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| Chapter XXV
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Chapter XXV.
In this diagram were described ten circles,
distinct from each other, but united by one circle, which was said to
be the soul of all things, and was called
“Leviathan.”4413
| 4413 Cf. note in
Spencer’s edition. | This
Leviathan, the Jewish Scriptures say, whatever they mean by the
expression, was created by God for a plaything;4414
for we find in the Psalms: “In wisdom hast Thou made all
things: the earth is full of Thy creatures; so is this great and
wide sea. There go the ships; small animals with great; there is
this dragon, which Thou hast formed to play therein.”4415
Instead of the word
“dragon,” the term “leviathan” is in the
Hebrew. This impious diagram, then, said of this leviathan, which
is so clearly depreciated by the Psalmist, that it was the soul which
had travelled through all things! We observed, also, in the
diagram, the being named “Behemoth,” placed as it were
under the lowest circle. The inventor of this accursed diagram
had inscribed this leviathan at its circumference and centre, thus
placing its name in two separate places. Moreover, Celsus says
that the diagram was “divided by a thick black line, and this
line he asserted was called Gehenna, which is Tartarus.”
Now as we found that Gehenna was mentioned in the Gospel as a place of
punishment, we searched to see whether it is mentioned anywhere in the
ancient Scriptures, and especially because the Jews too use the
word. And we ascertained that where the valley of the son of
Ennom was named in Scripture in the Hebrew, instead of
“valley,” with fundamentally the same meaning, it was
termed both the valley of Ennom and also Geenna. And continuing
our researches, we find that what was termed “Geenna,” or
“the valley of Ennom,” was included in the lot of the tribe
of Benjamin, in which Jerusalem also was situated. And seeking to
ascertain what might be the inference from the heavenly Jerusalem
belonging to the lot of Benjamin and the valley of Ennom, we find a
certain confirmation of what is said regarding the place of punishment,
intended for the purification of such souls as are to be purified by
torments, agreeably to the saying: “The Lord cometh like a
refiner’s fire, and like fullers’ soap: and He shall
sit as a refiner and purifier of silver and of gold.”4416
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