Philo (Loeb/Yonge, PD)

CONCERNING NOAH'S WORK AS A PLANTER 29

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CHAPTER 29 / 42
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29 1Add together 1+2+3+4, and we shall find what we wanted. For out of 1+4 we shall get 5; out of 2+4 we shall get 6; 7 out of 3+4; and (by adding three instead of two numbers together) from 1+3+4 we get 8; and again from 2+3+4 we get the number 9; and from all taken together we get 10; for 1+2+3+4 produces 10. 2This is why Moses said “In the fourth year all the fruit shall be holy.” For the number 4 is, in relation to other numbers, even and complete and full and, in a loose sense, universal, owing to the fact that 10, the offspring of 4, is fixed as first turning-point of the numbers from 1 onwards in a series. And 10 and 4 are said to be “all” or “totality” among numbers; 10 being so in realized actuality, and 4 potentially.
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