Gênesis 1
Cosmas Indicopleustes
Gênesis 1:1
[(quoting Epiphanius of Cyprus, On Measures and Weights)] Two and twenty works, O lover of the good and the beautiful, did God make from the beginning until the seventh day, namely these. On the first day He made the higher heaven, the earth, the waters from which come snow, ice, hail, frost and dew; then the spirits which minister before His face, such as these—the angels standing in His presence, the angels of glory, the angels of the clouds and darkness and snows and hail and frost—the angels of sounds, of thunder and lightning; the angels of cold and heat, of winter and autumn, and the angels of all the spirits of His creatures which arc in heaven and upon earth and in Chaos; then the darkness and the brooding over the abyss, the waters which once covered the earth, out of which darkness comes evening and night, the light of day and of the dawn. These seven mighty works did God make on the first day. On the second day was made the firmament which is in the midst of the waters. On the same day the waters were divided, one half of which ascended above the firmament, while the other half was underneath the firmament, upon the face of all the earth. This was the only work which God made on the second day. — The Christian Topography, Book 10
Gênesis 1:1
[(quoting Severianus of Gabala, Hexaemeron, Book 1)] For on the first day He made the matter out of which things were created; but on the other days He gave their form and arrangement to the things created. For example, He made the heaven which was before non-existent—not this visible heaven, but the one above it, for the visible was made on the second day. God made the higher heaven—the heaven of heavens to the Lord, and it is higher than this visible heaven, and, as in a house of two stories, between it and the earth another heaven is interposed. God having thus created the world as one house, placed this visible heaven as a roof in the middle, and the waters above it. Wherefore, David says: Who covereth his upper chambers with waters. God then made the heaven when it was not, the earth when it was not, the abysses when they were not, and wind, air, fire, water; of all the things that came into existence He made their matter on the first day. — The Christian Topography, Book 10
Gênesis 1:2
[(quoting Severianus of Gabala, Hexaemeron, Book 1)] But some one will say that it is recorded that He made the heaven and the earth, while nothing is recorded of waters and fire and air. In the first place then, brethren, when He said that the heaven and the earth were made, He indicated by the things which contain, the things that are contained. Then after the interposition of a few passages, hear Him next relate when the air was made: And the spirit of God moved upon the face of the waters. Here He does not speak of the Holy Spirit, for the uncreated is not numbered along with what is created, but it is the motion of the air which He calls spirit. — The Christian Topography, Book 10
Gênesis 1:3
[(quoting Severianus of Gabala, Hexaemeron, Book 1)] God said, Let there be light, and the nature of fire came into being. And again proceeding He says: But our souls He fenced round with the body, while He made the angels bodiless. So then, what we see to be the case with respect to human souls and to angels, the same is the case with respect to fire, for the fire above subsists without matter, but the fire below with matter, for the fire above is akin to the fire below, just as our souls are also akin to the angels. How so? because the former are spirit and the latter too are spirit. — The Christian Topography, Book 10
Gênesis 1:6
[(quoting Severianus of Gabala, Hexaemeron, Book 2)] On the second day God said: Let there be a firmament in the midst of the waters, and let it divide the waters from the waters. He made this heaven, not the one above, but the visible heaven which he crystallised from the waters like ice. But I shall endeavour to place the matter before your eyes, for many things are better explained by ocular than by oral demonstration. This water, let us suppose, overflowed the earth five cubits. Then God said: Let there be a firmament in the midst of the water, and thereupon a solid ice-like substance was produced in the midst of the waters, which made lighter the upper half of the water, and left the other half underneath, as it is written: Let there be a firmament in the midst of the water, and let it make a division between the waters. But wherefore does he call it the firmament? It is, because God made it firm and solid from waters which are of rarer and less compact substance. Wherefore David also says: Praise him in the firmament of his power; and, to take another example, we may adduce smoke, which when emitted from burning wood is rarified and attenuated, but when it mounts up high into the air becomes transformed into the density of a cloud. In this wise, when God had made the waters, which are by nature rarified, ascend on high, He there made them solid. And that this example is to the point, and true, Isaiah testifies where he says: The heaven was made firm and solid as smoke. The heaven having therefore become solid in the midst of the waters made the upper half of them light, but the other half He left underneath. Why then and for what purpose were the waters placed above? Was it that we might drink them or that we might sail on them? For that there are waters above, David testifies, saying: And the water which is above the heavens. — The Christian Topography, Book 10
Gênesis 1:6-7
First of all, it is proved from the account of the creation that God divided the one place which extends from the earth to the first heaven, by placing in the middle the firmament, that is, the second heaven, thus making the one place into two places. — The Christian Topography, Book 6
Gênesis 1:16
[(quoting Severianus of Gabala, Hexaemeron)] For on the third day the fruits were produced, and in order again that it might not be supposed that they were produced by the influence of the sun, it was not until their creation was finished, that He made the sun and the moon and the stars. But whence did He make them? For it has been said that on the first day He made all things of nothing, but on the other days, out of things existing. Whence then the Sun? Why, out of the light created on the first day which the Architect modified at His pleasure and transformed into objects of varied aspects, creating, in the first place, the substance of the light, and then producing the luminaries, just as if one should bring forward a mass of gold, and should then coin it into pieces of money, and by so doing make it a thing of beauty. For just as He divided the abyss, which was then one mass of water, into the water on high, into seas, into rivers, into fountains, into lakes, into wells, so also did the Architect divide the light, which was a single uniform mass, and distribute it into the sun, into the moon and into the stars. — The Christian Topography, Book 10
Gênesis 1:26
the Old Testament says: Let us make man in our image and after our likeness. Here in both the words it expresses plurality, but the phrases in our image and after our likeness do not mean the same thing, but the former of them means one thing, and the other a different thing. The expression in our image has this sense, that man and man alone, as having all things in himself—things visible and things invisible, things perceived by the intellect and things perceived by the senses, things corruptible and things incorruptible, indicates that there is one Creator of all things that are, even God, and man is in this respect the image of God, through his knowing that there is one Creator of the universe, as the Apostle exclaims: For a man ought not to cover his head, being the image and glory of God; thus expressly declaring that man was made for the glory of God, and, in accordance with this, calling him His image, as man alone is capable of knowing that there is one Creator of the universe, even God, who formed man as the only living creature in whose composition are found all the natural qualities. But the other expression after our likeness has this sense, that Adam was a father and not a son, and, from his own substance by procession produced Eve, who is called neither a son nor a sister, and by generation produced his own son Sêth, who again was of his own substance, producing him by generation, and her by procession. — The Christian Topography, Book 5