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Library / Commentaries and Disputations on Genesis, Volume I

Book Four — the creation of the first human beings

That they may be to you for food, and to all the living things of the earth, and to every bird of heaven, and to all that move upon the earth, and in which there is a living soul, that they may have to feed upon. GENESIS 1, VERSE 29

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That they may be to you for food, and to all the living things of the earth, and to every bird of heaven, and to all that move upon the earth, and in which there is a living soul, that they may have to feed upon. GENESIS 1, VERSE 29.1

Vt sint vobis in escam, & cunctis animantibus terrae, omníque volucri coeli, & vniuersis quae mouentur in terra, & in quibus est anima viuens, vt habeant ad vescendum. GEN. 1. VERS. 29.

ADMIRABILEM diuinae prouidétiae munificentiam, cunctas animantes etiam minimas atque vilissimas, cuiusmodi sunt quae ad saxa adhaerétes immotae nutriútur, solo tactus sensu notabiles, quas Rupertus designatas putat à Mose illis verbis, Et in quibus est anima viuens: etiá has, inquá, vilissimas animantes sua cura & benignitate amplectétis. Nó enim sat fuit Deo victú assignasse Domino, id est, homini, nisi etiá seruis & mancipiis eius, id est, animalibus quae hominú seruituti addixerat, cibú abundè cópararet. Hanc Dei prouidentiá ad omnia pertinentem & permeanté admirans & praedicans Dauid Psal. 103. Omnia, inquit, à te expectant, vt des illis escam in tempore, dante te illis colligens: aperiente [te manum tuam...]
The admirable munificence of divine providence [embraces] all the living things, even the smallest and basest — of which kind are those which, clinging to the rocks, are nourished unmoved, notable by the sense of touch alone — which Rupert thinks were designated by Moses by those words, “And in which there is a living soul”: [God] embracing even these basest living things, I say, with His care and kindness. For it was not enough for God to have assigned food to the Lord [the master] — that is, to man — unless He should also abundantly provide food for his servants and slaves, that is, for the animals which He had consigned to man's service. Admiring and proclaiming this providence of God, pertaining to and pervading all things, David, in Psalm 103, says: “All things look to Thee, that Thou give them food in season; Thou giving to them, they gather; Thou opening [Thy hand...] [continues]2
[...ape]riente manum tuam, omnia implebuntur bonitate. Atque huius quae ad animalia pertinet prouidentiae contemplatione, iubet nos Dominus noster in Euang. Matth. c. 6. Deo penitus confidere: Respicite, inquit, volatilia coeli quoniam non serunt, neque metunt neque congregant in horrea, & Pater vester coelestis pascit illa. Nonne vos magis pluris estis illis? Et apud Lucam, c. 12. Considerate coruos, quoniá non seminant neque metunt, quibus non est cellarium neque horreum, & Deus pascit illos: Quanto magis vos pluris estis illis?
[...Thou] opening Thy hand, all things shall be filled with goodness.” And by the contemplation of this providence which pertains to the animals, our Lord, in the Gospel (Matthew chapter 6), commands us to trust wholly in God: “Behold,” He says, “the birds of heaven, for they sow not, neither reap, nor gather into barns, and your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not of much more value than they?” And in Luke, chapter 12: “Consider the ravens, for they sow not nor reap, who have no storeroom nor barn, and God feeds them: How much more are you of value than they?”3
Nominatim autem praeter caeteras animantes, in argumentum diuinae prouidentiae cómemorauit Dominus coruos, quod sit coruus animal carniuorum & admodum edax, qui cùm paruulus est derelictus à parentibus, propter penuriam & auiditatem cibi subindè clamat, quasi Dei prouidentiam inuocans, & à Deo pasci se cupiens: nam & Scriptura clamorem illum corui inuocationem Dei appellat. Sic habes in Psalmo 148. Qui dat iumentis escam ipsorum, & pullis coruorum inuocantibus eum: Idémque multis ante Dauidem saeculis Iob praedixerat, cap. 38. Quis, inquit, praeparat coruo escam suam, quando pulli eius clamant ad Deum vagantes, eo quòd non habeant cibos.
But by name, beyond the other living things, the Lord commemorated the ravens, as an argument of divine providence, because the raven is a carnivorous and very voracious animal, which, when little and abandoned by its parents, on account of want and greed of food cries out again and again — as if invoking God's providence, and desiring to be fed by God: for Scripture too calls that cry of the raven an invocation of God. So you have in Psalm 148: “Who gives to the beasts their food, and to the young ravens that invoke Him.” And the same Job had foretold, many ages before David, chapter 38: “Who,” he says, “prepares for the raven its food, when its young cry to God, wandering, because they have no food?”4

Translator’s notes

  1. Sub-lemma (the second half of Gen 1:29-30) — the grant of plant-food to the animals. ↩
  2. Decorated initial 'A.' God's providence reaches even the lowliest creatures (the sessile shellfish, 'notable by touch alone'), which Rupert (de Trin. 2.10) finds in 'in which there is a living soul.' God feeds man's animal 'servants' too — celebrated by Ps 104:27-28. Marginal glosses: 'Commendatio diuinae prouidentiae erga animalia.'; 'Rupertus lib. 2. de Trinit. cap. 10.' Page breaks at catchword 'aperiente.' ↩
  3. The conclusion of Ps 104:28. From God's care of animals Christ teaches trust in God (Matt 6:26; Luke 12:24, the birds and the ravens — humans worth far more). ↩
  4. The raven is singled out (Luke 12) because, voracious and abandoned young, its hungry cry is taken by Scripture as 'calling on God' (Ps 147:9 — Pererius cites '148'; Job 38:41). Marginal gloss: 'Singularis Dei prouidentia erga coruos.' ↩