" He also finds deep significance in the
number of the apostles; this number being evidently determined by
a multiplication of the number of persons in the Trinity by the
number of quarters of the globe. Still, to do him justice, it must
be said that in some parts of his exegesis the strong sense which
was one of his most striking characteristics crops out in a way
very refreshing. Thus, referring to a passage in the first chapter
of Job, regarding the oxen which were ploughing and the asses which
were feeding beside them, he tells us pithily that these typify two
classes of Christians: the oxen, the energetic Christians who do
the work of the Church; the asses, the lazy Christians who merely
feed.[[300]]
Thus began the vast theological structure of oracular interpretation
applied to the Bible. As we have seen, the men who prepared the
ground for it were the rabbis of Palestine and the Hellenized
Jews of Alexandria; and the four great men who laid its foundation
courses were Origen, St.
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