follows that they must acknowledge that the enjoyment[1] of rest did not imply salvation. And that which has not in like manner the same number, they will be compelled to acknowledge as belonging to the left hand, that is, to corruption. This Greek word Agape (love), then, according to the letters of the Greeks, by means of which reckoning is carried on among them, having a numerical value of ninety-three,[2] is in like manner assigned to the place of rest on the left hand. Aletheia (truth), too, having in like manner, according to the principle indicated above, a numerical value of sixty-four,[3] exists among material substances. And thus, in fine, they will be compelled to acknowledge that all those sacred names which do not reach a numerical value of one hundred, but only contain the numbers summed by the left hand, are corruptible and material.
Chap. xxv.—God is not to be sought after by means of letters, syllables, and numbers; necessity of humility in such investigations.
1. If any one, however, say in reply to these things. What then? Is it a meaningless and accidental thing, that the positions of names, and the election of the apostles, and the working of the Lord, and the arrangement of created things, are what they are?—we answer them: Certainly not; but with great wisdom and diligence, all things have clearly been made by God, fitted and prepared [for their special purposes]; and His word formed both things ancient and those belonging
- ↑ "Levamen," corresponding probably to the Greek ἀνάπαυσιν.
- ↑ Ἀγάπη (α = 1, γ = 3, α = 1, π = 80, η = 8) = 93.
- ↑ Ἀλήθεια (α = 1, λ = 30, η = 8, θ = 9, ε = 5, ι = 10, α = l) = 64.
summing the numbers below 100 by various positions of the left hand and its fingers; 100 and upwards being reckoned by corresponding gestures of the right hand. The ninety and nine sheep, therefore, that remamed quietly in the fold were summed upon the left hand, and Gnostics professed that they were typical of the true spiritual seed; but Scripture always places the workers of iniquity on the left hand, and in the Gnostic theory the evil principle of matter was sinistral, therefore," etc., as above.
