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| Account of the Creation.
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Chapter
XXVII.—Account of the Creation.
“In the beginning,546
| 546 [Hilgenfeld regards
chaps. 27–72 as part of the Jewish-Christian document called
Kerygma Petri, of which an outline is given in book iii.
75. This he thinks was of Roman origin. Certainly these
chapters bear many marks of an earlier origin than most of the
pseudo-Clementine literature. Much of the matter is not found
elsewhere in this literature: the tone of the discourse is much
superior; the instruction represented as given to Clement, is quite
well adapted to his needs as a heathen inquirer; the views presented
are not so extravagant as much that occurs in the Homilies; the
attempt to adjust the statements to the New-Testament narrative is
skilfully made, and there is not lacking a great vraisemblance. It may not be improper to add,
that the impressions first given in regard to this passage were made
upon the writer of this note quite independently of Hilgenfeld’s
theory; some of them committed to writing without a thought of
maintaining that theory.—R.] |
when God had made the heaven and the earth,547
as
one house, the shadow which
was cast by the mundane bodies involved in darkness those things which
were enclosed in it. But when the will of God had introduced
light, that darkness which had been caused by the shadows of bodies was
straightway dispelled: then at length light is appointed for the
day, darkness for the night. And now the water which was within
the world, in the middle space of that first heaven and earth,
congealed as if with frost, and solid as crystal, is distended, and the
middle spaces of the heaven and earth are separated as by a firmament
of this sort; and that firmament the Creator called heaven, so called
by the name of that previously made: and so He divided into two
portions that fabric of the universe, although it was but one
house. The reason of the division was this, that the upper
portion might afford a dwelling-place to angels, and the lower to
men. After this, the place of the sea and the chaos which had
been made received that portion of the water which remained below, by
order of the eternal Will; and these flowing down to the sunk and
hollow places, the dry land appeared; and the gatherings of the waters
were made seas. And after this the earth, which had appeared,
produced various species of herbs and shrubs. It gave forth
fountains also, and rivers, not only in the plains, but on the
mountains. And so all things were prepared, that men who were to
dwell in it might have it in their power to use all these things
according to their will, that is, either for good or
evil.”
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