Summa.
Confessions
§1My heart busies itself with many things, Lord, in this poverty of my life. It is struck by the words of your holy Scripture. And so human understanding often shows its great need even in abundant speech. Our searching speaks more than our finding does. Our asking lasts longer than our receiving does. The hand that knocks works harder than the hand that takes what is given. We hold your promise. Who can destroy it?"If God is for us, who can be against us? Ask and you will receive. Seek and you will find. Knock and it will be opened to you. For everyone who asks receives. The one who seeks finds. To the one who knocks it will be opened."These are your promises. Who should fear being deceived when Truth itself makes the promise?
Chapter 2. Of the Double Heaven — The Visible, and the Heaven of Heavens.
§2My humble tongue confesses to your greatness that you made heaven and earth. This heaven that I see and this earth that I walk on—where did this earth that I carry come from? You made it. But where is the heaven of heavens, Lord, which we heard about in the voice of the Psalm:"The heaven of heavens belongs to the Lord, but the earth he has given to the children of men"? Where is the heaven that we cannot see, compared to which all this earth that we do see exists? This entire physical realm did not receive its beautiful form everywhere equally in these latest times. Our earth forms its foundation. But compared to that heaven of heavens, even the heaven of our earth is earth. Both of these great bodies can reasonably be called earth when set against that heaven—I know not what kind—that belongs to the Lord and not to the children of men.
Chapter 3. Of the Darkness Upon the Deep, and of the Invisible and Formless Earth.
§3And indeed this earth was invisible and unformed. There was some kind of depth of the abyss with no light over it. No form existed for it. Therefore you commanded it to be written that darkness was over the abyss. What else could this mean but the absence of light? Where would light be if it existed? It would stand out by rising above and giving illumination. So where light was not yet present, what did the presence of darkness mean except the absence of light? Darkness was above because light was absent from above. It is like sound—where sound does not exist, there is silence. And what does it mean for silence to be there except that sound is not there? Have you not taught this soul that confesses to you, O Lord? Have you not taught me, O Lord, that before you formed and distinguished this unformed matter, nothing existed? There was no color, no shape, no body, no spirit. Yet it was not absolutely nothing. There was a certain formlessness without any definite character.
Chapter 4. From the Formlessness of Matter, the Beautiful World Has Arisen.
§4What then should it be called? How could it be suggested to minds that are slower to understand? It needed some familiar word. But what can be found in all parts of the world that comes closer to complete formlessness than earth and the abyss? These are less beautiful than all the other things above them. Those higher things shine clearly and brightly according to their elevated rank. Why then should I not accept that the formlessness of matter has been revealed to humans in the most fitting way? You had made this matter without form. From it you would make the beautiful world. It was called"the earth invisible and unformed."
Chapter 5. What May Have Been the Form of Matter.
§5When thought searches within itself to discover what the senses can reach, it speaks to itself."Form cannot be understood like life or justice, because it belongs to physical bodies. Nor can it be perceived by the senses, because what is seen and felt does not exist in the invisible and simple realm."While human thought tells itself these things, it tries either to know form by not knowing it, or to remain ignorant by knowing it.
Chapter 6. He Confesses that at One Time He Himself Thought Erroneously of Matter.
§6Lord, if I were to confess to you with my voice and pen everything you have taught me about this matter, who among my readers could endure it? I used to hear the name of this thing without understanding it. Those who told me about it didn't understand it either. So I imagined it as having countless different forms. That meant I wasn't really thinking about it at all. My mind kept picturing ugly and horrible shapes in confused arrangements. But these were still shapes. I called it formless—not because it lacked form, but because it had the kind of form that would repel my senses if it appeared. It would seem so strange and wrong that it would disturb my human weakness. What I was actually thinking about wasn't formless because it lacked all form. It was formless only compared to more beautiful things. True reasoning told me that if I really wanted to think about the completely formless, I had to strip away every last trace of any form whatsoever. But I couldn't do it. I found it easier to think that something stripped of all form simply wouldn't exist. So instead I imagined something between the formed and nothing—neither formed nor nothing, but formless and almost nothing. Then my mind stopped asking questions. My spirit had been full of images of formed bodies. It kept changing and varying these images at will. I focused instead on the bodies themselves. I looked more deeply at how they change—how they stop being what they were and begin being what they weren't. I suspected that this same transition from form to form happens through something formless. It doesn't happen through absolute nothingness. But I wanted to know this, not just suspect it. Even if my voice and pen confessed to you everything you have untangled for me about this question, who among my readers could grasp it? Even so, my heart will not stop giving you honor and songs of praise for things I cannot adequately put into words. The changeability of changeable things—this is what can receive all the forms into which changeable things are changed. But what is this changeability? Is it mind? Is it body? Is it some appearance of mind or body? If I could say"nothing something"and"is is not,"that's what I would call it. And yet somehow it already existed so that it could receive these visible and complex forms.
Chapter 7. Out of Nothing God Made Heaven and Earth.
§7From wherever it came, it could only have come from you, since all things exist only insofar as they come from you. But the more unlike you something is, the farther it stands from you. This distance is not measured in places. Therefore you, Lord, are not one thing at one time and another thing at another time. You are not one way now and another way later. You are the same and the same and the same. Holy, Holy, Holy, Lord God Almighty. In the Beginning, which comes from you, in your Wisdom, which was born from your substance, you made something from nothing. You made heaven and earth. You did not make them from yourself, for then they would have been equal to your Only-Begotten Son and therefore equal to you. It would have been utterly wrong for anything not made from you to be equal to you. There was nothing else besides you from which you could make these things, O God who is one Trinity and three-fold Unity. Therefore you made heaven and earth from nothing. You made one great thing and one small thing. You are almighty and good, able to make all good things. You made the great heaven and the small earth. You existed, and there was nothing else from which you made heaven and earth. These are two things. One is close to you, the other is close to nothing. One exists so that you might be above it. The other exists so that nothing might be below it.
Chapter 8. Heaven and Earth Were Made In the Beginning; Afterwards the World, During Six Days, from Shapeless Matter.
§8But that heaven of heavens belongs to you, Lord. The earth that you gave to the sons of men to see and touch was not like what we now see and touch. It was invisible and unformed. An abyss existed over which there was no light. Or rather, darkness was over the abyss. This means the darkness was above the abyss more than it was in the abyss. The abyss of waters that we can now see has some kind of light perceptible to the senses even in its depths. Fish and creatures crawling on the bottom can sense this light. But that original abyss was almost nothing at all. It was still completely without form. Yet it already existed as something that could be given form. You, Lord, made the world from formless matter. You made this formless matter from nothing. It was almost nothing itself. From this almost-nothing you made the great things that we sons of men now marvel at. This physical heaven is truly marvelous. On the second day after you created light, you said"Let there be a firmament between water and water."And so it was made. You called this firmament heaven. But this was the heaven belonging to this earth and sea that you made on the third day. On that day you gave visible form to the formless matter you had made before any day existed. You had already made heaven before any day existed. But this was the heaven of this present heaven. In the beginning you made heaven and earth. The earth itself that you made was formless matter. It was invisible and unformed. Darkness was over the abyss. From this invisible and unformed earth you would make all these things. From this formlessness you would create from this almost-nothing. All these things make up this changeable world. The world both exists and does not exist. In it this very changeability appears. Through this changeability times can be felt and counted. Times come into being through the changes of things. Times exist while forms vary and turn. The matter of these forms is that invisible earth we spoke of.
Chapter 9. That the Heaven of Heavens Was an Intellectual Creature, But that the Earth Was Invisible and Formless Before the Days that It Was Made.
§9Therefore the teaching Spirit of your servant remains silent about times when he recalls that you made heaven and earth in the beginning. He says nothing about days. The heaven of heavens that you made in the beginning is indeed some kind of intellectual creature. Although it is by no means co-eternal with you as Trinity, it still shares in your eternity. It restrains its own great mutability through the sweetness of its most blessed contemplation of you. By clinging to you without any falling away from the moment it was made, it transcends all the rolling changes of time. But that formlessness—the earth invisible and unformed—was not itself counted among the days either. Where there is no shape and no order, nothing comes and nothing passes away. Where this does not happen, there are certainly no days and no succession of temporal periods.
Chapter 10. He Begs of God that He May Live in the True Light, and May Be Instructed as to the Mysteries of the Sacred Books.
§10O light of Truth, light of my heart, do not let my darkness speak to me. I flowed away to these things and became darkened. But even from here I loved you. I wandered and remembered you. I heard your voice behind me calling me to return. I barely heard it because of the tumult of the restless. And now behold I return burning and panting to your fountain. Let no one forbid me. I will drink from this fountain and then I will live. Let me not be my own life. I lived badly from myself. I was death to myself. In you I come back to life. You speak to me. You converse with me. I have believed in your Books. Their words are deeply mysterious.
Chapter 11. What May Be Discovered to Him by God.
§11You have already spoken to me, Lord, with a strong voice into my inner ear. You are eternal. You alone possess immortality. No form or motion changes you. Time does not alter your will. A will that shifts from one thing to another cannot be immortal. This truth shines clear before me. I pray it may shine ever clearer. Let me remain sober in this revelation under your wings. You have also spoken to me, Lord, with a strong voice into my inner ear about another truth. You made all natures and substances that are not what you are, yet still exist. Only what does not exist is not from you. Any movement of will away from you—who are—toward what is lesser constitutes transgression and sin. Such movement is a falling away. No one's sin can harm you or disturb the order of your rule, whether in highest heaven or lowest earth. This truth shines clear before me. I pray it may shine ever clearer. Let me remain sober in this revelation under your wings.
§12You also spoke to me with a strong voice in my inner ear. Even that creature is not co-eternal with you. You are its sole pleasure. It drinks you in with unwavering purity. It never shows its changeability anywhere or at any time. You are always present to it. It clings to you with complete devotion. It has no future to await. It transfers nothing to the past for memory. It suffers no alteration. It stretches across no periods of time. How blessed it is, whatever this thing may be, clinging to your blessedness! How blessed with you as its eternal inhabitant and illuminator! I can find nothing I would more gladly call"the heaven of heavens belonging to the Lord"than your house. It contemplates your delight without any failure or departure toward something else. It is a pure mind. It is harmoniously one through the stability of peace among holy spirits. They are citizens of your city in the heavenly realms above these earthly heavens.
§13Let the soul understand whose pilgrimage has become long. Does it now thirst for you? Have its tears become its bread while it hears each day"Where is your God?"Does it now ask one thing from you and seek this alone: to dwell in your house all the days of its life? What is its life except you? What are your days except your eternity? Your years do not fail because you are the same forever. From this let the soul understand if it can. You are eternal far above all times. Your house has never been on pilgrimage. Though it is not co-eternal with you, it clings to you without ceasing and without failing. It suffers no changes of time. This is clear to me in your sight. I pray it may become clearer and clearer. Let me remain sober in this revelation under your wings.
§14Look at this shapeless something in those changes of the lowest and most base things. Who will tell me otherwise except someone who wanders and rolls about through the emptiness of his heart with his fantasies? Who but such a person would tell me that when all form is diminished and consumed, if only formlessness remained—that formlessness through which things were changed and turned from one form to another—it could produce the cycles of time? It absolutely cannot. Without variety of movements there are no times. And there is no variety where there is no form.
Chapter 12. From the Formless Earth God Created Another Heaven and a Visible and Formed Earth.
§15When I consider how much you give me, my God, how much you stir me to knock, and how much you open to one who knocks, I find two things you made outside of time, though neither is co-eternal with you. One was formed so that without any failure in contemplation and without any interval of change, though changeable it remains unchanged. It enjoys your eternity and unchangeableness. The other was so formless that it had no shape from which it might change to another shape through motion or rest. It had no way to become subject to time. But you did not leave this second thing formless. Before every day you made"in the beginning heaven and earth"- these two things I was describing."But the earth was invisible and unformed, and darkness was over the abyss."These words suggest formlessness. They are meant to help those who cannot think of complete absence of form without thinking of absolute nothingness. From this formlessness came the other heaven. From it came the visible and formed earth. From it came the beautiful water and everything else that was made in establishing this world with its succession of days. Such things experience the alternations of time because of the ordered changes in their movements and forms.
Chapter 13. Of the Intellectual Heaven and Formless Earth, Out of Which, on Another Day, the Firmament Was Formed.
§16Meanwhile, my God, this is what I understand when I hear your Scripture speaking:"In the beginning God made heaven and earth. The earth was invisible and unformed. Darkness was over the abyss."Scripture does not mention on what day you made these things. This is what I understand for now. There is the heaven of heavens. This is the intellectual heaven. There the mind knows all at once. It does not know"in part"or"in a riddle"or"through a mirror."It knows completely. It knows in manifestation. It knows"face to face."It does not know now this thing and now that thing. As Scripture says, it knows all things at once without any change of time. There is also the invisible and unformed earth. This earth exists without any change of time. Normally things have now this quality and now that quality. But where there is no form, there is no"this"and"that."Because of these two things, Scripture says:"In the beginning God made heaven and earth."One thing was perfectly formed from the start. That was the heaven—but the heaven of heavens. The other thing was completely without form. That was the earth—but the invisible and unformed earth. Because of these two things, I understand that Scripture speaks without mentioning days. Scripture immediately explains what kind of earth it meant. On the second day, Scripture records that the firmament was made and called heaven. This shows what kind of heaven Scripture spoke of earlier without mentioning days.
Chapter 14. Of the Depth of the Sacred Scripture, and Its Enemies.
§17What amazing depth your words contain! Here on the surface they charm little children with their gentle appeal. But what amazing depth lies beneath, my God! What amazing depth! It fills me with awe to peer into it. This is the awe that comes from reverence. This is the trembling that comes from love. I hate your enemies with burning intensity. If only you would slay them with your double-edged sword so they would no longer be your enemies! This is how I want to see them killed to themselves. Then they could live for you instead. But look, there are others who do not criticize the book of Genesis but praise it instead. They say this:"The Spirit of God did not intend these words to mean what you claim. The Spirit spoke these things through Moses his servant. But the Spirit did not intend your interpretation. The Spirit intended our interpretation instead."To these people I respond as follows, with you as judge over all of us, O God.
Chapter 15. He Argues Against Adversaries Concerning the Heaven of Heavens.
§18Will you say that what Truth speaks with a strong voice into my inner ear about the true eternity of the Creator is false? That his substance never changes through time. That his will exists within his substance itself. Therefore he does not want this at one moment and that at another. He wills once and simultaneously and forever all things that he wills. He does not will repeatedly. He does not will these things now and those things then. He does not later want what he previously did not want. He does not reject what he wanted before. Such a will would be changeable. Everything changeable is not eternal. But our God is eternal. Truth also speaks this into my inner ear. Anticipation of future things becomes direct sight when they arrive. That same sight becomes memory when they have passed. Every attention that changes in this way is changeable. Everything changeable is not eternal. But our God is eternal. I gather these truths together and join them. I discover that my God, the eternal God, did not create the universe through some new act of will. His knowledge suffers nothing temporary.
§19What will you say then, you who argue against this? Are these things false?"No,"they say."What about this? Is it false that every formed nature or formable matter exists only from him who is supremely good because he supremely exists?""We do not deny this either,"they say."What then? Do you deny that there exists a certain sublime creature clinging to the true God with such pure love and to the truly eternal one that although it is not coeternal with him, it never dissolves or flows away from him into any variety and change of times? It rests in the most truthful contemplation of him alone."For you, God, show yourself to the soul that loves you as much as you command. You are sufficient for it. Therefore it does not turn away from you or toward itself. This is the house of God. It is not earthly. It has no heavenly mass of body. It is spiritual and shares in your eternity because it remains without stain forever. You have established it for ever and ever through all ages. You have set your command and it will not pass away. Yet it is not coeternal with you, God, since it is not without beginning. It was made.
§20We cannot find any time that existed before this wisdom. After all, wisdom was created first among all things. Yet this is certainly not the Wisdom who is completely co-eternal and equal with you, our God and Father. Through that Wisdom all things were created. In that Beginning you made heaven and earth. Instead, this is definitely the wisdom that was created. This wisdom is the intellectual nature that becomes light by contemplating the light. Even though it was created, it too is called wisdom. But there is as much difference between the light that illuminates and the light that receives illumination as there is between the wisdom that creates and this wisdom that was created. The difference is like that between the justice that justifies and the justice that is made by justification. We ourselves are called your justice. One of your servants said that we might become the justice of God in him. Therefore, a certain created wisdom was created first among all things. This wisdom is the rational and intellectual mind of your pure city. It is our mother above who is free and eternal in the heavens. In which heavens? Only in those heavens that praise you, the heaven of heavens. This is indeed the heaven of heavens that belongs to the Lord. Even though we cannot find any time before this wisdom, since it was created before all other creation as the first of all things, nevertheless the eternity of its Creator exists before it. From that Creator it received its beginning when it was made. Although this beginning was not in time, since time did not yet exist, it was still the beginning of its own created condition.
§21This is how it is with you, our God. Everything else is completely different from you and not the same as you. Even though we find no time before creation or within creation itself, creation is fit to always see your face. It never turns away from you. This means no change can alter it. Yet creation still has the capacity for change. It would grow dark and cold without this capacity. But it clings to you with great love. So it shines and burns like perpetual noon because of you. O bright and beautiful house, I have loved your beauty and the dwelling place of the glory of my Lord who built and owns you. Let my earthly journey long for you. I speak to the one who made you so that he might possess me in you as well. He made me too. I wandered like a lost sheep. But I hope to be carried back to you on the shoulders of my shepherd, your builder.
§22What do you say to me, you who contradict me when I speak, yet you believe Moses was God's faithful servant and his books are oracles of the Holy Spirit? Is this not God's house? It is not co-eternal with God, but it is eternal in the heavens according to its own nature. You search in vain for the cycles of time there because you will not find them. This house surpasses every extension and every rolling span of age. For this house, it is always good to cling to God."Yes,"you say. What then do you claim is false from the things my heart cried out to my God when it heard within the voice of his praise? Do you say it is false that there was formless matter where no order existed because there was no form? Where no order existed, there could be no succession of times. Yet this almost-nothing, insofar as it was not absolutely nothing, certainly came from him from whom comes everything that exists in any way whatsoever."This too,"you say,"we do not deny."
Chapter 16. He Wishes to Have No Intercourse with Those Who Deny Divine Truth.
§23I want to speak face to face with those who acknowledge that all these things are true. These are the things your truth speaks silently within my mind, my God. As for those who deny these things, let them bark and make all the noise they want. I will try to persuade them to be quiet. I will try to make a way for your word to reach them. But if they refuse and push me away, I beg you, my God, do not be silent toward me. Speak truthfully in my heart. You alone speak this way. I will leave them outside blowing dust and throwing dirt in their own eyes. I will enter my inner room. I will sing love songs to you. I will groan with groans that cannot be spoken during my pilgrimage. I will remember Jerusalem with my heart stretched upward toward her. Jerusalem is my homeland. Jerusalem is my mother. You rule over her. You are her light-bringer, her father, her protector, her husband. You are her pure and strong delights. You are her solid joy and all good things beyond description. All these things exist together because you are the one highest and true good. I will not turn away until you gather all that I am into her peace. She is my dearest mother. The first fruits of my spirit are already there. From there I know these things are certain. Gather me from this scattering and deformity. Shape me and establish me forever, my God, my mercy. Now I speak to those who do not say that all true things are false. They honor your holy Scripture given through holy Moses. They place it with us at the summit of authority to be followed. Yet they contradict us on some points. This is what I say to them: Be our judge, our God, between my confessions and their contradictions.
Chapter 17. He Mentions Five Explanations of the Words of Genesis I. I.
§24They say:"Even though these things are true, Moses was not looking at those two realities when he spoke by the spirit's revelation: _In the beginning God made heaven and earth._ By the name 'heaven' he did not mean that spiritual or intellectual creation that always gazes upon God's face. By the name 'earth' he did not mean formless matter.""What then?""What we say,"they reply,"is what that man understood. This is what he expressed in those words.""What is that?""By the names,"they say,"'heaven and earth,' he wanted first to signify this entire visible world in a general and brief way. Then he would arrange everything piece by piece through the numbering of days. Everything that pleased the Holy Spirit to declare in this manner.""You see, the people he was speaking to were crude and fleshly. He judged that only visible works of God should be recommended to them. But they agree that _the earth invisible and unformed_ and the dark abyss can fittingly be understood as that formless matter. From this matter, as shown through those days, all these visible things that everyone knows were subsequently made and arranged."
§25What if someone else says this?"The same formlessness and confusion of matter was first suggested by the name 'heaven and earth.' From this matter, our visible world was built and perfected. This world contains all the natures that appear most clearly in it. This world is often called by the name 'heaven and earth.'"What if yet another person says this?"Heaven and earth were fittingly called the invisible and visible nature. Therefore the entire creation that God made in Wisdom—that is, in the Beginning—was contained under these two terms. But all things were made not from God's own substance but from nothing. They are not the same thing that God is. Some mutability exists in all things. Some remain unchanged, like God's eternal house. Others change, like the human soul and body. There was a common matter for all things both invisible and visible. This matter was still formless but certainly capable of receiving form. From it would come heaven and earth—that is, both the invisible and visible creation, each already formed. This matter was declared by these names: 'Earth invisible and unformed' and 'Darkness over the abyss.' The distinction works this way. 'Earth invisible and unformed' means bodily matter before it received the quality of form. 'Darkness over the abyss' means spiritual matter before it was restrained from flowing immoderately and before it received the illumination of Wisdom."
§26Someone else might still want to say this. When we read"In the beginning God made heaven and earth,"the names"heaven and earth"do not refer to invisible and visible natures that are already perfect and fully formed. Instead, these names refer to the still unformed beginning of things. They refer to matter that could be shaped and created. This matter was called by these names because everything already existed in it in a confused state. Things were not yet distinguished by their qualities and forms. The things that are now arranged in their proper orders are called"heaven and earth."Heaven refers to spiritual creation. Earth refers to bodily creation.
Chapter 18. What Error is Harmless in Sacred Scripture.
§27I have heard all these things and considered them. I do not want to fight with words. Such fighting serves no useful purpose except to upset those who listen. The law is good for building people up if someone uses it properly. Its goal is love that comes from a pure heart and a good conscience and genuine faith. Our teacher knows which two commandments hold up the entire Law and the Prophets. My God, you are the light of my eyes in secret places. I confess these things to you with burning passion. What harm does it do me if different meanings can be understood from these words, as long as those meanings are still true? What harm comes to me if I understand something different from what another person thinks the original writer meant? All of us who read are trying to track down and grasp what the writer we are reading intended. Since we believe he tells the truth, we dare not assume he said anything we know or think is false. So each person tries to find in the holy Scriptures the same meaning that the original writer found in them. What evil is there if someone finds a meaning that you, O light of all truthful minds, show to be true, even if this was not what the writer he is reading meant? After all, that original writer spoke truth too, even though he did not mean this particular truth.
Chapter 19. He Enumerates the Things Concerning Which All Agree.
§28It is true, Lord, that you made heaven and earth. It is true that your Wisdom is the Beginning in which you made all things. It is also true that this visible world has its great parts in heaven and earth. These contain briefly all the natures that have been made and established. It is true that everything changeable suggests to our minds a certain formlessness. Through this formlessness it receives form. Through this it is changed and transformed. It is true that nothing endures through all time if it clings to unchangeable form in such a way that though it could change, it does not change. It is true that formlessness, which is almost nothing, cannot experience the passage of time. It is true that the source from which something is made can bear the name of the thing that comes from it. This explains why any formlessness could be called heaven and earth when heaven and earth were made from it. It is true that among all formed things, nothing comes closer to the formless than earth and the abyss. It is true that you made not only what has been created and formed, but also whatever can be created and formed. From you come all things. It is true that everything formed from the formless is first formless. Then it becomes formed.
Chapter 20. Of the Words, In the Beginning, Variously Understood.
§29From all these truths that you have granted those with inner sight to see, and who believe unshakably that Moses your servant spoke in the Spirit of truth, from all these truths each person takes something different. One person chooses this meaning when he says"In the beginning God made heaven and earth."That is,"In his Word coeternal with himself, God made all creation both intelligible and sensible, both spiritual and bodily."Another person chooses this meaning when he says"In the beginning God made heaven and earth."That is,"In his Word coeternal with himself, God made this entire mass of the bodily world with all the manifest and known natures it contains."Another person chooses this meaning when he says"In the beginning God made heaven and earth."That is,"In his Word coeternal with himself, God made the formless matter of both spiritual and bodily creation."Another person chooses this meaning when he says"In the beginning God made heaven and earth."That is,"In his Word coeternal with himself, God made the formless matter of bodily creation where heaven and earth were still confused together, which we now perceive as distinct and formed in the mass of this world."Another person chooses this meaning when he says"In the beginning God made heaven and earth."That is,"At the very start of making and working, God made formless matter confusedly containing heaven and earth, from which they now stand out formed and visible with everything in them."
Chapter 21. Of the Explanation of the Words, The Earth Was Invisible.
§30Now regarding the understanding of the words that follow, each person takes something different from all these truths. One person says"The earth was invisible and unformed, and darkness was over the abyss"means this:"That physical thing which God made was still the formless matter of physical things. It had no order and no light."Another says"The earth was invisible and unformed, and darkness was over the abyss"means this:"This whole thing called heaven and earth was still formless and dark matter. From it would be made the physical heaven and physical earth with all the things in them that are known to physical senses."Another says"The earth was invisible and unformed, and darkness was over the abyss"means this:"This whole thing called heaven and earth was still formless and dark matter. From it would be made the intelligible heaven that is elsewhere called the heaven of heavens. And the earth—that is, all physical nature—under which name we should understand this physical heaven too. In other words, from it would be made every invisible and visible creature."Another says"The earth was invisible and unformed, and darkness was over the abyss"but adds this:"Scripture did not call that formlessness by the name 'heaven and earth.' Rather, that formlessness already existed. Scripture named it the invisible and unformed earth and the dark abyss. From this, Scripture had already declared, God made heaven and earth—that is, spiritual and physical creation."Another says"The earth was invisible and unformed, and darkness was over the abyss"means this:"A certain formless matter already existed. From it Scripture declared that God made heaven and earth. That is, the entire physical mass of the world distributed into two greatest parts, upper and lower, with all the familiar and well-known creatures that are in them."
Chapter 22. He Discusses Whether Matter Was from Eternity, or Was Made by God.
§31When someone tries to resist both of these extreme positions by saying this:"If you don't want this formless matter to be called by the name of heaven and earth, then there was something that God had not made from which he could make heaven and earth. Scripture doesn't tell us that God made this matter unless we understand it to be signified by the term 'heaven and earth' or by 'earth' alone when it says 'In the beginning God made heaven and earth.' What follows—'Now the earth was invisible and unformed'—shows that although it pleased the writer to call formless matter by this name, we should understand it only as what God made in the statement 'God made heaven and earth.'"The defenders of both extreme positions will respond when they hear this. They will say:"We don't deny that God made this formless matter. God is the source of all very good things. Just as we say that what is created and formed is a greater good, so we admit that what is made capable of creation and formation is a lesser good, but still good. But Scripture doesn't mention that God made this formlessness, just as it doesn't mention many other things like the Cherubim and Seraphim and what the Apostle distinctly calls 'Thrones, Dominions, Principalities, Powers.' Yet it's clear that God made all these things."Or if everything is included in the statement 'he made heaven and earth,' what do we say about the waters over which God's Spirit was moving? If these are understood together when earth is named, how can formless matter be accepted under the name of earth when we see such beautiful waters? Or if it is accepted this way, why does Scripture say that the firmament was made from this same formlessness and called heaven, but not say that the waters were made? They are not still formless and unseen since we observe them flowing in such graceful beauty."Or if they received this form when God said 'Let the water under the firmament be gathered together'—so that the gathering itself is the forming—what will be answered about the waters above the firmament? Formless waters would not have deserved such an honorable seat. Nor is it written by what word they were formed."So if Genesis is silent about something God made, which sound faith and certain understanding don't doubt that God made, no sober teaching would dare say these waters are co-eternal with God just because we hear them mentioned in the book of Genesis but don't find where they were made. Why shouldn't we understand, with truth as our teacher, that formless matter—which Scripture calls invisible and unformed earth and the dark abyss—was also made by God from nothing? Therefore it is not co-eternal with him, even though this account omits to declare where it was made."
Chapter 23. Two Kinds of Disagreements in the Books to Be Explained.
§32After hearing and understanding these things according to my weak capacity, which I confess to you my knowing God, I see that two kinds of disagreements can arise when messengers announce something true through signs. One disagreement concerns the truth of the facts themselves. The other concerns the intention of the person making the announcement. We ask one kind of question about what is true regarding the nature of creation. We ask a different kind of question about what Moses, that outstanding servant of your household of faith, wanted his readers and listeners to understand in these words. Let all those who think they know things that are false depart from me in that first kind of disagreement. Likewise, let all those who think Moses said things that are false depart from me in that second kind. But let me be joined with those people in you, Lord. Let me find delight with them in you. These are the people who feed on your truth in the breadth of love. Let us approach the words of your Book together. Let us seek in them your will through the will of your servant. You distributed these words through his pen.
Chapter 24. Out of the Many True Things, It is Not Asserted Confidently that Moses Understood This or That.
§33But who among us will find the truth among so many valid meanings that emerge when seekers understand those words in different ways? Who can say with such confidence that this is what Moses meant and this is what he wanted us to understand in that account? Who can speak as confidently as when he declares that this interpretation is true, whether Moses intended it or something else entirely? Look, my God, I am your servant who has promised you the sacrifice of confession in these writings. I pray that by your mercy I may fulfill my vows to you. See how confidently I declare that you made all things in your unchanging Word, both invisible and visible. But can I declare with equal confidence that Moses had only this in mind when he wrote"In the beginning God made heaven and earth"? I do not see his thoughts with the same certainty that I see this truth in your truth. I cannot peer into his mind as he wrote these words. He might have been thinking of the very start of creation when he said"In the beginning."Or he might have meant both heaven and earth to be understood here as no fully formed and perfected nature, neither spiritual nor physical, but both just begun and still without form. I can indeed see that any of these meanings could truly be expressed. But I do not see which of these possibilities he actually had in mind. Whether he perceived one of these meanings or something else I have not mentioned, I do not doubt that such a great man saw the truth when he spoke these words. I do not doubt that he expressed it fittingly.
Chapter 25. It Behoves Interpreters, When Disagreeing Concerning Obscure Places, to Regard God the Author of Truth, and the Rule of Charity.
§34Let me no one trouble me anymore by saying:"Moses did not mean what you say, but what I say."If someone asked me:"How do you know Moses meant what you claim from his words?"I should bear it calmly. I would answer perhaps what I answered before, or something fuller if he were more stubborn. But when he says:"Moses did not mean what you say, but what I say,"he does not deny that both our views could be true. My God, life of the poor, in whose embrace there is no contradiction, pour gentleness into my heart. Let me patiently endure such people. They do not speak to me because they are inspired by God. They do not speak because they have seen the truth in your servant's heart. They speak because they are proud. They do not know Moses' meaning, but they love their own interpretation. They love it not because it is true, but because it is theirs. Otherwise they would equally love another true interpretation, just as I love what they say when they speak truth. I love it not because it is theirs, but because it is true. Because it is true, it no longer belongs to them alone. If they love something because it is true, then it belongs both to them and to me. Truth belongs to all who love it. But I do not want what they insist on—that Moses meant not what I say, but what they say. I do not love this claim. Even if it were so, this rashness comes not from knowledge but from boldness. Vision did not give birth to it, but pride. Therefore, Lord, your judgments are fearsome. Your truth is not mine, nor his, nor anyone else's, but belongs to all of us whom you publicly call to share it. You warn us terribly not to want to keep it private, lest we be deprived of it. Whoever claims for himself alone what you offer to all for enjoyment, and wants to own what belongs to everyone, is driven from the common good to his own possessions. He is driven from truth to lies. For whoever speaks lies speaks from his own nature.
§35Listen, excellent judge, God who is truth itself. Listen to what I say to this opponent of mine. Listen. I speak before you and before my brothers who use the Law properly until love is complete. Listen and see what I say to him, if it pleases you. I offer him this brotherly and peaceful word."If we both see that what you say is true, and we both see that what I say is true, where do we see this truth? I do not see it in you. You do not see it in me. We both see it in unchangeable Truth itself, which is above our minds. Since we do not argue about the light of our Lord God, why do we argue about our neighbor's thoughts? We cannot see these thoughts the way we see unchangeable Truth. Even if Moses himself had appeared to us and said 'This is what I was thinking,' we would not see his thought. We would believe it. Therefore let no one be puffed up beyond what is written, one against another. Let us love the Lord our God with all our heart and all our soul and all our mind. Let us love our neighbor as ourselves. Unless we believe that Moses had these two commandments of love in mind when he wrote whatever he wrote in those books, we make God a liar. We think differently about our fellow servant's heart than God himself taught. Now see how foolish this is. So many true meanings can be drawn from those words. Yet we rashly declare which one Moses especially meant. We damage love itself with destructive arguments. Love is the very reason Moses spoke everything whose words we try to explain."
Chapter 26. What He Might Have Asked of God Had He Been Enjoined to Write the Book of Genesis.
§36And yet I, my God, you who are the height of my lowliness and the rest of my labor, you who hear my confessions and forgive my sins—since you command me to love my neighbor as myself, I cannot believe any less of Moses, your most faithful servant, than I would wish and desire as a gift from you if I had been born in that time when he lived and you had placed me in that position. I would want to serve through the devotion of my heart and tongue so that those Scriptures might be given forth. Those same Scriptures would later benefit all nations. Throughout the whole world they would overcome the words of all false and proud teachings by their supreme authority. Indeed, if I had been Moses then—for we all come from the same clay, and what is man that you are mindful of him?—if I had been what he was and you had assigned me to write the book of Genesis, I would want this gift from you. I would want such power of speech and such a way of weaving words together that those who cannot yet understand how God creates would not reject the sayings as beyond their strength. And those who already can understand would find that whatever true meaning they reached through thought was not overlooked in the few words of your servant. And if another person saw a different meaning in the light of truth, that meaning too would not be missing from those same words.
Chapter 27. The Style of Speaking in the Book of Genesis is Simple and Clear.
§37A fountain springs more abundantly in a small space and supplies flowing streams to wider areas through many channels than any single stream that flows far from that same fountain. In the same way, the account from your steward overflows with streams of clear truth in a brief measure of words. This account will benefit many who speak about it. From this source, each person draws out whatever truth they can grasp about these matters. One person draws this understanding. Another draws that understanding. They do this through longer winding paths of speech. Some people read or hear these words and think of God as though he were human. They imagine him as some vast mass endowed with immense power. They picture him making a sudden new decision to create heaven and earth outside himself in distant places. They see two great bodies above and below that would contain everything. When they hear"God said, Let it be, and it was,"they imagine words that begin and end. They think of sounds that ring out in time and pass away. After these words pass, they believe what was commanded immediately comes into existence. They form other opinions like this based on their familiarity with flesh. These people are still like small children. Their weakness is carried in the motherly embrace of this most humble kind of language. Through this, their faith is built up in a healthy way. They hold with certainty that God made all the natures their senses observe in wonderful variety. But suppose one of them scorns what seems like the lowliness of these words. Suppose they stretch beyond their nursing cradle with proud weakness. Alas, the wretch will fall! Lord God, have mercy. Do not let passersby trample the featherless chick. Send your angel to place it back in the nest so it may live until it can fly.
Chapter 28. The Words, In the Beginning, And, The Heaven and the Earth, Are Differently Understood.
§38Others find these words are no longer mere nests but shaded groves. They see hidden fruits lying within. They flutter with joy. They chatter as they search. They pluck the fruits. When they read or hear these words, they see this truth. You, God, surpass all past and future times through your eternal and unchanging permanence. Yet nothing exists in temporal creation that you did not make. Your will is identical to what you are. You created everything without any change in yourself. No new will arose in you that had not existed before. You did not create all things from yourself as your likeness and the form of everything. Instead you created from nothing an unformed dissimilarity. This dissimilarity was to be formed through your likeness. It returns to you as the one source according to its appointed capacity. Each thing receives what is given to it within its own kind. All things became exceedingly good. Some remain close to you. Others create or undergo beautiful variations through their gradual distance in time and space. They see these truths. They rejoice in the light of your truth as much as they are able here.
§39Another person focuses on the words"In the beginning God made"and sees Wisdom as the Beginning, because Wisdom herself speaks to us. Yet another person focuses on these same words and understands"beginning"as the start of created things. He takes"In the beginning he made"as if it said"First he made."Among those who understand"In the beginning"to mean that you made heaven and earth in Wisdom, one believes that heaven and earth themselves refer to the creatable matter of heaven and earth. Another believes they refer to natures already formed and distinguished. Still another believes one is formed and spiritual, called by the name"heaven,"while the other is unformed bodily matter, called by the name"earth."Those who understand the names"heaven and earth"to mean still-unformed matter from which heaven and earth would be formed do not all understand this the same way. One thinks of the source from which both intelligible and sensible creation would be completed. Another thinks only of the source of this sensible bodily mass that contains clear and ready natures in its great embrace. Even those who believe that"heaven and earth"in this passage refers to creatures already arranged and ordered do not agree. One means the invisible and the visible. Another means only the visible world where we look up at the bright heaven and down at the dark earth and all that exists within them.
Chapter 29. Concerning the Opinion of Those Who Explain It At First He Made.
§40But someone who understands"In the beginning he made"only as"First he made"has no way to grasp the true meaning of heaven and earth. He must understand them as the matter of heaven and earth. This means the matter of all creation, both spiritual and physical. If he insists that the whole universe was already formed, then someone could rightly ask him this question."If God made this first, what did he make next?"After the complete universe, he will find nothing. So he will have to hear this unwelcome response."How could that be first, if nothing came after?"But when someone says that matter was first unformed and then formed, this makes sense. He must be able to distinguish what comes first in four different ways. Some things are first by eternity. Some by time. Some by choice. Some by origin. By eternity, God precedes all things. By time, a flower precedes its fruit. By choice, fruit precedes the flower. By origin, sound precedes song. Of these four kinds of priority I have mentioned, the first and last are extremely difficult to understand. The middle two are very easy. It is a rare vision and tremendously challenging to see this truth, Lord. Your eternity creates changeable things while remaining unchangeable. Therefore your eternity comes before them. Who has a mind sharp enough to discern this truth without great effort? How is sound prior to song? The answer is this. Song is formed sound. Something unformed can certainly exist. But something that does not exist cannot be formed. In the same way, matter comes before what is made from it. Matter is not prior because it does the making. Rather, matter itself is made. Nor is matter prior by an interval of time. We do not first produce unformed sounds without song at an earlier time. Then at a later time we adapt or shape them into the form of a melody. This would be like wood from which a chest is made. Or like silver from which a cup is crafted. Materials like these do come before in time the forms of things made from them. But song is not like this. When a song is sung, its sound is heard. The sound does not first ring out unformed and then get formed into song. Whatever first sounded has already passed away. You will not find anything from it that you can take up again and arrange by skill. Therefore song turns on its own sound. That sound is the song's matter. The same thing gets formed to become song. Therefore, as I was saying, the matter of sounding is prior to the form of singing. But it is not prior by the power of making. Sound is not the craftsman of singing. Rather, sound is subject to the soul that sings. The soul uses the body to make song from sound. Sound is not prior by time either. It is produced at the same time as the song. Nor is it prior by choice. Sound is not better than song. Song is not just sound but beautiful sound. But sound is prior by origin. Song is not formed so that sound might exist. Rather, sound is formed so that song might exist. Let anyone who can understand use this example. The matter of things was made first and called"heaven and earth"because heaven and earth were made from it. This matter was not made first in time. The forms of things bring forth times. But matter was unformed. Now it is observed in times simultaneously. Yet nothing can be told about that matter except as if it were prior in time. This happens when it is weighed as lowest. Certainly formed things are better than unformed things. Matter is preceded by the eternity of the Creator so that something might be made from nothing.
Chapter 30. In the Great Diversity of Opinions, It Becomes All to Unite Charity and Divine Truth.
§41In this diversity of true opinions, let Truth itself bring forth harmony. May our God have mercy on us so that we may use the Law lawfully with the goal of the commandment being pure love. Therefore, if anyone asks me what Moses, that servant of yours, meant by these things, these words are not the speech of my confessions. If I do not confess this to you, I do not know. Yet I do know that those interpretations are true, except for the fleshly ones about which I have spoken as much as I thought fit. Even so, these words of your Book do not terrify those little ones of good hope who approach lofty things with humility and few things with abundance. But let us love one another, all of us whom I acknowledge see and speak truth in those words. Let us equally love you, our God, the fountain of truth, if we thirst not for empty things but for truth itself. Let us honor that same servant of yours, the steward of this Scripture, filled with your Spirit. Let us honor him in such a way that we believe he attended to this when he wrote these things by your revelation: that which excels most both in the light of truth and in the fruit of usefulness.
Chapter 31. Moses is Supposed to Have Perceived Whatever of Truth Can Be Discovered in His Words.
§42When one person says"He meant what I think"and another says"No, he meant what I think,"I believe it is more reverent to say"Why not both, if both are true?"And if someone sees a third truth in these words, or a fourth, or any other truth at all, why should we not believe that he saw all of these? God is one. Through him the sacred Scriptures were composed to suit the understanding of many different readers who would see true but different meanings. I can say this boldly from my heart. If I were writing something with the highest authority, I would prefer to write so that my words would echo whatever truth each person could grasp about these matters. I would not want to set down one true meaning so clearly that I excluded other meanings whose falsehood could not trouble me. Therefore, my God, I do not want to be so hasty as to refuse to believe that you granted this gift to that great man. When he wrote those words, he certainly understood and thought about everything true that we have been able to find in them. He also grasped whatever we could not find, or cannot yet find, but which can still be discovered there.
Chapter 32. First, the Sense of the Writer is to Be Discovered, Then that is to Be Brought Out Which Divine Truth Intended.
§43Finally, Lord, you are God and not flesh and blood. If a human writer saw less than the full meaning, could your good Spirit who leads me into the right land possibly have been ignorant of whatever you yourself were going to reveal to future readers through those very words? This is true even if the writer through whom the words were spoken perhaps thought of only one interpretation out of many true meanings. If this is so, then let the meaning he thought of be higher than all the rest. But show us, Lord, either that very meaning or whatever other true meaning pleases you. Whether you reveal to us what you revealed to that servant of yours, or something else based on those same words, you must feed us. Error must not deceive us. Look, Lord my God, how much we have written about so few words! How very much, I beg you! What strength do we have? What time could possibly be enough to treat all your Books in this same way? Therefore let me confess more briefly to you in these matters. Let me choose some single thing that you have inspired as true, certain, and good, even if many interpretations might occur where many can occur. I make this confession in faith. If I say what your servant meant, that would be right and best. That is what I ought to try to do. But if I do not achieve that, let me at least say what your Truth wanted to say to me through his words. That same Truth also said to him what it wanted.