11,25,32, when dealing with the fourth day of creation, this curious problem arose from the
Book 1 53
22. As for its saying. And God made the two lamps, the greater lampfor the starting of the day and the lesser lampfor the starting of the night: it is really as if it said "for the empire of the day and for the empire of the night."16 The sun, you see, does notjust start the day, and then not also complete and finish it, while as for the moon, it sometimes comes out to us at midnight or at the end of the night. So if those nights on which it does this are not started by it, how was it made for the starting of the night? But ifby "starting" you understand "being first," and by "being first" understand "being the emperor," then it is clear that the sun exer cises imperial authority throughout the day, while the moon does so throughout the night, because even ifthe other constellations also appear then, she nonethe less surpasses them all with her brilliance, and therefore is very rightly said to be their empress.
23. As for its saying, And let them divide between day and night: here too they can cast a slur and say, "How had God already divided earlier on between day and night, if this is done by the heavenly bodies only now on the fourth day?" So therefore this is how it says here, Let them divide between day and night: it' s as if it said, "Let them so divide day and night between themselves that the day is given to the sun, the night to the moon and the other constellations." These two periods had already been divided, but not yet between heavenly bodies. So from now on there would be certainty about the number ofheavenly bodies, and about which would appear to human beings through the day and which through the night.
Quibbles about the work of thefifth day
1 5, 24. And God said: Let the waters throw up reptiles oflive souls andflying thingsflying over the earth under the solid structure ofheaven. And thus it was made. And God made the great whales and every soul ofanimals and crawling things which the waters threw up, according to the kind ofeach, and everyflying winged kind, according to the kind ofeach. And God saw that they were good; and God blessed them saying: lncrease and multiply andfill the waters of the sea; and letflying things multiply upon the earth. And there was made evening and there was made morning, afifth day (Gn 1 :20-23). The fault-finding they go
16. As Augustine will explain in his later and greater work. The Literal Meaning of Genesis, 11,25,32, when dealing with the fourth day of creation, this curious problem arose from the translators of the old Latin versions being both excessively literal in their rendering of the Greek Septuagint and not too well versed in that language. The Greek word arche means both
"beginning" and "rule"; so, as the versions we are familiar with put it, God made the sun to rule the day and the moon to rule the night. Where, the reader may ask, does "empire" come in? Well, the Latin word for "beginning" isprincipium, meaning "being first"; and from this comes the wordprinceps (English, "prince"), the number one person in the state; and this was the title of the post-Augustan Roman Emperors, who exercised aprincipatus, an imperial authority.
54 On Genesis: A Refutation of the Manichees in for here is to ask—or rather to make a gibe—why it was not only the animals that live in the waters but also those that fly in the air and all with wings that the text says were born in the waters.
But everybody who is worried about this should know that this cloudy and moist air in which birds fly is usually classified with the waters by the most learned people who research these matters carefully. lt is stiffened, you see, and made dense by exhalations and sort of steamy vapors from sea and land, and after a fashion grows fat enough on this moisture to be able to support birds in flight. That is why you get heavy dew on calm nights, and find the dew-drops on the grass in the morning.
In fact that mountain in Macedonia called Olympus is said to be so high that at its peak there is no wind to be felt and no clouds forming, because its height soars above this moist air in which birds fly around—and that is why, so the authorities insist, there are no birds flying up there. This information is said to come from people who were in the habit of climbing to the top of this mountain every year, to offer goodness knows what sacrifices. There they would scribble some signs in the dust, and find them unchanged the following year, which could not have happened if there had been any wind or rain in the place. Again, because the air up there was so thin that it couldn't fill their lungs, they would not have been able to last any time there unless they had held damp sponges to their noses, through which they could draw the denser sort of breath they were used to. So these people also testified that they had never seen any bird in that place.17
And so we have every justification for trusting scripture absolutely when it states that it was not only fish and other aquatic animals that were born of the waters, but also birds, because they fly around in this air, which rises up from the moist vapors of land and sea.
What was the point of God making so many different kinds ofanimal?
1 6, 25 . And God said: Let the earth throw up live soul according to every kind ofquadrupeds and ofsnakes and of beasts of the earth. And thus it was made. And Godmade the beasts of the earth according to kind, and all crawling things of the earth according to kind. And God saw that they were good (Gn 1 :24-25). The Manichees are also in the habit ofraising the following question and saying: "What need was there for God to make so many animals, whether in the waters or on earth, which are not necessary for human beings? Many of them are also pernicious and to be feared."
17. 1n The Literal Meaning of Genesis. 111,2,2 where he also tells us about the meteorological peculiarities of Mount Olympus, Augustine quotes the poet Lucan as his authority; Pharsalia 2.271.