none doubt the veracity but unbelievers or the ungodly, that we were led to the
344 The Literal Meaning ofGenesis though they were not all things that had been produced first—or rather as though they had none of them been produced before. lt does not say, after all, "And God still fashioned from the earth the other beasts of the field and the other flying things of heaven" as though the earth had produced less on the sixth day or the water less on the fifth; but all the beasts, he says, and all theflying things.
And think about this too: how on the one hand God made all things in the six days; on the first the day itself, on the second the solid structure, on the third the appearance of sea and earth and from the earth grass and trees, on the fourth the lamps and constellations, on the fifth aquatic animals, on the sixth terrestrial ones; and how on the other it says later on: When the day was made, God made heaven and earth and all the greenery ofthefield (Gn 2:4-5), seeing that when the day was made28 he made nothing but the day itself. How too did he make all the greenery ofthefield before it was upon the earth, and all the hay ofthefield before it sprang up (Gn 2:5)? Would we not all say, l mean, that the time it was made was when it sprang up, not before it sprang up, unless we called the words of scripture to mind? You must also remember that it is written: The one who livesfor ever created all things simultaneously at once (Sir 18:1), and then ask yourself how things can be said to have been created simultaneously when their creation was spread over intervals of time, not just of hours but of days.
You must undertake as well to show how each of these apparently contradic tory statements can be true: both that God rested on the seventh dayfrom all his works (Gn 2:2), which the book ofGenesis says, and that he is working until now (Jn 5:17), which is what the Lord says. You should take another look too at the things that were said to have been finished, and how in almost the same breath they were said to have been begun.29
42. It was by all these evidences, you see, of the divine scripture, of which none doubt the veracity but unbelievers or the ungodly, that we were led to the necessity of saying that God from the start of the ages first created all things simultaneously together, some already in their established natures, some in their pre-established causes. Thus the Almighty made not only things actually present but also things that were to come in the future, and rested from them as made, so that from then on as he administered and regulated them he would also create the series of times and of time-bound things. And so he had both finished them because of the limit set to all the different kinds of things, and begun them because of the extension of the ages into the future. Thus he could rest because they were finished, and could be working until now because they were begun. But if there is a better way in which this can all be understood, not only shall l make no objection, I shall also be positively in its favor.
28. Back in Gn 1:3-5. 29. Gn 2:1 and 3, in Augustine's version. See Book IV, 1,1 above for his text; 12,22 for his explanation.