Complete Works

It is fitting that we also, after having distributed the orders of the preceding realms from God, and having explained their union, difference, covenants, and relations, should now in this seventh and "sabbatical" (so to speak) narration touch upon the happiness of creatures and the return to God, which has occurred for man—who was distanced therefrom because of the sin of the first parent—through the Mosaic and Christian law; referring to those things which Moses most aptly concealed concerning these matters in the present scripture, so that it may be made manifest that a most explicit prophecy of the coming of Christ, the progress of the Church, and the calling of the Gentiles is read here. Thus may this book truly be, if ever any other was such, a book sealed with seven seals, full of all doctrine and all mysteries. However, we shall not imitate those who, having at some time attempted to explain this creation of the world, gathered here whatever has been disputed among philosophers and theologians concerning God, angels, matter, heaven, and all of nature. In this, Isaac the Persian and Samuel Olphinides especially erred among the Hebrews. But we shall strive with our might to declare only what the Mosaic letter intends for itself, and what the context of the words either indicates or signifies. Nor, if we show that by the "firmament," for instance, the eighth sphere is signified, shall we immediately embark upon a dispute concerning how it carries the other spheres, by how many signs it is distinguished, by how many images, or whether it is rotated in different directions by a single motion, or rather by two, or more truly by three. Nor, if in any passage we say the soul of man is indicated by a certain expression, shall we digress to elucidate all that is written concerning the soul; but we shall only briefly and cursorily note those things concerning each matter of which the author may seem to make express mention.

I said briefly and cursorily, because it is not the purpose of this work that those who have not learned these things elsewhere should learn them here for the first time, but that they may recognize in the words of the prophet those things which they already know to be true; and that, understanding how he has both comprised and concealed in a few words what they have read digested in immense volumes by theologians and philosophers, they may hear the lawgiver speaking with his face revealed. But if anyone, perhaps moved by a spirit of "holy rusticness," should not approve of these more far-fetched mysteries, but should instead desire a simpler narration of the sacred context more accommodated to himself, I shall bid him first to remember Paul, who commands that neither he who eats should despise him who eats not, nor he who eats not should judge him who eats. Then I shall address him not with my own words, but with those of Augustine in his own exposition on Genesis, in this manner: "These things you should grasp if you can; if you cannot yet do so, leave them to those who are stronger. But you, while the scripture does not abandon your infirmity and walks more slowly with you with a maternal pace, shall make progress. For it speaks in such a way that by its height it mocks the proud, by its depth it terrifies the attentive, by its truth it feeds the great, and by its affability it nourishes the small." But let us return to ourselves, and beginning from this corruptible world which we inhabit, let us perform as much as we are able of what we have promised. Otherwise, in great things it is enough to have willed, and as Pomerius says, a great effort in great things is progress.

Isaac the Persian
Samuel
Olphinides

That these
are written
for the learned,
not those unlearned
in philosophy

Paul

Augustine

The power
of scripture

Pomerius

The words of the prophet themselves, which we have undertaken to explain, are these.

1

The first
day

Large decorative initial N at the start of the biblical text. IN the beginning God created heaven and earth. And the earth was void and empty, and darkness was upon the face of the deep; and the spirit of the Lord moved over the waters. And God said: Be light made. And light was made. And God saw the light that it was good; and he divided the light from the darkness. And he called the light Day, and the darkness Night; and there was evening and morning, one day. And God said: Let there be a firmament made amidst the waters: and let it divide the waters from the waters. And God made a firmament, and divided the waters that were under the firmament, from those that were above the firmament, and it was so done. And God called