{"collection":"chr","html_url":"https://unchartedknowledge.5gfusion.net/browse/chr/ecf/002/0020111.htm","path":"chr/ecf/002/0020111.htm","source_url":"https://sacred-texts.com/chr/ecf/002/0020111.htm","text":"Moreover, his [Hesiod\u2019s] human, and mean, and very weak conception, so far as regards God, is discovered in his beginning to relate the creation of all things from the earthly things here below. For man, being below, begins to build from the earth, and cannot in order make the roof, unless he has first laid the foundation. But the power of God is shown in this, that, first of all, He creates out of nothing, according to His will, the things that are made. \u201cFor the things which are impossible with men are possible with God.\u201d 573 Wherefore, also, the prophet mentioned that the creation of the heavens first of all took place, as a kind of roof, saying: \u201cAt the first God created the heavens\u201d\u2014that is, that by means of the \u201cfirst\u201d principle the heavens were made, as we have already shown. And by \u201cearth\u201d he means the ground and foundation, as by \u201cthe deep\u201d he means the multitude of waters; and \u201cdarkness\u201d he speaks of, on account of the heaven which God made covering the waters and the earth like a lid. And by the Spirit which is borne above the waters, p. 100 he means that which God gave for animating the creation, as he gave life to man, 574 mixing what is fine with what is fine. For the Spirit is fine, and the water is fine, that the Spirit may nourish the water, and the water penetrating everywhere along with the Spirit, may nourish creation. For the Spirit being one, and holding the place of light, 575 was between the water and the heaven, in order that the darkness might not in any way communicate with the heaven, which was nearer God, before God said, \u201cLet there be light.\u201d The heaven, therefore, being like a dome-shaped covering, comprehended matter which was like a clod. And so another prophet, Isaiah by name, spoke in these words: \u201cIt is God who made the heavens as a vault, and stretched them as a tent to dwell in.\u201d 576 The command, then, of God, that is, His Word, shining as a lamp in an enclosed chamber, lit up all that was under heaven, when He had made light apart from the world. 577 And the light God called Day, and the darkness Night. Since man would not have been able to call the light Day, or the darkness Night, nor, indeed, to have given names to the other things, had not he received the nomenclature from God, who made the things themselves. In the very beginning, therefore, of the history and genesis of the world, the holy Scripture spoke not concerning this firmament [which we see], but concerning another heaven, which is to us invisible, after which this heaven which we see has been called \u201cfirmament,\u201d and to which half the water was taken up that it might serve for rains, and showers, and dews to mankind. And half the water was left on earth for rivers, and fountains, and seas. The water, then, covering all the earth, and specially its hollow places, God, through His Word, next caused the waters to be collected into one collection, and the dry land to become visible, which formerly had been invisible. The earth thus becoming visible, was yet without form. God therefore formed and adorned it 578 with all kinds of herbs, and seeds and plants.\n[See book i. cap. v., supra, note 4; also, the important remark of Kaye, Justin Martyr, p. 179.]\n100:575\nThis follows the Benedicting reading. Other editors, as Humphrey, read [\u03c6\u03c9\u03c4\u1f78\u03c2] \u03c4\u1f7c\u03c0\u03bf\u03bd, \u201cresembling light.\u201d\n100:576 100:577 100:578\nOr, suitably arranged and appointed it.","title":"Ante-Nicene Fathers, Vol II: THEOPHILUS: Chapter XIII.\u2014Remarks on the Creation of the World.","type":"page"}