Early Church Fathers Scripture Index : Texts
Genesis 1:5
There are 18 footnotes for this reference.
Ante-Nicene Fathers, Volume 5, page 119, footnote 1 (Image)
Hippolytus, Cyprian, Caius, Novatian, Appendix
Hippolytus. (HTML)
The Refutation of All Heresies. (HTML)
Book VIII. (HTML)
Docetic Notion of the Incarnation; Their Doctrines of Æons; Their Account of Creation; Their Notion of a Fiery God. (HTML)
... power of darkness, and at the same time of the security and profusion of light, did not allow his brilliant attributes (which he derived) from above for any length of time to be snatched away by the darkness beneath. But (he acted in quite a contrary manner), for he subjected (darkness) to the Æons. After, then, he had formed the firmament over the nether world, “he both divided the darkness from the light, and called the light which was above the firmament day, and the darkness he called night.”[Genesis 1:4-5] When all the infinite species, then, as I have said, of the third Æon were intercepted in this the lowest darkness, the figure also of the Æon himself, such as he has been described, was impressed (upon them) along with the rest (of his attributes). ...
Ante-Nicene Fathers, Volume 8, page 668, footnote 9 (Image)
Twelve Patriarchs, Excerpts and Epistles, The Clementina, Apocryphal Gospels and Acts, Syriac Documents
Memoirs of Edessa And Other Ancient Syriac Documents. (HTML)
The Teaching of the Apostles. (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 3073 (In-Text, Margin)
4. The apostles further appointed: On the eve of the Sabbath,[Genesis 1:5] at the ninth hour, let there be service: because that which had been spoken on the fourth day of the week about the suffering of the Saviour was brought to pass on the same eve; the worlds and creatures trembling, and the luminaries in the heavens being darkened.
Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 1, Volume 1, page 195, footnote 18 (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)
That Out of the Children of the Night and of the Darkness, Children of the Light and of the Day are Made. (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 1257 (In-Text, Margin)
... us, because in mercy He was borne over our inner darksome and floating deep. Whence we have in this pilgrimage received “an earnest” that we should now be light, whilst as yet we “are saved by hope,” and are the children of light, and the children of the day,—not the children of the night nor of the darkness, which yet we have been. Betwixt whom and us, in this as yet uncertain state of human knowledge, Thou only dividest, who provest our hearts and callest the light day, and the darkness night.[Genesis 1:5] For who discerneth us but Thou? But what have we that we have not received of Thee? Out of the same lump vessels unto honour, of which others also are made to dishonour.
Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 1, Volume 3, page 75, footnote 3 (Image)
Augustine: On the Holy Trinity, Doctrinal Treatises, Moral Treatises
Doctrinal Treatises of St. Augustin (HTML)
On the Holy Trinity. (HTML)
Augustin explains for what the Son of God was sent; but, however, that the Son of God, although made less by being sent, is not therefore less because the Father sent Him; nor yet the Holy Spirit less because both the Father sent Him and the Son. (HTML)
The Three Days of the Resurrection, in Which Also the Ratio of Single to Double is Apparent. (HTML)
... resurrection of the Lord was made known, belongs to the third day; because God (who commanded the light to shine out of darkness, that through the grace of the New Testament and the partaking of the resurrection of Christ the words might be spoken to us “For ye were sometimes darkness, but now are ye light in the Lord”) intimates to us in some way that the day takes its beginning from the night. For as the first days of all were reckoned from light to night, on account of the future fall of man;[Genesis 1:4-5] so these on account of the restoration of man, are reckoned from darkness to light. From the hour, then, of His death to the dawn of the resurrection are forty hours, counting in also the ninth hour itself. And with this number agrees also His life ...
Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 1, Volume 7, page 246, footnote 5 (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 827 (In-Text, Margin)
... 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.” 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 Night.”[Genesis 1:4-5]
Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 1, Volume 8, page 27, footnote 7 (Image)
Augustine: Expositions on the Psalms
Expositions on the Book of Psalms. (HTML)
Psalm VII (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 272 (In-Text, Margin)
... 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.” 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.”[Genesis 1:4-5] This is the distinction, He made the one and ordered it: but the other He made not, but yet He ordered this too. But now that sins are signified by darkness, so is it seen in the Prophet, who says, “And thy darkness shall be as the noon day:” and in ...
Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 1, Volume 8, page 320, footnote 4 (Image)
Augustine: Expositions on the Psalms
Expositions on the Book of Psalms. (HTML)
Psalm LXXI (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 3123 (In-Text, Margin)
... of the Lord: something of prosperity cometh, preach the Salvation of the Lord. Do not preach in prosperity, and hold thy peace in adversity: otherwise there will not be that which hath been said, “all the day long.” For all the day long is day together with its own night. Do we when we say, for example, thirty days have gone by, mention the nights also; do we not under the very term days include the nights also? In Genesis what was said? “The evening was made, and the morning was made, one day.”[Genesis 1:5] Therefore a whole day is the day together with its own night: for the night doth serve the day, not the day the night. Whatever thou doest in mortal flesh, ought to serve righteousness: whatever thou doest by the commandment of God, be it not done ...
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 7, page 89, footnote 4 (Image)
Cyril of Jerusalem, Gregory Nazianzen
The Catechetical Lectures of S. Cyril. (HTML)
On the words, Crucified and Buried. (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 1586 (In-Text, Margin)
... which the Lord made;)— And that day shall be known unto the Lord, not day, and not night: what is this dark saying which the Prophet speaks? That day is neither day nor night? what then shall we name it? The Gospel interprets it, by relating the event. It was not day; for the sun shone not uniformly from his rising to his setting, but from the sixth hour till the ninth hour, there was darkness at mid-day. The darkness therefore was interposed; but God called the darkness night[Genesis 1:5]. Wherefore it was neither day nor night: for neither was it all light, that it should be called day; nor was it all darkness, that it should be called night; but after the ninth hour the sun shone forth. This also the Prophet foretels; for after ...
Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 2, Volume 8, page 42, footnote 9 (Image)
Basil: Letters and Select Works
De Spiritu Sancto. (HTML)
Of the origin of the word “with,” and what force it has. Also concerning the unwritten laws of the church. (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 1281 (In-Text, Margin)
... the week, but we do not all know the reason. On the day of the resurrection (or “standing again” Grk. ἀνάστασις) we remind ourselves of the grace given to us by standing at prayer, not only because we rose with Christ, and are bound to “seek those things which are above,” but because the day seems to us to be in some sense an image of the age which we expect, wherefore, though it is the beginning of days, it is not called by Moses first, but one.[Genesis 1:5] For he says “There was evening, and there was morning, one day,” as though the same day often recurred. Now “one” and “eighth” are the same, in itself distinctly indicating that really “one” and “eighth” of which the Psalmist makes mention in ...
Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 2, Volume 8, page 64, footnote 3 (Image)
Basil: Letters and Select Works
The Hexæmeron. (HTML)
“The Earth was Invisible and Unfinished.” (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 1447 (In-Text, Margin)
8. “ And God called the light Day and the darkness he called Night.”[Genesis 1:5] Since the birth of the sun, the light that it diffuses in the air, when shining on our hemisphere, is day; and the shadow produced by its disappearance is night. But at that time it was not after the movement of the sun, but following this primitive light spread abroad in the air or withdrawn in a measure determined by God, that day came and was followed by night.
Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 2, Volume 8, page 64, footnote 4 (Image)
Basil: Letters and Select Works
The Hexæmeron. (HTML)
“The Earth was Invisible and Unfinished.” (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 1448 (In-Text, Margin)
“ And the evening and the morning were the first day.”[Genesis 1:5] Evening is then the boundary common to day and night; and in the same way morning constitutes the approach of night to day. It was to give day the privileges of seniority that Scripture put the end of the first day before that of the first night, because night follows day: for, before the creation of light, the world was not in night, but in darkness. It is the opposite of day which was called night, and it did not receive its name until after day. Thus were ...
Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 2, Volume 8, page 64, footnote 9 (Image)
Basil: Letters and Select Works
The Hexæmeron. (HTML)
“The Earth was Invisible and Unfinished.” (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 1453 (In-Text, Margin)
... afterwards no more says day and night, but calls them both under the name of the more important: a custom which you will find throughout Scripture. Everywhere the measure of time is counted by days, without mention of nights. “The days of our years,” says the Psalmist. “Few and evil have the days of the years of my life been,” said Jacob, and elsewhere “all the days of my life.” Thus under the form of history the law is laid down for what is to follow. And the evening and the morning were one day.[Genesis 1:5] Why does Scripture say “one day the first day”? Before speaking to us of the second, the third, and the fourth days, would it not have been more natural to call that one the first which began the series? If it therefore says “one day,” it is from a ...
Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 2, Volume 9, page 23b, footnote 1 (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)
... there was light. 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 darkness, incapable of displaying their native beauty. And God called the light day, but the darkness He called night[Genesis 1:5]. Further, darkness is not any essence, but an accident: for it is simply absence of light. The air, indeed, has not light in its essence. It was, then, this very absence of light from the air that God called darkness: and it is not the essence of ...
Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 2, Volume 9, page 23b, footnote 3 (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)
... this very absence of light from the air that God called darkness: and it is not the essence of air that is darkness, but the absence of light which clearly is rather an accident than an essence. And, indeed, it was not night, but day, that was first named, so that day is first and after that comes night. Night, therefore, follows day. And from the beginning of day till the next day is one complete period of day and night. For the Scripture says, And the evening and the morning were one day[Genesis 1:5].
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 ...
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 1:5]. 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 ...
Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 2, Volume 14, page 404, footnote 1 (Image)
The Seven Ecumenical Councils
The Canons of the Council in Trullo; Often Called The Quinisext Council. (HTML)
The Canons of the Council in Trullo. (HTML)
Canon XC. (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 385 (In-Text, Margin)
For many centuries this custom was preserved even in the Latin Church; and the custom of keeping feasts and whole days generally from evening to evening is believed to have been an Apostolic tradition, received by them from the Jews. At the end of the VIII th Century the Synod of Frankfort declared in its xxj. canon, that “the Lord’s day should be kept from evening to evening.”[Genesis 1:5]