20. See note 3 above, and book 1,19,39.
Book II 201
19. So therefore, once light has been made, by which we understand the rational creation formed by the eternal light, whenever we hear in the creation of all the rest And God said, Let it be made, we should understand that scripture is turning its gaze back to the eternity of God's Word. When, though, we hear "And thus it was made," we are to understand that in the intelligent creation knowledge is being produced of the formula or idea, which is in the Word of God, of the creature to be fashioned; so this creature, in a certain manner, was first made in the kind of being which by a certain previous movement towards the very Word ofGod19 first recognized it as due to be made. So finally, when we hear it repeated and said that "God made this and that," we are now to understand the actual creature being made in its own specific nature. Lastly, when we hear And Godsaw that it was good, we are to understand that God in his courtesy took pleasure in what had been made, so that it might remain in being in the manner proper to its kind, seeing that it had been his pleasure that it should be made, when the Spirit of God was being borne over the water (Gn 1 :2).
On the shape of the sky
9, 20. The question is also commonly asked what we have to believe, according to our scriptures, is the shape and form of the sky. Many people, you see, have many arguments about these points, which our authors with greater good sense passed over as not holding out the promise of any benefit to those wishing to learn about the blessed life, and, what is worse, as taking up much precious time that should be spent on more salutary matters. What concern is it of mine, after all, whether the sky encloses the earth like a globe on every side, with the earth held level as the diameter of the total mass of the world, or whether it covers it on one side from above, like a lid? But because the trustworthiness of the scriptures is here in question, this, as I have reminded readers more than once, has to be defended from those who do not understand the style of the divine utterances, and who assume when they find anything on these matters in our books, or hear them read out from them, which seems to be contrary to explana tions they have worked out, that they should not place any confidence in the scriptures, when they foretell or warn or tell them about other useful things.20 It
19. 1 here emend quodam motu in ipso Dei Verbo, a certain movement in the very Word of God, to quodam motu in ipsum Dei Verbum. Augustine will in due course go on to describe the "movements" of the angelic mind first to the Word of God and then to creatures in themselves, which he will term respectively the angels' "morning knowledge" and "evening knowledge." He would never talk about movement in the Word of God. Assuming that he was dictating this work, or in any case that in the course of its transmission it was dictated to copyists, we must never forget that ipso Verbo and ipsum Verbum would have been pronounced in almost exactly the same way. 20. See note 3 above, and book 1,19,39.