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Hippolytus
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Introductory Notice to Hippolytus.
[770] This entire sentence is wanting in Irenæus.
[771] Corrected from Chri, which is in the ms.
[772] Irenæus has the passage thus: “And for this reason He says that He is Alpha and Omega, that He may manifest the dove, inasmuch as this bird (symbolically) involves this number (801).” See a previous note in chap. xlii. p. 95, supra.
Chapter XLV.—Why Jesus is Called Alpha.
[773] Part of this sentence is supplied from Irenæus.
[774] Hippolytus here omits the following sentence found in Irenæus: “And again thus—of the first quarternion, when added into itself, in accordance with a progression of number, appeared the number ten, and so forth.”
Chapter XLVI.—Marcus’ Account of the Birth and Life of Our Lord.
[776] Or, “of the Son,” an obvious mistake.
[777] Irenæus has, “And the Virgin exhibited the place of Ecclesia.”
[778] Irenæus adds, “whom the Father of the universe selected, for passage through the womb, by means of the Logos, for recognition of Himself.”
[779] Cruice thinks that for stars we should read “numbers,” but gives no explanation of the meaning of μετέωρα. This word, as applied to numbers, might refer to “the astrological phenomena” deducible by means of numerical calculations.
[780] A comparison of Hippolytus with Irenæus, as regards what follows, manifests many omissions in the former.
[781] Following Irenæus, the passage would be rendered thus: “And therefore, on account of its having the remarkable (letter) concomitant with it, they style the dodecade a remarkable passion.” Massuet, in his Annotations on Irenæus, gives the following explanation of the above statement, which is made by Hippolytus likewise. From the twelfth number, by once abstracting the remarkable (number), which does not come into the order and number of the letters, eleven letters remain. Hence in the dodecade, the πάθος, or what elsewhere the heretics call the “Hysterema,” is a defect of one letter. And this is a symbol of the defect or suffering which, upon the withdrawal of one Æon, happened unto the last dodecade of Æons.
[782] Hippolytus’ statement is less copious and less clear than that of Irenæus, who explains the defect of the letter to be symbolical of an apostasy of one of the Æons, and that this one was a female.
[784] Marcus’ explanation of this, as furnished by Irenæus, is more copious than Hippolytus’.
[785] The allusion here seems to be to the habit among the ancients of employing the fingers for counting, those of the left hand being used for all numbers under 100, and those of the right for the numbers above it. To this custom the poet Juvenal alludes, when he says of Nestor:—
Atque suos jam dextera computat annos.
That is, that he was one hundred years old.
Chapter XLVIII.—Their Cosmogony Framed According to These Mystic Doctrines of Letters.
[786] Or, “sketched out” (Irenæus).
[787] Or, “radiant.”
[788] Or, “measured.”
[789] Massuet gives the following explanation: The sun each day describes a circle which is divided into twelve parts of 30 degrees each, and consists of 360 degrees. And as for each of the hours, where days and nights are equal, 15 degrees are allowed, it follows that in two hours, that is, in the twelfth part of a day, the sun completes a progress of 30 degrees.
[790] Or, “of the same substance.”
Chapter XLIX.—The Work of the Demiurge Perishable.
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