Christian Topography 1 part 20/22

Of Athanasius, from the 2nd Festal Letter. May it come to pass fittingly on our part, at every season, but especially on the days of the feast, that we become not only hearers but also doers of the Savior's commandments, so that, imitating the manner of the saints, we may enter together into the unceasing and truly abiding joy of the Lord in the heavens.

Of the same, from the 5th Festal Letter. And who is sufficient for these things? For He freed the world by the blood of the Savior;

and again gave Hades over to be trodden down by the death of the Savior, providing an unhindered way at the heavenly gates for those who ascend.

Of the same, from the Festal Letter. And thus, having kept the feast, may we be able to enter into the joy of the Lord in the kingdom of heaven.

Of the same, from the 22nd Festal Letter. So that our Lord Jesus the Christ, who took upon Himself death on behalf of all, stretched out His hands not in any place below on earth, but in the very air, so that it might be shown that the salvation through the cross belongs to all everywhere, casting down the devil who works in the air, and might inaugurate for us the ascent into heaven and make it free.

Of the same, from the 24th Festal Letter. And at that time, when they went out and passed through Egypt, the enemies became the talk of the sea; but now, as we pass from earth to heaven, Satan himself henceforth falls like lightning from heaven.

Of the same, from the 28th Festal Letter. So that He Himself might become a sacrifice on behalf of all, and we, being nourished by the words of truth and partaking of His living teaching, might be able, together with the saints, to obtain also the heavenly joy.

For there the Word calls us, as He called the disciples to the upper room, to the truly divine and incorruptible feast together with them;

here having suffered on our behalf, but there preparing the heavenly tabernacles for those who most eagerly obeyed the call and followed without wavering and with purpose toward the prize of the upward calling, where there is laid up, for those who come to the supper and who strive against those who hinder them, both a crown and incorruptible gladness.

For even if the toil of such a road toward the heavens is great, yet the Savior Himself has made this too light and good.

[From the same letter.] But we, brethren, who have received the vineyard from the Savior and have been called to the heavenly feast, since the feast is now drawing near, let us take the branches of the palms and, having become victors over sin — as those who met the Savior then did — so let us too become ready in our deeds, that we may go to meet Him as He comes, and, entering in together with Him, may partake of the immortal food and thereafter live forever in the heavens.

Of the same, from the 29th Festal Letter. The things of men indeed come to an end, but the goodness of God does not cease;

whence He also raises us up when we have died and when our own nature has grown weak, and leads us, though we were made from earth, up into the heavens.

Of the same, from the 40th Festal Letter. 'You are they who have continued with Me in My trials, and I appoint unto you, as My Father appointed unto Me, a kingdom, that you may eat and drink at My table in My kingdom.' Being called, then, to that great and heavenly supper through the Gospel, into that swept upper room, let us cleanse ourselves, as the Apostle charged, from every defilement of flesh and spirit, perfecting holiness in the fear of God, so that, being found spotless both within and without — outwardly clothed with temperance and righteousness, inwardly rightly dividing the word of truth in spirit — we may hear:

'Enter into the joy of your Lord.' Of the same, from the 42nd Festal Letter. For we too, brethren, have been called and are now summoned by Wisdom, according to the evangelical parable, to that great supra-mundane supper which endures for all creation — I mean, to the Passover, Christ who was sacrificed.

'For our Passover, Christ, has been sacrificed.' And after other things: Those, then, who come thus adorned will hear:

'Enter into the joy of your Lord.' Of the same, from the 43rd Festal Letter. But our calling — whose Passover it also is — is from above, and our citizenship is in the heavens, together with Paul saying:

'For here we have no abiding city, but we seek the one to come' — looking to which we rightly keep the feast.

And again, after other things: High indeed is heaven in truth, and boundless is its distance from us;

for 'the heaven,' it says, 'of heaven belongs to the Lord';

but for this reason one must not shrink back, nor fear the road to Him as though it were impossible, but rather one must be all the more eager.

For it is not as those who then set out from the east and, finding a plain in the land of Shinar, undertook — that we too need to bake brick in the fire and seek asphalt instead of clay.

For their tongues were confounded and the work was undone;

but for us the Lord inaugurated the way through His own blood and made it easy.

And again: For He did not console us merely by the distance and the exhortation, but also, having come, He opened this gate which had once been shut;

for it has indeed been shut ever since He cast Adam out of the paradise of delight and appointed the Cherubim and the turning fiery sword to guard the way of the tree of life — but now it stands open wide;

and having appeared with greater grace and love for mankind, He Himself who sits upon the Cherubim brought into paradise with Himself the thief who had confessed;

and into heaven, the same One, having entered as forerunner on our behalf, threw open the doors to all.

And again: But Paul, pressing on with purpose toward the prize of the upward calling, was caught up through it even to the third heaven, and having seen the things above, then descending, he instructs us too, proclaiming to us the good news of the things written to the Hebrews:

'For you have not come,' he says, 'to a mountain that could be touched and that burned with fire, and to blackness and darkness and tempest, and the sound of a trumpet and the voice of words; 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 assembly of the firstborn who are enrolled in heaven.' Who would not pray to have this gathering above along with these? Who would not love to be enrolled together with these, that he too might hear along with them:

'Come, you blessed of My Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world'? Of the same, from the 45th Festal Letter. Let us all lift up our sacrifices, acknowledging our fellowship with the poor, and let us enter into the holy places, as it is written, where Jesus entered as forerunner on our behalf, having obtained eternal redemption.

Of the same, from the same [Letter]. And this is a great proof: that we, being strangers, hear ourselves called kinsmen, and we, once being aliens, became fellow-citizens of the saints and were styled children of the Jerusalem above, of which the one that Solomon built was a type.

For if Moses made all things according to the pattern that was shown him on the mountain, then clearly the service performed in the tabernacle was a type of the mysteries in the heavens, into which the Lord, wishing us also to enter, opened for us a way that is new and abiding.

And as all the ancient things were a type of the new, so also the present feast is a type of the joy above, coming to which, with psalms and spiritual songs, we begin the fasts.

Observe how this great teacher continually recounts, in agreement with us, the entire shape of the world together with the doctrine — calling the kingdom of heaven a great, supra-mundane upper room that endures for creation, and proclaiming the Master Christ as having become forerunner on our behalf within it; and he cries out that we shall enter together with Him at the second coming, and he says that 'enter into the joy of your Lord' refers to that very upper room, that is, the heaven of heaven, or rather the kingdom of heaven, and that it has been prepared for men by God from the foundation of the world, and that the tabernacle according to Moses is a type of the things of heaven.

Let the contentious say how this great teacher does not agree with us! Or how have we walked a road strange to that of the Church? But away with their vain labor; and let us add to this one also Gregory of Nazianzus, who lived in that same period and is most loudly extolled by them themselves, proclaiming the same things as the one before him and as we do.

Of Gregory of Nazianzus, from the second oration on the Pascha. But let us sacrifice to God a sacrifice of praise upon the altar above, together with the choir above; let us rend the first veil, let us approach the second, let us peer into the Holy of Holies;

let me say the greater thing: let us sacrifice ourselves to God.

And this one too spoke things similar to the one before him concerning the shape, mentioning only a first and second veil and an altar, and concerning the angels, that they too, together with us, are still within the first veil, but desire, together with us, to look into the second.

How is it not perfectly clear that we have not walked a road strange or foreign to that of the Church? Let the contentious, then, be ashamed when they see the agreement of the Church, and let them not rage against us;

for it is hard for them to kick against the goads.

But let us also bring forward a third who lived after this one, in that same period — Theophilus, bishop of the Alexandrians — he too bearing witness to our words, or rather to the truth.

Of Theophilus, from the 1st Festal Letter. So that, having risen above earthly deeds into the lofty house of virtue, we, like the disciples, may eat the Passover in the upper room, having with us Christ who was sacrificed on our behalf, eating Him whole as life.

Of the same, from the 10th Festal Letter. So that, again drawing back the curtain and covering of the letter, with unveiled face they might behold as in a mirror the passing-over festival of the divine Passover, crying out to Jesus:

'Where do you wish that we prepare the Passover for you?' When they too, having learned from Him that this must be accomplished in an upper room, rose above the more earthly things, walking swiftly in mind toward the Holy of Holies, where Christ Himself entered on our behalf, having put an end to the need for the high priest according to the type, having obtained for us eternal redemption and having appeared on our behalf before the face of God;

the Savior, having entered, has given leave to those who wish to enter.

See that this one too is in agreement with us, calling the upper room the Holy of Holies, where the Master Christ entered as forerunner on our behalf — of which the high priest according to the tabernacle of Moses was a type — to appear before the face of God, and that He has given leave to those who wish to enter into the Holy of Holies, that is, into the kingdom of heaven.

Let the leaders of the party of the schismatics say how we have walked a road strange to that of the Church? How is it that they do not revere the words of their own fathers, but rather condemn them as truly contentious men? And passing over this one too, let us proceed to a fourth, the fellow-initiate of that same period, Severian, bishop of Gabala, who bears witness to almost our whole composition.

Of Severian, from the first oration of the Hexaemeron. For on the first day He made the materials of the creatures, and on the other days the shaping and ordering of the creatures — for instance, I say, He made the heaven that did not yet exist, not this one, but the one above;

for this one came into being on the second day;

God made the higher heaven;

'the heaven of heaven belongs to the Lord, but the earth He gave to the sons of men';

and just as in a two-storied house a middle floor comes between, so also God, having built the world as a single house, set this heaven as a middle floor, and above it the waters;

'He who roofs His upper chambers with waters.' He therefore made the heaven, which did not exist, the earth, which did not exist, the abysses, which did not exist, winds, air, fire, water;

He made the materials of all things that came to be on the first day.

But someone will say that it is indeed written that He made heaven and earth, but concerning water and fire and air it is not written.

First of all, then, brethren, by saying that heaven and earth had come into being, he explained the things contained by means of the things containing them.

And after other things: Then, as to when the air came into being, listen:

'And the Spirit of God was borne above the waters';

But he does not mean here the Holy Spirit;

for the uncreated is not numbered together with creation;

but he calls the motion of the air "spirit"

"Let there be light," and the nature of fire came to be

And again: "But he enclosed our souls with a body, while he made the angels bodiless"

Just as, then, in the case of souls and angels, so also in the case of fire one may observe: the fire above is without matter, the fire below is with matter;

for the fire above is akin to the fire below, just as our souls also are akin to the angels

How so? Because those too are spirits, and these too are spirits

Again he says: "All things then came to be: fire, the abyss, winds, the four elements, earth, fire, air, water;"

for indeed what he had omitted, Moses sums up, as in a recapitulation, saying:

"For in six days God made heaven and earth and all that is in them." And just as in the case of the body he did not name all the members, so also in the case of creation he did not enumerate them, even though all things were fashioned together with the world

But if fire had not existed in the world, fire would not today be struck out from stone and from wood;

for wood, when rubbed together, generates fire;

but if nature did not possess it, whence would it generate it? From the same author, from the second discourse: On the second day God said:

"Let there be a firmament in the midst of the water, and let it separate water from water"

He made heaven—not the heaven above, but the visible one—having congealed it out of waters like crystal

I wish to set a matter before you;

for many things are conveyed to sight rather than to speech

This water rose above the earth, let us say, by five cubits;

"Let there be a firmament in the midst of the water;"

and thereupon, in the midst of the waters, a crystalline mass was congealed, and it raised up half of the water above, and left half below, as it is written:

for this reason David also says:

"Praise him in the firmament of his power." And, that I may use another illustration: just as smoke, when it is given off from wood and fire, is rarefied and loose, but when it runs up to a height, it is transformed into the thickness of a cloud, so likewise God, having raised on high the rarefied nature of the waters, congealed it above

And that this illustration is true, Isaiah bears witness, saying that heaven was made firm like smoke

Heaven, then, having been congealed in the midst of the waters, raised up half of the waters above and let half remain below

But why are there waters above? For what use? So that someone may drink? So that someone may sail? For that there indeed are waters above, David bears witness, saying:

"And the water that is above the heavens." Attend, then, to the wisdom of the Creator

Heaven was crystalline, having been congealed from waters;

but since it was destined to receive the flame of the sun and of the moon and the infinite multitude of the stars, and was entirely filled with fire, so that it might not thus be dissolved or scorched by the heat, he spread over the back of heaven those seas of waters, so that they might moisten and anoint its back, and so it might withstand the flame and not be consumed

just as today, if you set a cauldron over a fire, if there is water in it, it withstands the fire, but if it has none, it is destroyed, so God set water as a counterpart opposed to fire, so that it might have sufficient endurance through the waters that anoint it

so much does the moisture abound to the heavenly body, though it is warred upon by so much fire, that it even lends to the earth

For whence comes the dew of a cloud? From nowhere? The air does not have water;

clearly heaven drips from what abounds to it;

for this reason the patriarch Isaac also, blessing Jacob, said:

"May God give you of the dew of heaven and of the fatness of the earth." And after other things: But attend, I beg you, that the waters above heaven also accomplish another use;

for it not only preserves heaven, but also sends down the flame of the sun and of the moon

For if heaven were transparent, all the radiance would run upward;

for fire, being upward-tending, would leave the earth desolate;

for this reason, then, he coated heaven from above with boundless waters, so that the radiance, being compressed, might be sent downward

Behold the wisdom of the Craftsman;

and you also possess in yourself the image of the Craftsman;

define for me this head as the heaven above, and the parts above the tongue as the other heaven, that is, the firmament, whence it is also called the "little heaven";

above, among the invisible things, the brain, which does not appear; in the lower heaven, the tongue, which appears; just as the heaven above is among things intelligible, but the world is among things spoken

From the same author, from the third discourse: For on the third day the fruits sprouted, and lest it be supposed again that they sprouted by the nature of the sun, when the creation had been completed, then thereupon he makes the sun and the moon and the stars

But from what did he make them? For it has been said that on the first day he made all things out of things that were not, but on the other days out of things that were

Whence then the sun? From the light that came to be on the first day, which the Craftsman transformed as he willed and refashioned into various appearances—there having created the matter of the light, but here having made the luminaries—just as if someone were to put forth a lump of gold, and afterward, having struck coins, should thus arrange the ornamentation of the gold

For just as he then divided the abyss, which existed as one water, into the water above, into the seas, into the rivers, into springs, into lakes, into wells, so also the light, which existed as one, uniform, the Craftsman, having cut it up, divided into sun and moon and stars

And after other things: He made heaven, then, not a sphere, as the vain talkers philosophize;

for he did not make a rolling sphere, but as the prophet says:

"He who made heaven as a vault, and stretched it out as a tent;"

for indeed none of us is so impious as to be persuaded by the vain talkers, and not by the prophetic words, which say that heaven has a beginning and an end;

it is not said among them to "ascend," but to "go forth";

"The sun went forth upon the earth," it did not go up; and again it says:

"From the extremity of heaven is its going forth, and its descent unto the extremity of heaven"—not an ascent;

but if it is a sphere, it has no extremity;

for that which is circular on every side, where does it have its extremity? Is it David alone, then, who says this, or the Saviour also? Hear the Lord himself saying:

"When the Son of man comes in his glory, he will send his angels with a great trumpet and a great voice, and they will gather his elect from the extremity of heaven unto its extremity." We inquire again, then, where the sun sets and where it runs during the night, if it is as we have said

But according to those outside, beneath the earth;

but according to us, who call it the Tabernacle, attend, I beg you, whether the statement is not false, but bears a seal attested by the truth

And the very place also concurs with my statement;

for such things are conveyed to sight rather than to hearing

Suppose there is a vault set upon the church, toward the east according to the form of the dawn, and the north there, and the south here, and the west over there; then the sun rising and about to set, not setting beneath the earth, but running through the northern parts and being hidden as if beneath a certain wall, the waters not permitting its course to appear, and running along the northern parts and reaching the east again

But whence will this be made clear? The blessed Solomon indeed says in Ecclesiastes—and this is a Scripture that is attested, not set aside;

"For," it says, "the sun rises, and the sun sets, and draws toward its own place;"

rising, it goes there toward the south, and circles toward the north;

"it goes round and round, and the wind returns upon its circuits." Behold it, then, running toward the south and circling the north, and learn

And after other things: All things, then, obey the law of God

Heaven stands, not being upheld by its own power, but having been made firm by the divine Word;

for whenever I am at a loss as to how heaven has been congealed out of waters, the blessed David resolves my perplexity, saying:

"By the word of the Lord the heavens were made firm;"

Why were they made firm? Because they were made from waters.

For that which is already solid is never said to have been made firm;

for 'was made firm' is one thing, and 'to be solid' is another;

Therefore a thing is said to have been made firm when that which was rarefied and loosened becomes congealed.

From the sixth discourse. Thus that tree did not have a nature productive of death-bringing knowledge, but it took its name from the tragedy that happened concerning it to Adam.

But I resolve the matter briefly, for divine Scripture is not at a loss.

Today we have saving food, of which the faithful partake.

Does then this gift itself have salvation by nature? If, on account of the glory that is invoked, you have a pledge from the things now present, why do you doubt concerning the things that went before? There was death-bringing food, here is life-giving food.

If these things save by nature, and not by grace, then that thing too destroyed by nature, and not by intention.

And after other things, from the fourth discourse. For indeed the angels, having come into being, were not fellow-workers of God, but ministers who sang hymns, giving thanks that they had come into being, knowing that before this they did not exist; having come into being by the Spirit of goodness, they stood as spectators, seeing only the things that came to be with them and after them;

for they saw heaven coming into being out of that which was not, and they were astounded;

they saw the sea being marked off, and they marveled;

they beheld the earth being adorned, and they trembled.

And that the angels were not fellow-workers, but rather admirers, God says to Job:

'When I made the stars, all my angels praised me and sang hymns.' And after other things. He saw Adam sinning, but he foresaw those who from him would do righteousness;

he saw him being cast out of paradise, but he foresaw that a kingdom had been prepared for him.

And the marvelous thing is that the kingdom came into being even before paradise.

Why then do you marvel that he was cast out of paradise? Seeing that it is more marvelous that, before paradise, the kingdom of heaven was prepared for him, just as the Savior says:

'You who are blessed of my Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world.' From the third discourse. Next it must be inquired why God made the moon full.

Pay attention, for the thought is deep;

for it was necessary that it, having come into being on the fourth day, should appear as a fourth-day moon;

but again, if it had been a fourth-day moon, it would not have occupied the extremity of the west;

it was found, then, to exceed by eleven days;

for though it was of the fourth day, it appeared as if of the fifteenth day.

The moon, then, exceeds the sun by eleven days — not in its making, but in its shining;

therefore what it then gained in excess, it renders back to the sun.

For the lunar reckoning, occurring each month at twenty-nine and a half days, makes the year, in the twelve months, three hundred fifty-four days;

for if you thus reckon the month from twenty-nine and a half days, the days of the year come to three hundred fifty-four, so that the days which the moon then gained in excess, it renders back to the sun each year.

What, then, will the friends of contentiousness say about this too, hearing from him such great agreement with us — concerning the shape of heaven, both the first and the second, and the two spaces which the firmament, being set between them, produced; and that the first heaven, according to divine Scripture, is not a sphere but a vault; and that this second, visible heaven was solidified out of waters and bears the waters, so that it may not be dissolved by the heat of the stars, but be preserved by the coldness of the waters; and that the dew is from the firmament; and concerning the course of the stars, that they run through the night by way of the northern parts; and concerning the angels, that they came into being together with heaven and are spectators of God's six-day creation, being taught and astounded; and philosophizing also concerning souls, that they are enclosed within bodies and act within bodies?

How shall not every mouth that speaks unjust things against God, and against us who study divine Scripture according to the ecclesiastical tradition and discourse from it, be stopped? For behold, it has been shown that the prophets, the apostles and evangelists, the Lord himself, and all divine Scripture — and moreover, among them, whether in truth or in pretense, the widely-renowned fathers and teachers — do not disagree with our views, but all bear witness to our account, that we have walked no path strange or unknown to the Church, but have said and written everything according to the sense of divine Scripture.

And not only that, but we have also set forth testimonies of the ancient outsiders that agree with our account, as offspring of that tradition.

God is witness; then the apostles, the prophets, the many-named chorus of the holy fathers, some of the schismatics, and not undistinguished ancient men from among the outsiders; the very nature of things itself plainly proclaiming the truth.

Therefore, most beloved friend, having securely demonstrated all the aforesaid witnesses to our writing, let us send up thanksgiving to God the Savior of all, and glory and honor and power to the Father and to His only-begotten Son and to the Holy Spirit, unto all the unending ages of ages.

so that from all of these it might have certainty, and every mouth speaking unjust things might be stopped.

But passing beyond this one also, let us move on to his fellow minister, the fifth, Epiphanius the bishop, showing that he too bears witness and agrees with our account.

Of Epiphanius, bishop of Cyprus, from the discourse On Weights and Measures. For God made twenty-two works, O lover of beauty, from the beginning until the seventh day, which are as follows:

On the first day: the upper heaven, the earth, the waters — from which come snow, ice and hail, frost and dew — the spirits that minister before him, which are as follows:

and of lightnings; angels of cold and of heat, of winter and of autumn; and of all the spirits of his creatures, those in the heavens and on earth and of chaos; the darkness that was above the abyss of the waters that were once above the earth, out of which darkness came evening and night, and the light of day and of dawn.

These seven greatest signs God made on the first day; and on the second day, the firmament that is in the midst of the waters;

on that same day the waters were divided;

half of them went up above the firmament, and half of them below the firmament, in the middle, upon the face of all the earth;