ORIGEN has written seventeen Homilies upon Genesis, wherein a Comment on this whole Book is included. These however are but the least Part of his Performance on this first Book of the Bible; for he composed twelve, and perhaps thirteen Books of Comments, and two more of Mystical Homilies. M. Huet found some Fragments of these Books on Genesis, and printed them in Greek and Latin, in the first Tome of his Edition. Sixtus of Siena says, that the Homilies remaining with us in Latin only in the Edition of Frobenius and Genebrard, are Part of his Mystical Homilies. This is neither M. Huet’s nor our Opinion, because they are not laboured sufficiently, and may be some of those which he pronounced extempore. The Merit of this Author in expounding Scripture is very well known. It is agreed, that no one is more succesful in the Allegorical and Moral way of Interpretation. As he was very well skilled in Languages, he was very capable of making likewise good literal Comments; and when he undertakes to explain any Passage literally, he generally performs it very well. It is of consequence to read him carefully, because he is both very ancient, and an Original; and the greatest part of those who have come after him, have consulted him, alluded to him, copied or confuted him.
Origen, who was born in Egypt, in 185, of Christian Parents, for his Father Leonidas suffered Martyrdom for the Faith in 202, was one of the greatest Genius’s of his Age. His Doctrine has appeared always to be very ambiguous; but there is room to presume that his Writings have been corrupted. He was a perfect Master of all Sciences, Human and Divine; so that he was the principal Teacher of his Time. His Death happened in 253, when he was in his 69th Year.
St. John Chrysostom, Archbishop of Constantinople, wrote many learned Comments on the Scripture, and in particular sixty-seven Homilies on Genesis, wherein he explains all this divine Book. There are besides eight Homilies on different Places of Genesis, printed at the End of his Comment. This great Doctor is very justly esteemed the most excellent Interpreter of Scripture that the Greek Church has produced. He is clear, solid, learned and judicious. His common Method in all his Homilies, after he has well settled the literal Sense, is to add Moral and Spiritual Reflections, suggested by a deep Insight into the Matter he is handling. The Greek Commentators who have written since St. Chrysostom, have done little more than copied, or abridged him; so that when we have read St. Chrysostom, we may be said to have seen the best part of that which is contained in Theodoret, Euthymius, Theophylact, and Oecumenius. St. Chrysostom’s Works are very well known, and a new Edition of them is now actually in hand, which will be more perfect than any of the former.
St. Chrysostom’s sixty-seven Homilies in Greek are in the first Tome of Savil’s Edition, the other eight in the fifth, p. 1. and 31. in Greek; and in Latin in the second Tome of Morel’s Edition, p. 1. and Tom. 5. p. 773. Dom Montfaucon has published both the one and the other, in the fourth Tome of his new Edition. He has added a long and very fine Preface, wherein he mentions the Number of these Homilies, the Place and Time wherein they were pronounced. He has farther inserted Observations for the better Illustration of some difficult Passages. He has besides given us a ninth Homily, with an Advertisement, ibid. p. 645.
As to the Style of these Homilies, we may say, with Photius, that the Clearness, Beauty and Copiousness so usual in this Golden Mouth is throughout discernable: Sentences and Comparisons are likewise very frequent in them. These however are the first that he preached, and when he was only a Priest. His principal Aim in them is Morality, and to make his Hearers rather Good than Learned, without however neglecting the Literal Sense, as often as he thinks it necessary.
St. Chrysostom was originally of Antioch, where he was born about the Year 347. He had the Art betimes of uniting Wisdom with Eloquence. He was advanced to the See of Constantinople in the Year 398. He behaved himself in it with all the Firmness becoming a pious Bishop, to the Year 404, when he was sent into Exile, in which he died in the Year 407.
St. Austin has written twelve Books entitled De Genesi ad litteram, wherein he explains only the three first Chapters of Genesis. This is very far from being a Critical and Literal Comment. This holy Doctor treats here at large of several Theological Questions, and occasionally explains many things which some way relate either to the Letter or History of Scripture. In the second Book of his Retractations, he says, that he has proposed more Questions in this Work than he has resolved; In quo opere plura quæsita, quàm inventa sunt; & eorum quæ inventa sunt, pauciora firmata.
The same St. Austin has written an imperfect Book upon Genesis, wherein he attempted, soon after his Conversion, to try how far he was capable of making an Historical and Literal Comment upon Scripture; but he soon perceived that he was not sufficiently exercised in this kind of Study; and before he had finished one Book only, he gave over the Design. This imperfect Book goes no farther than the twenty-sixth Verse of the first Chapter of Genesis. He afterwards supplied what he could not then perform, by composing his twelve Books De Genesi ad litteram, whereof we have before taken notice.
Lastly, in the two last Books of his Confessions, he has allegorically explained the Beginning of Genesis, against the Manichees.
All that we have mentioned of St. Austin’s upon Genesis, is in the third Tome, Part I. of the new Edition.
Nothing is more humble than what he himself says of them in the first Book of his Retractations; In Scripturis exponendis tyrocinium meum sub tantâ Sarcinæ mole succubuit. Cassiodorus speaks otherwise of them, in the first Book of his Divine Institutions, where he says that he has excelled what others wrote before him on the same Subject; Opus suum longè in aliam Summitatem Domino largiente perduxit.
St. Eucherius, of whom we have spoken in the first Article of this Part, wrote a Comment upon Genesis, which is in the 5th Volume of the Great Bibliotheca Patrum, at Lyons, p. 861. This Author is not very well known; nor is he believed to be the Archbishop of Lyons; but whoever this Author may be, who perhaps as well as so many others, had a mind to make a Merit to himself of so great a Name, his Comment upon Genesis is nothing but a Medley of Passages or Extracts, taken from St. Austin, St. Jerome, and other Fathers who lived before him, and are copied by him without citing them.
St. Jerom has written a Treatise of Questions, or Hebrew Traditions upon Genesis, which may pass for a Critical and Literal short Comment on this Book. They are in the second Volume of the new Edition, p. 506, 549. Dom Martianay has added Observations for the better Explanation of some obscure Places, ibid. p. 550. With these Questions may be joined the three Letters which follow, since they concontain other Questions on some difficult Passages of Genesis, and resolves them. Herein this Saint explains the Meaning of many Hebrew Words, criticizes particular Places of the Septuagint and other Greek Interpreters, and introduces some Traditions of the Jews. St. Jerom’s great Learning, and the eminent Services he has done the Church, are known universally. His way of expounding Scripture is more literal, more critical and learned than that generally of other Fathers. He had read a great deal, and filled his Comments with the Flower of Origen’s Writings, of those by Didymus, Apollinarius, Theodorus of Heraclea, Eusebius of Cæsarea, and of others of the Ancients who preceded him. But as he does not cite them, it is no easy matter to distinguish what is his own, from what he has borrowed from these great Men, and to reconcile all the opposite Opinions observable in his Writings, which should indeed be placed to the Account of those Authors whom he copied, and should not be imputed to himself.
St. Jerom, born about the Year 378, the City of Stridon upon the Confines of Dalmatia and Pannonia, was by his Parents sent betimes to Rome, there to carry on his Studies. He made a great Progress in a short Time. After he had gone over the holy Places of Judea and Syria, to visit the Anchorites, who lived there in the most frightful Desarts, he retired to Bethlehem, and died there in 420.
St. Basil the Great, Bishop of Cæsarea in Cappadocia, has composed an excellent Work, entituled Hexaëmeron, upon the Beginning of Genesis, or the Work of six Days: It is a Master-piece of Eloquence and Learning.
St. Gregory, Bishop of Nyssa, Brother to St. Basil, has written a Book likewise on the Hexaëmeron; another on the Creation of Man; two Discourses on these Words, Let us make Man after our own Image and Likeness; and a Treatise on the Life of Moses. He discusses several important Questions in his Discourse on the Formation of Man; and all that he has written is agreeable and useful.
The Work of these two Saints, Basil and Gregory, is in Greek and Latin, in the first Volume of their Writings, together with what they composed with relation to Genesis.
The Greek Fathers admired that of St. Basil, as well because of the great Eloquence of its Author, as for a certain kind of Erudition which is very singular: For in it the perfect Orator is to be discern’d rather than the Interpreter of Scripture. St. Gregory is shorter in his Exposition; and without touching upon the same Questions, contents himself with explaining the natural Order of the Creation. He is more diffuse in his Treatise on the Creation of Man. As to the Life of Moses, it is rather a History than a Comment.
St. Ambrose, Archbishop of Milan has composed six Books on the Hexaëmeron, or Work of six Days, which are scarce any thing more than a Translation of St. Basil on the same Subject; a Book concerning the Terrestrial Paradise; two Books of Cain and Abel; one of Noah and the Ark; two of Abraham; one of Isaac and the Soul; two others of Jacob, and a happy Life; one of the Patriarch Joseph; and lastly, a Book concerning the Blessings of the Patriarchs; all which relates to the Book of Genesis. St. Ambrose’s Method in his Writings upon Scripture, is to keep to the Allegorical and Moral Interpretation, rather that to the Literal, to History or Criticism. He follows very readily the Ancients who have wrote before him. As he understood Greek, he has taken a great deal from Philo, Origen, Didymus, Hippolytus the Martyr, and St. Basil. He is sometimes affected and obscure by reason of his Allegories, and the frequent Allusions which he makes to Scripture. His Hexaëmeron, and other Works that relate to Genesis, are in the first Tome of the new Paris Edition.
What he has written upon the Terrestrial Paradise is more elaborate and learned, because he set about this Undertaking the first Year he was made a Bishop. He is more elegant in his two Books upon Cain and Abel. There are a great many good Moral Instructions in it. In his Book of the Ark he adheres to the Literal Sense more than elsewhere, and reports the Opinions of others with great Erudition.
St. Ambrose was born in Gaul about the Year 340. He went through his Studies at Rome; and when he was Governor of Milan, he was by all the People chosen Bishop, in the Year 374, and died in 397. We need only read his Works to be acquainted with his true Genius, and with the Sanctity of his Life. Eustathius Bishop of Antioch, who lived in the fourth Age, has made a famous Treatise concerning the Witch of Endor, which we shall speak of on the Books of Samuel: See upon Saul. He is said to be the Author of a Work on the Hexaëmeron, to be met with in the great Bibliotheca Patrum, in Latin, and published by Allatius in Greek and Latin at Lyons, 1629, in 4to. with his Notes, and the Treatise on the Witch of Endor. But this is certainly very different from that published by Allatius; for it is only a Latin Version of St. Basil’s Greek Hexa- ëmeron, which for this Reason has been inserted in the old Latin Editions of this Father, at Antwerp, 1616, in fol. p. 666. That put out by Allatius is also in Latin only, together with his Preface in the same Bibliotheca Patrum, tom. 27. p. 22. so that they are two very different Works. This Piece on the Hexaëmeron put out by Allatius is believed by some to be written by another Author, who, either assumed or really had the Name of Eustathius: But however this may be, there is a great Shew of Learning in it, with a good Mixture of Natural History. He abridges the History of the Bible, from the Beginning of the World to the Death of Joshua. The Work is short, and may be read with Pleasure and Advantage.
Eustathius was of the City of Sida in Pamphylia. He was one of the first who declared against the Arian Heresy, and opposed it, both by Word of Mouth and Writing; which drew upon him the Hatred of those who were Enemies to the Faith, who had recourse to Calumny in order to find some Pretence for deposing him, and procuring him to be sent into Banishment, in which he died about the Year 338.
There are two Pieces of Venerable Bede upon Genesis, one entitled, Commentarii in Hexaëmeron, tom. 4. p. 1, 2, 3. the other, Expositio Venerabilis Bedæ Presbyt. in primum lib. Moysi, &c. It is very dubious whether this last be Venerable Bede’s; and the first is but a small Part of that which he did certainly compose on Genesis, as he himself shews, in the Catalogue of his Works. M. Henry Wharton published in 1693, in 4to. Lond. what was wanting of Bede’s Comment, which is continued from the Birth of Isaac to the Dismission of Ishmael and Hagar.
We have already said above that Dom Martene has likewise published it in his Anecdotes. He has added Notes and Various Readings. See the first Article of this Part, where we have spoken of Bede. The little we have remaining upon Genesis is a succinct Exposition, and agreable to read. Herein we have an easy Explanation of the most abstruse Sense of Scripture, and fine Maxims for the Regulation of Life.
Alcuinus, or Albinus Flaccus, has written a very useful and succinct Work on Genesis, in the way of Questions and Answers. They were printed separately at Hagueneau in 1529, in 8vo. and since by Dom Luke d’ Achery, in the second Part of his Edition of Alcuinus. He has added his Explanation on these Words, Faciamus Hominem, &c. p. 54. This is only as it were an Appendix to the first Work.
Alcuinus was an Englishman by Birth, invited by Charlemain into France, and died in 804, quite worn out with old Age; Effœto jam corpore, as he himself says, in his 17th Letter.
He was a wise, humble, modest, learned Man, and withal a good Christian, says M. Baillet in his Life, on May 19.
Anastatius Sinaita wrote eleven Books of Moral Reflections upon the Hexaëmeron, printed in Latin only, in the ninth Volume of the Bibliotheca Patrum, of the Lyons Edition, p. 857, &c. under this Title, Anagogicarum Contemplationum in Hexaëmeron, lib. 2. They were printed in Greek and Latin at Paris, in 1606, in 4to. by the Care of John Tarin. The 12th Book has been since published at London, 1682, in 4to. in Greek and Latin, by Claude Allix. We find some Greek Fragments of it in the new Edition of St. John Damascenus by Le Quien, tom. 1. p. 174. There are besides 154 Questions upon Scripture, said to be this Author’s, with the Answers, printed in Greek and Latin, at Ingoldstadt, 1617, in 4to. These Works are scarce of any use in illustrating the sacred Text; nor indeed is this the Author’s principal Design, who is more intent upon making Reflections of a Moral and Spiritual Nature, than any that are Literal.
There are two Authors known by the Name of Anastatius Sinaita, the Elder and the Younger, who both professed a Monastick Life upon Mount Sinai, and were successively Patriarchs of Antioch; but we do not well know to which of them the two particular Pieces belong that we have been describing.
St. Bonaventure wrote three and twenty Discourses upon the Hexaëmeron: They are in the first Tome of his Works, p. 9. of the Edition of Mentz, 1609, in fol. seven Volumes. They had been before printed together with his Psalter at Rome, 1588, in 8vo. They abound with Moral and Mystical Reflections, and with tropological and figurative Interpretations.
St. Bonaventure was born in Tuscany, in the Year 1221, took the Habit of St. Francis in 1243, was made Cardinal in 1273, and died the Year following, in July. Profundus est non verbosus, says the learned Gerson, Subtilis non curiosus, disertus non vanus; flammantia non inflantia verba proferens.
John Pico of Mirandola, celebrated for the great number of his Works, and surnamed The Faultless Monster, has written seven Books upon the first Chapter of Genesis, entitled, Heptaplus de opere Sex Dierum, and printed in the first Volume of his Works. Every Book is divided into seven Chapters: The first treats of the Elementary World; the second of the Heavens, and the Cœlestial World; the third, of Angels, and the State of the Blessed; the fourth, of Man; the fifth, of all the several Worlds in particular; the sixth, of their Relation to one another; the seventh, of Eternal Happiness. This Work does not seem to me to be of much use in the Explanation of Moses; and the Author is too sublime for the generality of Readers. M. Dupin says his Heptaplus is rather an Essay than a compleat Work: It had been printed before at Strasburg, 1574, in fol.
Picus was an Italian, and Count of Mirandola, born in 1463. After having gone through all the Sciences in a very little Time, he died at Florence in the Year 1494, and the 31st of his Age. If he had Learning, as no one can question, he had still more Piety and Virtue: For he was a truly Christian Philosopher, who made no other use of his great Knowledge but to live and die well.
Aloysius Lippomannus, or Lewis Lippoman, has left us a Catena, taken from the Greek and Latin Fathers, upon Genesis, Exodus, and the Psalms: to these he has added the Remarks of Strabus, St. Thomas, and Cajetan, and his own Annotations, which are generally Critical and Literal.
The first Edition of his Catena is of 1546, in fol. at Paris, and afterwards at Lyons, in one large Volume in fol. Fabricius, in his Bibliotheca Græca, Book V. Chap. 17. p. 733, has given us the Catalogue of the sixty Authors whereof this Writer has made Extracts.
Catena’s of this kind are of no great Use; it is much better to read the Explanations of the Fathers in their original Sources, than in the little Streams, the Water whereof is not always very pure.
Lippoman distinguished himself by the Innocency of his Life, and his Application to Study; for his great Affairs did not prevent his reading the Greek and Latin Fathers, nor his writing the Lives of the Saints, and much less his imitating them. He was Bishop of Verona, and died in 1559.
His Comment upon Genesis is in one large Volume fol. printed at Lyons in 1657. In this he has inserted Extracts of about sixty ancient and modern Authors.
Benedictus Pererius, or Pereira, a Spanish Jesuit, who was born at Valentia in 1535, and died at Rome in 1610, at the Age of 75, has left an excellent Comment upon Genesis, printed in two Vols. fol. or in four Vols. in 4to. The twelve first Chapters take up the first Volume, which is divided into sixteen Books, and into many Questions or Disputations, which the Author handles at large, relating what may be said pro and con. The second Part is treated in a more succinct Manner, and has more the Form of a Comment. Pererius was a learned, solid, and judicious Man, and his Comment alone may be instead of many others upon Genesis. The best and last Edition of it is that of 1685, at Cologn, in fol. because it contains all his Works on Scripture. Montague says it is a learned and laborious Work; Doctum & laboriosum opus.
Ambrosius Catherinus, a Dominican, has made a Comment upon the first five Chapters of Genesis, upon St. Paul’s Epistles, and the Canonical Epistles. He often opposes Cajetan, though of the same Order. This Author is bold, and free in his Opinions. His Work was printed at Rome, 1552, and 1556, in fol. In it he treats particularly on such Questions as relate to the sacred Text, and sometimes to Divinity. To this his Annotations on Cajetan’s Comments should be added, printed at Lyons, 1543, in 8vo.
Catharinus was born at Siena in Tuscany in 1487: At thirty Years of age he turned Dominican, was made Bishop of Minori in the Kingdom of Naples, whence he was translated by Pope Julius III. to the Archbishoprick of Conza. He died in the Year 1553.
Ascanii Martinengi, Canon. Regul. Ordinis S. Aug. Glossæ magnæ in Genesim, two Vols. fol. Patavii 1597. This Author shews himself to be a Man of Learning, but he is a little too diffuse.
In this prodigious Work we find, says F. le Long, all the different Editions, Phrases, and Hebrew Expressions, Literal as well as Mystical Explanations, taken from near two hundred Fathers. He assures us, that what he had done upon the whole Scripture, was in the Library of St. Saviour in Brescia.
He was of Brescia in Italy, a Canon-Regular, Abbot, and General of his Order. He died in 1600.
Marinus Mersennus, a Minim, has written a long Comment on the six first Chapters of Genesis, in the way of Questions upon the most difficult and noted Places of this Book. The Title of this Work, as F. le Long reports it is, Quæstiones celeberrimæ in Genesim, cum accuratâ Textûs explicatione. He has added to it Observations and Corrections on the Problems of George Venetus, upon Genesis; the whole printed at Paris, 1623 and 1625, in fol. What is wanting on the rest of Genesis is in Manuscript in the Library belonging to the Minims of Paris, as F. le Long farther takes notice. In Reality, M. Baillet, in his Life of Descartes, tom. 1. p. 110. in 4to. says, that what is printed makes but the first Tome.
This is the Work rather of a Philosopher and a Divine than of a Commentator: In it he attacks particularly the Atheists and Roscrusians. It would be convenient to read Sixtinus Amama’s Letter written hereupon to F. Mersennus: It is in the London Criticks, tom. 1. p. 60. This Monk was very well versed in the Languages and Mathematicks: He was born in 1588, turned Minim at Paris in 1611, and died there in 1648, and the 60th of his Age.
John le Mercier wrote in particular a Comment upon Genesis, printed with his other Works in fol. at Geneva, 1598, under the Direction of his Son Josiah. This Writer is one of the greatest Masters of the Hebrew that France has at any time produced. His Works are learned and elaborate, but very dry, and in them he keeps very close to the Grammatical Sense of Scripture.
This Author was of Uzés: He has been thought to be a Calvinist, but this is a Mistake. Thuanus in his History says he was a Man of admirable Candor, and great Learning, and that he led a very unexceptionable Life.
Florianus Nannius, has published a Comment upon Genesis, with this Title, Catena argentea in Genesim, in 4to. Bononiæ, 1587. In this there is only what he wrote upon the first Chapter; what followed, as far as the eighth, is in Manuscript at Rome, says F. le Long. So that Crow and M. Dupin are mistaken when they say that his Catena upon all the Scripture had been printed.
Nanni was an Italian, a Canon-Regular of Lateran, Bishop of Scala in the Kingdom of Naples. He died in 1598. His Catena is taken from the School Divines, which should not give us any great Idea of it.
Gulielmi Hameri Ordinis Prædicatorum Commentationes in Genesim plurimis clarissimorum linguæ Hebraicæ, Græcæ, Latinæ, Auctorum sacrorum & Profanorum Sententiis ornatæ. Sixtus of Siena, in his Bibliotheca, calls them learned, useful, and agreeable Explanations.
Hamer was of Nuis in the Diocese of Cologn, turned Dominican, and died in 1564.
Firmini à Capitiis Expositio in Genesim. His Exposition was printed at Paris, 1567, in 8vo. It goes no farther than the Birth of Isaac. He was by Nation a Frenchman, of the Order of St. Francis, in 1580.
Hieronymus Vielmius has written upon the first Chapters of Genesis, or the Work of Six Days. His Book was printed at Venice, in 4to. 1575.
Martin Delrio wrote a Book entituled, Pharus Sacræ Sapientiæ, printed at Lyons in 1608, in 4to. Properly speaking it contains only Literal Glosses upon Genesis.
He was born at Antwerp in 1551, went into Spain, where he turned Jesuit, and died too soon for the Execution of those great Designs which he had formed; for he was but fifty-eight at the time of his Deceafe.
Lewis de Ystella, a Dominican, who died in 1614, has written an Explanation of Genesis interlined, and Scholia, printed at Rome in 1601, in fol.
Gabriel à Costa, Professor of Coimbra in Portugal, made a Comment upon the xlixth Chapter of Genesis, and not upon nine and forty, as some have believed: For he explains only the Blessings of the Twelve Patriarchs. It is in fol. printed with his other Works, at Lyons, in 1641. The Author died in 1616, before his Works could come out.
Ægidius of Viterbo, or rather Giles Colonna, wrote a Comment upon the three first Chapters of Genesis, printed at Venice, 1521, 4to. and afterwards at Padua. He understood the learned Languages. He is particularly known for the great number of other Works composed by him. See upon the Canticles.
Giles Colonna was of the illustrious Family of the Colonna’s, an Augustinian Hermit, and chosen General of his Order in 1292. He was afterwards nominated to the Archbishoprick of Bourges, and died in 1316, at 69 Years of Age.
Simeon de Muis wrote learned Notes upon Genesis, printed in the ninth Tome of the Great Criticks, p. 2605, and with his Comment upon the Psalms, at Paris, 1650 fol. The Title of his Notes is, Varia Sacra in Pentateuchum.
In these he explains the most difficult Passages of Scripture in a short and succinct manner.
We are obliged to Dom Bernard Pez and Dom Martene, for giving us four Pieces upon Genesis, which had not hitherto been published. The first is Angelome’s Comment, in the first Tome of Pez’s Anecdotes, p. 45. printed at Augsburg in 1721, 4 Vols. fol.
The Author, he says, herein explains the sacred Text, nervosé & breviter, by producing however Passages from St. Jerom, St. Austin, and other Fathers, according to the Custom of his Time. He was a Monk of Luxieu, and dwelt for some Time, as he himself says, in the Emperor Lothaire’s Palace.
The second is Honorius’s Comment of Autun upon the Work of Six Days, ibid. Tom. 2. p. 71. He speaks of it himself in the seventeenth Chapter of his Catalogue of Writers.
He was a Priest, and chief Master of the Schools belonging to the Church of Autun from 1090 to 1120. He is to be commended for having made large Collections; but in this Performance he did not use all the Diligence that was necessary, as M. Dupin says.
The third is Remigius’s Comment of Auxerre, ibid. tom. 4. Part I. It is succinct and elegant. The Author is not satisfied with reporting what the Ancients have said; he inserts a great deal of his own composing, and has taken the Pains of an original Author.
He presided over the Schools of Rheims, and died about the Year 900. but he was not Archbishop of this City. He distinguished himself very much by his Learning.
The fourth is Peter Abelard’s Treatise upon the Six Days Work, placed by Dom Martene in the fifth Tome of his Anecdotes, p. 1361, 1412. He follows the Literal, Allegorical, and moral Sense. His Wit and Learning were discernable in his Performance. His Adventures have made him so generally known, that it is not necessary to say any thing of him in this Place. We shall have occasion to speak of him elsewhere.
John de la Haye published Literal Comments upon Genesis, at Paris, three Vols. in fol. 1663, the third Edition; and others, which we shall take Notice of in the Articles upon Exodus and the Revelations.
There were two Authors of this Name and Surname; one a Jesuit, the other a Cordelier, who have both written a great deal on Scripture. We have already spoken of the Cordelier, in the general Article of Commentators; we shall say more of the other when we come to the Harmonies of the Gospels, or Introductions to Scripture.
John Paul Oliva has joined his Comment upon Genesis with that which he wrote on Esdras. See hereafter upon Esdras.There are others, who, without making Comments, have attempted to explain some Passages of Genesis which to them seemed difficult; or to form new Systems concerning the Creation of the World; such are the new Essays of Physical Explanations of the first Chapter, by M. de Saint Rambert, and others, whereof we shall say something in the next Article.
Curious Questions upon Genesis, in French, were published at Paris, 1685, in 12mo. These are a kind of agreeable and instructive Comment. For example, Enquiry is made, To which of the two, Adam or Eve, the Rib which was made use of in the Formation of the Latter, will be restored at the Day of general Resurrection; and the Answer returned is that given by Tostatus, who first proposed this Question, that there being no Necessity for Men to reassume at that time every Particle of their Substance, which is daily lost, and repaired by fresh Nourishment, for otherwise at their Resurrection they would be monstrous Creatures, the Rib must be restored to Eve, not to Adam; since at the time of God’s taking it from him, he placed another in the room of it, which at the Last Day will be given him again.
In like manner, it is demanded, Whether it was the Serpent which tempted Eve, or the Devil in the Shape of a Serpent? Cajetan was of opinion that it was the Devil in his own proper Person, whom the Scripture calls a Serpent metaphorically only; to whom likewise the Use of Speech, and the Quality of Cunning may be supposed much better to belong, than to this Animal; but his Opinion in this Particular is contrary to that which is received with much more Reason, viz. That upon this Occasion there was a Devil and a Serpent both together.
The Examination into the Existence and Situation of Paradise is very curious: Here we see how it may be proved, by the Authority of the Fathers of the Church, by Scripture and Reason, that this delicious Place is still actually subsisting: On the other side, we read likewise the Foundation which there is for our believing that it has been ruined and destroyed; which nevertheless, as the Author shews, has not happened so absolutely and entirely as not to have it said that this Paradise is in some manner in Being. As to the Situation of it, he observes, that it neither was extended over the whole Earth, as Josephus believed, nor under the Equinoctional Line, or in any Place of the East-Indies, as certain Catholicks have advanced; nor, lastly, confined to Armenia, Mesopotamia, or Palestine in particular, but spread itself at once into every one of these three Regions.
The Number of Eve’s Children has likewise furnished Matter for a curious Question. It must certainly have been great, if we consider the Length of our first Parents Lives; but it is not credible however, that in the 930 Years which Eve lived with her Husband, she should bring him, as Salian will have it, eighteen hundred Children; nor again, says this Author, that their number was reduced to twelve Boys and two Girls, as Epiphanius has written.
Abbot Goussault wrote likewise Arguments upon Genesis, printed at Paris in 1679, in French, 12mo. These are not barely Reasonings upon what passed in the Beginning of the World; for every Historical Point is here fully treated of, and explained according to the Opinions of the Fathers. This Abbot Goussault, speaking of the Giants, shews, that St. Austin, St. Cyril, and many others, hereby understood proud, violent, imperious, cruel, and robust Men; Men given up to all sorts of Vices: Whence the Poets have taken occasion to represent them to us scaling Heaven, and declaring War against the Gods. While he is speaking of the Tower of Babel, he explains St. Austin’s Opinion concerning the Confusion of Languages, which he multiplies, with St. Prosper, to Seventy-two, in proportion to the seventy-two Families descended from the three Sons of Noah, which were all assembled together in order to raise this lofty Tower; and among the rest includes the Hebrew Tongue, which, from being general and universal, as it was at that time, became, according to these Fathers, and several Interpreters, the particular Language of Eber’s Family; from whence it was called Hebrew.
In the Memoirs of Trevoux for the Month of December, in the Year 1723, p. 2285. we have a Philosophical Analysis of the Beginning of Genesis, upon the Creation, by Henry Hugonet. It is the general Principle of this Author, that all the Texts of Scripture which speak of natural Things may be understood and explained literally; and that it is not allowable to restrain them to an allegorical Sense, unless when that which they present to the Mind is absolutely contrary to Truths known with an infallible Certainty.
According to this Principle, the History of the Creation written by Moses is literally and physically true, as to the Facts, the Order and Succession of these Facts, the Intervals, and other principal Circumstances which make the Subject of this History: There are only these Expressions, God said, God saw the Light, and the like, which should be understood in a figurative Sense, wherein no one can be mistaken.
The particular Principles he makes use of are pretty nearly these following. 1. He supposes that the World is finite, and has real Limits: 2. He supposes that the whole Mass, immediately upon the Creation, was terminated, and as it were included in a spherical Figure. The Expression of the Book of Proverbs viii. 27. seems to favour altogether this Opinion, which has been adopted by the common Prejudice of the World: 3. He supposes that God created all Matter really divided into finite Atoms: 4. Although these Atoms are absolutely indivisible, he supposes their Solidity to be such that they never are indeed divided by the ordinary Action of second Causes: 5. He supposes these Atoms for the most part were of a spherical Figure, tho’ some were larger and some smaller: 6. He supposes the rest of them to be either all angular, and as it were cut facet-wise, or that their Sides were part round and part angular; but that these last were less than those which were altogether Polygons, though both were larger than the Spherical: 7. He describes these four Differences of Atoms, by the usual Names of First, Second, Third, and Fourth Element.
It were easy for him to justify his Hypothesis concerning the Nature of Atoms, by particular Applications, if this were a proper Place to treat of the Nature of Bodies; but he is content to defend them with that Liberty which every one has a right to, of forming such Systems as he pleases in Matters of a Physical Nature.
See in the same Memoirs of Trevoux his Explanations of the First Chapter of Genesis, according to the Principles abovementioned. He was of Francke- Compté, a Reform’d Benedictine Monk, of the Order of Cluny. He died very young, in 1727.
There is in the Memoirs of Trevoux for the Month of May in 1725, p. 922. an Explanation of some Passages of the Fourth Chapter of Genesis; it is not said who is the Author of it. The first and principal Passage there explained is God’s Conversation with Cain, who had just killed his Brother, &c.
There is likewise a pretty long Letter by M. Mallemant, upon the second Verse of the Sixth Chapter of Genesis, wherein he explains what we are to understand by the Angels who fell in love with the Daughters of Men, and enlarges much upon the Situation of Paradise. This Letter is in the Memoirs for the Month of September, 1706.