And God said,
Let the earth bring forth living creatures after their kinds, cattle, and creeping things, and beasts of the earth after their kinds:
and it was so
All Commentaries on Genesis 1:24 Go To Genesis 1
Basil the Great
AD 379
Formerly God had said: “Let the waters bring forth crawling creatures that have life,” here, “Let the earth bring forth living creatures.” Is the earth, then, possessed of life? And do the madminded Manichaeans hold the advantage, since they assume that the earth has a soul? No, when he said, “Let it bring forth,” it did not produce what was stored up in it, but he who gave the command also bestowed upon it the power to bring forth. Neither did the earth, when it heard, “Let it bring vegetation and the fruit trees,” produce plants that it had hidden in it…. On the contrary, it is the divine Word that is the origin of things made. “Let the earth bring forth”—meaning not let it put forth what it already has but let it acquire what it does not have, since God is enduing it with the power of active force.
