solid structure when he had created it, together with all the bodies in it; and the
Book V 277
2. So then, the heaven being mentioned here is the one which God called the solid structure when he had created it, together with all the bodies in it; and the earth is the one which with all the things in it was allotted the place at the bottom with the abyss. He goes on, you see, to add, God made heaven and earth, so that both by putting the name of heaven and earth first, before mentioning the making of the day, and by repeating it again when he had mentioned it, he is not allowing us to assume that he has now named heaven and earth in the same way as in the begin ning, before the day had been created. This, after all, is how he wove his words together: This is the book of the creating ofheaven and earth when the day was made God made heaven and earth; so should anybody wish to understand what is placed first, the book of the creating ofheaven and earth, in the same way as it said ln the beginning Godmade heaven and earth (Gn 1:1) before he fashioned the day, just because here too heaven and earth are first mentioned and next the day is made, they would be put right by the words that follow, because the name of heaven and earth is also added again after the mention of the making of the day.
3. Though as a matter of fact, the use of the conjunction when here in the inserted clause when the day was made, should extort the admission from anyone inclined to be argumentative that no other understanding of the text is possible. Had it been inserted, you see, so as to read, "This is the book of the creating of heaven and earth; the day was made; God made heaven and earth;" then you could perhaps maintain that "the book of the creating of heaven and earth" is being said in the same way as ln the beginning God made heaven and earth before the day was fashioned; and that then the day was made is addedjust as there it went on to tell of how God made the day; and that finally it immedi ately goes on to say God made heaven and earth, as though now it is just like all these things being made in the earlier account after the fashioning of the day.
But in fact it is inserted as a temporal clause, to read when the day was made, whether you connect it with the previous words to make one sentence: This is the book of the creating ofheaven and earth, when the day was made; or with those that come next, again to make a complete sentence: When the day was made, God made heaven and earth. ln this way he is obliging us beyond a shadow of doubt to understand that he has mentioned how heaven and earth were made when the day was made. Next, after saying God made heaven and earth, it adds, and all the greenery of the field, which was manifestly made on the third day. This makes it more limpidly clear than ever that this is the one and only day that God made, and that it was by the repetition of it that the second and the third and the rest were made, up to the seventh day.
Why the addition of "the greenery of the field"
2, 4. Now by the expression "heaven and earth" the author, according to the normal style of the scriptures, clearly wishes the whole of creation to be under