Exposition of the Faith 1 part 4/15

And they say that heaven encircles the earth spherically, and carries round with it, by its most rapid movement, both sun and moon and the stars; and that when the sun is above the earth it is day here, and below the earth night;

when the sun descends, here it is night, but there it is day.

But others have imagined heaven to be a hemisphere, from the divinely-speaking David's saying:

"Who stretches out the heaven like a curtain"—which signifies a tent—and the blessed Isaiah's:

"Who set up the heaven like a vault"; and that the sun and moon and stars, when they set, encircle the earth from west to north and thus come again to the east.

Nevertheless, whether it be thus or thus, all things have come to be and have been established by the divine command, and have the divine will and purpose as an immovable foundation.

For He Himself spoke, and they came to be;

He Himself commanded, and they were created.

He established them for ever and ever;

He set a decree which shall not pass away.

The heaven of heaven, then, is the first heaven, which is above the firmament.

For God also called the firmament heaven.

And it is customary for the divine Scripture to call the air also heaven, because it is seen above.

For it says, "Bless the Lord, all you birds of heaven"—I mean of the air;

for the air is the highway of the birds, and not the heaven.

Behold, three heavens, of which the divine Apostle spoke.

And if you should wish to take the seven zones as seven heavens, that does no harm to the word of truth.

And it is customary also in the Hebrew tongue to call heaven in the plural, heavens.

When it means to say the heaven of heaven, it has said heavens of heavens—which signifies the heaven of heaven, that which is above the firmament; and the waters above the heavens, either of the air and the firmament, or of the seven zones of the firmament, or of the firmament which by the custom of the Hebrew is named heavens in the plural.

All things, then, that are subject to generation are subject to corruption according to the sequence of nature, the heavens too; but by the grace of God they are held together and preserved.

But the Divine alone is by nature without beginning and without end.

"They shall perish, but You remain" (yet the heavens shall not be utterly destroyed);

for they shall wax old, and shall be rolled up like a garment, and shall be changed, and there shall be a new heaven and a new earth.

And by a great measure heaven is greater than the earth.

But the substance of heaven we ought not to inquire into, since it is unknown to us.

And let no one suppose that the heavens or the luminaries are ensouled;

for they are soulless and without sensation.

So that even if the divine Scripture says,

"Let the heavens rejoice, and let the earth be glad," it is summoning the angels in heaven and the men on earth to joy;

for Scripture also knows how to personify, and to speak of soulless things as if they were ensouled, as in: "The sea saw it and fled, Jordan was turned back," and "What ails you, O sea, that you fled?" and mountains and hills are asked the reasons for their skipping, just as it is also customary for us to say:

"The city gathered together"—not meaning the buildings, but the inhabitants of the city;

and "the heavens declare the glory of God"—not by sending forth a voice heard by sensible ears, but by setting before us the power of the Creator from their own greatness; contemplating their beauty, we glorify the Maker as the most excellent of craftsmen.

On light, fire, the luminaries—sun and moon and stars. Fire is one of the four elements, light and more upward-tending than the rest, both burning and giving light, created by the Creator on the first day;

"Let there be light," and there was light.

For fire is nothing other than light, as some say.

But others say that the cosmic fire is above the air, which they call ether.

In the beginning, then, God made the light, that is, on the first day, as the adornment and ornament of all visible creation;

for take away the light, and all things remain indistinguishable in the darkness, unable to display their own comeliness.

And God called the light day, and the darkness [He called night].

But darkness is not any substance, but an accident;

for the air does not have the light in its substance.

This very deprivation of the air of light, then, God called darkness.

And it is not the substance of the air that is darkness, but the privation of light, which indicates an accident rather than a substance.

And night was not called first, but day;

so that day is first and night last.

Night, then, follows the day, and from the beginning of the day until the next day is one full day-and-night;

"And there was evening, and there was morning, one day."

In the three days, then, as the light was diffused and contracted by the divine command, both day and night came to be.

But on the fourth day God made the great luminary, that is, the sun, for rule and authority over the day (for through it the day is constituted;

for it is day when the sun is above the earth, and the extent of a day is the course of the sun above the earth from rising to setting); and the lesser luminary, that is, the moon, and the stars, for rule and authority over the night, to give it light.

And it is night when the sun is below the earth, and the extent of the night is the course of the sun below the earth from setting to rising.

The moon, then, and the stars were appointed to give light to the night—not as being always below the earth in the daytime (for there are stars in the heaven above the earth in the daytime too), but the sun, by his stronger radiance hiding both these and the moon, does not let them appear.

In these luminaries the Creator deposited the first-created light, not as lacking other light, but that that light might not remain idle;

for a luminary is not the light itself, but a vessel of light.

Of these luminaries they say there are seven planets.

And they say that these move with a movement contrary to that of heaven, wherefore they also called them planets;

for they say that heaven moves from east to west, but the planets from west to east;

and that heaven carries round the seven planets with its own movement, as being swifter.

And the names of the seven planets are these:

Sun, Moon, Zeus (Jupiter), Hermes (Mercury), Ares (Mars), Aphrodite (Venus), Cronos (Saturn).

And in each zone of heaven there is one of the seven planets:

in the first, that is, the highest, Cronos (Saturn); in the second, Zeus (Jupiter); in the third, Ares (Mars); in the fourth, the Sun; in the fifth, Aphrodite (Venus); in the sixth, Hermes (Mercury); and in the seventh and lowest, the Moon.

They run a ceaseless course, which the Creator appointed for them, and as He established them, as the divine David says:

"The moon and the stars, which You have established";

for by saying "You have established," he signified the firmness and immutability of the order and sequence given to them by God.

For He appointed them for seasons and for days and for years.

For through the sun the four solstices/turnings are constituted.

for in it God made all things, and it indicates that even to the present day the budding of flowers takes place in it.

This is the equinoctial turning;

for it makes both the day and the night twelve hours.

This arises from the mid-point rising of the sun, being temperate, increasing the blood, being hot and moist, and mediating of itself between winter and summer—warmer and drier than winter, but cooler and moister than summer.

And this season extends from the 21st of March to the 24th of June.

Then, as the sun's rising mounts toward the more northerly parts, the summer turning (solstice) succeeds, mediating between spring and autumn, having from spring the heat and from autumn the dryness;

for it is hot and dry and increases the yellow bile.

This has the longest day, of fifteen hours, and the very shortest night, having the extent of nine hours.

And this extends from the 24th of June to the 25th of the month of September.

Then, again, as the sun returns to its mid-point rising, the autumnal turning (equinox) succeeds the summer turning.

It is in a way intermediate between cold and heat, dryness and moisture, mediating between the summer and the winter solstice, taking its dryness from the summer and its cold from the winter.

For it is cold and dry, and is by nature productive of black bile.

This again is an equinoctial season, having both day and night of twelve hours.

It extends from the twenty-fifth of September to the twenty-fifth of December.

When the sun descends to its smaller and lower, that is, its more southerly rising, the winter season sets in, being cold and moist and mediating between autumn and spring, taking its cold from autumn and its moisture from spring.

This season has the shortest day, being of nine hours, and the longest night, being of fifteen hours; and it is productive of phlegm.

It extends from the twenty-fifth of December to the twenty-first of March.

For the Creator wisely provided beforehand that we should not, passing from extreme cold or heat or moisture or dryness straight to the opposite extreme quality, fall into grievous illnesses;

for reason knows that sudden changes are dangerous.

Thus, then, the sun produces the seasons, and through them the year, and also the days and nights—the days by rising and being above the earth, the nights by setting below the earth and yielding the giving of light to the other luminaries, the moon and the stars.

They say also that there are twelve signs of the zodiac formed of stars in the heaven, having a motion opposite to that of the sun and the moon and the other five planets, and that the seven pass through the twelve signs.

Now the sun completes one month in each sign, and through the twelve months it passes through the twelve signs.

These are the names of the twelve signs and the months belonging to them.

Aries receives the sun on the twenty-first of the month of March; Taurus on the twenty-third of April; Gemini on the twenty-third of May; Cancer on the twenty-fourth of June; Leo on the twenty-fifth of July; Virgo on the twenty-fifth of August; Libra on the twenty-fifth of September; Scorpio on the twenty-fifth of October; Sagittarius on the twenty-fifth of November; Capricorn on the twenty-fifth of December; Aquarius on the twentieth of January; Pisces on the twentieth of February.

The moon passes through the twelve signs each month, being lower and traversing them more quickly;

for just as, if you make one sphere within another, the inner sphere will be found smaller, so also the course of the moon, being lower, is shorter and is accomplished more quickly.

Now the Greeks say that all things concerning us are governed by the rising and setting and conjunction of these stars and of the sun and moon;

for astrology is occupied with these matters.

But we say that signs do indeed come from them—of rain and drought, of cold and heat, of moisture and dryness, and of winds and the like—but in no way of our own actions;

for we, having been made self-determining by the Creator, are masters of our own actions.

For if we do all things from the motion of the stars, we do whatever we do by necessity;

and that which is done by necessity is neither virtue nor vice.

But if we possess neither virtue nor vice, we are worthy neither of praises and crowns nor of blame or punishments;

and God too will be found unjust, giving good things to some but afflictions to others.

Nor indeed will God exercise any governance or providence over His own creatures, if all things are led and borne along by necessity.

And the faculty of reason will be superfluous in us;

for being masters of no action, we deliberate in vain.

But reason is assuredly given to us for the sake of deliberation;

whence everything endowed with reason is also self-determining.

But we say that these are not in themselves the causes of anything that happens—neither of the coming into being of things that come to be, nor of the corruption of things that perish—but rather signs of rains and of the change of the air.

Perhaps someone might say that they are not causes of wars either, but signs; and that the quality of the air, being produced by the sun and moon and the stars in various ways, brings about different temperaments and conditions and dispositions.

But the conditions are within our power;

for they are controlled by reason and are led and turned by it.

Often, too, comets arise as certain signs of the deaths of kings; these are not among the stars that were made in the beginning, but are formed by the divine command at that very time and are again dissolved—since the star also that appeared to the Magi at the time of the Lord's compassionate and saving birth in the flesh for our sake was not one of the stars made in the beginning.

This is plain from the fact that at one time it made its course from east to west, at another from north to south, and at one time was hidden, at another appeared;

for this is not in accord with the order or the nature of the stars.

But one must know that the moon is illumined by the sun, not because God was at a loss to give it its own light, but in order that rhythm and order might be implanted in creation—of ruling and being ruled—and that we too might be taught to share with one another, to impart, and to be in subjection: first to God, the Maker and Creator and Master, and then also to the rulers appointed by Him; and not to inquire why this one rules and I do not, but to receive all things from God with thanksgiving and gratitude.

The sun and moon are eclipsed, reproving and chastening the folly of those who worship the creation instead of the Creator, showing that they are subject to change and alteration;

for according to its own nature everything that is corruptible is also subject to change.

The sun is eclipsed when the body of the moon becomes, as it were, a partition-wall before it, casting a shadow and not allowing the light to be transmitted to us.

Therefore, as much of the sun as the body of the moon is found to hide, so great also is the eclipse.

But if the body of the moon is smaller, do not wonder;

for the sun also is said by some to be many times larger than the earth, but by the Fathers to be equal to the earth;

and often a small cloud, or even a small hill or a wall, covers it.

The eclipse of the moon arises from the shadow of the earth, when the moon is fifteen days old and is found directly opposite at the extreme center—the sun being below the earth and the moon above the earth;

for the earth casts a shadow, and the sun's light does not reach to illumine the moon, and from this it is eclipsed.

But one must know that the moon was created perfect, that is, fifteen days old, by the Creator;

for it was fitting that it should be made complete.

But on the fourth day, as we have said, the sun was created.

The moon therefore preceded the sun by eleven days;

for from the fourth day to the fifteenth there are eleven.

Hence also, in terms of time, the twelve months of the moon fall short by eleven days of the twelve months of the sun;

for the sun's months contain three hundred sixty-five and a quarter days.

Hence, when the quarters are added together, one day is completed every four years, which is called the bissextile (leap day).

And that year has three hundred sixty-six days.

But the lunar years are of three hundred fifty-four days;

for the moon, from the time it is born—that is, renewed—waxes until it becomes fourteen and a half plus a quarter days old, and begins to wane until it is twenty-nine and a half days, and becomes wholly without light.

And again, joining with the sun, it is reborn and renewed, bearing a reminder of our resurrection.

Each year, therefore, it gives back the eleven days to the sun.

Accordingly, every three years the intercalary month occurs among the Hebrews, and that year is found to have thirteen months from the addition of the eleven days.

It is plain that the sun and the moon and the stars are composite, and are subject to corruption according to their own nature.

But their nature we do not know.

Some, then, say that fire apart from some matter is invisible, whence also when quenched it disappears.

But others say that this, when quenched, is changed into air.

The zodiacal circle moves obliquely, being divided into twelve sections, which are called signs.

Each sign has three decans, that is, thirty degrees;

the heaven therefore has three hundred sixty degrees—the hemisphere above the earth having one hundred eighty degrees, and that below the earth one hundred eighty.

Aries and Scorpio belong to Ares (Mars); Taurus and Libra to Aphrodite (Venus); Gemini and Virgo to Hermes (Mercury); Cancer to the Moon; Leo to the Sun; Sagittarius and Pisces to Zeus (Jupiter); Capricorn and Aquarius to Cronos (Saturn).

Aries belongs to the Sun, Taurus to the Moon, Cancer to Zeus (Jupiter), Virgo to Hermes (Mercury), Libra to Cronos (Saturn), Capricorn to Ares (Mars), Pisces to Aphrodite (Venus). The phases of the moon.

Conjunction, when it occurs in the same degree in which the sun is;

[†rising of the crescent], when it stands fifteen degrees from the sun;

[first appearance, when it becomes visible†]; the two crescent phases, when it is sixty degrees distant;

the two half-moons (quarters), when it is ninety degrees distant;

the two gibbous phases, when it is one hundred twenty degrees distant;

the two nearly-full phases, which are also called nearly-bright, when it is one hundred fifty degrees distant;

full moon, when it is one hundred eighty degrees distant.

We have spoken of two of each, one while waxing and one while waning.

The moon passes through each sign in two and a half days.

Concerning air and winds. Air is a most subtle element, both moist and warm, heavier than fire but lighter than earth and water, the cause of breathing and of speech, colorless—that is, not possessing color by nature—translucent and transparent (for it is receptive of light), and serving our three senses (for through it we see, hear, and smell), receptive of warmth and cold, dryness and moisture; all the local motions belong to it:

up, down, in, out, right, left, and the circular motion.

It does not possess light of itself, but is illumined by the sun, moon, stars, and fire.

And this is what the Scripture said, that darkness was upon the deep, wishing to show that the air does not possess light of itself, but that the substance of light is something else.

Wind is the motion of air.

And place too belongs to the air;

for the place of each body is that which encompasses it.

And what encompasses bodies, if not air? Now there are different places from which the motion of air arises, from which also the winds derive their names;

and they say that air is the quenching of fire, or the vapor of heated water.

At any rate, air is according to its own nature warm, but is cooled by its proximity to water and earth, so that its lower parts are cold and its upper parts warm.

Concerning winds. Wind is a great quantity of warm and dry exhalation moving about the earth.

Winds blow: from the summer sunrise, Caecias; from the middle [point]; from the equinoctial sunrise, Apeliotes; from the winter sunrise, Eurus; from the winter sunset, Lips; from the equinoctial sunset, Zephyrus; from the summer sunset, Argestes, that is, Olympias, which is also called Iapyx and Ergastes.

Then Notos and Aparctias, blowing against each other.

Between Aparctias and Caecias is Boreas; between Eurus and Notos is Phoenix, which is called Euronotus; between Notos and Lips is Libonotus, also called Leuconotus; and between Aparctias and Argestes is Thrascias, also named Cercius by the neighboring peoples.

There are therefore twelve in all, of which this is the diagram:

Summer sunrise, equinoctial sunrise, winter sunrise—Caecias, Apeliotes, Eurus; the middle [points]—Euronotus, Boreas, Phoenix; the north—Aparctias; the south—midday—Thrascias, Libonotus; the middle—Leuconotus, Cercius; Lips—summer sunset—Argestes—winter sunset—Iapyx; Olympias—summer sunset—Ergastes, Zephyrus.

Concerning waters. Water also is one of the four elements, a most excellent creation of God.

Water is an element moist and cold, heavy and downward-tending, easily diffused.

Of it the divine Scripture makes mention, saying:

"And darkness was upon the deep, and the Spirit of God moved upon the water";

for the deep is nothing other than much water, of which the limit is incomprehensible to men.

In the beginning, then, the water lay over all the earth.

And first God made the firmament, dividing between the water that is above the firmament and the water that is below the firmament;

for in the midst of the deep of the waters it was made firm by the Master's command.

Whence also God said the firmament should come to be, and it came to be.

But for what reason did God set water above the firmament? Because of the most fervent burning of the sun and the aether;

for immediately after the firmament the aether was spread out.

And the sun, together with the moon and the stars, is in the firmament;

and if water did not lie above, the firmament would be set ablaze by the heat.

[And God commanded] the waters to be gathered together into one gathering.

But to say "one gathering" does not mean that they were gathered together in one place;

for behold, after this He says:

"And He called the systems of the waters seas"—but the Word made clear that the waters came to be together, separated by themselves from the earth.

The waters, then, were gathered into their gatherings, and the dry land appeared.

Hence arose the two seas that encompass Egypt (for Egypt lies in the middle of the two seas), having various deeps and mountains and islands and bays and harbors, encompassing different gulfs, beaches and shores—for a beach is called the sandy [shore], and a shore the rocky and deep-near one, that is, the one having depth immediately at its beginning—and likewise the one toward the east, which is called the Indian [Sea], and the northern one, which is called the Caspian;

and the lakes too were gathered from this source.

There is, then, the Ocean, like some river encircling all the earth, concerning which, as it seems to me, the Scripture has spoken, saying that a river goes forth from Paradise having drinkable and sweet water.

This supplies water to the seas, which water, lingering and standing motionless in the seas, becomes bitter, as the sun and the siphons (whirlpools) ever draw up the finer part; whence also the clouds are formed and the rains come to be, the water being sweetened through the filtration.

This also is divided into four sources, that is, into four rivers.

The name of the first is Pishon, that is, the Indian Ganges.

[The name of the second is Gihon;] this is the Nile, which comes down from Ethiopia into Egypt.

And the name of the third is the Tigris.

And the name of the fourth is the Euphrates.

There are also very many other great rivers, of which some empty into the sea, while others are consumed within the earth.

Yet all the earth is perforated and undermined, having, as it were, certain veins, through which, receiving the waters from the sea, it sends up springs.

According to the quality of the earth, then, the water of the springs also comes to be.

For the sea water is filtered through the earth and thus is sweetened.

But if the place from which the spring is sent up happens to be bitter or salty, the water too is drawn up in accordance with the earth.

And often the water, being constricted and bursting forth by force, is heated, and from this the natural hot waters are brought up.

By the divine command, then, hollows came to be in the earth, and thus the waters were gathered into their gatherings;

and from this the mountains too came to be.

To the water, then, first of all, God commanded to bring forth a living soul, since He was about to renew man through water and through the Holy Spirit that in the beginning was borne over the waters;

for this is what the divine Basil said.

It brought forth living things both small and great—sea monsters, dragons, fishes creeping in the waters, and winged fowl.

Through the birds, then, water and earth and air are joined together;

for these came to be from the waters, but dwell on the earth and fly in the air.

Water is a most excellent element, of many uses, and a cleanser of filth—not only of bodily filth, but also of that of the soul, if it receive the grace of the Spirit.

Concerning seas. The Hellespont succeeds the Aegean Sea, ending at Abydos and Sestos;

then the Propontis, ending at Chalcedon and Byzantium;

there are the narrows, from which the Pontus (Black Sea) begins.

Again, from the beginning of Europe and Libya there is the Iberian [Sea], from the Pillars [of Hercules] to the Pyrenees mountains;

the Ligurian [Sea], as far as the borders of Tyrrhenia;

the Sardinian [Sea], that which lies beyond Sardinia inclining downward toward Libya;

the Tyrrhenian [Sea], that which ends at Sicily, beginning from the headlands of Liguria;

then the Cretan and Sicilian and Ionian and Adriatic [Seas], and that which is spread out from the Sicilian Sea, which they call the Corinthian Gulf, that is, the Alcyonian Sea.

The sea enclosed by Sunium and Scyllaeum is the Saronic;

then the Myrtoan and Icarian [Seas], in which are the Cyclades;

then the Carpathian and Pamphylian [Seas].

Beyond the Icarian, next the Aegean is poured forth.

The coastal voyage of Europe, from the mouths of the river Tanais (Don) to the Pillars of Hercules, is sixty-nine thousand seven hundred and nine stadia;

from Tinge (Tangier) to the Canopic mouth, twenty-nine thousand two hundred fifty-two stadia; and the coastal voyage of Asia, from Canopus to the river Tanais, together with the gulfs, is forty thousand one hundred eleven stadia.

In all, the coastline together with the gulfs of our inhabited world is one hundred thirty-nine thousand and seventy-two stadia.

Concerning the earth and the things that come from it. The earth is one of the four elements, dry and cold and heavy and immovable, brought by God from non-being into being on the first day.

"For in the beginning," it says, "God made the heaven and the earth."

Its seat and foundation no man has been able to tell;

for some say that it is established and fixed upon the waters, as the divine David says:

"To Him who established the earth upon the waters"; but others say upon the air.

[As David says:] "Who founded the earth upon nothing."

And again the God-proclaiming David, as in the person of the Creator:

"I," He says, "have made firm its pillars," calling its cohesive power "pillars."

But the phrase "He founded it upon the seas" indicates that the nature of water is poured around the earth on every side.

Whether, then, we grant that it is established upon itself, or upon air, or upon waters, or upon nothing, we must not depart from the pious understanding, but must confess that all things are held together at once, and are sustained and contained by the power of the Creator.

In the beginning, then, as the Scripture says, it was covered by waters and was unformed, that is, unadorned.

But when God commanded, the receptacles of the waters came to be, and then the mountains arose; and by the divine command [the earth] received its own adornment, beautified with all kinds of grasses and plants, in which the divine command implanted a power of growth, of nourishment, and of seed, that is, of generating its like.

And at the Creator's bidding it brought forth also all kinds of living creatures—reptiles and wild beasts and cattle.

All for the timely use of man; but of these, some are for food, such as deer, sheep, gazelles, and the like; others for service, such as camels, oxen, horses, asses, and the like; others for delight, such as apes;

and of birds, jays and parrots and the like; and of plants and herbs, some are fruit-bearing and edible, others fragrant and flowery, given to us for delight, such as the rose and the like, and others for the healing of diseases.