Christian Topography 1 part 9/22

Marginal note. This table is a type of the earth.

And the loaves are its fruits;

and the twelve loaves are a symbol of the twelve months of the yearly cycle.

The four corners, then, are the four turning-points of the year, each of three months.

And the wave-molding, twisted around in a circle, signifies the whole sea, which is called by those outside the Ocean.

And the surrounding rim signifies the land beyond the Ocean, where paradise also is.

The text. Again he commands that the veil be made of hyacinth-blue, purple, fine linen, and scarlet, variegated according to the four elements, that is, also for adornment.

For it is clear that they were made both for a type, and clear also for adornment and for liturgical service.

He places it through the middle of the tabernacle, dividing it into two spaces.

And in the inner space the ark of the mercy-seat was placed, and covered by the veil, and not seen by anyone.

And the mercy-seat was a type of the Lord Christ according to the flesh, as the Apostle says:

"Whom God set forth as a mercy-seat in his own blood." And again the high priest himself also was a type of the Lord Christ.

"For just as," he says, "the high priest enters into the inner tabernacle once a year, so also Christ entered once into the Holy Place, having obtained eternal redemption." And I recall having said these things many times.

And the diagram of the ark of the mercy-seat is as follows.

Marginal note. Zechariah and Abijah, then, were both priests, one in turn after another, entering year by year to make the remission of sins.

So it fell by lot to Zechariah to serve as priest at the time when the Lord was conceived, and having entered, as Luke writes, he saw a vision of an angel, who also said to him:

"Do not fear, Zechariah, for your petition has been heard, and your wife Elizabeth will bear you a son, and you shall call his name John," hinting to him by this that:

"You indeed entered here entreating that the people receive remission of sins; behold, then, I bring you good news that the matters of your prayer are being fulfilled:"

"for a son is born to you from Elizabeth, who is the forerunner of him who grants complete remission to the world."

Indeed John himself, pointing with his finger at the Lord Christ, cried out:

"Behold the Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world," so as to say:

He who abolishes and blots out mortality and corruption and mutability, and makes us immortal and incorruptible and immutable, no longer admitting the possibility of sinning.

The covered tabernacle. And the court of the tabernacle was a hundred cubits in length, having twenty pillars, and fifty cubits in width, having ten pillars.

And for the width toward the east of the tabernacle, he commands three and three pillars to be on this side and that; and the hangings, like garments, of fine linen alone, extending fifteen cubits, upon the three and three pillars; and the other four pillars to become the gate of the entrance of the court, whose hangings he commands to be variegated of the four colors:

but all the hangings of the court were of fine linen alone;

and their height was five cubits.

And he commands rings and pegs and cords, by which the covering of the tabernacle and the hangings of the court were stretched out, to be around both the tabernacle and the court.

And the sight of the whole tabernacle was awesome and excellent.

It is possible, then, to diagram these things also, as far as feasible, thus, as in the arrangement of what are called pavilions.

Here we have drawn the court and, in the middle, the tabernacle, covered and stretched out by the cords to the pegs, and the entrance of the court toward the east having hangings of the four colors, but of the whole rest of the court, of fine linen alone.

Marginal note. Perhaps someone will again say:

"Why did Moses command the entrance of the tabernacle to be in the east, and the inner tabernacle, that is, the Holy of Holies, to be in the west?" Such a person shall hear most briefly:

Since he was commanded by God to make the whole tabernacle as an impression of the whole world, according to the pattern shown to him on the mountain, so he also made it; and at the same time he also wrote that, when God had formed man, He made the beginning of man's entrance into the world toward the east, and thus commands that, growing and multiplying by gradual approach, he extend and fill the whole earth as far as the west:

for this reason the door of the tabernacle was made from the east, and the inner tabernacle, that is, the Holy of Holies, was made in the west.

Since, again, this itself was also an impression of the heavenly abodes, and it was ordained to be manifested in the last times through our high priest and all-king and Lord Jesus Christ, as being later, it was made toward the west.

...running back, it was unfolded and spread out; for this reason, as being second and shown at the last times, it came to be toward the west.

For this reason the Church too has everywhere one tradition, that Christians make one spiritual worship toward the east to God, as to Him who first appeared there to men, remembering the ancient things, and now giving thanks to Him who has multiplied and spread out the race of men from east to west.

For the Jews, thinking of God in a more corporeal manner, made their worship toward Jerusalem, where the temple was built.

It is possible to learn about this from the account concerning Daniel, who, having opened the windows that looked toward Jerusalem, made his worship, attending toward the temple.

Indeed, then, he who is found more to the east of Jerusalem makes his worship toward the west, and he who is more to the west, toward the east; and he who is more to the north, toward the south; and he who is more to the south, toward the north — in a certain manner the four showing themselves worshipping toward one another.

But Christians are not so; rather, since God is uncircumscribed, they make one uniform spiritual worship toward the east, to Him who from the beginning appeared to them from the east and filled them as far as the west.

To Him be glory forever.

Concerning the vestment of the priest. And the vestment of the priest is as follows:

a fringed tunic, and an ephod, and a robe reaching to the feet, and a headdress, and a girdle, and a mitre, and a plate; two shoulder-pieces upon the two shoulders of the priest, holding each to the other, and folded back from left to right and from right to left, covering the bareness of his neck:

the shoulder-pieces were woven, variegated, of gold thread and genuine purple and blue color and fine linen and scarlet.

And two emerald stones, upon his two shoulders on the shoulder-pieces, engraved with the names of the twelve tribes, six on the one stone and six on the other stone.

And the breastpiece of judgment was a woven cloth, a span in length and a span in width, square, doubled, of gold thread, again woven variegated also of the four colors, having also stones in four rows:

from three stones each row there come to be twelve, covered round with gold and fastened to the breastpiece, each stone having engraved in itself the name of one tribe.

And he commands two small golden shields to be made upon the two shoulders, on the front part, and from them plaited fringes of gold and colors, and the breastpiece to hang upon the breast; and again, with two chains of gold from the two sides of the breastpiece, bent back from below and behind, bound alternately upon the two flaps of the two shoulder-pieces which are at the back of the priest, so that the chains might be at the priest's back arranged crosswise, binding the breastpiece to the shoulder-pieces in front and behind.

And the under-tunic was entirely blue in color, from the breast down to the legs; its opening was woven together with it.

And the lower hem, as upon a border, was wide, of variegated colors;

and it had golden bells and golden pomegranates and flower-shaped ones, one beside another, hanging on the hem;

and a linen headdress, and a variegated girdle, which girded the under-tunic from above, beneath the breast.

And he wore a mitre upon the forehead, and above the mitre, blue, as upon a border, having a golden plate, on which was the seal of the Lord's holiness, that is to say the so-called Tetragrammaton:

and thus he entered into the Holy Place.

And he wore leg-coverings, that is, linen breeches, from the loins to the thighs, on account of unseemliness.

It is possible, then, also to depict the figure of the priest itself thus.

Here we have drawn the figure of the priest's garments, seen from the front and seen from behind.

But it has been shown more precisely concerning it in the exposition.

they signify the twelve tribes descended from one forefather, Abraham:

for this is signified by the fact that there is one emerald stone, which upon both his shoulders has become two.

And he commanded them upon the shoulders of the priest, so that the weight of the twelve tribes might be upon him, him bearing it and coming near to God on their behalf.

And the breastpiece upon the breast, being double, signifies soul and body; for this reason it is both double and placed upon the heart.

And the twelve different stones, since each of the men had different dispositions, and they were different tribes:

there, indeed, upon the shoulders, as from one forefather, he commanded one emerald stone;

but here, since both the tribes and the dispositions are different, he commands that different stones also be placed upon the breast.

And upon the forehead, he says the plate of the holiness of the Lord's seal had letters impressed, on which "God" was written, which they say in Hebrew is the Tetragrammaton.

For the rest, the other things were for adornment; but the golden bells and the pomegranates, so that they might produce a sound:

and it was taught by this symbol not to dare to enter into the Holy Place, before he made the sound audible.

For just as someone who is about to enter the presence of great men, if he does not find the one who announces him, begins to knock, not daring to enter at random, so also here it is commanded that he walk by means of the little bells and produce a sound.

And these things we have written concerning the tabernacle and the priest.

The text. "And there was a cloud over it by day and fire by night, before all Israel, in all their journeys," as it is written.

And continually the caravans of merchants, especially of the Ishmaelites and Midianites, came together to them, so that all things were supplied to them abundantly, God providing for their affairs, as it is written thus in Deuteronomy:

"Know how you passed through that great and terrible wilderness;"

"behold, forty years the Lord God was with you, you lacked for nothing." And again he says the same things in another way:

"Your garments did not wear out on you, your feet did not become calloused, for forty years."

"And you shall know in your heart that as a man disciplines his son, so the Lord your God disciplines you." And again likewise:

"He led you forty years in the wilderness;"

"your garments did not grow old, and your sandals did not wear out from your feet." For it is not, as certain fable-tellers—especially those of the concision—have supposed, that in saying this Moses meant that their garments and sandals themselves literally did not wear out at all, but rather that, he says, nothing was lacking to them in the wilderness, since the merchants continually brought them provisions.

For according to their view, how would it have been possible for the children born in the wilderness to make use of their parents' garments and sandals, since these were full-grown sizes while the children were very small? And how, being commanded to make the showbread fresh each day and set it upon the table, could they have made it, unless the merchants brought them grain? Or whence would they have had fine flour, to make the wafers, or the shaggy skins and dark-blue skins for the coverings of the tabernacle, unless they bought them from the merchants? For this reason—because the merchants supplied them by the providence of God, yet they murmured against God and against Moses, and moreover possessed the wealth of the Egyptians—he worked wonders for them, ungrateful and unbelieving as they now were: at one time abundant water from the rock, at another manna from heaven, at another quail from the sea, supplying it for thirty days;

again, disciplining them to soberness, he chastised them with blows: at one time consuming part of the camp with fire, at another destroying twenty-four thousand by death, at another through serpents, and at another—concerning those around Dathan and Abiram and Korah—by a god-sent wrath the earth swallowed them up alive, together with their whole households and their cattle, teaching them neither to disbelieve nor be ungrateful toward God, but to live soberly.

And having received from God the law in written form, and being newly taught letters, God, using the wilderness as it were a quiet schoolhouse, allowed them for forty years to hew the letters into stone,

at every resting-place, upon all the stones of those places, broken off from the mountains, inscribed with carved Hebrew letters, as I myself, having journeyed on foot through those places, do testify.

And certain Jews, having read these, related them to us, saying that it was written thus:

"The departure of so-and-so, of such-and-such tribe, in such-and-such year, in such-and-such month"—just as also among us many often write in lodging-places.

And they themselves, as having newly learned letters, continually made use of them and multiplied their writing, so that all those places are full of carved Hebrew letters, still preserved even now for the sake of unbelievers, as I myself suppose.

And it is possible for anyone who wishes to go to those places and see for himself, or indeed to inquire and learn concerning this, that we have spoken the truth.

Thus the Hebrews were the first to be made wise by God, and having received letters through those stone tablets, and having learned them for forty years in the wilderness, handed them down at that time to their neighbors the Phoenicians—first to Cadmus, king of the Tyrians; from him the Greeks received them, and thereafter, in succession, all the other nations.

And they encamped in the wilderness according to the order given to them by God: the priests and Levites surrounding the tabernacle, and around them the twelve tribes—three toward the east of the tabernacle, among which the tribe of Judah happened to be in the middle, together with Moses and Aaron, leading the rest; and three toward the south, and three toward the west, and three toward the north.

Thus they rested, and thus they set out and marched, according to this diagram.

Thus, then, they encamped in the wilderness each time.

Now when Aaron and Moses had died, and Joshua the son of Nun had taken over their command, and had led them across the Jordan miraculously, he established them as heirs of the land of promise, according to the predictions and ordinances given from God.

And the tribe of Judah held the metropolis, Jerusalem, until the one who was awaited and foretold through the law and the prophets came forth from among them, through whom God wrought for the world the great and eternal salvation and restoration—I mean the Lord Christ according to the flesh—in accordance with the promises of God made to Abraham, and his purpose from above and from the beginning;

as also the Apostle, in the Epistle to the Galatians, as though being questioned by someone and saying:

"Why then was the law given?" He answers most swiftly and says:

"It was added because of transgressions, until the seed should come to whom the promise had been made, having been ordained through angels, by the hand of a mediator"—so as to say that:

for this reason the law was added, so that through it, and being guarded also by the priesthood, the nation that had received the promises—that is, the nation of Abraham—might be preserved, and no mixing with another nation might occur to it, so that the one foretold from it might be known to all, through whom the world is renewed and the purpose and dispensation of God from above is fulfilled.

For it was God's purpose from above and from the beginning to impart to others the gift of being, and to let them partake of his goodness, of reason and knowledge, and of immortality and blessedness and every good thing, so far as it was possible for the one partaking to partake.

And since the divine alone is untaught and is in itself true knowledge, while it is proper to irrational beings to be moved by natural impulses without reason and true knowledge, and likewise inanimate things are altogether devoid of motion and natural impulse and knowledge, God, who loves mankind, having made rational beings to be, as far as was possible, something in between, receptive of understanding through learning and experience, tested and appointed for them, according to his purpose from above, the state to come, that is, the realm above;

but first, having determined this present state, in which, using it also as a useful schoolhouse for what benefits us, he made it mortal and mutable, so that we might, by a discerning and rational disposition, be able to acquire a share in good things, and turn away from evil things,

so that, conducting ourselves daily among them, we might flee from some things and cleave to others;

for this reason also there are laws and threats and places of punishment, checking our impulse toward evil;

and finally, death too, which seems to be inflicted out of wrath, but in truth provides a cessation from this toilsome life and from the schoolhouse—just as God, by his dispensation, brought it also upon the first man—making sin hateful to him and making righteousness desirable, urging him and, through him, all people, toward the state prepared beforehand for us: an eternal kingdom, and righteousness, and sanctification, and redemption, and blessedness, which the purpose of God willed from the beginning.

Therefore God, wisely, and very wisely, casts death upon the sin of the first-formed man, as though out of wrath, in order to make sin hateful to him.

Then again, so that man might not fall sick with despair on account of his evils, he takes care of him as a father cares for a child, and makes garments for him.

Then he avenges the blood of Abel; he translates Enoch, so that the sentence of death does not hold power over him; he saves Noah from the world's shipwreck; he chooses Abraham, from whom and through whose seed he works the restoration of the world; Isaac and Jacob, the patriarchs, and their children, and the twelve tribes descended from them—whom also, with a high arm, he redeems from the slavery of the Egyptians; having wondrously guided them through the wilderness, and having given the law in writing, and having arrayed the nation into ranks, he allotted to them the land of Palestine as an inheritance.

And he raised up for them prophets: David, their first king; Samuel; Elijah, so great a man; his disciple Elisha; the Twelve and the Four, the great ones, proclaiming the coming of the Lord Christ, who according to the flesh was to arise from among them, in whom and through whom the purpose of God from the beginning, and his dispensation—great and salvific—comes to pass and is fulfilled.

For just as he arranged, through the sin of the first-formed man, to introduce death, so also, through the obedience of the Lord Christ according to the flesh, he arranged the resurrection and the restoration and the recapitulation of all creation.

For as Paul says:

"Through man came death, and through man the resurrection of the dead"; and:

"to sum up all things in Christ, both the things in heaven and the things on earth." This is the great salvation and dispensation and wisdom of the God who brought all things into being and again restores them.

For this reason he made the two states from the beginning, and toward the state to come, after this present life, is directed the whole purpose of divine Scripture, and the Christian proclamation, and the hope of Christians.

For this reason also, in baptism, unless one first confesses the confession of the Holy Trinity and believes in the resurrection of our flesh, he is not baptized, nor numbered among Christians, nor proclaimed a believer.

This is the purpose of the whole God-inspired Scripture, both Old and New Testament: that, according to the type of the tabernacle constructed by Moses in the wilderness, God made the entire universe into two regions—I mean this world, in which he appointed us, mortal and mutable, first to pass our life as in a schoolhouse, and to be tried by things painful and pleasant;

for without discipline it is impossible for learning to occur;

"for all discipline," it says, "for the present does not seem to be a matter of joy, but afterward..." Therefore, for those who had been reasonably tried, he determined at last to grant his eternal good things in the state to come, and to fulfill his own purpose from above and from the beginning, having, as God, ordered our affairs as was fitting for him and beneficial for us.

We therefore depict also the encampment of the Israelites in the wilderness, and the crossing of the Jordan together with Joshua after the death of Moses, and their rest in the land of promise, and Jerusalem, and how they inherited the land and took possession of it.

At the Jordan, with Joshua the son of Nun.

While they dwelt in this land, God raised up for them, from time to time, prophets to proclaim the coming of the Lord Christ according to the flesh, through whom the state to come was destined to be made manifest, reminding them of the promises which he had made to Abraham.

We therefore depict each of the elders and prophets, adding inscriptions to show how each proclaims, having been deemed worthy to say something concerning the coming of the Lord Christ, whether by words or by deeds.

For this too contributes to our discourse, so that in this also we may show, from beginning to end, toward what purpose all divine Scripture is directed.

This is the first-formed Adam, who was deemed worthy to foretell concerning himself and his own wife, that by the blessing of God, through their union, both are joined into one flesh—which the Lord testifies in the Gospels, saying that God spoke these things through the mouth of Adam, who also became his own bride's escort.

But the apostle Paul made use of this example, taking it up in a more mystical sense concerning the Lord Christ and the Church, saying:

"This mystery is great;"

"but I speak concerning Christ and concerning the Church."

For just as Adam is the head of all men in this world, being their cause and father, so also the Lord Christ, according to the flesh, is the head of the Church and the father of the age to come.

This one again was first deemed worthy to become, and to be called, the image of God; but in the case of the Lord Christ this has come to pass more properly, as also the Apostle says:

"Who is the image of the invisible God." This one alone, and first among men, brought forth the female from his rib through God, without seed; and the Lord Christ, according to the flesh, was likewise brought forth without seed, as a male from a female, thereby fulfilling the equal honor and the debt owed to nature.

This one, first among men, having been deceived by the devil, sinned;

the Lord Christ, on his behalf, paid off the debt, rightly tearing up the handwritten bond and trampling down the enemy.

Marginal note. In the Epistle to the Romans, the Apostle said that Adam was a type of Christ himself, saying:

"who is a type of the one to come"; and likewise he called this one first, and Christ second.

Although God threatened the first man with death on the very same day, if he should transgress the commandment, yet when he transgressed, God did not immediately bring death upon him according to the threat, but was longsuffering, and only disciplined him, and cast him out of paradise, and only later, after a long old age, allowed him to die—God thereby showed much forbearance toward mankind, especially in also providing garments for him, and showed that he did not bring death upon human nature out of wrath, but, through prudence and wisdom, teaching man discernment, making sin hateful to him and righteousness desirable.

And through the guarding of the tree of life, he taught man to love and to hope for immortality.

Glory to him who, from the beginning to the end, orders the affairs concerning man.

Another marginal note. It is again possible for anyone who wishes to learn that it was not by wrath, but rather by love for mankind and by wisdom, that he ordered the affairs concerning man: because even after the transgression, he not only spares him and provides for him, but also deemed him worthy of the gift of prophecy.

For he says concerning his wife:

"And he called her name Life, because she is the mother of all the living." For it was not within his own power to foresee that he would produce a world of men from his wife, unless a divine power and grace had been breathed into him.

Again, when Cain had murdered Abel, who had not yet had children, but was young and untimely cut off, while Cain still lived, Adam, foreseeing again that both Cain and his seed were destined to perish in the flood, named the third son whom he begot Seth, as it were "foundation"—for this is how "Seth" is interpreted—thereby uttering two prophecies at once: that the seed of Cain was destined to perish, and that this one who was born was, as it were, a new beginning and foundation of mankind.

...not he himself alone, but his wife also named him thus; she too, foreseeing, gave him this name:

And she conceived and bore a son, and called his name Seth, saying:

'God has raised up for me another seed instead of Abel, whom Cain killed'—she said this also because:

'Abel died childless, but the seed of Cain will perish;'

'this one God has given me as a new foundation for all mankind'

But as for Adam—after the writer has told of the birth of Seth and of his son Enos—taking up again the matters concerning Adam, he speaks thus:

'This is the book of the generation of mankind:'

'in the day when God made Adam, he made him according to the image of God;'

'male and female he made them, and he blessed them;'

'and he called his name Adam, in the day when he made them'

'And Adam lived two hundred and thirty years, and begot [a son] according to his own form and according to his own image, and called his name Seth.' Here too he himself called his name Seth, as being the foundation of all mankind and bearing his own characteristics and his own dignities.

It should be noted here that he says God gave a name to the first man, and the man [gave a name] to the woman, and both [gave a name] to the child

And from the things ordained concerning man, the invisible Powers too, being rational, are taught the things concerning God

For man, being a certain bond of all creation, and an image of God, the things ordained concerning him become a place of instruction both for himself and for all rational beings

For when he had sinned and received the sentence of death, these [Powers] lamented, reckoning it a cause of hopelessness both for themselves and for the whole [creation];

but seeing again that God was caring for him, they took on a certain good hope concerning him and concerning themselves

And this the Lord also makes clear in the Gospels, saying:

'There is joy in heaven over one sinner who repents,' just as it is clear there is also sorrow, when someone sins in the opposite way