Chapter XXIV.—Folly of the arguments derived by the heretics from numbers,
letters, and syllables.
1. This very thing, too, still further demonstrates their opinion false, and their fictitious
system untenable, that they endeavour to bring forward proofs of it, sometimes through
means of numbers and the syllables of names, sometimes also through the letter of syllables,
and yet again through those numbers which are, according to the practice followed by the
Greeks, contained in [different] letters;—[this, I say,] demonstrates in the clearest manner
their overthrow or confusion,503 as well as the untenable and perverse character of their
[professed] knowledge. For, transferring the name Jesus, which belongs to another language,
to the numeration of the Greeks, they sometimes call it “Episemon,”504 as having six letters,
and at other times “the Plenitude of the Ogdoads,” as containing the number eight hundred
and eighty-eight. But His [corresponding] Greek name, which is “Soter,” that is, Saviour,
because it does not fit in with their system, either with respect to numerical value or as regards
its letters, they pass over in silence. Yet surely, if they regard the names of the Lord, as, in
accordance with the preconceived purpose of the Father, by means of their numerical value
and letters, indicating number in the Pleroma, Soter, as being a Greek name, ought by means
of its letters and the numbers [expressed by these], in virtue of its being Greek, to show forth
the mystery of the Pleroma. But the case is not so, because it is a word of five letters, and its
numerical value is one thousand four hundred and eight.505 But these things do not in any
way correspond with their Pleroma; the account, therefore, which they give of transactions
in the Pleroma cannot be true.
2. Moreover, Jesus, which is a word belonging to the proper tongue of the Hebrews,
contains, as the learned among them declare, two letters and a half,506 and signifies that
Lord who contains heaven and earth;507 for Jesus in the ancient Hebrew language means
“heaven,” while again “earth” is expressed by the words sura usser.508 The word, therefore,
503 “Sive confusionem” is very probably a marginal gloss which has found its way into the text. The whole
clause is difficult and obscure.
504 Comp. i. 14, 4.
505 Thus: Σωτήρ ( σ = 200, ω = 800, τ = 300, η = 8, ρ = 100 ) = 1408.
506 Being written thus, ישו ,and the small י being apparently regarded as only half a letter. Harvey proposes
a different solution which seems less probable.
507 This is one of the most obscure passages in the whole work of Irenæus, and the editors have succeeded
in throwing very little light upon it. We may merely state that ישו seems to be regarded as containing in itself
the initials of the three words יְהֹוָה ,Jehovah; שְמַיִם ,heaven; and וְאָרָץ ,and earth.
508 Nothing can be made of these words; they have probably been corrupted by ignorant transcribers, and
are now wholly unintelligible.
Chapter XXIV.—Folly of the arguments derived by the heretics from numbers, letters, and syllables.
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Chapter XXIV.—Folly of the arguments derived by the heretics from numbers,…