the roots of a vine, it is led up into the vine-stock as rich nourishment, and there
314 The Literal Meaning ofGenesis shapes of his limbs, but rather with respect to his standing up vertically, his head towards the sky, in order to gaze at those things that are sublime in the body of the universe itself,just as the rational soul ought to straighten itselfup to look at what is most excellent in the spiritual realm, in order to savor the things thatare above, not the things that are on the earth (Col 3:2).
13, 23. But in what manner did God make him from the mud of the earth? Was it straightaway as an adult, that is, as a young man in the prime of life? Or was it as he forms human beings from then until now in their mothers' wombs? There is no one else, after all, who does this but the one who said, Before lformedyou in the womb, l knew you (Jer 1 :5), so that the only thing proper to Adam was that he was not born of parents but made from earth; so was this done in such a way that by growing up through "the ages of man," he would complete the number of years which we see that nature has allotted to the human race? Or is this a matter, rather, which it is not our business to inquire about? Whichever of these he did, after all, he did what was in the power of a God both omnipotent and wise, and what befitted him to do.
While he set the proper times, I mean, for different kinds and qualities of things to develop from a latent to a manifest state of being, he in no way abdi cated the supremacy over everything of his will. That is, he gave creation its numerical rhythms by his power; he did not bind his power to these same numer ical rhythms. His Spirit, you see, was so borne over the world in the making,17 that it continued also to be borne over it once made, in terms not of place or space but of supereminent authority.
24. ls anybody unaware, I mean, that when water mixed with earth comes to the roots of a vine, it is led up into the vine-stock as rich nourishment, and there takes on the quality with which it goes on into the budding bunch of grapes, and becomes wine as this grows, and sweetens the wine as it matures, which still has to ferment when it is pressed out, and left to settle and age until it is fit to drink with real profit and pleasure? Does that mean that the Lord had to go looking for a vine or earth or these set intervals of time, when with a wonderful conciseness he turned water into wine, and such wine as even a tipsy table guest could praise?18 Did the one who instituted time need the help of time?
ls not a definite number of days, appropriate to each species, required for every kind of snake to be conceived, formed, hatched, reach full growth? Were these days looked for to turn the rod in the hand of Moses and Aaron into a serpent?19 And when these things happen they are not happening against nature except from our point of view, to which the course of nature appears from a
17. SeeGn 1:2. 18. See Jn 2:7-10. 19. See Ex 4:3; 7: 10.