Creation and Genesis
Fundamentalists often make it a test of Christian
orthodoxy to believe that the world was created in six 24-hour days and
that no other interpretations of Genesis 1 are possible. They claim that
until recently this view of Genesis was the only acceptable one—indeed,
the only one there was.
The writings of the Fathers, who were much closer
than we are in time and culture to the original audience of Genesis, show
that this was not the case. There was wide variation of opinion on how
long creation took. Some said only a few days; others argued for a much
longer, indefinite period. Those who took the latter view appealed to the
fact "that with the Lord one day is as a thousand years, and a thousand
years as one day" (2 Pet. 3:8; cf. Ps. 90:4), that light was created on
the first day, but the sun was not created till the fourth day (Gen. 1:3,
16), and that Adam was told he would die the same "day" as he ate of the
tree, yet he lived to be 930 years old (Gen. 2:17, 5:5).
Catholics are at liberty to believe that creation
took a few days or a much longer period, according to how they see the
evidence, and subject to any future judgment of the Church (Pius XII’s
1950 encyclical Humani Generis 36–37). They need not be hostile
to modern cosmology. The Catechism of the Catholic Church states,
"[M]any scientific studies . . . have splendidly enriched our knowledge
of the age and dimensions of the cosmos, the development of life forms,
and the appearance of man. These studies invite us to even greater admiration
for the greatness of the Creator" (CCC 283). Still, science has its limits
(CCC 284, 2293–4). The following quotations from the Fathers show how widely divergent early Christian views were.
Justin Martyr
"For as Adam was told that in the day he ate of
the tree he would die, we know that he did not complete a thousand years
[Gen. 5:5]. We have perceived, moreover, that the expression ‘The day of
the Lord is a thousand years’ [Ps. 90:4] is connected with this subject"
(Dialogue with Trypho the Jew 81 [A.D. 155]).
Theophilus of Antioch
"On the fourth day the luminaries came into existence.
Since God has foreknowledge, he understood the nonsense of the foolish
philosophers who were going to say that the things produced on earth come
from the stars, so that they might set God aside. In order therefore that
the truth might be demonstrated, plants and seeds came into existence before
the stars. For what comes into existence later cannot cause what is prior
to it" (To Autolycus 2:15 [A.D. 181]).
"All the years from the creation of the world [to
Theophilus’ day] amount to a total of 5,698 years and the odd months and
days. . . . [I]f even a chronological error has been committed by us, for
example, of 50 or 100 or even 200 years, yet [there have] not [been] the
thousands and tens of thousands, as Plato and Apollonius and other mendacious
authors have hitherto written. And perhaps our knowledge of the whole number
of the years is not quite accurate, because the odd months and days are
not set down in the sacred books" (ibid., 3:28–29).
Irenaeus
"And there are some, again, who relegate the death
of Adam to the thousandth year; for since ‘a day of the Lord is a thousand
years,’ he did not overstep the thousand years, but died within them, thus
bearing out the sentence of his sin" (Against Heresies 5:23:2 [A.D.
189]).
Clement of Alexandria
"And how could creation take place in time, seeing
time was born along with things which exist? . . . That, then, we may be
taught that the world was originated and not suppose that God made it in
time, prophecy adds: ‘This is the book of the generation, also of the things
in them, when they were created in the day that God made heaven and earth’
[Gen. 2:4]. For the expression ‘when they were created’ intimates an indefinite
and dateless production. But the expression ‘in the day that God made them,’
that is, in and by which God made ‘all things,’ and ‘without which not
even one thing was made,’ points out the activity exerted by the Son" (Miscellanies
6:16 [A.D. 208]).
Origen
"For who that has understanding will suppose that
the first and second and third day existed without a sun and moon and stars
and that the first day was, as it were, also without a sky? . . . I do
not suppose that anyone doubts that these things figuratively indicate
certain mysteries, the history having taken place in appearance and not
literally" (The Fundamental Doctrines 4:1:16 [A.D. 225]).
"The text said that ‘there was evening and there
was morning’; it did not say ‘the first day,’ but said ‘one day.’ It is
because there was not yet time before the world existed. But time begins
to exist with the following days" (Homilies on Genesis [A.D. 234]).
"And since he [the pagan Celsus] makes the statements
about the ‘days of creation’ ground of accusation—as if he understood them
clearly and correctly, some of which elapsed before the creation of light
and heaven, the sun and moon and stars, and some of them after the creation
of these we shall only make this observation, that Moses must have forgotten
that he had said a little before ‘that in six days the creation of the
world had been finished’ and that in consequence of this act of forgetfulness
he subjoins to these words the following: ‘This is the book of the creation
of man in the day when God made the heaven and the earth [Gen. 2:4]’" (Against
Celsus 6:51 [A.D. 248]).
"And with regard to the creation of the light upon
the first day . . . and of the [great] lights and stars upon the fourth
. . . we have treated to the best of our ability in our notes upon Genesis,
as well as in the foregoing pages, when we found fault with those who,
taking the words in their apparent signification, said that the time of
six days was occupied in the creation of the world" (ibid., 6:60).
"For he [the pagan Celsus] knows nothing of the
day of the Sabbath and rest of God, which follows the completion of the
world’s creation, and which lasts during the duration of the world, and
in which all those will keep the festival with God who have done all their
work in their six days" (ibid., 6:61).
Cyprian
"The first seven days in the divine arrangement
contain seven thousand years" (Treatises 11:11 [A.D. 250]).
Victorinus
"God produced the entire mass for the adornment
of his majesty in six days. On the seventh day, he consecrated it with
a blessing" (On the Creation of the World [A.D. 280]).
Lactantius
"Therefore let the philosophers, who enumerate
thousands of ages from the beginning of the world, know that the six-thousandth
year is not yet complete. . . . Therefore, since all the works of God were
completed in six days, the world must continue in its present state through
six ages, that is, six thousand years. For the great day of God is limited
by a circle of a thousand years, as the prophet shows, who says, ‘In thy
sight, O Lord, a thousand years are as one day [Ps. 90:4]’" (Divine
Institutes 7:14 [A.D. 307]).
Basil The Great
"‘And there was evening and morning, one day.’
Why did he say ‘one’ and not ‘first’? . . . He said ‘one’ because he was
defining the measure of day and night . . . since twenty-four hours fill
up the interval of one day" (The Six Days Work 1:1–2 [A.D. 370]).
Ambrose of Milan
"Scripture established a law that twenty-four hours,
including both day and night, should be given the name of day only, as
if one were to say the length of one day is twenty-four hours in extent.
. . . The nights in this reckoning are considered to be component parts
of the days that are counted. Therefore, just as there is a single revolution
of time, so there is but one day. There are many who call even a week one
day, because it returns to itself, just as one day does, and one might
say seven times revolves back on itself" (Hexaemeron [A.D. 393]).
Augustine
"It not infrequently happens that something about
the earth, about the sky, about other elements of this world, about the
motion and rotation or even the magnitude and distances of the stars, about
definite eclipses of the sun and moon, about the passage of years and seasons,
about the nature of animals, of fruits, of stones, and of other such things,
may be known with the greatest certainty by reasoning or by experience,
even by one who is not a Christian. It is too disgraceful and ruinous,
though, and greatly to be avoided, that he [the non-Christian] should hear
a Christian speaking so idiotically on these matters, and as if in accord
with Christian writings, that he might say that he could scarcely keep
from laughing when he saw how totally in error they are. In view of this
and in keeping it in mind constantly while dealing with the book of Genesis,
I have, insofar as I was able, explained in detail and set forth for consideration
the meanings of obscure passages, taking care not to affirm rashly some
one meaning to the prejudice of another and perhaps better explanation"
(The Literal Interpretation of Genesis 1:19–20 [A.D. 408]).
"With the scriptures it is a matter of treating
about the faith. For that reason, as I have noted repeatedly, if anyone,
not understanding the mode of divine eloquence, should find something about
these matters [about the physical universe] in our books, or hear of the
same from those books, of such a kind that it seems to be at variance with
the perceptions of his own rational faculties, let him believe that these
other things are in no way necessary to the admonitions or accounts or
predictions of the scriptures. In short, it must be said that our authors
knew the truth about the nature of the skies, but it was not the intention
of the Spirit of God, who spoke through them, to teach men anything that
would not be of use to them for their salvation" (ibid., 2:9).
"Seven days by our reckoning, after the model of
the days of creation, make up a week. By the passage of such weeks time
rolls on, and in these weeks one day is constituted by the course of the
sun from its rising to its setting; but we must bear in mind that these
days indeed recall the days of creation, but without in any way being really
similar to them" (ibid., 4:27).
"[A]t least we know that it [the Genesis creation
day] is different from the ordinary day with which we are familiar" (ibid.,
5:2).
"For in these days [of creation] the morning and
evening are counted until, on the sixth day, all things which God then
made were finished, and on the seventh the rest of God was mysteriously
and sublimely signalized. What kind of days these were is extremely difficult
or perhaps impossible for us to conceive, and how much more to say!" (The
City of God 11:6 [A.D. 419]).
"We see that our ordinary days have no evening
but by the setting [of the sun] and no morning but by the rising of the
sun, but the first three days of all were passed without sun, since it
is reported to have been made on the fourth day. And first of all, indeed,
light was made by the word of God, and God, we read, separated it from
the darkness and called the light ‘day’ and the darkness ‘night’; but what
kind of light that was, and by what periodic movement it made evening and
morning, is beyond the reach of our senses; neither can we understand how
it was and yet must unhesitatingly believe it" (ibid., 11:7).
"They [pagans] are deceived, too, by those highly
mendacious documents which profess to give the history of [man as] many
thousands of years, though reckoning by the sacred writings we find that
not 6,000 years have yet passed" (ibid., 12:10).
NIHIL OBSTAT:
I have concluded that the materials
presented in this work are free of doctrinal or moral errors.
Bernadeane Carr, STL, Censor Librorum, August 10, 2004
IMPRIMATUR:
In accord with 1983 CIC 827
permission to publish this work is hereby granted.
+Robert H. Brom, Bishop of San Diego, August 10, 2004
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