as mist has appeared, is not absolutely shapeless and without form.
1 80 The Literal Meaning of Genesis torrents, and in this way dry land could have appeared in those parts from which the wet had departed.
27. Basic material, however, in which even something as minimally specific as mist has appeared, is not absolutely shapeless and without form.
When had earth and water been created?
13. And therefore the question can still be asked: when did God create these visible species and qualities of the waters and the lands of the earth; l mean, there is no record of them in any of the six days. And so suppose that he did it before any day, according to what is written before these first days are mentioned: ln the beginning God made heaven and earth (Gn 1:1). So we could understand by the word "earth" the earth species already formed and in essence visible, but with the waters manifestly covering all of it. Then we would not think of any form lessness of basic material in the words of scripture which follow: Now the earth was invisible and shapeless, and there was darkness over the abyss; and the Spirit of God was being borne over the water (Gn 1 :2), but of earth and water without light (which had not yet been made), but established with those qualities we are now so familiar with. So we could take it that the reason the earth was said to be invisible was that being covered with water it could not be seen, even if there had been anyone there to see it, while the reason it was called shapeless was that it had not yet been distinguished from the sea and girded with its shores and embellished with its fruits and animals.
So if that is the case, why were these particular species, which are unques tionably bodily, made before any day? Why does the text not run: "God said, Let the earth be made; and the earth was made," and again, "God said, Let the water be made; and the water was made"? Or both of them together, if they are both contained under what you could call the law of the lowest place: "God said, Let the earth and water16 be made; and thus it was made"?
14. Why does it not say, when this had been done, "God saw that it was good"?
Why did God not "see that it was good" after creating formless matter, in verse 2?
28. It is, after all, obvious (that everything changeable is given form or shape out of something lacking form or shape) and at the same time Catholic faith prescribes and reason indubitably teaches that there could have been no basic material for any specific natures, unless it came from God the initiator and
16. The CSEL text omits "and water," which is there in the Maurist text—and required by the general sense of the passage. 1n neither edition is there any note in the apparatus, so 1 conclude that the CSEL omission is merely the result of a printer's oversight.