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| Chapter XIII.—Remarks on the Creation of the World.
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Chapter XIII.—Remarks on the Creation of the World.
Moreover, his [Hesiod’s] human, and mean,
and very weak conception, so far as regards God, is discovered in
his beginning to relate the creation of all things from the earthly
things here below. For man, being below, begins to build from the
earth, and cannot in order make the roof, unless he has first laid the
foundation. But the power of God is shown in this, that, first of all,
He creates out of nothing, according to His will, the things that are
made. “For the things which are impossible with men are possible
with God.”573
Wherefore, also, the prophet mentioned that the
creation of the heavens first of all took place, as a kind of roof,
saying: “At the first God created the heavens”—that is,
that by means of the “first” principle the heavens were made,
as we have already shown. And by “earth” he means the ground
and foundation, as by “the deep” he means the multitude
of waters; and “darkness” he speaks of, on account of the
heaven which God made covering the waters and the earth like a lid. And
by the Spirit which is borne above the waters,
he means that which God
gave for animating the creation, as he gave life to man,574
| 574 [See book i. cap. v.,
supra, note 4; also,
the important remark of Kaye, Justin Martyr, p. 179.] |
mixing what is fine with what is fine. For the Spirit is fine,
and the water is fine, that the Spirit may nourish the water, and
the water penetrating everywhere along with the Spirit, may nourish
creation. For the Spirit being one, and holding the place of light,575
| 575 This follows the Benedicting
reading. Other editors, as Humphrey, read [φωτὸς] τὼπον,
“resembling light.” | was between the water and the
heaven, in order that the darkness might not in any way communicate with
the heaven, which was nearer God, before God said, “Let there be
light.” The heaven, therefore, being like a dome-shaped covering,
comprehended matter which was like a clod. And so another prophet, Isaiah
by name, spoke in these words: “It is God who made the heavens
as a vault, and stretched them as a tent to dwell in.”576
The command, then, of God, that is, His Word, shining as a lamp in an
enclosed chamber, lit up all that was under heaven, when He had made light
apart from the world.577
| 577
Following Wolf’s rendering. | And the light God called
Day, and the darkness Night. Since man would not have been able to
call the light Day, or the darkness Night, nor, indeed, to have given
names to the other things, had not he received the nomenclature from
God, who made the things themselves. In the very beginning, therefore,
of the history and genesis of the world, the holy Scripture spoke not
concerning this firmament [which we see], but concerning another heaven,
which is to us invisible, after which this heaven which we see has been
called “firmament,” and to which half the water was taken
up that it might serve for rains, and showers, and dews to mankind. And
half the water was left on earth for rivers, and fountains, and seas. The
water, then, covering all the earth, and specially its hollow places,
God, through His Word, next caused the waters to be collected into
one collection, and the dry land to become visible, which formerly
had been invisible. The earth thus becoming visible, was yet without
form. God therefore formed and adorned it578
| 578 Or, suitably arranged and appointed it. |
with all kinds of herbs, and seeds and plants.E.C.F. INDEX & SEARCH
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