What Can We Learn from Cosmas Indicopleustes?

             Even after Cosmas, an Egyptian monk, sailed to India in the 500s, he still believed the earth was flat.  In this respect he was in a minority.  A generation later Isidore of Seville would compose  Etymologies, in which a spherical earth was presented at the core of a geocentric model.   Cosmas’ illustrated twelve-part book Christian Topography opposed the view that earth is spherical, and condemned the idea of a spheroid earth as a pagan concept.  It survives to this day – in 1909 Eric Otto Winstedt translated it into English.   Cosmas saw the physical universe as if it were modeled after the tabernacle.

            Cosmas’ cosmography serves as a reminder of how easy it is to misrepresent your personal interpretation of scientific data, piously use Scripture as a lens to affirm your interpretation, and end up insisting that your view must be God’s view. 

            His book would be irrelevant to the field of New Testament textual criticism if extracts from it had not been adapted into summaries (hypotheses, or argumenta) of the Gospels and included in dozens of Gospels-manuscripts.   They show up, for example, in GA 473.

            Cosmas’ Gospels-summaries – extracted from Christian Topography by someone else – go like this:

Matthew:

Ματθαῖος ὁ πρῶτος τῶν εὐαγγελιστῶν, ὁ καὶ Λευὶς χρηματίσας, ὁ ἐκ τελώνου ἀπόστολος, Ἑβραίοις τῇ πατρίῳ αὐτῶν διαλέκτῳ Ἑβραϊστὶ γράψας τὸ εὐαγγέλιον ἐξέδωκεν ἐν Ἱερουσαλήμ, πρῶτον μὲν ἀρχὴν ποιησάμενος ἀπὸ τῆς κατὰ σάρκα γενεαλογίας τοῦ Χριστοῦ ἐκ Δαυὶδ καὶ Ἀβραάμ, ὡς πρὸς Ἑβραίους ποιούμενος τὸν λόγον, οἷς καὶ αἱ ἐπαγγελίαι ἐδόθησαν· εἶτα καὶ τὰ λοιπὰ καθεξῆς διηγησάμενος, τόν τε τύπον τοῦ βαπτίσματος καὶ τοὺς πειρασμοὺς καὶ τὴν ἐκλογὴν τῶν μαθητῶν καὶ τὰ θαύματα καὶ τὴν διδασκαλίαν, καὶ τέλος τὸ πάθος καὶ τὴν ἀνάστασιν, δι’ ἧς ἀθάνατος καὶ ἄτρεπτος ἡ ἀνθρωπότης δείκνυται, ἐξ ἀρχῆς ἐτοιμάσαντι καὶ προμηνύσαντι Θεῷ· καὶ πληρώσαντι, ἀμήν.

Matthew, the first of the evangelists, also known as Levi the merchant, the apostle who was formerly a tax collector, wrote the gospel to the Hebrews in their native dialect, Hebrew, and released it in Jerusalem, first by beginning with the genealogy according to the flesh of Christ  from David and Abraham – delivering the word to the Hebrews, to whom the promises were also given.  Then follows the rest, narrating the type of baptism and the temptations and the choosing of the disciples and the miracles, and the teaching, and finally the passion and the resurrection, by which mankind is immortal and incorruptible. What was shown from the beginning and divinely foretold, they also fulfilled.  Amen.

Mark:

Οὗτος ὁ δεύτερος Πέτρου ἐν Ῥώμῃ, ἐντειλαμένος αὐτῷ, Μᾶρκος συγγραψάμενος εὐαγγέλιον, ὃς ἀρχὴν τοῦ εὐαγγελίου, ἤτοι τῆς εὐαγγελικῆς πολιτείας, τὸ βάπτισμα ὁρισάμενος, ὃ τύπος ἦν τῆς ἐκ νεκρῶν ἀναστάσεως, δι’ ἧς εἰς ἀθάνατον καὶ ἄτρεπτον ζωὴν ἀναγεννώμεθα· εἶτα καὶ αὐτὸς τοὺς πειρασμοὺς εἰρηκὼς καὶ τὴν νίκην, ὁμοίως δὲ καὶ τὰ θαύματα καὶ τὴν διδασκαλίαν καθεξῆς, καὶ τὸ πάθος καὶ τὴν ἔγερσιν τοῦ Κυρίου, δι’ ἧς ἡ ἀνθρωπότης εἰς ἀθάνατον καὶ ἀπαθῆ ζωὴν ἀναμορφοῦται, ἐξ ἀρχῆς ἐτοιμάσαντι καὶ προμηνύσαντι Θεῷ· καὶ πληρώσαντι.  Ἀμήν.

This, the second one, was commissioned by Peter in Rome.  Mark wrote the Gospel, “the beginning of the Gospel,” namely, of the evangelical state, baptism, which was a type of the resurrection from the dead, by which we are reborn to an immortal and unchangeable life. See also how he endured the temptations. and the victory, and likewise the miracles and the teaching thereafter, and the passion and the resurrection of the Lord, by which humanity is transformed into an immortal and unchangeable life.  What was prepared and foretold from the beginning by God was fulfilled.  Amen.

Luke:

Οὗτος ὁ Λουκᾶς ὁ τρίτος τῶν εὐαγγελιστῶν, ὃς θεωρήσας πολλοὺς ἐπιχειροῦντας ἀτάκτως γράφειν, αὐτὸς ἀκριβῶς καθεξῆς ἔγραψε τὸ εὐαγγέλιον, Ἀντιοχεὺς μὲν ὑπάρχων τὸ γένος, ἰατρὸς δὲ τὴν τέχνην, Παύλῳ δὲ τῷ ἀποστόλῳ συνέκδημος γενόμενος· ὃς ἀρχὴν ἐποιήσατο ἀπὸ τῆς συλλήψεως Ἰωάννου τοῦ Βαπτιστοῦ, ὅς ἐστι πρόδρομος τῆς κατὰ σάρκα παρουσίας τοῦ Χριστοῦ, καὶ τὰ λοιπὰ πάντα διελθών, τὰ θαύματά τε καὶ τὴν διδασκαλίαν, καὶ τὸ πάθος καὶ τὴν ἀνάστασιν, δι’ ἧς ἀθάνατος καὶ ἄτρεπτος ἡ ἀνθρωπότης ἀποδείκνυται, ἐξ ἀρχῆς ἐτοιμάσαντι καὶ προμηνύσαντι περὶ τούτων Θεῷ· καὶ νῦν πληρώσαντι, καὶ πληροῦντι, Ἀμήν.

This Luke, the third of the evangelists, whose writing many of you have considered disorderly,  wrote the Gospel precisely from the beginning.  He had his roots in Antioch, was a physician by profession, and was a fellow-citizen with the apostle Paul.  He began with the conception of John the Baptist, who is the forerunner of the fleshly presence of Christ.  And he passes through the rest which follows, both the miracles and the teaching, and the passion and the resurrection, by which mankind is shown to be immortal and incorruptible, having prepared and divinely foretold these things from the beginning which are now fulfilled, and being fulfilled.  Amen.

John:

The Universe 
According to Cosmas
https://www.lib.tsu.ru/ru/node/1488

Οὗτος ὁ θεολόγος Ἰωάννης, ὁ ἔξαρχος τῶν εὐαγγελιστῶν, ὁ ἠγαπημένος τοῦ Χριστοῦ, ὁ ἐπιστήθιος, ὁ υἱὸς τῆς βροντῆς, τελευταῖος πάντων συγγραψάμενος εὐαγγέλιον ἐν Ἐφέσῳ, Πνεύματι ἁγίῳ κινούμενος· ὃς ἀρχὴν ἐποιήσατο ἀπὸ τῆς θεότητος τοῦ Χριστοῦ, Ἐν ἀρχῇ ἦν ὁ Λόγος, εἰπών, καὶ οὕτως τὰ ἀνθρώπινα αὐτοῦ διηγησάμενος, τά τε θαύματα καὶ τὴν ὑψηλὴν διδασκαλίαν, καὶ τὸ πάθος καὶ τὴν ἀνάστασιν, δι’ ἧς εἰς ἀθάνατον καὶ ἄτρεπτον ζωὴν ἡ ἀνθρωπότης μετεστοιχειώθη, καθὼς ἐξ ἀρχῆς προώριστο παρὰ Θεῷ· ᾧ ἡ δόξα εἰς τοὺς αἰῶνας, πᾶσα ἡ θεόπνευστος παλαιά τε καὶ νέα διαθήκη.

This is the theologian John, the first of the evangelists, the beloved of Christ, the sage, the son of thunder, the last of all to write the gospel in Ephesus.  Moved by the Holy Spirit, he was began by relating the divinity of Christ, saying, “In the beginning was the Word,” and thus narrates his human stories, the miracles and the high teaching, and the passion and the resurrection, by which mankind was transfigured into an immortal and inviolable life.  Thus from the beginning it was predestined by God, to whom be glory forever, who inspired the old and new testament.