50. Like mere astronomers?
Unfinished Literal Commentary on Genesis 1 37 among the wandering stars; so how were they all made in the solid structure, when all the wanderers have each their own proper sphere or circle?48 Or whether, since in the scriptures we read both ofmany heavens and ofheaven,49 it is to be understood that here the reference is to the whole ethereal machine which holds all the stars, under which a pure and tranquil atmosphere holds sway, under which again this lower atmosphere is agitated by turbulence and storms?
ln order to shine upon the earth and to divide between day and night. Had God not already divided between the light and the darkness, and called the light day and called the darkness night? From this it is clear that he had divided between day and night. So what does it mean now, saying about the lamps, and let them divide between day and night? Or is the division now being made by the lamps in the sky in order for it also to be known to people who only make use of their eyes of flesh to contemplate these things,50 whereas God actually made the division before he made the circuits of the heavenly bodies, as can only be seen now by very few people, with the aid of the Holy Spirit and calm unclouded reason?
Or did God divide between another day and another night, that is, between the specific form he was impressing on that basic formlessness, and the formless ness which still remained to be formed? Quite different though are this day and this night whose alternation is drawn to our attention by the turning of the heavens, something that can only be brought about by the rising and the setting of the sun.
Genesis 1:14: Times are a sign, or trace ofeternity
1 3, 38. And to befor signs andfor times andfor days andfor years (Gn 1:14).
It seems to me that what he meant by for signs was clarified by his saying/or times, so that we should not take "signs" as being something different from "times." He is referring now, you see, to these times which by their division into
48. According to the classical astronomy, given its final form by the second century astronomer Ptolemy, but deriving ultimately from Pythagoras and Aristotle, the planets, including sun and moon which also "wander," were embedded in concentric transparent crystalline spheres or globes or circles, which revolved round the earth at different rates; and the fixed stars were embedded in an outer sphere, which remained motionless; the whole thing involving many more "solid structures" than the single firmament of Gn 1 . 49. With one manuscript, 1 here omit the next phrase, which runs in this text sicuti in hoc loco cum die iinr caelum etfirmamentum, "as in this place when it talks of heaven and firmament," and in the Maurist edition sicuti in hoc loco cum diciturfirmamentum caelum, "as in this place when the firmament is called heaven;"—fairly clearly two variants of a not very helpful marginal comment. Many heavens are to be found all over the bible, most immediately in Gn 2: 1 ; then in Dt 10: 14, Job 15:15, Ps 18:1 ,to name only a few places; and Saint Paul, of course, was snatched up to the third heaven in 2 Cor 12:2. The seventh heaven appears to be a post-biblical elaboration. 50. Like mere astronomers?