... of what sort of matter must we assume the previous existence, in order that God should construct a world, as the spider his web; or (as) a mortal man, for the purpose of working it, takes a (piece of) brass or of wood, or some other of the parts of matter?),—(projection, I say, being out of the question,) certainly, says (Basilides), God spoke the word, and it was carried into effect. And this, as these men assert, is that which has been stated by Moses: “Let there be light, and there was light.”[Genesis 1:3] Whence he says, came the light? From nothing. For it has not been written, he says, whence, but this only, (that it came) from the voice of him who speaks the word. And he who speaks the word, he says, was non-existent; nor was that existent which ...

Ante-Nicene Fathers, Volume 8, page 48, footnote 4 (Image)

Twelve Patriarchs, Excerpts and Epistles, The Clementina, Apocryphal Gospels and Acts, Syriac Documents

Excerpts of Theodotus. (HTML)

Excerpts of Theodotus. (HTML)

CCEL Footnote 256 (In-Text, Margin)

XXXVIII. Against Tatian, who says that the words, “Let there be light,”[Genesis 1:3] are supplicatory. If, then, He is supplicating the supreme God, how does He say, “I am God, and beside me there is none else?” We have said that there are punishments for blasphemies, for nonsense, for outrageous expressions; which are punished and chastised by reason.

Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 1, Volume 1, page 191, footnote 3 (Image)

Augustine: Prolegomena: St. Augustine's Life and Work, Confessions, Letters

The Confessions (HTML)

Of the goodness of God explained in the creation of things, and of the Trinity as found in the first words of Genesis. The story concerning the origin of the world (Gen. I.) is allegorically explained, and he applies it to those things which God works for sanctified and blessed man. Finally, he makes an end of this work, having implored eternal rest from God. (HTML)

Genesis I. 3,—Of ‘Light,’—He Understands as It is Seen in the Spiritual Creature (HTML)

CCEL Footnote 1176 (In-Text, Margin)

4. But what Thou saidst in the beginning of the creation, “Let there be light, and there was light,”[Genesis 1:3] I do not unfitly understand of the spiritual creature; because there was even then a kind of life, which Thou mightest illuminate. But as it had not deserved of Thee that it should be such a life as could be enlightened, so neither, when it already was, hath it deserved of Thee that it should be enlightened. For neither could its formlessness be pleasing unto Thee, unless it became light,—not by merely existing, but by beholding the illuminating ...

Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 1, Volume 1, page 194, footnote 6 (Image)

Augustine: Prolegomena: St. Augustine's Life and Work, Confessions, Letters

The Confessions (HTML)

Of the goodness of God explained in the creation of things, and of the Trinity as found in the first words of Genesis. The story concerning the origin of the world (Gen. I.) is allegorically explained, and he applies it to those things which God works for sanctified and blessed man. Finally, he makes an end of this work, having implored eternal rest from God. (HTML)

Allegorical Explanation of Genesis, Chap. I., Concerning the Origin of the Church and Its Worship. (HTML)

CCEL Footnote 1211 (In-Text, Margin)

... have we been baptized, Father, Son, and Holy Ghost, in Thy name do we baptize, Father, Son, and Holy Ghost, because among us also in His Christ did God make heaven and earth, namely, the spiritual and carnal people of His Church. Yea, and our earth, before it received the “form of doctrine,” was invisible and formless, and we were covered with the darkness of ignorance. For Thou correctest man for iniquity, and “Thy judgments are a great deep.” But because Thy Spirit was “borne over the waters,”[Genesis 1:3] Thy mercy forsook not our misery, and Thou saidst, “Let there be light,” “Repent ye, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand.” Repent ye, let there be light. And because our soul was troubled within us, we remembered Thee, O Lord, from the land of ...

Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 1, Volume 1, page 271, footnote 1 (Image)

Augustine: Prolegomena: St. Augustine's Life and Work, Confessions, Letters

Letters of St. Augustin (HTML)

Letters of St. Augustin (HTML)

To Simplicianus (HTML)

CCEL Footnote 1598 (In-Text, Margin)

... of truth, I stumble through want either of knowledge or of caution? For when what I write meets your approval, I know by whom it is approved, for I know who dwells in you; and the Giver and Dispenser of all spiritual gifts designs by your approbation to confirm my obedience to Him. For whatever in these writings of mine merits your approbation is from God, who has by me as His instrument said, “Let it be done,” and it was done; and in your approval God has pronounced that what was done is “good.”[Genesis 1:3-4]

Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 1, Volume 6, page 477, footnote 11 (Image)

Augustine: Sermon on the Mount, Harmony of the Gospels, Homilies on the Gospels

Sermons on Selected Lessons of the New Testament. (HTML)

Again in John v. 2, etc., on the five porches, where lay a great multitude of impotent folk, and of the pool of Siloa. (HTML)

CCEL Footnote 3705 (In-Text, Margin)

... from fatigue on the seventh day after all, and that He therefore blessed it, because on it He was refreshed from His weariness, did not in their foolishness understand, that He who made all things by the Word, could not be wearied. Let them read, and tell me how could God be wearied, who said, “Let it be made, and it was made.” To-day if a man could so do, as God did, how would he be wearied? He said, “Let there be light, and the light was made.” Again, “Let there be a firmament, and it was made:”[Genesis 1:3] if indeed He said, and it was not done, He was wearied. In another place briefly, “He spake, and they were made; He commanded, and they were created.” He then who worketh thus, how doth He labour? But if He labour not, how doth He rest? But in that ...

Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 1, Volume 7, page 132, footnote 3 (Image)

Augustine: Homilies on the Gospel of John, Homilies on the First Epistle of John, Soliloquies

Lectures or Tractates on the Gospel According to St. John. (HTML)

Chapter V. 19. (HTML)

CCEL Footnote 406 (In-Text, Margin)

... For, in reality, God cannot be said to have toiled, who “said, and they were done.” Who is there that, after such facility of work, desires to rest as if after labor? If He commanded and some one resisted Him, if He commanded and it was not done, and labored that it might be done, then justly He should be said to have rested after labor. But when in that same book of Genesis we read, “God said, Let there be light, and there was light; God said, Let there be a firmament, and the firmament was made,[Genesis 1:3] and all the rest were made immediately at His word: to which also the psalm testifies, saying, “He spake, and they were made; He commanded, and they were created,” —how could He require rest after the world was made, as if to enjoy leisure after ...

Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 1, Volume 7, page 246, footnote 3 (Image)

Augustine: Homilies on the Gospel of John, Homilies on the First Epistle of John, Soliloquies

Lectures or Tractates on the Gospel According to St. John. (HTML)

Chapter IX. (HTML)

CCEL Footnote 825 (In-Text, Margin)

... glory to Him of whom He is: for that One has the Son who is of Him; He Himself has no One of whom He is. But wherefore, Lord, saidst Thou, “While it is day”? Hearken why He did so. “The night cometh when no man can work.” Not even Thou, Lord. Will that night have such power that not even Thou, whose work the night is, wilt be able to work therein? For I think, Lord Jesus, nay I do not think, but believe and hold it sure, that Thou wast there when God said, “Let there be light, and there was light.”[Genesis 1:3] For if He made it by the Word, He made it by Thee: and therefore it is said, “All things were made by Him; and without Him was nothing made.” “God divided between the light and the darkness: the light He called Day, and the darkness He called ...

Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 1, Volume 8, page 27, footnote 6 (Image)

Augustine: Expositions on the Psalms

Expositions on the Book of Psalms. (HTML)

Psalm VII (HTML)

CCEL Footnote 271 (In-Text, Margin)

... exceeding good.” Which can be seen in this Psalm, if any one with a pious mind, by the Lord’s help, distinguish between the rewards of the righteous and the penalties of the sinners, how that in these two the whole creation, which God made and rules, is adorned with a beauty wondrous and known to few. Thus then he says, “I will confess to the Lord according to His justice,” as one who saw that darkness was not made by God, but ordered nevertheless. For God said, “Let light be made, and light was made.”[Genesis 1:3] He did not say, Let darkness be made, and darkness was made: and yet He ordered it. And therefore it is said, “God divided between the light, and the darkness: and God called the light day, and the darkness He called night.” This is the distinction, ...

Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 1, Volume 8, page 285, footnote 3 (Image)

Augustine: Expositions on the Psalms

Expositions on the Book of Psalms. (HTML)

Psalm LXVII (HTML)

CCEL Footnote 2677 (In-Text, Margin)

... the Lord pardoning, in order that now they might even learn to drink that which they had shed. Great in that place is the fruit: the earth hath given her fruit, both great fruit, and most excellent fruit. Ought by any means that earth alone to give her fruit? “May there bless us God, our God, may there bless us God” (ver. 7). Still may He bless us: for blessing in multiplication is wont most chiefly and properly to be perceived. Let us prove this in Genesis; see the works of God: God made light,[Genesis 1:3] and God made a division between light and darkness: the light He called day, and the darkness He called night. It is not said, He blessed the light. For the same light returneth and changeth by days and nights. He calleth the sky the firmament ...

Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 1, Volume 8, page 460, footnote 1 (Image)

Augustine: Expositions on the Psalms

Expositions on the Book of Psalms. (HTML)

Psalm XCIV (HTML)

CCEL Footnote 4361 (In-Text, Margin)

... title meaneth. Here is a great mystery, and a truly hidden one.…Let us therefore recall from the holy Scripture in Genesis, what was created on the first day; we find light: what was created on the second day; we find the firmament, which God called heaven: what was created on the third day; we find the form of earth and sea, and their separation, that all the gathering together of the waters was called sea, and all that was dry, the earth. On the fourth day, the Lord made the lights in heaven:[Genesis 1:3-19] “The sun to rule the day: the moon and stars to govern the night:” this was the work of the fourth day. What then is the reason that the Psalm hath taken its title from the fourth day: the Psalm in which patience is enjoined against the prosperity ...

Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 2, Volume 4, page 365, footnote 2 (Image)

Athanasius: Select Writings and Letters

Against the Arians. (Orationes contra Arianos IV.) (HTML)

Against the Arians. (Orationes contra Arianos IV.) (HTML)

Discourse II (HTML)

Introduction to Proverbs viii. 22 continued. Contrast between the Father's operations immediately and naturally in the Son, instrumentally by the creatures; Scripture terms illustrative of this. Explanation of these illustrations; which should be interpreted by the doctrine of the Church; perverse sense put on them by the Arians, refuted. Mystery of Divine Generation. Contrast between God's Word and man's word drawn out at length. Asterius betrayed into holding two Unoriginates; his inconsistency. Baptism how by the Son as well as by the Father. On the Baptism of heretics. Why Arian worse than other heresies. (HTML)

... proper to His essence, and is from Him, and in Him, as He said Himself, the creatures could not have come to be, except through Him. For as the light enlightens all things by its radiance, and without its radiance nothing would be illuminated, so also the Father, as by a hand, in the Word wrought all things, and without Him makes nothing. For instance, God said, as Moses relates, ‘Let there be light,’ and ‘Let the waters be gathered together,’ and ‘let the dry land appear,’ and ‘Let Us make man[Genesis 1:3];’ as also Holy David in the Psalm, ‘He spake and they were made; He commanded and they were created.’ And He spoke, not that, as in the case of men, some under-worker might hear, and learning the will of Him who spoke might go away and do it; for ...

Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 2, Volume 4, page 410, footnote 2 (Image)

Athanasius: Select Writings and Letters

Against the Arians. (Orationes contra Arianos IV.) (HTML)

Against the Arians. (Orationes contra Arianos IV.) (HTML)

Discourse III (HTML)

Introductory to Texts from the Gospels on the Incarnation. Enumeration of texts still to be explained. Arians compared to the Jews. We must recur to the Regula Fidei. Our Lord did not come into, but became, man, and therefore had the acts and affections of the flesh. The same works divine and human. Thus the flesh was purified, and men were made immortal. Reference to I Pet. iv. 1. (HTML)

... not a prize to be equal with God, but emptied Himself, taking the form of a servant, being made in the likeness of men, and being found in fashion like a man, He humbled Himself, becoming obedient unto death, even the death of the Cross.’ Any one, beginning with these passages and going through the whole of the Scripture upon the interpretation which they suggest, will perceive how in the beginning the Father said to Him, ‘Let there be light,’ and ‘Let there be a firmament,’ and ‘Let us make man[Genesis 1:3];’ but in fulness of the ages, He sent Him into the world, not that He might judge the world, but that the world by Him might be saved, and how it is written ‘Behold, the Virgin shall be with child, and shall bring forth a Son, and they shall call ...

Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 2, Volume 5, page 111, footnote 2 (Image)

Gregory of Nyssa: Dogmatic Treatises; Select Writings and Letters

Dogmatic Treatises. (HTML)

Against Eunomius. (HTML)

Book II (HTML)

Gregory further shows that the Only-Begotten being begotten not only of the Father, but also impassibly of the Virgin by the Holy Ghost, does not divide the substance; seeing that neither is the nature of men divided or severed from the parents by being begotten, as is ingeniously demonstrated from the instances of Adam and Abraham. (HTML)

... everything that is conceived in creation. For at one and the same time did He will that that which ought to be should be, and His power, that produced all things that are, kept pace with His will, turning His will into act. For thus the mighty Moses in the record of creation instructs us about the Divine power, ascribing the production of each of the objects that were manifested in the creation to the words that bade them be. For “God said,” he tells us, “Let there be light, and there was light[Genesis 1:3]:” and so about the rest, without any mention either of matter or of any instrumental agency. Accordingly the language of Eunomius on this point is not to be rejected. For God, when creating all things that have their origin by creation, neither ...

Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 2, Volume 8, page 63, footnote 4 (Image)

Basil: Letters and Select Works

The Hexæmeron. (HTML)

“The Earth was Invisible and Unfinished.” (HTML)

CCEL Footnote 1438 (In-Text, Margin)

7. And God said, Let there be light.[Genesis 1:3] The first word of God created the nature of light; it made darkness vanish, dispelled gloom, illuminated the world, and gave to all beings at the same time a sweet and gracious aspect. The heavens, until then enveloped in darkness, appeared with that beauty which they still present to our eyes. The air was lighted up, or rather made the light circulate mixed with its substance, and, distributing its splendour rapidly in every direction, so dispersed itself to its extreme ...

Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 2, Volume 9, page 22b, footnote 22 (Image)

Hilary of Poitiers, John of Damascus

John of Damascus: Exposition of the Orthodox Faith. (HTML)

An Exact Exposition of the Orthodox Faith. (HTML)

Book II (HTML)

Concerning light, fire, the luminaries, sun, moon and stars. (HTML)

Fire is one of the four elements, light and with a greater tendency to ascend than the others. It has the power of burning and also of giving light, and it was made by the Creator on the first day. For the divine Scripture says, And God said, Let there be light, and there was light[Genesis 1:3]. Fire is not a different thing from what light is, as some maintain. Others again hold that this fire of the universe is above the air and call it ether. In the beginning, then, that is to say on the first day, God created light, the ornament and glory of the whole visible creation. For take away light and all things remain in undistinguishable ...

Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 2, Volume 9, page 82b, footnote 12 (Image)

Hilary of Poitiers, John of Damascus

John of Damascus: Exposition of the Orthodox Faith. (HTML)

An Exact Exposition of the Orthodox Faith. (HTML)

Book IV (HTML)

Concerning the holy and immaculate Mysteries of the Lord. (HTML)

If then the Word of God is quick and energising, and the Lord did all that He willed; if He said, Let there be light and there was light, let there be a firmament and there was a firmament[Genesis 1:3]; if the heavens were established by the Word of the Lord and all the host of them by the breath of His mouth; if the heaven and the earth, water and fire and air and the whole glory of these, and, in sooth, this most noble creature, man, were perfected by the Word of the Lord; if God the Word of His own will became man and the pure and undefiled blood of the holy and ever-virginal One made His flesh ...

Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 2, Volume 10, page 134, footnote 4 (Image)

Ambrose: Select Works and Letters

Dogmatic Treatises, Ethical Works, and Sermons. (HTML)

On the Holy Spirit. (HTML)

Book II. (HTML)

Chapter XIII. Prophecy was not only from the Father and the Son but also from the Spirit; the authority and operation of the latter on the apostles is signified to be the same as Theirs; and so we are to understand that there is unity in the three points of authority, rule, and bounty; yet need no disadvantage be feared from that participation, since such does not arise in human friendship. Lastly, it is established that this is the inheritance of the apostolic faith from the fact that the apostles are described as having obeyed the Holy Spirit. (HTML)

148. And not only in Peter is there found to be one operation of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit, but also in all the apostles the unity of the divine operation, and a certain authority over the dispensations of heaven. For the divine operation works by the power of a command, not in the execution of a ministry; for God, when He works, does not fashion anything by toil or art, but “He spake and they were made.” He said, “Let there be light, and there was light,”[Genesis 1:3] for the effecting of the work is comprised in the commandment of God.

Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 2, Volume 10, page 206, footnote 13 (Image)

Ambrose: Select Works and Letters

Dogmatic Treatises, Ethical Works, and Sermons. (HTML)

Exposition of the Christian Faith. (HTML)

Book I. (HTML)

Chapter V. The various blasphemies uttered by the Arians against Christ are cited. Before these are replied to, the orthodox are admonished to beware of the captious arguments of philosophers, forasmuch as in these especially did the heretics put their trust. (HTML)

37. They say that He was created.[Genesis 1:3] But who would reckon an author with his works, and have him seem to be what he has himself made?

Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 2, Volume 10, page 270, footnote 3 (Image)

Ambrose: Select Works and Letters

Dogmatic Treatises, Ethical Works, and Sermons. (HTML)

Exposition of the Christian Faith. (HTML)

Book IV. (HTML)

Chapter VI. The fourth kind of impossibility (§49) is now taken into consideration, and it is shown that the Son does nothing that the Father approves not, there being between Them perfect unity of will and power. (HTML)

64. The Son, moreover,—to consider now our fourth premiss,—is not self-assertive, for He, the Divine Assessor, hath done nought that is not in agreement with His Father’s Will. Further, the Father hath seen the things that the Son made, and pronounced them very good; for so it is written in Genesis: “And God said, Let there be light; and there was light. And God saw the light that it was good.”[Genesis 1:3-4]

Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 2, Volume 12, page 141, footnote 2 (Image)

Leo the Great, Gregory the Great

The Letters and Sermons of Leo the Great. (HTML)

Sermons. (HTML)

On the Feast of the Nativity, VII. (HTML)

CCEL Footnote 823 (In-Text, Margin)

... have kissed my hand: what is my great iniquity and denial against the most High God822822    Ib. xxxi. 26–28.?” But what is the sun or what is the moon but elements of visible creation and material light: one of which is of greater brightness and the other of lesser light? For as it is now day time and now night time, so the Creator has constituted divers kinds of luminaries, although even before they were made there had been days without the sun and nights without the moon[Genesis 1:1-19]. But these were fashioned to serve in making man, that he who is an animal endowed with reason might be sure of the distinction of the months, the recurrence of the year, and the variety of the seasons, since through the unequal length of the ...