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Chapter 24LDO.2.24

VISIO QUINTA, cap. XXIV

The Firmament Set Between the Waters

God commands and completes the firmament, placing it between the waters and giving life to creatures according to their natures.

God also said: Let there be a firmament in the midst of the waters, and let it divide the waters from the waters. This is to be understood in this way: God, who is an inextinguishable light, commanded the firmament to be made through his burning word — that is, this turning sphere, which is so firmly established by the higher signs that it cannot slip — and he placed it in the midst of the waters, separating the waters from the waters. For he held back the waters that were rising upward like a mountain, so that just as no mountain descends from its own height, so neither do those waters slope off anywhere, except according to where he placed them, gathering the waters of the sea as into a wineskin, which is the firmament; and he placed the deep things in treasuries, which are the earth — for the earth is the treasury of living things within itself — just as God also designated in Noah's ark, which he sustained in the midst of the waters when he held the enclosed creatures together. In this way God placed the firmament between the separated waters, so as to divide the waters from the waters. For God made this division before he illuminated the firmament, and it stood, not yet illuminated, in its place without any turning, waiting to be illuminated by its Creator — because every creature, first existing as a root, is afterward multiplied in bringing forth, just as winter holds the root, but summer holds the bloom and greenness. In this way God marked the creatures of the earth with their own cycle, and then gave them life according to their natures, and he alone breathed into man with his own breath; the remaining creatures he gave life to with a moving air, which passes along with the cloud. "And God made the firmament, and divided the waters which were under the firmament from those which were above the firmament." And so it was done.

Heaven Declares the Glory of God

The firmament is named heaven, a mirror of divine glory that surpasses human understanding and reveals God through sun, moon, stars, and the human person.

God placed the firmament as a division between the waters below it and the waters above it, and so the firmament appeared. God called the firmament 'heaven,' because whatever upholds another thing is rightly called its firmament. For this reason too he named the firmament 'heaven,' because it surpasses all things and always declares its glory; for while a person gazes at it, they cannot fully comprehend what it is, because a person does not perfectly know God—whom, nevertheless, they see through faith.1 But heaven, which is God's dwelling place, no one will see unless they first become entirely spiritual, since its meaning and knowledge surpass human understanding.2 And so the Prophet says: 'The heavens declare the glory of God, and the firmament proclaims the work of his hands.'✦ This, then, is to be considered: all the instruments of the firmament are rightly called 'heavenly,' because God placed them through himself alone, and their knowledge had no need of any creature, since no one can, by their own understanding, determine how God made them.3 And so these things declare the miracles of God, which are marked through him in the firmament as if in a mirror, so that the sun points to his divinity, and the moon to the humanity of the Son of God, while the stars reveal his other hidden things; and in this way, so great a throng of the faithful clings to God, who is both God and man, that no one can count them, since he himself is beyond counting in his own glory.4 A person, too—who is the work of God's hands—proclaims the firmament in their own shining task, because it is according to the firmament that they were built.5

The Second Day Completed in Equity

The firmament reveals humanity's signs within, and God finishes the second day's work with the same zeal with which he began it.

And so it also reveals humanity, where a person openly bears its signs within themselves. And there was evening and morning, the second day, because God finished his work in the firmament with the same zeal with which he began it, since he arranges all his works in equity.✦6 Likewise, in another way:

Christ the Firmament, Faith the Division

In allegory, the firmament is Christ or the faith of Christ, dividing the faithful from unbelievers in the evening of vice and the morning of virtue.

According to the allegory, then, the firmament is Christ, or the faith of Christ, and the firm dividing of the waters is the interposition of that same faith, by which the faithful are torn apart from unbelievers, and let it be received in the evening and in the morning, in the fall of vice and the rising of virtue.✦

Read the original Latin

« Dixit quoque Deus: Fiat firmamentum in medio aquarum, et dividat aquas ab aquis . » Hoc considerandum sic est: Deus, qui inexstinguibilis lux est, per ardens verbum suum firmamentum fieri praecepit, scilicet hanc volubilitatem, quae superioribus signis ita firmata est, ut labi non possit, et illam in medio aquarum posuit, sic separando aquas ab aquis. Aquas enim, quae in altitudinem sicut mons ascendebant, ita continuit, ut quemadmodum nec mons de altitudine sua descendit, sic nec illae quoquam declinent, nisi secundum quod eas posuit, congregans sicut in utrem aquas maris, qui firmamentum est; ponens etiam in thesauris abyssos, qui terra sunt, quoniam terra thesaurus in ipsa viventium est, sicut et Deus in arca Noe designavit, quam in medio aquarum sustentavit, cum creaturas clausas teneret. Isto modo inter segregatas aquas Deus firmamentum posuit, quatenus aquas ab aquis divideret. Deus namque hanc divisionem antequam firmamentum illuminasset fecit, illudque nondum illuminatum in loco suo absque circumvolutione stetit, exspectans quando a Creatore suo illuminaretur, quia omnis creatura primum radix existens, postea pariendo multiplicatur, velut et hiems radicem, aestas autem floriditatem viriditatis tenet. Sic Deus creaturas terrae cum circulo suo signavit, quas deinde secundum naturas suas vivificavit, et solum hominem spiramine suo inspiravit, reliquas vero creaturas aerio flatu vivificavit, qui cum nube pertransit. « Et fecit Deus firmamentum, divisitque aquas quae erant sub firmamento ab his quae erant super firmamentum. Et factum est ita .

» Deus firmamentum in divisionem aquarum illarum quae subter et super illud erant posuit, et sic firmamentum apparuit. Vocavitque Deus firmamentum coelum, quoniam quaeque res quae aliam sustentat, juste firmamentum illius vocatur. Ideo etiam firmamentum coelum nominavit, quoniam omnia excellit, et gloriam ipsius semper narrat, quia dum homo inspicit, plene cognoscere non potest quid sit, quia et homo Deum perfecte non cognoscit, quem tamen in fide videt. Coelum autem, quod habitaculum Dei est, homo non videbit, nisi prius spiritalis totus efficiatur, quoniam sensus et scientiam illius praecellit. Quapropter et Propheta dicit: « Coeli enarrant gloriam Dei, et opera manuum ejus annuntiat firmamentum . » Hoc considerandum sic est: Omnia instrumenta firmamenti juste coeli dicuntur, quoniam, Deus ea per se solum posuit; nec scientia illius creaturae indiguit, quia nullus est qui sensu suo diffinire possit qualiter illa fecerit. Unde et haec enarrant miracula Dei, quae per ipsum in firmamento velut in speculo signata sunt, ita ut sol divinitatem, luna vero humanitatem Filii Dei ostendant, et stellae reliqua secreta ipsius demonstrent; et isto modo Deo, qui Deus et homo est, tam innumerabilis turba fidelium adhaeret, ut eam nemo dinumerare valeat, quoniam et ipse innumerabilis in gloria sua existit. Hominem quoque, qui opus manuum Dei est, in lucido officio suo annuntiat firmamentum, quia secundum illud aedificatus est.

Quapropter et hominem manifestat, ubi signa ipsius in se aperte portat. Et factum est vespere et mane dies secundus, quoniam Deus opus suum in firmamento eodem studio finivit quo et incoepit, quia omnia opera sua in aequitate disponit. Item alio modo:

Quod secundum allegoriam firmamentum Christus, vel fides Christi, divisio aquarum firma interpositio ejusdem fidei, qua ab infidelibus fideles diruuntur, vespere et mane in casu vitii et virtutis ortu accipiatur.

Scripture echoes

  1. ↩Ps.18.1 — To the choirmaster. Of David the servant of the LORD, who spoke to the LORD the words of this song on the day when the LORD delivered him from the hand of all his enemies, and from the hand of Saul.
  2. ↩Gen.1.8 — And God called the expanse "sky." And there was evening, and there was morning — a second day.
  3. ↩Gen.1.6-Gen.1.8 — And God said, "Let there be an expanse in the midst of the waters, and let it separate waters from waters." Gen.1.7 — And God made the expanse, and separated the waters that were under the expanse from the waters that were above the expanse. And it was so. Gen.1.8 — And God called the expanse "sky." And there was evening, and there was morning — a second day.

Notes

  1. 1 ↩The shift from the firmament's glory to God is intrinsic to the Latin: 'quid sit' and the following clauses move from the firmament to God without an explicit antecedent change, reflecting the medievals' sacramental reading of creation.
  2. 2 ↩'sensus et scientiam illius' — 'illius' could grammatically refer back to 'coeli' or to 'Dei'; theologically the author means heaven's significance as God's dwelling, so rendered as 'its meaning and knowledge' while gesturing toward God.
  3. 3 ↩'nec scientia illius creaturae indiguit' is compressed: the sense is that the firmament's understanding/wisdom (scientia) did not need the creature — i.e., no creature could have supplied the knowledge by which these things were made. Rendered to preserve the author's meaning without over-expanding.
  4. 4 ↩The mirror metaphor (velut in speculo) is central to the author's hermeneutic: the firmament is a mirror reflecting divine realities. The sun/moon/stars are read christologically — sun for divinity, moon for humanity of the Son — following a widespread medieval exegetical tradition.
  5. 5 ↩'in lucido officio suo' — 'lucido' (bright, shining) modifies 'officio' (office, duty, task), suggesting a luminous or visible role. 'secundum illud aedificatus est' plays on the idea that humanity was built according to the pattern of the firmament.
  6. 6 ↩Translating 'aequitate' as 'equity' preserves the Latin's double sense of fairness and evenness/balance, reflecting God's ordered and just providence.

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