Dialogus Quaestionum LXV [Incertus]

DIALOGUE OF SIXTY-FIVE QUESTIONS UNDER THE TITLE OF OROSIUS ASKING AND AUGUSTINE ANSWERING.

Although many most approved men have published countless little works in a style indeed diverse, but not with a faith diverse, so that it is difficult to read all of them; yet those which are read, because of the charm of their eloquence and the most difficult perplexities of questions, are understood very little. For in truth, while they are compelled because of the height of the divine Scripture to tread an hidden path, they have left to our smallness no little ambiguity. There are also plainly spiritual men who attain to their eloquence and penetrate their understanding. While we satisfy our desires, we are not equal to their brilliant knowledge, so that we may be able to understand these things as they did. Wherefore I ask you to answer me as I question, and to deign to elucidate the things that make obscurity.

QUESTION ONE. First of all I ask of you whether God is a Trinity; and by what testimonies you approve it, I desire to know.

RESP. The beginning of Genesis shows this more clearly. For it says: In the beginning God made heaven and earth. Whom shall we think is to be understood as this beginning, other than the Son? For when the Jews asked him who he was, he himself answered concerning himself: The beginning, because I also speak to you (John 8:25). Therefore the beginning is the Son. Through the Son God made heaven and earth: All things were made through him, as the evangelist John relates, and without him was made nothing (John 1:3). Without doubt, in the name of God the Father is to be understood, in the name of the beginning the Son. Indeed, when he had said, In the beginning God made heaven and earth, he next added, And the Spirit of God was borne over the waters (Gen. 1:1-2): who is the third person in the Trinity. Therefore, if there were no Trinity, our Lord Jesus Christ would never have said to his disciples, Go, baptize all nations in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit (Matt. 28:19); nor, when the Lord was baptized in the Jordan by John, would a voice from heaven have said, This is my beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased; nor would it be said that the Holy Spirit descended upon him in the form of a dove and remained (Matt. 3:16). I marvel at the unhappy Sabellian heresy, that is, of the Patripassians, that they are so blind in mind as not to attend to such brilliant, such open testimonies. For they themselves assert that there is one person, that is, that the Son is the same as the Father, and the same is the Holy Spirit.

But let us leave their blindness aside and understand, according to the holy Scriptures, that there are three persons; that is, that the Father is one who begot, the Son another who was begotten by the Father, and the Holy Spirit another: not another thing, because in substance they are one. We distinguish persons, we do not separate the Godhead. Therefore the Son of God is a son by nature, not by adoption. For thus it is written: From the womb, he says, before the morning star I begot you (Ps. 109:3). Not that God the Father has a womb as we do, or is to be believed to be corporeal; but by "womb" he wished the substance to be understood, from which the Son was born. What the Father is, that he begot: God begot God, light begot light. Therefore, just as a man begets a man, and a dog begets a dog, yet it has never been seen that a man begot a dog. And by this he begot the Son not from nothing, nor from any other substance, but from himself. QUESTION II. Concerning the distinction of the persons, or concerning the person of the begotten Son, I think I have been satisfied: now I ask what you believe concerning the Holy Spirit; whether he too is unbegotten, or begotten.

The certain faith declares that the Holy Spirit is neither unbegotten nor begotten. For if we were to say unbegotten, we would seem to affirm two Fathers; but if begotten, we would then be blamed for believing in two Sons. But what certain faith holds is that he is neither unbegotten nor begotten, but proceeds from both, that is, from the Father and the Son. And so that I may prove this by testimonies, hear our Lord Jesus Christ himself teaching his disciples: But when the Paraclete comes, he says, whom I will send to you from the Father, the Spirit of truth who proceeds from the Father, he will bear witness concerning me (John 15:26). And again our Lord Jesus Christ himself, after his resurrection, to show that the Holy Spirit proceeds from him as from the Father, breathed upon his disciples and said: Receive the Holy Spirit (John 20:22); likewise: I will send the promise of my Father upon you (Luke 24:49). One Spirit, therefore, is of the Father and the Son, one Spirit of both. Therefore, that the Spirit is the Father's, our Lord and Savior himself says to his disciples: For it is not you who speak, but the Spirit of your Father who speaks in you (Matthew 10:20). And that the same Spirit is also the Son's, the apostle Paul is witness: If anyone, he says, does not have the Spirit of Christ, he does not belong to him (Romans 8:9).

QUESTION III. Concerning the individual persons, that one is the Father, another the Son, another the Holy Spirit; and that the Son is begotten and the Holy Spirit proceeds, we perceive according to the holy Scriptures. But now I desire to know this: whether the Son or the Holy Spirit is God, or whether there is one substance or essence, which the Greeks call

RESPONSE. Attend with an intent mind; I shall more gladly demonstrate the things that move you. The blessed apostle Paul, that the Son is God, writing to the Romans concerning the Israelites, says: Whose are the fathers, from whom is Christ according to the flesh, who is over all things God blessed forever (Rom. IX, 5). And again in the Gospel according to John: That they may know, he says, you alone the true God, and Jesus Christ whom you have sent (John XVII, 3). The order of the words is: That they may know you, and Jesus Christ whom you have sent, the alone true God. And again another Scripture says: That we may be in his true Son Jesus Christ; he is the true God and eternal life (I John V, 20). And to show his equality, the Lord himself says: I and the Father are one (John X, 30). They are one, namely in nature, not in person. And again: For this reason, he says, the Jews sought to kill Jesus, because he not only broke the sabbath, but also said that God was his Father, making himself equal to God (Id. V, 18). And again the blessed apostle Paul: Who, when he was in the form of God, did not consider it robbery to be equal to God (Phil. II, 6).

For he had not reckoned it robbery that he was equal in nature, which was not usurped but born. He did not seize it, because he had it; and many countless things besides, which do not come to mind at the moment. But that the Holy Spirit is true God, the Acts of the Apostles teaches most plainly: Ananias, says Peter, why has Satan tempted your heart to lie to the Holy Spirit? and below, You have not lied to men, but to God (Acts 5:3, 4). And in the Gospel according to John: God, he says, is a Spirit (John 4:24). The apostle Paul, writing to the Corinthians: Do you not know, he says, that your bodies are a temple of the Holy Spirit, who is in you, whom you have from God, and you are not your own? For you were bought with a great price: glorify and bear God in your body (1 Cor. 6:19, 20). The Father, I say, is God, the Son is God, the Holy Spirit is God; not three gods, but one God. For if the Father is greater, the Son lesser, the Holy Spirit more than lesser, which heretical depravity asserts, then there will no longer be one God, but three gods; which it is impious to believe. And divine Scripture rebukes them strongly: Hear, Israel, it says, the Lord your God is one God (Deut. 6:4). And for this reason, just as we do not speak of three gods, nor three essences, so neither three wisdoms, nor three spirits. For when questioned concerning the individual persons.

If the Father is wisdom, or the Holy Spirit; we answer, the Father is wisdom, and the Son is wisdom, and the Holy Spirit is wisdom: not three wisdoms, nor three spirits, but there is one wisdom and one spirit; just as there is one substance, or one essence: because for him to be is the same as to be wise or to be spirit.

QUESTION IV. And if the Father and the Son are equal, how does the Son himself say, The Father is greater than I (John XIV, 28); and, I did not come to do my own will, but the will of him who sent me (Id. VI, 38). And, Father, if it is possible, let this cup pass from me (Matt. XXVI, 39); and, My doctrine is not mine, but his who sent me (John VII, 16)?

ANSWER. All these things and others which you have not mentioned were said according to the form of a servant, which he assumed. Therefore when the first man was created by God, and endowed with free will, and a commandment was set before him; if he had kept what God had commanded him, he would not be punished with death, neither of the body nor of the soul. But he, disobedient to God's command, and puffed up with pride, obeying the persuasion of the serpent, despised God's precepts. And this was the cause that he incurred the danger of death, and from that one man all human nature became vicious and subject to sin and mortal. The Apostle Paul says, Through one man, sin entered into the world, and through sin death, and so death passed through into all men, in whom all have sinned.

Because just as through one man all men come into condemnation, so also through the righteousness of one man all men come into justification of life. And again: The first man is of the earth, earthly; the second man is from heaven, heavenly. This, I say, is the heavenly man. I call him heavenly, therefore, because he was not conceived from human seed, but was taken up from Mary the virgin for our salvation by the Son of God, as the evangelist John testifies: And the Word, he says, was made flesh, and dwelt among us. The Word was made flesh, not changed into flesh; so that he did not cease to be what he was, but began to be what he was not. For he assumed flesh, he did not convert himself into flesh. By this flesh we understand the whole man from a part, that is, flesh and a rational soul. And just as the first man had died in both flesh and soul, so also it was fitting that through the mediator of God and men, the man Jesus Christ, he be given life in both flesh and soul. Therefore, as we said above, it was said according to the form of the assumed man, The Father is greater than I.

QUESTION 5. I see that, while you were inquiring about the one Son of God, you wished to introduce two, so as to speak of the Son of God and the son of man.

RESPONSE. They are not two sons, but one. For he who was the Son of God was made the son of man in the unity of person. For just as soul and flesh are one man, so the Word and man are one Christ. We receive two substances in the one Son of God, one of divinity, the other of humanity, not two persons. Therefore, if we were to say that there are two persons, we would introduce two sons; and then there would no longer be a Trinity, but a Quaternity. For indeed, by that which he is God, he is always equal to the Father, present everywhere, whole in heaven and whole on earth, and contained by no place. By that which he is man, he suffered, and died, and rose again, and ascended into heaven, and sits at the right hand of the Father; and so he will come to judge the living and the dead, just as he was seen to go into heaven, in the same form and substance of flesh; to which he indeed gave immortality, but did not take away its nature.

QUESTION 6. If the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit are one substance, how is it that the Son, without the Father and the Holy Spirit, took on flesh?

RESPONSE. Neither the person of the Father nor of the Holy Spirit, but the person of the Son alone took on flesh. And so that you may understand this, I will use comparisons, so that from the creature you may understand the Creator. Certainly in the soul there is reason, and although they are one, the soul does one thing, reason another. By the soul we live, by reason we are wise. So the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit, since they are one substance, the whole Trinity made man, whom the whole Trinity did not assume, but the person of the Son alone.

QUESTION 7. Did the Father beget the Son by will, or by necessity?

RESPONSE. Neither by will nor by necessity: because necessity is not in God; but will cannot precede wisdom, which is the Son: therefore it is prior to know wisely than to will wisely. For a certain one of us, when a heretic had asked him whether the Father begot the Son willing or unwilling, is reported to have answered praiseworthily: Tell me, he said, you too, heretic, is God the Father God by necessity or by will? But if he had said, By necessity, a great absurdity would have followed for him. If however, By will, it was answered to him, Therefore he is God by will, not by nature: and so into the snare which he wished to set, he himself fell; and, convicted by this, he fell silent.

QUESTION 8. How is that to be understood which is read, As the Father has life in himself, so he has given also to the Son to have life in himself (John 5:26)?

RESPONSE. We know that the Son of God is not from himself, but was begotten from the Father; but that the Father was begotten from no one, and received life from no one. The Father gave life to the Son by begetting him: not that the Son was first without life and afterwards received life, as we who lost life through sin and receive it again through the grace of the Savior; but therefore it is said, He received life, because he was not begotten from himself; for he did not give it by existing, but by begetting.

QUESTION 9. Since by both reasoning and testimonies you have persuaded me concerning the subjection of the Son, that he is not lesser according to substance, but according to the form of a servant which he assumed; therefore I ask what you think concerning the mission of the Holy Spirit: did he too assume a man, so that he may be said to have been sent?

RESPONSE. Just as neither is he called Son according to substance, nor sent, nor wonderful; so neither is the Holy Spirit. Finally, just as he was made lesser or sent because of man, so the latter is said to be sent because of the dove or fire (Matthew 3:16, and Acts 2:2): namely, because he did not appear in that substance in which he is equal to the Father, but, as has been said, through a subject creature. For it is not as the Son assumed a man, so that he might thus remain forever, that the Holy Spirit assumed a dove or fire; but those visions made there from a lower creature, for the manifesting of the Holy Spirit, ceased afterward. For never can that incomprehensible and immutable divinity, which is the Trinity, God, be seen by carnal eyes, except, as has been said, through a subject creature.

QUESTION 10. But how the Son of God is born of the Father, and the Holy Spirit truly proceeds from both, you have explained. And therefore I ask what difference there is between the nativity of the Son and the procession of the Holy Spirit.

RESPONSE. But the Son is of the Father alone, not the Holy Spirit; the Spirit is of both, that is, of the Father and the Son. But if the Holy Spirit were said to be a son: yet no one is a son except of two, a father and a mother—which be far from us, that we should suspect any such thing between God the Father and the Son; because neither does the son of a man proceed from the father and from the mother at the same time; since when he proceeds from the father, he does not then proceed from the mother, and when he proceeds from the mother into this light, he does not then proceed from the father. But the Holy Spirit does not proceed from the Father into the Son, and proceed from the Son to sanctify the creature, but proceeds from both at once.

QUESTION XI. How is that to be understood which John the evangelist says concerning the Holy Spirit, that he will not speak from himself. For thus he says: For he will not speak from himself; but whatever he hears, he will speak (John 16:13).

RESPONSE. He will not speak from himself, because he is not from himself. For the Father is born of no one; the Son is begotten of the Father; the Holy Spirit proceeds from the Father and the Son. Therefore he does not speak from himself; but whatever he hears, he speaks. To hear is to be for him; but to be from himself he is not, but from the Father: therefore whatever he hears, he speaks.

QUESTION XII. What is the meaning of what the apostle Paul says, writing to the Romans: For we do not know what we should pray for as we ought, but the Spirit himself pleads for us with groanings that cannot be expressed. But he who searches the hearts knows what the Spirit desires, because he pleads for the saints according to God (Rom. 8:26-27)?

RESPONSE. This manner of speaking is frequently found in the Holy Scriptures, as when the Lord says to Abraham, Now I know that you fear God (Gen. 22:12); that is, I have made you know. As the Apostle says, Now knowing God, or rather now known by God (Gal. 4:9). All things are always in God's presence before they come to be; present things are present, and future things are already accomplished. In what sense, then, are we now said to be known by God, except that God brings it about that we know God? So also here the Holy Spirit is written to groan for us, that is, to make us groan. For he pours into us love toward God and neighbor. Just as a day is called glad because it makes people glad, or sad because it makes them sad; or a letter is called glad because it makes its readers glad; so also here the Holy Spirit is said to groan, because he makes us groan.

QUESTION XIII. When the Jews sought a sign from our Lord and Savior, he answered them: This adulterous generation seeks a sign, and no sign shall be given it except the sign of the prophet Jonah. For just as Jonah was in the belly of the whale three days and three nights, so will the Son of Man be in the heart of the earth three days and three nights (Matt. 12:39-40). Show, then, how he was in hell three days and three nights, when on the sixth day of the week, which is the Preparation, at the ninth hour he gave up his spirit, and on the first day of the week, which is the Lord's Day, before dawn he rose again. Behold, there are not three full days, nor three nights.

RESPONSE. Our ancient fathers understood this to mean that the first day, which is the Preparation, in its final part, and the last day, which is the Lord's Day, in its first part, ought to be counted whole together with their nights; and so, by naming the whole from the part, there were three days: the last part of the sixth day, the whole Sabbath, and the first part of the Lord's Day with their nights.

QUESTION XIV. Since our Lord Jesus Christ promises the saints that in the resurrection they will shine like the sun, why did the Lord himself not so shine in his own resurrection?

ANSWER. He rose again with his flesh indeed glorified; but he did not wish to appear to his disciples in that glorification, because they could not have perceived such brightness with their eyes. For if, before he died for us and rose again, when he was transfigured on the mountain, his disciples could not look at him but fell to the ground for fear, how much less could they have seen the Lord's flesh once glorified?

QUESTION XV. The evangelist Mark relates that the Lord was crucified at the third hour, but John at the sixth; which of these two should be believed rather?

ANSWER. Both spoke the truth, and both alike. For at the third hour the Jews cried out to Pilate: Crucify, crucify him. But the soldiers crucified him at the sixth hour. Therefore what the former did with their tongue, the latter did with their hands. But lest the Jews be thought not to have crucified the Lord, the evangelist set down that the Lord was crucified at the third hour, because not only those who carried out the deed crucified him, but also those who cried out. For in them was fulfilled what the Psalmist says: Sons of men, their teeth are weapons and arrows, and their tongue a sharp sword. You see what kind of sword they had, with which they killed the Lord at the third hour.

QUESTION XVI. Since God created all things good, and there is nothing that was not created by him, whence comes evil?

ANSWER. Evil is not a nature; rather, the privation of good has received this name. In short, good can exist without evil, but evil cannot exist without good, nor can evil exist where good has not been. And through this we say both "good angel" and "evil angel," and "good man" and "evil man": but the good is what the angel is, the evil is what is vicious; the good is what the man is, the evil is what is vicious. And therefore when we say "good," we praise the nature; when we say "evil," we reprehend not the nature but the vice, which is contrary to the good nature.

QUESTION XVII. Were all the angels created equal or unequal? And if equal, why were not all firm and stable? But if unequal, by what merit did some deserve to receive stability through their own foreknowledge, and others were unable to foresee at all the future fall of their own ruin?

ANSWER. All the angels were indeed created equal; but when those fell through pride, the rest clung to the Lord in pious obedience, receiving certain knowledge of their own stability, which those others never had. And thus they are surrounded by the grace of God in all things, so that they can never fall from the blessed life which they enjoy, clinging to the Lord.

QUESTION XVIII. How is it to be understood what God says in Genesis: Let us make man in our image and likeness (Gen 1:26)?

ANSWER. In the image is reason and understanding. Therefore the mind, when it thinks those things which are eternal, is then truly to be called the image of God. And by thinking eternal things, it is man: as the apostle Paul says, A man ought not to cover his head, since he is the image of the glory of God (1 Cor 11:7). And the more it extends itself into that which is eternal, the more is it formed therefrom into the image of God: and therefore it is not to be restrained, so as to hold itself back from that and grow slack. But when it does and thinks those things which are temporal, it is called woman: then it is not to be called the image of God, and therefore it ought to cover its head, lest its progress toward lower things be made manifest, and while it does what is lawful, it desire what is unlawful.

QUESTION XIX. Was the first man made mortal or immortal?

ANSWER. Both mortal according to one cause and immortal according to another. The first man had a body such as we have, but without sin. For he did not have in his members a law resisting the law of his mind; but this he certainly earned after his transgression. Therefore Adam had an animal body, but by the power of that tree by which he was sustained, which in paradise had received the name of life, it was granted that he should neither grow old nor fail. Wherefore, if he had kept God's commandments, by the merit of obedience that body would afterward have been changed into that spiritual body which is promised to the saints in the resurrection. And by this means he could have not died, if he had clung to God's commandments in pious obedience. For he was not made in such a way that he could not die, like the other natures which cannot die at all, but in such a way that obedience would make him immortal and disobedience mortal.

QUESTION XX. What is the meaning of what the apostle Paul says: "Flesh and blood shall not possess the kingdom of God"?

ANSWER. From this testimony many, understanding it poorly and on that account asserting heretically, claim that man cannot rise again in the same flesh in which he died; but, removing true flesh, they assign to man after the resurrection some kind of airy body, I know not what, which he never had. This is strongly approved by those who consider the very... meaning. "Flesh and blood," he says, "shall not possess the kingdom of God." And the same apostle Paul, explaining this in a manner, following it up, added: "Neither shall corruption possess incorruption." To whom was the Apostle writing? Surely to those who were saying: "Let us eat and drink, for tomorrow we shall die" (1 Cor. 15:50, 32). These the blessed apostle Paul refutes, saying that flesh and blood, that is, the works of the flesh and of blood, cannot attain the kingdom of God. For if the proper substance of flesh is to be understood here, what will they say of those to whom the same apostle writes: "But you are not in the flesh, but in the spirit"? Did the Romans, to whom the Apostle was writing, not have flesh? But "you are not in the flesh," he says; that is, you are not carnal, you do not do the works of the flesh, which are hostile to God, which are not subject to the law of God. "But those who are in the flesh," he says, "cannot please God" (Rom. 8:9, 8). Behold, such flesh shall not possess the kingdom of God.

For that man rises again in the same flesh in which he dies, our Lord Jesus Christ, after His resurrection, answered the disciples who doubted and thought they saw a spirit: "Handle and see, for a spirit does not have flesh and bones, as you see me have" (Luke 24:39). And by this we believe that man rises again not only with flesh and bones, but also with blood, or whatever belongs to his nature; but without any corruption, eternal life and eternal felicity will be his forever, by contemplating the Trinity of God. Therefore, just as the righteous rise with their own flesh to eternal felicity, so the impious rise to eternal misery.

QUESTION XXI. The beginning of Genesis is: "In the beginning God made heaven and earth" (Gen. 1:1). Were the angels made afterward, or not? For if the angels were made before, then God did not first of all make heaven and earth.

ANSWER. When the stars were made together, Scripture says, "All my angels praised me with a loud voice" (Job 38:7, according to the LXX). For on the fourth day the stars were made, and already the angels existed. For neither on the third day nor on the second were they made. For in these days appear the things that were made. For on the third day the dry land, that is, the earth separated from the waters. For on the second day the firmament was made, where the sun and moon run their course and the stars. Furthermore, the first day itself is the angelic nature, which was called by the name of heaven first.

From this it is clearly shown that on the first day the spiritual nature was made, that is, the angelic nature, and so also this heaven which we perceive with our eyes. For what it says, "In the beginning God made heaven and earth," is not first of all things, as you say; but "in the beginning," that is, in the Son, or rather through the Son, God made every spiritual and corporeal creature, which is also called by the name of heaven and earth. For that He Himself is the beginning, when the Jews asked Him who He was, He answered: "The beginning, because I also speak to you" (John 8:25). First, therefore, He wished to speak of heaven and earth as a kind of spiritual and corporeal matter, and then to set forth in order how they were made individually. For what he called heaven, this seems to me to have been called the dark abyss of waters, and in some manner a fluctuating life, unless it be turned to the Creator, and become light, and contemplate that the Trinity is God in God. Nor do we say this in such a way that this matter precedes its form, as wood precedes the ark; but as the voice precedes the word: not in time, but in origin. Therefore the first creature, light, is not that light which was made on the fourth day, but the spiritual, that is, the angelic nature.

QUESTION XXII. The Spirit of God was borne over the waters (Gen. 1:2): was he borne locally, as the sun and moon and other stars are, or otherwise?

ANSWER. The Holy Spirit is God. Therefore he is not contained in a place or spread out, nor is he subject to the motions of times, but is everywhere present, safe. In that way, then, he named a creature over which the Holy Spirit is said to be borne; he is said to be borne not locally but by power. For God made his works not from need but from beneficence; nor does he need those things which he made. For needy and indigent love is subject to the things which it loves. Therefore the Holy Spirit is said to be borne over the creature because he wrought that creature itself not from need.

QUESTION XXIII. God said, Let there be light (ibid., 5)! Did he say it in a day, or before every day? If he said it in a day, he said it temporally; if he said it temporally, he said it through some creature. Therefore light is not the first creature.

ANSWER. He did not say it in a day, nor did he say it temporally; because before every creature he surely begot his Word, and through the Word he created every creature. Therefore the speech of God is the Word of God. But divine Scripture, accommodating itself to little ones and, in a manner, giving them milk so that they may advance and take spiritual food, wished always, throughout the whole formation of creation, to call the speech of God. So that, for example, if you ask, How was light made? you may hear, It was in the Word of God, that it might be made. How was heaven made? It was in the Word of God, that it might be made. And the rest in order, if you ask how they were made, they were in the Word of God, that they might be made. For this is: God said, Let there be light. For the divine nature does not speak in bodily ways; nor, as often as it is said, He said, did he form words that many times. For he begot one Word, coeternal and consubstantial with himself, in which he said all things ineffably and intemporally.

QUESTION XXIV. If God saw the light, that it was good (Gen. 1:4), did he not know it before, and did the vision confer knowledge on him?

ANSWER. Our will precedes every work, while we think what we ought to do. For no one does anything while ignorant, when he thinks how those things should be done which he has arranged by thinking to do. And since this cannot fall to man, that he should do anything while ignorant, how much more [is it so] in God, who made all things which he willed by his eternal and stable counsel, nor were things made otherwise than as he saw they ought to be made? In that way, therefore, he saw things done, in which he had seen things to be done.

QUESTION XXV. And he divided, says Scripture, the light from the darkness (Ibid.). For everything that is divided can also exist. Therefore, just as there is an essence of light, so there is also an essence of darkness. And why did Scripture not say, God saw the darkness that it was good, as it was said of the light?

ANSWER. God, by his good and unchangeable will, created all the angels good. And because he foreknew that some of them would fall through pride, by the unchangeableness of his foreknowledge, he divided between the good and the evil. Calling the evil darkness, therefore, and the good light: saying of the good, God saw that they were good; of the evil he did not say this at all, lest he seem to approve sins, which are darkness.

QUESTION XXVI. You assert that the first day is a spiritual creature, and how did it have evening and morning (Gen. 1:5)?

ANSWER. Every creature, before it was made in its own time, was first to be known by the angels in the very Word of God, and so to be made in its own time. Wherefore the very knowledge of the creature in itself was evening, in God it was morning: because the creature is seen more in God than it is seen in itself. The creature, namely, is seen more in the art by which it was made than it is in itself, which was made. For this reason the evangelist John says, That which was made, in him was life (John 1:3-4). All things therefore which were made, and have not life, are life in the very Word of God, and are not life in themselves. Heaven, earth, stone have not life, and yet they are life in God. Therefore all the reasons of creatures live in God without beginning and immutably. And by this, they are seen more by the holy angels in the Word of God where they are life, than in themselves; because the knowledge of the angels, in comparison with God, in a certain manner grows toward evening. Thus, then, in the knowledge of the spirits, the first day; in the knowledge of the firmament, the second; in the knowledge of the separation of land and sea, the third; in the knowledge of the sun and moon and stars, the fourth; in the knowledge of the creeping things and flying things, the fifth; in the knowledge of the beasts of burden and wild beasts or of man, the sixth.

For the knowledge of one day—which we understand to be the nature of the spiritual creatures, that is, the angelic ones—having been made six times did not make six days, on account of the perfection of the number six. But concerning the perfection of the number six, I shall gather something for you from the Holy Scriptures. Be present willingly, and prepare your whole self to listen. One cannot be divided among numbers, for from it every number arises. Therefore two can be divided, but their part is one. Thus the division of two is twice one; the division of three is thrice one. But what else does this number show except the Trinity which is God? Although there are three persons, they are believed to be one in the unity of nature. The number four has two parts, for its fourth part is one, its middle part is two. Clearly one and two are three. Behold its parts; it neither grows beyond nor is completed, and therefore the number is imperfect. The number five has only one part, which is its fifth. The number six, then, is perfect, because it is completed by its parts: it has one, which is its sixth part; two, which are its third; three, which are its middle. One, then, two, and three make six. And so, on account of the perfection of this number, God wrought every creature in six days. These three parts of the number six therefore show us that the Trinitarian God, in the trinity of number, measure, and weight, made every creature.

We frequently find in the Holy Scriptures that the perfection of the number six is of the greatest importance, especially in the single death of the Lord and His single resurrection, and in our double death and our double resurrection. And so the death of our Lord Jesus Christ was not in the soul, but in the flesh alone. But our death is not in the flesh only, but also in the soul: in the soul on account of sin, in the flesh on account of the punishment of sin. But He, because He had no sin, did not die in the soul, but only in the flesh; and this on account of the likeness of sinful flesh, which He had drawn from Adam. Therefore His single death profited our double death, and His single resurrection profited our double resurrection. For His death of the flesh and His resurrection are the death of our flesh and its resurrection, and the death of our soul and its resurrection. But the death of His flesh and His resurrection signify our two deaths and our two resurrections. Hence if you add to the one death of the Lord and His one resurrection—which two make four, that is, our two deaths and two resurrections—they make six. And therefore the single of the Lord twice, and our double added to these, are three twice; and three twice, according to what we said above, are the parts from which the number six comes. For also the thirty-six hours during which the Lord was in hell agree with this single and double. Therefore there were twelve daytime hours, and twenty-four nighttime hours.

Likewise the twenty-four fit our double death, and those twelve hours fit the Lord's single death. For in truth His nativity also has the number six. For the Jews assert in the Gospel that the temple was built in forty-six years, which is understood of the Lord's body (John 2:20-21). The forty-six years are taken for days. They say that an infant is formed in the womb in forty-six days, and thereafter grows until the day of birth. For forty-six times six make two hundred seventy-six, which make nine months and six days. Compute therefore from the eighth day before the Kalends of April, when the Lord suffered (for He is believed to have been conceived then also), up to the eighth day before the Kalends of January, and you will find two hundred seventy-six days, which consist of the number six. What shall we say of that woman in the Gospel whom Satan had bent double for eighteen years, whom the Lord healed (Luke 13:11-13)? Because those years also have the number six. For three times six make eighteen. That woman, therefore, is understood to prefigure the human race, which in the sixth age of the world our Redeemer, the Lord Jesus, freed from the captivity of the devil. The first age is from Adam to Noah. The second age is from Noah to Abraham. The third, from Abraham to David. The fourth, from David to the transmigration of Babylon. The fifth, from the transmigration of Babylon to the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ.

The sixth age, which is now being enacted, lasts until the Most High comes to judgment. In the sixth age, therefore, the human race is reformed into the image of God. Indeed, the eighteen years plainly demonstrate not only the six ages, but also the three periods: one, namely, before the Law; the second, under the Law; the third, under grace. Therefore the year itself is also contained in the number six. For it has three hundred and sixty-five days. Six times sixty is three hundred and sixty. There remain, then, five days and a quarter. Six times five days make a month. Yet even if you count that quarter as a day, by the principle that a part stands for the whole, they make six. Behold, as far as the Lord has helped me, I have given an account of the perfection of the number six—not as much as I wished, but as much as I could.

QUESTION XXVII. The order and weight of the elements do not allow the substance of water to be above the heated elements. For water yields to earth, and air yields to water, and fire yields to air. For in no way can it happen that the second element, which is water, is above the fourth, which is fire. And how is it said, Let there be a firmament in the midst of the waters, and let it divide the waters from the waters (Gen. 1:6)?

RESP. However those waters that Scripture teaches are above the heavens may be, and of whatever kind, let us by no means doubt that they are there. For just as those clouds, which are certainly waters, are borne above the air, which is the third element, so I judge it possible that thin and subtle waters are borne above the heaven. For many philosophers, mocking the resurrection of the flesh, say that by this weight of the elements it cannot happen that man, who was certainly made from earth, should be in heaven. But the truth convicts them, which makes many earthly animals fly in the air, and water to be above the air, and fire, which is certainly the fourth element, to be in the earth. Therefore the power of God, which is shown to do these things, brings it about that both man and water are above the heaven.

QUESTION XXVIII. Did not water cover the whole earth? And how does Scripture say, Let the waters that are under heaven be gathered together into one place, and let the dry land appear (Ibid., 9)?

RESP. The whole earth was covered by water like a very fine mist, which was afterwards brought together and gathered into one place, so that the appearance of the earth could also become visible. Although the earth, sinking far and wide, could have offered hollow parts to receive the flowing waters, so that the dry land might appear.

QUESTION XXIX. Since God created all things good, as Scripture says, And behold, all things which God made were very good (Ibid., 31), why again does the Lord say in the Gospel, No one is good, except God alone (Mark 10:18)?

RESP. That a man is good, the same Lord says in the Gospel: A good man out of the good treasure of his heart brings forth good things (Matthew 12:35). But in saying this, No one is good, except God alone, he was of course answering the one who was seeking eternal life from him, the one who thought him to be only a man, saying, Good Master. And therefore he answered thus, saying, Why do you call me good? No one is good, except God alone: that is, this form which was assumed, which you see, which the good and the evil, the pious and the impious will see, will not be for good to those who do evil. Therefore do not call me good according to this form, which those who pierced me will see. There is another form, which the impious will not see, which none but the righteous will see; according to this form I am good to those who will have been worthy to see me.

QUESTION XXX. "A spring," says Holy Scripture, "was rising from the earth and watering the whole face of the earth" (Gen. 2:6). If it was watering the whole earth, then it was watering the mountains too, since the mountains are certainly earth as well. But if it was watering the mountains too, that was a flood. And how had the earth brought forth the green herb that yields seed? Or how was man living on the earth, if water was covering the whole earth?

RESPONSE. Here a single spring is put in place of a plural number. For if we inquire carefully, we frequently find this in the holy Scriptures. You have it, of course, in the Psalm: "He sent among them the dog-fly, and it devoured them; and the frog, and it destroyed them" (Ps. 78:45)—when certainly there was neither one dog-fly nor one frog. And elsewhere in the Psalm he said, "And the locust came" (Ps. 105:34); he did not say "the locusts," but "the locust." Behold, you have a singular number in place of a plural. This is in accordance with what a certain most noble of poets said: "And they fill both flanks with armed soldiery" (Virgil, Aeneid 2.20). Moreover, it is on account of the unity of its nature that it is called one spring, so that we may understand all the springs that are in the earth, because in a certain manner all flow from the nature of the one abyss. For in saying "it was watering the whole face of the earth," it was not watering the entire earth, but a part. For by "the whole" it signified a part, just as we say, "Christ died, Christ rose again," when he neither died nor rose again except according to the flesh.

QUESTION XXXI. "The Lord God, therefore," says Scripture, "took the man and placed him in the paradise of pleasure, to work it and to keep it" (Gen. 2:15). What, I ask, was he to work and to keep—the paradise, or something else?

ANSWER. This sentence gives rise to a twofold understanding. For whether the man was to work the paradise—that is, to do something in the paradise—he worked not from the necessity of making a living, but for delight; for as yet he had not sinned, nor had the earth brought forth thorns and thistles for him, so that he should eat his bread in the sweat of his face. This, surely, he merited after sin. Before sin, therefore, not from want, not from necessity, but from pleasure alone, as we have said, he worked the paradise through cultivation and kept it through discipline. He was not keeping the paradise against beasts or against any animals, but for himself—namely, lest by sinning he should lose what he was able to keep by obeying. Or God placed the man himself in the paradise to work and to keep: that is, we were to work that he might be good, and to keep that he might be safe. Whichever of these is said—whether the man worked the paradise through cultivation and kept it through discipline, or God worked the man himself that he might be good and kept him that he might be safe—whichever of these you understand, each understanding is consistent with reason.

QUESTION XXXII. Since God threatens man with death on the day he touches the forbidden food, why did he not die on that day? For Scripture says, "On whatever day you eat of it, you shall surely die" (Gen. 2:17).

ANSWER. Holy Scripture clearly shows that there are four deaths. The first death is that of the soul, which forsakes its Creator; for when it forsakes him, it sins. "Let," says the Lord in the Gospel, "the dead bury their dead" (Matt. 8:22). Behold, you have those dead according to the soul, namely those burying the dead; and those whom they bury are dead according to the flesh. This sentence therefore most plainly teaches two deaths, one of souls, the other of bodies. The third is of the soul alone, which it suffers when it has departed from this body; according to that which we read in the Gospel concerning the rich man: "Father Abraham," says the rich man, "send Lazarus, that he may cool my tongue with his finger; for I am tormented in this flame" (Luke 16:24). The fourth is the death when the soul has received the body back, so that it may be cast into eternal fire; according to that which the Lord says in the Gospel concerning the future judgment: "Go into the eternal fire, which is prepared for the devil and his angels" (Matt. 25:41). On the day, therefore, on which Adam sinned, he died in the soul. For just as the body lives from the soul, so the soul, in order to live more blessedly, lives from God. Therefore Adam's soul, having forsaken God, is rightly said to have died the first death, from which three deaths afterwards followed. For in order that these might follow, the first...

by the withdrawal of God, according to which Adam died on the day he sinned.

QUESTION XXXIII. How could Adam fear death, which he in no way knew?

ANSWER. Just as we know the resurrection, which we have never experienced nor seen, so he knew death. We also know that the soul's departure from the body brings about death, and that when it has returned to its body, it will bring about the resurrection. Behold, we know the resurrection, which we have never experienced. So too he certainly knew death, not yet by experience, but by knowledge. For he knew what it was to live, and through the privation of life he certainly knew death, just as darkness is known through the privation of light, and silence is known through the privation of voice, and void is known through the privation of body; so he knew death through the privation of life.

QUESTION XXXIV. The Lord brought all the animals and birds to Adam, and seeing them, he gave them names (Gen. 2:19). And of the woman it is said a little later: Seeing therefore the woman that the tree was good for food, etc. Behold, Scripture most manifestly shows that the eyes of both were open. For it is not right to say that the first humans were made blind. And why, a little later, after the touching of the forbidden tree, does the same Scripture say: The eyes of both were opened (Gen. 3:6-7)? Unless their eyes were open, neither would he have given names to the animals, nor would she have seen the beauty of the tree.

ANSWER. This is indeed true, that they had open eyes; and yet, unless it were for something, Scripture would by no means say: The eyes of them both were opened. They were opened, that is, for no other reason than to lust for one another, so that there might be a law in the members resisting the law of the mind (Rom 7:23), so that even in the members themselves there might be an involuntary motion—by the just vengeance of God, namely—so that man, who was unwilling to be subject to God, might not have a body subject to him. Therefore, in this respect the eyes of them both were opened, so that their members might be stirred by concupiscence.

QUESTION XXXV. When Adam and Eve had heard the voice of the Lord God walking in paradise, Scripture says, they hid themselves (Gen 3:8). I ask, what is this walking?

ANSWER. Far be it that God, who is the Trinity, should be believed to be corporeal or local from the fact that his walking is spoken of. For every body is local, and every local thing is certainly a body. But God is an incorporeal thing, and is neither moved in time nor contained in a place, nor is he transferred from place to place. For his walking is to be understood as having been done through some creature, which creature I recall was understood by the elders, from the very circumstance of the Scripture, to have been a man.

QUESTION 36. Since God is one, as Scripture says, Hear, Israel: the Lord your God is one God (Deut. 6:4), how is it that he himself said, Behold, Adam has become as one of us (Gen. 3:22)? For "us" suggests a plurality.

ANSWER. Although God is one, he is nevertheless a Trinity: namely, the Father, and the Son, and the Holy Spirit. "One of us" was said not because of a plurality of gods, but because of a plurality of persons.

QUESTION 37. We certainly see many animals born from the corruption of bodies, especially of the dead: were they then created, when those bodies themselves were?

ANSWER. Far be it that they be said to have been created then, when those bodies were; but they were implanted in bodies in a certain manner, to arise in their own time. For just as the seed of any tree has a certain power, so that when it has been buried in the earth it springs up and a shoot is produced, then, pressed together no less into branches, it spreads out, and is adorned with leaves, then with flowers, and bears fruit: so also there is in the body, so to speak, a certain seed-bed, from which in its own time, with the providence of God taking care, certain kinds of animals arise.

QUESTION 38. Since God said, Let the earth bring forth green grass, and seed-bearing plants, and fruit-bearing trees (Gen. 1:11), when did he make the unfruitful trees, or the thorns and thistles?

ANSWER: God made all things at once, as Scripture says, He who lives forever created all things together (Sir. 18:1). Therefore trees are in no way to be called unfruitful which in some way bring help to men; because in truth, even if we do not find in them anything for eating, we certainly find something for medicine, we find something for aid. For consider for yourself how many uses are found in them. Accordingly, since "fruit" is so called from "fruition," and from every tree we can have some aid, by right we call no tree unfruitful. But as for thorns and thistles, although after sin they are born to man for toil, as Scripture says, The earth will bring forth thorns and thistles for you (Gen. 3:18), nevertheless it must not be said that they then arose from the earth, since they already existed, made for the pasture of cattle or birds, not produced to increase man's punishment.

QUESTION 39. If God disposed all things in number, measure, and weight, as the holy Scripture testifies (Wis. 11:21), where did he dispose number itself, and measure, and weight?

ANSWER: Number, measure, and weight are God himself. He is number without number, from whom is every number. He is measure without measure, from whom is every measure. He is weight without weight, from whom is every weight. Therefore he disposed all things in number, measure, and weight, as if he were to say, He disposed all things in himself. For he did not see the creature outside himself, or anywhere else, so that, like men, he might retain in memory the things he made. Therefore the cause of every creature is the will of the Creator. There the will is what the nature is. Yet thus is nature eternal to him, thus is the will eternal. For no new thought befalls God for forming creatures. Accordingly, God the Trinity disposed all things in himself, because in himself he contained all things that he made. It is also understood otherwise: he disposed all things in number, measure, and weight; that is, all things that he made have number, measure, and weight.

QUESTION 40. Did God bring all the living creatures of the earth and all the birds of the sky to Adam in the way that bird-catchers or hunters bring them into their nets? Or perhaps a voice of command was made from a cloud, which they understood as rational souls, and having heard it they all obeyed?

ANSWER: The living creatures or birds of the sky did not receive this, that they should be capable of reason, by which they might obey their Creator. Yet in their own kind they obey God, not by the rational judgment of the will, but as he moves all things at opportune times, himself being moved not in time. He moves himself, therefore, without time and without place; he moves the created spirit without place but in time; he moves corporeal creation both in time and in place. Therefore the substance that is moved only in time precedes that which is moved in time and in place. And so the substance that is moved neither in time nor in place precedes that which is moved only in time. The created spirit moves itself through time without place, and moves the body through time and place. But the Creator Spirit moves himself without time and place. Therefore the rational spirit, which is in men, or the irrational, which is in beasts, is also moved by his commands. But the rational spirit has understanding, by which it can judge whether it consents to the commands or does not consent.

But the reptiles and flying creatures did not receive this judgment; yet by their kind and nature, when acted upon by some command, they are driven forward. Hence the angelic nature, fulfilling God's commands, by its commands moves every kind of living creature, teaching what it does not know. For if men can tame certain kinds of animals, so that they seem to perform certain wills of men, how much more can angels do this?

QUESTION 41. What cause made it that God, whom you assert to move, is not moved in time; or that a created spirit, which is moved in time, is not moved in place?

ANSWER. God, who established the times and exists before the times, has nothing in him past or future, no new counsel, and no new thought: because, namely, if anything were new, it would also be accidental. But if anything happens to God, then he is not immutable. Therefore God is immutable: nothing happens to him, no new thought, no new counsel; therefore he is not moved in time. Therefore God is immutable. But a created spirit, such as is that of the angels, although without time they contemplate God's eternity, truth, and charity; yet because from time onward they fulfill God's commands in lower things, they are rightly believed to be moved in time. But they move their bodies in place, when they descend from heaven and ascend into heaven. And so the spirit of men is moved in time, by remembering past things, expecting future things, and learning something new.

For when I recall some reading or some city, my spirit is not moved in place in the way it is moved by thinking, so that it recalls this from time. But if it were moved in place, it would be moved nowhere in heaven or on earth, because without heaven and earth there is no place. For where was the spirit itself—in heaven or on earth—when it saw the reading itself or the city itself? Therefore, if it saw in no place so as to recall, it saw in itself. And because thought has a beginning, and everything that has a beginning also has time, therefore according to the reasoning stated above, the created spirit can be moved through time, not through place; the creator Spirit is without time and place; but the body is subject to both place and time.

QUESTION XLII. Since rest is only after labor, why is God said to rest? Was he himself also wearied by work, so that he is said to rest?

ANSWER. God did not rest in any creature as though needing its good, but in himself. Finally, he is not read to have rested on any one of the days, but after the works of the sixth day. Hence it appears clearly that God made no creature out of need, but by his goodness alone. But if he had rested in any creature, he would have made some creature out of need. Therefore, because he made no creature out of need, he accordingly rested in no creature. For as Scripture says, God rested on the seventh day from all his works which he made (Gen.

I think this can be understood as meaning that he did not rest on that day itself as though needing its good in order to be more blessed, but that he brought that seventh day itself, that is, the angelic nature, to his own rest: so that they might see, namely, in God, that every creature was to be formed, and might also see that he had made no creature out of need, but by his goodness alone. For I think this is how God's rest can be understood. God's rest is understood also in another way, that is, when he makes us rest after good works; according to that manner in which God said to Abraham, "Now I know that you fear God" (Gen. XIII, 12), which is understood as "I have made you to know"; so here too God is understood to rest when he grants rest to his saints. In the same way God is said to rest from founding new creatures, because after the production of the six days' works he founded no creature thereafter. For what he said, "My Father works even until now, and I work" (John v, 17), is not understood as founding a new creature, but as administering what he founded.

QUESTION 43. How could the serpent speak in paradise (Gen. 3:1), when it appears to be an irrational animal?

ANSWER. The serpent could not speak by itself, because it had not received this from the Creator. For the devil took it into his service, using it as an instrument through which it emitted articulate sound. Through it, of course, he produced words, and yet the serpent itself did not know this. Therefore a nature devoid of reason is subject to a rational nature; but it does not do as much through it or in it as it wishes, but only as much as it has received from the Creator.

QUESTION 44. And if serpents do not understand, how do they hear the words of the Marsi, so that at their incantation they come out of their caves?

ANSWER. Although they do not have understanding, they are by no means lacking bodily sense. For they have sight, hearing, smell, taste, and touch. And therefore, although they hear the words of the Marsi, they by no means understand them. For they do not obey by understanding, but in order that they may come out of their caves at the words of the Marsi, they are compelled by the devil, with God permitting it. Hence testimony is given concerning that first deed, that the devil deceived the first man through the serpent in paradise.

QUESTION 45. Was it because Adam needed a wife that it could not have happened otherwise than that a rib should be taken from him while he slept, from which a wife should be built (Gen. 2:20-22)?

ANSWER. God could also have done it otherwise, but for that reason He judged it more fitting to do it thus, so that something might be signified by it. For just as a rib is taken from Adam while he sleeps so that a wife may be made, so also blood is poured out from the side of Christ as He dies, so that the Church may be built. For by sharing in the body and blood of Christ, the Church is made the wife of Christ.

QUESTION 46. How is it to be understood that Adam says, For this reason a man shall leave his father and mother, and shall cleave to his wife; and they shall be two in one flesh (Gen. 2:24)?

ANSWER. The blessed apostle Paul, setting this passage before himself, expounded it, saying: This is a great sacrament; but I speak in Christ and in the Church (Eph. 5:32). But how did Christ leave the Father, when He is of one substance with the Father? Or where could the Father be without the Son, when of the Son Himself, who is Wisdom, it is said that He reaches from end to end mightily, and orders all things sweetly (Wis. 8:1)? Therefore, if the Son is where the Father is, the Father cannot be without the Son, nor the Son without the Father; because, namely, just as they are inseparable in nature, so also are they inseparable in person. For the Son Himself says thus of the Father in the Gospel: He who sent me is with me (John 8:29).

How then did he leave the Father so as to cleave to his wife, that is, to his Church, except in the way the Apostle speaks of: Who, though he was in the form of God, did not consider it robbery to be equal with God, but emptied himself, taking the form of a servant (Phil. 2:6-7)? That taking of the form of a servant is therefore the emptying, and that emptying, although it is not an abolition of divinity or a loss of nature, nevertheless, because of the form of a servant in which he is recognized to have appeared, the Apostle rightly says that he left the Father. He also left his mother, namely the Synagogue, clinging carnally to the Old Testament; and he cleaved to his wife, that is, to his holy Church, so that through the peace of the New Testament the two might be one flesh.

QUESTION 47. Why are Cain's gifts from the fruits of the earth rejected, and Abel's gifts from the fat of his flock accepted (Gen. 4:5)?

ANSWER. Cain bore the figure of the Jews, who practiced those carnal sacraments according to the Old Testament. For when the faith of the New Testament came, their sacrifices were despised and emptied out; and the sacrifices of Christians, which consist in the innocence of Christ, the innocent lamb, are praised, and these were signified by Abel's gifts from his sheep. Cain's gifts, therefore, are not accepted. Hence it is also said in the Psalm: You did not desire offerings and burnt offerings, etc. (Ps. 40:6).

QUESTION 48. What does it signify that Cain killed his brother Abel in the field (Gen. 4:8)?

ANSWER. We have already said above that Cain signifies the Jews, who killed Christ. So Abel is killed as the younger; Christ, the head of the people younger in birth, is killed by the people of the Jews, who are older: the former in a field, the latter in the place of Calvary.

QUESTION 49. How is it to be understood that the blood of Abel is read to have cried out from the earth to God (ibid. 9, 10)?

ANSWER. The blood of Abel signifies the blood of Christ, which when the whole Church has received, it says, Amen. For what kind of cry the whole Church makes when it is given the blood of Christ to drink and says, Amen, consider for yourself, if you can. The Jews, then, who are understood in the person of Cain, since, not believing in Christ, they are not given the blood of Christ to drink, are cursed upon the earth. Upon that earth, namely, which opened its mouth through confession and drank the blood of its brother, that is, of its Christ. And because the Jews do not drink it, they are therefore cursed.

QUESTION 50. What does it signify that Enoch, the seventh from Adam, walked with God and was not seen (Gen. 5:24)?

ANSWER. Enoch, the seventh from Adam, is translated to God, and rest is promised to the saints in the seventh [age]; because in the sixth age of the world they are reformed into the knowledge of God, so that they may be translated to rest.

QUESTION 51. What does it signify that Noah is delivered through water and wood (Gen. 6–8)?

ANSWER. The water signifies Baptism, and the wood signifies the cross. Just as Noah is delivered through water and wood, so also the Church is delivered by Baptism and the seal of the passion of Christ.

QUESTION 52. What does it signify that the ark was constructed of squared timbers and smeared inside and outside with bitumen (Gen. 6:14)?

ANSWER. Just as the ark is built of squared timbers, so also the Church is built of the saints. For a square, in whatever direction you place it, stands firmly: and the saints remain steadfast in whatever temptations; they yield neither to adversities nor to prosperities. For the bitumen signifies charity; through which the saints yield neither to the scandals that are done by those who are within, nor to those that are done by those who are without: and they keep the unity of the spirit in the bond of peace, tolerating both the evil Christians who are in the Church and the heretics who are outside the Church.

QUESTION 53. What does it signify that the ark was three hundred cubits in length, fifty in width, and thirty in height (Ibid., 15)?

ANSWER. The holy Church, in order to do the commandments of God, is aided by the Spirit of God, as the Psalmist says: I ran the way of your commandments, when you enlarged my heart (Ps. 118:32). Unless she had a heart enlarged, she would not have run the way of the Lord at all. And from what is the heart enlarged, if not through spiritual charity? Hence also the blessed apostle Paul agrees with the voice of the Psalmist in like manner: Our mouth is open to you, O Corinthians; our heart is enlarged (2 Cor. 6:11). From what, I ask, is it enlarged? The grace of God, he says, has been poured out into our hearts through the Holy Spirit who has been given to us (Rom. 5:5). Therefore, having received the Holy Spirit, the Church performs the precepts of God with enlargement, which without the grace of the Holy Spirit she could by no means perform. For the holy Scripture commemorates and commends this sevenfold Spirit (Isa. 11:1, 3). Seven times seven, therefore, make forty-nine, and with one added so that the number may be completed, they make fifty. Hence also the Lord, ascending into heaven, sent the Holy Spirit on the fiftieth day (Acts 1:9, and 2:1-4), so that he might enlarge the hearts of believers. But the thirty cubits signify the ten precepts of the Law. And ten times thirty make three hundred.

But these commandments cannot be fulfilled except by charity that accomplishes them, that is, by the Holy Spirit, who is signified in the width of fifty cubits. For this reason the ark has both numbers. For the Church also performs good works for the sake of the heavenly end, which the thirty cubits of height signify. For he is truly the true Spirit, our height; he himself, indeed, in the thirtyfold, consecrated the teaching of the Gospel. He is also the heavenly end, and without doubt fills the Church with every good work.

QUESTION 54. What does it signify that after seven days from when Noah entered the ark, the Lord rained upon the earth forty days and forty nights (Gen. 7:10-12)?

ANSWER. That the Lord rained upon the earth after seven days signifies this: that all who are baptized are baptized in hope of the future rest, which was signified by the seventh day. And every guilt of sins, which is committed against the precepts of the Law throughout the whole world, which is contained in four parts, whence ten multiplied by four makes forty; whether that guilt which pertains to days, contracted from the prosperity of things, or that which pertains to nights, contracted from the adversity of things, is washed away by the sacrament of heavenly Baptism.

QUESTION 55. What does it signify that Noah was six hundred years old when the waters of the flood inundated the earth (Ibid. 11)?

ANSWER. The six hundred years signify the six ages of the world. The first age is from Adam to Noah. The second, from Noah to Abraham. The third, from Abraham to David. The fourth, from David to the transmigration of Babylon. The fifth, from the transmigration of Babylon to the coming of the Lord. The sixth, which is now being enacted. In the six hundredth year of Noah's life the flood occurred; thus, in the sixth age of the world man is reformed into the knowledge of God through Baptism.

QUESTION 56. What does it signify that of every kind of animals and flying creatures, the unclean are brought into the ark two by two, and the clean seven by seven (Gen. 7:2-3)?

ANSWER. The unclean signify those men who are prone to schism; the clean, however, holy men, who receiving the sevenfold Spirit live by faith. Hence also a certain poet says: God delights in the odd number. (Virg. Eclog. 8, verse 75)

QUESTION 57. What does it signify that the water had risen fifteen cubits above all the high mountains (Gen. 7:20)?

ANSWER. Eight and seven make fifteen. Eight signifies resurrection, and seven signifies rest. Thus this mystery of resurrection and rest surpassed all the knowledge of the proud wise, and they could in no way investigate the knowledge of resurrection and rest.

QUESTION 56. Why, when Noah entered the ark, is it said to him, Enter, you and your sons, your wife, and the wives of your sons with you (Ibid., 1)? Thus the men are placed separately and the women separately. And when he was going out of the ark, it is said to him, Go out, you and your wife, your sons, and the wives of your sons (Ibid. 8:16). In the entering, then, they are said to be separated; in the going out, joined.

ANSWER. Their entering signifies this life, where the flesh lusts against the spirit, and the spirit against the flesh, so that we do not do whatever we wish (Gal. 5:17). But the going out signifies that life where the flesh will no longer have any lust against the spirit, and nothing will be in us that fights against us.

QUESTION 59. What does it signify that the raven sent out from the ark did not return (Gen. 8:7)?

ANSWER. The raven did not return either because it was caught by the waters or because, enticed by some carcass, it settled upon it; and it signifies those men who, given over to carnal things, despise God's commandments and in no way satisfy the Church by repenting, and so have departed through evil works. Or indeed, if that raven was caught by the waters, it signifies those who go out from the Church and are defiled by the baptism of heretics. For although the baptism of heretics—that is, of those who baptize in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit—and that of the catholic Church is one, yet because they are baptized outside the Church, they do not receive baptism unto salvation but unto destruction: having indeed a form of godliness but denying its power (2 Tim. 3:5); and again, Natural men, says he, not having the Spirit (Jude 19). And for this reason the Church does not rebaptize them, because they have been baptized in the name of the Trinity. This is truly the form of the sacrament; therefore, when they have returned, they receive the power of the Holy Spirit, which those who are baptized outside the Church do not yet have.

QUESTION 60. What does it signify that Noah, a righteous man, planted a vineyard, and drinking wine became drunk and was uncovered in his tent (Gen. 9:20-21)?

ANSWER. God in a certain manner planted the race of the Jews, setting it apart from all the nations. Whence also He impressed on it the sign of circumcision, gave it the Law, instituted sacrifices, and foretold in the Law that He Himself would come in the flesh; but when they did not believe Him, He suffered from the wine of His vineyard—that is, from the malice of His people—was crucified, defiled with spittle, and mocked. But this He suffered in His tent, that is, among His own people.

QUESTION 61. What does it signify that Ham, the father of Canaan, seeing his father's nakedness, went out and told his brothers (ibid. 9:22)?

ANSWER. In the two sons, the greatest and the least, two peoples are figured, carrying one garment on their back—namely, the sacrament of the Lord's passion now past and accomplished—covering their father's nakedness and not looking upon it; these are they who do not consent to the killing of Christ, and honor Him with a covering, as knowing whence they were born. The middle son, that is, the people of the Jews (therefore the middle, because they neither held the primacy of the Apostles, nor, being of any use, believed among the nations), saw his father's nakedness, because he consented to the killing of Christ. And he told his brothers. For through him was made manifest and in a certain manner published what was the secret of prophecy. And therefore he became the servant of his brothers.

For what else is that nation today but the book-case of the Christians, carrying the Law and the Prophets as a testimony for the assertion of the Church, so that we may honor through the sacrament what they announce through the letter?

QUESTION 62. What does it signify that God said to Abraham, "Go out from your land, and from your kindred, and from your father's house" (Gen. 12:1)?

ANSWER. Abraham bore the person of Christ. For just as Abraham left his land and his kindred and his father's house, and came into a land he did not know, so too Christ left his own people, that is, of the Jews, and came to the people of the Gentiles. This temporal explanation has this sense; but morally we go out from our land when we despise riches and the resources of this world; and from our kindred, that is, from our former vices, which cling to us from our birth, joined as it were by a certain affinity and blood-relationship; and from our father's house, that is, from every memory of this world that meets the gaze of our eyes.

QUESTION LXIII. How many kinds of vision are there?

ANSWER. Three. The first vision is corporeal; the second, spiritual; the third, intellectual. Corporeal vision, then, is that which comes about through the body. Spiritual vision is when we store in memory the images of the things we see. Intellectual vision, surely, is when by the intellect we discern those things which we see corporeally and retain imaginally in memory—that this is a body, that a likeness of a body. But beasts and cattle and birds have this intellect in no way at all. They themselves see through the body, and from the things they see a form is shaped imaginally, whence both cattle recognize their stalls and birds return to their nests; but they neither understand what they themselves are, nor those things which they perceive with their eyes. Finally, corporeal vision cannot exist without spiritual vision. Therefore, as soon as we turn our eyes away from the things we see, we retain in memory the images of the things we have seen. But spiritual vision can exist without corporeal vision; whence we both remember men who are absent, and in darkness we discern imaginally the things we have seen. Intellectual vision, surely, needs neither corporeal nor spiritual vision. Through the intellect we see neither a body nor the image of a body. For by this vision justice is seen, charity, God himself, the mind of man itself, which has no body, no likeness of a body. For this reason also the apostle Paul had been caught up into the third heaven (II Cor.

...that is, to intellectual vision, so that he might perceive God not through the body, not through a likeness of the body, but as the truth itself is. Therefore the three heavens are the three kinds of visions of which we speak. To this, indeed, Paul had attained, so as to see God in this life just as the saints shall see him after this life.

QUESTION LXIV. How many kinds of apostleship are there, or what is the meaning of the name Apostle? I wish to know.

ANSWER. Apostle is interpreted as "sent." There are four kinds of apostles: from God, not through man; from God, but through man; through man only; and from themselves. For Moses was sent from God. From God and through man, as Joshua the son of Nun. Through man only, as in our times many have been substituted into the priesthood by the favor of the crowd. From themselves, however, as the false prophets themselves are.

QUESTION LXV. How can we know who is sent by God?

ANSWER. Know that man to be sent by God whom the praise, or rather the flattery, of a few men does not choose, but him whom both an excellent life and character adorn, and the approval of apostolic priests, or even he who is approved by the judgment of all the peoples: one who does not desire to preside, who does not give money to acquire the honor of the episcopate. For concerning him who hastens to preside, a certain of the fathers expressed it elegantly, saying: Let him know that he is not a bishop who desires to preside, not to profit (Augustine, On the City of God, book 19, chapter 19).