Author & Researcher in the Original Gematria and the Precursor to the Tree of Life
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Introduction.
The bible is stuffed with apparently unexplained metaphors, which is one of the reasons why people have speculated over it for thousands of years; in the seeming absence of any type of clarification people have delighted in putting forward their own. In the case of the fruit of the Tree of Knowledge, people have suggested that its a metaphor for the first nookie, or that the fruit gave intelligence to humans that separated them from animals, but these are just guesses.
Yet it is possible to discover what the fruit really was with gematria. Gematria is the art of assigning numerical values to letters so that words can be calculated as part of a mathematical sum. But to discover the secret level of meaning (the ‘sod’[1]) of the bible, you have to use the right gematria. This has (until relatively recently) always been a carefully guarded secret however, so the chances are that you’ve never heard of it before.
The gematria of the Torah was an intrinsic part of the Merkabah[2], but it became a forbidden topic of conversation for Jewish people after the second century C.E. Judah the Patriarch (who edited the Mishnah) banned all discussion of the Merkabah[3] and so the gematria values published in the Talmud and the Mishnah are wrong for the Torah; infact they are a deliberate blind intended to throw eager seekers of the Torah’s hidden level of meaning off the scent.
Academics today generally hold any sort of gematria in disrepute, having lazily assessed the wrong numerical values and inevitably found them wanting, but to date there has been no study of the gematria of the Merkabah, and therefore scholars have nothing to say on the matter. Nevertheless there have been better scholars that believe there is gematria in the bible[4], and they trace the origins of the practice to Mesopotamia where it was first used with the cuneiform script. The gematria of the Merkabah was first discovered in the last century by the self styled occult magician ‘Aleister Crowley’ and by myself in 2014 after a careful study of the Zohar’s ‘Book of Concealed Mystery’ which contains a riddle – the solving of which reveals the Seven Palaces[5]. This diagram is an alpha-numeric logo-graphic arrangement. It contains the letters of the Hebrew alphabet assigned to Palaces (similar to sephiroth) and Paths, and it allows us to decipher the hidden gematria of the Merkabah [6]:
א 1 ב 2 ג 3 ש 3 ד 4 ת 4 ה 5 ו 6 ז 7 ח 8 ט 9 י 10 כ 20 ל 30 מ 40 נ 50 ס 60 ע 70 פ 80 צ 90 ק 100 ר 200
Main.
To discover the identity of the fruit of the Tree of Knowledge we need to consult בְּרֵאשִׁ֖ית (Genesis) 3:3. You can check the following calculations by following the link, and even if you don’t know how to read or speak hebrew you can still study the gematria of the Torah using the modern interlinear feature. Not to sound too much like the mouse in Disney’s Ratatouille – but everyone can count. You need to memorize the 22 letters and numbers above, and that’s it! You’re ready to roll. Not too difficult, is it?
“And the fruit of the tree which in the middle of the garden”. – Genesis 3:3
ומפרי העץ אשר בתוך ־ הגן
In my experience of the calculating art, typically the use of the words such as בְּתוֹךְ ‘middle’ or ‘’between’[7] denotes the function of division by 2 of the following noun, which in this case is הגן ‘garden’ 58. Therefore: 58 / 2 = 29 and when we add this to ומפרי ‘and the fruit’ 336 results in 365 (days in a year).
In the rest of the verse Eve says to the serpent “God has said, ‘You shall not eat from it or touch it, or you will die.’” This is couched in mathematical metaphor with ‘eating’ being ‘to subtract’ from the number while just ‘touching’ is ‘to add’ to the number. But in any case the prohibition is against altering the 365 day year in any form because the light of days was divinely decreed to fall to earth. The garden of Eden was situated above the earth in a realm that was before (and after) manifestation on the cosmos of the Seven Palaces. Therefore when Adam and Eve ate the fruit of the Tree of Knowledge they had to descend with the light of days to earth, and all beings that descended to earth were subject to the cycle of death and reincarnation.
When הָֽאִשָּׁ֡ה ‘the woman’ 14 and לְאִישָׁ֛הּ ‘to the man’ 49 is subtracted from 365 (through the eating of the fruit in 3:6) it results in 302, which when converted from base 60 to decimal[8] = 182. 182 which is the length of Summer and the sum of the name of Jacob[9].
365 – 45 אדם (Adam) is 320 עֵירֹ֥ם ‘naked’, a state which Adam finds himself in Genesis 3:10. Conversion of 320 from base 60 to decimal gives 200 which is עֵֽינֵיכֶ֑ם ‘your eyes’ 200 in Genesis 3:5, where the serpent promises Eve that their eyes shall be opened should they eat the fruit.
They are כֵּֽאלֹהִ֔ים ‘as gods’ in the sense that have become the personifications of the Summer, and they know ט֥וֹב ‘good’ 17 + וָרָֽע ‘and evil’ 276 = 293 because their eyes have been opened. Whereas in their unenlightened state, they knew only God because 293 – 200 = 93 = 31 אל x 3, they have gained the light of the Sun (the Resh 200).
Conclusion.
Unlike other numerical systems, the gematria of the Merkabah actually works to decipher the hidden meanings of the Tanakh (Old Testament). Therefore it is something of a Black Swan in today’s world because it is surprising and completely unlooked for, yet capable of causing a deep and systematic change in the way that people of all Abrahamic religions understand the bible.
In the case of the gospels, it can be unambiguously shown that the Book of John used the gematria of the Merkabah transposed over to the Greek script, so it is not something that is confined to Jewish books but affects Christians and Muslims too. The NT shows that Jesus was 12 hours worth of daylight!
Until relatively recently it could not have been appreciated just how many verses of the Tanakh and the NT were not intended to be read, but counted instead. Frequently the results thrown up by the Merkabah argue against reading the open text of the bible in a literal fashion; either as a historical document or a collection of stories about the ancestors of the Jewish people, because the characters in these stories (including Abraham, Sarah, Jacob, Joseph and Jesus) appear as personifications of natural forces or periods of time.
It may seem ironic, but the most widely read book in the world of all time, is the most misunderstood and misinterpreted. The scribal authors were discussing ethics, sociology, duty, good and evil, and asking questions such as ‘what happens after we die’? Does God actually give a shit? How should we live and what is brotherhood and sisterhood all about? What does ‘family’ really mean? And at the same time they were intellectually curious men who were fascinated with the revolutions of the stars and the orbits of the planets at a time when no-one could prove what they were but everyone had a theory…
I think that still deeply resonates with most people, because if we’re all completely honest – there’s a lot of stuff like that; no-one can prove what happens after you die or if there’s a quantum God or if we get reincarnated. So I actually find the Bible more interesting and instructive than before when I did read the thing more literally and didn’t have the keys to read it properly.
What people read into the bible tells us something about ourselves, but after 2,000 years of such self-absorption, isn’t it time that we as a species finally discovered what the ancients were actually saying?
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There is a limit to how much I can write in a blog, but if you have found this essay interesting you may enjoy my book ‘Chariot’ which is available on Amazon. https://www.amazon.com/Chariot-Bethsheba-Ashe/dp/1530524431/
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[1] Strong’s definition: “assembly, counsel, inward, secret counsel.
From yacad; a session, i.e. Company of persons (in close deliberation); by implication, intimacy, consultation, a secret – assembly, consel, inward, secret (counsel)”:
http://biblehub.com/strongs/hebrew/5475.htm
[2] Reader’s Guide to Judaism, by Sarah Pessin, page 457: https://tinyurl.com/ycb6gcca
[3] The Faces of the Chariot: Early Jewish Responses to Ezekiel’s Vision, by David Joel Halperin, page 14:
https://tinyurl.com/ybwslfqa
[4] Lieberman concludes that, given the employment of numerological techniques before and during the composition of the Hebrew Bible, it is entirely possible that Gematria was employed in the biblical text itself, encoding hidden messages. A Mesopotamian Background for the So-Called Aggadic ‘Measures’ of Biblical Hermeneutics?, by Stephen J. Lieberman, Hebrew Union College AnnualVol. 58 (1987), pp. 157-225:
https://www.jstor.org/stable/23508256
[5] The Seven Palaces are at the core of Merkabah literature. Kabbalah came about largely in response to the prohibition upon free study of the Merkabah, and the Seven Palaces was derived into the Tree of Life so that students could discuss the Merkabah in an enciphered fashion.
http://bethshebaashe.com/conformations-tree-life
[6] A mathematical analysis of the Seven Palaces shows an interplay of numbers upon each of the faces, with each depending on the others for support and existence, and conveys a sublime insight into the interdependent functioning of the cosmos as well as providing a checksum for the gematria. See the link above for an illustration of the Seven Palaces.
The reason why there are two incidences of the value 3 (gimel and shin) and 4 (daleth and tav) is because the number system is logo-graphically keyed to the closed cosmological system of the Seven Palaces and was not constructed as an open number system. With all the letters in the correct placement then the order of the alphabet sums to 217:
1 + 2 + 3 + 3 + 4 + 4 + 5 + 6 + 7 + 8 + 9 + 10 + 11 + 12 + 13 + 14 + 15 + 16 + 17 + 18 + 19 + 20 = 217.
– which was of great significance to the ancients being:
1. אל – ‘El’ (31) x 7 = 217.
2. The gematria of the Seven Palaces = 217; [Beth (2) + Aleph (1) + Aleph (1) + Resh (200) + Dalet (4) + Dalet (4) + Heh (5)].
3. The gematria of the Holy of Holies = 217; [Beth (2) + Gimel (3) + Heh (5) + Zayin (7) + Resh (200)].
Please scroll to the bottom of the page to see a chart illustrating how the gematria of the Merkabah’s Paleohebrew script was wrongly converted into the ‘Standard gematria’ of the Ashuri (square) script, and thus hidden from general discovery:
http://bethshebaashe.com/sarah-and-abraham
[7] If something or some person is “between” בֵּ֣ין some other thing or person then the scribe is trying to tell you to halve the value of whatever is between.
For instance: ויבא בין ׀ מחנה מצרים ובין מחנה ישראל ויהי הענן והחשך ויאר את־הלילה ולא־קרב זה אל־זה כל־הלילה
“So it came between the camp (103) of Egypt (380) and the camp (103) of Israel (244); and there was ‘the cloud and darkness’ (217), it lightened (217) ‘ath’ the night (80). Thus the one did not come near the other all night (80)”. – Exodus 14:20.
In this sum we begin by dividing Egypt and Israel in two – ‘getting between’ them:
Egypt 380 / 2 = 190
Israel 244 / 2 = 122.
190 + 122 + 217 ‘the cloud and the darkness’ + 217 ‘it lightened’ – 80 ‘the night’ = 666.
[8] In some texts of the bible, it is common for Hebrew scribes to employ this type of conversion. Modern people still use base 60 for time measurement, thus 3:02 minutes (base 60) is 182 seconds (decimal). It was originally invented by the Babylonians:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Babylonian_numerals
[9] The seasonal character of Esau and Jacob as the personifications of Winter and Summer start at Genesis 25:27:
ויגדלו הנערים ויהי עשו איש ידע ציד איש שדה ויעקב איש תם ישב אהלים
“When the boys grew up, Esau(79) became a skillful hunter (104), a man(14) of the field(12), but Jacob(182) was a peaceful man, living in tents(26).”
Esau 79 + hunter 104 = 183
Jacob = 182
183 + 182 = 365 (days in a year)
Man + Field = 26
Tents = 26
26 + 26 = 52 (weeks in a year).
The origin of the story is Mesopotamian – typological to the Myth of Emesh and Enten (The Debate between Winter and Summer) which was recorded during the mid to late 3rd millennium BC.
Can Gematria tell us when the Heavens and the Earth were created according to Genesis 1:1? Actually – yes it can!The Gematria of the Merkabah[1] has long been hidden and secret yet it is the only gematria that actually works with the Tanakh.
בראשית ברא אלהים את השמים ואת הארץ
In the beginning (220) created (203) Elohim (86) ath (+) The Heavens (98) vath (and +) The Earth (296).
220 + 86 + 98 + 296 = 700.
יָמִ֖ים is the word for ‘days’ (100).
700 = 100 x 7 = The Seven Days of Creation.
We can cross reference this sum in other books of the Torah:
Abraham (248) + Isaac (208) + Israel (244) = 700.
When a biblical scribe refers to the God of ‘Abraham, Isaac and Israel’ he is specifically revering the God of Creation by his numerical art. Scribal descriptions of the Ark of the Covenant are also carefully crafted to sum to 700. The exegesis of the Merkabah in respect of Exodus 25:10-11 is as follows:
אֲר֖וֹן = Ark = from ‘אָרָה’ meaning ‘to pick’ [fruit] or ‘to gather’ [myrrh].
עֲצֵ֣י = wood 170
שִׁטִּ֑ים = acacia 62
זָהָ֣ב = Gold 14
טָה֔וֹר = Pure 220.
According to the text, the ‘pure gold’ is overlaid both inside and outside the Ark, therefore we use the sum for ‘pure gold’ twice:
Wood 170 + Acacia 62 + (Pure 220 x 2) + (Gold 14 x 2) = 700.
Returning to Genesis 1:1 however; to find out when the heavens and the earth were created we must simply add ‘Elohim’, ‘the Heavens’ and ‘The Earth’ together to discover when[2] the creation happened.
As Dr. Michael Heiser notes, the first word of Genesis ‘Bereshith’ בְּרֵאשִׁ֖ית can be translated as ‘when‘ as well as ‘in the Beginning’. When we read the first word as ‘when‘ then the gematria of the text answers the question: When was the heavens and the earth created?
Elohim 86 + the Heavens 98 + the Earth 296 = 480.
Professor David Miano[3] suggests that 480 years represents an ‘Era’ and he notes that biblical writers appear to have written or adjusted their open chronology to fit an idealized period of time:
45 years for the Exodus and Conquest (Josh 14:10)
70 years for the periods of oppression (Judges 3:8, 14; 4:3; 6:1; 10:8)
200 years for the periods of rest (Judges 3:3, 11; 5:31; 8:28)
76 years for the minor judges (Judges 10:1-4; 12:7-15)
3 years for the reign of Abimelech (Judges 9:22)
40 years for the Philistine oppression (Judges 13:1)
2 years for Saul (1 Sam 13:1)
40 years for David (1 Kgs 2:11)
3 years for Solomon (1 Kgs 6:1)
45 + 70 + 200 + 76 + 3 + 40 + 2 + 40 + 3 = 480 years by ordinal measurement.
What does this mean? It means the scribe was saying something that translates as “a very long time ago”.
So much for creatio ex nihilo! And so much for the thousands of books that have been written on this subject alone. And there’s the rub.
I went browsing in a beautiful secondhand bookstore in Stroudsburg today and there were whole shelves of books about the bible that the gematria of the Merkabah instantly invalidates. It made me a little sad that so much human industry and time has been devoted to a literal reading of the bible that treats characters, objects and events as if they were real. The Rambam warned against reading the Torah literally. Isn’t it time that we finally listened to his advice?
– B.A. 2017.
[1] This gematria is from the Seven Palaces of the Merkabah. Gematria key:
א 1 ב 2 ג 3 ש 3 ד 4 ת 4 ה 5 ו 6 ז 7 ח 8 ט 9 י 10 כ 20 ל 30 מ 40 נ 50 ס 60 ע 70 פ 80 צ 90 ק 100 ר 200
[2]
[3] Shadow on the Steps: Time measurement in ancient Israel, by David Miano, pg 57.
In the Book of Genesis, Elohim changes the name of Sarah and her husband Abraham from Sarai and Abram, and this gives the gematria of their names a different value. Sarai 213 became Sarah 208 (-5) and Abram 243 became Abraham 248 (+5). Not coincidentally each name is concordent to a span of time; with 208 weeks being exactly 4 years and 248 days being 9 anomalistic months. In each verse where the name change occurs, the value of the justification for the name change equals that of the name; Abraham (248) = המון גוים נתתיך ‘of many nations I have made you‘ (Genesis 17:5).
‘Then Elohim said to Abraham, “As for Sarai your wife, not call her the name Sarai, for Sarah the name. I will bless her, and indeed I will give you a son by her. Then I will bless her, and she shall be a mother of nations; kings of peoples will come from her.” ” –Genesis 17:15-16.
שָׂרַ֣י Sarai 213, שָׂרָ֖ה Sarah 208,
(Not included in this verse: הָגָ֖ר – ‘Hagar’ 208; יִצְחָ֑ק – ‘Isaac’ 208; ישראל Israel 244).
213 Sarai + 31 Shall come = 244.
30 And she shall be + 89 of Nations + 100 Kings + 160 of people – 135 from her = 244.
Shall be her name 48 + of people 160 = 208.
247 And I will bless + 30 She shall be + 89 of Nations = 366 (days in a leap year).
We see Abraham’s value of 248 first pop up in Genesis 1:4 with הָא֖וֹר + הַחֹֽשֶׁךְ = ‘the Light’ + ‘the darkness’ = 248, but also the value of Israel 244 is made through calculations in Genesis 1:2-3 from א֑וֹר Light 207 + וחשך and darkness 37 = 244.
248 reoccurs in 1 Kings 6:7 with שְׁלֵמָ֥ה + מַסָּ֖ע = ‘made ready’ + ‘at the quarry’ = 248:
The house, while it was being built,was built of stone made ready at the quarry, and there was neither hammer nor axe nor any irontool heard in the house while it was being built.
The sum of the names of Abraham, Isaac and Israel = 700. This sum is first seen in Genesis 1:1
1 בראשית 220 ברא 203 אלהים 86 את השמים 98 ואת הארץ 296׃
220 In the Beginning + 86 Elohim + 98 Heavens + 296 Earth = 700.
The word for ‘days’ יָמִ֖ים = 100 so 7 x 100 = the Seven Days of Creation, therefore when the scribe refers to the God of ‘Abraham, Isaac and Israel’ he is specifically revering the God of Creation by his numerical art.
Likewise to the mandean justification of the name of Abraham, we see the same occurring in Genesis 32:28 for the name of Israel (244):
שָׂרִ֧יתָ You have struggled = 217
אֱלֹהִ֛ים God = 86
אֲנָשִׁ֖ים Men = 104
(217 – 86) + (217 – 104) = 244.
Essentially then, the scribe is referencing different names in order to get the right numerical value for the calculations he is setting out.
When it comes to names in the bible then, we must always be a little suspicious of the text. The Hebrew people most likely learned the practice of gematria from the Mesopotamians[1], and mandean style calculations with names are extremely common in the Tanakh (Old Testament).
[1] Stephen J. Lieberman: ‘A Mesopotamian Background for the So-Called Aggadic ‘Measures’ of Biblical Hermeneutics?’ https://www.jstor.org/stable/23508256
Note – all values are calculated with Paleohebrew gematria, which is almost the same as Standard
except that the shin = 3 and the tav = 4. For a discussion about Paleohebrew gematria used with the Greek script and the New Testament please click this link…
Have you heard of the phrase ‘activating your Merkabah’?
Do you think the Merkabah is a Chariot of Light that will
help you ascend to the realm of the divine if you learn
enough Yoga and activate all your Chakra’s?
Perhaps you’ve bought Merkabah Jewelry? Or do you have a special Merkabah candle to burn while you surf the astral?
Fake news is not just a problem for the popular press. Popular knowledge of the Merkabah is swamped by a plastic rainbow hippy amalgam of Indian Kundalini Yoga, Greek Euclidian Geometry and the insight of someone that was very high on acid to fuse the two things together with just a splash of etymology into an interdimensional vehicle consisting of two equally sized, interlocked tetrahedrals of light.
This might make a great backstory for a movie but this just isn’t what the Merkabah is. This alternate Merkabah didn’t exist until 1972 when Drunvalo Melchizedek met Lucy in California one summer. She brought a strange man with her that told him there were three missing atoms in the universe and he wanted him to find them. That was the beginning of the Drunvalo scam.
The Jews in the ancient near east didn’t know anything about Chakra’s. If you were able to go back in time and visit an ancient student of the Merkabah, and if you were to sit in asana before him, he might express some concern for your comfort. He would have no clue what you were up to. He might display admiration for your Merkabah jewelry – but only if it was high enough quality. And if you asked him about riding the chariot of ascension to see YHVH he might think you were quite mad.
For a start, the chariot wasn’t a vehicle commanded by men; instead it was the way that God made everything – the heavens and the earth and everything in between. God was inaccessible – in a place that the ancients thought was the farthest away place there was – the pole star. Here he was guaranteed complete privacy to dwell in a formless state of bliss; utterly unknowable in his full glory by any mortal man. Even to touch his earthly tabernacle was to be struck dead[1]. However man was free to wander the rest of God’s realm in his sleep, and all of the earth when awake.
The role of man and woman was as it had always been when they had lived in God’s private pleasure garden in the heavens; it was to tend to all of God’s creations. And after they died they traveled to the palace in the west which had a door into the afterlife; and they would be tested and returned to life on earth. This was how living beings traveled the Merkabah; in daydreams and night dreams, and through reincarnation. Each being – both living and dead had their own different relative position on the Chariot which meant that the chariot was different for everyone – but this didn’t mean there was a separate Chariot for every living being.
The idea of multiplicity is derived from Ezekiel’s description of ‘a wheel within a wheel’; however this actually refers to the letters Teth. The Paleohebrew sign also resembled a wheel and Teth was the letter attributed to the face of the ‘the fiery waters of heaven’ – hashamayim.
The Sun, Moon, planets and stars were thought of as living beings that swam in the vast waters that we know today as space.
“Whenever the living beings moved, the wheels moved with them. And whenever the living beings rose from the earth, the wheels rose also […] for the spirit of the living beings was in the wheels.” – Ezekiel 1:20.
By contrast, while we mortals may travel the heavens and the earth in life and death – we do so within the divine wheel of the vehicle of God - and its motion causes life, death and the passing of the seasons.
“Whenever those went, these went; and whenever those stood still, these stood still. “
When a planet turns retrograde then it appears from the earth to stop in the sky for a few days. This is the planets stationary period before it appears to travel backwards. This is an optical illusion however.
“And whenever those rose from the earth, the wheels rose close beside them; for the spirit of the living beings was in the wheels.”
Don’t all planets appear to rise from the earth during the night? Don’t they look a lot to you like little wheels? Don’t the rays of light remind you of spokes? This is why the face of the heavens on the Seven Palaces is attributed to the letter Teth.
So next time someone asks you what the Merkabah is:- please please DON’T tell them that Merkabah means Light Spirit Body? Or that a Merkabah is counter-rotating fields of light and spirals of energy which transport the spirit-body from one dimension to another? That stuff is cobbled together snake-oil horseshit by a Californian guru trying to make a buck. It’s not Merkabah.
