sixth day. Perhaps, that is to say, the man may have been made on the sixth day
Book V1
Genesis 2:7: The creation of the man from the dust of the earth
Two possible ways of reading this text; first the way of recapitulating the work of the sixth day
1,1. And Godfashioned the man, dustfrom the earth, and blew into hisface the puffoflife. And the man was made into a living soul (Gn 2:7). Here the first thing to be looked into is whether this is recapitulating what we read about the making of the man on the sixth day, so that now we are being told how he was made; or whether on the day when God made all things simultaneously, he also made the man among them, like the hay of the earth before it had sprung up. ln this case the man too, after being already made in some secret workshop of nature in another manner, like all the things which God created simultaneously "when the day was made," would with the onset of time also be made in this manner in which he now passes his life in this visible form, whether well or badlyJust as the hay, which was made before it had sprung up on the earth, now sprang up with the onset oftime and the irrigation provided by that spring, so that it might be upon the earth.1
2. So first of all then, let us try taking it as going back and recapitulating the sixth day. Perhaps, that is to say, the man may have been made on the sixth day just as the day itself was originally made, as the solid structure, as the earth and the sea. We should not say of these, after all, that after being already made in some kind of starting process they were stored away and only later, with the onset of time, burgeoned clearly into this visible appearance which the finished
1 . He does not make himself very clear about the difference between the two ways he proposes of reading this verse. At first it looks as ifone way is to read it as the amplification of what God did on the sixth day, while the other is to read it as saying that the man was also included in all the things that God made simultaneously on the one and only day of creation, "when the day was made" (Gn 2:4). But Augustine is not in fact retreating from the position he established in Book V that God indeed created all things simultaneously on that one day, and that the six days ofGn
1 are so many "repetitions" of this one and only day ofcreation. So the alternative to reading the verse as recapitulating what is said about creating the man on the sixth repetition of the one day is to read it as stating something that God did after setting time in motion, after "the onset of time," which in Book V.7,20 Augustine considered to have started with the spring coming up from the earth (Gn 2:6).
302 The Literal Meaning ofGenesis universe presents, but rather that from the starting point of the ages, "when the day was made," the whole universe was established, and that simultaneously among its component elements were established those things that would start burgeoning with the onset of time, whether vegetation or animals, all of them according to their kind.
lt is not to be thought of, surely, that the very constellations, after being origi nally made, were stored away among the elements of the universe, and emerged later on with the onset of time, to blaze forth into the forms which now shine in the sky, but rather that they were all created simultaneously in the sequence of that perfect number six, "when the day was made." So the question is whether the man too was already made like that in the actual form in which he lives his natural life and spends it either well or badly, or whether he also was made in some secret workshop, like the hay of the field before it sprang up, so that his being made from the dust would be for him to burgeon later on with the onset of time.
Difficulties about this way
2, 3. Let us try taking it then as meaning that he was molded from mud on that actual sixth day in this familiar visible shape, but that this was not mentioned then, and is now being put to us by way of recapitulation, and let us see whether scripture itself agrees with us. This certainly is what was written, when the story of the sixth day's works was still being told: And God said: Let us make man to our image and likeness; and let him have authority over thefishes of the sea and theflying things ofheaven and all cattle and all the earth and all crawling things which crawl over the earth. And Godmade the man, to the image of God he made him; male andfemale he made them, andGod blessed them saying: lncrease and multiply andfill the earth and lord itover it, and have authority over thefishes of the sea and the flying things ofheaven and all cattle and all the earth and all reptiles crawling over the earth (Gn l:26-28).2 So then, he had already been formed from mud, already put to sleep for the woman to be made from his side; but this had not been mentioned, and was mentioned at this point by way ofreca pitulation.
Well, but on the sixth day it was not that the male was made, and the woman made later on with the onset of time; but, He made him, it says; male andfemale he made them and blessed them. So how then, with the man already placed in Paradise, was the woman made for him? Or had this also been left out, for scrip ture to recall at this point? In that case. Paradise was also planted on the sixth day
2. 1t looks as if Augustine was here using a different manuscript or codex ofGenesis from the one he used when he first transcribed this passage, Bk 111,19,29 above. The differences in this translation follow differences in the Latin text.