matter preceded in time its formation. And although
these opinions seem mutually contradictory, in reality they differ but
little; for Augustine takes the formlessness of matter in a different
sense from the others. In his sense it means the absence of all form,
and if we thus understand it we cannot say that the formlessness of
matter was prior in time either to its formation or to its
distinction. As to formation, the argument is clear. For if formless
matter preceded in duration, it already existed; for this is implied
by duration, since the end of creation is being in act: and act itself
is a form. To say, then, that matter preceded, but without form, is to
say that being existed actually, yet without act, which is a
contradiction in terms. Nor can it be said that it possessed some
common form, on which afterwards supervened the different forms that
distinguish it. For this would be to hold the opinion of the ancient
natural philosophers, who maintained that primary matter was some
corporeal thing in act, as fire, air, water, or some intermediate
substance. Hence, it followed that to be made means merely to be
changed; for since that preceding form bestowed actual substantial
being, and made some particular thing to be, it would result that the
supervening form would not simply make an actual being, but 'this'
actual being; which is the proper effect of an accidental form. Thus
the consequent forms would be merely accidents, implying not
generation, but alteration. Hence we must assert that primary matter
was not created altogether formless, nor under any one common form,
but under distinct forms. And so, if the formlessness of matter be
taken as referring to the condition of primary matter, which in itself
is formless, this formlessness did not precede in time its formation
or distinction, but only in origin and nature, as Augustine says; in
the same way as potentiality is prior to act, and the part to the
whole. But the other holy writers understand by formlessness, not the
exclusion of all form, but the absence of that beauty and comeliness
which are now apparent in the corporeal creation. Accordingly they say
that the formlessness of corporeal matter preceded its form in
duration. And so, when this is considered, it appears that Augustine
agrees with them in some respects, and in others disagrees, as will be
shown later (Q. 69, A. 1; Q. 74, A. 2).

As far as may be gathered from the text of Genesis a threefold b