A TREATISE ON THE FABRIC OF THE WORLD. As I meditate and confer together with my own mind concerning the fabric of this world, in which we are held enclosed, the very swiftness of its fabric is this, as it is contained in the book of Moses, which he wrote concerning its creation, which is called Genesis. The whole of this mass God expressed in six days out of nothing, unto the adornment of his majesty; on the seventh, resting from labour, he consecrated it with a blessing. Therefore, since by the sevenfold number of days all things both heavenly and earthly are governed, in the first place I shall meditate upon this week, the queen of all weeks, and, so far as I can, I shall endeavour to express the day of power in its consummation.
In the beginning God made the light, and divided it by the twelve-fold number of hours into day and night — for this reason, plainly, that the day might bring on the night as a place of rest for the labours of men, and again the day might overcome it, and so by alternate turns labour might be refreshed by the rest of night, and rest in turn tempered by the exercise of day. On the fourth day he made two lights in heaven, a greater and a lesser, that the one might rule the day, the other the night — the sun and the moon — and he set the other stars in heaven, that they might shine upon the earth and distinguish the seasons and the years and the months and the days and the hours by their stations. Now the reason of the truth is shown, why the fourth day
is called tetras, and why we fast until the ninth hour, or until evening, or why a superposition is made unto the next day. This world, then, consists of four elements: fire, water, heaven, earth. These four elements, therefore, make up the tetrad of the seasons. The sun also and the moon, throughout the space of the year, produce four seasons: of spring, summer, autumn, winter; and these seasons make up a tetrad. And to relate the matter at greater length: behold, four living creatures before the throne of God, four Gospels, four rivers flowing in paradise, four generations of peoples — from Adam to Noah, from Noah to Abraham, from Abraham to Moses, from Moses to Christ the Lord, the Son of God. And four living creatures:
of a man, of a calf, of a lion, of an eagle; and four rivers: Pison, Gihon, Tigris, and Euphrates. The man Christ Jesus, the author of those things which we have mentioned above, was seized by the impious on the fourth day. Therefore, on account of his captivity on the fourth day, and on account of the majesty of his works, and that the seasons may run on wholesome for humanity, glad with fruits, and tranquil with calm weather, therefore we make either a station or a superposition. On the fifth day the earth and the water brought forth their offspring. On the sixth day were created those things which were lacking; and thus God fashioned man out of the ground, lord of all things which he had created upon the earth and upon the water. Yet first he created the angels and archangels, [he formed man], setting spiritual things before earthly. For light was before heaven and earth.
This sixth day is called parasceve — that is, the preparation of the kingdom. For he perfected Adam after his own image and likeness. But for this reason he perfected his works before he created the angels and fashioned man — lest perchance he should be asserting by a false statement that they had been helpers to him. On this day also, on account of the passion of the Lord Jesus Christ, we make either a station to God or a fast. On the seventh day he rested from all his works, and blessed it and sanctified it. On this day we are accustomed to make a superposition, for this reason: that on the Lord's day we may go forth to the bread with thanksgiving.
And let the superposition be made on the day of preparation, lest we should seem to observe the Sabbath with the Jews — which the Lord of the Sabbath, Christ himself, says through his prophets that his soul hates, which Sabbath he abolished in his body. But before this, when he himself commanded Moses that circumcision should not pass beyond the eighth day — which for the most part falls on the Sabbath day, as we read written in the Gospel — Moses, foreseeing the hardness of that people, therefore on the Sabbath day lifted up his hands and crucified himself in the battle which was waged by the foreigners on the Sabbath, that they might be taken and, by the severity of the law as it were, be trained to avoid lax discipline. And therefore David in the sixth Psalm asks the Lord for the eighth day, that he should not rebuke or judge him in his anger nor in his wrath.
For this is in truth the eighth day of that judgment to come, which shall pass out beyond the order of the disposition of the week. Joshua also, the son of Nun, the successor of Moses, himself abolished the Sabbath. For on the Sabbath day he commanded the children of Israel to go round the walls of the city of Jericho with trumpeters, and to declare war upon the foreigners. Mattathias, moreover, the prince of Judah, abolished the Sabbath; for on the Sabbath he slew the prefect of Antiochus king of Syria, and by his persecution subdued the foreigners; and we read it written in Matthew. Isaiah also and the rest of his colleagues abolished the Sabbath, that the true and just Sabbath might be observed in the seventh millennium of years. For which cause the Lord assigned to these seven days each a thousand years.
For thus it is provided: 'In thy sight, O Lord, a thousand years are as one day.' Therefore in the sight of God each thousand years are appointed; for I have seven eyes of the Lord. Wherefore, as I have related, that true Sabbath is the seventh millennium, in which Christ is to reign with his elect. The seven heavens also agree with those days. For thus it is provided: 'By the word of the Lord the heavens were established, and by the spirit of his mouth all the power of them.' These are the seven spirits. The names of them are the spirits which rested upon Christ the Son of God. As it is provided in the prophet Isaiah:
'And the spirit of wisdom and understanding shall rest upon him, the spirit of counsel and might, the spirit of knowledge and godliness, and the spirit of the fear of God shall fill him.' The highest heaven, therefore, is of wisdom; the second, of understanding; the third, of counsel; the fourth, of might; the fifth, of knowledge; the sixth, of godliness; the seventh, of the fear of God. From this, therefore, the thunders roar, the lightnings are stretched forth, the fires are massed together, blazing beams appear, the stars shine, dreadful comets flash, and sometimes the sun and the moon draw near: they are visited one by another, and produce those exceedingly fearful lights, radiant in their keen aspect at the sight of him. But to the Author of all this creation — 'the Word' is his surname. For thus his Father says:
'My heart hath uttered forth a good Word.' John the evangelist says thus: 'In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. The same was in the beginning with God. All things were made by him, and without him was made nothing.' Therefore he is the first-begotten of creation, the second of man, that is, of the human race, as the Apostle says. This Word, therefore, when it made the light, is called Wisdom; when the heaven, Understanding; when the earth and the sea, Counsel; when the sun and the moon and the other shining things, Might; when it stirs up the offspring of earth and sea, Knowledge; when it fashioned man, Godliness; when it blesses and sanctifies man, it has the name of the Fear of God.
Behold, the seven little horns of the Lamb, the seven eyes of God, the seven eyes of stone, the seven spirits, the seven burning torches before the throne of God, the seven golden lampstands, the seven little ewes, the seven women in Isaiah, the seven churches in Paul, the seven deacons, the seven angels, the seven trumpets, the seven seals of the book, the seven weeks by which Pentecost is completed, the seven weeks in Daniel, likewise the sixty-three weeks in Daniel, in the days of Noah seven of every clean beast in the ark, the sevenfold vengeance for Cain, the seven years for remitting debt, the lamp with seven mouths, the seven pillars of wisdom in the house of Solomon. Now therefore concerning the ineffable glory of God and his providence, you may see these things called to mind:
Nevertheless, so far as my small mind is able, I will endeavour to set it forth. That He should restore that Adam through the course of a week and come to the aid of His whole creation, this was accomplished by the nativity of His Son, our Lord Jesus Christ. Who then, taught in the law of God, who full of the Holy Spirit, would not consider in his heart that on the same day the angel Gabriel brought the good news to the Virgin Mary, on which day the dragon seduced Eve; that on the same day the Holy Spirit overflowed upon the Virgin Mary, on which He made the light; that on the same day He was made flesh, on which He made earth and water; that on the same day He was turned into milk, on which He made the stars; that on the same day into blood, on which the earth and water brought forth their offspring; that on the same day He was made flesh, on which day He formed man out of the soil;
that Christ was born on the same day on which He fashioned man; that He suffered on the very day on which Adam fell; that He rose again from the dead on the day on which He made the light? His humanity also He fulfils by the sevenfold number: of nativity, of infancy, of boyhood, of adolescence, of youth, of full age, of decline. To the Jews too He showed His humanity in these ways: when He hungered, thirsted, took food and drink; when He walked and withdrew apart; when He slept upon a pillow. But when, with the storm risen on the sea, He walked upon His feet, commanded the winds, healed the sick, restored the lame, gave light to the blind, instructed the deaf with hearing and the dumb with eloquence — behold how He announced to them that He was the Lord.
Concerning the number twelve: the day, as I have mentioned above, is divided in two parts by twelve hours each — of light and of night. For by these hours the months and years and seasons and ages are reckoned. Therefore without doubt twelve angels of the day were appointed, and twelve angels of the night, according, that is, to the number of the hours. For these are the twenty-four witnesses of days and nights, who sit before the throne of God, having golden crowns upon their heads, whom in the Apocalypse John the apostle and evangelist calls elders, for this reason: because they are elder both than the other angels and than men.