基督教地誌 第 1 章 第 2/22 段

Saying that heaven is a body, they say it contains the whole universe, insisting that nothing exists outside it; yet angels, demons, and souls — which are part of the universe — they in turn define as uncircumscribed, neither containing heaven nor being contained by heaven, not understanding what this implies: that what neither contains nor is contained is not found among existing things at all.

If, then, this is so, let them say concerning their own soul whether it exists or does not exist.

"It does not exist," they will say — an utterly shameless reply — and thus they posit themselves to be soulless.

Is it in them, or is it not in them? If the latter, this too is shameless and foolish, no less than the former.

But if the former, they must again be asked:

...and the soul as well? But if, as they claim, the soul illumines the body without being circumscribed together with it, one must ask: existing where, does it illumine the body?

For it is impossible for it, being a created thing, to exist otherwise than together with other created things.

And if they shall say that it exists somewhere within heaven, then it is once again circumscribed by the very body of heaven — that soul which is depicted by you as uncircumscribed.

But if they shall grant that it is outside heaven, they will first have refuted themselves, and then we ask further:

Is the soul in a part of heaven, or in the whole of it? And if in a part, then it is once again circumscribed, since it exists within a very small part.

But if it is in the whole of heaven, then it circumscribes heaven, and it will be found to have a spherical shape, encompassing the sphere according to heaven's outer boundaries.

But if, again, they shall say that the soul, being uncircumscribed, pervades all things both within and without, let them not fail to notice that they are thereby introducing polytheism and imagining an equality with God.

For this property belongs to none other than the uncreated God, who created and fashioned all things.

Claiming, then, to be wise, they became fools, in accordance with what the blessed Apostle Paul says, having exchanged the glory of the uncircumscribed God for their own created souls, appropriating the divine glory to themselves.

For this reason, they are all the more to be shunned.

"From these," says the Apostle, "turn away" — those who have the outward form of piety, but deny its power. BOOK TWO: Christian propositions concerning the shapes and location of the whole world, having their proofs from the divine Scripture.

How much delay I made concerning the composition on the shapes of the world — though many other admirable men also often urged me to this task — you yourself know better than anyone, O my friend in every way, lover of God and lover of Christ, and namesake of all holy men, Pamphilus: a sojourner of the earthly Jerusalem, yet a citizen enrolled with the firstborn of the heavenly Jerusalem.

Having been bound, from of old, by report in warmest friendship, but now having enjoyed your presence face to face — when, by the will of God, you came to us here, in this greatest city of Alexander, from Jerusalem — you did not cease troubling us about this matter, though we were weak in body, oppressed both in our eyesight and by dryness of the stomach, and consequently continually falling into frequent illnesses because of this; and besides, lacking also in the outward general education, destitute of the art of rhetoric, not knowing how to compose a discourse with fluency of words or with an ostentatious style, and being occupied with the entanglements of daily life.

You yourself, nonetheless, did not cease troubling us to set forth a written account concerning the tabernacle constructed in the wilderness through Moses, which was a type and outline of the whole world — just as I also expounded it to you in person, by living voice; not having set out from my own resources, nor having fabricated or conjectured it of myself, but having been instructed from the divine Scriptures, and having also received it by living voice from that most divine man and great teacher, Patricius — who, fulfilling the rank of Abraham, had come from the Chaldeans together with the monk-disciple Thomas of Edessa, who had followed him everywhere, but who has now, by the will of God, departed this life in Byzantium — Patricius imparted to me piety and most true knowledge; and he himself has now also, by divine grace, been raised up to the lofty, high-priestly thrones of all Persia, having been established as catholicos-bishop of the church there.

But since I was greatly at a loss about this, especially on account of those fond of finding fault — whose slander is abundant and furnished with many materials for mockery — no ordinary hesitation held me back.

But you yourself, again, urged me on, weighing me down with reproaches to write, saying that the treatise would be useful for life — for the learning and understanding of divine doctrines, and for the overthrow of Greek preconceptions — and explaining how the whole aim of divine Scripture looks toward the state that is to come, especially as the Apostle says:

...to the heavens. As you assert these and such things, and being unable to gainsay the commands of your piety, I have submitted myself to this task, trusting that your prayers would assist me, and asking that divine grace be added to us at the opening of the mouth, without which we can accomplish nothing, so that we might be able, without ornate and technical language, in plain and unadorned words -- the grace itself showing forth its own power -- both to teach its nurslings the knowledge of divine doctrines and the lives of well-pleasing men, and to declare without hesitation the figures of the world's formation, and to write eagerly and to impart ungrudgingly, which things we ourselves also received as a gift from God.

Having therefore completed, O God-loving one, the first discourse concerning the counterfeit Christians, and having refuted them, as far as was possible, as attempting impossible things -- as I myself think, not attempting to overturn the orderliness of [their] words, far be it -- but rejecting the fictions and myths of the Greek suppositions, and having set an end to the discourse, we now take hold of your command, expounding Christian propositions, first in this second discourse, concerning the figures and location of the world;

then thus in the third, that the divine Scripture, both Old and New Testament, is itself of itself firm and trustworthy, narrating and declaring also the usefulness of the figures;

and again further in the fourth, a recapitulation and delineation of the figures of the world;

likewise in the fifth, a delineation of the tabernacle constructed in the wilderness, and the concord of the prophets and apostles.

Let this book, then, be named by us 'Christian Topography', comprehensive of the whole world, having its proofs from the truly divine Scripture, concerning which it is not fitting for Christians to dispute.

With the assistance, then, of the impulse from above, as has been said, working together with us through your prayers, we begin to set forth our propositions.

The divine cosmographer Moses, then, says:

'In the beginning God made heaven and earth.' We suppose, then, that heaven and earth together exist as containers of the whole, as containing all things within themselves.

That this is indeed so, he himself again proclaims:

'For in six days God made heaven and earth and all things in them.' Likewise again he says:

'And the heaven and the earth and all their world were finished.' And recapitulating again, and naming the book, he speaks thus:

'This is the book of the generation of heaven and earth,' as though they were containers, and all the things in them ought to be signified together with them.

For if, according to the counterfeit Christians, heaven alone contains the whole, he would not have mentioned the earth together with the heaven, but [would have said]:

'This is the book of the generation of heaven.' But indeed he does not appear to have done this, nor has any other of the prophets;

it is quite evident that he knows both to be containers of the whole, and indeed the whole chorus of the righteous and the prophets always signify heaven together with earth.

And hear each of them speaking:

Melchizedek, first blessing Abraham, speaks thus:

'Blessed be Abram by God Most High, who created heaven and earth.' Second, Abraham says:

'I will stretch out my hand to God Most High, who created heaven and earth.' And again:

'Put your hand under my thigh, and I make you swear by the Lord, the God of heaven and the God of earth.' And again:

'The Lord, the God of heaven and of earth, who took me from my father's house...' Further, David [says]:

'Blessed are you by the Lord, who made heaven and earth.' And again:

'Whatever he willed, he did, in heaven and on earth.' And again:

'You, O Lord, in the beginning founded the earth, and the heavens are the works of your hands.' Likewise Hosea says thus:

'I am the Lord your God, who establishes the heaven and creates the earth, whose hands created all the host of heaven.' Zechariah:

'Stretching out the heaven and founding the earth and forming the spirit of man within him.' Isaiah says thus:

'...him, who established the earth and the things in it, and gives breath to the people upon it, and spirit to those who walk on it.' And again:

'I am the Lord who accomplishes all things, I alone stretched out the heaven and established the earth.' And again:

'I made the earth and man upon it.'

'I with my hand established the heaven.' And again:

'Thus says the Lord who made the heaven, this is the God who displayed the earth and made it, this one marked it out, he did not make it in vain, but to be inhabited.' And again:

'I am the first, and I am forever, and my hand founded the earth, and my right hand founded the heaven.' And again:

'You forgot God who made you, who made the heaven and founded the earth.' And again:

'Thus says the Lord: heaven is my throne, and earth is the footstool of my feet.'

'What house will you build for me, says the Lord, or what is the place of my rest? Has not my hand made all these things?' And again:

'I will put my words in your mouth and cover you under the shadow of my hand, with which I set up the heaven and founded the earth.' And again:

'He who holds the circle of the earth, and those who dwell in it are like grasshoppers, who set up the heaven like a vault, and stretched it out to dwell in like a tent, who gives rulers to rule as nothing, and made the earth as nothing.' Likewise Jeremiah also speaks thus:

'Those who did not make heaven and earth shall perish from the earth and from under this heaven.'

'The Lord who made the earth by his strength, who set up the inhabited world by his wisdom, and by his understanding stretched out the heaven and the multitude of water in heaven, and who brings up clouds from the end of the earth, made lightnings into rain, and brought forth winds out of their storehouses.'

'Every man is made foolish for lack of knowledge.' Likewise Daniel also speaks thus, in the person of the three young men:

'Bless the Lord, you heavens;'

'let the earth bless the Lord.' And the Apostle, teaching the superstitious Areopagites in Athens, thus proclaimed:

'God who made the world and all things in it, this one being Lord of heaven and earth.' And again in Lycaonia he proclaimed to those who were erring and wishing to sacrifice to them:

'We also are men of like nature with you, bringing you good news, that you should turn from these vain things to the living God, who made heaven and earth and sea and all things in them.' But the Lord also says in the Gospels:

'I confess to you, Father, Lord of heaven and earth.' Since, then, all the divine Scripture -- both Old and New Testament -- signifies, and is customarily thus employed, that all things exist within heaven and earth, how is it possible for one who disbelieves all these things, and says that all things exist within heaven alone, to be a Christian? Heaven and earth, then, being containers of the whole, we say that the earth is founded upon its own security by the Creator, again according to the divine Scripture, upon no body:

'He who hangs the earth upon nothing.' And again:

'Where were you when I founded the earth? Tell me, if you have understanding,'

'Who set its measures, if you know? Or who stretched the measuring line upon it? Upon what are its rings fixed? And who is it that laid the cornerstone upon it?' Likewise David also says:

'He founded the earth upon its own security.' By the power, then, of the God who brought all things into being, we say that it is founded and held together,

'And bearing all things,' says the Apostle, 'by the word of his power.' For if there were any body whatsoever beneath it or outside it, it would not stand, but would fall down -- this being observed as the more natural [outcome] in all cases.

For if one were to suppose air, or water, or fire, it would certainly fall through these, being heavier than they.

As, then, [the earth is] heavier than all bodies, God set it as the foundation of the whole, having established it by its own security.

And if someone, holding a stone in his hand, should release it from above, in what interval of time will it reach the depth? Someone will say, hypothetically, four hours.

And again, supposing a finer body to fill the space, such as air, in what interval of time again will it reach the depth? Clearly a shorter one, about two hours.

Again, supposing a still finer body, one will find it to be one hour; and again supposing a still finer body, half an hour.

And still again, of the finest body, one will again find it shorter, until, the body being made ever finer and of necessity arriving at the incorporeal, time too will come to an end in timelessness.

Thus also here, in no body at all, but in the incorporeal, it is necessary that the heavy body should timelessly reach the depth of the whole space and come to rest.

Thus, then, God, naturally upon nothing, according to the Scripture, having suspended the earth and established it as having taken hold of the depth of space, founded it upon its own security:

'it shall not be moved for ever and ever.'

And if, again, someone, contending out of shamelessness, should suppose a place outside of earth and heaven, made of some other invisible and fictitious body, that too, [if] infinite, still stands upon something, to infinity.

Nevertheless, with God's help, we answer this too more naturally, even if one should suppose that space to be chaos: that, heaven being light and tending upward, and earth being heavy and tending downward, and their extremities being bound to each other's extremities -- the one tending upward, the other downward -- mutually counterbalancing one another, they support each other and remain immovable.

God, then, having founded the earth upon its own security, it being oblong, bound the heaven at its extremities to the extremities of the earth;

setting the extremities of heaven below on four sides, and above vaulting it exceedingly high along the length of the earth, and, along the breadth of the earth, walling the extremities of heaven from below up to the top and enclosing the space, he made it, as one might say, a house of immense size, in the manner of an oblong vaulted dome.

For the prophet Isaiah says, 'He who set up the heaven like a vault.'

Concerning the heaven being glued to the earth, it is written thus in Job:

'He inclined the heaven toward the earth, and it is poured out like dust upon the earth;'

'and I have glued it together like a cube stone.' Does not its inclining toward the earth and its gluing not plainly show that its extremities are bound to the extremities of the earth, standing like a vault? For its inclining and its gluing to the earth cannot be conceived [as occurring] upon a sphere.

And Moses too, describing in the tabernacle the table, which is a type of the earth, ordained that its length should be two cubits, and its breadth one cubit.

Thus, then, as Isaiah said, we too declare the figure of the first heaven -- which came into being on the first day, which came into being together with the earth, which contains the whole together with the earth -- to be vault-shaped.

And as it is said in Job that heaven is joined to the earth, so again we say likewise.

But also having learned from Moses that the earth is extended more in length, we say again, having learned to be persuaded by the truly divine Scripture.

Then, since God had brought forth all at once, together with the earth and the first heaven itself, the waters, the angels, and certain other things, he makes on the second day, before their eyes, as though making use of his own creatures, having congealed out of the waters, as out of matter, this second and visible heaven — like the first heaven in form, though not in shape — and its height is set midway between the earth and the former heaven.

And there, having spread it out, he extends it through the whole space according to its breadth, as upon a middle roof, and binds the firmament together with the first heaven, having divided and apportioned the remaining waters — some above the firmament, and having let the rest go down to the earth below the firmament — as the divine Moses relates; and he makes the one space, or house, into two houses, that is, an upper storey and a lower storey.

For again the divine Scripture speaks thus concerning the second heaven — in Moses it is said:

'And God called the firmament heaven'; and in the divinely-inspired David:

'Stretching out the heaven like a skin'

...of his — clearly having spoken concerning the firmament itself.

And often, the Scripture, comprehending the two together, speaks of them in the singular as though of one, saying through Isaiah:

'He who set up the heaven like a vault, and stretched it out like a tent to dwell in' — saying 'like a vault' concerning the first heaven, and 'stretched out like a tent' concerning the firmament, having pronounced both in the singular, as being bound together and alike in form.

'The heavens declare the glory of God, and the firmament proclaims the work of his hands' — having begun in the plural [of the two], but concluded in the singular.

For since, according to the idiom of the Hebrew tongue, 'heavens' and 'heaven' are pronounced alike, and both are bound together as one and are alike in form and appearance, the divine Scripture indifferently calls it, concerning heaven, both in the plural and in the singular.

For making use of this idiom, the blessed David cries out:

'Praise him, you heavens of heavens' — meaning, more properly in the singular, 'the heaven of the heaven'; for he adds:

'And the water that is above the heavens' — clearly here too, having said 'of the heavens' in the plural, while indicating the firmament, which has the waters above it.

For following the idiom, instead of saying 'the heaven of the heaven,' he said 'the heavens of the heavens.' For he himself again also says elsewhere:

'The heaven of heaven belongs to the Lord, but the earth he gave to the sons of men' — calling 'heaven of heaven' the first, vault-shaped heaven, which is the heaven of the firmament, since it exists as higher and loftier than it.

And Moses, the hierophant, also speaks thus in Deuteronomy:

'Behold, to the Lord your God belong the heaven and the heaven of heaven, the earth and all that is in it.' But the great Apostle also makes use of this idiom, crying out:

'But our citizenship exists in the heavens, from which also we await a Saviour' — having begun in the plural, but ending in the singular, having said 'from which' in the singular.

And often David too has made use of such an idiom, crying out:

'Praise the Lord from the heavens'; and after saying also, 'Praise him from the earth,' concluding he says:

'His praise is upon earth and heaven'; but also:

'To him who made the heavens in understanding' — and whatever else is related concerning this matter.

Now we have said that the shape of the earth is elongated from east to west, and has breadth from north to south;

and that this earth is divided into two, the sea — which those outside call 'Ocean' — lying in the middle, all around, and encircling this earth which we men now inhabit, and also that other earth, whose edges are joined to the edges of heaven, which also encircles the Ocean — the earth which men once inhabited, towards the east, before the flood in the time of Noah came to pass, where paradise also is.

Men having crossed over at the time of the flood into this earth, marvellously, through the ark, across the Ocean, to the regions of Persia — where also the ark came to rest upon the mountains of Ararat, having preserved Noah and his three sons together with their wives, so that there were four couples, and all the irrational animals, the clean ones from three pairs, but the beast-like ones from a single pair each — since Noah appears to have offered up to God in sacrifice the one surplus animal from among all the clean ones;

so that the men were four pairs, and the clean irrational animals were from three pairs, and the wild ones from a single pair.

the divinely-inspired Moses, concerning these three, in the division of the earth, thus:

'The sons of Japheth: Gamer, and Magog, and Madai, and Iouan, and Elisa' — that is to say, the far-northern nations of the Scythians and the Medes, and then likewise the Ionians and the Greeks; and likewise Thobel and Mosoch and Theras — that he might indicate the nations neighbouring them.

For by 'Theras' he means the Thracians, and from these he says nations were divided off into the islands of the nations and the coastlands;

and by 'Kittim' he means those of Cyprus, and by 'Rhodians' those of Rhodes.

'And the sons of Ham: Chus and Mesraim' — that is to say, the Ethiopians and the Egyptians;

then Phuth and Canaan — that is to say, the Libyans and the neighbouring nations;

and the sons of Chus: Saba and Heuila — that is to say, the Himyarites and their neighbours, and likewise all the nations in succession that are in the southern regions.

And he says that the Canaanites are of Mesraim, that is, of the Egyptians, and the Sidonians and all the neighbouring nations.

'And the sons of Shem: Elam and Assour' — that is, the Elamites and the Assyrians, and the remaining nations, and as many as extended from them as far as Asia and toward the east — of the Persians, the Huns, the Bactrians, and the Indians, as far as the Ocean.

Taking this then as their starting point, those outside also divide the whole earth into three parts, Asia and Libya and Europe, calling Asia the east, Libya the south as far as the west, and Europe the north, again as far as the whole west.

Now there are, in this earth, four gulfs entering in from the Ocean — just as those outside also tell truly in their accounts of this — this one, among us, belonging to Romania, entering in from Gadeira, on the western side of the earth; and the Arabian gulf, called the Erythraean, and the Persian, both entering in from the place called Zingion, on the southern and more eastern part of the earth, from the place called Barbaria, where also the land of Ethiopia has its end.

Those who cross the Indian Sea know the place called Zingion, which lies beyond the frankincense-bearing land called Barbaria, which the Ocean also encircles, entering in from there into both gulfs.

And the fourth gulf, entering from the northern part of the earth, more eastward, is that called the Caspian Sea, or Hyrcania.

For these gulfs alone are navigable, since the Ocean itself is impossible to navigate, on account of the great abundance of currents, and of the vapours that rise up and blunt the rays of the sun, and its having many vast distances.

Now these things I have set forth, having received them from that godly man, as has been said, and also from experience itself:

for the sake of trade I sailed the three gulfs, that belonging to Romania, and the Arabian, and the Persian, and I have also learned accurately from those who dwell by, or indeed sail, these gulfs.

On one occasion, having sailed to inner India, and having gone a little beyond, toward Barbaria — where the Zingion happens to be further on, for so they call the mouth of the Ocean — there, as we were entering, we observed on the right hand a multitude of birds flying, which they call sousfa;

and they are like double kites, and a little larger still;

and there was much foul weather in that place, so that everyone was afraid.

For all those on the ship who were experienced, both sailors and passengers, said that we were near the Ocean, and they said to the helmsman:

'Push the ship off to the left, into the gulf, lest we be dragged off by the currents and fall into the Ocean and perish.'

For the Ocean, entering into the gulf, made a great and extraordinary wave, while currents from the gulf drew toward the Ocean; and the sight was utterly terrifying to us, and great fear seized us.

And of those birds called sousfa, some followed us for a long while, flying high up, which indicated that the Ocean was near.

Now of this earth which we inhabit, the northern and western parts are extremely high, while the eastern and southern parts are proportionately low.

And from the very facts themselves it is possible to see that those sailing to the northern and western regions are called 'up-goers', as going up somewhere above, and sailing slowly as they go up; while on returning, as coming down from a height to the lower parts, they sail swiftly, and complete the voyage in a few days.

And the two rivers, the Tigris and Euphrates, coming down from the north, that is, from Persarmenia, to the south, have very strong currents, much stronger than our own river Nile, that is, the Geon.

For this river Nile, being pushed from the low and southern places up to the higher and northern parts, and running upward somewhere, has very much gentler currents.

And the eastern and southern parts, being low-lying and warmed all around by the sun, happen to be hotter; whence also the bodies of those who inhabit these places happen to be darker.

And the northern and western parts, being higher and further from the sun, happen to be colder; whence also the bodies of those who inhabit them happen to be whiter, keeping themselves warm on account of the cold.

Nor is the whole of this earth inhabited;

for the far-northern parts, being cooled to an extreme degree, remain uninhabited, and the far-southern parts, on account of excessive heat, remain uninhabited;

'That it is neither from the goings-forth, nor from the west, nor from the desert mountains' — calling the east 'the goings-forth', the west 'the west', and the remaining two regions 'deserts', that is, the far-north and the far-south.

And these things too, those outside, in their accounts, affirm as true.

Since these things are so, we will say, taking our understanding according to divine Scripture, that the sun, proceeding from the east through the air over the southern parts, rises up and shines toward the north, upon the whole inhabited world.

And the height of the earth, the northern and western part, intervening in the midst, makes night beyond this earth, over the Ocean and the land beyond the Ocean, in those very regions;

then thereafter, coming to be about the west, the sun goes beneath the height of the earth, and running across above the Ocean through the northern parts, it makes night here, until, circling round, it comes again to the east, and rising up again along the southern part it will illumine this inhabited world — just as the divine Scripture also says through wise Solomon:

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

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

'it circles round and round, and upon its circuits the wind returns.' Here he calls the wind 'air', because, circling in the air, he says, from east to south, and from south to west, and from west to north, and from north again to east, it produces the nights and the days, and the turnings.