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← Liber Divinorum Operum (Book of Divine Works)/Book 2 · Liber Divinorum Operum — Pars 2
Chapter 17LDO.2.17

VISIO QUINTA, cap. XVII

The Two Matters of Creation

God creates heaven and earth as luminous and turbid matter, and the earth lies formless and dark until light is made.

And so, as was said above, God adorned the world with the sky and established it with the earth, and through it he glorified himself, and through the things that are in the world he raised humanity on high, when he subjected all earthly things to them—like a servant of mine, one who knows my secrets—showing them and saying: "In the beginning God created heaven and earth."✦ This is how you should think about it: "In the beginning" means in the inception of all the things that were in God's knowledge, in the way they had to be made—God created them, that is, he brought them forth through himself—heaven and earth, namely the matter of all creatures, heavenly and earthly: heaven, that is, luminous matter, and earth, that is, turbid matter.✦ These two kinds of matter were created at the same time, and appeared within a single sphere, and that sphere is God's power in heaven and on earth. From that clarity which is eternity, the aforementioned luminous matter shone like thick light, and this same light shone upon the turbid matter. He didn't illuminate the firmament or the earth right away, just as a person doesn't either when preparing certain forms, because he first marks out each one with his compass, and afterward paints it with colors. "Now the earth was formless and empty, and darkness was over the face of the deep," because the earth was formless—that is, lacking shape—and invisible, having no light, since it was not yet lit by the splendor of light or by the brightness of the sun, the moon, or the stars; and it was untilled, because no creature was being cultivated, and empty—that is, unformed—because it was not yet full, since it did not yet have the greenness, the growth, or the blossoming of plants or trees.✦ But the fact that it wasn't said that the sky was formless and empty—this is because it didn't have to bear any fruit. But the darkness, which had not yet vanished at the splendor of light—since no form was shining—was over the face of the deep, that is, over that same undifferentiated confusion of the earth; and what is called the face of the deep is visible, while the deep itself is hidden, because the earth covers the deep as the body covers the soul, so that it cannot be seen.✦

The Spirit Moves and Light Breaks Forth

The Spirit of God moves over the waters, and God speaks unfailing light into being, separating it from darkness.

"And the Spirit of God was being carried over the waters."✦ "For the Spirit of God is life, and this life moved the waters to flow, so that the earth might be strengthened through them, lest it be scattered by the wind like ashes, because just as the Holy Spirit is poured out on the person, so too the waters have a torrent's way and wash everything unclean, just as the Holy Spirit washes away the filth of sinners."1 "And God said: 'Let there be light,' and there was light."✦ "God said — an inextinguishable light that is darkened by no one, existing — and through his Word it sounded like thunder, saying: 'Let there be light,' and there was light, because the unfailing night, a light invisible to people that will never be darkened, flashed, to which even the living spheres, namely the angels, clung, because God is life, and his word does not sleep, but life appears."✦2 "And what that light brought forth, God placed for his own praise — not, however, the light of the sun, because the sun did not yet exist, and because the splendor of the sun does not always appear over the earth, but is often obscured." "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.'"✦ "For God saw that the light was good, because it restored the splendor of his face, and so he also separated it from the darkness, so that their offices would not mingle with each other, because from these two, one is unfailing and the other falls into failure."✦3 "For from God it is that day exists, because God commanded the first light to come forth through his Word, which he called 'day' — not the day of the sun, but an unfailing day, which in the higher regions is oppressed by no darkness."

Day, Night, and the Perfection of the Work

God names the darkness night and the light day, and the completion of the work is seen as one perfect brightness.

And the darknesses that are not driven away by the light of the sun, but those that hold an unending darkness and are touched by no brightness of light; and also the darknesses that were over the face of the abyss, which he had not yet illuminated — these he called night.✦ Night, then, without day is blind, and day is separated from night, and separated from the blindness of night it stands in brightness.✦ In this way God separated the light from the darknesses of night.✦ "And there was evening, and there was morning, one day."✦ For the end of this work and its beginning are one brightness in perfection, because when the Word of God commanded light to be made, its beginning was like morning; but its perfection was like evening, where it appeared completed.✦ And in another way:

Christ, the True Beginning

The Son of God is the beginning of all creation and the author of full justification through baptism, the Gospel, and faith in the Trinity.

For just as the Son of God, eternally born of the Father, is the beginning from which all things were created, so too this same Son, born of a virgin mother, is the beginning of creation—or of the building up of the church—and the author of a full justification, something the righteousness of the fathers or the sacraments of the law were never enough to achieve. But it is in the preaching and receiving of baptism and the Gospel, and in faith in the Trinity, that this has been brought to its final form.45

Read the original Latin

Itaque, ut supradictum est, Deus mundum coelo ornavit, terraque ipsum firmavit, ac per eum se ipsum glorificavit, atque per illa quae in mundo sunt hominem sublimavit, cum illi omnia terrena subjecit, velut servus meus, secretorum meorum conscius, ostendit dicens: « In principio creavit Deus coelum et terram . » Hoc considerandum sic est: In principio, id est in incoeptione omnium rerum quae in scientia Dei erant qualiter fieri deberent, creavit Deus, hoc est per se ipsum procedere fecit, coelum et terram, scilicet materiam omnium creaturarum coelestium et terrestrium, coelum, id est lucidam materiam, et terram, videlicet turbulentam materiam. Et hae duae materiae simul creatae sunt, et in uno circulo apparuerunt, qui circulus potestas Dei est in coelo et in terra. De claritate illa, quae aeternitas est, praedicta lucida materia velut spissa lux fulminabat, et haec eadem lux super turbulentam materiam lucebat. Ipse quoque nec firmamentum nec terram statim illuminavit, quemadmodum nec homo facit, qui quasdam formas parat, quia unamquamque prius cum circino suo signat, et eam postmodum coloribus depingit. « Terra autem erat inanis et vacua, et tenebrae erant super faciem abyssi , » quoniam terra fuit inanis, scilicet forma carens, et invisibilis, lumen non habens, quia necdum splendore lucis, nec claritate solis, lunae aut stellarum illustrabatur, et inculta, quoniam nulla creatura sulcabatur, et vacua, id est incomposita, quia nondum plena erat, cum necdum viriditatem, germen, aut floriditatem herbarum, seu arborum haberet. Quod autem non est dictum quod coelum inane et vacuum esset, hoc ideo est quia nullos fructus parere debebat. Sed tenebrae, quae necdum per splendorem luminis evanuerant, quoniam nulla forma fulminabat, erant super faciem abyssi, videlicet super eamdem indistinctam confusionem terrae; quae facies abyssi est, cum illa videatur, abyssus vero occultetur, quia terrae abyssum, sicut corpus animam obtegit, ut non videatur.

« Et Spiritus Dei ferebatur super aquas . » Nam Spiritus Dei vita est, et vita haec aquas ad manandum movit, quatenus terra per illas firmaretur, ne per ventum velut cinis spargeretur, quia ut Spiritus sanctus homini infunditur, sic et aquae torrens iter habent et omnia immunda lavant, quemadmodum et Spiritus sanctus sordes peccatorum. Dixitque Deus: « Fiat lux, et facta est lux . » Dixit Deus, inexstinguibile lumen quod a nullo obscuratur existens, et per Verbum suum velut tonitrus sonuit dicens: Fiat lux, et facta est lux, quia nox indeficiens, hominibusque invisibilis lux, quae nunquam obscurabitur fulminabat, cui etiam viventes sphaerae scilicet angeli adhaerebant, quoniam Deus vita est, et verbum suum non dormit, sed vita apparet. Et quod illud protulit, hoc Deus ad laudem sibi posuit, non autem lux solis, quia sol nondum erat, et quoniam splendor solis super terram non semper apparet, sed multoties obnubilatur. « Et vidit Deus lucem quod esset bona, et divisit lucem a tenebris, appellavitque lucem diem, et tenebras noctem . » Nam Deus vidit quod lux esset bona, quae faciei suae splendorem redderet, et ideo illam a tenebrositate etiam segregavit, ne officia sua in invicem admiscerent, quia ex his duobus alterum indeficiens est, alterum in defectu cadit. A Deo namque dies est, quoniam Deus per Verbum suum lumen primum prodire jussit, quod appellavit diem, non diem solis, sed diem indeficientem, quae in superioribus nulla tenebrositate opprimitur.

Et tenebras, non quae luce solis fugantur, sed quae indeficientem obscuritatem habentes, nulla claritate lucis perstringuntur; tenebras quoque quae erant super faciem abyssi, et quas nondum illuminaverat, appellavit noctem. Nox quippe carens die caeca est, et dies a nocte segregata est, et a caecitate noctis separata in claritate est. Sic Deus lucem a nocturnalibus tenebris separavit. « Factumque est vespere et mane dies unus . Nam factus est finis operis hujus, et incoeptio ipsius, claritas una in perfectione, quia cum Verbum Dei lucem fieri jussit, incoeptio ipsius velut mane fuit; perfectio autem ipsius quasi vespere, ubi completa apparuit. Et alio modo:

Quia sicut Filius Dei, intemporaliter ex Patre natus, principium est, in quo condita sunt universa, sic idem ipse ex matre virgine nascens initium sit creationis, vel aedificationis ecclesiae, et auctor justificationis plenariae, ad quam nulla patrum justitia vel legis sacramenta suffecerunt, sed in praedicatione vel susceptione baptismi, et Evangelii, et in fide Trinitatis reformata est.

Scripture echoes

  1. ↩Gen.1.1 — In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth.
  2. ↩Gen.1.1 — In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth.
  3. ↩Gen.1.2 — And the earth was formless and void, and darkness was over the face of the deep, and the Spirit of God was hovering over the face of the waters.
  4. ↩Gen.1.2 — And the earth was formless and void, and darkness was over the face of the deep, and the Spirit of God was hovering over the face of the waters.
  5. ↩Gen.1.2 — And the earth was formless and void, and darkness was over the face of the deep, and the Spirit of God was hovering over the face of the waters.
  6. ↩Gen.1.3 — And God said, "Let there be light," and there was light.
  7. ↩Gen.1.3 — And God said, "Let there be light," and there was light.
  8. ↩Gen.1.4-Gen.1.5 — And God saw the light, that it was good; and God separated the light from the darkness. Gen.1.5 — And God called the light Day, and the darkness he called Night. And there was evening, and there was morning: the first day.
  9. ↩Gen.1.4 — And God saw the light, that it was good; and God separated the light from the darkness.
  10. ↩Gen.1.4-Gen.1.5 — And God saw the light, that it was good; and God separated the light from the darkness. Gen.1.5 — And God called the light Day, and the darkness he called Night. And there was evening, and there was morning: the first day.
  11. ↩Gen.1.4-Gen.1.5 — And God saw the light, that it was good; and God separated the light from the darkness. Gen.1.5 — And God called the light Day, and the darkness he called Night. And there was evening, and there was morning: the first day.
  12. ↩Gen.1.4 — And God saw the light, that it was good; and God separated the light from the darkness.
  13. ↩Gen.1.5 — And God called the light Day, and the darkness he called Night. And there was evening, and there was morning: the first day.
  14. ↩Gen.1.3 — And God said, "Let there be light," and there was light.

Notes

  1. 1 ↩torrens in the accusative is rendered as an adverbial genitive ('a torrent's way') to fit the sense of waters having a flowing course; the syntax is uncertain.
  2. 2 ↩existens is rendered as a present participle ('existing') modifying the neuter accusative lumen; the lemma is uncertain (existo vs. existimo), but the sense is that the light exists darkened by no one.
  3. 3 ↩tenebrositate is an uncertain lemma formation (possibly a noun derived from tenebrosus); rendered as 'darkness' in parallel with the earlier divisit lucem a tenebris.
  4. 4 ↩The subjunctive sit with initium is difficult: it may be a final clause ('so that he may be the beginning') or an indirect statement. The translation treats it as an extended comparison carrying the indicative force of the parallel clause.
  5. 5 ↩Reformata est rendered 'brought to its final form' rather than 'reformed' to avoid the Reformation-era theological echo and stay close to the sense of completion/reshaping in Christ.

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