On Genesis: Two Books on Genesis against the Manichees and On the Literal Interpretation of Genesis: An Unfinished Book

On the Literal Interpretation of Genesis: An Unfinished Book

ON THE LITERAL INTERPRETATION OF GENESIS: AN UNFINISHED BOOK CHAPTER 1 T IS NOT by way of assertion, but by way of inquiry that we have to treat the hidden matters concerning natural things which we know were made by God, their almighty maker. Especially in the books that the authority of God has commended to us, rashness in asserting an uncertain and doubtful opinion scarcely escapes the charge of sacrilege. Still, doubt in inquiry ought not exceed the bounds of the Catholic faith. 1 Since many heretics try to twist the exposition of the divine Scriptures to their own opinion which stands apart from the faith of the Catholic discipline, we must first briefly explain the Catholic faith before dealing with this book.2 2. Here is that faith: God the Father Almighty made and established all of creation through his only-begotten Son, that is, through the Wisdom and Power consubstantial and coeternal to himself, in the unity of the Holy Spirit, who is also consubstantial and coeternal.3 Therefore, the Catholic discipline commands that we believe that this Trinity is called one 1. In the notes to DGnL 1.1.2 in BA 48'575-580, Agaesse and Solignac point out that the same aporetic character marks Augustine's larger commentary on Genesis. In R 2.24.1 Augustine says of it, "In that work there are more questions than discoveries, and of the discoveries fewer still are solidly grounded; the rest are set down as matters needing further investigation ." 2. Augustine sets forth a statement of the Catholic faith that is a commentary on the Apostles' Creed in, it would seem, the version of Ambrose and the church of Milan, the church of Augustine's own baptism; cf. Hahn, Bibliothek der Symbole, 38, nts. 42 and 43. Augustine adds to the Symbol the consubstantiality of the Son and the Spirit with the Father and emphasizes the distinction of the Trinity from creatures and the goodness of all creatures . 3. The emphasis upon the consubstantiality of the Son and the Holy Spirit reflects the definitions of the Councils of Nicea (325) and of Constantinople (381). 145 146 SAINT AUGUSTINE God and that he has made and created all the things that there are insofar as they are. Thus all of creation, whether intellectual or corporeal-or, as we can put it more briefly in the words of the divine Scriptures, whether invisible or visible4 -has been made by God, not out of the nature of God, but out of nothing. Thus nothing of the Trinity is found in all of creation apart from the fact that the Trinity created it and it was created. Hence, we may not say or believe that the whole of creation is either consubstantial with or coeternal with God.5 3. All the things which God made are very good; natural things are not evil. Rather whatever is called evil is either sin or the punishment of sin. Sin is nothing but the evil assent of free will, when we incline to those things which justice forbids and from which we are free to abstain. [Sin] does not lie in the things themselves, but in their illegitimate use. The legitimate use of things consists in the soul's remaining in God's Law and being subject to the one God with the fullest love, and in governing all the other things subject to it without desire or lust, that is, according to God's commandment. For thus it will govern [them] without difficulty and unhappiness and with the greatest ease and happiness. It is the punishment of sin that the soul is tormented by creatures that do not serve it, when it in turn does not serve God. Creation obeyed it when it obeyed God. Thus fire is not bad, since it is a creature of God; yet in our weakness we are burned by it because of what sin deserves. Those sins are called natural which we necessarily commit prior to the mercy of God, after we have fallen into this life by the sin of free choice.6 4. Man, however, was renewed by Jesus Christ our Lord, 4. Cf. Col 1.16. 5. Augustine distinguishes all of creation from the Creator in terms of creation being neither consubstantial nor coeternal with the Trinity. 6. Augustine's use of "we" is startling. He seems to say that we...