Anf-03 v.v.xxii Pg 5
Ver. 24.
If therefore God, when producing other things out of things which had been already made, indicates them by the prophet, and tells us what He has produced from such and such a source6341 6341 Quid unde protulerit: properly a double question ="what was produced, and whence?”
(although we might ourselves suppose them to be derived from some source or other, short of nothing;6342 6342 Unde unde…dumne.
since there had already been created certain things, from which they might easily seem to have been made); if the Holy Ghost took upon Himself so great a concern for our instruction, that we might know from what everything was produced,6343 6343 Quid unde processerit: properly a double question ="what was produced, and whence?”
would He not in like manner have kept us well informed about both the heaven and the earth, by indicating to us what it was that He made them of, if their original consisted of any material substance, so that the more He seemed to have made them of nothing, the less in fact was there as yet made, from which He could appear to have made them? Therefore, just as He shows us the original out of which He drew such things as were derived from a given source, so also with regard to those things of which He does not point out whence He produced them, He confirms (by that silence our assertion) that they were produced out of nothing. “In the beginning,” then, “God made the heaven and the earth.”6344 6344
Anf-03 v.v.xxix Pg 22
Ver. 24.
Thus the divine Scripture accomplished its full order. For to that, which it had at first described as “without form (invisible) and void,” it gave both visibility and completion. Now no other Matter was “without form (invisible) and void.” Henceforth, then, Matter will have to be visible and complete. So that I must6419 6419 Volo.
see Matter, since it has become visible. I must likewise recognize it as a completed thing, so as to be able to gather from it the herb bearing seed, and the tree yielding fruit, and that living creatures, made out of it, may minister to my need. Matter, however, is nowhere,6420 6420 He means, of course, the theoretic “Matter” of Hermogenes.
but the Earth is here, confessed to my view. I see it, I enjoy it, ever since it ceased to be “without form (invisible), and void.” Concerning it most certainly did Isaiah speak when he said, “Thus saith the Lord that created the heavens, He was the God that formed the earth, and made it.”6421 6421
Treasury of Scriptural Knowledge, Chapter 1
VERSE (24) - Ge 6:20; 7:14; 8:19 Job 38:39,40
; 39:1,5,9,19; 40:15 Ps 50:9,10
