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Chapter 35LDO.2.35

VISIO QUINTA, cap. XXXV

The Luminaries of the Fourth Day

God creates the sun, moon, and stars to govern day and night, and the vision reveals how these two great luminaries foreshadow the perfection of human nature in body and soul.

Then God said: Let there be lights in the vault of the sky, and let them separate day from night, and let them serve as signs to mark seasons, days, and years, and let them shine in the vault of the sky and give light to the earth.✦ And so it was done.✦ This is how it should be understood: by God's command, the lighting of the vault revealed God's work as beautiful and glorious, so that the soul too will make the body beautiful and glorious — which, even though after death it is eaten away by decay because of its first conception, will nonetheless be transformed for the higher state, when the human being is raised up again.✦12 And God assigned the roles of those lights and divided them into day and night, because in these two divisions — that is, in day and in night — the whole ordering of human necessity depends, insofar as through the signs of those same lights a person, by reason, discerns what sort of creature each one is, and how the times of days, nights, and years are named by each of these signs, and so that the lights themselves, set ablaze in the vault, might be seen illuminating the earth and the things that are in it.34 All these things were arranged so that God commanded them to appear. And God made two great lights: the greater light to govern the day, and the lesser light to govern the night; also the stars. He placed them in the vault of the sky to shine over the earth, to govern day and night, and to separate light from darkness.✦ Through his Word, God brightly illuminated these two great lights: the greater, that is, in the day, and the lesser in the night. One of them stands in its fixed order, neither growing nor diminishing; the other grows and wanes through the signs of the vault.✦5 In these two lights too, God foresaw how his work — which is the human being — would be perfected in two natures.

The Warfare of Good and Bad Knowledge

The soul is caught between heavenly good knowledge and earthly bad knowledge, and the vision traces how the soul discerns, resists, and is restored through repentance, while the stars shine as signs of God's enduring work.

And so the one who has good knowledge is heavenly, and the one who has bad knowledge is earthly. Good knowledge comes from God and is heavenly, and no rational soul can be drawn away from it; but through good knowledge the creeping things of the earth, assimilated to bad knowledge, are surpassed. These creep more boldly by night over the earth, which is strengthened by them, and they revel in filth.6 But bad knowledge, which is bound up with the filth of sins, is subject to good knowledge, and the soul recognizes it as right even while it recoils from it.7 But good knowledge makes the warrior strongest at resisting bad knowledge, and if that warrior has fallen, it raises him up through repentance, and it never stops guarding him so that he doesn't fall back into the taste of sin, since good knowledge is like the day, and bad knowledge is like the night. Therefore this bad knowledge also takes pleasure in evil and accomplishes evil, since pleasure precedes sin, and through these two kinds of knowledge every person comes to know both clean and unclean things. For the day knows the night and draws away from it; the night, on the other hand, knows the day and flees from it, and in the same way good knowledge turns away from bad, and bad separates itself from good, since each recoils from the other. So a person is both heavenly and earthly, because when heaven was set in motion at the first fall of the angel, God restored it with the lowly nature of earth, and in this way the earth is the foundation of heaven, and heaven was built upon the earth with greater wonders than there were in the first angel, since a person, made from earth, is the full work of God.8 The stars too, like flame from fire, burn bright from the moon, and are poured throughout the whole firmament with shining light, as if a flame were glowing through a sieve, and so they illuminate the whole earth, and as they were set in place, they will endure to the last day.

The Fourth Day and the Ordering of the Church

The vision reflects on the fourth day's completion, the four elements, and then turns to an allegorical reading in which the firmament is the Christian faith and the luminaries are the spiritual and secular powers that illuminate and govern the Church.

They themselves also appear brighter in the moon's decline than in its increase, because at the height of its increase they cannot be seen perfectly, due to the sheer strength of its clarity, and they alone come into view, showing forth the day, while the moons assist the night by illuminating it, and so they divide light from darkness, where they reveal day and night with their own ministry. And God saw that it was good, namely, approving that through the breathing sphere of light his work was full, and prepared for ministry and beautiful, with darkness put to flight. And there was evening and morning, the fourth day, because the four elements — namely fire, air, water, and earth — through the grace of God, prepared and hidden, appeared in all things in which they had been established. Likewise in another way: Because according to the allegory, the firmament is the firmness of the Christian faith; through the two great luminaries, two powers — the spiritual in priests and the secular in kings — and through the lesser stars that are under them, prelates or judges are designated: all of these are placed to illuminate the earth, that is, the Church, through day and night, by instructing spiritual people with the light of doctrine and example, and by restraining the carnal through the censorship of justice.✦

Read the original Latin

« Dixit autem Deus: Fiant luminaria in firmamento coeli, et dividant diem et noctem, et sint in signa et tempora, et dies et annos, et luceant in firmamento coeli, et illuminent terram. Et factum est ita . » Hoc considerandum sic est: Per divinam jussionem illuminatio firmamenti opus Dei pulchrum et gloriosum ostendebat, ut etiam anima corpus pulchrum et gloriosum faciet, quod licet post transitum illius propter primam conceptionem in putredine feteat, tamen sicut et superiora immutabitur, cum ipse homo denuo resuscitabitur. Et officia luminarium istorum Deus constituit et divisit in diem et noctem, quia in his duabus divisionibus, videlicet in die ac in nocte, omnis dispositio necessitatis hominis pendet, quatenus ille cum rationalitate per signa eorumdem luminarium, quae creatura illa et illa sit, et quomodo tempora dierum, noctium et annorum per singula haec signa nominentur, atque ut ipsa luminaria in firmamento elucidata videantur illuminantia terram, et ea quae in ipsa sunt. Omniaque haec ita constituta sunt, ut ea Deus apparere jussit. « Fecitque Deus duo magna luminaria, luminare majus, ut praeesset diei, et luminare minus, ut praeesset nocti; et stellas, et posuit eas in firmamento coeli, ut lucerent super terram, et praeessent diei et nocti, et dividerent lucem et tenebras . » Deus per Verbum suum haec duo magna luminaria lucide illuminavit, majus scilicet in die, minus vero in nocte, quorum alterum in ordine suo stat, nec crescit, nec minuitur, alterum per signa firmamenti crescit, et defectum accipit. In his quoque duobus luminaribus Deus quomodo opus suum, quod homo est, in duabus naturis perficeret praevidit.

Unde et ille in bona scientia coelestis, et in mala scientia terrenus est. Bona enim scientia ex Deo coelestis est, nec ullus rationali animae abstrahere potest, quin per bonam scientiam reptilia terrae malae scientiae assimilata praecellat, quae de terra roborata in nocte super ea audacius reptant et in sordibus gaudent. Mala vero scientia cum sordibus peccatorum est, bonae scientiae subjacet; eamque justam cognoscit, quamvis ipsam abhorreat. Sed bona scientia fortissimum bellatorem malae scientiae resistere facit, illumque, si ceciderit, per poenitentiam erigit, et ne in gustum peccati recurrat praemunire non desinit, quoniam bona scientia ut dies, mala autem ut nox est. Quapropter et ista in malo delectatur malumque perficit, cum delectatio peccatum praecedit, atque per has duas scientias, omnis homo mundas et immundas res cognoscit. Dies namque noctem scit, et ab ea secedit; nox vero diem novit, et ab illa fugit eodemque modo bona scientia a mala declinat; mala quoque a bona se separat, quoniam altera alteram abhorret. Sic homo coelestis et terrestris est, quia cum coelum in primo casu angeli motum est, Deus cum vili natura terrae illud reparavit, atque hoc modo terra fundamentum coeli est, coelumque cum majoribus miraculis, quam in primo angelo fuisset, super terram aedificatum est, quoniam homo de terra factus, plenum opus Dei est. Stellae quoque de luna, ut flamma de igne, flagrant, et per totum firmamentum lucenti lumine infusae sunt, velut si flamma per cribrum luceat, et sic totam terram illuminant, atque ut positae sunt, usque ad novissimum diem praestabunt.

Ipsae etiam in defectu lunae lucidiores, quam in augmento illius videntur, quia in augmento ejus prae fortitudine serenitatis ipsius perfecte videri non possunt, solique occurrunt diem ostendentes, et lunae subveniunt noctem illuminantes, et sic dividunt lucem a tenebris, ubi diem et noctem cum ministerio suo ostendunt. Et vidit Deus quod esset bonum, scilicet approbans quod per spirantem sphaeram luminis opus suum plenum, et ad ministerium paratum et elegans esset tenebris fugatis. « Et factum est vespere et mane dies quartus, quia quatuor elementa, videlicet ignis, aer, aqua et terra, per gratiam Dei parata et occultata in omnibus rebus apparuerunt in quibus constituta erant. Item alio modo:

Quia secundum allegoriam firmamentum firmitas Christianae fidei, per duo magna luminaria duae potestates, spiritualis in sacerdotibus, et saecularis in regibus, per stellas minores qui sub illis sunt, praelati vel judices designantur; qui omnes positi sunt ut illuminent terram, Ecclesiam per diem et noctem instruendo, spiritales doctrinae et exemplorum lumine, et coercendo carnales censura justitiae.

Scripture echoes

  1. ↩Gen.1.14-Gen.1.18 — And God said, "Let there be lights in the expanse of the heavens to separate the day from the night, and let them be for signs and for seasons and for days and years." Gen.1.15 — and let them be lights in the expanse of the heavens to give light upon the earth — and it was so. Gen.1.16 — And God made the two great lights—the greater light to rule the day, and the lesser light to rule the night—and the stars. Gen.1.17 — And God set them in the expanse of the heavens to give light upon the earth, Gen.1.18 — and to rule over the day and over the night, and to separate the light from the darkness. And God saw that it was good.
  2. ↩Gen.1.14-Gen.1.18 — And God said, "Let there be lights in the expanse of the heavens to separate the day from the night, and let them be for signs and for seasons and for days and years." Gen.1.15 — and let them be lights in the expanse of the heavens to give light upon the earth — and it was so. Gen.1.16 — And God made the two great lights—the greater light to rule the day, and the lesser light to rule the night—and the stars. Gen.1.17 — And God set them in the expanse of the heavens to give light upon the earth, Gen.1.18 — and to rule over the day and over the night, and to separate the light from the darkness. And God saw that it was good.
  3. ↩Gen.1.14-Gen.1.18 — And God said, "Let there be lights in the expanse of the heavens to separate the day from the night, and let them be for signs and for seasons and for days and years." Gen.1.15 — and let them be lights in the expanse of the heavens to give light upon the earth — and it was so. Gen.1.16 — And God made the two great lights—the greater light to rule the day, and the lesser light to rule the night—and the stars. Gen.1.17 — And God set them in the expanse of the heavens to give light upon the earth, Gen.1.18 — and to rule over the day and over the night, and to separate the light from the darkness. And God saw that it was good.
  4. ↩Gen.1.16-Gen.1.18 — And God made the two great lights—the greater light to rule the day, and the lesser light to rule the night—and the stars. Gen.1.17 — And God set them in the expanse of the heavens to give light upon the earth, Gen.1.18 — and to rule over the day and over the night, and to separate the light from the darkness. And God saw that it was good.
  5. ↩Gen.1.16-Gen.1.18 — And God made the two great lights—the greater light to rule the day, and the lesser light to rule the night—and the stars. Gen.1.17 — And God set them in the expanse of the heavens to give light upon the earth, Gen.1.18 — and to rule over the day and over the night, and to separate the light from the darkness. And God saw that it was good.
  6. ↩Gen.1.14-Gen.1.18 — And God said, "Let there be lights in the expanse of the heavens to separate the day from the night, and let them be for signs and for seasons and for days and years." Gen.1.15 — and let them be lights in the expanse of the heavens to give light upon the earth — and it was so. Gen.1.16 — And God made the two great lights—the greater light to rule the day, and the lesser light to rule the night—and the stars. Gen.1.17 — And God set them in the expanse of the heavens to give light upon the earth, Gen.1.18 — and to rule over the day and over the night, and to separate the light from the darkness. And God saw that it was good.

Notes

  1. 1 ↩feteat (from feteo, 'to stink') is a rare lemma; the sense here is of the body's decay and foulness after death due to its origin in corruption ('propter primam conceptionem in putredine'). The subjunctive mood supports a concessive clause.
  2. 2 ↩The ut clause after ostendebat may be purpose or result; rendered as purpose ('so that the soul too will make the body beautiful') following the vision's forward-looking logic.
  3. 3 ↩quatenus here has a limitative/purpose sense ('insofar as'), governing the long indirect question about rational discernment through celestial signs.
  4. 4 ↩quae creatura illa et illa sit is an indirect question with subjunctive; rendered as 'what sort of creature each one is' — the sense is that reason uses the luminaries' signs to classify creatures.
  5. 5 ↩The contrast (marked by vero) is between the sun (constant) and the moon (phased). quorum...alterum...alterum structures the comparison. 'defectum accipit' means 'receives its defect/waning' — the lunar cycle.
  6. 6 ↩The metaphor of 'reptilia terrae' (creeping things of the earth) assimilated to bad knowledge is rendered to preserve the allegorical force of the Latin; the precise nuance intended by the author is difficult to pin down with certainty.
  7. 7 ↩Eamque justam cognoscit is rendered 'the soul recognizes it as right,' taking the object of cognoscit to be bad knowledge and the subject as the rational soul implied by the context; the clause is somewhat compressed in the Latin.
  8. 8 ↩The phrase 'primo casu angeli motum est' is rendered as 'at the first fall of the angel,' taking casus in its theological sense of the fall of the angels; the construction is compressed and the precise reading is uncertain.

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