Danny ChaiI’ve been reading The Literal Meaning Of Genesis, a work St. Augustine finished in 415 AD. It’s fascinating. Augustine is my favorite philosopher, and it’s invigorating to see him apply his significant intellect in taking Scripture extremely seriously, down to every detail (e.g. why when creating light does God not say “and it was so” as He does with other parts of creation? How do you reconcile Genesis calling the sky a vault vs. a skin elsewhere? Why are only birds, fishes, and humans told to be fruitful and multiply? How can time pass in the first days if the signs to mark time are formed on the 4th day?).
Despite the title, he doesn’t actually interpret Genesis literally in the way we use the term. To him, “literal” means according to the historical intention of the author. But based on that he doesn’t see the days as indicating the passage of time at all. And he interprets the light in “let there be light” as rational heavenly creatures (angels), not actual light. It’s interesting.
Anyway he asks an interesting question as an aside that he doesn’t really answer, and that is: why were humans given every seed-bearing plant for food before the Fall? I think the general Christian view is that before Adam sinned, humans had the capability of living forever, and physical death was only introduced after Adam sinned (side note: as per Tim Mackie, I don’t ascribe to that view, but I think I’m in the minority). But then if that’s true, before the Fall humans could not starve to death, so they couldn’t have needed food. Why food then?