A new history of ecclesiastical writers containing an account of the authors of the several books of the Old and New Testament, of the lives and writings of the primitive fathers, an abridgement and catalogue of their works ... also a compendious history of the councils, with chronological tables of the whole / written in French by Lewis Ellies du Pin.

The Anonymous Author of an Exposition of the Octateuque.

THis Author, who is mention'd by Photius in the 36th Volume of his Bibliotheque, liv'd under the Empire of Justinus. He had compos'd a Book, entitled, The Book of Christians, or An Expo∣sition * 1.1 of the Octateuque, dedicated to one nam'd Pamphilus. The style of this Work was mean, and the Syntax of it not extraordinary. He has proposed many Parodoxes altogether indefensible, which are more like Tales and Fables then any thing that is serious. Here follow some of them: That the Heaven and the Earth are not of around figure, but the Heaven is in the form of a Vault or an Arch: That the Earth is longer one way, and that its Extremities touch the Heaven; That all the Stars are in Motion, and that the Angels move them; with several other things of this Nature. He speaks also of

Genesis and Exodus, but as it were by the by. He dwells a long time upon the Description of the Tabernacle; he runs thro the Writings of the Prophets and Apostles; he says that the Sun is as big * 1.2 as the two Climates, that the Angels are not in Heaven, but above the Firmament, and amongst us; That Jesus Christ ascending into the Heavens, stay'd between the Heavens and the Firmament, that this is the place which is call'd the Kingdom of Heaven. These are some part of the Absurdities which this Author asserts: His Work was divided into Twelve Books. We have none of them now remaining, and what we have now said, shews sufficiently, how little reason we have to regret the loss of them.

Notes

• * 1.1

  The Ano∣nymous Author of an Expo∣sition of the Octa∣teuque.
• * 1.2

  The Monk Jobitus.