Christian Topography 1 part 15/22

There was found here the most God-fearing man in all things, abba Stephen, the presbyter of Antioch, most Christian among the perfect and truly being so, having also been trained precisely in the reckoning of the moon, and himself too holding the same view which we have proposed according to the divine Scripture, and being able readily to foretell both solar and lunar eclipses, should he wish to occupy himself with this matter.

Whence, being asked in the month of Thoth of the present tenth indiction by a skilled man named Anastasios, an engineer, a learned man and experienced beyond many, to foretell a solar eclipse, he said it would occur at that very time, on the twelfth of the month Mecheir, and a lunar eclipse again at that same time, on the twenty-fourth of Mesore.

And he, marveling again, asked him about past eclipses that had already occurred;

and when these too had been declared by him, the man marveled.

There were also present certain other engineers, and some of our friends, in whose presence these things were spoken.

This God-loving man himself, then, having experience and a keen interest in such matters, having been in Antioch and in Constantinople and having spent many years there, said that he himself too had measured the shadows in both places;

and in Antioch, he affirmed, the shadow measured one and a half feet at that very time, but in Byzantium, two feet.

And Antioch belongs to the klima that runs through Rhodes, I mean the fourth, while Byzantium belongs to the klima a little beyond the fifth.

For thus they divide the klimata:

the klima at Alexandria, the fourth at Rhodes, the fifth at the Hellespont, the sixth at the middle of Pontus, the seventh at the river Borysthenes and the Maeotic lake, and beyond that, the Ocean.

If then, just as we ourselves witnessed with our own eyes, the shadow in the third klima here, as they themselves suppose, inclines only one foot toward the north, and in the fourth one and a half feet, and in the fifth two feet, how is it not plain that per klima half a foot is added or subtracted? And if this is true — as indeed it is true — the sun will be found to have the size of two klimata.

For if in the third klima it has one foot, then in the second it certainly has half a foot, and in the first we would be found to be completely without shadow at all.

But as we said before, in the second discourse, the intervals of the earth from Meroe to the Ocean, toward the south, comprise many intervals;

for from the Cataracts to the Ocean, we recall having said, the interval of the earth is seventy units, more or less.

But the klimata which they themselves suppose, they suppose to be about twenty units apart.

It is found, then, altogether, that in the klima at Axum, the city of the Ethiopians, the shadow inclines more than a foot toward the south, so that in every way, between Syene and Axum, the sun, in traversing the summer solstice, has the size of two klimata.

How then are the things said by them concerning the sun not false and mythical, namely that it is greater than the earth? And how, when they claim the earth to be spherical, does the shadow not vary within the hollow of the earth? For if they suppose the burnt zone to be in the middle, it is necessary that the parts on either side be more concave.

But they say that no one is able to inhabit the burnt zone, but that our own inhabited world too is situated on the northern part of the earth, distant by many intervals from the burnt zone.

And I marvel again, if in these hollows of the earth, according to their own hypothesis, the shadows are able to correspond in such a way as to differ by half a foot for each klima, as has been demonstrated by us, with God's help, having seen it with our own eyes, and having shown it to the men with whom we were conversing — men not uninitiated, but experienced, and firmly contending in this matter.

Yet again they said, insisting, that whenever the illuminating body is large and the illuminated body is small, and both are spherical, the shadow certainly forms a cone;

for the rays of the large sphere, extending on this side and that of the small sphere, certainly produce a very sharp cone;

and they attempted, as it were, to circumscribe us with linear geometrical demonstrations;

but concerning this we most concisely showed, with our own eyes, that what was said was false;

For bringing a very small wooden sphere, we drove into it a fixed nail, by which we also held it in our hands, and stretching it out toward the sun we saw a round shadow, and not a cone-shaped one;

Behold how small the sphere is which we held, and how great — especially according to you — the sun is; and yet it does not produce a cone-shaped shadow, but a round one.

We tested this both from near and from far, and found no way to demonstrate what they say; rather, we found that they deceive the many only by plausible tricks.

Bringing again a cone-shaped vessel, we then demonstrated to them that the cone-shaped object also produces a cone-shaped shadow.

And as I speak according to the truth, most God-loving father, through the power of Christ, they withdrew from us with gaping mouths and downcast looks, being ashamed of their own fabrications.

Behold, we too, in their own manner, having drawn lines and inscribed them, as is their custom to do, are able to show one line for each klima — being fortified first by divine power — that the sun is not greater than two klimata, so that in this too they may learn not to hold their necks stiff, but to submit to the divine Scripture.

The klima at the middle of Pontus;

The klima at the river Borysthenes and the Maeotic lake

Ocean, the klima at Sasu and Barbaria

The sun traversing the summer solstice on Payni 25, at the 6th hour of the day

The straight line is the earth;

and the ten upright lines are bodies, one standing at each klima;

and the lines coming down from the sun onto the bodies are the rays of the sun;

falling together upon the bodies from this side and that, they produce, as it were, the shadows which we have drawn from black ink;

and the one upright line descending — since it is directly over the top of the body — renders it shadowless, as being greater than the body and illuminating it all around.

And the Lord also testifies in the Gospels, calling the Homerite the 'ends of the earth,' he being distant from Barbaria by no more than a two days' journey by sea.

It is evident from the very klimata and places acknowledged by them, as Ptolemy too testifies — he who waged war on Ethiopia, whom we also mentioned in the second discourse — and from the very shadows occurring at each klima, that the sun does not have a size greater than two klimata; rather, the earth is spread out flat and not spherical, as the diagram also shows.

And this figure, that is, of the size of the sun and of the earth, we have drawn according to the outsiders' scheme, so that one seeing it side by side might be able to compare — how, in our figure, the rays of the sun truly fall together upon the bodies and produce the shadows at each klima proportionately, according to the earlier diagram, showing the difference of half a foot; and how, in their figure, the rays do not fall together upon the bodies at all, so that what they call klimata — or rather bodies — could not even be illuminated by the sun; and that they boast in vain over their own myths, turning away from the truth all the more.

There is yet a clearer and more comprehensive aim, namely that throughout all of divine Scripture we are taught that God has made two states, this one and the one to come. First of all, from the very construction of the universe it is shown how God divided the one space from the earth up to the first heaven, placing the firmament — that is, the second heaven — in the middle, and made the one space into two spaces.

Second, again, from the very construction of man it is shown how he consists of two things, namely the mortal and the immortal, plainly setting him forth into a contest through these opposites, so that afterward he might deem him worthy of gifts.

Third, through the two trees in the middle of paradise, he shows there to be two states: one mortal and mutable, and one immortal and immutable.

For the tree of the knowledge of good and evil is a type of this world, the place of instruction; and the tree of life is a type of the state to come, in which neither death nor change prevails.

Fourth, that the very act of expelling man from paradise, and remembering and saying, "lest he stretch out his hand and take hold of the tree of life and eat, and live forever," belongs to one who instructs and hints, as though some gift of immortal life is laid up for men after the struggle here.

Fifth, again we are taught through Lamech, the father of Noah, prophesying and saying that we shall be freed from toils and the curse, and shall advance to a better rest.

Sixth, again through Noah himself, that from the first earth, wretched and thorny, we are transferred to this earth which men now inhabit, being better and nearly equal to paradise, being taught the difference between the first and the second state.

Seventh, that God, having chosen Abraham out of the land of the Chaldeans and having transferred him to the land of the Palestinians, and having promised to give him great gifts and possession of the land, yet, according to the divine Scripture, not giving him even a footstep's space, prepared him to be faithful, knowing truly to hope thereafter for the gifts of God.

Likewise also through Ishmael and Isaac he showed the worth of the two Covenants, that the one is a slave, the other free.

"That the greater shall serve the lesser"—through this again showing two states, one servile and one free.

Ninth, again through Jacob and Joseph, who would not endure to be buried in Egypt, but in the land of promise, he showed through both that they longed to obtain that hope which had been promised to them by God, that is, the second state.

Tenth, the exodus itself that took place under Moses, and the redemption from the slavery of the Egyptians, and the freedom and entry that took place through Joshua son of Nun into the land of promise, expressly prefigured the two states.

Eleventh, likewise the construction of the tabernacle and the temple, how the veil, standing in the middle, made the one tabernacle into two, an outer and an inner, prefiguring this present state and the one to come.

What need is there to speak also of the dispensations that came about through virtuous men? Immediately there is Abel's boldness after death, how he still speaks, crying out from the earth—a return-course of life out of birth-pangs.

One who considers the translation of Enoch, how through his well-pleasing he was translated so as not to see death, most clearly knows that there will be some better state, through such an order of events.

One who considers the assumption of Elijah, and his course by means of the fiery chariot, being astonished, would observe how the nature of men has been honored, being taught and hoping to walk in heaven.

One who hears the multitude of the army of the heavenly ranks dancing and rejoicing and being glad at the birth of our Lord Christ according to the flesh, saying:

"Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace, good will among men"—would marvel exceedingly, considering that one accord has come to be between heavenly and earthly beings, and God's good will toward men.

One who beholds the power of the resurrection from the dead of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ himself, stirring up his understanding, would praise unceasingly God the Savior of all, who put an end to the conflict of body and soul, in that, though both were opposites, he brought them into concord, making them spiritually proportionate to one another.

One who contemplates the ascent of our Lord Christ according to the flesh into heaven, and the angels clothed in white, telling the apostles again of his coming, will continue to magnify Jesus, who showed and made manifest to men the ascent to the future heavenly state, which he had prepared beforehand from the foundation of the world.

One who observes the descent of the Holy Spirit that came upon the apostles, and the public address of the great Peter in the midst of all, would in supplication praise God the giver of all things, who gave such a pledge and guarantee of the coming state to men.

One who mirrors within himself the call of the great Paul from heaven, and his rapture even to the third heaven, and again that in paradise, will cry out to God, saying:

"Glory to you, who through all things and to all bestow gifts upon men."

One who reads the writings of the chorus of prophets and priests and righteous men, and further of the apostles and evangelists, writings full of wonders and predictions and true outcomes, will find that they make mention only of a first and a second state, and have made no account of other states, either before the first or after the second.

Glory to God, who through all things spoke and foretold, unto the ages.

One who embraces in his heart the memory of the second and manifest and glorious coming of our Lord and Savior Christ, and one who takes to mind the account of the blessed resurrection from the dead, and the transformation of the world for the better, and the unspeakable joy and hope laid up for men, would praise in many ways and marvel exceedingly at God, the cause of all things, the creator and renewer of all,

who from the beginning created the two states, and instructed mankind in the first, disciplining it through experience and learning and reason, and leads the race of men into the second state, and through it all creation as well.

Glory to you, glory to you, glory to you, thrice-holy one, creator and maker of all things and renewer of the universe, unto the ages of ages.

From all these things it is shown that the doctrine of the Christians is superior to all, and is consistent with and fitting to the construction of the world, and is more truthful, in that from the beginning God, not without purpose but usefully, divided the one space into two spaces, having prepared and pre-constructed the one for this present state, and the other for the state that is to be, just as true Christians—and not counterfeit ones—confess.

The Greeks, therefore, positing that the world is eternal, and rejecting the resurrection of bodies and their ascent into heaven, considering it folly, are fittingly, according to their own supposition, deprived of the honors to come and of the ascent into heaven.

The Jews, reading Moses and the prophets and not understanding the great and wise dispensation of God, which through the prophets makes clear that God from the beginning made two states for the benefit of men, neither received the author of this second state, but it even became a stumbling block to them, nor to this day do they believe that there will be an ascent of men into heaven, but they, as it were, await the one who is to come, whom they also call the Anointed, hoping that he will reign upon earth and subject to them all the nations;

not enduring at all to think anything heavenly, rejecting the counsel of God and considering that the dwelling place in the heavens was constructed without purpose, which Moses shows not to have been made without purpose, saying that on the second day the firmament divided the middle and two spaces came to be—they too fall short of this dwelling place.

Likewise the Samaritans, ignorant and disbelieving the same things as the Jews, and moreover doubting concerning the resurrection of bodies and the immortality of the soul, they too likewise are driven out from the heavenly dwelling place.

The Manichaeans, thinking things similar to the Greeks, they too considering heaven to be spherical, and expecting the destruction of bodies, together with their own evil god, whom they ordained for themselves, are condemned to remain about the earth, being driven away from the city above, which they had rejected.

Likewise also every heresy—the one that rejects the perfect humanity of Christ, I mean a rational, intelligent soul and body, and does not confess but doubts all the properties of the soul and the body; and the one that also rejects and diminishes the divinity of Christ, calling it lesser than the Father, or also that of the Holy Spirit—all these fail to obtain the heavenly mansions.

Blessed, then, are those who through the divine Scriptures, of both Old and New Testament, know the maker of all things to be one God in three hypostases—Father, I say, and Son, and Holy Spirit—a holy Trinity, consubstantial, equal in power and equal in strength and equal in glory and equal in honor and co-eternal; and know his great and wise and all-powerful dispensation, he being the cause of all things, how wisely and fittingly he created the two states from the beginning, this one and that one, and through the perfect humanity of the Lord—consubstantial with us in all things, in both soul and body, without sin, having lived among us in the last times—he brought forth and made manifest the state to come, and gave assurance to all by raising it from the dead.

As many, then, as are perfect and walk by this rule—"peace be upon them, and mercy, and upon the Israel of God"—these shall justly hear in the state to come, from the Lord Christ speaking out of heaven:

...to the Holy Spirit, unto the ages.

This, then, is the whole purpose of the dispensation of God:

for it is necessary to declare it more briefly, as in a summary:

He willed, out of goodness, to impart to others a share of being, and of power and reason and knowledge:

But since those who come to share in these things are unable to know and possess all things at once—for this alone is God's own property, to know all these things without learning and experience, being himself very power and reason and knowledge, whereas it belongs to created beings to share in all these things from their Maker—he made these two states together: the first mortal and mutable, for the sake of experience and instruction of rational beings, so that, being exercised by the variety of the universe and by the juxtaposition of opposites, we might have experience of pleasant and painful things; the second, immortal and immutable, for the enjoyment of his grace, so that we, having a habit of discernment—through reason and experience and knowledge, by the comparison of good things—might receive the participation of the first goods.

No religion, therefore—neither Jew, nor Samaritan, nor Greek, nor Manichaean—believes or hopes that there will be a resurrection of men and their ascent into heaven.

But as many of them as hold heaven to be a sphere, that is, the Greeks and the Manichaeans, fittingly for themselves also possess their unbelief.

For where do they have room to give, within the sphere, a place for the kingdom of heaven? Justly, therefore, do both reject the resurrection of bodies and say that only souls are glorified, or punished, after this life here, or that souls circle round with the sphere and see all things, as some of them say, or that they are condemned to Tartarus.

And some say that reincarnation always takes place, while others reject even the very immortality of the soul; and all of them possess not a single hope for the body after this life here.

But those who do not hold heaven to be a sphere, that is, the Jews and the Samaritans, considering the firmament—which divided the one space in the middle and made the two spaces—to have come about without purpose, are consequently likewise held fast by unbelief: the Samaritans confessing neither resurrection nor ascent into heaven, nor saying that the soul is immortal, but supposing that we are always coming into being and passing out of being; while the Jews confess the resurrection of men, but say that we shall live on earth and eat and drink and marry and be given in marriage, just as also in the Gospels, together with the Sadducees, they raised difficulties before the Lord, saying:

"In the resurrection, whose wife shall she be of the seven?" Whom the Lord most concisely reproved as erring and not understanding the divine Scripture, in which is the power of God, saying:

"For in the resurrection they neither marry nor are given in marriage, but are as angels in heaven." They too, then, are convicted, both from the things written, and from the figure that has been prepared from the foundation of the world, that the upper space also did not come about without purpose, but that there is a certain second heavenly state prepared from the foundation of the world.

Likewise also every heresy among Christians:

those that, together with the Greeks, that is, the Manichaeans, hold heaven to be a sphere, or embrace pre-existence, or reject in Christ any part of our nature, whether body or soul or mind, greatly err, these also not knowing the Scriptures, nor the power of God.

For the only perfect Christians are those who follow the divine Scripture without error, and who know, both from the things written and from the figure of the first and second states, the places and figures which the divine Scripture recounts: that just as this world belongs to angels and men—for "we have become a theater to the world," says the Apostle, "to angels and to men"—so also the upper space in turn has been prepared beforehand for angels and men.

Glory for all things to God, the King of the ages, unto the ages without end.

Heaven, bound together with the earth and divided part by part:

...a wall, and binding it together upon the other, completes the whole figure of the world.

Of the Christian, concerning the permanence of the heavens. Book Seven. To you who have asked that a treatise on heaven be written by us, O Anastasius, most industrious of men, I shall not refuse.

I shall make clear whether the divine Scripture declares it to be indestructible or to be destroyed.

For you said that someone among those who boast of being Christian, wishing to speak against the Greeks, without noticing did himself become an advocate for them, glorifying, along with them, heaven as a sphere ever revolving, while proclaiming in his own treatise that it is to be destroyed.

I do not know by what motive he was moved to say this, and I am led to marvel at the man's wisdom, so learned, yet so blinded by excessive ambition.

For if, as a Christian, he wished to overturn the Greek opinion, he ought first to have removed from their very foundations the first principles concerning this—the sphere and its revolution—which we, by the will of God, having been asked, have done in another treatise.

But if he accepted the very foundation and their first principles, from which the proofs of the eternity proceed, why does the wise man babble in vain, building his own nonsense not upon rock but upon sand? For no one of sound mind would say that the ever-moving is corruptible and destructible, nor that the corruptible and destructible is ever-moving;

but the ever-moving, as ever-moving, is incorruptible, while that which does not move always and is destroyed is altogether corruptible, since it also ceases from motion, and is therefore not ever-moving.

How then does the most learned man, having accepted that heaven is ever-moving—which is not what the divine Scripture holds—define it as being destroyed? For among the ancients, or the more recent, of those who excelled among the outside philosophers, who also held heaven to be a sphere, whom did he find to have said that it is destroyed? Rather, all of them, proceeding syllogistically, declared it to be indestructible.

But this man, fabricating new absurdities, neither following the teaching of those outside, nor adhering to the spiritual tradition of those within, but ignorant both of the variety of doctrines of those outside and of the unfeigned and pure teaching of the Church of those within, undertook to teach novelties without examination, not reckoning the contradiction of his own arguments and the questions arising from them; but just as an untraveled wayfarer, having strayed from the highway and gotten off it, is pierced by the pain of cliffs and thorns, so also this excellent man, wounded by the onrush of contradictions, is easily brought down.

Therefore, O lover of Christ, I thought it sufficient that you, reading our little treatise—for so must one speak modestly of our own work, I mean the Christian Topography of the whole world—should observe how in the first book we made use of arguments more physical in nature against those who seem to be Christian, yet hold heaven to be spherical;

and in the second, the Christian propositions concerning the shapes and topography of the whole world, having drawn our proofs from the divine Scripture;

and in the third, that the divine Scripture is firm and trustworthy, and what is the usefulness of the figures of the whole world;

and in the fourth, a brief recapitulation and description of the figures of the whole world, and the refutation of the sphere;

and in the fifth, the description of the tabernacle constructed by Moses, and the concord of the prophets and apostles;

and in the sixth, concerning the size of the sun, and thus we brought the little treatise to a conclusion.

Nevertheless, again, because of your longing and your request, being unable to disregard your, as has been said, love of God, as you have bidden, as best I am able, I shall make, briefly, from the divine Scripture, the refutation of those who do away with the heavens, and the establishment of their permanence, the divine grace cooperating with us, and your prayers, stating first of what particular expressions the divine Scripture makes use concerning heaven, and then also that it defines them as indestructible throughout.

...that it was written in the Hebrew tongue and letters.

The Hebrew tongue, then, pronounces "heaven" and "heavens" alike, with one and the same utterance, so that there is no difference regarding this; and the singular is found used interchangeably with the plural, and the plural with the singular, as when it says:

"Praise him, you heavens of heavens"—instead of saying "the heaven of the heaven."

"And the water that is above the heavens," so as to say, above this visible heaven, that is, the firmament.

For the waters are above the firmament alone, according to the hierophant Moses.

"The heavens declare the glory of God, and the firmament proclaims the work of his hands" — beginning in the plural but ending in the singular, so that by both he might signify the same thing: that this very face of heaven, that is, of this visible firmament, proclaims both the glory and the creation of God through the order and magnificence inherent in it.

"The heaven of heaven belongs to the Lord, but the earth he has given to the sons of men" — calling the first and higher heaven "heaven of heaven," which is the heaven of this visible heaven, lying above it, just as this visible heaven, lying above us, is our heaven.

Likewise, again, the great Moses says:

"Behold, the heaven and the heaven of heaven belong to the Lord your God" — as if to say, this heaven visible to us, and its heaven, that is, the one above it.

Paul, too, uses this idiom, crying out: