we are to understand that Let light be made was said, a movement produced by
Book I 175 made, and on which the light itself was made, belong to that day? But every such voice is produced by the speaker on account of some listener' s sense of hearing; this, l mean, has been so made as to perceive vibrations in the air. And so did that, whatever it was, invisible and shapeless matter have a sense ofhearing, to which God could thus bellow and say, Let light be made? Well then, perish this absur dity from any thoughtful mind!
17. So was there some spiritual but still time-measured movement by which we are to understand that Let light be made was said, a movement produced by the eternal God through the co-eternal Word in the spiritual creation, which he had already made when, as it says, ln the beginning Godmade heaven and earth; produced, that is, in that heaven of heaven? Or is this utterance too to be under stood as not only made without any sound but also without any time-measured movement of the spiritual creation, while being somehow or other fixed and impressed on its mind and reason, by the Word, co-eternal with the Father, so that then, following this utterance, that lower, dark and unformed corporeal nature would be set in motion and turned toward the appropriate species, and light would be made?
But this really is problematic; here we have the spiritual creation which in its contemplation ofTruth is beyond all time, and God giving an order outside time, and the spiritual creation hearing it outside time, but having these formulae9 mentally impressed upon it from God's unchanging Wisdom like so many intel ligible utterances, and then transmitting them to lower levels so that time-measured movements should be set up in time-measured things, whether for giving them specific form or for controlling them; how this could happen it is practically impossible to grasp. lf, however, light, which was the first thing of which it was said that it should be made, and then it was made, is also to be taken as holding the first place in creation, then it is itself that intellectual, intelligent life, which would be in a formlessly fluid state unless it turned to the creator to be enlightened. But when it did turn to him and was enlightened, then that happened which was said in the Word of God: Let light be made (Gn 1 :3).
How day number one was spent
10, 18. Nonetheless, if this was said timelessly, because time has no place in the Word, co-eternal with the Father, someone may perhaps wonder whether it also happened timelessly. But how can this be supposed, when after the light was made and divided from the darkness and they were labeled "day" and "night," scripture goes on to say: And there was made evening, and there was made morning, one day (Gn 1 :5)? From this it appears that this work of God took up
9. Rationes in the Latin; a word that will almost dominate this whole treatise, and for which no single satisfactory translation can be provided.