58. Another mystery of Augustinian natural history!
140 Unfinished Literal Commentary on Genesis
And God saw that it was good. The same order is being observed. Let us bear in mind, though, that God did not call these things too by name, when it could have said, "And God called the lamps luminaries,"56 because not every lamp is a luminary.
43. And there was made evening and there was made morning, afourth day (Gn 1:19). If we think of these days which are marked by the rising and the setting of the sun, this was perhaps not the fourth but the first day, so that we may suppose the sun to have risen at the time it was made and to have set at the time the other luminaries were made. But those who understand that the sun is still shining somewhere else when it is night with us, and that it is night somewhere else when the sun is with us, will search out a more sublime manner of counting these days.
Genesis 1:20: Questions aboutfish and birds
14, 44. And God said: Let the waters throw up reptiles oflive souls andflying thingsflying over the earth under the solid structure ofheaven. And thus it was made (Gn 1 :20). Are swimming animals called reptiles because they do not walk on feet, or because there are some which crawl on the earth under the water? After all, there are winged animals in the waters, like fish which have scales, or others which do not have them, but still make their way on wings.57 Whether these should be counted among the flying things in this place may well be doubted, because it is a big question why he also allotted flying things at all to the waters and not to the air. We cannot, I mean, take it here as beingjust those birds which are at home on the water, like divers and ducks and any others of that sort, because if he had just said it about these, he would not have omitted to speak about other birds in another place—among which there are some which are so remote from anything to do with water that they do not even drink.58
Unless maybe he called this air that is contiguous to the land by the name of water, since it proves itself by dew-fall to be damp even on the finest nights, and
56. Sidera; another Latin word for stars, where we in English only have one. 1t can often be translated "constellations," but that would not do here. Substantively, it is tantalizing that Augustine does not explain this omission. 1t is probable that the author refrained from naming sun or moon, or particular planets and stars, because they were important deities, worshipped under those names in Babylon, where this creation narrative was in all probability being put into final shape, during the exile. We have seen grounds for supposing that Augustine himself felt a similar scruple at naming the planet Saturn, preferring the Greek "the Shining one"; notes 39 and 52 above. 57. Augustine had reason to be puzzled by the reptiles, which are introduced into the text by the Greek Septuagint. But it is hard to make sense of his further questions here. Did he mean fins by scales? Did he mean flying fish by those that do not have scales but make their way on wings? Who can say? 58. Another mystery of Augustinian natural history!