The generation of their Aeons, then, and the wandering of the sheep and its recovery, these men—who reduce all things to numbers—unite together and undertake to expound in a more mystical way, asserting that the universe was constituted from a Monad and a Dyad. Counting from the Monad up to four, they thus generate the Decad; for one, two, three, and four, added together, brought forth the number of the ten Aeons. Again, the Dyad, advancing from itself up to the "notable" (the number six)—namely two, four, and six—displayed the Dodecad. And again, when we count in the same way from the Dyad up to ten, the number thirty is shown, in which are an Ogdoad, a Decad, and a Dodecad. Now they say that the Dodecad, because the "notable" attended upon it, contains a passion; and for this reason, since the error occurred about the twelfth number, the sheep leaped away and went astray—for they assert that the defection arose from the Dodecad. In the same manner they divine that, from the Dodecad, one power that fell away perished by defection; and that this is the woman who lost the drachma, lit a lamp, and found it. So too with the numbers that remained—in the case of the drachma the nine, in the case of the sheep the eleven—when interwoven with one another, they beget the number ninety-nine; for nine times eleven is ninety-nine. For this reason they say that the word "Amen" possesses this number.
I will not shrink from telling you how they also explain it otherwise, so that from every side you may perceive the fruit of their teaching. They wish the letter ē (eta), together with the "notable" sign, to be an Ogdoad, since it is positioned in the eighth place from the first. Then again, reckoning the number of the letters themselves without the notable sign, and adding them up to ē, they exhibit the Triacontad (the number thirty). For if one begins from alpha and ends with ē in counting the number of the letters, omitting the notable sign and adding up the increase of the letters, he will find the number thirty. For up to the fifth letter the sum is fifteen; then, with the number seven added to these, it makes twenty-two; and when ē, which is eight, is joined to these, it completes the most marvelous Triacontad. And from this they prove the Ogdoad to be the mother of the thirty Aeons. Since, then, the number thirty is united out of three powers, when made three times itself it produced ninety—for three times thirty is ninety. And the Triad itself, added to itself, generated nine. Thus the Ogdoad brought forth among them the number ninety-nine. And since the twelfth Aeon, having defected, left behind the eleven above, they say that the form of the letters corresponds to the figure of the matter: for the eleventh of the letters is the lambda, which is the number thirty, and it lies as an image of the economy above; since, beginning from alpha, apart from the notable sign, the number of the letters themselves, added up to lambda according to the increase of the letters, together with the lambda itself, makes the number ninety-nine. And that the lambda, being eleventh, in the eleventh place by rank, went down in search of its like, in order to fill up the twelfth number, and when it found it was made complete—this they say is evident from the very figure of the letter. For the lambda, as it were, came in search of its like, and finding it and snatching it to itself, filled up the place of the twelfth, the letter being composed of two lambdas. Therefore they say that through knowledge they themselves flee from the place of the ninety-nine—that is, the Deficiency, the place of the left hand—and pursue the one, which, added to the ninety-nine, transferred them to its right hand.
As you go through these things, beloved, I know well that you will laugh heartily at such folly of theirs that fancies itself wise. But worthy of lamentation are those who tear apart with such cold-blooded and forced devices so great a reverence for God, and the greatness of the truly ineffable power of the truth, and the so many dispensations of God, through the alpha and the beta and through numbers. And all who depart from the Church and put their trust in these old wives' fables are truly self-condemned; whom Paul commands us to reject after a first and second admonition. And John the disciple of the Lord intensified their condemnation, willing that not even a greeting should be given to them by us. "For he who says to them, Greeting," he declares, "shares in their evil works." And rightly so; for "there is no rejoicing for the impious," says the Lord. And these are impious beyond all impiety, who say that the only God, Maker of heaven and earth, the Almighty, above whom there is no other God, was projected from a Deficiency, itself in turn come from another Deficiency—so that according to them he is the product of a third Deficiency. Truly we ought to detest and execrate such an opinion, and to flee far away from them; and the more they strongly insist upon it and rejoice in their inventions, by so much the more should we recognize that they are energized by the Ogdoad of evil spirits—just as those who fall into a frenzied state, the more they laugh and seem to be strong and do everything as though in good health (indeed even beyond what health permits), by so much the more are they in a worse condition. So too with these: the more they seem to think highly of themselves and exhaust themselves shooting beyond their strength, by so much the more are they out of their right mind. For the unclean spirit of folly went out, and then, finding them at leisure—not for God, but for worldly speculations—took along seven other spirits more wicked than itself, and puffed up their mind, as though they were able to conceive of things above God, and prepared them to be fit for the great overthrow; thus it lodged in them the Ogdoad of the folly of the evil spirits.