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Are The Holy Fathers "heliocentrists"?1

Father Dan Bdulescu Recently appeared in ecclesiastical and theological debates plan side views concerning the scriptural and patristic cosmology. To one who approach with love and patience for this issue so important even for salvation 2 are revealed true "mysteries" over which is bed - by some people inspired by... - a really thick layer of dust and rust. But, once the light of grace scatters these layers of mistake, blasphemy, unbelief and forgetfulness, it rises slowly a cosmos made by God to man in a certain order, size, age, composition. About this cosmos the scriptural and patristic testimonies describe for thousands of years a finite universe in constant motion, in which the center is the still Earth which reigns as the only body lived, on which was incarnate the Son of God as man, and where will take place the second coming and the Dreadful Judgement. So received, confessed and believed all the prophets from Moses, all the Holy Fathers at least until nineteenth century, and according to some reliable sources believed even Seth and Adam at the beginning. We know how this divine revelation gradually changed starting with the fifteenth century and Copernicus, Galileo, Kepler and others. The "heliocentric" system of those became "acentric", the universe is, if not infinite, but huge size, has existed for several billion years, the Earth is a poor planet among who knows how many, spinning like a top losing somewhere in space. This atheist teaching was practically poisoning the minds and hearts of all generations of the twentieth century, and penetrated even within our Church. This may explain some reactions, if not incredible, then at least distressing, of some sons of the Church, of any rank would they be. So we met on the internet two recent examples which we will address as an example for those listed. In either case it is about awarding the heliocentrist concept to some Holy Fathers from the past,
The original article here: http://www.scribd.com/doc/21501460/Sfin%C5%A3i-P%C4%83rin%C5%A3iheliocentri%C5%9Fti 2 In regard of the traditional church cosmology and chronology (calendar) we meet often, unfortunately, the following reaction: "And what helps me to know/to confess the location and condition of the earth in the universe, or the age of the universe, the length of the days of creation, the issue of the equinox and full moon from calendar, and so on?' "God will not ask me at the Judgement these things, but other known ...", etc. These reactions are found at all levels of the church, clergy, monks, believers. We reckon with humility and with love towards them, that these thoughts and reactions manifests simply their unbelief in those above! And this is strange, since it is obvious that they are part of revelation (and as such, the dogma!), are discovered and inspired by the Holy Spirit in the Scripture and Tradition. Of course, there are a number of personal nuances, and in some cases these reactions are determined by some fear, some "lazy" (listlessness) to shake the teachings and settings received from schools (even seminars or theology faculties). For others it is simply some helplessness in understanding change, and Lord knows their cause and cure. It is right for salvation to believe and confess what believed and professed the prophets and the saints, that is not only about God but also about His works. Now, it remains in consciousness, heart and mind of each one to follow as consider fit, only that now it can not speak of ignorance. Good God alone knows what is in the soul of man, and knows how easy and overwhelming were we deceived by the enemy, and with His mercy and kindness, He will judge each one as only He knows and saves ...
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2 they became in the opinion of those who issued these statements whatsoever "Copernicus before Copernicus'! Let's take them in turn. On blog of a hieromonk father have were made these statements: "Another great discovery of the orthodox astronomers was heliocentric system. At the advent of Christianity, everyone believed that the Earth is the center of the universe and all other heavenly bodies revolve around it. Gradually the astronomical observations of planetary motion led to the idea that the Sun is the center and the earth and other planets revolve around it. The first explicit statement of this fact is found in St. Gregory of Nyssa, who, in his "Apologetic Word to Hexaimeron" says that "the great wisdom of God knew to set the sun in the middle of the universe." For those who do not know this, note that St. Gregory of Nyssa lived in the fourth century, so with more than a thousand years before Copernicus (who lived in fifteenth-sixteenth centuries). The heliocentric system was not imposed at once, but gradually, but it is noteworthy that the Orthodox Church did not persecuted its supporters but even always considered St. Gregory of Nyssa as one of the great saints of the Orthodoxy." The above quote seems to be taken from "St. Gregory of Nyssa, Writings, Part II, Volume 30 of PSB collection from EIBMBOR, Bucharest, 1998, translation and notes Fr. Prof. Theodore Bodogae, pointing the source of translation as "Gregorios Nysseni Opera" (Leyden, Netherlands) and Migne, "Patrologia Graeca" on page 124. We fit the sentence quoted in its context. There we read: "But there had been no trouble and no disorder because of the unshakable order put by the divine wisdom according to each to their properties, so the top realms to be ordained basically just things really high, so as to head and have his own place, that about the middle, slightly to the south than the north, like the Milky Way or Zodiac line, thus fulfilling the setting in place of all the stars, and each star to have not only a any location, but each must fit into place, appointed every size and equal power, each remaining still and steady as the wisdom of the Creator ordained that. These and others of their kind are those to which the man grabs him dizzy when he sees his impotent soul that can not explain in what way was extended within three days to be able to distinguish with each other the light of so many stars or how was possible that the endless distances of celestial spheres and the world of the earth the great wisdom of God knew to set the sun just in the middle of the universe3 that we live not completely in the dark in the time to before being shown to have arrived to us the stars shine. And He placed just above our heads the strength of the sunshine rays as get not too dark because of the great distances..." Unfortunately, at the time of writing we have not the original texts that was translated texts, so that we take for good fathers translations, who tells us in the preface: "On the other hand, we realize that the language full of metaphors and rhetorical expressions of St. Gregory was not always easy to render in Romanian. Therefore pray the reader to have mercy and to look less at the letter and more in
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Note 59 to the translator in this release: "As in the heliocentric view"(!)

3 its spirit." Wise words, and so we will, as in this case: "the endless distances of the celestial spheres and the world of the earth" where clearly that "endless" does not mean at all infinite, but a rhetorical phrase for "very big". Now, speaking of the letter and spirit, more serious problems begin, namely the invoking by the translator and the father who took this view, of alleged "heliocentric" concepts and perspectives of the Saint! Here we can not be in any way agree and we shall show why it is impossible. The "letter" seems to tell us that the sun is somehow put by God in the center of the universe. But is this "middle" the same as the "center" of the universe"? "A little to the south than the north, like the Milky Way or Zodiac line" means somehow the center of the universe? We are in the fourth century when the general concept both in the world and the Church was that "Ptolemaic" inherited from Aristotle and consistent to scriptural revelation, with a still Earth at the center surrounded by the seven planets, the sun is the 4th! These planets make a daily revolution around the Earth in an own "sphere" or "heaven". This is confirmed further on the same work by Saint Gregory: "...After a passage of time, they disconnect of the communal communion and are grouped by related properties, among which is distinguished the innumerable multitude of stars, each having its inherent natural qualities and just go to the highest place among creatures, where each remain in its place, nor ever stopping their path and circular nor ever changing place. For if their ordination is unchangeable, however their nature is forever in motion. After the fastest moving follows, in second place, one that is closest in speed, reaching the second circle; after it that from the third and then the fourth place, until the seventh in speed. For much is on each of the above, the further delay and rotation speed. All these luminaries were created on the fourth day, but not in the sense that only when light was created, but that's when everyone was specified lighting power, while those that outperforms others in size, namely the sun and the moon whose origin has been linked from the outset and the creation of light, but whose final disposition was made only after three days because everything that moves, while moving and any choice also needs some time."4 Now, in our turn, we will get quotes from the work of St. Gregory, published in other works, but all bear witness to the scriptural and patristic geocentrist/geostatistical model: "Thus the heavens and the earth were finished," says the Scripture (Genesis 2, 1). Once all seen things were created and everything was put in its special place, so the heavenly bodies embrace all around the whole universe, and the heaviest of them and tend to fall down, as are earth and water, were settled together in the middle, then took their place in the nature of things as a connected and reinforcements of all creatures by the divine wisdom and power, the only able to rule
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Quoted item, p. 125.

4 everything through a double work: that of state and movement... for neither the land moves nor the sky ever slows its circular movement speed." (On the creation of man, 30, 1, 1) And what makes the ground Earth to be the foundation of the whole, and what keeps it steadfast in its place? What oversee its trend to decline? If someone would ask about them and those like them, will anybody be so bold as to promise an explanation of this kind? No! But the only answer that can be given to people of good sense is this: that only One who did all wisely can give answer about His creation. And "Through faith we understand that the worlds were framed by the word of God" (Hebrews 11, 3) as said the Apostle." (Answer to Eunomius's Second Book) "As the sky covers everything from its bosom, being infinite and gathered itself, and that the earth and its environs floats in the middle and that all bodies rotate around a fixed and solid point, then it is essential that the elements that are above ground to be also underneath it, for the same substance surrounds the Mass of the earth globe." "... Since [the moon] moves faster in its space motion, it crosses its orbit twelve times until the sun has come his way once. And here's why the moon is not always fully lit: because of the quick spinning of its circle, it always remains in front of the sun, because it makes its way around the sun a longer time... And so as, when the sun shines on the earth, the shadow turns on the underside, because the spherical form makes that rays thrown by the sun could not light at the same time everywhere, but any part of the earth would light the sun, pointing to a middle point the world, the opposite point will be dark, so once the rotation of the sun, darkness will always run on the opposite side perpendicular beam so that both contained space above or below ground, is the once light, once dark." (St. Gregory of Nyssa, On the Soul and Resurrection) "But, because they claim to know all, let they tell us first about the simplest; what do they think about the heaven body, about the engine that carries the stars5 in their everlasting way, or the sphere in which it moves; for all far they would stretch speculation, when it reaches the uncertain and incomprehensible it must stop. For although everyone says that to some other body same to (that heavenly body) which fits into its circular shape, he calculates its speed, so that spinning always in its circle, turns as that one, being stopped by a force which prevents tangential to fly, so how can he claim that these bodies will remain untouched by their constant friction with each other? And again, how this movement is produced when two similar bodies, when one stays still (for the body from within, we believe, is kept as a vice stillness of what it contains is not possible to move); and what is that thing which keeps the body to ambient constancy, so that it remains unshaken and untouched by the movement that it contains?"6

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And the planets too. Answer to Eunomius's Second Book

5 And, for not to leave suspended that passage from above that began with the "sun in the middle" let us see how it will explained in the traditional cosmological model. We insist upon the fact that one who wants to understand the patristic passages on the subject must necessarily be familiar with cosmology and physics of Aristotle and Ptolemy, and make a sort of tabula rasa with current astrophysical knowledge that it completely obscures this deal! So, returning, in the model where the sun is the fourth planet, it will be somewhere "in between", i.e. between Earth and the 8th Heaven, the stars (or "firmament"). Since they thought that it is the only source of light in space and other planets and stars have their light from it, plus the fact that he practically has to shine cosmos evenly, then the most appropriate place is this "middle". Let us not think, however, that the father quoted intentionally tried to mislead knowing the truth, but rather being a prey of those "before undertaking of the mind" of science that deceived him, and the translator too, and behold the results. Even more, we see him falling into the error of which he combated successfully, A. Kalomiros, that who puts the Holy Fathers to support evolution and the creation of the luminaries from day one! Do not be! The second example is also taken from the net, this time on a forum topic pompously titled "How St. John of Damascus showed in An Exact Exposition of the Orthodox Faith the absurdity of the geocentricism dogma". The thread starter opens as follows: "An Exact Exposition of the Orthodox Faith of St. John of Damascus says something about the year 700 that today only was observed with astonishment. The fact that the universe is moving: "For that, only the Godhead is still, moving everything through His movement." I.e. Terra moves too, and the sun all other planets and stars. This was observed in contemporary astronomy." And still further: "St. John of Damascus said further: "If some say that God is an immaterial body, as socalled, by the Greek sages, the fifth body, we say that is impossible, because surely He will move as the heaven." Is Terra somehow not part of the heaven? So here that St. John of Damascus shows that all the planets and stars move... "Heaven is all creation visible and invisible, spiritual powers within him are angels and in it are closed and surrounded all sensitive. Only Godhead is uncircumscribed; it fills them all, containing all, surrounding it all, because it is above all and created them all." "So that who claims that the Earth is stationary contradicts An Exact Exposition of the Orthodox Faith of St. John of Damascus."

6 Again, an even more typical case when a great Saint of Orthodoxy is considered a kind of Einstein before Einstein, who would support the universal movement, the lack of a stationary "absolute" landmark, because if this were God, in creation one can not find it, and so everything moves. Another thing that is manipulation of the most faint-hearted (which are not even a handful of people!) is that "science has observed over 700 years with amazement that the universe is moving." Over 700 years would mean fifteenth century, say the days of Copernicus. What said/saw the "science" of that time about the movement of the universe? It said what was said/seen with unshakable authority Aristotle and Ptolemy: the universe moves around the stationary Earth at the center, with a full rotation in 24 hours. The movements occur on concentric spheres as described by those. Copernicus sustains in the sixteenth century the heliocentric hypothesis, in which the universe and the sun are... stationary, only those 6 (six!) planets and the satellite moon are moving. Returning to those insinuated on the topic: the "science" had no way to observe that "the whole universe is moving" as it sees that it lacks any objective reference and inertial for a serious observation. This "science" considering that Earth is a planet can not possibly be on a stationary observation point that could decide who moves. To discover this, one had to find an absolutely stationary point, and exactly that happened before Copernicus implicitly in the eighth century of St. John Damascene. And indeed the Saint and those people actually believed and knew then that the universe is moving, with all the planets and stars, but... around the stationary Earth at the center! Another typical miss for the thread starter: to believe that the Earth is a planet! That's now thought, but never by St. John Damascene, see the planets section in which are listed the 7 traditional among whom the sun and moon, and not the Earth which is not a planet! The Saint gives a definition of a planet, of course other than that of Webster Dictionary: "They said that there are seven planets: Sun, Moon, Jupiter, Mercury, Mars, Venus and Saturn... Then they called them "planets", because they move contrary to heaven motion: the heaven and other stars move from east to west, but only those are moving from west to east. And this we will observe to the progress of the moon, which gives less back every night... They say that heaven a sphere surrounding the Earth and drags with it through its movement very quickly, the sun, moon and stars... The scholars say that among these luminaries are seven planets [which] have a contrary movement against the heaven. For this reason they called them planets. They say that heaven is moving from east to west and the planets from west to east; the heaven drag them with it the seven planets through its movement because it is faster." Again, it should be noted that in the patristic period a "movement" means two things: 1. movement, 2. alteration, change. Of course in this case too God does not move and do not suffer change/alteration, so it can be said that He remains still. What happens in the cosmos? Here answer at 1000 years between them the Saints Gregory of Nyssa and Gregory Palamas: "The movement must be understood not only move in a certain place, but also as growth and alteration. In itself the nature is unchangeable in its movement and can not cause alteration or destruction. In His wisdom, God has given unchangement to those in constant motion and transformation to those fixed. And in the spirit of wise foresight He found better to introduce such a trim that of invariability and immutability that stand out sometimes to some being and are attributes of the divine nature one can not conclude that the creature could be taken as God. This is precisely why the earth has qualities of the solids, which does not mean that it would not suffer some changes, whereas the heaven although not subject to any changes has not any qualities of solidity and that because God willed that through this union of what's changing with what's steadfast and what's moving with the invariable nature, thus balancing the qualities with each other by exchanging, the heaven by not far should give any impression that we have to do with any deity. For, as has been said, neither of

7 the two features, fickleness and changeness can be attributed to the divine Being." (St. Gregory of Nyssa About Creation of Man) "It's like the Earth stands still according to its nature, the water too, when occurs the turning to bellow? In this way also the heaven is moving always according to its nature, and by moving surrounds, taking place at the top." (St. Gregory Palamas, 150 natural, theological, moral and practical chapters) "And to the unmoved Earth has ordained around as a center, a circle placed very high, and in a very way tied the eternal moving heaven through those who are in the middle, so that the world remains both steadfast, and moving; for the fast and eternal moving bodies are placed in a circle, and what is still received the required place in the middle, with a counterweight for its movement the stillness, not to be moved, in the way of a cylinder, the universe sphere." (Homilies of Saint Gregory Palamas) As science says: Q.E.D.! With regard to the expression of St. John Damascene is issued the following opinion: "Later, St. John Damascene enumerates theories of his time on how is creation, but the Saint would not say that he sustains an opinion or another. When he is listing the geocentrist theory, he says that it is supported by pagan philosophers who took it from the Holy Prophet Moses (who had taken it from the Egyptians). (There was at that time besides the geocentrist theory the theory saying that the heaven is hemispherical). He does not say that it is so. Because he says: "they say" and does not say "the Church confesses'." Perfidious insinuation here is easily removed too: here is a dogmatic work, a brilliant and normative synthesis of the church teaching about God (theology), the Son (Christology) salvation (soteriology), creation (cosmology) and man (anthropology), a.s.o. So, in the time when is brought forward the cosmology of that time, even with the introduction of "they say that..." "the scholars..." it is normal and logical that if these teachings are wrong the Saint would disprove, or at least ignore them but in no case leave them to find their way there. This attitude of non-correction of a heretical teaching is in the end totally incompatible with an Orthodox approach of a Saint, especially in a dogmatic treatise! The assertion now link to a new "intoxication" and it repeated on several blogs according to which: "I believe that the Saint believed that everything moves and did not confess it because it would have been difficult given the that time... If somehow the Holy Fathers said so (that Terra is the center of the universe) because the people of that time believed so, and they were trying to bring them to God and then, would those people have understood the endless wonder of God's creation?" It is really pitiful seeing those who so desperately can not come off sticky nets of "science" that were still wrapped in school. And not only these entangling nets, but still taking advantage of some passions, here the enemy can wring the most common-sense reasoning! So, you see, God, the saints (such as Gregory of Nyssa and John of Damascus, as we suggested above) well knew that the earth revolves around the sun, but you see, lest confusing world that lay in geocentrist deception, proceeded by "surround", making themselves geocentrist with geocentrists like to acquire at least some. Absurd scenario that pretend not to see that those saints, as the apostles before them, brought to the contemporary people teachings thousand times more confusing and harder to bear as: the Trinity, the Incarnation of the Son from the Virgin, the resurrection of the dead, the afterlife, the deification of

8 people! Who received them did not even flinch when hearing the news that, yes, it is a visual illusion (the sun is still and just seem to set/rise) and tactile (just seems that we are standing, while we rotate the speed like a top, and that lying in a wound)! These lines are not an intended moral demolition of the "judged" but of the harmful way both for themselves as for others, to inculcate scientific modern helio/acentric concepts which they love and support in the vision of the Holy Fathers. This is not allowed even if it is made through ignorance and "good faith", and more so if it is intentionally. Let us attend!