Dist. 15, Art. 2, Q. 2
by St. Bonaventure
Source text: Public Domain Mark 1.0. English translation/apparatus/encoding: CC BY-NC 4.0, Wroot Press.
https://bonaventure.wrootpress.com/browse/2/d/15/q/bon-sent-II-d15-a2-q2
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### Question II. *In what order, on the side of time, God produced the sensible things.*

Secondly it is asked concerning the order of the production of sensible things, so far as it is on the side of time. And Scripture says that the flying and swimming animals were made in one day, namely the fifth; whereas the walking animals together with man were made on another day, namely the sixth.

Against this order there are first objections on the side of the sensible animals themselves *in themselves*; and secondly, in comparison *to man*.

*To the opposite, series 1. — I argue:*

1. Against the *first* point it is objected thus. In one day all the elements were distinguished — not only air and fire, but also water and earth: therefore by parity of reason they ought to have been adorned by the supreme Maker: therefore in one day there ought to have been made the adornment of air and water and earth.

2. Likewise, the distinction of days is made according to the diversity of works: therefore if there are three elements which are adorned by animals, and three genera of animals — namely flying, swimming, and walking — it seems that they ought to have been produced at least over three days.

3. Likewise, earth was produced before all things: therefore it ought to be adorned before all things: therefore the animals which adorn the earth ought to have been produced before those which adorn the water or the air.

4. Likewise, when the animals adorning the elements are produced, they are either produced according to the order of *dignity*, beginning from the highest, or according to the order of *ascent*, beginning from the lowest. If in the *first* way: then the adornment of fire ought to be made before that of air. If in the *second* way: then the adornment of earth ought to be made before that of water — both of which are contrary to sacred Scripture and to the order of the production already determined as regards the production of the animals themselves.

*Series 2.*

Likewise, it is objected against the order of the production of animals in comparison *to man*.

5. For man has more in common with the Angels than with the beasts: therefore he ought to have been produced rather on the same day with the Angels than on the same day with the beasts: therefore the production of man and the beasts has not been rightly done on the same day.

6. Likewise, the irrational has more in common with the irrational than with man or the rational: therefore it would have been more fitting on the same day to produce all the irrational animals, than to produce together man and the brutes.

7. Likewise, the more principal work of a day ought to be done first; but man was the more principal work of the sixth day: therefore he ought to have been made before the sensible things or brutes were made; which is against the order of sacred Scripture.

8. Likewise, the posterior is more in need of the prior than conversely; but the brute animals had more need of man than man had need of them in that state: therefore man ought to have been produced before they came into being.

### Conclusion.

> In the production of sensible things a most fitting order was preserved, according to a twofold distinction of order.

**I respond:** It must be said that in the production of sensible things a twofold order is regarded: one according to the distinction of *day from day*, the other according to the order of those things which were produced *on the same day*. — The *first* order is regarded according to the requirement of *end* and *matter*. And because the flying and swimming animals were produced from the waters — taking "water" generally for moisture and vapor — and they belong to the adornment of the transparent nature; therefore sacred Scripture says they were made *in one day*. But because the walking animals — not only the rational, but also the irrational — pertain to the adornment of the earth, and were produced from the same matter, namely earth; therefore they were made not on the same day, but on *another* day from the foregoing, in such a way that, just as in one day was adorned the *celestial* nature, namely the fourth, so in one day be adorned the *transparent* elemental nature, namely the fifth, and in another the *earth*, namely the sixth. And just as the celestial nature precedes the transparent elemental, and the transparent precedes the opaque, so the adornments of these natures were produced in a correspondingly ordered sequence of time.

*Second order.* The *second* order, which is among those things which were produced on the same day, is regarded according to the excellence of perfection of nature; for that which is imperfect is produced first, and then that which is perfect, since this is the order, that one passes from the less complete to the more complete. And therefore Scripture says that the *swimming* animals were produced first on the fifth day, since they are less perfect than the *flying*; and similarly on the sixth day it says that the *irrational* animals were produced before *man*.

*Three reasons why man is produced after all things.* Although many reasons could be assigned why man was produced after the rest of the creatures, three reasons occur for the present why man was produced after all things — namely on account of the *multitude* of the parts of his body, on account of the *distance* of the soul and the body, and on account of the *perfection* of the whole composite. On account of the *multitude* of the parts of the body, man had to be produced last. For since his body is the most complete among other bodies, and the more composite a thing is, the later it is — so after all things he had to be produced. — On account of the *distance* of soul and body he had to be made after the rest. For because the soul is distant from the body — not only as form from matter, but also as spiritual from corporeal and «as the perpetual from the corruptible» — therefore a great distance of time had to intervene before the production of man as regards the material principle and the conjunction of his parts, so that through the distance of time the distance of the constituting principles might be understood. — On account of the *perfection* of the whole composite, man had to be produced after the rest. For because man, by his dignity and as the completion of the end, is of all corporeal things; therefore he was to be produced after all things, so that by his production he might finish and complete all preceding things, just as the end completes what is ordered to it. — *General conclusion.* And thus it is plain that the divine wisdom preserved a most fitting order in the production of sensible things.

*Solution of the opposing arguments.*

1. To that which is first objected — that the elements were distinguished simultaneously — it must be said that the case is not similar: because *distinction* in one element is only with respect to another, therefore one element cannot be distinguished from another without the other being distinguished from it; but it is not so in *adornment*, for the adornment of one element does not necessarily regard another.

2. To that which is objected — that there are three elements which are adorned, therefore etc. — it must be said that even if there are three, nevertheless the adornment of two, namely air and water, does not regard them as they are *two*, but as they communicate *in one*, namely in the aqueous nature, as was determined above; and therefore the adornment of two pertains to the same day, and the production of animals which adorn those two elements was done in one day.

3. To that which is objected — that earth was produced first — it must be said that this is false. For in the beginning of Genesis *earth* is not taken for *element*, but for *matter*.

4. To that which is objected concerning fire — that because it is most excellent among the elements, it ought to be adorned first — it must be said that on account of its active quality animals cannot live in it, and on account of its excessive distance from us they would not be apt for the use of man; and therefore its adornment is not determined, neither after nor before. But the adornment of earth is ordered last, in that it is itself the lowest and most obscure, and therefore needs the greatest adornment; and on this account it is adorned with plants and animals and minerals, and in its adornment consists the completion of the whole adornment with respect to man, who is the most excellent among the other animals.

5. 6. To that which is objected — that man ought to have been produced with the Angels, with whom he has more in common — it must be said that although he has more in common, so far as it is on the side of the soul, nevertheless not so much so far as it is on the side of the body. — Similarly to the next [argument] it must be said that, although the walking and flying animals have more in common in formal perfection, nevertheless they do not have so much in common as regards the element from which they are principally constituted and which they adorn; which indeed is the element of earth.

7. To that which is objected — that the more principal work ought to be first — it must be said that this is false, because in things which are produced, the less perfect is before the more perfect according to the order of generation, although the more perfect is prior according to the order of dignity.

8. To that which is objected — that the posterior is in need of the prior — it must be said that this is true when some things are so ordered that an *essential* order falls between them: but when there is an order of mere *congruence*, as in the matter at hand, it is not necessary that it hold true.

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