Peter Abelard

English

It is to be noted that, where we say 'Let there be light, and light was made', in the Hebrew it is: 'Let light be, and light was'; and likewise in the rest that follow, wherever we have 'God said, Let this be made, and it was made so', in the Hebrew it is 'Let this be, and it was so'. By which words perhaps the greatest swiftness of the divine working is expressed. For while something is being made which is not yet, there can be some delay in the making. But when it is said 'let it be' and 'it was', with no delay interposed the perfecting of the thing…

Fresh draft (Claude), approved by Wilson Pruitt · cc-by

Latin

PL 178, col. 739D · pd

Notes

Abelard reporting the Hebrew against the Latin, exactly as K7 found him doing at PL 178:735B with volitabat. The observation is correct — yehi or va-yehi or is one verb twice, as the Greek's γενηθήτω / ἐγένετο is, while the Latin's fiat / facta est is two — and he draws a conclusion from it that the whole bench had been reaching for by other means: no delay is interposed, because a thing that is merely told to be is not first made and then finished. Where he got the Hebrew is unknown, as at K7. He is the only Latin on this crux who looks at the other language at all.

Threads

• → contests · Jerome
  'Notandum vero pro eo quod dicimus: Fiat lux, et facta est lux, in Hebraeo haberi: Sit lux, et fuit lux.' Abelard reports the Hebrew against the Latin he is expounding, as K7 found him doing with volitabat at PL 178:735B; the observation is right, and where he got it is unknown.
• → parallel · The Seventy
  The feature Abelard finds in the Hebrew — one verb twice, 'let it be' and 'it was' — is exactly what the Greek does with γενηθήτω and ἐγένετο, and exactly what the Latin's fiat / facta est does not. He draws from it the conclusion the whole bench had been reaching for by other means: no delay is interposed.