15. The image seems to be that of something like a foundry for making instruments of bronze or
Unfinished Literal Commentary on Genesis 1 1 9
10. But the question also arises, whether it was all things already sorted out and put together that he called heaven and earth, or whether it was on the origi nally formless matter of the universe, which was distributed into all these formed and specific and beautiful14 natures at God's wordless command, that he bestowed the name ofheaven and earth. For although we have read the text, You that made the worldfromformless matter (Wis 11:17), still we cannot say that such matter itself, whatever sort of thing it may be, was not made by him, from whom we confess and believe that all things derive their being. So what we would have then, is that the ordering and arrangement of the things, all and sundry, which have been formed and sorted out is called "world," or "universe," while the basic material itself was named "heaven and earth," as being the seed, so to say, ofheaven and earth, as being heaven and earth all mixed up and thrown in together by the craftsman, God, ready for receiving those forms.15
Up to this point we have been inquiring about the meaning of the text, ln the beginning God made heaven and earth; it would have been impossible, after all, to make any definite assertions about these matters without incurring the charge of rashness.
Genesis 1:2; the earth invisible and shapeless; darkness over the abyss
4, 1 1 . Now the earth was invisible andshapeless, and there was darkness over the abyss; and the Spirit of God was being borne over the water (Gn 1 :2). The heretics who reject the Old Testament16 are in the habit of pointing the finger at this passage, and saying, "How can God have made heaven and earth in the beginning, ifthe earth was already there?" They fail to understand that this verse was added to explain what the earth was like, about which it had already said, God made heaven and earth. So this is how we have to take it: ln the beginning God made heaven and earth; but this earth, which God made, was invisible and shapeless, until it was sorted out by the same God and from its original mish mash established in a definite order of distinct things.
Or is it better to understand it like this, that in this execution of God's design the same material of the world was again being presented as had been first named heaven and earth, so that this would be the sense here: "In the beginning God made heaven and earth; but this that is called heaven and earth was the invisible and shapeless earth, with darkness over the abyss; that is, what was called heaven and earth was a kind of mixed-up material out of which the world
14. A double translation of the single word speciosas. 15. The image seems to be that of something like a foundry for making instruments of bronze or brass. 16. The Manichees; and earlier on in the second century Marcion and his followers.