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as the sun sets, it is night here, but day there. But others imagined the heaven to be a hemisphere, from the fact that the divinely-speaking David says: “Who stretches out the heaven like a curtain,” which signifies a tent, and the blessed Isaiah: “Who has established the heaven like a vault,” and that when the sun and the moon and the stars set, they circle the earth from west to north and so arrive again at the east. However, whether it is this way or that way, all things have been made and established by the divine command, and have the divine will and counsel as an unshakable foundation. “For He spoke, and they were made; He commanded, and they were created. He established them for ever and for ever and ever; He gave a decree, which shall not pass away.” Therefore, there is a heaven of heaven, the first heaven, existing above the firmament. Behold, two heavens; “for God called the firmament Heaven.” It is also customary in the divine Scripture to call the air heaven, because it is seen above. “Bless,” it says, “all you birds of the heaven,” meaning of the air. For the air is the path of birds, and not the heaven. Behold, three heavens, which the divine apostle mentioned. And if you should wish to take the seven zones as seven heavens, it in no way harms the word of truth. It is also customary in the Hebrew language to call the heaven in the plural, heavens. Wishing to say heaven of heaven, it said heavens of heavens, which denotes the heaven of heaven that is above the firmament, and the waters that are above the heavens, whether of the air and the firmament, or of the seven zones of the firmament, or of the firmament which, by Hebrew custom, is called in the plural, heavens. Therefore, all things that have come into being are subject to corruption according to the sequence of nature, even the heavens, but by the grace of God they are held together and preserved. Only the divine is by nature without beginning and without end. Wherefore it has also been said: “They will perish, but you remain” (however, the heavens will not completely disappear); “for they will grow old and like a mantle they will be rolled up and they will be changed” and “there will be a new heaven and a new earth.” By a great measure the heaven is larger than the earth. However, we should not inquire into the substance of heaven, it being unknown to us. Let no one suppose the heavens or the luminaries to be ensouled; for they are without soul and without sensation. So that even if the divine Scripture says: “Let the heavens be glad, and let the earth rejoice,” it calls the angels in heaven and the men on earth to gladness; for Scripture knows how to use personification, and to speak of inanimate things as if they were animate, as in “the sea saw and fled, the Jordan turned back,” and “What ailed you, O sea, that you fled?”; and mountains and hills are asked the reasons for their leaping, just as it is also customary for us to say: the city gathered, not wishing to signify the buildings, but the inhabitants of the city; and “the heavens declare the glory of God,” not by uttering a voice heard by perceptible ears, but by displaying to us the power of the Creator from their own magnitude, whose beauty we perceive, we glorify the maker as the master craftsman.

21 Concerning light, fire, the luminaries, sun and moon and stars. Fire is one

of the four elements, light and more buoyant than the rest, both caustic and illuminating, created on the first day by the Creator; for the divine Scripture says: “And God said, ‘Let there be light,’ and there was light.” For fire is nothing other than light, as some say. But others say that the fire of the cosmos is above the air, which they call aether. In the beginning, therefore, God made the light, that is, on the first day, the adornment and order of all visible creation; for take away the light, and all things remain undiscerned in the darkness, unable to display their own comeliness. “And God called the light Day, and the darkness

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κατιόντος ἡλίου ἐνταῦθα μὲν νύκτα, ἐκεῖσε δὲ ἡμέραν. Ἕτεροι δὲ ἡμισφαίριον τὸν οὐρανὸν ἐφαντάσθησαν ἐκ τοῦ τὸν θεηγόρον ∆αυὶδ λέγειν· «Ὁ ἐκτείνων τὸν οὐρανὸν ὡσεὶ δέρριν», ὅπερ δηλοῖ τὴν σκηνήν, καὶ τὸν μακάριον Ἡσαΐαν· «Ὁ στήσας τὸν οὐρανὸν ὡσεὶ καμάραν», καὶ ὅτι δύνων ὅ τε ἥλιος καὶ ἡ σελήνη καὶ τὰ ἄστρα κυκλοῖ τὴν γῆν ἀπὸ δύσεως ἐπὶ βορρᾶν καὶ οὕτω πάλιν ἐπὶ τὴν ἀνατολὴν ἀφικνεῖται. Ὅμως, εἴτε οὕτως, εἴτε ἐκείνως, ἅπαντα τῷ θείῳ προστάγματι γέγονέ τε καὶ ἥδρασται καὶ τὸ θεῖον θέλημά τε καὶ βούλημα θεμέλιον ἀσάλευτον κέκτηται. «Αὐτὸς γὰρ εἶπε, καὶ ἐγενήθησαν· αὐτὸς ἐνετείλατο, καὶ ἐκτίσθησαν. Ἔστησεν αὐτὰ εἰς τὸν αἰῶνα καὶ εἰς τὸν αἰῶνα τοῦ αἰῶνος· πρόσταγμα ἔθετο, καὶ οὐ παρελεύσεται». Ἔστι μὲν οὖν οὐρανὸς τοῦ οὐρανοῦ ὁ πρῶτος οὐρανός, ἐπάνω ὑπάρχων τοῦ στερεώματος. Ἰδοὺ δύο οὐρανοί· «καὶ τὸ στερέωμα γὰρ ἐκάλεσεν ὁ θεὸς οὐρανόν». Σύνηθες δὲ τῇ θείᾳ γραφῇ καὶ τὸν ἀέρα οὐρανὸν καλεῖν διὰ τὸ ὁρᾶσθαι ἄνω. «Εὐλογεῖτε» γάρ, φησί, «πάντα τὰ πετεινὰ τοῦ οὐρανοῦ», τοῦ ἀέρος λέγω. Ὁ ἀὴρ γὰρ τῶν πετεινῶν ἐστι πορεία, καὶ οὐχ ὁ οὐρανός. Ἰδοὺ τρεῖς οὐρανοί, οὓς ὁ θεῖος ἔφη ἀπόστολος. Εἰ δὲ καὶ τὰς ἑπτὰ ζώνας ἑπτὰ οὐρανοὺς ἐκλαβεῖν θελήσειας, οὐδὲν τῷ λόγῳ τῆς ἀληθείας λυμαίνεται. Σύνηθες δὲ καὶ τῇ Ἑβραΐδι φωνῇ τὸν οὐρανὸν πληθυντικῶς καλεῖν οὐρανούς. Οὐρανὸν οὐρανοῦ βουλομένη εἰπεῖν οὐρανοὺς οὐρανῶν ἔφησεν, ὅπερ δηλοῖ οὐρανὸν οὐρανοῦ τὸν ἐπάνω τοῦ στερεώματος, καὶ τὰ ὕδατα δὲ τὰ ἐπάνω τῶν οὐρανῶν ἢ τοῦ ἀέρος καὶ τοῦ στερεώματος ἢ τῶν ἑπτὰ ζωνῶν τοῦ στερεώματος ἢ τοῦ στερεώματος τῇ συνηθείᾳ τῆς Ἑβραΐδος πληθυντικῶς οὐρανῶν ὀνομαζομένου. Πάντα μὲν οὖν τὰ κατὰ γένεσιν ὑπόκειται φθορᾷ κατὰ τὴν τῆς φύσεως ἀκολουθίαν, καὶ οἱ οὐρανοί, χάριτι δὲ θεοῦ συνέχονταί τε καὶ συντηροῦνται. Μόνον δὲ τὸ θεῖον ἄναρχόν τε φύσει καὶ ἀτελεύτητον. ∆ιὸ καὶ εἴρηται· «Αὐτοὶ ἀπολοῦνται, σὺ δὲ διαμένεις» (ὅμως οὐκ εἰς τὸ παντελὲς ἀφανισθήσονται οἱ οὐρανοί)· «παλαιωθήσονται μὲν γὰρ καὶ ὡσεὶ περιβόλαιον εἱλιγήσονται καὶ ἀλλαγήσονται» καὶ «ἔσται οὐρανὸς καινὸς καὶ γῆ καινή». Πολλῷ δὲ τῷ μέτρῳ ὁ οὐρανὸς μείζων ὑπάρχει τῆς γῆς. Τὴν μέντοι οὐσίαν τοῦ οὐρανοῦ οὐ δεῖ ζητεῖν ἄγνωστον ἡμῖν οὖσαν. Μηδεὶς δὲ ἐψυχωμένους τοὺς οὐρανοὺς ἢ τοὺς φωστῆρας ὑπολαμβανέτω· ἄψυχοι γάρ εἰσι καὶ ἀναίσθητοι. Ὥστε εἰ καί φησιν ἡ θεία γραφή· «Εὐφραινέσθωσαν οἱ οὐρανοί, καὶ ἀγαλλιάσθω ἡ γῆ», τοὺς ἐν οὐρανῷ ἀγγέλους καὶ τοὺς ἐν τῇ γῇ ἀνθρώπους πρὸς εὐφροσύνην καλεῖ· οἶδε δὲ ἡ γραφὴ καὶ προσωποποιεῖν, καὶ ὡς ἐπὶ ἐμψύχων περὶ τῶν ἀψύχων διαλέγεσθαι, ὡς τὸ «ἡ θάλασσα εἶδε καὶ ἔφυγεν, ὁ Ἰορδάνης ἐστράφη εἰς τὰ ὀπίσω», καὶ «τί σοί ἐστι, θάλασσα, ὅτι ἔφυγες»; καὶ ὄρη καὶ βουνοὶ ἐρωτῶνται λόγους σκιρτήσεως, ὥσπερ καὶ ἡμῖν σύνηθες λέγειν· συνήχθη ἡ πόλις, οὐ τὰς οἰκοδομὰς σημαίνειν βουλομένοις, ἀλλὰ τοὺς τῆς πόλεως οἰκήτορας· καὶ «οἱ οὐρανοὶ διηγοῦνται δόξαν θεοῦ», οὐ φωνὴν ὠσὶν αἰσθητοῖς ἀκουομένην ἀφιέντες, ἀλλ' ἐκ τοῦ οἰκείου μεγέθους τὴν τοῦ δημιουργοῦ δύναμιν ἡμῖν παριστάνοντες, ὧν τὸ κάλλος κατανοοῦντες τὸν ποιητὴν ὡς ἀριστοτέχνην δοξάζομεν.

21 Περὶ φωτός, πυρός, φωστήρων ἡλίου τε καὶ σελήνης καὶ ἄστρων Τὸ πῦρ ἓν

τῶν τεσσάρων στοιχείων ἐστί, κοῦφόν τε καὶ ἀνωφερέστερον τῶν λοιπῶν καυστικόν τε καὶ φωτιστικόν, τῇ πρώτῃ ἡμέρᾳ ὑπὸ τοῦ δημιουργοῦ κτισθέν· φησὶ γὰρ ἡ θεία γραφή· «Καὶ εἶπεν ὁ θεός· Γενηθήτω φῶς, καὶ ἐγένετο φῶς». Οὐχ ἕτερον γάρ ἐστι τὸ πῦρ εἰ μὴ τὸ φῶς, ὥς τινές φασιν. Ἕτεροι δὲ τὸ κοσμικὸν πῦρ ὑπὲρ τὸν ἀέρα φασίν, ὃ καλοῦσιν αἰθέρα. Ἐν ἀρχῇ μὲν οὖν ἐποίησεν ὁ θεὸς τὸ φῶς, ἤτοι τῇ πρώτῃ ἡμέρᾳ καλλωπισμὸν καὶ κόσμον πάσης τῆς ὁρατῆς κτίσεως· ἄφελε γὰρ τὸ φῶς, καὶ πάντα ἐν τῷ σκότει ἀδιάγνωστα μένουσι τὴν οἰκείαν μὴ δυνάμενα εὐπρέπειαν ἐπιδείξασθαι. «Ἐκάλεσε δὲ ὁ θεὸς τὸ μὲν φῶς ἡμέραν, τὸ δὲ σκότος