Note 189 — Chapter II · THE CONTRIBUTION OF WESTERN CHRISTENDOM BEFORE 1100 A. D.

Literal interpretation led men like Lactantius to the belief that the earth is flat. The pilgrim Theodosius, about 530 A. D., described the hills near the River Jordan which skipped like lambs when Christ came down to be baptized and added that when he was there the hills still appeared to be jumping (Beazley, Dawn, vol. i, 1897, p. 102). Peter Alphonsi in the twelfth century accused earlier Jewish doctors of going to extremes in their literal interpretation of Scripture, even to the extent of taking literally the words of the Psalm: “Flumina plaudent manibus, montes exsultabunt” (Migne, Pat. lat., vol. clvii, col. 553).

Cosmas Indicopleustes’ fantastic system of the world, based on the account of the Tabernacle of the Lord, is a famous and striking example of literal interpretation carried to an extreme. Cosmas was led by the Biblical text (and by his own imagination) to maintain aggressively that the universe is shaped like a strong-box with a semi-cylindrical cover.