Stigma and Final Sigma

revelation info at revelationjesuschrist.com
Fri Nov 1 18:03:47 EST 2002


Please excuse my ignorance, but is there any substantial difference
between a lower case vau/digamma and a final sigma?  Are they
different names for the same thing?  And is a stigma another name for
a vau/digamma?  Is a stigma another name for a final sigma?

My understanding was that final sigma was the name given to the sigma
occurring at the end of the word in cursive script, as all first year
Greek students learn, and that the similar looking lower case digamma
was not the same thing but was written slightly differently and used
only for the number 6.  But I am beginning to realize that my
thinking is not clear on this and I'd appreciate some help.

Thanks
Mark

Hi Mark

This is my understanding of the history and use of digamma and stigma as
letters (symbols) for the number "6":
Digamma as a capital letter for the number "6": The Greeks employed two
letters to stand for the number "6." The earlier use is the old Semitic
letter F called digamma (two-gammas) by the Greeks because it looks like two
superimposed capital Gammas of different sizes. Since the isospephia value
of Gamma is "3" it made logical sense that the value of "two Gammas" should
be "6."

Stigma as a cursive letter for the number "6": When the Greeks began to
write in cursive people needed to get rid of the uppercase Digamma in favor
of another symbol. The only unused lowercase letter not being used as a
number in the Greek alphabet was final Sigma. As luck would have it, final
Sigma lies between regular Sigma (200) and Tau (300). A logical solution was
to combine the initial letters and root numbers of Sigma (200 = 2) and Tau
(300 = 3). The alphabetic letter Final Sigma (seen as a number not a letter)
was now called STIGMA to reflect the product of the two root values of S x T
... 2 x 3 equals "6."

Daniel Gleason





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