Christian Topography 1 part 7/22

What Socrates, or Pythagoras, or Plato, or Aristotle, or any other of those who excelled among the philosophers from outside, was deemed worthy to foretell or proclaim anything of this kind, beneficial to the world—the resurrection of the dead and an unshakeable kingdom granted to men? Unless it be only from calculation and worldly learning, as, even if they will indeed speak truly about this—the solar and lunar eclipses—even should they proclaim these truly, no benefit at all will accrue to the world from this, but rather even vanity; and if they remain silent, they will be able to inflict no harm.

For what child, once having grasped the calculation, will lack this teaching? Or what old woman, or someone reared in the countryside, will lack certain natural knowledge? Or what nation or barbarian does not know such things—I mean astronomy, geometry, and various sciences, medicine, carpentry, stonecutting, weaving, metalworking, farming, and others which the Greeks cannot even conceive of? Or what nation, from east and west, north and south, having believed in Christ, does not foretell, by methods and various calculations, the Paschal feasts many years in advance? And all who foretell speak truly, celebrating in agreement on one day from the ends of the earth to the ends of the earth, according to their different calculations and methods.

For God, having made man wise and having imparted reason to him, has caused him to discover whatever the mind is able to attain to, or even to receive by way of learning.

For man is by nature such a rational animal.

For the first men who devised an art, though they erred in many things, in time, through experience and practice, either they themselves or those who came after them later brought it to perfection;

likewise also those who receive it from them receive with certainty what is handed down.

But divine teachings are not thus brought to perfection by human invention, but are given securely from the outset by God; whether doctrines or arts, one receives them with certainty, just as they also did in the case of the Tabernacle in the time of Moses, having been made wise by God—he himself, and Bezaleel the son of Uri, son of Hur, of the tribe of Judah, and Eliab the son of Ahisamach of the tribe of Dan, and all to whom He gave understanding and whom He filled with a divine spirit and knowledge to devise in every work, and to be master-builders, and to work the gold and the silver and the bronze and the blue and the purple and the twined scarlet and the spun fine linen, and the stonework for the works and the woodwork of timber, to do according to all the works which God commanded to make for the Tabernacle of Testimony, and the Ark of the Covenant and the mercy-seat upon it, and the furnishing of the Tabernacle, and the altars and the table and all its vessels, and the laver and its base, and the ministerial vestments of Aaron and the vestments of his sons for serving as priests to God, and the anointing oil and the incense of the holy composition, according to all that He commanded him to do.

Indeed, even to this present day you will find most of these arts among the Jews, for the most part.

And being also prompted by God, as one goaded, being rational, he devised the art of sewing, sewing fig leaves together for himself by means of thorns of trees;

at the same time, having been made wise by God, he was also taught to make tunics from the bark of trees.

And Cain is testified by Scripture to have devised agriculture, and Abel the pastoral art, that is, a skill.

Then again, after the fratricide, Cain, as having been cast out by God—just as it is written: 'And Cain went out from the face of God and dwelt in the land of Nod'—that is to say that Cain was cast out from God and was sent in exile to a wretched land.

For they supposed Paradise to be the dwelling-place of God, since He came forth from there and appeared to them rather frequently.

The sons of Seth, therefore, being near to Paradise, as being under the care of God and conversing more frequently with God, were continually called sons of God;

but those around Cain, as having been removed far away somewhere from Paradise and not being always under the care of God, but dwelling in a very wretched and beast-infested land, and taking care of themselves rather, were called sons of men.

Living therefore in fear, both Cain and those descended from him devised other arts for their own security, such as, to name them, carpentry, stonecutting, metalworking, music;

carpentry, for making tents and doors and roofs, guarding themselves and their own cattle;

and stonecutting, for building houses and cities, providing security and a guard for themselves;

and metalworking, for tilling and cutting the earth with a plough, and reaping the crops with sickles, and for making pipes and certain other things;

and music, in order to keep watch at night with pipes and lyres and songs, and to guard both themselves and their own cattle from harm by wild beasts.

Living therefore in fear and being in exile, they devised every contrivance for their own security.

For thus it is written concerning them; concerning Cain:

'And he was building a city, and he named the name of the city after the name of his son Enoch.' And concerning Jobel, the son of Lamech by Adah, it says:

'This one was the father of those who dwell in tents, keepers of cattle;'

and concerning Jubal, the brother of Jobel, it says thus:

'This one was he who invented the psaltery and the lyre;'

and metalworking, as when it speaks concerning Tubal, son of Zillah:

'This one was a hammer-worker, a forger of bronze and iron.' Thus, then, from the beginning, God, having made man wise, caused him to discover the arts;

and the first ones discovered them at the beginning, while those who came afterwards, taking their starting-points from the first and investigating diligently, extended them more precisely.

It is good, then, to join argument with those who play the sophist and say that the world is eternal and without beginning, and to remind them how they err, not understanding from the very facts, that is, also from the arts, that it is not eternal and without beginning, but recent.

For if the arts were discovered part by part, and every civilization of men is constituted through art and rational science, how is it possible for the world to be constituted without arts and rational science? For if stonecutting and carpentry did not exist, how would houses and fortresses and cities be able to come into being for the protection of men and of civil society? Likewise, if weaving did not exist, whence would men have sufficient coverings for the cold and the frost? Likewise, if metalworking did not exist, whence would men till the earth and cut it with ploughs and cut the crops with knives, so that they might provide themselves food? Again, if medicine did not exist, whence would men treat the afflictions that befall them and find relief from diseases? It is well clear, then, from all these things, that the world is not eternal, but recent, just as also are the inventions and the arts and the sciences of men.

Is it not plainly evident that the arts were discovered part by part through the wisdom given by God to men? For this reason Scripture too, attributing everything to God, proclaims:

'All wisdom is from the Lord.' Those, then, who suppose the world to be eternal are lying, or rather playing the fool, being refuted by the very facts;

but the divine Scripture speaks the truth rather, saying:

'In the beginning God made heaven and earth.' Again, I would gladly ask the wise:

Since every art of metalworking is preceded by the hammer and the anvil and the tongs, who is it that made these? Let them say; let them not begrudge us an answer.

But not understanding to take refuge in God the Maker of all things, who made the race of men wise and gave to them the beginning of invention, but wishing by their own private notions to demolish and to construct their arguments, being besieged by perplexity and by the surging waves of their own reasonings, boasting arrogantly, they thenceforth say that the world is eternal and has no beginning.

For such things became for them tokens of their perplexity, such as they experience also concerning man and concerning birds—that the one is from seed, the others from eggs. And if this is true, were men and birds, from seed and from an egg, existing together with God, or were they not? And if indeed they were, then of necessity the seed and the eggs will be found to have pre-existed both God and men and birds;

but if they were not, let them submit, being taught by the divine Scripture, on the one hand by Moses:

'Let us make man according to our image'; and on the other hand by the Apostle in Athens, on the Areopagus:

'This is the God who made the world and everything in it;'

'this One, being Lord of heaven and earth, made from one every nation of men to dwell upon the whole face of the earth, having determined the appointed seasons and the boundaries of their habitation, that they should seek God, if indeed they might feel after Him and find Him, though He is not far from each one of us;'

'for in Him we live and move and have our being.' As has been said before, then, the sons of Seth, that is, those called the sons of God, contrary to the counsel of God, of their own accord and self-will, rushed toward the daughters of men, that is, those who were of the race of Cain, and were joined to them in marriage.

In response to this, God, having taken occasion from their deed, again wrought a dispensation;

and destroyed those who had sinned by the Flood, but, having preserved the righteous man through the Ark, He transferred him to this land, which is better and nearly equal to Paradise.

[The Text.] Again, it is impossible to speak of divine doctrines and the construction of the world, or of prophecy, unless one learns from divine revelation, or receives from God-bearing men, that is, the prophets and apostles themselves, and from the whole of divinely-inspired Scripture;

for it is impossible to learn anything of this kind either from conjectures, or from idle talk, or from human wisdom.

That the construction of the world accords with the doctrine of the Christians, the whole of divine Scripture, as has been said, proclaims—Moses and the prophets, the Master Christ and the apostles—as we have often mentioned.

For God divided the one space from the earth up to the uppermost heaven, placing the second heaven in the middle, making two spaces;

and He allotted to this mortal and changeable state the lower space, but to the immortal and unchangeable state the upper space, which is also called the Kingdom of Heaven, just as the Master Christ also speaks concerning this in the Gospel according to Matthew, thus:

'For in the resurrection they neither marry nor are given in marriage, but are as the angels of God in heaven.' And again:

'Come, you blessed of My Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world'—as though prepared from that time.

'If I be lifted up from the earth, I will draw all men to Myself.' And again:

'One is taken and one is left;'

'one is taken'—meaning, into heaven; and 'one is left'—meaning, on earth.

'Enter into the joy of your Lord'—as though into heaven.

'Many shall come from the east and the west, and shall recline with Abraham in the kingdom of God;'

'but the sons of the Kingdom shall be cast out into the outer darkness.' Likewise the Apostle Paul also says in agreement:

'Let us be diligent to enter into that rest'—meaning, into heaven.

'But our citizenship exists in the heavens, from which also we eagerly await a Savior, the Lord Jesus, who will transform the body of our humiliation, that it may become conformed to the body of His glory.' And again:

'If we suffer with Him, we shall also reign with Him.' And again:

'He raised us up together and made us sit together in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus.'

'I press on toward the goal, for the prize of the upward call.' And again:

'But the Jerusalem above is free, which is the mother of us all.' And again:

'Therefore, holy brothers, partakers of the heavenly calling.' And again:

'You are no longer strangers and sojourners, but fellow citizens with the saints and members of the household of God.' And again:

'By faith Abraham sojourned in the land of promise as in a foreign land, dwelling in tents with Isaac and Jacob, the fellow-heirs of the same promise;'

For he looked for the city that has foundations, whose builder and maker is God. And again:

And if indeed they had been mindful of that land from which they went out, they would have had opportunity to return;

but now they desire a better country, that is, a heavenly one;

wherefore God is not ashamed of them, to be called their God;

for he has prepared for them a city. And again:

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 who are 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 Abel. And again:

For here we have no continuing city, but we seek the one to come, where the Master Christ himself entered according to the flesh, as also he says in the Gospels, in that according to Luke, thus:

And he led them out as far as Bethany, and lifting up his hands he blessed them;

and while blessing them, he parted from them and was carried up into heaven.

And again in the Acts he says:

And as they were gazing into heaven while he was going, behold, two men stood by them in white garments, who also said:

Men of Galilee, why do you stand looking into heaven? This Jesus, who was taken up from you into heaven, will come in the same way as you saw him going into heaven. For again the apostle Paul says:

For Christ did not enter into holy places made with hands, antitypes of the true, but into heaven itself. And again:

For such a high priest was fitting for us: holy, guileless, undefiled, separated from sinners, and become higher than the heavens. And again:

We who have fled for refuge have strong encouragement to hold fast the hope set before us, which we have as an anchor of the soul, both sure and steadfast, and entering into that within the veil, where Jesus, a forerunner, entered on our behalf, having become a high priest forever according to the order of Melchizedek. And again:

Having therefore, brothers, boldness for the entrance into the holy places by the blood of Jesus, which way he inaugurated for us, a new and living way, through the veil, that is, his flesh, and having a great priest over the house of God, let us draw near with a true heart in full assurance of faith, having our hearts sprinkled from an evil conscience, and our body washed with pure water;

let us hold fast the confession of our hope without wavering;

...the premises and the ends? [The answer is] that God, having first ordained the present state as mortal and mutable for the training of the rational creature, and having led it through trial, afterward brings the world's toils and discipline to an end and reveals the state that is to come, granting eternal goods: freedom from want, freedom from passion, immortality, incorruption, immutability, perfect knowledge, righteousness, sanctification, redemption, and blessedness unto the ages.

For it is not, as those outside who babble nonsense say, that the present state remains eternal — supposing God to be either malicious, or powerless, or envious, unable ever to grant a cessation of these struggles and of corruption to the world, but daily adding corruption and sufferings and death and struggles, and unable to bestow the prizes of the contests or the crowns, so as to bring the training to an end.

For just as they suppose him to have become merely the craftsman of the matter which he happened to have at hand, so also now they suppose him not to have the means to make anything better than this, disbelieving also the resurrection of bodies, as though it were not possible, and disbelieving the whole divine Scripture.

For this reason the wretched ones accept also the spherical shape of heaven as true, disbelieving and abhorring the whole divine Scripture, and turning away from the truth as though it were old wives' tales.

But far be it from us to boast, except in the whole divine Scripture, through which the world outside has been crucified to us, and we to the world outside.

May it be granted to us, O most God-loving and Christ-loving father Pamphilus, together with a good manner of life, to embrace the divine oracles, and to shake off those of our adversaries, by the will of the Better One and the cooperation of Christ the Savior of us all, with whom, to the Father be glory, together with his holy and worshipful Spirit, now and always and unto the endless ages of ages.

BOOK IV. A brief recapitulation, and a description of the diagrams of the shapes of the cosmos according to the divine Scripture, and the refutation of the sphere.

In the beginning God made heaven and earth. We therefore draw the first heaven together with the earth, the vault-shaped one, joined edge to edge.

As far as it was possible to render it in a drawing, we have done so, meanwhile according to the western or the eastern side;

for these same two sides are walls from below up to the very top of the vault.

And the firmament is also joined in the middle to the first heaven, upon whose back are the waters, according to the divine Scripture itself.

The position and the shape, then, are as follows:

From the earth to the firmament is the first space, this world, in which are angels and men and the whole present state;

from the firmament to the vault above is the second space, that is, the kingdom of the heavens, where Christ, having been taken up, entered first of all, inaugurating for us a new and living way.

According to the western or eastern side it has such an elongated shape, as of a great dome.

And according to the southern and northern parts it displays its length.

The shape, then, is thus also as follows:

At the ends of the earth, according to its four sides, heaven is joined to it by its own edges, forming a shape like a cube, as it were quadrangular, but above, in height, curving vault-like along its length, and it becomes like a great dome;

and right in the middle the firmament is also joined, and there come to be two spaces.

Marginal note. This is the first heaven, the vault-shaped one, which came to be on the first day, together with the earth, concerning which Isaiah says:

'He who set up heaven like a vault.' And the one joined in the very middle of it, which came to be on the second day, is that concerning which Isaiah again adds, saying:

'And having stretched it out like a tent to dwell in.' And David says concerning it:

'Stretching out heaven like a curtain.' And declaring it more clearly, he says:

'He who roofs his upper chambers with waters.' Furthermore, since Scripture makes mention of the ends of heaven and the ends of earth, this cannot be understood in terms of a sphere.

'Thus says the Lord, who made heaven and fixed it firm'; and the apostle Paul likewise said:

'the Lord, and not man' — both witnesses calling it standing and fixed firm upon the earth, and not revolving.

The ends of heaven on each side are joined together with the ends of the earth, concerning which it is written in Job:

'He bent heaven down to earth, and it is poured out like dust of the earth;'

'and I have fastened it like a cubic stone.' And concerning the earth it is again written in Job:

'He who hangs the earth upon nothing,' as though it had nothing beneath it.

And David, in agreement, not having found it set firm upon anything, said:

'He founded the earth upon its own security,' as though it were founded by God upon itself, and not upon anything else.

As far as it was possible, we have drawn it having within it the firmament and the heights of the middlemost earth, which we now inhabit, and the Ocean around it, and in it the four navigable gulfs that flow in: the Roman, the Arabian, the Persian, and the Caspian, that is, the Hyrcanian.

And again around the Ocean, the land beyond, where also paradise lies toward the east.

We therefore again draw, for the present, the breadth of the earth and of the Ocean and of the gulfs and of the land beyond and of paradise, leaving aside for now its heights, so that it may become easily comprehensible for those viewing it.

The shape of the whole earth, according to its surface and breadth, is as follows:

The text. To this land beyond the Ocean, on every side, edge to edge, the first, vault-shaped heaven is joined;

on the western side and the eastern, an upright wall is found rising straight up above; but on the southern and the northern, the wall likewise rises from below up to where it visibly becomes, in type, a vault, but above it is very lofty, curving like the great dome of a bathhouse, having the earth below as its base, being itself both wall and vault.

Then, as we have also said many times before, the firmament, spread out right in the middle, is joined to heaven itself according to height, so that there come to be two spaces: an upper storey and a lower storey.

The one space is the lower storey, where are the earth and the water and the remaining elements and the stars — this world, from the earth up to the firmament, having the earth as its floor, walls from the first heaven, and the firmament as its roof;

and from the firmament up to the vault of the first heaven is the second space, that is, the kingdom of the heavens, where the Master Christ also, having risen from the dead, has ascended, and the righteous are destined to go up thereafter — having heaven, that is the firmament, as its floor, and the first heaven as walls, and a vault-shaped roof.

We again draw also the height and shape of this earth, which we men now inhabit, which is encircled within the Ocean, in which are also the four navigable gulfs.

Its eastern parts and its southern are low; its northern and western are the highest, lying in a rise that is low and imperceptible.

As much breadth, then, as the earth has, so much height also it has according to the northern and western parts.

The shape, then, as far as it was possible to draw it, is as follows:

Marginal note. The whole earth is quadrangular, as was described above.

We have here indicated by our drawing the elevation of the middlemost earth and the heights according to the northern and western parts, so as to show how, the earth being in the middle and having the Ocean around it, and again around that the land opposite, with the stars circling it, it can also produce the shadow as a cone according to the outsiders, and that also according to this shape the eclipses of the moon can likewise be accomplished, and nights and days; and the divine Scripture speaks the truth all the more, saying:

'The sun rises, and the sun sets, and hastens to its place;'

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

'it goes circling, circling, and upon its circuits the wind turns back' — as though, circling the air, it returns again to its own place.

The text. Thus, then, in this view are the inhabited parts of it,

along the Ocean and the land beyond;

and again, coming to be toward the west and the north, beneath the height of the earth, it here makes night, until, circling around, it reappears at the low parts of the east, and again, rising toward the south, it illumines this whole world.

The eclipses of the moon, then, even according to this configuration, if indeed the things stated by the outsiders happen to be true, can occur when the sun—or rather the moon—comes to be beneath the height of the earth.

For they say that the solar eclipse does not occur from the shadow of the earth, but from the moon being directly beneath the sun, being illuminated rather on the part which the sun sees, while on the part which it does not see it is not illuminated; but rather it also hinders the sun from appearing, as it runs beneath it, when it is supposedly the new moon, at which time it also happens to be unlit on the part of it that appears to us.

Such things, then, will do no harm to our doctrines, except only the notion that the heaven moves and revolves in a circle, which is a subversion of the whole of divine Scripture together, both Old and New Testament, and of the Christian doctrine.

But it is not for us the leisure to inquire further into these things; for such knowledge is unprofitable, since we ought rather to become engaged with the profitable knowledge, which produces in our souls a good and beneficial hope—which God promised to give rather to those who believe in him, but to those who disbelieve, a destructive judgment.

Let us show, then, with God's help, by drawing in reverse, the shape of the earth according to its northern part, so that we may again be able, in part, to draw the circuit of the stars.

So then, when the sun, setting from this side, runs its course by the ministry of the invisible Powers, as seems right according to divine Scripture, it makes night on the other part, that is, the inhabited part.

and when it runs its course from that side, it makes night here.

In summary, then, let us again draw, as far as possible, heaven and earth.

These things, then, so far as it was possible to depict them, we have done, following divine Scripture.

Let us, then, also draw the sphere according to the outsiders, and let us see whether it is possible, as they say, for it to move.

Marginal note. Again, this part of the earth, that beyond the north, is the uninhabited part, where the heavenly bodies run their course from west through the north to the east, being upright as upon a wall, in which region, when the sun comes to be, it produces night on the other part of it, the inhabited part.

So, diametrically across the breadth of its inhabited parts, the earth is found to have height in this part, from below, starting from the Ocean, up to the top of its height.

whence, this height standing in the middle blocking the light of the stars, the nights and all the other things follow accordingly.

Marginal note. It is necessary to ask those wishing to be regarded as Christian, concerning these eight or nine heavens, into which of them Christ was taken up, where they too hope to ascend, and what the use is of the other seven or eight heavens.

For we, positing the former configuration, as seems right according to Scripture, say that two spaces have come to be: one fitted to this present state, and the other one fitted to the state to come, since we also possess such a hope, which is better than the life here.

And you, if you as Christians possess such a hope, it is necessary that the usefulness of the other seven or eight heavens be demanded of you.

For the outsiders, who glorify the sphere, being consistent with themselves, neither hope for such a hope, nor say that there are waters above the heaven, nor do they admit to confessing an end of the stars and of the world.

If the fixed sphere carries the other spheres around together with it by force from east to west, whence comes the reverse retrogression of the seven planets? Is it the spheres that move in reverse, or the stars themselves? But if it is the spheres, how is it possible that at the same time they be carried both toward the west and toward the east? And if it is the stars, how do the planets cut through heavenly bodies? Is it not then obvious that a body that is cut through is not heavenly? For if it were not corruptible, it could not be cut.

...being so, how do you say that it moves? Tell us; do not begrudge us an answer.

For without place, that is, without spaciousness, it is impossible for it to move.

Show us, then, by whatever instrument you wish, that it is possible for it to move without place or body or element or spaciousness.