in which according to the evidence of scripture God has arranged all things, have
248 The Literal Meaning ofGenesis
10. But now ifanyone wishes to say that the measure and number and weight, in which according to the evidence of scripture God has arranged all things, have been created, then if he arranged all things in them, what did he arrange these three things in? If in some other things, then how did he arrange all things in them, when he arranged them in other things? So then there can be no doubt that these three in which all things were arranged were not themselves among the things that were arranged.
The idea ofmeasure and number and weight, with reference to which all things were arranged, is there in God himself
5, 1 1 . Or shall we perhaps assume that it says, You arranged all things in measure and number and weight (Wis 1 1:20), with the meaning of "You so arranged all things that they would have measure and number and weight"? Because if it said, "You have arranged bodies in colors," it would not also follow from this that the very Wisdom of God, through whom all things were made (Jn
1 :3), was to be understood as having first had in herself the colors in which she would make bodies. No, this is how it would be taken: "You have arranged all bodies in colors," as much as to say, "You have so arranged all bodies that they would have colors"—as if, I ask you, all bodies could be understood to have been arranged by God the creator in colors, that is, so arranged that they should be colored, in any other way than by there being some idea in the very Wisdom of the one so arranging them of the colors to be distributed to every single kind of body, even if this idea was not there called color. That, you see, is what I was saying, that provided the reality is granted, there is no need to sweat about words.
12. So then, let us suppose for the sake of argument that it said, You have arranged all things in measure and number and weight, as though it meant that they were so arranged that they would have their own proper measures and their own proper numbers and their own proper weight, which would change in them in keeping with the character of each kind of thing, by growing and shrinking, increasing and diminishing in number, becoming lighter and heavier, in accor dance with God's arrangements; does that mean that as these things change, we have to say God' s plan is changeable in which he arranges them? May he himself ward off such madness!
6. So then,17 since these things were so arranged that they would all have their own measures and numbers and weights, where did the one who was arranging them perceive them himself? Not outside himself, to be sure, as we perceive bodies with our eyes, since clearly they were not even there yet, when they were
17. This chapter heading in the Maurist edition seems totally superfluous; 1 keep it purely for reference—as indeed 1 infer the Maurists did themselves, after finding it in earlier editions. They put it in the middle of section 12, giving no number to the paragraph that follows.