14. See Book 1, note 12.
198 The Literal Meaning ofGenesis creational formula—if it can rightly be called a formula14—was not alive with co-eternal life in the Word of God co-eternal with the Father; and that is why scripture, before introducing each element of creation in the order in which it says it was established, looks back to the Word of God, and first puts, "God said, Let that thing be made." It could not, you see, find any reason for creating a thing, about which it had not found in the Word of God that it ought to be created.
1 3 . So then, God did not in fact say, "Let this or that creature be made" every single time that the phrase is repeated in this book. And God said. lt was one Word, after all, that he begot, in which he said all things before they were made singly; but the scriptural style comes down to the level of the little ones and adjusts itselfto their capacity by putting before them each single kind ofcreature one by one, and then looking back at the eternal formula ofeach kind in the Word of God. And it was not because that was being repeated that the author all the same repeated And God said.
Suppose, you see, he had wanted to put first, "A solid structure was made in the midst of the waters, to be a division between water and water"; then if someone had asked him how it had been made, he would rightly have answered, God said, Let it be made; that is, it was in the eternal Word of God that it should be made. lt is from that point, therefore, that he begins the story of each thing made, which he would have had to mention in any case as he explained to a ques tioner how it was made even after telling the story of its making.
1 4. So then, when we hear,And God said. Let it be made, we understand that it was in the Word of God that it should be made. When on the other hand we hear, And thus it was made, we understand that the creature on being made did not overstep the limits of its kind prescribed for it in the Word of God. When finally we hear, And God saw that it was good, we understand, not that in the kindness and courtesy of his Spirit it pleased him as something known after it had been made, but rather that in that same goodness where it had pleased him that it should be made, it pleased him that it should remain made.
The meaning of "made "
7, 15. And that still leaves us with one more point to inquire about; why, after saying, And thus it was made, where the completion of the work is already indi cated, he added, And God made. After all, simply by saying, And God said, Let this or that be made; and thus it was made, he has already given us to understand that God said it in his Word, and that it was made through his Word. And this was already enough to indicate not only the person of the Father but also that of the Son. I mean, if it was for the sake of showing the person of the Son that it repeats things, and says, And God made, can that therefore mean that it was not through
14. See Book 1, note 12.
Bookll 199 the Son that the water was collected together on the third day, because it does not say there And God made the waters to be collected together, or "God collected the water"? But even there, in fact, after saying, And it was made thus, he then repeated himself to say, And the water was collected together which was under the heavens (Gn 1 :9).
Again, was the light also not made through the Son, where the writer made no repetitions at all? There too, you see, he could have said, "And God said, Let light be made; and thus it was made; and God made the light and he saw that it was good"—or at the very least, as in the collecting together of the waters, without saying, And God made, he could still have reiterated, "And God said, Let light be made; and thus it was made; and the light was made, and God saw the light that it was good." But without any kind of repetition at all, after stating, And God said, Let light be made, the only thing he added was, And light was made (Gn 1:3); and then he went on to tell about the light giving pleasure and being divided from the darkness and each of them being given their names, without any repetition.
The uncreated Wisdom of the Word impressed as a created light on the angelic intelligence
8, 1 6. So what then is the meaning of this repetition in the other cases? Is it a way of showing that on the first day, on which light was made, the setting up of the spiritual and intelligent creation is being announced under the name of light—the nature of this creation being understood to include all the angels and powers? And the reason he did not repeat the making, after saying, And light was made, is that the rational creation did not first come to a knowledge of its being conformed to the Word,15 and then after that get formed, but in the very act of its conformation it came to knowledge of it, that is, in its being enlightened by the Truth, to which it turned to be formed. With the rest of creation however, which is lower in the scale, things are so created that first of all they are made in the knowledge of the rational creation, and then in their concrete specific kind.
For this reason light was first fashioned in the Word of God in terms of the formula by which it is fashioned, that is, in the Wisdom co-eternal with the Father, and next in the actual fashioning of light in terms of the nature which was fashioned. At the first stage it was not made but begotten; here in the second stage, however, it is made, because formed out of formlessness. And the reason God said, Let light be made; and light was made (Gn 1:3), was so that what was
15. 1 have added "to the Word," which is not in the Latin; but Augustine's shorthand would be puzzling in English. The reader is referred back to Book 1 for the background to what is being said here about the "forming" and "conforming" of the spiritual creation: 3,7; 5, 10,1 1 ; 9.17.