Table Of ContentTHE CATHOLIC UNIVERSITY OF AMERICA
Formation of the Early Christian Theology of Arithmetic
Number Symbolism in the Late Second and Early Third Century
A DISSERTATION
Submitted to the Faculty of the
Department of Early Christian Studies
School of Arts and Sciences
Of the Catholic University of America
In Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements
For the Degree
Doctor of Philosophy
By
Joel Kalvesmaki
Washington, D.C.
2006
Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission.
UMIN umber3:2 14679
INFORMATIOTNO USERS
Theq ualiotfty h irse producitsid oenp endeunpto nt heq ualiotfty h ec opy
submittBerdo.k eonr i ndistpirnicnctto ,l oroerdp oorq ualiitlyl ustraatnid ons
photograpphrsi,bn lte ed-thrsouubgsht,a ndmaarrdg inasn,d i mproper
alignmecnatna dversealfyf ercetp roduction.
Int heu nlikeevleyn tth atth ea uthodri dn ots enda complemtaen uscript
andt heraer em issipnagg est,h eswei lble n otedA.l soi,fu nauthorized
copyrimgahtte rihaaldt ob er emovead ,n otwei liln dictahteed eletion.
®
UMI
UMIM icrofo3r2m1 4679
Copyri2g0h0t6 b yP roQueIsntf ormatainodLn e arniCnogm pany.
Alrli ghrtess erveTdh.i msi crofoerdmi tiiospn r otecatgeadi nst
unauthoriczoepdy iunngd eTri t1l7e, U niteSdt ateCso de.
ProQueIsntf ormaatnidoL ne arniCnogm pany
300N ortZhe ebR oad
P.O.B ox1 346
AnnA rborM,l 48106-1346
Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission.
Formation of the Early Christian Theology of Arithmetic
Number Symbolism in the Late Second and Early Third Century
Joel Kalvesmaki, Ph.D.
Director: William McCarthy, Ph.D.
Numbers were widely used in antiquity to symbolize reality and to structure theological
and philosophical systems. Early Christian authors embraced this practice, but not without
controversy. In the late second century there emerged distinct Christian movements that
used Pythagorean number symbolism to structure their ideas about the godhead. Notable
were the various Valentinian schools (including Marcus "Magus" and Colarbasus),
Mono·imus, and later followers of Simon "Magus." Contemporary orthodox authors, such as
Irenaeus and Clement of Alexandria, opposed them, particularly for undermining the
Trinitarian doctrine received in the churches. But Irenaeus and Clement do not approach the
matter identically. Irenaeus criticizes the Valentinians directly, and without squaring
everything in his critique with his own number symbolism. Clement criticizes such groups
indirectly, and uses his own well-developed number symbolism to illustrate the proper way
to approach the subject.
The Christian debates have striking parallels in roughly contemporary non-Christian
texts. Marsanes, Plutarch, and Theodore of Asine show that non-Christians too debated these
matters. All of these figures-Christian and non-Christian-illustrate the tensions that
Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission.
existed between those who used number symbolism to shape theological and philosophical
traditions and those who used their traditions to shape their number symbolism. The
orthodox theology of arithmetic formed not a single position but rather a defense against
arbitrary number symbolism that justified departures from the received tradition.
I argue for several important ancillary points. Pythagoreanism was reinvented
during the late Roman Republic, and the number symbolism that emerged in the following
centuries had a traceable history. The distinction between hen and monad, the popular
formulation of the quadrivium, and numerology and the use of psephy (gematria) all have
their genesis in this period. Older traditions of number symbolism, such as the distinction
between male and female numbers and the importance of the tetraktys, all received new life.
I outline the historical development of each of these trends and classify and describe the
major types of Greek numerological prognostication. Furthermore, I argue for a new
sequence to Irenaeus' s Against Heresies, and I challenge scholars' dependence upon the
dichotomies eastern versus western, and monadic versus dyadic Valentinianism.
Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission.
This dissertation by Joel Kalvesmaki fulfills the dissertation requirement for the doctoral
degree in Early Christian Studies approved by William McCarthy, Ph.D., as Director, and by
Philip Rousseau, Ph.D., Christoph Markschies, Ph.D., and Susan Wessel, Ph.D., as Reade�s.
l
Philip Rousseau, Ph.D., Reader
Christoph Markschies, Ph.D., Reader
�Gi)wjJ
/
Susan Wessel, Ph.D., Reader
11
Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission.
To my parents
iii
Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission.
CONTENTS
1 Introduction 1
2 The Valentinians 10
3 Marcus "Magus" 79
4 Mono!mus 105
5 The Paraphrase of the Apophasis Megale 118
6 Colarbasus 132
7 Irenaeus 140
8 Clement of Alexandria 182
9 Platonism 225
10 Numeri ex regula 262
EXCURSUSES
A Pythagoreanism in Outline 273
B Themes in Pythagorean Number Symbolism
1 One Versus One: The Hierarchy of the Hen and the Monad 284
2 Odd and Even Numbers as Male and Female 296
3 The Tetraktys 305
4 The Quadrivium 310
5 The Number Five: Marriage 321
C The Elements and History of Psephy (Gematria) 325
D Types of Greek Numerology 343
IV
Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission.
E The Original Sequence of Irenaeus, Against Heresies 1: Another Suggestion 380
F Italian versus Eastern Valentinianisrn? 395
G The Structure of Clement of Alexandria's Excursus on the Decalogue 404
Abbreviations 412
Bibliography 415
v
Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission.
1
Introduction
Read any of Origen' s commentaries on Scripture and you will note that at the appearance in
the Bible of a bird, a plant, a color, the time of day, even a definite article, is apt to be
interpreted symbolically. Origen's fascination with the world of symbols was shared
throughout the Greco-Roman antiquity by Christians, Jews, Mithraites, polytheists, and
others. Such symbols were key parts of their cultural and intellectual world.
Certain classes of symbols were more significant than others. For such symbols
handbooks and treatises were written to capture and transmit the relevant lore. Names
became the basic subject matter of ancient onomastica; animals, of bestiaries; minerals, of
commentaries on the meaning of stones discussed in Scripture; time, of meteorological
prognostication; and numbers, of treatises on the decad. These popular tractates began to
appear in the Hellenistic period, were systematized in late antiquity, and were enlarged and
enriched in the medieval period. Other, less significant, symbols were systematized in
handbooks, but this was done only in the medieval period: color & light, geometrical
shapes, anatomy & anthropology, music, clothing, geography, smells, and food.
Numbers are among the oldest and most important symbols in antiquity. From the
three legs of an oracle's tripod, to the twenty-four books of The Iliad, to the shadowy
Pythagorean tetraktys; up to the twelve apostles, the one hundred fifty-three fish, and the
1
Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission.
2
seven seals; Christianity, like other Mediterranean religions, used numbers to plot
symbolically the world of divine and human. Of course, not all ancient authors show an
equal interest in number symbolism. Varro' s treatise On the Hebdomad is far more attuned to
number symbolism than, say, Julius Caesar's Civil Wars. In early Christian literature,
Revelation has many more aspects of number symbolism than does the Epistle of James; the
Shepherd of Hermas has more-albeit subtle and opaque-than does Clement of Rome.
The proper role of number symbolism became a point of substantive debate in the
late second and third centuries, when some Christians began to use numbers in theology in
radically different ways, and to new degrees of intensity. How to apply arithmetic to
theology and the interpretation of the Scriptures was important to these various
competitors, since numbers formed the grid upon which someone either organized the
cosmos or, to their opponent, distorted it. In this study, I focus on this early Christian debate
by treating several different authors and texts whose theology is marked by a special
interest in number symbolism: classical Valentinian authors, Marcus (given the epithet
Magus), Colarbasus, Monolmus, the author of the paraphrase of the Apophasis Megale,
Irenaeus, and Clement of Alexandria. The author of Marsanes was not Christian, nor was
any other Platonist author I discuss in chapter 9, but the parallels they furnish are an
important complement to the Christian material I cover.
Ideally, this study would constitute the fourth of a five-volume introduction to
ancient number symbolism. The first volume would cover prehistoric number symbolism
and the invention of literary symbolic numbers in Babylonia and Egypt. The second volume,
presented in two parts, would introduce the number symbolism of ancient Greek and
ancient Hebrew societies. The third-the prelude to this study-would survey the
Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission.
