Chapter XXIV.—Out of the Many True Things, It is Not Asserted Confidently that Moses Understood This or That.

33. But which of us, amid so many truths which occur to inquirers in these words, understood as they are in different ways, shall so discover that one interpretation as to confidently say “that Moses thought this,” and “that in that narrative he wished this to be understood,” as confidently as he says “that this is true,” whether he thought this thing or the other? For behold, O my God, I Thy servant, who in this book have vowed unto Thee a sacrifice of confession, and beseech Thee that of Thy mercy I may pay my vows unto Thee,1026    Ps. xxii. 25. behold, can I, as I confidently assert that Thou in Thy immutable word hast created all things, invisible and visible, with equal confidence assert that Moses meant nothing else than this when he wrote, “In the beginning God created. the heaven and the earth.”1027    It is curious to note here Fichte’s strange idea (Anweisung zum seligen Leben, Werke, v. 479), that St. John, at the commencement of his Gospel, in his teaching as to the “Word,” intended to confute the Mosaic statement, which Fichte—since it ran counter to that idea of “the absolute” which he made the point of departure in his philosophy—antagonizes as a heathen and Jewish error. On “In the Beginning,” see p. 166, note 2, above. No. Because it is not as clear to me that this was in his mind when he wrote these things, as I see it to be certain in Thy truth. For his thoughts might be set upon the very beginning of the creation when he said, “In the beginning;” and he might wish it to be understood that, in this place, “the heaven and the earth” were no formed and perfected nature, whether spiritual or corporeal, but each of them newly begun, and as yet formless. Because I see, that which-soever of these had been said, it might have been said truly; but which of them he may have thought in these words, I do not so perceive. Although, whether it were one of these, or some other meaning which has not been mentioned by me, that this great man saw in his mind when he used these words, I make no doubt but that he saw it truly, and expressed it suitably.

CAPUT XXIV. Ex multis veris non debet fidenter asseri hoc aut illud sensisse Moysen.

33. Sed quis nostrum sic invenit eam inter tam multa vera , quae in illis verbis aliter atque aliter intellectis occurrunt quaerentibus; ut tam fidenter dicat hoc sensisse Moysen, atque hoc in illa narratione voluisse intelligi, quam fidenter dicit hoc verum esse, sive ille hoc senserit sive aliud? Ecce enim, Deus meus, ego servus tuus qui vovi tibi sacrificium confessionis in his litteris, et oro ut ex misericordia tua reddam tibi vota mea; ecce ego quam fidenter dico in tuo Verbo incommutabili omnia te fecisse, invisibilia et visibilia, numquid tam fidenter dico non aliud quam hoc attendisse Moysen cum scriberet: In principio fecit Deus coelum et terram? Quia non sicut in tua veritate hoc certum video, ita in ejus mente video id eum cogitasse cum haec scriberet. Potuit enim cogitare in ipso faciendi exordio, cum diceret, In principio: potuit et coelum et terram hoc loco, nullam jam formatam perfectamque naturam sive spiritualem sive corporalem, sed utramque inchoatam et adhuc informem velle intelligi. Video quippe vere potuisse dici, quidquid horum diceretur; sed quid horum in his verbis ille cogitaverit, non ita video: quamvis sive aliquid horum, sive aliquid aliud quod a me commemoratum non est, tantus vir ille mente conspexerit, cum haec verba promeret, verum eum vidisse apteque id enuntiasse non dubitem.