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De civitate Dei (CCSL)

Caput XXXIV: De eo quod quidam putant in conditione firmamenti aquarum discretarum nomine angelos significatos, et quod quidam aquas existimant non creatas.

Quamquam nonnulli putauerint aquarum nomine significatos quodammodo populos angelorum et hoc esse quod dictum est: fiat firmamentum inter aquam et aquam, ut supra firmamentum angeli intellegantur, infra uero uel aquae istae uisibiles uel malorum angelorum multitudo uel omnium hominum gentes. quod si ita est, non illic apparet ubi facti sint angeli, sed ubi discreti; quamuis et aquas, quod peruersissimae atque inpiae uanitatis est, negent quidam factas a deo, quoniam nusquam scriptum est: dixit deus: fiant aquae. quod possunt simili uanitate etiam de terra dicere; nusquam enim legitur: dixit deus: fiat terra. sed, inquiunt, scriptum est: in principio fecit deus caelum et terram. illic ergo et aqua intellegenda est; uno enim nomine utrumque conprehensum est. nam ipsius est mare, sicut in psalmo legitur, et ipse fecit illud, et aridam terram manus eius finxerunt. sed hi, qui in nomine aquarum, quae super caelos sunt, angelos intellegi uolunt, ponderibus elementorum mouentur et ideo non putant aquarum fluuidam grauemque naturam in superioribus mundi locis potuisse constitui; qui secundum rationes suas, si ipsi hominem facere possent, non ei pituitam, quod Graece φλέγμα dicitur et tamquam in elementis corporis nostri aquarum uicem obtinet, in capite ponerent. ibi enim sedes est phlegmatis, secundum dei opus utique aptissime, secundum istorum autem coniecturam tam absurde, ut, si hoc nesciremus et in hoc libro similiter scriptum esset, quod deus umorem fluuidum et frigidum ac per hoc grauem in superiore omnibus ceteris humani corporis parte posuerit, isti trutinatores elementorum nequaquam crederent, et si auctoritati eiusdem scripturae subditi essent, aliquid aliud ex hoc intellegendum esse censerent. sed quoniam, si diligenter singula scrutemur atque tractemus, quae in illo diuino libro de constitutione mundi scripta sunt, et multa dicenda et a proposito instituti operis longe digrediendum est, iamque de duabus istis diuersis inter se atque contrariis societatibus angelorum, in quibus sunt quaedam exordia duarum etiam in rebus humanis ciuitatum, de quibus deinceps dicere instituti, quantum satis esse uisum est, disputauimus: hunc quoque librum aliquando claudamus.

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The City of God

Chapter 34.--Of the Idea that the Angels Were Meant Where the Separation of the Waters by the Firmament is Spoken Of, and of that Other Idea that the Waters Were Not Created.

Some, ¹ however, have supposed that the angelic hosts are somehow referred to under the name of waters, and that this is what is meant by "Let there be a firmament in the midst of the waters:" ² that the waters above should be understood of the angels, and those below either of the visible waters, or of the multitude of bad angels, or of the nations of men. If this be so, then it does not here appear when the angels were created, but when they were separated. Though there have not been wanting men foolish and wicked enough ³ to deny that the waters were made by God, because it is nowhere written, "God said, Let there be waters." With equal folly they might say the same of the earth, for nowhere do we read, "God said, Let the earth be." But, say they, it is written, "In the beginning God created the heaven and the earth." Yes, and there the water is meant, for both are included in one word. For "the sea is His," as the psalm says, "and He made it; and His hands formed the dry land." ⁴ But those who would understand the angels by the waters above the skies have a difficulty about the specific gravity of the elements, and fear that the waters, owing to their fluidity and weight, could not be set in the upper parts of the world. So that, if they were to construct a man upon their own principles, they would not put in his head any moist humors, or "phlegm" as the Greeks call it, and which acts the part of water among the elements of our body. But, in God's handiwork, the head is the seat of the phlegm, and surely most fitly; and yet, according to their supposition, so absurdly that if we were not aware of the fact, and were informed by this same record that God had put a moist and cold and therefore heavy humor in the uppermost part of man's body, these world-weighers would refuse belief. And if they were confronted with the authority of Scripture, they would maintain that something else must be meant by the words. But, were we to investigate and discover all the details which are written in this divine book regarding the creation of the world, we should have much to say, and should widely digress from the proposed aim of this work. Since, then, we have now said what seemed needful regarding these two diverse and contrary communities of angels, in which the origin of the two human communities (of which we intend to speak anon) is also found, let us at once bring this book also to a conclusion.