Greek Isopsephy: Gematria in the Ancient Hellenistic World
Isopsephy — the Greek equivalent of gematria — was used by Pythagorean philosophers, poets, and early Christians. Learn how it works and explore famous examples.
What Is Isopsephy?
Isopsephy (ἰσοψηφία, from isos "equal" and psephos "pebble" — pebbles were used as counting tokens) is the Greek practice of summing the numerical values of letters in a word. It is functionally identical to Hebrew gematria but uses the Greek alphabet and its traditional letter values.
Greek Letter Values
The Greek number system used all 24 letters of the classical alphabet plus three archaic letters (digamma/stigma ϛ=6, koppa ϟ=90, sampi ϡ=900) to represent values from 1 to 999: α=1, β=2, γ=3, δ=4, ε=5, ϛ=6, ζ=7, η=8, θ=9, ι=10, κ=20, λ=30, μ=40, ν=50, ξ=60, ο=70, π=80, ϟ=90, ρ=100, σ=200, τ=300, υ=400, φ=500, χ=600, ψ=700, ω=800, ϡ=900.
Famous Isopsephy Examples
The most famous isopsephy example in history is the "Number of the Beast" — 666 — in Revelation 13:18. The Greek name "Nero Caesar" (Νέρων Καῖσαρ), when transliterated into Hebrew and summed, equals 666. In pure Greek isopsephy, the name of Jesus (ΙΗΣΟΥΣ) equals 888.
Pompeii graffiti from the 1st century CE contains the famous inscription: "I love her whose number is 545" — a use of isopsephy to refer to a person by number rather than name, a form of coded love message.
Isopsephy and Early Christianity
Early Christian texts used isopsephy extensively. The Gnostic writer Marcus associated the Greek alphabet letters with cosmic principles, and Irenaeus criticized these practices in "Against Heresies." The number 888 for Jesus was deliberately contrasted with 666, positioning Christ as "beyond perfection."
Isopsephy in Modern Practice
Using the Gematria Guru calculator, you can paste Greek text directly and receive an accurate isopsephy calculation — including handling of final sigma (ς), diacritic normalization, and per-word letter breakdown.