And God made the firmament, and divided the waters which were under the firmament from the waters which were above the firmament: and it was so.
All Commentaries on Genesis 1:7 Go To Genesis 1
Basil the Great
AD 379
Someone may ask this: Why does the Scripture reduce to a command of the Creator that tendency to flow downward which belongs naturally to water? … If water has this tendency by nature, the command ordering the waters to be gathered together into one place would be superfluous…. To this inquiry we say this, that you recognized very well the movements of the water after the command of the Lord, both that it is unsteady and unstable and that it is borne naturally down slopes and into hollows; but how it had any power previous to that, before the motion was engendered in it from this command, you yourself neither know nor have you heard it from one who knew. Reflect that the voice of God makes nature, and the command given at that time to creation provided the future course of action for the creatures.
