3.

Further, they declare that the arrangement made with respect to the ark in the Deluge, by means of which eight persons were saved, ¹ most clearly indicates the Ogdoad which brings salvation. David also shows forth the same, as holding the eighth place in point of age among his brethren. ² Moreover, that circumcision which took place on the eighth day, ³ represented the circumcision of the Ogdoad above. In a word, whatever they find in the Scriptures capable of being referred to the number eight, they declare to fulfil the mystery of the Ogdoad. With respect, again, to the Decad, they maintain that it is indicated by those ten nations which God promised to Abraham for a possession. ⁴ The arrangement also made by Sarah when, after ten years, she gave ⁵ her handmaid Hagar to him, that by her he might have a son, showed the same thing. Moreover, the servant of Abraham who was sent to Rebekah, and presented her at the well with ten bracelets of gold, and her brethren who detained her for ten days; ⁶

Jeroboam also, who received the ten sceptres ⁷ (tribes), and the ten courts ⁸ of the tabernacle, and the columns of ten cubits ⁹ [high], and the ten sons of Jacob who were at first sent into Egypt to buy corn, ¹⁰ and the ten apostles to whom the Lord appeared after His resurrection,--Thomas ¹¹ being absent,--represented, according to them, the invisible Decad.