The Seventy

English

And God said, Let light be made. And light was made.

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

Greek

LXX Gen 1:3 (Rahlfs) · pd

Notes

The Greek uses one verb twice, γενηθήτω and ἐγένετο, so that the command and the thing commanded are the same word — which is the whole of the Latin argument about how God speaks, transplanted from a feature of the Greek that Latin's fiat / facta est reproduces exactly. Abelard is the only Latin on this crux who knows that the Hebrew does something different again.

Threads

• ← parallel · Peter Abelard
  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.