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and the soul? 1.31 But if, as they say, it illuminates the body without being circumscribed by it, one must inquire where it exists when it illuminates the body; for it is impossible for it, being a creature, not to exist among the created things. And if they say it is somewhere inside of heaven, then again what you portray as uncircumscribed is circumscribed by the very body of heaven. But if they grant it is outside, first they have contradicted themselves, and then: Is it in a part of heaven or in the whole? And if it is in a part, again it is circumscribed, as being in a very small part; but if in the whole, it circumscribes heaven, but it will be found to be spherical in shape, having encompassed the sphere according to its boundaries. 1.32 But if again they say it extends both within and without through all things as uncircumscribed, let them not be unaware that they are introducing polytheism and imagining an equality with God. For this attribute belongs only to the uncreated God who created and made all things. Therefore, professing to be wise, they become fools, according to the blessed apostle Paul, having exchanged the glory of the uncircumscribed God for their own created souls, usurping the divine glory. For this reason they should rather be avoided. "‘For from such,’ says the Apostle, ‘turn away, having a form of godliness but denying its power.’" 2.t DISCOURSE 2 Christian accounts concerning the figures and position of the entire world, having their proofs from the divine Scripture. 2.1 How great a delay I made concerning the writing on the figures of the world, though often urged to this task by other wonderful men, you yourself know better than anyone, O Pamphilus, my friend in all things, lover of God and lover of Christ, and namesake of all holy men, who are a sojourner in the earthly Jerusalem, but enrolled as a citizen with the firstborn in the heavenly one. Having been bound from the first by the warmest friendship from what I heard, and now having enjoyed the sight of you face to face, when by the will of God you came from Jerusalem to us here, in the great city of Alexander, you did not cease to trouble us concerning this, though we were weak in body, being afflicted both in our eyes and with dryness of the stomach, and consequently from this continually falling into frequent sicknesses, and besides this also being deficient in external encyclical education and devoid of rhetorical art and not knowing how to compose a discourse with chatty words or a grand style, and being occupied with the complexities of life. 2.2 You nonetheless did not cease to trouble us, that we should set forth in writing a discourse concerning the tabernacle constructed in the desert by Moses, which was a type and figure of the whole world, just as I explained to you when present by living voice, not moved from my own impulse, nor fashioning or conjecturing it from myself, but having been instructed from the divine Scriptures, and having received it by living voice from that most divine man and great teacher Patricius, who, fulfilling the Abrahamic order, having come from the Chaldeans together with his then holy disciple Thomas of Edessa who followed him everywhere, but who now in Byzantium by the will of God has departed this life, imparted a most true piety and knowledge, who also himself has now by divine grace been raised to the high and archepiscopal thrones of all Persia, having been appointed Catholicos bishop of those regions. 2.3 But as I was greatly at a loss about this, especially on account of the fault-finders, whose slander is resourceful and has much material for mockery, no ordinary hesitation possessed me. But you again urged me to write, weighing me down with reproaches, saying that the work would be useful for life, for the learning and understanding of divine doctrines and for the overthrow of Hellenic preconceptions, and that the whole aim of the divine Scripture looks to the future state, especially as the Apostle says: "‘For we know,’ he says, ‘that if our earthly house of this tabernacle were dissolved, we have a building from God, a house not made with hands, eternal in’

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καὶ ἡ ψυχή; 1.31 Εἰ δέ, καθά φασιν, ἐλλάμπει τῷ σώματι μὴ συμπεριγραφομένη αὐτῷ, ζητητέον ποῦ ὑπάρχουσα ἐλλάμπει τῷ σώματι· ἀδύνατον γὰρ κτιστὴν αὐτὴν οὖσαν μὴ σὺν τοῖς κτίσμασιν ὑπάρχειν. Καὶ εἰ μὲν ἔσωθέν που τοῦ οὐρανοῦ ἐροῦσι, πάλιν ὑπ' αὐτοῦ τοῦ σώματος τοῦ οὐρανοῦ περιγράφεται ἡ σκιαγραφουμένη παρ' ὑμῖν ἀπερίγραφος. Εἰ δὲ ἔξωθεν δώσουσι, πρῶτον μὲν ἑαυτοὺς κατέλυσαν, ἔπειτα· Ἐν μέρει τοῦ οὐρανοῦ ἐστιν ἢ ἐν ὅλῳ; Καὶ εἰ μὲν ἐν μέρει, πάλιν περιγραπτή ἐστιν, ὡς ἐν μέρει βραχυτάτῳ οὖσα· εἰ δὲ ὅλῳ, περιγράφει μὲν τὸν οὐρανόν, ὑπὸ σχῆμα δὲ εὑρεθήσεται σφαιροειδὴς τυγχάνουσα, κατὰ τὰ ἐντεῦθεν πέρατα συμπεριειληφυῖα τὴν σφαῖραν. 1.32 Εἰ δὲ πάλιν καὶ ἔσωθεν καὶ ἔξωθεν αὐτὴν εἴπωσι διήκουσαν διὰ πάντων ὡς ἀπερίγραφον, μὴ λανθανέτωσαν ἑαυτοὺς πολυθεΐαν εἰσάγοντας καὶ ἰσοθεΐαν φανταζομένους. Τοῦτο γὰρ τὸ ἰδίωμα, εἰ μὴ τοῦ ἀκτίστου Θεοῦ τοῦ κτίσαντος καὶ δημιουργήσαντος τὰ πάντα, οὐκ ἔστι. Φάσκοντες οὖν εἶναι σοφοὶ μωραίνουσι κατὰ τὸν μακάριον Παῦλον τὸν ἀπόστολον, ἐναλλάξαντες τὴν δόξαν τοῦ ἀπεριγράφου Θεοῦ εἰς τὰς κτιστὰς ἑαυτῶν ψυχάς, σφετεριζόμενοι τὴν δόξαν τὴν θείαν. ∆ιὰ τοῦτο μᾶλλον αὐτοὺς φευκτέον. "Τούτους γάρ, φησὶν ὁ Ἀπόστολος, ἀποτρέπου, τοὺς ἔχοντας μὲν μόρφωσιν εὐσεβείας, τὴν δὲ δύναμιν αὐτῆς ἀρνουμένους." 2.τ ΛΟΓΟΣ Βʹ Ὑποθέσεις χριστιανικαὶ περὶ σχημάτων καὶ τοποθεσίας παντὸς τοῦ κόσμου ἐκ τῆς θείας Γραφῆς τὰς ἀποδείξεις ἔχουσαι. 2.1 Ὅσην μὲν ἀναβολὴν ἐποιησάμην περὶ τὴν τῶν σχημάτων τοῦ κόσμου συγγραφήν, πολλάκις καὶ ἑτέρων ἡμᾶς εἰς τοῦτο προτρεψαμένων ἀνδρῶν θαυμασίων, αὐτὸς πάντων ἄμεινον οἶσθα, ὦ τὰ πάντα φίλε θεόφιλέ τε καὶ χριστόφιλε καὶ πάντων ἁγίων ἀνδρῶν φερώνυμε Πάμφιλε, ἐπιγείου μὲν Ἱερουσαλὴμ πάροικος τυγχάνων, οὐρανίου δὲ σὺν πρωτοτόκοις πολίτης ἀπογεγραμμένος. Ἄνωθεν μὲν ἐξ ἀκοῆς θερμοτάτῃ συνδεδεμένος φιλίᾳ, τῆς δὲ κατὰ πρόσωπον θέας νυνὶ ἀπολαύσας τῆς σῆς, ὅτε τῇ τοῦ Θεοῦ βουλῇ ἐξ Ἱεροσολύμων πρὸς ἡμᾶς ἐνταῦθα, τῇ μεγίστῃ Ἀλεξάνδρου πόλει, παρεγένου, ἐνοχλῶν ἡμῖν περὶ τούτου οὐ διέλειπες, ἀσθενῶν ἡμῶν τυγχανόντων τῷ σώματι, ταῖς τε ὄψεσι καὶ τῇ ξηρότητι τῆς γαστρὸς πιεζομένων, καὶ συνεχῶς λοιπὸν ἐκ τούτου ἀσθενείαις συχναῖς περιπιπτόντων, ἄλλως τε δὲ καὶ τῆς ἔξωθεν ἐγκυκλίου παιδείας λειπομένων καὶ ῥητορικῆς τέχνης ἀμοιρούντων καὶ στωμυλίᾳ λόγων ἢ κομπῷ χαρακτῆρι συνθεῖναι λόγον οὐκ εἰδότων, καὶ ταῖς τοῦ βίου πλοκαῖς ἀσχολουμένων. 2.2 Αὐτὸς οὐδὲν ἧττον ἐνοχλῶν ἡμῖν οὐ διέλειπες, ὡς λόγον ἡμᾶς ἔγγραφον ἐκθεῖναι περὶ τῆς σκηνῆς τῆς ἐν τῇ ἐρήμῳ διὰ Μωϋσέως κατασκευασθείσης, ἣ τύπος ἦν καὶ ὑπογραφὴ παντὸς τοῦ κόσμου, καθὰ καὶ παρόντι διὰ ζώσης φωνῆς ἐξηγησάμην, οὐκ οἴκοθεν ὁρμηθείς, οὐδ' ἐξ ἐμαυτοῦ πλασάμενος ἢ στοχασάμενος, ἀλλ' ἐκ τῶν θείων Γραφῶν παιδευθείς, καὶ διὰ ζώσης δὲ φωνῆς παραλαβὼν ὑπὸ τοῦ θειοτάτου ἀνδρὸς καὶ μεγάλου διδασκάλου Πατρικίου, ὃς τάξιν ἀβραμιαίαν πληρῶν ἐκ Χαλδαίων παραγεγονὼς ἅμα τῷ ἐν ἁγίοις τότε μαθητῇ Θωμᾷ τῷ ἐξ Ἐδέσσης αὐτῷ πανταχοῦ ἀκολουθήσαντι, νυνὶ δὲ ἐν τῷ Βυζαντίῳ βουλήσει Θεοῦ τὸν βίον μεταλλάξαντι, μετέδωκε θεοσεβείας καὶ γνώσεως ἀληθεστάτης, ὃς καὶ αὐτὸς νυνὶ ἐκ θείας χάριτος ἐπὶ τοὺς ὑψηλοὺς καὶ ἀρχιερατικοὺς θρόνους ἀνήχθη τῆς ὅλης Περσίδος, καθολικὸς ἐπίσκοπος τῶν αὐτόθι κατασταθείς. 2.3 Ἐμοῦ δὲ λίαν εἰς τοῦτο ἀποροῦντος, μάλιστα διὰ τοὺς φιλεγκλήμονας, ὧν εὔπορος ἡ διαβολὴ καὶ πολλὰς ὕλας τοῦ σκώπτειν ἔχουσα, ὄκνος οὐχ ὁ τυχών με κατεῖχεν. Αὐτὸς δὲ πάλιν προὔτρεπες κατακρίμασι βαρῶν ἐπὶ τὸ συγγράφειν, φάσκων τῷ βίῳ χρήσιμον εἶναι τὸ σύνταγμα πρὸς μάθησιν καὶ κατανόησιν θείων δογμάτων καὶ ἀνατροπὴν ἑλληνικῶν προλήψεων, καὶ ὅπως ἅπας ὁ σκοπὸς τῆς θείας Γραφῆς εἰς τὴν μέλλουσαν κατάστασιν ἀφορᾷ, μάλιστα τοῦ Ἀποστόλου λέγοντος· "Οἴδαμεν γάρ, φησίν, ὅτι ἐὰν ἡ ἐπίγειος ἡμῶν οἰκία τοῦ σκήνους καταλυθῇ, οἰκοδομὴν ἔχομεν ἐκ Θεοῦ ἀχειροποίητον, οἰκίαν αἰώνιον ἐν