On the Mystery of Numbers

…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 substance 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 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, …