Whether the Lights Ought to Have Been Produced on the Fourth Day?
Objection 1: It would seem that the lights ought not to have been
produced on the fourth day. For the heavenly luminaries are by nature
incorruptible bodies: wherefore their matter cannot exist without
their form. But as their matter was produced in the work of creation,
before there was any day, so therefore were their forms. It follows,
then, that the lights were not produced on the fourth day.
Obj. 2: Further, the luminaries are, as it were, vessels of light.
But light was made on the first day. The luminaries, therefore,
should have been made on the first day, not on the fourth.
Obj. 3: Further, the lights are fixed in the firmament, as plants
are fixed in the earth. For, the Scripture says: "He set them in the
firmament." But plants are described as produced when the earth, to
which they are attached, received its form. The lights, therefore,
should have been produced at the same time as the firmament, that is
to say, on the second day.
Obj. 4: Further, plants are an effect of the sun, moon, and other
heavenly bodies. Now, cause precedes effect in the order of nature.
The lights, therefore, ought not to have been produced on the fourth
day, but on the third day.
Obj. 5: Further, as astronomers say, there are many stars larger than
the moon. Therefore the sun and the moon alone are not correctly
described as the "two great lights."
_On the contrary,_ Suffices the authority of Scripture.
_I answer that,_ In recapitulating the Divine works, Scripture says
(Gen. 2:1): "So the heavens and the earth were finished and all the
furniture of them," thereby indicating that the work was threefold.
In the first work, that of "creation," the heaven and the earth were
produced, but as yet without form. In the second, or work of
"distinction," the heaven and the earth were perfected, either by
adding substantial form to formless matter, as Augustine holds (Gen.
ad lit. ii, 11), or by giving them the order and beauty due to them,
as other holy writers suppose. To these two works is added the work
of adornment, which is distinct from perfect[ion]. For the perfection
of the heaven and the earth regards, seemingly, those things that
belong to them intrinsically, but the adornment, those that are
extrinsic, just as the perfection of a man lies in his proper parts
and forms, and his adornment, in clothing or such like. Now just as
distinction of certain things is made most evident by their local
movement, as separating one from another; so the work of adornment is
set forth by the production of things having movement in the heavens,
and upon the earth. But it has been stated above (Q. 69, A. 1), that
three things are recorded as created, namely, the heaven, the water,
and the earth; and these three received their form from the three
days' work of distinction, so that heaven was formed on the first
day; on the second day the waters were separated; and on the third
day, the earth was divided into sea and dry land. So also is it in
the work of adornment; on the first day of this work, which is the
fourth of creation, are produced the lights, to adorn the heaven by
their movements; on the second day, which is the fifth, birds and
fishes are called into being, to make beautiful the intermediate
element, for they move in air and water, which are here taken as one;
while on the third day, which is the sixth, animals are brought
forth, to move upon the earth and adorn it. It must also here be
noted that Augustine's opinion (Gen. ad lit. v, 5) on the production
of lights is not at variance with that of other holy writers, since
he says that they were made actually, and not merely virtually, for
the firmament has not the power of producing lights, as the earth has
of producing plants. Wherefore Scripture does not say: "Let the
firmament produce lights," though it says: "Let the earth bring forth
the green herb."
Reply Obj. 1: In Augustine's opinion there is no difficulty here; for
he does not hold a succession of time in these works, and so there
was no need for the matter of the lights to exist under another form.
Nor is there any difficulty in the opinion of those who hold the
heavenly bodies to be of the nature of the four elements, for it may
be said that they were formed out of matter already existing, as
animals and plants were formed. For those, however, who hold the
heavenly bodies to be of another nature from the elements, and
naturally incorruptible, the answer must be that the lights were
substantially created at the beginning, but that their substance, at
first formless, is formed on this day, by receiving not its
substantial form, but a determination of power. As to the fact that
the lights are not mentioned as existing from the beginning, but only
as made on the fourth day, Chrysostom (Hom. vi in Gen.) explains this
by the need of guarding the people from the danger of idolatry: since
the lights are proved not to be gods, by the fact that they were not
from the beginning.
Reply Obj. 2: No difficulty exists if we follow Augustine in holding
the light made on the first day to be spiritual, and that made on
this day to be corporeal. If, however, the light made on the first
day is understood to be itself corporeal, then it must be held to
have been produced on that day merely as light in general; and that
on the fourth day the lights received a definite power to produce
determinate effects. Thus we observe that the rays of the sun have
one effect, those of the moon another, and so forth. Hence, speaking
of such a determination of power, Dionysius (Div. Nom. iv) says that
the sun's light which previously was without form, was formed on the
fourth day.
Reply Obj. 3: According to Ptolemy the heavenly luminaries are not
fixed in the spheres, but have their own movement distinct from the
movement of the spheres. Wherefore Chrysostom says (Hom. vi in Gen.)
that He is said to have set them in the firmament, not because He
fixed them there immovably, but because He bade them to be there,
even as He placed man in Paradise, to be there. In the opinion of
Aristotle, however, the stars are fixed in their orbits, and in
reality have no other movement but that of the spheres; and yet our
senses perceive the movement of the luminaries and not that of the
spheres (De Coel. ii, text. 43). But Moses describes what is obvious
to sense, out of condescension to popular ignorance, as we have
already said (Q. 67, A. 4; Q. 68, A. 3). The objection, however,
falls to the ground if we regard the firmament made on the second day
as having a natural distinction from that in which the stars are
placed, even though the distinction is not apparent to the senses,
the testimony of which Moses follows, as stated above (De Coel. ii,
text. 43). For although to the senses there appears but one
firmament; if we admit a higher and a lower firmament, the lower will
be that which was made on the second day, and on the fourth the stars
were fixed in the higher firmament.
Reply Obj. 4: In the words of Basil (Hom. v in Hexaem.), plants were
recorded as produced before the sun and moon, to prevent idolatry,
since those who believe the heavenly bodies to be gods, hold that
plants originate primarily from these bodies. Although as Chrysostom
remarks (Hom. vi in Gen.), the sun, moon, and stars cooperate in the
work of production by their movements, as the husbandman cooperates
by his labor.
Reply Obj. 5: As Chrysostom says, the two lights are called great,
not so much with regard to their dimensions as to their influence and
power. For though the stars be of greater bulk than the moon, yet the
influence of the moon is more perceptible to the senses in this lower
world. Moreover, as far as the senses are concerned, its apparent
size is greater.
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