Creating Angels

Ubi de mundi constitutione sacrae litterae loquuntur, non evidenter dicitur, utrum vel quo ordine creati sint angeli; sed si praetermissi non sunt, uel caeli nomine, ubi dictum est: In principio fecit Deus caelum et terram, uel potius lucis huius, de qua loquor, significati sunt. Non autem esse praetermissos hinc existimo, quod scriptum est, requieuisse Deum in die septimo ab omnibus operibus suis quae fecit, cum liber ipse ita sit exorsus: In principio fecit Deus caelum et terram; ut ante caelum et terram nihil aliud fecisse uideatur. Cum ergo a caelo et terra coeperit, atque ipsa terra, quam primitus fecit, sicut scriptura consequenter eloquitur, invisibilis et incomposita nondumque luce facta utique tenebrae fuerint super abyssum, id est super quandam terrae et aquae indistinctam confusionem, ubi enim lux non est, tenebrae sint necesse est, deinde omnia creando disposita sint, quae per sex dies consummata narrantur: quo modo angeli praetermitterentur, tamquam non essent in operibus Dei, a quibus in die septimo requieuit? Opus autem Dei esse angelos hic quidem etsi non praetermissum, non tamen evidenter expressum est; sed alibi hoc sancta scriptura clarissima uoce testatur. Nam et in hymno trium in camino virorum cum praedictum esset: Benedicite omnia opera Domini Dominum, in executione eorundem operum etiam angeli nominati sunt; et in psalmo canitur: Laudate Dominum de caelis, laudate eum in excelsis; laudate eum omnes angeli eius, laudate eum omnes virtutes eius; laudate eum sol et luna, laudate eum omnes stellae et lumen; laudate eum caeli caelorum, et aquae, quae super caelos sunt, laudent nomen Domini; quoniam ipse dixit, et facta sunt. Ipse mandavit, et creata sunt. Etiam hic apertissime a Deo factos esse angelos divinitus dictum est, cum eis inter cetera caelestia commemoratis infertur ad omnia: Ipse dixit, et facta sunt. Quis porro audebit opinari post omnia ista, quae sex diebus enumerata sunt, angelos factos? Sed etsi quisquam ita desipit, redarguit istam vanitatem illa scriptura paris auctoritatis, ubi Deus dicit: Quando facta sunt sidera, laudaverunt me voce magna omnes angeli mei. Iam ergo erant angeli, quando facta sunt sidera. Facta sunt autem quarto die. Numquidnam ergo die tertio factos esse dicemus? Absit. In promptu est enim, quid illo die factum sit. Ab aquis utique terra discreta est et distinctas sui generis species duo ista elementa sumpserunt et produxit terra quidquid ei radicitus inhaeret. Numquidnam secundo? Ne hoc quidem. Tunc enim firmamentum factum est inter aquas superiores et inferiores caelumque appellatum est; in quo firmamento quarto die facta sunt sidera. Nimirum ergo si ad istorum dierum opera Dei pertinent angeli, ipsi sunt illa lux, quae diei nomen accepit, cuius unitas ut commendaretur, non est dictus dies primus, sed dies unus. Nec alius est dies secundus aut tertius aut ceteri; sed idem ipse unus ad inplendum senarium uel septenarium numerum repetitus est propter septenariam cognitionem; senariam scilicet operum, quae fecit Deus, et septimam quietis Dei. Cum enim dixit Deus: Fiat lux, et facta est lux, si recte in hac luce creatio intellegitur angelorum, profecto facti sunt participes lucis aeternae, quod est ipsa incommutabilis sapientia Dei, per quam facta sunt omnia, quem dicimus unigenitum Dei filium; ut ea luce inluminati, qua creati, fierent lux et vocarentur dies participatione incommutabilis lucis et diei, quod est verbum Dei, per quod et ipsi et omnia facta sunt. Lumen quippe verum, quod inluminat omnem hominem venientem in hunc mundum, hoc inluminat et omnem angelum mundum, ut sit lux non in se ipso, sed in Deo; a quo si avertitur angelus, fit inmundus; sicut sunt omnes, qui vocantur inmundi spiritus, nec iam lux in Domino, sed in se ipsis tenebrae, privati participatione lucis aeternae. Mali enim nulla natura est; sed amissio boni mali nomen accepit. Sanctus Augustinus Hipponensis, De Civitate Dei, Lib. XI

Where Sacred Scripture speaks of the creation of the world, it is not plainly declared whether or when the angels were created; but if they were not omitted it is either under the name of heaven they will be found, when it is said, 'In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth,' 1 or rather under the name of light, concerning with I shall speak. But that they were wholly omitted, I cannot credit, because it is written that God on the seventh day rested from all His works which He made, 2 and the same book begins, 'In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth,' so that before heaven and earth He seems to have made nothing. Since, therefore, He began with the heavens and the earth, and the earth, as Scripture adds, was at first invisible and formless, light not yet made, and darkness over the face of the deep, which is to say, over an indeterminate confusion of earth and sea, for where there is no light darkness must be, and then when all things having been created were disposed, which it is told was done in six days, how are the angels omitted, as if they were not among the works of God from which on the seventh day He rested? However, though the angels as a work of God are not omitted, it is indeed not plainly expressed; but elsewhere Sacred Scripture gives witness to it in the clearest manner. For in the song of the three men in the furnace it was declared, 'All you works of the Lord, bless the Lord;' and in the naming of these works afterwards the angels are named. 3 And in the Psalm it is said, 'Praise the Lord from the heavens, praise Him in the heights. Praise Him, all His angels; praise Him, all His hosts. Praise Him, sun and moon; praise him, all stars and light. Praise Him, heaven of heavens; and you waters above the heavens. Let them praise the name of the Lord; for He spoke, and they were made.' 4 Here the angels are most manifestly and by Divine authority said to have been made by God, for concerning them, among the recollection of other heavenly things, it is said, 'He spoke, and they were made.' Who, then, will dare opine that the angels were made after those things which are told in the six days? If any one is so witless, his vanity is refuted by a Scripture of equal authority, where God says, 'When the stars were made, all my angels praised me with a loud voice.' 5 Therefore the angels were before the creation of the stars, and the stars were made on the fourth day. Shall we then say that they were made on the third day? May it not be, for we certainly know what was done that day: the earth was separated from the waters, and each element took on its own form, and the earth produced whatever sinks its roots in it. May it have been the second day? Not even then; for then the firmament was made between the waters above and beneath, and was called heaven, in which firmament the stars were made on the fourth day. Without doubt, then, if the angels are considered to be of the works of God during these six days, they are that light which received the name of day, and whose unity is signified by calling that day not the first day, but one day. For the second day, the third, and the rest are not other days, but the same one day is repeated to complete the number six or seven, so that there should be knowledge of the six when God made and of the seven and His rest. For when God said, 'Let there be light, and there was light,' if we are correct in understanding in this light the creation of the angels, then certainly they were created as partakers of the eternal light which is the unchangeable wisdom of God, by which all things were made and whom we call the only begotten Son of God, so that they enlightened by the Light that created them might become light and be called Day in participation of the unchangeable Light and Day which is the Word of God, by whom both they and all else were made. 'The true Light, which enlightens every man who comes into the world,' 6 also enlightens every pure angel, that he may be light not in himself, but in God, from whom if an angel turn away, he becomes impure, as are all those who are called unclean spirits, and are no more light in the Lord but darkness in themselves, being deprived of the participation of Light eternal. For evil has no existence, but the loss of good has received the name of evil. Saint Augustine of Hippo, The City of God, from Book 11 1 Gen 1.1 2 Gen 2.2 3 Dan 3. 57-58 4 Ps 148. 1-4 5 Job 38.7 6 Jn 1.9