על בריאת העולם מ״בOn the Account of the World's Creation 42
א׳
1[126] The number 7 exerts its influence not only in the spheres that have been mentioned, but also in those noblest of sciences, grammar and music. For the seven-stringed lyre, corresponding to the choir of the Planets, produces the notable melodies, and it is not going too far to say that the lyre is the rule to which the making of all musical instruments conforms. And among the letters in grammar there are seven properly called vowels or “vocals,” since as is obvious they can be sounded by themselves, and when joined with the others can produce articulate sounds; for on the one hand they fill up what is lacking to the “semi-vowels,” rendering the sounds full and complete, and on the other hand they change the nature of the “voiceless” (the consonants) by breathing into them something of their own power, that it may now be possible to pronounce letters before incapable of pronunciation.
ב׳
2[127] On these grounds I hold that those who originally fitted names to things, being wise men, called this number “seven” because of the “reverence” (σεβασμός) which it deserves, and the heavenly “dignity” (σεμνότης) pertaining to it. The Romans, who add the letter σ left out by the Greeks, make this appear still more clearly, since they, with greater accuracy, call the number septem, owing to its derivation, as I have said, from σεμνός (reverend) and σεβασμός (“reverence”).