Section II: The Time When the Angels were Created, § 38
SECTION II: ON THE TIME OF THE CREATION OF THE ANGELS
On what day the angels were created.
§ 38. It is certain and clear from Scripture that the angels were created, but on what day they were created is not expressed clearly. Because of this, there are inconsistencies of opinions. Jerome (on 1 Timothy, vol. 9, f. 120): “Six thousand years of our world have not yet been completed. How many eternities before, how many ages, how many centuries He must have made in which angels, thrones, dominions, and other powers served God?” Nazianzen (Oration 38 de Christi nativ., and Oration 2 in Pascha., p. 666) claims: “The invisible creatures were created before all the visible ones.” Damascenus approves this opinion (Orth. fid., bk. 2, ch. 3). Chrysostom (De provid., bk. 1, vol. 5, col. 600) writes: “God created the angels first and heaven and earth afterward.” Hilary (Contra Auxent., p. 296) holds: “We must not deny that the angels and the devil existed before times and ages.” Theodoret (on Genesis, q. 3) writes: “It is of no importance if you do not know when the angels were created.” Furthermore, he adds that it is not contrary to the faith should one say, “They were created before heaven and earth.”
§ 39. However, it is more likely that the angels did not exist before the beginning of the world but were created during one of the six days. This is confirmed by Epiphanius (Haeres. 65, p. 277) and Augustine (De civ. Dei, bk. 11, ch. 9) from the fact that Gen. 2:1 says that “God finished the heavens and the earth, and all the host of them.” But now, the angels are part of the host of heaven. We also add this argument: Scripture always takes the period before the world to mean eternity, as is clear from Ps. 90[:1], Proverbs 8, John 1, and other passages of Scripture. But now, eternity does not belong to the angels. (See Lombard, Sent. 2, dist. 2, with interpretations; Thomas, [ST,] part 1, q. 61, art. 3; and Alexander of Hales, [Sent.,] part 2, q. 19.)
§ 40. On what day the angels were created is more a question of details than of usefulness. Some people try to prove that they were created on the first day from the fact that Job 38:[6–]7 says that “the morning stars and the sons of God praised Him when He laid the foundations of the earth,” and those surely were laid on the first day. On the other hand, some assign their creation to the third day, drawing their argument from Col. 1:16. You see, because the angels are in heaven, they sense that they did not exist before their dwelling place was built and furnished. Some claim that the angels were created on the second day and that some of them fell immediately the same day because Moses does not add to the work of the second day the phrase: “God saw that it was good.” Nevertheless: “Not wanting to know what the great Teacher refuses to teach is erudite ignorance.”1