Pg 88 Κοσμάς Cosmas Indicopleustes, Christian Topography. Preface to the online edition

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 |176of 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.