The Diversity of Ranks and Numerical Symbolism

The Assyrian power is like this: from the said place concerning the earth, it was able to strike again some evil power. He 'changed his own face' Phil 2:7, 'having taken the form of a slave'; for it seemed to him that he would hold him, even as he would devise death against him. He tasted 'by the grace of God above every death'. And a sign of this change is: 'he released him'. He is not able to seize him.

And I say the paradox: if he is not able to seize his lowliness, what would he say concerning the divinity? Therefore, you who say that the Word was crucified, the Lord of glory? 'He released him, and he departed'. He departed from him; for he did not come there to wear away life there, but in order that, having completed the economy, he might withdraw and snatch away many from there. It has happened also in the song, and he led up many souls of the righteous from there.

When you hear of bodies, do not look solely at the tents; for many think this. And he did not hesitate to say, alongside the other divine signs, that this paradox has happened; but see, lest it fight against the whole pattern of the economy. Know this: if men had known their own true state, it would be difficult for them to remain in unbelief.

And another thing: Peter, in the Acts of the Apostles, says concerning David: 'and his tomb is until now' Acts 2:29. Consider: if anyone were being raised at all, David was being raised. Therefore, the souls having been carried forth from the earth, we call 'bodies of saints'. And so we say, just as we say the whole church is the body of Christ. And in the resurrection it is said: 'each in his own rank' 1 Cor 15:23. But the individual ranks of those being raised from the dead are characterized by nothing other than the progress of souls. Those having the same virtue, faith, and piety are arranged into one rank. 'Christ is the firstfruits, then those of Christ, each in his own rank' 1 Cor 15:23. Those of Christ...

The ranks are not all the same. To take another example, as on the earth that received the seed, which bear fruit by a hundred, sixty, or thirty, so different ranks are formed; for it is not one single heart that bears a hundred, sixty, and thirty.

Indeed, our commentators say this: those participating in virginity bear the hundred, and those participating in marriage bear the divine thirty. They looked toward the smallness and inequality of the numbers, not toward the nature of the numbers. Some bear perfect fruit. These are signified by the number hundred. And in the promise, indeed, it says: 'The youth shall be a hundred years' (Gen 15:13/21:5). And Abraham, having become a hundred, was made a father according to the promise. And altogether the number ten is most beautiful; for the ten, being multiplied tenfold, makes a hundred. And we say that the number ten is all-encompassing; it contains all numbers.

Again, the sixty seems to have a relationship to the world; for it came into being in six days. Therefore, those who become citizens of the cosmos and surpass this and that which is indicated by it—for the number six was called perfect—these are another rank, and they inherit the kingdom. Perhaps those prophets who have two things and the Holy Spirit abounding in them, these are the thirty. And the thirty has a kinship with the worshipful Triad. Or perhaps, since the Savior, having become thirty, began his excellent ministry and his evangelical speech, those who have now come to him bear the thirty.

Listen: virtues follow one another as if one possessing all of them had only one. We take this up regarding the exceedingly perfect. When someone is making progress, he has one virtue at times more dominant than that from which he began or that for which he strove, just as it is with the arts; you see often a grammarian and a musician and a physician, and he has one more dominant, into which he has all others.