Theomatics is a

numerological Numerology (known before the 20th century as arithmancy) is the belief in an occult, divine or mystical relationship between a number and one or more coinciding events. It is also the study of the numerical value, via an alphanumeric system, ...

study of the

Hebrew Hebrew (; ''ʿÎbrit'') is a Northwest Semitic languages, Northwest Semitic language within the Afroasiatic languages, Afroasiatic language family. A regional dialect of the Canaanite languages, it was natively spoken by the Israelites and ...

Aramaic Aramaic (; ) is a Northwest Semitic language that originated in the ancient region of Syria and quickly spread to Mesopotamia, the southern Levant, Sinai, southeastern Anatolia, and Eastern Arabia, where it has been continually written a ...

and

Greek Greek may refer to: Anything of, from, or related to Greece, a country in Southern Europe: *Greeks, an ethnic group *Greek language, a branch of the Indo-European language family **Proto-Greek language, the assumed last common ancestor of all kno ...

text of the

Christian Bible The Bible is a collection of religious texts that are central to Christianity and Judaism, and esteemed in other Abrahamic religions such as Islam. The Bible is an anthology (a compilation of texts of a variety of forms) biblical languages ...

(see also

Biblical numerology Biblical numerology is the use of numerology in the Bible to convey a meaning outside of the numerical value of the actual number being used. Numerological values in the Bible often relate to a wider usage in the Ancient Near East. Values *''Th ...

), based upon

gematria In numerology, gematria (; or , plural or ) is the practice of assigning a numerical value to a name, word, or phrase by reading it as a number, or sometimes by using an alphanumeric cipher. The letters of the alphabets involved have standar ...

and isopsephia, by which its proponents claim to show the direct intervention of

God In monotheistic belief systems, God is usually viewed as the supreme being, creator, and principal object of faith. In polytheistic belief systems, a god is "a spirit or being believed to have created, or for controlling some part of the un ...

in the writing of Christian scripture.

Etymology

The term "theomatics" was coined by Del Washburn in 1976 as a

combination In mathematics, a combination is a selection of items from a set that has distinct members, such that the order of selection does not matter (unlike permutations). For example, given three fruits, say an apple, an orange and a pear, there are ...

of " Θεός" ("God") and "

mathematics Mathematics is a field of study that discovers and organizes methods, Mathematical theory, theories and theorems that are developed and Mathematical proof, proved for the needs of empirical sciences and mathematics itself. There are many ar ...

". Washburn wrote three books about theomatics and created a website espousing the hypothesis.

Controversy

An analysis and criticism of theomatics has been published by Tim Hayes, previously under the pseudonym "A. B. Leever". A German statistician, Kurt Fettelschoss, published an analysis that claims that "The observed quantity of theomatic hits is significantly not random". A response to the findings was posted by Tim Hayes. A further statistical analysis in defense, of Mr. Hayes response, was provided by Mr. Fettelschoss. An analysis by Russell Glasser, entitled "Theomatics Debunked", shows the same phenomenon in a secular text. Washburn's website has a page entitled "Scientific Proof" which discusses and responds to potential arguments against theomatics.

Etymology

Controversy

References

Further reading