Chapter XXVI.—The Method Observed in the History of the Creation, in Reply to the Perverse Interpretation of Hermogenes.

We, however, have but one God, and but one earth too, which in the beginning God made.238    Gen. i. 1. The Scripture, which at its very outset proposes to run through the order thereof tells us as its first information that it was created; it next proceeds to set forth what sort of earth it was.239    Qualitatem ejus: unless this means “how He made it,” like the “qualiter fecerit” below. In like manner with respect to the heaven, it informs us first of its creation—“In the beginning God made the heaven:”240    Gen. i. 1. it then goes on to introduce its arrangement; how that God both separated “the water which was below the firmament from that which was above the firmament,”241    Gen. i. 7. and called the firmament heaven,242    Ver. 8.—the very thing He had created in the beginning.  Similarly it (afterwards) treats of man:  “And God created man, in the image of God made He him.”243    Gen. i. 27. It next reveals how He made him: “And (the Lord) God formed man of the dust of the ground, and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life; and man became a living soul.”244    Gen. ii. 7. Now this is undoubtedly245    Utique. the correct and fitting mode for the narrative.  First comes a prefatory statement, then follow the details in full;246    Prosequi. first the subject is named, then it is described.247    Primo præfari, postea prosequi; nominare, deinde describere. This properly is an abstract statement, given with Tertullian’s usual terseness: “First you should (‘decet’) give your preface, then follow up with details:  first name your subject, then describe it.” How absurd is the other view of the account,248    Alioquin. when even before he249    Hermogenes, whose view of the narrative is criticised. had premised any mention of his subject, i.e. Matter, without even giving us its name, he all on a sudden promulged its form and condition, describing to us its quality before mentioning its existence,—pointing out the figure of the thing formed, but concealing its name! But how much more credible is our opinion, which holds that Scripture has only subjoined the arrangement of the subject after it has first duly described its formation and mentioned its name!  Indeed, how full and complete250    Integer. is the meaning of these words: “In the beginning God created the heaven and the earth; but251    Autem. the earth was without form, and void,”252    Gen. i. 1, 2.—the very same earth, no doubt, which God made, and of which the Scripture had been speaking at that very moment.253    Cum maxime edixerat. For that very “but”254    The “autem” of the note just before this. is inserted into the narrative like a clasp,255    Fibula. (in its function) of a conjunctive particle, to connect the two sentences indissolubly together: “But the earth.” This word carries back the mind to that earth of which mention had just been made, and binds the sense thereunto.256    Alligat sensum. Take away this “but,” and the tie is loosened; so much so that the passage, “But the earth was without form, and void,” may then seem to have been meant for any other earth.

CAPUT XXVI.

0220C Nobis autem unus Deus et una est terra, quam in principio Deus fecit, cujus ordinem incipiens Scriptura decurrere, primo factam eam edicit, dehinc qualitatem ipsius edisserit, sicut et coelum primo 0221A factum professa: In principio fecit Deus coelum, dehinc dispositionem ejus superinducit: Et separavit inter aquam quae erat infra firmamentum (Gen. I, 7), et quae super firmamentum, et vocavit Deus firmamentum coelum, ipsum quod in primordio fecerat. Proinde et de homine: Et fecit Deus hominem: ad imaginem Dei fecit illum (Ibid. 27). Dehinc qualiter fecerit reddit: Et finxit Deus hominem de limo terrae, et adflavit in faciem ejus flatum vitae, et factus est homo in animam vivam (Gen. II, 7). Et utique sic decet narrationem inire, primo praefari, postea prosequi, nominare, deinde describere. Alioquin vanum, si ejus rei cujus nullam praemiserat mentionem, id est materiae, ne ipsum quidem nomen, subito formam et habitum promulgavit : ante enarrat qualis esset, quam an esset; 0221B ostendit figuram deformati; nomen abscondit. At quanto credibilius secundum nos ejus rei dispositionem Scriptura subjunxit, cujus institutionem simulque nominationem praemisit. Quam denique integer sensus est: In principio Deus fecit coelum et terram, terra autem erat invisibilis et rudis (Gen. I, 1, 2), quam Deus scilicet fecit, de qua Scriptura cum maxime ediderat . Nam et autem ipsum, velut fibula conjunctivae particulae ad connexum narrationi oppositum est , terra autem. Hoc enim verbo revertitur ad eam de qua supra dixerat, et alligat sensum. Adeo aufer hinc autem, et soluta compago est, ut tunc possit de alia terra dictum videri, Terra erat invisibilis et rudis.