being overwhelmed in theflood. But he is interpreting it in the light of the next verse which
Book 111 217
That the heavens were destroyed in theflood means that the air was transformed into the nature of water
2, 2. That these airy heavens were also once destroyed by the flood is some thing we are told in one of those letters which are called canonical.3 That wet element, after all, which had increased in density and quantity to such an extent that it topped the peaks of the highest mountains by fifteen cubits,4 could not reach as far as the stars. But because it had filled the whole or almost the whole space of this more humid air in which the birds fly, it is written in that letter that the heavens which had existed then were destroyed. l do not see how this can be understood to have happened except by the quality of this denser air being turned into the nature of water; otherwise, these heavens were not destroyed at that time, but were pushed up higher, since water was occupying their place. And so it is easier for us to believe on the authority of this letter that they were indeed destroyed and others, as it says there, put in their place (this by means of exten sive exhalations), than that they were pushed up higher in such a way that the naturally loftier heaven had to give up its place to them.
3. No, to populate this lower section of the cosmos, which is often referred to in its entirety by the name of "earth," it was right that animals should first be produced from the waters and later on from the earth. For this it was necessary that air should have such an affinity to water that it could be shown to be condensed from its exhalations, and so could both effect the spirit of the storm (Ps 107:25), that is, could assemble wind and clouds, and also sustain the flight of birds. What one of the secular poets has said may of course be true: "Above the clouds Olympus soars," and "The heights there know peace,"5 because the
3. He is referring to 2 Pt 3:6, which actually says. The world that then existed was destroyed by being overwhelmed in theflood. But he is interpreting it in the light of the next verse which says, But the heavens and the earth that now exist have been stored upfor thefire. He explains this interpretation in detail in his City ofGodXX, 1 8, which was of course written about twenty years later. His calling this letter one of the canonical letters is rather odd; these non-Pauline letters, of James, Peter, John, and Jude, are traditionally known as the Catholic epistles, meaning that they were addressed to the universal Church, or the Church in general, not to any particular local Churches. 4. See Gn 7:20. A cubit, the length of the forearm from the elbow to the tip of the middle finger, is roughly 1 8 inches. 1t ought to be the same measure as the archaic English ell, also related to the elbow. But the ell, at least the English ell so the dictionary informs us, is 45 inches; it probably meant first of all the length ofcloth that could be held in the crook of one' s arm, which is ulna in Latin; and this as a measure, being what could be grasped in the crook of both arms, was according to Lewis & Short, quoting Pliny, a fathom, 6 feet. 5. Lucan, Pharsalia, 2,27 1 .273; reading in the second part of the quotation Pacem summa tenent, with the Maurists and the text of William Walker's Corpus Poetarum Latinorum (London,
1875), 61 1 ; instead of Pacem magna tenent with the CSEL and Weber's edition of Lucan's work: "Great things know peace." But with the immediately preceding reference to Olympus, "the heights" makes better sense—at least as far as Augustine was concerned, if not Lucan himself, who does insert a sentence between the two phrases quoted which makes magna, in contrast with minima, in that sentence slightly more probable than summa.