Please note that the posts on The Blogs are contributed by third parties. The opinions, facts and any media content in them are presented solely by the authors, and neither The Times of Israel nor its partners assume any responsibility for them. Please contact us in case of abuse. In case of abuse, Credit: Bethsheba Ashe. 'Behold! The Art and Practice of Gematria'. Preview of forthcoming book cover. If you take a degree in Biblical Studies today (especially in the USA, and especially in their Christian colleges) then you’re liable to emerge from your matriculation with a very strange picture of ancient Israel. You’ll be asked to believe that ancient Israel, alone amongst the civilizations of the ancient near east, did not develop their own tradition of mathematics and science. You may come away from your advanced studies believing that the people of ancient Israel thought Pi was just 3, and that any gematria practised was “a very simple affair”.[1] Your professors may opine that the subject isn’t taken seriously by scholars of antiquity because it isn’t interesting or compelling, and they may state that there isn’t enough evidence to support the view that there is any substantial gematria in the Tanakh at all.