Key Arguments

• He describes the original ‘earth’ as nearly nothing yet capable of form: "at that first stage the whole was almost nothing because it was still totally formless. However, it was already capable of receiving form. For you, Lord, ‘made the world of formless matter’ (Wisd. 11: 18). You made this next-to-nothing out of nothing, and from it you made great things at which the sons of men wonder."
• He distinguishes the ‘heaven of this heaven’ (made before any day) from the visible firmament made on the second day: "Already you made heaven before any day, and that is the ‘heaven of this heaven’, because in the beginning you had made heaven and earth. But the earth itself which you had made was formless matter; for it was ‘invisible and unorganized and darkness was above the abyss’."
• He links the mutability of the visible world to time, and the formless matter as its substrate: "From the invisible and unorganized earth, from this formlessness, from this next-to-nothing, you made all these things of which this mutable world consists, yet in a state of flux. Its mutability is apparent in the fact that passing time can be perceived and measured. For the changes of things make time as their forms undergo variation and change. The matter underlying them is the ‘invisible earth’ of which I have been speaking."
• He says Moses’ account of ‘in the beginning you made heaven and earth’ omits mention of time and days, implying a non‑temporal creation of the ‘heaven of heaven’: "That is why the Spirit, the teacher of your servant (Moses), in relating that in the beginning you made heaven and earth, says nothing about time and is silent about days. No doubt the ‘heaven of heaven’ which you made in the beginning is a kind of creation in the realm of the intellect."
• He characterizes this ‘heaven of heaven’ as participating in God’s eternity and checking its mutability by contemplating God: "Without being coeternal with you, O Trinity, it nevertheless participates in your eternity. From the sweet happiness of contemplating you, it finds power to check its mutability. Without any lapse to which its createdness makes it liable, by cleaving to you it escapes all the revolving vicissitudes of the temporal process."
• He explains that formless matter is not numbered among the days because without form and order there is no coming and going, hence no time or days: "But even that formlessness, the ‘invisible and unorganized earth’, is not counted among the days of creation week. For where there is no form, no order, nothing comes or goes into the past, and where this does not happen, there are obviously no days and nothing of the coming and passing of temporal periods."

Source Quotes

This abyss, now of visible waters, has even in its depths a light of its own, which is somehow visible to fish and to living creatures creeping along its bottom. But at that first stage the whole was almost nothing because it was still totally formless. However, it was already capable of receiving form. For you, Lord, ‘made the world of formless matter’ (Wisd.

11: 18). You made this next-to-nothing out of nothing, and from it you made great things at which the sons of men wonder. An extraordinary wonder is the physical heaven, the solid firmament or barrier put between water and water on the second day after the creating of light, when you said ‘Let it be made’ and so it was made.

The matter underlying them is the ‘invisible earth’ of which I have been speaking. ix (9) That is why the Spirit, the teacher of your servant (Moses), in relating that in the beginning you made heaven and earth, says nothing about time and is silent about days. No doubt the ‘heaven of heaven’ which you made in the beginning is a kind of creation in the realm of the intellect.9 Without being coeternal with you, O Trinity, it nevertheless participates in your eternity. From the sweet happiness of contemplating you, it finds power to check its mutability.

The matter underlying them is the ‘invisible earth’ of which I have been speaking. ix (9) That is why the Spirit, the teacher of your servant (Moses), in relating that in the beginning you made heaven and earth, says nothing about time and is silent about days. No doubt the ‘heaven of heaven’ which you made in the beginning is a kind of creation in the realm of the intellect.9 Without being coeternal with you, O Trinity, it nevertheless participates in your eternity. From the sweet happiness of contemplating you, it finds power to check its mutability. Without any lapse to which its createdness makes it liable, by cleaving to you it escapes all the revolving vicissitudes of the temporal process.

But even that formlessness, the ‘invisible and unorganized earth’, is not counted among the days of creation week. For where there is no form, no order, nothing comes or goes into the past, and where this does not happen, there are obviously no days and nothing of the coming and passing of temporal periods. x (10) May the truth, the light of my heart, not my darkness, speak to me. I slipped down into the dark and was plunged into obscurity.

Key Concepts

• the whole was almost nothing because it was still totally formless. However, it was already capable of receiving form.
• You made this next-to-nothing out of nothing, and from it you made great things at which the sons of men wonder.
• No doubt the ‘heaven of heaven’ which you made in the beginning is a kind of creation in the realm of the intellect.
• it nevertheless participates in your eternity. From the sweet happiness of contemplating you, it finds power to check its mutability.
• where there is no form, no order, nothing comes or goes into the past, and where this does not happen, there are obviously no days and nothing of the coming and passing of temporal periods.

Context

Book XII, viii–ix (8–9): Augustine articulates a two‑tiered creation—an intellectual ‘heaven of heaven’ and formless matter—relating the former to eternity and the latter to time, and explaining why only formed, ordered reality is measured in days.