Период первый. Откуда начинается церковная история?

The history of the Church begins together with the history of the world. The very creation of the world can be considered as some kind of preparation for the creation of the Church: because the end for which the kingdom of nature was arranged is in the Kingdom of Grace. 2 How can you know about the beginning of the world? It is known by reason that the world must have its beginning from God, and our times are not yet very far from their beginning, which is most likely proven by the common legend among peoples about the beginning of things, the known origin of peoples and states, the course and state of the arts and sciences, the limited continuation of stories and the most fables in which true events were ever hidden 3 . But the true and definitive concept of the creation of the world is borrowed only from Holy Scripture 4 . Order and continuation of creation The book of Genesis describes the accomplishment of this great work by the word of God, over the course of six days. Perhaps the Creator wanted to show us through this division of creation that he does it with the same perfect freedom as omnipotence, and that each creature, not only by being, but also by all its perfections, owes Him alone. Perhaps He allowed nature itself to experience the forces gradually imparted to it, and sanctified its laws, introducing into them the actions of His omnipotent will. But whatever the hidden reason for this gradualness in creation, at least to merge it into one inseparable instant, or to imagine the formation of the earth as a consequence of one mechanism of nature 5 would mean too spontaneously to evade the simple meaning of Holy Scripture, and to forget that the creation of the world is a mystery, which, according to the Apostle 6, we understand by faith. In the beginning, when there were no days and no time, God created heaven and earth, by the name of which one can generally understand the entire composition of the world, still uneducated and unadorned. Although, however, some teachers, such as Augustine, Gregory B (theologian) and Damascene, not without reason, separate the sky here, because the disorder in which the earth appears is not attributed to it, and under its name they conclude the highest Spiritual world and the dwelling of the blessed, which, in their opinion, the Divine Writer touched with just one line, providing detail to the vision of the elect. At first the earth was invisible and unstructured, nothing had yet a certain quality, and was not established on a known basis. Therefore, this entire mass, which has no solidity, is called the abyss and water. The Spirit of God, the Holy Spirit, overshadowed her and poured educational and life-giving power into her. Real formation began with the production of light, which, having separated, probably from the first minute of its existence, began to concentrate; along with this, a certain movement followed, similar to that which is now noticeable in the heavenly bodies, and the first period of this movement, together with the darkness that preceded it, amounted to what in Holy Scripture for the first time was called evening and morning and day, not only the first, but one and, as it were, the only one. The next day God divided the waters into the firmament. One might think that these were the original waters, which contained the substance of the dark celestial bodies, which, now more densely formed around their centers, and contained within constant limits, left a space, or firmament, more permeable to light. For the sacred Writer, the firmament means not only the airy sky, which carries cloudy waters, but also the starry sky, on which the luminaries are placed in the continuation of creation. In the creation of the third day, the Narrator limits our gaze to our planet alone. On this day, its own waters, separating, formed seas and other containers for themselves; land appeared, along with a variety of mountains and valleys; and in order to prepare food for its future inhabitants, the earth produced herbs, trees and everything belonging to the plant kingdom. Without a doubt, the creation of the fossil kingdom should also be attributed to this time, although the narrator is silent about it, dealing only with the most visible objects. On the fourth day, of course, through the concentration of the previously created light in certain places, the luminaries were arranged in the firmament. Among them, the sun and moon, in relation to the earth, are called great. The intention of their creation in relation to the earth Moses shows that, with constant visible movement, the first constituted and determined the days, and the other, from time to time, tempered the darkness of the nights; and so that subsequent creatures, the most intelligent, would find in them a way to measure their time. On the fifth day, the earth, supplied with all the needs of living creatures, began to be populated. The birth of animals, reptiles, or swimming in the waters, and flying in the air, occurred in a specific element for each of them. As sentient beings, the Creator, as it were, gave them the ability to reproduce, and this is expressed by the sacred Writer as a blessing; although, however, previous creations also received their blessing in the very command about their existence. On the sixth day, the animals of the earth came into being, among which Genesis distinguishes cattle, creeping things and beasts of the earth. After this, God crowned His creations with the creation of man, 7 who, last of all, appeared on earth as a king in his domain. Approaching this last creation, God, as depicted by the human Inspired Prophet, holds council in the secret of His Trinity Unity, since now it would be necessary to take care of the fate, not only of the future, but also of the hitherto produced creation; and stirs Himself up to complete what he began: Let us create man. For this he takes earthly dust, which must be sanctified and glorified as part of such a high creation, and in which, meanwhile, the future ruler of the world must carry with him an eternal monument of his insignificance before God. This dust is formed not through the hitherto usual command, but through some predominantly direct action of Omnipotence; and of course, is already elevated to the highest level of earthly perfection. In the person of the bodily composition arranged in this way, the Creator inhales, as is read in the original text of Genesis, the breath of lives; which gives an idea of ​​both the heavenly origin of the soul and the difference in human abilities. Man is created in the Garden of Eden, and when, having surveyed the numerous genera of animals, he finds himself an isolated and unique creature, then God begins to create a helper for him, instilling with this slowness that gender is not an essential part of human nature, and that He does not willingly give Adam this dangerous helper. But in order to inviolably preserve in her creation the unity of the root, from which people should multiply, and to leave them a material incentive to unanimity, God removes a rib from Adam, immersed in an unnatural sleep, and from this rib creates a wife similar to him. The awakened Adam discovers her origin; and both receive from the Creator the blessing of multiplying their kind according to His intentions in the purity of motives and the joy of love of children, and the blessing of unquestioning dominion over all earthly creatures. Thus, over the course of six days, God completed His earthly and heavenly creations. He found them in their entirety to be the same as He had previously recognized each individually, that is, perfect in its own way, and corresponding to the intentions of His wisdom and goodness. On the seventh day He rested from all these works, and blessed this day and illuminated it so that, returning over time, it would call upon creation to revere its Creation. With the first man the primitive Church was born. The beginning for its creation in man was laid in the image and likeness of God with which he is clothed. For through this he was elevated above the kingdom of nature so that the end of his activity could be one God, whom, above all other creatures, he could call his God. The image would constantly excite him to approach the original with knowledge and love, and his conscience would assure that, preserving this image in its purity, he would remain righteous, that is, he would have the right to the closest union with God and to new benefits from Him. Perfection of Reason in the Primitive State of Man Man, in his primitive state, could derive knowledge of Divine things from direct communication with God or Angels, as can probably be concluded from the walk of God in Paradise mentioned in Holy Scripture. Adam received knowledge of natural things along with being. He showed the experience of this deep knowledge when he named all the animals. These names, of course, depicted their properties: for the result for which God solemnly commanded to give them could be one in order to test and show the descendants of Adam his wisdom. He left a monument to this wisdom in the original language, the perfection of which one can still marvel at in its remnants found in the Holy Books of Hebrew 8 . The primitive perfection of the human will corresponded to the perfection of the mind. True, it did not exclude the possibility of sin; but nevertheless contained, as if in a seed, all the virtues. The Word of God depicts them in the name of the Right One, which is given to the first created man 9. Primitive Religion can be represented in the form of Covenant 10 between God and man. The conditions of this Covenant on the part of man were that he sincerely loved God and his neighbors and showed perfect obedience to his Creator in all His commands. Without a doubt, man was certainly already obliged to this by the right of creation: but he had to commit himself to this again, freely, under new promises and favorable conditions on the part of God. The conditions on God’s part were these: continuation of man’s blissful state, his safety from death or painful destruction of the body, and, finally, eternal life. To open the opportunity for man to testify to God his obedience and strengthen his faith in Him through testing, God used the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, the fruit of which he forbade man to eat for fear of imminent, inevitable, ultimate death in soul and body. Establishments of the Primitive Church Two special institutions of love for God and neighbor also belong to the state of the primitive Church: firstly, Saturday, or the rest of the seventh day, so that a person would primarily devote this day to the grateful remembrance of God’s benefits, for this is the closest sign of the sanctification of the seventh day; secondly, marriage, the law of which, of course, not without the Spirit of God, was pronounced by Adam immediately after the creation of the wife; for the Savior Himself points to this very law, as the fundamental institution of marriage. God's Visible Deposit of the Covenant In accordance with the visible experiences of fidelity that God demanded from man, He gave this latter, on His part, an equally visible guarantee of the immutability of His promises. It was a glorious and unique tree of life. It contained such power that the correct use of its fruits constituted a preventive medicine against old age and death, and was no less necessary, but an incomparably more reliable aid for the immortality of the body than ordinary food simply for life. At the same time, it served as a Symbol of heavenly life and its very Source, which man should not have sought in himself, but in the consubstantial Word of God 12. In this mind, St. Augustine calls the tree of life a sacrament. Seat of the primitive church The blissful abode of the first people was Paradise. He was in the East in relation to Palestine, or to the place where the book of Genesis was written, in a country which, from its pleasantness, received the name Eden 13. To explain the situation of this country, the Genesis writer speaks of a stream of waters coming out of Eden, irrigating Paradise and dividing into four sources, or the same number of rivers, whose names are: Pison, Geon, Tigris and Euphrates. Of these, the less well-known are the lands of Ebilates, Ethiopia and Assyria, through which they flow. But time, which has changed the names of places, and perhaps even the flow of rivers, has obscured most of these signs; which is why opinions about the exact position of Paradise are very divided. Those who gave more freedom to their guesses raised him to the third heaven, like Origen, or at least to the highest countries of the air, like Damascus; then, having descended to earth, they looked for him on the island of Ceylon, or returned to Palestine itself. They argued that the flood, which gave the whole earth a completely new appearance, completely erased its traces, which, however, the Genesis writer so reliably points out. This includes the opinion of Josephus, who takes Geon for the Nile, and which could only have been born in those times when they believed that the source of the Nile was in the East. But even those who adhered more closely to the topography of Moses came only closer to probability, and did not come to agreement. Of these, some extend Eden together with the chain of mountains that run almost continuously along Asia, far to the East, and Paradise itself from the Euphrates to the Ganges, finding in the names of Ganges and Hyphasis the names Geopas and Pison 14. Others believe that Paradise is within Syria, replacing Pison with Chrysorroes and Geon Oront 15. Others, finally, attribute it to Mesopotamia and Chaldea, finding here both Eden and the land of Ethiopia in Medialam, and supplementing the required number of rivers with branches of the Tigris, or Euphrates, or other nearby rivers 16. After comparing these opinions with each other, the only thing that remains true is that Paradise should have been located in the countries lying near the Euphrates and the Tigris. The young Church of Eden already had its enemy. He appears in the form of a serpent, in which he hid for the most convenient execution of his evil intentions against man. But the actions attributed to this serpent, as well as the revelations of John 17, make it impossible not to recognize in this symbolic image the spirit of malice, which, having itself lost heaven, out of envy wanted to block it for man. Continuation of the Primitive Church Holy Scripture does not show how long the primitive Church maintained its peace and prosperity from the machinations of this enemy 18 . But that this blissful state was short-lived can be concluded from the words of the Savior, who calls the devil a murderer from the beginning 19. History of the Fall of Man This cunning murderer chooses a cunning animal as his weapon, the better to cover up his deception. He approaches not the husband, but the wife, who knew the commandment of God not from God Himself, but through her husband. At first he pretends and, as if out of ignorance, slanders God. Then, when he sees that his wife reveals in herself more fear of punishment than love for God the Lawgiver, he with greater audacity attributes his own property to God, praises the forbidden fruit, and promises man Divine knowledge. The wife, who did not take the precaution of leaving at the first doubt, allowed this first mistake to arouse in herself distrust of God, and was soon overcome by sensuality, curiosity and pride. And the husband was blinded by addiction to his wife, and both fell into sin, which was accompanied by a confused feeling of nakedness, and a blind, of course, desire to hide from God. Thus the original union of man with God was dissolved, and the primitive church was ruined. God's vengeance was poured out, so to speak, on everything that touched this deadly crime. Troubles awaited a person on the path of death. Labor, which was Adam's pleasure in Paradise, now had to be accompanied by exhausting sweat; the blessing of childbearing became a source of suffering for Eve; the earth, cursed in the affairs of man, had to reduce its gifts for him. All creation in its ruler lost part of its perfection and blessing. The serpent, an instrument of temptation, is condemned to grovel and eat dust; to the tempter himself, although he was already under punishment, a new torment was announced in the future bliss of man. Among the very threats with which the just God struck crime, His goodness uttered a decree about the restoration of His Church. He made a promise about the Seed of the woman, which was to erase the very head of her enemy, and completely destroy the kingdom of death. Then the Covenant of Grace was put in place of the first Covenant. The establishment and essence of this covenant is contained in the very gospel of the victorious seed of the woman. According to the power of this covenant, God promises the fallen human race, through pure goodness and mercy, restoration and salvation through the power and merit of the Redeemer. Man, for his part, undertakes not to oppose the action of grace, and as closely as possible to unite with the victorious and Divine seed of promise through Faith, Hope and Love. To confirm this union, God believes, before the complete completion of this great mystery, to first present it to man in images and signs, then at a certain time, after the appearance of the Messiah, to reveal it with all the circumstances; from which come various types of Divine economy. Establishment of sacrifices At the same time, to the establishment of the Sabbath, sacrifices were added to the Divine service. They prefigured the great sacrifice that the Messiah had to offer to the justice of God with his own life; and therefore they served instead of the sacraments. They cannot be considered the product of a natural desire to serve God, nor an arbitrary invention of reason, which itself had no reason to seek a means to please God by destroying certain creatures. Regulations relating to the people themselves As for the regulations relating to people themselves, the law of marriage remained in force after the fall, especially since it was necessary to set limits to increased sensuality. He also received an addition about the wife’s special submission to her husband. This would soon be followed by the states of parent, master 20 , citizen 21 , and property rights 22 . All this, as useful and necessary for the human race in its present state, is, without a doubt, approved by God Himself. By falling away from God to his enemy and from the spiritual to the sensual, Adam also fell from his first dwelling. The exile settled in the nearest country, which must be Syria, or Mesopotamia, or one of those adjacent to these. Although, along with the gifts of grace, Adam had to partly lose the perfection of nature, however, without a doubt, even in his deplorable state, he still retained great remnants of his former greatness. Therefore, one can consider him the inventor of many useful sciences and knowledge in life, which firstly includes agriculture. Whether to honor him, as some think, as the inventor of writing, the silence of the Holy Books does not allow us to decide. But there is no doubt that he understood and accepted the Gospel about the Seed of the woman. He consoled himself in the sorrows of repentance, and made himself worthy to participate in the celebration of his great victory. He put the seal of this faith in the names of his wife and his children. Other circumstances of his nine hundred and thirty-year life, as well as his death, are the subject of discordant and unfounded legends 23 . First spread of the church When the Church first spread from Adam, a division was immediately opened between the kingdom of light and the kingdom of darkness, between the seed of the woman and the seed of the serpent. The first son of Adam, Cain, whose name means acquisition, and who, perhaps, was revered as the most promised seed, was the first to be lost to the Church. Another, which Eve, either because of the awareness of the error in the first name, or because of some premonition of his unexpected death, called vanity or lamentation 24. Abel was the true son of the Church, and he was also its first martyr. These two brothers, with different properties, divided among themselves two different kinds of life, agriculture and cattle breeding. Although both exercises are equally innocent and close to nature, but since agricultural life is more tied to the earth, shepherd life was for the most part preferred in ancient times by those who considered themselves wanderers and strangers on earth 25 . Cain chose the first, and Abel the last. Their different dispositions were incomparably more revealed on the occasion of the sacrifice, which, probably after the collection of fruits, they brought to God, each from their own labors 26, but not with equal success. The greatest difference in these sacrifices was not in the type of things offered, which were equally gifts of God, and equally could not be gifts to God either in the quality and quantity of them, which is also not visible in Holy Scripture, but in the hearts of those who offered by Faith, as the Apostle says, Abel offered a greater sacrifice than Cain 27 . Therefore, God gave Abel a clear sign that his sacrifice was acceptable. Cain was overcome by envy and anger. In vain God inspired him that he himself was the cause of his humiliation before his brother; that his unrighteous grief may have harmful consequences for him; and that it depends on him to retain the advantage he desires. The envious man became embittered; and once, taking advantage of the solitude into which he deliberately brought Abel with him, shedding his blood, he showed the world the first human death and a terrible example of murder. He increased the severity of this crime by unrepentance when God called him to repentance, and by despair when God punished him. The punishment announced to Cain was temporary: but he did not want to notice that God still left him a way to avoid eternal destruction. Not caring about returning to himself the grace of God, he was worried about temporary life, and was afraid of human vengeance 28 . God showed him his last mercy, declaring sevenfold vengeance on anyone who wanted to kill him, and placing a sign on him that would help everyone recognize him and would resemble this definition. It is unknown what this sign was, if it was not the very appearance of Cain, disfigured first by envy and sorrow, then by despair and horror, and made clear to everyone by the seal of his rejection. The outcast has withdrawn from the face of God, that is, from the society of other people and the Church in which God is present. In the land of Naid or Nod, whose name means the land of wandering, he founded the residence of his family and created a city, either to hide his timidity in it, or to spread from it his desire for dominance. Follow-up of the church after the death of Abel Instead of Abel, God, to preserve His Church, gave Adam Seth. He was the pillar and foundation of the pious tribe. He was followed in an unbroken family line by: Enosh, Cainan, Maleleel, Jared, Enoch, Methuselah, Lamech and Noah. All these were guardians and defenders of heavenly truth and heirs of piety. The most famous of the patriarchs before the flood The most famous are Enos, Enoch and Noah. During the time of Enos, something new happened in the structure of the Church. It seems that then the generation of Seth especially clearly separated from the descendants of Cain under the name Sons of God known in Holy Scripture. Enoch walked with God, in a spirit of faith, in a constant sense of His presence, and in an active endeavor to imitate Him; he also prophesied, although, however, the passage that has come down to us under his name cannot be attributed to him with certainty 29. Finally, for his holiness, without experiencing death, he was honored to be stripped of mortality and move to the villages of the blessed, and through this he became a high witness of redemption and resurrection. Noah, although born in the worst of times, was nevertheless accepted by his Father in the hope of the promised seed; and indeed he appeared to be a perfect man in his generation and a preacher of righteousness in the days of wickedness. On the contrary, Cain's descendants followed the path of their ancestor. It was carried away either by teachings and worldly benefits, or by sensual pleasures; and from injustice in people's reasoning they passed to contempt for the law of God. Moses in one house of Lamech presented numerous examples, and so to speak, a reduction of the inclinations and vices of this people. His polygamy is clear proof of his intemperance. The words he said: he killed my husband on my wound, and the young man on my scab - whether to take them as a proud confession of a murder that has already been committed, or as a vain threat of vengeance to the one who would dare to insult him, show a brutal and wicked soul. Jovil, one of his sons, is called the father of cattle feeders living in the villages; but since cattle breeding was already known before it, then its invention should honor the nomadic life, which would allow one to have the most numerous herds, and thereby favor covetousness. Another, named Jubal, trying to achieve the pleasures of the senses, invented some musical instruments. The third, named Fovel or Tubalcain, was a forger of copper and iron, and no doubt, like the others, extended his art beyond the limits of necessity. Religion in the Seeds of Cain Amid the corruption of morals to which the descendants of Cain indulged, it is not surprising that the light of faith among them was eclipsed; The Gospel of the Seed of the Woman has been forgotten. Worship turned into empty rituals, or was completely rejected. Whether idolatry was common among them is unknown: it is much more likely that atheism reigned among them 30 ; for it could only constitute the depth of evil into which they soon descended. Mixing of tribes and the concept of Giants Over time, two very different generations began to mingle. The sons of God were seduced by the beauty of the daughters of men and entered into unauthorized marriages with them. The multiplication of the Giants, whose first beginning, in the tribe of Cain, can be dated back to the time of Enosh, was the fruit of these marriages. They used their superior strength to enslave the weakest. Proud of the imaginary advantage that they united two great generations in their birth, they extolled themselves over both, and through the misfortunes of others they gained glory for their name. Consequences of tribal mixing Such an unfortunate union of tribes was accompanied by more disastrous consequences than their first division. It opened the gates to the general corruption of the human race. The Cainites, being more successful in worldly affairs, which were their only subject, became teachers of the Sithians, first in the pleasures of life, and then in vices. The whole earth was corrupted. Her defilements multiplied until, finally, the global flood washed her face. Providence for the Church in These Times When the poison from the snake’s bite in the heel infected the whole body with such terrible force, then the Physician of souls and bodies, without a doubt, used the most effective means to preserve life in a person by faith. From time to time He enlightened His sons with His revelations; strengthened their faith and hope with His miracles. The example of one Enoch proves both. The usual and more natural means that God used for the continuous preservation of piety was longevity, with which He blessed the Patriarchs. Their lives lasted nine centuries or more. Everyone, not only in youth, but also in adulthood, could personally receive instructions, and saw the example of their father, grandfather, great-grandfather and beyond, at the same time. The truth of the longevity of the patriarchs To understand this longevity, there is no need to shorten the years of the Patriarchs, or turn them into months, in the likeness of the ancient Egyptian chronology 31. The narrative of Moses not only has nothing to confirm this assumption, but it would also turn into chaos. It would follow from it that some Patriarchs gave birth to children and died very early; and that the complaint of one hundred and thirty year old Jacob about the brevity of his life is very absurd. From the story of Noah it can be seen clearly that the narrator uses the same year before as after the flood, and that this year is quite similar to the usual one. One can guess that the course of the moon then served as the basis for counting the months, and autumn was the constant limit of the year; so that not only did they start counting the months from it, but they could also use it to find out when the thirteenth month had to be added to twelve months if the lunar year ended early 32 . Therefore, the chronology and longevity of the Patriarchs should be taken in no other way than in direct and precise signification. The reasons for longevity, not excluding the special providence of God, could be many natural, and among these some were common to people who lived before the flood. The composition of their body was not yet so far removed from the exact primitive structure; having only a few ancestors, they did not have time to enrich themselves with various types of hereditary damage as much as we, to whom hundreds and thousands of ancestors each left their new share of this unfortunate inheritance; their way of life was simpler and closer to nature. Food without unnecessary preparation, consisting largely of plants and water; work according to strength, peace in time, pleasures without worries, sorrows that do not exceed spiritual strength; finally, the earth, abundantly blessed with fruitful power, and the air, according to its state, well-dissolved, are advantages that they were generally more able, and in part better able to use, before the flood than in subsequent centuries. Various chronologies of this period The chronology of the Patriarchs is the only way in which the continuation of time from the creation of the world to the flood is determined. It amounts to 1656 according to the Hebrew text, and 2256 years according to the Greek text of the seventy interpreters, confided with the ancient Samaritan and Josephus. Consideration of this difference There is no doubt that one of the two texts is damaged in these places either intentionally or through neglect; but it is difficult to expose this damage. Some, through the special providence of God and the care of the Church, try to establish the integrity of the Hebrew text. Others think that the Jews insidiously shortened their chronology, being unable to answer the Christians, who, by their own tradition, proved the coming of the Messiah during the sixth thousand years of the world. The smaller numbers in the years of Methuselah and Lamech in Greek should no doubt be corrected according to the Hebrew and Flavian notation; for otherwise Mithusal would have lived beyond the flood. This is precisely what Rabbi Akiba is accused of, who could conveniently spread this error through his glory, and through the double translation of the sacred books made under his leadership by his disciple Aquila. The advantage of the Greek chronology is that it preserves in the years of the Patriarchs such a ratio of the time of virginity to the continuation of a whole life, which seems natural. That the reckoning of Joseph, who unquestioningly had to follow the Jewish text of his time, corresponds to this reckoning. That with this, finally, the most remarkable of the ancient pagan narratives are conveniently brought into agreement, which, of course, should not be rejected without reason 34. Despite the fact that most of the researchers of the sacred chronology, attributing the origin of the Greek calculation or the desire of seventy interpreters to protect the Sacred History from criticism from the arrogant Egyptians of antiquity, or to someone else's doubt about the longevity of the Patriarchs and the intention to explain it by turning years into months, at which end it was necessary to increase the time of virginity of the Patriarchs 35, they prefer to stick to the chronological calculation Jewish. The resolution of this dispute must primarily depend on the resolution of the question: does the current Hebrew text of the Bible remain intact in a single letter? Rigorous research forces the answer: no. For the text of the seventy interpreters, but prepared for the Christian Church by the special dispensation of Providence, in some parts undoubtedly appears in greater integrity than the Hebrew, as, for example, in the alphabetic psalm 144, from which the second half of verse 13 in the Hebrew is lost. In this way, the only solid evidence in favor of the Jewish chronology collapses. Thus, the Eastern Church adheres to the chronology of seventy interpreters to this day, both by tradition and by research and conviction. History of the first world among the pagans The history of the first world did not reach the pagan writers intact: however, traces of it remain to this day in some legends preserved by them and in fables, so that in this very pagan fables one can find noteworthy evidence of the reliability of the Biblical everyday life. Sanchoniaton places chaos at the beginning of things, that is, heaven and earth unsettled, darkness and spirit breathing above its beginnings 36 . The Indians in Strabo 37 and the Egyptians in Laertius 38 agree with this; Isiod in his Theogony, and Ovid in his transformations. Thales says that darkness is before light, and God is first; and that the world is beautiful because it is God’s work. Animals at Sanchoniaton are produced by kolpia (κολπια), that is, the voice of the mouth of God קהדל־מיא. Isiod sings of the creation of man from a mixture of dust and water; others add that he was created in the image of God to possess creation, and that his soul is a particle of the breath of the Divine 39. The very name of Adam is read in Sanchoniaton; the name of Eve was heard in the most ancient Greek sacraments; the names of Saturn and Rhea are also applied to the first people. The garden of Alcinous, watered by a stream in Homer 40, and of Jupiter in Plato 41, represent the Edenic golden age, a state of innocence depicted in pagan terms. The history of man's fall is hidden in Pandora's fable, as Origen observed against Celsus 42 . – Pherecides, a student of Pythagoras, calls the leader of rejected spirits and the chief of evil Ophioneus 43, where the Greek name of the serpent is clearly visible; Enoch, under the name Aniak and Atlas 44, is revered by the Greeks as the inventor of astrology. It is believed that he lived for more than three hundred years, and a prediction is told about his death that it was to be followed by a general death: here, of course, he is confused with Methuselah, who died in the last year before the flood. Some 45 guess that from Jovil the pagans made Pales, from Jubal Apollo, from Tubalcain Vulcan. However, one must accept such guesses not indiscriminately: because the cunning of the spirit of malice, not having the power to completely destroy the truth, tried in every possible way to mix it with lies and superstition, so that in this mixture it is difficult to find it, and even more difficult to separate it. See Gen. I, 26; 1 Cor. III, 22. On these grounds, Lucretius himself affirmed the following conclusion: Habet novitatem summa, recensque natura est mundi, neque pridem exordia coepit. “De rerum natura” Lib. Y. Macrovius, being of a contrary opinion, feels the strength of this proof against the eternity of the world. “Quis facile mundum sem- per fuisse consentiat, cum et ipsa historiarum fides, multarum rerum cultum emendationemque, vel ipsam iuuenlionem recentem esse fateatur?” Somn. Scip. I, 11. To answer this, he resorts to great transformations of the world, but the greater these transformations, the more difficult it is to reconcile them with His eternity, and to explain them otherwise than through the influence of the Supreme Being. Some also tried to prove by the existence of mountains and sea cliffs that the world is not old, since they are noticeably decreasing, but whether they are growing is not noticeable. Despite this, Aristotle considered the world eternal, and almost all pagans accepted at least eternal matter. But since Holy Scripture itself is given various explanations in this case, in order to stay within the boundaries of History and not fall into false paths, it must stick closer to Moses and his own goal, which is: 1) to show people the Creator God, 2) for this purpose to present His actions most in relation to the earth, and 3) to depict not so much the image of birth, but as the source and beginning of things. Curious investigators must often be reminded that God Job is speaking. XXXVIII, 4., and that the secret of peacemaking was respected by the Jews themselves, who did not even allow reading the first chapters of Genesis until 30 or 23 years of age. See Phil. 1.. de opificio mundi, Th. Burnet. in Theoria telluris sacra. Pagan judgments about the beginning of man are full of strangeness. Only Socrates and Plato come close to the truth. The first is by Xenophon in memor. Socr. L. I. proves from the structure of the body that man is created: the latter in Menedemo Poitico Critia asserts that man, by the goodness and providence of God, was created from the earth, in the image of his Creator, from which he is called Theoid (God-like). On the contrary, Aristotle considers the human race eternal. The opinions of those who suddenly give rise to it can be seen in Censorinus, de die natali p. 4. Fables produce people from the clay of Prometheus, from the stones of Deucalion, and sometimes from Vulcan. Anaximander thinks that from the warmed moist earth arose a genus of fish, pregnant with people, who, moreover, were born of adulthood. Empedocles believes that the members of man were born separately from the earth, and then united. Democritus of Abdera produces men from mud and water, like worms, as Lactatius explains. Epicurus believes that the earth gave birth to the first babies and milk for their food. Zeno of Cittia and the Stoics claim that people arose from the earth through the assistance of fire, or Divine Providence. Some are surprised at this opinion; but if providence for the Stoics means inevitable fate, then the meaning of this will be that at the end of the great periods of the world, man, as a part of it, is born from fire and matter by the power of fate. Finally, many thought that in some regions, such as Attica, Arcadia, Thessaly, their own land gave the ancestors of their inhabitants. Such absurdities prove the truth that reason cannot give definitive information about the beginning of the human race, and that even less can one doubt the narrative of Moses based on this reasoning. These remains sufficiently show that the words of this language were natural. And in this sense, Pythagoras also argued that the one who gave names to things must have had high wisdom, as Plato also says in Cratilo. However, the ancients, not knowing the true origin of man, were conveniently mistaken in explaining the origin of languages. Diodorus cited the opinion of the Egyptians about this: sonus oris cum primum contusus esset, paulatim discreuisse vocem, ajunt, et res omnes suo nomine appellasse homines. Verum cum diversis siti essent in orbis locis, non eisdem usos verbis Ierunt. L. I, c. 1. Lucretius says similar things and refutes Plato. In this, Holy Scripture precedes us, which describes the crime of Adam under the name of violation of the Covenant. Hosea VI, 7. For what is proper here. See John, I, 4. Apoc. II, 7. Prov. III, 18. In the Vulgate this name is taken as a common noun: but it is used as a proper Gen. IV, 16, Ezek XXVII, 23. Cellarius thinks so. Georg. anliqu. lib. In the East he finds Ethiopia and Gevngat: and the signs of these countries: an abundance of gold, precious stones and fragrant resin (Bdolach, Anfrax). But in this opinion, too much space is given to the garden, and instead of a stream of water, or the River of Eden, a source of water is supposed to come from a very long chain of mountains. See Clerici paraphras. in Genes ad c. II. From 1 Samuel XV, he concludes that Gevila was not far from Syria and finds traces of Ethiopia (Clius) in the names of Mount Cassia and Cassiotis of the Syrian region. But his Gevila does not have expensive stones; and the imaginary Pishon is not worthy to be considered along with the Euphrates. This opinion is again shared by some industries. They have a solid common root, but all weaken in detail. They assume the existence of rivers of which no trace is visible; they mention those that were produced or transformed by human hands, such as, for example, the Tsarskaya River. In dividing rivers, there is no respect for their flow. See Huelii de situ Paradisi, Van. lill. dissert, de eodem; Marskii hist. parade It seems that this silence contains a mystery, especially if it is contrasted with such an accurate number of days that concluded the works of God. It makes it clear that the dark era of the fall must be erased from the book of human existence, while the memory of Creation and the Sabbath of God will be preserved and performed at certain times. This note is more correct than those according to which the fall of Adam is believed to be on the sixth, seventh, thirteenth day, or thirtieth year. However, the opinion that Adam’s temptation in Paradise lasted forty days, since the Redeemer paid for it with a forty-day temptation in the desert, is worthy of attention. John, VIII, 44, See XIX, 4. 8. Blessed Augustine produces slavery from the curse with which Noah struck Canaan, de Sia. Dei. L. XIX, p. 15. On the contrary, Noah speaks of slavery as something already known. Even before the flood, poverty and ignorance already had time to give birth to slaves, especially during the time of the Giants. The first city was created by Cain, Gen. IV, 17 .-Did the descendants of Seth also have cities? Apparently, this was necessary for safety; but perhaps the power of the Patriarchs was sufficient to preserve in good order the tribes scattered by their habitation. In the state of innocence, man's dominion over other creatures was universal. After the fall, the labor and reproduction of people should have produced property. These include the works: The Book of the Revelation of Adam, the Gospel of Eve, and so on. The Gnostics and Manichaeans often decorated their fictions with the names of ancient holy men. The legend that Adam was buried in Hebron, which was otherwise called Kariath-Arbe - the city of four, that is, Adam, Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, was buried in it, or, according to others, on Mount Golgotha, is no more satisfying to the researcher. And that over his tomb, from the seeds thrown by Shem, a tree grew, from which some make the rod of Moses, and others the Cross. The double signification of the same name comes from the double reading of לכה and לבא .. The latter was followed by: Philo, Joseph, Origen, and the first is common. See Heb. XI. 9, 10, 13, 14. What these sacrifices consisted of is clearly stated in Genesis. IV, 3, 4. In vain does Grotius change the fruits into grass, uprooted, as was the custom of the pagans, and the fat and lambs into milk and waves. Pagan custom proves nothing in reasoning of such antiquity. Also insignificant is the opinion against the slaughter of animals, which is borrowed from their small number, especially if we imagine that animals were rarely used in sacrifice, and for food, and never before the flood. Heb. XI, 4. Three things are required for the sacrifice of faith: 1) that it be offered according to the ordinance of God; 2) so that it is revered as a symbol of the Redeemer’s sacrifice, and 3) so that the one offering the sacrifice is himself a living sacrifice. Cain's victim had only the first of these accessories. From this we can conclude that the human race has already multiplied up to this time, and therefore the death of Abel, of course, happened quite later after the creation of the world; although it is impossible to determine exactly these times. This passage can be read in Pseudoveteri testameuto Io. And. Schmidii. And his refutation is in Coelo orientis Thomae Bang. As for the reference made to Enoch’s prophecy by the Apostle Jude. 14, it could be based on tradition, which he could use, finding it in agreement with Holy Scripture and his own spiritual understanding. The Apostle, depicting false teachers walking in the path of Cain, posits these features: To υριότητα αθετ ϖ σι , δόξας βλασφημ ϖ σι What is this if not atheism? But as for superstition, it is incredible that it alone could destroy feelings of honesty without a trace, and without hope of correction; and this very thing happened before the flood in many, See Cyril Alexander, Prince. 3. against Julian. Lactation Iib. II, art. 12. cites Varro as evidence that the ancient Egyptians counted months as years. Although among the Jews the beginning of the year is in the spring; but this practice did not begin before Moses. Ref. XII, 2. But as the time of gathering fruits was then considered the end of the year, Exod. XXIII, 16; then we must conclude that this last institution is much older than the first. Joseph Drevn, in the book. 1, ch. 3, writes that Moses appointed Nishan as the first month only in relation to holidays, and for other matters he left the same order in the calculation of times. To analyze this Chronology, a table of it according to the texts is presented here. Demetrius of Phalereia counts from the beginning of the world to Philometor the King of Egypt as 5494. Callisthenes found astronomical observations in Babylon that began 1093 before the capture of this city by Alexander. In Jewish chronology, these observations would have been only 60 years short of the flood, and Demetrius’ reckoning would have gone far beyond the creation of the world. See Augustiu. de Civ. Dei L. V, p. 31. Euseb. Praep. Eu. L, I, p. 10. Horat. Ovid. Virg. Juven. See Justin. cobor. ed Graec. See August. de Ciu. Dei. XIV, 11. Stephau. in iconio Euseb. Praeparat. Euang. lib. IX. Heidegg. in Hist. Patriarch. Exer. VI. You might be interested in: