Augustine
PL 34, col. 247
English
If, then, that Scripture is to be searched in both ways, let us ask how it was said, apart from the allegorical signification, 'In the beginning God made heaven and earth': whether in the beginning of time; or because they were made first of all; or in the beginning which is the Word of God, the only-begotten Son.
Fresh draft (Claude), approved by Wilson Pruitt · cc-by
Latin
Si ergo utroque modo illa Scriptura scrutanda est, quaeramus quomodo dictum est praeter allegoricam significationem, In principio fecit Deus coelum et terram: utrum in principio temporis; an quia primo omnium facta sint; an in principio, quod est Verbum Dei unigenitus Filius.
PL 34, col. 247 · pd
Notes
The crux stated as a crux, by the man who made it one. Three readings, set out in a single sentence at the head of the literal commentary and deliberately not decided: in the beginning of time, first of all things, or in the Word. Everything else on the Latin bench is an attempt at one of these three, and Peter Comestor's twelfth-century settlement — read the phrase twice, once for the Son and once for time — is a refusal to choose between the first and the third. The one possibility Augustine does not list is the one Rashi will make the plain sense: that bereshit is a construct and the sentence is subordinate. Latin cannot raise it.
In the beginning of timeFirst of all thingsIn the Son
Threads
- → echoes · Augustine
The unfinished commentary asks whether 'in the beginning' means time or the Wisdom of God; the finished one opens by listing three possibilities instead of two, adding 'or because they were made first of all', and declining to choose among them. - ← echoes · Bede
Bede takes Augustine's three undecided readings and ranks them: the beginning of times at length and first, the Only-begotten Son last and qualified as 'not improbable'. The hierarchy, not the list, is what the Carolingians inherit. - ← echoes · Bruno of Segni
Augustine's second reading — 'or because they were made first of all' — is the one Bruno builds on, and he builds on it to get simul out of the verse, so that Sir 18:1's 'he created all things at once' and the six days can both stand. - ← echoes · Peter Comestor
Augustine's three questions, printed as three answers with an instruction: 'in the beginning' is to be repeated, once for the Son and once for time, with 'in the beginning of all creatures' offered as a third. The handbook that taught Europe the Bible resolves the crux by refusing to resolve it.