Augustine



	PL



TWELVE

Augustine, Confessions, BOOK TWELVE	Liber XII



12: Heaven of Heavens: 12.2.2; 12.9.9; 12.13.16; 12.15.19; 12.21.30: [13.5.6]


CHAPTER II	CAPUT 2

Heaven of Heavens: 12.2; 12.9; 12.13; 12.15; 12.21; 13.5
[12.]2. In lowliness my tongue confesses to your exaltation, for you made heaven and earth. This heaven which I see, and this earth on which I walk--from which came this “earth” that I carry about me--you did make.	Confitetur altitudini tuae humilitas linguae meae, quoniam tu fecisti caelum et terram, hoc caelum, quod video, terramque, quam calco, unde est haec terra, quam porto. tu fecisti.
But where is that heaven of heavens, O Lord, of which we hear in the words of the psalm, “The heaven of heavens is the Lord’s, but the earth he hath given to the children of men”? (Ps 115.16)	sed ubi est caelum caeli, domine, de quo audivimus in voce psalmi: caelum caeli domino; terram autem dedit filiis hominum?
Where is the heaven that we cannot see, in relation to which all that we can see is earth?	ubi es, caelum, quod non cernimus, cui terra est hoc omne, quod cernimus?
For this whole corporeal creation has been beautifully formed--though not everywhere in its entirety--and our earth is the lowest of these levels. Still, compared with that heaven of heavens, even the heaven of our own earth is only earth. Indeed, it is not absurd to call each of those two great bodies “earth” in comparison with that ineffable heaven which is the Lord’s, and not for the sons of men.	hoc enim totum corporeum non ubique totum ita cepit speciem pulchram in novissimis, cuius fundus est terra nostra, sed ad illud caelum caeli etiam terrae nostrae caelum terra est. et hoc utrumque magnum corpus non absurde terra est ad illud nescio quale caelum, quod domino est, non filiis hominum.

CHAPTER IX	CAPUT 9


12: Heaven of Heavens: 12.2.2; 12.9.9; 12.13.16; 12.15.19; 12.21.30: [13.5.6]
[12.] 9. And therefore the Spirit, the Teacher of your servant,^[470] when he mentions that “in the beginning you made heaven and earth,” says nothing about times and is silent as to the days.	Ideoque spiritus, doctor famuli tui, cum te commemorat fecisse in principio caelum et terram, tacet de temporibus, silet de diebus.
For, clearly, that heaven of heavens which you did create in the beginning is in some way an intellectual creature, although in no way coeternal with you, O Trinity. Yet it is nonetheless a partaker in your eternity.	nimirum enim caelum caeli, quod in principio fecisti, creatura est aliqua intellectualis, quamquam nequaquam tibi, trinitati,coaeterna, particeps tamen aeternitatis tuae,
Because of the sweetness of its most happy contemplation of you, it is greatly restrained in its own mutability	valde mutabilitatem suam prae dulcedine felicissimae contemplationis tuae cohibet,
and cleaves to you without any lapse from the time in which it was created, surpassing all the rolling change of time.	et sine ullo lapsu, ex quo facta est, inhaerendo tibi, excedit omnem volubilem vicissitudinem temporum.
But this shapelessness--this earth invisible and unformed--was not numbered among the days itself. For where there is no shape or order there is nothing that either comes or goes, and where this does not occur there certainly are no days, nor any vicissitude of duration.	ista vero informitas, terra invisibilis et incomposita, nec ipsa in diebus numerata est. ubi enim nulla species, nullus ordo, nec venit quicquam et praeterit, et ubi hoc non fit, non sunt utique dies nec vicissitudo spatiorum temporalium.

CHAPTER XIII	CAPUT 13


12: Heaven of Heavens: 12.2.2; 12.9.9; 12.13.16; 12.15.19; 12.21.30: [13.5.6]
[12.] 16. Meanwhile this is what I understand, O my God, when I hear your Scripture saying, “In the beginning God made the heaven and the earth, but the earth was invisible and unformed, and darkness was over the abyss.” It does not say on what day you did create these things.	Hoc interim sentio, deus meus, cum audio loquentem scripturam tuam: in principio fecit deus caelum et terram: terra autem erat invisibilis et incomposita et tenebrae erant super abyssum, neque conmemorantem, quanto die feceris haec,
Thus, for the time being I understand that “heaven of heavens” to mean the intelligible heaven,	sic interim sentio propter illud caelum caeli, -- caelum intellectuale,
where to understand is to know all at once--not “in part,” not “darkly,” not “through a glass”--but as a simultaneous whole, in full sight, “face to face.” (1 Cor 13.12)	ubi est intellectus nosse simul, non ex parte, non in aenigmate, non per speculum, sed ex toto, in manifestatione, facie ad faciem;
^[472] It is not this thing now and then another thing, but (as we said) knowledge all at once without any temporal change. And by the invisible and unformed earth, I understand that which suffers no temporal change.	non modo hoc, modo illud, sed, quod dictum est, nosse simul sine ulla vicissitudine temporum, -- et propter invisibilem atque incompositam terram sine ulla vicissitudine temporum,
Temporal change customarily means having one thing now and another later; but where there is no form there can be no distinction between this or that.	quae solet habere modo hoc et modo illud, quia ubi nulla species, nusquam est hoc et illud:
It is, then, by means of these two--one thing well formed in the beginning and another thing wholly unformed, the one heaven (that is, the heaven of heavens) and the other one earth (but the earth invisible and unformed)	-- propter duo haec, primitus formatum et penitus informe, illud caelum, sed caelum caeli, hoc vero terram, sed terram invisibilem et incompositam:
--it is by means of these two notions that I am able to understand why your Scripture said, without mention of days, “In the beginning God created the heaven and the earth.” For it immediately indicated which earth it was speaking about. When, on the second day, the firmament is recorded as having been created and called heaven, this suggests to us which heaven it was that he was speaking about earlier, without specifying a day.	-- propter duo haec interim sentio sine commemoratione dierum dicere scripturam tuam: in principio fecit deus caelum et terram. statim quippe subiecit, quam terram dixerit. et quod secundo die commemoratur factum firmamentum et vocatum caelum, insinuat, de quo caelo prius sine diebus sermo locutus sit.

CHAPTER XV	CAPUT 15


[12.] 18. “Will you say that these things are false which Truth tells me, with a loud voice in my inner ear, about the very eternity of the Creator: that his essence is changed in no respect by time and that his will is not distinct from his essence? Thus, he doth not will one thing now and another thing later, but he wills once and for all everything that he wills--not again and again; and not now this and now that. Nor does he will afterward what he did not will before, nor does he cease to will what he had willed before. Such a will would be mutable and no mutable thing is eternal. But our God is eternal.	Num dicetis falsa esse, quae mihi veritas voce forti in aurem interiorem dicit de vera aeterntate creatoris, quod nequaquam eius substantia per tempora varietur nec eius voluntas mutabilis est et omne mutabile aeternum non est; deus autem noster aeternus est.
“Again, he tells me in my inner ear that the expectation of future things is turned to sight when they have come to pass. And this same sight is turned into memory when they have passed. Moreover, all thought that varies thus is mutable, and nothing mutable is eternal. But our God is eternal.” These things I sum up and put together, and I conclude that my God, the eternal God, hath not made any creature by any new will, and his knowledge does not admit anything transitory.	item, quod mihi dicit in aurem interiorem, expectatio rerum venturarum fit contuitus, cum venerint, idemque contuitus fit memoria, cum praeterierint: omnis porro intentio, quae ita variatur, mutabilis est, et omne mutabile aeternum non est: deus autem noster aeternus est. haec colligo atque coniungo, et invenio deum meum, deum aeternum non aliqua nova voluntate condidisse creaturam, nec scientam eius transitorium aliquid pati.
12: Heaven of Heavens: 12.2.2; 12.9.9; 12.13.16; 12.15.19; 12.21.30: [13.5.6]
[12.] 19. “What, then, will you say to this, you objectors? Are these things false?” “No,” they say. “What then? Is it false that every entity already formed and all matter capable of receiving form is from him alone who is supremely good, because he is supreme?” “We do not deny this, either,” they say. “What then? Do you deny this:	Quid ergo dicetis, contradictores? an falsa sunt ista? non inquiunt. quid illud? num falsum est omnem naturam formatam materiamve formabilem non esse nisi ab illo, qui summe bonus est, quia summe est? neque hoc negamus inquiunt. quid igitur? an illud negatis,
that there is a certain sublime created order which cleaves with such a chaste love to the true and truly eternal God that, although it is not coeternal with him, yet it does not separate itself from him, and does not flow away into any mutation of change or process but abides in true contemplation of him alone?”	sublimem quandam esse creaturam, tam casto amore cohaerentem deo vero et vere aeterno, ut, quamvis ei coaeterna non sit, in nullam tamen temporum varietatem et vicissitudinem ab illo se resolvat et defluat, sed in eius solius veracissima contemplatione requiescat,
If you, O God, do show yourself to him who loves you as you have commanded--and are sufficient for him--then, such a one will neither turn himself away from you nor turn away toward himself.	quoniam tu, deus, diligenti te, quantum praecipis, ostendis ei te et sufficis ei, et ideo non declinat a te nec ad se?
This is “the house of God.” It is not an earthly house and it is not made from any celestial matter; but it is a spiritual house, and it partakes in your eternity because it is without blemish forever. For you have made it steadfast forever and ever; you have given it a law which will not be removed. Still, it is not coeternal with you, O God, since it is not without beginning--it was created.	haec est domus dei non terrena neque ulla caelesti mole corporea, sed spiritalis et particeps aeternitatis tuae, quia sine labe in aeternum. statuisti enim eam in saeculum et in saeculum saeculi; praeceptum posuisti et non praeteribit. nec tamen tibi coaeterna, quoniam non sine initio: facta est enim.
[12.] 20. For, although we can find no time before it (for wisdom was created before all things),^[473] this is certainly not that Wisdom which is absolutely coeternal and equal with you, our God, its Father, the Wisdom through whom all things were created and in whom, in the beginning, you did create the heaven and earth.	Nam etsi non invenimus tempus ante illam -- prior quippe omnium creata est sapientia; nec utique illa sapientia tibi, deus noster, patri suo, plane coaeterna et coaequalis, et per quam creata sunt omnia, et quo principio fecisti caelum et terram,
This [the heaven of heavens] is truly the created Wisdom, namely, the intelligible nature which, in its contemplation of light, is light. For this is also called wisdom, even if it is a created wisdom.	sed profecto sapientia, quae creata est, intellectualis natura scilicet, quae contemplatione luminis lumen est; dicitur enim et ipsa, quamvis creata, sapientia.
But the difference between the Light that lightens and that which is enlightened is as great as is the difference between the Wisdom that creates and that which is created. So also is the difference between the Righteousness that justifies and the righteousness that is made by justification. For we also are called your righteousness, for a certain servant of yours says, “That we might be made the righteousness of God in him.”^[474] Therefore, there is a certain created wisdom that was created before all things: the rational and intelligible mind of that chaste city of yours. It is our mother which is above and is free^[475] and “eternal in the heavens”^[476]--but in what heavens except those which praise you, the “heaven of heavens”? This also is the “heaven of heavens” which is the Lord’s--although we find no time before it, since what has been created before all things also precedes the creation of time. Still, the eternity of the Creator himself is before it, from whom it took its beginning as created, though not in time (since time as yet was not), even though time belongs to its created nature.	sed quantum interest inter lumen, quod inluminat et quod inluminatur, tantum inter sapientiam, quae creat, et istam, quae creata est, sicut inter iustitiam iustificantem et iustitiam, quae iustificatione facta est; nam et nos dicti sumus iustitia tua; ait enim quidam servus tuus: ut nos simus iustitia dei in ipso. ergo quia prior omnium creata est quaedam sapientia, quae creata est, mens rationalis et intellectualis castae civitatis tuae, matris nostrae, quae sursum est et libera est et aeterna in caelis -- quibus caelis, nisi qui te laudant caeli caelorum, quia hoc est et caelum caeli domino? -- etsi non invenimus tempus ante illam, quia et creaturam temporis antecedit, quae prior omnium creata est, ante illam tamen est ipsius creatoris aeternitas, a quo facta sumpsit exordium, quamvis non temporis, quia nondum erat tempus, ipsius tamen conditionis suae.
[12.] 21. Thus it is that the intelligible heaven came to be from you, our God, but in such a way that it is quite another being than you art; it is not the Selfsame. Yet we find that time is not only not before it, but not even in it, thus making it able to behold your face forever and not ever be turned aside. Thus, it is varied by no change at all. But there is still in it that mutability in virtue of which it could become dark and cold, if it did not, by cleaving to you with a supernal love, shine and glow from you like a perpetual noon. O house full of light and splendor! “I have loved your beauty and the place of the habitation of the glory of my Lord,”^[477] your builder and possessor. In my wandering let me sigh for you; this I ask of him who made you, that he should also possess me in you, seeing that he hath also made me. “I have gone astray like a lost sheep^[478]; yet upon the shoulders of my Shepherd, who is your builder, I have hoped that I may be brought back to you.”^[479]	Unde ita est abs te, deo nostro, ut aliud sit plane quam tu et non id ipsum, et non solum ante illam, sed nec in illa invenimus tempus, quia est idonea faciem tuam semper videre nec uspiam deflectitur ab ea; quo fit, ut nulla mutatione varietur. inest ei tamen ipsa mutabilitas, unde tenebresceret et frigesceret, nisi amore grandi tibi cohaerens tamquam semper meridies luceret et ferveret ex te. o domus luminosa et speciosa, dilexi decorem tuum et locum habitationis gloriae domini mei, fabricatoris et possessoris tui! tibi suspiret peregrinatio mea, et dico ei qui fecit te, ut possideat et me in te, quia fecit et me. erravi sicut ovis perdita, sed in umeris pastoris mei, structoris tui, spero me reportari tibi.
[12.] 22. “What will you say to me now, you objectors to whom I spoke, who still believe that Moses was the holy servant of God, and that his books were the oracles of the Holy Spirit? Is it not in this ‘house of God’--not coeternal with God, yet in its own mode ‘eternal in the heavens’--that you vainly seek for temporal change? You will not find it there. It rises above all extension and every revolving temporal period, and it rises to what is forever good and cleaves fast to God.”	Quid dicitis mihi, quod alloquebar contradictores, qui tamen et Moysen pium famulum dei et libros eius oracula sancti spiritus creditis? estne ista domus dei, non quidem deo coaeterna, sed tamen secundum modum suam aeterna in caelis, ubi vices temporum frustra quaeritis, quia non invenitis? supergreditur enim omnem distentionem et omne spatium aetatis volubile, cui semper inhaerere deo bonum est.
“It is so,” they reply. “What, then, about those things which my heart cried out to my God, when it heard, within, the voice of his praise? What, then, do you contend is false in them? Is it because matter was unformed, and since there was no form there was no order? But where there was no order there could have been no temporal change. Yet even this ‘almost nothing,’ since it was not altogether nothing, was truly from him from whom everything that exists is in whatever state it is.” “This also,” they say, “we do not deny.”	est inquiunt. quid igitur ex his, quae clamavit cor meum ad deum meum, cum audiret interius vocem laudis eius, quid tandem falsum esse contenditis? an quia erat informis materies, ubi propter nullam formam nullus ordo erat? ubi autem nullus ordo erat, nulla esse vicissitudo temporum poterat; et tamen hoc paene nihil in quantum non omnino nihil erat, ab illo utique erat, a quo est quidquid est, quod utcumque aliquid est. hoc quoque aiunt non negamus.

CHAPTER XXI	CAPUT 21


12: Heaven of Heavens: 12.2.2; 12.9.9; 12.13.16; 12.15.19; 12.21.30: [13.5.6]
[12.] 30. Again, regarding the interpretation of the following words, one man selects for himself, from all the various truths, the interpretation that “the earth was invisible and unformed and darkness was over the abyss” means, “That corporeal entity which God made was as yet the formless matter of physical things without order and without light.”	Item quod adtinet ad intellectum verborum sequentium, ex illis omnibus veris aliud sibi tollit, qui dicit, terra autem erat invisibilis et incomposita, et tenebrae erant super abyssum, id est corporale illud, quod fecit deus, adhuc materies erat corporearum rerum informis, sine ordine, sine luce:
Another takes it in a different sense, that “But the earth was invisible and unformed, and darkness was over the abyss” means, “This totality called heaven and earth was as yet unformed and lightless matter, out of which the corporeal heaven and the corporeal earth were to be made, with all the things in them that are known to our physical senses.”	aliud qui dicit, terra autem erat invisibilis et incomposita, et tenebrae erant super abyssum, id est hoc totum, quod caelum et terra appellatum est, adhuc informis et tenebrosa materies erat, unde fieret caelum corporeum et terra corporea cum omnibus quae in eis sunt corporeis sensibus nota:
Another takes it still differently and says that “But the earth was invisible and unformed, and darkness was over the abyss” means, “This totality called heaven and earth was as yet an unformed and lightless matter, from which were to be made that intelligible heaven (which is also called ‘the heaven of heavens’) and the earth (which refers to the whole physical entity, under which term may be included this corporeal heaven) --that is, He made the intelligible heaven from which every invisible and visible creature would be created.”	aliud qui dicit, terra autem erat invisibilis et incomposita, et tenebrae erant super abyssum, id est hoc totum, quod caelum et terra appellatum est, adhuc informis et tenebrosa materies erat, unde fieret caelum intellegibile -- quod alibi dicitur caelum caeli -- et terra, scilicet omnis natura corporea, sub quo nomine intellegatur etiam hoc caelum corporeum, id est unde fieret omnis invisibilis visibilisque creatura:
He takes it in yet another sense who says that “But the earth was invisible and unformed, and darkness was over the abyss” means, “The Scripture does not refer to that formlessness by the term ‘heaven and earth’; that formlessness itself already existed. This it called the invisible ‘earth’ and the unformed and lightless ‘abyss,’ from which--as it had said before--God made the heaven and the earth (namely, the spiritual and the corporeal creation).” Still another says that “But the earth was invisible and formless, and darkness was over the abyss” means, “There was already an unformed matter from which, as the Scripture had already said, God made heaven and earth, namely, the entire corporeal mass of the world, divided into two very great parts, one superior, the other inferior, with all those familiar and known creatures that are in them.”	aliud qui dicit, terra autem erat invisibilis et incomposita, et tenebrae erant super abyssum, non illam informitatem nomine caeli et terrae scriptura appellavit, sed iam erat, inquit, ipsa informitas, quam terram invisibilem et incompositam tenebrosamque abyssum nominavit, de qua caelum et terram deum fecisse praedixerat, spiritalem scilicet corporalemque creaturam; aliud qui dicit, terra autem erat invisibilis et incomposita, et tenebrae erant super abyssum, id est informitas quaedam iam materies erat, unde caelum et terram deum fecisse scriptura praedixit, totam scilicet corpoream mundi molem in duas maximas partes superiorem atque inferiorem distributam, cum omnibus quae in eis sunt usitatis notisque creaturis.

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