26. Book 1,12,26 to 13,27.
204 The Literal Meaning ofGenesis
When were earth and water created?
1 1. 24. And God said, Let the water which is under the heavens be collected together into one collection, and let the dry land appear. And it was made thus. And the water which is under the heavens was collected together into its collec tion, and the dry land appeared. And God called the dry land earth, and the collection ofwater he called sea. And God saw that it was good (Gn 1:9-10). We dealt sufficiently with this work of God in our previous volume, because it was involved with another matter that had to be investigated.26 And so here let me briefly advise any who are not worried by the question of when the specific natures of the waters and the lands were created, simply to take it that the only thing done on this day was the separation of these two lowest elements.
Some people, however, are worried by the question why light and heaven or sky were made on particular days, while water and earth were made outside the count of days or before any days at all, and why those things were made at a word from God, with God saying, Let it be made, while these two were indeed sepa rated at a word from God, but are not found to have been made at a word from God. Well, they do have a way of understanding it that accords with the faith, and here it is: what was said before any counting ofdays, that the earth was invis ible and shapeless, here scripture wasjust setting out what kind ofearth God had made, because it hadjust said, ln the beginning Godmade heaven and earth, and only meant to suggest with these words the formlessness of bodily material. The author chose to give them more familiar names rather than obscure technical ones, afraid that if scripture were to distinguish basic material and specific form in so many words, the thought might creep into slower minds of attempting to separate them also in time, as though first came basic material and then later, after an interval of time, specific form was added to it. ln fact, on the contrary, God created them together and established formed material, while scripture first stated its formlessness with the more familiar names, as l said, of earth or water. Earth and water, you see, even while presenting themselves to our sight as what they are with their specific qualities, are still closer to that formlessness, because of the ease with which they are broken down, than are the heavenly bodies.
But now with the numbering of the days all things formed out of the formless are being counted, and the author has already told of how the sky or heaven was made out of this bodily basic material. So because the sky's specific nature is so very different from that of earthly things, when he comes to what remained to be formed from the basic material in this lowest part of the cosmos, he was unwilling to insert it into the order of things created with the words, Let it be made, since this residual formlessness was not going to receive any such specific form as the sky had been given, but a much inferior and fainter one, closer to the
26. Book 1,12,26 to 13,27.
Book II 205 original formlessness. So it was by the words Let the waters be collected together and Let the dry landappear that these two elements would receive their proper specific appearances, so well known to us, and manageable by us, water so unstable, earth so stable. And that's the reason the former is told to be collected, the latter to appear, because water is a slippery fluid, earth a stable solid.
Why the production of vegetation is included in the work of the third day
12, 25. And God said, Let the earth sprout grass for fodder-bearing seed according to kind and according to likeness, andfruit trees makingfruit, whose seed is in it after its likeness on the earth. And it was made thus. And the earth produced grassforfodder having seed according to its kind and according to likeness, andfruit trees makingfruit, whose seed is in it according to kind on the earth. And Godsaw that it was good. And there was made evening and there was made morning, a third day (Gn 1:11-13). Here we should note the skillful touch of the one who put the text into shape; because grasses and trees are sorts ofcrea tures quite distinct from the specific form of the lands and the waters, and thus cannot be counted among the elements, they are spoken of separately as coming from the earth, and separately given the usual phrases, so that it says And it was made thus, and then what was made is repeated; it is also separately indicated that God saw that it was good. But all the same, because being fixed there by their roots they are continuous with the soil of the earth and entwined in it, he wished these things as well to belong to the same day.
How thefirst three days passed before the lamps in the heavens were made
13, 26. And God said, Let lamps be made in the solid structure ofheaven, in such a way that they may shine upon the earth and may divide between day and night, and may befor signs andfor times andfor days andforyears; and may be for brilliance in the solid structure ofheaven in such a way that they may shine upon the earth. And it was made thus. And God made the two great lamps, the greater lampfor the beginning of the day and the lesser lampfor the beginning of the night, and the stars. And Godplaced them in the solid structure ofheaven in such a way that they might shine upon the earth, and might befor the begin ning of the day and the night, and might divide between the light and the dark ness. And God saw that it was good. And there was made evening and there was made morning, afourth day (Gn 1:14-19).
Coming now to this fourth day, what we have to ask is what the meaning might be of this arrangement, whereby water and earth were made or separated and earth sprouted plants before the heavenly bodies were made in the sky. And