lights and the aristocrats of the movement, and the Hearers, who were, so to say, its second
56 On Genesis: A Refutation of the Manichees from all worries and anxieties, and get moving along the road to gaining it for ourselves by meritorious devotion.
As for the superfluous ones, what business is it of ours to call them in ques tion? If you object to their not being of any use, be thankful they do no harm, because even if they are not needed for our homes, at any rate they contribute to the completion of this universe, which is not only much bigger than our homes, but much better as well; God manages it after all, much better than any of us can manage our homes. So then, make use of the useful ones, be careful with the pernicious ones, let the superfluous ones be. In all of them, though, when you observe their measures and numbers and order, look for the craftsman; and you won't find any other but the one with whom the supreme measure and supreme number and supreme order is to be found, and that is God, about whom it says what is so absolutely true, that he has arranged all things in measure andnumber and weight (Wis 1 1 :20). ln this way you will perhaps find more genuine satisfac tion when you praise God in the tiny little ant down on the ground, than when you are crossing a river high up, let us say, on an elephant.19
Man made to God's image; Manichee gibes
1 7, 27. And God said: Let us make man to our image and likeness; and let him have authority over thefishes of the sea and theflying things ofheaven and all cattle and wild beasts, and all the earth, and all reptiles which crawl over the earth (Gn 1 :26). lt is this question above all that the Manichees are in the habit of chattering on about, taunting us for believing that man was made to the image and likeness of God. What they have in mind, you see, is the shape of our bodies, and they are misguided enough to ask whether God has nostrils and teeth and a beard, and even internal organs and other things that are necessary for us. But of course it is ridiculous, not to say impious to believe there are such things in God, and that is why they deny that man was made to the image and likeness of God.
Our answer to them is that such bodily parts are indeed frequently mentioned in the scriptures when God is being proposed to hearers who are little ones,20 and this not only in the books of the Old Testament, but also in those of the New. God's eyes are mentioned, and his ears, and lips, and feet,21 and the Son is
1 9. Actually, he only says "high up on some beast of burden"; but an elephant makes his contrast better than any other such steed; so introducing it is, 1 suggest, absolutely true to his mind. 20. The Manichees were divided into two classes or groups, the Perfect, who were the leading lights and the aristocrats of the movement, and the Hearers, who were, so to say, its second class citizens, not committed to the rigorous discipline undertaken by the Perfect. Augustine himself had been a Hearer, and may well be reminding the Manichees here of the approach they too would have had to take in explaining deep matters to their "little ones," that is, the less well educated and the illiterate among their Hearers. 21. For example: ears in Jas 5:4, 1 Pt 3:12; eyes in Heb4:13, 1 Pt 3:12; feet in Mt 5:35.