On the Work of the Sixth Day

On the Work of the Sixth Day — St. Thomas Aquinas asks: On the Work of the Sixth Day.

Article 1: On the Work of the Sixth Day

Suffices the authority of Scripture.

As on the fifth day the intermediate body, namely, the water, is adorned, and thus that day corresponds to the second day; so the sixth day, on which the lowest body, or the earth, is adorned by the production of land animals, corresponds to the third day. Hence the earth is mentioned in both places. And here again Augustine says (Gen. ad lit. v) that the production was potential, and other holy writers that it was actual.