Loading...A member of the blog, Douglas Harder, was inspired by yesterday’s post on how to make numbers in Greek, to come up with a full description and chart of how it works. He sent it to me and gave me his approval to post it. I think it is very clear and interesting. So here is what he has come up with. (In my next couple of posts I’ll talk about how knowing this information matters for understanding some early Christian texts, including a curious passage in the letter of Barnabas and, then, the 666 — the number of the Beast — in the book of Revelation.)
************************************************************************
Greek numerals
Like the Romans, the Greeks used letters to represent numbers. An older pre-Hellenistic Greek alphabet had 27 characters, not 24, and this allowed them to create three groups of nine letters where
- the first nine represented the values 1 through 9,
- the next nine represented 10, 20, 30 up to 90, and
- the last nine represented 100, 200, 300 and up to 900.
These are the letters and the numbers they represent….
THE REST OF THIS POST IS FOR MEMBERS ONLY. If you don’t belong yet, there are NUMBERS of things you’re missing. JOIN NOW!!!
One minor note. Ιησους added up to 888 (as mentioned in the Sibylline Oracles). Final sigma was still a sigma (200) even though it looked more like a digamma (6).
Corrected!
Fascinating post! I’m feeling a bit salty that I never knew about these three extra letters in the Greek alphabet. At what point did they filter out of use? Do we have any approximation of what sounds they produced?
I’m afraid I don’t know offhand, and am out of town far removed (gratefully — I’m playing) from my books. Maybe someone else on the blog knows?
Is it just me or does anyone else find it amazing that the Greeks used a system that relied on 27 characters yet recognized the expediency of Base 10? I think this ties into a philosophical argument (not necessarily a theological argument) about the inerrancy of mathematics and what that says about the concept of intelligent design.
wow!
An excellent and clear chart. Thanks to both Doug and you.
Prof Ehrman
When you first studied Greek were you required to start with Attic or did you focus exclusively on Koine?
thx
My college taught Attic.
I recently suggested a book about “memory” entitled “Time, Narrative, and History” by David Carr. Please disregard that suggestion. I was mistaken about several things about the book including thinking that this book was written by New York Times columnist, David Carr, who recently died. I hope I did not cost you any time. I apologize. It’s complicated, but my error.