weak and mortal"—nonsense!
144 Unfinished Literal Commentary on Genesis kind" was said of those creatures which renew themselves by seminal propaga tion; it has already been said, 1 mean, of grasses and trees. And every winged flying thing. Why did it add winged? Can there be a flying thing that does not have wings? But ifthere can be, did God not make this kind also, since there is no mention of when it was made? Or is it possible at all, in fact, for anything to fly without wings? Because even bats and locusts and flies and anything else of that sort which lacks feathers does not lack wings. But winged was added so that we should not only understand birds, since fishes too are winged and fly over the earth under the waters. That is why it did not say "birds" but "and every winged flying thing," meaning flying things generally. And God saw that it was good. This too is to be understood as in the other places.
Genesis 1:22
50. And God blessed them, saying: Grow and multiply andfill the waters of the sea; and letflying things multiply upon the earth (Gn 1 :22). He wished the blessing to avail for fecundity, which shows itself in the succession of offspring, so that through this blessing, because64 they were created weak and mortal, they might preserve their kind by giving birth. But since plants also keep the likeness of the species going by reproduction, why did he not bless them? Is it because they lack sensation, which is akin to reason? It is not without point, perhaps, that God uses the second person in blessing, in order after a fashion to constrain these animals, as though they could hear him saying Grow and multiply andfill the waters of the sea. And yet it does not continue in that person to the end of the blessing; it goes on, you see, and letflying things multiply upon the earth; he did not say, "Multiply upon the earth," unless maybe this is a way of signifying that the senses of animals are not sufficiently akin to reason for them to be able perfectly to grasp what he is constraining them to do, like things that have intelli gence and can make use of reason.
Final proofthat the days ofcreation are not days in the ordinary sense
5 1 . And thus it was made (Gn 1:22). Here, surely, anyone slow on the uptake should finally wake up to understanding what sort of days are being counted here. God after all has given animals definite numbers for their seed, which maintain a wonderful consistency in their definite order, so that for a definite number of days those ofeach kind both carry their young in the womb and sit on their eggs to warm and hatch them; this natural regulation is maintained by God' s wisdom, which stretchesfrom end to end mightily and disposes all things
64. Reading quia with the Maurists, instead of the CSEL text'squa, "by which they were created weak and mortal"—nonsense!