Prologue

Job 26:13

His spirit has adorned the heavens, and his obstetric hand brought forth the winding serpent.

The consideration of created things pertains to theologians and philosophers but in different ways. For philosophers consider created things as constituted in their proper nature, hence they inquire about the proper causes and properties of things. But the theologian considers created things as having proceeded from the first principle and as ordered to their last end, which is God. For this reason theology is rightly given the name divine wisdom, since it considers the highest cause, which is God. This is why it says in Sirach 42:17, has not the Lord enabled his holy ones to recount all his marvelous works?

It is in this manner that created things are treated of in this Second Book. Hence we can understand its subject matter from the preceding words, from which we can draw forth three things: the principle of things, the act of this principle, and the effect of the act.

In regard to the principle, two things are touched on, namely, the spirit and the hand. The spirit belongs to its goodness or will, the hand to its power. Concerning this spirit it is said: send forth your Spirit, and they shall be created (Ps 104 [103]:30). For, according to Dionysius, (Pseudo-Dionysius, On the Divine Names, ch. 4, para. 1 (Patrologia Graeca [PG] 3:694).) just as the sun sends forth its rays to illuminate bodies, so also the divine goodness diffuses its rays, that is, participations in itself, in order to create things. Thus, Augustine says that inasmuch as he is good, we exist. (Augustine (354–430 AD), On Christian Doctrine, bk. 1, ch. 32 (Corpus Christianorum Series Latina [CCSL] 32; Patrologia Latina [PL] 34:32): quia enim bonus est, sumus, et in quantum sumus, boni sumus.) Those who have held that God produced things from a necessity of nature and not from freedom of will, have denied this spirit. Against them Dionysius says that divine love has not allowed him to be without fruit. (Pseudo-Dionysius, On the Divine Names, ch. 4, n. 1 (PG 3:694).)

But concerning the hand of his power it is said, when you open your hand, they are all filled with good things (Ps 104 [103]:28). In his hand, then, were all the ends of the earth, since they did not exist from all eternity except in his power. For when his hand was opened by the key of love, created things proceeded forth. This is the hand about which Isaiah says, behold, the Lord’s hand is not shortened (Isa 59:1), since by his infinite power he brings the substance of things into being. Those who have alleged that God can make nothing from nothing have wished to shorten this hand.

And this is how the Trinity of persons appears in the production of created things. In spirit the Holy Spirit himself is made apparent, of whom it is said, the Spirit of the Lord has filled the world (Wis 1:7). In hand the Son is manifested, who is also called the arm of the Father: have you an arm like God, and can you thunder with a voice like his? (Job 40:9), due to the fact that he is the power and wisdom of God (1 Cor 1:24) and all things were made through him (John 1:3). But by the pronoun his the person of the Father is expressed, of whom are both the Son and the Holy Spirit, about whom it is said, in the beginning God created the heavens and the earth (Gen 1:1).

On the part of the act, it touches on two things, namely, adornment and the office of obstetrics. Adornment pertains to the arrangement of things, since he has ornamented various things with beauty, as is said: he has beautified the glorious works of his wisdom (Sir 42:21). (The Revised Standard Version (RSV) reads he has ordained the splendors of his wisdom.) Concerning this beauty, Boethius also says, most beautiful are you, bearing a world of beauty in your mind. (Anicius Manlius Severinus Boethius (ca. 480–524 AD), Consolation of Philosophy, bk. 3, poem 9 (CCSL 94; PL 63:758).)

But obstetrics pertains to the governance of providence whereby created things, which are not able to subsist by themselves, are, in the manner of a midwife, preserved by him in existence, being provided with the things necessary to their end, and being freed from obstacles by his ordering even evils to the good. Hence, following a similar metaphor, it is said, who shut in the sea with doors, when it burst forth from the womb? (Job 38:8).

On the part of the effect, it touches on two things, namely, heaven and the winding serpent. In heaven we can consider two things, namely, stability: the Lord . . . has made stable the heavens by prudence (Prov 3:19), (RSV reads the Lord by wisdom founded the earth; by understanding he established the heavens.) and unfailing clarity: I brought it about that in the heavens there should rise light that never fails (Sir 24:6). (This text follows the Vulgate; the corresponding passage in RSV differs widely from it.) Hence, through heavens we can understand the created things that have stood firm in their grandeur.

Likewise, in winding serpent we can consider two things, namely, obscurity and obliqueness. First, in the name “serpent,” for a “serpent,” which makes noise in the deprivation of light, is named as though “fostering darkness.” (An attempt at etymological derivation impossible to convey in English: coluber (serpent) is from colens umbram (fostering darkness).) We can understand obliqueness by the fact that it is called winding, for what is distorted is what has been twisted away from rectitude. Thus, by this winding serpent those creatures are understood whose beauty has been obscured through sin and whose rectitude twisted, and especially the devil, by whose envy death entered into the world (Wis 2:24), and concerning whose darkness it is said, under the shadow he sleeps, in the covert of the reed and in the marsh (Job 40:16), and concerning whose twistedness it is said, the Lord with his hard and great and strong sword will punish Leviathan the fleeing serpent, Leviathan the twisting serpent, and he will slay the dragon that is in the sea (Isa 27:1).

Rightly, then, is the spirit said to have adorned the heavens, since, in creatures that have preserved their order, the divine goodness shines more brightly and the adornment of dignity has not been changed. Rightly, too, is the winding serpent said to have been brought forth by his obstetric hand, since even in evil things the divine power also shines forth by virtue of the fact that they are kept in check, while divine providence shines forth by virtue of the fact that their evils are ordered to good.

And so the subject matter of this Second Book is clear: it discusses the establishment of created things, and the fall of the angels and men through sin.