Unfortunately, however, St. Barnabas's premise was of doubtful
validity, as theRev. Mr. Maitland pointed out, in a pamphlet
impugning the conclusions of the Tract. 'The simple fact is,' he
wrote, 'that when Abraham pursued Chedorlaomer "he armed his
trained servants, BORN IN HIS OWN HOUSE, three hundred and
eighteen". When, more than thirteen (according to the common
chronology, fifteen) years after, he circumcised "all the men of
his house, BORN IN THE HOUSE, AND BOUGHT WITH MONEY OF THE
STRANGER", and, in fact, every male who was as much as eight days
old, we are not told what the number amounted to. Shall we
suppose (just for the sake of the interpretation) that Abraham's
family had so dwindled in the interval as that now all the males
of his household, trained men, slaves, and children, equalled
only and exactly the number of his warriors fifteen years
before?' The question seems difficult to answer, but Keble had,
as a matter of fact, forestalled the argument in the following
passage, which had apparently escaped the notice of the Rev. Mr.
Maitland: 'Now whether the facts were really so or not (if it
were, it was surely by special providence), that Abraham's
household at the time of the circumcision was exactly the same
number as before; still the argument of St. Barnabas will stand.
As thus: circumcision had from the beginning, a reference to our
SAVIOUR, as in other respects, so in this; that the mystical
number, which is the cipher of Jesus crucified, was the number of
the first circumcised household in the strength of which Abraham
prevailed against the powers of the world.
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