12. See Mt 8:10.
Book 1 47 things to be formed from it. But under all these names there was the unseen and formless material out of which God set up the cosmos.
Quibbles about God seeing that the light was good
8, 13. And God said, Let light be made; and light was made (Gn 1 :3). The Manichees are not in the habit of finding fault with this, but with what follows: And God saw the light that it was good (Gn 1 :4). They say, you see: "So then,
God did not know what light was before, or did not know what good was." Wretched creatures ! That God was satisfied with his works causes them dissatis faction, when they can see how a human craftsman, a carpenter for example, though in comparison with God's wisdom and power he is next to nothing, still takes such a long time over cutting and preparing his wood with axe and adze and plane, or turning it in a lathe and polishing it, until it measures up as far as it can to the standards of his craft and satisfies him as a craftsman. So then, because he is pleased with what he has made, does that mean that before he made it he did not know what good work was? Of course he knew in his mind, where the very knowledge of his craft is more beautiful than the things that are constructed by it. But what the craftsman sees inwardly in his knowledge of his craft he puts into effect outwardly in his work, and it is this, when perfectly finished, that satisfies him as a craftsman.
So then, God saw the light that it was good; these words indicate, not that some unfamiliar good suddenly dawned on God, but that something perfectly finished gave him satisfaction.
14. What if the text had said: "God observed with wonder that the light was good"?1 1 What a hue and cry they would raise, what charges they would bring! For wonder or astonishment indeed does usually arise from unexpected things. And yet these people read in the gospel about our Lord Jesus Christ having wondered at, been astonished at, the faith of believers,12 and they praise him for
1 1 . What if the text had said, in the Latin: Miratus est Deus lucem quia bona est? The meaning of miror is, to be sure, "to be astonished, surprised, to wonder," in the sense of "marveling." And the problem is: why should Augustine have raised this curious possibility? And the thought occurred to me, as it has done on more than one occasion, that modern Spanish might give a clue to the change of meaning in Latin words in Augustine's Africa; and in Spanish mirar means to look, to gaze at. So perhaps miror in African Latin had come to mean, not just to be astonished, but also to see something with astonishment or wonder. 1 consulted my friend Dr. Duncan Cloud on the point, and he cited some evidence from the classical poets for the word's being used in the sense ofcum admiratione videre, to see with astonishment or wonder; notably ViigiVsAeneid, V,35. Closer to Augustine, he referred me to Tertullian, De Oratione 22,9, addressing the Virgin: Nemo miretur in tuamfaciem, "Let no one gaze on your face." So it seems there was already before Augustine's time a move of the word's meaning to what it came to have in Spanish. And again, perhaps some of those old Latin versions ofGenesis circulating in North Africa did read here Miratus est Deus. But he does not suggest that here. 1 continue to find the section baffling. 12. See Mt 8:10.
48 On Genesis: A Refutation of the Manichees it. Who though had made that faith in them if not the one who observed it with wonder? And even if someone else had made it, why should he who had fore knowledge of things have observed it with wonder and surprise? If the Manichees can solve that problem, then they should note that the other one can be solved on the same lines. But ifthey can't solve it, what right have they to find fault with these texts which they won't allow are any concern of theirs, when they do not know the meaning of ones which they say do concern them?
You see, what is signified by our Lord being filled with wonder or astonish ment at something is that we should be filled with wonder at it, because we still need to be moved or stirred in this way. So all such stirrings of his imperturbable spirit are signs, but signs of the master's teaching. And it is the same with the words of the Old Testament, which do not teach that God is weak, but which are used in order to flatter our weakness. Nothing, after all, can be said about God that is at all worthy of him. But so that we should be suitably brought up and helped to attain to those things that cannot be uttered by any human speech, things are said in scripture which we are able to grasp.
Why it does not say that God made the darkness
Goddivided between the lightand the darkness, and God called the light day, and the darkness he called night (Gn 1 :4-5). Here it does not say, "God made the darkness," because darkness as we have said above is just the absence of light. But still a distinction was made between the light and the darkness. Just as we make noise by shouting, while we make silence by not making a sound, because silence is when the noise stops, and yet we distinguish by some kind of sense between noise and silence, and call one thing noise and the other silence, sojust as we are rightly said to make silence, in the same way God is rightly said in many places of the divine scriptures to make darkness, because he either does not give light to times and places or else withdraws it from them, just as he chooses.
This however is all said according to our way of understanding. In what language, after all, did God call the light day and the darkness night? Was it in Hebrew, or Greek, or Latin, or some other language? And so with all the other things he gave names to, you could ask what language he spoke. But with God there isjust sheer understanding, without any utterance and diversity oftongues. But wherever it says "he called," it means "he caused to be called," because he so distinguished and arranged all things as to make it possible for them to be told apart and given names. Thus we, for example say: "That proprietor built this house," meaning he caused it to be built; and many such things are to be found throughout all the books of the divine scriptures. But later on we shall come back to the question of whether this is the right way of taking the expression, "God