Summa Theologica Part I (Prima Pars) Part 109

Reply Obj. 2: G.o.d did act on the seventh day, not by creating new creatures, but by directing and moving His creatures to the work proper to them, and thus He made some beginning of the _second_ perfection. So that, according to our version of the Scripture, the completion of the works is attributed to the seventh day, though according to another it is a.s.signed to the sixth. Either version, however, may stand, since the completion of the universe as to the completeness of its parts belongs to the sixth day, but its completion as regards their operation, to the seventh. It may also be added that in continuous movement, so long as any movement further is possible, movement cannot be called completed till it comes to rest, for rest denotes consummation of movement. Now G.o.d might have made many other creatures besides those which He made in the six days, and hence, by the fact that He ceased making them on the seventh day, He is said on that day to have consummated His work.

Reply Obj. 3: Nothing entirely new was afterwards made by G.o.d, but all things subsequently made had in a sense been made before in the work of the six days. Some things, indeed, had a previous experience materially, as the rib from the side of Adam out of which G.o.d formed Eve; whilst others existed not only in matter but also in their causes, as those individual creatures that are now generated existed in the first of their kind. Species, also, that are new, if any such appear, existed beforehand in various active powers; so that animals, and perhaps even new species of animals, are produced by putrefaction by the power which the stars and elements received at the beginning.

Again, animals of new kinds arise occasionally from the connection of individuals belonging to different species, as the mule is the offspring of an a.s.s and a mare; but even these existed previously in their causes, in the works of the six days. Some also existed beforehand by way of similitude, as the souls now created. And the work of the Incarnation itself was thus foreshadowed, for as we read (Phil. 2:7), The Son of G.o.d "was made in the likeness of men." And again, the glory that is spiritual was antic.i.p.ated in the angels by way of similitude; and that of the body in the heaven, especially the empyrean. Hence it is written (Eccles. 1:10), "Nothing under the sun is new, for it hath already gone before, in the ages that were before us."

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SECOND ARTICLE [I, Q. 73, Art. 2]

Whether G.o.d Rested on the Seventh Day from All His Work?

Objection 1: It would seem that G.o.d did not rest on the seventh day from all His work. For it is said (John 5:17), "My Father worketh until now, and I work." G.o.d, then, did not rest on the seventh day from all His work.

Obj. 2: Further, rest is opposed to movement, or to labor, which movement causes. But, as G.o.d produced His work without movement and without labor, He cannot be said to have rested on the seventh day from His work.

Obj. 3: Further, should it be said that G.o.d rested on the seventh day by causing man to rest; against this it may be argued that rest is set down in contradistinction to His work; now the words "G.o.d created" or "made" this thing or the other cannot be explained to mean that He made man create or make these things. Therefore the resting of G.o.d cannot be explained as His making man to rest.

_On the contrary,_ It is said (Gen. 2:2): "G.o.d rested on the seventh day from all the work which He had done."

_I answer that,_ Rest is, properly speaking, opposed to movement, and consequently to the labor that arises from movement. But although movement, strictly speaking, is a quality of bodies, yet the word is applied also to spiritual things, and in a twofold sense. On the one hand, every operation may be called a movement, and thus the Divine goodness is said to move and go forth to its object, in communicating itself to that object, as Dionysius says (Div. Nom. ii). On the other hand, the desire that tends to an object outside itself, is said to move towards it. Hence rest is taken in two senses, in one sense meaning a cessation from work, in the other, the satisfying of desire.

Now, in either sense G.o.d is said to have rested on the seventh day.

First, because He ceased from creating new creatures on that day, for, as said above (A. 1, ad 3), He made nothing afterwards that had not existed previously, in some degree, in the first works; secondly, because He Himself had no need of the things that He had made, but was happy in the fruition of Himself. Hence, when all things were made He is not said to have rested "in" His works, as though needing them for His own happiness, but to have rested "from" them, as in fact resting in Himself, as He suffices for Himself and fulfils His own desire. And even though from all eternity He rested in Himself, yet the rest in Himself, which He took after He had finished His works, is that rest which belongs to the seventh day. And this, says Augustine, is the meaning of G.o.d's resting from His works on that day (Gen. ad lit. iv).

Reply Obj. 1: G.o.d indeed "worketh until now" by preserving and providing for the creatures He has made, but not by the making of new ones.

Reply Obj. 2: Rest is here not opposed to labor or to movement, but to the production of new creatures, and to the desire tending to an external object.

Reply Obj. 3: Even as G.o.d rests in Himself alone and is happy in the enjoyment of Himself, so our own sole happiness lies in the enjoyment of G.o.d. Thus, also, He makes us find rest in Himself, both from His works and our own. It is not, then, unreasonable to say that G.o.d rested in giving rest to us. Still, this explanation must not be set down as the only one, and the other is the first and princ.i.p.al explanation.

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THIRD ARTICLE [I, Q. 73, Art. 3]

Whether Blessing and Sanctifying Are Due to the Seventh Day?

Objection 1: It would seem that blessing and sanctifying are not due to the seventh day. For it is usual to call a time blessed or holy for that some good thing has happened in it, or some evil been avoided.

But whether G.o.d works or ceases from work nothing accrues to Him or is lost to Him. Therefore no special blessing or sanctifying are due to the seventh day.

Obj. 2: Further, the Latin "benedictio" [blessing] is derived from "bonitas" [goodness]. But it is the nature of good to spread and communicate itself, as Dionysius says (Div. Nom. iv). The days, therefore, in which G.o.d produced creatures deserved a blessing rather than the day on which He ceased producing them.

Obj. 3: Further, over each creature a blessing was p.r.o.nounced, as upon each work it was said, "G.o.d saw that it was good." Therefore it was not necessary that after all had been produced, the seventh day should be blessed.

_On the contrary,_ It is written (Gen. 2:3), "G.o.d blessed the seventh day and sanctified it, because in it He had rested from all His work."

_I answer that,_ As said above (A. 2), G.o.d's rest on the seventh day is understood in two ways. First, in that He ceased from producing new works, though He still preserves and provides for the creatures He has made. Secondly, in that after all His works He rested in Himself. According to the first meaning, then, a blessing befits the seventh day, since, as we explained (Q. 72, ad 4), the blessing referred to the increase by multiplication; for which reason G.o.d said to the creatures which He blessed: "Increase and multiply." Now, this increase is effected through G.o.d's Providence over His creatures, securing the generation of like from like. And according to the second meaning, it is right that the seventh day should have been sanctified, since the special sanctification of every creature consists in resting in G.o.d. For this reason things dedicated to G.o.d are said to be sanctified.

Reply Obj. 1: The seventh day is said to be sanctified not because anything can accrue to G.o.d, or be taken from Him, but because something is added to creatures by their multiplying, and by their resting in G.o.d.

Reply Obj. 2: In the first six days creatures were produced in their first causes, but after being thus produced, they are multiplied and preserved, and this work also belongs to the Divine goodness. And the perfection of this goodness is made most clear by the knowledge that in it alone G.o.d finds His own rest, and we may find ours in its fruition.

Reply Obj. 3: The good mentioned in the works of each day belongs to the first inst.i.tution of nature; but the blessing attached to the seventh day, to its propagation.

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QUESTION 74

ON ALL THE SEVEN DAYS IN COMMON (In Three Articles)

We next consider all the seven days in common: and there are three points of inquiry:

(1) As to the sufficiency of these days;

(2) Whether they are all one day, or more than one?

(3) As to certain modes of speaking which Scripture uses in narrating the works of the six days.

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FIRST ARTICLE [I, Q. 74, Art. 1]

Whether these days are sufficiently enumerated?

Objection 1: It would seem that these days are not sufficiently enumerated. For the work of creation is no less distinct from the works of distinction and adornment than these two works are from one another. But separate days are a.s.signed to distinction and to adornment, and therefore separate days should be a.s.signed to creation.

Obj. 2: Further, air and fire are n.o.bler elements than earth and water. But one day is a.s.signed to the distinction of water, and another to the distinction of the land. Therefore, other days ought to be devoted to the distinction of fire and air.

Obj. 3: Further, fish differ from birds as much as birds differ from the beasts of the earth, whereas man differs more from other animals than all animals whatsoever differ from each other. But one day is devoted to the production of fishes, and another to that of the beast of the earth. Another day, then, ought to be a.s.signed to the production of birds and another to that of man.

Obj. 4: Further, it would seem, on the other hand, that some of these days are superfluous. Light, for instance, stands to the luminaries in the relation of accident to subject. But the subject is produced at the same time as the accident proper to it. The light and the luminaries, therefore, ought not to have been produced on different days.

Obj. 5: Further, these days are devoted to the first inst.i.tuting of the world. But as on the seventh day nothing was inst.i.tuted, that day ought not to be enumerated with the others.

_I answer that,_ The reason of the distinction of these days is made clear by what has been said above (Q. 70, A. 1), namely, that the parts of the world had first to be distinguished, and then each part adorned and filled, as it were, by the beings that inhabit it. Now the parts into which the corporeal creation is divided are three, according to some holy writers, these parts being the heaven, or highest part, the water, or middle part, and the earth, or the lowest part. Thus the Pythagoreans teach that perfection consists in three things, the beginning, the middle, and the end. The first part, then, is distinguished on the first day, and adorned on the fourth, the middle part distinguished on the middle day, and adorned on the fifth, and the third part distinguished on the third day, and adorned on the sixth. But Augustine, while agreeing with the above writers as to the last three days, differs as to the first three, for, according to him, spiritual creatures are formed on the first day, and corporeal on the two others, the higher bodies being formed on the first these two days, and the lower on the second. Thus, then, the perfection of the Divine works corresponds to the perfection of the number six, which is the sum of its aliquot parts, one, two, three; since one day is a.s.signed to the forming of spiritual creatures, two to that of corporeal creatures, and three to the work of adornment.

Reply Obj. 1: According to Augustine, the work of creation belongs to the production of formless matter, and of the formless spiritual nature, both of which are outside of time, as he himself says (Confess. xii, 12). Thus, then, the creation of either is set down before there was any day. But it may also be said, following other holy writers, that the works of distinction and adornment imply certain changes in the creature which are measurable by time; whereas the work of creation lies only in the Divine act producing the substance of beings instantaneously. For this reason, therefore, every work of distinction and adornment is said to take place "in a day," but creation "in the beginning" which denotes something indivisible.

Reply Obj. 2: Fire and air, as not distinctly known by the unlettered, are not expressly named by Moses among the parts of the world, but reckoned with the intermediate part, or water, especially as regards the lowest part of the air; or with the heaven, to which the higher region of air approaches, as Augustine says (Gen. ad lit.

ii, 13).

Reply Obj. 3: The production of animals is recorded with reference to their adorning the various parts of the world, and therefore the days of their production are separated or united according as the animals adorn the same parts of the world, or different parts.

Reply Obj. 4: The nature of light, as existing in a subject, was made on the first day; and the making of the luminaries on the fourth day does not mean that their substance was produced anew, but that they then received a form that they had not before, as said above (Q. 70, [A. 1] ad 2).

Reply Obj. 5: According to Augustine (Gen. ad lit. iv, 15), after all that has been recorded that is a.s.signed to the six days, something distinct is attributed to the seventh--namely, that on it G.o.d rested in Himself from His works: and for this reason it was right that the seventh day should be mentioned after the six. It may also be said, with the other writers, that the world entered on the seventh day upon a new state, in that nothing new was to be added to it, and that therefore the seventh day is mentioned after the six, from its being devoted to cessation from work.

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SECOND ARTICLE [I, Q. 74, Art. 2]

Whether All These Days Are One Day?

Objection 1: It would seem that all these days are one day. For it is written (Gen. 2:4, 5): "These are the generations of the heaven and the earth, when they were created, in the day that the Lord ...

made the heaven and the earth, and every plant of the field, before it sprung up in the earth." Therefore the day in which G.o.d made "the heaven and the earth, and every plant of the field," is one and the same day. But He made the heaven and the earth on the first day, or rather before there was any day, but the plant of the field He made on the third day. Therefore the first and third days are but one day, and for a like reason all the rest.

Obj. 2: Further, it is said (Ecclus. 18:1): "He that liveth for ever, created all things together." But this would not be the case if the days of these works were more than one. Therefore they are not many but one only.