Chapter XII.

Whether, then, there are cycles of time, and floods, or conflagrations which occur periodically or not, and whether the Scripture is aware of this, not only in many passages, but especially where Solomon650    [Note this testimony to the authorship of Koheleth, and that it is Scripture.] says, “What is the thing which hath been?  Even that which shall be.  And what is the thing which hath been done?  Even that which shall be done,”651    Cf. Eccles. i. 9. etc., etc., belongs not to the present occasion to discuss.  For it is sufficient only to observe, that Moses and certain of the prophets, being men of very great antiquity, did not receive from others the statements relating to the (future) conflagration of the world; but, on the contrary (if we must attend to the matter of time652    εἰ χρν ἐπιστήσαντα τοῖς χρόνοις εἰπεῖν.), others rather misunderstanding them, and not inquiring accurately into their statements, invented the fiction of the same events recurring at certain intervals, and differing neither in their essential nor accidental qualities.653    ἀνέτλασαν κατὰ περιόδους ταυτότητας, καὶ ἀπαραλλάκτους τοῖς ἰδίοις ποιοῖς καὶ τοῖς συμβεβηκόσιν αὐτοῖς.  But we do not refer either the deluge or the conflagration to cycles and planetary periods; but the cause of them we declare to be the extensive prevalence of wickedness,654    κακίαν ἐτὶ πλεῖον χεομένην. and its (consequent) removal by a deluge or a conflagration.  And if the voices of the prophets say that God “comes down,” who has said, “Do I not fill heaven and earth? saith the Lord,”655    Cf. Jer. xxiii. 24. the term is used in a figurative sense.  For God “comes down” from His own height and greatness when He arranges the affairs of men, and especially those of the wicked.  And as custom leads men to say that teachers “condescend”656    συγκαταβαίνειν. to children, and wise men to those youths who have just betaken themselves to philosophy, not by “descending” in a bodily manner; so, if God is said anywhere in the holy Scriptures to “come down,” it is understood as spoken in conformity with the usage which so employs the word, and, in like manner also with the expression “go up.”657    [On this figure (anthropopathy) see vol. ii. p. 363, this series.]

Πότερον μὲν οὖν εἰσι περίοδοι καὶ κατὰ περιόδους κατακλυσμοὶ ἢ ἐκπυρώσεις, ἢ μὴ εἰσί, καὶ εἰ ἐπίσταται καὶ ταῦθ' ὁ λόγος, ἐν πολλοῖς μὲν καὶ ἐν οἷς δὲ Σολομών φησι· "Τί τὸ γεγονός; Αὐτὸ τὸ γενησόμενον· καὶ τί τὸ πεποιη μένον; Αὐτὸ τὸ ποιηθησόμενον" καὶ τὰ ἑξῆς, οὐ τοῦ παρόντος ἐστὶ καιροῦ λέγειν. Ἀρκεῖ γὰρ μόνον ἐπισημειώ σασθαι ὅτι ἀρχαιότατοι ἄνδρες γενόμενοι Μωϋσῆς καί τινες τῶν προφητῶν οὐ παρ' ἑτέρων εἰλήφασι τὰ περὶ τῆς τοῦ κόσμου ἐκπυρώσεως ἀλλ' εἰ χρὴ ἐπιστήσαντα τοῖς χρόνοις εἰπεῖν, μᾶλλον τούτων ἕτεροι παρακούσαντες καὶ μὴ ἀκρι βώσαντες τὰ ὑπὸ τούτων λεγόμενα ἀνέπλασαν κατὰ περιόδους ταυτότητας καὶ ἀπαραλλάκτους τοῖς ἰδίως ποιοῖς καὶ τοῖς συμβεβηκόσιν αὐτοῖς. Ἡμεῖς δὲ οὔτε τὸν κατακλυσμὸν οὔτε τὴν ἐκπύρωσιν κύκλοις καὶ ἀστέρων περιόδοις ἀνατίθεμεν, ἀλλὰ τὴν τούτων αἰτίαν φαμὲν εἶναι κακίαν ἐπὶ πλεῖον χεομένην καὶ καθαιρομένην κατακλυσμῷ ἢ ἐκπυρώσει. Θεὸν δὲ καταβαίνοντα ἐὰν λέγωσιν αἱ προφητικαὶ φωναὶ τὸν φήσαντα· "Οὐχὶ τὸν οὐρανὸν καὶ τὴν γῆν ἐγὼ πληρῶ; λέγει κύριος", τροπολογοῦμεν. Καταβαίνει γὰρ ὁ θεὸς ἀπὸ τοῦ ἰδίου μεγέθους καὶ ὕψους, ὅτε τὰ τῶν ἀνθρώπων καὶ μάλιστα τῶν φαύλων οἰκονομεῖ. Καὶ ὥσπερ ἡ συνήθεια συγκαταβαίνειν φησὶ τοῖς νηπίοις τοὺς διδασκάλους καὶ τοῖς ἄρτι προτραπεῖσιν ἐπὶ φιλοσοφίαν νέοις τοὺς σοφοὺς ἢ τοὺς προκόπτοντας οὐ τῷ σωματικῶς αὐτοὺς καταβαίνειν, οὕτως εἴ που λέγεται ἐν ταῖς θείαις γραφαῖς καταβαίνειν ὁ θεός, ἀνάλογον νοεῖται τῇ οὑτωσὶ χρωμένῃ τῷ ὀνόματι συνηθείᾳ, οὕτω δὲ καὶ ἀναβαίνειν.