Whether Scripture Uses Suitable Words to Express the Work of the Six
Days?
Objection 1: It would seem the Scripture does not use suitable words
to express the works of the six days. For as light, the firmament,
and other similar works were made by the Word of God, so were the
heaven and the earth. For "all things were made by Him" (John 1:3).
Therefore in the creation of heaven and earth, as in the other works,
mention should have been made of the Word of God.
Obj. 2: Further, the water was created by God, yet its creation is
not mentioned. Therefore the creation of the world is not
sufficiently described.
Obj. 3: Further, it is said (Gen. 1:31): "God saw all the things that
He had made, and they were very good." It ought, then, to have been
said of each work, "God saw that it was good." The omission,
therefore, of these words in the work of creation and in that of the
second day, is not fitting.
Obj. 4: Further, the Spirit of God is God Himself. But it does not
befit God to move and to occupy place. Therefore the words, "The
Spirit of God moved over the waters," are unbecoming.
Obj. 5: Further, what is already made is not made over again.
Therefore to the words, "God said: Let the firmament be made . . .
and it was so," it is superfluous to add, "God made the firmament."
And the like is to be said of other works.
Obj. 6: Further, evening and morning do not sufficiently divide the
day, since the day has many parts. Therefore the words, "The evening
and morning were the second day" or, "the third day," are not
suitable.
Obj. 7: Further, "first," not "one," corresponds to "second" and
"third." It should therefore have been said that, "The evening and
the morning were the first day," rather than "one day."
Reply Obj. 1: According to Augustine (Gen. ad lit. i, 4), the person
of the Son is mentioned both in the first creation of the world, and
in its distinction and adornment, but differently in either place.
For distinction and adornment belong to the work by which the world
receives its form. But as the giving form to a work of art is by
means of the form of the art in the mind of the artist, which may be
called his intelligible word, so the giving form to every creature is
by the word of God; and for this reason in the works of distinction
and adornment the Word is mentioned. But in creation the Son is
mentioned as the beginning, by the words, "In the beginning God
created," since by creation is understood the production of formless
matter. But according to those who hold that the elements were
created from the first under their proper forms, another explanation
must be given; and therefore Basil says (Hom. ii, iii in Hexaem.)
that the words, "God said," signify a Divine command. Such a command,
however, could not have been given before creatures had been produced
that could obey it.
Reply Obj. 2: According to Augustine (De Civ. Dei ix, 33), by the
heaven is understood the formless spiritual nature, and by the earth,
the formless matter of all corporeal things, and thus no creature is
omitted. But, according to Basil (Hom. i in Hexaem.), the heaven and
the earth, as the two extremes, are alone mentioned, the intervening
things being left to be understood, since all these move heavenwards,
if light, or earthwards, if heavy. And others say that under the
word, "earth," Scripture is accustomed to include all the four
elements as (Ps. 148:7,8) after the words, "Praise the Lord from the
earth," is added, "fire, hail, snow, and ice."
Reply Obj. 3: In the account of the creation there is found something
to correspond to the words, "God saw that it was good," used in the
work of distinction and adornment, and this appears from the
consideration that the Holy Spirit is Love. Now, "there are two
things," says Augustine (Gen. ad lit. i, 8) which came from God's
love of His creatures, their existence and their permanence. That
they might then exist, and exist permanently, "the Spirit of God," it
is said, "moved over the waters"--that is to say, over that formless
matter, signified by water, even as the love of the artist moves over
the materials of his art, that out of them he may form his work. And
the words, "God saw that it was good," signify that the things that
He had made were to endure, since they express a certain satisfaction
taken by God in His works, as of an artist in his art: not as though
He knew the creature otherwise, or that the creature was pleasing to
Him otherwise, than before He made it. Thus in either work, of
creation and of formation, the Trinity of Persons is implied. In
creation the Person of the Father is indicated by God the Creator,
the Person of the Son by the beginning, in which He created, and the
Person of the Holy Ghost by the Spirit that moved over the waters.
But in the formation, the Person of the Father is indicated by God
that speaks, and the Person of the Son by the Word in which He
speaks, and the Person of the Holy Spirit by the satisfaction with
which God saw that what was made was good. And if the words, "God saw
that it was good," are not said of the work of the second day, this
is because the work of distinguishing the waters was only begun on
that day, but perfected on the third. Hence these words, that are
said of the third day, refer also to the second. Or it may be that
Scripture does not use these words of approval of the second day's
work, because this is concerned with the distinction of things not
evident to the senses of mankind. Or, again, because by the firmament
is simply understood the cloudy region of the air, which is not one
of the permanent parts of the universe, nor of the principal
divisions of the world. The above three reasons are given by Rabbi
Moses [*Perplex. ii.], and to these may be added a mystical one
derived from numbers and assigned by some writers, according to whom
the work of the second day is not marked with approval because the
second number is an imperfect number, as receding from the perfection
of unity.
Reply Obj. 4: Rabbi Moses (Perplex. ii) understands by the "Spirit of
the Lord," the air or the wind, as Plato also did, and says that it
is so called according to the custom of Scripture, in which these
things are throughout attributed to God. But according to the holy
writers, the Spirit of the Lord signifies the Holy Ghost, Who is said
to "move over the water"--that is to say, over what Augustine holds
to mean formless matter, lest it should be supposed that God loved of
necessity the works He was to produce, as though He stood in need of
them. For love of that kind is subject to, not superior to, the
object of love. Moreover, it is fittingly implied that the Spirit
moved over that which was incomplete and unfinished, since that
movement is not one of place, but of pre-eminent power, as Augustine
says (Gen. ad lit. i, 7). It is the opinion, however, of Basil (Hom.
ii in Hexaem.) that the Spirit moved over the element of water,
"fostering and quickening its nature and impressing vital power, as
the hen broods over her chickens." For water has especially a
life-giving power, since many animals are generated in water, and the
seed of all animals is liquid. Also the life of the soul is given by
the water of baptism, according to John 3:5: "Unless a man be born
again of water and the Holy Ghost, he cannot enter into the kingdom
of God."
Reply Obj. 5: According to Augustine (Gen. ad lit. i, 8), these three
phrases denote the threefold being of creatures; first, their being
in the Word, denoted by the command "Let . . . be made"; secondly,
their being in the angelic mind, signified by the words, "It was . .
. done"; thirdly, their being in their proper nature, by the words,
"He made." And because the formation of the angels is recorded on the
first day, it was not necessary there to add, "He made." It may also
be said, following other writers, that the words, "He said," and "Let
. . . be made," denote God's command, and the words, "It was done,"
the fulfilment of that command. But as it was necessary, for the sake
of those especially who have asserted that all visible things were
made by the angels, to mention how things were made, it is added, in
order to remove that error, that God Himself made them. Hence, in
each work, after the words, "It was done," some act of God is
expressed by some such words as, "He made," or, "He divided," or,
"He called."
Reply Obj. 6: According to Augustine (Gen. ad lit. iv, 22, 30), by
the "evening" and the "morning" are understood the evening and the
morning knowledge of the angels, which has been explained (Q. 58,
A. 6, 7). But, according to Basil (Hom. ii in Hexaem.), the entire
period takes its name, as is customary, from its more important part,
the day. An instance of this is found in the words of Jacob, "The
days of my pilgrimage," where night is not mentioned at all. But the
evening and the morning are mentioned as being the ends of the day,
since day begins with morning and ends with evening, or because
evening denotes the beginning of night, and morning the beginning of
day. It seems fitting, also, that where the first distinction of
creatures is described, divisions of time should be denoted only by
what marks their beginning. And the reason for mentioning the evening
first is that as the evening ends the day, which begins with the
light, the termination of the light at evening precedes the
termination of the darkness, which ends with the morning. But
Chrysostom's explanation is that thereby it is intended to show that
the natural day does not end with the evening, but with the morning
(Hom. v in Gen.).
Reply Obj. 7: The words "one day" are used when day is first
instituted, to denote that one day is made up of twenty-four hours.
Hence, by mentioning "one," the measure of a natural day is fixed.
Another reason may be to signify that a day is completed by the
return of the sun to the point from which it commenced its course.
And yet another, because at the completion of a week of seven days,
the first day returns which is one with the eighth day. The three
reasons assigned above are those given by Basil (Hom. ii in Hexaem.).
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TREATISE ON MAN (QQ. 75-102)
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