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

THE CHRISTIAN TOPOGRAPHY;

OR,

THE OPINION OF CHRISTIANS CONCERNING THE WORLD.

BY COSMAS, AN EGYPTIAN MONK.
Cosmas Indicopleustes, Christian Topography (1897) pp. 1-22.  Prologues, Book 1

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[113]¹¹ This book, which embraces the whole world, I have designated "Christianikê Topographia" (Χριστιανική Τοπογραφία).

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N the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Ghost----the one adorable Godhead in three Persons----the consubstantial and life-originating Trinity of the one God, from whom every good gift and every perfect gift comes down to us from above, I, a miserable sinner, open my slow and stammering lips, trusting that for my humility's sake in soliciting utterance, and for the advantage of my hearers, He will give me the spirit of wisdom and utterance in the opening of my lips: He who is the Lord of Grace and Dispenser of all good things; God over all and blessed for evermore, Amen! |2 

[(HERE), WITH THE ASSISTANCE OF GOD, THE CONTENTS OF THIS WORK

Book I, work of a Christian

Against those who want to be Christian, but believe and profess, like those outside, that heaven is spherical.

Book II

Christian theories on the form and layout of places in the whole universe, taking their proofs from the divine scriptures.

Book III

That divine scripture is sure and worthy of trust, that it reveals things which agree among themselves and with the whole, in both the Old and New Testament, and that it indicates the utility of the shape of the whole universe.

Book IV

Concise recapitulation, with illustration, of the shape of the universe according to the divine scriptures, and refutation of the sphere.

Book V

Where is found the description of the tabernacle and the agreement of the prophets and the apostles.

This work is thus called by us CHRISTIAN TOPOGRAPHY EMBRACING THE WHOLE UNIVERSE.

Book VI, additional

The size of the sun.

Book VII

Dedicated to Anastasius and proving that the heavens are indestructible.

Book VIII

On the canticle of Ezechiel, and the retrogradation of the sun.

Book IX 

Design of the course of the stars.

Book X

Citations of the Fathers agreeing with the whole of our writing.

Moreover, apart from the work: Book XI

Drawings and description of the Indian animals; in the same way about the trees and of the island of Taprobane.

Still another book: Book XII

Explaining that many ancient writers, among outsiders, attest the antiquity of the divine scriptures composed by Moses and the prophets and that the Greeks seem to have learned to write later than everyone else, as well as the divine scriptures, because of their inveterate incredulity.]

PROLOGUE I.

FIRST of all I exhort those who will read this book to peruse it with all attention and diligence, and not to run over it in a perfunctory manner, but with loving pains to study it and take into their minds impressions of the places, figures, and histories which it contains; and when the book has been read to the end, let them further look into the volume which we have composed for that lover of Christ, Constantinus: a volume wherein we have described more fully the whole earth, both the one beyond the ocean, and this one, and all its countries, together with the southern parts from Alexandria to the Southern Ocean, namely, the river Nile and the countries adjacent, and all the races of Egypt and Ethiopia; the Arabian Gulf besides, with the countries adjoining and their inhabitants as far as the same ocean, and likewise the middle country between the river and the gulf, with the cities, districts and tribes therein contained----a volume² to prove that what things are said by us are true, and those false which are said by our adversaries, [114] for whose sake this book and the drawings³ it contains have been prepared----those, I mean, concerning the size of the sun, and that sun-burnt, uninhabited part of the world about which they din our ears, and vomit out fictions and fables. Let me next exhort my readers to examine the sketch⁴ of the universe and the stellar motions which we have prepared as a representation of |3 the organic sphere of the pagans⁵, and to study the account of it sent to the pious deacon Homologus, then they with God's help are quite competent, especially with this book and the volume mentioned, to overthrow from the foundation the error of the pagan⁶ theories. For if any Christian possesses these three works, and is by divine grace carefully exercised in the divine scriptures, he will easily confute the foolish views of the fable-mongers, for, from the figure itself, the constitution of the world and the very nature of things, they prove that the divine scriptures and the doctrines preached by Christians are perfectly true. Be strong then, ye Christians, in the Lord.

 

PROLOGUE II.

The Christian Topography of the whole world demonstrated from divine scripture, about which Christians ought not to doubt.

IN days long gone by I hesitated, O God-beloved, God-loving and Christ-loving ⁷ Pamphilus, to take in hand the treatise descriptive of the constitution of the whole world which you enjoined me to draw up. For even had I so wished, it was out of my power, as you well know, on account of the lingering illness by which I was prostrated. |4 But since, in answer to your frequent prayers, I have recovered from that illness, accept at last the Preface to the books of the work which I submit, partly as fulfilling the obedience I owe you, and partly as dreading the condemnation of the sluggish servant which the discourse of our Saviour in the Gospels has pronounced. And let no one condemn me as overbold, because I conduct the exposition of my subject in a style homely and unmethodical, since it is not fine phrases the Christian requires but right notions. For while many be the darts and helmets and shields and wars set in motion against the Church, some supposed to be Christians, holding divine scripture of no account but despising and looking down upon it, assume like the Pagan philosophers, that the form of the heavens is spherical, being led into this error by the solar and lunar eclipses.⁸ We have therefore conveniently divided the subject of the book into five parts. In the outset then the first part is directed against the persons referred to who have been misled, and argues that one who wishes to profess Christianity cannot be led away by the plausible [115] errors of those outside the Church----errors which are opposed to divine scripture. For should any one choose to examine closely the Pagan theories he will find them to be entirely fictitious, fabulous sophistries, and to be utterly impossible. Then again, for the Christian who will naturally ask and say: these being refuted, what are the true theories that must be admitted in opposition to them? I have written the second book, which proceeds to explain from divine scripture the nature of the Christian theories----to describe the figure of the whole world, and to notice that some of the ancient Pagans have been of the same opinion. Then again, by way of replying to one |5 who should doubt and ask: how does it appear that Moses and the prophets in saying such things say what is true? the third book exhibits the credibility of Moses and the Prophets, showing that they spake not of themselves, but as inspired by divine revelation, and that the writers alike of the Old and New Testament, men approved both by word and deed, having foreseen these things, declared them accordingly. It further shows what is the utility of delineations of the world, and how the notion of the sphere had its origin and beginning. The fourth book, again, has been written for behoof of those who wish to run their eye over the figures, and is a brief recapitulation, along with delineations, of what has been said before----a refutation, in fact, of the theory of the sphere and of the Antipodes. Then again, the fifth book has been written for those enquiring what the Christian theories are, and it shows that in what we have said and have represented by drawings we have neither devised fictions of our own nor invented new fables; but from revelation and from what God who created the world has ordained, have beheld the pattern of the whole world----namely the Tabernacle prepared by Moses, which the New Testament consistently with this view has pronounced to be an image of the whole world; and which also by means of the vail Moses divided, and so made one tabernacle into two, just as God also in the beginning divided what was one region, extending from the earth to the highest heaven, into two regions, by means of the firmament; and just as in the tabernacle there was an outer and an inner place, so here there was a lower and an upper. Now the lower is this world, and the upper is the world to come, into which also the Lord Christ, after having risen according to the flesh from the dead, ascended the first of all, and into which the righteous shall in their turn afterwards ascend. And since from Adam to Moses, and from Moses to John, and from John all the Apostles |6 and Evangelists, have each and all in harmony, and both by words and types spoken of these two states; and since not one of them has uttered a discordant note, either saying that there was a state before the first, or supposing that there is a third after the second; but all of them, as if inspired by the Holy Ghost, have proclaimed that there are [116] but two states only, we, therefore, putting our confidence in the scriptures, which are truly divine, have not only sketched the figures of the whole world, but also of those very places by which you will find the Israelites made their exodus, also the mountain on which they received the law in writing, and were instructed in the knowledge of writing; also the delineation of the Tabernacle and the settlement in the Land of Promise; until he who was expected to arise from among them, and who was predicted by all the men of old and by the Prophets, did actually appear, proclaiming the future second state, which on his coming he showed in himself to us all, having entered into the inner Tabernacle, into the upper celestial region, into which at his second coming he shall call the righteous, saying: Come, ye blessed of my Father, inherit the Kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world. To Him be glory for ever, Amen! |7