John Chrysostom, Sermon 3-2 on Genesis

threatens; another crying out signifies a storm; another flying introduces a disaster to us. For I have heard many contending for and talking nonsense about these things. Is this not a transgression of Christians? For what God saw and said was very good, do not insult them. And God said: Let there be lights in the firmament of heaven for the shining of the day and for the torch-bearing of the night. And God made the great light, that is the sun, for the rule of the day, and the lesser light for the rule of the night, and the stars. And let them be for signs and for seasons, and for days and for years. What shall we men wonder at first? The unimaginable height of the sun, its size, its intensity, the immeasurable light, or the unrestrainable heat? How from one wick, and from one substance have all these things been made to shine, as it completes its course, astounding mind and thought, as in one day appearing from the east and going toward the west, no place shall be hidden from its heat? Where are the children of the Persians, who worship it as a god, and abandoning the creator, offer honor to His creation? Does not the sun itself perpetually each day complete its course with greatest fear and good order, and sometimes it is covered by clouds, and sometimes when the south wind blows its rays are diminished? This is your sun, in which you trust, offering worship. All the works of the Lord are very good, and fearful and wonderful; but they have been established for our service, not for dominion. And how also was the moon brought forth for the torch-bearing of the night by the command of the maker, and sometimes it receives increase, and sometimes it endures decrease, and sometimes shining it emits twinkles 56.530 of light, and sometimes ceasing it keeps its measures unshaken with the choirs of the numberless stars? But let us come to the sequence of the account. And there was evening, and there was morning, a fourth day. And God said: Let the waters bring forth creeping things with living souls according to their kind, and birds flying according to the firmament of heaven. And God made the great sea-monsters. Understand precisely the word of the Almighty; How many kinds of fish in the sea he presented, and how great a multitude of birds in the air he prepared, the small, the greater; and marvel at the excess of his wisdom, how by one word all things were brought forth. And there was evening, and there was morning, a fifth day. And God said: Let the earth bring forth the living soul according to its kind, four-footed creatures, and creeping things, and beasts, and every cattle according to its kind and according to its likeness. Oh, the greatest wisdom! Oh, the ineffable goodness. All the cattle and the beasts he made in the twinkling of an eye, the lion, the bear, the dragon, the ox, and the horse, and as many as are eagerly sought and useful for the service of men. Do you see the understanding of the Creator? He made all things in six days, light, heaven, earth, sea, sun, moon, stars, mountains, hills and plains, beasts, cattle, fish, sea-monsters, the things in the sea, the things on the dry land. Whence the Father of lights, He who is and who (six) was, the mind without beginning, the unbegotten, wishing to accomplish a more honorable counsel and a very great work, toward the Only-begotten; he who begot, to him who was begotten from him without flux, the Son, the Word, the wisdom, the incomprehensible, introduces a God-befitting and mystical counsel, saying: Let us make man in our image, and after our likeness; and let them have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the birds of the air, and over the cattle, and over all the earth, and over every creeping thing that creeps upon the earth. And God made man, taking dust from the earth. And that he might not show the Holy Spirit to be alien to the creation, He breathed into his face

ἀπειλεῖ· ἕτερον φωνῆσαν χειμῶνα σημαίνει· ἄλλο πετᾶσαν συμφορὰν ἡμῖν παρεισάγει. Πολλῶν γὰρ ἤκουσα ταῦτα φιλονεικούντων καὶ ληρωδούντων. Οὐκ ἔστι τοῦτο παραγραφὴ Χριστιανῶν; Ἃ γὰρ ἰδὼν ὁ Θεὸς εἶπε καλὰ λίαν, σὺ αὐτὰ μὴ ἐνύβριζε. Καὶ εἶπεν ὁ Θεός· Γενηθήτωσαν φωστῆρες ἐν τῷ στερεώματι τοῦ οὐρανοῦ εἰς φαῦσιν τῆς ἡμέρας καὶ εἰς δᾳδουχίαν τῆς νυκτός. Καὶ ἐποίησεν ὁ Θεὸς τὸν φωστῆρα τὸν μέγαν, ἤγουν τὸν ἥλιον, εἰς ἀρχὰς τῆς ἡμέρας, καὶ τὸν φωστῆρα τὸν ἐλάσσω εἰς ἀρχὰς τῆς νυκτὸς, καὶ τοὺς ἀστέρας. Καὶ ἔστωσαν εἰς σημεῖα καὶ εἰς καιροὺς, καὶ εἰς ἡμέρας καὶ εἰς ἐνιαυτούς. Τί πρῶτον θαυμάσομεν οἱ ἄνθρωποι; τοῦ ἡλίου τὸ ὕψος τὸ ἀνείκαστον, τὸ μέγεθος, τὴν σφοδρότητα, τοῦ φωτὸς τὸ ἀμέτρητον, ἢ τῆς θέρμης τὸ ἀκατάσχετον; Πῶς ἐκ μιᾶς θρυαλλίδος, καὶ ἐκ μιᾶς οὐσίας ταῦτα πάντα κατηγλάϊσται, δρόμον ἀνύοντος αὐτοῦ, νοῦν καὶ ἔννοιαν καταπλήττοντα, ὡς ἐν μιᾷ ἡμέρᾳ ἀπὸ ἀνατολῆς φαινόμενος καὶ πρὸς δύσιν ἐρχόμενος, τόπος οὐδεὶς ἀποκρυβήσεται τῆς θέρμης αὐτοῦ; Ποῦ τῶν Περσῶν τὰ τέκνα, οἱ θρησκεύοντες αὐτὸν ὡς θεὸν, καὶ τὸν κτίστην καταλιπόντες, τῷ κτίσματι αὐτοῦ τὴν τιμὴν προσάγουσιν; Οὐχὶ αὐτὸς ὁ ἥλιος ἀεννάως καθ' ἡμέραν τὸν αὐτοῦ δρόμον διατελεῖ μετὰ φόβου μεγίστου καὶ εὐταξίας, καὶ ποτὲ μὲν νέφεσι καλυπτόμενος, ποτὲ δὲ νότου πνεύσαντος τὰς ἀκτῖνας σμικρύνοντος; Οὗτος ὑμῶν ὁ ἥλιος, εἰς ὃν ὑμεῖς πεποιθότες τὴν λατρείαν προσάγετε. Πάντα καλὰ λίαν τοῦ Κυρίου τὰ ἔργα, καὶ φοβερὰ καὶ ἐξαίσια· ἀλλὰ πρὸς ὑπηρεσίαν ἡμῶν καθεστήκασιν, οὐχὶ δεσποτείαν. Πῶς δὲ καὶ ἡ σελήνη εἰς δᾳδουχίαν τῆς νυκτὸς τῷ προστάγματι τοῦ ποιητοῦ παρήχθη, καὶ ποτὲ μὲν αὔξησιν δέχεται, ποτὲ δὲ μείωσιν ὑπομένει, καὶ ποτὲ μὲν λάμπουσα μαρμα 56.530 ρυγὰς φωτὸς ἐπαφίησι, ποτὲ δὲ λήγουσα αὐτῆς τὰ μέτρα ἀπαρασάλευτα διαφυλάττει μετὰ τῶν ἀστέρων τῶν πολυαριθμήτων χορῶν; Ἀλλὰ πρὸς τὴν ἀκολουθίαν τοῦ λόγου ἥξωμεν. Καὶ ἐγένετο ἑσπέρα, καὶ ἐγένετο πρωῒ, ἡμέρα τετάρτη. Καὶ εἶπεν ὁ Θεός· Ἐξαγαγέτω τὰ ὕδατα ἑρπετὰ ψυχῶν ζωσῶν κατὰ γένος, καὶ πετεινὰ πετόμενα κατὰ τὸ στερέωμα τοῦ οὐρανοῦ. Καὶ ἐποίησεν ὁ Θεὸς τὰ κήτη τὰ μεγάλα. Κατάμαθε ἀκριβῶς τὸ ῥῆμα τοῦ Παντοκράτορος· Πόσα γένη ἰχθύων τῶν ἐν τῇ θαλάσσῃ παρέστησε, καὶ πόσον δῆμον πετεινῶν ἐν τῷ ἀέρι παρεσκεύασε, τὰ μικρὰ, τὰ μείζονα· καὶ θαύμασον τῆς σοφίας αὐτοῦ τὴν ὑπερβολὴν, πῶς ἑνὶ λόγῳ τὰ πάντα παρήχθη. Καὶ ἐγένετο ἑσπέρα, καὶ ἐγένετο πρωῒ, ἡμέρα πέμπτη. Καὶ εἶπεν ὁ Θεός· Ἐξαγαγέτω ἡ γῆ ψυχὴν ζῶσαν κατὰ γένος, τετράποδα, ἑρπετὰ καὶ θηρία, καὶ πᾶν κτῆνος κατὰ γένος καὶ καθ' ὁμοιότητα. Ὢ τῆς μεγίστης σοφίας! ὢ τῆς ἀνεκδιηγήτου ἀγαθότητος. Πάντα τὰ κτήνη καὶ τὰ θηρία ἐν ῥιπῇ ὀφθαλμοῦ ἐποίησε, λέοντα, ἄρκον, δράκοντα, βοῦν, καὶ ἵππον, καὶ ὅσα τοῖς ἀνθρώποις πρὸς ὑπηρεσίαν περισπούδαστα καὶ ἀγώγιμα. Ὁρᾷς τοῦ ∆ημιουργοῦ τὴν σύνεσιν; Πάντα ἐποίησεν ἐν ἓξ ἡμέραις, φῶς, οὐρανὸν, γῆν, θάλασσαν, ἥλιον, σελήνην, ἄστρα, ὄρη, βουνοὺς καὶ πεδιάδας, θηρία, κτήνη, ἰχθύας, κήτη, τὰ ἐν τῇ θαλάσσῃ, τὰ ἐν τῇ χέρσῳ. Ὅθεν τιμιωτέραν βουλὴν καὶ ἔργον μέγιστον θέλων κατεργάσασθαι ὁ Πατὴρ τῶν φώτων, ὁ ὢν καὶ ὁ (σιξ) ἦν, ὁ νοῦς ὁ ἄναρχος, ὁ ἀγέννητος πρὸς τὸν Μονογενῆ· ὁ γεννήσας πρὸς τὸν γεννηθέντα ἐξ αὐτοῦ ἀῤῥεύστως τὸν Υἱὸν, τὸν Λόγον, τὴν σοφίαν, τὴν ἀκατάληπτον, θεοπρεπῆ καὶ μυστικὴν βουλὴν ἐπεισάγει λέγων· Ποιήσωμεν ἄνθρωπον κατ' εἰκόνα ἡμετέραν, καὶ καθ' ὁμοίωσιν· καὶ ἀρχέτωσαν τῶν ἰχθύων τῆς θαλάσσης, καὶ τῶν πετεινῶν τοῦ οὐρανοῦ, καὶ τῶν κτηνῶν, καὶ πάσης τῆς γῆς, καὶ πάντων τῶν ἑρπετῶν τῶν ἑρπόντων ἐπὶ τῆς γῆς. Καὶ ἐποίησεν ὁ Θεὸς τὸν ἄνθρωπον, χοῦν λαβὼν ἀπὸ τῆς γῆς. Καὶ ἵνα μὴ δείξῃ τὸ Πνεῦμα τὸ ἅγιον ἀλλότριον τῆς δημιουργίας, Ἐνεφύσησεν εἰς τὸ πρόσωπον αὐτοῦ