On the Change of Names

“Abraham became ninety-nine years old and the Lord was seen by Abraham and said to him, ‘I am thy God’” (Gen. 17:1). Nine plus ninety is next neighbour to a hundred, the number irradiated by the self-taught nature Isaac who is joy, the best of the good emotions. For Isaac is born to Abraham when a hundred years old.

A hundred also represents the first-fruits given to the priests by the Tribe of Levi. For when the Levites receive the tenths they offer from them, just as though they were their own produce, other tenths in which we find the hundred (Num. 18:26). For ten is a symbol of progress and a hundred of perfection. Now he who is in the intermediate stage is always pressing forward to the summit, employing the gifts with which nature has blessed him, and it is by such a one that Moses tells us that the Lord of all was seen.

Yet do not suppose that the vision was presented to the eyes of the body. They see only the objects of sense and those are composite, brimful of corruptibility, while the divine is uncompounded and incorruptible. It is the eye of the soul which receives the presentation of the divine vision.