Something I found out while reading St. Irenaeus' work, Against Heresies, was that the numerical value of the letters of Jesus' name in Greek adds up to 888.* The ancient Greeks used the letters of their alphabet and a few letters borrowed from the Phoenician alphabet to represent numerals.
Numbers have symbolic meaning. The number seven signifies perfection. Eight is one more than seven. It symbolically means abundance. Eight also symbolically means eternity. There are seven days in a week. The eighth day is the day beyond time. Jesus Christ arose from the dead on the eighth day - the day after the Sabbath which is the seventh day. One of the Church Fathers said that there are seven periods in human history - one that corresponds with each day of the week. At the end of the seventh period, Christ will return. Then will begin the eighth period which corresponds with the eighth day - the day without a sunset. The eighth day is the day that will never end.**
Steve
* This is the name of Jesus; for this name, if you reckon up the numerical value of the letters, amounts to eight hundred and eighty-eight. (Against Heresies, Book I, chapter 15, paragraph 2, by St. Irenaeus of Lyons, 120-202 A.D., vol. 1, p. 339, Ante-Nicene Fathers)
** Ye perceive how He speaks: Your present Sabbaths are not acceptable to Me, but that is which I have made, [namely this, ] when, giving rest to all things, I shall make a beginning of the eighth day, that is, a beginning of another world. Wherefore, also, we keep the eighth day with joyfulness, the day also on which Jesus rose again from the dead. And when He had manifested Himself, He ascended into the heavens. (Epistle of Barnabas, chapter 15, written in about 100 A.D. by Barnabas of Cyprus, vol. 1, p. 147, Ante-Nicene Fathers)
The life originally bestowed was not eternal, because man sinned; but the final rest, of which the seventh day was an emblem, its eternal, and hence the eighth day also will have eternal blessedness, because that rest, being eternal, is taken up by the eighth day, not destroyed by it; for if it were thus destroyed, it would not be eternal. Accordingly the eighth day, which is the first day of the week, represents to us that original life, not taken away, but made eternal. (Letter LV, chapter 9, by Blessed Augustine of Hippo, 354-430 A.D., vol. 1, p. 308, Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, First Series)
“The day of the Lord,” Scripture says, “is great and very terrible” (Joel 2:11), and elsewhere “Woe unto you that desire the day of the Lord: to what end is it for you? The day of the Lord is darkness and not light.” (Amos 5:18) A day of darkness for those who are worthy of darkness. No; this day without evening, without succession and without end is not unknown to Scripture, and it is the day that the Psalmist calls the eighth day, because it is outside this time of weeks. (Title of Psalms 6 and 11) Thus whether you call it day, or whether you call it eternity, you express the same idea. Give this state the name of day; there are not several, but only one. If you call it eternity still it is unique and not manifold. Thus it is in order that you may carry your thoughts forward towards a future life, that Scripture marks by the word “one” the day which is the type of eternity, the first fruits of days, the contemporary of light, the holy Lord’s day honoured by the Resurrection of our Lord. "And the evening and the morning were one day.” (Gen. 1:5) (The Hexaemeron, Homily II, by St. Basil the Great, 329-379 A.D., vol. 7, pp. 64-65, Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Second Series)
Ante-Nicene Fathers, edited by Alexander Roberts, D.D. & James Donaldson, LL.D., volumes 1-10, Hendrickson Publishers, Peabody, Massachusetts
Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, First Series, edited by Philip Schaff, D.D., LL.D., volumes 1-14, Hendrickson Publishers, Inc., Peabody, Massachusetts
Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Second Series, edited by Philip Schaff, D.D., LL.D. & Henry Wace, D.D., volumes 1-14, Hendrickson Publishers, Inc., Peabody, Massachusetts
Numbers have symbolic meaning. The number seven signifies perfection. Eight is one more than seven. It symbolically means abundance. Eight also symbolically means eternity. There are seven days in a week. The eighth day is the day beyond time. Jesus Christ arose from the dead on the eighth day - the day after the Sabbath which is the seventh day. One of the Church Fathers said that there are seven periods in human history - one that corresponds with each day of the week. At the end of the seventh period, Christ will return. Then will begin the eighth period which corresponds with the eighth day - the day without a sunset. The eighth day is the day that will never end.**
Steve
* This is the name of Jesus; for this name, if you reckon up the numerical value of the letters, amounts to eight hundred and eighty-eight. (Against Heresies, Book I, chapter 15, paragraph 2, by St. Irenaeus of Lyons, 120-202 A.D., vol. 1, p. 339, Ante-Nicene Fathers)
** Ye perceive how He speaks: Your present Sabbaths are not acceptable to Me, but that is which I have made, [namely this, ] when, giving rest to all things, I shall make a beginning of the eighth day, that is, a beginning of another world. Wherefore, also, we keep the eighth day with joyfulness, the day also on which Jesus rose again from the dead. And when He had manifested Himself, He ascended into the heavens. (Epistle of Barnabas, chapter 15, written in about 100 A.D. by Barnabas of Cyprus, vol. 1, p. 147, Ante-Nicene Fathers)
The life originally bestowed was not eternal, because man sinned; but the final rest, of which the seventh day was an emblem, its eternal, and hence the eighth day also will have eternal blessedness, because that rest, being eternal, is taken up by the eighth day, not destroyed by it; for if it were thus destroyed, it would not be eternal. Accordingly the eighth day, which is the first day of the week, represents to us that original life, not taken away, but made eternal. (Letter LV, chapter 9, by Blessed Augustine of Hippo, 354-430 A.D., vol. 1, p. 308, Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, First Series)
“The day of the Lord,” Scripture says, “is great and very terrible” (Joel 2:11), and elsewhere “Woe unto you that desire the day of the Lord: to what end is it for you? The day of the Lord is darkness and not light.” (Amos 5:18) A day of darkness for those who are worthy of darkness. No; this day without evening, without succession and without end is not unknown to Scripture, and it is the day that the Psalmist calls the eighth day, because it is outside this time of weeks. (Title of Psalms 6 and 11) Thus whether you call it day, or whether you call it eternity, you express the same idea. Give this state the name of day; there are not several, but only one. If you call it eternity still it is unique and not manifold. Thus it is in order that you may carry your thoughts forward towards a future life, that Scripture marks by the word “one” the day which is the type of eternity, the first fruits of days, the contemporary of light, the holy Lord’s day honoured by the Resurrection of our Lord. "And the evening and the morning were one day.” (Gen. 1:5) (The Hexaemeron, Homily II, by St. Basil the Great, 329-379 A.D., vol. 7, pp. 64-65, Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Second Series)
Bibliography
Ante-Nicene Fathers, edited by Alexander Roberts, D.D. & James Donaldson, LL.D., volumes 1-10, Hendrickson Publishers, Peabody, Massachusetts
Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, First Series, edited by Philip Schaff, D.D., LL.D., volumes 1-14, Hendrickson Publishers, Inc., Peabody, Massachusetts
Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Second Series, edited by Philip Schaff, D.D., LL.D. & Henry Wace, D.D., volumes 1-14, Hendrickson Publishers, Inc., Peabody, Massachusetts
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