Christian Topography 1 part 10/22

But the Apostle also says that the angels too were subjected to serve vanity for man's sake, by a certain hope which God gave, namely that they too would be set free, when men receive back the hope laid up for them, being established as sons of God in glory

And again the Apostle testifies that the angels are taught the things concerning God from the things ordained concerning man, and he says:

'That now, through the Church, the manifold wisdom of God might be made known to the Principalities and the Powers,' clearly saying that they are taught the wisdom of God through the Church

This is Abel, the righteous one, who, having died unjustly, first of all mankind showed the foundations of death to be rotten

For this reason, even having died, he still speaks, foretelling the resurrection of the dead, which the Master Christ, being first of all to show it in himself, thereby destroyed the seeming power of death

This is Abel, who, as in a riddle, was an imitator of the Passion of Christ, who because of envy over [his] good works was unjustly killed by his brother; concerning whom the apostle Paul also says in the Epistle to the Hebrews:

'But you have come to Mount Zion and to the city of the living God, the heavenly Jerusalem, and to myriads of angels, to the festal gathering, and to the assembly of the firstborn enrolled in heaven, and to God the judge of all, and to the spirits of the righteous made perfect, and to Jesus the mediator of a new covenant, and to the blood of sprinkling that speaks better than [that of] Abel.' Marginal note. Here it is shown more clearly, since the righteous Abel died, that death was not brought upon man out of wrath, because he who had not sinned died before the one who had sinned; for this reason too a seeking after Abel's life and a vengeance for his death come from God, and it is shown that after death he cries out, thereby making clear that he will return to life

And again, death—not being permitted to make its first onset upon the one who sinned, but upon the one who had not sinned—is shown to be undone, since it made its first attack unjustly, and not justly;

for it laid its foundations upon a righteous man, and not upon a sinner;

one may learn from this that death laid rotten foundations;

for this reason it will very quickly be destroyed—which indeed came to pass in the case of our Master Christ, when its seeming power was destroyed

Glory to him who, from beginning to end, ordained the things concerning man

From this it is shown again that death is not [the result] of wrath, in that those testified to be righteous die untimely and by violence, while those testified to be sinners, having fulfilled their days, died in a long old age

For it is appointed by God for men to die once, as the Apostle says, speaking of it with reference to the majority [i.e., in general];

for neither do all men die [only once], nor did Lazarus and the others whom the Lord raised die only once; rather, he says this in order to say that all men, being in this present state, exist as mortal, having thus been created by God

After this, a certain other, better state is introduced, distinguishing the righteous from the unrighteous, the pious from the impious, in which death no longer holds sway

Some have said that, when the first man sinned and received the sentence of death, he was changed from the immortality that was proper to him into mortality; and, ostensibly interpreting the text, they say that when God said, 'in whatever day you eat from the tree, you shall die the death,' he meant that Adam would become mortal;

for we see that he did not die immediately according to the threat, so it is evident that this is what is hinted to him, namely:

'Being immortal, you shall become mortal'—in order, they say, that God's pronouncement might prove true;

whence also those born from him, falling under the paternal sentence, are born mortal

And if this is true, how is it that Abel, having, according to them, fallen under the sentence and been born mortal, yet having proved to be righteous and a virgin, found the sentence of mortality not sufficient for him, but fell under yet another punishment besides, namely, untimely death? Whence then was this added to him, seeing he was righteous and a virgin, and moreover, as they say, already fell within the paternal sentence, that is, was already mortal—when even mortal righteous men can be kept from dying, just as we see also in the case of Enoch, who likewise, as you say, fell under the paternal sentence, and had a wife and children, yet did not experience death, whereas Abel had neither wife nor children? And how is it that, when Cain asked for death because of his fratricide, God did not grant it, but rather delivered him over to a heavier punishment, to groan and tremble upon the earth, and says that death is a release from this evil? For he says:

'Whoever kills Cain shall release seven acts of vengeance'—meaning that:

whoever kills him takes away from him many punishments, and releases him from his chastisement

So it may also be seen from this that, since the righteous and virgin one was permitted to be killed, death was not brought upon man out of wrath, as the tellers of marvels declare, but by the loving-kindness and wisdom of the merciful God, for our instruction, as we have said before

But how is it, according to them, that when the first man sinned by eating of a single plant, God condemned both him and all who followed to mortality, yet, having condemned the first murderer to groan and tremble, he does not condemn all subsequent murderers to the same punishment, but to another—the very one which the first murderer himself begged to be condemned to, and in begging did not obtain? This is Enoch, over whom the sentence of death had no power at all;

for he was translated by God so as not to see death, as the divine Scripture would have it, so that through this too it might be foretold to us that death will not hold sway over mankind, but that the matters concerning it will receive dissolution, just as indeed came to pass in the case of the Master Christ, when its power was destroyed

This is Enoch, who was translated into life as a sign, to the generations after these, of the power of God—the power able to keep mortals from dying, but instead, while they yet live, to bring them through the change for the better

This is he who, together with Elijah, will in the last days stand against the Antichrist and refute his deceit, according to ecclesiastical tradition

having, by his pleasing God, escaped the way of death

Marginal note. And in this case too it is shown more clearly that death was not brought upon man out of wrath, nor was the sentence of death, but rather, as we have said, so that it might make sin hateful to him and righteousness desirable

Hence, in this case neither the sentence nor death itself held sway, nor will it hold sway

'For by faith Enoch was translated, so as not to see death,' says the Apostle, clearly showing that he does not see death, but, while living, undergoes the change for the better, together with all those who remain alive at the coming of the Lord and who, because of the swiftness of the resurrection and of the life that then comes to be, do not manage to die

Let the tellers of marvels, who say that death came upon us out of God's wrath and not out of his providence and wisdom, tell us how it is that, while all men are obliged by the paternal sentence to die once, this man does not fall under this penalty? This is the length of the ark

It is three hundred cubits, and the width, as has been said, is fifty cubits below, and one cubit above

'For, gathering it together,' he says, 'you shall make it, and finish it off to a cubit'

And the height is thirty cubits

He therefore divided the thirty cubits into three compartments, the height of each compartment being ten cubits

'For you shall make it with two decks and three decks,' as if to say:

'Set two decks within, and a third deck above, so that there may be three compartments'

And in the lowest compartment he ordered the wild beasts and the venomous creeping things to be, as creatures that continually lurk beneath the earth;

and the four-footed animals and those that leap upon the mountains he ordered to be in the second compartment, as creatures that dwell upon the earth and in the mountains;

and the birds and man he ordered to be in the third compartment, since the former are creatures that travel through the air, while the latter was destined to become a heavenly being

This is Noah, who was perfect and righteous in his generation, who endured an involuntary drunkenness and beheld mysteries in it

'And Noah awoke from the wine, and knew what his younger son had done.' And after foretelling to him the things to come by way of a curse, he also speaks to the others of the things that would be, by way of blessing, and says:

'Blessed be the Lord God of Shem,' and again:

'May God enlarge Japheth, and let him dwell in the tents of Shem.' For in a certain manner he neither cursed the first, nor blessed these, but uttered a prophecy of mysteries to be accomplished through the Master Christ

For never did the sons of Canaan serve their brothers; rather, those brothers served them in Egypt

But neither did the Gibeonites, as some have supposed, serve them; rather, they served God;

for they were appointed as wood-cutters and water-carriers for the temple of God, not for themselves

What then does this mean, but assuredly a prophecy, that they too serve Christ, who according to the flesh is of the line of Shem? And as for the words, 'Blessed be the Lord God of Shem,' what does this have to do with Shem, if it is his God who is blessed? But he adds:

'May God enlarge Japheth, and let him'—as if meaning God—'dwell in the tents of Shem,' having expressed it to him by an inverted word order, so that it might be understood thus:

'Blessed be the Lord God of Shem, and let him dwell in the tents of Shem'; then, next:

'May God enlarge Japheth.'

For indeed he also enlarged for Japheth and for Canaan;

and again both of them serve Christ, who came forth from Shem.

For all his dwellings, which God made toward men — partially in the prophets, but wholly and undividedly and universally in the Lord Christ according to the flesh — he has made among those who are of Shem, just as it is written concerning the Lord Christ according to the flesh:

'In whom dwells all the fullness of the Godhead bodily.'

Of these visions, then, he himself too was deemed worthy to foretell the things that were to be accomplished according to the dispensation of the Lord Christ.

Marginal note. And in this case it is shown more clearly that death was not brought upon man out of wrath;

the wrath of God, when all men perished in the flood; but in truth, being relieved through the prematurity of the sins which they were going to commit, while this one, as being a choice treasure, was preserved and thus provided for — true is what is said by us, that death was not brought upon man out of wrath, but for benefit and instruction and the cessation of the wretched life here.

For indeed Noah, though so greatly preserved and provided for by God, did not escape the way of death.

And those who perished — the death which they would in any case have endured shortly after, as mortals — they endured as though out of wrath through prematurity, being rather benefited and relieved of the many sins which they would have added while living.

And God renews the same honor and blessing and promise also to this one, as to the first man, and even more, saying:

'And the Lord God blessed Noah and his sons and said to them:'

'Be fruitful and multiply and fill the earth and subdue it.'

'And the fear of you and the dread of you shall be upon all the beasts of the earth, and upon all the birds of heaven, and upon everything that moves upon the earth, and upon all the fish of the sea;'

'and every creeping thing that is alive shall be food for you;'

'as the green herbs I have given you all things.'

'only flesh with the blood of life you shall not eat.' And a little further on:

'Whoever sheds the blood of man, in return for his blood shall it be shed, for I made man in the image of God.' Behold, it is clear that both before the transgression and after so long a time following the transgression, he gave man the same honor and authority and dominion — and now even more; because before the transgression, in paradise, he commanded man to eat from every tree, except one;

but after the expulsion from paradise, he no longer commanded him to eat from a tree, but from the seeds of the earth.

Having thus disciplined those ten generations in the land beyond, the thorny land, through a very dry and wretched life, God afterward, through Noah, brought their descendants across into this land and appointed them to be there — a land that is better, and almost equal to paradise — commanding them to partake of all things, both fruit-bearing trees and seeds together, and even more, to eat meat as well.

Who, seeing such great providence and care of the wise and compassionate God, would be so ill-tempered as to say that death came upon man out of the wrath of God, and would not rather understand this wisely and gratefully? For God, wishing to instruct the human race, wisely cast death upon the sin of the first-formed man, so that he might make sin hateful to him, while through the guarding of the tree of life kindling him and again instructing him unto longing for immortality;

for by God's saying, 'lest he stretch out his hand and take of the tree of life and eat and live forever,' he laid down beforehand in man a certain longing and desire and good hope of immortality, and through man, also for all the invisible Powers.

For he did not withhold or deprive man of any of the promises that were before the transgression, but having instructed him, he even gave more, and through Noah he intensified the dignity of the title of being his own image;

'For in the image of God,' he says, 'I made man.' To this end, then, God made man: so that in the present life he should pass his existence mortal and changeable, and after the discipline here, he might make him immortal.

And it is even more evident concerning this, that from the beginning to the end, little by little, through discipline and instruction, God has led and leads man toward what is better; and to this one again God imparted the gift of prophecy, as to the first men.

And Noah also bears a certain resemblance to the Lord Christ according to the flesh:

he alone was taken from the mass of mankind for the salvation of the whole world, and was transferred to a better and heavenly citizenship and way of life.

This is Melchizedek, how great a priest of God Most High, who exacts tithes even from the priests according to the Law of Moses;

This is the king of peace and of righteousness, at once also priest of God Most High, who has been made like unto the Son of God, who received the priesthood neither by succession from other priests, nor passed it on to other priests.

This is he who performs his services not according to the law of Moses, but who officiates with other, better symbols.

This is he who blessed the patriarch Abraham, who is without father and without mother and not reckoned by genealogy from them, the only priest and king, who has been made like unto the Son of God, and who himself was deemed worthy to be the herald of such great blessings.

Marginal note. After the flood, when mankind had thereafter multiplied, this man alone among them, of his own free choice, was shown forth as priest of God Most High and king of Jerusalem, after the likeness of the Son of God; and, according to Scripture, he offered to God as sacrifices the most excellent of all created things, by which the human race is ever sustained and gladdened.

He, as king, altogether admonishing the people governed by him to conduct themselves in these things, continued in this very order to officiate as priest and to make atonement for his own people.

Yet being a Canaanite and king of the Canaanites, not being of the race of Abraham's forefathers, but being known apart from the genealogy of Abraham's forefathers, such a one was shown forth among men as righteous, both king and priest.

This one, being the first as priest to bless Abraham and to give thanks to God, received tithes from all that Abraham had.

And I think, and perhaps I shall speak truly, that Rebecca too, going by means of him, as it is written, inquired at that time of the Lord concerning the twins she had in her womb, and she heard that:

'The elder shall serve the younger;'

for it was customary at that time to approach a priest of God to inquire of the Lord.

He declared him to be without father and without mother and without genealogy, and having neither beginning of days nor end of life — as one not being among those reckoned by genealogy from the Abrahamic men, yet having a resemblance in this also to the Lord Christ: that he is fatherless according to the flesh, but motherless according to his Godhead, and likewise without genealogy; and he has neither beginning of days, being without beginning according to his Godhead, nor again has he end of life according to the same, and likewise also according to his humanity, since he has become immortal and unchangeable.

On every occasion, then, God reminds men, whether through words or through types, that a certain second state is reserved for men after the life here.

ABRAHAM. This is the great patriarch Abraham, the first of men to leave behind fatherland and kindred and nation, and who believed God and was justified on account of this and on account of the promises of God, which God made to him — who, from a body as good as dead and a womb as good as dead, brought forth myriads; who, as from a root, produced for the world the blessed fruit, through whom the world is blessed and re-created; who through works and through promises signified to the world the resurrection from the dead:

through promises indeed, as in the saying:

'In you and in your seed shall all the nations be blessed,' just as the Apostle also cries out:

'Now to Abraham were the promises spoken, and to his seed, who is Christ.'

and through works, when he offered up his only-begotten son as a sacrifice:

for thus says the Lord:

'Abraham your father rejoiced to see my day, and he saw it and was glad.' And the apostle Paul cries out:

'By faith Abraham, being tested, offered up Isaac; and he who had received the promises offered up his only-begotten, to whom it had been said:'

'I have made you a father of many nations' — in the presence of him whom he believed, that is, God, who gives life to the dead and calls the things that are not as though they were; who, against hope, believed in hope, so that he might become the father of many nations, according to what was spoken:

'So shall your seed be.'

And not being weak in faith, he did not consider his own body already as good as dead — being about a hundred years old — nor the deadness of Sarah's womb;

but as to the promise of God, he did not waver in unbelief, but was strengthened in faith, giving glory to God, and being fully persuaded that what he had promised, he was able also to perform;

therefore it was reckoned to him as righteousness.

'Now it was not written for his sake alone, that it was reckoned to him, but also for our sake, to whom it will be reckoned — to those who believe on him who raised Jesus our Lord from the dead, who was delivered up for our trespasses and was raised for our justification.' And his going for three days, until he reached the place which God had shown him, that he might offer up his son as a sacrifice on one of the mountains, as it is written, and the showing to him of a ram instead of his true and natural son, that he might offer it — all these were symbols and types of the mystery of the passion and resurrection according to Christ.

For all Scripture looks toward this very purpose.

Marginal note. Beginning first with this Abraham, God begins to reveal, both through words and through types, the state that is to come.

For the great Abraham reasoned, when God had told him to offer up his beloved son as a sacrifice, that God is able again to raise him from the dead and to grant him back to him, as Scripture supposes;

whence also in the Gospels the Lord mentions the type of Abraham's sacrifice, calling the type 'his own day';

and through promises also he made it clear to him, saying:

'In you and in your seed shall all the nations be blessed,' which made known to him the dispensation according to Christ.

God, being foreknowing, and knowing that from Abraham was to come forth the one through whom he would work the resurrection and renewal of the universe, chooses the faithful Abraham, having tested him in all things — since he does not choose without due occasion — and having found him most faithful among the Chaldeans, who were astronomers and astrologers, transfers him to the sorcerers called the Karenoi;

and having been shown faithful there as well, he is commanded to dwell in the land of the idol-worshipping Canaanites;

and there also found superior, and turning aside to none of the three ways, but rather submitting to the reverence and the commands of God, he was deemed worthy to become a hearer of the great promises and gifts of God — namely, that from his seed would come forth the one who, first showing in himself the blessing and the promise to the world, is he through whom the Creator and Renewer of the world grants the resurrection and the promise to the world.

And they say that Abraham made the sacrifice of Isaac on that very mountain where also the Lord Christ was offered up as a sacrifice on behalf of the whole world and endured the saving cross.

This is Isaac, the co-heir of the promises and blessings of God made to Abraham, his father; who became a type of the slaughter of the Lord Christ, walking for three days toward death and afterward returning alive; who bore on his own shoulders the wood of his own sacrifice, just as the Lord Christ also bore his own cross upon his shoulders; who died by his own choice and was made alive by God; in whose place a sheep was slaughtered as a substitute; and the father heard from God that:

'You did not spare your beloved son.'

Thus also it has been said concerning Christ, the Son of God:

'He who did not spare his own Son, but delivered him up for us all' — even though it is only the flesh that was given for the life of the world, since it is impossible for the Godhead to die;

since it is the flesh that is given, Scripture says that his own Son is given, this being a substitute and counter-representation of the son, according to the type of the blessed Isaac.

For thus also the Lord said that:

'...my day, and he saw it and was glad.' This is Isaac, who unknowingly handed over to Jacob the blessing promised by God to him and to his father, saying:

Let peoples serve you, and let rulers bow down to you;

and be lord over your brother, and let your father's sons bow down to you;

He who curses you is cursed, and he who blesses you is blessed. Yet we do not see all these things having come to pass in the case of Jacob; rather, he himself, falling to the ground seven times, bowed down to Esau;

and thirty kings reigned from Esau before a king reigned in Israel, so that the blessings remain in force for the Master Christ who was expected from them, toward whom the whole aim of the divine Scripture looks.

Marginal note. And this one too, having become a co-heir of God's gifts and promises, and a type of the Master Christ — he too, having received the blessing from his father, did not hand it on to the son he wished, but to the one to whom God had ordained it to be given.

Glory to him who in all things wisely administers the affairs of mankind.

This Jacob, himself too a co-heir of God's promises, awaiting the city that has foundations, whose craftsman and maker is God, that is, the heavenly Jerusalem, where Christ entered as forerunner on our behalf, toward which state the whole religion of the Christians looks — which the Master Christ first of all inaugurated for us, a new and living way — which the great Jacob also foretold, commending it to his own son Judah, blessing him, from whom also the Lord Jesus Christ, he of the promises and blessings, was to be manifested, saying thus:

Judah, may your brothers praise you; your hand shall be upon the neck of your enemies;

your father's sons shall bow down to you.

A lion's cub, Judah; from a shoot, my son, you have gone up;

having crouched down, you slept as a lion and as a cub —

who shall rouse him up? A ruler shall not fail from Judah, nor a leader from his loins, until the things laid up for him come; and he is the expectation of the nations.

Binding his foal to the vine, and to the tendril the foal of his donkey, he will wash his robe in wine and his garment in the blood of the grape;

his eyes are more joyous than wine, and his teeth whiter than milk. And yet his father's sons did not bow down to him; but on the contrary, he himself bowed down to Joseph, even after his father's death.

It is quite clear, then, that this whole prophecy found its fulfillment in the Master Christ who was born of him according to the flesh, setting forth both his power and his kingly nature, and the Passion and the blessed resurrection from the Passion.

Marginal note. And this Jacob, the third patriarch numbered together with the other two, did not marry from the beginning the wife he himself had wished, but married Leah — and to the fourth son born of her, that is, to Judah, he laid down the blessings and the promises; so it is clear from this that the blessing did not pass by chance to whomever it happened, but to those from whom the Master Christ was to appear according to the flesh, the founder of the second state.

It is also possible to learn from Judah himself that his seed was to be traced in genealogy not from his own wife, but from his daughter-in-law Tamar, from whom the Lord of the blessings was to be manifested.

Most manifestly the patriarchs, having received from God such great promises — that in them and in their seed all the nations would be blessed — likewise also it is written:

'To you I will give this land, and to your seed' — and though they themselves received not so much as a footstep of ground, but dwelt in tents, they showed themselves most faithful, awaiting and hoping for some other state, through which they would receive the promises.

Hence also at the time of dying, each of them handed on the blessing to whomever God had ordained.

Hence the Scripture, as though storing up the fathers as treasure, cried out:

'And he was added to his fathers' — saying this concerning each one, as it were:

'All together, being stored up, shall one day receive the promises in the coming state.'

…is the great Moses, the worker of extraordinary signs and wonders, the cosmographer of creation, honored with the shadows of our true shepherd Christ and glorified in countenance by God, who by words and by deeds foreshowed the things of the dispensation of the Master Christ;

by deeds indeed, as in redeeming Israel from the slavery of the Egyptians, having beforehand traced out the Passover and the sprinkling of the blood, and making the crossing of the sea as a figure of baptism;

through the cloud foreshowing the giving of the law, and prefiguring the conduct in the wilderness as a figure of the Holy Spirit and of the Church;

by setting up the bronze serpent on high, he proclaimed beforehand the Passion of the Master Christ through the cross;