Latin Translation of Basil's Hexaemeron 3.1–3.10

The works of the first day, or rather of the one day (for it is not right for us to take from it the dignity it received from the Creator, since it was produced singly by itself and in no way counted among the courses of the others), our sermon discussed yesterday, along with everything that was made on it. And dividing these here and there, it offered morning nourishment and evening gladness to the souls of the hearers. Now we hasten to the wonders of the second day. In mentioning this, I do not place what is said in the power of the speaker, but in the grace of Scripture, which, naturally possessing ease of understanding, has breathed its love into the hearts of those who put truth before superfluous persuasion; as the psalm too, showing the sweetness of the truth, says: "How sweet are your words to my throat, more than honey to my mouth" (Ps 119:103). Yesterday, then, lingering as far as possible over the words of the Lord, we filled your senses with delight; and today we hasten to meet the day, to look at the wonders of the things that follow. Yet we could not fail to notice that many craftsmen who live by the labour of their hands are standing around us and urging us to keep the proposed account short, so that they may not be kept long from their work. To them I answer this: that a small portion of time lent to God is not only not lost, but is repaid by him with great increase. For the almighty Lord, granting at the right time strength to bodies, gladness to souls, and ability to carry out business, [provides] all the things that cause our occupations, if only we judge spiritual things to be preferred to worldly ones. And if perhaps in the present life we cannot receive the reward of good deeds, yet in the ages to come we shall undoubtedly obtain abundant treasures. So I beg you to shut out all worldly thoughts from your minds and give yourselves to me entirely. For bodily presence will gain nothing when the mind, entangled in earthly cares, is held to be absent.

"And God said, Let there be a firmament, dividing between water and water." Yesterday we heard the words of the Lord saying, "Let there be light"; today, "Let there be a firmament." Yet the present words seem to have something more. For the word did not remain a bare command, but the reason for which the production of the firmament is sought is more openly declared: namely, that it may divide between water and water. First let us consider, discussing how God speaks: is it in our way, that is, the way of men, who first conceive the form of a future thing in the understanding, then, gathering from the things that underlie it the meanings suited and proper to each, express them, and after this, making our thoughts known by the service of the vocal organs, publish the sense conceived in the heart by the striking of the air and the obedience of articulate speech? And how is he not to be called mad who declares that God needs such services to explain what he thinks, when it is more pious to assert that the divine will, the first impulse of his mind, is the Word of God? Scripture has represented this in a certain form in order to show that he not only willed creation to come about, but also completed it with someone working together with him. For the historian could have related now, as he did at the beginning concerning everything, that in the beginning God made heaven, then made light, and afterwards the firmament; but now he seems to bring in God commanding and speaking, hindering us by no spell from being led by traces and signs to the contemplation of him who is unspeakable. For what is sought with labour is both received with joy and kept most carefully, whereas the possession of what is easily obtained is undoubtedly tiresome. Therefore he directs us, having entered the path of true reason, to search out the Only-begotten. And certainly there was no need of audible speech for an incorporeal nature, since the intention of the thought could not be hidden from the one working with him, since for them the fellowship of counsel is supplied by their very power. For voice is needed for the sake of hearing, and hearing for the sake of voice. But where there is neither air nor tongue nor ears nor a rough touch to bring the reflected sound to the sense in the head, there speech is not needed; rather, from the principal thought itself, so to speak, comes the sharing of will. As we said before, then, so that our mind might rise to the search for the face of him with whom we are dealing, he wisely and excellently adopted the form of such an expression.

In the second place we must ask whether the firmament, which is itself also called heaven, was something other than the heaven made at the beginning, or whether there are in fact two heavens; although the philosophers, in their disputes about heaven, would more willingly agree to have their tongues cut out than grant that there are two heavens. For they assert that there is one heaven, and affirm that its nature by no means allows a second or a third to be added to it, since, they say, the whole substance of heaven was used up in forming the one. For they say it is a single revolving body, enclosed by a fixed circuit, and that since it was all spent on the creation of the first heaven, nothing remained for the composition of a second or third. But in saying this they suppose that the Creator had some unbegotten matter, weaving the lies that follow out of the first fable. We, however, ask the philosophers of the Greeks not to censure our views before they can keep agreement among themselves. For some of them assert that there are infinite heavens and innumerable worlds; and when the sharper ones have overcome that ill-advised claim, with certain proofs gathered from the necessity of geometry, they think they affirm in turn that nature does not allow any heaven other than the one to be generated. But we say that they deserve all the more ridicule, especially since many [bubbles] are often seen to form even in water; so there is no reason to doubt the multitude of heavens, nor that the living power that creates all things sufficed for their construction. If we contemplate the power of God, we shall not think that their strength and greatness differ from the flowing of a liquid which, when poured into empty vessels, sometimes swells up with certain blowings. Their proposition, then, is utterly laughable, contending as they do about the impossibility of the Almighty. We, for our part, are so far from disbelieving in a second heaven that we even confess a third, the sight of which the most blessed Paul was not denied (2 Cor 12:2). And the psalm, naming "the heavens of heavens," suggests to us the understanding of still more. Yet this question does not seem more wonderful than those seven circles along which, as all agree in proclaiming, the seven stars are carried. They say these are nested within one another, like jars fitted one over another, and they affirm that, driven by motions contrary to each other and blending high with low, they give back a certain concord and a sweet melody of harmony. When those who assert this are compelled to prove the truth of their words by the reasoning of common sense, they say that our ears, attending to that sound from our first birth by long habit, have grown deaf through daily use, their sense being filled with it, and so we cannot hear the harmony, just as in a smithy the hearing is dulled, battered by the constant blows of the workers. But letting them handle these studied cleverness of worldly men, let us return to the teaching of the church. It has been said by our predecessors that this is not the creation of a second heaven but an explanation of the first. For there Scripture reported the making of heaven and earth in summary; here it has handed down to us more carefully the manner in which each element was made. But we say that since the second has both another name and its own use, it is necessarily other than the heaven made first, having a stronger nature, which provides a special benefit to all things.

"And God said, Let there be a firmament, and let it divide between water and water." Before we reach the root of what is written, let us try to refute the objections that we think others will raise against us. For they ask us, putting it this way: if the body of the firmament is like a sphere, as sight itself testifies, how could flowing water, which always slips down to lower places, stay on the curved roundness of the firmament? What do we answer? That what appears to us, looking up from within, to be round is not necessarily believed to be formed like a sphere on the outside as well. For we see the marble vaults of baths built inside in a semicircular shape, yet flat on their roofs. Let them stop, then, raising a false charge against us on this point, boasting that water cannot be held in the higher parts. It remains to say what the nature of the firmament is and for what reason it was appointed to come between the waters. It is customary for Scripture to use this word of things excelling in strength, as when it is said: "The Lord is my firmament and my refuge" (Ps 18:2); and elsewhere: "I have made firm its pillars" (Ps 75:3); and: "Praise him in the firmament of his power" (Ps 150:1). Worldly writers call a body firm as being condensed, and they say it is so called to distinguish it from a mathematical body; for a mathematical body is one thing, and what subsists in the extent of dimensions, that is, extended in height and breadth, is another. What is firm, being separated by intervals, also possesses hardness. But Scripture is accustomed to call a body that is very strong and solid a firmament, as it also often calls thick and condensed air by the same word, when it says: "Who makes firm the thunder" (Amos 4:13). For it calls the hardness of thickness, because the wind enclosed in the clouds and bursting out violently produces the sound of thunder, the making firm of the thunder. So now too we think that the passage and slipping of the waters is stopped by some very firm nature, and that it is held within the bar signified by this word, since it is believed to have had its origin from the production of common waters; or certainly we should judge it like congealed moisture, or some such material that took its origin from the spreading of liquid, like the nature of crystal, which they say is produced by the hardening of waters. A stone that properly has a bright transparency, and that is found pure according to its nature, neither fouled by any admixture of decay nor split at its base by any cracks, is held to be like air in colour; but it is not right for us to compare the firmament to any of these. For it is truly the mark of a childish and foolish mind to hold such an opinion about heavenly things. Nor, if all things are in all, that is, fire in earth, air in water, and others in others, nor because among the elements subject to our senses none is without fellowship, either by the sharing of intermediate or of contrary causes, should we on this account suppose that the firmament is either one of the simple elements or a mixture made from them, since Scripture plainly instructs us that our sense may not suppose more than is granted to it. And I beg you, let us not pass over without discussion this point too: that after God commanded, saying, "Let there be a firmament," the historian added, not without reason, "And the firmament was made." For before it, "God made the firmament"; and again, "God divided." Let the deaf, then, hear, and the blind be enlightened to see. Who is so deaf as one who does not hear Scripture crying out so openly? Or who so blind as one who, though instructed by plain proofs, does not look to the glory of the Only-begotten? "And God said, Let there be a firmament": this word indicates the cause of the design. And when he said, "God made the firmament," it is a demonstration of its completion.

Now let the discourse turn to what remains: "And it said, dividing between water and water." The spreading of the waters, as far as we can understand, was boundless, washing the earth on every side, so that it seemed to exceed even the appointed limits of the other elements; therefore it is said in what follows that the abyss surrounded the earth. We shall set out the cause of the great quantity of the waters a little below. Yet none of us, nor even of those who are very learned and look most keenly into this corruptible and flowing nature, will be able by supposition to accuse us of putting forward impossible things or words glued to the narrative by fictions; nor will he demand proofs by which we can establish on what the nature of the waters was founded. For by the same reasoning by which they affirm that the earth, being heavier than the waters, is balanced in the middle of all things, that heavenly water too, because of its natural impulse always tending downward and because it is placed equally on every side, must remain steadily above the circle of the earth. The nature of the waters, then, was very great, and not spread out to match the measure of the earth, but far exceeding its circuit. So from the beginning the most magnificent craftsman, foreseeing the future, provided for the usefulness of later things by the arrangement of the earlier. What, then, was the reason that an enormous amount of water abounded on the earth? Because the nature of fire was necessary to things, not only for the management of earthly things but also for the completion of all. For all things would be very slight and half-complete if anything were lacking to the greatest and principal elements, which we know to be contrary to each other and to devour each other's substance. For fire consumes water when it prevails in strength, and water, when it abounds, puts out fire. It was necessary, then, that these elements should neither be firmly at peace with each other nor, by the complete failure of one, provide a cause for the dissolution of all things; and therefore the governor of the world laid up a sufficient supply of moisture, so that, not exceeding the bounds set for it, it might be able to resist the voracity of fire. For God, who established all things under the order of weight and measure, by whom even the drops of rain are numbered, as Job testifies (Job 36:27), knew how long water should remain on the earth, and how much nourishment he should prepare for fire. This is the reason for the waters according to creation. And who is so utterly without experience of life as to know only from the teaching of tradition how necessary the use of fire is to human affairs? For not only do the arts that sustain human life need the help of fire, but also the sprouting of trees, the ripening of fruits, and the birth of animals both of land and sea would neither have come about in the beginning nor lasted through time, if the benefit of heat had been lacking. An abundance of waters too was very necessary, so that fire might draw its food from them incessantly and without interruption.

Look carefully, then, at creation, and you will find that the force of heat clings powerfully to all things that rise and set. For this reason very abundant waters have been poured into the earth, extending further than they appear and reaching the depths of the earth; from them also a larger supply of flow is provided for springs and wells and the headlong courses of torrents, so that moisture might be stored in many and different storehouses. So from the winter regions of the East comes the river Indus, the most violent of all streams, as those who first described the world have observed. From the southern regions flow the Bactrus, the Choaspes, and the Araxes, from which the Tanais breaks off and passes into the Maeotic marsh. The Phasis comes out of the Caucasian mountains, and countless others are carried from the northern regions to the Euxine Sea. From the summer regions of the West, beneath the peak of the Pyrenees, come the Tartessus and the Ister, one of which runs down into the outer seas while the other, passing through Europe, empties into the Pontus. And what need is there to enumerate those that rise from the Rhipaean mountains of inner Scythia? Among them is the Rhodanus, which, with many other navigable rivers, passes the Galatians and the Hesperians, the nation of the Celts, and many neighbouring peoples, and mingles with the western sea. Of those that come down from the upper south through Ethiopia, that is, the Tages, the Nisus, the Cremeas, and the Nile, some flow into our sea and others roll down into the nearer Ocean; though the Nile is not to be compared with rivers, since, spreading like a sea in summertime, it usually floods the land of Egypt. So the habitable part of the world is entirely filled with water, no less surrounded by the waves of the sea than watered by rivers, because of the ineffable wisdom of the Creator, who ordained a nature opposed to heat, so that it might be sufficient. But there will be a time when fire will scorch all things, as Isaiah testifies, speaking of the Lord God of all: "Who says to the abyss, You shall be laid waste, and I will dry up all your rivers" (Isa 44:27). Despising, then, worldly wisdom, receive with us the teaching of truth, adorned with no trappings of eloquence, but strong in the reasoning of knowledge.

Therefore: "Let there be a firmament in the midst of the water, and let it divide between water and water." We have said what the name "firmament" means: not a hard and strong nature supported by some prop and weight; for the earth would have deserved such a name far more properly. But because of the substance of the higher regions, which is fine and rare and perceptible by no sense, he called it a firmament, that is, in comparison with lighter bodies which we can reach neither by sight nor by touch. And at the same time think of a certain place that separates the moisture, of which he assigned the finer part to the upper stations and appointed the thicker and muddier part for the lower, so that the temperate balance established from the beginning might remain, brought about by the gradual diminution of the waters. You do not doubt the vast amount of liquid, but you do not look at the power of fire, which, though it seems small to the sight, can spend a multitude of waters. For it always draws to itself the waves beneath it, like a medical cupping glass, and easily consumes them, as the flame of a lamp, licking the oil through the wick set in it, soon eats it up. And who would doubt that the ether is fiery and burning? Unless it were restrained by limits set for it by the Creator, it would easily consume all things; and this is what prevents all the moisture inserted in different things from drying up, devoured by the heat of the sun. For this reason the heavenly water was made, gathered in the upper place, which marshes, rivers, and sea breathe out in the vapours rising from them, so that the heat of the ether might not burn up everything beneath it. For we see the sun too in summer suddenly drying up shallow pools in a very short time. Where, then, is that water? Let the clever men show us: can anyone doubt that it has failed, spent by the heat of the sun? Though they say that the sun is not even hot, so great is their facility in speaking. And consider on what proof they rely in opposing the plainest facts. Because, they say, its colour is white and not red or purple, they contend that the sun is not fiery; and they say its heat comes from the rougher motion of its revolution, arguing, of course, so as to assert that the sun spends none of the moisture. But I, even if what is objected is not true, will not refute the argument, since it supports me. For it was being said that a multitude of waters was necessary because of the voracity of fire; and it makes no difference whether the heat is natural or produced, as long as it has like effects on the same material: whether a flame rises when sticks are rubbed together, or a fire lit of itself consumes what is thrown into it, one and the same result comes from both. And certainly we see the governing wisdom of God moving the sun from some regions to others, so that it may not stay always in the same places and ravage the world's adornment by the greed of its heat. Now he leads it to the southern zone, now to the solstitial signs according to the change of seasons, and from there turns it to the northern region, so that, passing gradually through different regions, it may keep a temperate climate for the fruits of the earth. Let them see, however, whether they do not prove themselves to contradict themselves, when they affirm that the sea is not increased by the inflow of rivers because it is absorbed by the heat of the sun; from which also its water is made salty and bitter, since it loses the taste of its own sweetness by being snatched away by the heat, which carries off the lighter part with it and leaves behind the heavier and muddy part like a kind of dregs. Yet those who were just now saying such things about the sea change again and declare that no loss of liquid is caused by the sun.

"And God called the firmament heaven." Properly another name would have suited it. Yet we know that "heaven" is very often said of the thick and condensed place of this air that plainly meets our eyes. Heaven (caelum) is so called from "seeing" (cernendo), as we gather better from the etymology of the Greeks, who call it ouranos, from horasthai (to be seen), as Scripture says, "the birds of heaven" (Ps 8:8), and elsewhere, "birds along the firmament of heaven" (Gen 1:20). Of the same kind is the saying, "They go up to heaven" (Ps 107:26). And Moses, blessing the tribe of Joseph, gives a blessing from the bounds of heaven, from the changes of the sun, from the meeting of the months, and from the tops of the mountains (Deut 33:13–15), since that region of the land abounds in such riches. And in the curses on Israel he says: "Let the heaven over your head be bronze" (Deut 28:23), indicating complete drought and the failure of the moisture of the air, through which the desired fruitfulness is given to the fruits of the earth. When, then, it speaks of dew or rain being sent from heaven, understand the waters that were commanded to hold the upper region. For when vapours have gathered on high and the air is condensed by the blowing of winds, these exhalations, finely inserted into the clouds, become drops by joining one another, and, pressed by their own weight, are driven downward. This is the generation of rain. But when the moisture has been whipped into foam, driven back by the violence of the winds, and has hardened more strongly with the cold, the clouds congeal and frozen snow is carried down to the earth. And in general, by reasoning of this kind, you can observe the whole nature of the waters, how they are gathered around the air that is above us. Yet let no one compare the simplicity of the spiritual words with the argumentation of those who dispute about heaven. For as much as the beauty of women who live rightly is preferred to the comeliness of harlots, so much is our word known to be preferred to worldly teaching. For they are accustomed to bring a persuasion forced by words; but we put forward the truth, bare of deceit. But what need is there for us to stir up a contest, refuting their lies, when, by comparing their writings with one another, we can watch their conflict without labour of our own? Neither different in eloquence, nor fewer in number, nor inferior in dignity, they fight against their opponents. They affirm that fire scorches and devours all things utterly, and then again bring in causes of regeneration from the seeds that remain, left behind by the conflagration of fire; from which they also introduce innumerable worlds.

But they, deprived of the truth of either profession, seek out help for their error on this side and that through their poverty. For concerning these waters too, which the interposition of the firmament separated, they put certain figures before us under pretext of allegories and a higher sense, saying that by the waters spiritual and incorporeal powers should be understood figuratively, and that the worthier ones remained above the firmament, while the harmful ones settled in the lower lodgings, as being thicker and muddy. Therefore, they say, the waters that are above the heavens praise the Lord, that is, the best powers, which are worthy, because of the merit of their purity, to celebrate the Creator with fitting praises; but those contained below, they affirm, are spirits of wickedness, fallen from their natural height into the depth of evil; and these, as turbulent, seditious, and tossed by the tumults of vices, are called the sea because of the changeableness of their purpose, which alters continually. But let us set aside such talk as interpretations of dreams and old wives' tales, and understand water to be real water, and accept the separation by the firmament as Scripture hands it down. And if waters are ever said to offer praise to the common Lord of all, they are not on that account to be thought of a rational nature. For neither are the heavens in every way alive because "the heavens tell the glory of God" (Ps 19:1), nor is the firmament to be thought a sentient animal because it "declares the work of his hands." And if anyone should say that the heavens are the contemplative powers and the firmament the creative power of God, we do not disdainfully reject such an interpretation, fanciful though it is, but we shall by no means allow it to be the true one. For dew, winter, cold, and heat, since they are commanded to praise the Creator of all, as Daniel says (Dan 3), are not to be understood as natures that perceive or that are invisible; but the consideration of them, wisely contemplated by those who have sense, completes the glorification of the Creator. For not only does the water above the heavens, as excelling the others in honour because of the beauty implanted in it, pay praise to the Lord, but the things on the earth are also invited to do the same, that is, "dragons and all deeps" (Ps 148:7). So not even the abyss, which the fabricators of allegories try to cast down to the worse part, is thought by the psalmist to be rejected, since it too sends forth hymns to the power of the Creator according to its own quality.

"And God saw that the firmament was good." He did not call it good by the approval of eyes. For the things established by God do not give us bodily delight, nor is their pleasure to be perceived in the way things that seem pleasant to mortals are perceived; but he called good the work that is weighed by the reason of his art and aims at the end of future usefulness. Rightly, then, he set forth [the plan] in the account of things produced so as to be manifest; running through, with the creative word of his power, the things made part by part, he praised them as completing the world. For a hand, an eye, and the other limbs of a bronze statue scattered here and there seem good to no one; but when they are put together in their order and receive the form of a fitting shape, they are easily recognized by any unskilled person. But the Creator of the elements knew the good of each work even before the composition of the parts; and in praising each, he directs the thought of his mind to the future outcome of the things he formed. Such, then, is God now too: the craftsman of the individual parts, their witness and herald; but a little later, when the whole world is completed, he will give it the praise it deserves. But here let the morning account of the second day find its end, so that we may give the studious hearers a respite, in which to compare with one another what has been said and take care to keep it all, by the help of memory, in their inmost hearts for their own benefit; and that, chewing the food of teaching by the practice of constant meditation, after a healthy digestion they may ask for the nourishment of the rest of the discourse. And let us grant leave in the meantime to those who work with their hands for their living, so that, when their work is done, they may again bring their minds, freed from the tangle of cares, to the evening feast. Meanwhile, may the Lord, who made great things out of nothing and has granted that these small offerings of words be brought forth by us, give you understanding of his truth, so that from visible things you may reckon the invisible, and that from the greatness and beauty of creation your mind may perceive the fitting glory of the Creator, so that on earth, in the air, in heaven, in the waters, between day and night, and in everything that is seen, you may take hold of the surest monuments of the benefactor. For neither will time be given to sins, nor will room be left to the enemy to suggest the contrary, while the Lord cleaves to your minds; to whom be glory and worship, now and always, and through all ages of ages. Amen.