ery gathering together. But according to the other writers
there are three solutions, which Augustine gives (Gen. ad lit. i,
12). The first supposes that the waters are heaped up to a greater
height at the place where they were gathered together, for it has
been proved in regard to the Red Sea, that the sea is higher than the
land, as Basil remarks (Hom. iv in Hexaem.). The second explains the
water that covered the earth as being rarefied or nebulous, which was
afterwards condensed when the waters were gathered together. The
third suggests the existence of hollows in the earth, to receive the
confluence of waters. Of the above the first seems the most probable.

Reply Obj. 3: All the waters have the sea as their goal, into which
they flow by channels hidden or apparent, and this may be the reason
why they are said to be gathered together into one place. Or, "one
place" is to be understood not simply, but as contrasted with the
place of the dry land, so that the sense would be, "Let the waters be
gathered together in one place," that is, apart from the dry land.
That the waters occupied more places than one seems to be implied by
the words that follow, "The gathering together of the waters He
called Seas."

Reply Obj. 4: The Divine command gives bodies their natural movement
and by these natural movements they are said to "fulfill His word."
Or we may say that it was according to the nature of water completely
to cover the earth, just as the air completely surrounds both water
and earth; but as a necessary means towards an end, namely, that
plants and animals might be on the earth, it was necessary for the
waters to be withdrawn from a portion of the earth. Some philosophers
attribute this uncovering of the earth's surface to the action of the
sun lifting up the vapors and thus drying the land. Scripture,
however, attributes it to the Divine power, not only in the Book of
Genesis, but also Job 38:10 where in the person of the Lord it is
said, "I set My bounds around the sea," and Jer. 5:22, where it is
written: "Will you not then fear Me, saith the Lord, who have set
the sand a bound for the sea?"

Reply Obj. 5: According to Augustine (De Gen. Contr. Manich. i),
primary matter is meant by the word earth, where first mentioned,
but in the present passage it is to be taken for the element itself.
Again it may be said with Basil (Hom. iv in Hexaem.), that the earth
is mentioned in the first passage in respect of its nat