 14, 15)59 and letters A H V I
AA in Chaldean (6, 7, 8, 9, 12).
In the Hebrew tradition, the first and last letters of this sequence, A Ai, were sometimes
assigned ten vowels (a e i o u and a e i o u aspirata (aspirated)) respectively (e.g. Syriaque,
Hebraicum Antiquum seu Samaritanorum). In other contexts, the three central letters, H V Y,
were reconfigured as four letters in the sequence Y H V H (letters 10 5 6 5, gematria 26), as
the tetragrammaton or four letter name of God.
Indicum (1616)60 kept the same basic letters A H V I A (A, Ha, Va, Ia, A) but changed the
sequence to letters 13 1 15 18 16. Ethiopien et Abyssin maintained this sequence but gave a
slightly different meaning to the letters A H V I A (Alph, Hoi, Vau, Iaman, Hain ). The
Alphabet Ethyiopique des Nubiens is especially instructive. It maintains the letters A H V I A
but accords to them two different sequences: 13 1 15 18 16 as above and then 1 5 6 10 16 as
encountered earlier in Syriac and Hebrew. It also provides two sets of meanings for the
letters: A, Ha, Va, Iud, A and Aleph, Ha,Vau, Iod, Ain.
The significance of these shifts is considerable. First, it confirms that the so called syllabaries
(more recently called abugidas) of Abyssinia, Ethiopia and Eritrea were originally configured
in one sequence as a Southern norm (13 1 15 18 16) and subsequently reconfigured to align
with what became the Northern norm in Judaism and Syriac Christianity (1 5 6 10 16). It also
confirms that these two seemingly different systems were integrally linked with one another.
The prior existence of the Southern norm undermines claims for Hebrew as the original
alphabet.
The Arabic tradition has further variants for this sequence. In the alfabai sequence,61 they
become shapes 1 15 16 17 962 as letters 1 26 27 28 18. In abjad form,63 these become letters 1
5 6 10 16 as in Chaldean, Syriac, Hebrew corresponding to A Ha Wa Ya Ain.
8
Figure 1a. Phoenician letter Teth,64 b. Solar Wheel,65 c. Solar Disc,66 d. Ichthys as Greek
letters and as circle wheel.
9
In Phoenician, letters 1 5 6 10 16 become Aleph, Heth, Waw, Yodh, Ain which become the
five vowels A E U I O. In Greek, the same vowels A E U I O become letters 1 5 20 9 16. The
sequence is then switched to A E I O U O as letters 1 5 9 15 20 24. The corresponding
gematria is 1 5 10 70 400 800 (as if the letters sequence were 1 5 10 16 22 26). In Latin, these
become letters 1 5 9 15 21 corresponding to vowels A E I O U. Meanwhile in Cyrillic, these
become letters 1 5 10 16 22 24 corresponding to vowels A E I O U O (azu, esti, izei, onu, uku,
otu).
These shifts in five key letters are of the greatest significance because they reveal a close
interplay between syllabaries, abjads and alphabets and also help us to understand their
differences. On the surface, syllabaries linked vowels specifically with two of the five key
letters (A and Ain) and included these in their gematria. Alphabets made vowels a part of their
gematria. Abjads in their extreme form limited their gematria to consonants. In practice, all
three systems entailed the same five letters. In Sanskrit, these began as two vowels and three
semivowels (or more strictly speaking two semivowels and an aspirate). In the African
syllabaries (Abyssinian, Ethiopian, Eritrean) and in an early form of Chaldearum, 67 these
continued as two basic vowels (generating 7 x 2 vowels), and three semivowels. In the abjad
tradition, these five letters became five consonants. In alphabets, by contrast, beginning with
Phoenician, these became five vowels (A E U I O), which were later shuffled to become A E I
O U in Latin. Hence, there are underlying patterns in alphabets that need to be analysed.
These subtle differences help us to understand differences between North and South. They
also mean that each of the major divisions of Christian orthodoxy developed their own
gematria with their accompanying cosmology (cf. § 8 below).
6. North and South
North and South play multiple roles in the story of near Eastern Alphabets. For instance,
Christ, as an Essene, was born and spent most of preaching life in what is now Northern Israel
(Galilee). He was crucified in the South (Judaea). His language was Aramaic (and presumably
also Syro-Galileen). The language of Judaea, by contrast, was Hebrew. The roots of Hebrew
are in Edessa, and Harran in the North. As Jerusalem in the South becomes linked with
Hebrew, these Northern roots diminish in memory to the extent that present day Israel does
not intervene in the Syrian homeland of its roots.
Alphabet trees of the region typically distinguish between North Semitic and South Semitic
alphabets.68 In these tables, Hebrew and Aramaic are typically in the North, while South
Arabic is in the South. The source of standard Arabic is taken to be Nabataean, named after
Nebaioth, the eldest son and tribe of Ishmael. There is a sense that the 12 tribes of Israel
displaced the 12 tribes of Ishmael. Other local versions of Arabic such as Arabicum ex
Syriaco, Levantine Arabic or Hatra Arabic (of the first Arabic Kingdom) typically do not
occur in these tables.
A number of early versions of Arabic followed the Alfabaʼī Order (e.g. Arabicum, Arabicum
ex Syriaco, Aphricanum, Levantine Arabic, Musnad Arabic, and Maghrebi Arabic).
According to Arabic sources the origin of the abjad sequence goes back to the names of six
giant kings of Midyan (Abjad, Hawwaz, HuTTiya, Kaliman, Sa’faS, Qurishat).69 It was in the
10
Figure 2a. Chinese Zodiac with Dragon and Snake70, b. Chinese (Huang Ti) letter 6: chi,71 cd. Stigma and Zeta (Greek)72, e-f. Soo – Zita (Coptic), g-j. Dzelo –Zemlya (Old Church
Slavonic,73 Cyrillic).74
11
North, however, that abjads and the 1 5 6 10 16 sequence of semivowels became dominant in
Syriac, Chaldean, Aramaic and Hebrew, to such an extent that the abjad version75 became the
most familiar form and the abjad gematria became the most familiar gematria.
7. Letters as Symbols and Cosmology
All the letters of the Greek alphabet had cosmological symbolism. In one early version, two
letters were aligned with each of the 12 zodiac signs (figure 9).76 The Greek letter Theta (Ө),
was based on the Phoenician letter Teth ( , figure 1 a).77 This letter Teth was effectively a
solar disc: a circle inscribed with an x signifying the axes Candlemas-Lammas and May DayAll Hallow’s Eve (figure 1b). Another version of the solar wheel included six spokes (figure
1c).
The Christian tradition transformed the meaning of these cyclical symbols. For instance, the
Greek term ICHTHYS, meaning fish, symbolized Christianity. More specifically the letters
meant Ίησοῦς Χριστός, Θεοῦ Υἱός, Σωτήρ (Jesus Christ, God's Son is Saviour). When the
five Greek letters (Ί, Χ, Θ,Υ, Σ) are superimposed on one another they produce the same six
spoked wheel as the wheel of the sun (figure 1d). Hence, the fish is not just a symbol of early
Christianity. It also summarizes the annual cycle.
To understand the extent of this Christian transformation of letters it is useful to study the
history of number and letter 6. In the Chinese zodiac, animals 5 and 6 are the dragon and
snake respectively. In some versions, the snake was effectively a mirror image of the dragon
(figure 2a). The dragon was heaven, the snake was earth. The shift from 5 to 6 thus marked a
descent from heaven to earth. In the Chinese Huang Ti alphabet, letter 6 was drawn as an S,
reminiscent of Draco (figure 2b). In India, the 6th nakshatra was Rahu (caput draconis, head of
the dragon). Indeed, Rahu, dominated nakshatras 6, 15, 24. In Greek gematria, numbers 6 15
24 had a gematria of 6 60 600, with a total of 666. Accordingly number 666 became
associated with the dragon, the serpent, evil, and Satan. Corresponding letters 6 15 23
(digamma, ksi, psi) acquired negative connotations.
In the Greek alphabet, letter 6 became the digamma (waw, wau, Ϝ) or stigma (ϛ). This letter
was dropped from the Greek alphabet such that zeta became letter 6 with a gematria value of
7 (figure 2 c-d). The Draco like symbol (ϛ) continued to be used as numeral 6. In Coptic, the
corresponding letter Soo as number 6 remained a part of the alphabet, followed by Zita (figure
2 e-f). The corresponding letters in Old Church Slavonic and Cyrillic were dzelo and zemlya
now as letters 8 and 9 (figure 2 g-j).
In the Greek mystery traditions, the S shape of Draco acquired cosmological meanings. For
instance, the Monogram of 3 Emblems carried in mysteries (figure 3a) shows a cross
superimposed on a reversed S. The heathen monogram of the Triune shows the same cross
superimposed on Greek S, letter 18 (Σ, sigma, figure 3b).
The Christian tradition adapted this imagery. The monogram of the Saviour78 superimposes an
I and H on a reversed S (figure 3c). Elsewhere these three letters I H S 79 become a monogram
of Christ (figure 1d).80 They are superimposed on a reversed S. These letters are also the first
12
Figure 3.Letters as symbols: a. Monogram of 3 Emblems carried in mysteries, b.Heathen
monogram of the Triune c.Monogram of the Saviour,81 d. IHS logo,82 e. IHS cross,.83 f-g.
Bulgarian HSA and AEFAE.
13
Figure 4 a.Slavic Ksi,84 b. Greek Chi Rho,85 c. Monogram of Christ,86d-e. Anastasis87
14
Figure 5 a. I X as diagram,88 b.Theta and Helios as Diameter 318,89 c-d. Jesus as
circumference 880, e-f. Jesus as circumference 8880.90
15
three letters of the Greek name of Jesus: ΙΗΣΟΥΣ. The three nails represent the suffering and
death of Jesus, the cross represents his resurrection. This association with resurrection
explains why the symbol recurs as an IHS cross on gravestones (figure 1e). 91 The column of
the I and two columns of the H also function as three pillars. IHS as Iota, Eta-Sigma (letters
10 - 5 - 18), becomes an abbreviation for Isis, Horus, Seth; Iesus Hominum Salvator, In Hoc
Signo (vinces), Iesus Humilis Societas, Iesus Habemus Socium (Jesuit order), In Hoc Sanctis
and In His Service.
In Bulgarian, the letters HSA (ХСА) signify Christ, while the letters Yat, Phi, Yat, equivalent
to AEFAE, signify the resurrection (figure 3 f-g),92 another example of the cross as symbol of
resurrection. In Old Slavic, letter Ksi (figure 4a) is clearly linked with the heavens, showing
the sun descending as 1 and a line ascending from left to a star in the upper right as 2. The
lower case letter for Greek Chi (figure 4 b) shows a similar curving line in the descent and a
straight diagonal in the ascent. In an old alignment of Greek letters and the zodiac this letter
Chi aligns with the time of the Summer Solstice in Cancer (figure 9).
In the Eastern Orthodox Christian tradition, letters 22 and 17 of the Greek alphabet: Chi and
Rho, become the first two letters of the Greek ΧΡΙΣΤΟΣ (Christos, figure 4c). The symbol has
multiple names: monogram of Christ, Labarum, Chrismon. The central axis shows a Greek
Rho (drawn as a Roman P). As letter 17, it has a gematria of 100 and symbolizes the creative
female power, fruitfulness, vegetative growth, adaptability, fluidity.93 Superimposed on the
Rho is a Greek letter, Chi, with a gematria of 600, symbolizing the cosmos, godhead, private
property, possession and gift.94 Appended from the arms of the Chi are the letters Alpha and
Omega, beginning and end. Note how the Christian symbol replaces or rather integrates the
symbolism of the annual cycle seen in Greek letter Theta and in the solar disc (CandlemasLammas and May Day-All Hallow’s Eve, figure 2a-b).
A variant of the same monogram of Christ recurs on a Roman sarcophagus (c. 350 A.D.).
Here the lower version shows a cross, beneath which sit two figures. The upper part of the
cross is topped by a chrismon, which here has the meaning of anastasis or resurrection (figure
4d). Another example (figure 4e) shows the same motif in a larger context in a sarcophagus in
San Paolo fuori le mure (c.350-400 A.D.).95 These examples show how letters from the name
of Christ in Greek, acquired theological and cosmological symbolism. They also illustrate
how this Greek symbolism of the Greek Orthodox Church is adapted in Roman Christianity.
In the Marcosian system of Alexandria, Jesus as Iesous (ΙΗΣΟΥΣ, Ιησους), becomes a 6 letter
name of God, also identified with the episemon (ἐπίσημον):
the number six was regarded as a symbol of Christ, and was hence called "ὁ ἐπίσημος ἀριθμός" ("the
outstanding number"); likewise, the name Ἰησοῦς (Jesus), having six letters, was "τὸ ἐπίσημον ὄνομα"
("the outstanding name"), and so on.
Hence, the descent to earth, symbolized by Rahu, a dragon’s head in India and a serpentine
letter S in China, Russia, and Greece (figure 2), was replaced in Alexandrian Christianity by a
symbol of Christ. The letters Chi Xi Sigma (gematria 600 60 6 = 666), form the Greek
number of the beast, also the numbers corresponding to rahu (dragon’s head) and become
Symbols of Christos (Christ).96
16
Figure 6 a. Monograms,97 b. Pax,98 IHS.99
17
In Alexandria, there was also a tradition of serpent worship, notably by the Ophites, who
“extolled the serpent and preferred it to Christ,”100 “believed the serpent, as if it had been God
the Son,” or believed that serpent and Christ were identical,101 and had their own Ophite
Alphabet. Some have suggested that this snake worship has its origins in the naga traditions of
S’iva Buddhism.102 In this context, the links between Christ, number 6 and dragon/serpent are
simultaneously a reflection of older traditions and an attempt to redefine the connotations,
whereby Jesus as 666 is replaced by Jesus as 888.
The name Christ comes from the Greek Χριστός (Christós) and Latin Christus (annointed).
The full name Jesus Christ (ΙΗΣΟΥΣ ΧΡΙΣΤΟΣ, Iisous Khristos) is reduced to the first and
last letters of the name to spell ΙΣ - ΧΣ (IC – X C, Iota Sigma – Chi Sigma):103 Greek letters
10 18 - 22 18. The first letters of ΙΗΣΟΥΣ ΧΡΙΣΤΟΣ are written as IX (Iota Chi). In
geometrical form they become an I superimposed on an X in a circle with circumference
1,000 (figure 3a). Now Jesus Christ is symbolised by a circle of 1000 and with a
superimposed I X which emulate the 6 spoked wheel of the solar circle (figure 5a cf. 2c).
The diameter of a circle of 999 or 1000 is 318. Gematria 318, (or more precisely 318.318),104
corresponds to the letter Theta (θῆτα, figure 5b), and has the further meanings of foundation
(‘osh), man ('iysh, cf. Ish above), sun (helios, ηλιος) and savior (οσμη). Jesus is also
associated with the gematria for 8 80 800 = 888. Geometrically, if Jesus has a circumference
of 888, then the circle has a diameter of 282, which is the gematria of Bios (βίος, Life, figure
5c). Alternatively, Jesus is associated with a circle of 8880 in which 6 triangles of life (ζωή)
with a gematria of 815 are contained within a hexagram (figure 5 d). Or such a circle can
contain 10 circles with a gematria of 888 (figure 5e), or three circles which create a vesica
pisces for the word fishes (ἰχθύες) with a gematria of 1224 (figure 5f).
The intricate details of Christian gematria are beyond the scope of this essay. Nor are the
criticisms of these techniques by Irenaeus and other figures in Roman Christianity. What
concerns us is how the letters of a name become associated with numbers, which can then be
translated into arithmetical and geometrical forms. Letters and words can reflect cosmological
principles and cycles.
Of interest also is how this entire system depends on the precise sequence of letters in names
and words. Simply changing a language can alter the meaning and sequence. For instance the
Greek Chi Rho (letter 22 - letter 17), becomes the Latin P X (letter 16 – Letter 21) as in the
Latin word Pax (peace, figure 6a). Even a decorative turn can transform the shape of letters
IHS almost beyond recognition (figure 6b). A consonant alphabet such as Hebrew produces
different letter sequences than a five vowel (Latin) or a seven vowel (Greek, Coptic, Jacobite,
Cyrillic, Ethiopian, Eritrean) alphabet. Names and words often change dramatically in
different Christian communities, and bring changes in symbolism, gematria and cosmologies.
8. Changing Names
The new alphabets used for translating the Old Testament had an important impact on names
in the Bible. In Hebrew, God was typically written as the four letter (tetragrammaton) Y H V
H. In Latin, this became Yahweh and Yehovah. In Coptic, it became five vowels: Iaoue. In
the magic papyri, the tetragrammaton recurred in a series of forms: (1) "Iaoouee," "Iaoue,"
18
Figure 7 a. Hebrew Bible wheel, b. Roman Catholic Bible Wheel.105
19
"Iabe,"; (2) "Iao," "Iaho," "Iae"; (3) "Aia"; (4) "Ia."106 In Syriacum, these five vowels (A E I O
U) became the five prophets: Abraham, Esaia, Isaac, Odam, Vria107 In other contexts, they
became the five tribes, which began as Acab, Ose, Ura, Esu, Jaichim108 and were then
modified as Jacab, Jose, Jura, Jesu, Jaichin or as Jacob, Joseph, Jerah, Joshua, Jachin.
In English, the name Jesus Christ is often abbreviated to Jesus or Christ. Jesus is a
transliteration of Latin Iesus. English transliterations of Jesus in Hebrew include Yaohushua,
Yahvahosha, YHWHSHUA, Yahshua, Yahushua, Yeshua, Iahushua, Yashwa, Yahoshua,
Yahweh Ben, Yahweh, Yashua, Y'shua, Yehshuva.109 His Greek name is Ἰησοῦς (Iésous).110
The transliteration of Jesus in Aramaic is Eesho (Eesaa). In Arabic it is Eesa" (
) or Isa
111
112
(Issa), also called the Messiah, Jesus (al-MaseeHu `Eesa). Jesus was an Essene. Indian
sources link the word Essene with Ishani (which also means devotee of Siva) and Ishan,
which is related to ISa113 and Ishvara (which means Lord).114 In Cyrillic, Jesus is Иисус
(Iisus).115
9. Changing Gematrias
These changing names affect their gematrias. Jesus, as Iesous (Ἰησοῦς) in Greek has a
gematria of 888. Jesus as Isa in Arabic has a gematria of 71. The same name, Isa has a
gematria of 100 in Hebrew, 174 in English and 29 in simple gematria.116 A different spelling
as Eesa gives a gematria of 81 in Arabic.117 One of the Hebrew equivalents of Jesus is Joshua
which has a gematria of 949 in Hebrew, 444 in English and 74 in simple gematria.118
Hence, the translation of the Old Testament from Hebrew, a consonant alphabet (or strictly
speaking an abjad), into Greek, Coptic, Armenian, Georgian, Cyrillic with 7 vowels, and
Latin with 5 vowels, meant a fundamental change of gematrias each time, all the more so
because the alphabets had dramatically different lengths, ranging from 22 letters in Hebrew,
24 in Greek, 26 in Latin, 28 in Arabic, 32 in Coptic and 42 in Armenian. Bible wheels offer a
very simple illustration of the principle. A Hebrew Bible wheel aligns the books of the bible
with 22 letters. A Roman Catholic Bible wheel using the Greek alphabet aligns the same
books with 24 letters (figure 7a –b).
Hebrew has at least three terms for cosmos.119 One version of cosmos has a gematria of 313 in
Hebrew. In Greek,120 cosmos, (κοσμος) has a gematria of 600 equal to that of the letter Chi,
which as we have seen is also a symbolic letter of Christ. Hence the 5 Christianities in the 5
centres of early Christendom produced much more than 5 alphabets each with their own
gematrias. They produced different models of the cosmos and the universe.
The Marcosian scheme of pre-creation adapted the Egyptian model of the ogdoad, decad and
dodecad (table 2). The ogdoad was associated with 2 tetrads: 4 elements (air, earth, fire,
water) and 4 operations of elements (heat, cold, dryness, humidity. The decad was composed
of the 8 heavens, the sun and the moon. The dodecad was associated with the 12 zodiac signs.
8
Ogdoad
4 elements - 4 operations of elements
9 Consonants (Mutes)
10
Decad
8 heavens, sun, moon
8 Semivowels
12
Dodecad
12 zodiac signs
7 Vowels
Table 2. Marcosian model of pre-creation.
20
Table 3. Standard view of branches of Christianity.121
Each of these three subdivisions was linked with letters: the ogdoad with 9 consonants, the
decad with 8 semi-vowels and the dodecad with 7 vowels. Together, the 24 letters were
arranged in pairs to provide an image of the body of Truth (Aletheia).122
In the Hebrew system, the 7 planets were associated with the 7 double letters (B G D K P R
T). Here, the seven vowels are aligned with the seven planets. The seven Marcosian vowels
also play a direct role in the creation of the sensible world:
Now as to the creation of the sensible universe: the Logos, as creator, uses as his minister, or servant,
the seven-numbered "greatness" (that is to say, the septenary hierarchy of the ideal universe, the
Plērōma or Mind of the Logos, symbolized by the seven vowels), in order that the fruit of His selfmeditated meditation may be manifested.123
This passage suggests that the shift from abjads (consonants only) to alphabets in the modern
sense (consonants interspersed with vowels), had metaphysical reasons. Vowels, as a key to
creation, had to be included in the alphabet. While some in the early Christian centres at
Antioch and Jerusalem maintained the abjad model, the Eastern Orthodox Church
(Byzantium, Constantinople) adopted 7 vowel alphabets (Koine Greek, Georgian, Cyrillic), as
did the Eastern Orthodoxy (Alexandria, Antioch with Coptic, Jacobite, Ethiopian, Eritrean,
Armenian, Syriac, Jacobite), while Roman Christianity turned to 5 vowel alphabets (Latin,
Romance Languages). Hence, Christianity introduced new views of creation, which required a
modern version of the alphabet.
Arthur Lovejoy’s Great Chain of Being,124 provided a masterful overview of emanation
theories of creation, which begin from the abstract one (Monad) and descend into the world of
matter. The examples above illustrate how these theories are directly linked with letters of the
alphabet. Nor is this limited to the Christian tradition. In the Mediaeval period, Ibn Árabi
(1165-1240 A.D.) developed an elaborate system, whereby the sequence of the letters of the
alphabet is also the sequence of the 12 zodiac signs and a descent from the Divine essence,
via the ultimate sphere, the 7 heavens and the 4 elements down to the final letters of the
alphabet: “the Hierarchy of the Degrees of Existence, not their manifestation” (figure 10).125
A future history of such theories would need to trace how Egyptian emanation theories, and
particularly those of the Alexandrian school, which had Eastern roots, in turn affected
Manichaeism and the Church of the East. It would also trace how the orthodox schools of
21
Roman Christianity and the Eastern Orthodox Church increasingly dismissed such attempts at
explaining pre-creation as heretical and focussed directly on the creation (ex nihilo) story of
the Old Testament.
10. Implications for Interfaces
A first implication is that we need more subtle maps for tracing the divisions of major
religions. A standard view (table 3) shows early Christianity proceeding simply until the
breaks with the Assyrian Church (381), the Oriental Orthodox Church (451) and the Eastern
Orthodox Church (1054). Our brief outline has shown that the early period entailed five
centres, each with their own languages, alphabets and approaches.
The received view is that Christianity has a sacred text, the Old and New Testaments, which
was gradually translated into thousands of languages, as if translation alone could spread the
sacred scriptures. Our essay suggests that considerably more is needed. Our simple example
of X P (figures 4b , 6a), showed how the same letters mean Chi Rho as in Christ in Greek and
P(a)X, peace, in Latin.
Our search systems are geared to search for words. They need to be refined so that we can
search for individual letters. We have different tools to search for images (e.g. Google image).
But the same letters, Chi Rho, which occur in texts can recur as drawings, monograms,
geometrical diagrams, sculptures, paintings and other media. These need refinement such that
we can search by language. If we type X P Latin into Google web, we learn at the first hit that
this is an abbreviation for Christus. If we type X P Latin under Google images, we need to
ignore well over a 100 hits, before we find an isolated example. Typing X P Greek is slightly
more helpful but far from ideal. If we type Chi Rho we receive hundreds of hits but they are
indiscriminately ordered. We need options to arrange them chronologically and spatially, and
to be able to search them accordingly: e.g. Chi Rho Alexandria 100- 200 A.D.
Needed is a new kind of hyperlinking which would give us access to multiple translations of a
given passage (table 4). Reading the King James version of the Gospel of Saint John, would
show us the term Word, which is static. Comparison with Latin Verbum, (cf. verb) reveals
motion and a dynamic element. Greek Logos (λόγος), also has a dynamic sense plus a sense
of ordering. Sanskrit vac (vak) is sound and speech as well as word. Non-experts would need
access to multilingual dictionaries in order to trace the etyrmologies of words.
Such an ability for comparative etymology would be fundamentally helpful in exploring the
history of key terms associated with the Trinity, Incarnation and Christ: e.g. ousia (οὐσία),
hypostasis (ὑπόστᾰσις, person), prosopon (πρόσωπον, person) and physis (φύσις, nature). In
Greek, ousia is connected with being and the verb to be (εἶναι) and hence the same meaning
English
In the beginning was the Word, and the word was with God
Latin
In principio erat Verbum et Verbum erat apud Deum et Deus erat Verbum
Greek
Ἐν ἀρχῇ ἦν ὁ λόγος, καὶ ὁ λόγος ἦν πρὸς τὸν θεόν, καὶ θεός ἦν ὁ λόγος
English < Greek In the Beginning was the Logos, and the Logos was (one) with God, and the Logos was God.
English < Sanskrit In the beginning was Vâk, and Vâk was with Yahva, and Vâk was Yahvî
In the beginning was Prajapati, and with Him was the Word
Table 4. Multiple translations of a passage.
22
Roman Christianity Catholics:
Oriental Orthodoxy Monophysites:
Church of the East Nestorians:
Table 5. Definitions of Christ126
One person, one hypostasis, two natures.
One person, one hypostasis, one nature.
One person, two hypostases, two natures.
as Cyrillic letter 5: esti (Є, єсть) and corresponding to Greek letter 5: Epsilon. In Latin, ousia
is often translated as substantia and essentia, which become substance and essence in English.
Hence, Latin and English bring a sense of reification that reduces the idea of a living being to
a lifeless thing or object. In English, it was also translated as person. Different definitions of
these basic terms thus lead to basic divisions in Christianity: e.g. Roman Christianity, Oriental
Orthodoxy and the Church of the East (table 5).
To understand this requires multilingual hyperlinking of terms, such that we can trace how
Greek ousia becomes Syriac qnômâ (‫)ܩ ܢܘܡܐ‬, while Greek hypostasis becomes Syriac kyānâ
(‫)ܟ ܝ ܢܐ‬. In addition, it requires an ability to see basic usage examples (cf. tables 4-5), which
can then, in turn, be traced multilingually. Such dynamic, multilingual etymological
dictionaries as an online app would open new pathways in the history of ideas and concepts.
Another dimension of this new hyperlinking would be that we could submit any letter, word
or passage to gematria filters to see their underlying gematric value. At the simplest level this
would entail linking any word in the Bible to reference tools such as the Full Text
Hebrew/Greek Bible Gematria Database . 127 In important cases, such as Jesus or Life
(e.g. figure 5), we could see how these gematria values had been visualized. Reading the Old
Testament in Hebrew, if we encounter the term
(Hokmah), we could see that this is
(the heart of) wisdom; gematria 37 and see that it is geometrically a centred hexagon and star
(with 37 as the star as 19 as the hexagon).128
Conceptually this changes the reading of a text into a layered approach. The simple version
just outlined would have the text at layer 1, the gematria at layer 2 and the corresponding
geometrical diagram at layer 3. In light of our discussion of changing names and gematrias,
each translation of a sacred text would have different second and third layers for the “same”
text. Hence, different translations of a text, implicitly lead to different visualizations at the
gematric and symbolic level.
A more complex version might well have at least 6 levels (table 6), such that a reader could
also consult dictionaries, encyclopaedias, articles, books and reconstructions concerning any
given letter, word, passage.129 Searching for a given letter would require indicating the
contexts that are of interest. For example if we chose to search for Hebrew letter 5 (He), we
would learn (figure 8) that it is aligned with sight (Veue), Aries (Le mouton), Malchidael,
Mars and Nisan. We would also see which other letters align with the remaining zodiac signs.
Changing the language to Greek we would discover (figure 9) that the corresponding letter 5,
Eta (Ήτα) aligns with Aquarius in an early Greek schema.
In current search engines such as Google, each medium tends to have their own search
Engine: e.g. text (Google web); images (Google images); videos (YouTube); maps (Google
23
1. Dictionaries
2. Encyclopedias
3. Full Text
Editions
Translations
4. Internal Analyses
Gematria Numbers
Geometrical Figures
Articles on word, concept
Monographs “
”
5. External Analyses
Comparative Articles on word, concept
Comparative Books “
”
6. Reconstructions
Table 6. Layers of Analysis in a Text
maps). Needed is a system where searching for a word (text), offers access to diagrams,
images, videos on that word. Images would have a contextualizing function. Hence, if a
search for Chi Rho sculptures led to the Anastasis image (figure 4e), we would be led to its
current location, the Pio-Christian museum (Vatican), and its provenance from the
excavations of the Duchess of Chablais at Tor Marancia, 1817-1821130 Map functions would
allow us to see where this is (Rome 11e).
Current library systems allow searching via a keyword, which provides book titles and
occasionally other media concerning that term. Searching for articles requires separate
searches in periodicals indexes, often limited to a given year or short time period. Needed is
an ability, whereby we could search for all books and articles on a given term, with spatial
parameters (e.g. published in Italy, Umbria, or Rome) and temporal parameters (e.g.
published between 1830-1850). In an online, portable digital reference room, such
information, now dispersed in thousands of reference works would be integrated into a single
system. To achieve this requires a universal approach to bibliography and reference works, a
domain which was pioneered in book form by the Saur Verlag.
Searching for a name such as Jesus would provide not only the typical orthography found in
authority files. It would offer all significant variants. A sample list is offered in Appendix 2.
This list could be supplemented by translations into other languages, and traced
chronologically.
To be sure, no one would be expected to explore all the possible links of every letter, word, or
passage they encounter, just as no-one in the great libraries with over 400,000 reference books
would expect to check very possible connection. The important dimension of the vision is that
reference books (das Hand Apparat) traditionally in reading rooms or reference rooms would
now be a super app. To achieve it requires a new global approach to bibliography as foreseen
by visionaries in their view of a Global Brain, or World Library.131
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11. Conclusions
Diringer (1948) in his monumental history of the alphabet, claimed that “if trade follows the
flag, the alphabet follows religion.”132 He used this insight to explain how the spread of
Buddhism from Nepal and Northern India to South India and gradually to the whole of
Southeast Asia was a key to understanding the spread of what he termed the Indian branch of
languages.
Our essay has introduced a new meaning to this well established phrase: namely, that the
alphabet, in its modern sense, as a combination of consonants interspersed with vowels,
follows a specific religion, Christianity, and its main examples (e.g. Greek, Georgian, Cyrillic,
Coptic, Arabic, Ethiopian, Eritrean, Jacobite, Latin) are directly connected with different
branches of Christianity associated with five main centres (Antioch, Jerusalem,
Constantinople, Alexandria, Rome). Hence, there were effectively five Christianities in the
early centuries, each with their own alphabet.
Two of those centres, Antioch and Jerusalem continued the abjad tradition with their
respective alphabets (Syriac, Aramaic, Hebrew). The other three centres developed modern
alphabets. Constantinople, the seat of the Eastern Orthodox Church, used mainly 7 vowel
alphabets (Koine Greek, Georgian, Cyrillic). Rome, the seat of Roman Christianity, used 5
letter alphabets (Latin, Romance alphabets). Alexandria, the seat of the Oriental Orthodox
Church, also used a 7 vowel alphabet (Coptic), a model also adopted in alphabets used by
other members of the Eastern Orthodoxy: e.g. Ethiopian, Eritrean, Jacobite, Armenian. The
third century Marcosians explicitly linked vowels with the source of sensible creation. This
perceived link with creation may well have been a rationale for including vowels amidst
consonants in alphabets.
Efforts to define the terms of Christianity in the 4th and 5th centuries reduced the five centres
to three orthodox churches: Roman Christianity with 5 vowels, Eastern Orthodox with 7
vowels and Oriental Orthodoxy, also with 7 vowels. In the centuries that followed, Rome
claimed supremacy over and then separated from Constantinople (Great Schism, 1054). Rome
also distanced itself from the Alexandrian school’s fascination with pre-creation, how
“created things were made after the image of things invisible.”133 Accordingly theories of
emanations and gnosticism became apocryphal texts, dismissed as heretical, suppressed or
simply forgotten.
The history of Western alphabets thus entails a series of paradoxes. On the surface, they arose
from a decision to translate the Hebrew Old Testament into Greek and from Greek into other
languages. 518 translations of the Old Testament have been made and another 2300 are
underway.134 These originated from an original text in Hebrew and to this extent the Western
alphabets of the translations are inspired by Judaism and a Judaeo-Christian tradition.
On the other hand, Hebrew followed an abjad model using only consonants for its gematria.
So too did Aramaic and Syriac, which were original languages of the New Testament and
were also adopted by the (Assyrian) Church of the East. By adding vowels, the Greek
alphabet enabled words to be spelled out in their entirety. Greek, as was noted, had its roots in
25
Aryan alphabets (Ionian, Saracen and Assyrian). Further translations of the Bible were made
via the Greek translation (Septuagint).135 In this sense, Western alphabets were a GrecoChristian development, independent of the Judaic, Semitic tradition.
Notwithstanding, their outer differences, the alphabets of these Abrahamic religions shared a
number of key letters. Five in particular were examined (e.g. A H V I A, table 1). In Sanskrit,
these began as two vowels, two semivowels and one aspirate. In the abjads, they became five
consonants. In the 5 and 7 vowel alphabets, they became 5 vowels. Hence, there are
underlying patterns in alphabets that need to be analysed. An understanding of these patterns
throws some light on differences between Northern and Southern alphabets in the region.
On closer study, it was shown that letters also function as symbols,136 often with cosmological
dimensions. The sequence and numbers of these letters vary in different alphabets. As a result,
each alphabet generates different names, and ultimately different cosmologies. We have
search engines for searching in different media. We need search engines that allow us to
search across media and across different scales.
The Wolff-Sapir hypothesis claimed that the “structure of a language affects the ways in
which its respective speakers conceptualize their world.”137 Our study suggests that these
differences begin at the level of alphabet letters and that each alphabet implies, some might
say imposes, its own structures, gematrias, and cosmologies. In this context, the old saying of
the translator as a traitor (traduttore tradittore), acquires a new dimension. Hence, each
translation into another alphabet entails different realities or at least different formulations of
reality, which cannot be reduced to a simple one-to-one correspondence. Needed are new
kinds of hypertextual links entailing digital reference rooms.
The final section explored implications for scholarship and interfaces. A first implication is
that no translation is sufficient onto itself. And yet a simple listing of various translations (cf.
table 4) would require that readers have mastered all the original scripts. So a combination of
comparative translations and transliterations are required. A layered approach to study was
outlined beginning with the text, its gematric equivalents in numbers, and visualizations
thereof in terms of geometrical diagrams. A six level approach was also outlined (table 6).
Memory institutions (libraries, archives, museums), have tended to separate texts from images
and numbers. Internet search engines continue this tradition. The examples in this paper show
that there are vital connections between letters, words, numbers and images. Current search
engines are designed to find a single item, assuming that we know its standard name. In the
emerging Internet of Things, the focus is increasingly on reification, point searches for
individual objects, rather than understanding how they are parts of systems, context, change
with time and have a history. Today’s hyperlinks have been limited to random one-way
personal connections.
Knowledge is about systematic connections. We need systems that allow us to see, study and
understand these inter-connections, not just Nelson’s deeply intertwingled138 nature of reality,
but the cumulative associations of mankind’s knowledge, in order to comprehend the big
picture in its fullest sense and wholeness.
26
Appendix 1.
Figure 8. Hebrew Letters and Zodiac, from Duret, 1613, 210.
27
Figure 9. Greek Zodiac and Alphabet.139
28
The Mansions of the Moon according to Ibn ‘Arabi (ca. 1200)
[name]
meaning
from
attribution
letter
1
Al
Sharatain
The Two
Signs
0° Aries
The First Intellect, the Pen
Hamza &
Alef
2
Al Butain
The Belly of
Aries
12°51'22"
Aries
The Universal Soul, the
Preserved Tablet
3
Al
Thurayya
The Many
Little Ones
25°42'51"
Aries
Universal Nature
4
Al
Dabaran
The
Follower
8°34'17"
Taurus
Universal Substance, prima
materia
5 Al Hak‘ah
The White
Spot
21°25'40"
Taurus
Universal Body
6 Al Han‘ah
The Mark
4°17'09"
Gemini
Form
Khâ (kh)
Divine
Attribute
Divine Essence
Hâ’
The One Who
(unstressed
Calls Forth
h)
‘Ayn
The Interior
Hâ
The Last
(stressed h)
Ghayn (gh) The Manifest
The Wise
7
Al Dhira
The forearm
17°08'34"
Gemini
The Throne
Qâf (q)
The AllEncompassing
8
Al Nathra
The Gap or
Crib
0° Cancer
The Footstool
Kâf (k)
The Grateful
9
Al Tarf
The Glance
12°51'22"
Cancer
The Self-Existing Ultimate
Sphere, the Starless Sky, the
Zodiacal Towers
Jîm (j)
The
Independent, the
Rich
The
Forehead
25°42'51"
Cancer
The Sky of the Fixed Stars,
the Sphere of the Stations, the
Sun of Paradise, the Roof of
Hell
Shîn (sh)
The Powerful
8°34'17"
Leo
The First Heaven, the Sphere
of Saturn, the Sky of the
Visited House and Lotus of
the Extreme Limit, the Abode
of Ibrahim (Abraham)
Yâ (y/î)
The Lord
12 Al Sarfah The Changer
21°25'40"
Leo
The Second Heaven, the
Sphere of Jupiter, the Abode
of Musa (Moses)
13 Al Awwa
The Barker
4°17'09"
Virgo
The Third Heaven, the Sphere
of Mars, the Abode of Harun
(Aaron)
Lâm (l)
The Victorious
14 Al Simak
The
Unarmed
17°08'34"
Virgo
The Fourth Heaven, the
Sphere of the Sun, the Abode
of Idris (Enoch, Hermes)
Nûn (n)
The Light
15
Al Ghafr
The Cover
0° Libra
The Fifth Heaven, the Sphere
of Venus, the Abode of Yusuf
(Joseph)
Râ (r)
16 Al Jubana
The Claws
12°51'22"
Libra
The Crown
of the
Forehead
25°42'51"
Libra
10 Al Jabhah
11 Al Zubrah
17
Iklil al
Jabhah
The Mane
Dâd
The Knowing
(stressed d)
The Form-Giver
The Sixth Heaven, the Sphere
Tâ
of Mercury, the Abode of ‘Isa
The Numberer
(stressed t)
(Jesus)
The Seventh Heaven, the
Sphere of the Moon, the
Abode of Adam
Dâl (d)
The Evident
29
Tâ
The Sphere of Ether, Meteors
(unstressed The Seizer
and Fire
t)
The Heart
8°34'17"
Scorpio
19 Al Shaula
The Sting
21°25'40"
Scorpio
Air
Zây (z)
The Living One
20 Al Na’am
The
Ostriches
4°17'09"
Sagittarius
Water
Sîn (s)
The Life-Giver
21 Al Baldah
The City
17°08'34"
Sagittarius
Earth
18
Al Kalb
Sâd
The Death-Giver
(stressed s)
22
Al Sa’d al
Dhabih
The Fortune
of the
Slayers
0°
Capricorn
Minerals and Metals
23
Al Sa’d al
Bula
The Fortune
of the
Swallower
12°51'22"
Capricorn
Plants
Thâ (th)
The Nourisher
24
Al Sa’d al
Su’ud
The Fortune
of the
Fortunate
25°42'51"
Capricorn
Animals
Dhâl (dh)
The Humbler
25
Al Sa’d al
Ahbiyah
The Fortune
of the
Hidden
8°34'17"
Aquarius
The Angels
Fâ (f)
The Strong
26
Al Fargh
al Mukdim
The First
Spout
21°25'40"
Aquarius
The Jinn
Bâ (b)
The Subtle
27
Al Fargh
al Thani
The Second
Spout
4°17'09"
Pisces
Humanity
Mîm (m)
The Uniter
28
Al Batn al The Belly of
Hut
the Fish
17°08'34"
Pisces
Zâ
The Precious
(stressed z)
The Hierarchy of the Degrees
The One Who
of Existence, not their
Wâw (w/û) Elevates by
manifestation
Degrees
Figure 10. Zodiac and 28 Letters of Arabic in Ibn Arabi.140
30
Appendix 2. Jesus Names
16 Names
Ee-Sho
Emmanuel
Esu Names
Gnostic Jesus
I H S Names
IC
IHS
IZ-ZU
Ie so us
Iesous Names
Iesoys Christos
Iesus Christos
Immanuel
Isa Names
Isha-putra
Isha Names
Ishan Names
Issah
JHS
J Names
JHshVH
JSH
Jasius
Je Names
Jesoo
Jesu Names
Jesus
Jesus Christ Names
Jesus the Radiant
Jesus the Shining
Jesus the Splendour
Jesus the Splendour incarnate
Ježíšek
Joshua Names
Jęsu
Lord Jesus, the Messiah
Son of God Names
Xradeshahryazd
YHShVH
YHShWH
Yahshua
Yahshuah
Yahushua
Yashua
Yeheshua
Yehoshua
Yeshu Names
Yeshu-Ziwa Names
Yeshua Names
Yesseus Mazareus Yessedekeus
Yisho
Yisho Ziwa(h)
Yisho ispixtan
Yiso
Yosho
Yosho ziwa(h)
Yus Asaph
iisusu
jIva
ΙΗΣΟΥΣ
Ιησους
Ιώτα, Ήτα, σίγμα, Όμικρον, ύψιλον, σίγμα
31
Acknowledgements
I am grateful to Dr. Alan Radley for reading a draft and offering advice for improvement. As
always, I am grateful to Professor Francisco Ficarra for supporting my work.
Notes
1
The ideas in this article concerning the alphabet are studied in more detail in the author’s Alphabets of Life,
Smolensk, 2014: cf. www.alphabetsoflife.com.
2
The Ancient Hebrew Alphabet Was the First Alphabet On Earth: http://yehweh.org/the-ancient-hebrewalphabet-was-the-first-alphabet-on-earth; cf. The English Alphabet Was Shaped by Hebrews Only:
http://yehweh.org/profiles/blogs/english-alphabet-shaped-by
This tradition also tends to make Western religions derivatives of Jewish: e.g. What Kind of Jew are You?:
http://thuleanperspective.files.wordpress.com/2013/06/nws9gtv.png
3
John Halverson, Havelock on Greek Orality and Literacy, Journal of the History of Ideas, Vol. 53, No. 1 (Jan. Mar., 1992), pp. 148- 163:
http://www.jstor.org/discover/10.2307/2709915?sid=21105539146831&uid=2129&uid=2&uid=4&uid=70&uid
=3738736 . cf. Eric A. Havelock, Preface to Plato, Harvard University Press: Cambridge, Mass., 1963).
4
Homer: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Homer
5
Plato, 428/427 or 424/423[b] – 348/347 BCE: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Plato
6
The earliest Greek Alphabet: http://www.schoyencollection.com/palaeography-collection-introduction/earlywriting-introduction/first-alphabets/earliest-greek-alphabet-ms-108
7
Greek Ionic alphabet of Miletus, which Athens adopted in 403 bc:
http://www.arapacana.com/glossary/misc/letters.html
8
Duret, 1613, 366: Autre Alphabet Phoenicien ou Ionique
9
Duret, 1613, 366: Premier alphabet Phoenicien selon Theseus Ambrosius, which in turn is based on Assyrium.
Cf. Virga Aurea: http://www.levity.com/alchemy/virga_aurea.html
10
Greco-Roman: http://ramosworld.weebly.com/uploads/1/1/3/9/11393097/10.1.1.pdf
11
The characterization of Hebrew as a consonantal abjad without vowels is a modern view. Historically, there
were different configurations. Syriac 1, equated with Hebrew, had only consonants. Syriacum had the same
consonants followed by 5 vowels at the end (http://dfgviewer.de/show/?set%5Bimage%5D=23&set%5Bzoom%5D=default&set%5Bdebug%5D=0&set%5Bdouble%5
D=0&set%5Bmets%5D=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.zvdd.de%2Fdms%2Fmetsresolver%2F%3FPPN%3DPPN5720
72716). Syriaque and old Samaritan, also called Hebraicum Antiquum linked the five vowels (a e i o v) with
letter 1 , aleph, and the five aspirated vowels (a e i o u) with letter 16, Hain
(http://gallica.bnf.fr/ark:/12148/bpt6k54507r/f25.zoom).
12
Wiki lists 5 principal alphabets: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_writing_systems :
Latin, Cyrillic (& Latin), Greek, Georgian, Armenian. Omniglot lists 54:
http://www.omniglot.com/writing/alphabets.htm
13
Wycliffe, BTT: http://www.wycliffe.net/BTT.html
14
Septuagint: http://www.ecclesia.org/truth/septuagint.html
15
The same Ptolemy II Philadelphus (309–246 B.C.) who commissioned the Septuagint sent an emissary to the
court of emperor Ashoka in Patna and there appear to have been Indian missionaries in Alexandria. Indeed :
Will Durant, noting that the Emperor Ashoka sent missionaries, not only to elsewhere in India and to Sri
Lanka, but to Syria, Egypt and Greece, speculated in the 1930s that they may have helped prepare the
ground for Christian teaching.
See: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Buddhism_and_the_Roman_world:
16
Royal chronology of India: http://www.newdharma.org/royal_chron.htm
17
Philo: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Philo
18
Therapeutae: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Therapeutae
19
The Jewish historian, Josephus also cited the Septuagint: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Josephus
20
Wycliffe: http://www.wycliffe.net/BTT.html
21
New Testament:
"And they were all amazed and marveled, saying one to another, Behold, are not all these which speak
Galileans? And how hear we every man in our own tongue, wherein we were born? Parthians, and
Medes, and Elamites, and the dwellers in Mesopotamia, and in Judaea, and Cappadocia, in Pontus, and
Asia, Phrygia, and Pamphylia, in Egypt, and in the parts of Libya about Cyrene, and strangers of Rome,
32
Jews and proselytes, Cretes and Arabians, we do hear them speak in our tongues the wonderful works of
God. " -- Acts 2:7-11.
22
Patriarchate of Alexandria: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Christianity_in_Egypt :
Egyptian Christians believe that the Patriarchate of Alexandria was founded by Mark the Evangelist
around AD 33, but little is known about how Christianity entered Egypt.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Christianity_in_Egypt
23
Alexandrian theologians include Clement of Alexandria (c. 150 – c. 215 A.D.): Clement of Alexndria:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Clement_of_Alexandria
Origen (184/185 – 253/254 A.D.): Origen: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Origen
24
Ophites: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ophites
25
Basilides: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Basilides
26
Marcosians: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Marcosians
Marcus:
Of Marcus himself we know nothing beyond the fact that he was one of the earlier pupils of Valentinus,
or at any rate belonged to the earlier circle of Valentinian ideas. His date is vaguely placed somewhere
about the middle of the second century; he is said to have taught in Asia Minor, and Jerome, two
hundred years afterwards, states that he was an Egyptian.
27
Theory of the Marcosians:
http://biblehub.com/library/irenaeus/against_heresies/chapter_xvii_the_theory_of_the.htm
28
Plotinus: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Plotinus
29
Cyril of Alexandria: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cyril_of_Alexandria
30
Alexandria was the also the birthplace of Scythianus who made a trip to India (c. 50 A.D.) and then returned
and taught Terebinthus who passed the ideas on to an old woman, who taught Corbicius, and finally Mani, who
developed these ideas in an Eastern form of gnosticism: Manichaeanism.
31
Gnosticism: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gnosticism
32
In the Kabbalah, the various levels of pre-creation via the Sephiroth were studied at length.
33
Council of Constantinople:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/First_Council_of_Constantinople#Dispute_concerning_the_third_canon
34
Oriental Orthodoxy: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oriental_Orthodoxy
35
Essenes: https://lostchristianity.wordpress.com/2012/06/03/jesus-was-an-essene-and-nazareth-did-not-exist/
36 Saint Paul: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Paul_the_Apostle; New Testament: https://carm.org/new-testamentbooks
37
Saint Peter: http://biblehub.com/galatians/2-8.htm
38
Saint Paul: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Paul_the_Apostle
39
Saint Luke, Acts 11-26: http://biblehub.com/acts/11-26.htm
40
Syrian Orthodox Church, Antioch: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Syriac_Orthodox_Church
41
Edessa (Urfa, Urhoy, Roha, modern Sanliurfa) and Haran are associated with the Old Testament patriarch,
Abraham, who was born and immolated there. Edessa was an important centre of the Essenes and there were
connections with both early Christianity and Saint Thomas Christians in Kerala. In 351 A.D., when Nisibis fell
to the Persians, many of its scholars moved to Edessa. In 489 A.D., as a result of the Nestorian schism, the
school of Edessa was closed and moved back to Nisibis. So Edessa which began with Indian influences on early
Christianity, became a source of Christian (Nestorian) ideas affecting the Church of the East.
Cf. Abraham’s Journey: http://www.originofnations.org/books,%20papers/maps/patriarchs.jpg
Urhoy became the focus of Christianity in the Semitic-Speaking world :
https://books.google.nl/books?id=9i8L8qxSsM4C&pg=PA243&lpg=PA243&dq=melkite+alphabet&source=bl&
ots=P4iA5ftudJ&sig=HNC9tXq6xh9U4BGNufWF10vAx6s&hl=en&sa=X&ei=2Sz8VJ21ItGy7Qb2nYCYBQ&
ved=0CDEQ6AEwBTgK#v=onepage&q=melkite%20alphabet&f=false
Letters of St. Thomas the Apostle to Edessa from India. Read more: http://www.nasrani.net/2008/09/20/letter-ofst-thomas-the-apostle-to-edessa-from-india/#ixzz3HEetbODM
Nisibis:http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/School_of_Nisibis
42
Church of Antioch: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Church_of_Antioch
43
Orthodox Church: http://orthodoxwiki.org/Orthodox_Church
44
Eastern Orthodox Church: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eastern_Orthodox_Church
45
Council of Chalcedon: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Council_of_Chalcedon
46
Jesus was an Essene: https://lostchristianity.wordpress.com/2012/06/03/jesus-was-an-essene-and-nazareth-didnot-exist/
33
47
Saint James the Just: http://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/299860/Saint-James :
Three years after Paul’s conversion, James was an important leader in the Jerusalem church (Galatians
1:18–19), where he assumed even more significance after King Herod Agrippa I of Judaea in about ad
44 beheaded the Apostle St. James, son of Zebedee, and after Peter fled from Jerusalem (Acts 12:1–17).
48
Council of Jerusalem: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Council_of_Jerusalem:
The council decided that Gentile converts to Christianity were not obligated to keep most of the Law of
Moses, including the rules concerning circumcision of males.
49
Christianity: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Christianity_and_Judaism
50
Karma Yoga: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Karma_yoga
51
Bhakti Yoga: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bhakti_yoga
52
Metropolitan of Jerusalem: http://orthodoxwiki.org/Malankara_Jacobite_Syriac_Orthodox_Church
53
Jerusalem: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Council_of_Chalcedon
54
Saint Paul: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Paul_the_Apostle
55
Constantine: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Constantine_the_Great_and_Christianity
56
Rome: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/First_Council_of_Constantinople#Dispute_concerning_the_third_canon
57
Split of early Christianity and Judaism: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Split_of_early_Christianity_and_Judaism
58
Semitic:http://s155239215.onlinehome.us/turkic/31Alphabet/TaylorIsaakAlphabetSemiticScheme_TurkicP92R
1.gif
59
Numbers as in Fry, Pantographia:
http://archive.org/stream/pantographiacont00fryeiala#page/28/mode/2up/search/chaldean
60
This was a version of Indian alphabet as one of the 72 magic alphabets listed in the Virga Aurea (1616):
http://www.levity.com/alchemy/virga_aurea.html
61
The Numerical Value: http://numerical19.com/category_numerical_value.html
62
Arabic has 17 basic shapes. Cf. http://www.fromoldbooks.org/Fry-Pantographia/pages/p004/;
63
Abjad is so-called because it follows the sequence of letters A B J D. See the Numerical value as above:
http://numerical19.com/category_numerical_value.html
64
Teth: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Theta
65
Solar Wheel: http://www.wizardstarot.com/picts/sun-wheel.jpg
66
Solar Wheel: http://www.favosity.com/uploads/6/9/7/2/6972588/3856591.jpg
67
Alphabetum seu potius Syllabarium Chaldearum:
http://rarebooks.filosofia.sns.it/index.php?id=30&workId=2&L=0&n=52
68
North Semitic and South Semitic Alphabets:
http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_WzpPc1LwUrM/S9vH6g6XljI/AAAAAAAAAcs/G1DtMQli_A8/s1600/16evolofalph
abets100Percent.jpg; http://www.hallelu-yah.nl/semitic-languages-tree.gif;
http://s155239215.onlinehome.us/turkic/31Alphabet/TaylorIsaakAlphabetSemiticScheme_TurkicP92R1.gif
69
Origin of the Arabic Alphabet: http://www.examiner.com/article/the-origin-of-the-arabic-alphabet
70
Chinese Zodiac: https://2012project12.files.wordpress.com/2011/02/chinese-zodiac.jpg?w=296&h=300
71
Chinese Huang Ti Chi: http://www.creationism.org/csshs/v07n4p24.htm
72
Digamma: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Digamma
Zeta: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zeta
73
Old Church Slavonic: http://kodeks.uni-bamberg.de/aksl/Schrift/AkslAlphabet.htm
74
Early Cyrillic: http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/8/88/Early_cyrillic_alphabet.png
75
It is noteworthy that the Arabic term 'abjadiyyah 'arabiyyah (‫ )ةَّ جي جب بِعألا ةَّ ج دِ جَ بَْألا‬typically entails the alfabai
sequence: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Arabic_alphabet
76
Greek Alphabet and Zodiac:
http://ic.pics.livejournal.com/donnightman/69905628/247330/247330_original.jpg
77
Theta: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Theta
78
Monograms in a –c: http://www.sacred-texts.com/sro/rrm/img/25700.jpg
79
IHS: http://www.daidaika.net/ihs%20ais%20marine%20traffic/
80
HIS logo: https://rfonseca11.files.wordpress.com/2010/11/ihs20logo1.jpg
81
Monograms in a –c: http://www.sacred-texts.com/sro/rrm/img/25700.jpg
82
HIS logo: https://rfonseca11.files.wordpress.com/2010/11/ihs20logo1.jpg
83
IHS Cross: http://www.seiyaku.com/images/cross/ihs-stone-monogram-large.jpg
84
Ksi in Old Slavic Alphabet: http://st.free-lance.ru/users/IceTeam/upload/f_4804c30e36ebe.gif
85
Chi: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chi_(letter)
86
Monogram of Christ: http://www.jesuswalk.com/christian-symbols/images/monogram-ofchrist384x389vatican.jpg
87
Anastasis: http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/3/33/Anastasis_Pio_Christiano_Inv31525.jpg
34
88
I X: http://jesus8880.com/chapters/gematria/images/ix-sign-1000.gif
Theta and Helios: http://jesus8880.com/chapters/gematria/theta-helios-318.htm
90
Jesus and Circumference 8880: http://www.jesus8880.com/chapters/gematria/vesica-pisces.htm
91
IHS Cross: http://www.seiyaku.com/images/cross/ihs-stone-monogram-large.jpg
92
Religious Symbols: http://kroraina.com/pb_lang/FIG2.gif
93
Kabbalah: http://www.slideshare.net/star3salonica/hebrew-arabic-greek-alphabet-of-the-kabbalah
94
Ibid. Kabbalah: http://www.slideshare.net/star3salonica/hebrew-arabic-greek-alphabet-of-the-kabbalah
95
Sarcophagus: http://www.rome101.com/Topics/Christian/Magician/pix/Vat28591_0609_4425LM_L.JPG
96
666: http://theyfly.com/gaia/666.htm
97
Monograms: http://www.christiansymbols.net/images_monograms/monogram_page1.png
98
Pax: https://www.gravemarkers24.com/symbol%20pax.jpg
99
IHS: http://farm6.staticflickr.com/5520/11822264476_5d5e853007_c.jpg
100
Ophites: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ophites
101
Ibid. Ophites: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ophites
102
Siva Buddhism: http://www.hinduwebsite.com/history/indChrist/ophis.asp
103
IC – XC Iota Sigma – Chi Sigma: http://www.synaxis.info/oldrite/0_oldbelief/instructional_eng/cross_symbolism.html
The top bar of the Cross is the title-board which Pilate ordered to be hung in mockery over Christ's
head. On this board was inscribed: "Jesus of Nazareth, King of the Jews" in Hebrew, Greek and Latin
(abbreviated to the Greek initials 'INBI', or the Latin initials 'INRI' in the Western tradition). This has
been replaced with the Christian inscription: "King of Glory" (Slavonic: Царь славы), placed below the
knees of the angels. [Note that while the use of the inscription 'І.Н.Ц.І.' does not usually appear in the
Russian tradition, examples of its occurrence are occasionally found on newer Russian Crosses.]
On the title-board is inscribed the initials 'IC XC', being the first and last letters of Christ's name in
Greek (Greek: Iisous Khristos; Old Rite Slavonic: Ісоусъ Христосъ; New Rite Slavonic: Іисусъ
Христосъ).
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IX: The Sign of Christ: http://jesus8880.com/chapters/gematria/ix-sign.htm
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The initials of his name also happen to be Greek Numerals. The Attic Greek Numeral "I" has
a value of "1" and the Numeral "X" has a value of "1,000." The product of the two numerals is
therefore = 1000 units. If the circle holding his sign is assigned a circumference of 1,000
units, the diameter of the circle by calculation is 318 units, which is the gematria value of
Helios ('), the Sun. This is just one of the many examples you will find in this book of
how the Greeks used gematria to equate Jesus Christ with the Sun. The sign of Jesus Christ
has decorated Christian religious objects and churches throughout the world from the 1st
century to the present.
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Roman Catholic Bible Wheel: http://www.biblewheel.com/blog/wpcontent/uploads/2014/10/RomanCatholicBibleWheelChiRho.gif
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Tetragrammaton: http://bible.tmtm.com/wiki/LORD :
It was in connection with magic that the Tetragrammaton was introduced into the magic papyri and, in
all probability, into the writings of the Church Fathers, these two sources containing the following
forms, written in Greek letters: (1) "Iaoouee," "Iaoue," "Iabe,"; (2) "Iao," "Iaho," "Iae"; (3) "Aia"; (4)
"Ia." It is evident that (1) represents ‫( אהיה‬3) ‫( יהו‬2) ‫ יהוה‬and (4) ‫יה‬. The three forms quoted under (1) are
merely three ways of writing the same word, though "Iabe" is designated as the Samaritan
pronunciation.
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Syriacum: http://dfgviewer.de/show/?set%5Bimage%5D=21&set%5Bzoom%5D=default&set%5Bdebug%5D=0&set%5Bdouble%5
D=0&set%5Bmets%5D=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.zvdd.de%2Fdms%2Fmetsresolver%2F%3FPPN%3DPPN5720
72716
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5 Tribes: http://www.angelfire.com/journal/cathbodua/Ogham.html
109
Jesus Names: http://www.psyche.com/psyche/lex/shaitan.html
110
Strong’s Concordance: http://biblehub.com/greek/2424.htm
111
Issa: http://www.rickrichards.com/jc/JesusComment2.html
But Issa/Ieshuah is not indeed Krishna, as his name is taken directly from that of Ishvara, "the Lord of
the Universe" (Ish-vara, in Skt.). Ishvara — pronounced "Ishwar" — is also called Ishva ("Lord"),
pronounced "Ishwa". The name of Ieshua or Ioshuah means "Saviour" in Hebrew, and is taken directly
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from the above Sanskrit term, which also has this acception, particularly when applied to Vishnu and to
Shiva. Ishvara (Ishwar) is widely worshipped in the Far East, being also called Isha (or Ishana) in India,
Issara in Pali, Isuan in Thai, Jizu (or Jizai) in Japanese, and so on.
In turn, Issa (or Issi) is a corrupted form of the Skt. Rishi (or Riksha). Issa is how the Muslims call Jesus
Christ, whom they acknowledge as a sort of saint. The Rishis are the "Sages" or "Seers" who revealed
the Vedas (Hindu evangels) to the world. They date from Vedic times in India, being far older than the
times of Christ, and even of Israel as a Biblical nation in Palestine. The Rishis are widely worshipped in
the Far East, whence their cult passed to the Near Orient and, thence, through Alexandria, into Greece
and Rome.
112
Name of Jesus, Eesa: http://www.answering-christianity.com/name_of_jesus.htm
Cf. Sanskrit: ISa m. the month Asvina see {iSa} ; a son of the third Manu ; a servant of Siva:
http://www.sanskrit-lexicon.uni-koeln.de/cgi-bin/tamil/recherche
114
Ishan:
https://books.google.nl/books?id=WOQ5bucsDyAC&pg=PA358&lpg=PA358&dq=ishani+jesus&source=bl&ot
s=oKlYTX0KBV&sig=vOULH1MsIM3Spnv4RGcRuiMMFEw&hl=en&sa=X&ei=OOIDVfCQBqXa7gaUu4E
g&ved=0CD8Q6AEwBg#v=onepage&q=ishani%20jesus&f=false
115
Jesus (name): http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jesus_(name)
116
Gematria of Isa: http://www.gematrix.org/?word=isa
117
Gematria of Eesa: http://dev.skynetcoding.com/zulunation/wp-content/uploads/2014/04/image043.jpg
118
Gematria of Joshua: http://www.gematrix.org/?word=joshua
119
Cosmos: : ‫יקום‬, ‫ֹוסמֹוס‬, ‫בְּ ִריאָ ה‬
120
Hebrew cosmos:
http://www.gematrix.org/?word=pure%20love%20is%20the%20cohesive%20power%20of%20the%20cosmos
121
Christianity: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Christianity
122
Body of Aletheia (Truth) in Marcus: http://www.sacred-texts.com/gno/fff/fff54.htm
Letter 1 - Letter 24 Terms
Alpha – Omega
Head
Letter 2 - Letter 23 Terms
Beta - Psi
Neck
Letter 3 - Letter 22 Terms
Gamma - Chi
Shoulders
Letter 4 - Letter 21 Terms
Delta - Phi
Breast
Letter 5 - Letter 20 Terms
Epsilon - Upsilon
Diaphragm
Letter 6 - Letter 19 Terms
Zeta - Tau
Stomach
Letter 7 - Letter 18 Terms
Eta - Sigma
Private Parts
Letter 8 - Letter 17 Terms
Theta - Rho
Thighs
Letter 9 - Letter 16 Terms
Iota - Pi
Knees
Letter 10 - Letter 15 Terms
Kappa - Omicron
Legs
Letter 11 - Letter 14 Terms
Lambda - Xi
Ankles
Letter 12 - Letter 13 Terms
Mu - Nu
Feet
It is striking that the same basic ordering, namely of linking the first with the last, the second with the
penulitmate etc. can be traced back to Old Slavic runes. Hence, the ordering system of the Marcosians harks
back to something much older. Cf. http://www.e-reading.club/bookreader.php/148041/Karlsson__Runy_i_nordicheskaya_magiya.html
123
Marcosians: http://www.sacred-texts.com/gno/fff/fff54.htm
124
Arthur O. Lovejoy, The Great Chain of Being: A Study of the History of an Idea, Cambridge, Massachusetts:
Harvard University Press, 1936, 1964. Cf. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Great_chain_of_being
125
Ibn Arabi: http://www.yeatsvision.com/mansions.html
126
Christ Definitions: http://www.newadvent.org/cathen/10489b.htm
127
Full Text Hebrew/Greek Bible Gematria Database:
http://www.biblewheel.com//GR/GR_Database.php?Gem_Num=234
128
Heart of Wisdom: http://www.biblewheel.com//GR/GR_37.php
129
A full research tool would have the 10 levels of knowledge as outlined in the SUMS (system for Universal
Media Searching) prototype. Cf. the author’s Access, Claims and Quality on the Internet – Future challenges ,
Progress in Informatics, Tokyo, no. 2, November 2005, pp. 17-40.
130
Anastasis: http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Anastasis_Pio_Christiano_Inv31525.jpg
131
For another formulation of this vision, see: Alan Stuart Radley, Self as Computer. Blueprints, visions and
Dreams of Technopia, Blackpool, 2015.
132
David Diringer, The Alphabet: A Key to the History of Mankind, New York: Philosophical Library, 1948, p.
341.
113
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133
Theory of the Marcosians:
http://biblehub.com/library/irenaeus/against_heresies/chapter_xvii_the_theory_of_the.htm
134
Bible Translations: https://www.wycliffe.org/about/why
135
A rare exception was the Peshitta (200 A.D.), a translation directly from the Hebrew into Syriac:
http://www.wycliffe.net/BTT.html
136
e.g. Chi Rho can be two letters and also symbols for Christ or Pax).
137
Linguistic Relativity: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Linguistic_relativity
138
Intertwingularity: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Intertwingularity
139
Zodiac and Greek Alphabet:
http://ic.pics.livejournal.com/donnightman/69905628/247330/247330_original.jpg
140
Ibn Arabi: http://www.yeatsvision.com/mansions.html
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