Pauline Commentaries 1 part 14/28

for then it shall be openly manifested to all, the Scripture saying thus: 'Then every eye shall see Him, and all the tribes of the earth shall wail over Him, and those who crucified Him.' And so, if in both comings this is contained, that the sun shall be darkened in those days, what is that day on which the Scripture sang that the sun and the moon would be enlarged? For Isaiah says, among other things: 'And there shall be upon every high mountain and in every high place water flowing in that day, when many shall have perished, when the towers shall have fallen. And the light of the moon shall be as the light of the sun; and the light of the sun shall be sevenfold, as the light of seven days, in the day when He shall heal the affliction of His people,' and so forth. What day can be understood, on which the Lord promised that He would heal the affliction of His people?

This, I think, is the day which Zechariah, the father of John, pointed out, saying: 'Blessed is the God of Israel, for He has visited and wrought redemption for His people, and has raised up a horn of salvation for us in the house of David His servant, as He spoke through the mouth of His holy prophets who are from of old. And He has delivered us from our enemies, and from the hands of all who hate us, to show mercy with our fathers.' And Simeon, among other things: 'This child,' he says, 'is set for the fall and rising again of many in Israel.' This 'fall' is that of the scribes and Pharisees and chief men of the Jews, whom the prophet signified by the 'towers.'

These, then, falling through unbelief, others rose by believing, who before seemed weak and sick through negligence. Whence the Savior says: 'For judgment I came into this world, that those who do not see may see, and those who see may become blind'—so that those who through the cultivation and skill of the law seemed to have lights, through unbelief might be blinded, while the blind, that is, the unskilled or the publicans, might see, while they believed. Whose infirmities the prophet foretold that the Savior would bear. And so at this time of the Savior it was done, as is read in the Gospel, that He Himself took our infirmities and healed our wounds. All which things indeed were consummated and fulfilled in the passion of the Savior;

for thus the salvation of the human race, both among those above and among those below, was both redeemed and confirmed, because the prophecy of the aforesaid Zechariah comprehends both. For here among those above they were delivered from the affliction of their enemies by the intervention of mercy, and there among those below, when they were snatched out of Tartarus. For all who had hoped in the promised Christ awaited His coming, that, death being conquered, they might be freed from hell. Whence He said: 'To show mercy with our fathers.' But if anyone should understand this salvation to be contained also in the second coming, yet in both comings—and most of all in the second—the sun shall be turned into darkness and the moon shall not give its brightness.

How then shall we understand that the sun and the moon are increased on the day when the Lord shall visit His people, when in both times—in which the deliverance of the people was begun and accomplished—we read that the sun and the moon are not diminished but darkened? Unless indeed we understand the sun and the moon to be compared to the saints, just as in another place we read the saints made equal to the luminaries, as the apostle Paul declares, because among the rest of men the saints appear in this world like luminaries; and in the Gospel: 'Then,' He says, 'the just shall shine as the sun.' For the Lord calls just works light; for thus He says: 'Let your light shine before men, that seeing your good works they may glorify your Father who is in heaven.'

These, then, who, leaving all their own things, follow the Lord for the cause of justice and holiness, are compared to the sun and the moon, honored sevenfold, just as the Lord says: 'There is no one who leaves house or wife or children or fields, who shall not receive sevenfold in this world.' Those, then, who at present are honored sevenfold, it may be understood that in the future also they are believed to be sevenfold brighter than the rest, so that their resurrection may be compared to the sun and the moon; but that of the rest is as the stars. The brightness, therefore, of the saints, which is here honored sevenfold, in the resurrection obtains another sevenfold.

So that he who here has the brightness of the moon may in the future receive the brightness of the sun, and he who here is compared to the sun may be believed to receive sevenfold in the future. The prophet Isaiah, therefore, foretold by the comparison of the sun and the moon that the merits of the saints would be increased, and not without reason. For if the Lord Himself is called 'the sun of justice,' and the saints shall be like Him, as the apostle John says: 'For when He shall appear,' he says, 'we shall be like Him,' it is fitting that the saints be signified in the sun. Yet the aforesaid prophet shows the sun to be sevenfold greater than the moon. For when he shows the moon to be as the light of the sun, but the sun sevenfold, he signifies that the moon is increased to the measure of the sun sevenfold, so that it may be such as the sun is.

Although the reckoning of the saints is here treated, yet under this figure of the luminaries he has in part disclosed the quantity, so that after the increase of the sun and the moon it may again be just so much greater, as much as the sun was; so that, as much as in the present a saint differs from a saint, so much may he differ also in the future after the reward. CHAPTER 106. ON THE BOOK OF GENESIS. 'In the beginning God made heaven and earth.' If He made heaven and earth in the beginning, but heaven is the firmament, as appears in what follows, it is not true; because light was made first, and so the firmament; for it could signify no other heaven, since it describes the making of the world, perfected by the working of God.

For because men were deceived by various opinions concerning the cause of the world, Moses, by God's inspiration, showed what was the reason of the world. For to some it seemed to have no beginning; to others to have indeed a beginning, but to have been fashioned by certain angels; to some likewise to have been made, but by a certain Sacla, who was a god of the adverse power; but a few, following the lineage of the truth concerning its origin, asserted God to be its Maker. On account, then, of this diversity of those who were drawn away by false opinion, Moses was compelled to show what was the true cause of this, lest the children of Israel, snatched from the power of the Egyptians, should not also be freed from their false understanding.

For they themselves, among the rest, pursued the study of error more than others; for these, of old, beyond the rest, gave their labor to vain philosophy. Indeed Moses, through that whereby he seemed to be the adopted son of Pharaoh's daughter, was instructed in all the wisdom of the Egyptians. What, then, is it that he says: 'In the beginning God made heaven and earth'? For if 'firmament' it does not signify, according to what we showed above, let us see what he means.

We judge that Moses, in order to remove all error concerning the inferior creation and the substances out of which the world was made, signified that in the beginning the very substances of which the world consists were made; because, if he had been silent about this, the substances might perhaps be thought to be eternal, reckoned as conjoined with God—so that he who receives the testimony of this matter cannot doubt that the world was made, since he confesses that the substances which contributed to the making of the world were subjected at the beginning. Therefore 'in the beginning God made heaven and earth,' that is, the upper and the lower substance. The upper is that of which heaven consists; but the lower is a certain dreggish concretion, which advanced into the dry land, which is called earth, and into darkness. Whence He says in the prophet Isaiah:

'I am God, who made light and created darkness'—that is, water, darkness, and earth. These substances, then, being created together before times—for times are under the firmament; for the firmament, as it seems to some, is ice of waters, and is therefore called 'firmament' because it was made firm by waters divinely congealed, which is called 'heaven' (caelum) from concealing or hiding (occulendo vel celando). And so, because water is the greater element, it is signified first; and because a part of it advanced into the vault of the world; but the earth is the pavement. These things indeed David also confesses to have been created through the Holy Spirit;

for he says: 'And let the water which is above the heavens praise the name of the Lord, for He spoke and they were made, He commanded and they were created.' After these elements, then, before the framing together of the world, God made light, that His works might proceed in the light—which light, in the manner appointed, completed the course of the day. And night was made according to the measure of the day, which likewise, the measure of its space being fulfilled, was illumined by the coming of the morning light; and thus the first day was completed, when the second began; for night is reckoned to the day, so that together they may be called one day. Because the darkness is subjected to the light, it lacks authority, so that it cannot make a number. For thirty days are called one moon, though they have the nights along with them.

And so the ministry of light, by which it completes the span decreed to it, is called day; but the substance of darkness, before it is illumined, is called night. But that span which is between sunset and sunrise is night. For darkness does not make night, just as light makes day, because darkness remains in its own nature. But the access of light makes day, and its departure night. Not without reason, therefore, is night subjected to day. When light, then, was made, and the course of twelve hours fulfilled, and just as many hours' span of night completed, there was an equinox on the first day. And from thence the day began to increase over the night, for three months, namely, which are the time of spring. From that increase thereafter the day is diminished for three other months, which are the time of summer.

And again the equinox occurs, so that from it the night increases over the day for three other months, which are the time of autumn. And the night begins again, from the magnitude by which it exceeds the day, to be diminished until the end of the fourth season, which is winter. And the equinox of the first season occurs, when God created the world, which day is understood to be the 22nd of March (the eleventh day before the Kalends of April), when it is the first day of the Pasch, that is, the first day of the first month. For in the law it is commanded that on the tenth day of the first month, in the evening, they should prepare themselves to keep the Pasch on the fourteenth day of the month—that is, from the eleventh. For already the evening of the tenth day shines into the eleventh, so that from the 22nd of March the beginning of the first month would be.

For in the beginning the moon was made the fourteenth, because all things were made full; add also the three-day span from the evening of the tenth, and these are the three days before the luminaries which there were, so that on the 22nd of March the world was made, because the number of the moon comes from the eleventh to the fourteenth, to which the first whole month of the Pasch is assigned, so that on the solemn day of the Pasch it should be neither outside the 22nd of March nor outside the fourteenth moon, because on the eleventh the world was made. But on the fourteenth moon, with greater light, it was made brighter. Between the beginning, therefore, and the brightness by which the world was illumined, our Savior both suffered and rose again.

Because He suffered on the fourteenth moon and rose on the first day—which is therefore called 'the Lord's day' (dominicus), because He made it who, being multiplied, makes the months and the seasons and the years. But that it may by no means be celebrated in one and the same manner, the course of the moon brings it about, in its waning and waxing. 'But the earth was invisible and unformed.' It is plain that the earth, after it was made, was invisible and unformed. For it was covered by waters, therefore it was invisible; but it was unformed for this reason, that, being fluid, it was not fit for cultivation. 'And darkness was over the abyss.' He says that there was darkness over the abyss, that is, over the immense water on every side. 'And the Spirit of God was borne over the water.'

He signifies this water as it were the surface, over which He shows the Spirit of God, because it was borne over it, so that He might signify that there was darkness over the infinite depth, but the Spirit of God over the waters, because, where the Spirit of God was, there was no obscurity. For as much as it could, it illumined the water; but the abyss, that is, the immense depth, it could not illumine; that is, it illumined the upper waters; below there were also darkness over the abyss.

For this reason he calls this the 'Spirit of God,' not because he wishes it to be understood as the Holy Spirit, but because, when he means spiritual things to be understood over a material creation, signifying that the whole belongs to God, he calls this — which was borne over the waters — the Spirit of God, in order to overthrow the perverse assertion which some employ when they say that there is something which does not belong to God. For it is neither in keeping with order nor with reason that the Holy Spirit should be said to have been over the waters, since He is above the whole creation. For what is of God is above all powers and principalities and at the same time above all spiritual potencies. But let it not disturb anyone's mind that it is called the 'Spirit of God,' since it is agreed that all things belong to God. For God says, among other things, when about to bring the flood:

'My Spirit shall not abide in these men, because they are flesh'; and in Ezekiel, among other things: 'Thus says the Lord to these bones: I will stretch a skin over you and will put my spirit into you, and you shall live.' Do these things by any means pertain to the office of the Holy Spirit and not rather to the soul? This Spirit, then, is indeed of God, like the rest, yet it is the governor of material substances; its appointed order is to preside over these. So then, when light had been made and the course of the day regulated, and the second day completed, He made the firmament, that is, the heaven, so that the light might be regulated within the firmament, to govern the day, that it might be as a lamp in a house. And so this firmament was made out of the aforesaid substance of water.

For now the world is fitted together into its proper form, so that, the substances being separated out of the confusion of things, the individual parts might be fashioned, which would serve toward the members of the world. For the substances which we said were first made were the materials of the world; and the world is so called because things, separated from one another — things which had been confused and brought forth into form — caused 'the world' to be named, for they served toward its construction.

The firmament, then, that is the heaven, was made in the midst of the waters, to divide between the water which was above the firmament and the water which was below the firmament, so that by the power of God the firmament might stand in the midst of the waters, having water below it and within it and above and around it, so that it might be hollow on the outside and fortified within, lest the waters, whether outer or inner, should penetrate its hollow, that it might be like a house fortified and made firm, so that those dwelling in it might be secure. On the third day He commanded the water which was below the heaven, that is, within the capacity of the firmament, to be gathered into one gathering, that the dry land might appear, which is the earth; and it was so.

For when the breadth of the earth had been drained, there was made as it were a channel into which all the water that was within the firmament might sink down, and then the dry land appeared. For when the water receded, it was necessary that the earth, now made visible, should appear, which before had been invisible. Then the dry land was called earth, and the gatherings of the waters seas. And He commanded the earth to bring forth the herb of fodder and fruit-bearing trees yielding seed upon the earth. Again on the fourth day God commanded lights to be made in the firmament of heaven, that they might give light upon the earth: the greater light for the beginning of the day, and the lesser light for the beginning of the night, and the stars.

These things pertain to the conception and birth and nourishment of the things that are begotten in the world, and to the signs of times necessary by fixed marks, and also to the adornment of the whole world. For just as it pertains to the adornment of a house if its ceiling has panels inlaid with gold, so too do the stars, gleaming with their varied light, furnish adornment to the world. And so to the light, which was made first, the splendour of the sun was added, in such a way that these are joined and inseparable; while to the night, which was dark, a light was given. And because the moon was in its fourteenth day when it was made, he therefore says: 'the lesser light for the beginning of the night'; for being made, it shone throughout the whole night. From a part, then, with respect to the whole, it was said 'for the beginning of the night,' because it does not always shine in the evening.

But the greater light, which we call the sun, abides at the beginning of the day, because it was formed together with the prior light. For three days, then, the world was without these lights; for there did not yet exist the things for which their services would be useful. But when the earth had brought forth the herb of fodder and the fruit-bearing trees, there were needed things that would nourish or preserve what had been brought forth. Therefore, since every generation of these is accomplished through their intervention, it was not fitting that this should be made first, lest by the result of those things which were brought forth from the earth they should be thought to have arisen; but rather that those should be made first, and so these, so that it might not be doubted that they were made without these. Then on the fifth day He commanded the waters to bring forth the creeping things of living souls and the flying birds flying over the earth beneath the firmament of heaven;

and it was so. And among other things: 'And God saw,' it says, 'that they were good, and said: Increase and multiply.' He added this — 'and God saw that they were good' — because by some they are said to be evil, that even thus they might be put to shame. For when they please God and their Creator, they surely ought to displease no one. For the foolish are wont to say: 'For this reason,' they say, 'He saw and they pleased Him, because before He did not know.' O dull-witted ones, how did He not know, by whom what He willed was brought forth? Does anyone will what he does not know? And can he who is able to make be said not to know what he makes? And what is more, He Himself did not make it, but commanded that it be made; and would He who commanded not have the power to make it?

But because all things are possible to Him, at His command that which could not, began to be able, so that it might serve to His praise; for the power is twofold, that He should command the insensible to bring forth sensible things. On the sixth day He commanded the earth to bring forth the living soul, four-footed beasts and the wild animals of the earth; and it was so, and they were brought forth. And God saw that they were good, and very good, because all are necessary. So on the aforesaid day God said: 'Let us make man after our image and likeness,' and let him have, He says, power over all that has been made upon the earth.

First indeed God made the substances out of which He would fit together the world; and when it was fitted together and adorned with all ornaments and ennobled with necessary things, after this He made man, who would enjoy it and all the things that are in it. For although He had commanded all things upon the earth to be brought forth from the waters and the earth, yet, to make man, He is described as having taken the slime of the earth in His hands, that He might teach that man differs greatly from those things which He had made. For He wishes it to pertain to the honour of man when He describes him as made by the hands of God and made after the image and likeness of God, that is, after that of the Father and of the Son. But what 'after the image and likeness' is — although we have said it elsewhere — yet this passage and occasion demand that we say it again.

For they are the words of the Father to the Son, saying: 'Let us make man after our image and likeness,' although in every work the person of both is to be understood, of the one speaking and of the one obeying. This, then, is the image of God in man, that he was made one, as it were a lord, from whom the rest should arise, having the dominion of God as His vicar, because every king has the image of God. And therefore woman was not made after the image of God. For thus it says: 'And God made man, after the image of God He made him.' Hence the Apostle says: 'The man indeed ought not to veil his head, because he is the image and glory of God; but the woman veils herself, because she is not the glory or image of God.'

But the likeness of God is this in man, that as the Son is from the Father, similarly woman is from man, in this plainly unlike, that she was made, while he was begotten. Yet to some it seems that the Lord made all things at once. 'For if by a word,' they say, 'He made them, why should He not be said to have made all things at once? For this is the manner of men, if one is believed to have made things by parts.' They say, then, that it tends rather to the power of God if all things are believed to have been made by Him in one day. But on the contrary, we behold a great providence in this work and order.

For He could indeed have made all things at once, but the manifold reason forbade it; and, setting all these aside, faith must be given to the divine Scripture, which says, and often says, that 'in six days the Lord your God made heaven and earth and the sea and all that is in them.' For in the first place they ought to have been so made that they might perceive and know that they were made. For when they did not see all things at once, but one today, another tomorrow, they recognized from the beginning that they were contained and could not suppose eternity for themselves, since they recognize one another in turn by parts. For if all things had existed at once, there would have been in them no perception of their own weakness, but they would have thought that they had had no beginning.

For the things which by the word of God suddenly exist together do not perceive that they are being made, except by seeing one thing before themselves and another after themselves. And lest perchance that which was made first should think itself uncreated by seeing greater things made after it, it believes about itself what it sees in another more excellent than itself. In short, the light, which is called day, has before it the heaven and the earth, that is, water and dry land. But since the water itself and the dry land and the darkness had been made in confusion, they could not claim eternity for themselves, because none of them dared claim for itself a fixed state and property. The sun again and the moon, though they are most bright, have many things before them. So then it came about that, the later things being more excellent, and the earlier things lower, when they behold one another, none of them might claim eternity for itself.

Moreover, since the work was completed in six days, it contains within itself the age of the whole world, so that the works of the six days might bear the figure of six thousand years; because what was to come to pass in each age is contained in order in the works of the six days: so that — I suppose because in the earlier ages so great a knowledge of God was not to be on earth — the earlier days seemed to be without splendour; and that the cattle should be made before man, because our ancients, uncultivated and wild, were going to live after the manner of cattle; while on the sixth day man was made — this fact brought it about that in the six-thousandth year He made man as Christ at His coming, that man might not be subject to death; and that man should be the image of God, because by the gift of God he was to be conformed to the image of the Son of God, as the Apostle John says:

'We know,' he says, 'that when He shall appear, we shall be like Him.' And the vessel of election says: 'conformed to the image of the Son of God.' But the tree of life, which was set in paradise, was the image of the future grace of God, which is the body of the Lord, which whoever eats shall live forever. For the tree of the knowledge of good and evil is the law given through Moses, which, when it had made known the sin that before lay hidden, gave the knowledge of good and evil. For it showed what was good and what was evil. But that He rested on the seventh day from His works — this signified that, the six-thousandth year being fulfilled, in the seventh thousand He would rest, the world now ceasing from every worldly work. 20.

These few things out of many we have said, that we might open a way of understanding according to those things which we have shown above. CVII. ON THE ORDER OF DAY AND NIGHT. As far as concerns the reasoning of the world, we read of darkness before light. For those things which served toward the fabric of the world, and which seem to have been made together, are considered to have been deprived of light, that is, water, earth, darkness, out of which the world was fitted together — as is contained in the Wisdom which is called Solomon's: 'out of unseen matter,' that is, dark matter. And that both darkness and water were made, the sacred volumes attest by the very voice of the Lord through the prophet Isaiah: 'For I,' He says, 'am God who made the light and created the darkness.'

Similarly also through David the Holy Spirit shows both that the waters were made and that the earth was made firm upon the waters. This agrees both with the evangelical authority and the apostolic tradition, in which all things are read to have been made; and, that he might except nothing, he says, 'whether those which are in the heavens, or those which are on the earth.' In this part, then, which pertains to the earth, we read of darkness before light. This is as far as concerns the order of the reading, not as far as concerns dignity; for assuredly light is far better than darkness. Yet in the reckoning of the world the light received a name, so that it should be called day, and the darkness night — but for this reason, namely, that while the darkness is being illumined and the light passes by, that time —

until the light returns, is called night; and that time, in which the darkness is illumined, is called day. When 'night' is said, then, the coming day is hoped for; and when 'day' is said, the coming night is hoped for. But when these offices shall have ceased, the world passing away, only darkness and light shall be spoken of. For it cannot be called night, when there is perpetual darkness, nor day, when the light has ceased to set. For where there is eternity, these names cease, because they began with the world. In short, before the light was made, which was called day, there is no reading that there was night, but darkness; and after these were illumined and the light passed by, they were called evening and night. Therefore, as far as appears, the night is subject to the day.

For not because darkness is read of before light ought it on that account to seem that it should be put first; for the heaven also is before the sun, and yet the sun is greater in brightness; and the earth is before man and the cattle and the other living creatures, and yet they are subject to man. Therefore the night ought not on that account to be preferred to the day, because the darkness is read of first, since it appears that the light is set before the darkness in dignity, and the day before the night in time. For as was shown above, when there was darkness, light was made. 'And God called the light day, and the darkness He called night; and there was evening and there was morning, one day.' For unless there had been day, there would have been no night; for there was darkness, which, when it was illumined and the day passed by, its course being completed, evening was made.