Note 572 — ΠΡΟΣ ΚΟΛΑΣΣΑΕΙΣ. (continued 6)

Origen expressly states that Heracleon read ἕξ for πέντε. The number six was supposed to symbolize the material creature: see Heracleon on ‘the forty and six years’ of John ii. 20 (Stieren p. 947). There is no reason to think that Heracleon falsified the text here; he appears to have found this various reading already in his copy.