Literal Commentary on Genesis 5.14–6.4

So it should not be read, “What was made in him is life,” with a pause after “What was made in him,” and then adding “is life.” For what was not made in him, when, after many earthly creatures have been mentioned, it is said in the psalm, “You have made all things in wisdom,” and the apostle says, “For in him all things were established in heaven and on earth, visible and invisible”? It would follow, then, if we punctuated it that way, that the earth itself and whatever is in it would be life. And since it is absurd to say that all things live, how much more absurd to say that they are even life? Especially since he specifies what sort of life he is speaking of when he adds, “and the life was the light of men.” So it should be punctuated thus: when we have said “What was made,” we then add “in him is life”; not in itself, that is, in its own nature, by which it was made so as to be a thing established and a creature, but in him it is life, because he knew all things that were made through him before they were made, and therefore they were in him not as the creature that he made but as life and the light of men, which is Wisdom itself and the Word himself, the only-begotten Son of God. What was made, then, is life in him in the way in which it is said, “As the Father has life in himself, so he has given to the Son to have life in himself.”

Nor should we pass over the fact that more correct manuscripts have “What was made, in him was life,” so that it is understood thus: “was life,” as “in the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.” What was made, then, was already life in him; and not life of any kind (for even cattle are said to live, which cannot enjoy a share in wisdom), but the life was the light of men. For rational minds, cleansed by his grace, can come to that kind of vision than which nothing is higher or more blessed.

But even if we read and understand “What was made, in him is life,” this view stands: that what was made through him is understood to be life in him, in which life he saw all things when he made them, and as he saw, so he made; not seeing outside himself, but in himself he numbered all the things he made. Nor is his vision one and the Father's another, but one, as the substance is one. For in the book of Job too that Wisdom through which all things were made is proclaimed thus: “But Wisdom,” it says, “where is it found? Or what is the place of knowledge? A mortal does not know its way, nor will it be found among men.” And a little later: “We have heard,” it says, “of its glory. The Lord has commended its way, and he knows its place. For he looks upon everything that is under heaven and knows all things that are on the earth which he made: the weights of the winds, the measures of the water; when he made them, as he saw, he numbered them.” By these and similar testimonies it is proved that all these things, before they were made, were in the knowledge of their Maker, and certainly better there, where they were truer, where they were eternal and unchangeable. Although it should be enough for anyone to know, or firmly to believe, that God made all these things, I do not think anyone is so senseless as to suppose that God made things he did not know. Moreover, if he knew them before he made them, then surely before they were made they were known with him in the way in which they live everlastingly and unchangeably and are life, but made in the way in which each creature is in its own kind.

Although, then, that eternal and unchangeable nature which is God has in itself its being, as was said to Moses, “I am who am,” in a way far different, certainly, from the being of the things that were made (for that truly and primarily is which always is in the same way, and not only is not changed but cannot be changed at all), being none of the things he made and having all of them primarily, as he himself is (for he would not make them unless he knew them before he made them, nor know them unless he saw them, nor see them unless he had them, nor have the things not yet made except in the way in which he himself is not made); although, I say, that substance is ineffable and cannot be spoken of in any fashion to a man by a man except by using certain words of place and time, since it is before all times and before all places, yet he who made us is nearer to us than many things that were made. For “in him we live and move and are”; whereas most of these things are remote from our mind because of the unlikeness of their kind, since they are bodily; nor is our mind itself fit to see them with God in the very reasons by which they were made, so as to know thereby how many, how great, and of what kind they are, even if we do not see them through the senses of the body. For they are remote from the senses of our body, since they are far away, or are separated from our sight and action by other things placed between or in front. Hence there is greater labor in finding them than in finding him by whom they were made; though it is better, with incomparable happiness, to perceive him with a devout mind in however small a portion than to comprehend them all. Hence the inquirers of this world are rightly blamed in the book of Wisdom: “For if they were able to know so much,” it says, “that they could estimate the world, how did they not more easily find its Lord?” For the foundations of the earth are unknown to our eyes, and he who founded the earth draws near to our minds.

Now let us consider the things that God made all at once, from which, when they were finished on the sixth day, he rested on the seventh, intending afterward to consider his works in which he is working until now. For he himself is before the ages; but we say that those things are from the age which began with the age, such as the world itself, and those things are in the age which are born in the world. So when Scripture had said, “All things were made through him, and without him nothing was made,” a little later it says, “He was in this world, and the world was made through him.” Of this work of God it is written in another place, “You who made the world from formless matter.” This world is usually called by the name of heaven and earth, as we have already mentioned, which Scripture says God made when the day was made. About these words we have already discussed, as far as seemed good, how it fits the establishing of this world both that it was finished in six days with all that is in it and that it was made then, when the day was made, so that this too fits: that he created all things at once.

Of this whole creation of God there are many things we do not know, whether things in the heavens higher than our senses can reach, or things in regions of the earth that are perhaps uninhabitable, or things hidden below, in the depth of the abyss or in the hidden recesses of the earth. These things, then, before they were made, certainly did not exist. How, then, were things that did not exist known to God? And again, how would he make things that were not known to him? For he made nothing in ignorance. So he made things known, he did not come to know things made. Accordingly, before they were made, they both were and were not: they were in God's knowledge; they were not in their own nature. And so that day was made to which they became known in both ways, both in God and in themselves, in the former as by morning or daytime knowledge, in the latter as by evening knowledge. But I do not dare to say that they became known to God himself, when he had made them, in any other way than that in which he knew them in order to make them, “with whom there is no change nor shadow of turning.”

Certainly he does not need messengers for knowledge of lower things, as if he became more knowing through them; but in that simple and wonderful way he knows all things stably and unchangeably. He has messengers, however, for our sake and for theirs, because to obey and attend upon God in that way, so as to consult him about lower things and comply with his heavenly precepts and commands, is good for them in the order of their own nature and substance. Messengers in Greek are called angels; by this general name that whole heavenly city is called, which we think was established as the first day.

For not even that mystery of the kingdom of heaven was hidden from them which was revealed at the fitting time for our salvation, by which, freed from this pilgrimage, we are joined to their company. For they could not be ignorant of it, since the very seed which came at the fitting time was ordained through them in the hand of the mediator, that is, in the power of him who is their Lord, both in the form of God and in the form of a servant. The apostle likewise says, “To me, the least of all the saints, this grace was given, to proclaim among the Gentiles the unsearchable riches of Christ, and to enlighten all as to what is the dispensation of the mystery hidden from the ages in God, who created all things, so that the manifold wisdom of God might be made known to the principalities and powers in the heavenly places through the church, according to the purpose of the ages which he made in Christ Jesus our Lord.” So this was hidden from the ages in God in such a way that the manifold wisdom of God was nevertheless made known to the principalities and powers in the heavenly places through the church; because there is the church first, where after the resurrection this church too is to be gathered, so that we may be equal to the angels of God. It was made known to them, then, from the ages, because the whole creation is not before the ages but from the ages. For the ages arose from it and it is from the ages, since its beginning is the beginning of the ages; but the Only-begotten is before the ages, through whom the ages were made. And so, in the person of Wisdom, it says, “Before the ages he founded me,” that in her he might make all things, to whom it is said, “You have made all things in wisdom.”

That what is hidden is made known to the angels not only in God, but also appears to them here when it is accomplished and brought to light, the same apostle testifies thus: “And without doubt,” he says, “great is the mystery of godliness, which was manifested in the flesh, justified in the Spirit, appeared to angels, was preached among the Gentiles, believed in the world, taken up in glory.” And, unless I am mistaken, it would be strange if all the things that God is said to know as if at a present time were not said for the reason that he causes them to be known, whether by angels or by men. For this mode of speaking, when what is effected is signified through what effects it, is frequent in the holy Scriptures, especially when something is said of God which Truth itself, presiding over our minds, cries out does not befit him in the proper sense of the words.

Now, then, let us distinguish the works of God which he is working until now from those works from which he rested on the seventh day. For there are some who think that only the world itself was made by God, and that the other things are now made by the world itself, as he ordained and commanded, while God himself works nothing. Against them is brought that saying of the Lord: “My Father is working until now.” And lest anyone think that he works something in his own presence and not in this world, he says, “The Father abiding in me does his works”; and, “As the Father raises the dead and gives them life, so also the Son gives life to whom he will.” Then, because he works not only great and chief things but also these earthly and lowest ones, the apostle says thus: “Fool, what you sow is not made alive unless it dies; and what you sow, you do not sow the body that is to be, but a bare grain, perhaps of wheat or of some other kind; but God gives it a body as he wills, and to each of the seeds its own body.” So let us believe, or if we can, also understand, that God is working until now in such a way that, if his working were withdrawn from the things established by him, they would perish.

But plainly, if we should think that he now sets up some creature in such a way that he did not insert its kind in that first establishing of his, we openly contradict Scripture, which says that he finished all his works on the sixth day. For it is plain that, according to those kinds of things which he first established, he makes many new things which he did not make then. But he cannot rightly be believed to set up a new kind, since he then finished all things. So by a hidden power he moves his whole creation; and, turned by that motion, while angels carry out commands, while the stars go round, while the winds alternate, while the abyss of waters is stirred by falls and by various gatherings even through the air, while green things sprout and unfold their seeds, while animals are born and lead their own lives with various appetites, while the wicked are permitted to exercise the just, creation unfolds the ages which he had placed in it, folded up as it were, when it was first established. Yet they would not be unfolded into their courses if he who established them ceased to govern them by his provident motion.

We ought to be instructed by the things that are formed and born in time how we should consider them. For it is not written in vain of Wisdom that she shows herself joyfully to her lovers in the ways and meets them in all providence. And those are not to be heeded at all who have thought that the higher parts of the world, that is, from the boundary of this denser air upward, are governed by divine providence, but that this lowest part, earthly and moist, and of this nearer air, which is made moist by the exhalations of land and water, and in which winds and clouds rise, is driven rather by chance and random motions. Against them the psalm speaks, which, having set out the praise of heavenly things, turns also to these lower things, saying, “Praise the Lord from the earth, you dragons and all depths; fire, hail, snow, ice, stormy wind, which do his word.” For nothing seems so much tossed about by chance as all these stormy and turbulent conditions by which the face of this lower sky, which not without reason is also counted under the name of earth, is varied and changed. But when it added, “which do his word,” it showed clearly enough that the order of these things too, subject to divine command, is hidden from us rather than lacking to the nature of the universe. What, then? When the Savior says with his own mouth that not one sparrow falls to the ground without the will of God, and that he himself clothes the grass of the field which shortly is to be thrown into the oven, does he not confirm that not only this whole part of the world assigned to mortal and corruptible things, but even its most worthless and lowly particles, are ruled by divine providence?

And certainly those who deny this and do not acquiesce in the holy utterances of such great authority, in this part of the world which they think is disturbed by random motions rather than ruled by the Wisdom of the divine height (and to prove this, as it were, they misuse a twofold argument: either what I mentioned above about the inconstancy of the weather, or the good and bad fortunes of men, which do not befall them according to the merits of their lives): if they saw the great order that appears in the members of the flesh of any living creature, not, I say, to physicians, who for the needs of their art have examined these things carefully, laid open and enumerated, but to any man of ordinary mind and reflection, would they not cry out that God, from whom is every limit of measures, every equality of numbers, every order of weights, does not cease from governing it even for a moment of time? What, then, can be thought more absurd, more foolish, than that the whole of that part is empty of the nod and rule of providence, when you see its last and smallest things formed with such arrangement that, considered somewhat more attentively, they strike one with an ineffable awe of wonder? And since the nature of the soul surpasses the nature of the body, what is madder than to think that there is no judgment of divine providence about the conduct of men, when such signs of its skill shine out and are shown in their flesh? But because these smallest things lie ready to our senses and we easily trace them, the order of things shines out in them; while those things whose order we cannot see are thought disordered by those who think nothing exists except what they can see, or, if they think so, think it something like what they are accustomed to see.

But let us, whose steps the same divine providence guides through Holy Scripture so that we do not fall into that perversity, try, with the same help, to trace from the very works of God where he created at once these things whose forms he is working until now through the order of times, when he rested from his finished works. Let us consider, then, the beauty of any tree in its trunk, branches, leaves, and fruit. This form certainly did not spring up suddenly in such size and quality, but in the order that we know. For it rose from a root, which the sprout first fixed in the earth, and from there all those parts grew, formed and distinct. Moreover, that sprout came from a seed; so in the seed all those things were at first, not in the bulk of bodily size but in causal force and power. For that size was built up by an abundance of earth and moisture. But that force in the tiny grain is more wonderful and excellent, by which the neighboring moisture, mixed with earth as matter, could be turned into the quality of that wood, the spreading of branches, the greenness and shape of the leaves, the forms and richness of the fruit, and the most orderly distinction of them all. For what rises or hangs from that tree that has not been drawn out and brought forth from a kind of hidden treasure of that seed? But that seed comes from a tree, though not that one but another, and that tree again from another seed; and sometimes a tree comes from a tree, when a cutting is taken and planted. So seed comes from tree, and tree from seed, and tree from tree; but seed from seed in no way unless a tree comes in between first; whereas tree comes from tree even if no seed comes in between. So by alternating successions one comes from the other, but both from the earth, and not the earth from them; so their first parent is the earth. So too with animals: it may be uncertain whether seeds come from them or they from seeds; but whichever of these is first, it is most certain that it is from the earth.

And as in the grain itself there were invisibly at once all the things that would rise through time into a tree, so the world itself must be thought to have had at once, when God created all things at once, all the things that were made in it and with it when the day was made: not only heaven with the sun and moon and stars, whose form remains with rotating motion, and the earth and the depths, which undergo as it were inconstant motions and, joined below, contribute the other part to the world, but also those things which water and earth produced potentially and causally, before they arose through the delays of time in the way they are now known to us in the works which God is working until now.

This being so, “This is the book of the creation of heaven and earth: when the day was made, God made heaven and earth and every green thing of the field before it was upon the earth, and all the grass of the field before it sprang up”: not in the way he makes them by the work by which he is working until now, through rain and the farming of men (for this is why it was added, “For God had not rained upon the earth, nor was there a man to work the earth”), but in the way in which he created all things at once and finished them in the number of six days, when he presented the day that he made six times to the things that he made, not by an alternating span in time, but causally by an ordered knowledge. From these works he rested on the seventh day, deigning to give even his rest to the knowledge and joy of that same day. And so he blessed and sanctified it not in any work of his but in his rest. Hence, setting up no further creature, but governing and ruling by his administering action the things which he made all at once, he works without ceasing, at once resting and working, as has already been discussed. Taking, as it were, the beginning of the narration of these works of his which he is working until now, to be unfolded through the cycles of time, Scripture says, “But a spring went up from the earth and watered the whole face of the earth.” Since we have said about this spring what we thought should be said, let us consider what follows from another beginning.

“And God formed man, dust from the earth, and breathed into his face the breath of life, and man became a living soul.” Here we must first see whether this is a recapitulation, so that it is now said how man was made whom we read was made on that sixth day; or whether, when he made all things at once, he made man too among them in a hidden way, like the grass of the earth before it had sprung up, so that he too, having already been made in another way in a certain secret of nature, like the things he created at once when the day was made, should with the passing of time be made also in this way, in which he lives his life in this visible form, whether badly or well; as the grass, which was made before it sprang up upon the earth, sprang up with the passing of time and the watering of that spring, so as to be upon the earth.

Let us first try, then, to take it as a recapitulation. For perhaps man was made on the sixth day in the same way as the day itself was first made, as the firmament, as the land and the sea. For it must not be said that these were first made and lay hidden in certain first beginnings and then, with the passing of time, sprang up, as it were, and became manifest in this appearance in which the world has been built; rather, the world was established from the beginning of the age, when the day was made, and in its elements were established at once the things that would arise afterward with the passing of time, whether plants or animals, each according to its kind. For neither must we believe that the stars themselves were first made and stored away in the elements of the world, and afterward, with the passing of time, came forth and shone in these forms which gleam from heaven; but all things were created at once in that number of perfection, six, when the day was made. Was man, then, also made thus, already in this appearance in which he lives in his own nature and does good or evil? Or was he too made in a hidden way, like the grass of the field before it sprang up, so that his being made from dust was to come forth afterward with the passing of time?

Let us take it, then, that he was formed from clay on the sixth day itself in this manifest and visible form, but that what is now made known by recapitulation was not mentioned then, and let us see whether Scripture itself agrees with us. It is certainly written thus, while the works of the sixth day were still being narrated: “And God said: Let us make man to our image and likeness; and let him have power over the fish of the sea and the birds of the sky and all cattle and all the earth and all creeping things that creep upon the earth. And God made man; to the image of God he made him; male and female he made them. And God blessed them, saying: Increase and multiply and fill the earth and have dominion over it, and have power over the fish of the sea and the birds of the sky and all cattle and all the earth and all creeping things that creep upon the earth.” So he had then already been formed from clay, and the woman had already been made from his side while he slept; but this had not been mentioned, and is now mentioned by recapitulation. For the male was not made on the sixth day and the female made afterward with the passing of time; but it says, “he made him; male and female he made them, and blessed them.” How, then, was the woman made for him when the man had already been placed in paradise? Or did Scripture go back to this too, having passed it over? For on that sixth day paradise too was planted, and the man was placed there, and was put to sleep so that Eve might be formed; and when she was formed he awoke and gave her a name. But these things could not happen except through delays of time. So they were not made in the way in which all things were created at once.

However great the ease one imagines with which God made these things too at once with the rest, we certainly know that a man's words cannot be uttered by the voice except through little delays of time. When, then, we hear the words of the man, whether when he gave names to the animals or to the woman, or when he went on to say, “For this reason a man will leave his father and mother and be joined to his wife, and the two will be in one flesh,” whatever syllables these sounded in, not even any two syllables in these words could sound at once; how much less could all these things be done at once with the things that were created at once! And therefore either all those things too were made not at once from the very beginning of the ages but through delays and intervals of time, and that day, first established not of spiritual but of bodily substance, made morning and evening in some way, by a circuit of light or by emission and contraction; or, if, all that was discussed in the previous books having been considered, a probable reason has persuaded us that that day, established sublimely and first as spiritual, a certain wise light, was called day, whose presence was provided through ordered knowledge to the establishing of things in the number six; and if the words of Scripture agree with this view when it says afterward, “When the day was made, God made heaven and earth and every green thing of the field before it was upon the earth, and all the grass of the field before it sprang up,” and if what is written elsewhere also testifies, “He who lives forever created all things at once”: then there is no doubt that man's being formed from the clay of the earth and his wife's being formed from his side no longer belong to the establishing in which all things were made at once, which having been perfected God rested, but to that working which now takes place through the cycles of the ages, by which he is working until now.

To this is added that the very words by which it is narrated how God planted paradise and placed in it the man he had made, and brought to him the animals for him to give them names, and, when no help like him was found among them, then formed the woman for him by taking out his rib, sufficiently remind us that these things belong not to that working of God from which he rested on the seventh day but rather to this, by which he is working until now through the courses of time. For when paradise was planted, it narrates thus: “And God planted paradise in Eden toward the east and placed there the man whom he had formed. And God brought forth further from the earth every tree beautiful to the sight and good for food.”

When, then, it says, “He brought forth further from the earth every tree beautiful to the sight,” it certainly makes plain that he brought forth trees from the earth in one way now and in another way then, when on the third day the earth brought forth the herb of pasture seeding seed according to its kind and the fruitful tree according to its kind. For this is what “he brought forth further” means, namely beyond what he had already brought forth: then, certainly, potentially and causally, in the work belonging to the creating of all things at once, from which, when finished, he rested on the seventh day; but now visibly, in the work belonging to the course of time, as he is working until now.

Unless perhaps someone says that not every kind of tree was created on the third day, but something was put off to be created on the sixth, when man was made and placed in paradise. But Scripture declares most plainly what was created on the sixth day: the living soul, namely, according to each kind of four-footed animals and creeping things and beasts, and man himself, to the image of God, male and female. Accordingly, it could pass over how man was made, whom it nevertheless narrated was made on that day, so as to make known afterward by recapitulation how he was made, that is, from the dust of the earth, and the woman for him from his side; but it could not pass over any kind of creature, either in what God said, “Let it be,” or “Let us make,” or in what is said, “So it was done,” or “God made.” Otherwise all things were distinguished so carefully day by day in vain, if any suspicion could remain of a mixing of the days, so that, though herb and tree were assigned to the third day, we should believe that some trees were also created on the sixth day, about which Scripture was silent on that sixth day.