Chapter XXXII.—The Account of the Creation in Genesis a General One, Corroborated, However, by Many Other Passages of the Old Testament, Which Give Account of Specific Creations. Further Cavillings Confuted.

This is the answer I should give in defence of the Scripture before us, for seeming here to set forth328    Quatenus hic commendare videtur. the formation of the heaven and the earth, as if (they were) the sole bodies made.  It could not but know that there were those who would at once in the bodies understand their several members also, and therefore it employed this concise mode of speech. But, at the same time, it foresaw that there would be stupid and crafty men, who, after paltering with the virtual meaning,329    Dissimulato tacito intellectu. would require for the several members a word descriptive of their formation too. It is therefore because of such persons, that Scripture in other passages teaches us of the creation of the individual parts. You have Wisdom saying, “But before the depths was I brought forth,”330    Prov. viii. 24. in order that you may believe that the depths were also “brought forth”—that is, created—just as we create sons also, though we “bring them forth.” It matters not whether the depth was made or born, so that a beginning be accorded to it, which however would not be, if it were subjoined331    Subjecta. to matter. Of darkness, indeed, the Lord Himself by Isaiah says, “I formed the light, and I created darkness.”332    Isa. xlv. 7. Of the wind333    De spiritu. This shows that Tertullian took the spirit of Gen. i. 2 in the inferior sense. also Amos says, “He that strengtheneth the thunder334    So also the Septuagint., and createth the wind, and declareth His Christ335    So also the Septuagint. unto men;”336    Amos iv. 13. thus showing that that wind was created which was reckoned with the formation of the earth, which was wafted over the waters, balancing and refreshing and animating all things: not (as some suppose) meaning God Himself by the spirit,337    The “wind.” on the ground that “God is a Spirit,”338    John iv. 24. because the waters would not be able to bear up their Lord; but He speaks of that spirit of which the winds consist, as He says by Isaiah, “Because my spirit went forth from me, and I made every blast.”339    Flatum: “breath;” so LXX. of Isa. lvii. 16. In like manner the same Wisdom says of the waters, “Also when He made the fountains strong, things which340    Fontes, quæ. are under the sky, I was fashioning341    Modulans. them along with Him.”342    Prov. viii. 28. Now, when we prove that these particular things were created by God, although they are only mentioned in Genesis, without any intimation of their having been made, we shall perhaps receive from the other side the reply, that these were made, it is true,343    Plane. but out of Matter, since the very statement of Moses, “And darkness was on the face of the deep, and the spirit of God moved on the face of the waters,”344    Gen. i. 2. refers to Matter, as indeed do all those other Scriptures here and there,345    In disperso. which demonstrate that the separate parts were made out of Matter. It must follow, then,346    Ergo: Tertullian’s answer. that as earth consisted of earth, so also depth consisted of depth, and darkness of darkness, and the wind and waters of wind and waters. And, as we said above,347    Ch. xxx., towards the end. Matter could not have been without form, since it had specific parts, which were formed out of it—although as separate things348    Ut et aliæ.—unless, indeed, they were not separate, but were the very same with those out of which they came. For it is really impossible that those specific things, which are set forth under the same names, should have been diverse; because in that case349    Jam. the operation of God might seem to be useless,350    Otiosa. if it made things which existed already; since that alone would be a creation,351    Generatio: creation in the highest sense of matter issuing from the maker. Another reading has “generosiora essent,” for our “generatio sola esset,” meaning that, “those things would be nobler which had not been made,” which is obviously quite opposed to Tertullian’s argument. when things came into being, which had not been (previously) made. Therefore, to conclude, either Moses then pointed to Matter when he wrote the words: “And darkness was on the face of the deep, and the spirit of God moved on the face of the waters;” or else, inasmuch as these specific parts of creation are afterwards shown in other passages to have been made by God, they ought to have been with equal explicitness352    Æque. shown to have been made out of the Matter which, according to you, Moses had previously mentioned;353    Præmiserat. or else, finally, if Moses pointed to those specific parts, and not to Matter, I want to know where Matter has been pointed out at all.

CAPUT XXXII.

Haec responderim pro scriptura praesenti, quatenus hic solorum corporum factitationem commendare videtur coeli et terrae. Scivit esse qui ultro in corporibus et membra cognoscerent, et ideo compendio 0226C usa est. Providit tamen et hebetes et insidiosos, qui dissimulato tacito intellectu, ipsis quoque membris verbum factitationis significatorium exigerent. Itaque et propter istos singulas species factas docet aliis in locis . Habes Sophiam, Prior autem abysso 0227A genita sum, dicentem: ut credas abyssum quoque genitam, id est factam, quia et filios facimus, licet generemus. Nihil interest facta an nata sit abyssus, dum initium detur illi, quod non daretur si materiae subjecta esset . De tenebris vero ipse Dominus per Isaiam: Ego qui struxi lucem et feci tenebras (Is. XLV, 7). De spiritu aeque Amos: Qui solidat tonitruum et condit spiritum, et annuntiat in homines Christum suum (Amos. IV, 13): eum spiritum conditum ostendens, qui in terras conditas deputabatur, qui super aquas ferebatur, librator, et adflator, et animator universitatis: non, ut quidam putant, ipsum Deum significari spiritum, quia Deus spiritus. Neque enim aquae Dominum sustinere sufficerent; sed eum spiritum dicit de quo etiam venti constiterunt, 0227B ut ait per Isaiam: Quia spiritus a me exivit et flatum omnem ego feci (Is. LVII, 26). Item de aquis eadem Sophia: Et cum firmos ponebat fontes ejus quae sub coelo est, ego eram modulans cum ipso (Prov. VIII, 28, 29). Cum ergo et eas species probamus a Deo factas, etsi in Genesi tantummodo nominantur sine factitationis mentione, respondebitur fortasse ex diverso: Plane factas eas, sed ex materia: ut stylus quidem Moysi, Et tenebrae super abyssum, et spiritus Dei super aquas ferebatur, materiam sonet: caeterae vero Scripturae, quae ex materia factae sint species, in disperso demonstrent. Ergo sicut terra de terra, ita et abyssus ex abysso, et tenebrae ex tenebris, et spiritus et aquae ex spiritu et aquis constiterunt. Et sicut supra diximus, non potuit informis fuisse materia, 0227C si species habebat, ut et aliae ex ea sint confectae; nisi quod non aliae, sed ipsae ex semetipsis: siquidem non capit diversas fuisse quae iisdem nominibus eduntur, quo jam operatio divina otiosa videri possit, si quae erant fecit: cum generosior esset 0228A , quae non erant facta, si fierent. Igitur ut concludam, aut materiam tunc significavit Moyses cum scribit: Et tenebrae super abyssum, et spiritus Dei super aquas ferebatur: aut cum hae species alibi postea demonstrantur factae a Deo, debuerunt aeque demonstrari ex materia, quam Moyses praemiserat, factae: aut si species istas, et non materiam significavit Moyses, ubi materia demonstrata sit quaero.