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he made firm; for this reason David also says: "Praise him in the firmament of his power." And to use another example, just as smoke, when it is given off from wood and fire, is rarefied and diffuse, but when it runs up to a height, it is transformed into the thickness of a cloud, so God, having lifted up the rarefied nature of the waters, fixed it above. And that this example is true, Isaiah testifies, saying that "the heaven was made firm like smoke." The heaven, therefore, having been fixed in the midst of the waters, lifted half of the waters up and left half below. 10.27 But why are there waters above? For what use? So that someone may drink? So that someone may sail? For that there are waters above, David testifies, saying: "And the water that is above the heavens." Attend, therefore, to the wisdom of the Creator. The heaven was crystal-like, having been fixed from waters; but since it was about to receive the flame of the sun and moon and infinite multitudes of stars, and was entirely filled with fire, so that it might not thus be dissolved or burned by the heat, he spread over the back of the heaven those seas of waters, so that it might moisten and anoint its back, and thus withstand the flame and not be scorched. 10.28 And you have an example; just as today, if you place a cauldron over a fire, if there is water above, it withstands the fire, but if it has none, it is destroyed, so God set water as a rival to fire, so that it might have sufficient permanence through the waters anointing it. And behold the wondrous thing; so much moisture abounds for the heavenly body, being warred upon by so much fire, that it even lends to the earth. For whence the dew of a cloud? From nowhere? The air has no water; clearly the heaven drips from its excesses; for this reason also the patriarch Isaac, blessing Jacob, said: "May God give you of the dew of heaven and of the fatness of the earth." And after other things 10.29 But attend, I beseech you, that the waters above the heaven also fulfill another need; for not only does it preserve the heaven, but it also sends down the flame of the sun and the moon. For if the heaven were transparent, all the light would run upward; for the fire, being upward-moving, would have left the earth desolate; for this reason, therefore, he compressed the heaven from above with infinite waters, so that the light, being constricted, might be sent downward. See the wisdom of the craftsman; and you have in yourself the image of the craftsman; and attend, I beseech you; consider for me this head as the upper heaven, the parts above the tongue as the other heaven, that is, the firmament, whence it is also called the palate; above in the invisible parts is the brain, not appearing, in the lower heaven is the tongue, appearing, just as the upper heaven is in the intelligible realms, but the world is in the things spoken. From the same, from the third homily 10.30 For on the third day the fruits sprouted, and so that it might not be thought again that they sprouted by the nature of the sun, when the creation was completed, then at last he makes the sun and the moon and the stars. But from where did he make them? For it has been said that on the first day he made all things from non-beings, but on the other days from beings. From where, then, the sun? From the light that came to be on the first day, which the craftsman changed as he wished and refashioned into different forms, having created the matter of light there, and having made the luminaries here, as if someone should set forth a mass of gold, and after this, having struck coins, should thus arrange the decoration of the gold. For just as he then divided the abyss, which was one water, into the water above, into the seas, into the rivers, into springs, into lakes, into wells, so also the light, being one, of a single form, the craftsman, having cut it, divided into sun and moon and stars. And after other things 10.31 He made the heaven, therefore, not a sphere, as the vain talkers philosophize; for he did not make a rolling sphere, but as the prophet says: "He who made the heaven as a vault and stretched it out as a tent"; for none of us is so impious as to be persuaded by the vain talkers, and not by the prophetic words, which say that the heaven has a beginning and an end; for this reason, therefore, also the sun

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ἐστερέωσε· διὰ τοῦτο καὶ ∆αυΐδ φησιν· "Αἰνεῖτε αὐτὸν ἐν στερεώματι δυνάμεως αὐτοῦ." Καὶ ἵνα ἑτέρῳ χρήσωμαι ὑποδείγματι, ὥσπερ καπνός, ἐπειδὰν ἀπὸ ξύλων καὶ πυρὸς ἀναδοθῇ, ἠραιωμένος ἐστὶ καὶ κεχαυνωμένος, ἐπειδὰν δὲ δράμῃ εἰς ὕψος, εἰς νεφέλης παχύτητα μεταρρυθμίζεται, οὕτως τῶν ὑδάτων τῶν ἠραιωμένων τὴν φύσιν ὁ Θεὸς ὑψώσας ἔπηξεν ἄνω. Καὶ ὅτι ἀληθὲς τοῦτο τὸ δεῖγμα, μαρτυρεῖ Ἠσαΐας λέγων ὅτι "ὁ οὐρανὸς ὡς καπνὸς ἐστερεώθη". Παγεὶς τοίνυν ἐν μέσῳ τῶν ὑδάτων ὁ οὐρανός, ἐκούφισε τὰ ἡμίσεια τῶν ὑδάτων ἄνω καὶ τὰ ἡμίσεια ἀφῆκε κάτω. 10.27 ∆ιὰ τί δὲ ἄνω ὕδατα; Πρὸς ποίαν χρῆσιν; Ἵνα τίς πίῃ; Ἵνα τίς πλεύσῃ; Ὅτι μὲν γὰρ ἔστινὕδατα ἄνω, μαρτυρεῖ ὁ ∆αυῒδ λέγων· "Καὶ τὸ ὕδωρ τὸ ὑπεράνω τῶν οὐρανῶν." Πρόσεχε λοιπὸν τῇ σοφίᾳ τοῦ δημιουργοῦ. Κρυσταλλώδης ἦν ὁ οὐρανὸς ἀπὸ ὑδάτων παγείς· ἐπειδὴ δὲ ἔμελλε δέχεσθαι ἡλίου φλόγα καὶ σελήνης καὶ ἄστρων ἄπειρα πλήθη, καὶ ἦν ὅλος πυρὸς πεπληρωμένος, ἵνα μὴ οὕτως ὑπὸ τῆς θερμότητος λυθῇ ἢ φλεχθῇ, ἐπέστρωσε τοῖς νώτοις τοῦ οὐρανοῦ τὰ πελάγη ἐκεῖνα τῶν ὑδάτων, ἵνα λιπαίνῃ καὶ ἐπαλείφῃ αὐτοῦ τὰ νῶτα, καὶ οὕτως ἀντέχῃ πρὸς τὴν φλόγα καὶ μὴ φρύγηται. 10.28 Ἔχεις δὲ καὶ ὑπόδειγμα· ὥσπερ σήμερον, ἐὰν ἐπιθῇς λέβητα ἐπάνω πυρός, ἐὰν μὲν ὕδωρ ἐπάνωθεν ᾖ, ἀντέχει πρὸς τὸ πῦρ, ἐὰν δὲ μὴ ἔχῃ, διαλύεται, οὕτως ὁ Θεὸς ἀντέστησεν ἀντίπαλον τῷ πυρὶ τὸ ὕδωρ, ἵνα ἔχῃ ἀρκοῦσαν τὴν διαμονὴν διὰ τῶν ἀλειφόντων αὐτὸν ὑδάτων. Καὶ βλέπε τὸ θαυμαστόν· τοσοῦτον περισσεύει τῷ οὐρανίῳ σώματι τὸ ὑγρὸν ὑπὸ τοσούτου πυρὸς πολεμουμένῳ, ὅτι καὶ τῇ γῇ δανείζει. Ἐπεὶ πόθεν δρόσος νεφέλης; Οὐδαμοῦ; Ὁ ἀὴρ ὕδωρ οὐκ ἔχει· δηλονότι ὁ οὐρανὸς ἐκ τῶν περισσευόντων αὐτῷ στάζει· διὰ τοῦτο καὶ ὁ πατριάρχης Ἰσαὰκ εὐλογῶν τὸν Ἰακὼβ ἔλεγε· "∆ῴη σοι ὁ Θεὸς ἀπὸ τῆς δρόσου τοῦ οὐρανοῦ καὶ ἀπὸ τῆς πιότητος τῆς γῆς." Καὶ μεθ' ἕτερα 10.29 Πρόσεχε δέ, παρακαλῶ, ὅτι καὶ ἑτέραν χρείαν τὰ ὕδατα ἀποτελεῖ τὰ ἐπάνω τοῦ οὐρανοῦ· οὐ μόνον γὰρ συντηρεῖ τὸν οὐρανόν, ἀλλὰ καὶ τὴν φλόγα τοῦ ἡλίου καὶ τῆς σελήνης κάτω πέμπει. Εἰ γὰρ ἦν διαφανὴς ὁ οὐρανός, ὅλη ἡ αὐγὴ ἄνω ἔτρεχε· τὸ γὰρ πῦρ ἀνωφερὲς ὂν ἔρημον τὴν γῆν κατελίμπανε· διὰ τοῦτο οὖν συνεπίλησε τὸν οὐρανὸν ἄνωθεν ἀπείροις ὕδασιν, ἵνα ἡ αὐγὴ στενουμένη κάτω πέμπηται. Ὅρα τοῦ τεχνίτου τὴν σοφίαν· ἔχεις δὲ καὶ ἐν σεαυτῷ τοῦ τεχνίτου τὴν εἰκόνα· καὶ πρόσεχε, παρακαλῶ· ὅρισαί μοι τὴν κεφαλὴν ταύτην τὸν οὐρανὸν τὸν ἄνω, τὰ ἐπάνω τῆς γλώττης τὸν ἄλλον οὐρανόν, τουτέστι τὸ στερέωμα, ὅθεν καὶ οὐρανίσκος καλεῖται· ἄνω ἐν τοῖς ἀοράτοις ἐγκέφαλος μὴ φαινόμενος, ἐν τῷ κάτω οὐρανῷ γλῶσσα φαινομένη, ὥσπερ ὁ οὐρανὸς ὁ ἄνω ἐν τοῖς νοητοῖς, ὁ δὲ κόσμος ἐν τοῖς λαλουμένοις. Τοῦ αὐτοῦ ἐκ τοῦ τρίτου λόγου 10.30 Τῇ γὰρ τρίτῃ ἡμέρᾳ ἐβλάστησαν οἱ καρποί, καὶ ἵνα μὴ νομισθῇ πάλιν ὅτι τῇ φύσει τοῦ ἡλίου ἐβλάστησαν, ὅτε ἀπηρτίσθη ἡ δημιουργία, τότε λοιπὸν ποιεῖ ἥλιον καὶ τὴν σελήνην καὶ τὰ ἄστρα. Πόθεν δὲ αὐτὰ ἐποίησεν; Εἴρηται γὰρ ὅτι τῇ πρώτῃ ἡμέρᾳ ἐκ μὴ ὄντων ἐποίησε τὰ πάντα, ταῖς δὲ ἄλλαις ἐξ ὄντων. Πόθεν οὖν ἥλιος; Ἐκ τοῦ γενομένου φωτὸς τῇ πρώτῃ ἡμέρᾳ ὃ μετέβαλεν ὡς ἠθέλησεν ὁ τεχνίτης καὶ εἰς διαφόρους μετεσκεύασεν ὄψεις, ἐκεῖ μὲν τὴν ὕλην τοῦ φωτὸς δημιουργήσας, ὧδε δὲ τοὺς φωστῆρας ποιησάμενος, ὡς εἴ τις προβάλοιτο μᾶζαν χρυσίου, καὶ μετὰ ταῦτα νομίσματα κόψας οὕτω διαθείη τοῦ χρυσίου τὴν διακόσμησιν. Ὥσπερ γὰρ τὴν ἄβυσσον τότε ἓν ὕδωρ ὑπάρχουσαν ἐμέρισεν εἰς τὸ ἄνω ὕδωρ, εἰς τὰς θαλάσσας, εἰς τοὺς ποταμούς, εἰς πηγάς, εἰς λίμνας, εἰς φρέατα, οὕτω καὶ τὸ φῶς ἓν ὑπάρχον, μονοειδές, κατατεμὼν ὁ τεχνίτης ἐμέρισεν εἰς ἥλιον καὶ σελήνην καὶ ἄστρα. Καὶ μεθ' ἕτερα 10.31 Ἐποίησεν οὖν τὸν οὐρανόν, οὐ σφαῖραν, ὡς φιλοσοφοῦσιν οἱ ματαιολόγοι· οὐ γὰρ ἐποίησε σφαῖραν κυλιομένην, ἀλλ' ὥς φησιν ὁ προφήτης· "Ὁ ποιήσας τὸν οὐρανὸν ὡς καμάραν καὶ διατείνας αὐτὸν ὡς σκηνήν"· καὶ γὰρ οὐδεὶς ἡμῶν οὕτως ἀσεβής, ὥστε πεισθῆναι τοῖς ματαιολόγοις, καὶ μὴ τοῖς προφητικοῖς λόγοις, οἵπερ λέγουσιν ὅτι ἀρχὴν καὶ τέλος ἔχει ὁ οὐρανός· διὰ τοῦτο οὖν καὶ ὁ ἥλιος