Hugh of St Victor

English

Let us make a human to our image and likeness. First he said: in the beginning God created heaven and earth. Then he said: let there be light; here, thirdly, he adds: let us make a human, etc. In this three advances may be named. First the work, then the informing word, thirdly the counsel — by this, that he here adds: let us make a human, etc. Nor does he bring in counsel because he could not equally well make both great things and small; but in order to show the dignity of the human that was created, and to make us careful not to disdain to take counsel both from equals and from lesser people — since he himself so speaks to the angels, by whose ministry perhaps the human body was formed. Or, what is better, let us take it that it was the counsel of the Trinity, and that by the plural word there is a distinction of persons; and by this, that he adds in the singular, to our image and likeness, a unity of essence.

Draft English (Claude), awaiting Wilson · cc-by

Latin

PL 175, col. 37B · pd

Notes

⚠ Anchor note: this is a comment on Gen 1:26, not on Gen 1:1–5. It is on the daf under the second clause of the anchor rule — it argues the same philological question the Elohim of Gen 1:1 raises, whether a plural form of speech about God implies a plurality in God — and is anchored on Gen 1:2 beside that material. The one place on the Latin bench where the angel reading is not merely reported but taught, and taught as a moral. Hugh gives the change of formula a shape — work, informing word, counsel, three advances across Gen 1:1, 1:3 and 1:26 — and then draws from the third the lesson that we should not disdain to take counsel from equals and from lesser people, since he himself so speaks to the angels. He goes further than any rabbinic witness on this daf dares to: quorum ministerio forsitan formatum est corpus hominis, by whose ministry perhaps the human body was formed, which is the thing Basil calls a Jewish fiction and Bruno says would make many creators. Only then comes vel quod melius est, or what is better — the counsel of the Trinity. So the school of St Victor about 1130 holds both readings, prefers the second, and gets from the first exactly the moral Bereshit Rabbah 8:8 gets: that the great should consult the small, and that the Creator did it first. Hugh's ad imaginem et similitudinem nostram is called singular in the last clause; he means the singular of Gen 1:27, and the sentence is loose in the printed text.

Threads

• → parallel · Bereshit Rabbah
  The identical moral drawn from the identical difficulty, at St Victor about 1130 and in Galilee seven hundred years earlier. Hugh: God brings in counsel 'ut nos cautos reddat, ne dedignemur consilium accipere et ab aequalibus et a minoribus; cum ipse ad angelos ita loquatur'. Bereshit Rabbah: if a great man will not seek leave from one lesser than himself, let him learn from his Creator, who consulted the ministering angels when he came to make a human. Both make the verse a lesson in taking advice downwards, and both ground the lesson in the angels — which is the one thing about this verse the rest of the Latin bench will not concede.
• → parallel · Targum Pseudo-Jonathan
  Hugh goes further than the targum. Pseudo-Jonathan has God address the ministering angels and stops there, and guards the point by dating them to the second day so that they cannot be co-creators. Hugh writes 'ad angelos ita loquatur, quorum ministerio forsitan formatum est corpus hominis' — by whose ministry perhaps the human body was formed — which grants the angels a hand in the work itself. That is the position Basil calls a Jewish fiction, Ambrose refuses because a servant is no partner, and Bruno says would make many creators; it is in a Victorine schoolbook, offered before the Trinitarian reading and only then set aside with vel quod melius est.
• → echoes · Remigius of Auxerre
  The same two-reading structure two hundred and forty years apart, and the interval shows the angel reading losing ground without ever being refuted. Remigius: some refer it to the angels, but it is better referred to the holy Trinity. Hugh: he speaks to the angels, by whose ministry perhaps the body was formed — or, what is better, take it as the counsel of the Trinity. Both put the angels first and prefer the Trinity comparatively, neither argues against the angels, and by Comestor's Historia scholastica forty years after Hugh the option is simply not mentioned.
• ← contests · Augustine
  Augustine allows the angels one plural and not the other, and gives the reason; Hugh allows them both, and takes the reason back. De civitate Dei XVI.6 refuses them at Gen 1:26 because ad imaginem nostram forbids it, and grants them at Gen 11:7 because nothing prevents it. Hugh writes 'cum ipse ad angelos ita loquatur, quorum ministerio forsitan formatum est corpus hominis' at Gen 1:26 itself, where Augustine's objection stands unanswered, and then prefers the Trinity for a different reason altogether — that it is better, not that the angels are excluded.