Chapter XXVIII.--A Curious Inconsistency in Hermogenes Exposed. Certain Expressions in The History of Creation Vindicated in The True Sense.
But we shall show not only that this condition [6392] agreed with this earth of ours, but that it did not agree with that other (insisted on by Hermogenes). For, inasmuch as pure Matter was thus subsistent with God, [6393] without the interposition indeed of any element at all (because as yet there existed nothing but itself and God), it could not of course have been invisible. Because, although Hermogenes contends that darkness was inherent in the substance of Matter, a position which we shall have to meet in its proper place, [6394] yet darkness is visible even to a human being (for the very fact that there is the darkness is an evident one), much more is it so to God. If indeed it [6395] had been invisible, its quality would not have been by any means discoverable. How, then, did Hermogenes find out [6396] that that substance was "without form," and confused and disordered, which, as being invisible, was not palpable to his senses? If this mystery was revealed to him by God, he ought to give us his proof. I want to know also, whether (the substance in question) could have been described as "void." That certainly is "void" which is imperfect. Equally certain is it, that nothing can be imperfect but that which is made; it is imperfect when it is not fully made. [6397] Certainly, you admit. Matter, therefore, which was not made at all, could not have been imperfect; and what was not imperfect was not "void." Having no beginning, because it was not made, it was also unsusceptible of any void-condition. [6398] For this void-condition is an accident of beginning. The earth, on the contrary, which was made, was deservedly called "void." For as soon as it was made, it had the condition of being imperfect, previous to its completion.
[6392] Habitum.
[6393] Deo subjacebat.
[6394] See below, ch. xxx. p. 494.
[6395] Matter.
[6396] "Compertus est" is here a deponent verb.
[6397] Minus factum.
[6398] Rudimento. Tertullian uses the word "rudis" (unformed) for the scriptural term ("void"); of this word "rudimentum" is the abstract.
Chapter XXIX.--The Gradual Development of Cosmical Order Out of Chaos in the Creation, Beautifully Stated.
God, indeed, consummated all His works in a due order; at first He paled them out, [6399] as it were, in their unformed elements, and then He arranged them [6400] in their finished beauty. For He did not all at once inundate light with the splendour of the sun, nor all at once temper darkness with the moon's assuaging ray. [6401] The heaven He did not all at once bedeck [6402] with constellations and stars, nor did He at once fill the seas with their teeming monsters. [6403] The earth itself He did not endow with its varied fruitfulness all at once; but at first He bestowed upon it being, and then He filled it, that it might not be made in vain. [6404] For thus says Isaiah: "He created it not in vain; He formed it to be inhabited." [6405] Therefore after it was made, and while awaiting its perfect state, [6406] it was "without form, and void:" "void" indeed, from the very fact that it was without form (as being not yet perfect to the sight, and at the same time unfurnished as yet with its other qualities); [6407] and "without form," because it was still covered with waters, as if with the rampart of its fecundating moisture, [6408] by which is produced our flesh, in a form allied with its own. For to this purport does David say: [6409] "The earth is the Lord's, and the fulness thereof; the world, and all that dwell therein: He hath founded it upon the seas, and on the streams hath He established it." [6410] It was when the waters were withdrawn into their hollow abysses that the dry land became conspicuous, [6411] which was hitherto covered with its watery envelope. Then it forthwith becomes "visible," [6412] God saying, "Let the water be gathered together into one mass, [6413] and let the dry land appear." [6414] "Appear," says He, not "be made." It had been already made, only in its invisible condition it was then waiting [6415] to appear. "Dry," because it was about to become such by its severance from the moisture, but yet "land." "And God called the dry land Earth," [6416] not Matter. And so, when it afterwards attains its perfection, it ceases to be accounted void, when God declares, "Let the earth bring forth grass, the herb yielding seed after its kind, and according to its likeness, and the fruit-tree yielding fruit, whose seed is in itself, after its kind." [6417] Again: "Let the earth bring forth the living creature after his kind, cattle, and creeping things, and beasts of the earth, after their kind." [6418] Thus the divine Scripture accomplished its full order. For to that, which it had at first described as "without form (invisible) and void," it gave both visibility and completion. Now no other Matter was "without form (invisible) and void." Henceforth, then, Matter will have to be visible and complete. So that I must [6419] see Matter, since it has become visible. I must likewise recognize it as a completed thing, so as to be able to gather from it the herb bearing seed, and the tree yielding fruit, and that living creatures, made out of it, may minister to my need. Matter, however, is nowhere, [6420] but the Earth is here, confessed to my view. I see it, I enjoy it, ever since it ceased to be "without form (invisible), and void." Concerning it most certainly did Isaiah speak when he said, "Thus saith the Lord that created the heavens, He was the God that formed the earth, and made it." [6421] The same earth for certain did He form, which He also made. Now how did He form [6422] it? Of course by saying, "Let the dry land appear." [6423] Why does He command it to appear, if it were not previously invisible? His purpose was also, that He might thus prevent His having made it in vain, by rendering it visible, and so fit for use. And thus, throughout, proofs arise to us that this earth which we inhabit is the very same which was both created and formed [6424] by God, and that none other was "Without form, and void," than that which had been created and formed. It therefore follows that the sentence, "Now the earth was without form, and void," applies to that same earth which God mentioned separately along with the heaven. [6425]
[6399] Depalans.
[6400] Dedicans: "disposed" them.
[6401] Solatio lunæ: a beautiful expression!
[6402] Significavit.
[6403] Belluis.
[6404] In vacuum: void.
[6405] Isa. xlv. 18.
[6406] Futura etiam perfecta.
[6407] De reliquo nondum instructa.
[6408] Genitalis humoris.
[6409] Canit: "sing," as the Psalmist.
[6410] Ps. xxiv. 1.
[6411] Emicantior.
[6412] "Visibilis" is here the opposite of the term "invisibilis," which Tertullian uses for the Scripture phrase "without form."
[6413] In congregatione una.
[6414] Gen. i. 9.
[6415] Sustinebat: i.e. expectabat (Oehler).
[6416] Gen. i. 10.
[6417] Ver. 11.
[6418] Ver. 24.
[6419] Volo.
[6420] He means, of course, the theoretic "Matter" of Hermogenes.
[6421] Isa. xlv. 18.
[6422] Demonstravit: "make it visible." Tertullian here all along makes form and visibility synonymous.
[6423] Gen. i. 9.
[6424] Ostensam: "manifested" (see note 10, p. 96.)
[6425] Cum cælo separavit: Gen. i. 1.