Remigius of Auxerre

English

Verse 5. 'There was evening and morning, one day.' By morning is understood the beginning of faith; by evening, the perfection of good work. The morning of this day is drawn out into evening when the beginning of faith is perfected by the completion of good work.

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

Latin

PL 131, col. 56A · pd

Notes

The shortest witness on the crux and the only one that quietly reverses the verse. Remigius reads morning as the beginning and evening as the perfection, so that his day runs from mane to vesperam — the opposite of the order Genesis prints and of the order every other Latin here defends. He is not arguing for a reckoning; the moral figure simply requires that a thing begin before it is completed, and the text is bent to it. Compare Bereshit Rabbah 3:8, where the same moral pairing (wicked and righteous) is fitted to the verse's own order instead.

Threads

• → echoes · Augustine
  Remigius takes the moral reading Augustine had offered and set aside — evening as sin, morning as renewal — and turns it to the ordinary Christian's progress; but he reverses the terms, making morning the beginning and evening the perfection.