Questioning Genesis

Primum ergo librum Veteris Testamenti, qui inscribitur Genesis, sic solent Manichaei reprehendere. Quod scriptum est: In principio fecit Deus coelum et terram, quaerunt, in quo principio; et dicunt: Si in principio aliquo temporis fecit Deus coelum et terram, quid agebat antequam faceret coelum et terram? et quid ei subito placuit facere, quod nunquam antea fecerat per tempora aeterna? His respondemus, Deum in principio fecisse coelum et terram, non in principio temporis, sed in Christo, cum Verbum esset apud Patrem, per quod facta et in quo facta sunt omnia  Dominus enim noster Iesus Christus, cum eum Iudaei interrogassent quis esset, respondit: Principium, quia et loquor vobis. Sed etsi in principio temporis Deum fecisse coelum et terram credamus, debemus utique intellegere quod ante principium temporis non erat tempus. Deus enim fecit et tempora: et ideo antequam faceret tempora, non erant tempora. Non ergo possumus dicere fuisse aliquod tempus quando Deus nondum aliquid fecerat. Quomodo enim erat tempus quod Deus non fecerat, cum omnium temporum ipse sit fabricator? Et si tempus cum coelo et terra esse coepit, non potest inveniri tempus quo Deus nondum fecerat coelum et terram. Cum autem dicitur, Quid ei placuit subito, sic dicitur, quasi aliqua tempora transierint, quibus Deus nihil operatus est. Non enim transire poterat tempus, quod nondum fecerat Deus; quia non potest esse operator temporum, nisi qui est ante tempora. Certe et ipsi Manichaei legunt apostolum Paulum, et laudant et honorant; et eius Epistolas male interpretando multos decipiunt. Dicant ergo nobis quid dixerit apostolus Paulus: Agnitionem veritatis quae est secundum pietatem Dei in spem vitae aeternae, quam promisit non mendax Deus ante tempora aeterna : aeterna enim tempora quid ante se habere potuerunt? Hoc ergo cogantur exponere, ut intellegant se non intellegere, cum temere volunt reprehendere quod diligenter quaerere debuerunt. Sanctus Augustinus Hipponensis, De Genesi, Contra Manichaeos, Liber Primus

With the First book of the Old Testament which is entitled Genesis the Manichees are accustomed to find fault. When it is written: 'In the beginning God made heaven and earth' 1 they wonder, in what beginning, and they say, 'If in some beginning of time God made heaven and earth, what was he doing before he made heaven and earth? And why did it suddenly please Him to act, when he had done nothing before in all eternity?' To these we reply that God in the beginning made heaven and earth, not in the beginning of time, but in Christ, when the Word was with the Father, through which and in which everything was made. 2 The Lord Jesus Christ, who when the Jews questioned him, asking him who he was, he answered,' The beginning, that I even speak to you.' 3 But even if in the beginning of time But even if in the beginning we believe God made heaven and earth, we should understand that that which is before the beginning of time was not time. For God made time and then before he made time there was no time. So we are not able to say what He was at some time when God had not yet made it. For how was there time when God had not made it, when He is the maker of every time? And if time began with with heaven and earth, one cannot find the time in which God was not yet making heaven and earth. For when he says, 'Why did it please Him suddenly to do this?' he speaks as if some time had passed in which God had done nothing. Time was not able to pass when God had yet to make it. He is not able to be a maker of time unless He is before time. Certainly the Manichees read the Apostle Paul, and they praise and they honour him, and his letters they interpret badly and deceive many. Thus they say to us 'Why did the Apostle Paul say: 'The knowledge of truth which is according to the piety of God in the hope of the life eternal, which God who does not lie promised before all times.' 4 For before all times what was he doing?' And to this they demand an answer that they might understand not understanding, for audaciously they wish to find fault with what they should seek diligently. Saint Augustine of Hippo, On Genesis, Against the Manichees, Book 1 1 Gen 1.1 2 Jn 1-3 3 Jn 8.25  4 Titus 1.1-2