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glory for ever and ever. Amen. ηψπο.9 The paragraphs, therefore, inserted in this book are inserted for a clearer exposition of the text. The reader, therefore, should first read the text and then the paragraph. 1.τ DISCOURSE 1 To those who wish to be Christians, but who, like the pagans, consider and hold that the heaven is spherical. 1.1 All who yearn with a desire for true knowledge, and are lovers of the true light, and hasten to be fellow-citizens of the saints of the age to come, who hold the Old and New Testaments to be truly divine Scripture, who obey Moses and Christ, who follow their own principles to the end, who confess that the world was brought forth by God out of nothing at all, and believe that there will be a resurrection of men and a judgment, and that the righteous will inherit the kingdom of heaven, scrutinize all the divine Scripture, to see if there happen to be written by Moses who recorded the creation, or by other prophets, the places and figures of all creation, in which is signified also the place where the kingdom of heaven is, which the Lord Christ promises that God will give to righteous men. And finding the Old and New Testaments to be in harmony with each other, they remain supported by it and unshaken, being in nothing overthrown by their opponents. 1.2 But those who are adorned with the wisdom of this world, and trust themselves with conjectural arguments to comprehend its figure and position, deride all the divine Scripture as fables, calling Moses and the prophets, the Lord Christ and the apostles, babblers and illusion-mongers, and with raised eyebrows, as if outwitting the rest of men in some great matter, they attribute a spherical figure and a circular motion to the heaven, and by geometrical methods and calculations of the stars and the trickery of arguments and worldly cunning, they attempt to comprehend the position and figure of the world from solar and lunar eclipses, deceiving and being deceived, asserting that such things cannot happen in another figure. And about such men we have no argument, since they sufficiently refute one another. 1.3 But those who wish to be Christians, but again wish to be adorned with the arguments and the wisdom and the manifold error of this world, and strive to accept both these and those, seem to differ in nothing from a shadow, which is wont to be produced in light when a body intervenes, but is not wont to be produced in light when a body does not intervene, but even disappears when the body is illuminated from all sides by the light. 1.4 For my discourse is to such men, concerning whom, when the like had once happened among the sojourners in Samaria, the divine Scripture cries out that: 'They feared God and offered incense and worshipped on the high places.' One who called them two-formed would not be wrong; for they wish to be with us and with them, now disregarding the renunciation of Satan, which they renounced in baptism, and running back to him. For such men cannot be with us at all, but exist as certain intermediaries, empty houses standing somehow aloft, having no foundations on the ground, nor yet that which holds from above. For almost before they have begun, they destroy their own beginnings, and before they have finished, they show their own ends to be incomplete, holding firmly neither to this nor to that, but rather they mock everyone and are mocked by everyone. First, then, having examined with them concerning the spherical figure, that this is not possible, nor indeed does it accord with the nature of things, we shall later prove that our own views are possible and accord with the nature of things. 1.5 Some of them, therefore, say that the heaven is a body made of four elements, but some, raising their eyebrows, later fabricated the heaven from another, a fifth, new element, though it formerly had its substance from the four

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δόξα εἰς τοὺς αἰῶνας. Ἀμήν. ηψπο.9 Αἱ παραγραφαὶ τοίνυν αἱ ἐγκείμεναι ἐν τῇδε τῇ βίβλῳ πρὸς σαφεστέραν διήγησιν τοῦ κειμένου ἔγκεινται. Ὁ ἀναγινώσκων οὖν πρῶτον τὸ κείμενον ἀναγνῷ καὶ οὕτως τὴν παραγραφήν. 1.τ ΛΟΓΟΣ Αʹ Πρὸς τοὺς χριστιανίζειν μὲν ἐθέλοντας, κατὰ τοὺς ἔξωθεν δὲ σφαιροειδῆ τὸν οὐρανὸν νομίζοντας καὶ δοξάζοντας. 1.1 Ὅσοι πόθῳ τῆς ἀληθοῦς γνώσεως ἐφίενται καὶ ἐρα σταὶ φωτὸς ἀληθινοῦ ὑπάρχουσι καὶ τοῦ μέλλοντος αἰῶνος συνπολῖται τῶν ἁγίων σπεύδουσιν εἶναι, οἱ τὴν Παλαιὰν καὶ Καινὴν ∆ιαθήκην θείαν ὄντως Γραφὴν ἡγούμενοι, οἱ Μωϋσῇ καὶ τῷ Χριστῷ πειθόμενοι, οἱ ταῖς ἀρχαῖς ἑαυτῶν μέχρι τέλους ἀκολουθοῦντες, οἱ ἐκ τοῦ μηδαμῆ μηδαμῶς τὸν κόσμον ὑπὸ Θεοῦ παρῆχθαι ὁμολογοῦντες, καὶ πιστεύοντες ἀνάστασιν γίνεσθαι ἀνθρώπων καὶ κρίσιν καὶ κληρονομεῖν τοὺς δικαίους βασιλείαν οὐρανῶν, περισκοποῦσι πᾶσαν τὴν θείαν Γραφήν, εἰ γεγραμμένοι τυγχάνουσι παρὰ Μωϋσῇ τῷ συγγραψαμένῳ τὴν κτίσιν, ἢ παρ' ἑτέροις προφήταις, τόποι καὶ σχήματα τῆς κτίσεως ἁπάσης, ἐν οἷς ἐστι σημαινόμενος καὶ ὁ τόπος ἔνθα ἐστὶν ἡ βασιλεία τῶν οὐρανῶν, ἥνπερ ἐπαγγέλλεται ὁ ∆εσπότης Χριστὸς δωρεῖσθαι τὸν Θεὸν τοῖς δικαίοις ἀνθρώποις. Εὑρίσκοντες δὲ Παλαιάν τε καὶ Καινὴν ∆ιαθήκην σύμφωνον μὲν ἑαυτῇ μένουσιν ἐν αὐτῇ ἐπιστηριζόμενοι καὶ ἀσάλευτοι, ἐν μηδενὶ ὑπὸ τῶν ἐναντίων περιτρεπόμενοι. 1.2 Οἱ δὲ τῇ τοῦ κόσμου τούτου σοφίᾳ κοσμούμενοι, καὶ ἑαυτοῖς θαρροῦντες λόγοις στοχαστικοῖς καταλαμβάνειν τὸ σχῆμα καὶ τὴν θέσιν αὐτοῦ, πᾶσαν τὴν θείαν Γραφὴν ὥσπερ μύθους καταχλευάζουσι, Μωϋσέα τε καὶ τοὺς προφήτας, τὸν ∆εσπότην Χριστὸν καὶ τοὺς ἀποστόλους σπερμολόγους καὶ φαντασιοκόπους ἀποκαλοῦντες, καὶ τὰς ὀφρῦς ἐπηρκότες, ὥς τι μέγα κατασοφιζόμενοι τοὺς λοιποὺς ἀνθρώπους, σφαιρικὸν σχῆμα καὶ κυκλοφορικὴν κίνησιν τῷ οὐρανῷ δωροῦνται, καὶ γεωμετρικαῖς μεθόδοις καὶ ψήφοις ἄστρων καὶ κυβείᾳ λόγων καὶ πανουργίᾳ κοσμικῇ καταλαμβάνειν ἐπιχειροῦσι τὴν θέσιν καὶ τὸ σχῆμα τοῦ κόσμου ἐκ τῶν ἡλιακῶν καὶ σεληνιακῶν ἐκλείψεων, πλανῶντες καὶ πλανώμενοι, ἐν ἀλλοίῳ σχήματι τὰ τοιαῦτα μὴ δύνασθαι γίνεσθαι ἰσχυριζόμενοι. Καὶ περὶ μὲν τῶν τοιούτων οὐδεὶς ἡμῖν λόγος, ἀρκετῶς ἀλλήλους ἀνατρεπόντων. 1.3 Οἱ δὲ χριστιανίζειν μὲν ἐθέλοντες, τοῖς λόγοις δὲ καὶ τῇ σοφίᾳ καὶ τῇ ποικιλίᾳ τῆς πλάνης τοῦ κόσμου τούτου πάλιν θέλοντες κοσμεῖσθαι, καὶ ταῦτα κἀκεῖνα δέχεσθαι φιλονεικοῦντες, ἐοίκασι σκιᾶς μηδὲν διαλλάττειν, τῆς μεσιτεύοντος μὲν σώματος ἐν φωτὶ γενέσθαι πεφυκυίας, μὴ μεσιτεύοντος δὲ σώματος ἐν φωτὶ μὴ πεφυκυίας γενέσθαι, ἀλλὰ καὶ περιλαμπομένου τοῦ σώματος πάντοθεν ἐκ τοῦ φωτὸς ἐξαφανιζομένης. 1.4 Πρὸς τοὺς τοιούτους γάρ μοι ὁ λόγος, περὶ ὧν ποτε ὁμοίων γενομένων ἐν τῇ Σαμαρείᾳ παροίκων καταβοᾷ ἡ θεία Γραφὴ ὅτι· "Τὸν Θεὸν ἐφοβοῦντο καὶ τοῖς ὑψηλοῖς ἐθυμίων καὶ ἐλάτρευον." Οὕστινας διμόρφους τις καλέσας οὐκ ἂν ἁμάρτοι· καὶ μεθ' ἡμῶν γὰρ θέλουσιν εἶναι καὶ μετ' ἐκείνων, τὴν ἀποταγὴν τοῦ Σατανᾶ, ἣν ἀπετάξαντο ἐν τῷ βαπτίσματι, νῦν ἀθετοῦντες καὶ ἐπ' αὐτὸν παλινδρομοῦντες. Οὐ δύνανται γὰρ καθόλου μεθ' ἡμῶν εἶναι οἱ τοιοῦτοι, ἀλλὰ μέσοι τινὲς ὑπάρχουσιν, οἶκοι κενοὶ μεταρσίως πως ἱστάμενοι, θεμέλια κατὰ γῆς μὴ ἔχοντες, μήτε μὴν ἐξ ὕψους τὸ κατέχον. Σχεδὸν γὰρ μήπω ἀρξάμενοι τὰς ἑαυτῶν ἀρχὰς καταλύουσι καὶ μήπω καταλύοντες τὰ ἑαυτῶν τέλη ἀτελῆ δεικνύουσι, μήτε εἰς τοῦτο βεβαίως ἔχοντες, μήτε εἰς ἐκεῖνο, ἀλλὰ μᾶλλον τοὺς πάντας διαπαίζουσι καὶ ὑπὸ πάντων διαπαίζονται. Πρῶτον μὲν οὖν βασανίσαντες μετ' αὐτῶν περὶ τοῦ σφαιρικοῦ σχήματος, ὡς οὐ δυνατὸν τοῦτο εἶναι, οὔτε μὴν τῇ φύσει τῶν πραγμάτων συμβαῖνον, ἐς ὕστερον ἀποδείξομεν τὰ ἡμέτερα δυνατὰ καὶ τῇ φύσει τῶν πραγμάτων συμβαίνοντα. 1.5 Τινὲς μὲν οὖν ἐξ αὐτῶν λέγουσι τὸν οὐρανὸν σῶμα ἐκ τεσσάρων στοιχείων ὄντα, ἔνιοι δὲ τὰς ὀφρῦς ἀνατείνοντες ἐξ ἑτέρου πέμπτου νέου στοιχείου τὸν οὐρανὸν ὕστερον ἀνέκτισαν, τὸ πρὶν ἐκ τῶν τεσσάρων ἔχοντα τὴν οὐσιώδη