4. See Gn 4:1.
Book VIII 347 things are being said with which ordinary human life has made us quite familiar, and so it is not difficult, indeed it is the obvious thing to do, to take them first in their literal sense, and then to chisel out from them what future realities the actual events described may figuratively stand for. Here on the other hand, because things are being said which do not meet the gaze of eyes fixed on the ordinary course of nature, some people think they should not be understood in their proper sense, butjust figuratively, and they suggest that history, that is, the account of events that actually happened, begins from the moment when Adam and Eve, turned out of Paradise, came together and had children4—as though forsooth we are quite familiar with people living as many years as they did, or with things like Enoch being taken, or a very old and barren woman giving birth, and other things of that sort!5
3. "But the telling of marvelous deeds," they say, "is one thing, quite another the telling of the establishment of creation; in the first case, after all, the unusual events themselves make it clear that natural occurrences are one thing, miracles another—these are also called mighty works (Acts 2:11; Ps 71:19; Ps 106:21, etc.). But here we are being told about the actual institution ofcreated natures."
To which the answer is: "But this too is unusual, precisely because it comes first. What, l ask you, is so unique and without parallel in the set-up of things of this world as the world itself? So must we assume that God did not make the world just because he is not still making worlds, or that he did not make the sun because he is not still making suns?"
This in fact is the answer one should give to those who are bothered about the man himself, not about Paradise. But now, while these people believe that the man was made by God in a way no other has been made, why are they not prepared to believe that the paradise was made in the the same way as they now see woods being made?
4. 1 am addressing, of course, those who accept the authority of these writ ings; some of them, you see, are not prepared to have Paradise understood liter ally and properly, but only figuratively. As for those who are altogether opposed to these writings, l have dealt with them elsewhere and in another way,6 although here in this work of ours too we are defending their literal meaning to the best of our ability in such a way that those who, prompted by an obstinate orjust stupid turn of mind, unreasonably refuse to believe these things may still find no grounds at all on which to convict them of being false.
But as for these people of ours, who have faith in these divine books and are not prepared to have Paradise understood according to the proper literal sense—as a most delightful place, that is, shady with groves of fruit trees and
4. See Gn 4:1. 5. See Gn 5, passim: especially 5:24; and the story of Sarah, Gn 18:9-15 and 21:1-7. 6. On Genesis: A Refutation of the Manichees, 11. which he will shortly be quoting.