Pythagoras, then, declared the originating principle of the universe to be the unbegotten monad, and the generated duad, and the rest of the numbers. And he says that the monad is the father of the duad, and the duad the mother of all things that are being begotten\u2014the begotten one (being mother) of the things that are begotten. And from the duad, again, as Pythagoras states, (are generated) the triad and the succeeding numbers up to ten. For Pythagoras is aware that this is the only perfect number\u2014I mean the decade\u2014for that eleven and twelve are an addition and repetition of the decade; not, however, that what is added constitutes the generation of another number. And all solid bodies he generates from incorporeal (essences). For he asserts that an element and principle of both corporeal and incorporeal entities is the point which is indivisible. And from a point, he says, is generated a line, and from a line a surface; and a surface flowing out into a height becomes, he says, a solid body.
\n— The Refutation of All Heresies VI.XVIII<\/p>\n
There are, then, according to Pythagoras, two worlds: one intelligible, which has the monad for an originating principle; and the other sensible. But of this (latter) is the quaternion having the iota, the one tittle, a perfect number. And there likewise is, according to the Pythagoreans, the i , the one tittle, which is chief and most dominant, and enables us to apprehend the substance of those intelligible entities which are capable of being understood through the medium of intellect and of sense. (And in this substance inhere) the nine incorporeal accidents which cannot exist without substance, viz., \u201cquality,\u201d and \u201cquantity,\u201d and \u201crelation,\u201d and \u201cwhere,\u201d and \u201cwhen,\u201d and \u201cposition,\u201d and \u201cpossession,\u201d and \u201caction,\u201d and \u201cpassion.\u201d These, then, are the nine accidents (inhering in) substance, and when reckoned with these (substances), contains the perfect number, the i .<\/p>\n
Wherefore, the universe being divided into the intelligible and sensible world, we have also reason from the intelligible (world), in order that by reason we may behold the substance of things that are cognised by intellect, and are incorporeal and divine. But we have, he says, five senses\u2014smelling, seeing, hearing, taste, and touch. Now, by these we arrive at a knowledge of things that are discerned by sense. Nothing, he says, of intelligibles can be known to us from sense. Neither, again, by reason is it possible to arrive at a knowledge of any of the things discernible by sense.<\/p>\n
Things being thus constituted, the arrangement of things that have been made and are being made is observed to happen in conformity with numerical (combinations). For in the same manner as, commencing from monad, by an addition of monads or triads, and a collection of the succeeding numbers, we make some one very large complex whole of number; (and) then, again, from an amassed number thus formed by addition, we accomplish, by means of a certain subtraction and re-calculation, a solution of the totality of the aggregate numbers; so likewise he asserts that the world, bound by a certain arithmetical and musical chain, was, by its tension and relaxation, and by addition and subtraction, always and for ever preserved incorrupt.
\n— The Refutation of All Heresies VI.XIX<\/p>\n
In their system, Love forms the world incorruptible (and) eternal, as they suppose. For substance and the world are one. Discord, however, separates and puts asunder, and evinces numerous attempts by subdividing to form the world. It is just as if one severs into small parts, and divides arithmetically, the myriad into thousands, and hundreds, and tens; and drachm\u00e6 into oboli and small farthings. In this manner, he says, Discord severs the substance of the world into animals, plants, metals and things similar to these. And the fabricator of the generation of all things produced is, according to them, Discord; whereas Love, on the other hand, manages and provides for the universe in such a manner that it enjoys permanence.
\n— The Refutation of All Heresies VI.XX<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Pythagoras\u2019 System of Numbers Pythagoras, then, declared the originating principle of the universe to be the unbegotten monad, and the generated duad, and the rest of the numbers. And he says that the monad is the father of the duad, and the duad the mother of all things that are being begotten\u2014the begotten one (being mother) of the things that are begotten. And from the duad, again, as Pythagoras states, […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"advanced_seo_description":"","jetpack_seo_html_title":"","jetpack_seo_noindex":false,"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[14],"tags":[120],"class_list":["post-1071","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-hippolytus","tag-pythagoras"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":1077,"url":"https:\/\/nemoslibrary.com\/patristics\/hippolytus-on-genesis\/","url_meta":{"origin":1071,"position":0},"title":"Hippolytus: On Genesis","author":"Nemo","date":"February 28, 2021","format":false,"excerpt":"An Interpretation of Jacob's Blessings Gen. xlix. 3 Reuben, my first-born, thou art my strength, and the first of my children; hard to bear with, and hard and self-willed: thou hast waxed wanton as water; boil not over. For there was a great display of strength made by God in\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Hippolytus"","block_context":{"text":"Hippolytus","link":"https:\/\/nemoslibrary.com\/patristics\/category\/hippolytus\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":22063,"url":"https:\/\/nemoslibrary.com\/patristics\/athanasius-against-the-arians\/","url_meta":{"origin":1071,"position":1},"title":"Athanasius: Against the Arians","author":"Nemo","date":"April 16, 2023","format":false,"excerpt":"Arian argument: \u201cIf there never was, when the Son was not, but He is eternal, and coexists with the Father, you call Him no more the Father\u2019s Son, but brother\u201d Answer: For the Father and the Son were not generated from some pre-existing origin, that we may account Them brothers,\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Athanasius"","block_context":{"text":"Athanasius","link":"https:\/\/nemoslibrary.com\/patristics\/category\/athanasius\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":884,"url":"https:\/\/nemoslibrary.com\/patristics\/tertullian-a-treatise-on-the-soul\/","url_meta":{"origin":1071,"position":2},"title":"Tertullian: A Treatise On the Soul","author":"Nemo","date":"December 27, 2020","format":false,"excerpt":"A comprehensive treatise on the soul. Its substance, attributes, origin, and final destiny. Tertullian argues that the soul is corporeal, in opposition to the Gnostics, and Plato, with whom (he believes) the Gnostic heresies originated. He critiques pagan philosophers and writers on various opinions about the soul, and strives to\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Tertullian"","block_context":{"text":"Tertullian","link":"https:\/\/nemoslibrary.com\/patristics\/category\/tertullian\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":21998,"url":"https:\/\/nemoslibrary.com\/patristics\/theodoret-on-dual-natures-of-christ\/","url_meta":{"origin":1071,"position":3},"title":"Theodoret on Dual Natures of Christ","author":"Nemo","date":"February 24, 2023","format":false,"excerpt":"Wherefore all the human qualities of the Lord Christ, hunger,... and thirst and weariness, sleep, fear, sweat, prayer, and ignorance, and the like, we affirm to belong to our nature which God the Word assumed and united to Himself in effecting our salvation. But the restitution of motion to the\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Theodoret"","block_context":{"text":"Theodoret","link":"https:\/\/nemoslibrary.com\/patristics\/category\/theodoret\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":1192,"url":"https:\/\/nemoslibrary.com\/patristics\/novatian-on-the-trinity-iii\/","url_meta":{"origin":1071,"position":4},"title":"Novatian: On the Trinity III","author":"Nemo","date":"May 2, 2021","format":false,"excerpt":"The Son was Begotten of the Father Thus God the Father, the Founder and Creator of all things, who only knows no beginning, invisible, infinite, immortal, eternal, is one God; to whose greatness, or majesty, or power, I would not say nothing can be preferred, but nothing can be compared;\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Novatian"","block_context":{"text":"Novatian","link":"https:\/\/nemoslibrary.com\/patristics\/category\/novatian\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":1099,"url":"https:\/\/nemoslibrary.com\/patristics\/hippolytus-on-the-psaltery-and-the-psalms\/","url_meta":{"origin":1071,"position":5},"title":"Hippolytus On the Psaltery and the Psalms","author":"Nemo","date":"March 4, 2021","format":false,"excerpt":"David alone of the prophets prophesied with an instrument, called by the Greeks the \u201cpsaltery,\u201d and by the Hebrews the \u201cnabla,\u201d which is the only musical instrument that is quite straight, and has no curve. And the sound does not come from the lower parts, as is the case with\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Hippolytus"","block_context":{"text":"Hippolytus","link":"https:\/\/nemoslibrary.com\/patristics\/category\/hippolytus\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]}],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/peqR9l-hh","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/nemoslibrary.com\/patristics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1071","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/nemoslibrary.com\/patristics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/nemoslibrary.com\/patristics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nemoslibrary.com\/patristics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nemoslibrary.com\/patristics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1071"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/nemoslibrary.com\/patristics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1071\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/nemoslibrary.com\/patristics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1071"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nemoslibrary.com\/patristics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1071"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nemoslibrary.com\/patristics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1071"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}