version of the bible; but where Augustine's bible used the word for anything created, we will
Book I 41 had not made, seeing that he is the one who forges all times? And iftime began to be together with heaven and earth, no time can be found in which God had not yet made heaven and earth.
Why did it suddenly take his fancy? The question assumes that a lot of time had passed in which God had not constructed anything. But after all, no time, which God had not yet made, could have passed, since the constructor of times must be there before the times. Now the Manichees themselves certainly also read the apostle Paul, and praise him and hold him in honor; and by misinter preting his letters they lead many people astray. So let them tell us why the apostle Paul said: ... the recognition of the truth that accords with the loving kindness of God unto the hope ofeternal life, which the non-lying Godpromised before eternal times (Ti 1 : 1-2); what, I mean to say, could eternal times have had before them? This therefore is what they should be forced to explain, so that they may understand that they do not understand, when they thoughtlessly try to find fault with something about which they should instead have been making earnest inquiries.
4. If, however, they do not say, "Why did it suddenly take God's fancy to make heaven and earth?" but leave out the "suddenly," andjust say, "Why did it take God's fancy to make heaven and earth?"5—you see, we do not say that this world is the same age as God, because the eternity of this world is not the same as the eternity of God. God, to be sure, made the world, and thus times began with the very creation that God made; and that's why times are called eternal.6 All the same, times are not eternal in the same way as God is eternal, because God, being the constructor of times, is before all times. It's like all the things God made being verygood (Gn 1 :3 1 ); but they are not good in the same way as God is good, because he is the one who made, while they were what was made. Nor did he beget them from himself, to be what he is himself, but he made them out of nothing, so that they would not be equal either to him by whom they were made, or to his Son through whom they were made; and that is as it should be.7
So then, if these people ever say, "Why did it take God's fancy to make heaven and earth?" the answer to be given them is that those who desire to know God's will should first set about learning the force of the human will. You see,
5. He does not complete the sentence, but goes into a long digression about the difference between God' s eternity and the eternity of time. But he repeats this "if' clause, and answers the question at the beginning of the next paragraph. 6. One will not find them, or the world or anything in it, called eternal in any modern English version of the bible; but where Augustine's bible used the word for anything created, we will sometimes find the word "everlasting" used; for instance, of the everlasting mountains (Ps 76:4), or phrases like "from age to age" or "for ever." 7. Literally, "for it is just"; justum est enim. 1t really looks as if a longer sentence has been cut off at this point, either in transmission, or else because Augustine was distracted by something while dictating, or because his mind suddenly went back to the question he started this section with, and to which he now returns.