8. See the extract from Revisions, section 2, above.
Book I 43 then, before he made light?" Indeed they themselves are in the darkness of igno rance, and that is why they do not understand the light God was in before he made this light. These people, you see, know of no light except the kind they see with the eyes of the flesh. And that is why they worship this sun which we share the sight of, not only with the bigger animals, but also with flies and worms; and they say that it is in a particle of the sun's light that God dwells.
But we for our part should understand that there is another light in which God dwells, from which comes that light about which we read in the gospel: That was the true light, which enlightens everyperson who comes into this world (Jn 1 :9).
I mean, the light of this sun doesn't enlighten every person, but just the human body and its mortal eyes; and here we are completely outclassed by the eyes of eagles, which are said to be able to gaze at the sun much better than we can. That other light, however, does not feed the eyes ofbirds, but the pure hearts ofpeople who trust and believe God and turn from a love of visible and time-bound things to the fulfillment of his commands, which is something all people can do if they wish,8 because that light enlightens every person who comes into this world. Darkness therefore was over the abyss before this visible light was made, about which it goes on to speak next in this place.
Darkness isjust the absence oflight
4, 7. And God said: Let light be made (Gn 1:3), because where there is no light there is darkness; not that darkness is actually something, but that the sheer absence of light is called darkness. Just as silence is not an actual thing, but where there is no sound it is called silence; and nakedness is not an actual thing, but where a body is without clothes it is called nakedness; and emptiness is not actually something, but a place in which there is no material body is said to be empty. That's how darkness is not actually something, but where there is no light, it is called darkness.
The reason I am saying this is that what they are in the habit of saying is: "Where did the actual darkness over the abyss come from, before God made light? Who had made or begotten it? Or if no one had made or begotten it, then darkness was eternal"—as though darkness were an actual something. But, as l have just said, it is the name given to the absence of light.
But they have been taken in by their own fables, and have come to believe that there is a race of darkness, to which bodies belong, in their view, and the forms and souls in those bodies; and that is why they think darkness is an actual some thing; and they fail to understand that darkness is only perceived when we cannot see anything, just as silence is only perceived when we cannot hear
8. See the extract from Revisions, section 2, above.