one word, aqua, "water," and then punctuating with a full stop instead of a comma at the end of
Unfinished Literal Commentary on Genesis 1 3 1 ever created all things simultaneously (Sir 1 8: 1 ). But in this book of Genesis the story of the things made by God most appropriately sets them out as it were through intervals of time; by this arrangement of the account in an orderly sequence, the divine plan itself, which cannot be directly and timelessly contem plated by our weaker intellects, is presented, so to say, as a spectacle for our very eyes to gaze on.
Genesis 1:6-7: The difference between the waters above and below the firmament
8, 29. And God said: Let a solid structure be made in the midst of the water, and let it be dividing between water and water. And thus it was made. And God made a solid structure, and divided between the water which was below the solid structure and the water which was above the solid structure (Gn 1 :6-7). Were the waters the same above the structure as these visible ones below the structure? Or else, because it seems to be referring to that water over which the Spirit was being borne, and we were understanding that to be the basic material of the world, are we to suppose that this is also being distinguished in this place by the solid structure being placed in between, so that the lower water is the basic "body material," while the higher is the basic "soul material"? What is here talked of as a solid structure, you see, is in the next verse called "heaven." Now among bodies there is none better than a heavenly body. Heavenly bodies, that is to say, are one thing, earthly bodies another, and the heavenly ones are naturally the better; and I don't know how anything that surpasses their nature37 can still be called a body. But perhaps there is a kind of force or energy subject to reason, the reason by which God and truth are known, and it is naturally formable by virtue and prudence; and as its fluctuating tendencies are checked and restrained by their action, it thereby takes on a kind of material appearance. So it is rightly called "water" by God, and is raised above the limits of the corporeal sky or heaven by virtue of its incorporeal nature, not in terms of spatial distance.
And since he has called the sky or heaven a solid structure, it is reasonable to take everything that is below the ethereal heaven, where everything is quietly steady and solid, as being more readily subject to change and dissolution. This kind ofcorporeal matter, before it received the forms of various distinct species, was called the water below the solid structure.38
37. As the waters above the firmament, 1 take it, surpass the firmament precisely by being above it. 1n the text 1 have avoided rendering the Latinfirmamentum as "firmament," because the latter really only has one reference in English, the biblical one, whereasfirmamentum, like the Greek stereoma which it faithfully translates, means generally a solid, supporting structure. 38. Here 1 have emended the CSEL text by simply reading the two words a qua, "from which," as one word, aqua, "water," and then punctuating with a full stop instead of a comma at the end of this sentence. The text, apparently supported by the manuscripts, and certainly that of the