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Friday 8 February 2008

Mysterious Number 37

One of the most frequent symbolic numbers found in ancient cultures across the globe is undoubtedly number 37. Strong affection towards this number is found in Christian kabbalah, where this number somehow plays the central role in the mysticism of numbers.

Particularly the Greek kabbalah seems to love number 37. Most well-known, from a wide range of words that have the gematric value as a multiple of this number, is the value of “Jesus” in Greek gematria:

ΙΗΣΟΥΣ = 10+8+200+70+400+200 = 888 = 24 x 37.

The same number rules also "Christos":

ΧΡΙΣΤΟΣ = 600+100+10+200+300+70+200 = 1480 = 40 x 37.

Even Jesus' predecessor John the Baptist has 37 hidden in the gematric value of his name:

ΙΩΑΝΝΗΣ = 10+800+1+50+50+8+200 = 1119
ΒΑΠΤΙΣΤΗΣ = 2+1+80+300+10+200+300+8+200 = 1101
1119 + 1101 = 2220 = 60 x 37.

It is a telling coincidence that both names, Jesus' and John's, are linked with same prime number at the root of their gematric value. Perhaps, that says something about their nature…

Whole books are written about the meaning of the number 37 and its multiples. Particularly obsessed with such useless endeavor were two Anglican priests Simcox Lea and Bligh Bond from the beginning of the 20th century, who lost themselves in calculations of the Biblical appearances of 37 multiples (see the references).

Even the Great Beast from the Apocalypse couldn't escape "the curse" of being a multiple of 37:

ΤΟ ΜΕΓΑ ΘΗΡΙΟΝ = (300+70)+(40+5+3+1)+(9+8+100+10+70+50) =
666 = 18 x 37.

But why is this number so important that was cross-culturally embedded in philosophy, art, and mostly architecture, what is so special about it? It seems that every important church has this number embedded in its dimensions. As an example of St. Paul's Cathedral in London will suffice since the width of the floor-plan is 555 ft or 6660 inches, obviously again a multiple of 37.

Perhaps the reason for the unusual veneration of number 37 comes from mathematics. Surprisingly but if we take any three-digit number and add together all possible permutations of these three digits, the result is always a multiple of 37. For example:

123
132
213
231
312
321
----------
1332
36 x 37
148
184
418
481
814
841
----------
2886
78 x 37
111
111
111
111
111
111
----------
666
18 x 37
469
496
649
694
946
964
----------
4218
114 x 37

Similarly, constant numbers are found also if numbers with different number of digits are taken:

digit number factors
1 1 1
2 11 11
3 111 3 x 37
4 1111 11 x 101
5 11111 41 x 271

The progression obtained from the above calculations of permutations is therefore: 1-11-37-101-271…