Hexameron, Paradise, and Cain and Abel

Book One: The First Day

THE SIX DAYS OF CREATION BOOK ONE: THE FIRST DAY THE FIRST HOMILY Chapter 1 no SUCH AN EXTENT have men's opinions varied that . some, like Plato and his pupils, have established three principles for all things; that is, God, Idea, and Matter. The same philosophers hold that these principles are uncreated, incorruptible, and without a beginning. They maintain that God, acting not as a creator of matter but as a craftsman who reproduced a model, that is, an Idea, made the world out of matter. This matter, which they call UAT'!, is considered to have given the power of creation to all things. The world, too, they regard as incorruptible, not created or made. Still others hold opinions such as those which Aristotle considered worthy of being discussed with his pupils. These postulate two principles, matter and form, 3 4 SAINT AMBROSE and along with these a third principle which is called 'efficient,' which Aristotle considered to be sufficient to bring effectively into existence what in his opinion should be initiated. (2) What, therefore, is more absurd than to link the eternity of the work of creation with the eternity of God the omnipotent? Or to identify the creation itself with God so as to confer divine honors on the sky, the earth, and the sea? From this opinion there proceeds the belief that parts of the world are gods. Yet on the constitution of the world itself there is no small difference of opinion among philosophers . (3) Pythagoras maintains that there is one world. Others say that the number of worlds is countless, as was stated by Democritus, whose treatment of the natural sciences has been granted the highest authority by the ancients.1 That the world always was and always will be is the claim of Aristotle. On the other hand, Plato ventures to assert that the world did not always exist, but that it will always exist. A great many writers, however, give us evidence from their works that they believe that the world did not always exist and that it will not exist forever. (4) How is it possible to arrive at an estimate of the truth amid such warring opinions? Some, indeed, state that the worfd itself is God, inasmuch as they consider that a divine mind seems to be within it, while others maintain that God is in parts of the world; others still, that He is in both-in which case it would be impossible to determine what is the appearance of God, or what is His number, position, life, or activity. If this evaluation of the world be followed, we have to understand God to be without sense, something which rotates, is round, is aflame, and impelled I Cf. Cicero, De natura deorum 1.120. SIX DAYS OF CREATION: ONE 5 by certain movements-something driven, not by its own force, but by something external to it.2 Chapter 2 (5) Under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit, Moses, a holy man, foresaw that these errors would appear among men and perhaps had already appeared. At the opening of his work he speaks thus: 'In the beginning God created heaven and earth.'l He linked together the beginnings of things, the Creator of the world, and the creation of matter in order that you might understand that God existed before the beginning of the world or that He was Himself the beginning of all things. So in the Gospel, in answer to those who were inquiring of Him 'Who art thou?' He replied: 'I am the beginning, I who speak with yoU.'2 All this was that you might know that He gave to all created things their beginnings and that He is the Creator of the world-not one who imitates matter under the guidance of some Idea, from which He formed His work, not in accordance with His will, but in compliance with a self-proposed model. Fittingly, too, Moses says: 'In the beginning He created,' in order that, where He had made clear the effect of the operation already completed, before giving an indication of its having been begun, He might thus express the incomprehensible speed of the work. (6) Our attention should be drawn to the person who uttered this statement. He was, of course, Moses, a man learned in all the science of the Egyptians. He was rescued 2 Ibid. 2.46. I...