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19 Concerning the visible creation Our God himself, who is glorified in trinity and in unity, made heaven and earth and all things in them, having brought all things from non-being into being, some not from pre-existing matter, such as heaven, earth, air, fire, water, and others from these things that were made by him, such as animals, plants, seeds; for these came to be from earth and water, and air and fire by the command of the creator.

20 Concerning heaven Heaven is the compass of visible and invisible creatures; for within it the intellectual powers of the angels and all sensible things are enclosed and circumscribed. Only the divinity is uncircumscribed, filling all things and containing all things and circumscribing all things, as being above all things and having created all things. Since, then, the scripture speaks of heaven and "heaven of heaven" and "heavens of heavens," and the blessed Paul says he was caught up "to the third heaven," we say that in the cosmogony of the universe we received the creation of a heaven, which the wise men of the outside world, having appropriated the doctrines of Moses, call a starless sphere. Furthermore, God also called the firmament heaven, which he commanded to come into being in the midst of the water, appointing it to divide between the water that is above the firmament and between the water that is under the firmament. The divine Basil, having been initiated from the divine scripture, says its nature is fine, like smoke. Others say it is watery, as having come into being in the midst of the waters; others, that it is from the four elements; others, a fifth body and different from the four. Some, then, held that the heaven surrounds the universe in a circle and is spherical and that its highest part is everywhere, while the middlemost part of the space contained by it is the lower part, and that the light and buoyant bodies were assigned the upper place by the creator, but the heavy and downward-tending bodies the lower region, which is the middle. Now, the lighter and more upward-tending element is fire, which they say is placed immediately after the heaven; this they call the aether, after which, lower down, is the air. But the earth and the water, being heavier and more downward-tending, hang in the very middle; so that on the contrary, below are the earth and the water—but the water is lighter than the earth, wherefore it is also more mobile than it—and above on all sides like a cloak in a circle is the air, and around the air on all sides is the aether, and outside of all in a circle is the heaven. And they say that the heaven moves in a circle and binds together the things within, and thus they remain fixed and stable. And they say there are seven zones of heaven, one higher than the other. They say it is of the finest nature, like smoke, and that in each zone there is one of the planets; for they said there are seven planets: Sun, Moon, Jupiter, Mercury, Mars, Venus, and Saturn. Venus they say is what at one time becomes the Morning Star, and at another the Evening Star. And they called these planets, because they make their motion contrary to the heaven; for while the heaven and the other stars move from east to west, these alone have their motion from west to east. And we shall know this from the moon, which moves backward a little each evening. Therefore, all who have said that the heaven is spherical, perhaps say that it stands away and is distant from the earth, both from above and from the sides and from below. And by "from below" and "from the sides" I mean, as far as our perception is concerned, since according to the law of sequence the heaven occupies the upper place everywhere and the earth the lower. And they say that the heaven circles the earth spherically and carries along with its swiftest motion the sun and the moon and the stars, and when the sun is above the earth, day comes to be here, but when it is under the earth, night; but under the earth

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19 Περὶ κτίσεως ὁρατῆσ Αὐτὸς ὁ θεὸς ἡμῶν ὁ ἐν τριάδι καὶ ἐν μονάδι

δοξολογούμενος ἐποίησε τὸν οὐρανὸν καὶ τὴν γῆν καὶ πάντα τὰ ἐν αὐτοῖς ἐκ τοῦ μὴ ὄντος εἰς τὸ εἶναι παραγαγὼν τὰ σύμπαντα, τὰ μὲν οὐκ ἐκ προϋποκειμένης ὕλης οἷον οὐρανόν, γῆν, ἀέρα, πῦρ, ὕδωρ, τὰ δὲ ἐκ τούτων τῶν ὑπ' αὐτοῦ γεγονότων, οἷον ζῷα, φυτά, σπέρματα· ταῦτα γὰρ ἐκ γῆς καὶ ὕδατος, ἀέρος τε καὶ πυρὸς τῷ τοῦ δημιουργοῦ προστάγματι γεγόνασιν.

20 Περὶ οὐρανοῦ Οὐρανός ἐστι περιοχὴ ὁρατῶν τε καὶ ἀοράτων κτισμάτων·

ἐντὸς γὰρ αὐτοῦ αἵ τε νοεραὶ τῶν ἀγγέλων δυνάμεις καὶ πάντα τὰ αἰσθητὰ περικλείονται καὶ περιορίζονται. Μόνον δὲ τὸ θεῖον ἀπερίγραπτόν ἐστι πάντα πληροῦν καὶ πάντα περιέχον καὶ πάντα περιορίζον ὡς ὑπὲρ πάντα ὂν καὶ πάντα δημιουργῆσαν. Ἐπεὶ τοίνυν οὐρανόν φησιν ἡ γραφὴ καὶ «οὐρανὸν τοῦ οὐρανοῦ» καὶ «οὐρανοὺς οὐρανῶν» καὶ «ἕως τρίτου οὐρανοῦ» ὁ μακάριος Παῦλος ἡρπάχθαι φησί, λέγομεν, ὅτι ἐν τῇ τοῦ παντὸς κοσμογενείᾳ οὐρανοῦ ποίησιν παρελάβομεν, ὃν οἱ τῶν ἔξω σοφοὶ ἄναστρον σφαῖράν φασι τὰ Μωσέως σφετερισάμενοι δόγματα. Ἔτι δὲ καὶ τὸ στερέωμα ἐκάλεσεν ὁ θεὸς οὐρανόν, ὃν ἐν μέσῳ τοῦ ὕδατος γενέσθαι προσέταξεν τάξας αὐτὸν διαχωρίζειν ἀνὰ μέσον τοῦ ὕδατος τοῦ ἐπάνω τοῦ στερεώματος καὶ ἀνὰ μέσον τοῦ ὕδατος τοῦ ὑποκάτω τοῦ στερεώματος. Τούτου τὴν φύσιν ὁ θεῖος Βασίλειος λεπτήν φησιν ὡσεὶ καπνὸν ἐκ τῆς θείας μεμυημένος γραφῆς. Ἕτεροι δὲ ὑδατώδη ὡς ἐν μέσῳ τῶν ὑδάτων γενόμενον, ἄλλοι ἐκ τῶν τεσσάρων στοιχείων, ἄλλοι πέμπτον σῶμα καὶ ἕτερον παρὰ τὰ τέσσαρα. Τινὲς μὲν οὖν ἐδόξασαν κύκλῳ τὸ πᾶν περιέχειν τὸν οὐρανὸν σφαιροειδῆ τε ὑπάρχειν καὶ πανταχόθεν τὸ ἀνώτατον μέρος αὐτὸν εἶναι, τὸ δὲ μεσώτατον τοῦ περιεχομένου ὑπ' αὐτοῦ τόπου εἶναι κατώτερον μέρος, καὶ τὰ μὲν κοῦφα καὶ ἐλαφρὰ τῶν σωμάτων τὴν ἄνω τάξιν λαχεῖν παρὰ τοῦ δημιουργοῦ, τὰ δὲ βαρέα καὶ κατωφερῆ τὴν κατωτέραν χώραν, ἥτις ἐστὶν ἡ μέση. Ἔστι μὲν οὖν κουφότερον καὶ ἀνωφερέστερον στοιχεῖον τὸ πῦρ, ὅπερ δὴ μετὰ τὸν οὐρανὸν εὐθέως τετάχθαι φασί· τοῦτον δὲ λέγουσιν τὸν αἰθέρα, μεθ' ὃν κατώτερον τὸν ἀέρα. Τὴν δὲ γῆν καὶ τὸ ὕδωρ ὡς βαρύτερα καὶ κατωφερέστερα ἐν τῷ μεσωτάτῳ κρέμασθαι· ὡς εἶναι ἐξ ἐναντίας κάτω μὲν τὴν γῆν καὶ τὸ ὕδωρ-τὸ δὲ ὕδωρ κουφότερον τῆς γῆς, ὅθεν καὶ εὐκινητότερον αὐτῆς ὑπάρχει-, ἄνωθεν δὲ πανταχόθεν ὡς περιβόλαιον κύκλῳ τὸν ἀέρα καὶ περὶ τὸν ἀέρα πανταχόθεν τὸν αἰθέρα, ἔξωθεν δὲ πάντων κύκλῳ τὸν οὐρανόν. Κυκλικῶς δέ φασι κινεῖσθαι τὸν οὐρανὸν καὶ συσφίγγειν τὰ ἐντὸς καὶ οὕτω μένειν πάγια καὶ ἀδιάπτωτα. Ἑπτὰ δὲ ζώνας φασὶ τοῦ οὐρανοῦ, μίαν τῆς ἑτέρας ὑψηλοτέραν. Λέγουσι δὲ αὐτὸν λεπτοτάτης φύσεως ὡσεὶ καπνὸν καὶ καθ' ἑκάστην ζώνην εἶναι ἕνα τῶν πλανητῶν· ἑπτὰ γὰρ πλανήτας εἶναι ἔφησαν, Ἥλιον, Σελήνην, ∆ία, Ἑρμῆν, Ἄρεα, Ἀφροδίτην καὶ Κρόνον. Ἀφροδίτην δφασι τὸν ποτὲ μὲν Ἑωσφόρον, ποτὲ δὲ Ἕσπερον γινόμενον. Πλανήτας δὲ τούτους ἐκάλεσαν, ὅτιπερ ἐναντίως τοῦ οὐρανοῦ ποιοῦνται τὴν κίνησιν· τοῦ γὰρ οὐρανοῦ καὶ τῶν λοιπῶν ἀστέρων ἐξ ἀνατολῆς ἐπὶ δυσμὰς κινουμένων οὗτοι μόνοι ἀπὸ δυσμῶν ἐπὶ ἀνατολὰς τὴν κίνησιν ἔχουσι. Καὶ τοῦτο γνωσόμεθα ἐκ τῆς σελήνης μικρὸν καθ' ἑσπέραν ἀναποδιζούσης. Ὅσοι τοίνυν ἔφησαν σφαιροειδῆ τὸν οὐρανόν, ἴσως λέγουσιν ἀφίστασθαι αὐτὸν καὶ ἀπέχειν τῆς γῆς, ἄνωθέν τε καὶ ἐκ πλαγίων καὶ κάτωθεν. Κάτωθεν δὲ καὶ ἐκ πλαγίων φημί, ὅσον πρὸς τὴν ἡμετέραν αἴσθησιν, ἐπεὶ κατὰ τὸν τῆς ἀκολουθίας λόγον πανταχόθεν τὸν ἄνω τόπον ὁ οὐρανὸς ἐπέχει καὶ ἡ γῆ τὸν κάτω. Καί φασι τὸν οὐρανὸν σφαιροειδῶς κυκλοῦν τὴν γῆν καὶ συμπεριφέρειν τῇ ὀξυτάτῃ κινήσει αὐτοῦ ἥλιόν τε καὶ σελήνην καὶ τοὺς ἀστέρας, καὶ ὑπὲρ μὲν γῆν ὄντος τοῦ ἡλίου ἡμέραν γίνεσθαι ἐνταῦθα, ὑπὸ δὲ τὴν γῆν νύκτα· ὑπὸ δὲ γῆν