God resteth on the seventh day and blesseth it. The earthly paradise, in which God placeth man. He commandeth him not to eat of the tree of knowledge. And formeth a woman of his rib.
The worke of six dayes being finished, God rested the seuēth day & blessed it. 8. Then placing man in paradise (planted with bewtiful & swete trees, & witered with foure riuers) 16. comandeth him not to eate of the tree of knowledge of good & euil. 18. & formed a woman of a ribbe of Adam.
1So the heavens and the earth were finished, and all the furniture of them.Furono adunque compiuti i cieli, e la terra, e tutto l'ornato loro.God createth not new kindes of creatures, yet stil worketh. Io. 5, 17. conseruing & gouerning al things and creatch soules, grace, and glorie of the same kind S. Aug. li, 4 de Gen. adlit. •. 12. THE heauens therfore & the earth were fully finished, and al the furniture of them.Igitur perfecti sunt cæli et terra, et omnis ornatus eorum. 2And on the seventh day God ended his work which he had made: and he rested on the seventh day from all his work which he had done.E Dio ebbe compiuta il settimo giorno l'opera, ch'egli avea fatta: e riposò il settimo giorno da tutte le opere, che avea compiute.And the seuenth day God ended his woorke which he had made: & rested the seuenth day, from al woorke that he had done.Complevitque Deus die septimo opus suum quod fecerat: et requievit die septimo ab universo opere quod patrarat. 3And he blessed the seventh day, and sanctified it: because in it he had rested from all his work which God created and made.E benedisse il settimo giorno, e lo santificò: perché in esso avea riposato da tutte le opere, che Dio avea create e fatte.And he blessed the seuenth day and sanctified it: because in it he had ceased from al his woorke which God created to make.Et benedixit diei septimo, et sanctificavit illum, quia in ipso cessaverat ab omni opere suo quod creavit Deus ut faceret. 4These are the generations of the heaven and the earth, when they were created, in the day that the Lord God made the heaven and the earth:Tale fu la origine del cielo, e della terra, quando l'uno, e l'altra fu creata nel giorno, in cui il Signore Dio fece il cielo, e la terra.These are the generations of heauen & earth, when they were created in the day, when our Lord God made the heauen, and the earth.Istæ sunt generationes cæli et terræ, quando creata sunt, in die quo fecit Dominus Deus cælum et terram, 5And every plant of the field before it sprung up in the earth, and every herb of the ground before it grew: for the Lord God had not rained upon the earth; and there was not a man to till the earth.E tutte le piante de' campi, prima che nascessero sulla terra, e tutte l'erbe della terra, prima che (da essa) spuntassero: imperocché il Signore non avea mandato pioggia sopra la terra; e uomo non era, che la coltivasse.And euery plant of the filde, before it shotvp in the earth. And euerie herbe of the ground before it sprang: for our Lord God had not rayned vpon the earth: and man was not to til the earth:et omne virgultum agri antequam orietur in terra, omnemque herbam regionis priusquam germinaret: non enim pluerat Dominus Deus super terram, et homo non erat qui operaretur terram:
6But a spring rose out of the earth, watering all the surface of the earth.Ma saliva dalla terra una fonte ad inaffiare la superficie della terra.But a spring rose out of the earth, watering al the ouermost part of the earth.sed fons ascendebat e terra, irrigans universam superficiem terræ. 7And the Lord God formed man of the slime of the earth: and breathed into his face the breath of life, and man became a living soul.Il Signore Dio adunque formò l'uomo di fango della terra, e gl'ispirò in faccia un soffio di vita: e l'uomo fu fatto anima vivente.Our Lord God therfore formed man of the slyme of the earch: and breathed into his face the breath oflife, & man became a liuing soule.Formavit igitur Dominus Deus hominem de limo terræ, et inspiravit in faciem ejus spiraculum vitæ, et factus est homo in animam viventem. 8And the Lord God had planted a paradise of pleasure from the beginning: wherein he placed man whom he had formed.Or il Signore avea piantato da principio un paradiso di delizie; dove collocò l'uomo, che avea formato.And our Lord God had planted a Paradise of pleasure from the beginning: wherin he placed man whom he had formed.Plantaverat autem Dominus Deus paradisum voluptatis a principio, in quo posuit hominem quem formaverat. 9And the Lord God brought forth of the ground all manner of trees, fair to behold, and pleasant to eat of: the tree of life also in the midst of paradise: and the tree of knowledge of good and evil.E il Signor Dio avea prodotto dalla terra ogni sorta di piante belle a vedersi, e di frutto dolce a mangiare, e l'albero eziandio della vita in mezzo al paradiso, e l'albero della scienza del bene e del male.And our Lord God brought forth of the ground al maner of trees, fayre to behold: and pleasant to eate of: the tree of life also in the middle of Paradise: and the tree of knowledge of good & euil.Produxitque Dominus Deus de humo omne lignum pulchrum visu, et ad vescendum suave lignum etiam vitæ in medio paradisi, lignumque scientiæ boni et mali. 10And a river went out of the place of pleasure to water paradise, which from thence is divided into four heads.E da questo luogo di delizie scaturiva un fiume ad inaffiare il paradiso, il qual (fiume) di là si divide in quattro capi.And a riuer issued out of the place of pleasure to water Paradise, which from thence is diuided into four heades.Et fluvius egrediebatur de loco voluptatis ad irrigandum paradisum, qui inde dividitur in quatuor capita. 11The name of the one is Phison: that is it which compasseth all the land of Hevilath, where gold groweth.Uno dicesi Phison; ed è quello, che gira attorno il paese di Hevilath, dove nasce l'oro.The name of the one is Phison: that is it which compasseth al the land of Heuilath, where gold groweth.Nomen uni Phison: ipse est qui circuit omnem terram Hevilath, ubi nascitur aurum:
12And the gold of that land is very good: there is found bdellium, and the onyx stone.E l'oro di quel paese è ottimo: ivi trovasi il bdellio, e la pietra oniche.And the gold of that land is very good: there is sound bdelium, & the stone onyx.et aurum terræ illius optimum est; ibi invenitur bdellium, et lapis onychinus. 13And the name of the second river is Gehon: the same is it that compasseth all the land of Ethiopia.E il nome del secondo fiume è Gehon: ed è quello che gira per tutta la terra d'Etiopia.And the name of the second riuer is Gehon: that is it which compasseth al the land of Ethiopia.Et nomen fluvii secundi Gehon; ipse est qui circumit omnem terram Æthiopiæ. 14And the name of the third river is Tigris: the same passeth along by the Assyrians. And the fourth river is Euphrates.Il nome poi del terzo fiume è Tigri, che scorre verso gli Assirii. E il quarto fiume egli è l'Eufrate.And the name of the third riuer is Tygris: that same passeth along by the Assirians. And the fourth riuer, the same is Euphrates.Nomen vero fluminis tertii, Tigris: ipse vadit contra Assyrios. Fluvius autem quartus, ipse est Euphrates. 15And the Lord God took man, and put him into the paradise of pleasure, to dress it, and to keep it.Il Signore Dio adunque prese l'uomo, e lo collocò nel paradiso di delizie, affinché lo coltivasse e lo custodisse.Our Lord God therfore tooke man, & put him in the Paradise of pleasure, to woorke, & keepe it.Tulit ergo Dominus Deus hominem, et posuit eum in paradiso voluptatis, ut operaretur, et custodiret illum: 16And he commanded him, saying: Of every tree of paradise thou shalt eat:E gli fe' comando, dicendo: Mangia di tutte le piante del paradiso.And he commanded him saying: Of euerie tree of Paradise eate thou:præcepitque ei, dicens: Ex omni ligno paradisi comede; 17But of the tree of knowledge of good and evil, thou shalt not eat. For in what day soever thou shalt eat of it, thou shalt die the death.Ma del frutto dell'albero della scienza del bene e del male non mangiarne: imperocché in qualunque giorno tu ne mangerai, indubitatamente morrai.But of the tree of knowledge of good & euil eate thou not. For in what day soeuer thou shalt eate of it, thou shalt dye the death.de ligno autem scientiæ boni et mali ne comedas: in quocumque enim die comederis ex eo, morte morieris. 18And the Lord God said: It is not good for man to be alone: let us make him a help like unto himself.Disse ancora Dio: Non è bene, che l'uomo sia solo: facciamogli un aiuto, che a lui rassomigli.Our Lord God also said: It is not good for man to be alone: let vs make him a helpe like vnto him selfe.Dixit quoque Dominus Deus: Non est bonum esse hominem solum: faciamus ei adjutorium simile sibi.
19And the Lord God having formed out of the ground all the beasts of the earth, and all the fowls of the air, brought them to Adam to see what he would call them: for whatsoever Adam called any living creature the same is its name.Avendo adunque il Signore Dio formati dalla terra tutti gli animali terrestri, e tutti gli uccelli dell'aria, li condusse ad Adamo, perché ei vedesse il nome da darsi ad essi: e ognun de' nomi, che diede Adamo agli animali viventi, è il vero nome di essi.Our Lord God therfore hauing formed of clay al beastes of the earth, and foules of the ayre, brought them to Adam that he might see what to cal them: for al that Adam called any liuing creature, the same is his name.Formatis igitur Dominus Deus de humo cunctis animantibus terræ, et universis volatilibus cæli, adduxit ea ad Adam, ut videret quid vocaret ea: omne enim quod vocavit Adam animæ viventis, ipsum est nomen ejus. 20And Adam called all the beasts by their names, and all the fowls of the air, and all the cattle of the field: but for Adam there was not found a helper like himself.E Adamo impose nomi convenienti a tutti gli animali, e a tutti i volatili dell'aria, e a tutte le bestie della terra: ma non si trovava per Adamo un aiuto, che a lui somigliasse.And Adam called al beastes by their names, and al foules of the ayre, and al cattel of the filde: but vnto Adam there was not found an helper like him selfe.Appellavitque Adam nominibus suis cuncta animantia, et universa volatilia cæli, et omnes bestias terræ: Adæ vero non inveniebatur adjutor similis ejus. 21Then the Lord God cast a deep sleep upon Adam: and when he was fast asleep, he took one of his ribs, and filled up flesh for it.Mandò adunque il Signore Dio ad Adamo un profondo sonno; e mentre egli era addormentato, gli tolse una delle sue costole, e mise in luogo di essa della carne.Our Lord God therfore cast a dead sleepe vpon Adam: and when he was fast a sleepe, he tooke one of his ribbes, & filled vp flesh for it.Immisit ergo Dominus Deus soporem in Adam: cumque obdormisset, tulit unam de costis ejus, et replevit carnem pro ea. 22And the Lord God built the rib which he took from Adam into a woman: and brought her to Adam.E della costola, che avea tolto da Adamo, ne fabbricò il Signore Dio una donna: e menolla ad Adamo.And our Lord God built the ribbe which he tooke of Adam into a woman: and brought her to Adam.Et ædificavit Dominus Deus costam, quam tulerat de Adam, in mulierem: et adduxit eam ad Adam. 23And Adam said: This now is bone of my bones, and flesh of my flesh; she shall be called woman, because she was taken out of man.E Adamo disse: Questo adesso osso delle mie ossa, e carne della mia carne, ella dall'uomo avrà il nome, perocché è stata tratta dall'uomo.And Adam said: This now, is bone of my bones, and flesh of my flesh:she shal be called woman, because she was taken out of man.Dixitque Adam: Hoc nunc os ex ossibus meis, et caro de carne mea: hæc vocabitur Virago, quoniam de viro sumpta est.
24Wherefore a man shall leave father and mother, and shall cleave to his wife: and they shall be two in one flesh.Per la qual cosa l'uomo lascerà il padre suo, e la madre, e starà unito alla sua moglie, e i due saranno sol una carne.Wherfore man shal leaue his father & mother, & shal cleaue to his wife, & they shal be two in one flesh.Quam ob rem relinquet homo patrem suum, et matrem, et adhærebit uxori suæ: et erunt duo in carne una. 25And they were both naked: to wit, Adam and his wife: and were not ashamed.E l'uno e l'altra, Adamo cioè, e la sua moglie, erano ignudi; e non ne aveano vergogna.And they were both naked; to wit Adam & his wife: and were not ashamed.Erat autem uterque nudus, Adam scilicet et uxor ejus: et non erubescebant.
2:1
Menochius
Furniture, ornaments or militia, whether we understand the Angels, or the stars, which observe a regular order and obey God. (Menochius)
2:2
Challoner
He rested, etc. That is, he ceased to make any new kinds of things. Though, as our Lord tells us, John 5:17. He still worketh, viz. by conserving and governing all things, and creating souls. (Challoner)
Haydock
Seventh day. This day was commanded, Exodus 20:8, to be kept holy by the Jews, as it had probably been from the beginning. Philo says, it is the festival of the universe, and Josephus asserts, there is no town which does not acknowledge the religion of the sabbath. But this point is controverted, and whether the ancient patriarchs observed the seventh day, or some other, it is certain they would not fail, for any long time, to shew their respect for God's worship, and would hardly suffer a whole week to elapse without meeting to sound forth his praise. The setting aside of stated days for this purpose, is agreeable to reason, and to the practice of all civilized nations. As the Hebrews kept Saturday holy, in honour of God's rest, so we keep the first day of the week, by apostolic tradition, to thank God for the creation of the world on that day, and much more for the blessings which we derive from the resurrection of Jesus Christ and the sending down of the Holy Ghost, which have given it a title above all other days. (Haydock)
Haydock
On the seventh day, at the beginning of this verse, must be taken exclusively, as God finished his work on the 6th, whence the same Septuagint and Syriac have here on the 6th day. (Haydock)
Haydock
The similarity of ver. 6 and ver. 7 in Hebrew may have given rise to this variation. (Haydock)
2:4
Haydock
Day. Not that all things were made in one day: but God formed in succession; first, heaven and earth, then the ornaments of both. Every plant, etc. which on the first day did not spring up, (as water covered the surface of the earth,) on the 3d, by the command of God, without having any man to plant, or rain to water them, pushed forth luxuriantly, and manifested the power of the Creator. (Haydock)
Du Hamel
Thus Christ founded his Church by his own power, and still gives her increase; but requires of his ministers to co-operate with him, as a gardener must now take care of the plants which originally grew without man's aid. (Du Hamel)
Calmet
By observing that all natural means were here wanting for the production of plants, God asserts his sole right to the work, and confounds the Egyptian system, which attributed plants, etc. to the general warmth of the earth alone. (Calmet)
2:7
Haydock
Breath of life or a soul, created out of nothing, and infused into the body to give it life. (Haydock)
2:8
Of pleasure, Hebrew Eden, which may be either the name of a country, as Genesis 4:16, or it may signify pleasure, in which sense Symmachus and St. Jerome have taken it.
Tirinus
From the beginning, or on the 3d day, when all plants were created, Hebrew mikedem, may also mean towards the east, as the Septuagint have understood it, though the other ancient interpreters agree with St. Jerome. Paradise lay probably to the east of Palestine, or of that country where Moses wrote. The precise situation cannot be ascertained. Calmet places it in Armenia, others near Babylon, etc. Some assert that this beautiful garden is still in being, the residence of Henoch and Elias. But God will not permit the curiosity of man to be gratified by the discovery of it, Genesis 3:24. How great might be its extent we do not know. If the sources of the Ganges, Nile, Tigris, and Euphrates, be not now changed, and if these be the rivers which sprung from the fountains of Paradise, (both which are points undecided) the garden must have comprised a great part of the world, (Haydock), as the Ganges rises in Judea [India?], and the Nile about the middle of Africa. (Tirinus)
2:9
Challoner
The tree of life. So called, because it had that quality, that by eating of the fruit of it, man would have been preserved in a constant state of health, vigour, and strength, and would not have died at all. The tree of knowledge. To which the deceitful serpent falsely attributed the power of imparting a superior kind of knowledge beyond that which God was pleased to give. (Challoner)
Tirinus
Of what species these two wonderful trees were, the learned are not agreed. The tree of knowledge, could not communicate any wisdom to man; but, by eating of its forbidden fruit, Adam dearly purchased the knowledge of evil, to which he was before a stranger. Some say it was the fig-tree, others an apple-tree, Canticle of Canticles 8:5. But it probably agreed with no species of trees with which we are acquainted, nor was there perhaps any of the same kind in paradise. (Tirinus)
2:10
Haydock
A river, etc. Moses gives many characteristics of Paradise, inviting us, as it were, to search for it; and still we cannot certainly discover where it is, or whether it exist at all at present, in a state of cultivation. We must therefore endeavour to find the mystic Paradise, Heaven and the true Church; the road to which, though more obvious, is too frequently mistaken. See St. Augustine, City of God 13:21.; Proverbs 3:18. (Haydock)
2:15
Haydock
To dress it. Behold God would not endure idleness even in Paradise. (Haydock)
2:17
Haydock
The death of the soul, and become obnoxious to that of the body; thou shalt become a mortal and lose all the privileges of innocence. Though Adam lived 930 years after this, he was dying daily; he carried along with him the seeds of death, as we do, from our very conception. He had leave to eat of any fruit in this delicious garden, one only excepted, and this one prohibition makes him more eager to taste of that tree than of all the rest. So we struggle constantly to attain what is forbidden, and covet what is denied, cupimusque negata. God laid this easy command upon Adam, to give him an opportunity of shewing his ready obedience, and to assert his own absolute dominion over him. Eve was already formed, and was apprised of this positive command, (Chap. 3:3.) and therefore, transgressing, is justly punished with her husband. True obedience does not inquire why a thing is commanded, but submits without demur. Would a parent be satisfied with his child, if he should refuse to obey, because he could not discern the propriety of the restraint? If he should forbid him to touch some delicious fruits which he had reserved for strangers, and the child were to eat them, excusing himself very impertinently and blasphemously, with those much abused words of our Saviour, It is not what enters into the mouth that defiles a man, etc. would not even a Protestant parent be enraged and seize the rod, though he could not but see that he was thus condemning his own conduct, in disregarding, on the very same plea, the fasts and days of abstinence, prescribed by the Church and by God's authority? All meats are good, as that fruit most certainly was which Adam was forbidden to eat; though some have foolishly surmised that it was poisonous; but, the crime of disobedience draws on punishment. (Haydock)
St. Augustine
Even when the sin is remitted, as it was to Adam, the penalty is not of course released, as some have pretended. This also clearly appears in baptized infants, who suffer the penalties due to original sin, as much as those who have not been admitted to the laver of regeneration. (St. Augustine; Worthington; Tirinus, etc.)
If on this occasion, Eve had alone transgressed, as she was not the head, her sin would have hurt only herself. But with Adam, the representative of all his posterity, God made a sort of compact, (Osee 6:7.) giving him to understand, that if he continued faithful, his children should be born in the state of innocence like himself, happy and immortal, to be translated in due time to a happier Paradise, etc. but if he should refuse to obey, his sin should be communicated to all his race, who should be, by nature, children of wrath.
Calmet
(Haydock) (Calmet)
2:20
Names, probably in the Hebrew language, in which the names of things, frequently designate their nature and quality. See Bochart.
Calmet
(Calmet)
2:21
Menochius
A deep sleep. Septuagint, "an ecstacy," or mysterious sleep, in which Adam was apprised of the meaning of what was done, and how the Church would be taken from the side of Christ, expiring on the cross. (Menochius)
2:23
Of my flesh. God did not, therefore, take a rib without flesh, nor perhaps did he replace flesh without a rib in Adam's side, though St. Augustine thinks he did. These words of Adam are attributed to God, Matthew 19., because they were inspired by him.
Haydock
Woman. As this word is derived from man, so in Hebrew Isha (or Asse) comes from Iish or Aiss; Latin vira woman, and virago comes from vir. (Haydock)
Calmet
But we do not find this allusion so sensible in any of the Oriental languages, as in the Hebrew, whence another proof arises of this being the original language. (Calmet)
2:24
Calmet
One flesh, connected by the closest ties of union, producing children, the blood of both. St. Paul, Ephesians 5:23, discloses to us the mystery of Christ's union with his church for ever, prefigured by this indissoluble marriage of our first parents. (Calmet)
2:25
Haydock
Not ashamed, because they had not perverted the work of God. Inordinate concupiscence is the effect of sin. (Haydock)
2:2
2:9
The tree of life.... So called because it had that quality, that by eating of the fruit of it, man would have been preserved in a constant state of health, vigour, and strength, and would not have died at all. The tree of knowledge.... To which the deceitful serpent falsely attributed the power of imparting a superior kind of knowledge, beyond that which God was pleased to give.
2:2
2. The seuenth day.] Al creatures benig made in their kindes in six dayes, complete and perfect, God not neding (as men often do in their workes) to perfect, poolish, or amend the same, rested the seuenth day: and therfore the natural perfection of Gods workes is attributed to the seventh day, and the supernatural Obseruation of holie dayes by Gods institution. perfecting of men in eternal life, after the Resurrection, is attributed to the eight day. as S. Augustin and other fathers teach. And for this •• Psal. 6. & 11. cause God blessed and sanctifyed the seuenth day. and after we haue in the Decalogue, or tenne commandments, that this day al should rest and abstaine from workes, yea and kepe it festiual, occupying them selues in spiritual exercises seruice and special worshipe of God, as the Iewes did euen til Christs, and his Apostles time, praying and hearing the word of God read and expounded in Act. 13, 14. Leuit. 23. the Sabboth day. VVherby we see that distinction of dayes pertayneth to Religion, Obseruatiō of festiual dayes is religious, not Iudaical, nor heathnish. the people of God thus obseruing the Sabboth in memorie of the Creation, & diuers other feastes in memorie of other benefites. And we now kepe the Sunday holie, in memorie of Christs Resurrection, and other feastes in gratful remembrance of other Mysteries of Christs Natiuitie, the coming of the Holie Ghost, and the like. Yea also feastes of his blessed Mother, and other Sainctes, for the benefites receiued from Christ by them, and for more honour to Christ in them. So this Catholique obseruation of feastes is neither Iudaical (which also in the law was good but now is abrogated) nor heathnish, for we honour not Iupiter, nor Iuno, noranie false god or goddesse, but our Lord God Creator & Redemer, & for his sake, his best seruants. VVherof Honour of Sainctes is to the greater honour of Christ. see the Annotations in the English new Testament. 4. chap. to the Galathians. Hon⸢ie⸣. in 40. Martyr⸢e⸣s. VVherto we here only adde these wordes of S. Basil. VVhich may serue for a general answer to the most common obiection. Honor seruorum redundat in commun•m Dominum. The honour of the seruantes redoundeth to the common Lord, or Maister. So, saith he, the honour of Sainctes is the honour of Christ their Lord and ours.
Concordance Exod. 20, 11. Deut. 5, 14. Heb. 4, 4.
Mans soule is immediatly created by God not produced of other substance as the soules of beastes and plants are.
2:7
Concordance 1. Cor. 15, 45,
2:8
Vvhether this paradise be now extant is vncertayne, though it be certaine that Enoch and Elias are yet liuing in earth S. Aug. li. 2. cont. Pelagi. c. 23. See Perereus. li. 3. q. 5. & li. 7. q. vltima.
2:17
17. Of the tree of knovvledge.] Besides the law of nature, by which Man was VVhy a particular positiue law besides the general lawes of God & nature, was geuen to man. first reason. bound to direct al his actions according to the rule of reason; and besides the supernatural diuine law, by which he was bound to beleue, and trust in God, and to loue him aboue al things, hauing receiued the giftes of faith, hope, and charitie: God gaue him an other particular law, that he should not eate of the tree of knovvlege of good and euil. And that for two special reasons, which S. Augustin lib. 8. de Gen. ad lit. c. 11. Psal. 15. noteth vpon this place. First, that God might declare him selfe to be Lord of man. VVhich was absolutely necessarie for man, and nothing at al profitable to God, who nedeth not our seruice, but we without his dominion should vtterly fal to nothing. Nec enim ipso non creante, &c. For he not creating vs, neither could vve haue bene, no• he not conseruing vs, could vve remayne, nor he not gouerning vs, could vve liue rightly. VVherfore he onlie is our true Lord, vvhom not for his, but for our •. reason. ovvne profite and saluation vve serue. The other reason was, that God might geue man matter wherin to exercise the vertue of obedience, and to shew him selfe a subiect of God. VVhich could not be so properly and effectually declared by keping other lawes, nor the enormitie of disobedience appeare so euidently. as by fulfilling of Gods wil commanding him, or by doing his owne wil, moued to the contrarie, in a thing of it selfe indifferent, & only made vnlawful, because it was forbid. But let vs heare S. Augustins owne wordes. The sinne of disobedience. Nec potuit melius aut diligentius cō •end•ri quantum malum sit sola inobedientia, &c. Neither could it (saith this great Doctor) be better, nor more exactly signified how bad a thing sole disobedience is, then where a man became guiltie of iniquitie, because he touched that thing contrarie to prohibition, which if he, not forbidden, had touched, he had not sinned at al. For he that saith, for example sake, Touch not this herbe, supposing it is poysenful, and doth forwarne Ioyned with damage to him that disobeyeth. one of death, if he touch it, death assuredly falleth on the contemner of the precept: yea though no man had prohibited, and he had touched, for he should dye because the same thing bereueth him of health and life, whether it had benne forbidden him or no. Also when one forbiddeth that thing Ioyned with damage of him that forbiddeth. to be touched, which would not in dede preiudice him that toucheth, but him that forbiddeth, as if one take an others money, being forbid by him. whose the money is, it is a sinne in him that is forbidden, because it is iniurie to him that forbiddeth. But when that thing is touched which neither should hurt him that toucheth, nor any other, if it were not forbid, wherfore is it prohibited, but that the proper goodnes of obedience, and the euil of disobedience might appeare? Thus S. Augustin sheweth, that disobedience is a sinne, because it is against a precept, though otherwise the thing that is done were not euil. And True obedience is blind and prompt. amongst other good notes, teacheth that true obedience inquireth not, wherfore a thing is commanded, but leauing that to the Superior, promptly doth that is appointed.
17. Of the tree eate thou not.] This example of our first parents transgression Not meate, but the di⸢s⸣obedience hurteth him that transgresseth the precept of abstinence. Lawes in things indifferent bind in conscience. Temporal punishment due after sinne is remitted. Death due to al for Original sinne. Yea to infants who haue no other sinne. Also other penalties insticted vpon infants. sheweth, how friuolous an answer it is to say; that breaking of commanded fastes, or eating meates forbidden can not hurt vs, the meate being good Math. 9, Luc. 10. S. Epiph. in compē. f⸢i⸣dei Cat. S. Aug. epist. 80. and holsome: for so the fruite of the tree was good, and should haue hurt no man, if it had not benne forbidden. Euen so al meates of their owne nature are good, yet the precept of fasting (foretold by our Sauiour in general, and determined by his Church in particular) and so of anie other like law, though it be in things otherwise indifferent, proceeding from lawful Superiors, bindeth the subiects in conscience. And the transgression is properly disobedience, what other sinne soeuer may also be mixed therwith.
17. Thou shalt dye the death.] Against the new doctrine, denying that after Caluin l. 3. inst. c. 4 parag. 31. & 32. sinne is remitted, anie temporal punishment remaineth for the same, this place declareth that death (wherof God forewarned Adam, if he should eate of the fruite forbidden) remained due, and was at last inflicted vpon him, for his sinne, which was presently remitted vpon his repentance.
Againe for so much as we are al subiect to death, it proueth that we were al Rom. 5. guiltie of this sinne, by which death came vpon al men, as S. Paul teacheth. Els God should punish vs without our fault, which is vnpossible that his goodnes should do. Especially it appeareth in infants, who dying before they come to lib. 13. de ciuit. c 6. lib. 2. de pec. mer. & remis. c. 34. Gen. 17. Ioan. 3. S. Greg. li. 4. Moral. c. 2. vse of reason, can neuer cōmit other sinne. for though they were circumcised, or had Sacrifice offered, or other remedie vsed for them before Christ, or baptised since Christ: yet they suffer (as S. Augustin noteth) both death and manie other penalties, of sickenes, cold, heate, hunger, and the like, which can neither be to them matter of merite (as to others it may be) nor profite them for auoiding of other sinnes, seing they dye in their infancie. Yea moreouer if they dyed without circumcisiō, or other remedie of those former times, their soules perished from their people; and now without Baptisme can neuer enter into the kingdome of heauen, which could not stand with Gods iustice, if they were not guiltie of sinne.
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Concordance Mat. 19, 5. Mar. 10, 7. 1. Cor. 6 16. Eph. 5, 31.
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As we say brick is made of earth, and a house is built of bricke: so Adam was made of earth and Eue built of a ribbe of Adam. And that of one ribbe, as if God should build a house of one bricke, or as in dede he fed. 5000. men with fiue loaues. Chris. ho. 15. S. Aug. Tract. 24. in Ioan. S. Tho. p. 1. q. 92. a. 3.
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Not three, nor foure, nor more. for then two were chā ged to an other number. S. Ier. li. 1. cont. loui.
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St Methodius † AD 311 The Banquet of the Ten Virgins; or Concerning Chastity 9.1
For since in six days God made the heaven and the earth, and finished the whole world, and rested on the seventh day from all His works which He had made, and blessed the seventh day and sanctified it,
St Gregory of Nyssa † AD 395 On the Making of Man 1.5
5. Now all things were already arrived at their own end: “the heaven and the earth
St Augustine of Hippo † AD 430 On the Catechising of the Uninstructed 17
28. “Now, on the subject of this rest Scripture is significant, and refrains not to speak, when it tells us how at the beginning of the world, and at the time when God made heaven and earth and all things which are in them, He worked during six days, and rested on the seventh day.
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St Barnabas † AD 61 The Epistle of Barnabas 15
… “And God made in six days the works of His hands, and made an end on the seventh day, and rested on it, and sanctified it.”
St Irenaeus of Lyons † AD 202 Against Heresies 5.28.3
3. For in as many days as this world was made, in so many thousand years shall it be concluded. And for this reason the Scripture says: “Thus the heaven and the earth were finished, and all their adornment. And God brought to a conclusion upon the sixth day the works that He had made; and God rested upon the seventh day from all His works.”
St Hippolytus † AD 235 The Refutation of All Heresies 6.9
When, therefore, Moses has spoken of “the six days in which God made heaven and earth, and rested on the seventh from all His works,”
St Hippolytus † AD 235 The Refutation of All Heresies 6.27
… There is, however, he says, a twofold power of the fire; for fire is all-consuming, (and) cannot be quenched. According, therefore, to this division, there exists, subject to death, a certain soul which is a sort of mediator, for it is a Hebdomad and Cessation.
Origen † AD 254 Origen Against Celsus 6.61
Again, not understanding the meaning of the words, “And God ended on the sixth day His works which He had made, and ceased on the seventh day from all His works which He had made: and God blessed the seventh day, and hallowed it, because on it He had ceased from all His works which He had begun to make;”
St John Chrysostom † AD 407 Homilies on Colossians 12
… or as these when come into close rank, and extending hands, become one; for the hands extended admit not of their being two. Therefore to wit He said with accuracy of expression, not “they shall be one flesh” but joined together “into one flesh” (
St Augustine of Hippo † AD 430 Letters of St. Augustin 166.11
11. As for some other objections which are advanced against this opinion, I think that I could easily dispose of them. For example, some think that they urge a conclusive argument against this opinion when they ask, how God finished all His works an the sixth day and rested on the seventh day,
St Augustine of Hippo † AD 430 City of God 22.30
… And God blessed the seventh day, and sanctified it; because that in it He had rested from all His work which God began to make.”
St Augustine of Hippo † AD 430 Sermons on Selected Lessons of the New Testament 75.4
4. The Jews then were troubled. What is this? “Why doeth He these things on the sabbath days?” And especially at those words of the Lord, “My Father worketh hitherto, and I work.” Their carnal understanding of this, that God rested on the seventh day from all His works,
St Augustine of Hippo † AD 430 Expositions on the Book of Psalms 81.2
2. Wherefore also “on the fifth of the sabbath”? What is this? Let us go back to the first works of God, if perchance we may not there find somewhat in which we may also understand a mystery. For the sabbath is the seventh day, on which “God rested from all His works,”
St Augustine of Hippo † AD 430 Expositions on the Book of Psalms 119.21
162. Such was, assuredly, the conduct of the Psalmist, who saith, “Seven times a day do I praise Thee, because of Thy righteous judgments” ( ver. 164 ). The words “seven times a day,” signify “evermore.” For this number is wont to be a symbol of universality; because after six days of the divine work of creation, a seventh of rest was added;
St John of Damascus † AD 749 An Exact Exposition of the Orthodox Faith 4.23
The seventh day is called the Sabbath and signifies rest. For in it God rested from all His works
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St Justin Martyr † AD 165 Dialogue with Trypho 19
… Therefore to you alone this circumcision was necessary, in order that the people may be no people, and the nation no nation; as also Hosea, one of the twelve prophets, declares. Moreover, all those righteous men already mentioned, though they kept no Sabbaths,
St Athanasius of Alexandria † AD 373 Against the Arians. (Orationes contra Arianos IV.) 2.21
… And that ‘In the beginning He made,’ from his saying ‘made,’ means ‘began to make,’ Moses himself shews by saying, after the completion of all things, ‘And God blessed the seventh day and sanctified it, because that in it He had rested from all His work which God began to make
St John Chrysostom † AD 407 The Homilies on the Statues to the People of Antioch 12.9
… Because this commandment was not one of the leading ones. It was not one of those which were accurately defined of our conscience, but a kind of partial and temporary one; and for this reason it was abolished afterwards.
St Augustine of Hippo † AD 430 Letters of St. Augustin 55.18
… We do not read of sanctification in the history given in Genesis of all the earlier days: of the Sabbath alone it is said that “God blessed the seventh day, and sanctified it.”
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Origen † AD 254 Origen Against Celsus 6.60
… “These are the generations of the heavens and of the earth when they were created, in the day that the Lord God made the earth and the heavens.”
St Gregory of Nyssa † AD 395 On the Making of Man 1.1
1. “This is the book of the generation of heaven and earth
St John Chrysostom † AD 407 The Homilies of St. John Chrysostom 2
5. But wherefore doth he call it a “book of the generation of Jesus Christ,” while yet this book hath not the birth only, but the whole dispensation? Because this is the sum of the whole dispensation, and is made an origin and root of all our blessings. As then Moses calleth it the book of heaven and earth,
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St Irenaeus of Lyons † AD 202 Against Heresies 3.21.10
… so also by the obedience of one man, righteousness having been introduced, shall cause life to fructify in those persons who in times past were dead. And as the protoplast himself Adam, had his substance from untilled and as yet virgin soil (“for God had not yet sent rain, and man had not tilled the ground”
St Athanasius of Alexandria † AD 373 Against the Arians. (Orationes contra Arianos IV.) 1.4
… Moses, for instance, in his account of the generation of our system, says, ‘And every plant of the field, before it was in the earth, and every herb of the field before it grew; for the Lord God had not caused it to rain upon the earth, and there was not a man to till the ground
St Basil the Great † AD 379 The Hexæmeron 2.2
… But God, before all those things which now attract our notice existed, after casting about in His mind and determining to bring into being time which had no being, imagined the world such as it ought to be, and created matter in harmony with the form which He wished to give it.
St John Chrysostom † AD 407 Homilies on First Corinthians 7
… For instance, I say, Christ rose again—was born of a Virgin; I adduce testimonies and types and demonstrations; the abode of Jonah in the whale and his deliverance afterwards; the child-bearing of the barren, Sarah, Rebecca, and the rest; the springing up of the trees which took place in paradise (
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St Augustine of Hippo † AD 430 City of God 13.24
… “And God made man dust of the earth;” which some have thought to render more clearly by the words, “And God formed man of the clay of the earth.” For it had before been said that “there went up a mist from the earth, and watered the whole face of the ground,”
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St Justin Martyr † AD 165 Hortatory Address to the Greeks 30
… Moses first mentions the name of man, and then after many other creations he makes mention of the formation of man, saying, “And God made man, taking dust from the earth.”
St Justin Martyr † AD 165 On the Resurrection, Fragments 7
… For does not the word say, “Let Us make man in our image, and after our likeness?” What kind of man? Manifestly He means fleshly man, For the word says, “And God took dust of the earth, and made man.”
St Irenaeus of Lyons † AD 202 Against Heresies 2.34.4
4. But as the animal body is certainly not itself the soul, yet has fellowship with the soul as long as God pleases; so the soul herself is not life, but partakes in that life bestowed upon her by God. Wherefore also the prophetic word declares of the first-formed man, “He became a living soul,”
St Irenaeus of Lyons † AD 202 Against Heresies 4.20.1
… and among the all things, both ourselves and this our world. We also then were made, along with those things which are contained by Him. And this is He of whom the Scripture says, “And God formed man, taking clay of the earth, and breathed into his face the breath of life.”
St Irenaeus of Lyons † AD 202 Against Heresies 5.15.2
… For, as the Scripture says, He made [man] by a kind of process: “And the Lord took clay from the earth, and formed man.”
Tertullian † AD 220 A Treatise on the Soul 3
… We relied even there on the clear direction of the inspired statement which informs us how that “the Lord God breathed on man’s face the breath of life, so that man became a living soul”
Tertullian † AD 220 A Treatise on the Soul 26
… Accordingly you read the word of God which was spoken to Jeremiah, “Before I formed thee in the belly, I knew thee.” Since God forms us in the womb, He also breathes upon us, as He also did at the first creation, when “the Lord God formed man, and breathed into him the breath of life.”
Tertullian † AD 220 The Five Books Against Marcion 1.24
… Surely, therefore, some regard was due to it from Him, because of this His feigned assumption of it. Besides, what else is man than flesh, since no doubt it was the corporeal rather than the spiritual element from which the Author of man’s nature gave him his designation?
Tertullian † AD 220 The Five Books Against Marcion 2.9
… And in an act of your own, such as blowing into a flute, you would not thereby make the flute human, although it was your own human breath which you breathed into it, precisely as God breathed of His own Spirit. In fact, the Scripture, by expressly saying
Tertullian † AD 220 Against Hermogenes 26
… Similarly it (afterwards) treats of man: “And God created man, in the image of God made He him.” It next reveals how He made him: “And (the Lord) God formed man of the dust of the ground, and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life; and man became a living soul.”
Tertullian † AD 220 Against Hermogenes 31
… But this example may be an idle one as being derived from a human circumstance; I will take another, which has the authority of Scripture itself. It says that “God made man of the dust of the ground and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life, and man became a living soul.”
Tertullian † AD 220 On the Flesh of Christ 17
… The earth was still in a virgin state, reduced as yet by no human labour, with no seed as yet cast into its furrows, when, as we are told, God made man out of it into a living soul.
Tertullian † AD 220 On the Resurrection of the Flesh 5
… whilst man, on the contrary, destined to be their lord, was formed by God Himself, to the intent that he might be able to exercise his mastery, being created by the Master the Lord Himself . Remember, too, that man is properly called flesh , which had a prior occupation in man’s designation: “And God formed man the clay of the ground.”
St Hippolytus † AD 235 The Refutation of All Heresies 6.9
… When, therefore, according to these (heretics), there ensued some such arrangement, and (one) similar (to it) of the world, the Deity, he says, proceeded to form man, taking clay from the earth. And He formed him not uncompounded, but twofold, according to (His own) image and likeness.
St Hippolytus † AD 235 The Refutation of All Heresies 6.29
… This (Demiurge), according to them, is Abraham, and these (souls) the children of Abraham. From the material and devilish essence the Demiurge fashioned bodies for the souls. This is what has been declared: “And God formed man, taking clay from the earth, and breathed upon his face the breath of life, and man was made into a living soul.”
St Hippolytus † AD 235 On Genesis 2
… Not such is the case, but the whole narrative is of one man. For the word, “Let us make,” is about the man that was to be; and then comes the word, “God made man of the dust of the ground,” so that the narrative is of one and the same man. For then He says, “Let him be made,” and now He “makes him,” and the narrative tells “how” He makes him.
Origen † AD 254 Origen De Principiis 1.2.4
… Because His generation is as eternal and everlasting as the brilliancy which is produced from the sun. For it is not by receiving the
Origen † AD 254 Origen De Principiis 1.3.6
… “The kingdom of God cometh not with observation; neither shall they say, Lo here! or, lo there! but the kingdom of God is within you.” But here we must see whether this does not bear the same meaning with the expression in Genesis: “And He breathed into his face the breath of life, and man became a living soul.”
Origen † AD 254 Origen De Principiis 2.8.1
… says, “Let the earth bring forth the living creature after its kind, four-footed beasts, and creeping things, and beasts of the earth after their kind.” And now with respect to man, although no one entertains any doubt, or needs to inquire, yet holy Scripture declares that “God breathed into his countenance the breath of life, and man became a living soul.”
Origen † AD 254 Origen Against Celsus 4.37
… for, in our explanatory remarks upon the book of Genesis, these matters have been made, to the best of our ability, a special subject of investigation. Observe next the malignity of Celsus in what follows. For the Scripture, speaking of the “fashioning” of the man, says, “And breathed into his face the breath of life, and the man became a living soul.”
St Methodius † AD 311 The Banquet of the Ten Virgins; or Concerning Chastity 2.7
… for the Almighty alone breathes into man the undying and undecaying part, as also it is He alone who is Creator of the invisible and indestructible. For, He says, He “breathed into his nostrils the breath of life; and man became a living soul.”
Aphrahat † AD 346 Aphrahat: Select Demonstrations 6.14
… for the Spirit stays aloof from all that are born of the flesh, until they come to the new birth by water, and then they receive the Holy Spirit. For in the first birth they are born with an ani mal souls which is created within man and is not thereafter subject to death, as he said:— Adam became a living soul .
Aphrahat † AD 346 Aphrahat: Select Demonstrations 17.6
… because He is the Father of the created things that are over the face of the world, and He has honoured and exalted and glorified men above all creatures. For with His holy hands He fashioned them; and of His Spirit He breathed into them, and a dwelling-place did He become unto them from of old.
St Basil the Great † AD 379 De Spiritu Sancto 16
… for, it is said, “Jesus was led up of the Spirit into the wilderness to be tempted.” He was inseparably with Him while working His wonderful works; for, it is said, “If I by the Spirit of God cast out devils.” And He did not leave Him when He had risen from the dead; for when renewing man, and, by breathing on the face of the disciples,
St Cyril of Jerusalem † AD 386 The Catechetical Lectures of S. Cyril 17.12
12. The fellowship of this Holy Spirit He bestowed on the Apostles; for it is written, And when He had said this, He breathed on them, and saith unto them, Receive ye the Holy Ghost: whose soever sins ye remit, they are remitted unto them; and whose soever sins ye retain, they are retained . This was the second time He breathed on man (His first breath
St Cyril of Jerusalem † AD 386 The Catechetical Lectures of S. Cyril 18.13
13. And whence in the beginning came man into being at all, O ye Samaritans, most senseless of all men? Go to the first book of the Scripture, which even you receive; And God formed man of the dust of the ground
St Gregory of Nazianzus † AD 389 Select Orations of Saint Gregory Nazianzen 2.24
… This is the reason for the generation and the virgin, for the manger and Bethlehem; the generation on behalf of the creation,
St Gregory of Nazianzus † AD 389 Select Orations of Saint Gregory Nazianzen 30
… For if ignorance and sin be darkness, knowledge and a godly life will be Light.…And He is called Life, because He is Light, and is the constituting and creating Power of every reasonable soul. For in Him we live and move and have our being, according to the double power of that Breathing into us; for we were all inspired by Him with breath,
St Gregory of Nazianzus † AD 389 Select Orations of Saint Gregory Nazianzen 38
… nor as yet were the whole riches of Goodness made known. Now the Creator-Word, determining to exhibit this, and to produce a single living being out of both—the visible and the invisible creations, I mean—fashions Man; and taking a body from already existing matter, and placing in it a Breath taken from Himself
St Gregory of Nazianzus † AD 389 Select Orations of Saint Gregory Nazianzen 39.5
VII. Well, let these things be the amusement of the children of the Greeks and of the demons to whom their folly is due, who turn aside the honour of God to themselves, and divide men in various ways in pursuit of shameful thoughts and fancies, ever since they drove us away from the Tree of Life, by means of the Tree of Knowledge unseasonably
St Gregory of Nazianzus † AD 389 Select Orations of Saint Gregory Nazianzen 40
… whether it has followed the flesh, or whether it has mounted up with the spirit, and worshipped the grace of its new creation. My Lord Jesus Christ has showed that He honoured all these births in His own Person; the first, by that first and quickening Inbreathing;
St Gregory of Nyssa † AD 395 On the Making of Man 28.1
… Others, on the contrary, marking the order of the making of man as stated by Moses, say, that the soul is second to the body in order of time, since God first took dust from the earth and formed man, and then animated the being thus formed by His breath
St Gregory of Nyssa † AD 395 The Great Catechism 32
… For since from no other source than from the concrete lump of our nature
St John Chrysostom † AD 407 Homilies on First Corinthians 41
[6.] Ver. 45 . “So also it is written, ( Gen. ii. 7 .) the first man Adam became a living soul: the last Adam became a life-giving Spirit.”
St John Chrysostom † AD 407 Homilies on Colossians 6
… viii. 23, 24 .); to excite him to obedience, and to good works; but this one, all over. For he cometh not to be instructed merely; but to wrestle, and to be exercised; he is advanced to another creation. For when one confesses (his belief) in the life everlasting, he has confessed a second creation. He took dust from the earth, and formed man (
St John Chrysostom † AD 407 The Homilies of St. John Chrysostom on the Gospel of St. John 25
… that is, the movement of wind. He begins at first with water, which is lighter than earth, but denser than air. And as in the beginning earth was the subject material, but the whole was of Him who molded it; so also now water is the subject material, and the whole is of the grace of the Spirit: then, “man became a living soul,” (
St Jerome † AD 420 The Letters of St. Jerome 69.6
… Wherefore also in the vision of the prophet Ezekiel there is seen above the cherubim a crystal stretched forth, that is, the compressed and denser waters. The first living beings come out of the waters; and believers soar out of the laver with wings to heaven. Man is formed out of clay
St Augustine of Hippo † AD 430 The Confessions 13.21
29. And hereby, in Thy Word, not the depth of the sea, but the earth parted from the bitterness of the waters, bringeth forth not the creeping and flying creature that hath life, but the living soul itself.
St Augustine of Hippo † AD 430 Letters of St. Augustin 143.8
… the soul, on the other hand, returning to God, for He gave it when He breathed into the nostrils of the man whom He had formed the breath of life, and he became a living soul,
St Augustine of Hippo † AD 430 City of God 13.23
… animated body is, he says, “Thus it was written, The first man Adam was made a living soul, the last Adam was made a quickening spirit.” He wished thus to show what the animated body is, though Scripture did not say of the first man Adam, when his soul was created by the breath of God, “Man was made in an animated body,” but “Man was made a living soul.”
St Augustine of Hippo † AD 430 City of God 13.24
Some have hastily supposed from the words, “God breathed into Adam’s nostrils the breath of life, and man became a living soul,
St Augustine of Hippo † AD 430 Reply to Faustus the Manichæan 24
… it is sown in weakness, it shall rise in power; it is sown a natural body, it shall rise a spiritual body." Then, in order to show the origin of the animal body, he says, "There is a natural body, and there is a spiritual body; as it is written, The first man, Adam, was made a living soul." Now this is written in Genesis,
St Augustine of Hippo † AD 430 A Treatise on the Grace of Christ, and on Original Sin 2.40
… But we speak to faithful men, who have learnt to believe the inspired Scriptures, even though no examples are adduced of actual reality. For how could I now possibly prove that a man was made of the dust, without any parents, and a wife formed for him out of his own side?
St Augustine of Hippo † AD 430 A Treatise on the Soul and its Origin 1.19
… sometimes by spiritus , spirit; sometimes by inspiratio , inspiration. This term occurs in the Greek editions of the passage which we are now reviewing, “Who giveth breath to the people upon it,” the word for breath being πνοή . The same word is used in the narrative where man was endued with life: “And God breathed upon his face the breath of life.”
St Augustine of Hippo † AD 430 A Treatise on the Soul and its Origin 1.28
… Well, then, if it be allowable for this man to take the whole from a part in the passage, “And man became a living soul,”
St Augustine of Hippo † AD 430 A Treatise on the Soul and its Origin 2.2
… And that both of them pertain to man’s nature, so that the whole man consists of spirit, and soul, and body? Sometimes, however, these two are combined together under the designation of soul ; for instance, in the passage, “And man became a living soul.”
St Augustine of Hippo † AD 430 A Treatise on the Soul and its Origin 4.3
… For you have not merely aspersed with your censure those who are affected with the same ignorance as I am myself labouring under, that is to say, concerning the origin of the human soul (although I am not indeed absolutely ignorant even on this point, for I know that God breathed into the face of the first man, and that “man then became a living soul,”
St Augustine of Hippo † AD 430 Expositions on the Book of Psalms 69.4
4. “Fixed I am in the clay of the deep, and there is no substance” ( ver. 2 ). What called the clay? Is it those very persons that have persecuted? For out of clay man hath been made.
St Augustine of Hippo † AD 430 Expositions on the Book of Psalms 90.3
… “He spake the word, and they were made; He commanded, and they were created;” but the earth was “formed,” that man might thence be created in the body. For the Scripture uses this word, where we read, God made, or “God formed man out of the dust of the ground.”
Theodoret of Cyrus † AD 458 Dialogues. The “Eranistes” or “Polymorphus” of the Blessed Theodoretus, Bishop of Cyrus 2
… Holy Scripture on the contrary knows only one, not two souls; and this is plainly taught us by the formation of the first man. For it is written God took dust from the earth and “formed man,” and “breathed into his nostrils the breath of life, and man became a living soul.”
Theodoret of Cyrus † AD 458 Letters of the Blessed Theodoret, Bishop of Cyprus 146
… He had learnt the distinction of soul and of mind from the philosophers that are without while divine Scripture says that man consists of soul and body. For we read “And the Lord God formed man of the dust of the ground and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life and man became a living soul.”
Pseudo-Clement The Clementine Homilies 20.6
… Why? Did not God convert the rod of Moses into an animal, making it a serpent, which He reconverted into a rod? And by means of this very converted rod he converted the water of the Nile into blood, which again he reconverted into water. Yea, even man, who is dust, He changed by the inbreathing of His breath
2:8
St Irenaeus of Lyons † AD 202 Against Heresies 5.5
… For in Adam the hands of God had become accustomed to set in order, to rule, and to sustain His own workmanship, and to bring it and place it where they pleased. Where, then, was the first man placed? In paradise certainly, as the Scripture declares “And God planted a garden [ paradisum ] eastward in Eden, and there He placed the man whom He had formed.”
Tertullian † AD 220 Genesis 1
In gladsome court a paradise is strewn,
St Hippolytus † AD 235 The Refutation of All Heresies 5.21
Of these twenty-four angels the paternal ones are associated with the Father, and do all things according to His will; and the maternal (angels are associated with) Edem the Mother. And the multitude of all these angels together is Paradise, he says, concerning which Moses speaks: “God planted a garden in Eden towards the east,”
St Gregory of Nazianzus † AD 389 Select Orations of Saint Gregory Nazianzen 43.70
70. Come then, there have been many men of old days illustrious for piety, as lawgivers, generals, prophets, teachers, and men brave to the shedding of blood. Let us compare our prelate with them, and thus recognize his merit. Adam was honoured by the hand of God, and the delights of Paradise,
St Jerome † AD 420 The Letters of St. Jerome 69.6
… The first living beings come out of the waters; and believers soar out of the laver with wings to heaven. Man is formed out of clay and God holds the mystic waters in the hollow of his hand. In Eden a garden is planted, and a fountain in the midst of it parts into four heads.
St Augustine of Hippo † AD 430 On Christian Doctrine 3.36
… And we make mistakes if we do not understand this, from applying the rule here spoken of. For example, in the book of Genesis we read, “And the Lord God planted a garden eastward in Eden; and there He put the man whom He had formed. And out of the ground made the Lord God to grow every tree that is pleasant to the sight, and good for food.”
St Augustine of Hippo † AD 430 On Baptism, Against the Donatists 4.1
… For, as the words of Scripture testify, the streams from the fountain of Paradise flowed copiously even beyond its bounds. Record indeed is made of their names; and through what countries they flow, and that they are situated beyond the limits of Paradise, is known to all;
St John of Damascus † AD 749 An Exact Exposition of the Orthodox Faith 4.12
… Indeed the divine David also says, Sing unto God, ye kingdoms of the earth: O sing praises unto the Lord: to Him that rideth upon the Heavens of heavens towards the East . Moreover the Scripture also says, And God planted a garden eastward in Eden; and there He put the man whom He had formed
2:9
Tertullian † AD 220 Five Books in Reply to Marcion 2
The fount’s one hue and savour. Thus, withal,
St Methodius † AD 311 The Banquet of the Ten Virgins; or Concerning Chastity 3.7
… Now, when he inclines to corruption, he becomes corrupt and mortal, and when to incorruption, he becomes incorrupt and immortal. For, being placed midway between the tree of life and the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, of the Fruit of which he tasted,
St Methodius † AD 311 The Banquet of the Ten Virgins; or Concerning Chastity 9.3
… Indeed, in the Song of Songs, Solomon having made mention of all these fruits, passes over in silence the citron only. But this deceives the unwary, for they have not understood that the tree of life
St Hilary of Poitiers † AD 367 Homilies on the Psalms 1
… Nor yet did He hesitate to teach that the power that makes the tree happy resided in His Person, when on the way to the Cross He said: For if they do these things in the green tree, what shall be done in the dry ? Declaring by this image of the green tree that there was nothing in Him that was subject to the dryness of death.
St Cyril of Jerusalem † AD 386 The Catechetical Lectures of S. Cyril 13.35
… And what happens next? What kind of door has the sepulchre? Again another Prophet says, They cut off My life in a dungeon , and cast a stone upon Me. I, who am the Chief corner-stone, the elect, the precious , lie for a little time within a stone—I who am a stone of stumbling to the Jews, and of salvation to them who believe. The Tree of life
St Gregory of Nyssa † AD 395 On the Making of Man 20.1
1. What then is that which includes the knowledge of good and evil blended together, and is decked with the pleasures of sense? I think I am not aiming wide of the mark in employing, as a starting-point for my speculation, the sense of “knowable
St Augustine of Hippo † AD 430 Concerning the Nature of Good, Against the Manichæans 35
… Hence also He called the tree, the touching of which He forbade, the tree "of the knowledge of good and evil;"
St John of Damascus † AD 749 An Exact Exposition of the Orthodox Faith 2.11
In its midst God planted the tree of life and the tree of knowledge
2:10
St Hippolytus † AD 235 The Refutation of All Heresies 5.4
… so as that he imparts beauty and bloom to all things that exist according to their own nature and peculiarity, as if passing through all, just as (“the river) proceeding forth from Edem, and dividing itself into four heads.”
St Hippolytus † AD 235 The Refutation of All Heresies 6.9
… Moses, he says, resorting to allegory, has declared Paradise to be the womb, if we ought to rely on his statement. If, however, God forms man in his mother’s womb—that is, in Paradise—as I have affirmed, let Paradise be the womb, and Edem the after-birth, “a river flowing forth from Edem, for the purpose of irrigating Paradise,”
St John Chrysostom † AD 407 A Commentary on the Acts of the Apostles 22
… friendship with God, praise with men, glory to Godward, good-will from all; blotting out of sins, great boldness, contempt of wealth. This is the fountain by which the plant of love is nourished: for nothing is so wont to nourish love, as the being merciful: it makes its branches to lift themselves on high. This fountain is better than that in Paradise (
St Jerome † AD 420 The Letters of St. Jerome 51.5
… For the divine Scripture has not said, “God put down Adam and Eve upon the earth,” but “He drove them out of the paradise, and made them dwell over against the paradise.” He does not say “under the paradise.” “He placed…cherubims and a flaming sword…to keep the way of the tree of life.” He says nothing about an ascent to it. “And a river went out of Eden.”
St John of Damascus † AD 749 An Exact Exposition of the Orthodox Faith 2.9
The ocean, then, is like a river encircling the whole earth, and I think it is concerning it that the divine Scripture says, A river went out of Paradise
2:11
St Hippolytus † AD 235 The Refutation of All Heresies 5.4
They assert, however, that Edem is the brain, as it were, bound and tightly fastened in encircling robes, as if (in) heaven. But they suppose that man, as far as the head only, is Paradise, therefore that “this river, which proceeds out of Edem,” that is, from the brain, “is divided into four heads,
St Jerome † AD 420 The Letters of St. Jerome 53.1
… Apollonius too was a traveller—the one I mean who is called the sorcerer by ordinary people and the philosopher by such as follow Pythagoras. He entered Persia, traversed the Caucasus and made his way through the Albanians, the Scythians, the Massagetæ, and the richest districts of India. At last, after crossing that wide river the Pison,
St Jerome † AD 420 The Letters of St. Jerome 125.3
… They may count themselves fortunate if after six months they make the port of the above-mentioned city. At this point the ocean begins, to cross which a whole year hardly suffices. Then India is reached and the river Ganges—called in holy scripture Pison—“which compasseth the whole land of Havilah”
2:13
Eusebius of Caesarea † AD 339 The Church History of Eusebius 7.21.7
7. And what other water could purify the water which purifies everything? How could the ocean, so great and impassable for men, if poured into it, cleanse this bitter sea? Or how could the great river which flowed out of Eden, if it poured the four heads into which it is divided into the one of Geon,
2:15
Tertullian † AD 220 Against Hermogenes 3
… But when He completed the whole creation, and especially man himself, who was destined to understand His sovereignty in a way of special propriety, He then is designated Lord. Then also the Scripture added the name Lord : “And the Lord God, Deus Dominus , took the man, whom He had formed;”
St Athanasius of Alexandria † AD 373 On the Incarnation of the Word 5
For this cause, then, death having gained upon men, and corruption abiding upon them, the race of man was perishing; the rational man made in God’s image was disappearing, and the handiwork of God was in process of dissolution. 2. For death, as I said above, gained from that time forth a legal
St Augustine of Hippo † AD 430 On Christian Doctrine 3.36
… and all this has reference to the arrangements of the garden. And when this is finished, there is a repetition of the fact which had been already told, but which in the strict order of events came after all this: “And the Lord God took the man, and put him into the garden of Eden.”
2:16
St Irenaeus of Lyons † AD 202 Against Heresies 5.20
… but to flee to the Church, and be brought up in her bosom, and be nourished with the Lord’s Scriptures. For the Church has been planted as a garden ( paradisus ) in this world; therefore says the Spirit of God, “Thou mayest freely eat from every tree of the garden,”
St Irenaeus of Lyons † AD 202 Against Heresies 5.23
… “From every tree which is in the garden thou shalt eat food; but from the tree of knowledge of good and evil, from this ye shall not eat: for in the day that ye shall eat of it, ye shall die by death;”
Tertullian † AD 220 An Answer to the Jews 2
… For in the beginning of the world He gave to Adam himself and Eve a law, that they were not to eat of the fruit of the tree planted in the midst of paradise; but that, if they did contrariwise, by death they were to die.
Tertullian † AD 220 A Treatise on the Soul 38
… for its impulse has by this time surpassed the appointment of nature, and springs from its vicious abuse. But the strictly natural concupiscence is simply confined to the desire of those aliments which God at the beginning conferred upon man. “Of every tree of the garden” He says, “ye shall freely eat;”
Tertullian † AD 220 Against Hermogenes 3
… But when He completed the whole creation, and especially man himself, who was destined to understand His sovereignty in a way of special propriety, He then is designated Lord. Then also the Scripture added the name Lord : “And the Lord God, Deus Dominus , took the man, whom He had formed;” “And the Lord God commanded Adam.”
Tertullian † AD 220 On Fasting 3
Adam had received from God the law of not tasting “of the tree of recognition of good and evil,” with the doom of death to ensue upon tasting.
St Hippolytus † AD 235 The Refutation of All Heresies 5.15
… or when he speaks of the existence of three days before sun and moon; or when he mentions three laws—prohibitory, permissive, and adjudicatory of punishment. Now, a prohibitory law is as follows: “Of every tree that is in paradise thou mayest freely eat; but of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil thou mayest not eat.”
St Hippolytus † AD 235 The Refutation of All Heresies 5.21
… Baruch then coming, stood in the midst of the angels of Edem, that is, in the midst of paradise—for paradise is the angels, in the midst of whom he stood,—and issued to the man the following injunction: “Of every tree that is in paradise thou mayest freely eat, but thou mayest not eat of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil,”
St Athanasius of Alexandria † AD 373 On the Incarnation of the Word 2
… no longer to live in paradise, but cast out of it from that time forth to die and to abide in death and in corruption. 5. Now this is that of which Holy Writ also gives warning, saying in the Person of God: “Of every tree
St Gregory of Nazianzus † AD 389 Select Orations of Saint Gregory Nazianzen 43.70
70. Come then, there have been many men of old days illustrious for piety, as lawgivers, generals, prophets, teachers, and men brave to the shedding of blood. Let us compare our prelate with them, and thus recognize his merit. Adam was honoured by the hand of God, and the delights of Paradise, and the first legislation:
St Gregory of Nyssa † AD 395 On the Making of Man 19.2
… nor should we at all conceive, concerning the mode of life in Paradise, this transitory and perishable nutriment: “of every tree of the garden,” He says, “thou mayest freely eat
St John Chrysostom † AD 407 Homilies on Second Corinthians 2
… When he findeth not a godly mind, findeth not a sound understanding, then, as into a soul left empty, he leads his revel thither ; when one remembereth not the commandments of God nor keepeth His judgments, then he taketh him captive and departeth. Had Adam, for instance, remembered the commandment which said, “Of every tree thou mayest eat:” (
St Jerome † AD 420 The Letters of St. Jerome 51.5
… But where there are rivers which admit of being seen and of being drunk, it follows that there also there will be fig-trees and other trees; and it is of these that the Lord says, “Of every tree of the garden thou mayest freely eat.”
St John of Damascus † AD 749 An Exact Exposition of the Orthodox Faith 2.11
… Verily it has been fitly named the tree of life. For since the life is not cut short by death, the sweetness of the divine participation is imparted to those who share it. And this is, in truth, what God meant by every tree, saying, Of every tree in Paradise thou mayest freely eat
Pseudo-Clement The Clementine Homilies 16.6
“For instance, in the very first words of the law, He evidently speaks of them as being like even unto Himself. For thus it is written, that, when the first man received a commandment from God to eat of every tree that was in the garden,
2:17
Tertullian † AD 220 A Treatise on the Soul 50
… According to the general sentiment of the human race, we declare death to be “the debt of nature.” So much has been settled by the voice of God;
Tertullian † AD 220 The Five Books Against Marcion 2.4
… and as a rational being, capable of intelligence and knowledge, be restrained within the bounds of rational liberty, subject to Him who had subjected all things unto him. To secure the observance of this law, Goodness likewise took counsel by help of this sanction: “In the day that thou eatest thereof, thou shalt surely die.”
St Methodius † AD 311 From the Discourse on the Resurrection, Part III 2
… For how should one care for a thing which is neither forbidden nor necessary to him? And for this reason it is said, “I had not known lust, except the law had said, Thou shalt not covet.” For when (our first parents) heard, “Of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, thou shalt not eat of it; for in the day thou eatest thereof thou shalt surely die,”
Aphrahat † AD 346 Aphrahat: Select Demonstrations 8.17
17. And there are those who even while they live are dead unto God. For He laid a commandment on Adam and said to him, In the day that thou shalt eat of the tree, thou shalt surely die .
Aphrahat † AD 346 Aphrahat: Select Demonstrations 22.1
… And how did death rule from Adam unto Moses? Clearly, when God laid down the commandment for Adam, He warned him, and said:— On the day that thou shalt eat of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, thou shalt die the death.
St Athanasius of Alexandria † AD 373 Against the Arians. (Orationes contra Arianos IV.) 2.21
… for another generation, and the people that shall be created shall praise the Lord .’ And again in the twenty-first Psalm, ‘The generation to come shall declare unto the Lord, and they shall declare His righteousness, unto a people that shall be born whom the Lord made .’ For we shall no more hear, ‘In the day that thou eatest thereof, thou shalt surely die
St Cyril of Jerusalem † AD 386 The Catechetical Lectures of S. Cyril 13.31
… The request reached unto a distant time; but the grace was very speedy. Verily I say unto thee, This day shalt thou be with Me in Paradise; because to-day thou hast heard My voice, and hast not hardened thine heart . Very speedily I passed sentence upon Adam, very speedily I pardon thee. To him it was said, In the day wherein ye eat, ye shall surely die
St Gregory of Nyssa † AD 395 Against Eunomius 2.13
… but “the soul that sinneth,” he saith, “it shall die .” Now sin is nothing else than alienation from God, Who is the true and only life. Accordingly the first man lived many hundred years after his disobedience, and yet God lied not when He said, “In the day that ye eat thereof ye shall surely die
St Gregory of Nyssa † AD 395 On Virginity 12
… because impatience to remain any longer in ignorance of evil would be but the beginning of the long train of actual evil. For this reason it was forbidden to our first parents to grasp the knowledge of the opposite to the good, as well as that of the good itself; they were to keep themselves from “the knowledge of good and evil
St John Chrysostom † AD 407 The Homilies on the Statues to the People of Antioch 5.13
… Be not dejected, for thus thou wilt not be at all benefited. Hast thou sinned? Then be sorry: for it is profitable; and consider the skill and wisdom of God. Sin hath brought forth for us these two things, sorrow and death. For “in the day thou eatest,” He saith, “thou shalt surely die;” and to the woman, “In sorrow thou shalt bring forth children.”
St John Chrysostom † AD 407 Homilies on Colossians 6
… What bond? He means either that which they said to Moses, namely, “All that God hath said will we do, and be obedient” ( Ex. xxiv. 3 .), or, if not that, this, that we owe to God obedience; or if not this, he means that the devil held possession of it, the bond which God made for Adam, saying, “In the day thou eatest of the tree, thou shalt die.” (
St John Chrysostom † AD 407 The Homilies of St. John Chrysostom on the Gospel of St. John 28
… For as the murderer, though he be not as yet condemned by the decision of the judge, is still condemned by the nature of the thing, so is it with the unbeliever. Since Adam also died on the day that he ate of the tree; for so ran the decree, “In the day that ye eat of the tree, ye shall die” (
St Jerome † AD 420 The Letters of St. Jerome 22.18
… When God says to Eve, “In pain and in sorrow thou shalt bring forth children,” say to yourself, “That is a law for a married woman, not for me.” And when He continues, “Thy desire shall be to thy husband,” say again: “Let her desire be to her husband who has not Christ for her spouse.” And when, last of all, He says, “Thou shalt surely die,”
St Augustine of Hippo † AD 430 City of God 13.12
… but the second is when the soul, without God but with the body, suffers punishment everlasting. When, therefore, God said to that first man whom he had placed in Paradise, referring to the forbidden fruit, “In the day that thou eatest thereof thou shalt surely die,”
St Augustine of Hippo † AD 430 City of God 13.15
It may perhaps be supposed that because God said, “Ye shall die the death,”
St Augustine of Hippo † AD 430 City of God 13.23
Wherefore, although we understand that this manifest death, which consists in the separation of soul and body, was also signified by God when He said, “In the day thou eatest thereof thou shalt surely die,”
St Augustine of Hippo † AD 430 City of God 16.27
… Now there are many things called God’s covenants besides those two great ones, the old and the new, which any one who pleases may read and know. For the first covenant, which was made with the first man, is just this: “In the day ye eat thereof, ye shall surely die.”
St Augustine of Hippo † AD 430 The Enchiridion 25
… Now the evils I have mentioned are common to all who for their wickedness have been justly condemned by God, whether they be men or angels. But there is one form of punishment peculiar to man—the death of the body. God had threatened him with this punishment of death if he should sin,
St Augustine of Hippo † AD 430 A Treatise on the Merits and Forgiveness of Sins, and on the Baptism of Infants 1.2
They who say that Adam was so formed that he would even without any demerit of sin have died, not as the penalty of sin, but from the necessity of his being, endeavour indeed to refer that passage in the law, which says: “On the day ye eat thereof ye shall surely die,”
St Augustine of Hippo † AD 430 A Treatise on the Merits and Forgiveness of Sins, and on the Baptism of Infants 1.21
… For that possesses not even a moment’s stability, but glides away without intermission, which by constant change perceptibly advances to an end which does not produce perfection, but utter exhaustion. Thus, then, was fulfilled what God had spoken: “In the day that ye eat thereof, ye shall surely die.”
St Augustine of Hippo † AD 430 A Treatise on the Merits and Forgiveness of Sins, and on the Baptism of Infants 2.35
When the first human beings—the one man Adam, and his wife Eve who came out of him—willed not to obey the commandment which they had received from God, a just and deserved punishment overtook them. The Lord had threatened that, on the day they ate the forbidden fruit, they should surely die.
St Augustine of Hippo † AD 430 Sermons on Selected Lessons of the New Testament 47.2
… I speak to your love, Brethren; proud mortals ought to be made blush by the devil. For he, though proud, is yet immortal; he is a spirit, though a malignant one. The last day is kept in store for him at the end as his punishment; nevertheless he is not subject to the death to which we are subject. But man heard the sentence, “Thou shalt surely die.”
St Augustine of Hippo † AD 430 Lectures or Tractates on the Gospel According to St. John 22
… I then have believed, I am not to die;” be assured that thou shalt pay that penalty, death, which thou owest by the punishment of Adam. For he, in whom we all then were, received this sentence, “Thou shalt surely die;”
St Augustine of Hippo † AD 430 Expositions on the Book of Psalms 38.4
… 3 ). He has now begun telling these evils, which he is suffering here: and yet even this already was from the wrath of the Lord, because it was of the vengeance of the Lord. “Of what vengeance?” That which He took upon Adam. For think not that punishment was not inflicted upon him, or that God had said to no purpose, “Thou shalt surely die;”
St Augustine of Hippo † AD 430 Expositions on the Book of Psalms 38.25
… lest if He were not “accursed,” you should think that He had not truly died. But since that death was not an illusion, but had descended from that original stock, which had been derived from the curse, when He said, “Ye shall surely die:”
St Augustine of Hippo † AD 430 Expositions on the Book of Psalms 69.27
… Is it little for a man that some time he is to die? Each one of us therefore beareth his punishment: to this punishment they would add that persecute us. This punishment is the smiting of the Lord. For the Lord smote man with the sentence: “What day ye shall have touched it,” He saith, “with death ye shall die.”
St Augustine of Hippo † AD 430 Expositions on the Book of Psalms 71.19
… For who is turned to God save from iniquity? Who is redeemed save from captivity? But who can say that unjust was his captivity, when he forsook his Captain and fell off to the deserter? God is for our Captain, the devil a deserter: the Captain gave a commandment, the deserter suggested guile:
Theodoret of Cyrus † AD 458 Dialogues. The “Eranistes” or “Polymorphus” of the Blessed Theodoretus, Bishop of Cyrus 3
Eran. —So divine Scripture teaches. For we learn that when God forbade Adam to partake of the tree of knowledge He added “on the day that ye eat thereof ye shall surely die.”
Pope St Gregory I the Great † AD 604 Register of the Epistles of St. Gregory the Great 6.14
… For when this is written; that when Adam sinned his soul died, the writer shews afterwards how it is said to have died, namely that it lost the blessedness of its condition. Whosoever denies this is not a Catholic. For God had said, In the hour ye eat thereof, in death ye shall die (
Pope St Gregory I the Great † AD 604 Register of the Epistles of St. Gregory the Great 7.34
… and that whoso said it was so was anathema. When this was read to me I was much grieved. For if the soul of Adam, who was the first to sin, did not die by sin, how was it said to him concerning the forbidden tree, In the day that ye eat thereof ye shall surely die (
St John of Damascus † AD 749 An Exact Exposition of the Orthodox Faith 2.11
… let every thing bear for thee the fruit of life, and let participation in Me be the support of your own being. For in this way thou wilt be immortal. But of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, thou shalt not eat of it: for in the day that thou eatest thereof thou shalt surely die
2:18
Tertullian † AD 220 The Five Books Against Marcion 2.4
… The self-same Goodness provided also a help meet for him, that there might be nothing in his lot that was not good. For, said He, that the man be alone is not good.
St Methodius † AD 311 The Banquet of the Ten Virgins; or Concerning Chastity 3.8
… For He may fitly be called the side of the Word, even the sevenfold Spirit of truth, according to the prophet; of whom God taking, in the trance of Christ, that is, after His incarnation and passion, prepares a help-meet for Him
St Methodius † AD 311 The Banquet of the Ten Virgins; or Concerning Chastity 3.10
… For men who are incontinent in consequence of the uncontrolled impulses of sensuality in them, dare to force the Scriptures beyond their true meaning, so as to twist into a defence of their incontinence the saying, “Increase and multiply;”
St Gregory of Nazianzus † AD 389 Select Orations of Saint Gregory Nazianzen 18.8
8. She indeed who was given to Adam as a help meet for him, because it was not good for man to be alone,
St Ambrose of Milan † AD 397 On the Duties of the Clergy 1.28
134. That man was made for the sake of man we find stated also in the books of Moses, when the Lord says: “It is not good that man should be alone, let us make him an helpmeet for him.”
St John Chrysostom † AD 407 The Homilies of St. John Chrysostom on Paul's Epistle to the Romans 23
… You see the words of a vehement lover! If thou love My beloved, then will I also reckon Myself to be greatly beloved of thee. For He vehemently desireth our salvation, and this He showed from of old. Now hear what He saith when He was forming the man, “Let Us make man in Our Image:” and again, “Let Us
St John Chrysostom † AD 407 Homilies on Colossians 12
For this cause He also calleth her a help, to show that they are one (
St John Chrysostom † AD 407 The Homilies of St. John Chrysostom on the Gospel of St. John 25
… Then, man was formed last, when the creation had been accomplished; now, on the contrary, the new man is formed before the new creation; he is born first, and then the world is fashioned anew. ( 1 Cor. xv. 45 .) And as in the beginning He formed him entire, so He creates him entire now. Then He said, “Let us make for him a help” (
John Cassian † AD 435 The Conferences of John Cassian 21.9
… For I acknowledge and honour my helpmeet assigned to me by the word of the Lord, and I do not refuse to be joined to her in an unbroken tie of love in Christ, nor do I separate from me what the Lord joined to me by the law of the original condition,
Theodoret of Cyrus † AD 458 Dialogues. The “Eranistes” or “Polymorphus” of the Blessed Theodoretus, Bishop of Cyrus 1
Orth. —And yet we shewed how, being invisible, He was made manifest through flesh, and the relationship of this very flesh we have been taught by the sacred writers—“He took on Him the seed of Abraham.” And the Lord God said to the patriarch, “in thy seed shall all the nations of the earth be blessed,”
2:19
Tertullian † AD 220 On the Veiling of Virgins 5
… But what kind of (hypothesis) is it that one who, with an eye to the future, was called by a definite name, at the present time should have nothing for a surname? On all animals Adam imposed names; and on none on the ground of future condition, but on the ground of the present purpose which each particular nature served;
St Gregory of Nyssa † AD 395 Answer to Eunomius' Second Book 1
… And so, again, we maintain that the intellectual faculty, made as it was originally by God, acts thenceforward by itself when it looks out upon realities, and that there be no confusion in its knowledge, affixes some verbal note to each several thing as a stamp to indicate its meaning. Great Moses himself confirms this doctrine when he says
St Augustine of Hippo † AD 430 A Treatise on the Merits and Forgiveness of Sins, and on the Baptism of Infants 1.67
… Why was he capable of receiving a commandment? and able to give names to his wife, and to all the animal creation? For of her he said, “She shall be called Woman;” and in respect of the rest we read: “Whatsoever Adam called every living creature, that was the name thereof.”
St Augustine of Hippo † AD 430 On Marriage and Concupiscence 1.6
… Now that their eyes were opened, their body appeared to them naked, and they knew it. If this were not the meaning, how, when the beast of the field and the fowls of the air were brought unto him,
2:20
St Ambrose of Milan † AD 397 On the Duties of the Clergy 1.28
… “It is not good that man should be alone, let us make him an helpmeet for him.” Thus the woman was given to the man to help him. She should bear him children, that one man might always be a help to another. Again, before the woman was formed, it was said of Adam: “There was not found an help-meet for him.”
St Augustine of Hippo † AD 430 On the Holy Trinity 12.13
… unless that it is written, that in all the beasts and flying things there was not found for man an helpmate like to himself; and then the woman was made out of his side.
Pseudo-Clement The Clementine Homilies 3.21
“He himself being the only true prophet, fittingly gave names to each animal, according to the merits of its nature, as having made it. For if he gave a name to any one, that was also the name of that which was made, being given by him who made it.
2:21
Tertullian † AD 220 A Treatise on the Soul 43
… That, therefore, will be natural in its condition which may be rendered non-natural by defect or by excess. Well, now, what if you were to remove eating and drinking from the conditions of nature? if in them lies the chief incentive to sleep. It is certain that, from the very beginning of his nature, man was impressed with these instincts (of sleep).
Tertullian † AD 220 A Treatise on the Soul 45
… There is the act, but not the effect. This power we call ecstasy , in which the sensuous soul stands out of itself, in a way which even resembles madness. Thus in the very beginning sleep was inaugurated by ecstasy: “And God sent an ecstasy upon Adam, and he slept.”
Tertullian † AD 220 Against Hermogenes 31
… It says that “God made man of the dust of the ground and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life, and man became a living soul.” Now, although it here mentions the nostrils, it does not say that they were made by God; so again it speaks of skin and bones, and flesh and eyes, and sweat and blood, in subsequent passages,
Tertullian † AD 220 To His Wife i.2
We do not indeed forbid the union of man and woman, blest by God as the seminary of the human race, and devised for the replenishment of the earth and the furnishing of the world, and therefore permitted, yet singly. For Adam was the one husband of Eve, and Eve his one wife, one woman, one rib.
Tertullian † AD 220 On Exhortation to Chastity 5
… witnessing as it emphatically does what God constituted in the beginning for a type to be examined with care by posterity. For when He had moulded man, and had foreseen that a peer was necessary for him, He borrowed from his ribs one, and fashioned for him one woman;
Origen † AD 254 Origen Against Celsus 4.38
In the next place, as it is his object to slander our Scriptures, he ridicules the following statement: “And God caused a deep sleep to fall upon Adam, and he slept: and He took one of his ribs, and closed up the flesh instead thereof. And the rib, which He had taken from the man, made He a woman,”
St John Chrysostom † AD 407 A Commentary on the Acts of the Apostles 22
… no sooner than this, and no later, He Causes this to take place—“Peter about the sixth hour went up upon the housetop to pray:” that is, privately and quietly, as in an upper chamber. “And he became very hungry, and would have eaten; but while they made ready, there fell upon him a trance.” ( v. 10 .) What means this expression,
St John Chrysostom † AD 407 The Homilies of St. John Chrysostom on Paul's Epistle to the Romans 19
… xxx. 12 , LXX.): that is, I may not alter, may not be changed. For as a man who is hushed to slumber in a state of pious fear would not easily be made to change his side; so too he that is slumbering in wickedness would not change with facility. For to be hushed
St Jerome † AD 420 The Letters of St. Jerome 51.5
… “This is now bone of my bones and flesh of my flesh;” or what is the ground of the divine narrative, “And the Lord God caused a deep sleep to fall upon Adam, and he slept; and he took one of his ribs, and closed up the flesh instead thereof; and the rib which the Lord God had taken from man, made He a woman”
St Jerome † AD 420 The Letters of St. Jerome 123.12
12. The creation of the first man should teach us to reject more marriages than one. There was but one Adam and but one Eve; in fact the woman was fashioned from a rib of Adam.
St Augustine of Hippo † AD 430 On the Good of Marriage 1
… Therefore the first natural bond of human society is man and wife. Nor did God create these each by himself, and join them together as alien by birth: but He created the one out of the other, setting a sign also of the power of the union in the side, whence she was drawn, was formed.
St Augustine of Hippo † AD 430 Expositions on the Book of Psalms 8.12
… May we from the Lord’s saying that He had left ninety and nine sheep in the mountains, that is, in the higher regions, and had come down for one? For if we take the one lost sheep to be the human soul in Adam, since Eve even was made out of his side,
St Augustine of Hippo † AD 430 Expositions on the Book of Psalms 41.9
… “Shall He that sleepeth, not add this, that He rise up again?” Where fore slept He? Because “Adam is the figure of Him that was to come.” And Adam slept, when out of his side was made Eve.
St Augustine of Hippo † AD 430 Expositions on the Book of Psalms 127.4
… When He had died. Hope therefore for thine uplifting after thy death: have hope in the resurrection of the dead, because He rose again and ascended. But where did He sleep? On the Cross. When He slept on the Cross, He bore a sign, yea, He fulfilled what had been signified in Adam: for when Adam was asleep, a rib was drawn from him and Eve was created;
2:22
St Augustine of Hippo † AD 430 City of God 22.17
… For that sleep of the man was the death of Christ, whose side, as He hung lifeless upon the cross, was pierced with a spear, and there flowed from it blood and water, and these we know to be the sacraments by which the Church is “built up.” For Scripture used this very word, not saying “He formed” or “framed,” but “built her up into a woman;”
St Augustine of Hippo † AD 430 On the Holy Trinity 12.5
… in that the man himself, as it were, indicates the person of the Father, but that which has so proceeded from him as to be born, that of the Son; and so the third person as of the Spirit, is, they say, the woman, who has so proceeded from the man as not herself to be either son or daughter,
St Augustine of Hippo † AD 430 Reply to Faustus the Manichæan 11.3
… He denies that Jesus was born of the seed of David, that He was made of a woman (by the word woman is not meant a wife in the common sense of the word, but merely one of the female sex, as in the book of Genesis, where it is said that God made a woman before she was brought to Adam
St Augustine of Hippo † AD 430 On Marriage and Concupiscence 2.12
Now, observe the rest of the passage in which he thinks he finds, to our prejudice, what is consonant with the above-quoted title. “God,” says he, “who had framed Adam out of the dust of the ground, formed Eve out of his rib,
St Augustine of Hippo † AD 430 The Harmony of the Gospels 2.28
… For in other passages of Scripture, as well as here, it is found that not only those who had already known a man, but all females in general, including untouched virgins, are called women. That is the case, for instance, where it is written of Eve, “He made it into a woman;”
St Augustine of Hippo † AD 430 Sermons on Selected Lessons of the New Testament 1.18
… but all females they called “women,” by a peculiarity of the Hebrew tongue. Hear a most plain example of this. The first woman whom God made, having taken her out of the side of a man, was called a woman before she “knew” her husband, which we are told was not till after they went out of Paradise, for the Scripture saith, “He made her a woman.”
St Augustine of Hippo † AD 430 Sermons on Selected Lessons of the New Testament 2.10
… Behold, a virgin shall conceive, and bear a Son.” And “of a woman,” as you have just heard; here there is no contradiction. For the peculiarity of the Hebrew tongue gives the name of “women” not to such as have lost their virgin estate, but to females generally. You have a plain passage in Genesis, when Eve herself was first made, “He made her a woman.”
St Augustine of Hippo † AD 430 Lectures or Tractates on the Gospel According to St. John 120.2
… This was announced beforehand, when Noah was commanded to make a door in the side of the ark, whereby the animals might enter which were not destined to perish in the flood, and by which the Church was prefigured. Because of this, the first woman was formed from the side of the man when asleep,
2:23
Pope St Clement I † AD 99 The First Epistle of Clement to the Corinthians 6
… Envy has alienated wives from their husbands, and changed that saying of our father Adam, “This is now bone of my bones, and flesh of my flesh.”
Tertullian † AD 220 A Treatise on the Soul 21
… What had he that was spiritual? Is it because he prophetically declared “the great mystery of Christ and the church?” “This is bone of my bone, and flesh of my flesh: she shall be called Woman. Therefore shall a man leave his father and mother, and he shall cleave unto his wife; and they two shall be one flesh.”
Tertullian † AD 220 On the Resurrection of the Flesh 7
… be, as some will have it, that those “coats of skins” which Adam and Eve put on when they were stripped of paradise, were really themselves the forming of the flesh out of clay, because long before that Adam had already recognised the flesh which was in the woman as the propagation of his own substance (“This is now bone of my bone, and flesh of my flesh”
Tertullian † AD 220 On Prayer 22
They who make this concession ought to reflect on the nature of the word itself—what is the meaning of “woman” from the very first records of the sacred writings. Here they find it to be the name of the sex , not a class of the sex : if, that is, God gave to Eve, when she had not yet known a man, the surname “woman” and “female”
Tertullian † AD 220 On the Pallium 4
… The now veteran (stain of the) Hydra’s and of the Centaurs’ blood upon the shafts was gradually eradicated by the pumice-stone, familiar to the hair-pin! while voluptuousness insulted over the fact that, after transfixing monsters, they should perchance sew a coronet! No sober woman even, or heroine
Tertullian † AD 220 On the Veiling of Virgins 7
… If “the woman is the glory of the man,” how much more the virgin , who is a glory withal to herself! If “the woman is of the man,” and “for the sake of the man,” that rib of Adam
Tertullian † AD 220 On the Veiling of Virgins 8
… allowing, to wit, the virgin to be understood in the woman by the self-same reason by which he forbore to name the boy as implied in the man ; embracing the whole order of either sex in the names proper (to each) of woman and man . So likewise Adam, while still intact, is surnamed in Genesis man :
St Methodius † AD 311 The Banquet of the Ten Virgins; or Concerning Chastity 2.1
… For the casting of seed into the furrows of the matrix is the beginning of the generation of men, so that bone taken from bone, and flesh from flesh, by an invisible power, are fashioned into another man. And in this way we must consider that the saying is fulfilled, “This is now bone of my bone, and flesh of my flesh.”
St Methodius † AD 311 The Banquet of the Ten Virgins; or Concerning Chastity 3.1
… For the passage in Genesis reads thus: “And Adam said, This is now bone of my bones, and flesh of my flesh: she shall be called Woman, because she was taken out of man. Therefore shall a man leave his father and his mother, and shall cleave unto his wife: and they shall be one flesh.”
St Methodius † AD 311 From the Discourse on the Resurrection, Part I 1
… Nevertheless, let us speak of it again, for it is not enough to have mentioned it once. Before the preparation of these coats of skins, the first man himself acknowledges that he has both bones and flesh; for when he saw the woman brought to him: “This is now,” he cried,
St John Chrysostom † AD 407 Homilies on First Corinthians 17
… For Adam had no need either of a garment or a shelter, or any other provision of this sort; but rather was like to the Angels; and many of the things to come he foreknew, and was filled with great wisdom. Even what God did in secret, he knew, I mean with regard to the woman: wherefore also he said, “This is now bone of my bone, and flesh of my flesh.” (
St John Chrysostom † AD 407 Homilies on First Corinthians 26
… ii. 14 .) which happened in the beginning. Wherefore you see, she was not subjected as soon as she was made; nor, when He brought her to the man, did either she hear any such thing from God, nor did the man say any such word to her: he said indeed that she was “bone of his bone, and flesh of his flesh:” (
St John Chrysostom † AD 407 Homilies on Ephesians 20
That is, tends it with exceeding care. And how is she his flesh? Hearken; “This now is bone of my bones,” saith Adam, “and flesh of my flesh.” (
St Jerome † AD 420 The Letters of St. Jerome 51.5
… “This is now bone of my bones and flesh of my flesh;”
St Augustine of Hippo † AD 430 A Treatise on the Merits and Forgiveness of Sins, and on the Baptism of Infants 1.67
… If it is man’s nature thus to begin, and that nature is not already corrupt, then why was not Adam created thus? Why was he capable of receiving a commandment? and able to give names to his wife, and to all the animal creation? For of her he said, “She shall be called Woman;”
St Augustine of Hippo † AD 430 On Marriage and Concupiscence 1.6
… He could not have done this without distinguishing them; and he could not distinguish them without seeing them. How, too, could the woman herself have been beheld so clearly by him when he said, “This is now bone of my bone, and flesh of my flesh”?
St Augustine of Hippo † AD 430 A Treatise on the Soul and its Origin 1.29
… for this reason, as they say, because she had already been ensouled from the man. If, indeed, she had not, they say, the sacred Scripture would certainly not have kept us in ignorance of the circumstance. With regard to the fact that Adam says, “This is now bone of my bone, and flesh of my flesh,”
St Augustine of Hippo † AD 430 A Treatise on the Soul and its Origin 2.20
As for the passage which affirms that “God hath made of one blood all nations of men,” and that in which Adam says, “This is now bone of my bones, and flesh of my flesh,”
St Augustine of Hippo † AD 430 Lectures or Tractates on the Gospel According to St. John 2
… He who understands it and blames it, is thankless for his having understood. “Not of bloods, nor of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of man.” The apostle puts flesh for woman; because, when she was made of his rib, Adam said, “This is now bone of my bone, and flesh of my flesh.”
St John of Damascus † AD 749 An Exact Exposition of the Orthodox Faith 4.24
… But we, made confident by God the Word that was made flesh of the Virgin, answer that virginity was implanted in man’s nature from above and in the beginning. For man was formed of virgin soil. From Adam alone was Eve created. In Paradise virginity held sway. Indeed, Divine Scripture tells that both Adam and Eve were naked and were not ashamed
2:24
Tertullian † AD 220 A Treatise on the Soul 11
… therefore shall a man leave his father and his mother, and shall cleave unto his wife, and they two shall become one flesh,”
Tertullian † AD 220 To His Wife 2.8
… For even on earth children do not rightly and lawfully wed without their fathers’ consent. What kind of yoke is that of two believers, (partakers) of one hope, one desire, one discipline, one and the same service? Both (are) brethren, both fellow servants, no difference of spirit or of flesh; nay, (they are) truly “two in one flesh.”
Tertullian † AD 220 On Exhortation to Chastity 5
… but not more wives in the eye of God. And accordingly the man of God, Adam, and the woman of God, Eve, discharging mutually (the duties of) one marriage, sanctioned for mankind a type by (the considerations of) the authoritative precedent of their origin and the primal will of God. Finally, “there shall be,” said He, “two in one flesh,”
Origen † AD 254 Origen De Principiis 2.6.3
… And for this reason, throughout the whole of Scripture, not only is the divine nature spoken of in human words, but the human nature is adorned by appellations of divine dignity. More truly indeed of this than of any other can the statement be affirmed, “They shall both be in one flesh, and are no longer two, but one flesh.”
Origen † AD 254 Origen Against Celsus 6.47
… For the sacred language of holy Scripture knows of other things also, which, although “dual” in their own nature, are considered to be, and really are, “one” in respect to one another. It is said of husband and wife, “They are no longer twain, but one flesh;”
Origen † AD 254 Origen's Commentary on Matthew 14.16
… For where it is said, “Male and female made He them,” the reference is to those formed “after the image,” but where He also said, “For this cause shall a man leave his own father and mother,”
St Methodius † AD 311 The Banquet of the Ten Virgins; or Concerning Chastity 3.10
… For men who are incontinent in consequence of the uncontrolled impulses of sensuality in them, dare to force the Scriptures beyond their true meaning, so as to twist into a defence of their incontinence the saying, “Increase and multiply;” and the other, “Therefore shall a man leave his father and his mother;”
St Ambrose of Milan † AD 397 On the Duties of the Clergy 1.32
169. To go to the root of the matter—good-will starts first with those at home, that is with children, parents, brothers, and goes on from one step to another throughout the world. Having started from Paradise, it has filled the world. For God set the feeling of good-will in the man and woman, saying: “They shall be one flesh,”
St Ambrose of Milan † AD 397 Exposition of the Christian Faith 1.2
18. Moreover, if in all them that believed there was, as it is written, one soul and one heart: if every one that cleaveth to the Lord is one spirit, as the Apostle hath said: if a man and his wife are one flesh:
St Ambrose of Milan † AD 397 Concerning Widows 15
89. The divine law has bound together husband and wife by its authority, and yet mutual love remains a difficult matter. For God took a rib from the man, and formed the woman so as to join them one to the other, and said: “They shall be one flesh.”
St John Chrysostom † AD 407 The Homilies of St. John Chrysostom on Paul's Epistle to the Romans 4
… For they divided this into four new, and lawless kinds. Since (3 mss. whence) this war was not twofold or threefold, but even fourfold. Consider then. It was meet, that the twain should be one, I mean the woman and the man. For “the twain,” it says, “shall be one flesh.” (
St John Chrysostom † AD 407 The Homilies of St. John Chrysostom on Paul's Epistle to the Romans 21
He does not speak of doing only, but of being disposed too. For this the command to “cleave to” it indicates. So God, when He knit the man to the woman, said, “For he shall cleave to his wife.” (
St John Chrysostom † AD 407 The Homilies of St. John Chrysostom on Paul's Epistle to the Romans 23
… But as He said Himself, “He which made them at the beginning, made them male and female, and said, For this cause shall a man leave father and mother, and shall cleave to his wife, and they twain shall be one flesh.” ( Matt. xix. 4, 5 ;
St John Chrysostom † AD 407 Homilies on First Corinthians 33
… who willeth that all men should be saved, and come to the knowledge of the truth.” Therefore, if he find a Gentile wife consorting with a believer, he dissolves not the marriage. Yet what is more closely joined than a man to his wife? “For they two shall be one flesh,” (
St John Chrysostom † AD 407 Homilies on First Corinthians 34
… And because from the beginning they seemed to be in a manner two, see how he fastens them together again, and gathers them into one by marriage. For, “therefore,” saith He, “shall a man leave his father and his mother, and shall cleave unto his wife; and they shall be for one flesh.” (
St John Chrysostom † AD 407 Homilies on Ephesians 20
That is, tends it with exceeding care. And how is she his flesh? Hearken; “This now is bone of my bones,” saith Adam, “and flesh of my flesh.” ( Gen. ii. 23 .) For she is made of matter taken from us. And not only so, but also, “they shall be,” saith God, “one flesh.” (
St John Chrysostom † AD 407 Homilies on Colossians 12
For this cause He also calleth her a help, to show that they are one ( Gen. ii. 18 .); for this cause He honoreth their cohabitation beyond both father and mother, to show that they are one. (
St Jerome † AD 420 The Letters of St. Jerome 123.12
… There was but one Adam and but one Eve; in fact the woman was fashioned from a rib of Adam. Thus divided they were subsequently joined together in marriage; in the words of scripture “the twain shall be one flesh,” not two or three. “Therefore shall a man leave his father and his mother, and shall cleave unto his wife.”
St Jerome † AD 420 Against Jovinianus 1.5
5. First of all, he says, God declares that
St Augustine of Hippo † AD 430 On the Holy Trinity 12.3
… And as the twain is one flesh in the case of male and female, so in the mind one nature embraces our intellect and action, or our counsel and performance, or our reason and rational appetite, or whatever other more significant terms there may be by which to express them; so that, as it was said of the former, “And they two shall be in one flesh,”
St Augustine of Hippo † AD 430 On the Holy Trinity 12.6
… and that therefore a son could not be mentioned, because no son was yet born? As if the Holy Spirit could not have comprehended this, too, in that brief statement, while about to narrate the birth of the son afterwards in its own place; as it narrated afterwards in its own place, that the woman was taken from the side of the man,
St Augustine of Hippo † AD 430 A Treatise on the Merits and Forgiveness of Sins, and on the Baptism of Infants 1.60
… All, therefore, who have to be changed and raised must meet together in a union with Christ, so that the Christ who descended may ascend, reckoning His body (that is to say, His Church) as nothing else than Himself, because it is of Christ and the Church that this is most truly understood: “And they twain shall be one flesh;”
St Augustine of Hippo † AD 430 On Marriage and Concupiscence 1.23
… “Of me was that word spoken in paradise before the entrance of sin: ‘A man shall leave his father and his mother, and shall cleave unto his wife; and they two shall become one flesh.’”
St Augustine of Hippo † AD 430 On Marriage and Concupiscence 2.13
… Is it the difference of the sexes? But this is inherent in the bodies which God made. Is it their union? But this union is justified in the privilege of the primeval blessing no less than institution. For it is the voice of God that says, ‘A man shall leave his father and his mother, and shall cleave to his wife; and they two shall be one flesh.’
St Augustine of Hippo † AD 430 On Marriage and Concupiscence 2.53
… Those, therefore, whose institution was possible in your dreams, you deliberately assert to be good, while those which Holy Scripture intends, when it says, ‘Therefore shall a man leave his father and his mother, and shall cleave unto his wife, and they shall be one flesh,’
St Augustine of Hippo † AD 430 On Marriage and Concupiscence 2.54
… This, I say, is the marriage whereof it was said (only excepting the great sacrament of Christ and the Church, which the institution prefigured): “For this cause shall a man leave his father and his mother, and shall cleave unto his wife; and they twain shall be one flesh.”
St Augustine of Hippo † AD 430 A Treatise Against Two Letters of the Pelagians 1.9
… On that point, with God’s assistance, I must contend with him as far as the matter shall seem to demand. Now, therefore, I reply that marriage was ordained by God both then, when it was said, “Therefore shall a man leave his father and his mother, and shall cleave unto his wife, and they shall be two in one flesh,”
St Augustine of Hippo † AD 430 The Harmony of the Gospels 2.62
121. As far as the order or method of statement here adopted is concerned, we ought to understand that it in no way affects the truth of the subject itself, whether the question regarding the permission to write a bill of divorcement given by the said Moses, by whom also it is recorded that God made male and female to be one flesh,
St Augustine of Hippo † AD 430 Lectures or Tractates on the Gospel According to St. John 9.10
… individual men that have wives, he says, “But I speak concerning Christ and the Church.” What great mystery is this, “the two shall be one flesh?” While Scripture, in the Book of Genesis, was speaking of Adam and Eve, it came to these words, “Therefore shall a man leave his father and mother, and shall cleave to his wife; and they two shall be one flesh.”
St Augustine of Hippo † AD 430 Ten Homilies on the First Epistle of John 1.2
… and that Bridegroom’s chamber was the Virgin’s womb, because in that virginal womb were joined the two, the Bridegroom and the bride, the Bridegroom the Word, and the bride the flesh; because it is written, “And they twain shall be one flesh;”
St Augustine of Hippo † AD 430 Expositions on the Book of Psalms 38.5
… Now when it goes on to say, “the words of mine offences,” it is beyond a doubt that they are the words of Christ. Whence then come “the sins,” but from the Body, which is the Church? Because both the Head and the Body of Christ are speaking. Why do they speak as if one person only? Because “they twain,” as He hath said, “shall be one flesh.”
St Augustine of Hippo † AD 430 Expositions on the Book of Psalms 41.1
… often in the person of His Body, which are we and His Church; but so that the words sound as from the mouth of one, that we may understand the Head and the Body to consist together in the unity of integrity, and not be separated the one from the other; as in that marriage whereof it is said, “They two shall be one flesh.”
St Augustine of Hippo † AD 430 Expositions on the Book of Psalms 55.3
… Because “The Word was made flesh, and dwelt among us.” Because then David in a figure is Christ, but Christ, as we have often reminded your Love, is both Head and Body; neither ought we to speak of ourselves as alien from Christ, of whom we are members, nor to count ourselves as if we were any other thing: because “The two shall be in one flesh.”
St Augustine of Hippo † AD 430 Expositions on the Book of Psalms 62.2
… “Slay ye, all of you.” What is that size of body in one man so great as that he may be slain by all? But we ought to perceive our person, the person of the Church, the person of the Body of Christ. For one Man with His Head and Body is Jesus Christ, the Saviour of the Body and the Members of the Body: two in one Flesh,
St Augustine of Hippo † AD 430 Expositions on the Book of Psalms 75.4
… But whether Head speaketh or whether members speak, Christ speaketh: He speaketh in the person of the Head, He speaketh in the person of the Body. But what hath been said? There shall be two in one flesh.
St Augustine of Hippo † AD 430 Expositions on the Book of Psalms 119.19
… For this also was at the beginning, “They two shall be one flesh:”
Theodoret of Cyrus † AD 458 Letters of the Blessed Theodoret, Bishop of Cyprus 15
… So after reckoning how sharp your anguish must be, I have let these few days go by, for if I myself was so distressed and filled with such sorrow by the news, what must not have been the sufferings of a husband and yoke-fellow, made, as the Scripture says, one flesh,
Theodoret of Cyrus † AD 458 Letters of the Blessed Theodoret, Bishop of Cyprus 18
Whenever I cast my eyes on the divine law which calls those who are joined together in marriage “one flesh,”
Pope St Gregory I the Great † AD 604 Register of the Epistles of St. Gregory the Great 11.64
… But to have intercourse with a stepmother is a grave offence, seeing that is also written in the law, thou shalt not uncover the nakedness of thy father ( Lev. xviii. 7 ). Not indeed that a son can uncover his father’s nakedness; but, since it is written in the law, They too shall be one flesh (
2:25
St Irenaeus of Lyons † AD 202 Against Heresies 3.22.4
… be it unto me according to thy word.” But Eve was disobedient; for she did not obey when as yet she was a virgin. And even as she, having indeed a husband, Adam, but being nevertheless as yet a virgin (for in Paradise “they were both naked, and were not ashamed,”
Tertullian † AD 220 On the Pallium 3
… Then and there hastening to forecover what, in his newly made body, it was not yet due to modesty (to forecover), he surrounds himself meantime with fig-leaves: subsequently, on being driven from the confines of his birthplace because he had sinned, he went, skinclad, to the world as to a mine.
Tertullian † AD 220 On the Veiling of Virgins 11
… For withal the founders of the race, Adam and Eve, so long as they were without intelligence, went “naked;” but after they tasted of “the tree of recognition,” they were first sensible of nothing more than of their cause for shame. Thus they each marked their intelligence of their own sex by a covering.
St John Chrysostom † AD 407 The Homilies of St. John Chrysostom 18
Further: even though one were of necessity to go about naked on account of this sort of self-denial, neither so were it any disgrace. Since Adam too was “naked”
St Augustine of Hippo † AD 430 City of God 14.17
Justly is shame very specially connected with this lust; justly, too, these members themselves, being moved and restrained not at our will, but by a certain independent autocracy, so to speak, are called “shameful.” Their condition was different before sin. For as it is written, “They were naked and were not ashamed,”
St Augustine of Hippo † AD 430 A Treatise on the Merits and Forgiveness of Sins, and on the Baptism of Infants 2.36
… This was the righteous appointment, that inasmuch as their soul had received from the Lord the body for its servant, as it itself obeyed the Lord, even so its body should obey Him, and should exhibit a service suitable to the life given it without resistance. Hence “they were both naked, and were not ashamed.”
St Augustine of Hippo † AD 430 On Marriage and Concupiscence 1.6
… No; “they were both naked, and were not ashamed,”
St Augustine of Hippo † AD 430 On Marriage and Concupiscence 2.28
Now to this lengthy statement of his we have to say in answer, that, in the passages which he has quoted from the sacred writings, there is nothing said about that shameful lust, which we say did not exist in the body of our first parents in their blessedness, when they were naked and were not ashamed.
St Augustine of Hippo † AD 430 Sermons on Selected Lessons of the New Testament 60.1
… Now there is nothing unsuitable in understanding by “the fig-tree” the human race. For when the first man sinned, he covered his nakedness with fig-leaves; covered those members, from which we derive our birth. For what before his sin should have been his glory, after sin became his shame. So before that, “they were naked, and were not ashamed.”
St Augustine of Hippo † AD 430 Sermons on Selected Lessons of the New Testament 72.1
… and what God had made them for members, they made for themselves occasions of shame. For they had no need to blush for the work of God; but the cause of sin preceded shame. If iniquity had not gone before, nakedness would never have been put to the blush. For “they were naked, and were not ashamed.”
St John of Damascus † AD 749 An Exact Exposition of the Orthodox Faith 2.11
… But this at length was Adam’s fate: for he tasted and knew that he was naked and made a girdle round about him: for he took fig-leaves and girded himself about. But before they took of the fruit, They were both naked, Adam and Eve, and were not ashamed
2:2
1. ALL THE FURNITURE -- that is, the stars and also the angels, which adorn the heaven, just as birds adorn the air, fishes the sea, plants and animals the earth. For furniture in Hebrew is tsaba, that is, army, host, militia, force, furniture; for nothing is more ornamental than a well-ordered host. Hence God is called the God of hosts, that is, of angels and stars, which like soldiers in a certain order serving God move, rise, set, and not rarely fight for God against the impious, as I have noted on Judges V, 20.
2. AND GOD COMPLETED ON THE SEVENTH DAY HIS WORK. -- "On the seventh day," namely exclusively: for inclusively God completed His work on the sixth day, as the Septuagint has it. For He began on the Lord's day, and completed it on the sixth day, or Friday, so that on the following seventh day He might rest, which from this rest of God is called the Sabbath. The symbolic and arithmetical reason why the world was perfected in six days is given by St. Augustine, lib. IV On Genesis according to the letter, cap. I; Bede, and Philo, lib. On the Creation of the World; namely because six is the first perfect number: for it consists of its first parts, namely unity, the binary and the ternary; for one, two and three make six. Symbolically, the six days signify six thousand years, during which this fabric of the world will endure (for a thousand years before God are as one day, Psalm LXXXIX, 4), so that when these are completed the Antichrist may come, the day of judgment, and the Sabbath, that is the rest of the Saints in heaven. Thus teach St. Jerome in Exposition of Psalm LXXXIX, to Cyprian; Irenaeus, lib. V, cap. last; Justin, Question 71 to the Gentiles; St. Augustine, lib. XX On the City of God, cap. VII, and others. Hence also the first six patriarchs -- Adam, Seth, Enos, Cainan, Malaleel, Jared -- died, but the seventh, Enoch, was taken up alive into heaven, because after six thousand years of labor and death, eternal life will follow, says Isidore in the Gloss, cap. V. See what is said Apoc. XX, 6. "His work," -- of the creation of new species; for the work of governing, preserving and producing new individuals God even now still exercises, as is evident John V, 17. HE RESTED -- not from fatigue, but from work; whence in Hebrew it is shabat, that is He ceased. Aristobulus, cited by Eusebius, lib. XIII of the Preparation for the Gospel, cap. VI, interprets "He rested" differently: For he says it signifies that He gave rest to things created by Him, that is stability, permanence, perpetuity, and a fixed, established and immutable order. Wherefore the word "He rested" tacitly signifies the conservation of created things, together with the continual cooperation of God with them in their own actions and motions. For, as St. Augustine says in the Sentences, no. 277: "The omnipotence of the omnipotent Creator is the cause of subsisting for every creature; which power if it should ever cease from governing those things which have been created, at the same time their species would cease and all nature would collapse. For what the Lord says: My Father worketh until now, shows a certain continuation of work, by which He holds and administers the whole creation. In which work the same wisdom perseveres, of which it is said: It reacheth from end to end mightily, and ordereth all things sweetly. The Apostle also feels the same, when preaching to the Athenians he says: In Him we live, and move, and are. For if He should take away His work from created things, we could neither live, nor move, nor be. And therefore God is thus to be understood to have rested from all His works, so that He should create no new creature thereafter, not so that He ceased to cherish and govern what had already been created." The same St. Augustine learnedly teaches in the Sentences, no. 145, that God has the same relation whether He rests or works. "Not therefore, he says, in God is either idle vacancy or laborious industry to be thought of, who knows both to act while resting and to rest while acting; and what in His works is indeed prior or posterior, is referred not to the maker but to the things made. For His will is eternal and unchangeable, nor is it varied by changeable counsel." Hence Philo, in the book of Allegories, translates not "He rested," but "He caused to cease what He had begun"; because, he says, God never rests, but as it is proper to fire to heat and to snow to freeze, so it is proper to God to work. In Hebrew however it properly signifies "He rested," as the Chaldean, our Vulgate and the Septuagint translate it. Symbolically, Junilius, Bede and St. Augustine (lib. IV On Genesis according to the letter, cap. XII) teach that this rest of God on the Sabbath was a figure of the rest of Christ in the tomb on the day of the Sabbath, after He had completed the work of our redemption on the sixth day through His passion and death. Anagogically, this was a type of the rest of the Saints in heaven: for there they will celebrate perpetual Sabbath, concerning which more Deut. V, 12.
3. AND HE BLESSED THE SEVENTH DAY -- that is, he praised, commended and approved the seventh day, as Philo says: thus we bless God when we praise Him. Secondly and better, "blessed" signifies, as follows, he sanctified it -- he decreed the seventh day to be holy and festive. For just as it is a great blessing to man to be sanctified, so also to a festive day. AND HE SANCTIFIED IT. -- Not on the seventh day itself, which was the first sabbath of the world, but later, in the time of Moses, according to Exodus XX, 8. Thus says Abulensis, who thinks these things are said by anticipation. Secondly and better, others hold that God sanctified the sabbath even then, not in act and in reality, but by his decree and purpose -- as if to say: Because God rested on the seventh day, therefore he designated it as sacred to himself, so that by Moses a festive day would be established for the Jews to observe. Thus Pererius, Bede, and Jerome Prado in chapter XX of Ezekiel. Thirdly and most plainly, God from the very beginning of the world, on this first day of the sabbath... "Sanctified," that is, he instituted it as a festive day in act, and willed it to be observed by Adam and his descendants with sacred rest and the worship of God, especially by recalling the benefit of his creation, and of the whole world, completed on that day. Whence it is clear that the sabbath was a festive day instituted and sanctified originally, not by Moses, Exodus XX, 8, but by God far earlier, namely from the origin of the world, on this very first sabbath of the world. The same is gathered from Exodus XVI, 23, Hebrews IV, 3, as I have shown there. Thus Ribera there, Philo, Catharinus here. This precept of the sabbath was therefore divine, not natural, but positive: whence by Christ and the Apostles the festive day was transferred from the sabbath to the Lord's Day. WHICH GOD CREATED SO AS TO MAKE, -- that is, which he created by making, and by creating he made and perfected: for this repetition of the same word by way of synonym signifies this perfection of the work, by which it is said: "Created so as to make."
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4. THESE ARE THE GENERATIONS (that is, creations) OF HEAVEN AND EARTH. -- Whence it follows: "When they were created in a day," that is in the whole time of six days, of which chapter I. Thus Bede and others. Those words look back to what preceded in chapter I, so as to make a conclusion, as it were, of them, in this way: And such indeed were the origins of heaven and earth when they were created. In Hebrew toledot from the verb yalad properly signifies "generations"; but because the history of the Hebrews was accustomed to be woven into genealogical tables, hence toledot in a broader sense denotes narrative, history, and is used in such places in which there is no mention of generation. Cf. Genesis XXXVII, 2.
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5. AND EVERY PLANT. -- Connect these with verse 4, thus: "In the day when the Lord made heaven and earth, and every plant" (the Hebrew siach is something sprung up, or sprouting) "before it arose on the earth," in the manner, namely, of nature and by the power of seed, as it now arises. For Moses wishes only to say that that first production of plants and of paradise, to which he gradually descends, is to be attributed not to nature, not to the earth, not to seed, but to the power and operation of God; and he proves this from the fact that, since all herbs and plants come forth by the influence of heaven and the industry and cultivation of man, there was not yet man, who would sow and cultivate the earth; nor was there yet rain, which would water what was sown. Secondly, from the Hebrew it could be translated more plainly thus: in the day (the first of the world) when God made heaven and earth, every plant of the field was not yet (for this is terem, as is clear from Exodus IX, 30: "I know that you do not yet fear the Lord") in the earth, and every herb of the region was not yet sprouting, but a fountain was rising from the earth. Saadias translated it in Arabic, and no fountain was rising from the earth, repeating the particle of negation from above. For God first of all created heaven and earth, and this fountain or abyss of waters, in which, as in a womb and cavity, the waters of the whole region were contained, which would sometimes inundate the earth itself by irrigating it; then every plant and whatever else chapter I narrated in passing, he narrates more fully.
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6. BUT A FOUNTAIN ASCENDED OUT OF THE EARTH. -- You will ask, what is this fountain? First opinion. First, Aquila, the Chaldean paraphrase, and some Hebrews, and Molina, Pererius, Delrio, translate the Hebrew ed as a vapor, which namely the sun drew up from the earth by its force, which afterwards, congealed by the cold of night and resolved into dew and moisture, watered the earth and its plants at the beginning of the world, until God shortly afterwards gave rains to the earth to water it. This vapor and dew was therefore in place of rain and moisture at that time, by which newly created plants were nourished; for it was fitting that the first days of the world be dry and clear. You will ask, how is this vapor called a fountain by our translator and by the Septuagint? I answer, because like a fountain it inundated the earth. For thus Aristotle, in book I of the Meteorology, calls clouds born from waters and accustomed to be turned into waters, a circular and perpetual river, or ocean, which flows and flies through the air. This opinion is refuted. But this opinion is hindered by the fact that Moses in the preceding verse denied that there was then any rain or similar heavenly moisture that would water the earth. Again, because vapor is called a fountain most improperly; and the Hebrew ed does not signify vapor, but rather a gulf or abyss of waters (as is evident from Job 36:27); and from this it signifies a calamity and disaster, which like a gulf overwhelms and engulfs men, as is evident from Jeremiah 47:16 and elsewhere. Whence Oleaster translates ed as an inundation. Second opinion (disapprovable). Second, St. Augustine, in book V of Genesis according to the letter, chapters IX and X: At the beginning of the world, he says, there was properly one fountain, which at a fixed time, like the Nile overflowing, watered the plants of the earth. But that there was such a fountain which watered the whole earth by overflowing is scarcely credible. It is far more incredible what the Interlinear Gloss adds, that with this fountain overflowing the whole earth was watered, even until the times of Noah, so that before Noah there were never any rains in the world. Third opinion (probable). Third, therefore better in the same place St. Augustine, Philo, and Pope Nicholas to the Emperor Michael: A fountain, he says, that is fountains, streams and rivers ascended from the earth: for all waters, as I said in chapter I, verse 9, were gathered into one place, as it were into one fountain or matrix. For Moses here only generally relates and reviews the creation of things, which he narrated in order in chapter I, as if to say: God alone at the beginning of the world made all vegetation everywhere throughout the whole earth; and I prove this from the fact that then there was not yet a man who would plant these plants, nor rain which would water them; but only a fountain, that is various rivers and fountains flowing from one as it were fountainhead matrix (of which I spoke in chapter I, verse 9) watered the whole earth here and there. But these could not, without rain, supply moisture to distant lands for germination; therefore God alone then made these plants and vegetation. Fourth opinion (genuine). Fourth, from the Hebrew more plainly and solidly thus explain: "fountain," in Hebrew ed, that is a gulf or inundation, namely that primordial abyss of waters, of which I spoke in chapter I, verse 2, watered and covered the whole earth, as if the whole earth were one fountain: for Moses in this verse only summarily repeats this as it were the first of all matrices, just as a little before in verse 4 he repeated the creation of heaven and earth. For God before all things first created heaven and earth, and this fountain or abyss of waters. The sense therefore is, as if to say: God just as He alone created heaven and earth and the abyss of waters, so He alone separated it from the earth and uncovered the dry land, and produced plants, paradise, man and all other things from it, which afterwards He preserved and propagated through rain and dew: whence, as I said in verse 5, from the Hebrew thus plainly and clearly you translate: "In the day that God made heaven and earth, every plant of the field was not yet upon the earth and every herb of the ground had not yet sprung up, but a fountain," that is an inundation, namely the abyss of waters, which seemed to emerge and ascend from the earth, "watered and covered the whole earth."
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7. THE LORD GOD THEREFORE FORMED MAN OF THE SLIME OF THE EARTH, AND BREATHED INTO HIS FACE THE BREATH OF LIFE, AND MAN BECAME A LIVING SOUL. -- The Chaldean paraphrast renders it paraphrastically, man became a living soul, that is, a speaking soul; because speech, equally as reason, is proper to man. Moses here returns to the work of the sixth day, in order to explain more clearly the formation of man. Five causes of man. Note first: Moses here assigns five causes of man. The efficient cause is God. The material cause is the slime of the earth, or earth mixed with water; whence also the cadaver of man is resolved into earth and water, as it were into its elements. The formal cause is the breath of life. The exemplary cause is God: for man is the image of God. The final cause is that he might be a living soul, that is, a living thing or animal, namely one that feels, moves itself, knows itself and other things, and exercises all the works of life (this is a synecdoche), and that he might preside over the other animals and the whole world. How was Adam formed? Note secondly: The Hebrew texts have it word for word thus, God formed, fashioned man dust, or clay from the earth. For the Hebrew iitsar and the Greek eplasen properly pertain to pottery, and it is the same as fashioned; whence it appears that God first formed the body of man in the manner of a statue from the slime of the earth, either by himself, or through angels (as St. Augustine hints, and from him St. Thomas, I part., Quest. XCI, article 2, ad 1), just as potters fashion clay men. And this is what Job says, X, 9: "Remember that thou hast made me as clay." And Jeremiah XVIII, 2 compares God to a potter and man to clay. Hence also in Wisdom VII, 1, Adam is called protoplastos kai gegenes -- "first-fashioned and earth-born"; and by the Apostle in I Corinthians XV, 47 is called "of the earth, earthly." Then God gradually introduced into this clay man the dispositions of flesh and of the human body, and finally, together with the ultimate disposition, introduced the heterogeneous forms of the individual parts of the body, and at the same time with these infused by creating, and created by infusing, the rational soul: thus man became perfect, consisting of a human body and a rational soul. Thus St. Chrysostom here, homily 12, and Gennadius in the Catena; and God alone accomplished this by himself. Whence St. Basil, St. Ambrose and Cyril teach that man was created by the Holy Trinity alone, without any other helper: they call the contrary opinion a Jewish error. St. Clement on the structure of the human body. Moreover, St. Clement depicts the wonderful and divine structure of man and of each of his members so graphically, in book VIII of the Recognitions: "Behold in the body of man the work of a craftsman, how he inserted bones like certain columns by which flesh is sustained and carried; then moreover an equal measure is observed on both sides, that is on the right and left, so that foot corresponds to foot, and hand to hand, fingers also to fingers, so that individual parts correspond to individual parts in complete equality; but also eye to eye, ear to ear, which are formed not only in harmony and agreement with each other, but also suited to necessary uses. The hand indeed so that it may be suited to work, feet so that they may serve for walking, eyes so that they may serve for seeing, guarded by the protection of eyebrows; ears are formed for hearing in such a way that, like cymbals, they return the sound of the received word more loudly, and send it even to the perception of the heart." Hear what follows, equally skillful and wonderful: "But the tongue, struck against the teeth for speaking, performs the office of a plectrum; the teeth themselves, some so that they may cut and divide foods and hand them to the interior parts, the interior ones so that in the manner of a mill they break down and crush, so that handed to the stomach they may be cooked more opportunely, whence they are also called molars. But also the nostrils were made for the passage of breath, and for the sake of giving back and receiving, so that by the renewal of breath, the natural heat which is from the heart may be either kindled or cooled, when the matter requires it, by the office of the lung; which is attached to the chest, so that by its softness it may beat and foster the vigor of the heart, in which life seems to consist, life I say, not soul. For what shall I say of the substance of blood, which like a river proceeding from a fountain, first conveyed in one channel, then afterwards derived through innumerable veins, as through channels, irrigates the whole earth of the human body with vital streams, ministered by the work of the liver; which lies on the right side for the efficacy of the digestion of foods, and for their change into blood?" Who from all these things does not evidently recognize the work of reason and the wisdom of the Creator? St. Ambrose on the Body as a Microcosm. St. Ambrose describes this same cosmology of man elegantly in book VI of the Hexameron, chapter IX, where among other things he teaches that "the structure of the human body is like that of the world. For just as heaven stands out above the air, and the seas above the earth, which are as it were certain members of the world, so also we see the head standing out above the other members of our body: and in this citadel we observe a certain royal wisdom to dwell. Again, what the sun and moon are in heaven, these are the eyes in man. The sun and moon are two lights of the world, but the eyes are as it were stars shining forth in the flesh from above, and they illuminate the lower parts with clear light, and they keep watch as our observers day and night. How beautiful is the hair! What is man without a head, when all is in the head? To this head is a free forehead, which by its appearance reveals the condition of the mind. A certain image of the soul speaks in the face. Twin rows of eyebrows present fortifications to the eyes, and veil their grace. On account of the eyes, skilled physicians hold that the brain of man is located in the head. The brain is the beginning of the nerves and of all the senses. But most think that the heart is the beginning of the arteries, and of the innate heat by which the vital organs are animated and warmed. Moreover, the nerves are as it were the organ of each of the senses, which, like strings and a certain lyre, arise from the brain, and are distributed through the parts of the body to each and every function. And therefore the brain is softer, because it receives all the senses: for through it the nerves report all things, whether the eye has seen them, or the ear has heard them, or the smell has inhaled them, or the tongue has tasted them, or the mouth has received them by taste. The winding of the inner ears provides a certain rhythm and discipline. For indeed through the windings of the ears a certain rhythm is produced, and the sound of the voice entering by certain modulations is expressed. Why should I describe the rampart of the teeth, by which food is broken down, and the voice is fully expressed? The tongue is as it were the plectrum of the speaker, and a certain hand of one who eats, which suggests and ministers the flowing food to the teeth. The voice also is carried by a certain rowing of the air, now moving, now soothing the affection of the hearer. And so the silent thoughts of the mind are marked by the speech of the mouth. What therefore is the mouth of man, if not a certain sanctuary of speech, a fountain of disputation, a hall of words, a storehouse of the will?" He then proceeds from the head to the other members, and says: "The hand is the bulwark of the whole body, the defender of the head, which shines forth in illustrious deeds, through which we offer, receive and dispense the heavenly Sacraments. Who can worthily explain the framework of the chest and the softness of the belly? What is so beneficial as that the lung should be joined to the neighboring heart by a boundary, so that when the heart has burned with anger and indignation, it may be more quickly tempered by the blood and moisture of the lung? And therefore the lung is softer, because it is always moist, at the same time to soften the rigour of indignation. The spleen also has a fruitful proximity with the liver, which, while it takes that by which it itself is nourished, cleanses whatever filth it finds, so that through the finer fibres of the liver, the thin and subtle remains of foods may pass through which are turned into blood, and profit the strength. But the interwoven circles of the intestines, and though bound to each other without any knot, what else do they show but the divine providence of the Creator, so that food does not quickly pass through and immediately flow down from the stomach? For if this were to happen, constant hunger and continual desire to devour would be produced in men." And after some remarks: "The pulse of the veins is either a messenger of infirmity or of health; yet these same veins, since they are spread throughout the whole body, are neither bare nor uncovered, and are so covered by soft viscera that there is opportunity for examination, and quickness of feeling, when there is no thickness of the viscera which can cover the pulse. All the bones also are covered with a thin viscera, and bound with nerves, but especially the bones of the head are covered with light skin, whence, so that they might have some protection against shadows and cold, they are clothed with denser hair. What shall I say of the function of the feet, which sustains the whole body without any injury of burden? The flexible knee, by which the offense of the Lord is mitigated more than by other things, so that in the name of Jesus every knee may be bent. For there are two things which soothe God more than others, humility and faith. Man has two feet: for beasts and wild animals have four feet, birds have two. And therefore man is in a way one of the flying creatures, who seeks high things by sight, and flies by a certain rowing of sublime thoughts; and therefore it was said of him: Thy youth shall be renewed like the eagle's, because he is nearer to heavenly things, and more sublime than eagles, who can say: Our conversation is in heaven." Adam created from red earth of Hebron. Note thirdly: For the slime of the earth, in Hebrew it is aphar min haadama, that is, dust from the earth; the Septuagint translates it, dust taken from the earth. But this dust, says Tertullian, God coagulated by adding the best liquid into slime and as it were clay. For dry dust is unsuitable for forming: therefore this dust was moistened, and for that reason it was slime. Adam created from red earth of Hebron. Again Adama (from which he was formed and called "Adam") signifies red earth. Whence from red earth, which is in the field of Damascus, not of the city of Damascus, but of a certain field so called, which is near Hebron, Adam was created, is the tradition of many. For the Hebrews hand down this, and from them St. Jerome in his Hebrew Questions here, Lyra, Hugo and Abulensis here, and in chapter XIII, Question CXXXVIII, Burchard, Bredenbach, Saligniac, and Adrichomius in his Description of the Holy Land, in Hebron; where also they mark the valley of tears near Hebron, in which they say Adam wept for a hundred years over the death of Abel; they confirm this from Joshua chapter XIV, verse 15, where it is thus said: "The name Hebron was formerly called Kiriatharbe. Adam the greatest was situated there among the Anakim." But the genuine sense of this place is far otherwise, as I shall say there: for Adam was not of gigantic, but of just stature; otherwise he himself would have been a monstrosity of a man. Therefore John Lucidus and others err, who think Adam was a giant. But to the matter: I certainly, apart from the Hebrews who are sometimes fabulous, would prefer to have other ancient authors of this tradition. Morally, rightly Jeremiah (and we with him), chapter XVIII, is sent by God to the house of the potter, to contemplate his matrix and origin, namely clay, that he may be humbled, and that he may learn and teach all men to be in the hand of God, as clay is in the hand of the potter. Elegantly the philosopher Secundus, when asked by the Emperor Adrian: "What is man?" answered: "Mind incarnate, a phantom of time, a spectator of life, a passing traveler, a laborious soul." But Epictetus says: "Man, he says, is a lamp placed in the wind, a guest of a place, an image of law, a tale of calamity, a slave of death." Breath of life. Note fourthly: "Breath of life" is called, not the Holy Spirit, as Philastrius wished in his Catalogue of Heresies, chapter XCIX, whose error St. Augustine refutes, book XIII On the City of God, chapter XXIV; but the rational soul itself, which in man is at once vegetative and sensitive. From this indeed arises respiration and expiration, which is both a sign and an effect of life; and hence the soul is called psyche from psychazo, that is, I catch cold: for by breathing we are cooled; but in Hebrew it is called nescama, and nephes, from the root naphas, that is, he breathed. For life, in Hebrew it is chaiim, that is, lives, because the rational soul bestows on man a threefold life, namely of plants, of brutes and of angels. Others say "lives" because the nostrils are two, by which life, that is, air, is drawn in by breathing. But truly the nostrils are not the breath of lives, but its receptacle, as I shall say presently. It is called "breath of life" because respiration is so necessary for life that we cannot live without it even for a moment, says Galen, book On the Utility of Respiration, chapter 11. Hence he says: Asclepiades said respiration is the generation of the soul; but Praxagoras, not the generation of the soul, but its strengthening. The rational soul created by God alone. Note fifthly: From this place it is clear that the rational soul is not drawn from matter, nor is it from traduce, that is, it is not generated and propagated from the soul of the parent, as light scatters and propagates light, as Tertullian thought, and as St. Augustine doubted, book VII On Genesis Literally, chapter 1 and following. For it is certain, as St. Jerome teaches, and all the other Fathers (and it is the sense of the Church), that the soul is not from angels, as the Seleucians wished, but from without, created and infused into man by God alone. For this is what the word breathed signifies, or, as Cyprian reads it, breathed into the face, that is into the whole body. It is a synecdoche: for from the face, in which all vital operations flourish, and especially respiration, as it were from the noblest part, the whole body is understood. Five reasons why He breathed upon him. He breathed upon him, therefore, first, as Theodoret says, to show that it is as easy for God to create a soul as for man to breathe. Second, so that we might understand that the soul is not drawn from matter, nor is it from traducianism, as Tertullian thought (who for this reason believed the soul, like God, to be corporeal, indeed shaped and colored, because nothing incorporeal exists), and as St. Augustine doubted, book VII On Genesis according to the Letter, chapter 1, but is created from without by God. Third, that our soul is something divine, as it were God's breath, not indeed so that you believe it to be a part torn away from divinity, as Epictetus seems to have thought, dissertation 1, chapter XIV; Seneca, epistle 92; Cicero, I Tusculan Questions and I On Divination, but because the soul is the highest participation of divinity, as to spiritual nature. Fourth, that insufflation and respiration are so necessary to life that we cannot live even for a moment without it; whence Galen, book On the Utility of Breathing, chapter 1, says: "Asclepiades said respiration is the generation of the soul, Nicarchus its strengthening, Hippocrates its nourishment." By breathing upon man, therefore, God creates him, as if He wished to show that man is no less necessary to the completion of the universe than man cannot be without respiration. Finally, since God communicated to man both this breath and the soul itself, He communicated Himself, as if He had placed His own heart in him. For "in the face," in Hebrew it is beappav, which Aquila and Symmachus translate as eis mykteras, that is, into the nostrils: for in the nostrils respiration is vigorous, which is a sign of the hidden soul. But our translator rendered it better as "in the face": for the soul is not in the nostrils alone, but in the whole face, and consequently in the whole man it is and shines forth, but especially in the face and head. For this reason St. Ambrose, book VI of the Hexameron, chapter IX, says that the structure of the human body is like the world. For just as heaven stands out above the air, seas above lands, which are as it were the members of the world: so also we see the head standing out above the rest of the members of our body and being the most excellent of all, as heaven is among the elements, as a citadel among the other walls of a city: and in this citadel, a certain royal wisdom dwells. Whence it was said by Solomon: "The eyes of the wise man are in his head." Hence also Lactantius, book On the Works of God, chapter V: In sum, he says, in the highest construction of the body, God Himself placed the head, in which would be the kingdom of the whole living creature; and this name was given to it, as indeed Varro writes to Cicero, because from here the senses and nerves take their beginning. The soul is not a particle of divine substance. Some thought that our soul is a part of divine substance, as if it were said that God breathed upon him, that is, communicated a part of his breath, spirit and soul to man. But this is an old heresy and the error of the Poets, who say the soul is "a particle of divine air," and an apospasm (that is, a part torn away) of divinity. Thus Epictetus thinks, dissertation 1, chapter XIV; Seneca, epistle 92; Cicero, I Tusculan Questions and book I On Divination. "He breathed upon him," therefore, that is, the breath, spirit and soul, as an effect of His omnipotence, God created from nothing in man. Seven definitions of the rational soul. Hence St. Chrysostom, Ambrose, Augustine, Eucherius and Lyra define the rational soul thus: "The soul is a godlike breath of life." Second, the Author of On Spirit and Soul in St. Augustine, volume III: "The soul," he says, "is a certain incorporeal substance, partaking of reason, fitted for governing the body;" third, Cassiodorus: "The soul," he says, "is a spiritual substance, created by God, the vivifier of its own body;" fourth, Seneca: "The soul," he says, "is an intellectual spirit, ordered to beatitude in itself and in the body;" fifth, Damascene: "The soul," he says, "is an intellectual spirit, always living, always in motion, capable of good and evil will;" sixth, the Author of On Spirit and Soul: "The soul," he says, "is the likeness of all things;" seventh, others: "The soul," they say, "is a spiritual substance, simple and indissoluble, passible and mutable in the body." Just as the Greeks distinguished psyche, which befell all living creatures, and nous, which is proper to man and demons; likewise the Latins soul and mind, or intellect: so the Hebrews through nishmat chaiim seem to understand the vital soul, whatever kind it may be, and through nephesh, the rational soul.
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And let them long for the heavenly paradise, of which that earthly one was a type and image. NOW THE LORD GOD HAD PLANTED A PARADISE OF PLEASURE FROM THE BEGINNING. "Had planted," that is, had furnished and adorned it with plants, trees, and all delights created by himself. Whence is paradise called? PARADISE. -- Note: Paradise is not a Greek word, para kai deuo, that is, I irrigate, as Suidas wishes; or, as others say, para ten diaitan poieisthai, that is, from the collection of herbs, thus named; but it is a Persian word, says Pollux, or rather a Hebrew one: for pardes in Hebrew signifies a place of pleasure, from the root para, that is, it bore fruit, and hadas, that is, myrtle, as if you were to say, a garden of myrtles, or one in which myrtles bear fruit. For the myrtle delights and excels above other trees in odor and taste. Paradise was in Eden. OF PLEASURE. -- The Septuagint retains the Hebrew word, and translates it as Eden, which is the proper name of a place, and this is indicated by the Hebrew bet, that is, in, and it is plain that Eden is the name of the place in which paradise was, as is evident from verse 10 in the Hebrew, and this will be more evident below. But our Interpreter and Symmachus take Eden, not as a proper noun, but as a common noun, and then it signifies pleasure. Whence from the Hebrew Eden some derive the Greek hedonen, that is, pleasure. Theodoret, in Question XXV, thinks that Adam was formed in Eden, and that Adam was named from Eden. For Eden, he says, signifies red. But he errs: for Eden in Hebrew signifies not red, but pleasure. Again, Adam was called from Adama, that is, red earth from which he was formed, not from Eden: for Adam is written with aleph, but Eden with ain. FROM THE BEGINNING, -- namely, on the third day of the world, as I said in chapter 1, verse 11. Therefore the author of the fourth book of Esdras, chapter II, verse 6, errs, who expounds it thus, asserting that paradise was planted before the earth. The Septuagint translates it as toward the East; whence it is plain that with respect to Judaea (for Moses writes with respect to Judaea, and marks the regions of the world) paradise was toward the East, and that the Eastern region began to be inhabited first by Adam and men. Hence St. Chrysostom, Theodoret, and Damascene in book IV On the Faith, chapter XIII, teach that Christians pray turning themselves toward the East, that they may remember paradise, from which they were expelled through sin.
The Location of Paradise You will ask, what, of what kind, and where is paradise? First opinion. First, Origen thinks that paradise is the third heaven, into which St. Paul was caught up; that the trees are angelic virtues; that the rivers are the waters which are above the firmament. Philo teaches the same, and the Seleucian heretics, and indeed St. Ambrose, in his book On Paradise. But St. Epiphanius, Augustine, Jerome, and others condemn this exposition as heretical: for it twists the plain history of Genesis into the fictions of allegories. Whence St. Ambrose is to be excused, in that he presupposes the literal letter and literal sense, and only pursues the allegory of paradise. Second opinion. Second, others, according to Hugh of St. Victor, think that paradise was the whole world; that the river is the Ocean, from which those four most celebrated rivers arise. But this too is an error; for these four rivers flow out outside of paradise. Again, Adam after sin was cast out of paradise; but Adam was not cast out of the world: therefore the world is not paradise. Third opinion. Third, others, according to the Master of the Sentences in II, distinction 17, think that paradise is a place altogether secret and elevated up to the globe of the moon: thus Rabanus, Rupert, Strabo; or certainly, as Abulensis and Alensis hold, that paradise is elevated above the middle region of the air; and therefore the waters of the flood did not reach it. But thus paradise would not be on earth, but in the air or heaven. Again, it would be very conspicuous and known, as the sun, moon, stars, and comets are seen by all. Fourth opinion. Fourth, St. Ephrem, according to Moses Barcepha, in his book On Paradise, thinks that our whole earth is surrounded by the Ocean, and beyond it in another earth and another world is paradise. But this too is an error: for the four rivers of paradise are in our earth and world. Fifth opinion. Fifth, Cirvelus of Darocensis in his Paradoxes, Question 15, and Alphonsus a Vera Cruce, in his book On Heaven, section 15, are of the opinion that paradise was in Palestine, around the Jordan, in the land of the Sodomites; they prove it from Genesis XIII, 10. Others wish it to have been in the island of Taprobana, others in America. But these four rivers are neither in Palestine, nor in Taprobana, nor in America. Sixth opinion. Sixth, St. Bonaventure and Durandus in II, distinction 17, think that paradise is under the equinoctial. For they think that there is the greatest temperance of the air, where the days are always equal to the nights. But this, as it is vague and uncertain, so it does not solve the knot. The difficulty of this question depends on two rivers, namely the Phison and the Geon: for whoever knew these would easily trace paradise from them.
Four Rivers I say first, it is the opinion of many Fathers and Doctors that Gihon is the Nile, and Pishon is the Ganges. Thus hold St. Epiphanius, Augustine, Ambrose, Jerome, Theodoret, Josephus, John of Damascus, Isidore, Eucherius, Rabanus, Rupert and others, whom the Conimbricenses cite and follow in their Meteora, tract. 9, cap. X, and Ribera in Amos, VI, num. 44, and Bellarmine, On the Grace of the First Man, cap. XII. And it is proved first, because the Septuagint in Jeremiah II, 18, translate Gihon for the Nile: whence even to this day the Abyssinians call the Nile Guijon, as testified by Francis Alvarez, History of Ethiopia, cap. CXXII. But it could be answered that Gihon is the name of several rivers: for there was also near Jerusalem a stream called Gihon (for these two are the same, since in Hebrew the same word gichon is used in both places), where Solomon was anointed king, III Kings 1, verses 33, 38, 45; II Paralipomenon XXXII, 30. Second, because the Ganges properly encircles the land of Havilah, that is India (as Genesis X, 29, teaches St. Jerome and others everywhere), which is within the Ganges, where the best gold is found; indeed the Ganges itself, according to Pliny, is gold-bearing and gem-bearing. Moreover the Ganges is called Pishon, that is abundance, from the root pus, that is to luxuriate, to multiply, because ten great rivers empty themselves into the Ganges. Thus Josephus, lib. I Antiq. II, and Isidore, lib. XIII Etymol. cap. XXI. In like manner Gihon, that is the Nile, encircles Ethiopia, or Abyssinia, where Prester John reigns. Moreover the inundation of the Nile is most celebrated: but Ecclesiasticus cap. XXIV, verses 35 and 37, attributes this very thing to Gihon. You will say, how can the Ganges and Nile, which are most remote from the Tigris and Euphrates, be born from the same source and river of paradise as these? For the Ganges arises in the Caucasus, a mountain of India; the Euphrates and Tigris in the mountains of Armenia; the Nile from the Mountains of the Moon, toward the Cape of Good Hope; or rather from some lake of the kingdom of Congo, as those have noted who have explored those places in this age; but these origins are most remote from one another, and consequently from the river of paradise. This indeed is a great difficulty, to which St. Augustine responds, lib. VIII On Genesis Literally, cap. VII, Theodoret, Rupert and others, that the Ganges and Nile arise from the earthly paradise, but are hidden by subterranean channels and passages, until they burst forth in the places already mentioned, and this by God's counsel to conceal paradise. Indeed Pausanias in his Corinthiaca, and Philostratus, lib. I On the Life of Apollonius, cap. XIV, say that there are not lacking those who think that from the Euphrates, buried in the earth and afterwards emerging above Ethiopia, the Nile is formed, which aptly responds to Holy Scripture here cap. II, which suggests that these four rivers flow forth from one source. Nor is it strange that the Ganges and Nile are thus hidden and arise so remotely; for the Caspian Sea also comes forth from the most remote Arctic Ocean through subterranean passages, as St. Basil, Strabo, Pliny, and Dionysius, lib. On the Situation of the World, teach. Indeed many hold that all things, even the most remote rivers, springs and waters, arise from the sea and that subterranean abyss, through subterranean veins, as I said cap. 1, verse 9. From this abyss therefore first a great river arose in paradise; for God willed, for the adornment of paradise, that arising from it, as it were a matrix of the others, it should divide itself into these four rivers; but after the sin of Adam, God either entirely buried this river of paradise in the earth, or willed it to be hidden, so that paradise might be more concealed. But it seems incredible that so vast and so great a space this river of paradise, or rather these four rivers, should hide themselves under the earth, and afterwards arise in such distant places. For, as Ptolemy teaches, between the Euphrates and the Ganges there intervenes a space of 70 degrees, that is more than 4300 miles. The same can be said of the Nile. It is proved that the Nile is not Gihon, nor the Ganges Pishon. Second, these four rivers arise in the places already mentioned a little before and sufficiently well known so moderately, that it immediately appears that they are first born there, and then gradually grow by rivulets flowing together from here and there; therefore they are not born from that great river of paradise. Third, Viegas in Apocalypse cap. XI, sect. 5, and other most learned men have noted, that neither India, nor the Ganges, nor other regions or rivers, which are beyond the Persian Gulf, are called in Scripture Eastern or the East, but only those which are on this side of the Persian Gulf, such as Armenia, Arabia, Mesopotamia. The inhabitants of these, namely Arabs, Idumeans, Midianites, Armenians, are called Easterners, or sons of the East with respect to the Jews: but paradise was in the East, as the Septuagint has it. Fourth, if Geon is the Nile, and Phison the Ganges, then paradise would have encompassed all the regions lying between the Nile, Euphrates, Tigris and Ganges, namely Babylon, Armenia, Mesopotamia, Syria, Media, Persia and many others. Some admit this, but with little probability, as it seems: for paradise is called here a garden of delights; who ever saw such a large garden? From this it follows that Phison is not the Ganges, nor Geon the Nile. Whence -- Paradise was around Mesopotamia. I say secondly: Paradise appears to have been around Mesopotamia and Armenia. This is proved first, because these regions are called Oriental in Scripture, as I have already said; secondly, because men expelled from paradise first began to inhabit these regions, both before the flood, as is evident from Cain, who dwelt in Eden, Genesis cap. IV, vers. 16, and after the flood, as situated near paradise, and therefore more fertile than others, as is evident Genesis VIII and XI, vers. 2. Third, because paradise was in Eden, as the Septuagint translates it. Now Eden was near Haran, as is evident Ezekiel XXVII, 23, Isaiah XXXVII, 12. Now Haran is around Mesopotamia: for Haran or Carrhae is a city of the Parthians, where Crassus was slain. Fourth, because paradise is where the Euphrates and Tigris are, as is evident here vers. 14; but these are in Mesopotamia and Armenia: for the Euphrates is the river of Babylon, and the region intercepted between it and the Tigris, Mesopotamia (as if you were to say, situated in the midst of two rivers) is called. Fifth, because these regions are most pleasant and fertile. Sixth, because paradise does not seem to have been so far distant from Judaea: just as Mesopotamia is not so far distant from Judaea; for the Fathers relate that Adam, expelled from paradise, after traversing certain places, came into Judaea, and there died and was buried on the mountain, which by posterity, because the head of the first man was contained there, was called the Mount of Calvary, on which Christ crucified atoned for and expiated the sin of Adam. Thus relate Origen, Cyprian, Athanasius, Basil and others throughout, with one exception and objection from St. Jerome, as I said on Matthew XXVII, 33. Phison and Geon. I say third: It is not established which rivers are Phison and Geon; yet it is sufficiently clear that they still exist from Ecclesiasticus cap. XXIV, vers. 35. Again, it is not established whether these four rivers originate from the river of paradise; or whether the river of paradise flows into these four only, or divides itself into them. For Moses only says that this river divides into four heads: but he calls the four heads themselves the four rivers, which divide this one river of paradise into four as it were branches, or heads, whether they originate and flow from it, or not. For thus Moses himself seems to explain himself shortly after. Yet the opinion of Pererius, Oleaster, the Eugubine, Vatable here, and Jansen in cap. CXLIII of the Harmony of the Gospels, is probable, that Phison and Geon are rivers which are born from the Euphrates and Tigris coming together. Phison is Phasitigris. For which note, the Tigris and Euphrates above the Persian Gulf finally come together, and again divide, and change name. For one flowing down into the Persian Gulf is called Phasis or Phasitigris (which appears to be Phison), celebrated among Curtius, Pliny and others; this encircles the land of Havilah, that is Chavilah, namely the Cholaeans, whom Strabo lib. XVI places in Arabia, near Mesopotamia. The other, seeking Arabia Deserta, and neighboring places, appears to be that which is here called Geon: this encircles Ethiopia, not that of the Abyssinians which is below Egypt, but that which is around Arabia. For in Scripture the Midianites and others dwelling near the Persian or Arabian Gulf are called Ethiopians. Paradise was in that place where the Tigris and Euphrates flow together. Paradise therefore appears to have been in that place where the Euphrates and Tigris flow together; for from that confluence they are divided and distinguished into these four rivers: for above are the Euphrates and Tigris, below are Geon and Phasitigris or Phison. That these rivers, after they have come together, again divide, is clearly evident from the more exact cosmographical maps of Gerard Mercator, Ortelius and others. For Mercator in the map of Asia 4, clearly shows the Tigris and Euphrates meeting near Apamea, and again dividing near the city which is called Asia, and forming a rather large island Teredon; and finally flowing on both sides into the Persian Gulf, and ending there. Add to this that it is probable these rivers were more divided in the time of Moses, because afterwards they changed their course and flowed together more, just as from the time of Moses many other rivers and seas have changed their location and course, as Torniellus has noted. For in the time of Moses, these four rivers of paradise were plainly divided, which is evident from the fact that he himself describes them as four, as it were separated and commonly known, and proposes them to the Jews, so that they themselves might recognize from them in what place paradise was. I say fourthly: Even if it is not established precisely in what place paradise was, nevertheless it is certain by faith that paradise was a corporeal place, situated in some part of our earth towards the East, as the Septuagint has it. Again, it is certain that this place was most pleasant and most temperate, and this partly from itself and its natural situation, partly from the special providence of God, which would have removed heat, cold and every other inclemency from paradise: a place, I say, for both men and also other animals. Were there animals in paradise, besides men? Damascenus and St. Thomas deny this, and Abulensis in cap. XIII, Quaest. LXXXVII. For they think that in paradise there were no quadrupedal animals, but only men would have been there. Abulensis, however, also admits birds to paradise, for melody, and fish in the rivers. But the contrary is taught by others everywhere with St. Basil, lib. De Paradiso, and St. Augustine, lib. XIV De Civit. cap. XI. For the variety and beauty of animals brought great pleasure to man in paradise. Again, it is established that the serpent was in paradise. "In paradise," says Basil, "there were all kinds of birds, which by the beauty of their colors and natural music and sweetness of song delighted man incredibly. There were also spectacles of various animals. But all were tame, obedient to man, living together concordantly and peacefully, which both heard one another and spoke sensibly. But the serpent was not then horrible, but mild and tame, nor did it crawl terribly on the earth's surface as if swimming, but sublime and erect, walking on feet." Note here that St. Basil seems to say that in paradise brute animals had reason and human speech; again, that the serpent did not crawl but walked erect: neither of which seems probable. Equally paradoxical is what Rupertus asserts, lib. II De Trinitate, cap. XXIV and XXIX, that waters are salty by nature; but just as the liver is the source of blood, so the fountain, now the fountain of paradise, is the source of all sweet waters, which are throughout the whole world; and consequently the same fountain is the parent and author of all seeds, trees, gems and aromatics.
Whether Paradise Still Exists You will ask secondly, whether the place and pleasantness of paradise still exist? I answer, it is certain that the place exists, concerning pleasantness it is uncertain. St. Justin, Tertullian, Epiphanius, Augustine, Damascene, St. Thomas, Abulensis and others, whom Viegas cites above, assert this; for they hold that by a special providence of God, paradise was preserved untouched from the flood in the time of Noah: for although the waters of the flood exceeded other common mountains of men, as it is said in Genesis, chapter VII, nevertheless not paradise, or if the waters also exceeded this, they did not however damage it, because this is the place of innocence, in which even now the most holy and most peaceful Elias and Henoch live. Thus all the Fathers already cited. Irenaeus adds, book V, chapter V, that in this earthly paradise all the souls of the just are detained after death until the day of judgment, so that then they may go into heaven and see God. But this is an error of the Armenians condemned in the Council of Florence. Others, and perhaps more probably, hold that paradise existed until the flood in its primeval pleasantness: for when God expelled Adam from it, He placed Cherubim before him to guard it. Again, Henoch is said to have been taken up into paradise, not the heavenly one, but the earthly, Ecclesiasticus XLIV, 16. But in the flood of Noah, when the waters occupied the whole earth for an entire year, these same men hold that paradise also was buried by them, violated and scattered, and this Moses sufficiently indicates, chapter VII, verse 19. Add, that paradise can nowhere now be found, although nevertheless the whole earth, especially around Mesopotamia and Armenia, is plainly known and inhabited. Thus Oleaster, Eugubinus, Catharinus, Pererius and Jansenius above hold, Francis Suarez III part., qu. LIX, art. VI, disp. 55, sect. 1, Viegas already cited, and others. For the waters of the flood, recurring for an entire year with such force, and, as Moses says, going and returning, flattened all trees, houses, cities, indeed even hills, and moved almost the entire surface of the earth: therefore they also subverted the form and beauty of paradise. Cf. Huet, de la Situation du paradis terrestre; D. Calmet, Bible de Vence, tom. I; but especially the most eruditely written work, Du Berceau de l'espece humaine selon les Indiens, les Perses et les Hebreux, by D. Obry, 1858. Tropological Interpretation. Tropologically, paradise is a soul adorned with every variety of trees, that is, of virtues. Hence that symbol of Zoroaster, "seek paradise," that is, the whole choir of divine virtues, as Psellus says. This is the same as, "the soul is winged; and when the wings fall off, it is borne headlong into the body; then at last, as they grow back, it flies back to the heavens." When his disciples asked him, how by well-feathered wings they might obtain winged souls? Irrigate, he said, the wings with the waters of life. Again when they asked, whence they should seek these waters? he answered them by a parable: Paradise is washed and irrigated by four rivers of God: from thence you will draw saving waters: the name of the river which is from the North denotes rectitude; that from the West, expiation; that from the East, light; that from the South, piety. Allegorical Interpretation. Allegorically, St. Augustine, book XIII On the City of God, chapter XXI, and Ambrose, book On Paradise: Paradise, they say, is the Church: the four rivers are the four Gospels: the fruit-bearing trees are the Saints; the fruits are the works of the Saints; the tree of life is Christ the Holy of Holies, or it is wisdom itself, the mother of all good things, Ecclesiasticus XXIV, 41, Proverbs III, 18; the tree of knowledge of good and evil is free will, or the experience of transgressing the commandment. Again paradise is Religion in which humility, charity and holiness flourish. Hear St. Basil in a book, or rather a homily On Paradise, near the end: "If you conceive of some place capable of the saints, in which all who have shone forth in good works on earth enjoy the grace of God, and live in true and spiritual joy, you will not err from a fitting likeness of paradise." Thus also St. Chrysostom, homily 69 in Matthew, discoursing on the happiness of Monks, compares them to Adam dwelling in paradise. See St. Bernard to Clerics, chapter XXI, and Jerome Platus, book III On the Good of Religious Status, chapter XIX. Anagogical Interpretation. Anagogically, the same men say: Paradise, they say, is heaven and the life of the blessed; the four rivers are the four cardinal virtues: namely the Ganges is prudence, the Nile temperance, the Tigris fortitude, the Euphrates justice. See Pierius, Hieroglyphic, 21. Or rather the four rivers are the four gifts of the glorified body, Apocalypse, last chapter, verse 2. Thus St. Dorothy, when she was being led to martyrdom by Fabricius the prefect, rejoiced, saying that she was going to her spouse, whose paradise flourished with the pleasantness of all flowers and fruits; and when Theophilus the scribe asked in jest that, when she arrived there, she would send him some roses from there: I will send them, she said. After therefore she was beheaded, a boy appeared to Theophilus with a basket of fresh roses, and indeed at the time of winter (for she suffered on the sixth of February), and said that these were sent to him by Dorothy from the paradise of her spouse; when he had offered them, he vanished from sight; wherefore Theophilus was converted to the faith of Christ and suffered martyrdom.
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EVERY TREE BEAUTIFUL TO BEHOLD, AND PLEASANT TO EAT OF. -- "And" here is put for "or": for Moses signifies that in paradise there were both trees beautiful and pleasant, such as cedars, cypresses, pines and other unfruitful trees, as well as fruitful ones and fit for eating.
The Tree of Life AND THE TREE OF LIFE ALSO, -- namely the tree of life. You will ask, what and of what sort was this tree? I say first: It is a matter of faith that this was a true tree; for thus it is called by the Hebrews a tree, and the simple and historical narrative of Moses requires this: thus all the ancients against Origen and the Eugubine, who think the tree of life was symbolic, and signified symbolically only the life and immortality of Adam promised to him if he should obey God. I say second: It is called the tree of life, not because it was a sign of the life granted to Adam by God, as Artopoeus wishes; but "of life," that is, life-giving, the cause of life, preserving and prolonging life, because namely this tree prolonged the life of one eating from it for a very long time, and preserved it healthy, quiet and pleasant, free from diseases and old age: see Pererius and Valesius, Sacred Philosophy, cap. VI. Four effects of the tree. First therefore this tree would have made life long-lived; second, strong and robust; third, constant, so that it would never incur disease or old age; fourth, joyful and cheerful: for it would have driven away all sadness and melancholy. I say third: This power and virtue in this tree was not supernatural, and therefore was taken from it after Adam's sin, as St. Bonaventure and Gabriel wish in II, dist. 19; but it was natural to it, as is the power of healing in other fruits and trees; hence from its own nature and native power it is called the tree of life; and therefore after sin this virtue remained in this tree, and for this reason Adam was excluded from it and from paradise after he sinned, as is clear cap. III, vers. 22. Thus St. Thomas, Hugh and Pererius. In paradise therefore nothing could have harmed or corrupted man remaining in innocence. For against the action of the elements and the consumption of radical moisture, he would have had the tree of life, which would have completely restored that moisture; against the violence of demons, he would have had angelic protection; against the assault of beasts, he would have had perfect dominion over them; against the force of men, he would have had paradise: for if anyone had wished to harm another, justice would have cut him off, and he would have been immediately expelled from paradise, as happened to Adam; against the infection of the air, he would have had the most suitable temperature of the breeze; against poisonous herbs, against flames and other things which might have harmed or oppressed him by chance, he would have had full prudence in all things and foresight to avoid all dangers; which if he had not employed, he would no longer have been innocent, but imprudent, rash and harmful, and thus could have been harmed. Finally, God's protection would have surrounded and protected him on all sides from harm. How would it have prolonged life for man? You will ask second, by what means would this tree have prolonged life for man? Many think that the fruit of the tree of life tasted and eaten once brought immortality to the one eating. For just as, they say, the tree of knowledge of good and evil was a tree of death, and the wages of death, so that tasted once it brought the necessity of dying: so on the contrary the tree of life was the reward of obedience, which would transfer men from a mortal state to immortality. Whence Bellarmine, lib. On the Grace of the First Man, cap. XVIII, thinks that men would have eaten from this tree of life only then, when they were about to be transferred from this life to the state of glory. St. Chrysostom, Theodoret, Irenaeus, Rupertus favor this opinion, whom Abulensis cites and follows, in cap. XIII, where he treats all these things at length. I say first: It is more probable that this fruit tasted once would indeed have prolonged life for man for a long time, yet would not have made him absolutely immortal. The reason is, because this power was natural to this fruit, and was finite, and therefore by the continued action of natural heat in man was finally to be consumed. Again, this fruit, like any other, was by its nature corruptible; therefore it could not make man altogether incorruptible, but only if eaten repeatedly would it continually prolong life for man further and further: thus Scotus, Durandus, Cajetan and Pererius think. I say secondly: The fruit of the tree of life restored to man his complete powers, first, by supplying the original natural moisture, or something better than it; secondly, by sharpening, strengthening, and restoring to its original or even better state the natural heat, which was worn down by continuous action and struggle with other foods (which man would ordinarily have used even then, as St. Augustine teaches, lib. XIII De Civit., cap. XX), and by containing and preserving it. Whence if man had eaten from this tree at fixed times, though rare, he would have incurred neither death nor old age. Aristotle therefore errs, who in lib. III Metaphys., textu 15, tacitly reproves Hesiod saying that the gods who feed on ambrosia are immortal, but others who lack ambrosia are mortal. For whatever, he says, feeds on food, by its nature grows old, dissolves and dies: but this is plainly false in the case of this tree of life, which Aristotle did not know; whence, cap. III, vers. 22, Moses here expressly teaches that Adam was expelled from paradise lest, tasting the tree of life, he should live forever: therefore the tree of life was able to prolong life forever. You will say: The natural heat in man is gradually diminished by continuous action, and in acting upon the fruit of the tree of life would have been worn down; but this wearing down seems unable to be repaired by food, because it can only be repaired by the conversion of food, or nourishment into the substance of the one nourished; then indeed the nourishment is similar to the one nourished, and consequently has no greater power than the one nourished: therefore it cannot completely repair his worn down and diminished powers. I answer first, it is false that when nourishment is converted and becomes similar to the one nourished, it does not have greater power than him: for we see that when food is taken, weak men are immediately invigorated, grow vigorous, and are strengthened. I answer secondly, that this fruit of the tree of life was not merely food, but also a medicine of wondrous power; which before it is converted into the substance of man, purifies, refreshes and strengthens the body and the natural heat. Again, that same fruit afterwards converted into the substance of man would have retained this same virtue and quality; by this therefore its natural power would have far more repaired and restored the nutritive powers of man than the action of natural heat and its wearing down in the fruit and food would have weakened. Thus Ludovicus Molina. What kind of eternity of life? You will ask thirdly, what kind of eternity this would have been, which the eating of the tree of life would have brought, whether absolute or restricted and respective? Ludovicus Molina holds it would have been absolute; for, he says, this tree would always have restored man to his original vigor. But more truly Scotus, Valesius and Cajetan hold it would have been restricted, not absolute; namely because this tree would have prolonged for man life and vigor for some thousands of years, until God would have taken him up to heaven, which is a kind of eternity. For the Hebrews call olam, that is eternal, by common usage the longest time, whose end is not foreseen by man; see Canon 4. Thus cap. VI, 3, the Lord says: "My spirit shall not remain in man forever (that is, in the long age of the first fathers), and his days shall be a hundred and twenty years." Yet this tree could not have prolonged life for man absolutely into all eternity. The reason is, because every mixed body, since it consists of contrary elements warring among themselves, is by nature corruptible; but this tree was a most delicious and beautiful mixed body: therefore it was in itself corruptible, and would gradually, though very slowly, have failed, lost its first vigor, and finally perished, as oaks, even though they are very hard, gradually perish nonetheless: therefore it could not have preserved man from death and corruption forever. For it could not give to man what it did not have in itself. And in this sense it is true what Aristotle said, that everything which feeds on food is mortal. Secondly, because otherwise it would follow that Adam, after sin, if he had been permitted to live in paradise and eat the tree of life, would have lived absolutely forever: but this seems incredible, both because before he was expelled from paradise, the sentence of death had been passed upon him; and because through sin the body and human nature is so weak and miserable, and subject to so many diseases, vices and hardships, which wear away the powers and gradually lead to death, that he must finally die. You will say: The fruit of the tree of life would always have restored the natural heat and the radical moisture to their original vigor: therefore it would have been able to prolong life for man always and into all eternity, if man had eaten from it at its proper times. I answer that the word always in the preceding passage must always be understood restrictively, namely always so long as, that is, the complete strength and vigor of the tree of life should have lasted: for as that tree grew old and perished, so likewise would man have grown old and perished. For just as now certain electuaries and foods that are very succulent, spiritous and nourishing restore the radical moisture and natural heat (especially in young men) completely, and restore them to their full state, but for a certain time, namely until either man grows old, or the strength and vigor of the food is weakened: then indeed the strength of man cannot be so restored but that gradually he fails and dies; so likewise the matter would have stood with the tree of life. With this only difference, that our foods and medicines restore vigor to man for only a brief time, but the tree of life would have provided it for a long time, for many thousands of years; when these were completed, both man and the tree of life would have grown old and died; but God would have prevented this old age and death by transferring man to heaven and eternal life. Since therefore God did not wish man to live in paradise absolutely forever, but only for a long time, it seems likewise that He gave to the tree of life the power of prolonging life, not absolutely forever, but only for a long time. Thus teaches Scotus with his followers. Nectar and ambrosia from the tree of life. Finally, from this tree of life the Poets fabricated stories, and invented their nectar, ambrosia, nepenthe and moly, as if foods of the gods, which would make them immortal, always young, happy and blessed. Note, that Adam did not taste of this fruit of life: for shortly after his creation he sinned and was expelled from paradise, as is evident from chapter III, 22. Symbolic interpretations of the tree of life. Symbolically therefore the tree, or tree of life, was a hieroglyphic of eternity, as is evident from what has been said. Allegorically the tree of life is Christ, who says: "I am the vine; you the branches," John XV. And: "I am the way, the truth, and the life," John XIV. Again, the tree of life is the cross of Christ, which erected in the midst of paradise, that is the Church, gives life to the world: into which therefore the Bride, desiring to ascend, says in the Canticle VII: "I will go up to the palm tree, and will take hold of the fruit thereof." The tree of life finally is the Eucharist, which gives life to soul and body: for by its virtue we shall rise to immortal life, according to that saying of Christ in John VI: "He that eateth this bread, shall live forever." Thus St. Irenaeus, book IV, chapter XXXIV, and book V, chapter II. Tropologically, the tree of life is the Blessed Virgin, from whom was born life, God made man, Christ Jesus; and the Virgin herself, as says Germanus Patriarch of Constantinople, is the spirit and life of Christians. Again, the tree of life is the just man, who works holy works which bring forth life of grace and glory, according to that saying: "The fruit of the just is a tree of life," Proverbs XI, 30. Moreover the tree of life is wisdom itself, virtue and perfection, according to that saying concerning it: "It is a tree of life to them that lay hold on it," Proverbs III, 18. Anagogically, the tree of life is beatitude and the vision of God, which confers blessed life on the soul, according to that saying: "To him that overcometh, I will give to eat of the tree of life, which is in the paradise of my God," Apocalypse II, 7, and chapter XXII, 2. See what is said there.
The Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil AND THE TREE OF THE KNOWLEDGE OF GOOD AND EVIL. -- You will ask, what manner of tree was this, that is to say, a tree? The Jews fable that Adam and Eve were created without the use of reason, as infants, but from this tree received the use of reason, by which they knew good and evil. Secondly, Josephus, book I of Antiquities, chapter II, holds that this tree had the power of sharpening the intellect and prudence, and from this was called the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. The same was felt by the Ophites according to Epiphanius, heresy 37, who worshipped the serpent in place of Christ, because the serpent himself was the author for man of acquiring knowledge, when he persuaded him to eat of the forbidden tree. But I say first: The opinion of Rupert, Tostatus and Pererius is probable, that by anticipation the tree is here called the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, which afterwards was so called, because the serpent promised to man, if he should eat from it, this knowledge -- although falsely and deceitfully -- saying: "You shall be as gods, knowing good and evil," whence after Adam ate from it, God, mocking him, said: "Behold, Adam is become as one of us, knowing good and evil." I say secondly: It is more probable that not afterwards, but now by God himself the tree was called the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, both because God, just as he named the tree of life, so also designated this one by his name to Adam -- for no other name of this tree exists; and again because in verse 17 it is called by God the tree of the knowledge of good and evil; and finally because by this name the serpent appears to have deceived Eve, as if saying: This tree is called the tree of the knowledge of good and evil; therefore if you eat from it, you will know good and evil. For the serpent promised her complete knowledge, even divine, when God understood something far different by this name. Whence -- I say thirdly: The tree of the knowledge of good and evil appears to have been so named by God, both from the purpose of God designating it, and from the event which followed, which God foresaw. For God had decreed that, to exercise the obedience of man, he would forbid him the eating of this tree, and if man obedient should abstain from it, he would increase and preserve his justice and happiness; but if disobedient he should eat from it, he would punish him with death. Through this tree therefore man learned and knew by experience what before he knew by speculation alone -- namely, what is the difference between obedience and disobedience, between good and evil -- and therefore this tree was called the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, as if you were to say: the tree from which man will learn by experience what is good and what is evil. Thus the Chaldean paraphrast, St. Augustine (On the City of God XIV, 17), Theodoret, Eucherius and Cyril (Against Julian III). Thus also that part of the desert of Paran was called "the graves of lust," because there those who had lusted after flesh were slain and buried (Numbers XI, 34). I say fourthly: Theodoret, Procopius, Barcephas and Isidore of Pelusium, and Gennadius in the Catena of Lipomanus on chapter III, 7, probably hold that this tree was a fig tree. For immediately after eating from it, Adam, seeing himself naked, sewed for himself a garment from fig leaves, as is said in chapter III, 7. For from the tree nearest and most proximate to Adam, thus confused, he appears to have taken these leaves and coverings of his nakedness; but no tree was nearer to him than that from which he had just eaten; therefore it was a fig tree. Others think it was an apple or fruit, because in the Song of Songs VIII, 5, it is said: "Under the apple tree I raised you up." But the name apple is common to all fruits which have a softer rind, whence the fig tree also is an apple; but in this matter nothing can be asserted with certainty. Mystically and tropologically, the tree of the knowledge of good and evil was a hieroglyphic of free will, as I have already said. For from the evil use of it Adam learned how great an evil disobedience and sin is; just as conversely from the good use of it the saints have learned and learn how great a good obedience and observance of the law is. For which reason this tree was equally a type of obedience and disobedience, as St. Ambrose hints, book On Paradise, chapter VI, from which our Benedict Fernandius has collected much here. Hence the tree was placed in the midst of paradise, that is in the densest grove of crowded trees, where it was not always before the eyes, lest its beautiful fruit should perpetually tempt appetite -- as it would have done, if placed alone in the border of trees, or in a remote place, where visible to all it would have drawn the gaze of all to itself.
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In Hebrew from Eden. In Eden was paradise: thus the Septuagint. Our Eden does not take as a proper name, but as an appellative, and then it signifies pleasure: thus the Septuagint, the Chaldeans and others translate verse 23, and from this the place was called Eden, because it was voluptuous and most pleasant. He trifles, an author otherwise ingenious, who endeavors to prove from other things and from the affinity of names that Eden and consequently paradise was in Edin, or Hesdin, which is a city of Artois. TO WATER PARADISE, -- or by various windings and curves twisting itself, as the Maeander; or by hidden channels watering paradise.
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Verse 11: Havilah Many wish it to be India; but, as I said in verse 8, Havilah is rather here a region near Susiana, Bactria and Persia, lying between Assyria and Palestine, opposite to Tyre. For thus Havilah is understood in 1 Kings 15:7, and Genesis 25:18; it was so called from Havilah, the son of Joktan, of whom Genesis 10:28. CIRCUIT,—not by going around, or circling, but by flowing through and traversing. Thus circuire is taken for peragrare, in Hebrews 11:7, Matthew 23:45. The Pishon appears to be the same river which by the Greeks and ancient Geographers is called Phasis, now the Aras, or Araxes. It rises in the northern part of the Armenian mountains, joins with the river Kur, and after it receives its name, it flows into the Caspian Sea. Havilah, which is named here, ought without doubt to be distinguished both from that which is in Genesis 10:7, and from that which occurs in the same chapter 29. For both were situated in Arabia. Therefore I prefer to follow that opinion which Michaelis brought forward in Supplement to the Hebrew Lexicon, Part III, no. 688. Namely, in the vicinity of the Araxes, which, as we have said, mixed with the Cyrus flows into the Caspian Sea, there is found some people and region somewhat consonant with the name Havilah. The Caspian Sea itself they call Chwalinskoje More, from some ancient people, not sufficiently known, the Chwaliskians, who once dwelt around this sea, says Müller, whose name moreover is derived from Chwala, having the same meaning as Slawa.—Concerning the Pishon and Gihon, see Obry, op. cit.; Haneberg, History of Biblical Revelation, book I, chapter II, page 16 seqq. Verse 12: Bdellium It is a kind of gum, or transparent tears, which drips from a black tree, the size of an olive, with the leaf of oak, and the fruit and nature of the wild fig: thus Pliny, book XII, chapter ix, and Dioscorides, book I, chapter lxix. This Bactrian bdellium is most highly praised. For Bdellium in Hebrew it is bedolach, which Vatablus and the Eugubine translator render as union; the Septuagint, anthrax, that is, carbuncle. The same translators in Numbers, chapter xi, 7 render it crystal. But that bedolach is bdellium is evident from the very letters of both. Bdellium scarcely seems to be so excellent a gift of nature that a region would be praised for its production. For this reason some have suspected a fault. Scarcely anything certain can be defined about this name. Verse 13: Gihon It appears to be said from the Hebrew goach, that is, belly, or breast, which is as it were a belly full of filth and mud; whence many think Gihon to be the Nile, which, as it were with its breast, lies upon Egypt and makes it fertile; but what Gihon is I said in verse 8. Among all the opinions concerning the Gihon river, that which Michaelis, ibid., Part I, page 277, brought forward, is most probable. From it the great river of Chovarasmia, flowing into the Aral Sea, called Oxus by the ancients, Abi-Amu by our geographers, and by the Arabs themselves and even to this day by the inhabitants Gihon, appears to be the Gihon of Moses. But Michaelis himself dares to define nothing certain, since those regions are still too unknown to us. Cf. Obry, op. cit., p. 125. Verse 14: Tigris This river was so called from the tiger, an animal of the greatest swiftness, as Rupert and Isidore wish; or rather, as Curtius and Strabo, from the swiftness of an arrow, which it imitates in its course: for the Medes call an arrow Tigris. In Hebrew it is called chiddekel (hence it is now corruptly called Tigel), that is, sharp and swift, on account of the course, namely, which it has most swift. Euphrates From the Hebrew huperat, says Genebrardus, the word Euphrates is formed; whence it is still called Phrat, from the root para, that is, it made fruitful, because like the Nile overflowing it waters and makes fertile the lands; therefore some wrongly derive Euphrates in Ambrose from the Greek euphainesthai, that is, from rejoicing. Anastatius of Sinai's Anagogical Reading Anastatius of Sinai, Patriarch of Antioch under the Emperor Justinian, wrote eleven books, or homilies of Anagogical Contemplations on the work of the six days, which exist in volume I of the Library of the Holy Fathers, but are to be read discreetly and with a grain of salt: for he asserts in them that angels were created before the corporeal world; which although many once held, it is now certain that the contrary is true, namely that they were created together with the corporeal world. Again he hints that angels were not created in the image of God, but man only, which is absolutely false: yet it is mystically true, because namely man alone consists of soul and body, and consequently alone has the image of God incarnate, namely Christ incarnate, as he himself explains. Moreover he sometimes hints that paradise was not a corporeal place, but ought to be understood spiritually. In the literal sense this is false and erroneous; yet it is true anagogically. Whence the reader ought to remember the title of the same, namely that these commentaries are anagogical and allegorical contemplations of his, not literal expositions. Thus at the end of homily 8, the four rivers of paradise, that is, of the Church, he asserts to be the four Evangelists, namely the Euphrates, that is, the fertile, to be St. John; the Tigris, that is, the broad, to be St. Luke; the Pishon, that is, the transmutation of the mouth, to be St. Matthew, who wrote in Hebrew; the Gihon, that is, the conducive, to be St. Mark.
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Hence also from chapter III, verse 23, it is clear that Adam was created not in, but outside paradise (many think he was created in Hebron), and that from there he was translated into paradise by God on the same day through an angel, so that he might know that he was not a son of paradise, but a colonist, constituted by God gratuitously, and so that he might attribute the place of paradise not to his nature, as if it were owed to him, but to the grace of God: whence also on account of sin he was expelled from it. Francis Arelinus brings forth many other causes of this matter in his Questions on Genesis, p. 300 and 301. This is the opinion of St. Ambrose, Rupert, and the Bishop of Abulensis. But Eve appears to have been created in paradise, verse 21. THAT HE SHOULD WORK,—not to procure food, but for honest exercise, pleasure and experience; so that he would neither be wearied, nor grow slack from idleness: thus St. Chrysostom. Concerning the Antiquity of Agriculture Note here concerning agriculture, first, its antiquity: for it began with man and the world; secondly, its dignity, both because it was instituted by God and commanded to Adam; and because Adam, from whom all nobility descends, Abel, Seth, Noah, Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, and all the most celebrated ancient men, were farmers. Paul Jovius relates in the Life of Jacob Mutius, chapter eighty-four, concerning Sforzia Cottignola, that when a certain Sergius, a great seneschal, cast in his teeth the fable of the spade, to reproach the newness of his lineage, he answered: "In this, as I see, we agree in the origin of our line, since Adam, the first of mortals, dug the earth; but I certainly, which you cannot rightly deny, have become far more noble by that spade of mine than you by your pen and quill." By which jest he indicated that he had acquired such dignity through debauchery, and that his father had been an ignoble scribe brought before the praetor's tribunal, and condemned for falsifying a will. Thirdly, note the innocence of agriculture, that before other arts it was commended to innocent man in paradise, as injuring none, but profitable to all. Hear Virgil, II Georgics: O farmers excessively fortunate, if only you knew your own blessings! To whom the most just earth, far from discordant arms, pours forth easy sustenance from the soil. And again: This life the ancient Sabines once cultivated, this Remus and his brother. Thus strong Etruria grew: and thus was made the most beautiful Rome of things. Golden Saturn lived this life on earth. Hear Cicero: "Of all things," he says, "from which something is sought, nothing is better than agriculture, nothing more abundant, nothing sweeter, nothing more worthy of a free man." Deservedly therefore St. Augustine says: "Agriculture is the most innocent of all arts; yet the impious Faustus the Manichee dared to condemn it," because he said that farmers violate the commandment of God: "Thou shalt not kill"; for by this they are forbidden to deprive any living thing of life: but farmers, by reaping crops, plucking pears, apples and other plants, deprive them of their life. I shall say more concerning agriculture at chapter ix, verse 20. Morally, Concerning the Cultivation of the Soul Morally, God taught us here that the whole order of our life is placed in a certain agriculture. For just as among creatures only fruit-bearing trees and seeds need the work and industry of man, so man needs his own keeping and cultivation. God indicated this to man when he "placed him in paradise, that he should work and keep it"; and he made the luminaries, "that they should be for signs and seasons," namely that they might admonish us of the opportune time for sowing, reaping, etc. Therefore the field to be continually cultivated by God's command is the soul; the fruit-bearing plants are sobriety, chastity, charity and other virtues; the tares and darnel to be rooted out by each are gluttony, lust, anger and other vices. Man is the farmer, rain is the grace of God, which suggests and instills into the mind good sowings, that is, holy inspirations, illuminations and impulses, so that from these as from seeds the soul, made pregnant, may germinate and bring forth works of virtue; winds are temptations, by which trees, that is, virtues, are purified and strengthened; the harvest will be the reward of eternal life; the heat of the sun is the ardor which the Holy Spirit suggests. Just as therefore the farmer labors in sowing, but rejoices in reaping, so also the just, "who sow in tears" works of penance, patience and labors, "shall reap in exultation." Again, just as the sower waits patiently for the harvest, so also the just. Whence Ecclesiasticus, chapter vi, verse 19, says: "As he that ploughs and he that sows, come to her (wisdom), and wait for (expect) her good (abundant) fruits; for in her work (cultivation) you shall labor a little, and soon you shall eat of her generations (fruits brought forth) of her"; and Paul to the Galatians, chapter vi, verse 9: "And in doing good, let us not fail; for in due season we shall reap." AND HE SHOULD KEEP HIM, -- both from wild beasts, which were outside paradise, as St. Basil and Augustine say; and from the very animals which were in paradise itself, lest they should harm or defile its beauty and pleasantness.
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The Septuagint, do not eat, namely you, O Adam and Eve, which it is most probable was created before this precept, as St. Gregory teaches, XXXV Moral. cap. x, although afterwards its condition is narrated; for both to Eve and to Adam was given this first precept of the world. Most excellently St. Chrysostom (or whoever is the author), hom. On the Interdiction of the Tree, tom. I: "God," he says, "gives a commandment, that he may prove obedience; he imposes a law, that he may test the will of man. The tree stood therefore in the midst, testing the will of man. For it tested whether man would hear both Him who threatened and the devil who persuaded. Man stood therefore between the Lord and the enemy, between life and death, between destruction and salvation. Now God threatens that he may save; now the serpent persuades that he may harm; now through God severity intends life, now through the devil flattery intends death. And assuredly (O woe!) God threatens, and is despised; the devil persuades, and is heard. With God there is severity, but benign; with the devil flattery, but harmful." And a little later: "For it would have been fitting that he obey God, who had commanded all things to obey him; that he serve the Lord, who had made him lord of the world; that he contend with the enemy, that he might overcome the foe; finally that he receive rewards as God bestowed them. For virtue grows sluggish where opposition is lacking. Indeed strength is so strengthened by frequent exercise." And soon after: "Adam did not watch, that he might guard against the malice of the serpent. He was simple, not cunning against the devil. Then indeed to the devil persuading, rather than to the Lord threatening, he consented, and lost the life which he had, and received the death which he knew not." THOU SHALT DIE THE DEATH, -- that is, thou shalt incur the sentence and necessity of certain death. Whence Symmachus translates, thou shalt be mortal. Thus St. Jerome, Augustine, Theodoret. The death of body and soul is the penalty of Adam's sin Note: God threatens here to Adam disobeying death, not only of body and temporal, but also of soul spiritual and eternal in hell, and that certain and infallible: for this gemination signifies this, "thou shalt die the death," that is, thou shalt most certainly die. Adam therefore sinning incurred immediately as to body the necessity of death, but as to soul in act and in reality death; hence it is clear that death to man in this state in which he was created by God is not natural, as Cicero and the philosophers wished (add also the Pelagians), but is the penalty of sin, as the Council of Milevis defines, cap. 1, and St. Augustine teaches, lib. I On the Merit of Sins, cap. II. On the contrary the impious who indulge their concupiscence, "work iniquity, and sow sorrows," both present and eternal, as our Pineda beautifully explains in Job cap. iv, vers. 8, n. 4. Although indeed, looking to nature and the contrary elements from which man is composed, he ought to have died, and would have been mortal: yet looking to God's decree, his aid and perpetual conservation, if he had not sinned, he could not have died, and would have been immortal. Whence the Master of the Sentences in II, dist. 19, teaches that in paradise man had "the ability not to die," because man could not sin, and thus not die: in heaven he will have "the inability to die," because there through glory and the dowry of impassibility, there will be the impossibility of dying: in this life after the fall, he has "the ability to die, and the inability not to die," because now in him there is the necessity of dying. To death therefore we are born condemned. Remember, O man, that thou shalt die the death, and that shortly. The saying of Xerxes concerning death Historians relate that Xerxes, when he was strewing the earth with his army and the sea with fleets, contemplating from a high place all this multitude, groaned and wept, saying repeatedly: "Of all these none will survive after a hundred years." Saladin Saladin, king of Egypt and Syria, who took the holy land from the Christians, about the year 1180, when about to die, ordered a funeral shroud with a banner to be carried through all his camps, and a herald to proclaim: "This is what the ruler of Syria and Egypt Saladin, from all his empire, will henceforth carry with him alone." Death is a unicorn Wherefore elegantly and aptly Barlaam in Josaphat compares death to a unicorn, which pursues man continually: he flees, and fleeing falls into a pit, and by the fall embraces a tree which two mice were gnawing: in the bottom of the pit was a fiery dragon, gaping to devour the man: the man saw these things, but foolishly intent on a little honey, which dripped from the tree, forgets all danger: the unicorn overtakes him; and the tree is gnawed by the mice, falls, and the man is seized and devoured by the dragon. The pit is the world, the tree is life, the two mice are day and night, the fiery dragon is the belly of hell, the drop of honey is the pleasure of the world. Thus Damascenus, cap. xii Hist.
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He had also said, namely already before the sixth day: for although Origen, Chrysostom, Eucherius and St. Thomas, I part., Quest. lxxiii, art. 1, ad 3, think that Moses here preserves the order of narration and therefore Eve was produced after the sixth day of the world: yet it is far more true that Moses here, as also throughout the chapter, uses recapitulation, and consequently Eve, equally as Adam, was created on the sixth day. First, because in verse 2, it is said that God completed His work in six days, and on the seventh day ceased from all work. Second, because in other animals, birds, fishes, God on the fifth and sixth day, just as males, so also females created. Third, because, cap. I, verse 27, on the sixth day when Adam was created, Moses expressly says: "Male and female He created them," namely Adam and Eve. He wished therefore in this chapter to narrate the formation of both men and women through recapitulation more fully, which in cap. I, he had compressed in three words. Thus Cajetan, Lipomanus, Pererius here, and St. Bonaventure in II, dist. 18, Quest. II. IT IS NOT GOOD FOR MAN TO BE ALONE. -- Because if Adam had been alone, the human species would have perished in him; and because man is a social animal. And so woman is necessary for the propagation of offspring: after which is accomplished, and after the world is already filled with men, it began to be good for man not to touch woman, as St. Paul says, I Corinth. vii, and spiritual eunuchs began to be praised, Matt. xix, 12, and the praise and reward of his continence was promised illustriously, both by Isaiah, and by Christ and the Apostles. Thus St. Jerome Against Jovinian, and Cyprian, lib. On the Dress of Virgins. "God's first sentence," says Cyprian, "commanded to increase and generate; the second advised continence; when the world is still rude and empty, an abundance of fruitfulness is generated, we are propagated and grow for the increase of the human race; when now the world is full and the earth filled, those who are able to receive continence, living after the manner of eunuchs, are castrated for the kingdom." Note on alone; hence it is clear that those err who from the fact that it was said cap. I: "Male and female He created them," said that God created man and woman together, but so that they were joined at the sides, but afterwards separated them only from each other: for Scripture says that Adam alone was then, and Eve not separated from Adam, but teaches that she was wholly produced from Adam's rib, when namely God took her from him, that is separated her. LET US MAKE HIM A HELPER LIKE UNTO HIM. -- "Like unto him," that is to him. For like unto him, in Hebrew it is kenegdo, which first signifies, as it were before him, so that namely woman be present to man, and a companion for the remedy and solace of solitude. Again, so that woman be at hand to man, so that she may help and support him in all things. Whence the Chaldean translates, let us make him a support which may be with him. Second, kenegdo can be translated, opposite, or against him, that is set over against him and corresponding to him. Whence Our translator clearly renders, like unto him, namely in nature, in stature, in speech, etc.: in all these things woman is like to man. Four things in which woman is a helper to man Furthermore woman is to man a helper: first, for the propagation and education of offspring; second, for the governance of the family; third, for the alleviation of cares, sorrows and labors; fourth, for the support of other necessities of life. Sin has converted this help into trouble, quarrels and disputes for many.
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19. THEREFORE HAVING FORMED OUT OF THE GROUND ALL THE BEASTS OF THE EARTH, AND ALL THE FOWLS OF THE AIR. -- Refer the fowls to formed, not however to out of the ground; for fowls were not formed out of the ground, but out of the water, as I said in chapter 1, verse 20. For Moses compresses many things in few through recapitulation; his words therefore must be expounded respectively: for from what was narrated before it is clear what he refers to. HE BROUGHT THEM TO ADAM. -- "He brought," not through intellectual vision, as Cajetan wishes, but really, and that through angels, or through the affection and impulse of the imagination and affection of individual animals impressed by Him. Thus St. Augustine, lib. IX On Genesis according to the letter, cap. xiv, and others throughout. It is his name, -- the name is fitting to his nature, that is to say Adam gave to each fitting names, which would express the nature of each. Thus Eusebius, lib. On Preparation, cap. IV. Furthermore these names were Hebrew: for this language was given to Adam, as is clear from verse 23, and cap. iv, verse 1. See here the wisdom of Adam, by which he noted the natures of individual animals, and gave them fitting names; see also the use of his dominion over animals: for as it were over subjects, and his own property he imposes names on them. God did not bring fishes to Adam, because fishes by nature cannot live outside water: whence Adam did not impose names on them here, but names were given to them afterwards. Verse 20: But for Adam There Was Not Found a Helper Like Unto Him That is to say Adam was alone with the animals, Eve did not yet exist, nor any other man, with whom he might have communion of life. Whence it appears that Adam imposed names on the animals before the creation of Eve.
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For sleep, in Hebrew it is tardema, that is, a heavy and profound sleep, which Symmachus renders karon, the Septuagint more aptly ekstasis; whence it is evident that not only sleep was sent upon Adam for this reason, that he might not feel his rib being taken away, and thus shudder and suffer pain; but also at the same time with sleep he was caught up in an ecstasy of mind, by which his mind was not only freed and liberated in a natural manner from the functions of the body and senses, but was also so elevated by God that he saw what was being done, and by prophetic spirit knew the mystery signified through these things: he saw, I say, with the eyes of his mind his rib being taken from him, and Eve being formed from it; and through this was signified matrimony, both his natural marriage with Eve, and the mystical marriage of Christ with the Church: for this is what the words of Adam signify, verse 23, and of St. Paul, Ephesians v, 32. Thus St. Augustine, book IX On Genesis according to the letter, chapter xix, and at length in tract. 9 on John, and St. Bernard, sermon On Septuagesima. Adam did not see the essence of God Indeed there are those who think that Adam in this ecstasy saw the essence of God; to this Richard inclines in II, dist. 23, art. 2, Question I, nor does Dr. Thomas reject it, I part., Question XCIV, art. 1. But the contrary is far more true, namely that neither Adam, nor Moses, nor Paul, and therefore no one in this life has seen the essence of God, as I said II Corinthians XII, 4. How great was the knowledge imparted to Adam Adam was therefore a prophet and one in ecstasy. Note: Adam received from God infused knowledge of all natural things: and from this he imposed names on individual things, as I said verse 19; yet he did not receive knowledge of future contingent things, nor of the secrets of hearts, nor of the number of individuals, so that he would know, for example, how many sheep, how many lions there were in the world, how many grains of sand in the sea. In like manner Adam received infused faith and knowledge of supernatural things: namely of the Holy Trinity, the incarnation of Christ (yet not of his future fall), and also of the ruin of the angels. Again, he received infused prudence of all things to be done and to be avoided. Finally, he attained the highest degree of contemplation of God and the angels. Thus from St. Augustine and Gregory Pererius. Allegorically, St. Augustine in Sentences, Sentence 328: "Adam sleeps," he says, "that Eve may be made, Christ dies that the Church may be made. While Adam sleeps Eve is made from his side: when Christ dies the lance pierces his side, that the Sacraments may flow forth, by which the Church is formed." HE TOOK ONE OF HIS RIBS. -- Note first, against Cajetan, that this is not said parabolically, but properly as it sounds. Thus the Fathers and Interpreters teach everywhere. You will say: Therefore Adam was monstrous before this rib was taken away, or certainly after it was taken away he remained maimed and mutilated of his rib. Catharinus responds that God restored to Adam another rib with flesh in place of this rib. But because Moses expressly says: "He took one of his ribs, and filled it up," not a rib, but "flesh in its place." Hence secondly, Dr. Thomas and others respond better, that this rib of Adam was like a seed, which is superfluous to an individual, but is necessary for the generation of offspring. For in like manner this rib of Adam, as belonging to a private person, was superfluous; yet it was necessary to him, inasmuch as he himself was the head of nature and the seedbed of all men, from whom both Eve and the other men were to be produced. For Eve could not be produced as offspring already through seed; God therefore ordained that she be produced from Adam's rib, for a reason to be stated shortly. I say secondly: God appears to have taken from Adam both the rib and the flesh adhering to the rib: for Adam himself says, verse 23: "This now is bone of my bones, and flesh of my flesh;" therefore Eve was formed not only from Adam's bone and rib, but also from the flesh adhering to the rib.
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I say thirdly: From this fleshy rib, as it were a foundation, God by mixing with it another matter -- either by creation, as St. Thomas wishes, or rather from earth and the surrounding air (for after the first true creation of the six days, God produced no part of matter anew) by wonderful artifice formed woman, just as He formed Adam from clay. Whence the Arabic translator renders it, He caused the rib taken from Adam to grow into woman, that is, into a woman; it is not barbarism, but Arabism. For the Arabs lack the preposition in, which signifies change or motion to a place. Whence they say: He went the city, that is, into the city. He converted water wine, that is, into wine. He caused the rib to grow into woman, that is, into a woman. I say fourthly: From this chapter II, verse 22, it seems to be gathered that God took this rib to another place, separated a little from the sleeping Adam; and there from it He built Eve, and filled her with knowledge and grace, just as He had filled Adam, and there He spoke with Eve; then, Adam being awakened, He brought Eve to him, as it were to a spouse, so that He might join them in indissoluble matrimony, that is, one and one, and might take away all polygamy, as well as divorce. Whence Adam, marveling as if in rapture at seeing his rib taken from him and Eve formed from it, exclaimed saying: "This now is bone of my bones," that is to say, This Eve has been made from one of my bones, so that she may be to me a most dear and most closely joined spouse. For the reason why Eve was made from the side and rib of Adam was, that God might teach us how great the love of spouses ought to be, and how holy, close and indissoluble matrimony ought to be; namely, that spouses, as they are almost one bone and one body, so ought to have almost one soul and one will, so that one soul is almost to both, not in two bodies, but in one and the same bone and body divided into two parts. Five Reasons of St. Thomas Why Woman Was Formed from Man Hear St. Thomas, I part., Question XCII, art. 2: "It was fitting," he says, "that woman be formed from man, more than in other animals. "First indeed, so that in this a certain dignity might be preserved for the first man: so that according to the likeness of God he might be, and he himself the principle of his whole species, just as God is the principle of the whole universe; whence also Paul says, Acts XVII, that God made from one man the race of men. "Secondly, so that man might love woman more, and might cling to her inseparably, while knowing her to be produced from himself; whence it is said in Genesis II: She was taken from man: for which reason a man shall leave father and mother, and shall cleave to his wife. And this was especially necessary in the human species, in which male and female dwell together for the whole of life; which does not happen in other animals. "Thirdly, because, as the Philosopher says in VIII Ethics: Male and female are joined in men, not only on account of the necessity of generation, as in other animals; but also on account of domestic life, in which there are certain works of man and woman, and in which man is the head of woman: whence fittingly woman was formed from man, as from her principle. "The fourth reason is sacramental. For by this is figured that the Church takes its principle from Christ; whence the Apostle says to the Ephesians v: This is a great sacrament, but I speak in Christ and in the Church." And in art. 3: "It was fitting," he says, "that woman be formed from the rib of man. First indeed, to signify that there ought to be a social union between man and woman. For woman ought not to dominate over man, and therefore she was not formed from the head; nor ought she to be despised by man as if servilly subject, and therefore she was not formed from the feet. Secondly, on account of the Sacrament: because from the side of Christ sleeping on the cross flowed the Sacraments, that is, blood and water, by which the Church was instituted." Add: God wished in the production of Adam and Eve to imitate His own eternal generation and spiration; for just as He eternally generated the Son, and from the Son spirated the Holy Spirit, so in time He produced Adam to His image, and thus begot him as it were a son; and from him He produced Eve, who would be the love of Adam, just as the Holy Spirit is the love of God. Finally, that Eve was created in paradise St. Basil, Ambrose, St. Thomas, Pererius and others teach; and the history here favors it, and the sequence of Scripture. Adam therefore seems to have been translated into paradise immediately from his creation; and shortly after Eve was formed from his rib. Whence Moses also, soon after this translation of Adam, subjoins the formation of Eve from Adam. Therefore Catharinus errs, who asserts that Eve was produced not on the sixth, but on the seventh day. And Cajetan also errs, who thinks that Adam and Eve were produced at the same instant of time, simultaneously.
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THIS NOW IS BONE OF MY BONES -- that is to say, Away with me the animals previously brought, they do not please me, they are not fitting to me, because they are dissimilar in appearance and bend their heads prone to the earth, and are devoid equally of speech and reason: this Eve is most similar to me, a sharer in reason, counsel, conversation and speech, finally a portion of my flesh and bone. Thus Delrio. The Talmudists fable, according to Abulensis, that Adam had another wife before Eve, produced from the clay of the earth, named Lilith, and lived with her for 130 years, during which he was excommunicated on account of eating the forbidden fruit; and during all that time, they say, he begot not men but demons from her; then he received Eve produced from his rib, and from her he begot men. These are their deliriums, by which they themselves are forced to confess that they are brothers of demons, since their father Adam begot demons. The voice therefore now does not regard the former wife, but partly the animals, as I said, partly Eve, that is to say, This woman now, that is in this first instance, is thus formed, namely from man: for as many women as shall be hereafter, none of them shall be generated thus; but each one shall be procreated by natural generation from male and female. Thus St. Chrysostom, homily 15 here. Symbolically, St. Basil, in the oration on Julitta, from the voice and mind of Julitta the matron, condemned to fire on account of faith, says: "A woman is created by the maker equally with man capable of virtue. For not only flesh was assumed to construct a woman, but also bone from bones; whence it comes to pass that we ourselves ought to render to the Lord no less than men the firmness of faith and constancy, and likewise patience in adversities." With these words comforting the matrons wailing, she leapt into the pyre of wood set alight: which accordingly as a bridal chamber gleaming with splendor, embraced the body of St. Julitta, sent her soul indeed to heaven, but preserved her body with special honor venerable to her relatives and kinsmen unharmed, nor injured in any part of herself; nay, even the earth at the coming of this Blessed one sent forth water so abundantly, that the Martyr presents the image of a most pious mother, while in the manner of a nurse she sweetly nourishes the inhabitants of the city, just as if from some milk abundantly flowing for common use. WHENCE SHE SHALL BE CALLED WOMAN, BECAUSE SHE WAS TAKEN OUT OF MAN. -- The Interpreter does not equal the force of the Hebrew word: and thus from this place it is evident that Adam spoke in Hebrew. For woman does not signify nature or sex, but virtue and manly spirit in a woman. The Hebrew word isscha truly signifies the nature and sex of woman, because it is derived from isch, that is from man, with the addition of he feminine, that is to say, She shall be called a woman (as the ancient Latins spoke, as testified by Sextus Pompeius), because she was taken from man: thus Symmachus in Greek from tou andros made andris, as testified by St. Jerome; Theodotion translated, she shall be called a taking, because she was taken from man; for he himself derives isscha from the root nasa, that is he took, carried, bore; but the former version of the others is the genuine one. R. Abraham ben Ezra on the play of words isch and isscha Symbolically and wittily, R. Abraham ben Ezra notes in the word isscha, to be contained the contracted name of God, ia, who is the author of marriage; and as long as this name remains in marriage (and it remains as long as the spouses fear God, and mutually love each other), so long God is present to the nuptials and blesses them. But if they hate each other in turn, and forget God, then the spouses cast away that name; and thus with the jod and he removed, from which ia is made, there remains only from isch and isscha, that is from man and woman, esch esch, that is fire and fire, namely the fire of quarrels and trouble in this life, and in the other the eternal fire.
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These words are not of Moses, as Calvin wishes, but of Adam, or rather of God, who confirms the words of Adam, and from them draws forth the law of matrimony, and sanctions it by His decree. For Christ attributes these words to God, Matthew XIX, 5. This therefore is the law and society of marriage, that if the matter require it, a spouse ought to abandon father and mother for the sake of the spouse. Understand this of cohabitation and the partnership of life; for in an equal case of famine, or another similar necessity, aid ought rather to be given to father and mother, as it were the authors of life, than to the spouse, as St. Thomas teaches, II II, Question XXVI, article 11, to 1. AND HE SHALL CLEAVE TO HIS WIFE -- The Septuagint translates proskollethesetai, which Tertullian aptly translated, shall be glued together. For the Hebrew dabaq signifies the closest conjunction. Thus Sara was glued to Abraham, Rebecca to Isaac, Sara to Tobias, Susanna to Joachim. Examples of the love of spouses Hear also, ye Gentiles. Theogena, wife of Agathocles king of Sicily, suffered herself in no way to be separated from her sick husband, saying that in marrying she had entered into a partnership not only of good fortune, but of all fortune, and would not purchase her own safety at the peril of her husband's spirit, so as to receive the last breath of her husband. Hypsicrataea, wife of Mithridates king of Pontus, followed her conquered and fleeing husband in all adversities. Memory is made of the example of the women of Lacedaemon, who freed their captive husbands by exchanging clothes, and themselves took the place of the captives. Thus Penelope cleaved to Ulysses; hear the Poet: Penelope betrothed wished to follow Ulysses, Had not her father Icarius preferred to have her with him. He offers Ithaca, he offers Sparta, the maiden remains anxious: From hence her father, from thence her husband's mutual love urges her. Therefore sitting she veils her face, covers her eyes; These were the signs of modest shame. When Icarius learned that Ulysses was preferred by her, He established an altar to this shame by this image. Illustrous was the example of Gracchus the Roman, in whose house two serpents were found, and when the augurs answered that one would live if the other of the opposite sex were killed: Nay rather, said Gracchus, kill mine; for my Cornelia is young, and can still bear children. This was to spare the wife, and to consult the commonwealth, yet always to act as a good husband, whom the ancients deemed to be a great man in the state. Dido, sister of Pygmalion, having gathered together much gold and silver, sailed into Africa, and there founded Carthage: and when she was sought in marriage by Hyarba, king of Libya, a pyre being built in memory of her former husband Sychaeus, she threw herself upon it, preferring to burn rather than to marry another. A chaste woman founded Carthage; again the same city ceased in the praise of chastity. For the wife of Hasdrubal, when Carthage was captured and burned, seeing herself about to be taken by the Romans, seizing her two little children on either side, threw herself into the fire of her house below. The wife of Niceratus, impatient of the injury done to her husband, took her own life, lest she should endure the lust of the thirty tyrants, whom Lysander had imposed upon conquered Athens. AND THEY SHALL BE TWO IN ONE FLESH. -- That is, two, namely man and wife, shall be in one flesh, that is in one body, that is they shall be joined and mingled in cohabitation, in common life, in offspring, in the conjugal union. Thus man and wife shall be one flesh. First, by carnal union; thus the Apostle explains it, I Corinthians VI, 16. Second, they shall be one flesh synecdochically, that is they shall be one man, they shall be one civil person. For man and wife are civilly reckoned as one, and are one. Third, because the spouse is master of the body of his partner, and thus the flesh of one is the flesh of the other, I Corinthians VII, 3. Fourth, effectively: because they generate one flesh, namely offspring. Note: Among human relationships the bond of matrimony is the closest and inviolable: hence from the rib of Adam God made Eve, to signify first, that man and wife are not so much two, as one. Second, that they are indivisible and inseparable; for as one flesh cannot be divided and yet remain one, so a spouse cannot be separated from a spouse, because he is one flesh with the spouse. For division is repugnant to unity, namely divorce and polygamy. Third, that they ought to be one in love and will. See Rupert here. Whence Pythagoras said, in marriage a friend there is one soul in two bodies. Hence it is clear that what is asserted by Nyssenus (if indeed he is the author of the book) in the work On the Creation of Man, chapter XVII, and by Damascenus, book II On the Faith, chapter XXX, and by Euthymius in Psalm L, and by St. Augustine, book IX On Genesis against the Manichaeans, chapter XIX, and in the book On True Religion, chapter XLVI, is not true—namely, that in the state of innocence there would have been no commingling of the sexes, but that men would have been procreated in some angelic manner: for here it is expressly said that "they shall be two in one flesh," which the Apostle explains of commingling, as I have said. Whence St. Augustine retracts his opinion, book I of the Retractions, chapter X, and this is now commonly followed by the Doctors. Faber Stapulensis therefore errs in his Commentary on the book of Richard of St. Victor On the Holy Trinity, who dreams and says that if Adam had not sinned, he would have begotten from himself without a woman a male similar to himself; and Almaricus, who thought that in that state there would have been no difference of sex. Again, St. Thomas, I part., Question XCVIII, article 2, thinks that in the state of innocence, with the integrity of the body preserved, which is called virginity, there would have been conception and childbirth. But, as Pererius rightly notes, this itself also conflicts with this passage and with the nature of human generation. Generation would therefore have been similar then to what it is now, except that concupiscence would have been absent. Hence virginity would not have existed then, because nor would virtue have existed in that state. For virginity is now a virtue, because it restrains the concupiscence of lust: but then there would have been no concupiscence or lust to be restrained; therefore neither would there have been continence or virginity then. Hence Pererius probably thinks that in that state as many females would have been born as males. For all would have entered into matrimony, and that singular, namely one with one, according to what God here instituted.
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AND THEY WERE BOTH NAKED, AND WERE NOT ASHAMED, -- because in the state of innocence there was no lust, no concupiscence: for from this arises shame and blushing, if the members in which lust reigns are exposed and laid bare to others. Thus St. Augustine, in the book On Genesis according to the letter, near the beginning. Therefore the Adamites are foolish, shameless and impure, who with Adam being now naked do not blush, when Adam soon after sin blushed and covered himself with garments, as rightly refuting such persons, St. Epiphanius says, book II, heresy 52. From this source Plato appears to have drawn in his Republic that nudity of his, which he attributed to all men of the golden age. Moreover, Isidore Clarius wrongly thinks that Adam and Eve had for a garment a certain divine splendor and glory, such as God covered St. Agnes and other virgins led naked to the brothel, and such as He will cover the bodies of the Saints in the resurrection. For this is feigned without cause, and in vain; for where there is no shame, no concupiscence, no cold, there is no need of garment or light. Seven excellences of the state of innocence Finally, Pererius beautifully in the preface to book V enumerates seven excellences of the state of innocence. The first was full wisdom; the second, grace and friendship with God; the third, original justice; the fourth, immortality and impassibility of soul and body, not intrinsic, such as is in the glorified bodies of the blessed, but extrinsic, arising namely partly from the protection of God, partly from the prudence and providence of man, by which he would have guarded himself from harmful and injurious things: and these were in man himself; but the three remaining ones outside man, namely: the fifth, dwelling in paradise, and eating of the tree of life; the sixth, special care of God toward man. Whence followed the seventh, that namely man could not have desired, nor sinned venially, says St. Thomas, nor erred, nor been deceived: but concerning uncertain matters he would either have suspended judgment, or formed a doubtful one. For these things do not seem to be able to be effected through a habit, or a quality created and implanted in man, but only through the assistance and protection of God. Understand this of the state of full and perfect innocence, in which Adam was created, so that namely he would be immune from all evil, both of guilt and of punishment and misery: otherwise indeed if God had permitted him to be transferred to and fall into semi-full innocence, he could have sinned venially, likewise erred and been deceived, as Scotus rightly teaches: concerning which matter see Francis Arctinus on Genesis, page 450. Seven virtues of Christ in the state of innocence would not have been On the contrary through Christ greater grace has been given to us than was given to Adam, and so we now have seven virtues, which would not have been in the state of innocence: the first is virginity; the second, patience; the third, penance; the fourth, martyrdom; the fifth, fasting, abstinence and all mortification of the flesh; the sixth, poverty and religious obedience; the seventh, mercy and almsgiving: for there would have been no poor or miserable then, in whom we now abound, so that we might exercise mercy toward them. Finally, greater and more efficacious grace is now given to fallen man than was given to Adam, as is evident in the Martyrs and other illustrious Saints. Whence also greater now is the faculty of meriting, both by reason of greater grace, and by reason of the difficulty of the work: although in the state of innocence the faculty of meriting was greater, by reason of the readiness of the will. For the will then was wholly upright, and having no passions contrary to virtue, would have been swept along by the ready impulse of nature and grace to virtues, and thus would have elicited many intense, great and heroic acts of all virtues.
Machine translation from the Latin, not reviewed.
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v. 4 « Igitur perfecti sunt coeli et terra et omnis ornatus eorum ». Pro xav scribunt CAhaíd. Syr. 5w, ergo exercitus; et Cosmogonia cuneiformis loco nostrae expressionis habet « kissat same u irsiti », l1. e. « exercitus coeli et terrae » (cf. Schrader KAT I. 10). lam exercitus coeli modo (Ios. 5,14; 3 Reg. 22,19 etc.; cf. appellationem « Dominus exercituum », quaeque de ea diximus ad 1 Reg. 1,3) audiunt angeli, modo stellae (Deut. 4,19; 17,3; & Reg. 17,16; 21,3.5; Is. 40,26; Ier. 8, 2; 33,99; Dan. 8,10), h. 1. sane solae stellae, cum versus Cosmogoniam resumat , in qua de angelis non agebatur. Hinc colligere est, quid nomine exercitus terrae veniat : animalia, homo; vix plantae, quod aliquid plane immobile exercitui apud Hebraeos adnumerari haud consueverit. Ceterum expressio exercitus terrae secus in scriptura non occurrit, sed hic per zeugma exercitui coeli copulatur exercitus terrae.
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v. 9 « Complevitque Deus die septimo opus suum , quod fecerat ». 53m necessario eundem sensum habeat oportet, atque v. 1 3535 : ergo cum ibi vertendum sit completi sunt, non licet h. l. verteve finem fecit (cf. . Ex. 40,33; 1 Reg. 10,13; 2 Reg. 06,18), sed complevit; et cum coeli et terra cum suo ornatu completi sint die sexto, ergo eodem etiam die complevit eosdem Deus. llebr. Vulg. Chald. *y*2Q , septimo; LXX Sam. Syr. *W'U, sexto, consentitque los. non obscure : aequa sane testium divisio. Attamen lectioni sexto illud favet, constare v. ? duobus membris inter se simillimis : nez wqÜüx Wow 550. wawa mm nau" quibus illico v. 3 accedit tertium initio illis non absimile: ' eadem utrobique completio intelligatur oporteat. Neque iuvat o3" vertere plusquamperfecto, quo tum exprimendum erit etiam 153" evadetque mirc languida constructio; praeterea, sive perfecto vertas sive plusquamperfecto, manet eadem difficultas opus dici ad completionem esse perductum eo ipso septimo die, quo Deus ab omni opere cessasse scribatur : verum, qui opus complet atque ad períectionem perducit, nonne is actu operatur — nur v. 3? « Et requievit die septimo ab untverso opere , quod patrarat », non quasi lassus fuerit, sed requievit « a condendis generibus creaturae, quia ultra iam non condidit aliqua genera nova » (Aug.);
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v. 3 « et benedixit diei septimo et sanctificavit ?llum , quia ?n ipso cessaverat ab omni opere suo, quod creavit Deus , ut faceret ». Benedixerat animantibus eis conferens foecunditatem : benedixit diei septimo ei conferens sanctitatem. Quae sanctitas primum in eo consistebat, ut illum Deus a reliquis diebus segregaret, sacrum faceret. Verum in auribus lectoris Hebraei plus aliquid ea sanctificandi vox necessario sonabat, ut sc. Deus diem septimum ab omni opere servili exemptum speciali ratione suo cultui attribuerit. Triplici autem ratione id à Deo factum esse concipi potest. Primum, ut nullo modo sanctifieaverit Deus sabbatum a primordiis mundi, sed solum postea sub Moyse apud Hebraeos. Quod videtur sensisse Jo. Dam. (de fide orth. IV. 23; M. 95.1201) : « quando lex non erat », inquiens, « neque scriptura divinitus inspirata, ne sabbatum quidem Deo consecratum erat ». Et certe sentiebat Tos/. , defendens v. 3 referri ad tempus non creati mundi, sed legis Moysi datae. Secundum quam sententiam oportebit fere adstruere, Gen. 2,3 a Moyse antiquiori traditioni esse adiectum, narrari factum pluribus interiectis saeculis a mundi primordiis separatum : Requievit Deus die septimo et diu post, intuitu huius requiei, sanctificavit diem septimum. Quae interpretatio minus quidem est obvia, non tamen absurda ; ruit autem, ubi primum vestigium aliquod detexeris diei septimi ante Moysen sacri habiti. Altero modo textum poteris interpretari, ut Deus initio mundi legem tulerit omnesque homines adstrinxerit, ut septimum quemque diem sacrum observarent. Ita Cathareinus, Rwbera, Lap. aliique. Tertio modo dices, Deum primitus legem quidem de sabbato observando non dedisse, at suae quietis exemplo hominibus septimi diei vequiem et cultum suggessisse, similiter atque carnis abstinentiam non praescripserit quidem , at solis plantis in cibum assignatis commendaverit. Cf. Bonfr. : « Si quis tamen sine lege a Deo lata, per Dei tamen inspirationem velit etiam initio post exsilium a paradiso, in commemorationem illius diviriae cessationis ab opere, servatum fuisse sabbatum, quod postea iam consuetudine antiquatum Deus lege firmaverit, non admodum repugnabo ». Cf. Malv. Haec sententia ceteris facilius cum factis historicis concordat; neque ab ea dissonant auctores ii, qui legem sabbati a Moyse primo latam esse contendunt, quo non excluditur, sabbatum ante Moysen a pluribus sine lege esse observatum.
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GENERATIONES C(ELI ET TERRAE Post (tulum 2,& recentiori, quod ostendemus, calamo adiectum narratio in tres partes sponte discernitur, quarum media et principalior est historia lapsus Cap. 3. Ea 2,&-95 praeparatur suppletis quibusdam, quae ad eam historiam intelligendam erant scitu necessaria, ad creationem pertinebant, in Cosmogonia vero ob eius peculiarem structuram enarrari haud potuerant. Eadem Cap. & continuatur narratis primis seminis 3,15 promissi vicissitudinibus. Ad historiam lapsus intelligendam supplenda erant potissimum haec : sexuum distincta creatio et officia, paradisus, Dei prohibitio. Igitur 2,5-1 creatio hominis 1,27 summatim relata distinctius explicatur, narrata seorsim et corporis primi viri et animae productione, quo et divinae imaginis ratio et sententia post peccatum ferenda (« pulvis es etc. ») penitius perspiciantur. v. 8 sq. tertiae diei opus alterum completur descripta paradisi pulchritudine et arboribus. Neque minus ad tentationem intelligendam sciri oportebat Dei v. 16 sq. mandatum. Procedit narrator ad demonstrandam primae mulieris productionem intimamque cum viro respectu cum originis tum coniugalis vinculi unionem ; concluditque v. 25 indicata primistatus innocentia, peccato 3," amittenda. Ex dictis colligas, 2,4-25 non solum esse Cosmogoniae supplementum, sed multo verius sequentis narrationis praeparationem. Huic vero narrationi, quam patet non aliunde, quam e traditione ab ipsis protoparentibus profecta derivati, post diluvium, quo tempore periculum erat, ne paradisi situs ex hominum memoria dilaberetur, inserta est v. 10-14 paradisi situs descriptio. Serius insertam prodit sutura, si ita loqui fas est, quae comparanti v. 8 et 15 fit evidens : sc. v. 15illud ipsum repetit, quod iam v. 8 affirmaverat, quod vero interlectis v. 10-1* utiliter repetebatur. Post diluvium insertam produnt Post divina 1, 26 verba « Faciamus hominem etc. » conspiciebatur ab Adamo in visione constituto corpus humanum Dei manu e limo formari; divino dein recepto afflatu, e visionis « sopore » (cf. 2, 21) evigilavit vitamque auspicatus est. In paradisum v. 8. 15 introducitur Deique v. 16 sq. edocetur mandatum. Productis v. 19 sq. animalibus nomina imponit atque ita dominium a Deo sibi 1, 26 collatum actu exercet. In visionem 2, 21 relapsus cernit formatam mulierem. Quibus ambobus Deus 1, 28 sqq. benedictionem impertitur. — Patet haec, licet sexta hexaemeri die visa vel acta sint, non potuisse omnia Cosmogoniae biblicae inseri, quippe quae presse omnino fixo schemati adhaereat, neque plura uno vel ad summum duobus operibus singulis diebus commemoret. Historia lapsus Cap. 3 ita traditur, ut v. 1-7 peccatum narretur, ubi clausula v. 7 correspondet alteri clausulae 2,95, dein v. 8-24 Dei in peccatores tud?icium , quod terminatur illis e paradiso eiectis. Eodem ordine Cap. & narrationem continuat, ut primum v. 1-8 Caini peccatum , inde v. 9-16 latum in illum a Deo zwd?czum referat, tandemque eum e regione Eden v. 16 eiectum commemoret. Facillimus haberetur nexus, si hinc narratio immediate ad v. 25 sq. transsiliret referretque natum in Abelis locum successurum Seth. Verum interiicitur v. 17-2^ genealogia Catnitarum, quae tota quanta praeparat narrandum 6, 1-8 alteram seminis electi stragem , efficiendam Sethitarum cum Cainitis coniugiis. | Quodsi igitur totam hane narrationem 92,5-4,96 et 6,1-8, primitus, quod in Introductione suggessimus, ab ipso potissimum protoparente profectam ac stilo eius stilum imitante ab alio completam unico obtutu contempleris, insignem in ea deprehendes unitatem et partium harmoniam. 2,4-25 historiam lapsus praeparat, Cap. 3 eandem tradit una cum promissione semnis a. Deo facta. Hinc iam in seminis vicissitudinibus tota est narratio, quae fluctuum instar modo altissime demittuntur, modo in sublime assurgunt. Natum primogenitum ea, cui semen praemonstratum fuerat, tripudians nomine appellat mater : « Possedi hominem per Deum ». Mox florent agri, augentur greges, exsurgit urbs. Verum laetitiam consequitur funus, Cain fratricida in exsilium eiectus parens fit stirpis durae atque scelestae. Haec prima serpentis de semine relata victoria. Interim altera nascitur spes, quam laetabunda rursus salutat mater : « Posuit mihi Deus semen aliud etc. ». At genus sanctum semini commixtum exsecrato prolem edit giganteam, profligatam, impiam, quam communi ruina exstirpare decernit Deus. En alteram serpentis victoriam. Tamen vel tum 6,8 seminis promissi aliqua relinquitur spes. v. h « Istae sunt generationes coeli et terrae , quando creata sunt , in die quo fecit Dominus Deus coelum et terram ». De sensu expressionis mon nbx in Introd. diximus. — axana3 £n creari ea, in conditione eorum; quae verba cum nequeant explicari « quando creabantur », quod niin non creationem exprimat sed creatione posteriorem historiam, explicanda erunt « quando 1. e. postquam creata sunt ». — Hebr. Chald. extremo versu habent terram et coelum, cf. Ps. 158,14. (13); cum autem Vulg. LXX Sam. Syr. legant coelum et terram , nihil ex verborum ordine inferre fas est. Verum illud iam quaeritur, sitne v. & inscrzptzo sequentium , quod parascharum et Sam. suadet distinctio sentiuntque cum Ephr., quotquot antiquorum eam attigere quaestionem, an praecedentium subscriptio seu clausula, quod post Haschi defendere recentiorum aliqui. Quos nunquam affirmat Kez/ in eam opinionem deventuros fuisse, nisi obfuscatas habuissent praeconceptis de compositione Geneseos opinionibus mentes. Igitur sententiae antiquioris argumentum illud est, formulam nviown n5 in Genesi constanter pro inscriptione adhiberi, ubi novum narrationis caput ordiatur : cf. 5,1; 6,9; 10,1; 11,10.27; 25,19.19; 36,1.9; 37,1.2. Quibus locis omnibus Hebr. paraschas aut parascharum sectiones distinguit, uno excepto loco 11,97, ubi ipse ante v. 26 o scribit, cum tamen v. 26 indubie ad praecedentia spectet. Ergo etiam h. 1. eadem formula narrationis non finem sed initium demonstrat. Quod argumentum eiusmodi est, quod solidis convellatur rationibus oportet, quas non proferunt auctores ii, qui v. ^ subscriptionem praecedentium esse contendunt. Kn., Dillm., Kuenen I. 309 aliique formulam non nox concedunt nunc esse pro inscriptione, at primitus fuisse praefixam Cosmogoniae inde ad eiuslem calcem esse translatam, quo haec evidentius a sequenti narratione distingueretur. Argumentum fere illud est, nos Cosmogonia plura quam Gen. 2, 5 sqq. de Generationibus coeli et terrae edoceri. Quod etsi esset verum, non tamen id , quod illi volunt auctores, efficeret : sufficit inscriptionem eo, quo nunc legitur, loco non esse ineptam, licet alio fortasse loco futura fuisset aptior. Kn., Dillm. v. & in duas partes dispescunt et ab altera novam ordiuntur sententiam, trahentes verba ad v. 5 : « In die, quo fecit Dominus Deus coelum et terram, omne virgultum nondum etc. ». Aiunt, in illis verbis iam observari usum loquendi sequentis 2, 9-4, 26 narrationis : TYVY pro N"3, DN nm" pro solo on 5N, D" VON pro yxsm Qn. Quoad prius, praeter 2, 3, ubi lectio non est plane certa, cf. 1, 21. 25, ubi de animalium productione semel scribitur N12, semel i1UY : ergo Wy non est sequentis narrationis exclusive proprium. Quoad alterum, divinorum nominum diversitas v. 4b utique discernit a Cosmogonia, sed nequaquam a v. 4*, ubi nullum legitur nomen divinum. Quoad tertium, modo monebamus lectionem esse incertam. Ceterum rationes hae omnes nituntur illorum auctorum erronea opinione, priorem v. 4 partem ad Cosmogoniam trahi oportere. Quae opinio non necessario iis est defendenda, qui alteram a prioro v. 4 separant parte. Quam certe non defendit Lamy, priorem v. & partem uti nos pro titulo accipiens sequentium. Atque ita v. 4 bifariam diviso tollitur primum pleonasmus ille, qui secus habetur cum voce praecedente DN'222 : quorsum enim expressio minime obscura quando creata sunt explicetur allera expressione 2n die, quo fecit etc.? A qua si novam ordiaris sententiam, analogiam habes cum 5,1 : « Hic est liber generationis Adam. In die, qua creavit Deus hominem, ad similitudinem Dei fecit illum ». Qui locus etiam egregie confirmat, expressionem in die, quo non sumi hic de determinato aliquo die, sed generaliori acceptione quando. Dices, si altera v. & pars iungatur v. 5, initio huius versus abundare *. Sed non ab eiusmodi constructione abhorrent Hebraei, poteris v. 5 sq. concipere ut parenthesin, ita ut verbis In die, quo etc. respondeat apodosis v. 7 Formavit etc. Vulg. LXX etiam iungunt v. cum v. 5, sed ob perperam intellectam vocem a9 aliter construunt.
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v. 5 « Et omne virgultum agri antequam oriretur in terra, omnemque herbam regionis priusquam germinaret ». Vocem mo cum Syr. verte nondum, loco antequam, in quod conspiravere Vulg. LXX Chald. ; et cf. Ex. 9,30; 10,7; 12,35; 1 Reg. 3,3. — rmv non est tantum gXog*v viride , sed virgultum , i. e. arbustum aut etiam arbor (Chald. Syr. , et cf. Gen. 21,15; Iob 30,54). Habemus igitur rursum easdem plantarum classes avy et vy, quae 1,11sq. recensebantur. Utrumquenomen additam habet vocem iv^, quae designat regzouem apertam , prout opponitur urbi aut castris (cf. Gen. 94,63; 29,2 etc.), ubi degunt etiam ferae (2,90), non vero necessario regionem cu/tam (Malv., Keil), ut opponitur silvae etc. Quare recte altero loco Vulg. vertebat Zn terra : re quippe idem h. l. est 'vrv atque v*N. Parallelismo docemur idem esse n'* quod mox, ergo : nondum erat visibile super terram, nondum apparuerat, ereverai; recte Vulg. oriretur... germinaret. Hine. v. 5 utique nos revocat ad tempus vespera tertiae hexaemeri diei anterius, qua iam protulerat (1,12) terra omne plantarum genus. Putavit Motaís (Molise, la science et l'exégése, p. 126 sqq.) ao 3 induere sensum « omne nondum », non vero « nullum adhuc », ut textu edoceamur, nondum omnes germinasse plantas, sed quasdam tantum. Est ea de numero earum argutiarum exegeticarum, in quas nemo unquam incidisset, nisi componendae fuissent difficultates ex hexaemero subortae. Igitur demonstrat Ges., D5 adnexam habens particulam negativam et sequente articulo carens significare « nullus », non vero « non omnis ». Exempla quidem affert ea sola, quae particulam negativam habeant wb vel VN: verum ul pro particula negativa Q'YO alius adstruatur usus grammaticus, non mera sufficit coniectura, sed requiruntur exempla, quae non proferuntur in medium. « Non enim pluerat Dominus Deus super terram , et homo non erat qui operaretur terram ». Bene iam explicabat Ephr. demonstrari h. 1. rationem, ob quam tum nondum apparuissent plantae, quae sc. nonnisi ex humefacto oriantur solo. Humor autem agris inducitur sive pluvia sive hominis opera, qui canalibus ductis sitientia arva irrigat. Sapienter igitur monet Kn., terram tum reapse fuisse « aridam » 1,9. At quomodo inquies, potuit esse arida, quae nonnisi paucis ante horis ex aquis emerserat? Memento, haec omnia Adamo ostensa esse in visione : tam perfecte igitur ea visione terrae ab aquis separationem effectam conspexit Adam. ut media circiter tertia die viderit terram omnino aridam producendisque germinibus, nisi pluvia aut ros concederetur, imparem. Disce hinc, quam complete in ea visione singula suis diebus opera perfecta sit intuitus Adam. Num ergo idem nobis innuere vult, semina plantarum ab initio terrae fuisse divinitus inserta, tertia autem tandem die in lucem prodiisse? Nihil eiusmodi innuit, sed res, quales in visione conspexerat, describit. In qua audivit primum divina verba « Germinet terra etc. », postea 2,6 nebula ascendente conspexit irrigatam terram atque ex ea ita irrigata ascendentes plantas. Quia igitur ortui plantarum adhibitam conspexit irrigationem, quae etiamnum ad eundem requiritur, dixit ante ortas non esse plantas, quod ea irrigatio sive natura sive humana industria effecta defuerit. Non dixit, praeter irrigationem nihil tum defuisse : deerat certe divinum mandatum « Germinet terra etc. ».
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v. 6 « Sed fons » — verius vertit CAald. nebula , e& cf. Iob. 36,27 — « ascendebat e terra, irrigans universam superficiem terrae ». Procedit oratio : postquam didicimus, deficiente irrigatione non fuisse plantas, iam exhibetur terra ope illius nebulae irrigata plantisque producendis idonea effecta. Vertes igitur distinctius : Porro ascendit nebula etc. Ex contextu cum v. 5 necessario v. 6 supplendum est, irrigata tandem superficie terrae natas esse plantas. Verum auctor id h. 1. non exprimit, quod non sibi sit in animo eventus ex ordine recensere, quod fecerat Cosmogonia, sed hominis creationem enucleatius referre. Ex quo silentio apte inferes, quod per se quidem satis evidens est, Gen. 2? tandem uti Gen. 1 haustum esse ex traditione ab ipso Adamo derivata; narrator non voluit altera narratione totam cosmogoniam exprimere, sed quaedam Gen. 1 sapienter omissa certa ex ratione h. l. supplere. Igitur irrigatam in visione Deus exhibuit terram proxime ideo, ut ex madefacta humo plantae nascerentur ; praeterea ideo, ut non ex arido pulvere, sed ex molli humo formarentur die quinta avium (2,19), die sexta animalium terrestrium (ib.) ipsiusque hominis (2,7) corpora. Auctor autem nostrae pericopae de plantis productis v. 6 silet statimque transit ad hominis formationem ; dein v. 3 sq. de prima hominis sede paradiso dicturus, aliqua de arboribus supplet alterum tertiae diei opus spectantia; rursum v. 19 animalia coram Adamo producturus brevi formula eorum ante effectam formationem recolit. Est is narrandi modus Hebraeis usitatissimus, perperamque recentiores aliqui sibi visi sunt Gen. 2 deprehendere nescio quas cum Gen. 1 contradictiones.
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v. 1 « Formavit igitur Dominus Deus hominem de limo terrae » , "BN nown vo, pulverem de terra, quem possumus interpretari accusativum materiae cum Vulg. et etiam cum LXX, si tamen genuina sit vox Aafov, quam plures habent codices. Vel possumus cum Ag. Symm. Theod. interpretari appositionem, qua graphice homo pulvis vocetur, quem 3,19 appellet Deus « pulvis es ». Assonantiam vocum DN etl 27N etiam expressere Symm. Theod. : '"A3ày x00» &x5 v5g a2apA (cf. Sap. 7,1). Cuius sufficiens omnino ratio cernitur in humani corporis natura materiali etre Gen. 2,7 narrata, quin necesse sit in radicis mu significationem primitivam inquirere, de qua plura minimeque consona doctorum placita vide apud Dilim. Dicitur ergo homo pulvis de terra, quo corporis enuntiatur materialztas atque cum brutis, quae v. 19 etiam de terra formata dicuntur, affinitas. Dicitur pulvis , quo eius distinctius effertur naturalis mortalztas : fuisset autem homo natura mortalis, etiamsi Dei beneficio a morte mansisset exemptus; fuisset pulvis, etiamsi non fuisset ei in pulverem revertendum. Apte profecto monet Chrys., dum Gen. 1 hominem exhibeat ad imaginem Dei factum et principatu reliquarum creaturarum honoratum, hunc textum multiplex suppetere humilitatis argumentum, ne superbiat homo, ne daemonis credat suggestioni divinam nescio quam excellentiam promittentis. Eadem vox pulvis videtur insuper respicere futurum hominislapsum et poenam, qua in pulverem reverti iubendus sit pulvis, licebitque cum Severzano affirmare, suggeri hoc textu aliquam futurae resurrectionis spem aut eius certe innui possibilitatem : qui sc. limum ad vitam efformavit primum, potest eundem in pulverem resolutum revocare ad vitam. « Et inspiravit in faciem ecus spiraculum vitae, et factus est homo in animam viventem »; ea inspiratione factus est homo anzmal, vivens; : hunc quippe sensum expressioni nm v2: indubie vindicat Gen. 1,90. 21.21. 5x2 potius verte cum Ag. Symm. Theod. nares, quippe in naribus deprehenditur halitus, non in facie, cf. Iob 27,3 : « donec superest halitus in me, et spiritus Dei in naribus meis ». Spiraculum vitae non est spiraculum vivens (Ges.), cum spiraculum non vivat; non spiraculum vitam efficiens (Ke/); sed « spiritus vitalis » (Vat.), Spiraculum ad vitam pertinens quodque vitae sit proprium. Eo haec de hominis creatione narratio longius procedit ea, quae Cosmogonia tradebatur, quod distincte referat et corporis et animae creationem, quod animae naturam spiritualem non e limo formatae exprimat, quod divinam in anima imaginem ad oculum veluti depingat, ut anima sit instar halitus ex ore Dei in hominem transmissi; postea etiam, quod distinctam narret et viri et feminae productionem (Rwup.). dem prae illis eminentia demonstratur. — Revelata haec Adamo fuere in ipsa visione, qua cosmogoniam contuebatur; sed Gen. 4 non sunt narrata, quod minus septimae diei sanctificationem spectarent, h. 1l. suppleta, quod primum hominis statum illustrent. Igitur in visione adest Deus Adamo visibili forma atque humana specie; loquitur sermone humano ; corpua format primum, inde animam producit, licet re eodem fortasse momento el corpus creaverit et animam; corpus plasmat ex eodem limo, ex quo etiam plantae progerminant, animalia v. 19 formantur, licet re fortasse varias substantias chemicas adhibuerit; animae originem repraesentat specie halitus ex ore suo in hominis nares immissi. Est haec imago sensibilis facti a sensibus remoti. Igitur hac imagine clare repraesentatur animae prae corpore excellentia, quod veluti Dei manibus hoc fingatur, illa ex Dei ore procedat; eius item spiritualis natura, non e terra i. e. materia petita; imaginis etiam divinae ratio, cum anima sit vita de vita Dei, eius halitu transmissa. Neque defuere Patres (Bas., Cyrill. ec. , quorum textus discutit Petavius de Trin. VIII. 5), qui praeter naturalem Dei similitudinem supernaturalem quoque per gratiam et Spiritum S. exprimi censerent, appellantes etiam Io. 20,22, ubi S. Spiritum daturus apostolis simili ratione in eorum facies insufflavit Christus (Sever?an.). Quibus quominus accedamus, prohibet contextus v. 7, quo eius insufflationis effectus scribitur hic, factum esse hominem in animam viventem, qua voce nunquam designatur vita gratiae. Cf. 1 Cor. 15,85 et R. Cornely in eum locum. Longius certe progressus PAz/astrius hae-: resi 98 (M. 12.1211 sqq.) ea insufflatione affirmat solam exprimi gratiam et, qui id negent, haereseos reos facit. — Ceterum, dum comparatio Dei insufflantis excellentiam animae exprimit, simul denotat, quanto eadem.ipso Deo sit inferior : flatus quippe non eiusdem cum flante est naturae, sed longe inferioris (Aug. De Civ. Dei XIII, 24.5; M. 41.398). Est hic locus aliqua subiiciendi de placitis Darwinistarum, qui plantas et animalia non secundum suas species a Deo creata esse defendunt, sed evolutione e formis quibusdam simplicissimis prodiisse quas nunc vocamus diversas species. Iam haec hypothesis, quatenus plantis circumscribitur et animalibus, Geneseos narrationem non àtlingit. Deus Adamo visione revelat originem rerum eo fine, ut Dei supremum dominium septimaeque diei sanctificationem stabiliat, non ut de chronologia, geologia physiologia edoceat. Hinc mundi exordia, quae longissimis fortasse distributa fuere periodis, intra. sex dierum angustias comprimit. Ex qua materia eífectae sint plantae, penitus reticet; 1, 11 sq. eas ante oculos.exhibet ita de terra progerminantes, uti ex ea progerminare consuevere etiamnum. Species planta- rum exhibentur ab ipso ortu distinctae, sed eaedem exhibentur simul omnesetintra dimidium diem esse exortae : uti boc, ita eliam illud ad formam spectat visionis. Finge modo reapse ex Darwinistarum placitis varias plantarum species evolutione prodiisse ex una, num potuit baec infinita paene evolutio duodecim horarum limitibus distincte atque decenter repraesentari? quid iuvabat protoparentis mentem farciri imaginibus plantarum, quae exstitissent pridem? Similia dic de animalibus. Repraesentabantur ea in visione 2, 19 de terra formata, i. e. de eadem humo, quae 2, 6 nebula fuerat irrigata atque ferendis frugibus idonea effecta. Atqui interpretum nullus se ea repraesentandi ratione cogi arbitratur, ut asserat eiusmodi humum formandis primorum animalium corporibus esse adhibitam, sed solum aliquam materiam. Similiter potuit Deus animalia, quae nunc sunt, e terra secundum suas species formata exhibere, omissis, quae inter has et inter prima viventia intercessissent, evolutionibus. Dicamus igitur, Geneseos textu Darwinistarum, quae de plantis et animalibus sunt placita, non excludi. At gravior difficullas de hominibus habetur. Ubi ab ipso limine proscribenda est opinio, animam hominis potuisse evolutione quadam ex bruti anima oriri : quae origo tam revelationi adversatur quam rationi. Qua exclusa putabat Saint-George Mivart (Genesis of Species, London; Lessons from Nature, London 1876: Dublin Review, Ian. 1872), potuisse saltem Adami corpus evolutione de corpore animalis, v. g. simiae, descendere, succedente postea in locum animae belluinae anima spirituali a Deo creata et infusa. Contra quam opinionem, quo tempore nata est, scripsere plures : nunc eadem iam paucis absolvi potest, cum neque Darwinistis satisfaciat neque eorum adversariis. Siquidem illi totius hominis a brutis originem repetunt; ut autem eodem in corpore anima rationalis subintret in locum eius, quae ante fuisset, animae belluinae, id violenter, imo ridicule fingitur. Quod si quis defendat, vix poterit quin admittat, aut animam, quae primum fuerit belluina, eandem postea evasisse rationalem, aut animae illi belluinae superadditam esse alteram rationalem duplicemque iam homini inesse animam. Crassus error uterque. Quod tandem Gen. 2, 1 attinet, concedimus cum 7/. Ánabenbauer (Stimmen aus Maria-Laach XIII. 125, Freiburg i. B. 1877), si res unice ex eo versu dirimenda esset, eo non excludi sententiam Mivart : neque enim corpus hominis neque corpora brutorum quomodo de terra formata fuerint (v. 7 et 19), mediatene an immediate, in Genesi docemur, sed solum de facto ea sumpta esse de terra, i. e. materia. Verum nequaquam illam sententiam compones cum illis, quae infra de creatione mulieris narrantur. B. Paradisi amoenitas et situs. Gen. 2,8-15. Narratio , quod monebamus, duplici coalescit descriptione : amoeprofecta derivata ; et situs paradisi v. 10"-14, quae post diluvium concinnafta esse indubie dignoscitur. Amoenitas describitur primum ipso horti nomine, dein arboribus, quarum duae etiam specialius etleruntur, tandem fluvio. Fluvium et arbores simul suggerunt amoenam aeris temperiem. Illarum duarum tamen h. l. arborum indoles non
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v. 8 « Plantaverat autem Dominus Deus paradisum voluptatis a principio, » — verte hortum in Eden, ab oriente — « in quo posuit hominem , quem formaverat ». Ergo qui hunc versum, qualis nunc est, concinnavit, versabatur ad occidentem paradisi, ergo, quod crediderim, eliam ad occidentem fluviorum Euphratis et Tigris. pressionem Q'jp'3 Gen. 3,24 omnes de loco interpretantur; itemque 4,16 expressionem affinem no", solo excepto Chald., qui eam paraphrasi evidenter falsa ad tempus detorquere nititur : « terra, quae facta est propter eum (Cain) a principio in horto Eden ». Facile etiam intelligitur s. auctor, qui mox paradisum tam accurate describat, hoc primum 1oco regionem mundi, ubi sit paradisus, enuntiare. Vide apud Field et apud Lagarde (Genesis graece, Introd. p. 23 sq.) testimonium Nicephori, vocem Q9" primitus in Hebr. Syr. defuisse : illud tamen solum non facit sufficientem auctoritatem, qua vox expungatur. — Dicitur autem hortus fuisse situs ad orientem sacri narratoris. Sensus non est, quem vult Per., fuisse hortum situm in orientali parte regionis Eden. Id íalso adstrui ostendit 3,24 cum 4,16 comparatum. Proto-. parentes paradiso exclusi substitere in regione Eden : atqui ne redirent in hortum, collocaverat Deus Cherubim « ad orientem » paradisi : ergo certe paradisus non erat extrema regio Eden orientem versus. | v. 8 « in quo posuit hominem, quem formaverat »; absoluta sc. paradisi descriptione v. 9-1^, ad caput, ubi haeserat, revertitur narratio. Clarius etiam exprimitur homo, extra paradisum formatus, in paradisum esse translatus : quo perspicias donum indebitum fuisse paradisum, quod extra paradisum creato homini potuerit extra paradisum sedes attribui. Verbum item vanam, demisit eum (cf. Zach. 5,11; Dan. 15,35), potius indicare videtur, ecsíasi quadam Adamum et sine membrorum motu translatum esse in paradisum, quam pedibus eodem processisse. v. 16 « Praecepitque ez » — reliqui Dominus Deus — « dicens : Ex omni ligno paradisi comede ». Cf. quae v. 9 dicebamus. v. 17 « De gno autem scientiae boni et mali ne comedas : in quocunque enim die comederis ex eo, morte morieris ». Sermo est utique de morte corporis, non solius animae. Ex v. 4 habemus, eva non semper significare eo die quo, sed quandoque generalius quando. Manet nihilominus difficultas, moriturum affirmari hominem, quo tempore esset peccaturus, cum revera nonnisi diu post peccatum mortuus sit. Quare iam Symm. , in hac re ab Hier. laudatus, vertit 0v6z2; £cr. Sed textus ita verti nequit, et praeterea mortalis erat homo, sive peccaret sive peccato abstineret. Ps. Ion., Targ. Hier. « reus eris mortis » : sed neque ita verti potest textus. Unde alii nvon nvo vertunt « certissime morieris » et videntur supponere, quo tempore Adam peccaturus sit, non tam ipsam mortem quam certitudinem potius secuturae mortis praenuntiari. Expressio nn nv omnino parallela est praecedenti 55un 525, quam non vertes « certissime comede », sed verius « utique comede » ; quare etiam v. 17 placet infinitivum intensivum voce potius « utique » quam « certissime » vertere. Ceterum quocunque modo vertas, manet idem mortis atque peccati scribi tempus. Unde 77r. ait « Adamum eodem, quo peccavit momento, coepisse mori corpore, nempe longa illa phthiseos seu internae corruptionis morte, qua, pugnantibus inter se perpetuo elementis et humoribus et se mutuo corrumpentibus, vix nati morimur et ad interitum ducimur ». Quae tamen longius petuntur. Planissima solutio est, ut sensui obvio verborum insistentes dicamus, Deum reapse Adamo comminatum esse mortem eo ipso tempore, quo peccaret, secuturam. Verum, uti à veracitate et fidelitate non recedit, qui maius promissis concedit praemium, ita neque, qui leviorem quam minatus erat inflig1it poenam. Mortem illico secuturam minatus erat Deus : mox sententiam benignus exsequi differt. singularem scribi, ubi et de Eva et de Adamo sermo sit, ostendit 1, 97. Poleris ergo cum LXX supponere, quo tempore Deus praeceptum daret non comedendi fructus, iam exstitisse Evam; non tamen supponere adigeris. Quodsi illud supponas, verbum v. 48 vertendum erit plus quam perfecto : dixerat autem. Ita in tota narratione habes, quod Galli vocant « enchevétrements » : 4, 1-2, 3 habes originis rerum narrationem; 2, 4-7 suppletur accuratior descriptio, quomodo Adam fuerit creatus; at mentio facienda paradisi, in quem induxerit hominem Deus, auctori ansam praebet ad superiora redeundi et 2, 8-15 describendi paradisi, qui ante hominem fuerat creatus; rursum v. 16 sq. recensito praecepto, quod mulieri et viro fuerat impositum, supplet auctor mulieris productionem, quae (ex mente LXX) ante editum praeceptum obtinuerat. . ] Clarius aliis pericopis haec se prodit ut complementum Cosmogoniae : verba quippe « non est bonum » utique respiciunt iterata Cosmogoniae effata « vidit Deus, quod esset bonum ». Et ut ibi « bonum » denotat divinorum operum perfectionem , ita h. l. « non est bonum » edicit hominis effectionem nondum fuisse absolutam. Deerat sc. « adiutorium simile eius », quod Deus efficere decernit. Porro divini exsequendi consilii adhibetur praeambulum aliquod, ut adducantur animalia, quibus quidem ab Adam dominii ergo nomina imponuntur, quod quaeritur tamen adiutorium inter illa non reperitur. Postea formata ex Adae costa mulier visione exhibetur, adiutorium agnoscitur, nomine etiam ipsa pro potestate appellatur, describitur matrimonii sanctitas, pro clausula innocentia adumbratur.
2:9
v. 9 « Produzitque Dominus Deus de humo omne » — quae vox, uti 4,22; 40,17; Lev. 19,23, sensum induit « omnis generis » — « Zgnum pulchrum visu et ad vescendum suave; lignum etiam vitae in medio paradisi, lignumque scientiae bon? et mali ». Ex 3,3 patet, utramque arborem fuisse 1n medio paradiso : « positum erat lignum vitae in medio ut praeminm, lignum scientiae ut palaestra, ut gymnasium » (Severian.). Perperam autem ex vocibus 135 n3 mediae sen- - tentiae insertis E. Boehmer (Das erste Buch der Thora, Halle 18692 p. 125 sq.) et K. Budde p. ^6 sqq. intulere textum esse corruptum et primitus solam arborem scientiae novisse, non vero arborem vitae; ad quos ef. Dillm. et quae dicemus ad 3,3. 92. Sed perperam idem Dillm. post Kn. ex eo, quod praeter arbores non recenseatur h. l. avy,infert hominem primitus solis fructibus arboreis vesci debuisse . fuisseque tandem 3,18, ut 3zv uteretur cibo, « condemnatum » : ex 1,29 indubie colligitur, tam 35» quam yy fuisse homini ante lapsum assignata in cibum. Contextus omnino demonstrat, agi de veris arboribus neque licere narrationem ad allegorias detorquere (Aug., De Gen. ad litt. VIII. 4.6; M. 35.375. 3117). Ligni vitae virtutem clare enuntiat 3,292 : « ne forte... vivat in aeternum ». Praestabat ergo eius fructus homini, ut posset non mori, ut viribus corporis repetita fructus comestione continuo redintegratis perseveraret mortis expers, quousque a Deo ad feliciorem beatae immortalitatis statum transferretur. Hanc autem virtutem ei fructui auctores censent fuisse non supernaturalem sed naturalem, quod ille effectus naturalem alicuius plantae virtutem haud videatur excedere, et ex.3,92 etiam obtinuisset in homine peccato gravi donis supernaturalibus privato. Cf. Per. Difficilior de arbore scientiae boni et mal? quaestio. aliquid mali ». Similiter Iac. Edess., « non inde », inquit, « nomen accepit, quod natura insitàm bonitatem aut malitiam haberet ». Item concedunt omnes, nullam ci arbori infuisse virtutem ad scientiam hominibus impertiendam, sed.nomen nactam esse ab eventu. At quomodo hoc ei nomen conveniat, dissentiunt auctores. Chald., Ios., Ps. Ion. et Targ. Hier. affirmant, qui de fructu arboris comederint, iam discreturos fuisse inter bonum et malum ; cumque Deut. 1,39; Is. 7,15 scribantur parvuli nescire discrimen inter bonum et malum, hinc nata videtur quorumdam opinio fingentium, Adamum et Evam ante peccatum fuisse instar infantum eius discriminis ignaros, atque ob eandem etiam rationem non erubuisse nuditatem. Quibus merito respondet Theodoret. : « Quomodo fieri potuit, ut, qui ratione insigniti et ad divinam imaginem essent creati, discretionem boni et mali non haberent? Quomodo vero iis dedisset legem abyssus ille iustitiae, qui eam non inditam haberent scientiam neque scirent, bonum esse servare praeceptum, perniciosum vero transgredi? Habebant igitur sine dubio eam scientiam, sed experimentum postea ceperunt ». Cf. Proc. et dicenda ad v. 25. — Rup., Tost., Per. censuere, nomen arbori esse inditum proleptice atque ironice : quia sc. daemon praesciobatur tentaturus esse hominem scientiae cuiusdam ambitione, ideo arbori a scientia inditum nomen. At sensus narratio- : nis obvius certe is est, non a praevisa tentatione petitum esse arboris nomen, sed inditum divinitus nomen tentatori suggessisse suae tentationis rationem. — Hugo putat inde nomen accepisse arborem, « quia per ipsam scitum est, utrum esset homo bonus an malus, i. e. obediens an inobediens ». Greg. Nyss. scientiam boni et mali interpretatur « appetitam mali latentis sub specie boni ». Sed haec vim inferunt textui. — Plurimis placuit sententia Theodoreti et Aug. inde arboris nomen repetentium, quod eius ope experimento disceret homo boni malique discrimen. Quo sensu Scribebat Severian. : « Scientia ex calamitatum experientia procedit. Eam scientiam edoctus est homo, quot sc malis per transgressionem implicuisset ». Et clarius Proc. voluisse Deum ait, « ut esu vetiti fructus disceret homo, obedientiam esse bonam, inobedientiam malam ». Differentiam sc. boni et mali duplici ratione homo experimento discere potest, vel praemio quod facienti bonum, vel poena quae facienti malum tribuitur. — Tandem Tir., Est., Calm. scientiam boni malique hebraismum esse declarant pro scientia omnium rerum. Reapse ex 2 Reg. 14,17 et 20 comparatis perspicies, idem esse nosse bonum et malum et nosse omnia; loqui neque bonum neque malum 2 Reg. 13,22 est loqui nihil. Infantum ignorantia Deut. 1,39; Is. 7,15 sq. describitur, qua nesciant bonum et malum; idemque est sensus Ion. 4,11, eos ignorare dexteram et sinistram. Reapse haec de dextera et sinistra locutio omnino affinis est ci, quae de bono et malo est : sic 2 Reg. 2,21 « Vade ad dexteram sive ad sinistram » idem sonat atque « Vade alio ». Et illo universali sensu omnino intelligenda est expressio « scire bonum et malum » Gen. 3,5 : « Eritis sicut Deus scientes bonum et malum ». Sane Dei scientia id proprium habet, non ut experimento sentiat mali sequelas, sed ut omnia quaecunque sciri possunt complectatur. Retulimus diversorum sententias : restat ut, qua tandem ratione textus nobis videatur esse exponendus, aperiamus. Ubi advertas primum, nomen arbori inditum esse ab ipso Deo (cf. v. 17), ergo sane sapienter inditum. Oportebat igitur illud aliquid habere veritatis, sive homo tentationi resisteret sive eidem succumberet. At verum erat nomen, si de experientia boni malive intelligatur. Experimento sciturus erat homo, quam bona sit obedientia, si tentatori resisteret ; quam mala sit transgressio, si eidem obsequeretur. Praeterea autem hanc arborem selegerat Deus, qua homjnis fidem tentaret. Pelliciebat fructus forma, color et odor : erat sane et in nomine aliquid, quod ambitioni suggereret bonum aliquod summopere ac vel neglecto Deo appetendum. ///ecebrae autem in eo erant, quod arboris nomen significationem admitteret omniscientiae cuiusdam, qua homo ipsius Dei evaderet aequalis; quodque ita arbor videretur « desiderabilis ad intelligendum » (cf. dicenda ad 3,6). Nomen erat de se anceps, aenigmalicum, curiositatem titillans atque ambitionem.
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v. 10 « Et fluvius egrediebatur de [loco] voluptatis » — est nomen proprium : de Eden — « ad irrigandum paradisum ». Advertit Schrader, nullum huius fluvii adscribi nomen. At, uti Hebraei praestantissimum quod norant flumen Euphraten vocabant absolute « flumen » (Gen. 15,18; 31,291; Ex. 23,31), imo etiam sine articulo ^71 (Is. 7,20; ler. 2,18; Ps. 71,8; Mich. 7,12), ita sine dubio paradisi fluvius apud priscos absolute audiebat n2, « fluvius » xa:' £5oy». Egred: fluvius dici potest vel eo sensu, ut relicta is regione Eden in paradisum transflueret : at id non obtinebat, cum ipse paradisus fuerit pars regionis Eden , neque hac egrederetur fluvius paradisum intrans; vel eo sensu, ut dicatur fluvius ex regione Eden ortum ducens atque affluens transire in paradisum. Hoc alterum praeferendum. Neque tamen exinde sequitur, in ipsa regione Eden, et non fortasse ultra eam, reperiri fluvii fontem. Non geographum agit noster auctor, non ad singulorum fluviorum censendus est penetrasse originem, sed res, uti in paradiso oculis cernebantur, describit : fluvius e regione Eden paradisum intrabat; utrum is in ea ipsa regione oriatur, vel in eandem aliunde influat, non determinat (Huet). Illud autem textus evidenter habet, primum flumen regionem Eden irrigare, inde in paradisum descendere, tandem in paradiso vel prope illud in illa quatuor flumina resolvi. . Unius fluvii mentio occasionem praebebat per quatuor, A Y ille divergebat, fluenta paradisi situs describendi. Quae situs degriptio, uti monebamus, serius traditioni de paradiso inserta est, qfo sc. tempore stirps electa à primis sedibus recessit. mythorum omnium comparatione primitivae historiae facta eruere. Iam ea docemur populos novas petentes sedes traditionem de prima hominum sede secum tulisse, et homina propria veneranda antiquitate consecrata fluminibus, montibus, arvis novae patriae affixisse : datur migratio nominum sacrorum. V. g. sit nomen Phasis Armeniae idem quod Phison : at nonne item Djihun et Sihun, quae nomina sunt Oxus et Iaxartis Bactriae, eadem sunt cum Phison et Gchon? Quodsi ergo legas Euphratem et Tigrin prope paradisum fuisse, ne illico supponas notissima Mesopotamiae flumina intelligi ; sed sedulo perpende, ipsane haec flumina nomina acceperint ab alio quodam Euphrate et Tigre mutuata. Iam si varios situs compares, quos traditiones populorum paradiso attribuunt, invenies illa omnia disposita esse circa unum centrum commune, regionem sc. illam altiorem, quae Caschmiram complectitur eumque Turkestaniae tráctum, quae Sinensis imperii pars est. Haec generis humani prima sedes; varia inde flumina non ita magnis interiectis spatiis nascuntur; ex his quae placuerit selige, ut Geneseos descriptioni satisfacias. Contra hoc systema adverte primum, adversarios id ad summum efficere, potuisse primam sedem in Turkestania esse, non vero ibidem necessario fuisse. Fuerit Turkestania ultima sedes, quam communem incoluerint Indogermani, quorum traditiones considerandae veniunt : num ideo fuit etiam prima? Nonne potuerunt illi cum sua de situ paradisi traditione primum ex Asia anteriore in superiorem demigrare atque . hine postmodum in varias circumiacentes regiones distribui? Praeterea falso nostra de paradiso narratio mythis accensetur. Qui Genesin concinnavit auctor eam sane habuit documentum historicum, inseruit libro prorsus historico, intexuit narrationi prorsus historicae formationis primi viri primaeque mulieris. At etiam ille auctor antiquior, a quo fortasse Genescos aucto? hanc descriptionem mutuatus est, mytho nequaquam indulgebat. Euphratem tamquam flumen notissimum nominat tantum; Tigrim describit accolentibus appellatis Assyriis; num etiam Proto-Assyrios quosdam dices in Turkestania exstitisse? Quid ipsi sentiamus, textum exponentes pronuntiabimus. « Qui 2nde dividitur in quatuor capita ». avawt, àpzág bene interpretatus est Chald. 1v: »v*; distinctius etiam Versio Samar. Q5wo2, fluenta, germ. « Rinnsale » ; male Severian. «vyi;. Non negamus eam vocem posse fontem fluminis designare : cf. inscriptionem Salmanassar If, regis Ássyriorum, narrantis se simulacra sui constituisse ad ipsos fontes Euphratis et Tigris. Sed neque necessario neque h. 1. designat. Facile quidem invenies flumina plura, diversis fontibus nata in unum aliquem amnem confluere; at quomodo ex uno amne quatuor fluminum fontes derivabis? Monstrum id est geographicum. Hinc veteres aliqui devenerunt in fabulam, unum illum amnem paradisi primum infra terram esse absorptum, ibi esse divisum ac tandem dissitis locis quatuor fontibus prorupisse : at haec figmenta. Qui recentius putavere agi de quatuor fluminum fontibus ex eodem loco prodeuntibus, recurrunt ad diluvium, quod flumina illa pridem unita separaverit : sed hoc effugio opus non est, cum vox facilius vertatur « fluenta ». Igitur auctores alii, relictis Euphratis et Tigris in Armenia fontibus, quatuor flumina reperiunt prope urbem Babylonem. Novissimus Del. Par. censuit canalem Pallakopas, qui ad occidentem Euphratis eique parallclus fluit et ab eodem prope Babylonem dividitur, esse Phisonem; allerum canalem Shat-en-Nil esse Gehonem, qui item Babylone ab Euphrate separatur atque ad orientem eius defluit, quoad haud procul ab Ur illi rursum coniungitur. Huic alteri canali nomen videtur fuisse Gughana i. e. Gchon; praeterea vox pisana sonat receptaculum aquarum, quod nomen quam apte Pallacopae tribuatur, nemo est quin videat. In hao sententia [facile perspicitur, quomodo prope Babylonem unus [fluvius Euphrates in tria dividatur fluenta : Euphraten, Pallakopam et Shat-en-Nil. At Tigris ibidem ab Euphrate dividi absurde affirmatur, licet minores aliqui canales ea flumina coniungant. Evidens est, Tigrim ibi non ea, qua Paliakopas et Shat-en-Nil, ratione ex Euphrate ortum ducere, sed proprio omnino alveo ex septentrione affluere. Quare alii ad ipsa fluminum ostia descendunt et unum paradisi flumen in fluento Shat-el-Arab sibi reperisse videntur, quod ex unione Euphratis et Tigris ortum, gratuito supponunt rursum in plures divisum alveos mare intrare. Quae systemata falso supponunt Shat-el-Arab iam antiquitus exstitisse (cf. Del. Par. p. 39 sqq.. 175 sqq.), cum illud nonnisi recentius ortum sit, mari continuo recedente atque novos litori tractus concedente. Audi Plin. VI. 130: « Inter duorum amnium ostia viginti quinque millia passuum fuere, ut alii tradunt septem millia, utroque navigabili; sed longo tempore Euphraten praeclusere Orcheni et accolae agros rigantes, nec nisi per Tigrim defertur in mare ». Idem confirmant documenta cuneiformia. Haec systemata omnia eo peccant, quod textum de uno fluvio in quatuor diviso non sufficienter explicent, sed sint in nominibus quibusdam propriis reperiendis , quae vocibus Phison, Gehon, Cusch, Hevilath sint similia. At eiusmodi nomina, qui voluerit, ubique inveniet, uti tot interpretum diversa senlientium scripta docent. Nos a textu penitius exponendo ordiemur. Igitur verbum 1*5 nativam d?vzdend? significationem pluribus textibus ita evolvit, ut significet dividendo non separare sed ampliare, ergo extendere. Cf. Ez. 1,11 « alae extentae »; 2 Esdr. 4,19 (13) « divisi sumus », i. e. sparsi sumus « in muro, alter procul ab altero ». Gen. 10,5. 32 « ab his divisae sunt gentes » sane idem sonat atque 9,19 ab his d?sseminatum est ofmne genus hominum; cf. 25,93. Est. 3,8 : « est populus per omnes gentes dispersus et disseminatus ». Applica haec ad Gen. 2,10 et habebis fluvium, non qui dividitur, sed qui extenditur, spargitur, disseminatur. Dum ad mare festinat, recedunt ripae, aquae salsae dulcibus miscentur, nescis mare dixeris an amnem. Jam hoc flumen ita ampliatum « fit in quatuor capita ». Antiquitus Mare Persicum additum habebat sinum septentrionem versus extendentem usque ultra eum locum, ubi nunc Euphrates et Tigris in unum confluunt, qui sinus (De/. p. 180) non « mare » audiebat sed « flumen » 111, et quidem ndr marrátu i. e. « flumen salsum ». In hunc sinum intrabant flumina potiora quatuor, quae ab oriente ad occidentem recensemus : Eulaeus, Choaspes, Tigris, Euphrates. Perpende porro, scriptorem nostrum non geographum agere, sed simplici sermone et ad oculum res describere, et intelliges fluvium paradisi aptissime intelligi Euphraten, qui e regione Eden, i. e. Mesopotamia aut aliqua eius parte, ingrediatur paradisum, quem prope Babylonem collocare haud vetaris, atque inde egressus et aliquo interiecto regionis tractu, quod voce av? minime excluditur, in aestuarium excrescat, in quod praeter ipsum Euphraten tres nobiles mergantur amnes. Cf. dicenda ad 13,10.
2:11
v. 11 « Nomen uni Phison; ipse est, qui circuit omnem terram Hevilath, ubi est aurum ». De nomine Phison nihil est quod dicamus, cum videamus viros similia nomina in tot diversis regionibus reperisse ; neque de etymologia nominis quidquam prudenter asseri potest. Hevila nomen est Gen. 10,7 (cf. 1 Par. 1,9) Chuschitae cuiusdam, 10,29 Semitae lectanidae; utrorumque posteri creduntur Arabiam incoluisse. De expressione « ab Hevila usque Sur » (Gen. 25,18) cf. quae diximus ad 1 Reg. 15,7. Uter Hevila h. l. intelligatur, non constat; imo neque repugnat neutrum intelligi. Nomen h. l. articulum praefixum habet, quo carent Chus et Assur; ignorat tamen eum articulum Sam. — Advertit Kn., ex Num. 21,4; Iud. 11,18 effici, 2210 non riecessario significare circumeundo circulum complere, sed quandoque significare circuire ex parte. Ceterum tam Eulaeus quam Choaspes curvatum ad instar arcus cursum tenent, ut vere dici queant circuire seu ad modum arcus complecti regiones Hevila et Chus, si eae cis flumina .sitae fuisse supponantur. Nota etiam pro Assur, quod v. 1^ exponentes ostendemus, limitem describi orientalem. Non est vertendum eum Del. : nomen uni erat Phison, uti neque v. 14 vertimus : erat Euphrates. Auctor situm paradisi describere vult per flumina et regiones notas, quae igitur tum adhuc iis quae describit appellarentur nominibus.
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v. 12 « E4 aurum terrae illius optamum est ». Ergo scriptor alias norat regiones auriferas, cum verba comparationem sapiant. Novisse omnes, novisse eas praecise, quae postmodum repertae sunt auro prae reliquis abundare ideoque a scriptoribus classicis laudantur, gratuito omnino supponat quis. Imo potuit fieri, ut in aliis quibusdam regionibus adiacentibus inveniretur postrnodum aurum purius et abundantius eo, quod antiquitus Hevila produxisset : id unum textus dicit, tempore illo perantiquo aurum optimum ex Hevila de facto provenisse. Fuisse autem in litore Sinus Persici aurum humo admixtum docemur facto Merodach Baladan, regis Beth Iachin, qui ob litoris imperium Rex Maris audiebat et regi Assyriorum Teglathpalassar II tributum obtulit « aurum, pulverem regionis suae ». « Ibi invenitur ódelltum et lapis onychinus ». TI933 secus tantum Num. 11,7 legitur, ubi manna ei comparatur, sed num colore an luciditate non liquet. Chald. et Targumim vocem retinuerunt ; etiam Syr., scribae errore * oceupante locum literae *. LXX in Genesi vertunt &v0po5, in Numeris z22ctzÀÀos, lapidem pretiosum exprimentes : quod ideo minus placet, quod vox neutro . loco adiunctum habeat 1àN, qua voce addita lapides pretiosi (etlam apud Assyrios) designari consuevere (Calm.). Alia lectio LXX (6$33:0» Vulgatae consentit; accedunt Aq. Symm. Theod. los. et interpretes communiter. Est autem bdellium teste Plin. XII. 35 « arbor nigra magnitudine oleae, folio roboris, fructu caprifici ». Abundat in Bactriane, nascitur item in Arabia, India, Media, Babylonia : Amyris Agallochum apud botanistas audit. Producit gummi odoriferum, pellucidum, flavescens, cerae simile; species aliqua minus pretiosa est subatri coloris. Quaeritur iam, sitne revera idem 11572, quod bdellium. Igitur primum alio nomine bdellium: vocatur foAyóv (Dioscor., Mat. med. 1,80), quod Saumaise (apud Len. II. A. 77) ortum censet ex $9020» i. e. 1512. Aliud rursum nomen est p.áocAxov , e quo corruptione ortum est « maldacon » (Plin. VII. 19), quodque Len. (ib.) revocat ad sanscrit. « madálaka »; quae voces utraeque affines utique sunt vocis no12. Haec porro vox omnino eadem est atque assyr. budil'hat (Len. ib.). Quod cum semper adscriptum habeat signum, quo plantae designantur, hinc efficitur r5723 revera esse bdellium ex arbore exsudatum , non vero margaritam, quam censuere Rabbini quidam et auctores arabes, et ingeniosc defendebat Bochart (cf. Hieroz.lib. V cap. V p. 673 sqq.). — Quem Vulg. vcrtit lapidem onychinum , LXX Alüoc 6 zpáctwvoc, ergo gemmam aliquam viridem, Symm. Theod. 6vo£, Aq. capbóvot, Chald. Syr. et Targumim xoa i. c. beryllum, eum iam Del. Par. p. 61.106.131 demonstravit eundem esse, quem Assyrii vocabant samtu, Qn) atque monti Melucha Babyloniae attribuebant. Eum Del. ex etymo censet fuisse glaucum . vel fuscum, Len. caeruleum : sapientior Schrader nondum quidquam definiri posse pronuntiat. Sufficiat nosse esse gemmam, quaeque in Asia anteriore reperiatur.
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v. 13 « Et nomen fluvit secundi Gehon ». LXX Ier. 2,18 pro "nv, quod indubie Nilum designat, scribunt I';óv : aut mendum legebant, aut mendum scribebant, aut Gehon iam erat alterum quoddam Nili nomen, aut quod probabilius est, iam tum aliqui Gehonem paradisi falso interpretabantur Nilum. Ceterum vel secundum LXX alium fuisse Gehonem a Nilo, ostendit Eccli. 24,37 (27), ubi Vulg. LY X 4*2 erronee verterunt « sicut lucem », à; o5;, cum vertendum erat, « sicut Nilus ». Iam v. 35 et 36 binos recensent fluvios diversos, Phison et Tigrim, Euphraten et Iordanem : ergo etiam v. 37 duos diversos habet fluvios. Nilum et Gehon. « Ipse est, qui circumit omnem terram Aethiopiae ». « Licet postmodum Chuschitae incoluerint Aethiopiam, non est tamen h. l. Chus cum Vulg. LXX vertendum Aethiopia. Chuschitas etiam in Mesopotamia fuisse, constat ex facto Nemrod 10,8. Neque Aethiopiam includi oportere (DZl/m.), sequitur ex adiecta voce omnem : nam « omnis terra Chus » definienda est secundum eos fines, quos habebat, quo tempore haec paradisi descriptio primum concinnabatur.
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v. 15 « Nomen vero fluminis tertii Tigris, ipse vadit contra Assyrios ». Quam vocem Vulg. LXX Syr. vertunt contra, eam melius Chad. Aq. vertunt aó oriente : is enim secus (54,16; 1 Reg. 13,5; Ez. 39,11) est sensus vocis ma1p, quae ipsa tandem haud alia est a voce apo, quam 9,8 et 3,94 vertendam docuimus ab oriente. Quomodo vero dicitur Tigris esse ad orientem Assyriae, cum vix non tota sit ipsa ad orientem fluminis? Respondeas, Assur.esse nomen non provinciae tantum sed urbis, a qua ipsa provincia videtur nomen accepisse. Quae urbs, antequam Ninive floreret, caput fuit et Tigrim habet ab oriente fluentem; et haec urbs. h. 1l. recensetur, quod in finibus Assyriae meridiem versus sita propius, quam ceterae urbes Assyriae, abesset a scriptore nostro eiseuphratensi ideoque illi eiusque lectoribus esset notior. Si cui ceterum adstruere placuerit, Assyros 10,11 de Sennaar egredientes tum temporis ultra Tigrim nondum penetrasse , sed adhuc in ripa occidentali substitisse, atque ita flumen ab oriente non urbis solum sed et finium habuisse, non repugnamus. . bn h. 1. et Dan. 10,4 Tigrin designat. In textibus cuneiformibus duplex nominis forma legitur : aspirata Hidiglat, abbreviata Diglat. Ad hanc tertium revocatur nomen Syr. Tp, Chald. ro3*1, pers. Tigra, graec. Tlygn;. Hinc iam patet, nominis derivationem à voce linguae Zend tighri i. e. « sagitta » accommodatitiam esse neque nativam pandere nominis rationem. À forma aspirata repetitur Sam. opi et Hebr. pn, ubi eliam abiectam cernis terminationem femininam at. Haec tàndem nomina tonis fluxere ex forma linguae non semiticae Idigna, cuius significatio nondum definiri potest. Of. Schrader KAT, Del. Par. p. 170 sqq., P. Haupt (Die sumer. Familiengesetze, 1879, I. 9). — Numen Assur eo cuneiformi ideogrammate exprimitur, cuius explicatio additur, ut significet « bonus deus »; unde Schrader censet urbi tributum nomen a numine. Obiicit Del. Par. p. 254, tum debuisse istud numen iam in Babylonia coli, antequam inde egressi urbem Assur condidissent; at cius cultus in Babylonia nullum haberi vestigium, sed ad solam Assyriam pertinere. Praeterea coniiciunt assyriologi vocem semitiéam Assur revocandam esse ad formam non semiticam Ausar, cuius significationem ignoramus. — Locus, ubi fuit urbs Assur, nunc audit Kileh Shergat. Iam saeculo a. C. 14? ea urbs urbi Ninive primatum cessit. Non tamen interiit : 828 defecit a rege Salmanassar II; recensetur in aliquo Cyri cylindro.- « Fluvius autem quartus ipse est Euphrates ». Qui solus nullam adiectam habet deseriptionem , quod lectori oppido notus supponatur. Non, tamen ad inferiorem Euphratem narrator incolebat, quod secus Tigris quoque descriptione caruisset, qui Euphratensibus vix minus esset notus atque ipse Euphrates; non ad orientem inferioris Euphratis, quod secus Tigris Euphrate magis notus non fuisset describendus; sed vel ad occidentem Euphratis Palaestinam versus, vel forte circa medium Euphraten, puta prope Haran, loco a Tigri sat remoto. Ergo baec paradisi fluminum descriptio non ante Abrahami e terra Chaldaeorum secessum in praesentem formam redacta fuisse videtur. Alia tamen fingi potest ratio, cur Euphratis situs non describatur. Quod sc. Euphrates ipse sit paradisi ille fluvius v. 10 recensitus, qui, quod ib. iam fuerit descriptus, h. 1. denuo non describatur. Ita utique haec fluminum paradisi descriptio ad inferiorem etiam Euphraten concinnari primum potuit, vix ante Abrahami tempora, quod Assur et Cusch e Noe oriundi iam in nationes excrevissent. D5, apud Babylonios purát, Arabes furát, Persas ufrátus, hinc seoopázr;. In lingua praesemitica textuum cuneiformium nomen habet pura-nunu i. e. flumen magnum. Ex pura, addita terminatione feminina, ortum duxit purdt. Similiter apud Hebraeos hoc flumen modo audit 5*133 "3n Gen. 15,18; Deut. 1,7 etc.; modo $131 Ex. 23,31; Is. 8,7; vel etiam omisso articulo *13 Is. 7,20; Mich. 7,12. CI. Del. Par. p. 169 sq. Ceterum notes, quaeso, assonantiam cum inter nomen TY33, tum inter verbum 5*E" v. 10, quae evidentior etiam evadet, si advertas in linguis arab., chald., syr. exstare radicem P352, eiusdem omnino cum radice hebr. 1^5 significationis. Videtur v. 10 ludere in nomine T1325 simili, licet non eadem adamussim, ratione, qua 11,9 et fortasse etiam 10,25 nomina Babel et Phaleg cum effecta populorum dispersione copulantur. Nomen illud auctor hebraeus comparabat radici 112 (139 pro 7^3, uti nx pro n'TN), radicis praesemiticae prorsus ignarus. Neque tamen in hoc ullus latet error, cum nequaquam etymologum agere praetendat.
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v. 15 « Tulit ergo Dominus Deus hominem et posuit eum in paradiso voluptatis, ut operaretur et custodiret illum »,1. e. paradisum (Masor., Chald.) , quod etiam inde invicte demonstratur, quia v. 5 idem verbum 32v de agri cultura scribitur. Ergo non id agitur, ut homo operaretur legem seu in lege, eam coleret, observaret (EpAr., Ps. Ion. et Targ. Hier.); neque ut Deus hominem operetur et custodiat (Aug.). Ceterum idem Aug. contra eos, qui duriorem censent agri colendi laborem, quam cui homo ante lapsum fuerit addictus, recte monet levem quemdam agri colendi laborem haud paucis in deliciis esse : « non enim erat laboris afflictio sed exhilaratio voluntatis, cum ea, quae Deus creaverat, humani operis adiutorio laetius feraciusque provenirent ; unde creator ipse uberius laudaretur, qui animae in corpore animali constitutae rationem dedisset operandi ac facultatem, quantum animo volenti satis esset, non quantum invitum indigentia corporis cogeret ». Custodire non est idem (Aug.) atque operari. vow semper periculum aliquod suggerit, a quo res sive vigilanti obtutu, sive etiam forti manu custodiatur : ita custodiuntur greges, domus etc. A quo igitur periculo quove actu custodiri paradisum oportebat? Vocem explicat sequens v. 16 : custoditurus sibi erat homo paradisum observato divino praecepto (Ephr., Aug.). — Igitur v. 15 resumit verba
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v. 18 « Dixit quoque Dominus Deus : Non est bonum, esse hominem solum. Faciamus » — Hebr. Sam. Syr. faciam — « ei adiutorium simile sib? ». Chald. noipo, Aq. oz xazévavst a2z229, Symm. àvcxpg 25:22, LXX xax! abzce9. Hebr. 3332, sicut ex opposito, in s. scriptura h. 1. solum legitur, apud recentiores Hebraeos designat id , quod alteri correspondet seu proporlionatur; ergo h. 1. mulierem, non solum ut viri similis est secundum sexum. Adiutrix viri est mulier cum societate vitae, tum maxime in opere generationis.
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v. 19 « Formatis igttur » iam ante creatum hominem, nam ad opera hexaemeri priora digreditur oratio, « Dominus Deus de humo cunctis animantibus terrae et universis volatilàbus coeli » , quae volatilia 1,20 nequaquam dicebantur ex aqua, sed h. l. explicite statuuntur de humo esse producta, « adduz:t ea ad Adam, tut videret quid vocaret ea ». ad Is. 37,5; Ion. 2,4; Zach. 7,2, et Dillm. ad Gen. 2,9. Quod autem obiicit Dilim., tum omnia verba v. 18-20 plus quam perfecto fore vertenda, nullam facit difficultatem.. Reapse ita verti possunt et fortasse commodius vertuntur. Poteris, si placet, rem ita esse actam concipere, ut primum Deus animalia pridem formata coram adduxerit iisque Adam nomina imposuerit, simul patuerit nullum in illis omnibus Adamo inveniri adiutorem similem sui, unde dixerit Deus « Non est bonum etc. », et, immisso sopore mulierem formaverit. At aliter in narratione singula se excipiunt. Illud sc. narrator in animo habet, non tam ut singula quo ordine obtinuere recenseat, sed ut mulieris referat formationem : hinc v. 18 ab iis orditur divinis verbis, quae divinum formandae mulieris consilium enuntiant, dein v. 19 sq. aliqua parenthetice supplet (Lamy), v. 21 narrationem formatae mulieris continuat. — Cur pisces non narrentur esse producti nominibusque appellati, ea sufficiens ratio assignari potest, quod in eiusmodi parenthetica animadversione non sit necesse singula quaeque enumerari. Insuper pisces sane non ita homini sociantur, uti plurimae species animalium terrestrium et volatilium. « Omne enim, quod vocavit Adam animae viventis, ipsum est nomen etus ». Fortasse melius cum Vat. hanc sententiam praecedenti coordinabis : ut videret, quid vocaret ea, et ut, quod vocavisset Adam animae viventis, ipsum esset nomen eius. Textus igitur sequentia edicit : primum voluisse Deum, ut Adam animantibus imponeret nomina permansura , imponeret pro auctoritate ipsi in animalia attributa (Ephr.) ; secundo nomina ab Adamo imposita non fuisse plane arbitraria, sed profecta ex perspecta singulorum animalium forma, indole vel usu (« ut videret, quid vocaret ea»). Profecto non sunt supponenda nomina ab Adamo animantibus indita fuisse diversi cuiusdam et altioris ordinis, quam ea nomina, quae ipse 2,23 et 3,20 uxori imposuit, cum eam « viraginem » appellavit et « vitam » : iam « vitae » nomen licet mulieri vere tribuatur, at non ideo totam eius naturam describit eamque àb omni alio vivente vi nominis discernit : potest quippe vitae nomen etiam viro generanti tribui aut Deo aut animalibus. Ergo cognitio, quam nominum attributio in Adamo supponit, alia non est ab ea quam homines etiamnum habent de variorum animalium indole et usibus, quae cognitio in Adamo utique fuit non acquisita sed infusa. Fuerit amplior nostra, at non fuit diversi seu altioris ordinis. Fuit cognitio animalium naturas definiens ex sensibilibus quibusdam proprietatibus et usibus. Nomina ex ea cognitione derivata, iis quibus variae etiamnum linguae animalia designant affinia, unam aliquam exprimebant proprietatem, quae in animali aliquo non quidem solo sed magis obvie deprehendebatur; uti cum apud Hebraeos asinus nomen nanciscitur modo a rufo colore modo a lento gressu, equus apud Indogermanos a celeri motu. Cf. A. Delattre., La Science Catholique, juillet 1872 p. 677,680. Perperam Ios. putabat, nomina primitus animalibus indita fuisse hebraica : agitur de nominibus linguae primitivae, quae utique hebraica non fuit. — i1 vz3 concipiendum est ut apposilio; ut inseretur post Q'iN?, non nihil insuetum vidctur : sed num ideo tamquam glossa expungendum cum Ew., Olsh., Dillim.? qui xlossae usus in sententia omnino perspicua? num ita hebraicam linguam callemus, ut, quidquid nobis durius videatur, illico tamquam adiectitium liceat confodere ?
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v. 20 « Appellavitque Adam nominibus suis cuncta animantia et universa volatilia coeli et omnes bestias terrae. Adae vero non inveniebatur adiutor similis eius ». Licet animalia coram Adam adducta fuerint ad varios fines, ut pro auctoritate nomina imponeret, ut quibus sib|« usibus futura essent perspiceret, tamen adducta h. l. post verba « faciamus ei adiutorium » ideo referuntur, quo intelligas, in ipsis perspexisse quidem Adamum multiplex adiutorium, at non adiutorium 11222, suis necessitatibus adamussim correspondens, imprimis necessitat! generandae prolis (Ca?.) : quare idipsum extremo v. 20 repetitur.
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v. 21 « Immisit ergo Dominus Deus soporem in Adam ». ncn, solum Prov. 19,15 somnum seu torporem mere naturalem designat; 1 Reg. 26,19 et Is. 29,10 significat somnum gravem d?venztus àmmissum ; Gen. 15,19 somnum gravem adiunctam habentem revelationem. Ergo recte verterunt Ag. 4x:agop&», Symm. xáocv, quae voces somnum gravem denotant adiuncto torpore seu rigore; melius etiam LXX £xoc:azov. Sane non fuit merus somnus naturalis divinitus immissus, quod sentire videntur Del. , Dillm. : quis enim dormiens erui costam non sentiat cum dolore? Si autem eum, qui chloroformio inducitur, naturalem torporem adstruas, at eo durante nullo modo homo sibi eorum, quae circa membra corporis aguntur, conscius est : verum Adam certe conscium fuisse, testantur verba v. 23. Ergo necesse erit cum Ephr. Aug. adstruere somnum adiunctam habentem viszonem, i. e. somnum visionarium ideoque omnino supernaturalem. « Cumque obdormisset , tulit unam de costis eius », — tertiam decimam lateris dextri affirmant Ps. Ion. et Targ. Hier. — « etreplevit carnem pro ea » . yox latus significat vel costam : hanc alteram h. l. cum versionibus retinendam esse significationem, recte infert Kez/ ex locutione unam de my5x eius, quae exprimat p/ures Adamum habuisse nybx. Certe non possumus cum Vat. interpretari « massam quamdam carnis ». Neque fas est cum Mar. ex solis verbis
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v. 22 « Et aedificavit Dominus Deus costam, quam tulerat de Adam, in mulierem ». Bene aedificandi vox seligitur, cum secus etiam in scriptura dicatur vir ex muliere sibi aedificare domum (Ma/lv.; cf. 16,2). Curiose hic rursum disquirunt, quomodo ex uma costa totam mulierem aedificaverit Deus : quod faetum non inepte Est. comparat panibus a Christo multiplicatis. Qui potuit unum, potuit et alterum efficere. Cur mulier exhibetur e viri costa formata? Primum, ut exprimatur, ' unam esse viri et mulieris naturam (Ambr. de Parad. cap. 10; M. 144. 298) : etenim naturae communionem in animalibus Adam desideraverat, eandem mox in muliere agnoscit, ergo ea etiam hoc v. 22 exprimitur. Oportebat omnino ejusdem cum viro esse naturae, quae ex viri costa esset formata. Secundum, quo major esset viri in mulierem affectus (Proc.), quam veluti ut partem sui consideraret. Tertium, ut Adam constituatur unus fons generis humani (Amóbr.), etiam Evae; ipse caput, non liberis solum sed vel uxori damna peccato inflicturus. Alia vide ad v. 24. « Et adduzit eam ad Adam », jam ex sopore suscitatum, uti animalia adduxerat, ut, sicut his conspectis intellexisset Adam deficere adhuc quod quaerebatur adiutorium; ita adducta muliere idem sibi suppeditari adiutorium perspiceret. Adduxit, quia « uxor ad habitandum cum viro, et non vir ad domum uxoris accedere debet » (Ca); adduxit « e loco, ut videtur, parum remoto, ubi eam formaverat » (Lamy); addüxit ut paranymphus : « Sponsam tradit : quia enim Adam quasi pupillus erat et Eva virgo sine patre et matre, qui officium praestarent, Deus patris matrisque functionem obit » (Severian.). v. 93 « Dixitque Adam » : — 1d Adamum ex divina inspiratione dixisse, infert Lamy ex Matth. 19, 4-6 : at ibi inspiratio explicite de solo v. 93 affirmatur; cf. dicenda ad eum versum. — « Hoc nunc os exc ossibus meis et caro de carne mea ». Ubi Vulg. nunc, LXX vov, ibi Hebr. habet ny2n, S? ymm. Theod. xzaz, ergo hac vice. Habetur igitur oppositio inter hanc vicem, qua adducitur mulier, et priores vices, quando adducebantur inimi: Tunc desiderabatur eiusdem naturae adiutorium, nunc praesens adest. Ergo expressio imprimis communionem naturae enuntiat, connotat autem simul modum, quo ex osse viri formata fuerat mulier. Advertit Proc. inde, quod non dicatur mulier esse anima ex anima viri, effici animas creari, non vero traduce propagari. Vera est ratio, si nonnihil altius repetatur : sc. « os ex ossibus et caro ex carne » expressio est Hebraeis usitata ad cognationem significandam : cum ii igitur semper cognationem ex carne et ossibus repetierint, nunquam ex anima, iure merito inferes persuasum ilis fuisse, animas non gigni sed creari. Quaerunt alii, cur anima mulieris non referatur a Deo esse producta : respondeas id reticeri, quod eadem adamussim atque in Adamo ratione fuerit illa effecta. Expressio « esse de ossibus et de carne alicuius » quosvis necessitatis gradus in scriptura denotat, adhibetur Gen. 29,14 de Laban avunculo et Iacob nepote; Iud. 9,2 de Abimelech et Sichimitis ex eadem urbe oriundis; 2 Reg. 5,1 et 1 Par. 11,1 de David et viris Israel; 2 Reg. 19,12 sq. de David, Amasa virisque Iuda; Eph. 5,30 de spirituali nostra cum Christo cognatione. Similiter Gen. 37,27 Ioseph dicitur « caro » fratrum suorum ; Lev. 18,12. 13. 17 connubia cum quibusdam prohibentur, « quia caro est patris tui, matris tuae »; et de quibuslibet hominibus sola naturae communione nobis devinctis dicit Is. 58,7 « carnem tuam ne despexeris ». — nw vel cum Chald. Syr. reíeres a1 QySn, ergo hac vice; sed constructio chaldaizat , tantummodo 1 Esdr. 3,12 legitur, solum Q72n in contextu eundem illum sensum praebet , scntentia est manca; vel interpretabere fem. pro neutro cum Vulg. LXX Symm. Theod.; vel, quod re idem est, referes femininum ad mulierem, similiter atque duo Tw5 immediate sequentia. Sam. Chald. de viro suo, addito sc. ^. Perperam ex hoc nomine concludebant aliqui, Adamum hebraica esse usum lingua : voces vw et avN ita in hebr. linguam transferunt primitivae linguae vocabula , uti vir et virago eadem transferunt in latinam, àv£p et àv3piz (Symm.) in graecam. Ergo neque obest, vocem hebr. nvx revera diversae esse ab v^N radicis. Nihil de radicibus hebr. nos docet textus, sed id affirmat, in lingua primitiva eiusmodi nomen esse inditum mulieri, quod eius ex viro originem exprimeret, fortasse eliam inter hoc et viri nomen eiusmodi obtinuisse assonantiam, qualis inter vx et vx deprehenditur.
2:23
v. 23 « Hoc nunc os ex ossibus meis et caro de carne mea » inferre, abstulisse Deum costam eum carne. Ubi Vulg. LXX Cad. replevit, ibi Syr. Aq. Symm. et Versio Sam. Hebraeo pressius adhaerentes conclustt. n3nnn, pro quo Sam. mnnn, quare perperam illam formam premit De/. , facilius vertes sub costa seu ?n loco costae (Syr. et Vers. Sam.), quae auferebatur. Non ergo dicitur Deus produsisse carnem po ea sc. costa, zvx' az zc, sed res ad oculum describitur. Quod modo extracta costa latus hiaverat, illud iam carne superinducta clauditur; ea caro (1v3 sine articulo) fueritne recens producta necne, non affirmatur; multo minus asseritur caro interius in locum costae successisse (Per.). | Antiquitus iam hic movebatur difficultas (cf. ZZugo), quot ante ablatam costam habuerit costas Adam. Si legitimum numerum i. e. duodenas in utrovis latere, ergo postea una dempta fuit mutilus Adam; si tertiamdecimam in alterutro latere habebat, erat monstrum. Arridet pluribus S. Zhomae solutio, fuisse costam tertiamdecimam, at non ideo superfluam, quippe quae pertineret ad perfectionem Adae, non prout individuum erat, sed prout erat principium speciei. Fuisset tamen nihilominus monstrosus Adam, cum quod in individui organismo ea costa simpliciter abundaverit, tum quod speciei propagandae aliter provisum sit a natura ideoque illa costa tertiadecima tamen sit monstrosum quid. Quare planior est solutio Catharini, Per. etc. , Deum illico in locum ablatae aliam substituisse costam, ita ut et ante et post duodenae essent Adami costae. — Ceterum ad multas, quae hac in re curiose suscitari consuevere, quaestiones optima - Chrys. responsio, nos solutionem ignorare; unum novisse conditorem. Omnia, quomodo gesta fuerint, adamussim describit Dr. Bourdais : La Science catholique 15. sept. 1891, p. 905 sqq.
2:24
v. 9& « Quamobrem relinquet homo patrem suum et matrem et adhaerebit uxori suae, et erunt duo ?n carne una ». Ante omnia quaeritur, quis haec verba, Deo utique inspirante (Matth. 19,4-6), prolocutus sit, Adam in paradiso constitutus an narrator eventibus recentior. Ubi merito advertunt Per., Bonfr., Calm., rem ex textu definiri haud posse; neque eundem dirimit Trid. Sess. 24. Miraberis forte, Adamum, qui nullos adhuc parentes vidisset, de patre loqui et matre : id tamen cum Chrys. licebit explanare, ut prophetaverit in his Adam. Plus momenti est in eo, quod monet Keil, 7 Oy in Genesi non adhiberi, nisi in ipsius narratoris recitandis glossis : tamen et haec regula exceptiones patitur 20,6 et 42,21, nec est argumentum omnino stringens. — Vocem duo hoc versu ignorant Hebr. Chald., norat tamen textus hebr., quem Christus ipse aut certe S. Mat- " thaeus 19,5 prae mente habuit; nisi is supponatur, dum textutn Gen. 2,24 citaret, vocem ex contextu supplesse, quippe quae contextui omnino respondeat. Sam. Deu nmm, et erit ez duobus in carnem seu caro una. Iam videndum de v.: 24 cum prioribus nexu. Igitur coniungi is potest cum praecetdenti narratione productae mulieris (Ca?.). Et quidem vel cum solo eventu formatae ex costa viri mulieris : sc. quia ex costa Adae prodiit Eva, ideo relinquet homo etc. At eo sensu assertio non est vera : neque enim Adam ideo reliquit patrem et matrem, cum parentes non habuerit, neque eius posteri, dum nuptias ineunt, id faciunt (cf. Per.). Vel potius v. 24 coniunges cum tota ea narratione et doctrina in illa contenta : ergo, quia vir et mulier sunt diversi in eadem natura sexus, quia mulier facta est in viri adiutorium, ideo etc. Et hanc constructionem confirmare videtur Christus 1. c., qui ante nostrum versum citat Gen. 1,27 : « masculum et feminam fecit eos et dixit : Propter hoc ete. ». At Gen. 1,27 compendio resumit totam narrationem Gen. 2,7-23. Ergo, quia masculum et feminam creavit eos, quia mulier est os de ossibus viri et caro de cius carne, ideo relinquet etc. Idem manet sensus, si v. 24 immediate cum solo praecedente versu connectas : « Hoc nunc os ex ossibus meis etc. », cum is, uti demonstravimus, totam praecedentem narrationem brevi quadam formularesumat. — | Quod Vulg. vertit et erunt duo zn carne una, id magis ad verbum exprimit LXX xi £covvat oi 80o eic oápxa y/av , sensus autem omnino est et erunt duo una caro; quod patet cum ex indole linguae hebr., tum ex authentica Christi interpretatione : « iam non sunt duo, sed una caro », et S. Pauli 1 Cor. 6,16 definientis, idem esse « erunt duo in carne una » et « unum corpus efficere ». « Sicut supra dictum est Adam factum esse in animam viventem, pro eo quod est Adam factum esse hominem viventem, ita dictum est h. l. erunt duo £n carne una vel in carnem unam, pro eo quod est erunt duo una caro » (Per.). Sensum expressionis quod attinet, ea praeprimis designari usum dominii in corpora concessi, indubie colligitur ex 1 Cor. 6,16, ubi eadem expressio vel de meretricio usu adhibetur; ipsum quoque legitimum dominium h. l. omnino significatione includitur. Quod sponte consequitur rerum ceterarum omnium in coniugibus communio, quam tamen cum Per., Bonfr. ipsa expressione designari minus placet; uti neque quam plures adstruunt prolem, in qua nonnisi remotius dici possunt coniuges una caro; eam neque contextus loci neque Christi aut S. Pauli interpretatio includi h. 1. postulant. p? significat non quomodovis adhaerere, sed agglutinari; sensu translato adhibetur, ubi quis alteri magno affectu adhaeret, ut socrui Ruth 9,8. 21, regi 3 Reg. 11,2, Deo Deut. 10,20, uxori Gen. 35,3. Ea vox h. 1. opponitur relinquendi verbo et coniugum unionem primum generalius adumbrat, mox vocibus una caro accuratius definiendam. Exprimitur igitur hic duplici ratione, quam arcta sit coniugum unio, cum ipsa voce p21 intimiorem adhaesionem exprimente, tum comparatione parentum cum prole unionis, quae coniugio ineundo dirimatur. Parentes proli copulantur sane non infirmo levive praetextu repudiando vinculo, at illud cedit coniugii vinculo, quod utique firmius sit oportet, imo insolubile. Nam, eum illud solvendum affirmetur, hoc solvendum nullo verbo indicetur, insolubile hoc alterum esse haud obscure demonstratur. Aut quis tandem amor amorem resolvet amore filiali fortiorem? Quae matrimonii indissolubilitas magis etiam illustratur formata ex viri costa muliere : tam individue igitur ad maritum pertinet uxor, quam ad corpus costa : « Sicut carnem secare scelestum est, ita et uxorem dirimere iniquum » (CArys. in Matth. 19; M. 58.59'1). Hinc etiam Christus ex narratione Geneseos infert matrimonium non esse solvendum : « Quod ergo Deus coniunxit, homo non separet », et praetendentibus Moysis statuta ait : « ab initio non fuit sic ». — Deum matrimonii auctorem et institutorem tota demonstrat narratio. Monogamia eatenus commendatur, quatenus utique Adae et Evae matrimonium, in paradiso Deo auctore contractum, proponitur ut coniugium numeris omnibus absolutum : unde facile perspiciat quis, perfectiorem esse monogamiam polygamia. Implicite supponit textus, inter parentes et liberos locum coniugio non esse (H270).
2:25
v. 95 « Erant autem uterque nudus, Adam $c. et uxor eius, et non erubescebant » invicem (hithpael). Hunc versum, qui utique 3,7 re- Spicit, capitum divisio, quae apud LXX est, ad sequentia trahit. Sane sequentia prioribus copulat , simul descriptionem , quo loco res in paradiso fuerint, absolvit. Erat ea aeris temperies, qua homo vestitu minime indigeret contra frigus aut aeris inclementiam; erat ea morum innocentia, ut concupiscentiam non provocaret conspecta nuditas. Merito iam Ephr. quorumdam explodit figmentum , protoparentes infantes fuisse pudoris ignaros : de infantibus, ait, non diceret scriptura nudos fuisse neque erubuisse, non diceret « Adam et uxor eius », non affirmaret Adamum puerum in paradiso esse constitutum , « ut operaretur et custodiret illum » ; nomina animalibus et praeceptum protoparentibus imposita ostendunt fuisse maturae aetatis. esse tenemus. At, inquiunt, id efficit S. Pauli auctoritas 1 Cor. 11, 8: « Non enim vir ex muliere, sed mulier ex viro ». Quidquid sit de hoc aliisve textibus, quos nostrum non est h. l. discutere, adverte quam exiguo tandem intervallo duae illae sententiae ab invicem dividantur. Altera sc. tenet ablatam esse costam et auferri conspectanr in visione, at continuo atque unico veluti interjecto momento aliam in ejus esse locum suffectam ; altera in se nihil esse ablatum, nihil suffectum tuetur, visione tamen conspectam auferri costam, quo matrimonii sanctitas et firmitas significetur. Doa libuerit sententiam amplectere. Arg. — Inducit tentator mulierem, ut intimam non comedendi fructus rationem enuntiet, poenam sc. à Deo propositíam : « ne moriamur ».Eam poenam secuturam tentator in dubium vocat, fide Dei verbis denegata : « Nequaquam morte moriemini ». At cur inanes minas confixerit Deus? Suggerit invidiae motivum tentator ludens in vetitae arboris nomine : novit Deus evasuros omniscios, ubi primum comederint. Qua gratuita assertione fidem evertit, ad inobedientiam pellicit illico conscios futuros amissae innocentiae. Cap. III. v. 4 « Sed et serpens » — notus ille serpens (Vat.), notus sc. e tentationis historia, ideoque articulo determinatus — « erat callidior cunctis animantibus terrae , quae fecerat Dominus Deus ». Absurde statuebat los., omnia in paradiso animalia praedita fuisse loquela. Absurde Mar. « animantibus omnibus », monet, « suam esse dialectum , qua inter se motus internos explicant ». Esto, ea dialecto dolorem, gaudium ete. exprimant : at quomodo ea dialecto serpens sententiam pronuntiaverit « Cur praecepit vobis Deus etc. »? Verum perperam item PA?7o (De mundi opificio; Legis alleg. lib. II) serpentem interpretabatur voluptatis allegoriam, et Ca?. putabat vocem serpens meram esse metaphorain ad diabolum designandum : quorsum tunc cum reliquis animantibus comparatio? Eccui dubium esse potuit, callidiorem esse satanam brutis animalibus? Perperam J. I«Aa (Einleitung in die goettl. Bücher des A. B., Wien 1803, II. 1. p. 117 sqq.) fingebat Evam sub arbore sopitam vividissime esse somniatam , somnii vero et vigiliae discrimen nondum expertam somnium marito pro re gesta narrasse. Qui auctor, ut alia taceam , gratuito omnino supponit, brevissimo post creationem tempore secutam esse tentationem, cum tamen, quantum tempus intercesserit, penitus ignoremus. Ergo vox serpens initio nostri versus verum et mhateralcm serpentem designat, eum sc. qui 2,19 sq. ad Adam fuerat adductus et ab eo nomine appellatas. Iam hic serpens dicitur a", in qua voce utique latet lusus respectu avv 2,95, nudus. Vertunt LXX oo£vwysz , quae vox sapientiae seu sagacitatis laudem habet, Ag. Symm. Theod. zavospyes, cuius vocis sinister potius esf sensus. « Magis igitur ex hoc verbo », inquit Hzer., « calliditas et versutia quam sapientia demonstratur ». Tamen vox hebraea de se anceps est : Prov. 8,12 et Iob 5,12 bono adhibetur sensu , Iob 15,5 sinistro. Eandem utique vocem Matth. 10,16 in mente habuit : « Estote ergo prudentes (cop£vuct) sicut BUCO », unde colligas serpentes antiquitus apud Hebraeos sagacitatis laude floruisse. Matthaei autem vox omnino laudem sonat, cum ea serpentum « prudentia » imitanda commendetur. Quare cum Ep/hr. praeplacet vocem Oy Gen. 3,1 de naturali serpentis sagacitatepotius quam de diabolica vafritie accipere. Cuius mentio ideo h. 1. habetur, quod naturalis sagacitas aptiorem exhiberet serpentem, qui instrumentum assumeretur diabolicae fraudis et « organum inimici veritatis » (Theodoret.). ! |
2:1
… Labourdette, Le péché orig. et les origines de l'homme, in Rev. thom., 27 (1949), pp. 589-427; 58 (1950), pp. 480-514; 60 (1951), pp. 5-38; L. Cerfaux, Le Christ dans la théol. de st Paul, Paris 1951, pp. 176-80; Th. Maertens, La mort a régné depuis Adam (Gen. 2, 1-3, 24), Bruges 1951. Francesco Spadafora
2:2
After the pre-Adamites had populated the earth, God would have created Adam "infans" and from Adam would have drawn Eve (second creation: Gen. 2, 2-25). Eve, having become an adult, would have been led by God to Adam, who would not have found among the women of the pre-Adamites a helper like himself.
2:3
The periods of geology were found in the "days" of creation, giving the word jōm the meaning of period, epoch, and adducing in support certain passages of the Bible where jōm means an indeterminate period of time (Gen. 2:3, 4; Ex. 10:6; Lev. 7:35, 36; etc.). …
… the sabbath of the Lord" and the third precept of the Decalogue (v.) imposed abstinence from all work on that day, binding even foreigners and indirectly even beasts; and this because God had created the world in six days and had rested on the seventh (Gen. 2:3; Ex. 20:8-11). Specifically, on the sabbath it was forbidden to plough and reap (Ex. 34:21); nor was fire to be kindled in the houses; whoever "shall work therein shall be put …
2:4
… Strictly speaking, it would therefore exclude the questions that arise from the so-called second narrative of creation, which is found in Gen. 2, 4-19, since in this second narrative there is no mention of a development over six days. …
I. SACRED SCRIPTURE. - Gen. 2:4b-3:24 narrates the special creation of Adam and Eve, and how God did not limit himself to making them the most perfect beings of the universe, but willed to fill them with special …
2:5
adam "servant." The Bible connects the name with ādhāmāh "earth" (Gen. 2:5-7): Adam would therefore be he who by his origin, his existence and his destiny is in relation to the earth (v. ADAPA).
With less probability, some have wished to see in them the Dardanim, from the Dardanids on the Hellespont (= the Dardanelles), of the stock of Gomer (Gen. 2:5). The Samaritan text and the Septuagint read Rodanim, having in view the inhabitants of the island of Rhodes, rather than the Rethenu, inhabitants of northern Syria.
EARTHLY PARADISE. - A most fertile garden, the cradle of the human race, prepared by the Creator so that Adam and Eve might lead there, in familiarity with him, a life free from fear and suffering (Gen. 2:5-3:24).
I. THEOLOGY. - Holy Scripture, taken in its literal and most obvious sense, everywhere affirms the unity of origin of the human race. Gen. 2:5-7: "There was no man to till the earth... and man became a living soul"; ibid. 2:18: "And the Lord God said: It is not good for man to be alone; I will make him a helper like unto …
2:7
1. Simplicity and spirituality. – God is the subsistent Being (Ex. 3, 12 ff.), invisible (Ex. 19, 16-19; Job 38, 1) who searches and weighs spirits (Prov. 16, 2 and 21, 2), who infuses into Adam's body a spiritual soul that must return to him after death (Gen. 2, 7; Eccl. 12, 7); "God is Spirit, and those who worship him must worship him in spirit and truth" (Jn. 4, 24; cf. Is. 31, 3; Wis. 1, 6; 6, 24; 9, 17). Nor do the biblical expressions …
III. PURPOSES OF MARRIAGE. — 1. The data of Revelation. — It has already been mentioned how God himself establishes the natural foundations of marriage, promulgating its laws and determining its purposes in procreation and mutual help (Gen. 1:26-31; 2:7-25).
… The insufflation upon the disciples (ἐνεφύσασεν) is read only here in the New Testament and certainly alludes to the spiraculum vitae (Gen. 2:7; cf. Ez. 37:9). Πνεύμα ἅγιον seems here to have to be interpreted as a particular gift of the Holy Spirit, that is, not so much a disposition of the mind or heart, but rather a spiritual …
… According to Gen. 2, 7-25 (the eighth day, according to Lecomte) God would have fashioned Adam, would have breathed the soul into his nostrils and would have communicated consciousness to him. Indeed he would …
… The Old Testament distinguishes in man two quasi-constitutive elements: one material, the other superior (spiritual); thus e.g. Gen. 2, 7; Job 10, 9-12; Eccles. 12, 7. The material element is called 'āphār (dust, earth) or bāšār (flesh); to designate the superior element there are several names, particularly rūah (generally …
To exalt the author of the world (creator from nothing, god of pantheism, subordinate demiurge or principle of good, in a dualist system), it was necessary to renounce anthropomorphic images (Gen. 2, 7) and to insist instead on his wisdom and on the power of his will or of his word ("Dixit... et facta sunt"; Gen. 1). Hence, from religion to religion, there derive, on these various …
2:8
A. was placed in the earthly paradise (v.) (Gen. 2:8-17), "a garden in Eden — a region not well defined — to the East" (ibid., 2:8). The king of creation was, however, still alone. …
… (Neh. 2:8; Eccles. 2:5; Cant. 4:13); it is of Persian origin: pairi daeza, "enclosure, hedge" and therefore "walled garden," or "reserve." The Septuagint (παράδεισος), followed by the Latin versions and by St. Jerome, used it to translate the Hebrew gan (Gen. 2:8-10, 15 ff.; 3:1-3, 8, 10, 23 ff.), from the Sumerian gan "garden," an irrigated plot rich in plants and crops.
EDEN. - The place where the earthly paradise was located (Gen. 2:8, 15). The Hebrew "edhen," according to the ancients, means "delight, pleasure" (II Sam. 1:24; Ps. 25 [36]:9); for the moderns, "steppe," "uncultivated plain," like the Akkadian edinu, …
2. Man was also immune from pain. - Sacred Scripture partly lets it be understood that in the earthly paradise man had whatever he could reasonably desire, worked without tiring, and the animals and lower beings were subject to him (Gen. 1:26; 2:8, 15; Sir. 17:3-4). Pain appears in Genesis as a consequence of sin (Gen. 3:19). Moreover, immunity from death presupposes immunity from the pains and illnesses that lead to death. …
2:9
The tree of life. - Among the Jews, the tree of life (v.) was originally planted in the middle of the earthly paradise (Gen. 2, 9) and was endowed with mighty virtue. …
TREE OF LIFE. - Tree "in the midst" of the earthly paradise, to which the Creator had given the power to preserve man's life and to keep him from death (Gen. 2, 9).
Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil
… The cunning tempter, equivocating on the meaning of the name, incited the woman with the promise: "When you eat of it, your eyes will be opened and you will be like God, knowing good and evil." Eve, seduced, disobeyed and led Adam into sin. The guilty ones experienced the disorder of fallen nature (Gen. 2, 9.17; 3, 5-8).
2:10
A river coming from ēdhēn runs through it and, on leaving the terrestrial paradise, branches into 4 arms or rivers (Gen. 2:10-14): the Phison (Pīlān) which skirts the region of Hevilath (Hāwīlāh), rich in gold; the Gehon (Gīhān) which runs through the land of Chus (Kāt), the Tigris (Heb. …
On the location of E. the indication of 4 rivers could be helpful: "A river rises in Eden to water the garden; beyond there it divides and becomes four branches (Phison, Gehon, Tigris, Euphrates)" (Gen. 2:10-14). But the identification of the Phison and the Gehon is unknown. …
GEHON (Hebrew Gibōn). - The second of the four rivers into which the current divides upon leaving Eden; it flows through the whole land of Köš (Gen. 2:10, 13).
2:11
Hevila (Hebrew: Ḥāwīlāh probably from ḥōl «sand»; Septuagint: Εὐαία)
HEVILA (Hebrew: Ḥāwīlāh probably from ḥōl «sand»; Septuagint: Εὐαία). - A region (v. EDEN) abounding in gold, aromatic gum and precious stones, where the river Phison flowed (Gen. 2:11). The name is recalled as that of a descendant of Chus the Hamite (Gen. 10:7; 1 Chron. 1:9) and of Joktan the Semite (Gen. 10:29; 1 Chron. 1:23), and in the formula "from H. as far …
2:12
… In Gen. 2:12 it is said that the region of Havilah was rich in such precious stones, whose high value can be seen in the comparison with wisdom (Job 28:16). Angelo Penna
2:13
… In Gen. 2:13 the land traversed by the river Gihon is called C. This text, like the one that connects C. with Nimrod, king of Shinar (Gen. 10:8, 12), would suggest a Mesopotamian region. …
2:14
In the Bible "Assur" never designates the city (except Gen. 2:14 Hebr.), but always Assyria (people and region); the term "Assyria," known to the Greeks (Herodotus, I, 178-85 and 192, where Ἀσπερίχ equals Βαβολοκλή), is missing there. …
In the Bible the E. is often mentioned, appearing from the very beginning (cf. Gen. 2, 14) as one of the rivers of the earthly Paradise. …
… Hiddegel; Sum. Idigna, Akkadian Idiglat, Diglat; Aramaic Dighlath, Arabic Diglah; in Old Persian the Aramaic name phonetically became Tigrā, whence the Greco-Latin Tīyquc) is remembered as one of the four rivers of Paradise (Gen. 2:14) and as a river of Mesopotamia it is mentioned in the later histories (Dan. 10:4; Tob. 6:1; Jdt. 1:6; Sir. 24:35 [25]).
2:15
Also in post-apostolic catechesis, among the Fathers, Christianity continues its work of social redemption of l. It is not in itself a penalty due to original sin, because even in the Earthly Paradise in the state of original justice man would have worked (cf. Gen. 2, 15; original sin added toil to l. (ibid. 3, 19: «You shall eat your bread by the sweat of your brow»), which, if associated with the Passion of Christ, becomes an element of redemption …
2:16
… "Eat of any tree of the garden — he enjoined — but of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil you shall not eat, for on whatever day you eat of it, you shall die" (Gen. 2:16-17). The precept was rigorous but easy to observe. …
1. In the state of innocence man was immune from death. - Although he was by nature subject to death, like the animals, he was nevertheless preserved from it by a singular privilege, as long as he remained faithful to God. This is clearly read in Gen. 2:16: "The Lord said to Adam: you may eat of the fruits of the trees of paradise, but you shall not eat the fruits of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, for on the day you eat …
2:17
… Death was threatened to the first parents as the penalty for the transgression of a divine precept, and since the transgression occurred, the threat had its effect (Gen. 2:17; 3:3). Thus death entered the world because of sin (Wis. 2:23-24; Jn. 8:44; Rom. 5:12; I Cor. 15:21-22; Heb. 9:27). Not that death is not natural to man, a creature complex in his …
… hand, union with God (as the Word ever united to the Father, as man ever conjoined to the Word through the Hypostatic Union), on the other, separation, because the humanity assumed was caro peccati, taken from the massa damnata and destined to death (Gen. 2:17): b) by the Passion he overcame the second (indeed, by dying, he destroyed the flesh of sin) and made the first triumph (indeed, by rising, his flesh became πνεύμα, as St. Paul says …
… willed to fill them with special benefits and gifts, wholly superior and not owed to their nature: he placed them in a most beautiful garden (v. PARADISE), so that they might lead there, in filial familiarity with him (ibid. 3:8), a happy, immortal life (ibid. 2:17; 3:19), without any suffering or fear. …
2:18
… Eve was created so that man might have "a help meet for him" (Gen. 2:18-20). She was called Eve by Adam (v.) (Heb. Ḥawmāh) from the verb ḥājāh, "to live": hence "mother of all the living" (Gen. 3:20).
… "It is not good for man to remain alone; let us make him a help similar to himself" (Gen. 2:18). Man and woman must complete each other mutually, each contributing what the other lacks. …
… primary end of procreation: "Crescite et multiplicamini et replete terram" (ibid., 1:28; cf. Tob. 8:9) and toward the secondary end of mutual help: "Dixitque quoque Dominus Deus: non est bonum hominem esse solum, faciamus ei adiutorium simile sibi" (Gen. 2:18); d) it carries from its origins something sacred (cf. Prov. 2:17; Tob. 8:9; P. Heinisch, Teologia del Vecchio Testamento, Italian trans., Rome 1950, p. 217), which all peoples recognized …
I. THEOLOGY. - Holy Scripture, taken in its literal and most obvious sense, everywhere affirms the unity of origin of the human race. Gen. 2:5-7: "There was no man to till the earth... and man became a living soul"; ibid. 2:18: "And the Lord God said: It is not good for man to be alone; I will make him a helper like unto himself"; ibid. 2:22: "Yahweh God formed a woman and brought her to Adam"; ibid. …
b) the duty of mutual material and spiritual assistance (cf. Gen. 2, 18);
2:20
… A., who exclaimed: "This time it is flesh of my flesh and bone of my bones; this one shall be called woman (issāh) because she was taken from man (is)." The very origins of the human race consecrate the conjugal union and found society on the family (Gen. 2:20 ff.).
I. AMONG THE ANCIENT HEBREWS. - In the first pages of the Bible (Gen. 2:18-24) marriage is presented as the union between man and woman, willed by God for the reproduction of the species (ibid. 1:27 ff.) and for the mutual advantage of the two individuals (ibid. 2:20).
2:21
… "So the Lord God sent a deep sleep upon Adam" (Gen. 2:21: Heb. tardīnah), during which Adam was to know God's intention, who formed the woman from a rib or from flesh of his side (ṣilāʾ). …
2:22
… affirms the unity of origin of the human race. Gen. 2:5-7: "There was no man to till the earth... and man became a living soul"; ibid. 2:18: "And the Lord God said: It is not good for man to be alone; I will make him a helper like unto himself"; ibid. 2:22: "Yahweh God formed a woman and brought her to Adam"; ibid. 3:20: "Adam gave his wife the name of Eve, because she was the mother of all the living"; Wis. 10:10: "It was Wisdom …
2:23
The reality of the historical fact is required also by Adam's words (Gen. 2:23); in the Hebrew text the name "woman" (ʿīfāh) is the feminine form of the name "man" (ʿīf), which the Vulgate rendered: "haec vocabitur virago quia de viro sumpta est." Enlightened …
Indissolubility of Marriage and Divorce
… Therefore shall a man leave his father and his mother, and shall cleave unto his wife: and they shall be one flesh" (Gen. 2:23-24). In the Old Testament, however, Moses, as divine ambassador for the Hebrews, admitted limits to the indissolubility of marriage and in that case validated the celebration of a new marriage. …
… Virginity already here anticipates the erunt sicut angeli of Mt. 22, 30 (II, 7). The third discourse gives an allegorical exegesis of Gen. 2, 23/4 based on Ephes. 5, 32 and develops the typological relation between Adam and Christ which becomes almost an identification (III, 3/4). In this passage Christ is called: προεβύτατος …
I. MORAL THEOLOGY AND CANON LAW. - Polyandry is directly opposed: 1) to the divine-positive precept, promulgated at the very beginning of humanity (Gen. 2:23) and solemnly confirmed by Jesus Christ (Mt. 19:4-6). Whence it is deduced that, if it is true that the human will conditions the establishment of a new family, it cannot at all …
I. MORAL THEOLOGY AND CANON LAW. - Polygyny is first of all contrary to divine-positive law, proclaimed by God to the first parents Adam and Eve (Gen. 2:23) and then recalled and confirmed by Jesus Christ (Mt. 5:31 ff., 19:4-9; cf. also St. Paul: 1 Cor. 10:11). Therefore the Council of Trent, also gathering the traditions of the holy …
2:24
… Hebrew text the name "woman" (ʿīfāh) is the feminine form of the name "man" (ʿīf), which the Vulgate rendered: "haec vocabitur virago quia de viro sumpta est." Enlightened further by God, Adam probably reveals the indissoluble and total bond of spouses (Gen. 2:24; cf. Mt. 19:4-6).
From the account in Gen. 2:24 it follows that the union between man and woman was considered indissoluble. …
… It is indeed a privilege granted by way of positive-divine law, but at the same time against the right both natural (Gen. 2, 24) and positive (Mt. 5, 32; Mc. 10, 11; Lc. 16, 18) of the indissolubility of the conjugal bond. …
… The bride, being in herself one physical person, is joined to the bridegroom, another physical person, by bonds that are first of all moral; but, furthermore, "the two shall be one flesh" (Matt. 19:5; Gen. 2:24; Eph. 5:31). The body, on the other hand, distinguished by its head, forms, together with it, a unity that is more than moral, that is, organic and physical. …
2:25
The final observation of the sacred account: "they were both naked, Adam and his wife, and yet they felt no shame" (Gen. 2:25), is a fleeting allusion to the original
shame" (ibid. 2:25; cf. 3:7, 10 ff.). …
3. Man was immune from disordered concupiscence. - Gen. 2:25 and 3:7 lay the foundation of this doctrine: before sin Adam and Eve were naked and did not blush at it; after sin they felt the need to clothe themselves because of the disordered …
Douay-Rheims (Challoner) · Vulgata Clementina · original Douay-Rheims (Douay 1609-10), transcription by EEBO-TCP (CC0) · La Sacra Bibbia, tradotta dalla Volgata da Antonio Martini (1769-1781) (LaParola (laparola.net), Martini OSIS text, Public domain (LaParola's electronic edition marks it 'Dominio pubblico')). Public domain.