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two and three and four, when added together, brought forth the number of the ten Aeons. But again the Duad, proceeding from itself up to the episemon, 2.24 for example, two and four and six, showed forth the Dodecad. And again, as we similarly count from the Duad up to ten, the Triacontad was revealed, in which are an Ogdoad and a Decad and a Dodecad. Therefore, they say that because the Dodecad possessed the episemon, the corresponding passion followed it, and for this reason, when the error occurred around the twelfth number, the sheep, leaping away, went astray, since they assert that the apostasy originated from a Dodecad. In the same way they also divine that one power, having fallen away from the † Dodecad, was lost, and that this is the woman who lost the drachma and lit a lamp and found it. Thus, therefore, also the numbers that were left—in the case of the drachma, the nine, and in the case of the sheep, the eleven—being interwoven with each other, produce the number ninety-nine, since nine times eleven becomes ninety-nine. Wherefore they say that Amen also has this number. But I will not hesitate to report to you their other explanations, so that from every side you may understand their fruit. For they will that the letter eta, together with the episemon, is an Ogdoad, being in the eighth place from alpha; then again, calculating without the episemon the number of the letters themselves and adding them up as far as eta, they show forth the Triacontad. For if one begins from alpha and ends at eta with the number 2.25 of the letters, but subtracting the episemon and adding the increase of the letters, he will find the number thirty. For up to the letter epsilon they become fifteen; then the number seven added to them completed 22; and eta, which is eight, coming to these, filled up the most wonderful Triacontad. And from this they demonstrate that the Ogdoad is the mother of the thirty Aeons. Since, therefore, the number thirty is united from three powers, becoming itself three times it made ninety; for three times thirty is ninety. And the Triad itself, compounded with itself, begot nine. And thus among them the Ogdoad brought forth the number ninety-nine. And since the twelfth Aeon, having fallen away, left the eleven above, they say that the form of the letters corresponds to the figure of the † word; for lambda lies as the eleventh of the letters, which is the number of thirty, and that it lies according to the image of the economy above, since from alpha, without the episemon, the number of the letters themselves up to lambda, being added together according to the progression of the letters, together with lambda itself, makes the number ninety-nine. But that lambda, being eleventh in order, went down in search of its like, in order to fill up the twelfth number, and having found † it was filled, is evident from the shape of the letter 2.26 itself. For the lambda, as if having come for the search of its like and having found and snatched † it to itself, filled up the place of the twelfth, as the letter Mu is composed of two Lambdas. Wherefore they also flee, through Gnosis, the place of the ninety-nine, that is, the Deficiency, a type of the left hand, but pursue the one, which, when added to the ninety-nine, has transferred them to the right hand. 13. As you go through these things, beloved, I know well that you will laugh much * at such would-be-wise folly of theirs. But worthy of mourning are they who thus coldly and forcibly disparage such great reverence for God and the magnitude of the truly ineffable power and the great dispensations of God by means of alpha and beta and through numbers. But as many as fall away from the church and are persuaded by these old wives’ fables, truly are

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δύο καὶ τρεῖς καὶ τέσσαρες συντεθεῖσαι ἐπὶ τὸ αὐτὸ τὸν τῶν δέκα Αἰώνων ἀπεκύησαν ἀριθμόν. πάλιν δ' αὖ ἡ δυὰς ἀπ' αὐτῆς προελθοῦσα ἕως τοῦ ἐπισήμου, 2.24 οἷον δύο καὶ τέσσαρες καὶ ἕξ, τὴν δωδεκάδα ἐπέδειξεν. καὶ πάλιν ἀπὸ τῆς δυάδος ὁμοίως ἀριθμούντων ἡμῶν ἕως τῶν δέκα ἡ τριακοντὰς ἀνεδείχθη, ἐν ᾗ ὀγδοὰς καὶ δεκὰς καὶ δωδεκάς. τὴν οὖν δωδεκάδα διὰ τὸ ἐπίσημον ἐσχηκέναι συνεπακολουθῆσαν αὐτῇ τὸ ἐπίσημον πάθος λέγουσι, καὶ διὰ τοῦτο περὶ τὸν δωδέκατον ἀριθμὸν τοῦ σφάλματος γενομένου τὸ πρόβατον ἀποσκιρτῆσαν πεπλανῆσθαι, ἐπειδὴ τὴν ἀπόστασιν ἀπὸ δωδεκάδος γεγενῆσθαι φάσκουσι. τῷ αὐτῷ τρόπῳ καὶ ἀπὸ τῆς † δωδεκάδος ἀποστᾶσαν μίαν δύναμιν ἀπολωλέναι μαντεύονται, καὶ ταύτην εἶναι τὴν γυναῖκα τὴν ἀπολέσασαν τὴν δραχμὴν καὶ ἅψασαν λύχνον καὶ εὑροῦσαν αὐτήν. οὕτως οὖν καὶ τοὺς ἀριθμοὺς τοὺς καταλειφθέντας-ἐπὶ μὲν τῆς δραχμῆς τοὺς ἐννέα, ἐπὶ δὲ τοῦ προβάτου τοὺς ἕνδεκα-ἐπιπλεκομένους ἀλλήλοις τὸν τῶν ἐνενήκοντα ἐννέα τίκτειν ἀριθμόν, ἐπεὶ ἐννάκις τὰ ἕνδεκα ἐνενήκοντα ἐννέα γίνεται. διὸ καὶ τὸ ἀμὴν τοῦτον λέγουσιν ἔχειν τὸν ἀριθμόν. Οὐκ ὀκνήσω δέ σοι καὶ ἄλλως ἐξηγουμένων αὐτῶν ἀπαγγεῖλαι, ἵνα πανταχόθεν κατανοήσῃς τὸν καρπὸν αὐτῶν. τὸ γὰρ στοιχεῖον τὸ η σὺν μὲν τῷ ἐπισήμῳ ὀγδοάδα εἶναι θέλουσιν, ἀπὸ τοῦ ἄλφα ὀγδόῳ κείμενον τόπῳ· εἶτα πάλιν ἄνευ τοῦ ἐπισήμου ψηφίζοντες τὸν ἀριθμὸν αὐτῶν τῶν στοιχείων καὶ ἐπισυνθέντες μέχρι τοῦ ἦτα τὴν τριακοντάδα ἐπιδεικνύουσιν. ἀρξάμενος γάρ τις ἀπὸ τοῦ ἄλφα καὶ τελευτῶν εἰς τὸ ἦτα τῷ ἀριθμῷ 2.25 τῶν στοιχείων, ὑφεξαιρούμενος δὲ τὸ ἐπίσημον καὶ ἐπισυντιθεὶς τὴν ἐπαύξησιν τῶν γραμμάτων, εὑρήσει τὸν τῶν τριάκοντα ἀριθμόν. μέχρι γὰρ τοῦ ε στοιχείου πεντεκαίδεκα γίνονται· ἔπειτα προστεθεὶς αὐτοῖς ὁ τῶν ἑπτὰ ἀριθμὸς ˉβ καὶ ˉκ ἀπετέλεσε· προσελθὸν δὲ τούτοις τὸ η, ὅ ἐστιν ὀκτώ, τὴν θαυμασιωτάτην τριακοντάδα ἀνεπλήρωσεν. καὶ ἐντεῦθεν ἀποδεικνύουσι τὴν Ὀγδοάδα μητέρα τῶν τριάκοντα Αἰώνων. ἐπεὶ οὖν ἐκ τριῶν δυνάμεων ἥνωται ὁ τῶν τριάκοντα ἀριθμός, τρὶς αὐτὸς γενόμενος τὰ ἐνενήκοντα ἐποίησε· τρὶς γὰρ τριάκοντα ἐνενήκοντα. καὶ αὐτὴ δὲ ἡ τριὰς ἐφ' ἑαυτῆς συντεθεῖσα ἐννέα ἐγέννησεν. οὕτως τε ἡ ὀγδοὰς τὸν τῶν ἐνενήκοντα ἐννέα παρ' αὐτοῖς ἀπεκύησεν ἀριθμόν. καὶ ἐπεὶ ὁ δωδέκατος Αἰὼν ἀποστὰς κατέλειψε τοὺς ἄνω ἕνδεκα, κατάλληλον λέγουσι τὸν τύπον τῶν γραμμάτων τῷ σχήματι τοῦ † λόγου κεῖσθαι ἑνδέκατον γὰρ τῶν γραμμάτων κεῖται τὸ λ, ὅ ἐστιν ἀριθμὸς τῶν τριάκοντα καὶ κατ' εἰκόνα κεῖσθαι τῆς ἄνω οἰκονομίας, ἐπειδὴ ἀπὸ τοῦ ἄλφα, χωρὶς τοῦ ἐπισήμου, αὐτῶν τῶν γραμμάτων ὁ ἀριθμὸς ἕως τοῦ λ συντεθειμένος κατὰ τὴν παραύξησιν τῶν γραμμάτων σὺν αὐτῷ τῷ λ τὸν τῶν ἐνενήκοντα ἐννέα ποιεῖται ἀριθμόν. ὅτι δὲ τὸ λ ἑνδέκατον ὂν τῇ τάξει ἐπὶ τὴν τοῦ ὁμοίου αὐτῷ κατῆλθεν ζήτησιν, ἵνα ἀναπληρώσῃ τὸν δωδέκατον ἀριθμόν, καὶ εὑρὸν † αὐτὸν ἐπληρώθη, φανερὸν εἶναι ἐξ αὐτοῦ τοῦ σχήματος τοῦ στοι2.26 χείου. τὸ γὰρ λ, ὥσπερ ἐπὶ τὴν τοῦ ὁμοίου αὐτῷ ζήτησιν παραγενόμενον καὶ εὑρὸν καὶ εἰς ἑαυτὸ ἁρπάσαν † αὐτόν, τὴν τοῦ δωδεκάτου ἀνεπλήρωσεν χώραν, τοῦ Μ στοιχείου ἐκ δύο Λ συγκειμένου. διὸ καὶ φεύγειν αὐτοὺς διὰ τῆς γνώσεως τὴν τῶν ἐνενήκοντα ἐννέα χώραν, τουτέστιν τὸ Ὑστέρημα, τύπον ἀριστερᾶς χειρός, μεταδιώκειν δὲ τὸ ἕν, ὃ προστεθὲν τοῖς ἐνενήκοντα ἐννέα εἰς τὴν δεξιὰν αὐτοὺς χεῖρα μετέστησεν. 13. Σὺ μὲν ταῦτα διερχόμενος, ἀγαπητέ, εὖ οἶδα ὅτι γελάσεις πολλὰ * τὴν τοιαύτην αὐτῶν οἰησίσοφον μωρίαν. ἄξιοι δὲ πένθους οἱ τηλικαύτην θεοσέβειαν καὶ τὸ μέγεθος τῆς ἀληθῶς ἀρρήτου δυνάμεως καὶ τὰς τοσαύτας οἰκονομίας τοῦ θεοῦ διὰ τοῦ ἄλφα καὶ βῆτα καὶ δι' ἀριθμῶν οὕτως ψυχρῶς καὶ βεβιασμένως διασύροντες. ὅσοι δὲ ἀφίστανται τῆς ἐκκλησίας καὶ τούτοις τοῖς γραώδεσι μύθοις πείθονται, ἀληθῶς εἰσιν