De Moor VIII:27: The Fourth Day, Part 1

On the Fourth Day were created the Heavenly Luminaries, so called on account of the Lumen/Light communicated with us, in which sense they deserve to be called true Luminaries; whether their Light be proper, which obtains in the case of the Sun and fixed Stars; or it be received from another source, just as the Moon and remaining Planets bear the Light received from the Sun:  this is not determined by this word; compare Genesis 1:15.

Greater and lesser, Genesis 1:16:  two are said to be greater Lights than the others, namely, the Sun and the Moon; than which, therefore, all the Stars are regarded as lesser Lights.  Next, however, in the same verse the Sun is called the great Light compared with the Moon; the Moon, the lesser Light compared with the Sun.  Where one may observe, that this denomination is not made with regard had to the true magnitude of these Celestial Bodies; for in this way the Moon could not be placed in the same order with the Sun, nor be considered as a greater Light than all the Stars.  For, while the Solar body is believed to comprehend in itself at least one hundred thousand times (I will not mention the computation of others, far exceedingly this) the magnitude of the terrestrial Globe; and the fixed Stars, at least those that are of the first magnitude, although their true magnitude is not able to be demonstrated apodictically, are thought with probability attain to the magnitude of the Sun (see the Most Distinguished NIEUWENTYT, Cosmotheoria, Contemplation XXV, § 3-6, pages 617-623, 692):  on the other hand, Astronomers measuring the Moon find that it is fifty time smaller than the Earth:  and so in this sense the Stars ought with the Sun to be called Greater Lights than the lesser Moon.  So also Moses does not attend to the Perceptible Disc, when he speaks of Greater and Lesser Lights; for then the Moon, in this way nearly equally to the Sun, could not be called Lesser.  But he has regard to the Light actually granted to us by this heavenly bodies:  for in this way it is evident, that the Moon, however small compared to the fixed Stars, supplies more Light to the Earth than all the other Stars; to which end its situation in close proximity to the Earth is conducive, while the Stars are distant from us by an immense and incredible interval.  Indeed, some regard as equal the distance of the Moon from us, taken at twenty-eight times the density of the terrestrial Globe (see BARTHOLOMEUS VAN VELSEN, Philosophicis Scripturis, chapter XVII, § 155, tome 2, page 941); on the other hand, the distance of the Sun requires the same measure of the terrestrial globe by a few thousand times, so that a ball, shot from a cannon and advancing at a constant speed, would require the space of twenty-five whole years, that it might be able to complete its course to the sun.  But if within twenty-five years it should reach all the way to the sun, with the same Astronomers acting as judges, almost seven hundred thousand years would be required, that a ball of the same sort might reach to the closest fixed stars:  see the Most Distinguished NIEUWENTYT, Cosmotheoria, Contemplation XXV, § 73, page 693.  Hence that Light furnished for us by the Moon is greater than that furnished by the Stars; which nevertheless sits below the Solar Light by so great an interval, that hence the same Moon is rightly said to be a Lesser Light in comparison with the Sun, with the designation Great left to the Sun alone.  Therefore, from the effect, not from the form, true or apparent, does Moses take this denomination:  compare above, Chapter II, § 22, Part I; and PETRUS VAN MASTRICHT’S Vindicias Veritatis et Auctoritatis Sacræ Scripturæ in rebus Philosophicis adversum Christophorum Wittichium, chapter VI, § 7-17, pages 98-112.

But, as I have observed concerning the Creation of the Expanse, that God is said to have made that, with the general verb עָשָׂה,[1] not to have created, with the verb בָּרָא; so likewise God is read to have made the Heavenly Luminaries by the same verb עָשָׂה, Genesis 1:16;[2] since God had no necessity to produce all these Luminaries out of absolute Nothingness:  but, as I taught on § 24, that original Light was more than able to suffice in this matter, which Light through the first three days assumed the office of the Sun:  which lucid Body MARESIUS, Systemate Theologico, locus V, § 22, conceives to have been torn into pieces, and at the same time to have been miraculously multiplied, as Christ multiplied the loaves in the wilderness, and thus was distributed piece-by-piece throughout the various parts of the Expanse, distinguished into stars and luminaries.  We willingly confess, that this act of excelling divine Power, whereby He produced heavenly bodies of such stupendous magnitude, is not understood by us in all respects, and we rather cry out in astonishment with Psalm 8:3, 4, When I consider thy heavens, the work of thy fingers, the Moon and the Stars, which thou hast ordained:  What is a mortal, etc.?

In the number of these (Stars) ought not to be included Comets; which, from wherever they might arise, are only then produced in matter, and the course of which is hitherto uncertain.  Thus our AUTHOR speaks according to the small measure of knowledge concerning Comets that was obtaining at the time of the writing of his Compendii.  Similarly the Most Distinguished NIEUWENTYT, Cosmotheoria, Contemplation XXV, § 102, page 716, refuses to speak concerning Comets and their courses, from and towards the diverse regions of the so immeasurable Heaven, since neither their causes, nor the ends of Him who formed them, are rightly known by us.  Thus BARTHOLOMEUS VAN VELSEN, Philosophicis Scripturis, chapter XI, § 16, tome 1, page 173, chapter XVII, § 144, tome 2, pages 917, 918, also confesses his own uncertainty concerning this matter as less evident and perhaps always going to be more hidden.  But in the immediately preceding era the knowledge of Comets has advanced to much greater perfection, so that there is hardly any remaining doubt, that Comets are to be considered as a class of Planets, the course of which is also indicated and predicted by Astronomers with sufficient certainty; as you may see in John Keill’s[3] Introductione ad Physicam et Astronomiam veram, reading XVII, with the notes added by the Most Illustrious LULOFS.  Also discoursing concerning Comets are able to be seen DANIEL VOET, Physiologia, book III, chapter III, § 21-25; WOLFERD SENGUERDIUS, Philosophia naturali, part II, chapters VI, VII; JOHANNES REGIUS, Principiis Philosophiæ theoreticæ, chapter XVIII.

These Heavenly Luminaries are not Animate and Rational; that it pleases the Jews, HOORNBEECK demonstrates at length, contra Judæos, book IV, chapter I, pages 310-313, out of Philo the Jew, whom see in libro de Gigantibus, page 285, Maimonides, Menasseh Ben Israel, among whose writings you will read, for example:  Ἀνάγκη ὅλον δι᾽ ὅλων τὸν κόσμον ἐψυχῶσθαι, —περιέχοντος—οὐρανοῦ τοὺς ἀστέρας·  καὶ γὰρ οὗτοι ψυχαὶ ὅλαι δι᾽ ὅλων ἀκήρατοί τε καὶ θεῖαι, παρ᾽ ὃ καὶ κύκλῳ κινοῦνται τὴν συγγενεστάτην νῷ κίνησιν, it is necessary that the entire cosmos be animated throughout, …with the heavens containing the stars:  for these also are spirits, whole, undefiled throughout, and divine, besides which also the concreated revolution is set in motion in the vault of heaven by mind.  “Other things, furnished only with virtue, have absolutely no vice, like the Stars:  for these are said to be living things, even intelligences, or rather singular minds, completely good, and not capable of any vice.”  While the Aristotelians place Moving Intelligences over them, but which Manasseh rejects, problem XXV, de Creatione, appealing to Rabbi Maimonides:  What they relate concerning intelligences, says he, it is in actuality a mere fable:  for the heavens, according to Rabbi Moses and the truth of the matter, have their own souls, furnished with rational life, just as it will be demonstrated by me elsewhere.  Nevertheless, Maimonides himself, in the words cited by HOORNBEECK, appears to attribute soul or intelligence, not to the Stars alone, but also to the Orbs or Spheres of Stars and Heaven itself:  whence also, in the same place, page 317, he acknowledges that the opinion of Aristotle agrees with that of the Rabbis:  compare also MEYER, de Origine Universi, page 58.  Not without good reason does our AUTHOR here join the Origenists with the Jews; since concerning Origen JEROME relates in his Epistola ad Avitum, opera, tome 2, page 150, that he taught in his books περὶ ἀρχῶν:  “The Sun, moon, and stars are the other animate things:  indeed, just as we men, on account of certain sins, are enveloped in these body, which are heavy and slow; so also the luminaries of heaven have received such or such bodies, so that they might shine either more or less:  and the demons, on account of greater transgressions, are clothed with aerial bodies.”  In the same place, page 152:  “And concerning the heavenly bodies it is requisite, that not at the time in which the world was made, did the soul of the Sun, or whatever it is fitting to be called, begin to exist, but before it entered that shining and burning body.  Concerning the Moon and the Stars we would conclude similarly, that from preceding causes, although they were compelled unwillingly, they were made subject to vanity,[4] on account of future rewards:  that they do not their own will, but that of their Creator, by whom they have been disturbed unto these offices.”  But HOORNBEECK shows at length in the place cited, pages 313-315, that these opinions, α.  are not supported by any reason or Scripture, since in nature absolutely nothin of the rational Soul, which is in the visible Heavens, appears; neither is any evidence able to be advanced out of Scripture or by reason, whereby you might prove Heaven and the Stars to be animated, more than earth, sea, or air.  Indeed, β.  these opinions are opposed to Scripture, which among bodily things attributes the Image of God to Man alone.  HOORNBEECK judges the passage in Psalm 8:4-6 worthy of note, where he wishes to be observed, 1.  that the Psalmist in the proclamation of the excellence of the Heavens, and of the Stars specifically, says nothing of their soul or intelligence, which nevertheless, if true, would have been very appropriate in this place.  2.  That he without obscurity makes Men greater than those Heavens and Stars, which Men he declares to be crowned by God with glory and honor, but not so the Heavens; indeed, he relates that they were made only a little lower than the Angels, but not than the Heavens or Stars; while according to the Jews Man was created, not a little, but much, lower than the Angles, and in the place nearest to the Angels they put, not Man, but the Heavens and the Stars, midway between Angels and Man, who is lower than all those heavenly souls.

But Maimonides in his More Nevochim, part II, chapter V, cited by HOORNBEECK in the place just now cited, pages 315-319, offers by way of objection, 1.  Job 38:7; that there they are not to be understood as Stars properly so called, but rather as Angels, is evident, not only from the aptness of both denominations of morning Stars and of Sons of God, if you have regard to Angels:  but especially also from this, that at the time of this shouting of the morning Stars Stars properly so called had not yet been created:  indeed, those Shouts are referred to the time of the founding of the Earth, which happened on the third day of Creation.

The same Maimonides, 2.  sets forth Psalm 19:1, 3, so that thence he might demonstrate, that the Heavens and the Firmament praise God in a manner properly so called, although without words and conversation; since the Hebrews do not attribute the narration of any thing except to those that have Intelligence:  to this We Respond with HOORNBEECK, that these things are best understood concerning Objective Predication, whereby the Heavens, the Expanse, and the celestial Bodies in their constitution, motion, and course shall be signified to supply such clear and copious arguments for glorifying God, that, if they could speak, they would show forth the Praises of God.  For, a.  nothing is here attributed to the Heavens and Expanse that is not elsewhere assigned to all meteors, earth, mountains, hills and trees, creeping things and wild beasts, when they are said to praise God, to hear God speaking, to rejoice, to sing, to clap their hands, even indeed often in the same context with Angels and Men; where what is properly said of Angels, etc., is to be understood improperly, metaphorically or metonymically, concerning the other inanimate creatures; see Isaiah 1:2; 55:12; Deuteronomy 32:1; Psalm 103:20-22; 145:10; 148:2-13.  For, it is not permissible to attribute a rational Soul to all these creatures, which not even Maimonides himself maintains, who says that in some of these passages the metaphors are so manifest, that they do not allow anyone to doubt.  b.  But what is that narration, properly so called, of the corporeal creatures without words and speaking, as Maimonides says?  Certainly, if the that narration and declaration, verse 1, is to be understood properly, the voice and speech of the Heavens in verse 3 ought to be explained no less properly.  c.  But who ever heard the Heavens speaking?  Who ever reported that the Stars spoke in whatever way?  Unless, as I said, they are understood to speak, not properly, but improperly and objectively, by furnishing matter and argument for meditation and speaking to others, not formally.

Maimonides Objects, 3.  the Excellence of the Heavens consisting in their nature animated in comparison with the Earth, with the Earth itself acknowledging in Bereshith Rabba[5] on Genesis 1:2, where that ‎תֹ֙הוּ֙ וָבֹ֔הוּ, tohu vabohu, without form and void, is said to signify that the Earth deplores its inferior lot, saying:  I and the Heavens were created at the same time and together, and the higher things live, but the lower things are dead; with which words the Earth, according to Maimonides, openly testifies, that the celestial Orbs are living bodies, not dead bodies, like the elements.

Responses:  a.  We willingly acknowledge the Excellence of the Expanse and Stars in the genus of Inanimate things:  but, b.  with respect to that narrative of the Earth in Bereshith Rabba, I respond with HOORNBEECK in the passage cited, page 318, that unless the ancients understood the Earth to complain of the life of the Heavens, that is, of the Angels, when it was yet ‎תֹהוּ/tohu, void, that it might also be filled with living things, like Heaven, I reject their saying and authority with no trouble.

Nevertheless, in the preceding Century Anton Deusing, Professor of Physics and Mathematics at Groningen,[6] made errors similar to those of the Jews:  see Res judicata de Falce missa in messem Theologicam, etc., in CLOPPENBURG’S[7] Operibus, tome 2, pages 940 and following.

On the Question concerning animate Stars or the moving Intelligences put in charge of them, consult VOETIUS, Disputationum theologicarum, part I, pages 851-868.

[1] Genesis 1:7:  “And God made the firmament (‎וַיַּ֣עַשׂ אֱלֹהִים֘ אֶת־הָרָקִיעַ֒), and divided the waters which were under the firmament from the waters which were above the firmament:  and it was so.”

[2] Genesis 1:16:  “And God made two great lights (‎וַיַּ֣עַשׂ אֱלֹהִ֔ים אֶת־שְׁנֵ֥י הַמְּאֹרֹ֖ת הַגְּדֹלִ֑ים); the greater light to rule the day, and the lesser light to rule the night:  he made the stars also.”

[3] John Keill (1671-1721) was a Scottish mathematician and natural philosopher, defender of Newtonian physics.

[4] Romans 8:20.

[5] Bereshith Rabba, or Genesis Rabbah, is a sixth century midrash on Genesis.  It provides explanations and interpretations of words and phrases, which explanations are often only loosely connected with the text.  It draws upon Mishna, Tosefta, and the Targums.

[6] Anton Deusing (1612-1666) was a German physician, mathematician, and astronomer.

[7] Johann Cloppenburg (1592-1652) was a Dutch Reformed theologian and controversialist.  He studied at the University of Leiden, and held various ministerial posts until his appointment as professor at the University of Harderwijk (1641), and then at Franeker (1643).  He was a lifelong friend of Voetius, and colleague of Cocceius at Franeker.