Three Augustinian notes; Day 1 light distinguished from darkness
Three things are not unfittingly noted in this Hexaemeron from Augustine. (1) That in the work of creation, though it is most miraculous, God instituted nature, and what was made is not to be sought as miracles but as natures and natural laws. (2) That the historical truth Moses narrates concerning creation must be firmly held and not twisted to human imaginations. (3) That no opinion of any philosopher or holy man is to be opposed to sacred Scripture when it narrates the beginnings of things. Here that saying truly holds: whatever is most ancient is most true.
II. The work of the first day is light, the most subtle part of that mass which God by the Word called upward from darkness and so distinguished that light received the name of day and darkness the name of night. It is worth noting that God did not say Let heaven be made from earth — because heaven and earth were produced from nothing, not made from something — and to declare simple emanation He first said In the beginning God created heaven and earth; but light was made. When God said Let there be light, He commanded that heat dispersed through so great a mass be united and manifest itself. That self-manifestation is light, as the Apostle testifies in Ephesians 5:13.
On the first day light was distinguished from darkness — both with respect to place, since light was made in one hemisphere and darkness in the other, and with respect to time, since light is called day and darkness night. This agrees with true philosophy and disagrees with Aristotelian physiology, which invents heat and light as arising accidentally from the attrition of air rather than as a most noble being made by God, as Moses testifies. That same physiology takes darkness, which is the face of real matter, for a mere privation; yet Moses testifies that God divided light from darkness, and darknesses, though less noble than light, are not mere nothing — Genesis 1:4; Isaiah 45:7; Job 26:10; 28:3.
Latin
Tria autem in hoc Hexaëmero ex Augustino non incommode notantur. 1. Quod in opere creationis, licet sit miraculosissimum, Deus instituit naturam, nec quaerenda sint ista tanquam miracula quae facta sunt, sed tanquam naturae et leges naturales. 2. Firmiter tenendum, veritatem historicam a Mose de creatione narrari, minime detorquendam ad hominum imaginationes. 3. Ut nulla opinio cujuscunque philosophi aut viri sancti opponatur sacrae Scripturae rerum initia enarranti. Hic enim vere militat illud ἀρχαιότατον: Antiquissimum quodque verissimum. II. Opus primi diei est lux, quae est subtilissima illius massae pars a Deo λόγῳ e tenebris sursum evocata atque ita distincta, ut lux diei, tenebrae noctis nomine venirent. Dignum notatu, quod non dixit Deus: Fiat caelum de terra — tum quia caelum et terra producta sunt e nihilo, non facta ex aliquo — et ad simplicem emanationem declarandam praemisit: In principio creavit Deus caelum et terram; lux autem facta est. Cum ergo Deus dixit Fiat lux, imperavit ut calor dispersus in tantam molem uniretur et sese manifestaret. Haec autem sui manifestatio lux est, teste Apostolo Eph. V.13. Caeterum primo die distincta est lux a tenebris. Facta autem est distinctio tum quod ad diem, quoniam in altero hemisphaerio lux, in altero tenebrae factae sunt, tum quod ad tempus, quoniam lux dies, tenebrae vero nox dicuntur — id quod cum vera philosophia tam convenit quam ab Aristotelica physiologia discrepat, quae fingit calorem et lucem ex aeris attritione quasi per accidens fieri, non vero ut ens quoddam nobilissimum a Deo factum esse, sicut Moses testatur. Tenebras vero, quae facies materiae realis sunt, privationem duntaxat opinatur, cum tamen Moses testetur Deum divisisse lucem a tenebris, quae quamvis luce sint ignobiliores, non sunt tamen mere nihil — Gen. I.4; Es. XLV.7; Job. XXVI.10; XXVIII.3.