The central, controversial claim of the book is that this Greek system was introduced to the Middle East following the conquests of . It was only later, around the third century C.E., that these techniques appeared in Hebrew works like the Sefer Yezirah ( Book of Formation ), eventually evolving into the medieval Jewish Kabbalah we recognize today. Why This Story Matters

: In the melting pot of Egypt under Greek rule, magicians used these letter-number codes (gematria) to craft powerful amulets and oracles.

By examining sources ranging from to graffiti at Pompeii , Barry suggests that the "Secret Code of Creation" often attributed solely to Hebrew was a shared language of the ancient Mediterranean. You can find more details on this work through Red Wheel/Weiser or Google Books .

Barry traces this "alphabetic gnosis" through several key historical stages: