ST. LOUIS, MO.

We cannot be more faithful to ourselves
In anything that's manly, than to make
Our fortune as contemptible to us,
As it makes us to others.

VINCENT D. ROSSMAN.

THE MEANING OF SCRIPTURAL NUMBERS.

То

O the casual reader of Scripture there doubtless does not appear any special significance in the fact that our Lord said that the good seed brings forth a hundred-fold, or in the fact that He spoke to them a parable about one, two and five talents instead of some other number, or in the fact that He chose just twelve Apostles. Such a reader sees the lesson to be conveyed without giving special heed to the numbers mentioned.

However, it is an undeniable fact that the Fathers, in interpreting Scripture, have written much to explain not merely the meaning of the text itself, but also to show why our Lord used the special numbers, one, two, three, etc., in preference to some other. In other words, the Fathers maintained that there was a symbolic meaning and a moral lesson in the numerical part of the parable or narrative, as well as in the doctrinal portion of the narrative.

In their day, and for centuries before, the intellectual bent was such that not only did words have their meanings, but numbers also were supposed to contain some mystic meaning, some symbolism, which would be clear to the initiated, at least, if not to the less privileged mortal.

So far has this symbolism become obsolete, that to-day, as I said, it does not strike the reader except in a few obvious cases, as, for instance, number three.

Some relics of the symbolism of numbers as a profane science are still to be found in the occult sciences and in various superstitious practices. These, however, are not of Patristic origin, but probably antedate the Scriptural symbolism of the Fathers, and come to us through pagan channels, which had their source in Pythagoras and his school, and perhaps even farther back still, in Egyptian mysticism.

For the better understanding of the symbolic value of numbers

in Scripture, a few words on Pythagoras and his system will not be out of place. It is claimed that Pythagoras, who lived about 500 B.C., was the originator of the theory of symbolism in numbers, although it is quite probable that what he taught was borrowed from Egypt. The fact is that very little is known about him with certainty, for so many fables have been invented that his life is a tissue of contradictions and absurdities. On account of these absurdities, St. Chrysostom speaks of him with great contempt. He says of him: "He performed many tricks of magic, for a man certainly cannot converse with cattle, as is related of him, except by the arts of magic. It is perfectly plain that a man who thus interviewed brute beasts could not be a benefactor to men, but rather a source of great detriment. In sooth, human nature was capable of a higher philosophy than this." St. Chrysostom then goes on to say that Pythagoras pretended that when men eat beans they devour the heads of their parents, and, what is more to our subject, that "all things are regulated by numerical laws." In which words Pythagoras would seem to imply that a mathematical and fatalistic necessity governed all things. St. Chrysostom does not in this place explicitly condemn Pythagoras's use of numbers, but there is sufficient condemnation in what he said before and in what he says of him in another place, namely, that "Pythagoras had not a single sound notion of God"; that "Those things which even a widow knows among us, Pythagoras was utterly ignorant of."

In spite of the uncertainty connected with Pythagoras, mathematics at any rate is said to have been much advanced by him and his school; he is said to have been the discoverer of the Pythagorean proposition about the square of the hypothenuse, which is familiar to every schoolboy.

Their philosophy seems to have been based on the mathematical and numerical relations of things. Substances were regarded as abstract numbers. Numbers were in some sense the elements of the universe. Each number, therefore, had its virtue.

In a few words, their doctrine was somewhat as follows: One represents the origin of things; it symbolizes reason, be. cause unchangeable.

Two represents matter, brute force, evil, the female sex; it is the symbol of opinion in philosophy, because unlimited and inde

terminate.

Three represents mediation, the male sex.

Four represents justice, because the first square number, the product of equals; it also represents potential ten, because I + 2 + 3+ 4

= 10.

1 In Joan. Hom., 2.

2 In Joan. Hom., 66.

Five represents reproduction; it is the symbol of matrimony, from the union of three and two, the first male and female number.

Little is said about number six.

Seven represents virginity, because it neither produces nor is produced by any number from one to ten, that is, it has neither factors nor product; hence, it is called napévos or 'Adj.

The heavens and all nature are a harmony composed of seven notes. Longfellow has given us a few lines on this phase of Pythagoras's doctrine:

"Great Pythagoras of yore

Standing beside the blacksmith's door,
And hearing the hammers as they smote
The anvils with a different note,

.. formed the seven-chorded lyre."

Ten governs the universe.

(To a child.)

Certain classes of numbers, such as odd, even and square numbers, had their special symbolism. The odd numbers represented the limited, the even that which was unlimited, because the latter could be perpetually halved, while the odd, one, three, five, seven, were indivisible, and hence limited. The place of honor seems to have been given to the odd number, as Virgil indicates in Alphesibous's invocation of Hecate.

"Numero Deus impare gaudet," which has been well rendered by our own Bard of Avon, "Good luck lies in odd numbers. . . They say there is divinity in odd numbers, either in nativity, chance, or death."

Whatever uncertainty there may be about Pythagoras and his system, there is no doubt that the doctrine of the Neo-Platonists exerted an influence over the Fathers.

Philo, the Jew, is a type of this school. He flourished about 40 A.D., at Alexandria, where this school was centred. He has written extensively on the Old Testament, and is constantly discovering a deep symbolism in the numbers used.

As Philo was a Jew, his belief in the true God modified the pagan interpretation of numbers.

With him number one represents God; four is the symbol of the elements, the seasons of the year, justice; it governs music and all mathematics. It is the potential decade, as with Pythagoras, that is, adding the first four numbers, 1+ 2+ 3+ 4, you get 10. Six is a perfect number, because of its divisibility in excess of all other numbers from one to ten; that is, it is the only number of the first ten, factorable by one, two, and three. On account of this divisibility it is a figure of the corporeal world.

1 Eccl., viii., 75.

Seven, on the other hand, denotes the incorporeal world, because, as we remarked in connection with Pythagoras, it is unfactorable, nor does it enter as a factor into ten. Therefore, it represents virginity. It represents peace and quiet, and is a type of the human mind, which dominates over the faculties of men and keeps them in peace and tranquillity. This notion is derived from God's rest after the six days of creation. This number is considered very fortunate.

One hundred denotes perfection, because Abraham was one hundred years old when he begat Isaac.

Ninety-nine is next door to perfection. It was in the ninetyninth year that God appeared to Abraham.

The following passages from Philo will illustrate his doctrine and his method of reasoning: He wishes to explain why God adorned the heavens on the fourth day, and not on some other day.

On the first three days God separated the light from the darkness, created the firmament, the earth, and the sea, but on the fourth day the heavens received their adorning, because four is a perfect number, the cause and potentiality of ten, ten being the term of the immensity of numbers. Then he shows the relation of four to other numbers and to music, one represents a point, two a line, three a surface, four a solid, hence four is in great honor. He adds that four represents the elements and the seasons of the year.

After much of this sort, he concludes: "Since, therefore, number four has been accorded so many privileges, the Creator necessarily adorned the heavens on the fourth day with most beautiful and divine embellishment, namely, the light-giving stars.'

In another place, commenting on the six days of creation, he says: "There were six days, not because God needed time, but because the world should be created according to order; and number is proper to order." Then he proceeds to show how number six is the most fitting representation of the creation of the world, since six represents generation. (Ibidem.)

Whether Philo believed in the fatalistic necessity attached to numbers, as might perhaps be inferred from the way in which he speaks of the fourth day of creation, I shall not attempt to decide; however, it is certain that this fatalistic notion was repudiated by the Fathers, as we shall see later on in the case of St. Ambrose.

That the Fathers were indoctrinated with the Neo-Platonist views about numbers, there can hardly be any doubt.

Certainly there can be no doubt that even the greatest of the

2 De Creatione Mundi.

Fathers attached much importance to this symbolism, for according to St. Augustine, “ The learned and studious esteem wisdom and number."

This assertion he proves in countless places, by his treatment of the numbers mentioned in the narrative of the Gospel. For instance, in his discourse on John v., where our Lord cured the man at the pool of Bethsaida, who had been sick for thirty-eight years, he says: "Even in the number of years there is a type of infirmity. He had been eight and thirty years under his infirmity. I must now explain to you at some length how this number typifies infirmity rather than health. Attend carefully: the Lord will be present to me that I may speak what is suitable and that you may comprehend. The mystical number forty, numerus sacratus, is a symbol of perfection, as I believe you know. At any rate, the Sacred Scriptures prove it in many places. This is the number consecrated by the fast of Moses, of Elias, and of Christ." He asks himself in what the perfection of this number forty consists, then, by way of conjecture, offers two reasons, and after giving them, he adds; "whether the first reason or the second be the true one, or whether there be some other more probable explanation which is unknown to us, but which is understood by those better versed in these things, this much is certain, that some kind of perfection in good works is symbolized by the number forty."

St. Augustine, as you see, speaks conjecturally, but admits that there is certainly a symbolic meaning in number forty. He speaks in this conjectural way in several places: "Perhaps there is a suggestion in the very number." Again, "the number hints at something symbolical" (ibidem). In expounding number one hundred and fifty, he says: "The Book of Psalms hints clearly enough that this number has a symbolic meaning."

From this manner of speaking it is obvious that St. Augustine recognized some lurking meaning in the number expressed in the Scripture, but that he was doubtful as to the real meaning. In other places, however, he speaks more plainly and positively. In commenting on John vi., 19, "when they had rowed about five and twenty or thirty furlongs, they see Jesus walking upon the sea, and drawing nigh to the ship." St. Augustine says: "The very number of furlongs has a meaning which should not be overlooked," and then he proceeds to explain the symbolism of twentyfive and thirty. Again, of number five: "This number is in special honor in the Old Testament.” "Number fifty," he says, "symbolizes a great mystery." Again, in trying to explain the

1 In Heptateuch, 1. 4, 8 2. In Heptateuch, 1. 4, 8 2.

2 In Psalm 89, 89.

In Joan. Tract., 25, § 6. 5 In Psalm 150, & I.