"1. IN THE BEGINNING. -- First, St. Augustine, book I of On the Literal Interpretation of Genesis, ch. 1; Ambrose and Basil, homily 1 on the Hexameron: "In the beginning," they say, that is, in the first origin or start, not of eternity, not of aeviternity, but of time and of the world"
"Note that God created heaven and earth not in time, but in the beginning of time, that is, in the first moment of time, namely in the first instant of the world."
""In the beginning," they say, that is, in the Son; for the Apostle teaches that all things were created through the Son as the idea and wisdom of the Father, Col. 1:16."
He Created— "He created" means from nothing, as the mother of the Maccabees teaches
"HE CREATED -- properly, that is, from nothing, from no pre-existing matter."
"Fourth, it is most probable that by heaven is here understood the first and highest, namely the empyrean, which Paul calls the third heaven, David the heaven of heavens, and which is the seat of the Blessed"