counted together and added up. There are other numbers, you see, whose parts
242 The Literal Meaning of Genesis
To work out the answer to all this is certainly difficult. It may be the one or the other; or even a third more likely solution may be found, which will unfold, maybe, as discussion of the matter proceeds, to the question of how in those three days we are to understand the meaning of "night" and "evening" and "morning." But in any case it will not be beside the point for us to consider the perfection of the number six in the inner nature of numbers itself. This is some thing we behold with the mind, in the light of which we also number or count things that impinge on the senses of the body, and arrange them in a harmonious, numerical order.4
The perfection of the number six
2, 2. So then we find the number six to be the first perfect number for the reason that it is completed by its parts.5 There are, you see, also other numbers that are perfect for other reasons and causes. Well then, we have called six a perfect number in that it is completed by its parts, those parts at least ofwhich the number whose parts they are is a multiple; of such a part, you see, you can ask how many times. The number three can of course be called a part not only of six, of which it is a half, but of all the others that are more than three. I mean, three is also the greater part of four and five; four after all can be divided into three and one, and five into three and two. And ofseven and eight and nine and any number beyond them three is not the greater or halfbut a smaller part. Thus seven can be divided into three and four, and eight into three and five, and nine into three and six. But with none of these can it be said of three how many times it goes into them, except with nine, of which it is a third, as it is a half of six. And so of all these that I have mentioned none is completed by x times three except six and nine.
3. So the number six, as I started to say, is itself completed by its parts being counted together and added up. There are other numbers, you see, whose parts added up make a smaller sum, others a bigger one. But as for those which are completed by their parts, which neither exceed them nor fall short of them when
4. Arrange them numerose. We are back with his beloved text, Wis 1 1 :20, You have arranged all things in measure andnumber and weight. Number meant so much more than mere arithmetic for Augustine, and indeed for his contemporaries in general. To begin with it also meant music ; and then following on this there was a whole mystique of number, the study and practice of which constituted the art or science (both, indeed) of what we may term numerology or—a less hybrid term—arithmology. A book that teems with this is the Apocalypse, the book of Revelation; and the author there is only developing material he has to hand in the books of the Old Testament. 1t is this art/science that will be governing the next long chapter on the number six. 5. 1n modern, more technical but also more lucid terms, it is the sum of its divisors; that is, 6 = 1 + 2 + 3. The next such, my mathematical adviser informs me. is 28; 28 = 1 + 2 + 4 + 7 + 14. For the next few in the series see note 8 below.