ulations of Plato upon it are well known; but among
the Jews and in the early Church it grew into something far beyond the
wildest imaginings of the priests of Memphis and Babylon.

Philo had found for the elucidation of Scripture especially deep
meanings in the numbers four, six, and seven; but other interpreters
soon surpassed him. At the very outset this occult power was used in
ascertaining the canonical books of Scripture. Josephus argued that,
since there were twenty-two letters in the Hebrew alphabet, there
must be twenty-two sacred books in the Old Testament; other Jewish
authorities thought that there should be twenty-four books, on account
of the twenty-four watches in the temple. St. Jerome wavered between the
argument based upon the twenty-two letters in the Hebrew alphabet and
that suggested by the twenty-four elders in the Apocalypse. Hilary of
Poitiers argued that there must be twenty-four books, on account of the
twenty-four letters in the Greek alphabet. Origen found an argument
for the existence of exactly four gospels in the existence of just four
elements. Irenaeus insisted that there could be neither more nor fewer
than four gospels, since the earth has four quarters, the air four
winds, and the cherubim four faces; and he denounced those who declined
to accept this reasoning as "vain, ignorant, and audacious."(465)

(465) For Jerome and Origen, see notes on pages following. For Irenaeus,
see Irenaeus, Adversus Hoeres., lib. iii, cap. xi, S 8. For the general
subject, see Sanday, Inspiration, p. 115; also Farrar and H. P. Smith
as above. For a recent very full and very curious statement from a Roman
Catholic authority regarding views cherished in the older Church as to
the symbolism of numbers, see Detzel, Christliche Iconographie, Freiburg
in Bresigau, Band i, Einleitung, p. 4.

But during the first half of the third century came one who exercised
a still stronger influence in this direction--a great man who, while
rendering precious services, did more than any other to fasten upon the
Church a system which has been one of its heaviest burdens for more than
sixteen hundred years: this was Origen. Yet his purpose was noble
and his work based on profound thought. He had to meet the leading
philosophers of the pagan world, to reply to their arguments against the
Old Testament, and especially to break the force of their taunts against
its imputation of human form, limitations, passions, weakn