Water primordial

Use in the book

The priority of waters rests first on the interpretation of Schamaym and the narrative sequence (pp. 4-6, I.004.1-I.005.1). God creates the waters, then earth from them, and later the firmament distinguishes upper and lower waters. The elements are also taken to be water. The argument therefore places one common material before the differentiated order, though its opening lexical premise remains contested.

The resolution argument adds a different route (p. 9, I.009.1). Visible things can be resolved by chymistry into elements and water; the author infers that they arose from that source. Water is called the mother and origin of other elements, with fire concealed in it. This is a claim about common constitution and generation, not simply a claim that every object contains visible liquid when encountered.⁵¹

The first mass is then distributed by density and situation (pp. 14-15, I.014.1). The heavier and coarser part moves toward the centre; the subtler part rises and remains above. The firmament distinguishes the waters without creating wholly new particular natures out of each portion (pp. 15-16, I.015.1-I.016.1). Their shared nature remains, although their properties and powers differ.

Rainwater’s creation within that great body is used to preserve its relation to the common beginning (pp. 17-19, I.017.3). The author says that in human speech water is rightly called created from nothing, while a higher manner of speaking can identify Christ as its author or origin. This is a distinction of explanatory levels, not an admission that an uncreated material preceded God’s act.

A central objection says that the matter first created can no longer be obtained (pp. 37-38, I.037.1). The author denies it: remote matter remains available. The later rainwater answer makes the claim concrete by saying rainwater was created within the first waters and was not changed in itself, and that a proximate material can be obtained from it (pp. 128-129, II.128.1). Continuing availability does not mean that every particular body can be reduced to the first water at will.

The practical restriction is indispensable (pp. 11-13, I.011.1-I.012.1). Plants and minerals can yield their particular waters and principles without becoming universally usable first matter. Origin and present condition are different. The same restraint applies to terrestrial waters whose deep mineral setting specifies the world-spirit and produces bodily metals (pp. 156-159, II.156.2-II.159.1).

The final account of cosmic transformation returns to universal natures and principles (pp. 229-231, II.229.1-II.230.1). They endure through their relation to the eternal universal Word while particular orders resolve. The author thus connects the beginning and end through common created being. This should be read as his theological-natural account, not as a modern quantitative conservation theory.

Places to read

1. Part I · I.004.1; I.005.1; I.009.123Priority, common constitution and the resolution argument.
2. Part I · I.014.1; I.015.1; I.016.1; I.017.3234Distribution, continued nature and created origin.
3. Part I and Part II · I.037.1; II.128.12The claim that remote matter remains obtainable.
4. Part I and Part II · I.012.1; II.159.1; II.230.123Practical restriction and the distinct final transformation.

Translation

Primordial is a thematic adjective supplied by this lexicon. The attested words are waters, originally uniform water and remote matter. The headword should therefore not be mistaken for one exact Latin or German technical name recurrent in the source.

Waters preserves the collective character of Gewässer where the initial mass is meant. It does not automatically imply many already separated samples with independent essential compositions. The later plural distinctions are part of the account to be explained.

Connections

Matter prime follows the varying senses of first material and the difference between remote and proximate. Logos subsistent follows the common beginning’s causal dependence. Universal and particular follows what later specification changes, while Chaos and first waters follows the denied description of a confused mass.

Cautions

The author’s first waters are not identified with a modern primordial ocean or a reconstructed state of the physical early universe. The source’s scriptural sequence and elemental theory govern the description.

Common watery origin is not universal practical interchangeability. The book’s exclusions of particular extracts, terrestrial waters and arbitrary mixtures must remain beside the origin thesis.

Gewässer

Gewässer — Attested source form; the headword is a reading reference rather than an added historical lemma. I.004.1; I.014.1.

anfangs gleichförmig-geschaffenen

anfangs gleichförmig-geschaffenen — Attested source form; the headword is a reading reference rather than an added historical lemma. I.014.1.

universal Wort Gottes

universal Wort Gottes — Attested source form; the headword is a reading reference rather than an added historical lemma. I.016.1.

Materiæ remotæ

Materiæ remotæ — Attested source form; the headword is a reading reference rather than an added historical lemma. I.037.1.