Interpretation of the first Book of Moses.

The first chapter.

I. Preliminary Report.

This first chapter is described with the simplest words, but it contains the most important and darkest things. Therefore it was forbidden to both Jews (as St. Jerome writes) that anyone should read this first book of Moses before his thirtieth year, nor interpret it to others. For they held that whoever should read or understand this chapter must first have known, learned, and practiced the whole of the Scriptures. Although their rabbis have done nothing with it, since there are many of them who have been over twice thirty years and more, and yet in their commentaries and Talmuds they have given very childish and trivial things about such excellent and high things.

2) In the church, too, there has been no one so far who has interpreted everything everywhere actually and correctly enough, without the teachers having mixed together so many strange and innumerable questions about this chapter; so that it can well be seen from this that God has reserved this majesty of His wisdom and right understanding of this chapter for Himself, and has given us this in general.

let know that the world had a beginning and was created from nothing by God. Such a common knowledge can be clearly obtained from the text. But as far as each piece in particular is concerned, there is a great deal in it of which one cannot be entirely certain, and of which innumerable questions are raised from time to time.

Now we know from Moses that six thousand years ago the world has not yet been; however, a philosopher is not to be moved at all. For Aristotle does not want to know anything about the first and last man. Although he leaves this question, whether the world will stand eternally, in doubt, he nevertheless steers completely to this opinion that it is eternal. And human reason cannot come higher, because it must conclude that the world is eternal and that countless people have been before us, will also follow us. Human reason must rest and stand still over these thoughts. But from this follows even a dangerous delusion and thought, namely, that the soul is mortal, because philosophy does not know several infinita (infinite beings). For it cannot be lacking, human-

The reason of man must stumble and tarnish in such great and divine matters.

4 Plato, as it can be seen, may have gathered in Egypt some scraps from the sermons of the fathers and the prophets, therefore he has come closer to the truth. For he admits an eternal matter and idea; but says that the world had its beginning and was created from matter. But such uncertain and unfounded thoughts of the philosophers I do not want to mention further, because Lyra also tells them, but does not explain them. Therefore, I do not find anyone among the Hebrews, Greeks or Latins whom I could follow in so many important and difficult matters; but I hope that we will be satisfied when we have done what we have been able to do in this. For according to this common knowledge, that the world came into being and was created from nothing, there is almost nothing in which the theologians would all be one at the same time.

Hilarius and Augustine, as the two greatest lights of the church, are of this opinion that the world was created suddenly and at once, not successively through six days. And Augustine plays strangely with the six days, from which he makes days of secret interpretation of the knowledge in the angels, and does not leave six natural days. Therefore, in schools and churches there has been much dispute about the angels' knowledge, which they have divided into cognitionem vespertinam et matutinam (knowledge in the evening and in the morning); which is first conceived by Augustine, and diligently narrated by Lyra. Whoever wants to know about it, may read Lyra.

6 Although these are subtle disputations, they are nevertheless irrelevant. For what need is there to make two kinds of knowledge? And what is the use of making allegories and mysteries out of Moses so soon in the beginning? Because he does not want to teach us about allegorical creatures or an allegorical world, but about essential creatures and a visible world, which can be seen, felt and grasped, he calls every thing by its name, day and evening, as we know it, without any allegories. As the evangelist Matthew also keeps this way of speaking, since he writes in the last chapter v. 1, Christ

was raised on the evening of the first day of the Sabbath. But since we cannot sufficiently understand how these days happened, and why God wanted to keep such a difference of times, let us rather confess our ignorance, because the words can be directed and interpreted to foreign opinions without any need. As far as St. Augustine's opinion is concerned, we think that Moses actually spoke, not allegorically or figuratively; namely, that the world with all creatures was created within the six days, as the words read. But since we cannot reach or understand the cause with our wit and reason, let us remain disciples and let the Holy Spirit have his mastery.

7 These days are distinguished in this way, that on the first day the shapeless mass of heaven and earth was created, to which God also added the light afterwards. On the second day the firmament. On the third day the earth was brought forth from the waters with all its fruits. On the fourth day the sky was adorned and decorated with the creation of the sun, the moon and the stars. On the fifth the fishes in the sea and the birds under the sky. On the sixth all animals of the country and the human being were created. Now I also leave this, that the others divide all this into the work of creation, the distinction, and decoration; because it does not seem to me, as if it rhymes well everywhere. However, Lyra may read about it, whoever feels like it.

8) But that Lyra thinks that one must necessarily know the teaching and doctrine of the philosophers about matter, because without it one cannot understand the effect of the six days, I do not know whether Lyra also understood what Aristotle called matter; because Aristotle does not call it matter, like Ovidius, namely a shapeless and coarse lump of all things. Therefore, let us leave all this as unnecessary, and listen to Moses, as a better master, whom we may follow more surely than the philosophers, who disputes without God's word about unknown things.

II. The six day works in particular.

First part.

From the first day's work.

V. 1. In the beginning God created heaven and earth.

(9) Here a necessary and very difficult question arises, namely, that Moses says of the creation of heaven and earth, and yet remembers neither the day nor the word by which heaven and earth were created. For one wonders why Moses did not rather put these words in this way, as he does in the other pieces in which he remembers the Word in this way: In the beginning God said, Let there be heaven and earth. For here he says that first the heavens and the earth were created before God said anything, when the Ten Commandments and all Scripture testify that in six days God made the heavens and the earth and all that is in them. Now I have said before that we have no one to follow in this interpretation; therefore let us leave to each his own judgment and discretion in this matter, and say what is our opinion of it. Moses calls the heavens and the earth here, not as they are now, but as they were at the beginning, unformed and coarse. The water was dark, and since it is lighter by nature, it surrounded the unformed earth like a glue or thick mist. And now God did not create this first matter (that I thus call it) of the future following work outside of the six days, but in the beginning of the first day; as the words in the Ten Commandments clearly read.

(10) But for this reason, as far as I can see, Moses is still silent on the first day, that afterward the heavens and the earth were formed and, as it were, worked out, polished and distinguished, which at first were mixed together, coarse and unformed. For what he called the depths and waters afterwards, namely unformed and not yet distinguished and decorated waters, he calls here heaven.

If Moses had spoken differently, and said: In the beginning God said: Let the heavens be created etc., he would not have been able to repeat these words afterwards: God spoke when he wrote how the waters were formed and the light was created. That therefore Mosi's plain and simple opinion is that everything that exists was created by God and that in the beginning of the first day a "formed lump of glue or earth, and mist or water was created, to which God afterwards in the remaining time of the first day poured a light and let the day shine, in which this unformed sky and coarse earth may have been seen and at that time was not almost unlike an unformed and raw seed, from which nevertheless something can be begotten and raised.

V. 2. But the earth was desolate and empty.

(11) The Hebrew words tohu and bohu are much more emphatic than they can be given, and are often used in Scripture; tohu means desolate. That the earth is first of all a tohu, that is, in itself bad, empty, in it no way, no difference of the Oerter, no mountain, no valley, and neither grass, herbs, animals nor humans have been. For such was the first and unbuilt form of the earth, that, because earth and water were mingled together, no difference could be perceived, as now, after it has been worked out and built up, it can be felt and perceived. Thus says Isaiah Cap. 34:11, when he threatens that the whole earth will become empty and desolate: "He will draw a line across it to make it desolate, and a plumb line to make it desolate"; that is, it will become so desolate that neither men nor cattle will be left on it; that the houses will be desolate and all things will be mixed up and mixed with one another. As afterwards Jerusalem by the Romans, and Rome by the Goths, were so utterly devastated and desolate, that no footsteps can be traced from such an excellent ancient city. Therefore, as you now see that the earth is exalted above the waters, the heavens with stars, and the earth with the stars.

Moses calls the earth, as it was without all this and mixed into a disorderly and shapeless lump, tohu and bohu.

(12) And as the earth was surrounded with darkness, or with waters wherein was darkness: so also the heaven was without form, and was a tohu; not only because it was yet without ornament and adornment of stars, and a bohu, because it was not yet separated from the earth; but because it was without light, and was a dark and gloomy deep, which drew and lay as a very thick mist round the earth. For how the waters were separated and divided from it will follow hereafter. Now we have for the first that Moses teaches that on the first day heaven and earth were created; but a shapeless heaven, that is, from which the waters were not yet separated, also without light and not yet raised up; item, a shapeless earth, without animals, water rivers and mountains.

Lyra disputes that matter is nothing more in itself than pura potentia, that is, such a thing as by its nature is possible and convenient to take a form and substance in itself. And Augustine says in his book, which he calls Confessiones, that matter is almost a void thing, so that between it and another, which is nothing, no means can be conceived. I cannot at all believe that such a thing is rightly said. For how can one call such a thing nothing at all, which is such an essential thing that Moses calls it heaven and earth? You wanted to call matter then, as one calls a wood, which is not yet a box or bench, a matter: but this the philosophers call materiam secundam.

14 On the contrary, it can be seen that St. Peter, 2 Epist. 3, 5. 6. where he speaks of the wicked, says: "They do not want to know that the heavens also existed in former times, and that the earth consisted of water and in water; nevertheless, at that time the world was destroyed by them with the flood. For St. Peter says that the earth was first of all

was founded of water and by water, and then was brought forth out of the water and came into the day; as it can still be seen as floating on the sea. This, says St. Peter, the wicked knew well, relied on it, and did not worry about any danger from the water, which they knew to be the foundation of the earth; and yet the evil one destroyed the earth as it held and carried it, just as it will finally perish by fire. So, I think, St. Peter looks here at Moses, because he writes that the earth was in the water and was created from it. Let this be enough of the matter; for I cannot see nor understand why it is useful and necessary to discuss it more subtly.

And it was dark on the deep.

(15) Water, depth and heaven are here put for one thing, namely for the dark and shapeless creature, which afterwards was distinguished and made light by the Word. For a shapeless and disorderly load, and which is brought forth from nothing, thus adorning and distinguishing, belongs to another person, namely Christ, the Son of God. Which Moses undoubtedly also considered, and therefore first of all did not use the word: God spoke; for some consider this to be the cause.

And the Spirit of the Lord floated on the water.

Some interpret the spirit of the Lord as the wind. But I, if anything material here should be understood by the Spirit, would rather have it that the shapeless form of heaven and earth (which he also calls the deep) has begun to stir and move, as it is still moving; for the water never stands still, but stirs and moves upward. But much more do I allow that we understand the Holy Spirit. For the wind is a creature that did not exist before, when heaven and earth were mixed together.

(17) The Christian Church here also strongly agrees that in this description a mystery of the Holy Trinity is indicated.

is. The Father creates heaven and earth out of nothing through the Son, whom Moses calls a Word; the Holy Spirit sets Himself over this work. For as a hen sitteth over eggs, and warmed them, and by the warmth quickened them, and brought forth little chicks therefrom: so saith the scripture, that the Holy Ghost sat down as it were over the waters, and was set to quicken the things which were to be quickened and adorned. For the office of the Holy Spirit is to make alive. So much, I think, is sufficient for the understanding of these words, that we leave aside other unruly thoughts, and take it for granted that God created heaven and earth out of nothing; but as a rough and unformed work, so that the unformed heaven has settled like a mist around the unformed earth.

18 Now we must also say a little about the words, and soon some have been found here who have disputed with strange subtlety about the word: "In the beginning". For they have interpreted it: In the beginning, that is, in the Son, because of the saying Joh. 8, 25. when Christ answered the Jews who asked Him who He was: Principium, quod et loquor vobis (the beginning, of which I tell you). Item Ps. 110, 3. where the ancients read thus: Tecum principium in die virtutis tuae; which saying they almost all interpret thus: With you is your son in divine power. Now those who have an understanding of the Greek language know that in John this word την άρχην is to be understood adverbially, and that this way of speaking is very common among the Greeks everywhere: Therefore others may pretend here what they desire; I like what is spoken plainly and can be understood by the silly and the plain. Therefore I think that Moses wanted to indicate a beginning of time, and that "in the beginning" is just as much as if he said: "At that time, when there was no time, or when the world began, the beginning was such that the heavens and the earth were first created by God from nothing, in a crude unbuilt form, not equipped as they are now. However, they did not remain so unformed for long, but were soon clothed with light on the first day.

19. the Arians have imagined that

that the angels and the Son of God were created before the beginning. But let us leave such blasphemies alone; let us also not be troubled with this question: what did God do before the world began, whether he rested or not? To which question, as Augustine writes in the Confession, one answered at one time that God had built hell for those who inquired into and pretended to foolish things. With this answer, as Augustine says, he wanted to keep people from such unnecessary and unseemly questions.

20 For this reason, St. Augustine's modesty pleases me very much, especially that he sincerely confesses that he uses his ingenuity in such matters and sticks to himself. For even if we speculate and argue about such high things without measure and end, they still remain incomprehensible. And since we cannot fully or thoroughly understand the things we ourselves see and do, how much less will we be able to comprehend such high divine things? For what will you put or say that was outside of time and before time? Or, what do you want to think, what God made before time? Therefore, one should be satisfied with such questions and thoughts, and take it for granted that God was incomprehensible in His essential rest before the creation of the world; but now, after the creation, He is in, apart from and above all creatures, that is, He is incomprehensible. In another way one cannot speak of it; because our understanding cannot extend to this, which has been outside of time.

Therefore, God does not reveal Himself in any other way than in His word and works, for these can be understood to some extent. But the other, which actually belongs to the Godhead, can neither be comprehended nor understood; as there is what was outside of time and before the world etc. Perhaps God only appeared to Adam; but after the fall he appeared to him in a sound, in which he had, as it were, disguised and wrapped himself. Just as afterwards he wrapped himself in the tabernacle and the mercy seat, and in the desert in cloud and fire. Therefore, Genesis 3:8, such things are called all things of God.

Faces, by which God revealed Himself. And Cain called the place where he had sacrificed before God's face in Genesis 4:16. For our nature is so deceived, even mad and corrupt, by sin that it cannot recognize God or understand what He is. That is why we must keep to the outward things in which God wraps and clothes Himself.

(22) It is just as great a foolishness and nonsense to speak much of God outside of and before time, for that is to merely want to grasp the divinity or divine essence. But because this is impossible, God wraps Himself in understandable works and a certain form; just as He wraps Himself daily in baptism, Absolution etc. If you were to depart from such things, you would end up outside of the goal, measure, place and time, and into a purely trivial thing, of which nothing can be known, as the philosophers say. Therefore we let this question go and are content with the simple and simple understanding of these words: "In the beginning".

23. but this is much more to be noticed and considered, that Moses does not say: In the beginning Adonai created heaven and earth, but uses the several number, and says in the plural Elohim; which name is given in Moses and elsewhere more also to the angels and authorities, as Ps. 82, 6.: "I have said, you are gods." But here this name certainly means the one and true God, from whom all things were created. Why then does he speak in the plural? The Jews cavil and master Moses manifoldly. But we have clear testimonies that Moses wanted to indicate the Trinity or the three persons in one divine nature and being. For since he speaks of the work of creation, it clearly follows that he excludes the angels. Therefore, this contradiction remains, that there is one God, and yet this same unity is truly divided into three persons. For why else would Moses have said in the plural: "In the beginning Elohim created"?

24Therefore, the Jews should be given their evil

and useless sophistry, that they say that Moses spoke thus for the sake of honor and reverence. For what would reverence be here, since it is not common in all languages to address a person in the plural, as the German language does? Secondly, although they say a lot that the name Elohim is also given to angels and men, it is here in the plural and cannot be understood otherwise than by the one true God, because Moses deals with the creation. Otherwise he would have had many words in the singular, which he could have used, where he would not have wanted to indicate with special advice and concern, spiritually and secretly, that outside the creature in the divine nature there were three persons. He does not say in explicit and clear words that One is God, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, for he had to reserve this clear distinction for the holy Gospel; but let it suffice him that he can interpret and explain such a plurality of persons with one word in the plural, which will also be given to men hereafter.

(25) Neither shall we be offended that such a name is hereafter given to creatures. For why should God not communicate his name to men, since he communicates his office and power to them? For remitting and keeping sins, making alive, etc., are works of the one divine majesty; and yet they are communicated to men and are done through the word that men teach; as Paul says Rom. 11:13, 14: "I will magnify my ministry, if I may provoke them that are my flesh to jealousy, and save some of them. Item 1 Cor. 9:22: "I became all things to all men, that I might save them all." Therefore, just as such works are truly God's works alone, even though they are given to men and are done through them, so also God's name truly means God alone, even though it is given to men.

26 Arius could not deny that Christ was before the world was created, for Christ Himself also says John 8:58: "Before Abraham was, I am." And in

Proverbs of Solomon, Cap. 8, 22, it is written: "Before the heavens were, I am. Therefore he turned to another side, and said that Christ, or the Word, was created before all other creatures, and that the same Word had then created all other things, and was the most perfect creature, even if it had not always been. But this nonsensical and ungodly delusion is to be countered with the fact that Moses recently said, "In the beginning, and put nothing else before the beginning, but God alone, of whom he speaks in the plural and calls him Elohim.

(27) Men's hearts fall into such ill-advised thoughts when they presume to speculate about such excellent and high things without God's word. We ourselves do not know who we are; as Lucretius says, "It is not yet known whose kind and nature the soul is. We find in ourselves that we can judge, recognize, measure, count, and distinguish the height and size of every thing, even the spiritual creatures, evil and good, right and wrong; and yet we cannot yet say what the soul is; how much less will we understand what the divine nature is? Do we not know what our will is for a movement, because it is neither motus qualitatis (movement of quality) nor quantitatis (quantity), and yet it is a motus (movement): what then would we know and understand in divine matters?

Therefore, it is foolish nonsense to speak of God and His divine nature outside of and without the Word and the things in which God has wrapped Himself; as all heretics do who speak of God with certain thoughts, as of a sow or a cow. Therefore they received the just reward of their presumption, that they fell into such dangerous errors. For whoever wants to be safe and without danger in such great things, let him remain simple-mindedly with the form, signs and works in which the divine high majesty has made itself known, namely with the word and works; for in these God has shown and revealed himself to us. Whoever reaches and touches them, the

By this touching, just like the woman who had the issue of blood, she becomes healthy and clean, Matth. 9, 22.

But those who want to come to God in another way, without word and works, try to climb to heaven without a ladder (that is, without God's word); therefore, they also fall and bump against the high majesty, which they thus only want to reach and grasp. As happened to Arius, who devised a means between the Creator and the creature, and pretended that from the same means all things were created. He had to fall into such an error because, contrary to the Scriptures, he did not want to believe that there was more than one person in the divine being. But because he argued about it without and apart from the word of God and trusted his thoughts, he had to err horribly and run aground.

(30) So also a monk: because he does not follow the word, he speculates that there is such a God up in heaven who wants to make blessed one who wears a cap and observes a certain way of life. This one also wants to climb into heaven outside of the word through which God has revealed Himself. And in the same way the Jews had their idols and forests. All of these do the same thing, and they are repelled by the fact that they leave the word, and each one follows his own thoughts.

(31) Therefore, if we want to walk safely, let us keep to what God's word models for us, and God Himself wants us to know. But everything else that is not indicated in the word, we should leave aside. For what is that to me, or how can I understand what God did before he created the world? These are mere thoughts of the Godhead; just as they are, so that the Jews are led away from this text, that they do not believe the three persons, when Moses spoke of God in the plural.

The pope's decree condemned the anthropomorphites for speaking of God as a man who had eyes, ears, and arms. Now this was an unreasonable condemnation. For how can men speak differently of God to men? And if it is unjust and heresy

then it will truly be miserable and uncertain with the children's bliss, who think and speak of God in such a childish way. But let the children remain, and show me the most learned doctor who can teach and speak of God in any other way than this. For this reason, injustice and violence have been done to these same good people, that because they believed in God as an almighty Lord and Savior, they have nevertheless been condemned, because they have said that God has eyes, so that he sees the poor, and ears, so that he hears those who call upon him etc. For how can our depraved nature understand the spiritual nature of the Godhead? Thus, the Scriptures themselves use this way of speaking of God everywhere.

For this reason they are unreasonably condemned, and rather this virtue of theirs should have been praised, that they took care to speak of God in a simple and comprehensible manner, which is a necessary diligence and virtue in doctrine. For if God wants to reveal Himself, He must do it through such a comprehensible means or implication, and say: Behold, under this implicated form you will find and seize Me. And if we now take the same form, call there, sacrifice etc., then we have called upon God rightly and sacrificed rightly. So there is no doubt that our first parents will have called upon God early in the morning, when the sun rose, and wondered at the Creator in His works and creatures; or, to put it more clearly, the same noble creature will have reminded them to call upon Him. And this way the descendants have kept afterwards, but without right understanding. Therefore, this habit has become idolatry, which is not caused by the sun, which is a noble creature of God, but by the fact that the right teaching, which Satan cannot stand, has died out in time. For Eve, having allowed Satan to deviate from the Word and seduce her, fell into sin.

34 Because of that I come back to the anthropomorphs, I think that they should not have been condemned, because also the prophets paint God as sitting on a chair. Now when the simple hear such things, they soon think that it is

They must be a golden and beautifully adorned chair or throne, although they know that there is none of such material in heaven as gold, silver, etc. Thus Isaiah Cap. 6, 1. writes that he had seen the Lord in 'a very broad garment. For God can neither be painted nor seen in the form that He is in Himself. Therefore, such images and figures are pleasing to the Holy Spirit, and in them God's works are presented to us so that we can grasp them. Such works are that he created heaven and earth, that he sent his Son and speaks through him, that he baptizes, that he forgives sin through the word, and so on. Whoever does not want to adhere to these works will never take hold of God. But I will leave it at that with this doctrine, because I have often discussed it abundantly and extensively; but I have had to touch on it again for the sake of Mosiah, whom the Jews act miserably and wickedly in this place, from which we prove that there is more than One Person in the Godhead. Now let us look at the text further.

V. 3-5. And God said, Let there be light. And there was light.

(35) I have said above that by the word heaven and earth were created in a rough and unadorned form (which Moses also calls water and depth), and that it was a work of the first day; although Moses only begins to speak like this here: God said: Let there be light, and so on. Now this is truly a strange way of speaking, and unknown to those who write of all other languages, that God makes something by speaking that was nothing before; and so Moses here first uses the means or instrument that God the Father used in his works, namely the word.

(36) Notice carefully the difference between the Hebrew words amar and dabar. We interpret both words by speaking or talking; but the Hebrews keep this distinction: smar means alone and actually a spoken

Word; but dabar also means an essential thing. So when the prophets say: this is the word of the Lord, they use the word dabar, and not amar. The new Arians, however, make a blue haze to those who do not understand the Hebrew language, and pretend that word means a created thing; and thus Christ is also called a word. Against this ungodly and at the same time inconsistent falsification we say that Moses uses the word amar, which actually means: a spoken word; so that the word is something different from the one who speaks; as there is a difference between the one who speaks and the one who is spoken. As we have just proved from the text the three persons in the divine being: so here a clear and bright difference of the same persons is shown. For Moses says, God is (that I speak so) the speaker, who creates, and yet uses no matter, but only the word, which he speaks, and thereby creates heaven and earth from nothing.

Now compare St. John's Gospel Cap. 1, 1: "In the beginning was the Word" (for it agrees finely with Moses), and John says that before the creation of the world there was no creature, without which alone God had a Word. But what is now, or what makes such a word? Listen to Moses here, who says: the light was not yet, but the darkness was disguised and transformed from its nothingness into this noble and precious creature, which is light. But by what means? Through the Word. Therefore the Word is in the beginning and before all creatures, and is thus a powerful and mighty Word that creates everything from nothing. From this it follows irrefutably that John clearly says that this Word is God, and yet is a distinct person from God the Father; as different things are the Word and the one who speaks it. And yet, because of this difference, the unity of the divine essence remains the same.

These are great things, and it is not safe to go further and higher in them than the Holy Spirit leads us. Therefore, we should stand by this and be still,

that after heaven and earth in their first rough and coarse form, in which they were still covered with darkness and gloom, were made from nothing, also the light was made from nothing, that is, from darkness. And St. Paul refers to this first work of the Creator as a particularly great work, 2 Cor. 4, 6: "God, who caused light to shine out of darkness" etc. The command, he says, brought forth this light. Therefore, for the strengthening and assurance of our faith, we have enough that Christ was truly God, and was with the Father from eternity before the world was created; and that through him, who is the wisdom and the word of the Father, the Father made all things. But in this saying of St. Paul, it should also be noted that he makes a new work of creation out of the conversion of the ungodly, which also happens through the Word.

(39) Here reason does much foolish work with clumsy and foolish questions. If the Word, it says, has always been, then why did God not create heaven and earth earlier by the same Word? Item, because only when God began to speak did heaven and earth come into being, so it can be seen as if the Word also only began at that time, when the creature began etc. But we should refrain from such ungodly thoughts, for we can neither conclude nor think anything about these things, because apart from the beginning of the creature there is nothing but a mere divine being and a mere God. But since this is incomprehensible, that which existed before the world is also incomprehensible, because it is nothing but God alone. In our thoughts it seems that he begins to speak, because we cannot get beyond the beginning of time: but because John and Moses say that the Word was in the beginning and before all creatures, it necessarily follows that it was always in the Creator and the mere divine being. Therefore it is true God, but in such a way that the Father begets and the Son is begotten. For Moses makes this distinction, because he calls God who spoke and the word that was spoken. And Moses has enough of this

done. For a clearer understanding and explanation has belonged to the New Testament, and to the Son, who is in the bosom of the Father. There we also hear certain names of the persons, that God is Father, Son and Holy Spirit; as this is also indicated in several Psalms and Prophets, but quite hidden.

. 40 Augustine interprets these words: God spoke, a little differently. For this is his interpretation: God spoke, that is, it was determined from eternity in the word of the Father and was decided by God; for the Son is the reason, image and wisdom of God. But for this one should keep the simple and right understanding, namely, God said: that is, by the Word He creates and makes all things; as the apostle Paul testifies Hebr. 1, 2.: "By whom also He made the world." And Col. 1, 16.: "By Him and in Him all things were created."

(41) One should let the thoughts of creation go so far, but let them enter here and not come any further. For where this happens, we are sure to fall into terrible darkness and error. Therefore, we should be satisfied with what is said about the world and its creation, namely, that the world, as far as matter is concerned, was made of nothing; item, that light was made of such a thing that was not light before. In sum, that heaven and earth were created out of nothing; as Paul says Rom. 4:17: "God calls that which is nothing to be."

The instrument or means that God used for this is His almighty Word, which was with God from the beginning and, as St. Paul says in Eph. 1, 4, before the foundation of the world was laid. The fact that Paul, Col. 1, 16, says that through him, the Lord Christ, all things were created (for he uses the preposition "in" in the manner of the Hebrews, instead of "through", for the Hebrews use the letter beth), is taken, like other similar words, from these words of Moses, who says of a spoken word, by which something is commanded. This word is God, and is an almighty word, spoken in the divine essence, which no one has heard speak,

for God Himself, that is, God the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit. And while it was spoken, the light was not produced from the matter of the word, nor from the nature of the speaker, but from the mere darkness; so that the Father spoke in it, and out of it, from the beginning, the light became and existed. In the same way the other creatures were created. This, I say, may be enough for us of the manner of creation.

(43) But here arises a perceptible question: What kind of light was this, by which the heavens and the earth, as they were first created in an unadorned and coarse form, became light; since at that time neither the sun nor the stars were created, and the text nevertheless reports that it was a true and essential light? This question has given some cause that they have sought a secret interpretation from it and have interpreted these words thus: Let there be light, that is, an angelic creature. Item, he separated the light from the darkness, that is, he separated the good angels from the evil ones. This, however, is called making short work of untimely allegories (for Moses writes a history and reports things that have happened), and not interpreting the Scriptures. For this purpose Moses wrote to the simple and unintelligent, so that they would have clear testimonies of the creation. Therefore, one should not pretend such inconsistent things here.

44 Secondly, it is also asked whether the same light has also moved around, or, as they call it, motu circulari? Now I gladly confess that I cannot really and thoroughly know; however, if someone desires to know what seems to me to be the closest and most similar to the truth, I consider it to be the case that this light was mobile, so that it made a natural day, from the beginning to the end. But what kind of light it was, although it is difficult to say, I do not like that one wanted to leave grammar without cause and draw the words by force to other things; because Moses clearly says that it was a light.

and reckons here the first day of creation.

(45) Therefore I consider that it was a righteous light, which had its movement and went around like the sun; although it was not such a bright and shining light as it became afterwards, when it was increased, adorned and improved with the light of the sun. As the Holy Scriptures also testify, that on the last day God will make the light of the sun, as we see it now, a dark imperfect light compared to the future clarity, seemingly more glorious and brighter. As therefore the light, which we see and have now, is to be reckoned as a thick and coarse light against the future clarity: so also the same first light, if one wanted to hold it against the present, was coarse and imperfect. And so this is my opinion of the two questions. Now Moses speaks further:

B. 5. Then the evening and the morning were the first day.

46 Here it must be known that the Jews reckon the day differently than we do. For they saw it from the evening and from the setting of the sun until the evening of the next day. But we reckon the day from the rising of the sun. And I like that they take the word aeraef, which is evening, from araf, which means to mix together; just as they take this word arof, which we call a mixed-up vermin, because in the evening all things are mixed together, and their shapes cannot really be distinguished after the light is gone.

47 And this much Moses has taught us from the first day. Now let us see that he holds this way of speaking also in the other creatures' creation, when God said: Let there be a best etc. This repetition should be most agreeable to us, because, as also said above, it gives a strong and excellent testimony to our faith, namely, that the Son is true in the divine essence.

The word that is spoken is not the same as the person of the one who speaks. In this way David also speaks in the 33rd Psalm, v. 6: "The heavens are made by the word of the Lord." And Solomon also indicates this strange way of speaking, when he writes Proverbs 8:22, 27, that the divine wisdom was like a servant and helper in the creation.'' "I am", he says, "appointed from eternity, before he created anything etc. When he prepared the heavens, I was there; when he composed the depths with his purpose" etc. Hereby Solomon shows that he understood this doctrine of our religion, shown and proved by Moses, but so that the unintelligent people heard and read it, but did not understand it. For if Solomon had not understood this mystery, he could not have spoken of it in this way. Therefore he took it all from Moses, as also this Proverbs 30, v. 4: "Who has put all the ends of the earth? What is his name, and what is the name of his son? Do you know?"

48 I also believe that there were similar writings of other holy men, such as Enoch, Elijah etc., in which many such testimonies were contained. But as they are today, although they are clearly revealed and presented in the New Testament, they remain hidden and are not accepted by the majority, but are contested: so it was rather among the Jewish people, since the holy fathers presented such obscure and not clearly presented testimonies, subtly, also to the scholars. But this is a great comfort to us, that we know, as it is shown from the beginning, that in the divine essence there are more persons, and yet one unity of the divine nature and essence. But if anyone does not want to believe this, or even to fight against it, it is not our business. Abraham, Gen. 18, 2. 3., sees three men, and yet worships only one. Item there in 19 Cap. V. 24, the Holy Spirit says: "The Lord rained down fire from heaven from the Lord." Whether such words are not understood by the foolish and senseless spirits, or whether they are not understood

Although we do not notice it, we know that it is not the words of a drunken man, but the words of God.

49 And there are many such testimonies everywhere, which the fine man Hilarius has diligently gathered together. But if they seem obscure and not certain enough, they seem so to the ungodly and unbelieving: the faithful and godly are certain and clear enough about what is presented and indicated in divine Scripture. For they believe and know that there is another person of God who speaks, and something else (not in nature, but in person) is the Word, by which all things were created, and are still today and always being preserved; as the Master of the Epistle to the Hebrews Cap. 1, 3. says: "He bears all things with His powerful Word."

50 But it must also be remembered here that these words, Let there be light, are God's words and not Moses', that is, essential things. For God calls things that are not to be, Rom. 4:17, and speaks not grammatical words, but true and essential things. As, which with us men reads as a word, that is with God as an essential thing. Thus sun, moon, heaven and earth, Peter, Paul, I and you etc. are bad words of God, indeed hardly a syllable or letter, to be counted against the whole creature. We also speak, but only grammatical words, that is, we only give names to things that are already created. But God has another grammar, namely, that when He says: Sun, you shall shine, the sun is soon there and shines. Thus, the words of God are not mere words or vocabularies, but essential things.

Here they have made a difference between the uncreated and the created word. The created word is made by the uncreated. For what is the whole creature but a word of God, spoken and pronounced by God? The uncreated word, however, is a divine thought and inner meaning that abides in God and is one thing with God, yet a distinct person. In this way God reveals himself to us, that he is the speaker who is with himself.

has an uncreated word, by which he created the world and everything with an easy work, namely only with speaking; so that God does not find it more difficult to create than to call. In such thoughts the pious fathers Augustine and Hilarius also had their pleasure.

Second part.

Of the other day's work of God.

V. 8. And God said, Let there be a best between the waters, and let there be a difference between the waters.

Here it seems as if Moses had forgotten himself, because he neither reports nor deals with two great and important things, namely the creation and fall of the angels; but only continues in the description of the physical things, although there is no doubt that the angels were also created. But of their creation, item of their struggle and fall, the scripture reports nothing everywhere, without Christ saying Joh. 8, 44, that the devil did not exist in truth; and Moses tells afterwards in the 3rd Cap. V. 1 ff. Moses tells a pitiful story about the serpent. Therefore, one might be surprised that Moses is so silent about such excellent things.

(53) Hence it came to pass, when men had no certainty of this, that they devised the nine choirs of angels, and that there were so many of them that their fall was nine days. So they also invented a great fight and quarrel, which the good angels had against the bad ones. But this, I think, is taken from the struggle of the church, that they dreamed: as in the church the pious teachers must always fight against the evil and enthusiastic ones, so also the good angels should have been in a struggle with the evil ones, who wanted to arrogate to themselves the divinity. But this is the way it is: where there is no public and certain testimony of the Scriptures, presumptuous and presumptuous people usually think that they have the power to write poetry and to think up whatever they want.

From this they also take the thoughts of the danger and fear of the angels from the 14th chapter. Isaiah v. 13, where Lucifer says: "I will ascend into heaven, and will exalt my throne above the stars of God. Although the prophet there prophesies of the pride of the king of the Babylonians. And Bernard has these thoughts: that Lucifer saw in God that man should be exalted above the nature of angels, therefore the arrogant spirit begrudged such blessedness to man and thus fell. But such thoughts remain in their value. I would not like to force one to agree with such opinions. But nevertheless it is certain that the angels have fallen and the devil has become an angel of darkness from an angel of light. Perhaps there might have been a fight and a quarrel between the good and the bad angels.

(55) But Moses, because he wrote to an unintelligent and new people, he also wanted to write what was useful and necessary to know, and kept silent about other things that were not necessary to know, such as the nature of angels and the like. Therefore, we should not expect anything further in all such things, especially because the New Testament also deals little with this matter, for it reports no more than that they are damned and will be kept in prison and bound until the day of judgment, 2 Peter 2:4. Therefore, we have enough from this that we know that there are good and evil angels, but that God created them all good at the same time. From this it necessarily follows that the evil angels have fallen and have not remained in the truth. How such a case occurred cannot be known, but it can be seen that they fell out of pride, after they despised the Word or the Son of God and wanted to prefer themselves to him. That is all we can know about it. Now we return to the text.

(56) We have heard that the work of the first day was the heaven and the earth, created in a crude and unskillful form, and also with a thick and coarse light.

has been illuminated. Now follow the work of the next day, how God built up and brought forth from the same thick and coarse mist, which Moses called heaven, a beautiful and lovely heaven, as it is now, when you put the stars and great lights of it. And the Hebrews have a convenient derivation of the word heaven, shamajim, from majim, which means water. For the letter shin is often used in compound words for a relativum, so that shamayim means watery or watery nature. As such also appears from the color of the sky, and experience gives that the air is moist by nature. And the philosophers say that the air would be nothing else but an eitele constant humidity, if the sun were not. It is indeed moist and warm at the same time, but the moisture is of its nature, because the sky is made of water. Therefore the sky rains and gives from itself wholesome and fruitful moisture. But because light has been added to the sun, the humid nature of the sky is tempered and mixed so that the air is also warm.

(57) This thick and coarse lump of mist, created from nothing on the first day, God takes by the word and calls it to spread out round and round. For the word rakia means among the Hebrews something that is stretched out and spread out, and comes from the word raka, which means: to spread out and wind out. For the heavens were made in such a way that the rough and unformed mass was stretched out, just as a pig's bladder (that I may give a rough simile from which it may be understood) spreads out round and rises when it is blown.

(58) Now that Job chap. 37:18 says that the heavens were made of iron, he is not referring to matter but to the Word, which can make even the softest thing by nature the strongest and most solid. For what is softer than water, and thinner and finer than air? And yet these finest and softest things keep their form and movement in the most perfect and firm way, because they are thus created by the Word. And if now

Even if the sky were made of diamonds or other extremely hard materials, it would still break and melt through the swift, long and constant movement that the sky has. In the same way, if the sun were made of the hardest matter, it would break and melt in a day due to its rapid movement. For the movement is extremely hot; as Aristotle says that the lead on an arrow can melt because of the swift movement.

(59) Therefore, these are the miraculous works of God, wherein the omnipotence of the Word is seen, that the heavens, being softer and finer than water, and being tossed about with swift motion, have not been corrupted or weakened in any place in so many thousands of years. This is what Job says Cap. 37:18, that the heavens are solid and cast like brass, yet they are by nature of the softest substance. For we know how thin and fine the air is in which we live, for it cannot be touched or grasped, nor can it be seen. Now the sky is by nature even finer and thinner than the air. For the fact that it appears blue is not a sign that it is so thick, but that it is so far from us and thin. And if you hold the clouds against it, they seem like a ranch of lighted wet wood. Job points to this fineness and yet, enduring permanence. For the philosophers also have a fine saying: What is moist and wet cannot keep itself in bounds.

Therefore heaven exists in God's word, because it (being of watery nature) cannot hold itself in its goal or terminus; as we hear: Let there be a best. From this, some philosophers, who were more diligent before others, have made a not unimportant conclusion; namely, that in nature nothing is accidental, but all things are governed and happen by divine providence, because the movements of the heavens and the things that are above us are so fixed and regulated. For who would say that such things happen by chance and are only natural things; because other bodily things, which are made by the skill of men, are not accidental and without

are dangerous, but are produced from certain counsel and art, as round, triangular or hexagonal columns?

61 Therefore, these are really wonderful works of divine majesty, that the sun has such an exact and certain course, that it does not step or exit from the line under which it runs, not even a finger's breadth away, at any place in the sky. It has such a course in the thinnest air, is not supported by solid bodies, but floats like a leaf in the air; although this likeness is not at all real and convenient. For a leaf floats and is driven around in the air, uncertainly; but the sun's movement is the most certain, and happens in much thinner air than this, in which we walk and live.

This wonderful spreading of the thick fog is called by Moses a best or firmament, in which the sun with the other planets has its course and movement around the earth, in such very subtle matter. But who is this master who makes such a soft and uncertain substance so firm, certain and solid? It is certainly not nature, which cannot accomplish such things in much lesser things; so it must be the work of him who speaks to heaven and this slippery substance: You shall be the firmament; and makes all things firm with the word, sustains them also according to his omnipotence. This word also makes the very finest and thinnest air harder and stronger than a diamond. Item, that it has its goal and own terminus. Again, that a diamond is softer than water. That we may learn from such works what kind of God we have, namely, who is almighty, and has made this wonderful and beautiful heaven out of a rough and coarse heaven, and has wrought all things according to his counsel and will.

63 Furthermore, I have said that this word best, or firmament, has the name of spreading out among the Hebrews. As on this word rhymes the simile of skins or tents, so Ps. 104, 2: "Thou spreadest out the heavens like a carpet. For like a wrapped up tapestry

He says that you spread out and wind up, as it were, the unformed heaven by your word, in which you sit invisibly in the whole creature, as in a circle, in and out of everything.

This is very strange, that Moses with clear words makes three parts, and puts the firmament in the middle of the waters. And I would like to have this thought and speculation, that the firmament is the highest and highest above all things, but the waters, which do not hang and hover above but below the heavens, are the clouds that we see; so that by the waters separated from the waters are understood the clouds that are separated from our waters on earth. But Moses says with dry and clear words that the waters are above and below the firmament. That is why I have to take my thoughts captive here and follow the word, even if I do not understand it.

65: But here it is asked: what kind of waters are these, and how the upper bodies are distinguished? How the philosophers divide and distinguish them is well known. For they set four elements and distinguish them according to their properties and qualities. They give the lower place to earth, the next to water, the third to air, and the last and highest to fire. Some add the ether as the fifth element. Then follow the spheres or circles of the seven planets, and the eighth sphere of the fixed stars. And in this they are almost all one, that four spheres are the things, which easily come into being and pass away again. After that there are eight other spheres of things that neither multiply nor decay.

Aristotle argues that the nature of the heavens is not made of the elements, but has its own particular nature. For if heaven were made of the elements, it would be corruptible, because the elements, mixed together, act on each other and suffer one from the other and thus wear each other out. Therefore he deprives the heavens and all heavenly bodies above us of primas qualitates, that is, of the elemental property, and says that they are

pure creatures, which have in themselves a light that is the same as theirs, and a special quality and property that is created at the same time as theirs.

67 Although these things are not certain, yet, because they are derived from causes not inconsistent with truth, and have in them a beginning and origin of beautiful and glorious arts, they are useful to teach, and it would be a grossness for anyone to neglect or despise them, especially because they agree to some extent with experience. For this we learn, that it is true that fire by nature is self-propelled, as it appears by lightning and other fiery signs in pleasure. By these principles, known from experience, they were moved and caused to place fire in the uppermost place, and below it, next, the air, after that the water, and below that the earth, which in gravity surpasses all the others.

These things are valid and have their place and use as prima principia, or instructions, although they are not necessarily true and come true. But they are generally true and serve to teach the same arts correctly and to act accordingly. For even though fire is made from firewood, it cannot be denied that there is also fire in the air above. That is why theology gives such arts this rule, of which philosophers do not know much: that although God has ordered and created all such things by his word, he is not bound by such rules, so that he cannot change them according to his will. For we see that neither grammar, nor other arts, are so certainly set down in rules that they do not have exceptions. So the secular law and laws draw in and temper equity etc. How much more can this happen in divine things, that although we learn that the four elements are thus ordered and disposed by God, God, contrary to this order, can also have and receive fire in the middle of the sea; as we see that it is locked in a vessel.

So the mathematicians have decided a certain number of spheres, not that

It is not necessary that it be so, but that one cannot teach anything special about such things where one does not divide the spheres in this way for the sake of the diversity of the movements, of which one cannot teach anything without such imagination that I call it so. For so say the teachers and masters of this art themselves: We give examples, not because they are completely true, but because such things cannot be taught in any other way. Therefore it would be a great folly to despise and ridicule such things, as some do, because it is not so certain that it could not be otherwise; for it serves that one may teach good arts, which is enough.

This is what the philosophers generally teach. In addition to these eight spheres, the new theologians add two more, namely the crystal heaven and the fire heaven. But the Greeks discussed these things much more finely and intelligently than ours. For Ambrose and Augustine have rather childish thoughts: therefore I praise Jerome that he is silent about it. Now some think that the crystal sky is watery because they think that it is this water, of which Moses speaks here, and that it is therefore made part of the firmament or the eighth sphere, so that it is not burned up by the swift and constant movement. But these are childish thoughts, and I would much rather confess that I do not understand Moses in this place, than that I wanted to accede to such clumsy thoughts. The tenth heaven, the heaven of fire, they call thus, not that it is fiery and burning, but that it is light and apparent. They make it the dwelling place of God and the blessed, which was made full of angels soon after creation, and Lucifer fell from this heaven. This is almost all that the theologians have done to the thoughts of the philosophers. But those of us who have been more learned and have occupied themselves with astronomy have made more spheres, namely twelve, and have devised three kinds of movements of the eighth sphere; as, motum raptum, motum proprium, and motum trepidationis (a caused, a proper, and a fluctuating movement). For from

Such things cannot be spoken otherwise, if one does not give to each movement its special sphere.

Averrois has had other more inconsistent thoughts, which are too much for reason; for he pretends that each sphere is an intelligible nature. And this foolish thought has this cause, that he has seen the certain and quite orderly movement of the heavenly bodies: therefore he has thought that the spheres were intelligible natures, each of which moved in a constant and certain way. But from this follows the highest ignorance of God; therefore we also reject Averroi's thoughts, and give the others, which we have narrated, so far right that they are useful to teach. For this knowledge of heaven and of the things that are above us is worthy of all praise, however little it may be had.

Moses took the simple and plain road and put three parts, namely the waters below and above, and the firmament in the middle, and by the word heaven he understood the whole corpus and building, which the philosophers distinguished into eight spheres, fire and air. For on the third day he first of all remembers the flowing waters. So it is also clear and certain that this pleasure, in which we live, is called heaven in the holy scriptures. For thus Ps. 8:9 calls it the birds of the air. It says in 1 Kings 8:35 that the heavens are closed unless it rains. It says, Zech. 8, 12, that the sky rains: but all this happens in the air, and not in the spheres of the moon or the other planets. Therefore this dividing of the heavens into spheres is not at all from Moses, nor from the holy Scriptures, but is devised by learned men for teaching. Which we should recognize as a great good deed.

I still doubt whether it is right to say that the elements are corruptible things, for I see that they remain. And although a part of them is changed at times, it does not follow that they are changed at all; but the change of the elements takes place only in parts. For so the air remains, in which the birds live and fly; so the earth remains, on which the trees and the plants grow.

of things grow, although quite a few pieces of the same are changed.

74 Aristotle says that the cause of all these things is primum motorem, that is, the first mover; but Averrois says that the causes of the movements are formae adsistentes a foris, that is, intelligible natures that move from outside: that, we say with Moses, all things happen and are badly governed by God's word. He spoke, then it came to pass. He did not command the angels to govern these bodies: just as we ourselves are not governed by the angels, though we are protected and guarded by them.

75' Thus, that the planet's course is retrograde is also a work of God, created by God's word. Which work belongs to God alone, and is much higher and greater than that it could be assigned to an angel; but it is God who has thus distinguished, governs and sustains it. And the same God who called the sun to run and the firmament to stand still, also said to the planets or stars: you shall go this way and that way etc. For the word is able and does all these things, that the most uncertain course is the most certain, although the same heavenly bodies do not walk and float in one place or under one visible line. For as a fish is in the midst of the sea, and a bird under the open sky, so the stars move in their appointed place, but with a very certain and wonderful course. This is also the reason why the Elbe has its steady course here before Wittenberg and in this region and does not have to tire. All such works are works of the word, which Moses here praises and extols: He said etc.

For this reason, we Christians should speak and be of a different mind about the causes of these things than the philosophers, even though some of them are beyond our reason (like this piece about the waters above the sky) and are rather to be believed with a confession of our ignorance than either to be denied out of ungodly opinion or to be interpreted presumptuously according to our understanding. For we must keep the way of speaking, as it has the holy scripture, and remain with the words of the Bible.

The Holy Spirit was pleased to divide the creatures in this way, so that the firmament would be spread out from the unformed heaven and earth in the midst of and through the Word, and that then above and below the firmament would be the waters, also taken from the rough and coarse lump of heaven and earth. All this together the Holy Spirit calls heaven, with the seven spheres and the air, in which meteors and fire signs occur and birds have their dwelling.

Therefore we do not dispute these common principles, nor do we deny that they say that everything that is heavy by nature sinks below itself, and that which is light goes up or above itself (although we see that thick and heavy vapors also float above themselves, but from the effect and movement of heat). This alone we say, then, that these things are all thus created and preserved by the Word, can also be changed by the power of the same Word even today; as then this whole nature will finally come to change; just as it is also contrary to the rule now indicated that there are still waters above the sky or the firmament: and yet the text reports and testifies to this.

Now that we come back to the question we asked, it is true that if you ask about the nature of these waters, you cannot deny that the waters, as Moses says, are above the sky. But what kind of waters they are, I freely confess that I do not know; for even the Scriptures do not mention them in any other place than here, and in the song of the three men in the fire, Dan. 3:61. 3, 61. So also of all such things we can say nothing certain, as also of heaven nothing, in which the angels and God dwell with the blessed; also of the other nothing, which shall be revealed at the last day, when we shall be clothed with another flesh; but now we can say nothing certain of it.

But for the sake of those who do not yet understand, I must also say that in the Scriptures the horizon is also understood by the word heaven. And of it also

The whole firmament of all heavens is called heaven, so that all people's heavens, that is, horizons, come together in it. And in this way we have a different heaven than those who live in France or Italy. But this name does nothing to explain this text here; therefore, several theologians have interpreted these waters (as also indicated above) as coelum glaciale, that is, the cold sky, which is therefore placed in this place, so that it should moisten and, as it were, refresh the lower spheres in such great and swift movement and circulation, so that they are not consumed by the great heat. But whether they conclude correctly in this, I leave unsaid.

I will gladly confess that I do not understand what these waters are. Just as the old teachers did not care much about them; as we see that Augustine despises the whole of astrology. But even though it has many superstitious things, one should not despise it at all, because it deals with the contemplation and observation of the divine works, which diligence is very much due to a human being. Therefore we see that many excellent people have practiced it and taken pleasure in it. Enough has been said of this text, namely, that the heavens of the next day are so distinguished and ordered that they stand in the midst of the waters.

(81) But here there is another question, namely, because in the other works of the other days Moses says, "And God saw what He had made, and behold, it was very good; why was this not also done, since the greatest and most beautiful part of the whole creature was created? To this question one can answer: that this decision was only made at the end of the creation of all things on the sixth day, when the Scripture says: "And God looked at all that He had made, and behold, it was all very good. Because there also the sky is understood with.

82) Lyra accepts the opinion of Rabbi Solomon, who says that this

Words: And God saw that it was very good to be set twice on the third day, therefore the one time belongs to the work of the other day, which is only accomplished on the third day, since the waters under heaven are more precisely distinguished. The others are clever here and give other reasons, do not know how, that the second number means something unfortunate and evil, because it is the first number, which divides and separates from unity; but God is hostile to this ceding and separating and is pleased with unity, therefore he did not say this clause or resolution on the other day. But Lyra calls this right a deceitful and seductive gloss. For in this way all numbers move away from unity.

It is also safest not to inquire and question too much in such matters, for they are set far too high above our reason. For how can we understand this order, which God Himself has ordered and allows Himself? Yes, reason must be put to shame: for what is an orderly thing before God seems disorderly and uncertain before us. So it seems to us that the stars are mixed together without any order, because the bright ones are mixed with the dark ones, the small ones with the large ones. For who would consider such an order, since it is the highest order, established by God's counsel and highest wisdom? And we judge other things in the same way. It seems to us to be a great disorder and confusion that the Elbe, indeed all waters, drift in such an uneven course to their mouth. Such disorder also seems to us to be among the trees, even between man and woman, since everything seems to be going on disorderly. But all this shows and proves that God has a different order, and also judges all such things differently than we do.

Therefore, we do not want to worry about why Moses first let these words follow the creation and work of the third day: God saw etc., but in the next day he left them outside. They also do not want to judge whether the work of the second day was first accomplished on the third or not. That now the philosophers the sky

They distinguished into eight spheres or circles for the instruction of good arts: but we have a simpler and more certain way, that we teach that without all means God is the Creator of all things by His word: DIXIT, He said.

Third part.

Of the third day's work of God.

V. 9. And God said, Let the waters under heaven be gathered together unto special places, that dry things may be seen.

I said above that we do not understand the order of God's works; therefore, if he had consulted us here, we would have advised him to set this order for another day. But he wants to remain the master of this order and judge of the world himself and alone: therefore we should not be too careful here. The text clearly says that God commanded the waters to gather under heaven; does not say under the best or firmament, as he said above (v. 6, 7): the waters separate from the waters above and below the best. Now heaven, according to the Scriptures, is called the whole great building above the earth, with all the air and all the spheres, and has a Hebrew name of matter, that is, of the distinct waters, from which it was made when they were separated and multiplied. For the first and unformed water was not so broad and large, but was spread out and enlarged by the word; as Christ in the gospel by his blessing multiplies little loaves so that they are enough for a great multitude. What in philosophy is called air with all its spheres, Moses calls heaven.

86 But he calls these our waters, as, the sea and the flowing waters, which have become from the first unformed water and have remained like a basic soup on the earth, since the sky was formed from it by

the word has been mentioned. But I believe that the waters above are much stronger than our waters, which, on the other hand, are like yeasts, and may be called collected waters not only because of the place but also because of the substance. For they are much thicker than the waters in the air; for in the air we breathe, but in the water we cannot breathe. That the Latin text says: in locum unum collective, in one place, is rather to be understood from many places into which the water is to divide. As if you meant to say: in various places in particular; that is, that not all the power of the water is gathered into the sea in one place, but that there are many seas and rivers, one above, the other below; one larger, the other smaller etc.

That one sees the dry.

These words are to be noted here because he said above (v. 2) that the earth was tohu and bohu, that is, unfinished, coarse and undecorated, and was poured around and mixed with the waters everywhere. Therefore he also indicates here that the earth lay over a lump in the water, and was surrounded with it everywhere. For why else would he say: that one sees the dry, where it would not have been surrounded with the depths and would not have been completely covered with the same first, thick and nebulous waters? For here again is confirmed and proved what I have said above several times, that the world at first, when it was created, was nothing else but a coarse, shapeless lump of earth and water, from which only on the third day the earth is brought forth and separated so that it can be seen. As the waters were adorned with light before, so also here the earth is given its ornament and adornment by the light. For if it was to be possible to live on it, both were necessary, namely that it was dry and that it lay in the light or was illuminated.

But he calls the earth dry because of the separated waters. Thus we see that the sea roars wonderfully, as if it wanted to swallow up the whole earth. For

The sea is much higher than the earth. But it cannot come above its goal and limit. For this text, from the first creation, gives the earth its dimensions and a certain place, but the sea a very strong bar; as Job 38:10 and Psalm 104:9 are written. That although the sea is higher, and cannot hold of itself, nor be its goal, yet it cannot step out farther than it is due and permitted. For since the earth is the middle or center of the world, it should be shut up and lowered into the sea: but God, by the word, casteth out the sea, and causeth to go forth upon the face of the waters a level place, as much as is necessary for habitation and life.

Therefore, it is by divine power that the waters do not overflow us, and God still demonstrates this miracle to us today until the end of the world, which He showed to the people of Israel in the Red Sea in Exodus 14:21, 22. For this reason he revealed his power with a public miracle at the same time, so that he would be honored all the more diligently by his small people. For what is our whole life on this earth but a passage through the Red Sea, on both sides of which the water stood like two high walls? For it is quite certain that the sea lies much higher than the earth. That is why God still calls the waters to stand today, as if they were suspended, and stops them by the Word, so that they do not break out over us, as they overtook and covered the earth in the Flood. But at times our Lord God causes signs to be performed and whole islands to be submerged by the waters, so that He may prove that the sea is in His hand and power, that He can also withstand it, and that He can also let it pass over the ungrateful and the wicked.

The philosophers also talk about the center of the world and the water that flows around it. And it is indeed a miracle that they have come so far that they have set the earth as the means and center of the whole creation. For from this it is to be assumed that the earth cannot fall, because it is inwardly held by the other spheres everywhere. So the sky and the other spheres also hold on to the center, that they are

can be permanent. This is worth learning and knowing. But of this the philosophers know nothing, that heaven and earth had their state, and neither fall nor are moved, by the power of divine word. Therefore the water cannot go out of its boundary and cover the earth, even though it is higher than the earth; but we live and float on it, like the children of Israel in the midst of the Red Sea.

V. 10. And God saw that it was good.

Here follows this acknowledgement that God has had pleasure and delight in His works, yet nothing has been made without the waters being separated and the earth being drawn forth from them. But above, when he describes the most beautiful part of God's works, he does not remember these words. This may have been because God wanted to show how He was much more careful about our dwelling place than about His own, so that we would be all the more provoked to give thanks. For our life should not be in the air or in heaven, but on the earth, where we have food and drink and can sustain our life.

(92) Therefore, having adorned and lightened the roof of this dwelling place, that is, the heavens, he now also prepares a floor and brings forth an earth that is suitable and comfortable for the dwelling and service of men. He says twice that he is pleased with this work for our sake, who are so dear to him and for whom he cares. He also assures us and makes us certain that he will take great care of this work, which he has built so carefully, and that he will be there to defend us against the enemy that threatens us with death, namely the water. Therefore he lifts up this house finely from the foundation and roof. Now let us see how he decorates and paints it.

V. 11. And God said, Let the earth bring forth grass, and herb yielding seed, and fruitful trees etc.

He has now built the first and most noble buildings of this house. The roof is the magnificent fine sky, although it is still

The ground is the earth; the walls are the seas on every side. Now he also provides food for us and gives the earth to bear grass and herbs and all kinds of trees. Here you see why he called the earth tohu and bohu (v. 2), namely, that it was not only dark and full of water, but also barren and without any plants. But we see here what food he creates for us, namely herbs and plants of the trees. Therefore I believe that our bodies would have been much healthier and stronger if this use of all kinds of food, but especially the eating of meat, had not arisen after the Flood. For although the earth was cursed after the fall of Adam, and afterwards very much corrupted by the Flood, yet the food and nourishment of herbs would be much purer and more subtle than of flesh. And it can be seen that in the beginning of the world herbs were man's food and were created to be man's food.

(94) That the earth should bring forth grain, and trees, and herbs of all kinds, is the work of this day. Now all things grow from the seed of their kind. The first creation, however, happened without seed, and only by the power of the Word. But that seed now grows is also a work of creation, of which there is much to marvel. For this is a peculiar power, that a grain which falls into the ground sprouts in its time and bears fruit after its kind. Therefore it is a certain sign that this creation, by which every plant of its kind is produced according to a constant order, does not happen by chance or accident, but is the noblest work of divine providence. Thus from wheat grows nothing but wheat; from barley nothing but barley; from rye, rye etc. and for and for each species retains its constant manner, order and quality.

But what the cause is, philosophy neither understands nor knows, but ascribes it to nature. But we know that nature was created by the Word in such a way that the seeds and species of all things are preserved. And so it is not only

The first seed of all things has also multiplied, and maintains its kind with all diligence.

Here the question is asked: At what time of the year was the world created, whether it was created in spring or in autumn? And one part wants it to be created in spring, the other in autumn. Both have their special thoughts on this. For those who say that it was created in autumn prove it by the fact that the trees bore fruit, for Adam and Eve ate the fruit of the trees. For further proof, they also use that which follows in Cap. 2, 1. follows: God's works are perfect, or finished. Others prefer to put the time of spring, because at this time the year is most beautiful and, as it were, the first age of the world or youth. Hence it is that the poets put the spring at the beginning of the world.

97 But no part of it has sufficient proof and cause for its pretense: for from the text both these things are to be proved, namely, that the earth sprouted and was planted, which indeed does not first happen in the fall, but in the spring; and that fruits were present. Therefore we say that this was a miracle of the first world, that all this happened suddenly, and the earth was planted, the trees blossomed, and as soon as the fruits followed. The same miracle then ceased: for all manner of things, as they were then created, were afterwards further planted and raised by the seed. Therefore they conclude and argue very badly from the natural effect to the supernatural one. For this is to be ascribed to the Creator and the first work of creation, that, as far as the trees and fruits are concerned, this time, spring and autumn, have followed each other nimbly.

98 And this was also the cause that moved Hilarius and others to believe that the world had suddenly been completed, and that God had not used the six natural days for the work of creation. For the text compels us to confess that the trees with the fruit stood there on the day in which Adam was created. And whether this is true sooner than it is now used to be?

(For now and almost half a year belongs to it): so the text says not only of the bearing of fruit, but also of the coming up of the grass and herbage.

(99) As for the previous question, it is very plausible that the time in which the world began was the time of the spring: just as the Jews begin their year and reckon the first moon in the spring, when the earth opens and everything grows green.

100 Further it is also asked: When the barren trees and herbs were created? Of this I will also state my opinion (although I can neither discuss nor conclude anything certain). And hold it that at the beginning all trees were good and fruitful, and the animals on earth had the same food and food, and as it were a common table with Adam, and ate grain, wheat and other noble fruits; so also all creatures were created abundant and with great quantity and heaps.

After Adam sinned, it was first said to the earth that it should bear thorns and thistles. Therefore there is no doubt that this is also a punishment of sins, that we have so many trees and herbs that are of no use for food and nourishment. And this is why some have called the whole earth a paradise, because of the rich blessings of the first creation. But the expulsion from paradise, they say, was that Adam was cast out of the kingdom of the blessed earth among the thorns, because often much and great labor is not worth the effort. But more will be said about this later. But as far as this question is concerned, I like to think that in the beginning all trees were created and were fruitful.

102 Some people are disconcerting, careful, and forward, who have also disputed and asked here: why did God adorn the earth with fruit on the third day before he adorned the heavens with stars? for this rather belongs to the work of the sixth day, and rhymes better, that just as the heavens began to be spread out before the earth was brought forth, so it would be adorned before the earth.

But the ornament of the earth belongs more to the sixth day. And Lyra makes a subtle difference, namely that this is not the ornament of the earth, but a thing that belongs to its form. But whether this question is thereby sufficiently solved, I am uncertain. But it seems to me, as I also said before, to be much better and more correct that we do not look at the order of such things as we understand them. For this purpose the heavens were adorned with light, which was created on the first day and is truly the most beautiful adornment of the whole creature.

(103) Therefore, it pleases me that in such a text we consider God's kindness and care for us, that He prepares such a beautiful house for man before he is created; so that afterward, when he is created, he finds a prepared and prepared dwelling place, where he is led by God, and is allowed and commanded to enjoy all the rich goods of such a great and glorious house. On the third day, the kitchen and cellar are prepared and stocked. On the fourth day the sun and the moon are given to man for his use and service. On the fifth he is given dominion over the fish and the birds. On the sixth, he is commanded and given dominion over all animals, so that he may enjoy all such goods and use them according to his need, all for nothing, solely so that he may recognize God's goodness from this mild and abundant providence and live in the fear of God. This care of God for us before we are created is considered right and useful in this text, but the rest is useless and uncertain.

God also shows us such kindness and beneficence in spiritual gifts. For before we are converted to faith, our Savior, Christ, is already up in the Father's house, preparing a dwelling place for us; so that when we come, we may find a heaven prepared with all kinds of joy and delight. Therefore Adam, since he was not yet created, could think much less than we of his future goods, since he was not yet; but we have certain promises of them in God's Word. Therefore, we should regard the occasion of the first world as a preliminary

image and figure of the world to come, and learn to recognize God's goodness, that He blesses us and provides for us abundantly sooner than we can think of or provide for ourselves. Such care, diligence, gentleness and kindness of God we shall consider in this life as well as in the next, and marvel at them; which are much better thoughts than these, so that one may be troubled: why God did not begin to adorn the earth until the third day. And so let this be enough of the work of the third day, in which man's house is prepared and made ready. Now the other days follow, in which we are also set up as masters of the whole creature.

Fourth Part.

Of the fourth day's work of God.

V. 14. And God said, There shall be lights in the best part of heaven, dividing day from night etc.

This is the work of the fourth day, in which these most beautiful creatures, namely, the sun and the moon with the other stars, were not only created by the Word into glorious and beautiful essential creatures, but were also blessed by God with glorious power and effect.

106. but you have heard above that on the first day the light was created, which light has been until the fourth day instead of the sun, moon and the other stars, until the fourth day the right founders and lords of the day and night are created.

Therefore it is asked here about the same first light: Whether it disappeared so soon after the sun and the moon were created, or whether it remained with the sun? About this question many strange opinions and thoughts have been found. But I simply hold that all the works of God were made in the same way; and as on the first day a rough and unformed heaven and a rough and unformed earth were created, and after that they were built up and adorned, so

that the heavens would be spread out and adorned with light, but the earth would be brought forth out of the water and adorned with trees and plants: so I believe that the light, which began on the first day and was created crudely and imperfectly, will be accomplished on the fourth day, since new creatures, such as the sun, moon and stars, have been created for it. Others say that this first light still exists and remains, but is obscured by the clarity of the sun, as the moon and stars are not seen during the day before the bright shine of the sun. This can both be true, that the same first light remained, and yet was the same as a seed and beginning of the sun and moon.

But Moses makes a difference and calls the sun and the moon the great lights. Now it does not matter here that the astronomers argue about the size of these lights. But this is important, that we notice how the Scriptures call such bodies not by the size of their substance or essence, but by the size and clarity of their light. For if the sun were to be compared with the other stars, and the stars were all to be counted as one light or body, it would indeed be a much larger body than the sun is, but it would not be at all equal to the clarity and light of the sun. Again, even if the sun were divided into small pieces, they would still far surpass the stars in clarity: for these heavenly bodies are created with a difference; as Paul says in 1 Cor. 15:41 that the sun has a different clarity, the moon a different clarity, and the stars a different clarity among themselves etc. But this difference is not due to these bodies or creatures, but to the creation, so that one should marvel at this work all the more. As it is indeed to be wondered at, that the rays of the sun should spread out so far and wide, with so great a rapidity of their course, item, with so great a power to warm and resound all the other bodies that are subject to it.

The astronomers also say that the stars are lit by the sun, that they shine. So they also say that the moon

I have its light and shine from the sun. And this will be proved during the eclipses of the moon, when the earth comes between the sun and the moon, and does not let the light of the sun reach the moon. All this I do not deny, nor do I reject it: but I hold that this is a divine power, that the sun is created with such an excellent clarity that it also illuminates and lights the moon and the stars with its light; item, that the moon and the stars are created in such a way that they can grasp and comprehend the light given to them by the sun.

In the beginning of the 12th Psalm, Augustine tells two thoughts about the moon and wants to force a secret interpretation on the church from it, although he does not conclude anything certain. But I leave it at that. For with the astronomers, as with masters of this art, one finds best of all what is to be discussed about these things. I am content with the fact that we recognize God's goodness and power from such marvelous creatures, which are useful for our life, that he created such things through the Word and still maintains and governs them daily for our service and benefit. This belongs to our profession and is a theological thing, and also has its power to comfort and reassure the heart.

(111) Whatever else is said about the nature and properties of these creatures, even though it is not inappropriate to the truth for the most part, and is learned with benefit, I still see that reason is much too weak to recognize such things thoroughly and completely. Therefore, high and understanding people, for whom the excellence of such things was too much and too high, could not conclude otherwise than that they were eternal creatures and, as it were, gods.

Now that the philosophers define a star as a dense point within its circumference, we can much more truly and surely define a star as a light, created by God through the Word. And it is more similar to the truth that the bodies of the stars are round like the sun, and are attached to the firmament like spheres, that each one should shine at night according to its gift and creation.

And be to signs, times, days and years etc.

(113) Moses' addition of the words "and separate the day from the night" indicates the difference, which is also common among astronomers, between natural and artificial, that is, between the day as it is naturally reckoned of four and twenty hours, or of day and night at the same time, and the day alone without the night. For when he says above (v. 5): Let evening and morning become one day, he is speaking of the natural day, which has four and twenty hours, in which the first moving light runs around from going out to going down. But here, when he says: that they separate day and night, he speaks of the day, as we commonly count it, without the night, as long as the sun is to be seen above the earth.

(114) Therefore this is the first office of the sun and moon, that they should be as lords and stewards of the day and the night, and the stars do nothing for this work; but when the sun rises, it brings the day without the help of the other stars that rise with it. Thus the moon is a steward of the night and brings the night: for to this end it was created by God's counsel and wisdom. But that the night and the day change and change is for the sake of men and animals, that they may have their rest and be refreshed thereby. For the sun shines and is luminous, that men may work and labor; but the moon is darker in light, and therefore more convenient for sleep and rest, than for labor.

115 But what is this that he saith, They are for signs? Lyra interprets that they are signs of rain and thunderstorms. I do not particularly object to this, although I am in doubt as to whether rain and thunderstorms can so certainly be noticed and indicated beforehand, as Virgilius and others write. The Gospel uses Matth. 16, 2. Luc. 12, 54. as a sign of rain, when the sky is red and cloudy in the evening; but again the bright evening as a sign of beautiful weather. That they therefore say that the exit of the seven-pointed star means rain and the like, I do not particularly object to, but I want it to be true.

I do not believe it to be certain and true, because I see that it is not so certain everywhere.

But this, I think, is the simple mind of this text, that it does not speak of such small signs, but of other signs, which are great and perceptible, such as the eclipses and great conjunctions (unions of several stars); that a sign is so much as a miraculous sign or miracle, by which God reveals and indicates either his wrath or misfortune to the world. Now, if anyone thinks this interpretation too coarse and simple, let him remember that Moses was a teacher for an incomprehensible and coarse people.

(117) Here belong all kinds of fire signs and strange things that happen in the air: as when one sees stars falling, or that a court gathers around the moon or sun, rainbows are seen, and the like. For Moses calls heaven the whole watery corpus or building in which the heavenly bodies and planets have their course, also the upper part of the air. For the speech of the spheres or circles was invented afterwards to make the matter clearer. For the Scriptures know nothing of this, and say that among these creatures, the sun, moon, and stars, not each has its own particular sphere, but is attached and set in the firmament (under and above which are the waters of the heavens), that they are signs of things to come; as experience teaches of the eclipses, great conjunctions, and some other signs of the air.

(118) But the word times (lemoadim) is to be respected. For moed means an immovable and certain time. Therefore this is the common name for the tabernacle in the Bible, that there, at a certain place and time, certain celebrations and ceremonies were held. Thus, says Moses, the sun and the moon were arranged in times. But not only because the times are noticeably governed and changed by the sun; as we see that the things here below on earth have changes after the sun has come near to them or far from them (for the air at every time of the year, as winter, summer, autumn, and spring, is differently arranged and shaped, according to which then also the sun and the moon have a different time).

(We do not feel changes in our bodies), but that we also use other differences and characteristics of the times in this life, which are taken from the movements and the course of these heavenly creatures. Thus, at certain times of the year, houses are rented, servants are hired, interest and income are collected etc. All these are services rendered to us by the sun and the moon, so that we can divide and distinguish the times according to work and other opportunities and conveniences. Thus we count weeks, moons, quarters or soft fasts, as they are called, and the like.

119. that follows: "and days" means the natural day when the sun has once gone around the earth. Therefore, that we count days and years is God's benevolence and gracious order. Therefore also the time, which the philosophers call numerationem motus, that is, a counting of the course of heaven. For such a number and calculation could not be had if the upper heavenly bodies did not move in a certain way and order, but stood still. But where there is no number, there is no time; as one who has fallen asleep, when he awakes, does not know how long he has slept, because counting has ceased.

Thus we can remember our childhood to some extent, but we do not know that we sucked our mother's breasts, since we already had life at that time: the cause is that there was a lack of counting. And from this also comes that the unreasonable animals know nothing of time, as also the small children do not. Therefore number indicates that man is a special creature of God; as we see that Augustine gladly praises and extols this gift or endowment of nature, and proves from it that the soul is immortal. For man alone reckons and understands time.

Here one asks about the life to come: Whether also such services of the heavenly bodies will cease? But this is an unnecessary question; for that life will be without time, the pious will have an eternal day, the wicked an eternal night and darkness etc.

So the sun creates the day not only with its light and clarity, but also with its movement, by which it runs from going out to going down, until it rises again after 24 hours, and thus makes another day. Therefore the astronomers also tell three useful effects of the sun, namely an influence, movement and light.

(123) Of influence I will not make much subtle disputation here; for I am content that I know that these heavenly bodies are created for our use and good, that they are signs to us either of the wrath or of the grace of God; and at times, that we notice in them certain differences of the times (2c). Such things, because they are grounded in Scripture, are certain; but the others, though they stand on experience, yet because at times the same is also deceptive, are not so certain.

But here one is used to ask about the astrological prophecies, which some want to confirm and prove from this text. If someone did not defend them so stiffly and firmly, I would not want to fight against them. For one must let learned minds have their pleasure and amusement at times. Therefore, if one leaves the abuses and superstitions of it, it should not particularly annoy me if someone, for the sake of pleasure, wanted to practice such fortune-telling.

Nevertheless, as far as trade is concerned, I will never be persuaded that astrology should be counted among the sciences, for the reason that it has no apparent proof. For the fact that they draw on experience is of no concern to me; for all astrological experiences are mere individual perceptions; and those who have been experienced in the art have observed and written down only those which have not failed; but the others, in which they have failed and the effect has not followed, of which they have said that it should certainly follow, they have not recorded. But just as Aristotle says that a swallow alone does not make summer, so, I think, one can make a complete and correct art from such individual perceptions. And as the hunter's saying is, one can hunt every day, but the hunt turns out

not every day: so one would like to say also just that of the astrologers and their prophecies; because they are missing to the frequent.

But since they contain something certain, what foolishness is it that one is so anxious and worried about future things? For if one could know future things through astrological prophecies, would it not be better in many ways, if they are evil, that one should not know them at all than that one should know them? For this it is far better that one should always keep in the fear of God and pray, than that one should fear and be troubled with the fear of things to come. But of that another time.

I now consider that the astrological prophecies cannot so certainly be based on this text, for they are signs which reason observes and brings together. But the next and actual reason is this, that we understand, Moses speaks of the signs, which God instructs and shows, that the people are either admonished or frightened by it in general. And this shall be enough of the fourth day.

But here the immortality of the soul is shown and demonstrated, since no creature but man can understand the course of heaven, or measure and comprehend the heavenly bodies. A sow, cow or dog cannot judge or measure the water they drink, but a man judges and measures heaven and all heavenly bodies.

Therefore, there is a glimmer of eternal life here, that man by nature must practice contemplation and knowledge of such things. And this concern indicates that people are not created to live in the lowest place of the world all the time, but that they should finally possess heaven, which they look upon with wonder in this life and practice and study in the contemplation and concern of heavenly things.

130. and if this were not the case, what would it have served, or what would it have been necessary, that God would have let man know such things so abundantly, to which of his

How does the form and proportion of his own body testify that he belongs to the heavenly things, although his arrival is very weak, poor and miserable? For the first man was made from an earthen vessel, after which the human race began to be begotten and multiplied from the seed of man and woman. Therefore, the embryo is gradually formed in the womb according to all limbs, and grows until it is brought to the day and to this light of heaven through birth. Only then does it begin to feel, act and move.

131. But when after all this the body has come to its power and strength, and in a healthy body reason and wit go in their exercise, then only the intelligent life appears, which is not in other earthly creatures; Thus, through the help of the mathematical arts, of which no one can speak except that God has revealed and ordained them, man rises from the earth with his mind and thoughts to the heights, subdues earthly things, and investigates and contemplates heavenly ones. This is not done by cows, sows or other animals, but by man alone. That is why man is a creature, created to finally leave the earth and live in heaven in an eternal being. For that is where he comes from, not only to speak and judge (which concerns dialectics and rhetoric), but also to learn the whole doctrine of the course of the heavens, the movement of the stars, and what more human reason can comprehend of the high and secret things.

For this reason, from this third day on, our glory is revealed, that God now intends and intends to create such a creature that can recognize and understand the movement of these heavenly bodies, which will also be created on the fourth day, and that delights in such knowledge, as its nature is especially inclined to, and it is its duty to know. But all these things shall provoke and awaken us to thanksgiving, that we belong as citizens to this fatherland, which we now look upon and understand with wonder, but as strangers and exiles; for after the

In the next life, we will look at such things more closely and fully understand them.

So far we have heard of creatures that neither live nor feel, although some philosophers have spoken of the stars and heavenly bodies as living and understanding creatures. But I think that this was done because of their proper and certain movement, which is not the case in the other creatures. For this reason they said that they were created with a body and an understanding, and yet their body or being had nothing elementary. In this way Plato disputes in the Timaeus.

But such opinions and thoughts are to be rejected altogether, and our understanding is to be applied and directed to God's Word and the Holy Scriptures, which clearly teach that God created all these things for the purpose of preparing them as a gift and shelter for the future man, and that all these things are governed and upheld by the power of the Word by which they were created. For this reason, now that everything that belongs to this building and Hanseatic League has been created, man will finally be led into it and placed in it as his possession. That we may learn that divine providence is much greater for us than all our care and effort. This understanding is given to you by the holy Scriptures, therefore everything else that is put forward without Scripture is to be rejected and despised.

Here, however, I must repeat the teaching that I have thought of several times above, namely, that one must be accustomed to speak in the manner and form that the Holy Spirit leads; just as no one can study other arts fruitfully unless he has learned their language and manner of speaking correctly. Thus the lawyers have their terms and peculiar ways, of which a physician and philosopher know nothing. Again, they also have their own language, which is unknown to other arts and professions. Now one art shall not hinder the other, but each shall keep (thus to speak) its course and need its own expressions.

136 Therefore, we see that in this way the Holy Spirit also has His language and His power.

The Holy Spirit has a special way of speaking, namely, that God created everything and worked through the Word, and that all His works are words of God, created through His uncreated Word. Now, just as a philosopher uses his special expressions, so also the Holy Spirit has his special expressions. And that an astronomer has his so-called spheres, eyes, epicycles etc., in this he does right, is also granted to do in his art, so that he can teach all the more correctly and comfortably. Again, the Holy Spirit and the Holy Scriptures know nothing of such designations or words, but call the whole heavenly edifice that is above us heaven, which an astronomer should neither master nor reprove, but should have his own expressions, and let the Scriptures speak after their kind.

137 The word time should be understood in this way, for a Hebrew has a different time than a philosopher, and the word time also means a different thing to him than to a philosopher. A Hebrew calls theological time orderly and definite festivals; item, the days as they follow one another and close a year. So that this word time is almost everywhere given by the word feast or celebration, without it being said of the tabernacle or tabernacles. This is what I wanted to say before we continue, and I do not consider it a useless doctrine and rule that each art should use its own words and way of speaking, and that none should therefore reject or ridicule the other, but rather that one should help and serve the other. As the master craftsmen do, so that a whole community or city may be preserved, which must not (as Aristotle says) have all physicians, but physicians and agriculturists, that is, various crafts.

Fifth part.

Of the fifth day's work of God.

V. 20. And God said, Let the waters be filled with beasts of the air, and with living creatures, and with fowl etc.

We see that Moses keeps his way of speaking firm and constant in the word "speak". So far he has described the upper creatures, as the heavens with the whole host of planets and other stars, which God brought forth from the water by the Word and gave light to; as we see that this air is bright and clear by a natural light. Now Moses goes on to say about a new creature, also made and brought forth out of water, namely the birds and fishes.

139. but he puts these two kinds (birds and fish) together so that they are not unlike each other in nature and quality. For as a fish swims in the water, so a bird flies in the air. And although both kinds do not have the same flesh and substance, they nevertheless have the same origin; as the text clearly reports that the birds were first drawn out of the water and created, and then rose and moved into the pleasure in which they live. Moses, however, sticks to his way of speaking and calls heaven everything that is above.

First of all, it is to be wondered at that, although birds and fish are made of the same matter, a bird cannot live in water, just as a fish cannot remain or last in pleasure. And physicians rightly argue that the flesh of birds is healthier than that of fish (although birds are also of a watery nature), because birds live in thinner air, of which the waters in which fish are born and live are, as it were, thicker yeasts. But the philosophers do not believe this. But we should give more credence to the holy scripture, which says that both creatures, birds and fish, have the same origin.

Therefore this first book of Moses is to be praised as a mighty and excellent book, because it shows us God's power and authority in so many ways, so that he created all things, far above all human reason and understanding. For who would think that such a creature would be created from water, so that water could not suffer at all? Now God speaks only one word and immediately birds come out of the water.

before. Therefore, when the word is given, everything that is unbelievable to reason becomes possible, so that water becomes either fish or birds. And so every bird, every fish is nothing else than a word or name in God's grammar; by which grammar what seems and is impossible becomes very easy, and what is contrary to each other becomes equal and united among themselves; and so in the opposite.

But such things are described and should be diligently learned and known, so that we may learn to marvel at the power of the divine majesty and build and strengthen our faith from such miraculous works. Even if someone could raise the dead, it would be nothing compared to this miraculous work, that a bird is made of water. For this reason, however, we marvel little at such works, because they are so common and have lost their wonder through daily use. But whoever believes them and looks at them a little more diligently must be amazed at them, and this amazement gradually strengthens faith. For since God can build and bring forth the heavens and stars from water, each of which is equal to or greater than the earth in size; item, since He can create the sun and the moon from a drop of water, should He not be able to either protect my body against the enemies and the devil or, if it is buried in the earth, revive it to a new life? Therefore we should learn from this to recognize God's almighty power and authority, and not at all doubt what God has promised in His Word. For here is established a full confirmation of all divine promises, namely that nothing is either so difficult or impossible that God cannot accomplish with His word; as this is testified and proven by heaven, earth, sea and all that is in them.

But here I must also recently indicate that the holy fathers, and especially Augustine, have noticed that Moses especially uses the three words: God spoke, created, saw; as if he wanted to indicate the three persons of the divine majesty.

By the word "spoke" the Father is meant: he begets a word in eternity, and in time he founds and creates this world by this word. Therefore they pointed to the person of the Son and drew the word "created". For the Son has in himself an image not only of the divine majesty, but also of all other creatures. Therefore he gives the things their nature. And just as the creatures are named by the Father, so they are and exist through the Son and this Word of the Father. In addition, there is the third person, the Holy Spirit, who "sees" all created things and makes them pleasing to him.

144 These things are finely said and conveniently applied to the persons, so that the article of the Holy Trinity may be more clearly understood. For the holy fathers had this certain cause, that they devised such things with devotion, so that the article, which is incomprehensible in itself, might be understood to some extent. Therefore I do not reprove nor reject such thoughts, because they are according to the faith, also convenient and useful to strengthen and teach the faith from it.

In this way, Hilarius makes a distinction with other attributes. In the Father, he says, is eternity, but the form is in the image, and the use in the gift. He says that the Holy Spirit is a gift in use, because he gives the creatures their use, so that they do not perish; also governs and sustains them. So also they say, The Father is the mind, the Son the understanding, the Holy Spirit the will; not that the Father is without the understanding, or the Son without the will, but that such words are distinct, and are not of one kind, but of several persons; not that the Father is without wisdom and understanding, but that we prefigure such things, to preserve and declare the article of the Trinity.

Therefore, when the text says: "And God saw that it was all very good," it means the preservation of all creatures. For the creature could not stand nor remain, if the Holy Spirit did not love it and this good pleasure of God in it.

He would not receive them by his work. For God did not create the creatures in such a way that he would abandon them after creation, but he loves them and makes them pleasing to him; therefore he is with them, moves, agitates and sustains each one according to his own way. I have recently touched on this, because such holy thoughts of those who have just gone before us in the work we are now engaged in are well worth knowing.

The Jerome interprets: Reptile animae viventis, weaving and living animals, is called naephaesch in Hebrew, and means a soul or something living. But with it Moses means the fish. Because that the birds live at the same time from the earth and in the air, one knows.

V. 21. And God created great whale fishes.

Here someone might be concerned and ask: Why does Moses only name the whale fishes? as the scripture almost only remembers the big fishes, as it is written about Leviathan and dragon in the book of Job (Cap. 40. and 41.) and other places of the scripture. But it is certain that Moses calls all kinds of large and coarse fish in the sea, as Balaenas, among which some have wings, as the dolphin, which is like a king in the sea; not that it surpasses the others in size, for even the eagle, which is a king among the birds, and the lion, a king of the four-footed animals, are not the largest. But I believe that the reason why the largest animals are mentioned in the Scriptures is that we should know that such large animals are the work of God, and not be afraid of them or think that they are ghosts.

And therefore it is easy to assume that because God created such large fish, that even the smaller ones, such as sea ravens, trout, pike and others, were created by Him. Whoever wants to, should read the 41st chapter of Job, in which it can be seen sufficiently how the Holy Spirit, through the same poet, praised the wonderful monster, the Leviathan, which is so strong and defiant that it even despises the arrows. Such description

These trials open our eyes and build our faith, so that we may believe God all the more easily, that He can sustain us even though we are much smaller and lesser creatures.

Here it is also asked: Where do the mice and rats come from, and how are they produced? because we have from experience that even the ships, which are always in the water, are not safe from mice; so also no house can be cleaned and purified in such a way, that mice do not hedge in it. So one can also ask: from where the flies grow; item, where the birds come in the fall etc.

151 But of mice Aristotle disputes thus: that some animals are begotten by their own kind, but some by others, like the mice, which are not only bred by mice, but also grow from the rottenness, which consumes itself and becomes a mouse. If you now ask from what force such breeding occurs, Aristotle answers that the same rotten moisture is warmed by the sun, and thus comes out a living animal: as we see that horse beetles grow from horse dung etc. But whether this cause is sufficient, I still doubt. For although the sun warms, it could not beget anything if God did not say by divine power that a mouse should grow from the rot.

Therefore, the mouse is also a creature of God and, as I consider it, of a watery nature and, as it were, an earthly bird; otherwise it would have an enormous shape and the species would not be preserved. According to its kind it has a beautiful shape, the feet so fine and the hairs so smooth that it seems that it must have been actually created by God's word. Therefore, we are also astonished about this creature and work of God. One would like to say the same about the flies.

But I do not know much about the birds, where they go in winter. For it is not credible that they migrate to the warm countries after noon, since this miracle of the swallows is known from experience, that they lie in the water during the winter, as if they were dead, and come to life again in spring. This is a great proof of our resurrection. Dar-

so I consider that they are preserved either in trees or in waters. For these are quite wonderful works of divine majesty, which we also do not understand, since we already see them. I also believe that, although at times a species perishes (which I do not believe), God creates and restores it.

The creation and work of the fifth day includes all kinds of animals, creeping, crawling, flying, and what otherwise moves in the air or in the water.

And God saw that it was good and blessed them.

How is it that God does not use the word "bless" for the other creatures that do not have life? For there he says that he considers them good, but does not bless them. But since he comes to the creation of the living things, he raises a new way to increase them. Therefore the sun and the stars, as we see, do not of themselves beget things like them; but the herbs and trees have this blessing, that they grow, multiply, and bring forth fruit. Yet this is not at all like the blessing that God pronounces on living animals.

Therefore, by this word "bless," Moses separates the creatures and things created above from the living bodies created on the fifth day, and says here of a new way of begetting and multiplying. For from one living body spring other such living bodies; which indeed does not happen in trees or herbs. For where these are not set or planted again, they bear no fruit; nor does one seed grow badly from another, but from the herb. But here there is a cultivation and breeding from living creatures to others of the same kind, which also live? Therefore this is a new work, that a living body grows and is multiplied from itself. That which a pear tree beareth is not another pear tree, but a pear; but that which a bird beareth is a bird, and that which a fish beareth is a fish. And there is indeed a marvelous abundant increase and un

The fertility of both species, but especially of animals in the sea and water.

157 How does this miraculous breeding and multiplication take place? A hen lays an egg, which she warms until it becomes a living creature, which she then hatches. The philosophers give this cause, and say that it happens through the effect of the sun and the body of the hen, I admit that. But the theologians speak of it more truly, and say that it happens through the effect of the word that is spoken here: God blessed them and said: Grow and multiply. This word works through the hen's body and through all animals: so also the heat of the hen, so that she warms the eggs, is from God's word, which would be a useless and ineffective heat if it were without God's word.

Therefore, for the sake of this wonderful creature, God also adds the blessing that they be fruitful creatures. And here we can see what blessing actually means, namely an increase. When we bless, we do nothing more than desire good, but we cannot give what we desire; but God's blessing sounds a multiplication, and is immediately powerful, just as His curse is a reduction and is also immediately powerful.

But here we must pay attention to the way Moses speaks. For he calls blessing that which the philosophers call fruitfulness, namely, when whole, perfect, and living bodies are begotten of whole and living bodies: the like of which is not found in trees. For a tree begets not another tree like it, but the seed it begets etc. This is a great miracle, but like all the others, because it is seen and experienced daily, it is held in low esteem.

160 Here the question continues about the harmful worms and animals, as there are toads, flies, flying yellow and white cutworms, and the like, in which there is a wonderful fertility; and it almost goes like this, that the more harmful any species is, the more fertile it is. But this question shall be saved until the third chapter. For I believe that at that time such pernicious and harmful creatures did not yet exist, but were found afterwards.

from the cursed earth, as a punishment for sin, that they should afflict us and drive us to invoke God. But of this in another place.

161 Thus we have what living bodies were created on the fifth day. But we see that the word spoken on that day is still going strong all the days. Fish are badly begotten of water: for ponds and lakes give birth to fish; as we often see that pikes are found in ponds where there were none before. For I am not persuaded, nor is it credible, that some fantasize, that the fish, when caught by birds and led into the air, let seed from the heights into the ponds and lakes, which then grows together in the water; but this alone is the true cause, that here the water is commanded to bear fish. This word is still powerful, works and creates such things.

Sixth part.

Of the sixth day's work of God.

V. 24. And God said, Let the earth bring forth living creatures, every one after his kind etc.

We have now the sky with all its host, sun, moon, stars, etc., item, the sea with the fishes and birds. For as the fish swim in the water, so the birds float and soar in the air. So also the earth has received its adornment, as fruits, trees, herbs etc. But now, before man is introduced and placed in this great building, all kinds of animals, cattle and worms are first created into it; after them man is also created. He was not created to fly with the birds or to swim with the fish, but to live according to the common nature of the earth, like other animals. For the use of navigation is not natural, but invented by man's art and agility, so that man may want to imitate fish and birds. For a ship does both of these things; it flies in

of desire, and swims in the water. But we are talking about natural things here, not artificial things.

The Hebrews make a distinction among these names of the animals; they call the cattle, item, the small animals in the woods, as there are deer, roe deer, hares, and what other animals have the food in common with us, and eat herbs and fruits of trees. But Chajetho aeraez (which is properly translated: animals of the earth), they say, are called wild animals that eat meat, as there are wolves, lions, bears etc. But whether this distinction is held to be true, I do not know, nor do I think so. But it is certain that Moses here wanted to summarize all animals on earth, they eat the same meat or herbs. This mother of all, he says, is the earth, which she brought out of herself by the word, as the sea brings out the fish.

We have just heard (v. 20) that God said to the waters: Let the waters be stirred up, etc. so that by this stirring up the sea would be full of fish, and the pleasure would be full of birds, and only after this (v. 22) did the blessing come that they should multiply and breed. But here, speaking of the animals of the earth, he uses another word: "Let the earth bring forth. He does not say, "Beget," for the earth is a resting body. Therefore he also says on the fourth day: "Let the earth bring forth grass and herbs"; because he wants it to bring forth animals and herbs from itself, without rain or movement.

Although the Scripture does not discuss, nor does it actually state, whether these animals, like man, were created from an earthen lump, or suddenly came out of the earth, yet, because Moses praises and describes the creation of man with special counsel and concern, I believe that the animals of the land were there immediately at the word of God, just as the fish suddenly became in the sea. But that he does not add the blessing here is clear, because afterwards he understands it under the blessing, which God gave to men. So also here it has been enough to say this much: "God saw it, and it was very good." Now let us continue

and come to the last and most beautiful work of God, namely the creation of man.

V. 26. And God said, Let us make man in our image, after our likeness.

Here Moses again uses a new way of speaking, and does not say: the sea is stirring up; or: the earth is bringing forth etc., but: let us make. Therefore, he clearly includes a counsel and concern, the like of which he did not do in the previous creatures. For there he said without counsel and hesitation: the sea stirred up; the earth brought forth etc. Here, however, God consults Himself and, as it were, gives counsel, since He wants to create man.

Therefore, first of all, a special difference is shown here, which man has before all other creatures. Animals have many things in common with humans. They live around and with us, are raised by us, eat the same food as we do, sleep and rest with us. If you now look at their company, food and food, then there is a great resemblance.

But Moses makes and shows a special difference between these animals and man, since he says that man was created with the special counsel and providence of God. He therefore indicates that man is such a creature that far surpasses all other animals that have a natural life, especially since nature was still uncorrupted. Epicurus holds that man was created solely for eating and drinking, which does not mean to separate and separate man from other animals, which also have their lust and pursue it. But the text here sets man apart greatly, because it says that God took special thought to create man, and not only that, but also to make him in his own image. Which image is a far different thing than the belly care, eating and drinking, which the unreasonable animals also understand and seek.

For this reason Moses wanted to indicate in a spiritual way that we should go to a higher and more spiritual place.

The teachers here say that if Adam had not fallen through sin, then God would have taken people from this temporal and bodily life to a spiritual and eternal life, even if the nature had remained uncorrupted and perfect. And the teachers here say rightly: if Adam had not fallen through sin, then God would have transferred the people, when a certain number of the saints had been completed, from this bodily life into a spiritual and eternal one. For Adam was not to live without eating, drinking, and begetting children; but these bodily things would have ceased at a certain time, after the number of saints had been fulfilled, and Adam would have been taken up with his descendants into an eternal and spiritual life. But these works of bodily life, as eating, drinking, begetting children etc., would have been a service so pleasing to God; which service we would also have rendered Him without the sinful lust that is now in us after sin, without all sin and fear of death. Such would truly have been a lovely and joyful life: of which we have indeed something in our thoughts, but cannot come to it in this life. But we have this, that we believe such a spiritual life, for which we were created in the first place and which was intended for us in paradise and decreed by God, after this life, we certainly comfort ourselves and expect it in hope, for the sake of the merit of Christ.

For this reason, this text, in which the Holy Spirit so magnificently adorns human nature and sets it apart from all other creatures, should be well remembered. The bodily life would have been the same as the life of animals, for just as they need food, drink and rest for the refreshment of their bodies, so Adam in his innocence would also have needed them. But the fact that it is said that man was created for a bodily life, and yet was made in the image and likeness of God, means a different and better life than the bodily.

So Adam had two kinds of life, a bodily and an immortal, but not yet discovered and revealed, but in hope. However, he would have eaten, drunk, worked, begotten children etc. This I wanted to briefly indicate the difference that God makes through His counsel,

so that he would separate us from other animals with whom he would let us live. After this, we will repeat this in greater detail.

The second is the word: "Let us, in confirmation of the mystery of our faith, believe and confess one God from eternity, and three distinct persons in one divine being, namely God the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit. The Jews try in many ways to escape from this text, but they do not make a good case against it: for this text troubles them and troubles them to the death, as Occam says, who says this about all unfunny and disastrous dealings that he cannot resolve.

The Jews say here that God speaks in this way with the angels, with the earth and with other creatures. But against this I ask, first, why he did not do this before? Secondly, what business is it of the angels how men are created? Thirdly, he does not call any angels, but says badly: we; therefore he speaks of the makers and creators, which truly cannot be said of the angels. Fourthly, it is also certain that we can by no means be said to be created in the image of angels. Fifth, both words are put here, in both numerals: Let us make, and: God created. Therefore Moses shows us clearly and powerfully that in the one divine being, which created everything, there is nevertheless an inseparable and eternal majority of persons. Even the gates of hell shall not take this away from us.

What the Jews then say about the earth, that God speaks with it, is also worthless. For the earth is not our creator. Or, rather, why should he not speak to the sun in this way? As Aristotle says, that through the action of man and the sun another man is begotten. But this does not rhyme here either, since we are not created in the image of the earth, but in the image of the creators, who say: Let us make. These Creators are three distinct Persons in One Divine Being, and in the image of these three Persons are we; as we shall hereafter hear.

This is especially ridiculous that the Jews pretend that God keeps the habit of great lords and princes, who speak of themselves in the plural for the sake of honor and reverence. The Holy Spirit does not follow such a chancery politeness (that I call it so); so also the holy scripture does not recognize this way of speaking.

Therefore, the Holy Trinity is certainly indicated here, that in One Divine Being there are three Persons, Father, Son and Holy Spirit, so that God cannot be actively (that is, as far as the essential works, which are in charge of the whole Godhead at the same time, are concerned) separated or divided from each other. For all three persons come together here and say: Let us make. Thus the Father does not make another man than the Son, nor the Son another than the Holy Spirit; but the same one God, Father, Son and Holy Spirit, is a creator and maker of this very work.

In this way, God cannot be separated objectively (that is, as far as the revelation to the human race is concerned): for the Father is not known otherwise than in the Son and through the Holy Spirit. Therefore, it is One God, active and objective, who is nevertheless essential in himself, God the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit, three distinct Persons in One Divine Being.

Such testimonies shall be dear and pleasant to us. And whether both we, Jews and Turks, laugh and mock that we believe that there is one God and three persons, they will nevertheless, from the testimony of this text and others that we have mentioned above, have to follow our opinion and faith, unless they want to brazenly deny the testimony and authority of the whole Scripture. They may mockingly reject this, as the Jews masterfully do, but nevertheless this sting remains in their hearts, why God says: Let us make; item, why Moses speaks in the plural: Elohim. They cannot let such thoughts out of their hearts, even though they can try many things. But if it would be wisdom to hold such testimonies in derision, we could also

be so skillful and do such things. But we think much more highly of the Scriptures, and let them be much more important to us, especially because the New Testament clearly reports this, and the Son, who is in the bosom of the Father, teaches us this very thing more clearly and distinctly; and whoever does not believe this blasphemes God and deserves eternal death. Therefore, let these blinded falsifiers of the Holy Scriptures be put away until their final judgment and sentence.

But here one would say that these testimonies are too obscure to prove such a great article. Answer: At that time, such great and important things had to be presented and said so obscurely, at least for the reason that all these things were referred to the future Lord, which future was reserved for the restoration of all things, as well as all knowledge and revelation. For this reason, what had previously been obscure, difficult, and, as it were, mysterious, Christ discovered all this and preached it clearly. Nevertheless, the holy fathers had this knowledge through the Holy Spirit, though not as clearly as now, when we hear that in the New Testament God is clearly called Father, Son and Holy Spirit. For when Christ came, such seals had to be opened and clearly preached, what before had been given in dark words, just for the sake of the honor and reverence of the future Master. And where the Holy Spirit would not have brought this clear knowledge to the New Testament, the Arians would have been found far before the birth of Christ. Only at the last time of the world did the Holy Spirit want to place this bright sun and clarity of the knowledge of God in front of the devil's nose, so that his eyes would be blinded and he would be tormented and plagued all the more out of envy of such clear knowledge revealed to men by God.

Thirdly, questions arise here with great abundance: What is the image of God, according to which man, as Moses writes, was created? And in explaining this place, Augustine makes a lot of words, especially in the book of the Holy Trinity. The other teachers follow almost Augu

stin's opinion, which maintains Aristotle's division, namely, that God's image are the powers of the soul, memory, sense or understanding, and the will. In these three powers, they say, consists the image of God, which is in all men. For as in the divine being, they say, the Word is begotten of the Father's being, and the Holy Spirit is the Father's good pleasure: so in man the Word of the heart, which is the sense or understanding, proceeds from the memory, and after this proceeds the will, which beholds the sense of the heart and takes delight and pleasure in it.

But the equality, they say, is in the gift of grace. For as likeness is a perfection of the image, so, they say, nature is made perfect by grace. And let this be the likeness of God, that memory is adorned with hope, sensuality or understanding with faith, and the will with love. In this way, they say, man is made in God's image, that is, man has sense, memory and will. Likewise: Man is created in the likeness of God; that is, the mind is enlightened by faith; the memory is assured and strengthened by hope and constancy; but the will is adorned by love.

Fourth, they also make other divisions: the memory, they say, is an image of God's power; the mind or understanding, an image of divine wisdom; and the will, an image of justice etc. Thus Augustine in particular, and others after him, endeavored to conceive of various trinities in man. For in this way, they thought, one could see the image of God all the more easily. But as such not-so-ineffable speculations indicate sharp and idle minds, they serve and do least of all to enable one to understand and portray the image of God correctly.

183 Therefore, although I do not reject or reproach this diligence and thought, by which everything that is in man is directed and drawn to the Trinity, I do not know whether they are of much use, especially because they are of little use.

will be continued after this. For here is also brought the disputation of free will, which has its beginning and origin from this image. For thus they say: God is free, whereupon it follows that man, because he is created in the image of God, also has these things, memory, understanding and will, freely. Thus, such words often slip a person's mind, which are either not actually and uncomfortably said or are interpreted to a godless mind. This is how this dangerous opinion came about, that they publicly said that God governs people in such a way that he nevertheless leaves them to themselves, that they may do and leave of themselves what their mind and will drives them to do. This has given rise to many uncomfortable opinions, such as the one that they cite: God, who created you without you, will not make you blessed without you. Therefore they concluded that free will is the prior and active cause of salvation. Dionysius' saying, which is more dangerous than the previous ones, is similar to this, in that he says that although the devils and man have fallen, the natural powers, such as understanding, memory, will, etc., have remained completely uncorrupted. But if this were true, it would follow that man could by natural powers effect his salvation.

184 Such dangerous sayings of the fathers have been spoken and practiced in all churches and schools, and I truly do not see what the fathers intended to accomplish with them. Therefore, my advice is that they be read with misgivings and advice. They often speak from affectations and their own discretion, which we do not have nor can have, because we do not have the same opportunity as they have had. Therefore, unlearned and thoughtless minds understand everything thoughtlessly, according to their own opinion and understanding, not according to that which the fathers had. But I leave it that way, and come back to the trade (of the image of God).

But I worry that because we have lost this image through sin and fall, we will not be able to understand it sufficiently. We do have a memory, will and understanding, but they are very corrupt and limited to the

Weakened to the highest degree, yes, that I say it more clearly, indeed leprous and unclean. For if these powers were to be in the image of God, it would follow that the devil, who truly has such natural powers far stronger than we, would also be created in the image of God; just as his memory and intellect are very high and nimble, but his will is most obdurate.

Therefore, the image of God is much different, that is, it is a special work of God. But if someone wants to dispute that the powers of the soul are God's image, he may also confess that they are leprous and unclean; just as we call a leprous man a man, even though everything in the flesh of the leper is almost dead and dead, without him being violently tempted to fornication.

Therefore, the image of God, after which Adam was created, was the most glorious and noble thing, since there was no leprosy of sin either in his reason or in his will, but both the internal and external senses were all most pure. The mind was quite pure, the memory quite good and fresh, and the will quite sincere and true, in a very beautiful, pure and sure conscience, without all care and fear of death. To this inward perfection thereafter also came the most beautiful and excellent power and glory of the body and all its members, so that it surpassed all other living creatures. For I fully believe that Adam's eyes were so sharp and bright before the fall, that his face was above lions and eagles; so he, being much stronger, dealt with lions and bears, whose strength is very great, as we do with little dogs. In the same way, the fruits that he used for food were much sweeter and stronger than they are now.

But after the fall, death, like leprosy, crept into all the senses; so that we cannot grasp such an image as we had at first, even with thought. Adam would not have recognized his Eve in any other way than in a completely quiet and peaceful mind and willing obedience to God, without

But now, after the fall, we all know and wallow what fury is in our flesh, which not only lusts and desires fiercely and ruthlessly, but is also disgusted when it is overcome by what it lusted for. Therefore we see in ourselves nothing pure and perfect, neither reason nor will, but feel in us more than animal lusts and lust. But is this not a severe and harmful leprosy, which Adam did not have before the fall, because he had greater strength and sharper senses than the other animals? How far do the wild pigs surpass man in hearing, the eagles in sight, a lion in strength etc.! Therefore, no man can know by thought how far nature was better before the fall than it is now.

Therefore, I understand God's image to mean that Adam had it essentially in him, and that he not only knew God and believed that he was good, but that he also led a godly life; that is, that he was without fear of death and all danger, and was content with God's grace; as can be seen in Eve, that she speaks to the serpent without any fear, as we do to a lamb or a dog. That is why God also laid this punishment before them in Genesis 2:17, if they transgressed His commandment: "In the day that you eat of this tree you shall surely die. As if he wanted to say: Adam and Eve, you now live safely and without all fear and danger, you neither feel nor see death. This is my image, in which you live as God lives; but if you sin, you will lose this image and die.

Therefore, we now see what danger, death and all kinds of causes of death this wretched nature must bear and try, through the shameful lust pestilence and other grim sins and disorderly excitements in all men's hearts. We can never surely rely on God, but terror and fear plague us, even in our sleep. But such and such plagues and afflictions are the devil's image, which he has put on us and expressed. Before the

But in the case of Adam, he lived in the greatest pleasure and security, fearing neither fire nor water, nor any other calamity to challenge this life, of which we are too afraid.

191 Now the original sin may be small and slight, whoever wishes, it truly appears from the sins and the punishments that it is the greatest and most grievous sin. But look at fornication and lust, is it not very great and terrible, both with lust and disgust? But what shall we say of hatred and enmity against God and blasphemy? For these are the right gross sins, which truly indicate that the image of God is lost in us.

Therefore, when we speak of this image, we speak of an unknown thing, which we have not only never tried nor experienced, but we also experience the contradiction without ceasing, and hear nothing of it but mere words. For in Adam, reason was enlightened with true knowledge of God; in addition, a right and obedient will to love God and neighbor, as he loved Eve and knew her as soon as his flesh. In addition, there were other lesser gifts, which, when compared with our weakness, are also very great: as, a perfect knowledge of the nature of all animals, herbs, fruits, trees and other creatures.

193. Do you think, then, when you add it all up and put it together, that there should not be such a man in whom you could see and feel a reflection of the image of God? Yes, indeed, especially if you add to this the power and dominion over the creatures, so that, just as Adam and Eve recognized the Lord, they then ruled over other creatures in the air, in the water and on the earth. Who could sufficiently express such majesty and majesty in words? For I believe that Adam could have commanded a lion with a word, as we command a dog. So also he was free to build the land, that it might bear what he would. For that thorns and thistles were not there at that time will be proven later; just as I also respect that so shy a land was not there.

and harmful animals, as they are now, had not been in the past.

194 But this is the fault of original sin, from which comes the corruption of all other creatures; so that I believe that before the fall the sun was much brighter, the water much purer and clearer, the trees much more fertile, and the land much richer and fuller of all plants. But because of sin and the terrible fall, not only was the flesh covered with the leprosy of sins, but all things that are used in this life were corrupted and weakened, as we will show more clearly below.

195 But this is how the gospel deals with it, that it restores and brings back such an image. Although intellect and will have remained in man, both have become very corrupt and weakened. Therefore the gospel has to do primarily with the fact that we are created again to this and a better image. For by faith we are born again to eternal life, or rather to the hope of eternal life, that we may live in God and with God, and be one with Him, as Christ says. But we are not only born again to life, but also to righteousness: for faith takes hold of the merit of Christ, believes and holds it that we are redeemed through the death of Christ. From this then comes another righteousness, namely, a new image, in which, having been instructed in the Word, we, by the help of the Holy Spirit, endeavor to be obedient to God. But this righteousness only arises in this life and cannot be perfect in this sinful flesh. But God allows it to please him, not as if it were perfect or a payment for sin, but that it comes from the heart that comforts itself in faith and relies on the mercy of God through Christ. Then this also happens through the gospel, that we are given the Holy Spirit, who resists the unbelief in us, envy and other vices, so that we earnestly desire and wish to honor the name of God and His word.

196. In this way, in this life, the restitution of this image of the new one takes off.

The salvation of the creature through the gospel is not accomplished in this life. But when it is accomplished in the kingdom of God, then the will will be righteously free and good, the mind righteously enlightened, and the memory strong and constant. Then it will also happen that all creatures will submit to us and be more obedient than they were to Adam in Paradise.

But before this is accomplished and fulfilled in us, we cannot really know what the image of God, lost through sin in Paradise, was. But that we now say of it is taught us by faith and the Word, which show and point out to us, as if from afar, the glory of the divine image. For just as the heavens and the earth were crude and coarse before the light came, so Christians also have this image in them, crude and imperfect: But God will make it perfect at the last day in those who have believed the word.

For this reason, the image of God was an excellent thing, in which eternal life, eternal security and all goods were locked. But through sin it is so darkened and weakened that we cannot grasp it even with our thoughts. For we may have and speak the mere words; but who is there that can understand what it is, to live in gentle rest and safety, without all fear and danger, to be wise and understanding, sincere, pious, and free from all spiritual and bodily misfortune and misery? Nor was this much greater, that he was also capable of eternal life. For Adam was created in such a way that he, as long as he was in this temporal life, could have built the earth, which would not have been a tedious work for him, which made the body tired, but the highest pleasure; not that he could have passed the time with it, but that he would have been obedient to God and kept to his will.

199. this physical or temporal life would have been followed by a spiritual life, in which he would not have been allowed to use any physical food, nor to do other things so that life might pass away, but would have had an angelic life.

and spiritual life. For the eternal life to come is thus pictured for us in the Scriptures, that in it we shall neither eat nor drink, nor do any other bodily works. Therefore St. Paul says 1 Cor. 15, 45: "The first man Adam was made in the natural life, that is, he must live in the natural way, must eat, drink, sleep, etc., but the other man will be renewed into the spiritual life, that is, will be a spiritual man when he comes again into the image of God. For he will be like God in life, in righteousness, holiness, wisdom etc. Now follow:

Those who rule Over the fish in the sea etc.

Here, the most beautiful and glorious creature that God recognizes, an image of God, and similar and equal to divine nature, with enlightened reason, justice and wisdom, is given a kingdom and regiment, and Adam and Eve become lords and rulers over the earth, sea and air. And this rule is granted to them not only by counsel, but also by an expressed command. In particular, however, it should be diligently observed here that no animal is said to rule; rather, all animals, indeed the entire earth, with all that grows on it, are subjected to Adam alone, whom God sets as king over the entire living creature by a verbal and expressed command. For these words Adam and Eve heard with their ears, that God said, "Reign. Therefore man, still naked, without weapons and walls, even without any clothing, only in his bare flesh, ruled over all birds, animals and fish.

We have also lost this piece of the divine image, so much so that we cannot understand, even with our thoughts, the perfect joy and pleasure that Adam had from looking at the whole living creature; but now everything in us is leprous, even rigid and even dead. For who can understand this part of the divine nature, that Adam and Eve understood and knew about all senses, kind, strength, powers, and

Opportunity of all animals, consider? Otherwise, what kind of kingdom would it have been if they had not known this? In the saints, God's knowledge, which they have from the Word and the Holy Spirit, is felt and seen to some extent in this life; but it is impossible to come to the knowledge of nature again in this life, so that we can know the nature and properties of all trees and herbs, and the nature of all animals. If we now want to praise a great and excellent philosopher, we would like to praise our first parents, since they were still pure from sins. For they had the most perfect knowledge of God. And how could they not have known Him whose image they bore and felt? They also had certain knowledge of the stars and all astronomy.

And this was in Eve as well as in Adam; as one can notice from her speech, when she answered the serpent from the tree in the middle of paradise. There it seems clear enough that she knew and understood what she was primarily created for. She also points to the Master, through whom she knows this, and says: "The Lord has said it. Therefore, she did not hear it from Adam alone, but her nature was so pure and full of God's knowledge that she was able to know and understand God's word about herself.

Nothing of this knowledge has been inherited by us, but a weak and, as it were, dead little spark. The other animals, however, have nothing of this; for they know nothing of their Creator, where they came from, how and for what purpose they were created: therefore they have nothing at all of the image of God. Therefore the Psalm admonishes: "Do not become like a horse and a mule", Ps. 32, 9.

(204) Even though this image of God is lost in us, there is still a great difference between man and other animals. But there was a much greater and more apparent difference before the Fall, when Adam and Eve knew God and all creatures, and were, as it were, swallowed up by the goodness and righteousness of God.

have been. Therefore, they were so closely connected with each other that they were of one mind and will, and certainly before Adam's eyes in the whole world no creature or species seemed more beautiful, more charming and more lovely than his Eve. Now a woman must be called (as the pagans said) an evil and misfortune, which one cannot do without. And it is clear to see why they call a woman an evil or a plague, but they do not know the cause of this evil, which is the devil, who has thus adulterated, maddened and corrupted this nature.

205. but what we do in this life to the form in which we remained after the fall is not by or from the dominion which Adam had, but by art and diligence; as we see that birds and fish must be seen with cunning and deceit, even the wild animals are tamed by art etc. For even the animals which are brought up in houses with man, as geese, fowls etc., are by their nature very wild. Therefore, this leprous body, by God's grace and beneficence, has only a semblance of dominion over the other creatures. But it is a very small dominion, and not at all according to the first, since no art, no cunning was necessary, but the whole nature obediently submitted to the divine voice, since Adam and Eve were commanded to rule over them. Therefore we retain the mere name and title of dominion, but in the work we have lost it almost entirely. And yet it is good that these things be known and remembered, that we may sigh and long for that future day, in which all that we lost through sin in paradise shall be restored and restored to us. For we wait for such a life, for which Adam also would have waited; and we marvel greatly at it, and thank God that we, who are so deformed, broken, and made so coarse and, as it were, dead by sin, nevertheless, through the grace and beneficence of Christ, have to wait for this very honor and glory of spiritual life, for which Adam, if he had remained in his bodily life, which was in God's image, would have waited.

V. 27. And God created man in His image, in the image of God He created him.

Here he does not use the word: "an image that is like us," but says only of the image. But perhaps he wanted to speak thus and repeat the word image twice, so that the words would be certain, clear and not doubtful. Otherwise, I do not find any reason for this repetition: we wanted to understand it emphatically, that is, that Moses wanted to indicate that God had great joy and pleasure in this most beautiful work of his and had triumphed over it, as it were, and had not been so joyful and happy over the other creatures as over man, whom he had created in his image. The other animals are called God's footsteps (because God's work and omnipotence can be felt in them), but man alone is called God's image; as is written in the magistro sententiarum (in the sentences of Thomas). For in the other creatures God is recognized as through a footprint; but in man, and especially in Adam, he is truly recognized. For in man there is such great wisdom, righteousness, and knowledge of all things, that one might justly call him a small world (that is, a creature in which God would have formed the whole world); for he understands heaven, earth, and the whole creature; therefore God takes pleasure and joy in having created such a beautiful creature.

But this is undoubtedly also true, that just as God was then pleased and delighted in this His counsel and work of created man, so He is also pleased and loves to bring this work of His back to lost perfection and to restore it through His Son, our Lord Jesus Christ. And this is useful and comforting to consider, namely that God remembers the very best of us, and takes pleasure in this thought and counsel of his to bring back to spiritual life through the resurrection of the dead all who have believed in Christ.

He created them a male and a female.

208. lest anyone should think that woman is excluded from all mastery.

Moses combines the man and the woman, because the woman seems to be different from the man, as she also has different limbs and a weaker sense and intellect. And even though Eve was an excellent creature and like Adam in terms of the image of God, that is, righteousness, wisdom and blessedness, she was still a woman. For as the sun is a more glorious and noble creature than the moon (though the moon is also very excellent and glorious), so woman was not equal to man in honor and dignity, though she was a very beautiful work of God.

For this reason Moses puts both, man and woman, together and says that God created them a male and a female, so that he wants to indicate that Eve was also created by God and was partaker of the divine image and equality, also of the dominion over everything. Thus, still today the woman is partaker of the life to come; as St. Peter 1 Epist. 3, 7 says that they are joint heirs of grace. And in the household the woman is partaker of the government, and sitteth in common possession of the children and goods, and yet there is a great difference in the sex. The man is like the sun in the sky, the woman like the moon, so the animals are like the stars, over which the sun and moon rule. Therefore, from this saying we should first note that it is written that woman should not be excluded from any honor of human nature, even though she is a weaker vessel than the marin. Of the marriage state we will say hereafter.

Secondly, here is an argument against Hilarius and others who have concluded that God created everything at once. Because here our opinion is founded and proved that these six days of the creation were actually six natural days, because here the text says that Adam and Eve were created on the sixth day. One cannot find fault with this text. In the following chapter, however, he will say after what order man was created: namely, that Eve was made a little after Adam, not from an earthen lump, like Adam, but from his ribbe, which God made for Adam in his sleep.

has taken from the side. These are all temporal works, that is, works that take time and do not happen at the same time; like this, that God brings all kinds of animals to Adam, and none is found like him etc. These are all temporal works, and happened on the sixth day, which Moses touches on here only recently, but after that he will further delete them.

(211) Many teachers are of this opinion, that Adam sinned on the sixth day, and boast of the same day in two ways, and for two works, that as Adam sinned on the sixth day, so Christ suffered on the sixth day. Whether this is true, let them see. But Moses clearly says that man was created on the sixth day and that a woman was given to him. But it seems to me to be more in accordance with the truth and more believable, as I also want to say afterwards that Adam sinned on the seventh day, that is, on the Sabbath; as the devil is still hostile to the Sabbath in the church, if one teaches God's word. But this cannot be clearly proved from Moses. Therefore, in both parts there are reasons against reasons, as Emperor Maximilian used to say, that is, disputed reasons and uncertain reasons. We also leave it in doubt and thus remain according to each one's discretion.

Lyra also tells a Jewish fable, which is also thought of in Plato, for example, that man was initially created in both sexes (so that man and woman were in one body with each other), but that they were subsequently divided and cut from each other by divine power, as the back seems to testify. Others have multiplied this with sour antics. But the second chapter overturns and refutes all such lies. For if this were true, how could it be written here that God took one of Adam's ribs and made a wife out of it? Such lies are found in the Talmud, and have been touched, that we may see from them the wickedness of the devil, who puts such inconsistent things into people's heads.

213 With this fable rhymes that Aristotle calls the woman virum occasionatum, a mutilated man; and others call

it monstrum, a monster. But let monsters and the children of monsters remain, who thus blaspheme and ridicule such a creature of God, in which he himself had pleasure and delight, as in the most noble work; item, which we see that it was created with special deliberate counsel of God. But such pagan, clumsy things show how reason cannot conclude anything certain about God and His works, but only invents rationes contra rationes, one cause over and against the other, and is unable to teach anything complete or thorough.

V. 28. And God blessed them and said to them:

214 He did not say this about the other animals above, which is why he includes them here in the blessing at the same time:

Be fruitful.

This is the commandment of God, which He spoke over the creature. But, dear God, what have we lost here through sin! For what a blessed state of man was this, when childbearing was done with the highest reverence and wisdom, item with God's knowledge! But now the flesh is so overwhelmed and burdened with the leprosy of fornication that in the conjugal work of childbearing the body becomes quite unreasonable, and in God's knowledge cannot procreate or give birth.

For this reason, fertility, or childbearing and childbearing, has remained in human nature, but it has been very weakened, indeed, it has been completely taken over and burdened with the leprosy and filth of the unchaste fire, so that it is a little more honest than among the unreasonable animals. In addition, there is the care and danger of bearing and giving birth to children, the toil and labor of feeding them, and other innumerable mischiefs, unpleasantnesses and misfortunes. All this reminds us and teaches us the greatness of original sin, that even the blessing that still remains in nature is, as it were, a cursed and humiliated blessing, if you would hold it against this first blessing: and yet God created it and also sustains it. Therefore, we should also keep this weakened and debased

We are to recognize with thanksgiving the blessings we have received, and to consider the inherited and unavoidable leprosy of the flesh, which is vain disobedience and filth, sweated and attached to body and soul, as a punishment of sins; but we are to wait in hope for the death of this flesh, by which we shall be delivered from filth and restored to full creation, even above Adam's first glory and perfection.

Rule over fish in the sea.

We are so blinded and know little of God and the creatures that we cannot really conclude or know what we would have used cattle, fish and other animals for in the first creation, if our nature had remained uncorrupted and whole. But now we see that we eat flesh and vegetables etc. And where such things were not in daily use and profit, we could not know for what purpose they were created: for we see or have no other use of these creatures. But Adam, after the nourishment which he also had from other and far nobler fruits, would not have had such a use of the creatures as we have now. For he, when all things were given to him and subject to him, would not have needed clothing, money, or anything else; nor would there have been avarice in his descendants, but after food they would have needed creatures only for the wonder of God and a holy pleasure that is unconscious and unknown to us in this depraved nature; whereas now and at all times almost all creatures are too few for man's help and nourishment. Therefore we cannot even think what kind of dominion this will have been.

V. 29. And God said, Behold, I have given you every herb that grows. etc.

Here you see with what great care God takes care of the created man. First, he created the earth as a house for him to live in. After that, he ordered other things for him, which he considered necessary for life. Finally, he gave him the gift of fertility and childbearing. Now he gives him

also food, so that he could lack nothing for a gentle and easy life. But I believe that if Adam had remained in his first innocence, the children would have run along soon after birth and would have been able to pursue and enjoy all the pleasures that were in the first creature. But we tell in vain such things, which we cannot attain even with thoughts, nor can we attain again in this life.

And all kinds of fruitful trees.

(218) Moses may be seen to make a distinction between the grain and the herb that sows seed, and the herb that grows green: perhaps because the latter, that is, the herb, is for the use of animals, and the latter is for the use of man. For I have no doubt that the grain or seed, which we now use for food, was much more excellent than it is now. Moreover, I also think that Adam would not have eaten the flesh, as an unpleasant and unlovely food, which is now our greatest pleasure and glory, before the sweetness of other fruits that would have grown from the earth, and that the use and enjoyment of such fruits would not have resulted in a leprous and superfluous fruitfulness, but in the beauty of the body, in the pure and healthy circulation of the blood.

219 Now we are not satisfied with meat, fruit, or grain, and our health is often endangered by disorderly and inconvenient food, not to mention the great and more than animal sins in the rest and intemperate eating and drinking, which are becoming more and more prevalent every day, and the longer the worse. Therefore it is a public curse, which followed after the fall; because it is also believable that only then the cursed and harmful little animals came out of the earth, which was cursed because of sin. But here a question arises: how it rhymes that Adam is allowed to eat from all fruitful trees of the earth and yet afterwards a special place of the earth is given to him,

which Moses calls Paradise, is granted to inhabit and build? One asks also: whether the paradise means and is called the whole earth? But we will save such a report until the second chapter.

V. 31. And God looked at all that he had made, and behold, it was very good. Then the evening and the morning became the sixth day.

220. After God has completed all his works, he speaks here as a man would speak after a long time of work, and wants to say this much: "Behold, now I have prepared everything for the best: The heavens I have prepared as a roof, the ground of which is the earth; the possessions and goods are the animals with all the armor and tillage of the earth, the sea and the air; the food is grain, wheat and herbs; but the master of all this, man, was also created to have the knowledge of God and to use the creatures of his pleasure with the highest tranquility, safety, justice and wisdom. Therefore, nothing is lacking; everything that is most necessary for this bodily and temporal life has been created: I will therefore keep the Sabbath etc.

221) Such goods are all lost in part through sin, and we are now like a dead corpse of the same first man, retaining hardly a shadow of the same first kingdom and dominion. For how could we not say that we have lost everything, who have become mortal from immortal men, sinners from righteous, unpleasant from pleasant and pleasing, even rejected and condemned by God? For now men are mortal and sinners. Therefore, if these things do not encourage or awaken us to the hope and maintenance of the future day and future eternal life, I know of nothing that could awaken us. And this shall be enough for the interpretation of the first chapter. In the following chapter Moses will continue to act and teach about the work of the sixth day, how man was created.