thirty parts, even as the whole Pleroma is divided, but the month into twelve, just as the Æons are in their Pleroma. Moreover, they divide the entire Pleroma into three por- tions,—namely, into an Ogdoad, a Decad, and a Duodecad. But our year is divided into four parts, —namely, spring, summer, autumn, and winter. And again, not even do the months, which they maintain to be a type of the Triacontad, consist precisely of thirty days, but some have more and some less, inasmuch as five days remain to them as an overplus.540 The day, too, does not always consist precisely of twelve hours, but rises from nine541 to fifteen, and then falls again from fifteen to nine. It cannot therefore be held that months of thirty days 396 each were so formed for the sake of [typifying] the Æons; for, in that case, they would have consisted precisely of thirty days: nor, again, the days of these months, that by means of twelve hours they might symbolize the twelve Æons; for, in that case, they would always have consisted precisely of twelve hours. 6. But further, as to their calling material substances “on the left hand,” and maintaining that those things which are thus on the left hand of necessity fall into corruption, while they also affirm that the Saviour came to the lost sheep, in order to transfer it to the right hand, that is, to the ninety and nine sheep which were in safety, and perished not, but continued within the fold, yet were of the left hand,542 it follows that they must acknowledge that the enjoyment543 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,544 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,545 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 540 365 (the days of the year)—12 × 30 + 5. 541 These hours of daylight, at the winter and summer solstice respectively, correspond to the latitude of Lyons, 45° 45´ N., where Irenæus resided. 542 “Alluding,” says Harvey, “to a custom among the ancients, of 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 remained 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 of the left hand, and in the Gnostic theory the evil principle of matter was sinistral, therefore,” etc., as above. 543 “Levamen,” corresponding probably to the Greek ἀνάπαυσιν. 544 ᾽Αγάπη ( α = 1, γ = 3, α = 1, π = 80, η = 8 ) = 93. 545 ᾽Αλήθεια ( α = 1, λ = 30, η = 8, θ = 9, ε = 5, ι = 10, α = 1 ) = 64. 1018 Chapter XXIV.—Folly of the arguments derived by the heretics from numbers,…