Numbers
613: the number of the commandments, and what gematria does with it
20 attestations in 7 works, the earliest Rashi. Eight Torah words come to 613, and none of them is about commandments. Why that is fine.
Where 613 comes from
The number of the commandments — 613 — does not come from gematria but from a count: the passage in Makkot 23b and the whole literature that works it out. Gematria comes afterwards and ties 613 to other expressions. The order matters: first the count of commandments, then the numerical parallels.
What the base holds
613 is named 33 times in 19 works: 26 exact matches and 7 with the plus-one adjustment. The earliest attestation is Baal HaTurim on the Torah, around 1300; the bulk of the base sits in the 14th–15th centuries.
Eight words
In the Torah text, eight words carry the value 613, and all of them are ordinary: וזרת (Exodus 28:16), וגדרת (Numbers 32:24), בראתי (Genesis 6:7), גרתי (Genesis 32:5), הרבות (Deuteronomy 17:16) and three more. None speaks of commandments. That is as it should be: a number by itself carries no theme; the text around it does.
How to check this
The page for 613 shows the words, the attestations and the Torah page 613 falls on in the “Chumash 354” count — page 259, since 613 minus 354. Everything is computed in front of you, and the table can be downloaded whole.
Try it on your own name
Each article describes part of the method. The free calculation on the home page shows these numbers for your own name, with the arithmetic open under each one.