inserted clause when the day was made, should extort the admission from
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
278 The Literal Meaning of Genesis stood here; so one may well ask why he added and all the greenery ofthefield (Gn 2:5). The reason it was put in, so it seems to me, was to drive home the point of precisely what sort ofday he was drawing our attention to, when he said when the day was made. One could readily jump to the conclusion, after all, that this day of bodily light was meant, which goes round and round to provide us with the alternations ofday-time and night-time. But then we recall the order in which things were fashioned, and find that all the greenery of the field was created on the third day, before the sun was made on the fourth day, the sun which regulates by its presence this everyday normal day we are used to. So when we hear the words, When the day was made, God made heaven and earth and all the greenery of the field, we are being admonished to turn our thoughts to that special day we should be striving to track down with our minds, which even if it is a physical day of goodness knows what kind of light quite beyond our ken, or (as we have been arguing) a spiritual day in the harmonious unity of the angels' mutual companionship, is certainly not such as the one we are familiar with here.
The precise wording of the narrative gives us to understand that all things were created simultaneously
3, 5. We would also be keeping strictly to our point ifwe took a glance at what he could have said, compared with what he actually did say. He could have said, after all, This is the book of the creating ofheaven and earth, when God made heaven and earth, where by "heaven and earth" we would also understand everything in them in the way divine scripture is in the habit of speaking. By "heaven and earth," sometimes adding "and sea," it indicates time and again the whole of creation, occasionally also adding and everything in them. So which ever of these he said, we would understand the day to be included, whether the one which he originally fashioned, or this one made by the presence of the sun. But that is not what he did say; no, he inserted the day separately, saying: when the day was made (Gn 2:4).
Nor did he speak like this, and say, "This is the book of the creating of the day and of heaven and earth," as in the order in which we were told things were made;2 nor like this: "This is the book of the creating of heaven and earth, when the day was made and heaven and earth, when God made heaven and earth and all the greenery of the field"; nor like this: "This is the book of the creating ofheaven and earth, when God made the day and heaven and earth and all the greenery of the field"; nor like this: "This is the book of the creating of heaven and earth; God made the day and heaven and earth and all the greenery of the field." While the ordinary way ofspeaking, after all, would have required some such turns ofphrase
2. 1n the six-day account of creation, day (light) first, then heaven (the firmament or solid structure), then earth and sea; Gn 1:3-10.