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The Confessions of St. Augustin In Thirteen Books

Chapter XVII.--He Mentions Five Explanations of the Words of Genesis I. I.

24. For they say, "Although these things be true, yet Moses regarded not those two things, when by divine revelation he said, In the beginning God created the heaven and the earth.' ¹ Under the name of heaven he did not indicate that spiritual or intellectual creature which always beholds the face of God; nor under the name of earth, that shapeless matter." "What then?" "That man," say they, "meant as we say; this it is that he declared by those words." "What is that?" "By the name of heaven and earth," say they, "did he first wish to set forth, universally and briefly, all this visible world, that afterwards by the enumeration of the days he might distribute, as if in detail, all those things which it pleased the Holy Spirit thus to reveal. For such men were that rude and carnal people to which he spoke, that he judged it prudent that only those works of God as were visible should be entrusted to them." They agree, however, that the earth invisible and formless, and the darksome deep (out of which it is subsequently pointed out that all these visible things, which are known to all, were made and set in order during those "days"), may not unsuitably be understood of this formless matter.

25. What, now, if another should say "That this same formlessness and confusion of matter was first introduced under the name of heaven and earth, because out of it this visible world, with all those natures which most manifestly appear in it, and which is wont to be called by the name of heaven and earth, was created and perfected"? But what if another should say, that "That invisible and visible nature is not inaptly called heaven and earth; and that consequently the universal creation, which God in His wisdom hath made,--that is, in the begining,'--was comprehended under these two words. Yet, since all things have been made, not of the substance of God, but out of nothing ² (because they are not that same thing that God is, and there is in them all a certain mutability, whether they remain, as doth the eternal house of God, or be changed, as are the soul and body of man), therefore, that the common matter of all things invisible and visible,--as yet shapeless, but still capable of form,--out of which was to be created heaven and earth (that is, the invisible and visible creature already formed), was spoken of by the same names by which the earth invisible and formless and the darkness upon the deep would be called; with this difference, however, that the earth invisible and formless is understood as corporeal matter, before it had any manner of form, but the darkness upon the deep as spiritual matter, before it was restrained at all of its unlimited fluidity, and before the enlightening of wisdom."

26. Should any man wish, he may still say, "That the already perfected and formed natures, invisible and visible, are not signified under the name of heaven and earth when it is read, In the beginning God created the heaven and the earth;' but that the yet same formless beginning of things, the matter capable of being formed and made, was called by these names, because contained in it there were these confused things not as yet distinguished by their qualities and forms, the which now being digested in their own orders, are called heaven and earth, the former being the spiritual, the latter the corporeal creature."

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Confessiones

Caput 17

Dicunt enim: quamvis vera sint haec, non ea tamen duo Moyses inturbatur, cum revelante spiritu diceret: in principio fecit deus caelum et terram. non caeli nomine spiritalem vel intellectualem illam creaturam semper faciem dei contemplantem significavit, nec terrae nomine informem materiam. quid igitur? quod nos dicimus inquiunt hoc ille vir sensit, hoc verbis istis elocutus est. quid illud est? nomine aiunt caeli et terrae totum istum visibilem mundum prius universaliter et breviter significare voluit, ut postea digereret dierum enumeratione quasi articulatim universa, quae sancto spiritui placuit sic enuntiare. tales quippe homines erant rudis ille atque carnalis populus, cui loquebatur, ut eis opera dei non nisi sola visibilia commendanda iudicaret. terram vero invisibilem et incompositam tenebrosamque abyssum, unde consequenter ostenditur per illos dies facta atque disposita esse cuncta ista visibilia, quae nota sunt omnibus, non incongruenter informem istam materiem intellegendam esse consentiunt. quid? si dicat alius, eandem informitatem confusionemque materiae, caeli et terrae nomine prius insinuatam, quod ex ea mundus iste visibiles, cum omnibus naturis quae in eo manifestissime apparent, qui caeli et terrae nomine saepe appellari solet, conditus atque perfectus est? quid? si dicat et alius caelum et terram quidem invisibilem visibilemque naturam non indecenter appellatam, ac per hoc universam creaturam, quam fecit in sapientia, id est in principio, deus, huiuscemodi duobus vocabulis esse conprehensam; verum tamen quia non de ipsa substantia dei, sed ex nihilo cuncta facta sunt (quia non sunt id ipsum, quod deus, et inest quaedam mutabilitas omnibus, sive manent, sicut aeterna domus dei, sive mutentur, sicut anima hominis et corpus), communem omnium rerum invisibilium visibiliumque materiem adhuc informem, sed certe formabilem, unde fieret caelum et terra (id est invisibilis atque visibilis iam utraque formata creatura) his nominibus enuntiatam, quibus appellaretur terra invisibilis et incomposita et tenebrae super abyssum; ea distinctione, ut terra invisibilis et incomposita intellegatur materies corporalis ante qualitatem formae, tenebrae autem super abyssum spiritalis materies ante cohibitionem quasi fluentis inmoderationis et ante inluminationem sapientiae? Est adhuc quod dicat, si quis alius velit, non scilicet iam perfectas atque formatas invisibiles visibilesque naturas caeli et terrae nomine significari, cum legitur, in principio fecit deus caelum et terram: sed ipsam adhuc informem inchoationem rerum formabilem creabilemque materiam hic nominibus appellatam, quod in ea iam essent ista confusa, nondum qualitatibus formisque distincta, quae nunc iam digesta suis ordinibus vocantur caelum et terra, illa spiritalis, haec corporalis creatura.