What Moses wrote of the making of the world
I am not yet saying that, if he had, as he puts it, “been patient and borne to listen to the writings” of Moses and the prophets, he would have noticed why the words “God made” are applied to heaven and earth (Genesis 1:1), and to what is called the firmament (Genesis 1:7), and further to the lights and the stars (Genesis 1:16); after these to the great sea creatures and every soul “of creeping living things, which the waters brought forth according to their kinds,” and every winged bird “according to its kind” (Genesis 1:21); next to the wild beasts “of the earth according to their kind,” and the cattle “according to their kind,” and all the creeping things “of the earth according to their kind” (Genesis 1:25); and last of all to man (Genesis 1:27). But “made” is not said of other things. For light, the text is content with “light came to be” (Genesis 1:3); and for the gathering into one of all the water beneath the whole heaven, with “it was so” (Genesis 1:9). It is the same with the things that sprouted from the earth, when “the earth brought forth plants of grass, sowing seed according to their kind and likeness, and the fruit-bearing tree yielding fruit whose seed is in it, according to its kind, on the earth” (Genesis 1:12).
He would also have asked to whom, whether to one or to more than one, the written commands of God about the coming into being of each part of the world were spoken. And he would not lightly have accused, as unintelligible and holding no hidden meaning, what was written here either by Moses or, as we would say, by the divine Spirit in Moses, by whom he also prophesied. For Moses knew “the things that are, the things that will be, and the things that were before” (Homer, Iliad 1.70) better than the seers whom the poets speak of as having known them.
Greek
Οὔπω δὲ λέγω ὅτι, εἴπερ ὑπέμεινε καὶ ἠνέσχετο ἐπακοῦσαι τῶν, ὥς φησι, συγγραμμάτων Μωϋσέως καὶ τῶν προφητῶν, ἐπέστησεν ἂν, τί δήποτε τὸ μὲν „ἐποίησεν ὁ θεὸς“ ἐπ᾿ οὐρανοῦ καὶ γῆς τέτακται καὶ τοῦ καλουμένου στερεώματος ἔτι δὲ καὶ φωστήρων καὶ ἀστέρων καὶ μετὰ ταῦτα ἐπὶ κητῶν μεγάλων καὶ πάσης ψυχῆς „ζῴων ἑρπετῶν, ἃ ἐξήγαγε τὰ ὕδατα κατὰ γένη αὐτῶν,“ καὶ παντὸς πετεινοῦ πτερωτοῦ „κατὰ γένος“ καὶ ἑξῆς τούτοις ἐπὶ τῶν θηρίων „τῆς γῆς κατὰ γένος“ καὶ τῶν κτηνῶν „κατὰ γένος“ καὶ πάντων τῶν ἑρπετῶν „τῆς γῆς κατὰ γένος“ αὐτῶν καὶ τελευταῖον ἐπὶ τοῦ ἀνθρώπου. μὴ εἰρημένου δὲ τοῦ „ἐποίησε“ περὶ ἑτέρων. ἀρκεῖται ὁ λόγος περὶ φωτὸς μὲν τῷ „ἐγένετο φῶς“ ἐπὶ δὲ συναγωγῆς μιᾶς παντὸς ὕδατος τοῦ ὑποκάτω παντὸς τοῦ οὐρανοῦ τῷ „ἐγένετο οὕτως“· ὁμοίως δὲ καὶ ἐπὶ τῶν βλαστησάντων ἀπὸ γῆς, ὅτ᾿ „ἐξήνεγκεν ἡ γῆ βοτάνην χόρτου σπεῖρον σπέρμα κατὰ γένος καὶ καθ᾿ ὁμοιότητα καὶ ξύλον κάρπιμον ποιοῦν καρπὸν, οὗ τὸ σπέρμα αὐτοῦ ἐν αὐτῷ κατὰ γένος ἐπὶ τῆς γῆς.“ καὶ ἐζήτησεν ἂν, εἰ αἱ γεγραμμέναι προστάξεις τοῦ θεοῦ περὶ τοῦ γενέσθαι ἕκαστον τοῦ κόσμου μέρος τίνι ἢ τίσιν εἴρηνται, καὶ οὐκ ἂν εὐχερῶς κατηγόρησεν ὡς ἀδιανοήτων καὶ μηδεμίαν σύνεσιν ἀπόῤῥητον ἐχόντων τῶν ἢ ὑπὸ Μωϋσέως ἐν τούτοις γεγραμμένων ἢ, ὡς ἡμεῖς εἴποιμεν ἂν, ὑπὸ τοῦ ἐν Μωϋσεῖ θείου πνεύματος, ἀφ᾿ οὗ καὶ ἐπροφήτευσεν· ἐπεὶ μᾶλλον ᾔδει τά τ᾿ ἐόντα τά τ᾿ ἐσσόμενα πρό τ᾿ ἐόντα τῶν λεγομένων παρὰ τοῖς ποιηταῖς μάντεων ταῦτ᾿ ἐγνωκέναι.