基督教地誌 第 1 章 第 6/22 段

Then again, as they were reasoning and considering also about the earth, likewise, having gathered the water together, he reveals it, naming the dry land earth, as a master setting a name upon it, just as he also called the firmament heaven.

Then he brings forth from the earth seeds and plants and every green thing and trees, teaching that he makes use of his own creatures, each according to what he wills.

Then, since on the third day he had brought forth the plants and the seeds, on the following day, namely the fourth day, since such things needed tempering and order, he made from the light which he had earlier brought forth the luminaries and the stars, and, having set the multitude of the invisible Powers throughout the firmament of heaven, he commanded them rationally to move these in order, together also the air, and to make them rise and set and revolve for the good tempering of the plants and of all who were to make use of them, so that, when they set, creatures might be cooled by the coolness and motion of the air, but by the presence of the luminaries might enjoy warmth.

Some, then, of the invisible Powers, having remained doubtful in judgment from the beginning until now, and being ungrateful toward their maker, having proceeded forgetfully with regard to the order entrusted to them by God, being puffed up by the sharpness of their nature and by the power and reason present in them, counting as nothing the voice and command of God that had gone forth, but despising it, nor indeed understanding that they had been brought forth as creatures along with the darkness, dared, swollen with folly, to suspect that they themselves had come to this state of their own accord — I mean the devil, who was entrusted with authority over the air, and others with him who were entrusted with other things — and having seized for themselves the honor and worship owed to God, and having become puffed up and quickly disobedient, lest they should also harm others, were cast down from their height and rank about the earth.

Whence also on the sixth day, after man had been formed, he, having been found about the earth and having envied such great care of God toward man, wished to drag man down with him into his own sickness.

The text. Again, on the fifth day he commands various ensouled living creatures to be brought forth from the waters according to their kind — aquatic creatures, sea monsters, and the rest — together also with all birds that fly through the air;

then again on the sixth day, from the earth, all the cattle and wild beasts and creeping things according to their kind.

And after he had constructed the whole house, most complete and well-fitted, then — just as with a king who has built a city and filled it, and then sets up his own image, having colored it and adorned it with various colors — so also the all-wise God, as though having gathered together his diverse and manifold works, both rational and irrational, mortal and immortal, corruptible and incorruptible, sensible and intelligible, accomplishes and constructs one living being composed of all the natures, I mean man, and places him in the prepared house, as in the position of his own image, signifying that there is one single maker of the universe.

...shining in part, they complete the course of the night for the sake of man; and all of them mark months and seasons and turnings and years, and serve as signs for those who cross the seas and for those who journey through the desert, having been created for men; while air, serving the image, is for breathing and refreshment and good temperament; fire, again, is a servant for baking bread, for warmth, for lights at night, for cooking, and for various needs; water, serving, is for drinking, for washing, for leavening, for watering, and for many other needs; earth, ministering, is for dwelling and for the production of all kinds of fruits and fruitless trees and for many other needs; clean four-footed animals are for enjoyment and for clothing; cattle for service and rest; wild beasts for delight and for fear; creeping things likewise — all serving for the exercise of the rational faculty and providing what is useful, for the sake of man, who is the bond of friendship of all creation, who walks upon the ground yet flies with his mind and surveys the whole, who is upright in form and easily beholds heaven as his dwelling, who is king of all things upon earth and co-reigns with the Master Christ in the heavens and becomes a fellow-citizen of the heavenly beings, to whom all creation, as to the image of God, renders service, being subject to God and preserving goodwill toward the Creator.

Marginal note. Again, on the fifth day, when ensouled living creatures were brought forth from the waters, they were taught that God is also the maker of this water that had been brought forth together with them;

likewise again, more completely, when ensouled living creatures were brought forth from the earth on the sixth day, they are taught that God is the maker of the whole, both of ensouled and unensouled things.

All the angels, then, again looked about, seeing all the works of God which had come to be before their eyes in the six days, and they reasoned that all these things were indeed diverse and wonderful and great and worthy of astonishment, but they did not see among them anything similar to themselves — rational, invisible, and intelligible.

And it was possible for them to suspect whether perhaps there was one maker of the rational, invisible, and intelligible things, and a different maker of the irrational, sensible, and visible things.

Wishing to remove this suspicion of theirs, God, last of all, constructs one living being composed of all the natures, I mean man — of both rational and irrational, sensible and intelligible, visible and invisible — and sets him up as in the position of his own image, signifying that there is one single maker of the universe.

Whence the angels, greatly astonished, were taught with their very eyes, through man, the glory and the power and the majesty and the wisdom and the goodness of the one and only God, and that all the elements and the things that came into being after them had been prepared beforehand for the sake of man.

They therefore ministered eagerly as obedient servants, and performed their service, moving all things for the benefit of the image of God, being, as it were, its own proper members.

Whence again they greatly rejoice at the good conduct and righteousness of men, but are greatly grieved at their misconduct and sin, as the Lord himself also says, that there is great joy in heaven over one sinner who repents.

It should be noted here that, just as before the eyes of the angels he first brought forth from non-being the sensible, visible, and irrational light, and afterward the rational, intelligible, and invisible, so also in the case of man he first formed the body, according to Moses, and thus the soul.

It was again possible for some to suspect that, if there had been another day after the six days, God would certainly have made certain other things; but since there is no other day after the six, he was unable to bring forth other things.

Removing this suspicion of theirs, God makes also the seventh day superfluous, having worked nothing on it, showing thereby that the world is complete and that nothing is lacking to it with regard to its coming-into-being;

for if something were lacking, he would have supplied on the seventh what was lacking;

but now, since nothing was lacking to it, he rested on the seventh from all his works, which he had begun to make.

Why did he make all creation not in one day, or two, or three, or four, or five, but in six? One will hear, in a truth-loving manner, that, since the angels were rational and mutable, one day would not have sufficed for their instruction, if the whole had come to be in one day;

for otherwise they would have reasoned confusedly that certain apparitions had come to be, and had been brought forth in some disorderly manner.

But Almighty God, having in orderly fashion set apart, part by part, a day for each individual work, for the discernment and instruction of the angels, thus wrought the whole;

first of all, on the first day, after they had been brought forth together with heaven and earth and the elements, he made the light before their eyes; on the second day, the firmament; on the third, having gathered the waters, he brought forth from the earth the trees and green things; on the fourth, the luminaries, having adorned heaven; on the fifth, the swimming and flying creatures from the waters; on the sixth, the living creatures from the earth and man — having wrought these six universal works in the six days.

For this reason, therefore, part by part in the six days, he made the whole world, for the discernment and instruction of the angels, according as they, being keener in perception, were able each day to discern the nature of the work and its maker.

It is possible for anyone who wishes to learn that the angels were brought forth together with heaven and earth, from the fact that, they being present at all his works, God would first set forth a word before their eyes for their instruction, saying:

"Let this and that be" and "Let us make this";

but in the case of heaven and earth, since they did not yet exist beforehand, he did not set forth any word at all in advance, saying:

"Let heaven and earth and the things with them come to be";

for there were none who could hear and be instructed;

but in the case of all the rest, since there were those who were being instructed, the word reasonably went forth in advance.

Since, then, all things were brought forth together with heaven and earth at once, Moses the writer, through the Holy Spirit, began from that very fact, speaking of them as being all-encompassing:

"In the beginning God made heaven and earth." Further,

The Apostle, knowing well the things concerning man—that is, also man's very form—in the Epistle to the Romans has placed man higher than all things, as heavenly, on the basis of what is to come:

"And they exchanged the glory of the incorruptible God for the likeness of an image of corruptible man, and of birds, and four-footed beasts, and reptiles"—speaking of man as above all, then beneath him the birds, and beneath these again the four-footed beasts, and beneath these the reptiles which nest rather beneath the earth, setting them forth as it were upon a ladder.

All the irrational four-footed animals, carrying their body on four feet and inclining their gaze toward the earth, not one of them is able to easily look upon heaven; likewise also reptiles, winding their whole body about the earth, not one of them is able to look upon heaven.

All birds, being two-footed and having their feet proportionately placed in the middle of the body, when flying aloft do look about the earth, but when standing, not even they can easily gaze around at heaven.

But man alone, of the animals on earth, since he is rational and destined to be heavenly, received his form proportionately from the Creator:

for he is two-footed, as being destined to fly and walk in heaven;

and he has an upright and erect form, as being ready and destined to ascend on high;

and he easily looks upon both earth and heaven with his eyes, as one hastening to ascend from earth to heaven, earthly and heavenly things being joined together through him.

All irrational animals, effecting the union of mating generally from behind and coupling without seeing one another face to face, use mating irrationally and shamelessly;

but man alone, approaching face to face, acts as a rational being, so that, seeing one another, they may accomplish the union with reason, modesty, and honor, and may thankfully hymn with reason the one who made them—who gave and appointed to nature to have its own proper help and motion within itself, toward the increase and multiplication of our race.

...which God made, since the two sides press the whole body together;

for He made her neither from his front, lest the woman should be exalted above the man, nor from his back, lest the man should be exalted above the woman, but from the side, as being equal by nature;

even if the man takes precedence as cause in time, yet not according to nature itself.

And further, on account of the hand always covering and guarding its own side, thus, having made the female from the male and the male from the earth, He called both to be one flesh, from the construction of the two sides and by the fruit springing from their union.

For this reason, the one who fornicates sins, alienating his own flesh and sowing a disorderly fruit; but the adulterer is classed with the murderer, as dividing the one flesh and committing murder.

Perhaps someone might again raise a difficulty, saying:

Why, when all the irrational creatures were made male and female together by God, did man alone not come into being together with the female, but alone by himself, and only afterward did the female come to be? Such a person will hear that, whereas all the animals made by God are irrational and unable to know anything, while all the angels, having come into being together as one, are rational, and recognized, in the particular things that came to be—I mean in the six days—the Maker of the universe, it was necessary that man too, having been fashioned rational by God and being a bond of all creation, should himself also be taught the Creator of the universe.

But since he did not exist before, but came into being after all things, he was not able to know God either from the things that came into being before him, or from himself; God was pleased not to bring forth the female together with him, but afterward, so that through her he might know that the one who had brought forth this likeness from him had also brought forth him himself.

For this reason He also cast a trance upon him and made him sleep, so that, with his rib being taken, without pain and without grief, as in sleep, through the grace of God he might receive perception of what was happening, and might hymn the Maker, confessing and saying:

"This now is bone of my bones, and flesh of my flesh;

she shall be called Woman, because she was taken out of her husband." Since, then, the angels came into being rational and were instructed as to the Cause through the works that came to be in the six days, man too was necessarily instructed through the female, and learned that God is the Creator both of himself and of the whole universe—especially having beforehand heard God saying:

"Let us make a helper for him corresponding to him." [The text.] Then again, on the seventh day, after revealing to Moses the whole making of the cosmos and deeming him worthy of such mystical visions, He then conversed with him, and having given him the Law written on stone tablets by the finger of God, and having made him wise in the experience of letters, and having glorified his face, let him descend from the mountain.

Then after these things He commands him to construct a tabernacle according to the pattern which he had seen on the mountain, as though it were a type of the whole cosmos.

He made, then, the tabernacle, wishing as far as possible to imitate the form of the cosmos, thus:

thirty cubits in length and ten in breadth, and having divided it in the middle by a veil, he made it into two spaces, and the first was called the Holy Place, the second, that beyond the veil, the Holy of Holies.

And the outer part of this was a type of this visible cosmos, according to the divine Apostle, from the earth up to the firmament, in which there was a table on the north side, and upon the table twelve loaves, holding the place of a type of the earth, having all kinds of fruits, one for each month, as it were twelve for the year.

And around the table, in a circle, was a twisted moulding, signifying the sea, called Ocean; then again around this, in a circle, a border of a palm's breadth, signifying the land beyond, where also is Paradise toward the east, where also the extremities of the first, vaulted heaven rest upon the extremities of the earth on every side.

Then also he placed the lampstand on the south side, giving light toward the north to the earth from the south;

upon it he placed the seven, signifying—

and the lamps signify all the luminaries.

And after the veil is the second tabernacle, called the Holy of Holies, and the ark of the testimony and the mercy seat, and above it the Cherubim of glory overshadowing the mercy seat—this is a type, according to the Apostle, of the heavenly things from the firmament up to the higher heaven, just as from the veil to the wall of the inner tabernacle makes the innermost space.

So then, having been made wise by God in letters, and having received from revelation, with his very own eyes, the origin of all things, and having his face glorified so that he could not be seen by his kinsmen without a veil—then, first among men, as one trustworthy and glorified by God, he wrote the book of Genesis, saying:

"In the beginning God made heaven and earth"—the beginning of the origin of the cosmos coming from God, as these being all-encompassing and existing, and all the remaining creatures being within, which He made together with them, and which He made afterward part by part, having declared:

Then, having begun from the first day and finished by the sixth, describing all things existing within heaven and earth, and having said that God rested on the seventh and did nothing, because all creation had been completed and nothing was lacking to the most beautiful harmony of the cosmos, he then again adds:

"This is the book of the generation of heaven and earth"—having considered it sufficient that all things within heaven and earth be signified together.

"For in six days God made heaven and earth and all things in them, and on the seventh he rested from all his works which God began to make"—having, through all this, expressed the same meaning throughout: that all things are indeed within heaven and earth; that before those seven days he had made nothing whatsoever; but that he began on the first day and finished on the sixth, and rested on the seventh, having made nothing else; and that He made only two heavens, the first together with the earth, and the second placed in the middle, and made the two states, this present one and the one to come, just as also in the tabernacle He ordered two spaces to be made in imitation of the cosmos.

"For according to the pattern," He says, "that was shown to you on the mountain";

which the Apostle, interpreting, writing to the Hebrews, said was a type of this cosmos—the outer tabernacle—and of the heavenly things—the inner.

Since, then, such a great and divine cosmographer as Moses is testified to and glorified—in the Old Testament by God, in the New by Christ—and other God-bearing prophets and apostles bear witness together with him concerning all things, both concerning the forms of all creation, just as we set forth in the discourse before this one, and concerning creation itself, and agree with him in all things—who is so perverse and foolish and counterfeit, especially one who calls himself a Christian, as to disbelieve so great a truth and sacred testimony, and would not rather, bowing his head to the earth, be put to shame by the multitude of testimonies, the election, the revelations, the wisdom, the glory, the predictions, the paradoxical signs, the great wonders, the outcomes of the prophecies, the testimony of God himself speaking with him face to face as a friend to a friend and in person, and in the New Testament the Master Christ having borne witness to him many times? Indeed—that I too may speak thus more fervently—unless someone were a fighter against God, he would not be able to gainsay this;

for, repenting again, he will say:

"The finger of God is in this," and he will confess defeat, just as the Egyptian enchanters and sorcerers, Jannes and Jambres, said concerning it—

to those who fabricate such things—not so much the ancients, but rather certain moderns, who have devised rather futile defenses for the difficulties of their own doctrines. But how can those who pay heed to these men say that there are waters above heaven, according to Scripture, or that the first, second, and third day came to be without the course of sun, moon, and stars? Or again, how did the flood in the time of Noah cover all the earth, and the waters again withdraw? Or again, how can they say that there will be an end of the cosmos, and that the course of the falling stars will cease, and that day and night will no longer come to be in succession, and that this state of things will cease altogether, while another, estranged from this and surpassing it, will be manifested, and that the righteous will enter into the higher heaven, within this visible heaven, where is the kingdom of heaven, the second tabernacle called the Holy of Holies, of which the inner space in the tabernacle was a type, where also the Master Christ entered, having been taken up into heaven above the firmament, becoming a forerunner on our behalf, having inaugurated for us a new and living way? Or again, how can they say that after the consummation there are seven or eight or nine heavens, or that heaven revolves again in a circle—what they call a sphere? To what use is this? Let them speak; let them not begrudge us an answer.

Or how can such people believe also concerning the extraordinary wonders often spoken of by us, those concerning the great Moses? Likewise also concerning Joshua the son of Nun, the stopping of the sun and the moon, and the making of a very long day, until he routed the enemies? Concerning Hezekiah, the going-back of the sun ten steps, which, astonishing the Babylonian, caused him to send gifts to Hezekiah? The all-devouring fire in the time of Nebuchadnezzar, which burned the bonds of the three youths, but did not harm them, not even a hair or their garments? Elijah, so great, traversing heaven in a fiery chariot, and raising a dead man, and restraining the rain with his tongue for forty-two months? His disciple Elisha, who threw the wood into the water and drew up the iron, whose very dust raised up a dead man? Likewise also the wonders that took place in the case of the Master of all, Christ: the extraordinary birth from a Virgin, the testimony of the star that appeared, the worship of the Magi, the shepherds' good tidings brought by the angel with joy, the doxology of the multitude of the host of angels, Simeon's prayer with thanksgiving, Anna's confession, the Lord's own first miracle at Cana of Galilee, how at a wedding he generously supplied an extraordinary provision of wine, the refashioning, by means of spittle, of the eyes of the man blind from birth out of clay, the refashioning of Lazarus—four days dead, already ferried across, and already stinking in his bowels—the multitude of the opposing demons trembling at his presence and crying out:

"You have come before the time to torment us"—the command and the muzzling of the raging sea, the walking upon the back of the waters, so that he also bade Peter walk alongside; and when the latter was seized by unbelief and was sinking and crying out:

the rapture as far as the third heaven—that is, as far as the third of the interval of the height of heaven, that from the earth to the firmament—and again the rapture in Paradise, where also he was deemed worthy to hear ineffable words, which it is not permitted for a man to speak.

All these things are indeed extraordinary and surpass our nature, or rather our condition.

And these things, coming to pass for the people of that time, prepared them to be persuaded also concerning the predictions;

but for us, the outcomes of the prophecies prepare us to be persuaded concerning the signs and concerning all the things they spoke, such as also came to pass in the case of the Master Christ:

for as he was then descending from the Mount of Olives and looking toward Jerusalem opposite, lamenting over her, he says thus:

"How often I would have gathered your children together, as a hen gathers her chicks under her wings, and you would not!"

"Behold, your house is left desolate." Then, when he had pronounced against the Temple, the disciples were still troubled, being disposed in a rather Jewish manner, and, it says, afterward, coming down from the mountain, they pointed out to him the building of the Temple, so that they might, as it were, move him to pity and he might recall the word spoken against the Temple;

for they knew and believed that everything spoken beforehand by him came to pass.

But he, understanding their intent, said to them:

"Do you see all these things? Truly I say to you, there shall not be left here stone upon stone, that shall not be thrown down." And they, being afraid, kept silent, no longer saying anything about this.

From then on, then, the Romans came and razed both the Temple and the city, and made it utterly desolate, as though fulfilling by agreement the command of the Master;

and we see with our very eyes even until now—behold, more than five hundred years since it became desolate, unable to be renewed.

Again he said to his own disciples:

"Take courage, I have overcome the world," and again:

"The gates of Hades shall not prevail against the Church," and again, that the whole inhabited world would be filled with his teaching, as a woman taking leaven hides it in three measures of flour until the whole is leavened and becomes one; and again, that the Gospel would be preached in the whole world, together with which also a woman devoted to him would be proclaimed.

And we see the outcomes of all these things having come to pass: for the Christians, though once greatly persecuted by Greeks and Jews, have prevailed, and have drawn to themselves those who persecuted them; likewise also the Church, never being cast down, but increasing; and likewise the whole earth having been filled, and still being filled, with the teaching of the Master Christ, and the Gospel being preached in the whole world;

which, having been present in many places, I have seen, and having learned it, I will report as truth.

In the island of Taprobane, in inner India, where the Indian Sea is, there is also a church of Christians there, and clergy and faithful, but I do not know whether there are any further.

Likewise also in the place called Male, where pepper grows, and in the place called Calliana, and there is a bishop ordained from Persia.

Likewise also in the island called Dioscorides, in that same Indian Sea, where also the inhabitants speak Greek, being settlers of the Ptolemies who came after Alexander the Macedonian, and there are clergy ordained from Persia and sent there, and a multitude of Christians;

which island I sailed past, but did not go ashore on it;

but I met men from there who spoke Greek, who had come to Ethiopia.

Likewise also among the Bactrians and Huns and Persians and the rest of the Indians and the Persarmenians and Medes and Elamites and the whole country of Persia, there are countless churches and bishops and very many Christian peoples and many martyrs and monks living in solitude;

and Libya and Pentapolis, Africa and Mauretania as far as Gades toward the south.

Everywhere there are churches of Christians, and bishops, martyrs, monks, and hesychasts continually, wherever the Gospel of Christ is being preached.

Likewise again Cilicia, Asia, Cappadocia, Lazica and Pontus, and the hyperborean regions of the Scythians and Hyrcanians, Herulians, Bulgarians, Helladics and Illyrians, Dalmatians, Goths, Spaniards, Romans, Franks, and the rest of the nations as far as Gadeira of the Ocean on the northern side, having believed and proclaiming the Gospel of Christ and confessing the resurrection from the dead.

And we see the predictions being fulfilled throughout the whole world.