NPNF2-08. Basil: Letters and Select Works - Holy Bible Institute

“The Earth was Invisible and Unfinished.”lumined, the shadow produced by the interposition of a body, or finally a place for somereason deprived of light. For them “darkness” is an evil power, or rather the personificationof evil, having his origin in himself in opposition to, and in perpetual struggle with, thegoodness of God. If God is light, they say, without any doubt the power which strugglesagainst Him must be darkness, “Darkness” not owing its existence to a foreign origin, butan evil existing by itself. “Darkness” is the enemy of souls, the primary cause of death, theadversary of virtue. The words of the Prophet, they say in their error, show that it existsand that it does not proceed from God. From this what perverse and impious dogmas havebeen imagined! What grievous wolves, 1420 tearing the flock of the Lord, have sprung fromthese words to cast themselves upon souls! Is it not from hence that have come forth Marcionsand Valentini, 1421 and the detestable heresy of the Manicheans, 1422 which you maywithout going far wrong call the putrid humour of the churches.O man, why wander thus from the truth, and imagine for thyself that which will causethy perdition? The word is simple and within the comprehension of all. “The earth wasinvisible.” Why? Because the “deep” was spread over its surface. What is “the deep”? Amass of water of extreme depth. But we know that we can see many bodies through clearand transparent water. How then was it that no part of the earth appeared through thewater? Because the air which surrounded it was still without light and in darkness. Therays of the sun, penetrating the water, often allow us to see the pebbles which form the bedof the river, but in a dark night it is impossible for our glance to penetrate under the water.Thus, these words “the earth was invisible” are explained by those that follow; “the deep”covered it and itself was in darkness. Thus, the deep is not a multitude of hostile powers,as has been imagined; 1423 nor “darkness” an evil sovereign force in enmity with good. Inreality two rival principles of equal power, if engaged without ceasing in a war of mutual611420 Acts xx. 29.1421 Marcion and Valentinus are roughly lumped together as types of gnostic dualism. On the distinctionbetween their systems see Dr. Salmon in D.C.B. iii. 820. Marcion, said to have been the son of a bishop of Sinope,is the most Christian of the gnostics, and “tries to fit in his dualism with the Christian creed and with thescriptures.” But he expressly “asserted the existence of two Gods.” The Valentinian ideas and emanationstravelled farther afield.1422 On Manicheism, videBeausobre’s Critical History of Manicheism, and Walch, Hist. Ketz. i. 770. Withits theory of two principles it spread widely over the empire in the 4th c., was vigorous in Armenia in the 9th,and is said to have appeared in France in the 12th. (cf. Bayle, Dict. s.v.) On the view taken of the heresy in Basil’stime cf. Gregory of Nyssa, Against Eunomius i. § 35.1423 i.e. by those who would identify the ἄβυσσος (Tehôm) of Gen. i. 2 with that of Luke i. 31, and understandit to mean the abode in prison of evil spirits. The Hebrew word occurs in Job xxviii. 14 and Deut. xxxiii. 13 forthe depth of waters.269