Literal Commentary on Genesis 2.15–3.10

Many also inquire very talkatively what the moon was like when it was made; and would that they spoke as inquirers and not rather as people trying to teach! For they say it was made full, because it was not fitting that God should make anything imperfect among the stars on the day on which it is written that the stars were made. But those who oppose them say, “Then it should have been called the first-day moon, not the fourteenth; for who begins counting in that way?” I stand between them, so as to assert neither, but I will say plainly that whether God made the moon new or full, he made it perfect. For God is the author and founder of natures themselves. And whatever any thing brings forth and unfolds by natural progress through fitting times, it contained hidden beforehand too, if not in form or bulk of body, yet in the power and reason of its nature. Unless perhaps a tree that is empty of fruit and stripped of leaves through the winter is then to be called imperfect, or that nature was imperfect in its first beginnings too, when it had not yet given any fruit. This could not rightly be said, not only of the tree, but not even of its seed, where all the things that come forth in some way with the progress of time lie hidden in invisible ways. And yet, if God were said to have made something imperfect which he himself then perfected, what would be blameworthy in that opinion? It would rightly displease if what had been begun by him were said to have been perfected by another. So those who do not complain about the earth, which God made when in the beginning he made heaven and earth, because it was invisible and unformed and afterward, on the third day, is made visible and formed, why do they make clouds of questions for themselves about the moon? Or if they understand what was said of the earth to have been said not by an interval of time, since God created matter together with things, but by the arrangement of the narrative, why do they not see in this matter, which can be seen even with the eyes, that the moon has a whole body and is perfect in its full roundness, even when it shines with a horned light, whether beginning to shine upon the earth or ceasing? So if the light in it grows, or is completed, or diminishes, it is not the light-bearer itself but what is lit in it that varies. And if it always shines on one side of its little sphere, but seems to grow while it turns that side toward the earth until it turns all of it (which happens from the first day to the fourteenth), it is always full, but does not always appear so to the inhabitants of the earth. The same reasoning holds if it is illuminated by the rays of the sun. For in that case too, when it is nearest the sun, it can appear only with bright horns, because the rest of it, which is wholly illuminated in a circle, is not turned toward the earth so as to be seen, except when it is opposite the sun, so that all of it that the sun lights appears to the earth. There are some, however, who say they think the moon was first made on the fourteenth day, not because it should be believed to have been made full, but because the words of God in the Scriptures say that the moon was made “for the beginning of night”; and it is seen at the beginning of night when it is full, whereas at other times it begins to be seen even during the day before it is full, and further on into the night the more it wanes. But one who understands by “beginning of night” nothing but rule (for the Greek word indicates this more when it is said, archas, and in the Psalms it is written more plainly, “the sun for the rule of the day, the moon and stars for the rule of the night”) is not forced to count from the fourteenth day and to believe that the moon was not first made at the first day of its cycle.

It is also often asked whether these visible lights of heaven, that is, the sun, moon and stars, shine equally, but appear to our eyes with different brightness, more or less, because they are at different distances from the earth. As for the moon, those who say this do not doubt that it shines less than the sun, by which they also maintain it is illuminated. But they dare to say that many stars are equal to the sun or even greater, but appear small because they are farther away. For us it may perhaps be enough that, however the matter stands, the stars were established by God as their maker. And yet we hold what was said by apostolic authority: “There is one glory of the sun, and another glory of the moon, and another glory of the stars; for star differs from star in glory.” But since they can still say, even without resisting the apostle, “They differ in glory, yes, but to the eyes of earthly beings”; or, since the apostle said this in comparison with those who rise again, who will certainly not be one thing to the eyes and another in themselves, “The stars do differ in glory in themselves too, but nevertheless some are even greater than the sun,” let them see how they can give the sun so great a primacy that they say it holds back certain stars with its rays and drives them back from their proper course, and these the principal stars at that, to which these people make supplication more than to the others. For it is not likely that greater or even equal stars could be overcome by the violence of its rays. Or if they assert that the higher stars of the zodiac signs or the northern stars are greater, which suffer nothing of this kind from the sun, why do they venerate more these that go round through the signs? Why do they declare them lords of the signs? For even if someone contends that those retrogradations of the stars, or perhaps slowings, come about not from the sun but from other more hidden causes, yet it is certainly clear from their books that in their ravings, by which, straying from the truth, they suppose a power of the fates, these people attribute special power to the sun. But let those who are strangers to the Father who is in heaven say what they like about the heaven; for us it is neither expedient nor fitting to inquire more subtly into the distances and size of the stars and to spend on such inquiry the time needed for weightier and better things. And we do better to believe that those lights are greater than the others which holy Scripture presents thus: “And God made two great lights,” which, however, are not equal. For, having set them above the others, it goes on to say that they differ from each other; for it says, “the greater light for the beginning of day and the lesser light for the beginning of night.” Certainly they will at least grant this to our eyes: that it is evident that these shine more than the others upon the earth, that the day is bright only by the light of the sun, and that the night, even with so many stars appearing, is not lit, if the moon is absent, as it is illuminated by its presence.

As for fate, let us utterly reject, from the soundness of our faith, all their subtleties of whatever kind and the so-called experimental proofs of their astrology, which they call apotelesmata. For by such arguments they try to take away from us even the reasons for praying, and with impious perversity, in evil deeds which are most rightly blamed, they urge that God, the author of the stars, is to be accused rather than man, the author of the crimes. But that our souls are not by nature subject to bodies, not even heavenly ones, let them hear even from their own philosophers. And that those higher bodies are not more powerful than earthly bodies with respect to the things these people deal with, let them learn at last from this: when many bodies of different kinds, whether of animals or of plants and shrubs, are sown at one and the same point of time, and innumerably many are born at one point of time, not only in different places on earth but also in the same places, there are such great differences in their development, actions and experiences that these people would truly, as the saying goes, lose their stars if they considered these things. And what is more foolish and dull than, when they are refuted by these facts, to say that the fateful reckoning of the stars applies only to human beings, as subject to them? Yet in human beings too they are refuted by twins, who live differently, are differently happy or unhappy, and die differently, though they mostly receive the same constellations; for even if there was some interval when they came out of the womb, in some cases the interval is so small that it cannot be grasped by their calculation. The hand of Jacob, who came second, was found, as they were being born, holding the foot of his brother who came first; they were born so closely together that it seemed like one infant twice as long being born. Certainly their “constellations,” as they call them, could in no way have been different. What then is emptier than that an astrologer, looking at those constellations, at the same horoscope and the same moon, should say that one of them was loved by his mother and the other not loved? For if he said otherwise, he would certainly say what is false; and if he said this, he would say what is true, but not according to the silly little songs of his books. And if they will not believe this history, because it is brought forward from our books, can they also abolish the nature of things? So since they say they are not deceived at all if they find the hour of conception, let them at least not disdain, as human beings, to consider the conception of twins. And so it must be admitted that, when true things are said by these people, they are said by a kind of very hidden prompting, which human minds undergo without knowing it. When this is done to deceive people, it is the work of seducing spirits, who are permitted to know some true things about temporal matters: partly by the keenness of a subtler sense, because they are strong in subtler bodies; partly by more cunning experience, because of such great length of life; and partly because the holy angels reveal to them, even by the command of God, what they themselves learn from almighty God, who distributes to human beings according to their deserts with the purity of a most hidden justice. Sometimes, too, these same wicked spirits foretell, as if by divination, what they themselves are going to do. Therefore a good Christian must beware of astrologers or any impious diviners, especially when they say true things, lest they ensnare the deceived soul in fellowship with demons by some pact of partnership.

It is also often asked whether these visible lights of heaven are only bodies or whether they have certain spirits of their own as rulers, and, if they have, whether they are also given life by them, as flesh is animated by the souls of living creatures, or are only present to them without any mingling. Although this cannot easily be grasped, I think that, as we go on treating the Scriptures, more suitable places may occur where we may be allowed, according to the rules of holy authority, if not to show something certain about this matter, at least to believe it. But now, always keeping the moderation of devout seriousness, we ought to believe nothing rashly about an obscure matter, lest perhaps, out of love for our own error, we should hate what the truth later reveals, even though it can in no way be contrary to the holy books, whether of the Old Testament or the New. Now let us pass on to the third book of our work.

“And God said, ‘Let the waters bring forth creeping things of living souls, and flying things above the earth along the firmament of heaven.’ And it was so done. And God made great sea monsters and every creature of creeping things, which the waters brought forth according to their kind, and every winged flying thing according to its kind. And God saw that they were good. And God blessed them, saying, ‘Increase and multiply and fill the waters in the sea, and let the flying things multiply upon the earth.’ And evening came, and morning came, the fifth day.” Now, in the lower part of the world, the things that are moved by the spirit of life are made, and first those of the waters, which is the element nearest to the quality of air; because air is so near to this heaven in which the lights are that it too has received the name of heaven, though I do not know whether it can also be called firmament. And “heavens” are spoken of in the plural for one and the same thing that is called one heaven. For although in this book “heaven” is said in the singular for what divides between the waters that are above and those that are below, yet in that psalm it says, “And let the waters that are above the heavens praise the name of the Lord.” And if we rightly understand the heavens of heavens to be the starry heavens above the airy ones, as higher above lower, and we take these also in the same psalm where it is said, “Praise him, heavens of heavens,” it is clear enough that this air is called not only heaven but also heavens; just as “lands” is said, and nothing else is meant than what is called in the singular “land,” when we say “the circle of the lands” and “the circle of the land.”

We read in one of the letters called canonical that these airy heavens once perished in the flood. For that watery nature, which rose so high that it passed the tops of the highest mountains by fifteen cubits, could not reach the stars. But because it had filled all or nearly all the spaces of this moister air in which birds fly, that letter writes that the heavens that had been perished. I do not know how this can be understood except by the quality of this denser air being turned into the nature of waters; otherwise these heavens did not perish then, but were raised higher when water occupied their place. So we more easily believe, according to the authority of that letter, that they perished and that others, as is written there, were put in their place, namely by exhalations spread out, than that they were raised so that the nature of the higher heaven gave up its place to them. So it was fitting that, in creating the inhabitants of this lower part of the world, which is often mentioned as a whole by the name of earth, living creatures should be brought forth first from the waters and afterward from the earth, because water is so similar to air that air is proved to grow thick with its exhalations, so as to produce the spirit of storm, that is, wind, and to draw clouds together, and to be able to support the flight of birds. Therefore, even if one of the secular poets spoke truly, “Olympus rises above the clouds,” and “the heights hold peace,” because the air on the summit of Olympus is said to be so thin that it is neither overshadowed by clouds nor disturbed by wind, and cannot support birds or nourish with the breath of thicker air any men who may have climbed there, as they are used to being nourished in this air of ours, yet that too is air, from which it spreads down with a quality near to waters; and therefore it too is believed to have been turned into a moist nature at the time of the flood. For we must not think that the flood took over anything of the spaces of the starry heaven, though the water had passed even all the highest mountains.

And yet about the conversion of the elements there is no small question even among those who have investigated these things most subtly with idle care. For some say that all can be changed and turned into all; but others maintain that there is something entirely proper to each element that is in no way turned into the quality of another element. Perhaps, if the Lord wills, we shall discuss this more carefully in its place; but now, as far as the present discussion is concerned, I thought these things should be mentioned so that we may understand that the order of things was kept, by which it was right to narrate the creation of the creatures of the waters before those of the lands. And we must by no means think that any element of this world has been passed over in this Scripture, since it is commonly held that the world consists of four well-known elements, on the ground that here heaven and water and earth seem to be mentioned, but nothing is said of air. For it is the custom of our Scriptures to name the world either as heaven and earth or sometimes to add the sea as well. So air is understood to belong either to heaven, if there are any very calm and peaceful spaces in its upper parts, or to earth, because of this turbulent and murky region which grows thick with moist exhalation, although this too is quite often called by the name of heaven. And so it is not written, “Let the waters bring forth creeping things of living souls, and let the air bring forth flying things flying over the earth,” but both kinds of living creatures are narrated as brought forth from the waters. So whatever of the waters is either slipping, wavy and fluid, or made thin and suspended as vapour, the former appearing allotted to the creeping things of living souls and the latter to the flying things, both are nevertheless reckoned as moist nature.

And so there are also those who, by very subtle consideration, distinguish these five most obvious senses of the body according to the four common elements: they say the eyes belong to fire and the ears to air, and they assign the senses of smelling and tasting to moist nature; smell to those moist exhalations by which this space where the birds fly is thickened, and taste to those flowing and bodily liquids. For whatever has savour in the mouth is mixed with the moisture of the mouth itself in order to have savour, even if it seemed dry when it was taken in. But fire penetrates all things, to produce movement in them. For moisture freezes by the privation of heat, and while the other elements can grow hot, fire cannot grow cold; it is more easily extinguished, so that it is no longer fire, than it remains cold or becomes cooler by contact with something cold. And touch, which is the fifth among the senses, fits better with the earthy element; accordingly, things touched are felt through the whole body of a living creature, which is chiefly from earth. They also say that nothing can be seen without fire or touched without earth, and that therefore all the elements are present in all, but each has received its name from what it has more of; and that when the body grows very cold through the privation of heat, sense is dulled because the movement that is present in the body from heat becomes sluggish, as fire acts on air, air on moisture, and moisture on earthy things, the subtler penetrating the denser. And the subtler anything is in bodily nature, the nearer it is to spiritual nature, although very distant in kind, since the one is body and the other is not.

And so, since sensing belongs not to the body but to the soul through the body, although it is argued acutely that the body’s senses are distributed according to the diversity of the bodily elements, yet the soul, in which the power of sensing resides, since it is not bodily, exercises the vigour of sensing through the subtler body. So it begins the movement in all the senses from the subtlety of fire, but does not reach the same point in all. For in sight, with the heat held back, it reaches as far as its light; in hearing, it penetrates with the heat of fire as far as the clearer air; in smell, it passes through pure air and reaches the moist exhalation from which this thicker air is formed; in taste, it passes through this too and reaches the more bodily moisture; and when this too has been penetrated and passed through, when it reaches earthy heaviness, it exercises the last sense, touch.

So he was not ignorant of the natures of the elements and their order who, when introducing the establishing of the visible things that move by nature within the world in the elements, narrated first the heavenly lights, then the living creatures of the waters, and last those of the lands. It is not that he passed over air, but that the spaces of the purest and calmest air, where birds are said to be unable to fly, if there are any, are joined to the higher heaven and are understood in the Scriptures, under the name of heaven, to belong to the higher part of the world; so that by the name of earth is signified in general this whole region, from which there begins, going downward, “fire, hail, snow, ice, the spirit of storm,” and all the abysses, until one comes to the dry land, which is called earth by its proper name. So that higher air, whether because it belongs to the heavenly part of the world or because it has no visible inhabitant of the kind the narrator is now speaking of, is neither passed over, since heaven is named, nor counted among the living creatures to be created. But this lower air, which receives the moist exhalations of sea and land and is in a way thickened to support birds, receives living creatures only from the waters. For what is moist in it carries the bodies of birds, which in flying lean on their wings just as fish swim with certain wings of their own.

So he speaks knowingly, as the Spirit of God who was present to the writer, when he says that the flying things were brought forth from the waters. Their nature has been allotted a twofold place: the lower in the slipping wave, the higher in the blowing air, the former assigned to swimmers, the latter to fliers. Just so we see that two senses suited to this element have been given to living creatures: smell for exploring vapours, taste for exploring liquids. For that we also perceive waters and winds by touch is because the solidity of earth is mixed into all the elements; but it is felt more in these denser ones, so that they can even be handled by touching. And so these too are included, of the two greatest parts of the world, under the general name of earth, as that psalm shows, which lists all the higher things from one beginning, “Praise the Lord from the heavens,” and all the lower things from another beginning, “Praise the Lord from the earth,” where the spirit of storm is named, and all the abysses, and this fire that burns whoever touches it, because it arises from earthy and moist movements in such a way that it is soon turned into another element. And although by striving upward it shows the desire of its nature, yet it cannot escape into the calm of the higher heaven, because, overcome by much air and turned into it, it is extinguished. And so in this more corruptible and sluggish part of things it is driven by turbulent movements, to temper its harshness and for the use and fear of mortals. Since, then, the waves of the waters and the blasts of the winds can be felt by touch too, which belongs properly to the earth, the bodies of aquatic creatures too feed on earthy things, and birds especially also rest on the earth and propagate their young; for the part of moisture that is exhaled as vapour is spread over the lands too. And so, when Scripture said, “Let the waters bring forth creeping things of living souls, and flying things,” it says, “above the earth,” it wisely added, “along the firmament of heaven,” in which what seemed obscure before can appear somewhat more clearly. For it does not say “in the firmament of heaven,” as of the lights, but “flying things,” it says, “above the earth along the firmament of heaven,” that is, next to the firmament of heaven; because this murky and moist space in which birds fly is adjacent to that space where they cannot fly, which by reason of its calm and quiet rightly belongs to the firmament of heaven. So birds fly in the heaven, but in that heaven which that psalm also includes under the name of earth; and for this reason they are called in many places “the birds of heaven,” yet not in the firmament but along the firmament.

Some think that they are called, not “living soul,” but “creeping things of living souls,” because of the slowness of their senses. But if they were called so for that reason, the name “living soul” would be given to the birds. But since the flying things too are so named, like the creeping things, so that “of living souls” is understood, it must be admitted, I think, that it was said as if it were said, “those among living souls that are creeping or flying things,” just as one could say “the lowly of men,” so that we would understand “whoever among men are lowly.” For although there are also land animals that creep on the earth, yet by far the greater number move on feet, and perhaps as few creep on land as walk in the waters. And some have thought that fish are called, not “living soul,” but “creeping things of living souls,” because they have no memory nor any life nearer, as it were, to reason; but too little experience deceives them. For some have written many marvellous things they were able to observe in fishponds. But even if perhaps they wrote what is false, it is quite certain that fish have memory. I have experienced it myself, and let those who can and will experience it too. For a certain large spring in the district of Bulla is almost full of fish. People looking down from above are accustomed to throw them something, which they either snatch, crowding together, or tear from one another, competing. Accustomed to this feeding, when people walk along the edge of the spring, the fish too swim in shoals with them, going back and forth, waiting for those whose presence they perceive to throw them something. So it seems to me not without reason that the creatures of the waters are called creeping things, just as birds are called flying things; for if either the lack of memory or a slower sense had kept the name “living soul” away from fish, it would certainly have been applied to the flying things, whose life is before our eyes, mindful and chattering and most skilful in building nests and rearing their young.

Nor am I unaware that certain philosophers distributed living creatures to each element in such a way that they called earthly not only those that creep and walk on the earth but birds too, because they too rest on the earth when tired from flying; the creatures of the air, they said, are demons, and the heavenly ones gods, of which we call some lights and some angels. Yet the same people assign fish and sea beasts of their kind to the waters, so that no element is without its own living creatures: as if there were no earth under the waters, or as if they could prove that fish do not rest on it and restore their strength for swimming, as birds do for flying, even if perhaps fish do so more rarely, because water is stronger than air for carrying bodies, so that it even carries land animals that swim, whether taught by practice, like men, or by nature, like four-footed animals or serpents. Or if they do not think so because fish have no feet, then seals are not creatures of the waters, nor snakes and snails of the lands; for the former have feet, and these kinds, without any feet, not only rest on the earth but hardly ever, or never, leave it. And dragons without feet are said both to rest in caves and to be lifted into the air; and although they are not easily known, yet not only our writings but those of the gentiles too have by no means been silent about this kind of creature.

Therefore, even if demons are creatures of the air, because they are strong in the nature of airy bodies, and are not dissolved by death for this reason, because there prevails in them an element that is more fit for acting than for being acted on, with two placed beneath it, water and earth, and one above it, the starry fire (for the elements are divided into two for being acted on, moisture and earth, and two others for acting, air and fire); if, then, these things are so, this distinction does not hinder our Scripture, which indicates that the flying things were brought forth not from the air but from the waters, because the place given to the flying things is that of moisture, subtler indeed and exhaled and spread into the air, but still moisture. Now air reaches from the boundary of the luminous heaven to the flowing waters and the bare lands. Yet moist exhalations do not darken all its space, but only as far as that limit from which it begins to be called earth, according to that psalm where it is said, “Praise the Lord from the earth.” But the upper part of the air, because of its pure calm, is joined in a common peace to the heaven with which it borders and is called by its name along with it. If perhaps the transgressing angels were in that part before their transgression, with their prince, now the devil, then an archangel (for some of our writers do not think they were heavenly or super-heavenly angels), it is not surprising if after their sin they were thrust down into this murk, where nevertheless there is air, and it is woven with thin moisture; which, when stirred, makes winds; when stirred more violently, also fire and thunder; when drawn together, clouds; when thickened, rain; when the clouds freeze, snow; when the denser clouds freeze more turbulently, hail; and when spread out, clear weather, by the hidden commands and the work of God, who governs all that he created, from the highest to the lowest. That is why in that psalm, when “fire, hail, snow, ice, the spirit of storm” had been mentioned, so that such things might not be thought to come about and be moved without divine providence, it immediately added, “which do his word.” But if those transgressors, before they transgressed, had heavenly bodies, neither is it surprising if these were changed as a punishment into the quality of air, so that they can now suffer something from fire, that is, from an element of a higher nature; and they have been permitted to occupy not even the higher and purer spaces of the air, but this murky region, which is for them, according to their kind, a kind of prison until the time of judgment. And if anything about these transgressing angels needs to be investigated more carefully, there will be a more suitable place in Scripture. So for now this is enough: if these turbid and stormy spaces, because of the nature of air extending as far as the waves and the lands, can support airy bodies, they can also support the bodies of birds, which were brought forth from the waters, because of the thin exhalations of the waters, which are mixed as vapour into that same air spread around next to the waves and lands, and for that reason assigned to the lowest and earthly part, and are woven into the breezes, which, weighed down by the chill of night, drip even in clear weather as dew, and, if the cold is sharper, turn whiter still as frost.