VISIO SEPTIMA, cap. VI
The Deluge and the Remaking of the Earth
God decrees the flood to purge a corrupt humanity, and the waters so transform the earth that even the heavens and human bodies are permanently diminished.
After the earth was filled with this contrary people, I, who am, no longer enduring these criminal sins, decreed this: that the human race would be suffocated in the waters, except for the few who had not known them. The earth by no means dried up until the deceived people were wholly submerged. For the waters poured over the whole earth in such a way that it became like mud, and the corpses of people were submerged in it so that they could not be found afterwards, yet the corpses of livestock, because of their lightness, appeared on the surface of the waters. Nor did the earth dry up before the sun, with the journeys of the moon and the stars, and with all its duties, completed its rising and setting, nor before all these waters drew back into their appointed places, as they had been at first. And so the earth, through the heat of the sun, was cooked into a different state than it had appeared before. For the sun, and the moon and stars, and the other constellations, after the fall of Adam before the flood, were somewhat turbulent from the excessive and strong heat, and people at that time were so strong in their bodies that they were able to endure the same heat. Which the fervor of great heat also now sometimes shows, when the aforementioned constellations from that turbid time sometimes exist, since after the flood they are so poured over with waters that in cold and in their own heat they appear brighter than they had been before the flood, while the earth and men afterwards remain in greater weakness and infirmity than they were before. For the water in the flood, pouring through the whole earth even to the bottom of the penetrable earth, changed it into mud, just as on the last day it will burn to the same depth, since man will no longer need it.
Water and Fire as God's Instruments
God judges and sustains humanity through the same elements—water and fire—by which he formed them.
For God exercises his judgments over human beings through water and fire, so that since he fashioned them through these same elements, they might also be held in check by them. And just as God floods the whole earth with the moisture of water and composes and strengthens it with the heat of fire, so too he moistens the human person with the body's moisture and strengthens them with the fire of the soul.
The First Covenant After the Waters
The survivors of the flood, awed by God's judgment, offer sacrifices and receive the rainbow as the first covenant sign.
But those whom the Lord had saved after the flood for the procreation of a new line, terrified by the terrible judgment of God that they had seen, burned with reverence for God and began to offer their own sacrifices in God's honor. Because when the elements were changed, human strength was diminished after the flood as well; and because of their correction, for a time they were terrified by the terror of that same judgment; and because the bow was then placed as a first covenant or sign between God and humanity.✦
Read the original Latin
Postquam autem terra hoc contrario populo repleta est, ego qui sum, haec criminalia peccata diutius non sufferens, decrevi hoc, ut genus humanum in aquis suffocaretur, exceptis paucis qui ne cognoverant. Terra vero nequaquam exsiccata est, donec delusus populus totus submersus est. Aquae enim totam terram ita perfuderunt, ut velut lutum fieret, et huic cadavera hominum ita immergebantur, ut postea inveniri non possent, quibusdam tamen cadaveribus pecorum ex levitate sua in superficie aquarum apparentibus. Nec terra etiam exsiccata est, antequam sol cum itineribus lunae et stellarum, et cum omnibus officiis sui ortum et occasum compleret, nec antequam omnia haec aquas in constituta loca sua ut primum positae fuerant ad se retraherent. Et sic terra per calorem solis in alium modum cocta est quam prius apparuisset. Sol quippe, et luna ac stellae, caeteraque sidera, post casum Adae ante diluvium ex nimio et valido calore aliquantum turbulenta fuerunt, hominesque tunc in corporibus suis tam fortes erant, ut eumdem calorem tolerare valerent. Quod etiam nunc fervor magni caloris interdum ostendit, cum praefata sidera ab illo turbida aliquando existunt, quoniam post diluvium aquis ita perfusa sunt, ut in frigore et in calore suo lucidiora quam ante diluvium fuissent existant, terra vero et hominibus in majori debilitate et infirmitate postmodum permanentibus quam prius essent. Nam aqua in diluvio totam terram usque ad fundum penetrabilis terrae perfundens, in lutum mutavit, sicut et in novissimo die ad eamdem profunditatem ardebit, quoniam homo ea deinceps non indigebit.
Judicia enim sua Deus per aquam et ignem super hominem exercet, ut quoniam per haec hominem composuit, per eadem etiam homo comprimatur. Et sicut Deus humiditate aquae totam terram perfundit, et calore ignis eam componit et firmat, ita et hominem humiditate corporis humectat, atque calore ignis animae eum confortat. Illi autem quos Dominus post diluvium ad procreationem novi generis servaverat, terribili judicio Dei quod viderant perterriti, in timore Dei ardebant, atque sacrificia sua ad honorem Dei immolare coeperunt.
Quia ex mutatione elementorum vires quoque hominum post diluvium imminutae sint, et de correctione eorum ad tempus terrore ejusdem judicii perterritorum, et de arcu tunc primum pro foedere vel signum inter Deum et homines posito.
Scripture echoes
- ↩Gen.9.12-Gen.9.13 — And God said, "This is the sign of the covenant that I am establishing between me and you and between every living creature that is with you, for all future generations." Gen.9.13 — I have set my bow in the clouds, and it shall be a sign of the covenant between me and the earth.
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