An ornate horizontal woodcut headpiece displays elaborate scrollwork and floral designs. A central mask or stylized face is flanked by seated human figures nestled within the foliage.

OF BROTHER

MARIN MERSENNE

MINIM, THE MOST CELEBRATED

QUESTIONS ON GENESIS WITH

AN ACCURATE EXPLANATION OF THE TEXT.

TO THE READER.

Do not be surprised if my commentaries on the first chapter are so expansive. That chapter is the most difficult of all. it encompasses the works of God which surpass all wonder, and it was necessary to at least touch upon them. Furthermore, the fact that my inquiry is directed toward overturning Atheism is the reason why these longer annotations appear. Mersenne’s era saw a rise in "libertinage" or skeptical thought. He intended this work to use scientific and mathematical reasoning to prove the existence of God and the accuracy of the Bible. However, you will not call that chapter long, but rather very short, if you assume what is true: that in the great, almost immense gloss of Askanius, Likely a reference to a contemporary or medieval commentator, possibly an edition of the Glossa Ordinaria. which is contained in two large volumes, there is almost nothing of importance that is not also found in the problems I have applied to this first chapter. For this reason, I have used this method to conclude more things briefly, which I did not wish to do in the other chapters.

Since not all the explanations offered in those problems are to be approved, you will easily detect this from the words and terms I use. Moreover, I have almost always cited the authors from whom each interpretation is taken. If some explanations seem ridiculous to you, consider that interpreters often bring forward not only legitimate ideas but also false ones, so that the truth may shine more and more through the opposition of falsehood. However, I reject all those that contain any element of falsehood, as you will easily discover.

The other matters of which I could or should warn you are written at length in the letter I directed to you at the beginning of this volume. Now, let us approach the first chapter of all Holy Scripture, written by the counsel of the Holy Spirit.

CHAPTER ONE OF GENESIS.

1. In the beginning God created the heaven and the earth.
2. And the earth was void and empty, and darkness was upon the face of the deep: and the Spirit of God moved over the waters.

3. And God said: Let there be light. And there was light.
4. And God saw the light that it was good: and he divided the light from the darkness.
5. And he called the light Day, and the darkness Night: and there was evening and morning, one day.