out before these eyes of flesh, or some hidden kind which it is not given us to see
1 24 Unfinished Literal Commentary on Genesis to nature, but as regards their actual natures—and that there is absolutely no created thing at all which does not derive from him the beginning and the completion of its kind and its substance.
Genesis 1:3: With what kind of voice did God speak?
5, 1 9. And God said: Let light be made, and light was made (Gn 1:3). We are bound to agree that it was not with a voice issuing from lungs and tongue and teeth that God said "Let light be made." Such ideas are literal-minded and of the flesh; and to think according to the flesh is death.24 No, he said Let light be made in a way that defies expression. Whether, though, what was said here was said to the only-begotten Son, or whether what was said here is the only-begotten Son, and on being spoken is called the Word of God through which all things were made (Jn 1 : 1 .3), is a question that can be properly asked, provided, however, that we set aside the impious assumption that the Word of God, the only-begotten Son, is like a sound uttered in the way that happens with us. The Word of God, on the contrary, through which all things were made, neither began to be nor will cease to be; but being born without any beginning, he is co-eternal with the Father.
That's why, if the saying of "Let light be made" both began and stopped, we must conclude that this word was said to the Son rather than being the Son. Even so, however, it was said in a manner that defies expression. So let no materialist, fleshly image creep into the soul and disturb the godly, spiritual understanding, because for anything to begin or cease in the nature of God, if taken literally, is a rash and headstrong opinion. Still, this way of thinking is to be permitted out of sheer humanity to the little ones and the fleshly minded, not though for them to remain stuck in it, but for them to rise up from it in due course. Whatever, you see, God is said to begin or to stop doing is in no way to be understood as happening in his own nature, but in his creation, which submits to him in all its wonderful ways.
What sort of light was made
20. And God said: Let light be made. Is that light meant which spreads itself out before these eyes of flesh, or some hidden kind which it is not given us to see by means of this body? And if a hidden sort, is it of a bodily nature, extending perhaps through the higher parts of the universe in outer space, or is it incorpo real, of the kind to be found in the soul, to which the senses of the body refer for a judgment on whether to shun things or seek them? This is a light that is not
24. See Rom 8:6.