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Contra Faustum Manichaeum libri triginta tres

10.

Cum ergo essent tenebrae super abyssum, ille, qui erat lux, dixit: Fiat lux! Quae lux lucem fecerit, manifestum est; manifeste enim positum est: Dixit deus. Quam tamen lucem fecerit, non ita manifestum est, utrum illam, quae in mentibus angelorum est, id est ipsos tunc spiritus rationales, deus fecerit, an corporalem quandam lucem, remotam etiam ipsam ab aspectibus nostris in sublimibus huius mundi locis, inter studiosos divinarum scripturarum concorditer disputatur. p. 598,24 Quarto enim die fecit ista conspicua caeli luminaria. Quae rursus utrum simul cum sua luce facta sint, an ex illa, quae iam facta erat, quodam modo accensa sint, similiter quaeritur. Quaelibet sane lux facta sit, quando, cum essent tenebrae super abyssum, dixit deus: Fiat lux! , creatam tamen lucem a creatrice luce factam esse non dubitat, quisquis sanctas litteras pie legendo fit dignus, qui intellegat.

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Reply to Faustus the Manichaean

10.

So, when darkness was over the deep, He who was light said, "Let there be light." From what light this light came is clear; for the words are, "God said." What light is that which was made, is not so clear. For there has been a friendly discussion among students of the sacred Scriptures, whether God then made the light in the minds of the angels, or, in other words, these rational spirits themselves, or some material light which exists in the higher regions of the universe beyond our ken. For on the fourth day He made the visible luminaries of heaven. And it is also a question whether these bodies were made at the same time as their light, or were somehow kindled from the light made already. But whoever reads the sacred writings in the pious spirit which is required to understand them, must be convinced that whatever the light was which was made when, at the time that darkness was over the deep, God said, "Let there be light," it was created light, and the creating Light was the maker of it.