Pythagoras

Greek philosopher and mathematician. Jerome cites him as an example of a seeker of learning who visited the prophets of Memphis.

Pope Clement VIII, Jerome's Prefaces, On Worship

• II. JEROME TO PAULINUS. — Jerome cites him as an example of a seeker of learning who visited the prophets of Memphis

  "Thus Pythagoras visited the prophets of Memphis"

Preface and Praise of Sacred Scripture

• Chapter I: On the Excellence, Necessity, and Fruit of Sacred Scripture — His school is silent before Scripture

  "here all the school of Pythagoras is silent"

• Chapter II: On the Object and Breadth of Sacred Scripture — Held souls migrate from body to body; claimed to remember being Euphorbus in the Trojan War

  "Pythagoras held from the same source, souls migrate from body to body, now of a man, now of a beast"

• Chapter V: On the Dispositions Required for This Study — Iamblichus says his doctrine was divinely handed down and cannot be understood without a god interpreting

  "the doctrine of Pythagoras, because it was divinely handed down"

• Praises of Moses from Scripture and the Fathers — Listed among those who learned from Moses through Egypt

  "Orpheus, Homer, Solon, Pythagoras, Plato, the Sibyl, and others"

• Moses and Christ: Nineteen Parallels — Numenius asserts Plato and Pythagoras followed Moses's teachings

  "Numenius... asserts that Plato and Pythagoras followed the teachings of Moses"

• Moses as the Most Ancient Theologian, Philosopher, Poet, and Historian — Listed among sages preceded by Moses

  "Homer, Hesiod, Thales, Pythagoras, Socrates"

Commentary on the Pentateuch of Moses

• Argumentum — Listed among the sages of Greece whom Moses preceded

  "Homer, Hesiod, Thales, Pythagoras, Socrates"

• Canons Bearing a Torch Before the Pentateuch — His riddles/symbols cited by Jerome: "Do not step over the balance," etc.

  "the riddles of Pythagoras, says St. Jerome (Against Rufinus, book 3)"

Chapter I (The Six Days of Creation)

• God (Elohim): Thirteen Definitions — Named alongside the Manichaeans for the error of two principles

  "Pythagoras, the Manichaeans, and the Priscillianists err, who say that there are two principles of things"