The Division of the Waters (Gn 1:6–7): The History of a Conundrum and Its Resolution by the Early Oxford Masters

One of the oddest passages in the Genesis account of creation is surely the event of the second day: “And God said: Let there be a firmament made amidst the waters: and let it divide the waters from the waters. And God made a firmament and divided the waters that were under the firmament from those that were above the firmament. And it was so.”¹ The Fathers of the Church valiantly engaged the problem, but for the most part their efforts were desultory, and they ended by declaring the event a mystery, beyond human ken, and moved on to the