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Book Two
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BOOK TWO He continues the exposition of Genesis from verse four of chapter two, "This is the book of the creation of heaven and earth," and so on, up to the verse in which Adam and Eve are thrown out of paradise. At the end he compares the teachings of the Church with the errors of the Manichees. CHAPTER 1 The Recitation of Chapters Two and Three of Genesis ER THE enumeration and exposition of the seven days, there is inserted a sort of conclusion, and the entire previous account is called the book of the creation of heaven and earth, although it is a small part of the book. It deserved to be called this because a brief image of the whole world from the beginning to the end is prefigured in these seven days.! Then it begins to report about man with greater care.2 This whole narrative unfolds, not clearly, but in figures so that it might exercise the minds of those seeking the truth and call them from carnal labors to spirituallabor.3 I. Hence, the many Hexaemera written in the patristic and medieval periods ; cf. DTC 6.2325-54. In fact, Augustine has just shown us in the last chapters of Book One how the six days prefigure the history of the world and the seventh our eternal rest in God. In speaking of Augustine's use of the beginning chapters of Genesis in the Confessions, O'Connell says, "We are reminded that the story of creation was, for the ancient Hexaemeral interpreters , a privileged locus for explaining the Christian 'theory of man'" (Odyssey, 20-21). 2. Modern exegetes distinguish two accounts of creation: the Priestly account that begins with Gen 1.1 and runs through Gen 2.4a and the Yahwist account beginning with Gen 2.4b and running through the Fall. Augustine sees the first three chapters as a seamless whole-a view that raises many problems for a literal interpretation of the text. 3. Unlike the first book, the narrative here as a whole 'unfolds not clearly, 91 92 SAINT AUGUSTINE This is its content. "This is the book of the creation of heaven and earth, when there was made the day on which God made heaven and earth, and all the green things of the field, before they were on earth, and every food of the field before it sprang up. For God had not yet made it rain upon the earth, and there was no man to work on it. But a spring came up from the earth and watered the whole face of the earth. And then God formed man from the mud of the earth and breathed into his face the breath of life, and man became a living soul. Then God planted a paradise in Eden to the east, and he placed in it the man whom he had formed. God also brought forth from the earth every tree beautiful to see and good to eat, and he planted the tree of life in the middle of paradise and the tree of knowledge of good and evil. A river went forth from Eden and watered paradise. From there it divided into four parts. The name of one part is Phison; this is the one that encircles the whole land of Evilath, where there is gold. The gold of that land is the best, and diamonds and emeralds are found in that land. The name of the second river is Geon; it encircles the whole land of Ethiopia. The third river is the Tigris; this is the one that flows toward the Assyrians. The fourth river is called the Euphrates. The Lord God took the man whom he had made and set him in paradise to work in it and to guard it. The Lord commanded Adam, saying, 'From every tree which is in paradise, you shall eat for food, but as for the tree of the knowledge of good and evil you shall not eat from it. For on the day that you eat from it, you will die the death.' The Lord God said, 'It is not good that man is alone; let us make him a helper like to him.' Whatever God formed from every kind of cattle and from every kind of beast of the field and from every kind of bird that flies below the heaven, he brought them to Adam to see what he would call them, and what Adam called each...