To Autolycus 2.32
Summary: After Babel humanity spread gradually from Arabia and Chaldea over the whole earth, as far as Britain; the Greek writers, ignorant of this history, speculate about the world's shape.
Greek text · Otto 8:152–154
Ἐντεῦθεν οὖν κατανοεῖν τὰς ἱστορίας ἐστὶν τοῖς φιλομαθέσιν καὶ φιλαρχαίοις, εἴπου πρόσφατά ἐστιν τὰ ὑφʼ ἡμῶν λεγόμενα διὰ τῶν ἁγίων προφητῶν. Ὀλίγων γὰρ ὄντων ἐν πρώτοις τῶν τότε ἀνθρώπων ἐν τῇ Ἀραβικῇ γῇ καὶ Χαλδαϊκῇ, μετὰ τὸ διαμερισθῆναι τὰς γλώσσας αὐτῶν, πρὸς μέρος ἤρξαντο πολλοὶ γίνεσθαι καὶ πληθύνεσθαι ἐπὶ πάσης τῆς γῆς. Καὶ οἱ μὲν ἔκλιναν οἰκεῖν πρὸς ἀνατολάς, οἱ δὲ ἐπὶ τὰ μέρη τὰ τῆς μεγάλης ἠπείρου καὶ τὰ πρὸς βόρειον, ὥστε διατείνειν μέχρι τῶν Βριττανῶν ἐν τοῖς ἀρκτικοῖς κλίμασιν, ἕτεροι δὲ γῆν Χαναναίαν, καὶ Ἰουδαίαν καὶ Φοινίκην ἐπικληθεῖσαν, καὶ τὰ μέρη τῆς Αἰθιοπίας καὶ Αἰγύπτου καὶ Λιβύης καὶ τὴν καλουμένην διακεκαυμένην καὶ τὰ μέχρι δυσμῶν κλίματα παρατείνοντα, οἱ δὲ λοιποὶ τὰ ἀπὸ τῆς παραλίου καὶ τῆς Παμφυλίας καὶ τὴν Ἀσίαν καὶ τὴν Ἑλλάδα καὶ τὴν Μακεδονίαν καὶ τὸ λοιπὸν τὴν Ἰταλίαν καὶ τὰς καλουμένας Γαλλείας καὶ Σπανίας καὶ Γερμανίας, ὥστε οὕτως τὰ νῦν ἐμπεπλῆσθαι τὴν σύμπασαν τῶν κατοικούντων αὐτήν. Τριμεροῦς οὖν γεγενημένης τῆς κατοικήσεως τῶν ἀνθρώπων ἐπὶ τῆς γῆς κατʼ ἀρχάς, ἔν τε ἀνατολῇ καὶ μεσημβρίᾳ καὶ δύσει, μετέπειτα καὶ τὰ λοιπὰ μέρη κατῳκήθη τῆς γῆς, χυδαίων τῶν ἀνθρώπων γενομένων. Ταῦτα δὲ μὴ ἐπιστάμενοι οἱ συγγραφεῖς βούλονται τὸν κόσμον σφαιροειδῆ λέγειν καὶ ὡσπερεὶ κύβῳ συγκρίνειν αὐτόν. Πῶς δὲ δύνανται ταῦτα ἀληθῆ φάσκειν, μὴ ἐπιστάμενοι τὴν ποίησιν τοῦ κόσμου μήτε τὴν κατοίκησιν αὐτοῦ; Πρὸς μέρος αὐξανομένων τῶν ἀνθρώπων καὶ πληθυνομένων ἐπὶ τῆς γῆς, ὡς προειρήκαμεν, οὕτως κατῳκήθησαν καὶ αἱ νῆσοι τῆς θαλάσσης καὶ τὰ λοιπὰ κλίματα.
English · Claude translation
From this, those who love learning and antiquity can consider the histories, to see whether what we say through the holy prophets is recent. At first there were only a few people, in the land of Arabia and Chaldea; after their languages were divided, they gradually began to become many and to multiply over the whole earth. Some turned to settle toward the east, others in the parts of the great continent and toward the north, so as to spread as far as the Britons in the northern regions; others in the land of Canaan, also called Judea and Phoenicia, and in the regions of Ethiopia, Egypt, and Libya, the so-called torrid zone, and the regions stretching to the west; and the rest from the coast and Pamphylia, in Asia, Greece, and Macedonia, and then in Italy and the lands called the Gauls, the Spains, and the Germanies; so that now the whole earth is filled with its inhabitants. So human settlement on the earth was at first threefold, in the east, the south, and the west; and afterward, as human beings became very numerous, the remaining parts of the earth were settled too. Not knowing these things, the writers want to call the world spherical and to compare it to a cube. How can they say anything true about it, when they know neither how the world was made nor how it was settled? As human beings gradually increased and multiplied on the earth, as we said, so the islands of the sea and the other regions were settled.
About this passage
Notes
Translation notes
- Theophilus rejects the philosophers' description of the world as a sphere, as some other early Christian writers did; others (e.g. Athenagoras, Leg. 16) accepted it.
Cite this passage
Theophilus, Autol. 2.32 (trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/theophilus-autolycus/2/32/).
Plain text
Theophilus, Autol. 2.32 (trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/theophilus-autolycus/2/32/).
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