Homilies on Genesis 1

Delivered at the beginning of the Forty Days, on the text, 'In the beginning God made the heaven and the earth';

and concerning fasting and almsgiving.

Sweet indeed is the spring to sailors, and sweet also to those who till the soil;

yet neither to sailors nor to husbandmen is spring so sweet as, to those who desire to pursue the life of wisdom, the season of fasting is sweet—the spiritual springtime of souls, the true calm of our reasonings.

For to husbandmen the spring is sweet because they then behold the earth crowned with flowers, and the growth springing up from the plants spread over her on every side like an embroidered garment;

and to sailors the spring is sweet because they can sail the broad back of the sea in safety, the waves being stilled, while dolphins sport in the deep calm and often tumble in play close beside the very sides of the ship.

But to us the springtime of fasting is sweet, because it is wont to still for us the waves—not of waters, but of irrational desires—and to set upon us a crown, not woven of flowers, but of spiritual graces;

for it says, 'You shall receive upon your head a crown of graces.'

The swallow, when it appears, does not so drive away the winter as fasting, when it appears, casts out from our mind the winter of the passions.

No longer is there strife of the soul against the flesh, nor does the servant rise up against her mistress, but all this warfare of the body is dissolved.

Since, then, there is much peace among us and much calm, come, let us also draw forth the vessel of teaching, sending on the gentleness of your hearing from harbour to harbour.

Come, let us venture upon more subtle conceptions, philosophizing about heaven and earth and sea and the rest of the body of creation;

for these things were read to us today.

'And what,' someone says, 'has the discourse about creation to do with us?' It has much to do with us, beloved.

For if from the greatness and beauty of created things their Author is proportionately contemplated, then the more we dwell upon the greatness of the beauty of created things, the more we are led by the hand toward their Author.

It is a great good to know what is a creature and what is the Creator;

what is the work and what is the Maker.

For indeed, had the enemies of the truth known how to distinguish these things accurately, they would not have confounded all things, turning what is above into what is below;

not that they brought down the stars and the heaven and raised up the earth;

but that, having brought down the King of the heavens from his royal thrones, they set him together with creation, and honoured creation with the prerogatives of the Godhead.

Had the Manichaeans known how to philosophize rightly about creation, they would not have honoured with the privileges of the Unbegotten that which came from nothing—that which is perishable, flowing, and subject to change.

Had the Greeks known how to philosophize rightly about creation, they would not have wandered from the truth, they would not have revered and served the creation rather than the Creator.

Beautiful is the heaven; but for this reason was it fashioned, that you might worship its Maker;

radiant is the sun, but that you might serve him who wrought it;

but if you are going to abide in wonder at creation and to sit down beside the beauty of the works, the light has become darkness to you—or rather, you have used the light for darkness.

Do you see how great a good it is to know the truths concerning creation? Do not, then, let the gain slip past you, but attend with exactness to the things that are said;

for we shall speak not only about heaven and earth and sea, but also about our own generation, and whence came death, and whence this toilsome life, and whence the despondencies and anxieties.

For concerning these things, and concerning

many others besides, God, having composed a defence, sent this book to us;

for God does not refuse to make his defence to men, but cries out through the prophet, saying:

'Come now, and let us reason together, says the Lord.'

And he not only makes his defence and enters into judgement, but also teaches how we may escape the condemnation;

for he did not simply say, 'Come, and let us reason together';

but having first taught what one must say and what one must do, he thus drew us to the tribunal.

Hear, then, from the beginning the word of the prophet.

'Wash yourselves, make yourselves clean, put away the wickednesses from your souls;

learn to do good, judge for the orphan, and do justice to the widow.'

'Come now, and let us reason together, says the Lord.'

'I do not wish,' he says, 'to receive you naked and destitute of righteous pleas, but having armed you with your defences, so to summon you to the reckoning;

for indeed I wish to enter into judgement with you, not that I may condemn, but that I may spare.'

'Tell first your own iniquities, that you may be justified.'

You have an accuser bitter and savage; forestall him, seize his place, and stop up his shameless mouth.

In the beginning, then, God conversed with men through himself, in so far as it was possible for men to hear.

Thus he came to Adam;

thus he was received as a guest by Abraham.

But when our nature inclined toward wickedness and, as it were, banished itself far into a distant exile, then at length—as though to those settled in a far country abroad—he sends letters, renewing through a kind of epistle his ancient friendship with us.

And these letters God sent, but Moses conveyed them.

What, then, do the letters say? 'In the beginning God made the heaven and the earth.'

For what reason does he not discourse to us about the angels, nor about the archangels? For if the Creator is contemplated from created things, much more is he made manifest from those beings.

Beautiful is the heaven, but not so beautiful as an angel;

radiant is the sun, but not so radiant as the archangel.

For what reason, then, leaving the higher way, does he guide us by the lowlier? Because he is discoursing to Jews, who were rather irrational in disposition, agog for things perceptible to sense, just now coming up out of Egypt, where men used to worship crocodiles and dogs and apes;

and it was not possible to lead them by the higher way, by the hand, to the Creator.

For that higher way is indeed loftier, but rougher and steeper, and too precipitous for the weaker sort.

For this reason he leads them by the easier way—through heaven and earth and sea and all the visible creation.

That this indeed is the reason, hear how—when they had made a little progress—the Prophet discourses to them also about those powers above.

'Praise the Lord,' he says, 'from the heavens; praise him in the heights;

praise him, all his angels; praise him, all his hosts;

for he spoke, and they came to be;

he commanded, and they were created.'

And what wonder if this is the manner of teaching in the Old Testament, when even in the New—at a time when it was the season for loftier doctrines—Paul, discoursing to the Athenians, went by this same way by which Moses went in instructing the Jews? For neither did he speak to them about angels and archangels, but about heaven and earth and sea, addressing them somewhat thus:

'The God who made the world and all things in it, being Lord of heaven and earth, does not dwell in temples made with hands.'

But when he was discoursing to the Philippians, he did not lead them by this way;

rather he leads them up to the loftier proclamation, speaking thus:

'For in him were created all things that are in the heavens and upon the earth, whether thrones or dominions or principalities or powers;

all things have been created through him and unto him.'

So too John, since he had disciples more perfect,

made mention of all creation together at once.

For he did not say heaven and earth and sea, but that 'All things came to be through him, and without him came to be not even one thing that has come to be';

'whether visible,' he says, 'or invisible.'

For just as it is with teachers — one teacher, receiving the child from its mother, instructs him in the first elements, while another, receiving him from a different teacher, leads the pupil onward to the loftier teachings —

so also has it come to pass in the case of Moses and Paul and John.

For Moses, taking our nature when it knew nothing, when it had but newly been weaned from milk, instructed it in the first elements of the knowledge of God;

but John and Paul, receiving them as from a teacher, namely Moses, lead them up to the loftier teachings, briefly calling to mind the former things.

Have you seen the kinship of both Testaments? Have you seen the harmony of the teachings? You have heard about the creation of the sensible things in the Old, and about the creation of the intelligible things when David says, 'For he spoke, and they came into being.' So again in the New, having spoken about the invisible powers, he spoke also about the sensible creation:

In the beginning God made the heaven and the earth.

This utterance is short and plain, a single saying;

yet it is able to overthrow all the strongholds of the adversaries.

The Manichaean comes forward saying, 'Matter is uncreated';

say to him, 'In the beginning God made the heaven and the earth,' and you have at once overthrown all his arrogance.

'But he does not believe the word of Scripture,' he says.

Then for this very reason thrust him away as one out of his mind, and turn away from him.

For he who does not believe God when he makes his declaration, but condemns the truth as a lie — how does he not conspicuously furnish a proof of madness, namely his unbelief? 'And how,' he says, 'could anything come to be out of things that are not?' But tell me, how could anything come to be out of things that are? For that the earth came to be out of things that are not, I indeed believe, while you are in doubt;

but that man came to be out of earth, we both confess.

Tell me then the point we agree upon, which is the easier — how from the earth came the nature of flesh.

For from earth come clay, and brick, and pottery, and earthenware;

but no one could ever have seen flesh coming into being from earth.

How then did the nature of flesh come to be? How was bone fashioned? How sinews? How veins? How arteries? How membrane, and fat, and flesh, and skin, and nails, and hair, and so great a variety of different substances, out of the one underlying earth? But you would not be able to tell.

How then is it not absurd that one who is ignorant of what is clearer and easier should busy himself with, and meddle in, what is more difficult and more unspeakable? (3)

Would you have me lead you to yet another and easier instance, one that occurs every single day? Yet not even of this will he be able to give me the reason.

We eat bread every day.

How then, tell me, is this nature of bread transformed into blood, and phlegm, and bile, and the other humours within us? For the one is dense and hard, while blood is loose and flowing; and the one is white or wheat-coloured, while the other is red and black.

And if one should go through the differences of the other qualities, he will find great the distance between bread and blood.

How then do these things come about? Tell me, and render the reason.

Then, when you cannot furnish the reason for the food that is altered every day, do you demand of me an accounting of God's creative work? And how is this not the extremity of folly? For if God is on our level, then demand the reason for the things that come to be;

for even many of the things brought about by human craft we are unable to say how they come to be;

for instance, how from the earth in the mines the nature of gold comes to be;

how sand is transformed into the purity of glass.

And there are many more of these things one might mention, which come about by human craft, yet whose reason we do not know.

Nevertheless, if God is on our level, then demand a reason;

but if he stands infinitely apart from us and surpasses us incomparably, how would it not be the extremity of madness that, while confessing his wisdom and power to be infinite, divine, and incomprehensible, we should nevertheless demand of him an accounting for each of the things that come to be, as though of some human craft? But come, let us leave aside these reasonings and return to the unbreakable rock:

In the beginning God made the heaven and the earth.

Stand upon this foundation;

let no one drag you down into the turmoil of human reasonings;

'For the reasonings of mortals are timid, and their devisings prone to fail.'

Do not then, forsaking what is firm, entrust the salvation of your soul to what is rotten and prone to fall;

but abide in the things you have learned and been assured of, and say:

In the beginning God made the heaven and the earth.

And should a Manichaean approach, or Marcion, or those sick with the doctrines of Valentinus, or any other whatsoever, put forward this saying;

and if you see him laughing, do you weep for him as one out of his mind.

Those men have a sallow complexion, a downcast brow, and a mildness of words;

but flee the bait, and mark well the wolf hidden in the skin of the sheep.

For this reason above all hate him: that toward your fellow-servant he appears gentle and mild, but toward the common Master of us all he is more savage than raging dogs, bringing into heaven a truceless war and an implacable conflict, and setting up some power in opposition against God.

Flee the venom of wickedness, hate the deadly drugs;

and the inheritance which you received from the fathers — the faith and teaching that come from the divine Scriptures — hold fast to this with all security.

In the beginning God made the heaven and the earth.

What is this? First the heaven, then the earth? First the roof, then the floor? For he is not subject to the necessity of nature, nor enslaved to the sequence of art.

For indeed the will of God is the creator and craftsman of nature and of art and of all things that are.

And the earth was invisible and unformed.

For what reason did he bring the heaven forth finished and complete, while Moses says that he wrought the earth little by little? So that, learning his power in the better element, you might be fully assured that this one too he was able, just like that one, to bring forth finished and complete.

But for your sake and for your salvation he did not make it so.

'How for my sake and my salvation?' he says. The earth is the common table and fatherland and nurse and mother of all, and a common city and tomb.

For indeed our bodies are from it, and nourishment for our bodies comes from it, and in it are our dwelling and our manner of life, and after death our return again is to it.

Therefore, lest the necessity of your need should dispose you to marvel at it beyond its worth, and the multitude of its benefits should trip you into impiety, he shows it to you, before it came to be, formless and unshapen, so that, beholding its weakness, you might marvel at him who brought it forth and implanted in it all this power;

that you might glorify him who has prepared so great things for our ease.

And God is glorified not through right doctrines alone, but also through the noblest manner of life;

'For let your light so shine,' he says, 'before men, that they may see your good works and glorify your Father who is in the heavens.'

I had wished to add words concerning almsgiving;

but it seems to me superfluous to teach you by word, seeing that he who is able to instruct you through his very works is now seated in our midst — our common father and teacher, who, having received the ancestral house as if from his forefathers for this very purpose, that he might devote it to the care of strangers, has thus continually left it open to those driven from every quarter for the truth's sake, and receives them, and tends them with every manner of care;

so that I do not know whether one ought to call the house his rather than the strangers';

or rather, to reckon it his precisely because it belongs to the strangers.

For indeed our possessions then most of all become ours, when we hold them continually not for our own selves, but for the poor.

If you deposit your silver in the right hand of the poor man, no slanderer sets upon it, no envious eye beholds it, no robber filches it, no burglar breaks through and steals it, no household servant carries it off and runs away;

for that treasury is inviolable.

But if you bury it at home, you render the gold liable to robber and burglar and envious man and slanderer and household servant and every harm.

Indeed, many a time, behind countless doors and bolts, it has escaped the assaults from without, yet has not escaped the very guards, but those who kept watch over it seized it and fled.

Do you see that we are then more truly lords of our possessions, when we commit them to the poor?

And that place is not only safer for the sake of safekeeping, but is also the occasion of gain and of greater revenue.

For if you lend to a man, you have received one percent;

but if you lend to God through the poor, you will receive not one percent, but a hundredfold.

And if you sow in a fertile field, when it yields a rich harvest, you will reap seed tenfold;

but if you sow toward heaven, after it has become a hundredfold you will receive life eternal, unaging and immortal.

And here indeed much toil belongs to those who cast down their seeds;

but there, apart from plough and oxen and tillers of the soil and all the rest of the hardship, the produce of what is sown springs up; and it is not possible ever to fear drought, nor floods of rain, nor mildew, nor hail, nor an army of locusts, nor the overflowing of rivers, nor anything else there for those who sow;

but the seeds cast down there stand above all harm.

When, therefore, there is neither toil, nor danger, nor suspicion, nor mischance, and what springs up is far more than what was sown, and so many good things blossom forth, 'such as eye has not seen, nor ear heard, nor has entered into the heart of man,' how would it not be the utmost sloth to let go the greater and pursue the lesser, and forsaking the secure to chase after that which is uncertain and full of dangers and holding many failures? For what pardon shall we have who do this, and what defense? We plead poverty, doubtless;

but we are not poorer than that widow, who, having but two mites, cast in even these.

Let us therefore emulate her riches, let us imitate the magnanimity of her purpose, that we too may attain the good things laid up for her;

of which may it be granted that we all be counted worthy, by the grace and lovingkindness of our Lord Jesus Christ, with whom to the Father, together with the Holy Spirit, be glory, might, and honor, now and ever, and unto the ages of ages.