Cosmas Indicopleustes, Christian Topography (1897) pp. 138-243. Book 5
In which is contained a description of the Tabernacle, and in which the harmony is exhibited of the Prophets and Apostles. [192]
F the Tabernacle which was prepared by Moses in the wilderness, it is now time to give a description, as we have received it from that most divine man and teacher. And having made divine scripture our
1 starting point and accepted its testimonies, we begin with the exodus from Egypt, when the first-born of the Egyptians died, suffering the last of the plagues brought upon them through Moses----when also the Israelites, after having sacrificed, ate the Passover standing, having their loins girt, and holding staffs in their hands, ready prepared for their departure, on the first day of the first month at evening on the fourteenth day of the moon, which things were a shadow and type of the things that would be under the Lord Christ, namely, the deliverance from tyrannical bondage, the renovation of the world, accomplished by the resurrection from the dead, and
|139 the everlasting rest into which men shall enter. For at that very season of the year the world appears to have been created by God, and to have had its beginning. Likewise also in the time of Noah after the Deluge, there was again at that season a beginning of the world. It was the season again when there took place the deliverance of the Israelites from Egypt; and it was then also that there occurred the conception by the Virgin of the Lord Christ according to the flesh----of him who is the second Adam, the Chief Captain of the second state. In it again also occurred the resurrection from the dead of our Lord Jesus Christ according to the flesh, and it is said further that the general resurrection also shall then take place. The pagans moreover bear witness to the season, thieves that they are, deeming it to be an opinion of their own, and regarding Aries as the beginning of the Zodiac circle. In this sign there is, according to divine scripture, the first month of the year, and herein is a clear proof of their being plagiarists, especially as they assign a beginning to a circle----an idea scouted even by themselves as ridiculous. In fact they have nothing that is good but what they have purloined from divine scripture; but being puffed up with pride, and wishing to set themselves up as quite superior persons, they use as their own what is the property of other people.
But that the Law serves the purpose of foreshadowing some things that are future the Apostle testifies, exclaiming: For the Law having a shadow of good things to come, and not the very image of the things 2----speaking of a shadow as when one draws a rough sketch of a man without taking a full likeness of him, that is without representing his features and all his different members, so that it can be [193] known what sort of a man he is, whether old or young, |140 whether comely or uncomely, but merely sketches an outline of his bodily figure; so by what he calls an image he means the characteristic features, that is, the mysteries celebrated by us, namely the regeneration through baptism, and participation in the mysteries.3 But what he calls the real things themselves are the resurrection from the dead, the transformation of our bodies, the change from corruption to incorruption, the immutability of the soul instead of its mutability, perfect knowledge for that which is in part, an habitation, a rest, and an entrance into heaven, instead of earthly things heavenly, and instead of temporal things eternal. And all these boons have been secured for the human race through our Lord Jesus Christ. He therefore calls the Law the shadow of these things while the image and its characteristics are the mysteries celebrated by the Christians, as for instance, the lamb offered in sacrifice----a type of the Passion of Christ, in accordance with what the Apostle Paul says: For Christ our Passover was sacrificed;4 and John the Baptist thus speaks: Behold the Lamb of God which taketh away the sin of the world.5 Then after this, for the Israelites of that time there was their deliverance from the destroying angel and from the bondage to Pharaoh; for us, our deliverance from the devil and from our bondage to the very burdensome law. Then for them, their passage through the sea |141 and their sojourning in the wilderness, and the giving of the law and the setting up of the Tabernacle; for us, our passage through baptism and our sojourning in the Church, and the gift of the Holy Spirit. For them, a copious supply of water from the rock to sustain their life; for us, the life-giving mysteries; for them, the land of promise as a place of rest; for us, heaven not made with hands as our place of rest; for them, temporal life; for us, life eternal and righteousness, and sanctification, and redemption and blessedness. The former things therefore serve the purpose of a rough sketch, but those that are ours are the images and characteristic features of the things themselves. And we are not yet within the things themselves, but it shall come to pass that we shall rise from the dead; for no one, save only the Lord Christ in the flesh, has been within the things, having been the first of all to rise from the dead.
When the Egyptians were accordingly hastening the departure of the Israelites from Egypt, these carried away on their shoulders the flour itself, which with their hands they had kneaded into cakes without any leaven, and without the dough being baked. So when they had taken their departure and were drawing nigh to the Red Sea, the Egyptian Pharaoh who had repented and collected an army, pursued after them and overtook them near the sea opposite the encampment in the midst of Migdol and right opposite Beelsephon. Then evening at length coming on, the pillar of cloud or of fire, which always went before them and guided them on their way, that night came behind them and prevented the Egyptians from attacking [194] the Israelites. Then afterwards when the day was about to dawn, and when the Israelites cried to God, God commanded Moses to smite the sea with his rod and to divide it. Moses, having therefore done as he was commanded, smote the water and divided it, so that it stood up as a |142 wall on this side and on that side, and the Israelites passed through. But when the Egyptians with their chariots were in the midst of the sea pursuing the Israelites, the waters, driven by the anger of God, were turned back upon them and they were all overwhelmed in the sea and perished. Now that very place is in Clysma,6 as they call it, on the right hand as you go to the mountain, where also the tracks of the wheels of their chariots are visible, and can be traced for a considerable distance as far as the sea, and are preserved even to the present day, as a sign to unbelievers and not to believers.
Note. Regarding the conception of the Lord.
When Zacharias on the tenth day of the seventh month had gone into the temple, according to the tradition of the law, and it had been announced to him that John would be born to him by Elisabeth, word also came to the Virgin in Elisabeth's sixth month that her own first month had begun. For as Zacharias had received word on the tenth day of the month, and Elisabeth had conceived in that very month, it is evident that six months of the year had elapsed, and that six months were still left with the exception of those ten days, with two or three or seven others added, until Zacharias returned to his house, so that there would remain 161 or 167 or 163 days. The beginning therefore of the conception of the Lord, that is, the beginning of the first month, was Elisabeth's sixth month according to what is handed down in the Gospels. For God has always observed this order and continues to observe it. This we can know for certain, since |143 we all celebrate the Nativity of Christ when the ninth month has been completed, reckoned from the beginning of the first month, that is Choiac 28. But the Christians of Jerusalem, as if on the authority of the blessed Luke, who says that Christ was baptised when he began to be thirty years of age,7 celebrate his nativity on Epiphany.8 And both the evangelist and they of Jerusalem say what is true, but their reckoning is not accurate, for on the day of his nativity fell also his baptism, as both Luke and the Christians of Jerusalem say. But from ancient times the Church, lest by observing the two festivals together one of them should be forgotten, ordained that twelve days, after the number of the Apostles, should be interposed, and that the Feast of Epiphany should then be celebrated; just as it also ordained that the fast of forty days, which the Lord endured before he entered on his contest with the devil, should be concluded by the resurrection of the Lord, in order that we also, taking example, should by fighting to the utmost of our power and imitating him, become recipients of the [195] Passion and the Resurrection of the Lord, although the fasting did not take place on the self-same days. In like manner the Church therefore ordained that the Epiphany of our Lord Jesus should be observed twelve days subsequent to his nativity. But the Christians of Jerusalem alone, guided by probable conjecture but inaccurate calculation, celebrate his birth at Epiphany. But on his birthday they celebrate the memory of David and the Apostle James----not because they both died on that very day, but all, as I think, celebrate their memory lest they should remain excluded from the feast dedicated to all who were kinsmen of Christ according to the flesh, while glorifying God in all things. Amen!
The passage of the Israelites into the Desert after their departure from Egypt.
When the Israelites passed over to the other side to the place called Phœnicôn 9 they began to traverse the desert of Sur (Shur), God expanding a cloud over them by day to protect them from |144 the scorching heat of the sun, and guiding them in it, while by night he appeared in a pillar of fire and led them on their way through all the wilderness, as it is written: He spread a cloud for a covering: and fire to give light in the night.10 And all this can be thus depicted.11
Then again setting out from Merrha (Marah) they came to Elim which we now call Raithu, where there were twelve springs of water which exist to the present day.12 But at that time the number of palm-trees was far greater than it is now. Up to this point they had the sea on their right hand, and on their left the wilderness, but thenceforth they advanced into the interior towards the mountain, leaving the sea behind them as they marched forward into the wilderness. When they were half way between Elim and the Mount Sinai, then the manna descended upon them, and there for the first time they observed the Sabbath, according to the commands which God gave to Moses at Marah, but not in writing. This also you can see thus depicted.13
When they had advanced to Elim from Marah, and had again journeyed into the wilderness in that place half way between Elim and Mount Sinai, the quails descended upon them at evening, and the manna in the morning. There again they began to keep the Sabbath, the manna not corrupting from the sixth day till the Sabbath, while on the other days it could not be kept, but it stank and was corrupted, and they were thereby taught to observe the Sabbath; for some wished to gather it even on the Sabbath but did not find it, according to what is recorded.
Then again they pitched in Raphidin (Rephidim), in what is now called Pharan (Paran). And when they thirsted, Moses according to the commandment of the Lord went with the elders [196] (and his rod was in his hand) to Mount Horeb, which is in Sin near Pharan, being only about six miles off. And when he had there struck the rock, abundance of water gushed out, and the |145 people drank, as David in the Psalms exclaims: He clave the rock in the wilderness and gave them drink as out of the great depths;14 and again: He opened the rock and the waters gushed out; they ran in the dry places like rivers;14 and again: He brought water out of the rock, and caused waters to run down like rivers.15 But the Apostle says: For they drank of that spiritual rock which followed them, and that rock was Christ;16 by which he meant that, just as the flood of water from the rock which followed them gave them without stint water to drink, so Christ supplies to us life-giving waters, through the mysteries of which the rock was a type. And in that place again, they routed Amalek in battle, and there also Iothôr (Jethro) met his son-in-law Moses, to whom he brought his two sons and his wife; for Moses had sent back to him his wife and his children.
This hiatus is followed by a citation of the Ten Commandments.
Text.
Then when he had come down from the Mountain he was ordered by God to make the Tabernacle, which was a representation of what he had seen in the Mountain, namely an impress 17 of the whole world. For see, said He, that thou make all things according to the pattern shown thee in the Mount.18 Now the blessed Apostle Paul in the Epistle to the Hebrews has declared that the first Tabernacle was a pattern of this world, for he says: For the first had also ordinances of divine service and a worldly sanctuary; for there was a tabernacle made; the first wherein was the candlestick, and the table and the shew-bread, which is called the Sanctuary.19 In calling it worldly [197] he indicated that it was, so to speak, a pattern of the world, wherein was also the candlestick, by this meaning the luminaries of heaven, and the table, that is, the earth, and the shew-bread, by this meaning the fruits which it |146 produces annually: which, he says, is called the Sanctuary, by this meaning the first Tabernacle. Afterwards he speaks of the second in these terms: We have such an high priest who is set on the right hand of the throne of the Majesty in the heavens; a minister of the sanctuary and of the true tabernacle which the Lord pitched and not man;20 and again: But Christ being come a high priest of good things to come, by a greater and more perfect tabernacle, not made with hands, that is to say, not of this building; neither by the blood of goats and calves, but by his own blood he entered in once into the holy place, having obtained eternal redemption for us;21 and again: for Christ is not entered into the holy places made with hands, which are the figures of the true, but into heaven itself, now to appear in the presence of God for us.22 In this last passage he says that heaven is the true tabernacle, while the things which were prepared by Moses are antitypes. He therefore calls the things of Moses things made by hands, but the real things not made with hands. Having then been commanded to make the Tabernacle he made it according to the pattern which had been shown to him, and also its appurtenances according to their pattern, the Ark of testimony, and the Mercy-seat above, and the two Cherubim stretching out their wings, and overshadowing the Mercy-seat above, and in like manner the veil and the table and the candlestick, and the hangings of the Tabernacle (namely the first coverings) and curtains made of goats' hair (that is stypta 23) and these again were the second coverings of the Tabernacle. In like manner also the third coverings made of skins dyed red and sky-blue, that is, of what is |147 called leather, and all things cunningly worked and wonderful. We have depicted the Tabernacle thus.24
Note.
We must here again observe that he (Paul) speaks of the Tabernacle which was pitched by God, namely heaven, as the true. Moreover he calls heaven that perfect Tabernacle not made with hands, as it was created by God. For he calls the Tabernacle which Moses prepared made with hands. And further in contrast with the Tabernacle prepared by Moses, he calls the other the true, because it abides for ever, while the former is dissolved. Then again he calls the curtains au)lai/a, and it is thus the pagans who use the Attic dialect call them, meaning by au)lai/a a large and variegated piece of tapestry. Hyperides the orator 25 in his speech against Patrocles speaks thus: But the nine Archons were feasting in the portico, having fenced off that part of it from being seen, by [198] means of an au)laia (or curtain). Menander also uses the word [in the line]: Stuptei=on, e0le/fanta, mu&ron, oi]non, au)lai/an.
The twenty pillars are twenty boards standing upright, one cubit and a half being the breadth of each of the boards, so that in the twenty pillars there are thirty cubits, and this is the length of the Tabernacle. But their sockets were double within and without, being placed on both sides of the board, and the sockets were of silver. The capitals again were simple but of gold, and in like manner the boards and the bars and the tenons. The tenons were two planks joined together and overlaid with gold and nailed to each board, turned to and falling against each other, in order that they might bind together all the boards. And the tenons and the bars, which passed through the rings called psalides, bound the whole Tabernacle securely together; but the fifth bar in the middle was not borne up by passing through the rings, but was made to pass through the boards for the greater safety of the Tabernacle. The height again of each board was eleven cubits, and the breadth of the Tabernacle was likewise |148 eleven cubits, and the wall opposite to this wall was similar to it. When the veil of the temple was rent in twain at the Passion of the Lord three things were indicated by this circumstance. First it proved the audacity of the Jews against the Lord, the divine temple, as it were, mourning and rending its garments; next, it showed the approaching dissolution and abolition of the Judaic ritual, by the taking away of the first Tabernacle; and it showed thirdly that the inner Tabernacle, which was invisible and inaccessible to all, and even to the priests, had become visible and accessible to men. Glory for all to Christ the King for ever and ever, Amen!
Text.
Here is a delineation of the Tabernacle without its pertinents. Its first coverings were woven of diverse colours, blue and purple and fine-twined linen, and scarlet, as was also the veil 26 which scripture calls hangings. And they were of similar length with the curtains.27 The length of a curtain was eight and twenty cubits, and its breadth four cubits. But he says that five curtains were coupled together one to another, and likewise other five curtains, and that the couplings of the five with the five from the middle at the edge of the one set were loops, and at the edge of the other, clasps. And they put the clasps into the loops, and fastened the ten curtains together just as what are called sigistropylai, the bags for holding slaves' bedding,28 or saddle-bags, are fastened.29 But when they marched carrying the Tabernacle with its furniture, the five curtains were detached from the other five and were carried separately. This they did also in the case of the coverings of the second Tabernacle, which were made of goat's hair woven, and were called [199] leather screens.30 They were eleven in number, each being thirty cubits long, and thirty also broad. Five of them |149 were coupled together, and likewise the other six. They were joined together by clasps and loops, and the whole of them again became one. The length of the Tabernacle was therefore thirty cubits. For there were twenty pillars, that is, boards; each of which was one cubit and a half in breadth, thus making altogether thirty cubits. Then also there were the six pillars, each of them one cubit and a half in breadth, making nine cubits. Then there were at the corners two pillars of one cubit and a half each, and thus there were eight pillars of ten [twelve] cubits collectively, and these were made secure with bars on all sides. The ten curtains accordingly, when conjoined, made a breadth of forty cubits, and covered all the length of the Tabernacle, and the wall at the back which was ten cubits in height, altogether forty cubits. But the curtains, which together were eight-and-twenty cubits long, covered the breadth of the Tabernacle which was ten cubits. The two side-walls were ten cubits in height, the others twenty cubits, making together thirty cubits. There were besides curtains of eight-and-twenty cubits, and with the exception of one cubit, these covered the one wall, and also the other wall with the exception again of one cubit; but the screens of leather covered the other two cubits; for they were each thirty cubits in length, while the one leather screen which remained over was let down for the door of the Tabernacle. We therefore delineate their appearance along with the three coverings of skins and they are as you see.31
Note.
Here Moses, after he had been privileged to witness the terrible scenes on the Mount, is commanded by God to make the Tabernacle according to the pattern which he had seen in the Mount, this being a pattern of the whole world. For see, saith He, that |150 thou make all things according to the pattern which was shown thee in the Mount.32 Since therefore it had been shown him how God made the heaven and the earth, and how on the second day he made the firmament in the middle between them, and thus made the one place into two places, so he, in like manner in accordance with the pattern which he had seen, made the Tabernacle and placed the veil in the middle, and by this division made the one Tabernacle into two, an inner and an outer. The Apostle therefore declared the outer to be a pattern of this world, saying thus: For the first Tabernacle had ordinances of divine service and a worldly sanctuary. For there was a Tabernacle prepared, the first, wherein were the candlestick and the table and the shew-bread [200] which is called the Holy place,33 as if he said, it exhibits a pattern of the world, in which are the earth, and the monthly fruits and the luminaries (of heaven). And then when explaining the second Tabernacle he speaks thus: But Christ having come a high priest of the good things to come, through the greater and more perfect Tabernacle, not made with hands, that is to say, not of this creation, nor yet through the blood of goats and calves, but through his own blood, entered in once for all into the Holy place having obtained eternal redemption;34 as if he said: Just as the high priest once a year enters into the inner Tabernacle through the blood of goats and calves, making propitiation for the people, so also Christ entered into the Tabernacle not made with hands, that is, into heaven, having once for all procured eternal redemption. And again: For Christ is not entered into the Holy place made with hands which is an image of the true, but into heaven itself; and again he says: For the law had a shadow of good things to come;35 for, as in an outline, by the inner Tabernacle he has signified the ascension of Christ after the flesh, and the entrance into it of just men. Wherefore he again admonishes us in these words: Having therefore, brethren, boldness to enter into the Holy place by the blood of Jesus, by the way which he dedicated for us, a new and living way through the veil, that is to say, his flesh; and having a great high-priest over the house of God, let us draw near with a true heart;36 and again in declaring that Christ is in heaven he says: Whom God set forth to be a propitiation by his blood;37 since the |151 Propitiatory (Mercy-seat) was placed within the second Tabernacle. And many other such references are contained in the Epistles of the Apostle, and throughout divine scripture.
But perhaps again some one will still ask: Why did Moses ordain that the entrance to the Tabernacle should be in the east, and that the inner Tabernacle, that is the Holy of Holies, should be in the west? Such an enquirer will be answered very concisely, that since he was commanded by God to make the whole Tabernacle as an image of the whole world, according to the pattern shown to him in the Mount, he so made it, and at the same time has recorded that God, when he had created man, introduced him into the world in the east, and so commanded him, when in course of time he had increased and multiplied, to extend himself and to fill the earth towards the west. For this reason the door of the Tabernacle was placed in the east. And further, since the Tabernacle was an image of the heavenly mansions, at the end of the times it was determined that, through the high priest and the universal King our Lord Jesus Christ, it should be declared that the last dispensation had come. And since the human race had its origin in the east, and in the course of its progress advanced westward as it multiplied, for this reason the [inner] Tabernacle, as being the second and placed last, looked [201] towards the west. From this circumstance also the Church has a tradition that Christians everywhere when worshipping God should turn towards the cast, as it was there that He was first manifested to men. For she remembered the days of old, and now renders thanks to Him who has multiplied and extended the human race from the east unto the west. But the Jews, whose notions of the Deity were too anthropomorphic, worshipped God towards Jerusalem, where the temple stood.38 On this point we can gain light from the story of Daniel, who, when he had opened the window of his chamber which looked towards Jerusalem, worshipped with his face turned towards the temple. One who finds himself in a place lying to the east of Jerusalem turns as a matter of course to the west when he worships; but if he be in the west, he turns to the cast, if in the north to the south, and |152 if in the south to the north, so that in a manner the four are shown as facing each other when worshipping. But the practice of the Christians is different, for in one and the same manner they offer to God, as being uncircumscribed, one spiritual worship with faces turned eastward, since it was from the east that in the beginning He was manifested to them, and that He multiplied them towards the west. To Him be glory for ever, Amen!
The seven lamps, tongs,39 and oil-vessels.
This candlestick which had seven lamps and stood in the south of the Tabernacle 40 was a type of the luminaries, for, according to the wise Solomon, the luminaries rising in the east and running to the south, shine upon the north of the earth, and again, they are seven after the number of days in a week, seeing that all time, beginning with weeks, completes both months and years. He ordered them, however, to be lighted on one side, since the table was placed towards the north, in order that their light might from the south shine on the north; for Solomon speaks thus with reference to the luminaries: The sun ariseth and goeth towards the south and moveth round to the north; the wind whirleth about continually and returneth again according to its circuits.41 Thus both Solomon and Moses have expressed themselves alike concerning the luminaries, in their general relations.
Note.
The table itself 42 is a type of the earth, and the loaves signify its fruits, and being twelve they are symbolic of the twelve months of the annual cycle. The four corners of the table signify the four tropics of the year, one occurring every three months; the waved border with which it is wreathed all round signifies the entire sea, or the ocean, as it is called by the pagans; and the crown which is round it indicates the earth that [202] lies beyond the ocean where Paradise is.
Text.
The veil again he ordered to be made of blue and purple and fine linen and scarlet, variegated like the four elements, |153 or perhaps in order to produce a beautiful effect. For they were made evidently to serve not only for symbols, but evidently also for decorative and liturgical purposes. And he placed the veil in the middle of the Tabernacle, which he thus divided into two places. In the inner place was set the Ark of the Propitiation, which was concealed behind the veil, and was not seen by any one. The Propitiatory was a type of the Lord Christ according to the flesh, as saith the Apostle: Whom God set forth to be a propitiation by his blood;43 and again the high priest was himself a type of the Lord Christ, according to the Apostle: For, saith he, just as the high priest once a year entereth into the inner Tabernacle, so Christ, having come a high priest of the good things to come through his own blood, entered in once for all into the Holy place, having obtained eternal redemption,44 as methinks I have frequently mentioned. Here is a delineation of the Ark of propitiation [or the Mercy-seat].45
Note.
Zacharias then and Abia were both of them priests who alternately year by year entered into the temple to effect the remission of sins. It fell accordingly to the lot of Zacharias at the time of the Lord's conception to be exercising the priest's office; and having entered, as Luke records: He saw a vision of an angel which also said unto him: Fear not, Zacharias, because thy supplication is heard, and thy wife Elizabeth shall bear thee a son;46 as if he had said, "Thou hast entered here to ask for the people remission of their sins, lo! I bring to you the good tidings that your prayer will be fulfilled, for there shall be born to thee a son by Elizabeth to be the forerunner of Him who of his grace will bestow upon the world a complete remission of their sins." John himself verily, pointing out with his finger the Lord Christ, exclaimed: Behold the Lamb of God which taketh away the sin of the world,47 as if he said: Him who takes away and abolishes |154 mortality and corruption and mutation, and makes us immortal and incorruptible and immutable and no longer capable of sinning.
Text.
The court of the Tabernacle had a length of one hundred cubits with twenty pillars, and a breadth of fifty cubits with twelve pillars. But to form the breadth of the Tabernacle on the east He ordered that there [203] should be three pillars on this side, and three on that side, and that the veils like vestures of fine linen, alone measuring fifteen cubits, should be stretched over the three pillars. He ordered further that the four other pillars should be made the gate of entrance into the court, and that the veils should be variegated with four colours. But all the veils of the court were to be made of fine linen and of that alone. They were five cubits in height and were furnished with loops and pegs and cords, on which were stretched the coverings of the Tabernacle and the veils of the court. And the whole structure of the Tabernacle was at once awe-inspiring and of highest excellence. I must therefore to the best of my ability delineate these also, representing them in the form of what are called pavilions.48
Concerning the garments of the priest.
The garments of the priest were the following: an embroidered tunic, and an ephod and a long robe and a turban and a girdle and a mitre and a plate, two shoulder-pieces 49 for the shoulders of the priest joined together the |155 one to the other and with the ends folded back from the left to the right and from the right to the left, and covering the bareness of his neck. These shoulder-pieces were interwoven with threads of gold and wrought and variegated with genuine purple, and with a blue dye and fine linen and scarlet. In the shoulder-pieces upon the two shoulders were set two stones of emerald 50 on which were engraved the names of the twelve tribes, six names on one stone and six on the other. But the oracular plate of judgment,51 which was woven, was a square piece of cloth of a palm's breadth, doubly wrought with gold thread, variegated in the weaving with the four colours already mentioned, and set with four rows of stones, three stones being in each row, so that they were twelve in all.52 The stones were enchased in gold, and were inserted in the oracular plate of judgment, and each of them had engraved upon it the name of one of the twelve tribes. He ordered also two small shield-shaped clasps of gold 53 to be placed |156 upon the two shoulders in the front, and fringes intertwined with gold and coloured tissues, to depend from these, and the oracular plate to hang suspended thereby upon the breast; as well as by means of two wreathen chains of gold drawn back from the two sides of the oracular plate underneath, and fastened together behind alternately at the two tips of the two shoulder-pieces at the back of the priest, so that the wreathen chains might be on the back of the priest, and serve to join diagonally the oracular plate to the shoulder-pieces before and behind. The undergarment was all of a blue colour, from the breast down to the ankles,54 where a border was woven with it. But the hem underneath, being widened by a fringe of various colours, had golden bells and golden pomegranates adorned with flowers suspended around it, and so disposed that a bell alternated with a pomegranate. He had also a turban of fine linen,55 and a girdle of various colours which at the top girt the under garment around under the breast. The [204] priest wore the mitre on his forehead, and above the mitre a blue lace, having on its border a gold plate, on which was the seal of Holiness to the Lord,56 namely, what is called a tetragram, and thus arrayed he entered into the Holy place. He wore also to cover his legs linen drawers 57 from his loins to his thighs for the sake of decency. The figure of the priest moreover can be thus delineated.58 |157
It is evident therefore that the different parts of the attire were types of certain things, and that they were intended both for ornament and to impress the mind with awe; for instance, the two stones of emerald which the priest wore on his shoulders, on which were the names of the twelve tribes, signify the twelve tribes which were descended from one ancestor Abraham, for this is shown by the fact that the emerald stone had been made into two, that there might be one for each shoulder. But he ordained that on the shoulders of the priest should be laid the burden of the twelve tribes, as it was he who wore the stones and went into God's presence on behalf of the tribes. But the oracular plate which was worn on the breast and was twofold, signifies the soul and the body. It was therefore twofold, and was placed upon the heart. The twelve stones were different from each other, because each man has his own peculiar mode of thinking, and because there were so many different tribes. Then, as there was one [common] ancestor, he commanded one stone, an emerald, to be set upon the shoulders, as one ancestor. But because the tribes and the ways of thinking are different, he commanded different stones to be placed upon the breast. And on the plate of the seal of Holiness to the Lord, which was on the forehead, he says that there were letters engraved. These letters formed the name of God, and what is called in Hebrew the tetragram. In fine, the other things were designed to please the eye by reason of their beauty. But the golden bells and the pomegranates were made to produce sound, a symbol by which the priest was instructed that he should not presume to enter into the Holy place until he had made the sound to be heard. For just as one who intends going into the presence of men of exalted rank, when he finds no one to announce him, begins to knock, not daring to enter without warning, so here the priest is enjoined to advance with the bells and |158 set them ringing.59 And such is our description of the Tabernacle and of the priest
A cloud by day rested over the Tabernacle and fire by night, in the sight of all Israel as often as they resumed their march----according to what is recorded in scripture----and when merchants, chiefly Ishmaelites and Midianites, came to them with their loads, all their wants were through divine providence abundantly supplied, as is written in [205] Deuteronomy ii, 7, and viii, 4; and also xxix, 5, where it is said: He hath led you forty years in the wilderness: your clothes were not waxen old upon you, and your shoes were not worn off upon your feet; for it is not the fact, as some marvelmongers, and especially they of the circumcision, have supposed, that their garments and shoes did really and truly not wear away, though Moses seems to say so, while, what he means is, that they lacked for nothing in the desert, since the merchants continually brought them necessary supplies; for how was it possible for the children born to them in the wilderness to wear the garments and shoes of their fathers, who were full-grown men while they were very small? And how could they have been ordered to make every day the twelve new loaves of shew-bread, unless the merchants had brought them corn? For ye know that with regard to this matter they murmured, saying: Is he able to give us bread also, or to prepare a table for his people? 60 Or how could they have procured the fine flour for making the cakes, or the skins for making the scarlet and blue leather curtains of the Tabernacle, unless they had purchased them from the merchants? And because, while the merchants, through the providence of God, supplied their wants, they still murmured both |159 against God and against Moses, even though they possessed the wealth of the Egyptians, he wrought wonders for them, ungrateful and unbelieving as they were, supplying them now with abundance of water from the rock, now with manna from heaven, now with quails from the sea for thirty days----and further, in teaching them to curb their lusts, he chastised them with plagues, at one time consuming a portion of their encampment with fire, at another visiting with death four and twenty thousand of them, at another sending serpents among them, while at yet another, under the wrath of heaven, the earth swallowed up the company of Dathan, Abiram and Korah, with all their families and their cattle, thus teaching them not to be distrustful and ungrateful to God, but to live soberly. And when they had received the law from God in writing, and had learned letters for the first time, God made use of the desert as a quiet school, and permitted them for forty years to carve out letters on stone. Wherefore, in that wilderness of Mount Sinai, one can see, at all their halting-places, all the stones, that have there been broken off from the mountains, inscribed with Hebrew letters, as I myself can testify, having travelled in these places. Certain Jews, too, who had read these inscriptions informed me of their purport, which was as follows: The departure of so and so of such and such a tribe, in stick and such a year, in such and suck a month, just as with ourselves there are travellers who scribble their names in the inns where they have lodged. And the Israelites, who had but newly acquired the art of writing, continually practised it, and filled a great multitude of stones with writing, so that, all those places are full of Hebrew inscriptions,61 which, as I think, |160 have been preserved to this day for the sake of unbelievers. [206] Any one who so wishes can go to these places and see for himself, or at least can enquire of others about the matter, when he will learn that it is the truth we have spoken. When the Hebrews therefore had been at the first instructed by God and had received a knowledge of letters through those tables of stone, and had learned them for forty years in the wilderness, they communicated them to their neighbours the Phoenicians, at that time first when Cadmus was King of the Tyrians, from whom the Greeks received them, and then in turn the other nations of the world.
The Israelites encamped in the desert, arranged in an order prescribed by God, as thus: the priests and the Levites encircled the Tabernacle and the twelve tribes were disposed around them----three on the east side of the Tabernacle, the tribe of Judah with Moses and Aaron being in the middle, as that tribe had the precedence of the others. Then there were three tribes on the south, three on the west, and three on the north side. And in this order they halted----and still observing it resumed their march, and went forward in the manner here represented.
In this manner then they encamped each day in the desert until at last when Moses and Aaron were dead, and Jesus the son of Nanê (Joshua the son of Nun) had obtained the leadership, and in a miraculous manner had |161 conducted them over the Jordan, he gave them for inheritance the land of promise in accordance with divine predictions and arrangements. Then the tribe of Judah obtained the Metropolitan city of Jerusalem, until from that tribe He should come forth who was expected and foretold by the law and the prophets----He through whom God wrought the great and eternal salvation and renovation for the world----I speak of the Lord Christ according to the flesh----according, that is, to the promises made by God to Abraham, and according to his purpose from the very beginning, as the Apostle also says in the Epistle to the Galatians, where, as if in answer to the question What then is the law? meaning, Why was the law given? he at once replies and says: It was added because of transgressions till the seed should come to whom the promise hath been made; and it was ordained through angels by the hand of a mediator;62 whereby he means, that the reason why the law was added was this, that by means of it and of the priesthood the people which had received the promise should be under safe guardianship----the people, namely, sprung from Abraham----and that there should be no intermixture of this people with any other; so that thereby he who had been foretold might be recognisable by all----he, by whom the world is being renovated, and by whom also the purpose and economy which God had from the first designed is being fulfilled. For it was the purpose of God from the very beginning to make others participants of existence, and to give them a share of his goodness----reason and knowledge and immortality and blessedness, and of every good thing as far as the capacity of the participant might admit. And since the Deity, being by intuition in possession of all true knowledge, cannot be [207] taught, while it is the proper nature of the brute creatures |162 to be moved by instinctive impulses without reason and true knowledge; and while again in like manner inanimate objects are altogether destitute of self-motion, of instinctive impulse, and of knowledge, God, having in his goodness been pleased to make, what was possible, an intermediate class of beings, endowed with reason and capable of acquiring knowledge by teaching and experience, subjected them to probation, and in accordance with his purpose from the beginning, made the future state, that is, the place on high. So when in the first place he had set apart this present state, employing it as a school suitable for our needs, he made it mortal and mutable, in order that we, possessing the power of judging and reasoning, might enjoy our share of its blessings, and avoid its evils. Wherefore also the present dispensation has its joys and its sorrows, that we, who are every day living in the midst of them, might shun the one, and adhere to the other. For the same reason laws have been ordained, accompanied by threats and chastisements, to curb our vicious appetites; and lastly, death itself, which seems a token of his anger, but which in reality brings to a close this troubled life and our term of discipline, just as God also in his providence brought it upon the first man, to make his sin hateful to him and to make righteousness the object of his desires, thus encouraging him and all through him, to enter into the life prepared for us beforehand, and into the eternal Kingdom, and into righteousness, sanctification, redemption and blessedness, which the purpose of God from the beginning contemplated. God accordingly, as if moved by anger, wisely, yea most wisely, inflicted death upon the first-made man on account of his sin, that he might render sin a thing hateful to him. Then again afterwards, in order that the man might not sink into despair under his misery, he took care of him as a father takes care of his child, and made raiment for him. Then he avenged the blood of |163 Abel, and translated Enoch, that the sentence of death might have no power over him; he saved Noah from the shipwreck of the world; he chose Abraham by whom and his seed he accomplished the renovation of the world, Isaac also and Jacob, the patriarchs, and the children of these, and the twelve tribes sprung from them, which with a high hand he redeemed from Egyptian bondage and guided miraculously through the wilderness, and presented with a written law; and when he had distributed the nation into ranks of war, he gave them the land of Palestine distributed into lots; and he raised up for them prophets, David their first king, and Samuel, the great Elijah, his disciple Elisha, the twelve prophets, and the four great prophets who foretold the coming of the Lord Christ, who was to arise from among them according to the flesh, in whom and through whom is, and is fulfilled, God's purpose from the beginning, and his great scheme of salvation. For just as he ordained to introduce death on account of [208] the sin of the first man, so also, through the obedience of the Lord Christ according to the flesh, he ordained the resurrection and the renovation and the gathering together of the whole creation. For, as Paul says, as by man came death, so by man the resurrection from the dead 63 has been brought into the world. This is the great salvation, and dispensation and wisdom of God, who has produced all things and has again restored them. Wherefore also he made the two states from the beginning, and the whole scope of divine scripture has regard to the future life which succeeds this present life, as have also the Christian preaching and the hope of the Christians. For this reason in baptism the rite is not administered to any one unless he first confess his belief in the Holy Trinity and the resurrection of our flesh. Without doing this, he is neither |164 accounted a Christian, nor pronounced to be one of the faithful. This is the scope of the whole of the divinely inspired scriptures both of the Old and of the New Testament, pointing out that, according to the pattern of the Tabernacle prepared by Moses in the wilderness, God made the whole world into two places, this world, namely, in which he thought fit that we, mortal and mutable creatures, should first spend our days as at school, and have experience of pain and of pleasure, for without education it is not possible there can be learning. For no chastening, saith scripture, seemeth for the present to be joyous but grievous:64 On those accordingly, who have been rationally tested, he" has decreed to bestow afterwards in the future state his good things that are everlasting, and to fulfil what has been his primary purpose from the beginning----having taken, as God, a providential care of what concerns us, as became him, and as was for our advantage. We sketch the encampment 65 of the Israelites in the wilderness, and their passage of the Jordan with Joshua the son of Nun after the death of Moses, and their rest in the land of promise, and Jerusalem, and how they got the land by lot and how they held it in possession.
While they dwelt in this land God at times raised up prophets to announce the advent of the Lord Christ according to the flesh, through whom the future state was to be revealed, while they also called to the remembrance of the people the promises which God gave to Abraham Let us therefore sketch each of the men of old and each of the prophets, to show how each of them was thought |165 worthy to predict something about the coming of the Lord Christ, whether recording it by means of his words or by means of his deeds ---- if only he be deemed worthy to speak or do anything with reference to him, for this is in consonance with the argument of our work, wherein we would show from first to last what is the purpose which all divine scripture ever keeps in view.
Adam.
This is Adam,66 the first-made man, who was held worthy [209] to make a prediction concerning himself and his wife, who with the divine benediction were both through copulation united into one flesh, to which the Lord bears witness in the Gospels, saying that God had spoken this by the mouth of Adam, unto whom he had himself brought his bride; and the Apostle Paul has used this as an illustration, explaining it in a mystical manner, concerning the Lord Christ and the Church, saying: This mystery is great, but I speak of Christ and of the Church.67 For just as Adam is the head of all men in this world, as being the cause of their existence, and their father, so also the Lord Christ according to the flesh is the head of the Church, and the father of the future age. Adam also was the first who had the honour to be, and to be called, the image of God, but with respect to the Lord Christ, this is in a still higher degree the case, as the Apostle says: Who is the image of the invisible God.68 Adam again was the first and only one of men who from his side, through God, produced the female without seed, and the Lord Christ according to the flesh was, as a male, produced from the female without seed, thus preserving the equality of privilege and satisfying the debt of nature.69 Adam was the first of men who |166 sinned, having been beguiled by the devil. The Lord Christ on his account paid the debt, having opportunely annulled the bond and trampled the. enemy under his feet.
Note.
In the first epistle to the Romans the Apostle has declared Adam to be a type of Christ, saying: Who is a figure of him that was to come;70 and in like manner he has called Adam the first man, and Christ the second. Since God threatened the first man with death that very day should he transgress the commandment, and yet when he did transgress did not immediately visit him with death in accordance with the threatening, but was long-suffering towards him, and having disciplined him by means of the law, and cast him out of Paradise, and permitted him to live to a good old age before he died, God showed great forbearance and kindness towards man, particularly in having provided him with clothing, and in that he did not in wrath inflict death upon human nature, but instructed man in prudence and wisdom, and made sin hateful to him, and righteousness the object of his desires. Then, through the guarding of the tree of life, he taught men to love and hope for immortality. Glory to him who from the beginning to the end has bestowed his provident care upon man.
Note.
[210] Any one who so wishes can learn that, in dispensing his lot to the man, God was not actuated by anger, but rather by benevolence and wisdom, and that after his transgression he not only treated him with forbearance, and provided for his wants, but even endowed him with the power of prophecy. For he said concerning his wife: And he called her name Zôè (Life), because she was the mother of all living.71 For he could not possibly have foreseen that he would make the world of men from his wife, had he not been inspired with divine power and grace. And again when Cain had murdered Abel who had not yet begotten |167 offspring, but was still in immature youth, Adam, foreseeing that Cain who survived and his seed would be destroyed by a deluge, named the third son that he begat, Sêth, as if calling him the foundation of the human race----for such is the interpretation of the name Seth. In one and the same prophecy he uttered two, both that the seed of Cain is to perish, and that he who had been begotten is, so to speak, a beginning and a new foundation of the human race. And not only Adam but his wife also herself speaking of her son, gave him his name, for it is of her that it is said: And when she had conceived, she bare a son and called his name Sêth, for, said she, God hath raised me up another seed instead of Abel whom Cain slew;72 implying by this that Abel has died childless, and the seed of Cain is to perish; this hath God given me as a new foundation for the human race. So far Eve.
After the sacred historian had related the birth of Sêth and of his son Enoch he took up again the account of Adam and says: This is the book of the generation of mankind. In the day that God created Adam, in the likeness of God made he him; male and female created he them. And he blessed them and called his name Adam in the day when he created them. And Adam lived 230 years and begat a son in his likeness and after his image, and called his name Sêth.73 In this place likewise he called his name Sêth, as being the foundation of the human race, and as bearing his own characteristics and the proper dignities. And here it must be observed that the historian says that it was God who gave the first man his name, and the man who gave the woman hers, and that they both gave the name to their son. By the merciful dispensation under which man was placed even the unseen powers, endowed as they are with reason, are instructed in the things which pertain to God. For since man is the bond which unites the whole creation, and is also the image of God, the dispensation under which he lives is a school for his own instruction, and for that of all rational beings. For when he had sinned and had received the sentence of death, these other beings began to lament, deeming all hope to be lost both for themselves [211] and for the universe; but when again they saw that God cared for him, they were led to conceive a good hope both for him and |168 for themselves. This, moreover, the Lord declares in the Gospels when he says: There is joy in heaven over one sinner that repenteth,74 as on the other hand it is clear there is sorrow when any one sins. Nay, the Apostle even says that the angels were subjected to be under bondage to vanity on account of man, from a hope that God would also give them deliverance when men should receive the hope laid up for them when installed as the sons of God in glory. . And again the Apostle testifies that the angels are taught the things that pertain to God by the dispensation under which man has been placed, for he says: To the intent that now unto the principalities and the powers in the heavenly places might be made known, through the Church, the manifold wisdom of God:75 thus clearly showing that they are taught through the Church the wisdom of God.
Abel.
This is Abel the righteous, who, having been unrighteously put to death, was the first of all men who showed that the foundations of death were unsound. Wherefore also he being now dead yet speaketh, announcing the resurrection of the dead, which the Lord Christ the first of all, showed in his own person, and overthrew the supposed power of death. This is that Abel who is figuratively a representative of the Passion of Christ, seeing that, through the ill-will excited by his good works, he was unrighteously put to death by his brother. Of him the Apostle Paul also thus speaks in his Epistle to the Hebrews: But ye have come into the Mount Zion and unto the city of the living God, the heavenly Jerusalem, and to innumerable hosts of angels, to the general assembly and Church of the first-born who are enrolled in heaven, and to God the Judge of all, and to the spirits of just men made perfect, and to Jesus the mediator of a new covenant, and to the blood of sprinkling that speaketh better than Abel.76 |169
Note.
Here it is shown more clearly, when the righteous Abel came to his end that death was not brought upon man in anger, since he, who did not sin, died before him who did sin. Wherefore also an inquiry was made by God about the life of Abel, and vengeance was inflicted for his death. And since after his death he speaks, it is from this evident that he will come back again to life. And again, since death was not permitted to come first upon him who had sinned, but upon him who had not sinned, it is shown that death will be destroyed, inasmuch as he made his first assault not righteously but unrighteously----for he laid his [212] foundations upon a righteous man and not upon a sinner, whence we can learn that death laid foundations that were unsound. Wherefore he was very quickly to be destroyed, and this came to pass under the Lord Christ, by whom his seeming power was destroyed. Glory be to him who from the beginning to the end has made the good of man his special care! And again, that death is not sent in anger is shown by this fact, that those who are acknowledged to be righteous come untimely to their end, while those who are acknowledged to be sinners, after fulfilling the number of their days, come to their end in a good old age. For It is appointed by God unto all men once to die,77 as saith the Apostle, speaking of them in general; for neither do all die, nor did Lazarus and others whom the Lord raised die only once, but he refers to all men that are in this state of existence, and are mortal as God created them. Hereafter another and a better state will be introduced in which the righteous shall be discriminated from the unrighteous, the godly from the ungodly----a state wherein death no longer prevails. Some have further said that when the first man had sinned and received the sentence of death without being as yet invested with immortality, his lot was changed to mortality. And by way forsooth of explaining this they say: When God said: In what day thou eatest of the tree, thou shalt surely die,78 he pronounced him to have become mortal, for we sec that he did not die immediately according to the threat, so that it is evident the words hinted this: Immortal though thou art, thou shalt become |170 mortal, and, say they,79 in order that the sentence pronounced by God may be proved true. Wherefore also his offspring, having fallen under the condemnation of their father, are born mortal. Well then, if all this be true, why was Abel, who, according to them, had fallen under this condemnation and was born mortal, but was declared to be righteous and virgin, why was he not only involved in this condemnation, but, as if it had not been sufficient, subjected also to a further punishment, that, namely, of an untimely death? Why was this punishment superadded to him, a righteous man and virgin, and more especially since, though he was born, as it is said, under the condemnation of his father, that is, was born mortal, mortals that are righteous can be exempted from death, as we see exemplified in Enoch, who also, as ye say, had fallen under the condemnation of his father, and had a wife and children, and yet did not taste of death, while Abel did so who had neither wife nor children. And why, when Cain petitioned for death through horror at his fratricide, did God not give it, but rather delivered him over to a still heavier punishment, namely, to remain on the earth lamenting and trembling----an evil from which he said death would be a deliverance? God therefore said: Whosoever slayeth Cain, vengeance shall be taken on him sevenfold,80 thereby signifying that whosoever should slay him would take away from him many penalties, and would [213] himself suffer his punishment. From this also we can see that, since God permitted a man who was righteous and virgin to be slain, death was not brought upon man in anger, as those marvel-mongers represent, but rather in benevolence and wisdom on the part of the merciful God for our discipline, as we have just said. And further, how came it, we ask, that when the first man had sinned by eating the fruit of a single tree, God according to them condemned him with all his posterity to mortality, while, when he had condemned the first murderer to lamentation and trembling, he did not condemn succeeding murderers to the same, but to a different punishment, which the first of such criminals asked to be inflicted on him, but without obtaining what he asked? |171
Enoch.
This is Enoch on whom the sentence of death did not take effect, for he was translated by God that he should not see death, as is recorded in divine scripture, in order that thereby it might be declared to us that death shall not have power over man, but that his power over him shall be dissolved, as was exhibited in the case of the Lord Christ, when his power was entirely broken. This is Enoch who was translated to life, as a proof of the power of God to after generations, a power capable of warding off death from mortals, yea even of permitting them while living to undergo the change to a better state. This is he who along with Elias will in the last days withstand the Antichrist, and refute his error, according to the ecclesiastical tradition. This is he who through faith escaped the way of death.
Note.
In this case also it is shown still more distinctly that death has not been brought on man in wrath, nor even the sentence of death; but in order that, as we have said, God might make sin hateful to him, and righteousness the object of his desire. Wherefore neither the sentence of death, nor death itself has had power over him, nor will have power, for By faith, saith the Apostle, Enoch was translated that he should not see death;81 clearly showing that he did not see death, yea even that while living he underwent the change to a better state, as shall also all those that are left alive at the coming of the Lord, and do not die before the resurrection and the future state. Then further, let those marvel-mongers who say that death is sent to us by the anger of God, and not by his providence and wisdom, tell us how conies it that, while all men ought once to die under the sentence passed upon their father, this man did not incur this penalty?
[Here there is a gap in the text.]
Now the length of the ark was 300 cubits, and its [214] |172 breadth below, as has been said, 50 cubits, and at the top one cubit, for in summing up he saith: Thou shalt make it, and in a cubit shalt thou finish it.1 The height then was 50 cubits. Those 50 cubits he therefore divided into three stories, each of which was 10 cubits in height----for saith he: Of two stories and of three stories shalt thou make it; 82 as if he said, make within two chambers, and above make the third chamber that there may be three stories. And in the lowermost story he placed the wild beasts, and the venomous reptiles, because they were always wont to lurk in dens and holes under the earth. Then next he placed in the second story four-footed animals and those that bounded over the hills, because they lived on the surface of the earth and on the mountains. But the winged creatures and man he placed in the third story, because the former were denizens of the air, and the latter would become celestial. This is Noah who was a perfect man and righteous in his generation, who unwittingly made himself drunk, and when in that state had mysteries revealed to him. For the scripture saith: And Noah awoke from his wine and knew what his younger son had done unto him.83 And after this statement, by way of cursing him, he tells the things to come, and to his other sons, by way of blessing them, he predicts the future and says: Blessed be the Lord, the God of Shem; and again: Let God enlarge Japhet and let him dwell in the homes of Shem;84 for in a manner he did not curse the first, and bless those others, but uttered a prediction of the mysteries to be fulfilled through the Lord Christ. For the sons of Canaan did not serve their brethren, but rather it was the latter who served the former in Egypt. Nor did even the Gideonites, as some have supposed, serve them, but it was God whom they served. For the Israelites |173 appointed the Gibeonites to be bondsmen and carriers of water to the temple of God, and not to themselves. What else then is it but just a prediction that they themselves also shall serve Christ, who according to the flesh was descended from Shem? But the exclamation: Blessed be the Lord, the God of Shem; is it only his God that is blessed? No, for Noah further says: Let God enlarge Japhet and let Him----that is God----dwell in the tents of Shem;85 here making a transposition of the clauses, so that what he says is this: Blessed be the Lord, the God of Shem, and let Him dwell in the tents of Shem, and then: Let God enlarge Japhet, for he did enlarge both Japhet and Canaan, and again both of them serve Christ who sprang from Shem. For God made his dwellings among men partly in the prophets, but has now made them wholly and uninterruptedly and universally in the Lord Christ, who according to the flesh was descended from Shem, in the same way as it is written concerning the Lord Christ according to the flesh: In whom dwelleth all the fulness of the Godhead [215] bodily.86 By these visions therefore Noah was privileged to predict what was fulfilled in the dispensation of the Lord Christ.
Note.
And in the case of this man it is shown still more clearly that it was not in anger that death was brought upon man. For, though on a cursory view all men seemed to have perished in the deluge by the anger of God, yet in truth they so perished that, by their premature death, the burden of the sins which they had to commit might be lightened, and while this man like a jewel of great price was so carefully guarded and in this way provided for, the truth is, as we have said, that death has not been brought upon man in wrath, but for the benefit and discipline and cessation of this miserable life. For Noah himself, whom God so carefully protected and provided for, did not escape the way of |174 death. And those who perished by the death which, as mortals, they would have had to suffer not long afterwards, suffered it as if, through its being premature, it had been sent in anger, whereas it rather benefited them, and relieved them of the burden of the many sins which, if living, they would have added to the account. But to Noah God renewed, and that in even greater measure, the same honour and blessing and promise which he had bestowed on the first man, saying: And the Lord blessed Noah and his sons and said to them: Be fruitful and multiply and replenish the earth; and the fear of you and the dread of you shall be upon every beast of the earth, and upon every fowl of the air, upon all that moveth upon the earth, and upon all the fishes of the sea; into your hands are they delivered. Every moving thing that liveth shall be food for you; as the green herb have I given you all; but flesh with the blood thereof shall ye not eat.87 And a little afterwards: Whoso sheddeth man's blood, by man shall his blood be shed, for in the image of God have I made man.88 Hence it is manifest that God, both before the transgression and long after its occurrence, gave to man the same honour and power and dominion. Nay, he now gave even more, because before the transgression in the garden he commanded the man to eat of every tree except one, and after his expulsion from the garden, he no longer commanded him to eat of the tree but of the seeds (fruits) of the earth. God accordingly, having disciplined those ten generations in the earth beyond (the ocean) which was overrun with thorns, and where he subjected them to an altogether austere and miserable existence, conveyed such of them as survived into this earth by means of Noah, and commanded them to dwell there as in a better country, and one that [216] was nearly equal to Paradise, permitting them to eat of everything----of the fruits of trees and plants and still farther to eat even flesh.
Who is there that, on considering this wonderful providence and care on the part of the wise and compassionate God, would not find great difficulty in asserting that death has been inflicted on man by the anger of God, but would not rather wisely and with thankfulness reflect, that, since God wished to discipline the human race, he wisely brought death upon the first man for his |175 sin, in order that he might make sin hateful to him, and having expelled him from the garden where the tree of life was guarded, again brought him by discipline to entertain a longing after immortality? For when God said: Lest he should put forth his hand and take of the tree of life and eat, and live for ever,89 he inspired man with a longing desire, and a love, and a good hope of immortality, and through him similarly inspired the invisible powers. For he did not exclude man from any of the promises given before the transgression, nor deprive him of them; nay, after having chastised him, he even gave him more, and through Noah augmented the dignity of his title as the image of God, for he said: Because in the image of God made I man.90 For this, therefore, has God made man, that in the present life he should pass his days mortal and mutable, and after his course of discipline here should be rendered immortal. And this again you can more clearly see, because, from the beginning to the end, God gradually has led and is leading man to a better condition by discipline and instruction, while he also imparted to the first men the gift of prophecy. And Noah has some similitude to the Lord Christ according to the flesh. For just as, from out the mass of the first men, he was preserved and transferred to a better earth, in order that men might not suspect that the Lord God, as if repenting and reprobating his own handiwork, had destroyed men with the deluge, so also the Lord Christ according to the flesh was taken out of the mass of men for the salvation of the whole world, and was translated to a better and a heavenly kingdom. ---- Glory to God, Amen!
Melchisedek.
This is Melchisedek ---- that so great priest of God most high, who received tithes from the priests under the Mosaic law. This is the King of peace and righteousness, and at the same time a priest of God most high, who was made like to the Son of God ---- who neither received the priesthood in succession to other priests, nor transmitted it to other priests. This is he who did not perform the rites |176 of divine worship according to the law of Moses, but exercised his priestly office with other and more excellent symbols. This is he who blessed the patriarch Abraham, he who was without father and without mother and did [217] not trace his descent from them; the only person who was priest and king, who was made like to the Son of God, and was held worthy to be the revealer of so many good things.
Note.
After the deluge, when men had again multiplied, he, alone of them all, was by special choice appointed the priest of God most high and king of Jerusalem, after the likeness of the Son of God; and to God he presented sacred offerings, the choicest of all created things by which the human race is always sustained and gladdened, as scripture says. This is the king who habitually instructed the people under his rule to lead a religious life in the enjoyment of these things, whilst officiating himself in the order of his priesthood and making propitiation for his people. Though he was no doubt a Canaanite and king of the Canaanites and not of the race of the patriarchs, yet was he known to the patriarchs of the Abrahamic stock, and being such was declared to be a righteous man, a king, and a priest. He was the first who, when as a priest he had blessed Abraham and had given thanks to God, received tithes of all that Abraham possessed. Now I think, and perhaps shall be saying what is true, that Rebecca when she had gone, as is written, to inquire of the Lord concerning the twins then in her womb, heard through him the response: The elder shall serve the younger 91----for to him as the priest of God was she wont to go, according to the custom of that time, to inquire of the Lord. The Apostle has declared him to be without father, without mother, and without pedigree, and to have neither beginning of days nor end of life, since he was not one of those men who were lineally descended from Abraham. In this respect, however, he had a likeness to the Lord Christ, who was without a father with respect to the flesh, and without a mother with respect to his divine nature, in virtue of which |177 again he had no end of life, while in like manner in his human nature, he became immortal and immutable. God is therefore always reminding men, whether by words or by symbols, that after the life here there is a second state laid up in store for men.
Abraham.
This is the patriarch Abraham, the first of men who left his country, his kindred and his people and put his trust in God, and who for this, and for the promises which God made unto him, was declared righteous. This is he who from a body as good as dead and a womb also dead, produced myriads of men----who, as its root, produced for the world the blessed fruit by which the world is blessed and renovated; who by his works and the promises made to him revealed to the world the resurrection of the dead---- [218] by promises and works [such as are mentioned in the following passages]: Gen. xxviii, 14; Gal. iii, 16; John viii, 56; Heb. xi, 17-19; Rom. iv, 17-25. Now the journey which Abraham made for three days until he reached the place which God showed him as that where he should offer up his son as a sacrifice on one of the mountains, as is written, and his showing the father a ram which he might offer instead of his son who was born to him in wedlock and in the course of nature----these were all symbols and types of the mystery of the Passion and Resurrection of Christ, for all scripture keeps this object in view.
Note.
Henceforth God begins with Abraham first to reveal both by words and by signs the future state of existence, for the great Abraham at the bidding of God meditated offering up his beloved son, in the belief that God was able to raise him up from the dead, and to bestow such boons upon him as are intimated in scripture. Wherefore also in the Gospels the Lord mentions the typical bearing of the sacrifice of Abraham, when he called it a type of his own day. And through the promises he showed it to [219] Abraham himself, saying: In thee and in thy seed shall all the |178 nations be blessed;92 a promise which showed to him the dispensation according to Christ. Moreover, since God foresaw and from Abraham knew that He would come forth through whom the resurrection and the renovation of the universe are effected, He chose the faithful Abraham whom He had proved by every test, so that he was not chosen prematurely ; and having found him the most faithful among the Chaldaeans, a people versed in astronomy and astrology, he transferred him to the enchanters called Karênoi,93 and having there shown himself faithful, he was commanded to inhabit the land of the idolatrous [Canaanites]. And since, while he dwelt there he was found to be superior to its inhabitants, and did not incline to any of the three ways that have been mentioned,94 but rather submitted himself to the worship and to the commandments of God, he was thought worthy to receive the great promises and gifts of God, and to hear it said that from his seed should He come forth, who should first show to the world the blessing and the promise through him; He through whom also the creator and renewer of the world graciously bestows upon the world the resurrection and the promise. And they say that Abraham made the sacrifice of Isaac on that very mountain, where also the Lord Christ was offered up as a sacrifice for the whole world, and where he endured the saving cross.
Isaac.
This is Isaac the co-heir of the promises and the blessings of God given to Abraham his father----who was a type of the sacrifice of the Lord Christ, since for three days he travelled on to death, and afterwards returned alive----who on his own shoulders carried the wood for his own sacrifice, as also the Lord Christ carried his own cross on his shoulder----who died in intention and was given his life by God ; he in exchange for whom a ram was slain, and whose father heard these words from God: |179
Because thou hast not spared the son whom thou lovest,95 so in like manner it has been said with reference to Christ the son of God: Who spared not his own son but has given him up for us all;96 although the flesh alone is that which has been given for the life of the world, since it is impossible for deity to die; but since the flesh has thus been given, scripture saith that his own son hath been given, because the flesh is a substitute for and a counterpart97 of the son, after the example of the blessed Isaac. For thus saith the Lord: Abraham rejoiced to see my day, and he saw it, and was glad.98 This is Isaac who involuntarily transmitted to Jacob the blessing promised by God [220] to himself and his father, saying: Let peoples serve thee, and let their princes bow down to thee, and be thou Lord over thy brethren, and let thy father s sons bow down to thee; cursed be every one that curseth thee, and blessed be every one that blesseth thee.99 But we see not all these things accomplished upon Jacob, but see rather that Jacob, having prostrated himself seven times upon the ground, made obeisance to Esau. And thirty kings, sprung from Esau, reigned before ever a king reigned in Israel; so that these blessings await Him who was expected to descend from them, namely, the Lord Christ, whom the whole scope of divine scripture has in view.
And this man who was co-heir of the gifts and promises of Christ, and a type of the Lord Christ himself, was he who transmitted the blessing, which he himself had received from his father, not to the son whom he wished to inherit it, but to him to whom God ordained it should be given. Glory to our God who in supreme wisdom administers the affairs of men, Amen! |180
Jacob.
This is Jacob, himself also a co-heir of the promises of God, and one who looked for the city which hath the foundations, whose builder and maker is God----that is, the heavenly Jerusalem, into which, as our forerunner, Christ has entered----and to which state of existence the whole scheme of Christian worship looks, which new and living way the Lord Christ first of all instituted for us, which also the great Jacob predicts in transmitting it to Judah his own son, when he was blessing him; by whom also Jesus Christ is announced as the Lord of the promises in these words which he spake: Judah, thee shall thy brethren praise: Thy hand shall be on the neck of thine enemies; thy father's sons shall bow down before thee; Judah is a lion's whelp; from the branch,100 my son, hast thou ascended, he stooped down, he couched as a lion, and as a lions whelp; who shall rouse him up? A ruler shall not fail from Judah nor a leader from his thighs until what is laid up in store for him shall come, and he the expectation of the nations. Binding his foal unto the vines, and to the tendril of the vine his ass's colt. He shall wash his garment in wine, and his vesture in the blood of the grape. Wine shall make his eyes sparkle with joy, and his teeth shall be whiter than milk.101 But the sons of his father did not bow down before him, nay, on the contrary he made obeisance to Joseph, even after the death of his father. It is evident therefore that the whole of this prophecy had its fulfilment in the Lord Christ who descended from him according to the flesh, and that it sets before the mind his kingly power, and his Passion, and his blessed Resurrection after his Passion. |181
Note.
And this Jacob, who is the third patriarch, being reckoned [221] with the other two, married a wife whom he did not from the first himself wish to marry, namely Leah; and on the fourth son whom he begat by her, that is, on Judah, he conferred the blessings and the promises; so that from this it is manifest, that the blessing did not accrue to any chance person but to those from whom the Lord Christ according to the flesh, the Prince of the second life, was to spring. And from Judah himself we can learn, that it was not from his own wife, but from his daughter-in-law Thamar that the line of descent of his posterity, from which sprang the Lord of the promises, was reckoned. Most clearly still, when the patriarchs had received such great promises from God, namely, that in them and in their seed all the nations should be blessed, and this promise in like manner: Unto you I will give this land, and unto your seed,102 and when they had received not so much of it as they could set their foot on, but dwelt in tents, they, being full of faith, showed themselves to be expecting and hoping for another dispensation in which they would receive the promises. Wherefore also each one of them in his dying moments transmitted the blessing to him whom God had ordained to receive it. Wherefore also again scripture, laying up, as it were, the fathers in a treasure-house, says with reference to each of them: And he was gathered unto his fathers, meaning that all of them together being treasured up for the future state, will receive possession thereof.
Moses.
This is that great Moses by whom marvellous signs and wonders were wrought, and by whom the history of the Creation was written; he, who was honoured to receive the shadows 103 of our true shepherd Christ; who by words and deeds announced beforehand the nature of the dispensation of the Lord Christ; by deeds, as, for instance, by redeeming Israel from the bondage of the Egyptians---- |182 by instituting the Passover and the shedding of blood----by making the passage through the sea, as in baptism----by foretelling through the cloud the setting of the law 104----by pre-figuring under his sojourning 105 in the wilderness, our abiding in the Holy Spirit and in the Church; by his predicting the Passion of the Lord Christ on the cross, by lifting up on high the brazen serpent; by his describing beforehand the habitation in the heavens, when he procured an entrance into the land of promise by Joshua. O wondrous office of Mediator! by manifold miracles announced! And what need is there to speak of the Tabernacle which was an image of the whole world, in which was placed the mercy-seat, holding the office of the Lord Christ? But that we may not lengthen out the [223] discourse, having before repeatedly said these things, let us come to the prophecy itself which was expressed by words----so then, he speaks thus: A prophet shall the Lord your God raise up unto you----him ye shall hear. And that man 106 who shall not hear what ever that prophet shall speak in my name, that soul shall be cut off from his people. 107 And again he records what was spoken by Balaam: A star shall arise out of Jacob, there shall be raised up a man out of Israel----and he shall smite the princes of Moab----and destroy all the sons of Seth.108 By the sons of Sêth he means the whole world. And this is not applicable to anyone except |183 the Lord Christ, for Sêth is by interpretation a foundation Since therefore Cain and his seed perished utterly in the deluge, while Abel the younger died childless, Sêth was posterior to these, from whom both Noah and all the world are descended, and who is thus a foundation as it were of mankind. Moreover for this reason Adam, inspired by the deity, addressed him by the name of Sêth, that is, foundation; and therefore he said: And he will subdue all the sons of Seth, that is, the whole world. Now this is applicable to Christ, and to Him alone, whom all scripture ever keeps in view.109
Note.
This Moses, who was a comely man bom for God,110 was brought up in the royal court of Egypt and instructed in all the wisdom of the Egyptians; and in after days, having been taken up to Mount Sinai, he was taught also the wisdom of God, and was sent back to Egypt in the character of a type of him who redeems the world from bondage, and graciously bestows freedom and adoption into sonship. For he redeemed the Israelites from their bondage to the Egyptians, having prescribed beforehand the shedding of blood and the Passover. Having led the people through the Red Sea, he thus prefigured baptism. By the giving of the law he foreshowed the descent of the Holy Spirit. By the sojourn in the wilderness, he signified beforehand the discipline of the Church. By the entrance into the land of promise, effected by his successor, he foretold the dwelling-place of heaven. By the glory wherewith God made his face to shine, he foreshadowed in part the future glories.111 It was. however, not only by types that he prophesied concerning the mystery as to Christ, but he did so also by words: and again he was the first who communicated to mankind and to the world the |184 knowledge of letters and the practice of writing. Having seen the creation of the whole world, and the delineation of it revealed to him in mysteries, he committed what he had seen to writing, and showed the types of the first and of the second state of existence. Glory be to him who, through those whom he has reared up, has wisely provided for the interests of mankind.
Text.
[223] After Moses and his successor Joshua the son of Nun, and after those who became Judges in Israel, and after Saul had been invested with the sovereignty and been rejected as unworthy, God raised up to them a King virtuous, righteous, and a prophet, who composed the book of 150 psalms, when moved by the Holy Spirit. These psalms were written metrically in accordance with the metre proper to the Hebrew language, and he chanted them with melody and rhythm, accompanied with the music of different instruments, and with dances and melodies. For he himself handled the harp, and he had under him a number of choirs of the minor prophets, for so they called those who attached themselves to the prophets, and who were also frequently designated the sons of the prophets. The instruments upon which they played were various: one part of the choir had cymbals, another flutes, another drums, another trumpets, another a psaltery and harp, while another played on what are called shepherd's pipes.112 Each of the choirs had its leader;113 one was called Asaph, another Idithum, others the sons of Core, another Aetham an Israelite, another Moses, a man of God.114 When David therefore was moved by the Spirit, he would then predict something as to the captivity |185 of the people, or as to their return therefrom----or he would inculcate lessons of morality, or take Providence for his theme, or the Lord Christ Each psalm he composed in metre----and it turned upon a single subject----on which account some psalms are short and others long. On composing a psalm he would hand it over to one of the choirs which he had proved, or to the one which it fitted best, and that choir sang it first. And if again in the middle of a psalm he considered that he should make over the rest of the psalm to another choir, then that succession of the measure was called a diapsalma;115 because those singers received in succession the rest of the psalm to be sung by them. But any one who so wishes can learn about this from what is written in the Chronicles of the Kings, namely: And he sung this song by the hand of Asaph the prophet.116 But when the psalm had first been handed over in the manner stated, then each choir afterwards, both by itself and in conjunction with all the other choirs in responsive, joyous, and measured strains, some with these instruments and others with those, sang the psalm, along with dancing to the glory of God. But again we can learn with regard to this matter that David himself, when he had received the Ark from aliens, danced before it, and when reproached for so doing by his wife Melchol (Michal), said: I will play and laugh for gladness before the [224] Lord.117 For not only did he not cease doing so, but promised that he would long persist in the practice. But some, neither understanding this ordinance and the real truth of the matter, nor wishing to be instructed by those who know, have betaken themselves to allegorical interpretations, and have maintained that all the psalms are not David's, but allege that they are manifestly the |186 compositions of those who received them from David to be sung. But never did either the Apostle or the Lord himself mention them as being the psalms of any other than David.
David.
This is that great David, the King and prophet----the man after the Lord's own heart, to whom, as to Abraham, God again correspondently gave the promises that his seed should remain for ever, and that the throne of his kingdom should likewise be perpetual. For when Abraham, having left his country and his kindred, trusted God, God correspondently promised that he would make him the father of nations, and that he would bless all the nations through him and through his seed, that is, through Christ. And to David also, since he was a king, and one with whom He was well pleased, He promised that both his seed and the throne of his kingdom should remain in perpetuity----and here again Christ is meant. This David was privileged to prophesy under inspiration of the Spirit concerning the Lord Christ, having composed four psalms which refer entirely to him, namely, psalms ii, viii, xlv and cx.118 I say so because both the Lord Christ and the Apostles appear to have taken testimonies concerning him from these four psalms; as for instance, it is related in the Acts of the Apostles that, when the whole company of the Apostles were praying to God, they said: For of a truth against Jesus whom thou hast anointed both Herod and Pontius Pilate have been gathered together in this city;119 accepting the second psalm as having reference to Christ. In like manner in the Acts themselves, Paul when he was discoursing in the synagogue of Antioch in Pisidia spoke thus: And we bring you good tidings of the promise made unto the fathers, |187 how that God hath fulfilled the same unto us their children in that he raised up Jesus, as it is also written in the second psalm, Thou art my son, this day have I begotten thee.120 Paul here, by Christ's having been begotten, understands his resurrection, and he too has decided that the second psalm has been spoken concerning him, as all the Apostles also have affirmed. And these things have been said about his humanity, for it is about his deity that in this very psalm it has been said: Thou shalt rule them with a rod of iron; as a potters vessel shalt thou dash them in pieces;121 as if at the same time making known the force and might of his divinity, and indicating the renovation or regeneration of the human race----for the potter's vessel, though dashed to pieces, provided it has not as yet been subjected to the furnace, admits of being refashioned.
In like manner also David composed the eighth psalm [225] with reference to Christ, speaking of his divine nature in the first verses of it, as the Lord Christ himself also testifies of it in the Gospel, when they strewed his way with branches and praised him with shouts of welcome, saying: Hosanna to the son of David! Blessed is he that cometh in the name of the Lord!122 And when the Jews, finding themselves powerless to rebuke the multitudes and the children, (for it was a marvellous spectacle----to see boys, babes and sucklings, and the disciples and the multitudes joining in shouts of applause, and with loud voices praising him in song), took in hand to throw questions at him, and said to him: Hearest thou not what these are saying?123 But another evangelist says: Some from among the crowd said to him: Rebuke thy disciples;124 as if they would say----Why dost thou blaspheme, accepting a hymn which can be suitably applied to God alone? each of the parties who |188 addressed him having the same purpose in view. Unto them the Lord said----to the one party: Yea, have ye never read; Out of the mouth of babes and sucklings thou hast ordained praise?125 clearly indicating that the eighth psalm had reference to him; and at the same time obscurely hinting that he did not take by robbery the things which belonged to God, since he was God; as the Apostle also declares: He counted it no robbery to be on an equality with God, but emptied himself, taking the form of a servant;126 to the other party he said: Why do ye wonder at the children and the disciples? If these should hold their peace the stones will cry out.127 But these men, knowing it had so been written, and seeing in very deed babes and sucklings in an astonishing manner with loud voices chanting the hymn, they reflected that if he could make babes beyond their natural capacity sing the hymn with loud voices, he could also make inanimate things cry out ----and thus reflecting, they for very shame put a bridle on their tongues. O how amazing the power of the Lord Christ! O how amazing his loving-kindness! O how amazing his merciful condescension! How by his teaching regarding the form of a servant which he took upon him, did he deign to show mildly glimpses of his divinity, to receive accusations preferred against him by his own creatures, and to answer them, not with anger but with mildness and forbearance? O the excess of his long-suffering! as David was privileged still further to make such prophecies, for he speaks also concerning his human nature in the same psalm from the passage: What is man that thou art mindful of him?128 on to the end, unto which the divine Apostle Paul bears witness in [226] the following passages: Heb. ii, 9; ii, 5; ii, 6-8; Acts xvii, 30, 31; as does also Peter in Acts x, 42. |189
In like manner David again spake of him in the forty-second psalm (our 43rd) in which we again find him speaking both of his divine and his human nature. To whom again the blessed Paul in his Epistle to the Hebrews bears witness in these words: And of the Son he saith, thy throne, O God! is for ever and ever; the sceptre of uprightness is the sceptre of thy kingdom.129 Having said this concerning his divinity, he forthwith speaks of his humanity and says: Thou hast loved righteousness and hated iniquity, wherefore God, even thy God, hath anointed thee with the oil of gladness above thy fellows.130 For it is not his divinity which is anointed on account of his loving righteousness and hating iniquity, nor is it in any case anointed, nor has it another God [for fellow], for God exists by himself. But it is his humanity which is anointed with the oil of gladness (by which is meant, with the Holy Spirit) above its fellows----that is, above all the anointed. For his divinity has no other fellow, for God is one, the Father and the Son and the Holy Ghost, but the humanity of Christ has for its fellows all men, especially those who have been anointed. For by reason that the humanity of Christ was anointed above all others, since it was anointed with the Holy Spirit and with power, a distinction accorded to none of the others who were anointed, he used the words: Above all thy fellows. The whole psalm, moreover, he wrote with reference to Christ and the Church, speaking of the one as a royal bridegroom and of the other as a royal bride.
And in like manner also he uttered the 109th psalm (our 110th) with reference "to him, as the Lord himself testified when he addressed the Jews in these words: How then does David in the spirit call him Lord, saying: The Lord |190 said unto my Lord, sit thou on my right hand till I put thy enemies underneath thy feet; if David then calleth him Lord, how is he his son?131 The expression, his Lord, clearly indicates that he was God, and that other, sit thou at my right hand, is clearly suited to his humanity. For, the word sit he said to him who was not sitting. But Deity is established in its own blessedness, and honour and glory, and is neither conceded by one who is greater to one who [227] is less, nor is one who is less invited to assume it. But the humanity of Christ is, by the Deity which is inseparably united, invited132 in the words: Sit thou at my right hand, that is, in my dignity----for God being uncircum-scribed has neither right hand nor left. But he says this to his humanity, sit in my dignity----that is, in my person, as the image of God, shown to all the world. For thus also Daniel speaks: And there was given to him a kingdom and dominion,133 et cetera; and the Lord himself says: There hath been given to me power in heaven and on earth.134 Farther down again in the same psalm he saith with reference to his deity: Out of the womb before morning have I begotten thee, as if the Father were saying to the Son, with reference to his deity, Thee before all creation have I brought forth from the womb (thus showing him to be con-substantial) and not afterwards, but having thee in myself without beginning and without limit, as if from the womb, from my own substance have I begotten thee, being with me and co-existing with me. Then immediately again with reference to his humanity he says: The Lord hath sworn and will not repent, Thou art a priest for ever after the order of Melchisedec;135 for deity does not exercise the priestly office or render worship, but is rather itself |191 worshipped and the recipient of sacred services. The Apostle also mentions this passage, saying in the Epistle to the Hebrews: Even as Aaron, so Christ also glorified not himself to be made a high priest, but he that spake unto him, Thou art my son, this day have I begotten thee; as he saith also in another place, Thou art a priest for ever after the order of Melchisedec;136 thus extracting all that referred to the humanity of Christ.
Thus then the blessed David spoke these four psalms with reference to the Lord Christ and to him alone, for he did not confound the things of the Lord Christ with those of servants, but he spake of the things which properly belong to the Lord as the Lord's, and of the things of servants as those of servants. But whatever other passages the Apostles quoted from the psalms, they did not extract them because they were specially spoken of him, but because they suited their argument. For example: They parted my garments among them,137 and again: They gave me gall for my meat,138 and: I have set the Lord always before me,139 and: Thou hast ascended on high leading captivity captive;140 and other such like passages they extracted, when they suited the argument they had in hand. The blessed Paul in like manner did this, transferring the passage of Moses in Deuteronomy to his own argument which it suited: Say not in thy heart, Who shall ascend into heaven? (that is, to bring Christ down) or, Who shall descend into the abyss? (that is, to bring Christ up from the dead),141 thus accommodating the passage to suit the requirements of his argument. For the remaining parts of the psalms from which they [228] quoted are not applicable to the Lord Christ. For instance, the passage: They parted my garments among them, occurs |192 in the 21st (our 22nd) psalm. Is that psalm then speaking of him where it says: Far from my safety, the words of my transgressions? 142 No----that is out of harmony and at variance with divine scripture, and to cite such a passage as referring to Christ would be clear madness. As regards however those four psalms which speak concerning the Lord Christ, each of them is entirely throughout applicable to Him. For, as we have just observed, the blessed David discriminated what was said with reference to the Lord Christ from what was said with reference to any one else. For even the Saviour himself manifestly did this when the Jews accused him, saying: Why workest thou on the Sabbath day? and he replied to them saying: My Father worketh even until now.143 And when they accused his disciples, he said: Know ye not what David did when he was an-hungered and they that were with him, how he entered into the house of God and did eat the shew-bread, which it ivas not lawful for him to eat nor for those who were with him, but for the priests alone?144 thus expressly contradistinguishing145 himself from the Father, as a son relatively to his father, and his disciples from the prophets, or, at any rate, the priests, as servants relatively to servants. When the Lord was transfigured on the mountain before Peter and James and John in great glory, and Moses and Elias talked with Him, the disciples, witnessing the exceeding glory, were thrown into amazement and rapturous delight, and desire and ardent longing |193 for that wondrous beauty. But Peter, after a manner identifying himself with the others in their common astonishment at the spectacle, answered and said to Jesus: Lord, it is good for us to be here,146 as if he said, Lo! beautiful is the sight, and the place, the splendour and the transcendent glory. Wherefore should we go down hence, putting ourselves again into the hands of those who wish to plot against us and to oppress us, while we have to remove from place to place, and are persecuted? If thou wishest therefore, let us make here three tabernacles, one for thee, and one for Moses, and one for Elias.146 And because Peter considered Moses and Elias to be equal in honour to the Lord, seeing that with reference to their equality he reckoned the number of the tabernacles, assigning one to each, the evangelist Luke notes this and in these terms: Not knowing what he said,147 that is, Peter not knowing what he said with reference to the Lord. Straightway moreover a cloud overshadowed them, and separated Moses and Elias from them and hid them from the disciples, and as for Jesus, who was left alone in the midst, the Father pointed out and showed him to the disciples saying: This is my son in whom I am well pleased, hear ye Him.148 Ye are mistaken, he says, in putting Him on an equality with the others, for He is my Son. They, like yourselves, are servants. Him therefore as Lord and as my Son, hear [229] ye in all things.
Thus then the prophet David also, being moved by the Holy Ghost, did not indiscriminately confound what had an underlying reference to the Lord with what had an underlying reference to servants, but those four psalms which had a special reference to the Lord he was privileged to compose with prophetic foresight; while all the other psalms he gave out to the whole world for useful |194 instruction with regard to other persons or things or histories, in order that they might be held fast and well remembered by all as calculated to delight. And this is abundantly clear that, in all the churches of the world, we shall find that the Psalms of David are sung, and that they are on the lips of nearly all men, whether small or great, and are more studied and remembered than the other prophets and scriptures. But bringing this subject also to an end, let us pass on to the great Elias and supply a worthy delineation of him also. Here then you see him thus delineated.
Elijah.
This is Elijah the first of men who showed to men the path to heaven----the first of men who showed to angels and to men the one way----who though his lot was to be an inhabitant of earth, all at once penetrated into heaven----who though a mortal yet vies even with the immortals----who walked upon the earth, and yet, as a spirit, treads with the angels the paths of heaven; who with his mantle of sheep-skin imparted to his disciple Elisha a double share of his own gifts----a man who has lived for ages and is from old age exempt----who is reserved to be leader against Antichrist, standing up against him and convicting him of deception and overweening pride----who from the error into which he has seduced them, leads back all men to God at the consummation of the age. This is he who is deemed worthy to be the fore-runner of the second and glorious advent of the Lord Christ. O the wondrous measure of his services, in which he competes with the angels! Glory to God who graciously bestows these gifts upon men. Amen! |195
Note.
This is the great Elijah, who having been taken up as into heaven shows to men and angels how highly human nature has been honoured, and by means of him God has again laid the foundations of a good hope, that it is possible for men, if God will, to ascend into heaven. For it is a great and wondrous thing to see this man, bridle in hand, riding his fiery chariot as he sweeps the fields of air. Oh! what wondrous kindness on his [230] part who has bestowed the honour. Let those be ashamed of themselves who do not extol the mighty dispensation of God----who do not praise and admire how wisely and how dispassionately God, on the one hand, awards to men their punishments, and on the other, preserves the honour of man who was made in his image. Glory and nraise to him for ever and ever, Amen!
The Prophet Hosea.
This is Hosea, the first of the twelve prophets who was privileged to speak concerning the Lord Christ in these terms: When they are afflicted, let them rise early to seek me saying, Come and let us return unto the Lord our God, for he hath smitten us and he will heal us; he that hath struck us will bind us up. After two days will he heal us. On the third day we shall be raised up again and we shall live! 149 With reference to this passage the Apostle Paul says to the Corinthians: For I delivered unto you first of all that which also I received, how that Christ died for our sins according to the scriptures.150 For that he was buried, and that he was raised up on the third day according to the scriptures, is not to be found anywhere else. The prophet still further says what is applicable to Christ: My flesh is of them; and again he says: Ephraim compasseth me about with falsehood, and the house of Israel and Judah with ungodliness. Now God knoweth them, and there shall be called a holy people of God, from the tribe,151 |196 through him who appeared out of it, namely, the Lord Christ according to the flesh----the prophet calling Judah the holy people of God. Yet again the same prophet says: From the power of the grave will I ransom them. Where is thy victory, O death! Where is thy sting, O grave!152----a passage which the Apostle has used concerning the resurrection.
Note.
This prophet also clearly predicted the resurrection on the third day, saying: On the third day we shall rise up. In like manner also he foretold the destruction of death and the vengeance upon the sting of the grave. How should we not be lost in astonishment at the ineffable benevolence of God, which is at all times making provision for the human race. Glory to him for his unspeakable gift!
The Prophet Joel.
This is Joel the second in order who was privileged to prophesy concerning the mystery of the Lord Christ, for he speaks thus (chap. ii, 28-32): And it shall come to pass afterward that I will pour out my spirit upon all flesh; and your sons and your daughters shall prophesy, your old men shall dream dreams, your young men shall see visions; [231] and also upon the servants and upon the handmaids in those days will I pour out my spirit. A nd I will show wonders in the heavens and in the earth, blood and fire, and pillars of smoke. The sun shall be turned into darkness, and the moon into blood, before the great and terrible day of the Lord come. And it shall come to pass that whosoever shall call on the name of the Lord shall be delivered-----a passage which the blessed Peter mentions in the Acts of the Apostles as having been fulfilled when the descent of the Holy Spirit upon the Apostles occurred on the day of Pentecost. |197
Note.
This prophet also foretold the wonderful things that took place in the time of the Lord Christ through the Holy Ghost, such as prophesyings, dreams and visions under his influence; likewise the day of the great, terrible, and glorious advent of the Lord Christ. For examples we may point to the revelations made, in different ways, to Joseph and to the Wise Men in sleep, as the Gospels relate; and to the revelation made by the Holy Ghost through visions to Symeon (Simeon) who took up the Lord Christ in his arms. Anna again the daughter of Phanuel gave thanks to the Lord because of him. There were also those who prophesied, such as Agabus and the daughters of Philip. Arid the women who were at the Passion of the Lord saw visions of angels, as did also the disciples. And why need I speak of the descent of the Holy Ghost upon the Apostles; yea, even upon Cornelius and upon all the faithful of whom the Apostle writes (I Cor. xii, 8-14): For to one is given the word of wisdom; to another faith in the same spirit; to another gifts of healings in the same spirit; to another workings of miracles; to another prophecy, and to another discernings of spirits, and to another divers kinds of tongues, and to another interpretation of tongues; but all these worketh the one and the same spirit, dividing to each one severally even as he will! Glory to God who through all the prophets foretold these things, glory for ever and ever, Amen.
The Prophet Amos.
This is Amos the third in order, who also was privileged to tell of the coming of the Lord Christ and in these words: Lo! I am he that confirms the thunder and that creates the wind and that announces to men his Anointed.153 And again he says (ix, 11, 12): In that day will I raise up the tabernacle of David that is fallen and close up the breaches thereof; and I will raise up his ruins, and I will build it as in the days of old, that the rest of men and all the nations may enquire who have been called by my name, saith the Lord |198 who doeth these things. A passage of which James the Apostle makes mention in the Acts of the Apostles.
Note.
[232] This Prophet, in agreement with the first, announces Christ, through whom the salvation of the whole world is effected. And through him God promises that he will raise up again the Tabernacle of David which had fallen, and will extend help to all the nations. And these are the same tidings which all the prophets proclaim.
The Prophet Obadiah.
This is Obadiah (Abdiou) the fourth in order, who also was privileged to prophesy concerning the mystery regarding Christ, and who speaks thus: Because the day of the Lord is near upon all the nations.154 This taken in its obvious meaning is spoken of the Scythians, that is, of Gog and Magog, but it is most properly applicable to the Lord Christ, for the prophet shortly afterwards says: But on Mount Zion there shall be salvation.155
Note.
This prophet also again clearly proclaims that the day of Salvation in Zion is near at hand and upon all the nations. Glory to God evermore. Amen!
The Prophet Jonah.
This is Jonah the fifth in order, who not by words, but by what he did and by what he typified, predicted the resurrection of Christ. For the Lord says: as Jonah was three days and three nights in the belly of the whale, so shall the Son of Man be three days and three nights in the heart of the earth.156 For as the whale vomited out Jonah uncorrupted, so also did the sepulchre vomit out the Lord to a better life. |199
Note.
This prophet prefigured through his actions the sepulchre and the miraculous resurrection and incorruption of Christ, through whom is dispensed the renovation of man and his summing up in him. Glory to God who doeth these things. Amen!
The Prophet Isaiah.
This is the great Isaiah the son of Amos, who in a figure foresaw the things concerning the mystery of Christ, when he saw the Lord sitting on a throne high and lifted up, while the Seraphim stood in a circle around him, the one having six wings, and the other six wings, with which they did cover themselves, and the one cried out to the other and said: Holy, holy, holy Lord of Sabaoth! the whole earth is full of his glory.157 Thereupon one of the Seraphim [233] was sent to him who with the tongs took [a live coal] from the altar, and touched his lips saying: This will take away thy sins.158 Isaiah by the vision which was shown to him, and by the hymn of praise, and by the figure was instructed to prophesy the mystery concerning Christ, and further again in words he thus speaks: He was led as a sheep to the slaughter, and as a lamb before the shearer, so was he dumb.159 The Ethiopian eunuch on reading this passage asked Philip to interpret it to him, and he at once explained that it was spoken by the Prophet with reference to the Lord Christ. And again he says: A man who is under chastisement and knows what it is to bear sickness;160 and so in other passages----Isaiah liii. 9-11; xxviii. 16; lxi. 10; and in lxi., 1; The spirit of'the Lord is upon me----a passage which the Lord having read in the synagogue on the Sabbath said: Verily I say unto you, to-day is this scripture fulfilled in your ears.161 |200
Note 1.
Isaiah, that prophet of sublimest strain,162 by his words and visions proclaimed beforehand to men the confession even of the Holy Trinity, that is, of the one God, and the resurrection of human nature which the Church of God also now proclaims. Glory to God who wisely dispenses all things for the good of the human race!
Note 2.
But he too did not prophesy things strange and unusual, but like the other prophets predicted the things that would be through Christ, and among them again that great day of the Lord on which he would send the Prophet Elijah still surviving. Glory to God who created all things and again created them anew!
The Prophet Micah.
This is Micah the seventh in order, who also was privileged to prophesy concerning the coming of the Lord Christ, and he says: And thou Bethlehem, the house of Ephratha, art the least to be among the thousands of Judah. From thee, there shall come forth to me one who shall be for a ruler over Israel, whose goings forth have been of [234] old from everlasting.163 The chief priests and scribes of the Jews, taking this passage, when Herod asked them where the Christ should be born, replied, In Bethlehem of Judaea, upon which he sent the Wise Men away to Bethlehem. This prophet further says: He will turn again and have compassion upon us; he will tread our iniquities under foot, and all our sins shall be cast into the depths of the sea. He will perform the truth to Jacob and the mercy to Abraham, as he hath sworn unto our fathers from the days of old.164
Note.
This prophet also in harmony with the others, predicts that he who was raised up from of old to be a ruler over Israel should |201 come out of Bethlehem and Judah, he through whom absolution is given to the world, the taking away of our sins and conducting us into the better state. Glory to God who all things dispenses wisely and foretells the things which concern man!
The Prophet Nahum.
This is Nahum the eighth in order who was also privileged to prophesy concerning the resurrection of the Lord Christ, and he says: Feast, O Judah, keep thy feasts, perform thy vows, for they shall add to pass through thee no more.165 It has been consummated, it has been taken away. He went up breathing upon thy face, delivering thee from affliction.166
Note.
See how this prophet also exhorts us to rejoice over the resurrection of Christ and over our own, showing beforehand that we shall never grow old, proclaiming, that is, our incorruption and our immortality. Glory to God, Amen!
The Prophet Habakkuk.
This is Habakkuk the ninth in order, who was also privileged to speak concerning the resurrection of Christ in these terms: Behold, ye despisers, and regard, and wonder marvellously, and vanish for ever, because I work a work in your days which ye will not believe though it be told you.167 This passage Paul cited at Antioch of Pisidia as having reference to the resurrection of the Lord Christ.
Note.
In like manner also this prophet is commanded to predict marvellous and incredible things to men, and especially to despisers, things namely concerning the resurrection. Glory to God, Amen! |202
The Prophet Jeremiah.
[235] This is Jeremiah the tenth in order, who was also privileged to prophesy concerning the mystery respecting Christ, saying thus: And they took the thirty pieces of silver, the price of him that was priced, whom certain of the sons of Israel did price, and they gave them for the potter s field as the Lord appointed me.168 The evangelist Matthew mentions this passage as having been fulfilled at the time of the passion. The same prophet again says: Lo! the days are coming, saith the Lord, and I shall make a new covenant with the house of Israel and with the house of Judah.169 etc. This passage is cited by the Apostle in the Epistle to the Romans.
Note
This prophet in like manner predicts things which have reference to the Lord Christ who is the Prince of the second dispensation----for he describes in the clearest manner the first and second dispensation, the second whereof had its beginning in the Lord Christ. Glory to Cod for ever, Amen!
The Prophet Saphonias (Zephaniah).
This is Zephaniah the eleventh in order who was also privileged to prophesy concerning the Lord Christ, and he speaks thus: The Lord will come suddenly upon them, and will utterly destroy all the gods of the nations of the earth, and men shall worship him, every one from his place, even all the isles of the nations!170 From beyond the rivers of Ethiopia shall they bring offering to me;171 and again: Rejoice greatly, O daughter of Sion; shout, O daughter of Jerusalem; be glad and rejoice with all the heart, O daughter of Jerusalem; the Lord hath taken away thine |203 iniquities. The King of Israel, even the Lord, is in the midst of thee; thou shalt not see evil any more.172 All things are more especially applicable to the Lord Christ.
Note.
This prophet most plainly points to the manifestation of the [236] Lord, to the destruction of idols, and the conversion of the nations to God through the Lord Christ. Glory be to God for ever, Amen!
The Prophet Ezekiel.
This is Ezekiel who prophesied in Babylon, and who was also privileged to predict concerning the dispensation of Christ, and he says: I will redeem them from all their transgression, wherewith they have sinned, and I will purify them, and they shall be to me a people, and I the Lord will be their God. And my servant David shall be ruler in the midst of them, he alone shall be the shepherd of them all, because they shall walk in my precepts;173 and again: And he said unto me, This water, issuing forth into Galilee which lies towards the East, was going down into Arabia and came even to the sea, to the water at the outlet,174 and it shall heal the waters. And it shall come to pass that every living creature which swarmeth in every place whither the river comes shall live.175
Note.
This prophet, like the others, under a figure foreshows the great founder and ruler of our second state, and foreshows also its constitution. Glory to God for the wisdom of all his dispensations, Amen! |204
The Prophet Daniel.
This is Daniel who prophesied in Babylon and who was also privileged to utter predictions concerning the Lord Christ, and he speaks thus: And thou shalt know and discern that from the going forth of the commandment to the response and the building of Jerusalem, until the anointed one a prince, shall be seven weeks and three score and two weeks,176 and so forth. And again: A stone was cut without hands, and it brake in pieces the clay, the iron, the brass, the silver and the gold, and it filled the whole earth;177 and again: Behold one like unto the Son of Man coming with the clouds of heaven, and he came even unto to the Ancient of days, and he was brought near before him. And there was given unto him dominion and glory and a kingdom, and all the peoples and nations and languages shall serve him. His dominion,178 and so forth.
Note.
And this prophet spoke out more clearly concerning the conning of Christ, intimating both his time and the power belonging to him, and his birth from a virgin and the propagation of his gospel throughout all the earth, which things have all come to pass with God's help and will still come to pass. Glory to God who through all the prophets has revealed these things beforehand, Amen!
The Prophet Haggai.
This Haggai was also privileged to utter predictions concerning the Lord Christ, as, under the person of Zerubabel, he says things which are applicable to the Lord Christ: And I will make thee as a signet, because I have chosen thee, saith the Lord God.179 |205
The Prophet Zechariah.
This Zechariah was also privileged to prophesy concerning the coming of the Christ, saying thus: Rejoice greatly O daughter of Sion, shout O daughter of Jerusalem; behold thy King cometh unto thee; he is just and having salvation; lowly and riding upon an ass----even a young colt.180 This passage he uttered with reference to Zerubabel, in a strain of hyperbole as regards him, for it had properly its accomplishment in the Lord Christ, whom Zerubabel as it were, personified. He further says: And I will say unto him, What are these wounds between thine hands? And he shall say, wounds which I received in the house beloved by me.181 And shortly afterwards again he says: I will smite the shepherd and the sheep of the flock shall be scattered.182 Of this passage also the Lord made mention at the time of his Passion, applying it to himself when he was on the point of being betrayed.
Note.
This prophet, while he said nothing alien to the utterances of the other prophets, indicated the sovereignty of the Lord Christ in the future state.
The Prophet Malachi.
This is Malachi, who also was privileged to prophesy concerning the things relating to the dispensation of the Lord Christ. And it is thus he speaks: For, from the rising of the sun even unto the going down of the same, my name is great among the nations; and in every place incense is offered unto my name and a pure offering, for my name is great among the nations, saith the Lord Almighty;183 and again he says: Behold I will send my messenger, and he |206 shall prepare, the way before thy presence.184 This passage the Lord applied to himself and to John the Baptist. The same prophet further says: But unto you that fear my name shall the sun of righteousness arise with healing in his wings, and ye shall go forth and gambol as calves released from the stall. A nd ye shall tread down winds; for they shall be ashes under the soles of your feet, in the day that [238] I do make, saith the Lord Almighty. And behold, I will send you Elijah the Tishbite before the great and notable day of the Lord.185 As the Lord said to the Jews, and if ye are willing, receive it of John the Baptist: This is Elijah who was to come.186 And now at last having finished with God's help the twelve prophets we shall proceed to the four great prophets.187
Note.
Now this prophet did not utter predictions respecting what would be done by Christ different from the other prophets, but predictions of a similar nature; and he again prophesied the great and notable day of the Lord, in which he says that he will send before him the Tishbite Elijah, who is still surviving. Glory to God who created all things and who again creates them anew. Amen!
Text.
All the prophets predicted, and reminded the Jews of the promises of God which he had made to their fathers; how he promised to bless all the nations in the seed of Abraham through the dispensation of the Lord Christ. They reminded them how God in former times had |207 redeemed them with a high hand from bondage to the Egyptians and given them the land of promise, and predicted how they would be led away captives to Babylon by Nabuchodonosor and would return again with glory; and again, how they would suffer great miseries at the hands of Antiochus and the nations around them, and how by the divine power they would overcome them; and then He, who was expected from the seed of Abraham, would come for the salvation of the whole world according to the promises earlier given. This was the work of the prophets. Some of them accordingly wrote their own books. David, for instance, composed the Book of Psalms, and Daniel at the time of the Captivity was commanded to write what was revealed to him through visions, and there were others besides. But the rest did not write their prophecies with their own hands, but in the temple there were scribes who wrote the words of each prophet as in a diary.188 And when a prophet was sent by God to proclaim anything, either concerning Jerusalem, that it would be led away into captivity, or concerning Samaria, or other places, or concerning the return from captivity, or concerning Antiochus, or the surrounding nations, or concerning the Lord Christ himself, on the day in which they prophesied, the scribes wrote, in the book of that prophet, what he announced, that is, concerning a single subject; and again after some time had elapsed, if he wished to announce anything about another matter, the scribe again committed it to writing, recording it in its order among [239] the sayings of the same prophet, and inserting what he announced as the beginning of a new chapter; and so in this manner they compiled the whole of his book. Hence we may find in their books a chapter relating to the Captivity at Babylon, or to the Return, and |208 immediately thereafter another chapter which has reference to Christ, and then once more a chapter speaking again of the Captivity and the Return. And to speak briefly, unless one reads with close observation, he will find very much apparent confusion. And not only the books of the prophets, but the books of the kings were in this manner written in the temple, part by part. Thus the events under Saul were recorded for Saul in his time, part by part, until the end of his reign. The events in the time of David were thus also recorded to the end of his reign, and similarly the events under each king were committed to writing during his period. In like manner they wrote also in the records189 of the Kings what we call Paralipomena.190 It was Moses who wrote the Pentateuch----which is a history of things past, present and future. Joshua again wrote the book which bears his name. The book of Judges was written in the temple, or it may be, in the Tabernacle, and the same may be said of the book of Ruth. Solomon again wrote his own works, Proverbs, the Song of Songs, and Ecclesiastes. For though he had received the gift of wisdom from God, and counselled every man to conduct himself wisely in this life, he did not receive the gift of prophecy. As many, therefore, as we have found to have been privileged to prophesy concerning the dispensation of the Lord Christ, we have arranged in their order. And we further write concerning the four other prophets whatever things they were commissioned to predict----whereunto the whole scope of divine scripture has respect. We bring forward therefore first the sublimely eloquent Isaiah,191 who both by figure and |209 by word was privileged to see and prophesy concerning the mystery of Christ.
John the Forerunner.
This is the greatest of all men----John the Baptist, who was filled with the Holy Ghost while he was yet in the womb, and leaped in joy and eagerness to be the forerunner of his Lord----a man great in the sight of God, the forerunner of Christ, preparing for him a people put in readiness to receive him----a man superior to the prophets, born into the world before the Apostles, intermediate between the Old and the New Testament, the last under the law, the receiver of the new dispensation----the man who showed to all the Lord Christ as present among them, who surpassed all men in the austerity of his manner of life, and outdid all men in service rendered----who went before in the spirit and power of Elias, and surpassed Elias, in that he baptized the Lord----a lamp that was lighted before the sun of righteousness. He [240] proclaimed the presence of the Lord, saying: Behold the lamb of God which taketh away the sin of the world,192 calling him a lamb as being a sacrificial victim, and taking away the sin of the world----as delivering the world from sin, rendering men incorrupt, and immortal and immutable through the resurrection. This great John was privileged to be the herald of such a ministry and of such great things.
Note.
This is John the greatest of all men, who had both his father and his mother as fellow-prophets, who not only shows the Lord Christ to be present as the Prince of the second state, but proclaims him to be the Judge of all, saying: Whose fan is in his hand, and he will thoroughly cleanse his threshing-floor, and will gather the wheat into his garner; but the chaff he will burn with |210 unquenchable fire.193 He again proclaims beforehand the kingdom of heaven, and prepares the way for Him who comes after him, and who shows in himself in very deed the kingdom of heaven, which is the second state. Glory to God who has produced all things out of nothing, and again creates them anew in Christ. Amen!
The Prophet Zachariah.
This Zachariah the priest, who was himself thought worthy of the power of prophecy, spoke both concerning his own son and the Lord Christ together, in these words: And thou, child, shalt be called the Prophet of the Highest; for thou shalt go before the face of the Lord to prepare his ways.194
The Prophetess Elisabeth.
This is the prophetess Elisabeth, who by the Holy Spirit was privileged to prophesy both concerning the Lord Christ and the Holy Virgin, speaking thus: And whence is this to me that the mother of my Lord should come to me?195 Thus both the father and the mother of the forerunner were privileged to announce beforehand the Lord Christ. To him be glory with the Father and the Holy Spirit for ever. Amen!
The Virgin Mary.
This is the holy virgin, Mary, who brought forth her blessed offspring to the world without seed by the Holy Spirit, who even before his birth announced with great joy the dignity of her son, and said: For behold, from henceforth all generations shall call me blessed;196 and again: He hath holpen Israel his servant, that lie might remember [241] mercy, as he spake to our fathers, to Abraham and his seed for ever.197 To him be glory for ever and ever. Amen! |211
The Prophetess Anna, the daughter of Phanuel.
This is Anna the daughter of Phanuel, who gave thanks to God concerning Him in the temple, when His parents brought Him up into the temple in the days of their purification, to present Him to the Lord, as it is written.198
Simeon.
This is the righteous Simeon who, when he had taken up the Lord Christ in his arms, prayed to God to let him depart this life, as it had been revealed to him by the spirit, saying thus: Lord, now lettest thou thy servant depart, in peace, according to thy word, for mine eyes have seen thy salvation, which thou hast prepared before the face of all people----a light for revelation to the gentiles, and the glory of thy people Israel.199
The Lord Christ.
This is the Lord of all, Christ, concerning whom all prophecy made its predictions to men, unto whom all creation turns its eye, and to whom every tongue shall confess, bending the knee to the glory of God----Christ, in whom all prophecy terminates, the judge of the quick and the dead, the light from the light, the Son of the living God----unto whom the whole creation is subjected both of things in heaven, and things on earth and things under the earth, who also spoke through His own lips: The law and the prophets until John predicted Christ.200 To Him be glory with the Father and with the Holy Ghost for ever. Amen.
Introduction concerning the Apostles.
We have now fulfilled our promise in accordance with the obligations it imposed upon us, namely to show that |212 the men of primitive times and all the prophets uttered predictions concerning the mystery of Christ, and that they all, from the first-created man, Adam, until John the Baptist, had the future state full in their view; which also the Lord Christ and his disciples and Apostles afterwards explicitly proclaimed, setting forth that there is a future state far better than the present state, which the Lord Christ first showed in himself to us when he rose from the dead and ascended into heaven, which also the men of old with some purpose in view201 [obscurely?] announced, and which those who came afterwards clearly set forth. We have also shown that not one of them whether of the later or the earlier ever proclaimed or imagined that [242] besides those two states there was any other state at all either before or after them; but that when God began to make the whole creation, he made these two states and these only, ordaining that this present state, in which we live as citizens, should be first, and then the future state, whereunto the whole purpose of God and of his prophets has respect. Let the Pagans then take shame to themselves, who suppose the world to be co-eternal with God, while they both advocate the doctrine of a previous life, and deny the resurrection of the body. And let those too take shame to themselves who are their followers, and who, while they regard themselves as Christians, nevertheless think as do the Pagans who assert that the heaven is spherical. For their views differ not at all from those which the Pagans proclaim; as for instance, that the bodies of which the world is made are always in corruption, and that there is no resurrection of the body, nor any other state than the present Let the Manichaeans |213 and the Marcionists202 take shame to themselves, who reject the flesh, and maintain that it is the production of the evil principle. Let all be ashamed who contemn our souls with their intelligence, Eutychês to wit, Arius, and Appolinarius203 and all their followers. Let all the heretics take shame to themselves who acknowledge not one God the Maker of heaven and earth, known and worshipped in three persons, and who acknowledge neither the resurrection of our flesh, nor the existence of angel or spirit. Let the unbelieving Jews take shame to themselves who have not received Him who was expected, and confess not the Christian resurrection, but only such a condition of life as our present, in which there is marrying and being given in marriage. But well-done! well-done! ye who are truly Christians, to you be joy and exultation, to you who believe all divine scripture, both the Old and the New Testament, who have been led by the law and have believed in Christ and all that he has proclaimed, especially when saying: The law and the prophets prophesied until John;204 and: From the days of John the Baptist the kingdom of heaven suffereth violence, and the violent take it by force;205 meaning that as many as do violence to themselves, and live righteously, and are not guided by their own notions, but have faith in God, all obtain that kingdom. |214 And to be sure, when the mother of John and James asked the Lord that one of them should sit on His right hand and the other on His left hand in His Kingdom, He answered her saying: It is not mine to give, but it is for those for whom it has been prepared by my Father;206 that is, the gift of God is extended to all, the rising again from the dead, and becoming incorruptible, and immortal and immutable----but to be preferred in honour to another, this is not a gift, but what is prepared by God for those who believe and act aright. For the Lord again saith: Come, ye blessed of my Father, inherit the Kingdom prepared for you;207 and when it was prepared he tells us by adding: from the foundation of the world.
[243] Since Moses then, who describes the world, and all the other prophets, and the men of old have spoken of these two states and of these only, without making mention of any others, but proclaiming only these and committing them to writing----and since not these only but also the Lord when he came among us, and his disciples, Evangelists and Apostles have proclaimed nothing else than only these two states and these alone, what is there further wanting to confute the belief that these things are not true? Who will not pay regard to the multitude of predictions----to the fulfilment of prophecies----to the multitude of signs and astonishing miracles----to the very walk and conversation of all the saints and of the Lord Christ and his Apostles----to the harmony of the Old and the New Testament? Which of these dissented from the others, and maintained that the heaven was spherical, or proclaimed the pre-existence of this world, or represented that the world was eternal, or denied the resurrection of the body, or the dispensation of Christ, under which righteous men go up to heaven? But all of them, |215 as being guided by one divine Spirit, predicted the same things by words and by acts and by figures, and all of them direct their view to the future state. And the Lord Christ himself shows in the Gospels in what place perfect righteous men, intermediate men, and impious men shall have their abode. And concerning the perfect righteous, he shows their place when he calls them to himself saying: Come, ye blessed of my Father, inherit the Kingdom, prepared for you from the foundation of the world;208 and concerning the impious he shows theirs, when he says to those on his left hand: Depart from me, ye cursed, into everlasting fire prepared for the devil and his angels,209 as if he said, to the righteous, come above to the inner heaven beyond this visible firmament, and to the impious, go down to the place about the earth,210 into which the devil also was hurled down. We are left under the necessity of seeking the place of the intermediate men. Christ says then in the parable of the ten virgins, that the five who were wise went in with the bridegroom into the bride-chamber, that is, into heaven, because, since they were wise, they chose virginity and alms-giving----but the foolish virgins who had, chosen the one of these but despised the other, remained outside of the bride-chamber, having found the door shut, and heard these words: Depart from me, I know you not;211 being neither permitted to enter, nor condemned along with the impious, but remaining outside of the bride-chamber.
Thus then each one who has right and unfeigned faith and a worthy life enters with confidence into the Kingdom, but such, on the other hand, as have not even one of them, neither right faith nor an honest life, are condemned ta spend their time along with the devil about the earth. But |216 those who have one and hot the other, are the intermediate [244] men, condemned to remain outside the bride-chamber, that is, the firmament. The particular nature, however, either of the good things or of the punishments, it is impossible for us to know, except by our actual experience of them; but by what was merely an example taken from the punishments and the good things of life here, He indicated what would be hereafter. For, since it was not possible for us before we had as yet acquired experience, to hear new things otherwise than in so far as they were figuratively stated, He said: The Kingdom of heaven is likened unto a certain King who made a marriage feast for his son,212 having selected the highest of the good things of this life, and likened them to the good things of the future life. In like manner also to the worst things----fire, the undying worm, Tartarus, the gnashing of teeth, darkness and things similar to these, because they are the most frightful forms of earthly punishments, to these he likened the punishments of the hereafter. But it is possible to estimate neither the good things of the future life, nor its terrible things, nor the things that are intermediate. But that other state is far better than the present, and is altogether very far superior, just as this present life is far better than that when we were within our mother's womb. For we must consider what was our condition within the womb, where we existed in a confusion of darkness, blood, bad humours, bile and all kinds of impurity, while we were in ignorance of everything. But having emerged into this life we see things quite different, of which we had gained no previous experience----an extension of freedom, inspiration of the air, the enjoyment of the beautiful light, the framework of nature, the workmanship of an all-wise artificer, and this too while we are filled with the knowledge of God; |217 not one of which things it was possible for us either to know, or to conceive, or to hear, or to enjoy, while we were still in the womb. In like manner also it is impossible for us, while we are still in this life, to understand or to conceive or to picture to our minds the future state which is altogether better than this, unless we are in the midst of the things themselves, for, saith He: Things which eye saw not, and ear heard not, and which entered not into the heart of man, whatsoever things God prepared for them that love him.213 Just as God then has in this life freely bestowed a common gift upon all, making the sun rise upon just and unjust, and sending his rain upon good and bad, so also in the future state he bestows a common gift upon all, immortality and incorruption and life and immutability, but each one, according to his former deeds, procures for himself either the Kingdom, or the punishment due to him, or ascent into heaven, or remaining about the earth, or in the intermediate condition. All these things, moreover, are eternal and infinite, both the good things and the very worst. And altogether that state differs much, yea as much as can be, from the state here. In contrast to the good things which have been prepared for the righteous are set the things of the impious, punishment of the utmost [245] severity, and judgment without mercy; for the judgment and punishment of this present state have their analogy in the future state. Let us then now come to the Evangelists and Apostles and show that they also speak in harmony with the ancients, declaring that these two states and these alone have been made by God: the first, being this in which we now exist, and the future, that unto which all we Christians direct our gaze. Let us therefore delineate Matthew the first of the evangelists who speaks concerning such things. |218
Matthew the Evangelist.
This is the first of the evangelists who wrote a Gospel. A Gospel ('Euagge/lion) is so called because it is an announcement (a)ggeli/a) of good things. When upon the outbreak in Jerusalem of the persecution in which Stephen was stoned to death, he was on the point of quitting the city, and certain of the faithful requested him to leave them his teaching in writing; he, who knew by personal experience the manner of life of the Lord incarnate upon earth, wrote for them an account thereof, for the purpose of setting before them an image of virtuous social intercourse, of a heavenly life, and of a divine walk and conversation. In carrying out this design he begins the narrative which he composed in these words: The book of the generation of Jesus Christ the son of David, the son of Abraham,214 as if he said, addressing to you, O most faithful, my discourse of the miraculous generation, of our highest duty to others, of the heavenly life, and of the new state, I lay my book before you. And, seeing that God made promises to David and to Abraham that all the nations of the world should be blessed through their seed, and that their seed should reign for ever, I set forth the genealogy of Him who sprang from their seed, of Him, through whom God blesses the world and creates it anew, and on whom He bestows an everlasting Kingdom, and I show that He is the Prince of the future state, conceived and born in a new and becoming way, and that He directed His life in all righteousness and holiness and without sin. For just as the first-made man Adam was produced by divine power from earth which had not been sown nor tilled by man, so also the Prince of the second state was |219 produced from human kind, that is to say, He was produced from the virgin earth without seed, without man, by the power of the Holy Ghost And just again as formerly the female was produced from the male, so too in this case the male was produced from the female; and just as the former, having been worsted by the devil, brought death upon the human race, so too the latter, having proved victorious, destroyed the power of death over the race, and procured for it, besides, immortality and life without end. The blessed Matthew, having in view to tell these and such like things, gave forth the work which he had written, wherein he showed how Christ had been conceived without seed by the Holy Ghost, and how, as He advanced in [246] years, He lived without sin among His fellow men, and fulfilled the requirements of the law and gospel, and all other righteousness; and how, when He was delivered over to the tempter, He came off victorious, having remained invincible, and having hurled out of the arena215 the adversary of human nature; and how when the Jews plotted against Him and delivered Him over unjustly to death, He submitted willingly even to this, for the sake of our race----in order that having, as reason required, torn up the old bond, He might nail it to the cross, and might, as a reasonable sacrifice, pay the penalty of death that was due for all, by offering Himself to God spotless. Then afterwards, having after three days risen from the dead, He showed to all the destruction of death, and exhorted all to rejoice because He had taken away henceforth the power of death. Matthew also mentions the ascent into heaven, if not at the end of his book, yet in the course of his narrative, when he speaks concerning John the Baptist thus: And in those days came John the Baptist |220 preaching in the wilderness of Judaea and saying, Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand;216 as if he said, the mansion in the heavens is now ready to be revealed, as the Christ is now near. But even in the Beatitudes and everywhere in his book, he mentions the kingdom of heaven, but more especially when the Lord in arguing with the Pharisees and Sadducees concerning the resurrection he speaks thus: For in the resurrection thcy neither marry nor are given in marriage, but arc as the angels of God in heaven.217 This is the design which the blessed Matthew the Evangelist had in view when composing his narrative.
Mark the Evangelist.
This is Mark, the second who composed a Gospel, a work which Peter in Rome enjoined him to undertake. He described, as the beginning of the Gospel or the Gospel dispensation, the baptism which was a type of the resurrection from the dead, through which we are born again into an immortal and unchangeable life. Then, after he had given an account of the temptations and the victory, and likewise of the plotting against Him, and the death, and the resurrection, he brought his composition to a close. He too mentions John the Baptist as proclaiming that the kingdom of heaven was at hand----and all that he announced was in harmony with the blessed Matthew.
Note.
And he also, being a preacher of the New Testament, wrote for us the same things as his predecessor, beginning with the account of the baptism, which is a type of the resurrection from the dead----that is, of the new and heavenly dispensation. He showed how Christ was baptized, and what was His manner of life, and how He was put to death, and rose again and ascended |221 into heaven, where there is the seat and the polity of the second state. Glory to God who from the beginning has prepared it, [247] and announced it beforehand and has fulfilled it, and is fulfilling it. Amen!
Luke the Evangelist.
This is Luke the third of the Evangelists, who, having seen that many had taken in hand to write Gospels, and invented many things out of their own head, at once wrote to his own disciple Theophilus, warning him not to be carried away with their fictions, and not to be turned away from what he had learned at first: That thou, he says, mightest know accurately the certainty of those things wherein thou wast instructed.218 He relates therefore to him what he had already delivered to him, beginning from the birth of John, announcing this, that the birth of the Forerunner also was miraculous. He then related the birth of the Lord Christ according to the flesh which was also miraculous, and, following the design of Matthew, who had preceded him, he enumerated his ancestors retrogressively, showing that he was descended from David and Abraham, and going still farther back he derived him from Adam. As he found no remoter ancestor he then at length fell back upon God, saying: who was the son of God, that is, of Him who, according to the sacred historian Moses, originated the creation, and made the first man Adam. Then again after having narrated things similar to the other evangelists, concerning the baptism and the temptations, and still further concerning His death and resurrection, he relates after these, both in the Gospel itself and in the Acts, His ascension into heaven, and states that He will in like manner come back again. And so he also closes his work directing his eyes to the object of |222 desire which all expect, and instructing in this also his disciple the God-beloved Theophilus.
Note 1.
This preacher of the New Testament also said the same things with the others, beginning from the generation of the Forerunner, and coming to the birth of Jesus, and showing what was the manner of His life. In like manner he also discoursed of the evangelical life----I mean baptism, death, resurrection, and finally of the ascent into heaven, which is the place of our habitation in the second state. Glory to God who from the beginning prepared these things and announced them beforehand, and who has now fulfilled and is fulfilling them. Amen!
Note 2.
It was he again who noted down the doxology of the multitude of the host of the angels, who were rejoicing and exulting at the birth of the Lord Christ according to the flesh, and saying: Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace, good pleasure among men,219 now putting away from themselves the old dejection brought upon them through the first-made man, and rejoicing at the birth of the second Adam.
John the Theologian.
This is the Theologian John, the Chief of the Evangelists, who was the most loved of all by Christ, who leaned upon the breast of the Lord, and who from thence as from an ever-flowing fountain drew forth the mysteries, to whom, when resident in Ephesus, there were delivered by the faithful the books composed by the other three evangelists, having received which he expressed his approbation of them. Some things, however, he said, had been omitted by them which it was necessary should be narrated. And having been requested by the faithful, he also gave to the world his book, which in a manner supplied what had been |223 omitted; as for instance, the account of the marriage in Cana, the account of Nicodemus, of the Samaritan woman, of the nobleman, of the man who was blind from his birth, of Lazarus, of the indignation of Judas at the anointing of the Lord with myrrh, of the Greeks that came to him, of the washing of feet, and of further doctrines concerning the Comforter stated in the course of the narrative; but in particular he made clear proclamation also concerning the divinity of Christ, which he set forth in the outset of his work as its foundation----all which subjects had been omitted by the other Evangelists. Having begun therefore with the divinity of Christ he forthwith passed to his humanity also, stating such things as had been recorded before by the others, the baptism, temptations, death and resurrection. Then again he added such things as Christ had done after the resurrection, how He entered when the doors were shut, how He showed His hands and His feet and His side to His disciples, how He ate and drank with them, how He journeyed with them, how He held their eyes that they should not see Him, how, as often as He wished, He at once vanished from them, how by way of instructing her He said to Mary: Touch me not,220 teaching her by these words that intercourse between immortals and mortals is not fitting, but rather intercourse with immortals must be in heaven. Wherefore also He directed her to go away and tell the disciples: I ascend into heaven into which ye also are to ascend. So when he also had written all these things, he brought to an end the book which he had written, having the same object in view as the other Evangelists, namely, to teach us that we ought to look away from this state to that which is to come, unto which all inspired scripture both of the Old and of the New Testament has reference. |224
Note.
This illustrious preacher of the New Testament, having committed to writing the omissions of the other Evangelists, and filled up what they left defective, discoursed in like manner with the others221 of baptism, manner of life, death, resurrection and ascent into heaven, which is the abode of immortal and righteous [249] men and of angels, that is, it is the seat of the second state. Glory to Him who has prepared these things, and announced them beforehand and is still fulfilling them. Amen!
Peter the Apostle.
This is Peter the Chief of the Apostles, who was entrusted with the keys of heaven, who has the Church founded on his own confession, who thrice denied, and thrice confessed, who nobly prayed that he might sustain crucifixion with his head downward ---- and he, keeping in view the same object as the other evangelists, thus spoke in the Acts (see Acts ii, 22-24 and 32-36). Here I would have it to be observed, that within the compass of merely a few lines, he has described the whole of the argument of the Evangelists, making mention, when speaking concerning Him (Christ), of Nazareth where He was brought up, and saying that He was a man from God, as being the second Adam, and that through Him God wrought wonderful works; also that with His own consent He was put to death by lawless men, and that God raised Him up immortal and immutable (for so he said) having loosed the pangs of death, and that, having been exalted by divine power, He ascended into heaven, and sent down from thence the Holy Spirit. For no one else, not even David himself, ascended into heaven, but the Lord himself, concerning whom David said: The |225 Lord said unto my Lord, Sit thou at my right hand until I make thine enemies the footstool of thy feet.222
He says again when he addresses Cornelius----[For the [250] words see Acts x, 38-43]. In like manner when he healed the lame man, he said (what is recorded in Acts iii, 19-21). He mentions also the passage in Moses: A prophet shall the Lord God raise up unto you.223 In several passages the blessed Peter bears his testimony in like manner as the Evangelists, arid declares that all the Prophets had announced all these things beforehand----that God had made, and is making, a second new state, which also he announced beforehand by the mouth of all the Prophets, but neither said that before this state there existed another, nor did he declare that after the future state there would be another, but along with all the Prophets and Apostles he asserted that there were only two states----the present and the future.
Note.
At the time of the building of the Tower, when the men who fought against God wished to ascend into heaven, God, by dividing their tongues, frustrated their designs. But when, at the end of the times He had come for the salvation of men, and led up our nature into heaven, then on the day of Pentecost, by way of announcing beforehand the ascent of the rest of mankind, He brought the tongues together again, through the Holy Spirit from heaven, and gave them to the Apostles. And Peter, who was appointed to be the great preacher of the New Testament, when he was discoursing to the multitude, and carrying the keys of the heavens, which had been entrusted to him by Christ, proclaimed confidently the things which the Evangelists also had taught in their writings----baptism, holiness of life, death, resurrection, immortality, grace and incorruption. For this is the import of the saying: Having loosed the pangs of death;224 and in like manner he calls the future state the ascent into heaven and |226 [251] the times of refreshing, and this he calls the blessing which had been promised beforehand to Abraham, and says that it had been preached to all the nations by all the Prophets, and that the Prince of it was the Lord Christ, through whom all. the nations will be blessed and honoured by God. Glory to Him who has prepared these things!
Stephen.
This is Stephen the first martyr of the New Testament and the first Deacon, who had for his slayer the great Paul while he was as yet zealous for the law----who alone by himself contended against the whole synagogue and made the Judge of the contest 225 rise from his seat to witness the spectacle. This is he who saw the heavens opened and the Son of Man standing on the right hand of God. For while the whole of divine scripture speaks of Him as sitting, this man saw Him standing; for the vehemence of the contest made the Judge rise up for the view.226 Wherefore also on being invited to ascend to that glory, he prayed for those who were stoning him, saying: Lord, lay not this sin to their charge, but do thou thyself receive my spirit.227 Lo! he also saw and preached the same things with the others, namely that Christ, the Prince of the second state, is in heaven, and of Him he entreated that He would receive him into that place.
Note.
And this man, who was a preacher and a zealous champion of the New Testament, with his very eyes saw within the firmament Jesus spiritually, whom also he entreated to receive his spirit. While addressing at great length an assembly of the Jews, he accused them of having been the murderers of Jesus. Wherefore he also has exhibited to us as trustworthy what those who |227 had preceded him had taught----death, resurrection and ascension into heaven. Glory to Him who prepared these things and announced them beforehand, and has now fulfilled and is fulfilling these things. Amen!
Paul the Apostle.
This is the great Paul the Apostle, the leader of the heavenly phalanx, who has Christ speaking within him, who carries about the marks of Christ in his body----the great teacher of the Church, who endured daily ten thousands of deaths for the Church, who gloried in the Lord and in his own infirmities, who had the grace of Christ flowing in him, who spoke to all nations in their tongues, who was once a persecutor, but is now persecuted, who was once a sinner, but has now obtained mercy, who was caught up into the third heaven, and again into Paradise, who was the hearer of unspeakable words, the occult judge of spiritual gifts----Paul who prescribed the regulations of divine service, and surpassed the other teachers of [252] the Church; whose salutation in all his epistles, to serve as a token, is the grace of the Lord. In all his epistles generally, as if he were already in the second state, he continues always rejoicing and full of assurance, saying: He hath raised us up with Him and made us sit with Him in the heavenly places;228 and: By hope have we been saved,229 and countless other expressions he uses which we cannot now conveniently cite. Some however we will mention that we may not too far prolong our discourse, I Cor. xv, 19; Heb. vi, 17-20; Heb. x, 34; xii. 28; xiii, 14; I Cor. vii, 31; I Tim. iv, 8; Philip, iii, 13-15; and 20, 21; Tit. ii, 13; [253] Coloss. iii, 1, 2; I Thess. iv, 14-17; Heb. xi, 14, 15, 10; viii, 2; Acts xxvi, 7, 8, and 21-23. And if we cared to collect all the utterances of the Apostle on this subject, |228 we shall find references thereto in nearly all his fourteen epistles, namely, that we are hastening to run from this present state towards that which is to come, whence also he exhorts us in these words: Let us be eager to enter into that rest;230 speaking of that rest as if there is no other after it, but a kingdom that cannot be shaken, meaning one that has no successor.
Note 1.
What need is there to speak of this chosen vessel----a new and mighty trumpet, sounding among the Gentiles, gathering together Jew and Gentile into one Church; since the choice of him at first was made by Jesus calling to him from heaven, and when he was instructed, he was not disobedient to the heavenly vision? He again when still sojourning in this present state was caught up into the third heaven, and saw the ranks of the angels, and beheld the worship observed by the invisible Virtues, the Principalities, the Powers and the Dominions----and having entered in and viewed, as in a glass, the ministrations of all the Virtues that have been named, he exclaimed: Are they not all ministering spirits, sent forth to do service for the sake of them that shall inherit salvation?231 So also he spoke of the rank which the adversary once held, how he had the power of the air, and he announced his fall from heaven in consequence of his pride. He again exclaimed: Know ye not that we shall judge angels? 232 [254] And again; The saints shall judge the world.232 This is he who in all his Epistles exhorts us to think of heavenly things and to seek heavenly things and to make haste to run to heaven, and to press forward in order to obtain the things above. This is he, who, when he had declared that heaven was the city and habitation of the righteous, angels and men, and in a word of the whole Church, declared besides that the Lord Christ after the flesh was the supreme Head of the whole body. For he said that He was above all Principalities and Powers and Virtues and Dominions----and above every name that is named, not only in this world but in that which is to come. |229 And, to speak briefly, this Apostle is the great teacher and interpreter of the heavenly hosts, and of the Church, and he makes mention of the present and the future state only, and of immortality and immutability and ot all the good things in the world above----the power of which we are not able to reckon. To God who has prepared these things beforehand, and announced them beforehand and who has now fulfilled and is still fulfilling them, be glory for ever, Amen!
Note 2.
Paul at the very outset (of the Epistle) commends the faith of the Romans which was proclaimed throughout the whole world, and calls them his fellow-believers. But the Corinthians he reproves, because, as being recently philosophers of this world, after already believing in the resurrection of the Lord Christ, they make this as of no use to them, seeing that they do not believe our own resurrection. The Athenians therefore were right in calling him a picker-up of sown seeds,233 since he tore up by the root the tares of their superstition. The Galatians he calls senseless both because they readily changed their opinions like insensate things, and because after baptism they had been deceived, and submitted to circumcision. To the Ephesians he reveals the whole counsel of God, and declares that in their city he had fought as it were with wild beasts, prophesying and saying to them that afterwards there would come some to them as wolves, and would tear them asunder; and therewith he said that from themselves would arise some who would, like wolves, ravage the Church. The Philippians he regards with the utmost admiration, praising them as those who alone displayed their great care and love for him in his bonds, and in his defence, and who often sent him supplies for his wants. The Colossians again he praises for their faith; if they continue in the same, having love to all the saints. The Thessalonians he calls lovers of the brethren, and speaks of them as being persecuted, and as suffering on account of their godliness. He calls them, in like manner as the |230 Hebrews, faithful, and confirms them, in like manner as the Corinthians, in the belief of the resurrection of the dead, along with the belief of the second coming of the Lord. As a Hebrew and as a member of the Hebrew community, regarding its [255] interests as his own, he designates them holy brethren, and called, and partakers of heavenly things, and speaks of them as persecuted and suffering for that godliness, only however, he adds, if we hold fast the beginning firm unto the end;234 and he cautions them not to become faint-hearted from the fear of persecution, and not to run back again to the unbelievers. To Timothy again, who was then in Ephesus, he sends a message in writing, warning him against the teachers of a different doctrine, and against his giving heed to their fables, while he confirms him in the doctrines and delivers to him ecclesiastical canons, That thou mayest know, he says, how men ought to behave themselves in the house of God.235 He says also that some heresies would show themselves at the last, and would subvert the truth. And he predicts that they would not make progress to what is better, but that they would become manifest, and that their foolishness would be evident to all. To Titus again, who was in Crete, he delivers ecclesiastical canons and confirms him in the doctrines, and administers rebukes to the Cretans, as being liars, and frivolous, and crafty, and led astray by those of the circumcision. Writing to Philemon, he bears witness to his abundant faith, to his piety, and to the love which he has for the saints, whose slave, Onesimus, when unprofitable, he had changed for the better, and made a pious man; and the great Apostle exhorts the master of this slave to receive him no longer as a slave but as a brother. In all his Epistles moreover he urges it upon all men to enter into the habitation in the heavens, through right faith and a good life, and not to miss the good things kept in store for the righteous----along with whom, unworthy as we are, deign, O Lord God, Maker of the Universe, in thy compassionate goodness, to number us. Amen! I must observe further that Paul being a Hebrew wrote to the Hebrews in the Hebrew language, but his Epistle was translated into the Greek tongue, as they say, by Luke, or by Clement, in like manner as the Gospel according to Matthew. |231
Text.
It behoves us, O most beloved of God, to observe the harmony that exists between Moses, the historian of the world, and all the Prophets and the Evangelists and Apostles, how they all harmoniously assert that God made the whole world divided into two states. For to this end, when God began the work of creation, he made on the second day the firmament, and bound it together with the first heaven, having placed it midway between the earth below and the heaven above, thus dividing the one place into two places, and the lower of the two places he ordained to be this world, but the higher he prepared from the beginning to be the future world, according to his previous design. For it is not in this transitory life that our hope lies, but in that future life which hath no end, wherein is our adoption as sons, and redemption and immutability, and righteousness, and sanctification, and blessedness, and perfect knowledge and glory, and [256] whatever other blessings are laid up for us to be received from God, after we have had here experience of things both good and bad, in order that as far as possible we may know the full strength of the good things reserved for us, who in a certain sense become the sons of God, and are exalted to glory and joy unspeakable. On this account, even here, we the faithful, after baptism, become partakers of the mysteries of the body of the Lord Christ,236 in order that after the resurrection, by devoting ourselves to the Lord Christ, we may become partakers of His glory, attracting to ourselves glory from the glory that is His. Wherefore also the term partaking 237 is used according to what is written by the Apostle when he says: |232 But we all with unveiled face beholding reflected as in a mirror 238 the glory of the Lord, are transformed into the same image from glory to glory even as from the spirit of the Lord;239 as if he said, when the Lord is nigh, all we the faithful, in the most manifest manner, without any veil, behold the glory of the Lord as in a mirror----and are transformed into the same image as the Lord has, partaking of his glory for our own glory. For the partaking of the mysteries indicates also our partaking of his glorified body, just as we behold him reflected as in a mirror and partake his glory. For out of his fulness do we all receive,240 nor does he, in giving liberally, suffer any diminution of his fulness. But the expression as from the spirit of the Lord is intended to show us, that just as Moses received [glory] from the Lord, so do we receive [glory] through the Holy Spirit.
Note.
Just as we who are born in this world are nourished by the milk of our parents----that is, are organised for living from their flesh and their blood, so we are commanded to take our nourishment mystically from the body and blood of the Lord Christ; since in the future state, according to the view of scripture, He is our Father, from whom and through whom we receive glory, and are, so to speak, reborn into life eternal. In this state takes place the initial birth and the nourishment of milk in the mysteries, organising, suitably for living, him that has been generated----a type of the regeneration through water and the spirit, and the mystical nourishment of the body and blood of Christ inviting and strongly drawing to life eternal him that believes and partakes. In the future state again is the resurrection from the dead, whereby we rise up from our graves as from the womb, and are born anew and refashioned; and especially |233 there is the participation of the glorified, immortal and incorruptible and immutable body and soul of Christ. Glory to God the Creator and Renovator of the universe for ever. Amen!
Text.
Divine scripture is wont to speak of the creation as [257] being from the Father, and the incarnation as being from the Son, and the regeneration from the dead as being from the Holy Spirit. Not that the Father does this alone, or the Son that, or the Holy Spirit something else, but the Holy Trinity conjointly effects the creation, and the incarnation and the resurrection. For, as has been said, divine scripture with a view to show that there is one God in three persons 241 is wont thus to distinguish them, namely----by ascribing to the Father as Cause, the causing the world to exist, by ascribing to the Son as begotten, the cause of the incarnation, as possessing a worthy adoption and being the fountain of knowledge, and by ascribing to the Holy Spirit as proceeding from the Father, in virtue of His life-giving and sanctifying power, the regeneration and redemption and sanctification of the future state. For just as the sun has in himself the power of giving light and heat, and without these cannot be perceived, so likewise the Father has two powers proceeding from himself, apart from which He cannot be seen, the Son, namely, and the Holy Ghost. And just as the sun is a fiery body and has as one of his powers to give light, and as another to |234 give heat; and neither the heat-giving is the light-giving power, nor the light-giving the heat-giving power, while the sun and his powers are inseparable the one from the other; so in the Father and Son and Holy Ghost there is one God----the Father with his two powers existing inseparably the one in the other, and these are seen by the mind in their proper Persons. For in this case, God is properly incorporeal, but the similitude, so far forth as it is such, is obscure. But we may take a further similitude from our own soul. For just as the soul has inherent in itself word (or discourse) and understanding (lo&gon kai\ nou~n) and the discursive faculty (to_ logiko_n) is one thing and the understanding faculty (to_ noero_n) a different thing, and the word goes forth from the soul inseparably----not dissevered from it, [while the same is true of the understanding], nay, they are in the soul and from it and with it, so we must think of God.
Wherefore also John the Evangelist employing this illustration called the Son the Word as proceeding from the Father and being with Him, and being of the same substance; and the Apostle Paul taking an illustration from the material world called him the effulgence. But the Old Testament says: Let us make man in our image and after our likeness.242 Here in both the words poih&swmen and h(mete/ran it expresses plurality, but the phrases in our image and after our likeness do not mean the same thing, but the former of them means one thing, and the other a [258] different thing. The expression in our image has this sense, that man and man alone, as having all things in himself----things visible and things invisible, things perceived by the intellect and things perceived by the senses, things corruptible and things incorruptible, indicates that there is one Creator of all things that are, even God, |235 and man is in this respect the image of God, through his knowing that there is one Creator of the universe, as the Apostle exclaims: For a man ought not to cover his head, being the image and glory of God;243 thus expressly declaring that man was made for the glory of God, and, in accordance with this, calling him His image, as man alone is capable of knowing that there is one Creator of the universe, even God, who formed man as the only living creature in whose composition are found all the natural qualities. But the other expression after our likeness has this sense, that Adam was a father and not a son, and, from his own substance by procession produced Eve, who is called neither a son nor a sister, and by generation produced his own son Sêth, who again was of his own substance, producing him by generation, and her by procession, thus producing the one, one way, and the other, another way, out of his own substance. But inasmuch as Adam had a beginning, those also who spring from him have a beginning, but as God and the Father has no beginning, those who are of Him proceed from Him without beginning, and are eternally with Him, just as the effulgence and heat are with the sun, and just as the word and the intelligence are with our soul, according to the similitudes of divine scripture. And some of the Fathers have employed similitudes regarding the Holy Trinity drawn from the material world, some of them speaking of two rivers as flowing forth out of an ever-flowing fountain, and others of branch and fruit produced from a tree as the root. But all, whether Apostles or Fathers, as being but men, have spoken under the inspiration of the Spirit, in similitudes drawn from the natural world, which however fall altogether short of exhibiting the divine substance. But in the |236 future state again, when we shall rise up spiritual beings, we shall know more exactly concerning God.
In this manner therefore divine scripture in these passages, having in view to set before us the Persons in the Trinity, frequently employs this phraseology, declaring the Creation to be, so to speak, from the Father, and the Incarnation to be of the Son, and the Resurrection to be of the Holy Ghost. But yet it is the Holy Trinity which does all things. The blessed Moses however, as if God were speaking, said: Let us make man;244 here the word (poih&swmen) though in the plural number can be understood to refer to two only. Since therefore it seemed good to God not to deliver to us at the first an acknowledgment of the Holy Trinity, lest we should think the Persons of whom it consists to have material bodies, and we should thus suspect that there are three Gods, when He came to the creation of man, He then expressed Himself ambiguously in the plural number, yet in such a way that it could be understood [259] that He was speaking only of two. But after some time had elapsed, He is again found using an expression more distinctly plural when He says: Come, let us go down and confound their language 245-----an expression which can no longer be thought applicable to two only, but to three or more. Then again after an interval of a great many years, not to introduce a host of instances, God again used an expression ambiguously respecting the Trinity, repeating thrice through Isaiah the word Holy which he made applicable to one God, saying: The Lord of hosts, the whole earth is full of His glory;246 showing both the number of the three Persons and the unity of the Godhead. But in the days of the Lord Christ according to the flesh, He taught this clearly, saying: Go ye, and make disciples of all |237 the nations, baptizing them into the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Ghost,247 speaking indeed of one name, but distinguishing them into three Persons. And since he was going to proclaim these things clearly, giving intimation of them beforehand, through the form of the bond-servant, on his first making the announcement at the creation of man, He used the plural number: Let us make man. When therefore the Lord shall come from heaven, He takes with Himself into the kingdom of heaven the faithful, the righteous, the worthy, both angels and men; but as for the rest, some of them He permits to be outside of the firmament, and others He consigns to the nether parts around the earth, according to what He says in the Gospel in the account of the consummation of things: Then there shall be two men in the field, one is taken, and one is left; two women shall be grinding at the mill, one is taken, and one, is left;248 as if He said those in the field, namely, all those that are in the world whether rich or poor or middle-class, that is to say whatever be their rank in life, whosoever is found worthy is taken into heaven; but if he be not worthy, he is left upon the earth. Then when He speaks of those grinding at the millstone, He means those that are bond-servants, and such of those bond-servants as are found worthy are taken into heaven, while those that are unworthy are left upon the earth. By His using the masculine form in the first instance, and then the feminine form249 afterwards, He has indicated the difference of sex, whether they be males or females, whether they be righteous or sinners.
The Apostle Paul also, in his second Epistle to the Thessalonians, expresses himself to the same effect, saying: |238 At the revelation of the Lord Jesus, from heaven, with the angels of his power, in flaming fire, rendering vengeance to them that know not God, and to them that obey not the Gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ, who shall suffer punishment, even eternal destruction from the face of the Lord and from, the glory of his might, when he shall come to be glorified in his saints, and to be marvelled at in all them that believed;250 he also showing that for the faithful saints, great and unspeakable glory is treasured up, but to the unbelieving, a doom of destruction,251 that is, a punishment in congruity with that state. For in destruction, and sorest [260] punishment and deep repentance, is every one found who does not enjoy the holy delights and glories, and the blessedness treasured up for the righteous. It is the duty then of every Christian in this life to bring himself into bondage, and thereby to make himself obedient unto God, and to believe the whole body of divine scripture both the Old and the New Testament, and to be a strict guardian of the doctrines, and to lead a life consistent with the faith; and, in accordance with what we professed and vowed when going forward to baptism, to thrust away from us and renounce all Satanic and Pagan error, and unbelief and folly and groundless hope. For by remaining in them they will incur the most grievous harm, while calculating and predicting eclipses as a divine science, without possessing any hope beyond this, and while leading others into the errors into which they have themselves been led. Now if any one resorts to these men, as to prophets, when he has lost a mantle or anything else, he hears from them of it, or recovers it through them, who deceive him as to the truth, but if not, then not even this. Such are the hopes of those weak-minded men who ascribe to the |239 heaven a spherical form; nor are they able to hope for anything further, neither a resurrection, nor a kingdom of heaven, nor a better state, since they both lose the sphere, and ruin the hope itself which they have. May it be ours, O honoured head, at the revelation of our Lord Jesus Christ, through the prayers of our Lady the Mother of God,252 and through those of all the holy patriarchs, prophets, apostles, martyrs, confessors and teachers, to be numbered along with those on the right hand, and to hear with them that surpassing and blessed utterance: Come, ye blessed of my Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world.253 To Him be glory for ever. Amen!
Note.
The whole scope of this work and of the delineations is to set forth that from the beginning, God, through all the men of old, and also through Moses the Cosmographer, and all the Prophets and Apostles, has shown that there are two states ---- the present state and the future; and we have exhibited also the figure of the whole world, and have shown, that Christians prefer to follow their own principles, and that their ends are in conformity with their principles; and herein we have proclaimed the goodness of |240 God, in the exercise of which He has set an end to this state of discipline, and to wresthngs, and to corruption and death. And we have set forth that in the Lord Christ immortality, incor-ruption, immutability, blessedness, sanctification and righteousness everlasting were prepared for all men, as he had prepared from [261] the foundation of the world the second place, which is in heaven, and the second state, as again he showed it to us beforehand typically, by means of the Tabernacle. We have shown besides that the opinion of the Pagans is one which holds out no hope, for they neither expect a second state, nor believe that there will be a resurrection of our bodies, but they lead others into error and are themselves in error, their minds whirling round and round along with that sphere of theirs; and they think it to be impossible for God to raise the bodies of all men, although, as being wise, they ought to know that, if God is judge of the thoughts and hearts of all men, and can discern the thoughts of each man since the beginning of time, He should be able all the more to discriminate the bodies of men. For if he is able to discriminate the things of the spirit, much more is He able to discriminate bodies. For He shakes from its foundations the whole frame of nature, heaven and earth, together with the other elements at the final consummation, and each of these renders back whatever human body it possesses, God, by His power, making the discrimination. And just as one who sifts with a sieve will find the object which he seeks, so, when the whole creation is shaken, those who are sought for will be found amidst it; for saith He through the prophet: For yet once more I shall shake not the earth alone but also heaven.254 But the word, yet once more, signifies, as the Apostle shows, the removing of those things that are shaken, as of things that have been made, that those things which are not shaken may remain. Wherefore, receiving a kingdom that cannot be shaken, let us show255 thankfulness whereby, we may offer service well-pleasing to God, with reverence and piety and supplication.256
And the Lord referring to the final consummation says: [The texts here quoted are Matt. xxiv, 29 seqq.; I Thess., 15-17; |241 I Cor., xv, 52, 53.] These are the good tidings of the Christians [262] ----these the great and wondrous hopes of the faithful----the resurrection of the dead, and the kingdom of heaven prepared from the foundation of the world for men, who, as soon as they have obtained immortality and incorruption and immutability, together with Christ shall inherit the kingdom of heaven, treading on high the paths of air, and shall reign as kings with Christ----shall with Christ possess heaven as their dwelling-place----being permitted to tread with Christ the entrance into the Tabernacle not made with hands, being called, along with Christ and the holy angels, citizens of the heavenly Jerusalem; rejoicing with Christ, exulting with Christ, exalted with Christ, wearing crowns along with Christ, glorified with Christ, enjoying with Christ the throne of grace, enjoying with Christ righteousness and sanctification and redemption and blessedness, and every eternal and unspeakable good. What nation, or what sect, can by believing possess such hopes except Christians alone?
The Pagans do not believe and are without hope, being in love with the wisdom of this world, which has not the power of itself to take hold of even one of the things, unless a divine illumination should follow. In like manner also the Jews, not believing in Christ, when He appeared and openly proclaimed these things, and confirmed them both by Himself and by His Apostles, have incurred the loss of all these things. The Samaritans 257 again, and the Montanists,258 being more stiff-necked than the Jews, when they could not be taught by Moses and the figures of the world, and did not believe even the prophets, confessing neither angel, nor spirit, nor the immortality of the rational soul, but denying the same doctrines as the Pagans, even the resurrection of the body, suffer the loss of all these things. |242 In like manner again the Manichaeans, who hate the body and do not confess its resurrection, but suppose it to be the workmanship of an evil deity,259 and expect that it will be destroyed, these also are deprived of all good things, being condemned as impious, along with that deity whom they elected for themselves upon earth. In like manner also all the heretics, whosoever deny the assumption of our flesh and of our soul at the time of the Incarnation, and whosoever, by denial, take away the divinity of the Son, and seek to lessen the divinity of the Holy Ghost, are also deprived of all these good things. For those alone who acknowledge one God in three Persons, without beginning, eternal, uncircumscribed, invisible, intangible, incorruptible, immortal, imperturbable, incorporeal, unlimited, incomprehensible, uncompounded, indivisible, the Maker of heaven and earth and of all things visible and invisible, known and adored in Father, Son and Holy Ghost; who, in the last of the days, at the time of the [263] Incarnation, desiring to renovate the world which He had created, and having taken again from the holy Virgin Mary our substance, God the Word, with the Father and Holy Ghost, without seed, with a view to renovate the microcosm which is the bond of the whole creation, namely, Man, by His own mere inclination, became united to him, in a union wondrous and indissoluble, in such a way that the assumption was not understood to precede the union, but the formation and assumption and union were simultaneous, and He consented to suffer and to be put to death; and when He had made man perfect through the resurrection, He led him up into heaven, and honoured him with a seat at His right hand, and appointed Him to be judge of all. Those also who, in like manner with Him, live uprightly, enter into the bride-chamber along with the bridegroom, those, to wit, who take away neither His divinity nor His humanity; these with Christ sing together for joy, and reign with Him in heaven, hearing from Him at the final consummation these words: Come, ye blessed of my Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world. 260
But of the day of the consummation no one knows except |243 God alone. They say however that, until men become equal in number to the angels, the consummation of the world will not take place. For Moses says: He set the boundaries of the nations according to the number of the angels of God;261 as if he said: He set the bounds in this, in their becoming equal in number to the angels. The Apostle in point of fact also says: But when the fulness of the Gentiles has come in, then all Israel shall thus be saved,262 here clearly speaking of the final consummation. Nay, even the Lord manifestly hints obscurely at this when He says: At the resurrection they are equal to the angels.263 Ye then, as many as are Christians, and take hold of this hope, and have the Lord Christ as your example and model, when reading this book of mine, pray for me a sinner, that the Lord of all will not disdain me, but will in His mercy make me to be numbered along with you, in company with those on His right hand, while He overlooks our transgressions; and that I may not fail to obtain that blessedness unspeakable, through your prayers and supplications, and by the compassion and kindness and grace of Christ the Saviour of us all, to whom with the Father and with the Holy Ghost be glory both now and evermore world without end, Amen!
A Christian's Christian Topography embracing the whole world.
[Footnotes moved to the end and renumbered]
1. 1 According to the reading of the Greek text (poihsame/nou, a)rcame/nou), which Montfaucon follows in his Latin version, his should be substituted for our; but as Cosmas can neither have meant that Moses made divine scripture, which did not yet exist, his starting-point (ta_j a)forma_j), nor that the narrative of Moses began with the destruction of the firstborn of the Egyptians, I have taken as the proper readings poihsa&menoj and a)rca&menoj.
3. 1 Gr. meta&lhyin musthri/wn. Metalepsis is still in the Greek Church the term in use for the Holy Communion. By the Mysteries are meant the symbolic rites of the Christian faith, chiefly baptism and the eucharist. The mysteries recognised by St. Theodorus, abbot of the monastery of Studium, in Constantinople, who flourished towards the end of the eighth century, were baptism, eucharist, unction, orders, monastic tonsure, and the mystery of death or funeral ceremonies. The Greek Church now recognises seven mysteries: baptism, chrism or unction immediately after baptism, eucharist, priesthood, penance (meta&noia), marriage and unction (eu)xe/laion), administered by seven priests.
6. 1 The Heroopolitan, or Western Gulf at the northern extremity of the Red Sea, is called by Eusebius Clysma. As it was said to have been so designated from a town at the northern extremity of the gulf, Clysma was probably situated at, or somewhere near, Suez. Orosius mentions the wheel-tracks here spoken of by Cosmas, as does also Philostorgius in the abstract of his Ecclesiastical History made by Photius (Book in, c. 6). Athanasius, however, and others, thought Clysma was in Arabia, near the mountain to which Philo, an Egyptian bishop, was banished by Constantius.
8. 2 The Manifestation of Christ to the Gentiles, with special reference to the day on which he was worshipped by the Wise Men of the East.
9. 3 This word means a palm grove. See Strabo's Geog., xvi, ii, 41.
11. 2 Note by Montfaucon: "This, with the figures that follow, we have purposely omitted, because they were either omitted by the copyists, or clumsily drawn and otherwise useless."
13. 4 The picture is not given in Montfaucon.
23. 4 This word (from stu&fw, I contract) is to be found neither in Liddell and Scott's Dictionary nor in that of Sophocles. It is rendered by ex tela in Montfaucon's Latin version.
24. 1 See the Tabernacle as Cosmas has depicted it in Pl. 12 in the Appendix.
25. 2 One of the Ten Attic Orators. He was the friend and political ally of Demosthenes. His orations are lost.
26. 1 Gr. Katape/tasma, the inner veil, the outer being Ka&lumma.
27. 2 Gr. Korti/nai, a Latin word.
31. 1 See Pls. 14 and 17 in the Appendix.
38. 1 Irenaeus (76) and Epiphanius (Haer., 30, 13) inform us that the Ebionites (Jewish Christians) maintained the Jewish custom of turning in prayer towards Jerusalem as to the Holy City.
39. 1 The Greek text has la&brej, which Montfaucon has corrected into labi/dej.
40. 2 See Pl. 15 in the Appendix.
42. 4 See Pl. 19 in the Appendix.
45. 3 See Pl. 16 in the Appendix.
48. 1 Gr. papulew&nwn, incorrect for papilew&nwn or papiliw&nwn. This is a Latin word (pavilio, a butterfly, a tent), and hence Cosmas may be excused for tripping in its spelling. See Pl. 18 in the Appendix.
49. 2 Gr. Xitw_n kosu&mbrwtoj, kai\ e0pwmi\j, kai\ podh~rej (should be podh&rhj, xitw&n being understood), kai\ ki/darij, kai\ zw&nh, kai\ mi/tra, kai\ pe/talon. The word e0pwmi/j, as used by Greek writers, denotes the point of the shoulder where it joins the collar-bone, and also the part of the women's tunic which was fastened on the shoulder by brooches. The ephod, or vestment worn by the Jewish high priest over the blue tunic, consisted of two shoulder-pieces, one covering the back, the other the breast, and was therefore not unlike the Greek epomis.
50. 1 Gr. smara&gdou. The stones, however, were onyx-stones. See Exod., xxviii, 9.
51. 2 Gr. to_ logei=on th~j kri/sewj. Logeion denoted the place on the Attic stage from which the players spoke; pulpitum in Latin. Here it is used in the sense of lo&gion, an oracle. Kri/sij denotes the judicial sentence by which one is justified or condemned; and the wearing of the plate was meant to signify God's acceptance of Israel, grounded on the sacrificial functions of the high priest.
52. 3 Some think that in the breastplate there were inserted two images which personified Lights and Perfections, the mysterious Urim and Thummim. Others again take Urim and Thummim to be the breastplate itself, with its rows of precious stones. After the taking of Jerusalem it was carried to Rome, and with other spoils deposited in the Temple of Peace.
53. 4 Gr. a)spidi/skaj, lit. small shields; the ouches of our bible.
54. 1 Hence its name, podh&rhj.
55. 2 Gr. ki/darin bussinh_n. Cidarim Persae regium capitis vocabant insigne; hoc caerulea fascia albo distincta circumibat.----Q. Curtius, iii, 3.
56. 3 Gr. sfragi\j a(gia&smatoj Kuri/ou. See Exod. xxviii, 36: " And thou shall make a plate of pure gold, and grave upon it, like the engravings of a signet, Holy to the Lord." The plate was worn in the mitre, or upper turban.
57. 4 Gr. bombwna&ria. A very rare word. It is used by the Byzantine historian Malala.
58. 5 See Pls. 20 and 21 in the Appendix.
59. 1 According to Josephus, the bells signified thunder, and the pomegranates lightning, or were meant to give notice to the people outside when the priest entered or came forth from the Holy place.
61. 1 Numerous inscriptions, partly Egyptian and partly Nabataean, are still to be found on the rocks of Sinai. The Egyptian are of great antiquity, even long prior to Moses, as they contain the names of Egyptian kings from Senefu and Cheops down to Ramses II.
The discovery, moreover, of the cuneiform tablets at Tel-el-Amarna shows us that in the century before the exodus people were writing and corresponding with each other in the east from the Euphrates to the Nile. The Nabataean inscriptions, again, belong to the early inscriptions of the Christian aera, and the characters used are the Western Aramaic or Syriac. Cosmas, with easy credulity, took them to be as old as the time of Moses. Along with Eusebius and Jerome, he identified Mount Serbal with Mount Sinai. The famous monastery of St. Catharine was founded by Justinian in the time of Cosmas.
65. 2 Gr. Diagra&fomen . . . th_n stratopedarxi/an. The proper meaning of stratopedarchia is the office of a military commander. Cosmas seems to use it here instead of stratopedeuma---- a camp. Neither these sketches, nor those of the men of old and the Prophets mentioned below, are given.
69. 4 Gr. th_n i0sotimi/an kai\ to_ xre/oj th~j fu&sewj a)naplhrw&saj. The debt was that which was due by the woman to Adam, and which she acquitted by bearing Christ without seed. There seems to be reference also to the debt which Adam incurred by his sin, and which Christ paid by His death.
79. 1 Gr. fhsi/n, saith he, that is, the Apostle, which I think should be fasi\n -- say they.
93. 2 Montfaucon has here this note: "He (Cosmas) calls them Careni, from Charan or Carrhae, whither Abraham withdrew on leaving Chaldaea."
94. 3 Astronomy, Astrology, and Incantation.
97. 3 Gr. a)nta&llagma kai\ a)nti/deicin. The latter is not a classical word. The Dictionary of Sophocles gives demonstration as its meaning.
100. 1 Gr. e0k blastou~----the reading of the Septuagint.
103. 2 I.e., to receive the things which foreshadowed Christ.
104. 1 Gr. dia_ th~j vefe/lhj promhnu&wn th_n du&sin tou~ no&mou. The cloud here referred to is the thick cloud which rested upon Sinai at the giving of the law. Such expressions as: We are not under law but under grace, We have been discharged from the law, and others similar, used by St. Paul in his Epistle to the Romans, warrant Cosmas in speaking of the setting of the law under the Christian dispensation.
105. 2 Gr. diagwgh_n. The Latin version has commemorationem by a printer's error for commorationem.
106. 3 "We thus," says Montfaucon in a foot-note "restore the mutilated text, for in the Codex it is unlike the Greek Septuagint."
109. 1 The Latin version has collimat, a printer's error for collinet.
110. 2 Gr. a)stei=oj, tw~| Qew~| gennhqei\j. The Latin version has vir urbanus, Deo natus. In Exod. ii, 2, where Moses is described as a goodly child, the Septuagint has, as the corresponding epithet, a)stei/on.
111. 3 ta_j meta_ tau~ta do&caj merikw~j prodiegra&feto. The Latin version has: gloriam postea distributam per partes praenuntius adumbrabat.
112. 1 Gr. tou~ de\ w)|dou_j touj legome/nouj, boukoli/ouj. lit., "another, the songs called pastoral." boukoli/ouj is not a classical form.
113. 2 Gr. e1carxon. Cf. 'Aoidoi\ qrh&nwn e1carxoi. Homer, Il. xxiv, 271.
114. 3 Cosmas takes this to be a different man from the real author, the great Moses.
115. 1 The word used in the Septuagint for the Hebrew Selah.
118. 1 The last two Psalms are numbered in the Greek text 44 and 109, as in the Septuagint.
132. 2 The text has e0pitre/petai, but this must be a mistake for protre/petai and I have translated accordingly.
145. 4 Gr. a)ntidiaste/llwn. Montfaucon translates this by comparat, which not only reverses the meaning of the word, but makes the argument unintelligible. Cosmas means that the disciples having done, like David and his men, what was unlawful must, like them, be contradistinguished from the priests, though they were servants like themselves. In the last of the examples, Peter is rebuked for not having made a proper discrimination between Christ and the two prophets.
162. 1 Gr. megalofwno&tatoj. In the Greek Anthology this epithet is applied to Pindar.
165. 1 Gr. dio&ti ou) mh_ prosqh&swsin e)ti tou~ dielqei=n dia_ sou~ ei0j palai/wsin.
168. 1 This is a quotation from Zachar. xi, 12; see Matt, xxvii, 9-10.
174. 3 Gr. e0pi\to_ u#dwr th~j diekbolh~j. The Revised Version translates this passage thus: These waters issue forth towards the eastern region, and shall go down into the Arabah: and they shall go toward the sea; into the sea shall the waters go which were made to issue forth.
187. 4 Montfaucon has here the following note: Cosmas at first had placed the four great Prophets after the twelve minor; but afterwards either Cosmas himself or someone else mixed up the great with the minor as in the present text.
188. 1 Gr. w(j e0pi\ h(merologi/ou.
189. 1 Gr. e0n toi=j skrhni/oij. This is an erroneous transcription of the Latin word scrinium, a chest for keeping documents.
190. 2 Gr. Paraleipome/naj sc. bi/blouj. The two Books of Chronicles.
201. 1 Gr. skopw~| tini. Montfaucon translates: aliqua ratione et scopo; but Cosmas no doubt wrote sko&tw|, with some obscurity.
202. 1 Marcion flourished about the middle of the second century; Manichaeus, after the middle of the third.
203. 2 Eutychês, who belonged to the fifth century, was a Presbyter and Abbot at Constantinople, where he headed the party opposed to the Nestorian doctrines. He asserted that in Christ there is but one nature----that of the Incarnate Word. Arius denied that the Son was co-equal or co-eternal with the Father. He flourished in the earlier part of the fourth century. Apollinarius, called Apollinaris by Latin writers, was Bishop of Laodicca in 362. He was condemned as a heretic by the Council of Constantinople in 381, on the ground that his doctrine denied the true human nature of Christ.
210. 3 Gr. ka&tw peri\ th_n gh~n.
215. 1 Gr. e1cw tou~ ska&mmatoj u(perakonti/saj. Scamina. is a place dug out and sanded for wrestling, leaping, &c.
221. 1 The Greek text reads: kai\ a)naplhrw&saj ta_ loipa_ toi=j a!lloij. I have, however, translated in accordance with what must be the proper punctuation: kai\ anaplhrw&saj: ta_ loipa_ toi=j a!lloij o(moi/wj e0cei/pe.
226. 2 This idea Cosmas borrowed from St. Chrysostom.
233. 1 Gr. spermolo&gon. This word means figuratively one who picks up and retails scraps of knowledge, and is translated by babbler in Acts xvii, 18. See note on this word in Book vii.
236. 1 I.e., of the sacrament of the Lord's Supper.
237. 2 Gr. meta&lhyij. See note 1, p. 140.
238. 1 Gr. katoptrizo&menoi. I follow Beet's translation of this word----beholding re flected as in a mirror. 'The Revised Version has: reflecting as a mirror.
241. 1 Gr. u(posta&sesin. Hypostasis denotes the real nature of a thing, as underlying its outward form and properties. It is thus equivalent to ou)si/a, and to its own Latin etymological representative substantia. The Latin Christians, however, since they used substantia to translate ousia, found it necessary to use a different term to translate hypostasis, and adopted persona (pro&swpon). Hypostasis thus came to differ from ousia as species differs from genus, so that it denoted the specific nature (i0diw&mata) of a person or thing, in contra-distinction to the generic nature.
249. 3 Referring to the text quoted above: o( ei[j paralamba&netai and mia paralamba&netai.
251. 2 Gr. di/kh o)le/qrioj. The Latin version gives here poena aeterna.
252. 1 Gr. th~j despoi/nhj h(mw~n Qeoto&kou. Latin: Dominae nostrae deiparae. Nestorius, the Primate of the Eastern Church, vehemently condemned the application of the term Qeoto&koj to the Virgin Mary. "The Blessed Virgin", says Gibbon, "he revered as the Mother of Christ, but his ears were offended with the rash and recent title of Mother of God, which had been insensibly adopted since the origin of the Arian controversy. From the pulpit of Constantinople .... he repeatedly preached against the use, or the abuse, of a word unknown to the Apostles and unauthorised by the Church." He thus kindled a controversy which raged so furiously that it threatened the disruption of the Church, led to the convocation of the Council of Ephesus (431 A.D), and resulted in his deposition from his episcopal office. It seems singular that Cosmas, who was most probably a Nestorian, should use a term so much reprobated by his master.
255. 2 Gr. e1xomen. A printer's error for e1xwmen.
257. 1 Members of this sect still exist at Nablus, as they have existed in that district from the time of Christ. In their creed and form of worship they closely agree with the Rabbinical Jews, but they reject the "Traditions". They retain, however, the sacrifice of a lamb at the Passover.
258. 2 This was a Phrygian sect founded about 171 A.D. The Montanists practised fasting, held the doctrine of the Millennium, and were noted for their austere manners and the severity of their discipline. Jerome wrote against them.
259. 1 Manichaeus, called also Manes, being a Persian, maintained the doctrine of two co-eternal principles, the one good and the other evil.
261. 1 Deut. xxxii, 8. This is the reading of the Septuagint. In our version the reading is: according to the number of the Children of Israel.
This text was transcribed by Roger Pearse, Ipswich, UK, 2003. All material on this page is in the public domain - copy freely.
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