Edition Masquer
De civitate Dei (CCSL)

Caput XX: De eo, quod post discretionem lucis atque tenebrarum dictum est: et uidit deus lucem quia bona est.

Denique nec illud est praetereundum silentio, quod, ubi dixit deus: fiat lux, et facta est lux, continuo subiunctum est: et uidit deus lucem quia bona est; non posteaquam separauit inter lucem et tenebras et uocauit lucem diem et tenebras noctem, ne simul cum luce etiam talibus tenebris testimonium placiti sui perhibuisse uideretur. nam ubi tenebrae inculpabiles sunt, inter quas et lucem istam his oculis conspicuam luminaria caeli diuidunt, non ante, sed post infertur: et uidit deus quia bonum est. posuit illa, inquit, in firmamento caeli lucere super terram et praeesse diei et nocti et separare inter lucem et tenebras. et uidit deus quia bonum est. utrumque placuit, quia utrumque sine peccato est. ubi autem dixit deus: fiat lux, et facta est lux. et uidit deus lucem quia bona est; et postmodum infertur: et separauit deus inter lucem et tenebras; et uocauit deus lucem diem et tenebras uocauit noctem: non hoc loco additum est: et uidit deus quia bonum est, ne utrumque appellaretur bonum, cum esset horum alterum malum, uitio proprio, non natura. et ideo sola ibi lux placuit conditori; tenebrae autem angelicae, etsi fuerant ordinandae, non tamen fuerant adprobandae.

Traduction Masquer
The City of God

Chapter 20.--Of the Words Which Follow the Separation of Light and Darkness, "And God Saw the Light that It Was Good."

Then, we must not pass from this passage of Scripture without noticing that when God said, "Let there be light, and there was light," it was immediately added, "And God saw the light that it was good." No such expression followed the statement that He separated the light from the darkness, and called the light Day and the darkness Night, lest the seal of His approval might seem to be set on such darkness, as well as on the light. For when the darkness was not subject of disapprobation, as when it was divided by the heavenly bodies from this light which our eyes discern, the statement that God saw that it was good is inserted, not before, but after the division is recorded. "And God set them," so runs the passage, "in the firmament of the heaven, to give light upon the earth, and to rule over the day and over the night, and to divide the light from the darkness: and God saw that it was good." For He approved of both, because both were sinless. But where God said, "Let there be light, and there was light; and God saw the light that it was good;" and the narrative goes on, "and God divided the light from the darkness! and God called the light Day, and the darkness He called Night," there was not in this place subjoined the statement, "And God saw that it was good," lest both should be designated good, while one of them was evil, not by nature, but by its own fault. And therefore, in this case, the light alone received the approbation of the Creator, while the angelic darkness, though it had been ordained, was yet not approved.