Texts in Conversation
Augustine uses Wisdom's description of creation from formless matter in Confessions 12 as scriptural support for his reading of Genesis, while insisting that God also created the matter from nothing.
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2500 BCE
1000+ CE
Wisdom of Solomon 11:17
Deuterocanon
15 In return for the foolish reasonings of their wickedness, which led them astray to worship irrational reptiles and worthless vermin, you sent on them a multitude of irrational creatures to punish them, 16 so that they might learn that a person is punished by the very things he sins by. 17 For your all-powerful hand, which created the world out of formless matter, did not lack the means to send on them a multitude of bears or fierce lions, 18 or newly created, unknown wild beasts full of rage, breathing out fiery breath, or puffing out smoke, or flashing terrible sparks from their eyes, 19 which could not only destroy them by their attack but kill them by the mere terror of their appearance. 20 Even without these they could have fallen by a single breath, pursued by Justice and scattered by the breath of your power. But you arranged all things by measure, number, and weight.
Augustine, Confessions 12.8
Early Christian
That heaven of heavens was yours, O Lord, but the earth which you gave to the sons of men to be seen and touched was not then in the same form as that in which we now see it and touch it. For then it was invisible and unformed and there was an abyss over which there was no light. The darkness was truly over the abyss, that is, more than just in the abyss. For this abyss of waters which now is visible has even in its depths a certain light appropriate to its nature, perceptible in some fashion to fishes and the things that creep about on the bottom of it. But then the entire abyss was almost nothing, since it was still altogether unformed. Yet even there, there was something that had the possibility of being formed. For you, O Lord, had made the world out of unformed matter, and this you made out of nothing and made it into almost nothing. From it you have then made these great things which we, the sons of men, marvel at. For this corporeal heaven is truly marvelous, this firmament between the water and the waters which you made on the second day after the creation of light, saying, "Let it be done," and it was done. This firmament you called heaven, that is, the heaven of this earth and sea which you made on the third day, giving a visible shape to the unformed matter which you had made before all the days. For even before any day you had already made a heaven, but that was the heaven of this heaven: for in the beginning you had made heaven and earth. But this earth itself which you had made was unformed matter; it was invisible and unformed, and darkness was over the abyss. Out of this invisible and unformed earth, out of this formlessness which is almost nothing, you then made all these things of which the changeable world consists—and yet does not fully consist in itself—for its very changeableness appears in this, that its times and seasons can be observed and numbered. The periods of time are measured by the changes of things, while the forms, whose matter is the invisible earth of which we have spoken, are varied and altered.
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Notes and References
“... Option 1 is of great historical importance. It reads the text as follows: In
the beginning God created the rude, unformed matter of the world. Verse 2
describes this chaotic state. Then from v. 3 onward God creates the formed
world, both creating new things (light, firmament, etc.) and using them to
separate out and organize the various chaotic elements (water, darkness). This
idea seems to underlie Wis 11:17, ‘thy almighty hand, which created the world
out of formless matter (NEB), and this text seems to be the key place within
the biblical tradition for this approach. These concepts are fully discussed by
Augustine (Confessions 12), for whom of course Wisdom of Solomon was fully
canonical Scripture, often cited by him as proof of this doctrine.2 This approach
provides, among other things, a basic creation out of nothing (v. 1), and an
apparent rationale for the chaos of v. 2. Option 1 was very influential in sup
porting traditional Christian doctrines. ...”
Barr, James
"Was Everything That God Created Really Good? A Question in the First Verse of the Bible" in Barton, John (ed.) Bible and Interpretation: The Collected Essays of James Barr, Volume II: Biblical Studies
(pp. 178-179) Oxford University Press, 2013
* The use of references are not endorsements of their contents. Please read the entirety of the provided reference(s) to understand the author's full intentions regarding the use of these texts.
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