Treatise on the Mysteries of Numbers
Tractatus de numerorum mysteriis
On the Mystery of Numbers§1
1…Of our Holy Father Epiphanius, Bishop of the City of Constantine in Cyprus, concerning the mystery of numbers.
Concerning faith.
Faith is.
Faith toward God is a thing unfathomable, incomprehensible, unseen, ungraspable, unstained, silently honored, and worshipped in the mind; it is the soul's foundation, the life's living root, an unfading branch, the fruit of immortality, the hypostasis of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen, and the justification of all the holy.
Regarding the Holy Trinity: a simple, uncompounded, unmixed, unutterable, inexplicable, and indissoluble Trinity: Father, Son, and Holy Spirit; being of one substance in all things, according to harmony, according to power, according to energy, according to divinity, and according to magnitude, being divided only in subsistence and name, yet united in power and in works.
A Trinity existing before the ages, without beginning, without end, without decay, without death, without limitation, neither deserving nor lacking, always remaining the same as itself, not newly found, but always worshipped, proclaimed by the apostles, and magnified by the faithful Church; almighty, all-seeing, Creator, loving, good, incomprehensible, and perfect.
For the number of the Trinity itself, as it is presented in the divine Scriptures, is mysterious and a wonder.
The cherubim sing: 'Holy, holy, holy is the Lord'.
Three are the great elements: heaven, earth, and sea.
Three are those in us: mind, spirit, and word.
Three were the fathers: Adam, Seth, and Enoch.
Three were the patriarchs: Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob.
Three angels appeared by the tent of Abraham.
Three were the days of Abraham's sacrifice.
Sarah, having received the angels, set before them three measures of fine flour.
Jacob peeled three rods and set them in the watering troughs.
After three decades of years, Joseph became king.
Moses was hidden by his parents for three months.
Three times three, nine, were the plagues of the Egyptians.
Three months after leaving Egypt, the law was written and the stone tablets were brought out.
Three are the good things of the wilderness: water, quail-meat, and manna.
Moses appeared before the Lord three times.
Three were the priests: Moses, Aaron, and Samuel.
Three were the mighty commanders: Joshua son of Nun, Caleb Jephunneh, and Phinehas.
Three stood against the Amalekites upon the rock: Moses, Joshua, and Hur.
Three were the mighty judges: Gideon, Jephthah, and Samson.
Three were the elders of the sons of Israel: Moses, Job, and Daniel.
Three weeks was the fast of Daniel.
Three boys, Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego, did not worship the golden image.
As Solomon said, the earth trembles by three things: if a servant becomes king, if a fool is filled with food, or if a hateful woman happens to a good man.
Three things are never satisfied: Sheol, the lust of a woman, and cracked earth.
Three things are beyond tracing: the track of an eagle in flight, the way of a serpent upon a rock, and the path of a ship plowing the sea.
Three things go prosperously: a lion's cub stronger than beasts, a rooster walking among hens, and a he-goat leading the flock.
Three were the wise women: the woman of Tekoa, the Shunammite woman, and Abigail; for the one rescued the man Nabal, the one rescued Absalom by craft, and the one, having run to the son of the prophet and not having ignored him, saved him.
Three women were prophetesses and tambourine-players: Miriam, Deborah, and Judith.
Three holy women: Sarah, Rebekah, …
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The Significance of Three§2
2Brevity.
Three kings are remembered: David, Hezekiah, and Josiah.
There are three classes of beings: the heavenly, the earthly, and the underworld.
There are three virtues: faith, hope, and love.
There are three gifts from God: kingdom, priesthood, and prophecy.
There are three times: the present, the past, and the future.
The possessions of the righteous are three: paradise, the bosom of Abraham, and the kingdom of heaven.
The punishments of the sinners are three: darkness, the worm, and Gehenna.
There are three renewals of the world: the one in the time of Noah, the one in the time of the Lord, and the one at the consummation.
As for the third Elijah, the members of the bellowing and the wood poured out from heaven according to streams of fire.
Daniel prayed on the third day.
The Virgin has made three months' stay in the house of Zechariah.
The three gifts presented to the Lord by the magi were gold, frankincense, and myrrh.
There are three baptisms: the legal one, that of John, and that of the Lord.
The three invocations of baptism are into the Father, and the Son, and the Holy Spirit.
There are three submersions and three emergences of the baptism.
The Lord has three victories against the devil: not to eat after fasting, not to worship the defiled, and not to throw oneself down.
Three days after the baptism, the water becomes wine of excellence.
There are three reproaches against the Virgin of the Only-begotten: 'Why do you seek me? Did you not know that I must be in my Father's house? What is that to me and to you, woman? My hour has not yet come; who is my mother, and who are my brothers?'
Three disciples weep more than the others: Peter, James, and John.
The time of the Lordly signs is three years.
The Lord came seeking fruit for the fig tree for three years, but he found none.
Three times the Lord issued a curse: to the fig tree, saying, 'No more shall fruit be born from you for ever'; to the Synagogue, 'Not one stone shall remain upon another'; and to Judah, 'Woe to that man through whom the Son of Man is delivered to be crucified.'
Jonah spent three days and three nights in the belly of the whale. The destruction of Nineveh was also three days. The death of the Savior lasted three days, and the Lord's resurrection from the dead by His authority was also three days.
Paul ascended after being caught up through three days; three times he was exhorted concerning the stumbling block so that he might turn away from it; three times he was caught up in a cloud, and he ascended into a third heaven.
A woman, resembling the kingdom of the heavens, took three measures of flour and, having hidden it in a little leaven, leavened the whole batch, according to what is written. For the number, as a double triple, is preserved in the Divine Scripture regarding great matters.
In six days God created the world. On the sixth day He formed Adam. On the sixth hour, having been stripped by sin, he sought God. Sixth, He appeared to Abraham: once in Harran, thirdly through dreams; fourthly upon the covenant of the letter of the name; and fifthly upon the noon of Mamre.
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Numerology of Six and Seven§3
3…At the sixth hour, the sacrifice of the only-begotten was made on the mountain. Six years to serve the Hebrews was commanded. In the sixth month, Gabriel was sent to the Virgin. Into six jars, the water was made into wine. At the sixth hour, the Samaritan woman was spoken to by the well. Before six days of the Passover, Lazarus was raised. At the sixth hour, the thief was loved while being crucified. After having been raised from the dead, he appeared: to the women, to Cleopas, to the disciples without Thomas, to the disciples with Thomas, to Peter and John as they cast the net, and to the last of the ascension. Sixth, as Paul says, he appeared to the brothers: to Cephas, to the ten, to the five hundred, once to James, to all the apostles, and to Paul himself last. Six great mysteries the Lord our Jesus Christ performed among them, as Paul says: He was filled in the flesh, he was justified in spirit, he appeared to angels, he was proclaimed among the nations, he was believed in the world, and he was taken up in glory. Through six letters, the great names are written: Adonai, Sabaoth, Jesus, Lord, Physician, Good, Cloud, and Miriam. For also the seven is the perfect number.
On the seventh day, God rested from all his works. Seven avenging things he released upon Cain as he ascended. For seven sins the defiled one had worked: envy, deceit, the murder of a brother, being a first teacher of murder, becoming a pest to such a life, having grieved his parents, and having lied to God. Seven and with punishments he fell: he cursed the earth, he was working, he groaned having cut off, we trembled, it was in appearance, he struggled against the coming one, and he had a sign making him public.
Seventh was Enoch, after Adam, who pleased God, and like wheat of tares, he was separated from the ungodly. Seven the first, and seven the second years, about Rachel, Jacob served Laban. Seven sheep rams Abraham gifted to Abimelech as a testimony of the mastery of the well. Seven oxen signified famine, and seven ears of grain drew prosperity for the tables, of Pharaoh the dream. Seven sacred trumpets Joshua the son of Nun carried, and the walls of Jericho he brought down. In the seventh year of the slavery, the Jews are released from the Hebrews. From the fifteenth until the first twentieth, in which the Passover of the Jews was being performed, seven were the days of the feast. Seven nations God recorded for the Jews: the Canaanites, the Hittites, the Philistines, the Gergesenes, the Amorites, the Jebusites, and the Abarites. Seven of the tent were made in six days by the sister of Moses, having been set apart. Seven locks Samson was bound by, and he cut them as grass. Seven locks of hair he had; from them the scalp's strength and power fled. Seven eyes are the ones looking upon all the earth. Seven lampstands, and seven lamps Zechariah saw, because there are seven spirits from God. Seven of the Holy Spirit are the gifts: the spirit of wisdom, the spirit of understanding, the spirit of counsel, the spirit of might, and the spirit of knowledge.
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Piety and Redemption§4
4The spirit of piety and the spirit of fear of God are essential for a life of devotion, as Wisdom is supported by seven pillars in its own tent.
A group of seven women will humbly approach the one Lord, asking to be allowed to eat their own bread and wear their own clothes, but most importantly, they beg that His name be called over them, and that He take away their reproach.
The seven legal books, which testify to Christ, confirm that He, having become flesh, bore their reproach, and these books are: Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers, Deuteronomy, Joshua, and Judges.
For if He had not become human, the writings would have been mythical and without substance, because He was placed innocently, like Isaac, and suffered impassibly, bearing His own cross on His shoulders, thus confirming the things written in the book of Genesis.
He dwelled in a virgin's womb and did not consume the one bearing Him with the fire of divinity, erasing the things written in the book of Exodus.
As a high priest, like Aaron, He presented the things written in Leviticus, and He connected the Old Covenant with the New Covenant, saying: It was said to the ancients, 'Do not commit adultery' (Matthew 5:27-28), but I say to you that everyone who looks at a woman to commit adultery with her has already committed adultery in his heart, and also, 'Do not resist the evil person, and if someone strikes you on the right cheek, turn to him the other cheek as well' (Matthew 5:38-39).
The Lord led our race into true rest, preparing different dwellings for us in the heavens, and revealing the things written in the book of Numbers.
By entering the Jordan and sanctifying its waters, He demonstrated His power, and by recalling the sun that was fleeing on the cross, He worked a miracle that resulted in a double day instead of a single one, all of which is recorded in the book of Joshua for those who read carefully.
Furthermore, the Lord placed His beloved soul as a ransom for us, interpreting the events recorded in the book of Judges, where Jephthah offered his daughter to God as a burnt offering for the people.
The number seven holds significant meaning, as seen in the seven sons of Jesse, the seventh position of Moses from Abraham, and the seven letters used to write the name John and the title of Christ.
This number is also reflected in the seven deacons chosen by the disciples to serve the Christians, namely Stephen, Philip, Prochorus, Nicanor, Timon, Parmenas, and Nicholas, as well as the seven sons who endured the tyranny of Antioch.
In short, the number seven is praiseworthy and wonderful, for the Lord Himself cries out in writing from above, saying 'Honor the Sabbath day and sanctify it' (Exodus 20:8-11), because on it God rested from all His works that He had begun to create, and this is why we should honor the Sabbath day.
Therefore, glory to Him forever and ever, Amen.
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