Whether It Was Fitting That the Production of Plants Should Take Place
on the Third Day?
Objection 1: It would seem that it was not fitting that the production
of plants should take place on the third day. For plants have life, as
animals have. But the production of animals belongs to the work, not
of distinction, but of adornment. Therefore the production of plants,
as also belonging to the work of adornment, ought not to be recorded
as taking place on the third day, which is devoted to the work of
distinction.
Obj. 2: Further, a work by which the earth is accursed should have
been recorded apart from the work by which it receives its form. But
the words of Gen. 3:17, "Cursed is the earth in thy work, thorns and
thistles shall it bring forth to thee," show that by the production
of certain plants the earth was accursed. Therefore the production of
plants in general should not have been recorded on the third day,
which is concerned with the work of formation.
Obj. 3: Further, as plants are firmly fixed to the earth, so are
stones and metals, which are, nevertheless, not mentioned in the work
of formation. Plants, therefore, ought not to have been made on the
third day.
_On the contrary,_ It is said (Gen. 1:12): "The earth brought forth
the green herb," after which there follows, "The evening and the
morning were the third day."
_I answer that,_ On the third day, as said (A. 1), the formless state
of the earth comes to an end. But this state is described as twofold.
On the one hand, the earth was "invisible" or "void," being covered
by the waters; on the other hand, it was "shapeless" or "empty," that
is, without that comeliness which it owes to the plants that clothe
it, as it were, with a garment. Thus, therefore, in either respect
this formless state ends on the third day: first, when "the waters
were gathered together into one place and the dry land appeared";
secondly, when "the earth brought forth the green herb." But
concerning the production of plants, Augustine's opinion differs
from that of others. For other commentators, in accordance with the
surface meaning of the text, consider that the plants were produced
in act in their various species on this third day; whereas Augustine
(Gen. ad lit. v, 5; viii, 3) says that the earth is said to have then
produced plants and trees in their causes, that is, it received then
the power to produce them. He supports this view by the authority of
Scripture, for it is said (Gen. 2:4, 5): "These are the generations
of the heaven and the earth, when they were created, in the day that
. . . God made the heaven and the earth, and every plant of the field
before it sprung up in the earth, and every herb of the ground before
it grew." Therefore, the production of plants in their causes, within
the earth, took place before they sprang up from the earth's surface.
And this is confirmed by reason, as follows. In these first days God
created all things in their origin or causes, and from this work He
subsequently rested. Yet afterwards, by governing His creatures, in
the work of propagation, "He worketh until now." Now the production
of plants from the earth is a work of propagation, and therefore they
were not produced in act on the third day, but in their causes only.
However, in accordance with other writers, it may be said that the
first constitution of species belongs to the work of the six days,
but the reproduction among them of like from like, to the government
of the universe. And Scripture indicates this in the words, "before
it sprung up in the earth," and "before it grew," that is, before
like was produced from like; just as now happens in the natural
course by the production of seed. Wherefore Scripture says pointedly
(Gen. 1:11): "Let the earth bring forth the green herb, and such as
may seed," as indicating the production of perfect species, from
which the seed of others should arise. Nor does the question where
the seminal power may reside, whether in root, stem, or fruit, affect
the argument.
Reply Obj. 1: Life in plants is hidden, since they lack sense and
local movement, by which the animate and the inanimate are chiefly
discernible. And therefore, since they are firmly fixed in the earth,
their production is treated as a part of the earth's formation.
Reply Obj. 2: Even before the earth was accursed, thorns and thistles
had been produced, either virtually or actually. But they were not
produced in punishment of man; as though the earth, which he tilled
to gain his food, produced unfruitful and noxious plants. Hence it is
said: "Shall it bring forth _to thee."_
Reply Obj. 3: Moses put before the people such things only as were
manifest to their senses, as we have said (Q. 67, A. 4; Q. 68, A. 3).
But minerals are generated in hidden ways within the bowels of the
earth. Moreover they seem hardly specifically distinct from earth,
and would seem to be species thereof. For this reason, therefore, he
makes no mention of them.
_______________________