The serpent’s craft. The fall of our first parents. Their punishment. The promise of a Redeemer.
By the craft of the Diuel speaking in a serpent, our first parents transgressed Gods commandment. 7. who being ashamed vvould hide them selues. 9 but are reproued by God. 14. and besides other particular punishements (yet with promise of a Redemer) are cast out of Paradise.
1Now the serpent was more subtle than any of the beasts of the earth which the Lord God had made. And he said to the woman: Why hath God commanded you, that you should not eat of every tree of paradise?Ma il serpente era il più astuto di tutti gli animali della terra fatti dal Signore Dio. Questi disse alla donna: Per qual motivo comandovvi Iddio, che non di tutte le piante del paradiso mangiaste i frutti?BVT the serpent also was more subtile then al the beasts of the earth, which our Lord God had made. Which said to the woman: Why hath God commanded you, that you should not eate of euerie tree of Paradise?Sed et serpens erat callidior cunctis animantibus terræ quæ fecerat Dominus Deus. Qui dixit ad mulierem: Cur præcepit vobis Deus ut non comederetis de omni ligno paradisi ? 2And the woman answered him, saying: Of the fruit of the trees that are in paradise we do eat:Cui rispose la donna: Del frutto delle piante, che sono nel paradiso, noi ne mangiamo:To whom the woman answered: Of the fruite of the trees that are in paradise, we doe eate:Cui respondit mulier: De fructu lignorum, quæ sunt in paradiso, vescimur: 3But of the fruit of the tree which is in the midst of paradise, God hath commanded us that we should not eat; and that we should not touch it, lest perhaps we die.Ma del frutto dell'albero, che è nel mezzo del paradiso, ci ordinò il Signore di non mangiare, e di non toccare, affinché per disgrazia noi non abbiamo a morire.but of the fruite of the tree which is in the middes of paradise, God hath commanded vs that we should not eate: and that we should not touch it, lest perhapes we die.de fructu vero ligni quod est in medio paradisi, præcepit nobis Deus ne comederemus, et ne tangeremus illud, ne forte moriamur. 4And the serpent said to the woman: No, you shall not die the death.Ma il serpente disse alla donna: Assolutamente voi non morrete.And the serpent said to the woman: No you shal not dye the death.Dixit autem serpens ad mulierem: Nequaquam morte moriemini. 5For God doth know that in what day soever you shall eat thereof, your eyes shall be opened: and you shall be as Gods, knowing good and evil.Imperocché sa Dio, che in qualunque tempo ne mangerete, si apriranno i vostri occhi: e sarete come Dei, conoscitori del bene, e del male.For God doth know that in what day soeuer you shal eate therof, your eyes shal be opened: and you shal be as gods, knowing good & euil.Scit enim Deus quod in quocumque die comederitis ex eo, aperientur oculi vestri, et eritis sicut dii, scientes bonum et malum.
6And the woman saw that the tree was good to eat, and fair to the eyes, and delightful to behold: and she took of the fruit thereof, and did eat, and gave to her husband, who did eat.Vide adunque la donna, che il frutto dell'albero era buono a mangiarsi, e bello a vedere, e appetitoso all'aspetto: e colse il frutto, e mangiollo; e ne diede a suo marito, il quale ne mangiò.The woman therfore sawe that the tree was good to eate, and fayre to the eyes, and delectable to behold: and she tooke of the fruite therof, and did eate, and gaue to her husband, who did eate.Vidit igitur mulier quod bonum esset lignum ad vescendum, et pulchrum oculis, aspectuque delectabile: et tulit de fructu illius, et comedit: deditque viro suo, qui comedit. 7And the eyes of them both were opened: and when they perceived themselves to be naked, they sewed together fig leaves, and made themselves aprons.E si apersero gli occhi ad ambedue: ed avendo conosciuto, che erano ignudi cucirono delle foglie di fico, e se ne fecero delle cinture.And the eyes of them both were opened: and when they perceiued themselues to be naked, they sowed togeather leaues of a figge tree, and made themselues aprons.Et aperti sunt oculi amborum; cumque cognovissent se esse nudos, consuerunt folia ficus, et fecerunt sibi perizomata. 8And when they heard the voice of the Lord God walking in paradise at the afternoon air, Adam and his wife hid themselves from the face of the Lord God, amidst the trees of paradise.E avendo udita la voce del Signore Dio, che camminava nel paradiso nel tempo, che levasi il vento dopo il mezzodì, si nascose Adamo, e la sua moglie alla vista del Signore in mezzo agli alberi del paradiso.And hearing the voice of our Lord God walking in paradise at the after none ayre: Adam hid himselfe and so did his wife from the face of our Lord God, amidst the trees of paradise.Et cum audissent vocem Domini Dei deambulantis in paradiso ad auram post meridiem, abscondit se Adam et uxor ejus a facie Domini Dei in medio ligni paradisi. 9And the Lord God called Adam, and said to him: Where art thou?E il Signore Dio chiamò Adamo, e dissegli: Dove sei tu?And our Lord God called Adam, and said to him: Where art thou?Vocavitque Dominus Deus Adam, et dixit ei: Ubi es ? 10And he said: I heard thy voice in paradise; and I was afraid, because I was naked, and I hid myself.E quegli rispose: Ho udito la tua voce nel paradiso: ed ho avuto ribrezzo, perché era ignudo, e mi sono ascoso.Who said: I heard thy voice in paradise: and I feared, because I was naked, and I hid me.Qui ait: Vocem tuam audivi in paradiso, et timui, eo quod nudus essem, et abscondi me.
11And he said to him: And who hath told thee that thou wast naked, but that thou hast eaten of the tree whereof I commanded thee that thou shouldst not eat?A cui disse Dio: Ma e chi ti fece conoscere, che eri ignudo, se non l'aver tu mangiato del frutto, del quale io aveva a te comandato di non mangiare?To whom he said: And who hath told thee that thou wast naked, but that thou hast eaten of the tree whereof I commanded thee that thou shouldest not eate?Cui dixit: Quis enim indicavit tibi quod nudus esses, nisi quod ex ligno de quo præceperam tibi ne comederes, comedisti ? 12And Adam said: The woman, whom thou gavest me to be my companion, gave me of the tree, and I did eat.E Adamo disse: La donna datami da te per compagna, mi ha dato del frutto, e l'ho io mangiato.And Adam said: The woman, which thou gauest me to be my felow companion, gaue me of the tree, and I did eate.Dixitque Adam: Mulier, quam dedisti mihi sociam, dedit mihi de ligno, et comedi. 13And the Lord God said to the woman: Why hast thou done this? And she answered: The serpent deceived me, and I did eat.E il Signore Dio disse alla donna: Perché facesti tal cosa? Ed ella rispose: Il serpente mi ha sedotta, ed io ho mangiato.And our Lord God said to the woman: Why hast thou done this? who answered: The serpent deceiued me, & I did eate.Et dixit Dominus Deus ad mulierem: Quare hoc fecisti ? Quæ respondit: Serpens decepit me, et comedi. 14And the Lord God said to the serpent: Because thou hast done this thing, thou art cursed among all cattle, and beasts of the earth: upon thy breast shalt thou go, and earth shalt thou eat all the days of thy life.E il Signore Dio disse al serpente: Perché tu hai fatto questo, maledetto tu tra tutti gli animali, e le bestie della terra: tu camminerai sul tuo ventre e mangerai terra per tutt'i giorni di tua vita.And our Lord God said to the serpent: Because thou hast done this thing, accursed art thou among al catle, & beasts of the earth: vpon thy brest shalt thou goe, & earth shalt thou eate al the dayes of thy life.Et ait Dominus Deus ad serpentem: Quia fecisti hoc, / maledictus es inter omnia animantia, et bestias terræ: / super pectus tuum gradieris, et terram comedes cunctis diebus vitæ tuæ. 15I will put enmities between thee and the woman, and thy seed and her seed: she shall crush thy head, and thou shalt lie in wait for her heel.Porrò inimicizia tra te, e la donna, e tra il seme tuo, e il seme di lei. Ella schiaccerà la tua testa, e tu tenderai insidie al calcagno di lei.I wil put enmyties betwen thee & the woman, and thy seed and the seed of her. she shal bruise thy head in peeces, & thou shalt lye in waite of her heele.Inimicitias ponam inter te et mulierem, / et semen tuum et semen illius: / ipsa conteret caput tuum, / et tu insidiaberis calcaneo ejus.
16To the woman also he said: I will multiply thy sorrows, and thy conceptions: in sorrow shalt thou bring forth children, and thou shalt be under thy husband’s power, and he shall have dominion over thee.E alla donna ancor disse: Io moltiplicherò i tuoi affanni e le tue gravidanze; con dolore partorirai i figliuoli, e sarai sotto la potestà del marito, ed ei ti dominerà.To the woman also he said: I wil multiplie thy trauailes, and thy child bearinges: in trauaile shalt thou bring forth children, and thou shalt be vnder thy husbands power, and he shal haue dominion ouer thee.Mulieri quoque dixit: Multiplicabo ærumnas tuas, et conceptus tuos: in dolore paries filios, et sub viri potestate eris, et ipse dominabitur tui. 17And to Adam he said: Because thou hast hearkened to the voice of thy wife, and hast eaten of the tree, whereof I commanded thee, that thou shouldst not eat, cursed is the earth in thy work: with labour and toil shalt thou eat thereof all the days of thy life.E ad Adamo disse: Perché hai ascoltata la voce della tua consorte, e hai mangiato del frutto, del quale io ti avea comandato di non mangiare, maledetta la terra per quello che tu hai fatto: da lei trarrai con grandi fatiche il nudrimento per tutti i giorni della tua vita.And to Adam he said: Because thou hast heard the voice of thy wife, and hast eaten of the tree, whereof I cō manded thee, that thou shouldest not eate, cursed is the earth in thy woorke: with much toyling shalt thou eate thereof al the dayes of thy life.Adæ vero dixit: Quia audisti vocem uxoris tuæ, et comedisti de ligno, ex quo præceperam tibi ne comederes, maledicta terra in opere tuo: in laboribus comedes ex ea cunctis diebus vitæ tuæ. 18Thorns and thistles shall it bring forth to thee, and thou shalt eat the herbs of the earth.Ella produrrà per te spine e triboli, e mangerai l'erba della terra.Thornes and thystles shal it bring forth to thee, & thou shalt eate the herbes of the earth.Spinas et tribulos germinabit tibi, et comedes herbam terræ. 19In the sweat of thy face shalt thou eat bread till thou return to the earth out of which thou wast taken: for dust thou art, and into dust thou shalt return.Mediante il sudore della tua faccia mangerai il tuo pane, fino a tanto che tu ritorni alla terra, dalla quale sei stato tratto: perocché tu sei polvere, e in polvere tornerai.In the sweat of thy face shalt thou eate bread, til thou returne to earth, of which thou wast taken: because dust thou art, and into dust thou shalt returne.In sudore vultus tui vesceris pane, donec revertaris in terram de qua sumptus es: quia pulvis es et in pulverem reverteris.
20And Adam called the name of his wife Eve: because she was the mother of all the living.E Adamo pose alla sua moglie il nome di Eva, perché ella era per esser la madre di tutti i viventi.And Adam called the name of his wife, Eue: for because she was mother of al the liuing.Et vocavit Adam nomen uxoris suæ, Heva: eo quod mater esset cunctorum viventium. 21And the Lord God made for Adam and his wife garments of skins, and clothed them.E fece ancora il Signore Dio ad Adamo, e alla sua moglie delle tonache di pelle, delle quali li rivestì.Our Lord God also made for Adam and his wife garments of skynnes, and clothed them.Fecit quoque Dominus Deus Adæ et uxori ejus tunicas pelliceas, et induit eos: 22And he said: Behold Adam is become as one of us, knowing good and evil: now therefore lest perhaps he put forth his hand and take also of the tree of life, and eat, and live for ever.E disse: Ecco, che Adamo è diventato come uno di noi, conoscitore del bene, e del male: ora adunque, che a sorte non istenda egli la mano sua, e colga dell'albero della vita; e ne mangi, e viva in eterno.And said: Loe Adam is become as it were one of vs, knowing good & euil: now therfore lest perhapes he reach forth his hand, and take also of the tree of life, & eate, and liue for euer.et ait: Ecce Adam quasi unus ex nobis factus est, sciens bonum et malum: nunc ergo ne forte mittat manum suam, et sumat etiam de ligno vitæ, et comedat, et vivat in æternum. 23And the Lord God sent him out of the paradise of pleasure, to till the earth from which he was taken.E il Signore Dio lo discacciò dal paradiso di delizie, affinché lavorasse la terra: da cui era stato tratto.And our Lord God sent him out of the paradise of pleasure, to worke the earth of which he was taken.Et emisit eum Dominus Deus de paradiso voluptatis, ut operaretur terram de qua sumptus est. 24And he cast out Adam: and placed before the paradise of pleasure Cherubims, and a flaming sword, turning every way, to keep the way of the tree of life.E discacciatone Adamo, collocò davanti al paradiso di delizie un Cherubino con una spada, che gettava fiamme, e faceva ruota a custodire la strada, che menava all'albero della vita.And he cast out Adam: and placed before the paradise of pleasure Cherubins, & a flaming, and a turning sworde, for to keepe the way of the tree of life.Ejecitque Adam: et collocavit ante paradisum voluptatis cherubim, et flammeum gladium, atque versatilem, ad custodiendam viam ligni vitæ.
3:1
Haydock
Why hath God? Hebrew, "Indeed hath God, etc." as if the serpent had overheard Eve arguing with herself, about God's prohibition, with a sort of displeasure and presumption. St. Augustine thinks, she had given some entrance to these passions, and the love of her own power, and hence gave credit to the words of the serpent, de Gen. ad lit. 11:30. She might not know or reflect that the serpent could not reason thus, naturally; and she had as yet, no idea or dread of the devil. (Lombard, 2 Dist. 21.) This old serpent entered into the most subtle of creatures, and either by very expressive signs, or by the motion of the serpent's tongue, held this delusive dialogue with Eve. Moses relates what happened exteriorily; but from many expressions, and from the curse, ver. 15, he sufficiently indicates, that an evil spirit was the latent actor. (Haydock)
Menochius
Of every tree. Satan perverts the word of God, giving it an ambiguous turn: in doing which, he has set heretics a pattern, which they follow. (Menochius)
3:3
Haydock
Not touch it. She exaggerates, through dislike of restraint, St. Ambrose. Or through reverence, she thought it unlawful to touch what she must not eat, lest perhaps, as if there could be any doubt. "God asserts, the woman doubts, Satan denies." (St. Bernard) Thus placed, like Eve, between God and the devil, to whom shall we yield our assent? (Haydock)
Perhaps we die, Hebrew, "lest ye die."
3:5
Haydock
God. The old serpent's aim is, to make us think God envies our happiness. (Haydock)
Menochius
Or he would have Eve to suppose, she had not rightly understood her maker, who would surely never deprive her of a fruit which would give her such an increase of knowledge, as to make her conclude she was before comparatively blind. (Menochius)
3:6
Menochius
Woman saw, or gazed on with desire and fond dalliance. (Menochius)
Consulting only her senses, which represented the fruit to her as very desirable, and caused her to give credit to the devil's insinuations, rather than to the express word of God. Do not unbelievers the like, when they refuse to admit the real presence and transubstantiation, though they cannot be ignorant, that this way of proceeding always leads to ruin.
Her husband, who, instead of reproving her for her rashness, did eat, through excessive fondness, not being able to plead ignorance, or that he was deceived. "Earth trembled from her entrails, sky loured, and muttering thunder, some sad drops wept at completing of the mortal sin."
Calmet
(Genesis 2:14.) In what light soever we consider the fault of this unhappy pair, it is truly enormous: the precept was so easy and just, the attempt to be like God in knowledge so extravagant, that nothing but pride could have suggested such woeful disobedience. By the disobedience of one man, many were made sinners, Romans 5:19. This ruin of himself, and of all his posterity, Adam could not hide from his own eyes, Genesis 2:17. (Calmet)
3:7
Challoner
And the eyes, etc. Not that they were blind before, (for the woman saw that the tree was fair to the eyes, ver. 6.) nor yet that their eyes were opened to any more perfect knowledge of good; but only to the unhappy experience of having lost the good of original grace and innocence, and incurred the dreadful evil of sin. From whence followed a shame of their being naked; which they minded not before; because being now stript of original grace, they quickly began to be subject to the shameful rebellions of the flesh. (Challoner)
Milton
Behold the noble acquisition of experimental knowledge! This is supposed to have taken place about a week after they had enjoyed the sweets of innocence and of Paradise, that they might afterwards be moved to repentance, when they contrasted their subsequent misery with those few golden days. They saw that they had received a dreadful wound, even in their natural perfections, and that their soul was despoiled of grace, which, of themselves, they could never regain. O! what confusion must now have seized upon them! "Confounded long they say, as stricken mute." (Milton)
Haydock
(Haydock) Aprons, or they interwove tender branches covered with leaves round their middle; a practice, which even the wild Indians and Americans observed, when they were discovered by Columbus. They will rise up in condemnation of those pretended civilized nations, who, like the Greeks, could wrestle or bathe quite naked, without any sense of shame. (Haydock)
Calmet
Adam's fig-tree, in Egypt, has leaves above a yard long, and two feet broad. (Calmet)
3:8
Afternoon air. God's presence has often been indicated by an unusual wind. (3 Kings 19:12; Acts 2:2.) The sovereign judge will not suffer the day to pass over, without bringing our first parents to a sense of their fault. They hid themselves, loving darkness now, because their works were evil.
3:9
Calmet
Where. In what state have thy sins placed thee, that thou shouldst flee from thy God? (St. Ambrose, C. 14) Some think it was the Son of God who appeared on this occasion, St. Augustine; etc. or an Angel. (Calmet)
3:10
Menochius
Afraid. The just man is first to accuse himself: But Adam seeks for excuses in his sin: he throws the blame on his wife, and ultimately on God. (Menochius)
Haydock
Thou gavest me. Heretics have since treated the Sovereign Good with the like insolence; saying plainly, that God is the author of sin, and that the crime of Judas is no less his work than the conversion of St. Paul. See Calvin's works, and many of the first reformers, Luther, etc. cited. (Exodus 8:15.) (Haydock)
3:13
Menochius
The serpent, which thou hast made so cunning, and placed with us, deceived me. God deigns not to answer their frivolous excuses. (Menochius)
3:14
St. Chrysostom
Cursed. This curse falls upon the natural serpent, as the instrument of the devil; who is also cursed at the same time by the Holy Ghost. What was natural to the serpent and to man in a state of innocence, (as to creep, etc. to submit to the dominion of the husband, etc.) becomes a punishment after the fall. (St. Chrysostom)
Tirinus
There was no enmity, before, between man and any of God's creatures; nor were they noxious to him. (Tirinus)
Menochius
The devil seems now to crawl, because he no longer aspires after God and heavenly things, but aims at wickedness and mean deceit. (Menochius)
3:15
Challoner
She shall crush. Ipsa, the woman: so divers of the fathers read this place, conformably to the Latin: others read it ipsum, viz. the seed. The sense is the same: for it is by her seed, Jesus Christ, that the woman crushes the serpent's head. (Challoner)
Haydock
The Hebrew text, as Bellarmine observes, is ambiguous: He mentions one copy which had ipsa instead of ipsum; and so it is even printed in the Hebrew interlineary edition, 1572, by Plantin, under the inspection of Boderianus. Whether the Jewish editions ought to have more weight with Christians, or whether all the other manuscripts conspire against this reading, let others inquire. The fathers who have cited the old Italic version, taken from the Septuagint agree with the Vulgate, which is followed by almost all the Latins; and hence we may argue with probability, that the Septuagint and the Hebrew formerly acknowledged ipsa, which now moves the indignation of Protestants so much, as if we intended by it to give any divine honour to the blessed Virgin Mary. We believe, however, with St. Epiphanius, that "it is no less criminal to vilify the holy Virgin, than to glorify her above measure." We know that all the power of the mother of God is derived from the merits of her Son. We are no otherwise concerned about the retaining of ipsa, she, in this place, than in as much as we have yet no certain reason to suspect its being genuine. As some words have been corrected in the Vulgate since the Council of Trent by Pope Sixtus V. and others, by Pope Clement VIII. so, if, upon stricter search, it be found that it, and not she, is the true reading, we shall not hesitate to admit the correction: but we must wait in the mean time respectfully, till our superiors determine. (Haydock) Kemnitzius certainly advanced a step too far, when he said that all the ancient fathers read ipsum. Victor, Avitus, St. Augustine, St. Gregory, etc. mentioned in the Douay Bible, will convict him of falsehood. Christ crushed the serpent's head by his death, suffering himself to be wounded in the heel. His blessed mother crushed him likewise, by her co-operation in the mystery of the Incarnation; and by rejecting, with horror, the very first suggestions of the enemy, to commit even the smallest sin. (St. Bernard, ser. 2, on Missus est.) "We crush," says St. Gregory, Mor. 1. 38, "the serpent's head, when we extirpate from our heart the beginnings of temptation, and then he lays snares for our heel, because he opposes the end of a good action with greater craft and power." The serpent may hiss and threaten; he cannot hurt, if we resist him. (Haydock)
3:16
St. Augustine
And thy conceptions. Septuagint, "thy groaning." The multifarious sorrows of childbearing, must remind all mothers (the blessed Virgin Mary alone excepted) of what they have incurred by original sin. If that had not taken place, they would have conceived without concupiscence, and brought forth without sorrow. (St. Augustine, City of God 14:26.)
Haydock
Conceptions are multiplied on account of the many untimely deaths, in our fallen state. Power, which will sometimes be exercised with rigor. (Haydock)
3:17
Haydock
Thy work, sin; thy perdition is from thyself: this is all that man can challenge for his own. (Haydock)
3:18
Calmet
Thorns, etc. These were created at first, but they would have easily been kept under: now they grow with surprising luxuriancy, and the necessaries of life can be procured only with much labour. All men here are commanded to work, each in his proper department. The Jews were careful to teach their children some trade or useful occupation. St. Paul made tents, and proclaims, If any man will not work, neither let him eat, 2 Thessalonians 3:10. (Calmet)
3:19
Haydock
Dust, as to the visible part; and thy soul created out of nothing. This might serve to correct that pride, by which Adam had fallen; and the same humbling truths are repeated to us by the Church every Ash-Wednesday, to guard us against the same contagion, the worm of pride, to which we are all so liable. Thus Adam was again assured that he should die the death, with which God had threatened him, and which the devil had told Eve would not be inflicted. (Ver. 4.) God created man incorruptible, (inexterminabilem, immortal). But by the envy of the devil, death came into the world, Wisdom 2:23. (Haydock)
3:20
Calmet
The living. Hebrew chai, one who brings forth alive, (Symmachus,) or one who imparts life, in which she was a figure of the blessed Virgin Mary. (Calmet)
Haydock
Adam gives his wife this new name, in gratitude for not being cut off by death on the very day of his transgression, as he had every reason to expect and fear he would have been, Genesis 2:17. (Haydock)
Kennicott
The printed Hebrew reads here, and in many other place, Eva, he, instead of Eja, she; thus, He was the mother, ver. 12, he gave, etc. an inaccuracy unknown to the Samaritan and the best manuscripts copies. (Kennicott.)
3:21
Haydock
Of skins, which Adam took from the beasts which he offered in sacrifice to his merciful Judge, testifying thereby that he had forfeited his life, and uniting himself to that sacrifice of the woman's promised seed, by which alone he believed the sin of the world was to be expiated. (Haydock)
3:22
Challoner
Behold Adam, etc. This was spoken by way of reproaching him with his pride, in affecting a knowledge that might make him like to God. (Challoner)
St. Augustine
"These are the words of God, not insulting over man, but deterring others from an imitation of his pride." (St. Augustine, de Gen. 11:39.)
Menochius
For ever. The sentence is left imperfect: (Calmet) but by driving man from Paradise, God sufficiently shewed how he would prevent him from eating of the tree of life, (Haydock) which Adam had not yet found. As he was now condemned to be miserable on earth, God, in mercy, prevented him from tasting of that fruit, which would have rendered his misery perpetual. (Menochius)
Haydock
He would suffer him to die, that, by death, he might come, after a life of 930 years, spent in sorrow and repentance, to the enjoyment of himself. (Haydock)
Worthington
Lest perhaps. God does not exercise his absolute power, or destroy free-will, but makes use of ordinary means and precautions, to effect his designs. (St. Augustine) (Worthington)
3:24
Cherubims. Angels of the highest order, and of a very complex figure, unlike any one living creature. Theodoret supposes that God forced Adam to retire from that once charming abode, by the apparition of hideous spectres. The devils were also hindered from coming hither, lest they should pluck the fruit of the tree of life, and by promising immortality, should attract men to their service. The flaming sword, might be a fire rising out of the earth, of which Grotius thinks the pits, near Babylon, are still vestiges. These dreadful indications of the divine wrath would probably disappear, when Paradise had lost its superior beauty, and became confounded with the surrounding countries
Calmet
Thus we have seen how rapidly Moses describes the creation of all things, the fall of man, and the promised redemption. But in these few lines, we discover a solution of the many difficulties which have perplexed the learned, respecting these most important subjects. We know that the world is not the effect of chance, but created and governed by divine Providence. We are no longer at a loss to explain the surprising contrast of good and evil, observable in the same man. When we have attentively considered the Old Adam and the New[New Adam, Jesus Christ], we find a clue to lead us through all the labyrinths of our Holy Religion. We could wish, perhaps, for a greater detail in Moses, but he left the rest to be supplied by tradition. He has thrown light enough upon the subjects, to guide the well-disposed, and has left sufficient darkness to humble and to confound the self-conceited and wicked, who love darkness rather than the light. (Calmet)
Haydock
Concerning the transactions of these early times, parents would no doubt be careful to instruct their children, by word of mouth, before any of the Scriptures were written; and Moses might derive much information from the same source, as a very few persons formed the chain of tradition, when they lived so many hundred years. Adam would converse with Mathusalem, who knew Sem, as the latter lived in the days of Abram. Isaac, Joseph, and Amram, the father of Moses, were contemporaries: so that seven persons might keep up the memory of things which had happened 2500 years before. But to entitle these accounts to absolute authority, the inspiration of God intervenes; and thus we are convinced, that no word of sacred writers can be questioned. (Haydock)
3:7
And the eyes, etc.... Not that they were blind before, (for the woman saw that the tree was fair to the eyes, ver. 6.) nor yet that their eyes were opened to any more perfect knowledge of good; but only to the unhappy experience of having lost the good of original grace and innocence, and incurred the dreadful evil of sin. From whence followed a shame of their being naked; which they minded not before; because being now stript of original grace, they quickly began to be subject to the shameful rebellions of the flesh.
3:15
She shall crush.... Ipsa, the woman; so divers of the fathers read this place, conformably to the Latin: others read it ipsum, viz., the seed. The sense is the same: for it is by her seed, Jesus Christ, that the woman crushes the serpent’s head.
3:22
Behold Adam, etc.... This was spoken by way of reproaching him with his pride, in affecting a knowledge that might make him like to God.
3:1
1 VVhy hath God? [Here we may see how sinne came first amongst men. For Sinne entred among men by the enuie & craft of the diuel, man cō senting to his suggestions. Eue first sined in thought, then in words last in deedes. the diuel enuying mās happie state tempted Eue the weaker person, beginning Cap. 2. 24. Ioan. 8, 44. S. Aug. lib. 14. deciuit. c. 11. Rupert. li. de Trinit. & operibus eius c. 4. with a question, therby to allure her into conference, and by such a question as might bring her into suspition of Gods affection towards man, saying: VVhy hath God commanded you, that you should not eate of euerie tree of paradise? insinuating by these words, and withal internally suggesting, that God dealt hardly with them, abridging their libertie without cause. And when he had got so much of her, that she was displeased with the precept, which she shewed by adding of her owne (to make it seme more greuous) that they were forbidden to touch the tree: and againe by reporting the punishment as doubtful, saying: lest perhaps vve dye, then the tempter auouched boldly, and falsly, that they should not dye, and charged God to be enuious of the benefite they should get by eating of that tree, saying their eyes should be opened, and they should be as Goddes, knowing good and euil. Vpon which perswasion, and liking also she had to the fruite, she did take and eate, and perswaded Adam also to eate. And forthwith Bad sequels of sinne. they saw that they would not haue seene, knew euil which they had better Lib. de vera Religione c. 14. Lib. 1. Retract. c. 13. not to haue knowen, were ashamed, and endeuored to couer, and hide them selues. Euen thus the diuel dealeth with men euer since, assaulting the weaker persons, and weaker part, as the flesh and sensualitie, and by them setteth vpon No sinne can be without freewil. the stronger and superior part, to get consent of freewil, without which there is no sinne. According to that famous saying of S. Augustin: Pe•atum adeo est voluntarium, vt nullo modo sit peccatum, si non voluntarium. Sinne is so voluntarie, that in no vvise it can be sinne, if it be not voluntarie. wherfore it was no sinne in Eue to Concupiscēce no sinne, but the effect, and occasion of sinne. Also occasion of merite. be tempted by the serpent, which she could not auoide, nor in Adam to be tempted by Eue, but they sinned when they consented to the euil suggestions. And S Aug. lib. 1. de nupt. & con. c. 23. Gal. 5. 2 Tim. 2. now in the regenerate, though concupiscence remaine, which is the effect of sinne past, & occasion of sinne in those that yeld againe to tētations, yet is it not sinne, but punishment of sinne, and matter of exercise in the iust, and if we resist, of merite: and therfore S. Paul exhorteth vs, to vvalle in the spirite, and the lusts of the flesh vve shal not accomplish. And in an other place sheweth, that he vvhich fighteth lavvfully, shal be crovvned.
Serpēts most craftie to escape harme, when they hurt men: so is the diuel.
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Concordance 2. Cor. 11. 3.
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Concordance Eccl. 25. 1. Tim. 2, 14.
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After sinne they were ashamed, not before S. Chris.
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Al this curse perteineth to the diuel that spake in the serpēt. S. Aug, l. 2. de Gen. ad lit. cap. 36. S. Beda in hunc locum.
Earthlie or worldlie and carnal men S. Greg. in Psal. 101.
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15. She shal bruise] Protestants wil not admitte this reading, ipsa conteret, she The Latin text defended against Kemnisius and other Protestants. See Card. Bellarmin. li. 2. c. 12. de verbo Dei. Both readings veld the same sense. shal bruise, lest our Blessed Ladie should be said anie way to bruise the serpents head. And Kemnisius amongst others saith, that al ancient Fathers read, ipsum, not, ipsa. But he is conuinced of lying by Claudius Marius Victor. lib. 1. in Gen. Alcimus Auitus lib. 3. carm. c. 6. S. Chrisostom bom. 17. in Genes. S. Ambrose lib de fuga saeculi cap. 7. S. Augustin lib. 2. de Genesi contra Manichaeos, cap. 18 & lib. 11. de Genesi ad literam cap. 26. S. Gregorie lib. 1. Moralium cap. 38. And after them S. Bede, Eucherius, Rabanus, Rupertus, Strabus, and Lira vpon this place, S. Bernard ser 2. super Misus est. And manie others, who read ipsa as the Latin text now hath.
But whether we read, She shal bruise, or, her sede, that is her sonne Christ, shal bruise the serpents head, we attribute no more, nor no lesse to Christ, nor to our Ladie by the one reading, then by the other: for by the text, I vvil put enmities betvven thee and the vvoman, betvven thy seede, and her seede. It is clere, that this enmitie and battle pertained to the woman and her seede on the one partie, and to this diuel, that spake by the serpent, and al the wicked, on the other partie, and that the victorie should happen to mankind. VVhich being captiue by Adams sinne, occasioned by a woman, should be redeemed, both As Adam was the cause, and ••e an occasion of mans captiuitie: so Christ is the true cause and his mother an occasion of our restauration. sexes, though in farre different sorte, concurring therto. And so it is most true, that Christ by his owne proper powre, and his blessed mother by her most immediate cooperating to his Incarnation (and consequently to other Misteries) did bruise the serpents head, breake and vanquish his powre. S ⸢Ir⸣eneus li 3. c. 33. & lib. 5. circa med, S. Epiph, Haer. 78. S. Ieron. ep 22. ad Eustoch. S. Aug. (or S. Fulgent) ser. 18 de Sanctis. de fide & Symb. de Agone Christiano. Ser. 2. super Missus est. As manie ancient Fathers do excellently discourse: namely S. Bernard, writing vpon these wordes in the Apocalips. cap. 12. A great signe appeared in heauen, a vvoman clothed vvith the sunne: Albeit (saith he) by one man and one woman we were greatly damaged: yet (God be thanked) by one man and one woman al losses are repaired, and that not without great increase of graces. For the benefite doth farre excede the losse. Our merciful father geuing vs for a terrestrial Adam Christ our Redemer, & for old Eue Gods owne mother. Moreouer Our B. Ladie resisted al euil suggestions. as the same S. Bernard sheweth, this blessed Virgin in singular sorte bruised the serpents head, in that she quite vanquished al maner suggestions of the wicked serpēt, neuer yelding to, not taking delight in anie euil moued by him.
Though good men resist tentations at the first assaults, and so bruise the serpēts head, yet he ••••o•eth stil to deceiue especially in the end of mans life. signified by the •eele. S Gre. in cap. 1. Iob.
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Concordance 1. Cor. 14.
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Al men trauel one way or other: & such as suffer wides to ouergrowe (in their souls) shal after this life either sustaine the fyre of Purgatorie or eternal paine. S. Aug. li 2. c. 20. de Gen. cō. Man.
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19. Dust thou art] By these wordes Adam was admonished to humble him selfe, considering the matter wherof his bodie was made, and into which he Iob 42. Esai. 58. Ierem. 6. Ionae. 3. Mat. 11. should be resolued againe. wherupon it came to be a ceremonie amongst penitents, The ceremonie of ashes, on Ashwenesday. to cast ashes on their heads. As appeareth in holie Scriptures for which cause the Church now also vseth this ceremonie the first day of Lent, putting ashes on her childrens heades: willing them to remember, that dust they are, and to dust they shal returne, to moue vs by this meditation to more serious penance.
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She was mother rather of al the dying: but in figure of our B. Lady who is mother of Christ, life it selfe, she is called mother of the liuing. S. Epiph. her. 78.
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22. ••st perhaps] Notwithstanding Gods eternal decree in disposing al Gods prouidence concurreth with mans free wil. thinges, and his omnipotencie which nothing can resist, yet he produceth good, and either auoideth or disposeth of euil which he suffereth, by ordinarie meanes, as appeareth Act. 27, v. 31. and that because man hath free wil, with de grat. & liber. arb. c. 6. de corrept. & grat. ad art. falso impos. which God concurreth, & destroyeth not nor forceth. as S. Augustin teacheth.
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24. Placed Cherubins] Man being cast out of paradise, the same is defended Paradise defended by Angels and by fire & sworde. God destroyeth not nature with duble gard. with Angels, that are watchful, wise, and potent; and with fire and sword, most terrible armoure to man. wherby againe we see, that God vseth ordinarie meanes in his prouidence, as the ministrie of Angels & humane terror, and would neither destroy the tree, nor depriue it of the vertue to prolong life, nor bereue man of freewil, by which he might desire to returne: but conseruing nature in al creatures, preuenteth inconueniences otherwise. Good Angels hinder diuels of their desires.
These Angels also hinder the diuel, that he can not enter paradise, lest he S. Aug. lib. 11. de Gen ad lit. c. 40. should take of the fruite of the tree, and geue it to men to prolong their liues, and therby draw them to his seruice.
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St Irenaeus of Lyons † AD 202 Against Heresies 5.23
… 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;” he then, lying against the Lord, tempted man, as the Scripture says that the serpent said to the woman: “Has God indeed said this, Ye shall not eat from every tree of the garden?”
Tertullian † AD 220 An Answer to the Jews 10
… the prohibition of any “likeness of anything,” set forth a brazen serpent, placed on a “tree,” in a hanging posture, for a spectacle of healing to Israel, at the time when, after their idolatry, they were suffering extermination by serpents, except that in this case he was exhibiting the Lord’s cross on which the “serpent” the devil was “made a show of,”
Tertullian † AD 220 Appendix: Against All Heresies 2
To these are added those heretics likewise who are called Ophites : for they magnify the serpent to such a degree, that they prefer him even to Christ Himself; for it was he, they say, who gave us the origin of the knowledge of good and of evil.
Tertullian † AD 220 A Strain of Sodom 1
His wife (ah me, for woman! even then
St Hippolytus † AD 235 Treatise on Christ and Antichrist 14
… For as Christ springs from the tribe of Judah, so Antichrist is to spring from the tribe of Dan. And that the case stands thus, we see also from the words of Jacob: “Let Dan be a serpent, lying upon the ground, biting the horse’s heel.” What, then, is meant by the serpent but Antichrist, that deceiver who is mentioned in Genesis,
St John Chrysostom † AD 407 Three Homilies Concerning the Power of Demons 3.3
… But from this man he took not away anything, great or little of his possessions. But let us rather examine the very words and the method of the plot. “The serpent came” saith he “and said to the woman, What is it that God hath said, ye shall not eat of every tree which is in the garden?”
St Jerome † AD 420 Jerome's Apology for Himself Against the Books of Rufinus 1.24
… and so the conduct of the unjust steward in the Gospel is spoken of as wise. Moreover “The children of this world are wiser than the children of light,” and
St Jerome † AD 420 The Letters of St. Jerome 3.5
5. What snares, think you, is the devil now weaving? What stratagems is he preparing? Perchance, mindful of his old trick,
St Jerome † AD 420 The Letters of St. Jerome 22.29
29. Many are the stratagems which the wily enemy employs against us. “The serpent,” we are told, “was more subtile than any beast of the field which the Lord God had made.”
St Augustine of Hippo † AD 430 On the Holy Trinity 12.12
… For as in the case of that visible wedlock of the two human beings who were made first, the serpent did not eat of the forbidden tree, but only persuaded them to eat of it; and the woman did not eat alone, but gave to her husband, and they eat together; although she alone spoke with the serpent, and she alone was led away by him:
St Augustine of Hippo † AD 430 On the Holy Trinity 12.13
… but I have desired to find something which the beasts had not; and I have rather thought the bodily sense should be understood to be the serpent, whom we read to have been more subtle than all beasts of the field.
St Augustine of Hippo † AD 430 Lectures or Tractates on the Gospel According to St. John 42.11
… For the devil, in his ill-will to man, assuming the guise of a serpent, spoke to the woman, and from the woman instilled his poison into the man. They died by listening to the devil,
St Augustine of Hippo † AD 430 Ten Homilies on the First Epistle of John 6.7
… he asked for Job, and received. Have ye not here also heard concerning the devil, that “he that committeth sin is of the devil”? Not that the devil created, but that the sinner imitates. Is it not said of him, “He stood not in the truth”? Is not even he “that old serpent,” who, through the woman pledged the first man in the drink of poison?
St Augustine of Hippo † AD 430 Expositions on the Book of Psalms 74.4
… And God saith to him, What dost thou bear in thine hand? A rod. Cast it on to the ground,” etc. What doth it intimate? For this was not done to no purpose. Let us inquire of the writings of God. To what did the serpent persuade man? To death.
St Augustine of Hippo † AD 430 Expositions on the Book of Psalms 78.5
… not so that the substance is changed into anything corporal and temporal, when by means of corporal and temporal signs, whether belonging to the eyes or to the ears, as far as men are able to receive it, He would make His will to be known. For if an angel is able to use air, mist, cloud, fire, and any other natural substance or corporal species;
John Cassian † AD 435 The Conferences of John Cassian 8.10
… “But the serpent was wiser” or as the Hebrew copies express it, “more subtle than all the beasts of the earth, which the Lord God had made.”
St John of Damascus † AD 749 An Exact Exposition of the Orthodox Faith 2.10
… For God set him as ruler over all things on the earth and in the waters. Even the serpent was accustomed to man, and approached him more readily than it did other living creatures, and held intercourse with him with delightful motions . And hence it was through it that the devil, the prince of evil, made his most wicked suggestion to our first parents
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St Irenaeus of Lyons † AD 202 Against Heresies 5.23
… “Has God indeed said this, Ye shall not eat from every tree of the garden?” And when she had exposed the falsehood, and simply related the command, as He had said, “From every tree of the garden we shall eat; but of the fruit of the tree which is in the midst of the garden, God hath said, Ye shall not eat of it, neither shall ye touch it, lest ye die:”
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Tertullian † AD 220 The Five Books Against Marcion 4.38
… Some Marcion, in rivalry to Marcion, would have stood up and said: O most excellent God; how different are his ways from the Creator’s! Knowing that men would rush down headlong over it, He placed them actually on the very precipice. For thus do men treat of the Creator respecting His law of the tree.
St Methodius † AD 311 The Banquet of the Ten Virgins; or Concerning Chastity 7.5
… For they remembered that in six days God formed the creation, and those things which were made in paradise; and how man, receiving a command not to touch the tree of knowledge, ran aground, the author of evil having led him astray.
St Gregory of Nazianzus † AD 389 Select Orations of Saint Gregory Nazianzen 2.25
25. This is why the heathen rage and the peoples imagine vain things; why tree
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St Irenaeus of Lyons † AD 202 Against Heresies 5.23
… for God knew that in the day ye shall eat of it your eyes shall be opened, and ye shall be as gods, knowing good and evil.”
St John Chrysostom † AD 407 Three Homilies Concerning the Power of Demons 3.4
… She gave the holy things to the dog, to the swine. He trod under foot the words: and turned and rent the woman. And see how he works evil. “Ye shall not die the death” saith he.
St John Chrysostom † AD 407 Homilies on First Corinthians 7
… For if, being such as she is, she aspire to have need of nothing and withdraw herself from God; suppose her not fallen into that condition, and into what extreme madness would she not have insensibly sunk? If, endowed with a mortal body, she expected greater things from the false promise of the Devil—(for, “Ye shall be,” said he, “as gods”
St Augustine of Hippo † AD 430 On the Holy Trinity 12.8
… naked from that enlightenment of truth, and with the eyes of their conscience opened to behold how they were left shameful and unseemly, like the leaves of sweet fruits, but without the fruits themselves, they so weave together good words without the fruit of good works, as while living wickedly to cover over their disgrace as it were by speaking well.
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St Hippolytus † AD 235 The Refutation of All Heresies 10.30
… And thou shalt receive the kingdom of heaven, thou who, whilst thou didst sojourn in this life, didst know the Celestial King. And thou shalt be a companion of the Deity, and a co-heir with Christ, no longer enslaved by lusts or passions, and never again wasted by disease. For thou hast become God:
Origen † AD 254 Origen Against Celsus 7.39
… when it is said of the woman, “The woman saw that the tree was good for food, and that it was pleasant to the eyes, and a tree to be desired to make one wise;” and again not seeing, as when he introduces the serpent saying to the woman, as if she and her husband had been blind, “God knows that on the day that ye eat thereof your eyes shall be opened;”
Novatian † AD 258 A Treatise of Novatian Concerning the Trinity 20
… And what in the world is the reason, that although they say that this name was given even to Moses, since it is said, “I have made thee as a god to Pharaoh,” it should be denied to Christ, who is declared to be ordained
Archelaus † fl. AD 278 The Acts of the Disputation with the Heresiarch Manes 33
… while through Cain, on the other hand, he effected the beginning of murder, introducing himself into the firstlings of the “fruits,” which that man administered so badly. From this the devil has been called a murderer from the beginning, and also a liar, because he deceived the parties to whom he said, “Ye shall be as gods;”
St Gregory of Nazianzus † AD 389 Select Orations of Saint Gregory Nazianzen 38
… But when through the Devil’s malice and the woman’s caprice, to which she succumbed as the more tender, and which she brought to bear upon the man, as she was the more apt to persuade, alas for my weakness! (for that of my first father was mine), he forgot the Commandment which had been given to him;
St Gregory of Nyssa † AD 395 On the Making of Man 20.4
… “and the woman saw,” it says, “that the tree was good for food, and that it was pleasant to the eyes to behold, and fair to see; and she took of the fruit thereof and did eat
St John Chrysostom † AD 407 The Homilies on the Statues to the People of Antioch 11.3
… and instead of permitting it to proceed any further, He admonished Him by actual experience, that he was mortal and corruptible; thus to convince him that he must never again think or dream of such things as he had done. For the devil’s suggestion, was, “Ye shall be as gods.”
St John Chrysostom † AD 407 The Homilies of St. John Chrysostom 13
What can the reason be, that at each temptation He adds this, “If Thou be Son of God?” Much the same as he did in that former case, he doth also at this time. That is, as he then slandered God, saying, “In the day ye eat, your eyes shall be opened;”
St John Chrysostom † AD 407 The Homilies of St. John Chrysostom on Paul's Epistle to the Romans 10
… In this way it was that he suborned Job’s wife, by putting on the mask of natural affectionateness, to give that wretchless advice. And so when conversing with Adam, he puts on the air of one concerned and watching over his interests, and saith, that “your eyes shall be opened in the day that ye eat of the tree.” (
St John Chrysostom † AD 407 Homilies on Second Corinthians 2
… But he calleth him adversary and accuser, because he both accuseth God to man and us to God, and us again one to another. For at one time he accused Job to God, saying, “Doth Job serve the Lord for nought?” ( Job i. 9 . LXX. ver. 16.) at another time God to Job, “Fire came down from heaven.” And again, God to Adam, (
St John Chrysostom † AD 407 Homilies on 2 Timothy 8
If any now takes offense at the existence of heretics, let him remember that it was so from the beginning, the devil always setting up error by the side of truth. God from the beginning promised good, the devil came too with a promise. God planted Paradise, the devil deceived, saying, “Ye shall be as gods.” (
St John Chrysostom † AD 407 The Homilies of St. John Chrysostom on the Gospel of St. John 54
“And abode not in the truth.” That is, in the right life. For since they continually accused Him of not being from God, He telleth them that this also is from thence. For the devil first was the father of a lie, when he said, “In the day that ye eat thereof your eyes shall be opened” (
St Augustine of Hippo † AD 430 City of God 14.13
The devil, then, would not have ensnared man in the open and manifest sin of doing what God had forbidden, had man not already begun to live for himself. It was this that made him listen with pleasure to the words, “Ye shall be as gods,”
St Augustine of Hippo † AD 430 City of God 22.30
… There shall we be still, and know that He is God; that He is that which we ourselves aspired to be when we fell away from Him, and listened to the voice of the seducer, “Ye shall be as gods,”
St Augustine of Hippo † AD 430 On the Holy Trinity 11.5
… but if a faulty likeness, then certainly a debased and perverse one. For even souls in their very sins strive after nothing else but some kind of likeness of God, in a proud and preposterous, and, so to say, slavish liberty. So neither could our first parents have been persuaded to sin unless it had been said, “Ye shall be as gods.”
St Augustine of Hippo † AD 430 A Treatise on Faith and the Creed 4
… For by no other path was it possible for us to return but by humility, who fell by pride, according as it was said to our first creation, “Taste, and ye shall be as gods.”
St Augustine of Hippo † AD 430 A Treatise on Nature and Grace 33
… and afterwards, when his malice and envy pursued man, who was yet standing in his uprightness, it subverted him in the same way in which he himself fell. For the serpent, in fact, only sought for the door of pride whereby to enter when he said, “Ye shall be as gods.”
St Augustine of Hippo † AD 430 On Marriage and Concupiscence 1.7
… Such, then, was “the opening of his eyes” which the serpent had promised him in his temptation
St Augustine of Hippo † AD 430 Lectures or Tractates on the Gospel According to St. John 17.16
… Were He to make Himself equal, He would fall by robbery. For he who wished to make himself equal with God, whilst he was not so, fell, and of an angel became a devil, and administered to man that cup of pride by which himself was cast down. For this fallen said to man, envying his standing, “Taste, and ye shall be as gods;”
St Augustine of Hippo † AD 430 Expositions on the Book of Psalms 7.5
… and first fulfil what Thou hast enjoined; that men by Thy example overcoming pride may not be possessed of the devil, who against Thy commandments advised to pride, saying, “Eat, and your eyes shall be opened, and ye shall be as gods.”
St Augustine of Hippo † AD 430 Expositions on the Book of Psalms 36.15
… For the same was not wanting to Adam, the first man: but the foot of pride came against him, and the hand of the sinner removed him, that is, the proud hand of the devil. As he who seduced him, said of himself, “I will sit in the sides of the north;” so he persuaded him, by saying, “Taste, and ye shall be as gods.”
St Augustine of Hippo † AD 430 Expositions on the Book of Psalms 71.23
23. And man exalteth himself: and in order that he may belong to the first captivity, he heareth the serpent suggesting, “Taste, and ye shall be as Gods.”
St Augustine of Hippo † AD 430 Expositions on the Book of Psalms 91.3
… Who is this? He dwelleth under the defence of the Most High, who is not proud, like those who ate, that they might become as Gods, and lost the immortality in which they were made. For they chose to dwell under a defence of their own, not under that of the Most High: thus they listened to the suggestions of the serpent,
St Augustine of Hippo † AD 430 Expositions on the Book of Psalms 119.5
… but φιλαργυρία , by which is signified “love of money.” But the Apostle must be understood to have meant genus by species when he used this word, that is, to have meant avarice universally and generally by love of money, which is truly the root of all evils.
John Cassian † AD 435 The Conferences of John Cassian 5.6
… For it was gluttony through which he took the fruit of the forbidden tree, vainglory through which it was said “Your eyes shall be opened,” and pride through which it was said “Ye shall be as gods, knowing good and evil.”
John Cassian † AD 435 The Conferences of John Cassian 8.25
… “I will ascend above the heights of the clouds, I will be like the Most High,” he became a liar, and “abode not in the truth;” but brought forth a lie from his own storehouse of wickedness and so became not only a liar, but also the father of the actual lie, by which when he promised Divinity to man and said “Ye shall be as gods,”
Pseudo-Clement The Recognitions of Clement 2.39
… But that there are many gods, the law itself informs me. For, in the first place, it says this in the passage where one in the figure of a serpent speaks to Eve, the first woman, ‘On the day ye eat of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, ye shall be as gods,’
Pseudo-Clement The Clementine Homilies 16.6
… and then, when they had thus looked up, God said, ‘Behold, Adam is become as one of us.’ When, then, the serpent said,
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Tertullian † AD 220 On Prayer 22
… but if Israel did not observe it, our Law, amplified and supplemented, would vindicate the addition for itself; let it be excused for imposing the veil on virgins also. Under our dispensation, let that age which is ignorant of its sex retain the privilege of simplicity. For both Eve and Adam, when it befell them to be “wise,”
Tertullian † AD 220 On Modesty 6
… not yet was it worthy of the gift of salvation; not yet apt for the office of sanctity. It was still, up to that time, accounted as being in Adam , with its own vicious nature, easily indulging concupiscence after whatever it had seen to be “attractive to the sight,”
Origen † AD 254 Origen Against Celsus 7.39
… for Moses, in his account of the creation of the world, introduces man before his transgression as both seeing and not seeing: seeing, when it is said of the woman, “The woman saw that the tree was good for food, and that it was pleasant to the eyes, and a tree to be desired to make one wise;”
Aphrahat † AD 346 Aphrahat: Select Demonstrations 6.3
3. For it was through Eve that he came in upon Adam,
St Gregory of Nazianzus † AD 389 Select Orations of Saint Gregory Nazianzen 2.25
25. This is why the heathen rage and the peoples imagine vain things; why tree is set over against tree, hands against hand, the one stretched out in self indulgence,
St Gregory of Nazianzus † AD 389 Select Orations of Saint Gregory Nazianzen 37
VII. How then dost thou demand Chastity, while thou dost not thyself observe it? How dost thou demand that which thou dost not give? How, though thou art equally a body, dost thou legislate unequally? If thou enquire into the worse—The Woman Sinned, and so did Adam.
St Ambrose of Milan † AD 397 Selections from the Letters of St. Ambrose 20.17
17. So, then, we are prepared by the imperial commands, but are strengthened by the words of Scripture, which replies: “Thou hast spoken as one of the foolish.” That temptation then is no light one, for, we know that those temptations are more severe which arise through women. For even Adam
St John Chrysostom † AD 407 A Commentary on the Acts of the Apostles 54
… that so we may bear the former courageously, but not the latter. And besides, the whole thing there was Adam’s own doing. Wherefore didst thou the woman’s bidding? (
St Augustine of Hippo † AD 430 City of God 14.17
… not yet did the flesh by its disobedience testify against the disobedience of man. For they were not created blind, as the unenlightened vulgar fancy; for Adam saw the animals to whom he gave names, and of Eve we read, “The woman saw that the tree was good for food, and that it was pleasant to the eyes.”
St Augustine of Hippo † AD 430 A Treatise on the Merits and Forgiveness of Sins, and on the Baptism of Infants 1.56
… that there is, therefore, no reconciliation except by the remission of sins, through the one grace of the most merciful Saviour,—through the one sacrifice of the most veritable Priest; and that none who are born of the woman, that trusted the serpent and so was corrupted through desire,
St Augustine of Hippo † AD 430 On Marriage and Concupiscence 1.6
… and—absurder still—obtained sight, not as dogs do, by growing, but by sinning? Far be it from us to entertain such an opinion. But they gather that opinion of theirs from reading: “She took of the fruit thereof, and did eat; and gave also unto her husband with her, and he did eat: and the eyes of them both were opened, and they knew that they were naked.”
St Augustine of Hippo † AD 430 Lectures or Tractates on the Gospel According to St. John 73.1
… although they would not actually make the request, but murmured because it was wanting. But to let us know that the wrong lies not with any creature of God, but with obstinate disobedience and inordinate desire, it was not in swine’s flesh that the first man found death, but in an apple;
St Augustine of Hippo † AD 430 Expositions on the Book of Psalms 69.5
… God made man, He made substance; and O that he had continued in that which God made Him! If man had continued in that which God made him, in him would not have been fixed He whom God begot. But moreover because through iniquity man fell from the substance wherein he was made
St Augustine of Hippo † AD 430 Expositions on the Book of Psalms 69.27
… how have they “added,” or what is that smiting of the Lord? Without doubt He is speaking in the person of him from whom He had received a body, from whom He had taken unto Him flesh, that is in the person of mankind, of Adam himself who was smitten with the first death because of his sin.
St Augustine of Hippo † AD 430 Expositions on the Book of Psalms 102.5
… 4 ). Deservedly, since all flesh is grass. But how did this happen unto thee? “Since I have forgotten to eat my bread.” For God had given His commandment for bread. For what is the bread of the soul? The serpent suggesting, and the woman transgressing, he touched the forbidden fruit,
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Tertullian † AD 220 On Modesty 6
… not yet was it worthy of the gift of salvation; not yet apt for the office of sanctity. It was still, up to that time, accounted as being in Adam , with its own vicious nature, easily indulging concupiscence after whatever it had seen to be “attractive to the sight,” and looking back at the lower things, and checking its itching with fig-leaves.
Origen † AD 254 Origen Against Celsus 7.39
… and that it was pleasant to the eyes, and a tree to be desired to make one wise;” and again not seeing, as when he introduces the serpent saying to the woman, as if she and her husband had been blind, “God knows that on the day that ye eat thereof your eyes shall be opened;” and also when it is said, “They did eat, and the eyes of both of them were opened.”
St Methodius † AD 311 The Banquet of the Ten Virgins; or Concerning Chastity 10.2
… And it has likened the fig-tree to the command given to man in paradise, because, when he was deceived, he covered his nakedness with the leaves of a fig-tree;
St Jerome † AD 420 The Letters of St. Jerome 51.5
… 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” for him? Or what bodies can Adam and Eve have covered with fig-leaves after eating of the forbidden tree?
St Augustine of Hippo † AD 430 City of God 14.17
… not yet did the flesh by its disobedience testify against the disobedience of man. For they were not created blind, as the unenlightened vulgar fancy;
St Augustine of Hippo † AD 430 On the Holy Trinity 2.10
… but the thing itself, so far as concerns this testimony of Scripture, where God spake with man, is, in my judgment, not discoverable, because it does not evidently appear even whether Adam usually saw God with the eyes of his body; especially as it is a great question what manner of eyes it was that were opened when they tasted the forbidden fruit;
St Augustine of Hippo † AD 430 A Treatise on the Merits and Forgiveness of Sins, and on the Baptism of Infants 2.36
… and then the man and the woman grew ashamed of their nakedness, when they perceived the rebellious motion of the flesh, which they had not felt before, and which perception is called “the opening of their eyes;”
St Augustine of Hippo † AD 430 A Treatise on the Grace of Christ, and on Original Sin 2.39
… As, therefore, the damnable evil of adultery, whenever man is born in it, is not chargeable on God, who certainly amidst man’s evil work actually produces a good work; so, likewise, all which causes shame in that rebellion of the members which brought the accusing blush on those who after their sin covered these members with the fig-tree leaves,
St Augustine of Hippo † AD 430 A Treatise on the Grace of Christ, and on Original Sin 2.41
… Nor would that have happened which abashed the man and woman when they covered their loins; because in the same sacred records it is expressly written that the sin was first committed, and then immediately followed this hiding of their shame.
St Augustine of Hippo † AD 430 On Marriage and Concupiscence 1.6
… Or did those two disciples, after the Lord’s resurrection, walk in the way with Him with their eyes shut, since the evangelist says of them that “in the breaking of bread their eyes were opened, and they knew Him”? What, therefore, is written concerning the first man and woman, that “the eyes of them both were opened,”
St Augustine of Hippo † AD 430 On Marriage and Concupiscence 1.7
… For it is by an especial propriety that those parts of the body are designated as natural . This, then, was the reason why the first human pair, on experiencing in the flesh that motion which was indecent because disobedient, and on feeling the shame of their nakedness, covered these offending members with fig-leaves;
St Augustine of Hippo † AD 430 On Marriage and Concupiscence 2.14
… For why is the especial work of parents withdrawn and hidden even from the eyes of their children, except that it is impossible for them to be occupied in laudable procreation without shameful lust? Because of this it was that even they were ashamed who first covered their nakedness.
St Augustine of Hippo † AD 430 On Marriage and Concupiscence 2.17
… Since, however, we can ascertain his intention, we are pretty sure that he meant by these words to indicate the lust of the organs of generation. Do not the words in question appear to you to be the fig-leaves, under cover of which is hidden nothing else but that which he feels ashamed of? For just as they of old sewed the leaves together
St Augustine of Hippo † AD 430 On Marriage and Concupiscence 2.36
… For the former would have been quite possible before any antecedent commission of sin, and by it the united pair would not have been made to blush; whereas the latter arose after the perpetration of sin, and they were obliged to hide it, from very shame.
St Augustine of Hippo † AD 430 A Treatise Against Two Letters of the Pelagians 1.32
For they did not use for themselves tunics to cover their whole bodies after their sin, but aprons,
St Augustine of Hippo † AD 430 Sermons on Selected Lessons of the New Testament 19.4
… and will He not see thee in His Light? For what is, “When thou wast under the fig-tree I saw thee”? What does it mean? Call to mind the original sin of Adam, in whom we all die. When he first sinned, he made himself aprons of fig-leaves,
St Augustine of Hippo † AD 430 Sermons on Selected Lessons of the New Testament 60.1
… The fig-tree is the human race. And the three years are the three times; one before the Law, the second under the Law, the third under grace. 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;
St Augustine of Hippo † AD 430 Sermons on Selected Lessons of the New Testament 72.1
… For in this place it is understood that by the fig-tree He signified sin. Not that it always signifies this, but as I have said in this place, in that fitness of significancy, in which ye know that the first man, when he sinned, covered himself with fig leaves. For with these leaves they covered their nakedness when they blushed for their sin;
St Augustine of Hippo † AD 430 Lectures or Tractates on the Gospel According to St. John 7.21
21. We must inquire whether this fig-tree signifies anything. Listen, my brethren. We find the fig-tree cursed because it had leaves only, and not fruit. In the beginning of the human race, when Adam and Eve had sinned, they made themselves girdles of fig leaves.
St Augustine of Hippo † AD 430 Expositions on the Book of Psalms 9.14
… But all highest purposes are the gates of the daughter of Sion, through which we come to the vision of peace in the Holy Church.…Or haply are the gates of death the bodily senses and eyes, which were opened when the man tasted of the forbidden tree,
St John of Damascus † AD 749 An Exact Exposition of the Orthodox Faith 3.1
Man , then, was thus snared by the assault of the arch-fiend, and broke his Creator’s command, and was stripped of grace and put off his confidence with God, and covered himself with the asperities of a toilsome life (for this is the meaning of the fig-leaves
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St Irenaeus of Lyons † AD 202 Against Heresies 5.17.1
… But who is this Being? Is He some unknown one, and a Father who gives no commandment to any one? Or is He the God who is proclaimed in the Scriptures, to whom we were debtors, having transgressed His commandment? Now the commandment was given to man by the Word. For Adam, it is said, “heard the voice of the Lord God.”
St Hippolytus † AD 235 On Genesis 1
Gen. iii. 8 And they heard the voice of the Lord God walking in the garden at even.
Origen † AD 254 Origen Against Celsus 6.64
… “But as for thee, stand thou here by Me.” And if certain expressions indicate a kind of motion, as it were, on His part, such as this, “They heard the voice of the Lord God walking in the garden in the cool of the day,”
St Cyril of Jerusalem † AD 386 The Catechetical Lectures of S. Cyril 13.19
19. And since we have touched on things connected with Paradise, I am truly astonished at the truth of the types. In Paradise was the Fall, and in a Garden was our Salvation. From the Tree came sin, and until the Tree sin lasted. In the evening, when the Lord walked in the Garden, they hid themselves
St Gregory of Nyssa † AD 395 Answer to Eunomius' Second Book 1
… To those who steadfastly take their stand upon righteousness,—that He stands. To those who are seated in righteousness,—that He sits. And again, in the case of those who have moved from their steadfastness in righteousness,—that He moves or walks; as, in the case of Adam, the sacred history records God’s walking in the garden in the cool of the day
St John Chrysostom † AD 407 The Homilies on the Statues to the People of Antioch 8
… But take it not amiss! we will assuredly pay you the debt with interest; for thus it is expedient both for you, and for us who are to discharge it. Meanwhile, however, let us now speak on that subject which we left out yesterday. And what was it we left out yesterday? “God was walking,” it says, “in Paradise in the cool of the day.”
St Augustine of Hippo † AD 430 The Confessions 13.21
… in which ignorance, the mother of admiration, may be intent upon them, in fear of those hidden signs. For such is the entrance unto the faith for the sons of Adam forgetful of Thee, while they hide themselves from Thy face,
St Augustine of Hippo † AD 430 On the Holy Trinity 2.10
… This is not indeed expressly laid down in the book, but the general tenor of its reading sounds in this sense, especially in that which is written, that Adam heard the voice of the Lord God, walking in the garden in the cool of the evening, and hid himself among the trees of the garden; and when God said, “Adam, where art thou?”
St Augustine of Hippo † AD 430 Expositions on the Book of Psalms 1.4
… its pleasures, saith, “Let not the foot of pride come against me.” From this earth pride cast forth him who said, “I will place my seat in the north, and I will be like the Most High.” From the face of the earth it cast forth him also who, after that he had consented and tasted of the forbidden tree that he might be as God, hid himself from the Face of God.
St Augustine of Hippo † AD 430 Expositions on the Book of Psalms 38.14
… But whence that trouble? “My courage faileth me.” Wherefore hath my courage failed me? “The light of mine eyes also is gone from me.” Thus Adam also could not see “the light of his eyes.” For the “light of his eyes” was God Himself, whom when he had offended, he fled to the shade, and hid himself among the trees of Paradise.
Theodoret of Cyrus † AD 458 Dialogues. The “Eranistes” or “Polymorphus” of the Blessed Theodoretus, Bishop of Cyrus 2
Orth. —But your opponent would retort that even in the Old Testament the divine Scripture says many things œconomically, as for instance, “Adam heard the voice of the Lord God walking,”
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St Irenaeus of Lyons † AD 202 Against Heresies 5.15.4
… Wherefore also the Scripture, pointing out what should come to pass, says, that when Adam had hid himself because of his disobedience, the Lord came to him at eventide, called him forth, and said, “Where art thou?”
Tertullian † AD 220 The Five Books Against Marcion 2.25
It is now high time that I should, in order to meet all objections of this kind, proceed to the explanation and clearing up of the other trifles, weak points, and inconsistencies, as you deemed them. God calls out to Adam,
Tertullian † AD 220 Against Praxeas 16
… for our sakes also were they done—(even ours , I say), “upon whom the ends of the world are come.” In this way it was that even then He knew full well what human feelings and affections were, intending as He always did to take upon Him man’s actual component substances, body and soul, making inquiry of Adam (as if He were ignorant), “Where art thou, Adam?”
Tertullian † AD 220 On Fasting 6
… where, when he had made a cave his inn, with how familiar a meeting with God was he received! “What (doest) thou, Elijah, here?” Much more friendly was this voice than, “Adam, where art thou?”
Origen † AD 254 Origen's Commentary on Matthew 10.14
… And there is nothing to be wondered at in the Saviour doing this, since indeed the God of the universe, bearing with the manners of men as a man beareth with the manners of his son, makes inquiry, as—“Adam, where art thou?”
St Hilary of Poitiers † AD 367 Homilies on the Psalms 1
Now God shews clearly in the cases of Adam and Abraham that He does not know sinners, but does know believers. For it was said to Adam when he had sinned: Adam, where art thou
St Athanasius of Alexandria † AD 373 Against the Arians. (Orationes contra Arianos IV.) 3.28
… and they, being thus taught, set right those of Thessalonica when likely on this point to run into error. However, since Christ’s enemies do not yield even to these considerations, I wish, though knowing that they have a heart harder than Pharaoh, to ask them again concerning this. In Paradise God asks, ‘Adam, where art Thou
St Ambrose of Milan † AD 397 Concerning Repentance 2.11
103. So you find Adam concealing himself, when he knew that God was present, and wishing to be hidden when called by God with that voice which wounded the soul of him who was hiding: “Adam, where art thou?”
St Ambrose of Milan † AD 397 Selections from the Letters of St. Ambrose 20.17
… For even Adam was overthrown by Eve, whereby it came to pass that he erred from the Divine commandments. And when he recognized his error, feeling the reproach of a guilty conscience, he would fain have hidden himself, but he could not be hidden, and so God said to him: “Adam, where art thou?”
St John Chrysostom † AD 407 The Homilies on the Statues to the People of Antioch 7.7
7. But God, willing to show even by this that sin had not quenched His tenderness, nor disobedience taken away His favor toward him, and that He still exercised His Providence and care for the fallen one, said, “Adam, where art thou?”
St John Chrysostom † AD 407 The Homilies of St. John Chrysostom 74
And the Father too will be found to be saying such things. For He Himself likewise saith, “Adam, where art thou?”
St John Chrysostom † AD 407 The Homilies of St. John Chrysostom on the Gospel of St. John 64
[2.] And why say I that the Son did this, when the Father also who took not the flesh doeth the same thing? For He also endured that many lowly things should be said concerning Him for the salvation of the hearers. For the, “Adam, where art thou?” (
St John Chrysostom † AD 407 The Homilies of St. John Chrysostom on the Epistle to the Hebrews 31
Let us then not deny [our sins], I beseech you, nor be shameless, that we may not unwillingly pay the penalty. Cain heard God say, “Where is Abel thy brother? And he said, I know not; am I my brother’s keeper?” ( Gen. iv. 9 .) Seest thou how this made his sin more grievous? But his father did not act thus. What then? When he heard, “Adam, where art thou?” (
St Augustine of Hippo † AD 430 City of God 13.15
… (This was intimated by the words He uttered, when the man, stupefied by fear, had hid himself, “Adam, where art thou?”
St Augustine of Hippo † AD 430 Reply to Faustus the Manichæan 22.14
… He might also cavil at Christ’s not knowing who touched Him, when the woman suffering from an issue of blood touched the hem of His garment; as Faustus blames God for not knowing where Adam had hid himself. If this ignorance is implied in God’s saying, "Where art thou, Adam?"
St Augustine of Hippo † AD 430 Lectures or Tractates on the Gospel According to St. John 49.20
… depart from me.” What does that mean, “I know you not”? I see you not in that light of mine—in that righteousness which I know. So here, also, as if knowing nothing of such a sinner, He said, “Where have ye laid him?” Similar in character was God’s voice in Paradise after man had sinned: “Adam, where art thou?”
Pope St Gregory I the Great † AD 604 Register of the Epistles of St. Gregory the Great 10.39
… xi. 34 ), I felt exactly as you felt, that, if they say that the Lord did not know where Lazarus had been buried, and for that reason enquired, they will undoubtedly be compelled to acknowledge that the Lord did not know in what places Adam and Eve had hidden themselves after their sin, when He said in Paradise, Adam, where art thou (
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St John Chrysostom † AD 407 The Homilies on the Statues to the People of Antioch 12.10
… the serpent. Observe also the wisdom of God; for when Adam said, “I heard Thy voice, and I was afraid, for I was naked, and I hid myself,”
St John Chrysostom † AD 407 The Homilies of St. John Chrysostom on the Epistle to the Hebrews 31
… Cain heard God say, “Where is Abel thy brother? And he said, I know not; am I my brother’s keeper?” ( Gen. iv. 9 .) Seest thou how this made his sin more grievous? But his father did not act thus. What then? When he heard, “Adam, where art thou?” ( Gen. iii. 9 ), he said, “I heard Thy voice, and I was afraid, because I am naked, and I hid myself.” (
St Augustine of Hippo † AD 430 A Treatise on the Merits and Forgiveness of Sins, and on the Baptism of Infants 1.21
… Then there arose in men affections common to the brutes which are productive of shame, and which made man ashamed of his own nakedness.
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St John Chrysostom † AD 407 The Homilies of St. John Chrysostom on Paul's Epistle to the Romans 23
… and He does not say, Wretch! thou very wretch! after receiving so great benefits, hast thou after all trusted to the devil? and left thy Benefactor, to take up with the evil spirit? But what saith He? “Who told thee that thou art naked, unless thou hast eaten of the Tree, from which alone I commanded thee not to eat?” (
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St Athanasius of Alexandria † AD 373 Festal and Personal Letters of Athanasius 49
… Do you not burn, as with a fire in your conscience? Are you not in fear of the day of judgment, in which none of your present advisers will be there to aid you? For each shall give account of those entrusted to his hands. For how did his excuse benefit the man who hid the money? Or how did it benefit Adam to say, ‘The woman beguiled me
St John Chrysostom † AD 407 An Exhortation to Theodore After His Fall 2.2
… What shall we say then? Shall we plead the anxieties of business? Nay He has anticipated this by saying, “What shall it profit a man if he gain the whole world and lose his own soul?” Or that we have been deceived by others? But it did not help Adam in his defence to screen himself behind his wife, and say “the woman whom thou gavest me, she deceived me;”
St Augustine of Hippo † AD 430 City of God 14.11
… And consequently he was not deceived as the woman was deceived, but he was deceived as to the judgment which would be passed on his apology: “The woman whom thou gavest to be with me, she gave me, and I did eat.”
St Augustine of Hippo † AD 430 City of God 14.14
But it is a worse and more damnable pride which casts about for the shelter of an excuse even in manifest sins, as these our first parents did, of whom the woman said, “The serpent beguiled me, and I did eat;” and the man said, “The woman whom Thou gavest to be with me, she gave me of the tree, and I did eat.”
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St Irenaeus of Lyons † AD 202 Against Heresies 3.23.5
… For this purpose, too, He interrogates them, that the blame might light upon the woman; and again, He interrogates her, that she might convey the blame to the serpent. For she related what had occurred. “The serpent,” says she, “beguiled me, and I did eat.”
St John Chrysostom † AD 407 The Homilies of St. John Chrysostom 42
… often at least thou hast restrained thine anger.” And if she say, “The beauty of such a woman moved me;” tell her, “Yet wast thou able to have mastered thyself.” Bring forward those that have got the better, bring forward the first woman, who said, “The serpent beguiled me,”
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St Irenaeus of Lyons † AD 202 Against Heresies 3.23.3
… But the curse in all its fulness fell upon the serpent, which had beguiled them. “And God,” it is declared, “said to the serpent: Because thou hast done this, cursed art thou above all cattle, and above all the beasts of the earth.”
St Cyprian of Carthage † AD 258 Three Books of Testimonies Against the Jews 2.10
… In Genesis: “Then God said unto the serpent, Because thou hast done this, cursed art thou from every kind of the beasts of the earth. Upon thy breast and thy belly shalt thou crawl, and earth shall be thy food all the days of thy life. And I will place enmity between thee and the woman and her seed. He shall regard thy head, and thou shalt watch his heel.”
St Ambrose of Milan † AD 397 Concerning Repentance 1.13
… He wounds the flesh but preserves the life. And then it is written: “Then shall the wolves and the lambs feed together, the lion and the ox shall eat straw, and they shall not hurt nor destroy in My holy mountain, saith the Lord.” For this is the sentence of condemnation on the serpent: “Dust shall be thy food.”
St Jerome † AD 420 The Letters of St. Jerome 7.3
3. You tell me that Bonosus, like a true son of the Fish, has taken to the water. As for me who am still foul with my old stains, like the basilisk and the scorpion I haunt the dry places. Bonosus has his heel already on the serpent’s head, whilst I am still as food to the same serpent which by divine appointment devours the earth.
St Jerome † AD 420 The Letters of St. Jerome 22.3
… To us men this life is a race-course: we contend here, we are crowned elsewhere. No man can lay aside fear while serpents and scorpions beset his path. The Lord says: “My sword hath drunk its fill in heaven,” and do you expect to find peace on the earth? No, the earth yields only thorns and thistles, and its dust is food for the serpent.
St Jerome † AD 420 The Letters of St. Jerome 38.4
… it is made of wool, plain and scrupulously clean. It is intended to keep her clothes right, and not to cut her waist in two. Therefore, if the scorpion looks askance upon her purpose, and with alluring words tempts her once more to eat of the forbidden tree, she must crush him beneath her feet with a curse, and say, as he lies dying in his allotted dust:
St Augustine of Hippo † AD 430 On the Holy Trinity 13.12
… This delivering up is first signified in Genesis, where, when it had been said to the serpent, “Dust shalt thou eat,” it was said to the man, “Dust thou art, and unto dust thou shall return.”
St Augustine of Hippo † AD 430 Expositions on the Book of Psalms 7.4
… whereas whatever souls the devil shall have taken by his persecutions, he will keep. “And let him tread my life upon the earth:” that is, by treading let him make my life earth, that is to say, his food. For he is not only called a lion, but a serpent too, to whom it was said, “Earth shalt thou eat.”
St Augustine of Hippo † AD 430 Expositions on the Book of Psalms 62.7
… And where is it that Thou hast leaped over them? where is it that Thy conversation is in Heaven? But they cleave unto earthly things, as though earthborn they mind the earth, and are earth, the serpent’s food.
St Augustine of Hippo † AD 430 Expositions on the Book of Psalms 104.39
… Thou dost not wish that God give thee to be devoured by the serpent; because not the serpent’s food: i.e. forsake not the Word of God. For where it is said to the serpent, “Dust thou shalt eat,” it is said to the transgressor, “Dust thou art, and unto dust thou shalt return.”
Pope St Gregory I the Great † AD 604 The Book of Pastoral Rule 3.19
… xxxii. 6 ). For the most part also edacity leads us even to lechery, because, when the belly is distended by repletion, the stings of lust are excited. Whence also to the cunning foe, who opened the sense of the first man by lust for the apple, but bound it in a noose of sin, it is said by the divine voice, On breast and belly shalt thou creep (
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St Justin Martyr † AD 165 Dialogue with Trypho 102
… But if any of you say to us, Could not God rather have put Herod to death? I return answer by anticipation: Could not God have cut off in the beginning the serpent, so that he exist not, rather than have said, ‘And I will put enmity between him and the woman, and between his seed and her seed?’
St Irenaeus of Lyons † AD 202 Against Heresies 4.40.3
… As also the Scripture tells us that God said to the serpent, “And I will place enmity between thee and the woman, and between thy seed and her seed. He shall bruise thy head, and thou shall bruise his heel.”
St Irenaeus of Lyons † AD 202 Against Heresies 5.21.1
… He shall be on the watch for ( observabit ) thy head, and thou on the watch for His heel.”
Tertullian † AD 220 On the Apparel of Women 1.6
… Some say, too, that gems are culled from the foreheads of dragons , just as in the brains of fishes there is a certain stony substance. This also was wanting to the Christian woman, that she may add a grace to herself from the serpent! Is it thus that she will set her heel on the devil’s head,”
St Hippolytus † AD 235 On Genesis 1
… Nor was there any other traitor to the Lord save the (Jewish) people. “Shall rob him,” i.e., shall plot against him. At the heels: that refers to the help of the Lord against those who lie in wait against Him. And again, the words “at the heels” denote that the Lord will take vengeance swiftly. He shall be well armed in the foot
Origen † AD 254 Origen's Commentary on Matthew 14.19
… For the last husband hated his wife and will write out for her some day at the consummation of things a bill of divorcement, when God so orders it, and will give it into her hands and will send her away from his dwelling; for as the good God will put enmity between the serpent and the woman, and between his seed and her seed,
St Ephrem the Syrian † AD 373 Ephraim Syrus: Nineteen Hymns on the Nativity of Christ in the Flesh 3
With the weapon of the deceiver the First-born clad Himself, that with the weapon that killed, He might restore to life again! With the tree wherewith he slew us, He delivered us. With the wine which maddened us, with it we were made chaste! With the rib that was drawn out of Adam, the wicked one drew out the heart of Adam. There rose from the Rib
St Cyril of Jerusalem † AD 386 The Catechetical Lectures of S. Cyril 16.10
… let us turn away from them from whom God turns away; let us also ourselves say unto God with all boldness concerning all heretics, Do not I hate them, O Lord, that hate Thee, and am not I grieved with Thine enemies ? For there is also an enmity which is right, according as it is written, I will put enmity between thee and her seed
St Gregory of Nazianzus † AD 389 Select Orations of Saint Gregory Nazianzen 45
… But he who would flee from Egypt and the things of Egypt must put on shoes for safety’s sake, especially in regard to the scorpions and snakes in which Egypt so abounds, so as not to be injured by those which watch the heel
St Ambrose of Milan † AD 397 On the Holy Spirit 1.pref.16
… May the drops from Thee come upon me, shedding forth grace and immortality. Wash the steps of my mind that I may not sin again. Wash the heel of my soul, that I may be able to efface the curse, that I feel not the serpent’s bite
St John Chrysostom † AD 407 The Homilies on the Statues to the People of Antioch 4.10
… As to ourselves then, let us fortify our souls; for if the loss of wealth should threaten us, or even death, and yet no one can rob us of our religion, we are the happiest of men, Christ commended this when he said, “Be ye wise as serpents.” For just as he exposes the whole body in order that he may save the head,
St Augustine of Hippo † AD 430 Expositions on the Book of Psalms 36.16
… But wherefore said he this against pride, “Thereby have fallen all that work iniquity”? Because those who now are ungodly, have fallen by pride. Therefore when the Lord would caution His Church, He said, “It shall watch thy head, and thou shalt watch his heel.”
St Augustine of Hippo † AD 430 Expositions on the Book of Psalms 45.11
… and a lawgiver from his thighs”? Did not Abraham himself (to whom was promised the seed in which “all the nations of the earth were to be blessed”), when he sent his servant to seek and to bring home a wife for his son, being by faith fully persuaded, that in that, so to speak, contemptible seed was contained the great Name;
St Augustine of Hippo † AD 430 Expositions on the Book of Psalms 49.1.6
… With the heel a man slippeth. Let your Love observe. What was said by God to the Serpent? “She shall mark thy head, and thou shalt mark her heel.”
St Augustine of Hippo † AD 430 Expositions on the Book of Psalms 74.13
… what single dragon then, whose head was broken, but the devil himself ought we to understand? What with him hath He done? “Thou hast broken the head of the dragon.” That is, the beginning of sin. That head is the part which received the curse, to wit that the seed of Eve should mark the head of the serpent.
John Cassian † AD 435 The Twelve Books on the Institutes of the Cœnobia, and the Remedies for the Eight Principal Faults 7.21
… For the soldier of Christ will be victorious and in safety, and free from all the attacks of desire, so long as this most evil spirit does not implant in his heart a seed of this desire. Wherefore, though in the matter of all kinds of sins we ought ordinarily to watch the serpent’s head,
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St Irenaeus of Lyons † AD 202 Against Heresies 3.23.3
3. It was for this reason, too, that immediately after Adam had transgressed, as the Scripture relates, He pronounced no curse against Adam personally, but against the ground, in reference to his works, as a certain person among the ancients has observed: “God did indeed transfer the curse to the earth, that it might not remain in man.”
Tertullian † AD 220 The Five Books Against Marcion 2.11
Up to the fall of man, therefore, from the beginning God was simply good; after that He became a judge both severe and, as the Marcionites will have it, cruel. Woman is at once condemned to bring forth in sorrow, and to serve her husband,
Tertullian † AD 220 On the Apparel of Women 1.1
… “In pains and in anxieties dost thou bear (children), woman; and toward thine husband (is) thy inclination, and he lords it over thee.”
Origen † AD 254 Origen's Commentary on Matthew 14.16
… what ought to be in the case of those who are joined together by God, so that they may be joined together in a manner worthy of God, the Saviour adds, “So that they are no more twain;” and, wherever there is indeed concord, and unison, and harmony, between husband and wife, when he is as ruler and she is obedient to the word, “He shall rule over thee,”
St Cyprian of Carthage † AD 258 On the Dress of Virgins 22
… Do you wish to know what ill the virtue of continence avoids, what good it possesses? “I will multiply,” says God to the woman, “thy sorrows and thy groanings; and in sorrow shalt thou bring forth children; and thy desire shall be to thy husband, and he shall rule over thee.”
St Cyprian of Carthage † AD 258 Three Books of Testimonies Against the Jews 3.33
In Genesis: “Multiplying I will multiply thy sorrows and thy groanings, and in sorrow shalt thou bring forth children; and thy turning shall be to thy husband, and he shall rule over thee.”
St Gregory of Nyssa † AD 395 On Virginity 12
… and after that they covered themselves with the skins of dead animals; and then were sent forth into this pestilential and exacting land where, as the compensation for having to die, marriage was instituted
St Gregory of Nyssa † AD 395 On Virginity 13
… What is the cause of widowhood but marriage? And retirement from this would bring with it an immunity from the whole burden of these sad taxes on our hearts. Can we expect it otherwise? When the verdict that was pronounced on the delinquents in the beginning is annulled, then too the mothers’ “sorrows
St Ambrose of Milan † AD 397 Exposition of the Christian Faith 1.10
… The father is the first to grow, to enter old age, to grieve, to weep. If, then, the son is after him in time, he is older in experience than the son. If the child comes to be born, the parent escapes not the shame of begetting.
St Ambrose of Milan † AD 397 Concerning Virgins 1.6
27. Why should I further speak of the painful ministrations and services due to their husbands from wives, to whom before slaves God gave the command to serve?
St John Chrysostom † AD 407 The Homilies of St. John Chrysostom 31
… Consider, at any rate, with how many evils our present life is filled; reflect how often thou thyself hast cursed our present life. For indeed things go on to worse, and from the very beginning thou wert involved in no small condemnation. For, saith He, “In sorrow thou shalt bring forth children;” and, “In the sweat of thy face shalt thou eat thy bread;”
St John Chrysostom † AD 407 A Commentary on the Acts of the Apostles 49
… Then let us seek this before all things. He that seeks money, seeks not this. Let us seek those things which can remain fixed. Let us not seek a wife from among the rich, lest the excess of wealth on her side produce arrogance, lest that arrogance be the means of marring all. See you not what God did? how He put the woman in subjection? (
St John Chrysostom † AD 407 The Homilies of St. John Chrysostom on Paul's Epistle to the Romans 7
… and plucked away the laws of nature, and set open the gates for death, and brought that curse into action, and suffered not that wretch to call to mind either the birth-pangs, or his parents, or anything else, but made him so furious, and led him to such a pitch of phrenzy, that even when God exhorted him and said, “Unto thee shall be his recourse,
St John Chrysostom † AD 407 The Homilies of St. John Chrysostom on Paul's Epistle to the Romans 31
… Now consider; Adam sinned, and Eve sinned, and both transgressed, yet they were not equally sinful. And therefore neither were they equally punished. For the difference was so great that Paul said, “Adam was not deceived but the woman being deceived was in the transgression.”
St John Chrysostom † AD 407 Homilies on First Corinthians 26
… he said indeed that she was “bone of his bone, and flesh of his flesh:” ( Gen. ii. 23 .) but of rule or subjection he no where made mention unto her. But when she made an ill use of her privilege and she who had been made a helper was found to be an ensnarer and ruined all, then she is justly told for the future, “thy turning shall be to thy husband.” (
St John Chrysostom † AD 407 Homilies on First Corinthians 37
… For having said, “Let your women keep silence in the churches;” and “it is not permitted unto them to speak, but let them be in subjection;” he added, “as also saith the law.” And where doth the law say this? “Thy desire shall be to thy husband, and he shall rule over thee.” (
St John Chrysostom † AD 407 Homilies on 1 Timothy 9
… For the woman taught the man once, and made him guilty of disobedience, and wrought our ruin. Therefore because she made a bad use of her power over the man, or rather her equality with him, God made her subject to her husband. “Thy desire shall be to thy husband?” (
St John Chrysostom † AD 407 The Homilies of St. John Chrysostom on the Epistle to the Hebrews 6
… but only that fear of God which is full of delight. There is not, “In the sweat of thy face thou shalt eat thy bread,” nor “thorns and thistles” ( Gen. iii. 19, 18 ); no longer, “In sorrow thou shalt bring forth children, and to thy husband shall be thy desire and he shall rule over thee.” (
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,”
St Jerome † AD 420 The Letters of St. Jerome 48.14
… “The nuptial tie, then, is not to be avoided as a crime, but to be refused as a hard burden. For the law binds the wife to bring forth children in labor and in sorrow. Her desire is to be to her husband that he should rule over her.
St Jerome † AD 420 The Letters of St. Jerome 130.8
… and thy desire shall be to thy husband and he shall rule over thee.”
St Augustine of Hippo † AD 430 The Confessions 13.32
… And as in his soul there is one power which rules by directing, another made subject that it might obey, so also for the man was corporeally made a woman,
St Augustine of Hippo † AD 430 City of God 15.7
… For when He had said to her, “I will greatly multiply thy sorrow and thy conception; in sorrow shall thou bring forth children,” then He added, “and thy turning shall be to thy husband, and he shall rule over thee.”
St Augustine of Hippo † AD 430 A Treatise on the Merits and Forgiveness of Sins, and on the Baptism of Infants 2.53
… thorns also and thistles shall the ground bring forth to thee,” how comes it to pass that this labour and toil continues since the remission of sins, and that the ground of believers yields them this rough and terrible harvest? Again, since it was said to the woman in consequence of her sin, “In sorrow shall thou bring forth children,”
St Augustine of Hippo † AD 430 Expositions on the Book of Psalms 127.5
… There is a certain woman, in whom what was said unto Eve, “in sorrow shalt thou bring forth children,” is shown after a spiritual manner. The Church beareth children, the Bride of Christ; and if she beareth them, she travaileth of them. In figure of her, Eve was called also “the Mother of all living.”
Pope St Gregory I the Great † AD 604 Register of the Epistles of St. Gregory the Great 11.64
… For it is the pleasure of the flesh, not the pain, that is in fault. But it is in the carnal intercourse that the pleasure lies; for in bringing forth of offspring there is pain and groaning. Whence even to the first mother of all it is said, In sorrow thou shalt bring forth children (
3:17
Origen † AD 254 Origen Against Celsus 7.28
… for it, however good it may be, still forms part of the earth, which was originally cursed for the transgression of Adam. For these words, “Cursed shall the ground be for what thou hast done; with grief, that is, with labour, shalt thou eat of the fruit of it all the days of thy life,”
St Cyprian of Carthage † AD 258 On the Advantage of Patience 11
… in sorrow and in groaning shalt thou eat of it all the days of thy life. Thorns and thistles shall it give forth to thee, and thou shalt eat the food of the field. In the sweat of thy face shalt thou eat thy bread, till thou return into the ground from which thou wast taken: for dust thou art, and to dust shalt thou go.”
St Cyprian of Carthage † AD 258 Three Books of Testimonies Against the Jews 3.59
… in sadness and groaning shalt thou eat of it all the days of thy life: thorns and thistles shall it cast forth to thee; and thou shalt eat the herb of the field in the sweat of thy brow. Thou shalt eat thy bread until thou return unto the earth from which also thou wast taken; because earth thou art, and to earth thou shalt go.”
St Dionysius of Alexandria † AD 265 Exegetical Fragments 4
… Short is our life, and full of sorrow. Howbeit it was not meet that He should bid them pray directly that that curse might not be fulfilled, which is expressed thus: “Cursed is the ground in thy works: in sorrow shalt thou eat of it all the days of thy life;”
St Cyril of Jerusalem † AD 386 The Catechetical Lectures of S. Cyril 13.18
18. Adam received the sentence, Cursed is the ground in thy labours; thorns and thistles shall it bring forth to thee
St Ambrose of Milan † AD 397 On the Holy Spirit 1.4
… For many heretics have said that the God of the Old Testament is one, and the God of the New Testament is another. But as the Father is one Who both spake of old, as we read, to the fathers by the prophets, and to us in the last days by His Son; “and as the Son is one, Who according to the tenour of the Old Testament was offended by Adam,
St Ambrose of Milan † AD 397 On the Decease of His Brother Satyrus 2.37
… in sorrow shalt thou eat its fruit all the days of thy life. Thorns and thistles shall it bring forth to thee, and thou shalt eat the herb of the field. In the sweat of thy face shalt thou eat thy bread, till thou return to the earth from which thou wast taken.”
Rufinus of Aquileia † AD 411 A Commentary on the Apostles' Creed 22
… thorns: and thistles shall it bring forth to thee.”
St Augustine of Hippo † AD 430 Expositions on the Book of Psalms 7.16
… but that it so ordereth sins, that what have been delights to man in sinning, should be instruments to the Lord avenging. “Behold,” he says, “he hath travailed with injustice.” Now what had he conceived, that he should travail with injustice? “He hath conceived,” he says, “toil.” Hence then comes that, “In toil shall thou eat thy bread.”
St Augustine of Hippo † AD 430 Expositions on the Book of Psalms 62.11
… If thou that hadst leapt over them art saying, “Once He hath spoken;” I turn to another Scripture and it saith to me, “In many quarters and in many ways formerly God hath spoken to the fathers in the prophets.” What is, “Once hath God spoken”? Is He not the God that in the beginning of mankind spake to Adam?
St Augustine of Hippo † AD 430 Expositions on the Book of Psalms 66.11
11. In whom? “In Him that reigneth in His virtue for everlasting” ( ver. 7 ). For what virtue have we and is it everlasting? If everlasting were our virtue, we should not have slipped, should not have fallen into sin, we should not have deserved penal mortality. He, of His good pleasure, took up that whereunto our desert threw us down.
St Augustine of Hippo † AD 430 Expositions on the Book of Psalms 119.9
… wherefore I have kept Thy word” ( ver. 67 ); or, as some have it more closely, “Thy utterance,” that is, lest I should be humbled again. This is better referred to that humiliation which took place in Adam, in whom the whole human creature, as it were, being corrupted at the root, as it refused to be subject to truth, “was made subject to vanity.”
John Cassian † AD 435 The Conferences of John Cassian 23.11
… For the law of sin is really what the fall of its first father brought on mankind by that fault of his, against which there was uttered this sentence by the most just Judge: “Cursed is the ground in thy works; thorns and thistles shall it bring forth to thee, and in the sweat of thy brow shalt thou eat bread.”
3:18
Tertullian † AD 220 The Five Books Against Marcion 2.11
… Woman is at once condemned to bring forth in sorrow, and to serve her husband, although before she had heard without pain the increase of her race proclaimed with the blessing, Increase and multiply , and although she had been destined to be a help and not a slave to her male partner. Immediately the earth is also cursed,
St Jerome † AD 420 The Letters of St. Jerome 22.19
… The command to increase and multiply first finds fulfilment after the expulsion from paradise, after the nakedness and the fig-leaves which speak of sexual passion. Let them marry and be given in marriage who eat their bread in the sweat of their brow; whose land brings forth to them thorns and thistles,
St Jerome † AD 420 The Letters of St. Jerome 125.7
… how much less men whose whole life is one long temptation. Woe be to us who commit fornication every time that we cherish lust. “My sword,” God says, “hath drunk its fill in heaven;” much more then upon the earth with its crop of thorns and thistles.
St Augustine of Hippo † AD 430 A Treatise on the Merits and Forgiveness of Sins, and on the Baptism of Infants 2.53
… Might not some man, by not understanding this, raise a question and ask, If God has said to man because of his sin, “In the sweat of thy brow thou shall eat thy bread: thorns also and thistles shall the ground bring forth to thee,”
3:19
St Ignatius of Antioch † AD 108 Epistle to the Magnesians: Shorter and Longer Versions 9
… for “he that does not work, let him not eat.” For say the [holy] oracles, “In the sweat of thy face shalt thou eat thy bread.”
St Justin Martyr † AD 165 Hortatory Address to the Greeks 30
… And that man was formed of earth, Homer, too, having discovered from the ancient and divine history which says, “Dust thou art, and unto dust shalt thou return,”
St Irenaeus of Lyons † AD 202 Against Heresies 5.16.1
1. And since Adam was moulded from this earth to which we belong, the Scripture tells us that God said to him, “In the sweat of thy face shall thou eat thy bread, until thou turnest again to the dust from whence thou wert taken.”
St Irenaeus of Lyons † AD 202 Fragments from the Lost Writings of Irenaeus, XIV 1
… “For everything going in at the mouth, is cast out into the draught.” If then corruptible, it is obvious that she was also mortal. But if mortal, then there was certainly no curse; nor was that a [condemnatory] sentence, when the voice of God spake to the man, “For earth thou art, and unto earth shall thou return,”
Tertullian † AD 220 The Five Books Against Marcion 5.9
… For the syllable RE always implies iteration (or happening again ). We say, therefore, that the body falls to the ground by death, as indeed facts themselves show, in accordance with the law of God. For to the body it was said, (“Till thou return to the ground, for out of it wast thou taken; for) dust thou art, and unto dust shalt thou return.”
Tertullian † AD 220 On the Resurrection of the Flesh 6
… Or must this remain to show how much more nobly man could fabricate a god, than God could form a man? Now, although the clay is offensive (for its poorness), it is now something else. What I possess is flesh, not earth, even although of the flesh it is said: “Dust thou art, and unto dust shalt thou return.”
Tertullian † AD 220 On the Resurrection of the Flesh 18
… It is only the man who is ignorant of the fact that the flesh falls by death, that can fail to discover that it stands erect by means of life. Nature pronounces God’s sentence: “Dust thou art, and unto dust shalt thou return.”
Tertullian † AD 220 On the Resurrection of the Flesh 26
… For consider that primeval sentence which God spake when He called man earth ; saying, “Earth thou art, and to earth shalt thou return.”
Tertullian † AD 220 On the Resurrection of the Flesh 52
… and nothing else is sown than that which decays in the ground; and it is nothing else than the flesh which is decayed in the ground. For this was the substance which God’s decree demolished, “Earth thou art, and to earth shalt thou return;”
St Hippolytus † AD 235 The Refutation of All Heresies 6.30
… This, he says, is what has been declared: “He who raised Christ from the dead will also quicken your mortal and natural bodies.” For loam has come under a curse; “for,” says he, “dust thou art, and unto dust shalt thou return.”
Origen † AD 254 Origen De Principiis 3.6.5
… and that by the will of its Creator, and at the time appointed, it will be restored to life; and that a second time a change will take place in it, so that what at first was flesh (formed) out of earthly soil, and was afterwards dissolved by death, and again reduced to dust and ashes (“For dust thou art,”
St Dionysius of Alexandria † AD 265 Exegetical Fragments 4
… Short is our life, and full of sorrow. Howbeit it was not meet that He should bid them pray directly that that curse might not be fulfilled, which is expressed thus: “Cursed is the ground in thy works: in sorrow shalt thou eat of it all the days of thy life;” or thus, “Earth thou art, and unto earth shalt thou return.”
St Methodius † AD 311 The Banquet of the Ten Virgins; or Concerning Chastity 3.3
And, first, we must inquire if Adam can be likened to the Son of God, when he was found in the transgression of the Fall, and heard the sentence, “Dust thou art, and unto dust shalt thou return.”
St Methodius † AD 311 The Banquet of the Ten Virgins; or Concerning Chastity 3.6
… For it was fitting that the Evil One should be overcome by no other, but by him whom he had deceived, and whom he was boasting that he held in subjection, because no otherwise was it possible that sin and condemnation should be destroyed, unless that same man on whose account it had been said, “Dust thou art, and unto dust thou shalt return,”
St Methodius † AD 311 The Banquet of the Ten Virgins; or Concerning Chastity 10.6
… which it becomes all men willingly to prefer in honour and to praise above all things; some, that by its means they may be betrothed to the Word, practising virginity; and others, that by it they may be freed from the curse, “Dust thou art, and unto dust shalt thou return.”
St Methodius † AD 311 From the Discourse on the Resurrection, Part I 1
… but this which is mortal and corrupting is of flesh,—in order that, “as we have borne the image of the earthy, we shall also bear the image of the heavenly?” For the image of the earthy which we have borne is this, “Dust thou art, and unto dust shalt thou return.”
St Methodius † AD 311 From the Discourse on the Resurrection, Part III 2
… for all these things, also, are the workmanship of God. What, then, is the house which is made with hands? It is, as I have said, the short-lived existence which is sustained by human hands. For God said, “In the sweat of thy face shalt thou eat bread;”
St Methodius † AD 311 Fragments 1
… And the casting of Jonah from the ship into the sea, signifies the fall of the first man from life to death, who received that sentence because, through having sinned, he fell from righteousness: “Dust thou art, and unto dust shalt thou return.”
St Athanasius of Alexandria † AD 373 Against the Arians. (Orationes contra Arianos IV.) 2.21
65. And thus since the truth declares that the Word is not by nature a creature, it is fitting now to say, in what sense He is ‘beginning of ways.’ For when the first way, which was through Adam, was lost, and in place of paradise we deviated unto death, and heard the words, ‘Dust thou art, and unto dust
St Athanasius of Alexandria † AD 373 Festal and Personal Letters of Athanasius 61
… ’ For it was not some man that gave Himself up for us; since every man is under sentence of death, according to what was said to all in Adam, ‘earth thou art and unto earth thou shalt return.
St Basil the Great † AD 379 The Letters 8.11
… Here too you see the Holy Ghost present with the Father and the Son. And what would you say also as to the resurrection of the dead when we shall have failed and returned to our dust? Dust we are and unto dust we shall return.
St Basil the Great † AD 379 The Letters 269
… The teaching of Scripture is always useful, and specially at times like this. Remember, then, the sentence passed by our Creator. By it all we who are dust shall return to dust.
St Gregory of Nazianzus † AD 389 Select Orations of Saint Gregory Nazianzen 2.16
… and noticing that, laborious as the latter is, ours is more laborious, and of more consequence, from the nature of its subject matter, the power of its science, and the object of its exercise. The one labours about bodies, and perishable failing matter, which absolutely must be dissolved and undergo its fate,
St Gregory of Nyssa † AD 395 Against Eunomius 2.7
… And why do I talk thus when I really ought to confute the folly of such notions by beginning with the first man? For if it is a property of the incorruptible only not to divide its essence in begetting, and if Adam was corruptible, to whom the word was spoken, “Dust thou art and unto dust shalt thou return
St Ambrose of Milan † AD 397 Concerning Repentance 1.13
… “Then shall the wolves and the lambs feed together, the lion and the ox shall eat straw, and they shall not hurt nor destroy in My holy mountain, saith the Lord.” For this is the sentence of condemnation on the serpent: “Dust shall be thy food.” What dust? Surely that of which it is said: “Dust thou art, and into dust shalt thou return.”
St John Chrysostom † AD 407 The Homilies of St. John Chrysostom 12
For if he who had paradise for his portion, for one disobedience underwent such dreadful things after his honor; we, who have received Heaven, and are become joint heirs with the Only Begotten, what excuse shall we have, for running to the serpent after the dove? For it will be no longer, “Dust thou art, and unto dust shalt thou return,”
St John Chrysostom † AD 407 A Commentary on the Acts of the Apostles 16
… Observe in fact; when they were in the desert, then they “waxed fat, they grew thick, they spread out in breadth, they kicked” ( Deut. xxxii. 15 ): and ever and always ease was an evil. Therefore also from the beginning He said to Adam: “In the sweat of thy face thou shall eat thy bread.” (
St John Chrysostom † AD 407 The Homilies of St. John Chrysostom on Paul's Epistle to the Romans 32
For since he had spoken of those who “caused divisions and offences among them,” he has mentioned “the God of peace” also, that they might feel hopeful about the riddance of these evils. For he that rejoiceth in this (i.e., peace) will put an end to that which makes havoc of it. And he does not say, will subject, but “will bruise” (
St John Chrysostom † AD 407 Homilies on First Corinthians 42
… For therefore are we become earthy, because we have done evil: not because we were originally formed “earthy,” but because we sinned. For sin came first, and then death and then the sentence, “Dust thou art, and unto dust shalt thou return.” (
St John Chrysostom † AD 407 The Homilies of St. John Chrysostom on the Epistle to the Hebrews 6
[10.] For that is indeed rest, where “pain, sorrow and sighing are fled away” ( Isa. xxxv. 10 ): where there are neither cares, nor labors, nor struggle, nor fear stunning and shaking the soul; but only that fear of God which is full of delight. There is not, “In the sweat of thy face thou shalt eat thy bread,” nor “thorns and thistles” (
St Jerome † AD 420 The Letters of St. Jerome 17.2
… What is it to you if I am? Stay quiet, and all is said. You are afraid, I suppose, that, with my fluent knowledge of Syriac and Greek, I shall make a tour of the churches, lead the people into error, and form a schism! I have robbed no man of anything; neither have I taken what I have not earned. With my own hand daily and in the sweat of my brow
St Jerome † AD 420 The Letters of St. Jerome 79.6
6. Why do I farther postpone the end? “All flesh is grass and all the goodliness thereof is as the flower of the field.” The dust has returned to the dust.
St Augustine of Hippo † AD 430 The Confessions 4.16
… But that which I had conceived of Thee was falsehood, not truth,—fictions of my misery, not the supports of Thy blessedness. For Thou hadst commanded, and it was done in me, that the earth should bring forth briars and thorns to me, and that with labour I should get my bread.
St Augustine of Hippo † AD 430 The Confessions 10.31
… I heard also another voice, “For I have learned, in whatsoever state I am, therewith to be content, I know both how to be abased, and I know how to abound . . . I can do all things through Christ which strengtheneth me.” Lo! a soldier of the celestial camp—not dust as we are. But remember, O Lord, “that we are dust,” and that of dust Thou hast created man;
St Augustine of Hippo † AD 430 City of God 13.15
… “Adam, where art thou?” —words which He used not in ignorance of inquiry, but warning him to consider where he was, since God was not with him.) But when the soul itself forsook the body, corrupted and decayed with age, the other death was experienced of which God had spoken in pronouncing man’s sentence, “Earth thou art, and unto earth shall thou return.”
St Augustine of Hippo † AD 430 City of God 13.23
… Now, since God by the words, “Adam, where art thou?” pointed to the death of the soul, which results when He abandons it, and since in the words, “Earth thou art, and unto earth shalt thou return,”
St Augustine of Hippo † AD 430 City of God 20.20
… on this very account it is said, “That which thou sowest is not quickened, except it die?” Or if we cannot properly speak of human bodies as sown, unless in so far as by dying they do in some sort return to the earth, as also the sentence pronounced by God against the sinning father of the human race runs, “Earth thou art, and unto earth shalt thou return,”
St Augustine of Hippo † AD 430 Acts or Disputation Against Fortunatus the Manichaean 2
… "Ye are called for freedom," and "the grace of God has made me free from the law of sin and of death." But the law of sin is that whoever has sinned shall die. From this law we are freed when we have begun to be righteous. The law of death is that by which it was said to man: "Earth thou art and into earth thou shalt go."
St Augustine of Hippo † AD 430 A Treatise on the Merits and Forgiveness of Sins, and on the Baptism of Infants 1.2
… It is the unbelievers who have died this death, to whom the Lord pointed when He said, “Let the dead bury their dead.” Now what will be their answer, when we read that God, when reproving and sentencing the first man after his sin, said to him, “Dust thou art, and unto dust shalt thou return?”
St Augustine of Hippo † AD 430 A Treatise on the Merits and Forgiveness of Sins, and on the Baptism of Infants 1.4
But in addition to the passage where God in punishment said, “Dust thou art, unto dust shalt thou return,”
St Augustine of Hippo † AD 430 Our Lord’s Sermon on the Mount 1.5
… But I think the expression “in heaven” means in the spiritual firmament, where dwells everlasting righteousness: in comparison with which a wicked soul is called earth, to which it is said when it sins, “Earth thou art, and unto earth thou shalt return.”
St Augustine of Hippo † AD 430 Our Lord’s Sermon on the Mount 1.11
… so that you begin with the heavens, you reckon the air the second, water the third, the earth the fourth. It may therefore seem to be suitably said, “till thou hast paid the last fourth,” in the sense of “till thou hast expiated thy earthly sins:” for this the sinner also heard, “Earth thou art, and unto earth shall thou return.”
St Augustine of Hippo † AD 430 Our Lord’s Sermon on the Mount 1.17
… But spiritually the expression heaven means holy souls, and earth sinful ones: and since the spiritual man judges all things, yet he himself is judged of no man, he is suitably spoken of as the seat of God; but the sinner to whom it is said, “Earth thou art, and unto earth shall thou return,”
St Augustine of Hippo † AD 430 Our Lord’s Sermon on the Mount 2.5
… But it is not written, The Lord is nigh unto tall men, or unto those who dwell on mountains; but it is written, “The Lord is nigh unto them that are of a broken heart,” which refers rather to humility. But as a sinner is called earth, when it is said to him, “Earth thou art, and unto earth shalt thou return;”
St Augustine of Hippo † AD 430 Expositions on the Book of Psalms 7.4
… “And let him tread my life upon the earth:” that is, by treading let him make my life earth, that is to say, his food. For he is not only called a lion, but a serpent too, to whom it was said, “Earth shalt thou eat.” And to the sinner was it said, “Earth thou art, and into earth shalt thou go.”
St Augustine of Hippo † AD 430 Expositions on the Book of Psalms 11.7
… Which temple he violateth, who for the sake of his own pre-eminence separateth himself from the Catholic society. “The Lord is in His holy temple; the Lord, His seat is in heaven.” If you take heaven to be the just man, as you take the earth to be the sinner, to whom it was said, “Earth thou art, and unto earth shalt thou go;”
St Augustine of Hippo † AD 430 Expositions on the Book of Psalms 41.5
5. But why this? Because He “scourgeth every son whom He receiveth.” Why this? Because to men sinning was it said, “In the sweat of thy face shalt thou eat bread.”
St Augustine of Hippo † AD 430 Expositions on the Book of Psalms 47.11
… Wherefore? “For the mighty gods of the earth;” they who were mighty gods of the earth, presuming upon earth. What earth? Themselves; for every man is earth. For to man was it said, “Dust thou art, and unto dust shalt thou return.”
St Augustine of Hippo † AD 430 Expositions on the Book of Psalms 72.12
… “in His presence shall fall down the Ethi opians,” He added, “and His enemies shall lick the earth:” that is, shall love men, so that they shall be jealous of the glory of Christ, to whom hath been said, “Be Thou exalted above the Heavens, O God, and above all the earth Thy glory.” For man earned to hear, “Earth thou art, and unto earth thou shalt go.”
St Augustine of Hippo † AD 430 Expositions on the Book of Psalms 78.4
… and as He declareth “propositions,” He would declare in like sort the expositions thereof, we should not be here toiling: but now so hidden and closed are all things, that even if we are able by His aid to arrive at anything, whereon we may feed to our health, still we must eat the bread in the sweat of our face; and pay the penalty of the ancient sentence
St Augustine of Hippo † AD 430 Expositions on the Book of Psalms 83.12
… He adds, “Thou only art the Most Highest in all the earth:” or, as other copies have it, “over all the earth;” as it might be said, in all the heaven, or over all the heaven: but he used the latter word in preference, to depress the pride of earth. For earth ceaseth to be proud, that is, man ceaseth, to whom it was said, “Thou art dust;”
St Augustine of Hippo † AD 430 Expositions on the Book of Psalms 85.5
5. “Be not angry with us for ever” ( ver. 5 ). For by the anger of God we are subject to death, and by the anger of God we eat bread on this earth in want, and in the sweat of our face.
St Augustine of Hippo † AD 430 Expositions on the Book of Psalms 85.11
11. On the same passage we may mention another meaning. “Truth is sprung out of the earth:” confession from man. For thou, O man, wast a sinner. O earth, who when thou hadst sinned didst hear the sentence, “Earth thou art, and unto earth shalt thou return,”
St Augustine of Hippo † AD 430 Expositions on the Book of Psalms 103.14
… neither keepeth He His anger for ever” ( ver. 9 ). Since it is in consequence of His anger that we live in the scourges and corruption of mortality: we have this in punishment for the first sin.…Is it not through His anger, my brethren, that “in the sweat of thy face and in toil thou shalt eat bread, and the earth shall bear thorns and thistles unto thee”?
St Augustine of Hippo † AD 430 Expositions on the Book of Psalms 140.16
… “The upright shall dwell with Thy Countenance.” For ill was it with them in their own countenance; well will it be with them with Thy Countenance. For when they loved their own countenance, “In the sweat of their countenance did they eat bread.”
Theodoret of Cyrus † AD 458 Dialogues. The “Eranistes” or “Polymorphus” of the Blessed Theodoretus, Bishop of Cyrus 2
… He received it in His own hands, He made a chair of His own throne; nay more He seated it on His own right hand, let us then recognise who it was to whom it was said ‘Sit thou on my right hand’ and what was that nature to which God said ‘Dust thou art and to dust thou shalt return.’”
Theodoret of Cyrus † AD 458 Letters of the Blessed Theodoret, Bishop of Cyprus 14
… I am aware, my excellent friend, that you know all this, and I beg you to reflect on human nature; you will find that it is mortal, and received the doom of death from the beginning. It was to Adam that God said “Dust thou art and to dust thou shalt return.”
Theodoret of Cyrus † AD 458 Letters of the Blessed Theodoret, Bishop of Cyprus 18
… But when I consider the course of nature, and the law which the Creator has laid down in the words “Dust thou art and to dust thou shalt return,”
Pope St Leo I the Great † AD 461 Sermons 24
… But because in unhappy rashness he trusted the envious deceiver, and agreeing to his presumptuous counsels, preferred to forestall rather than to win the increase of honour that was in store for him, not only did that one man, but in him all that came after him also hear the verdict: “earth thou art, and unto earth shalt thou go
Pope St Leo I the Great † AD 461 Sermons 28
Keep far from your hearts, dearly beloved, the poisonous lies of the devil’s inspirations, and knowing that the eternal Godhead of the Son underwent no growth while with the Father, be wise and consider that to the same nature to which it was said in Adam, “Thou art earth, and unto earth shalt thou go
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Tertullian † AD 220 On the Veiling of Virgins 5
… Accordingly, let none interpret with a prophetic reference a name which was deduced from another signification; especially since it is apparent when she did receive a name founded upon a future (circumstance)—there, namely, where she is surnamed “Eve,” with a personal name now, because the natural one had gone before.
Tertullian † AD 220 Genesis 1
To her the name of “Life”—which is called “Eve”
St Jerome † AD 420 The Letters of St. Jerome 123.12
… “Therefore shall a man leave his father and his mother, and shall cleave unto his wife.” Certainly it is not said “to his wives.” Paul in explaining the passage refers it to Christ and the church; making the first Adam a monogamist in the flesh and the second a monogamist in the spirit. As there is one Eve who is “the mother of all living,”
St Augustine of Hippo † AD 430 On Marriage and Concupiscence 2.12
… But what matters that to us? For it constantly happens that our memory fails in verbal accuracy, while the sense is still maintained. Nor was it God, but her husband, who gave Eve her name, which should signify Life ; for thus it is written: “And Adam called his wife’s name Life, because she is the mother of all living.”
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, and was called Life, and the mother of all living.
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. Adam in the figure of Christ, Eve in the figure of the Church; whence she was called “the mother of all living.”
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Tertullian † AD 220 On the Apparel of Women 1.1
… you are the first deserter of the divine law: you are she who persuaded him whom the devil was not valiant enough to attack. You destroyed so easily God’s image, man. On account of your desert—that is, death—even the Son of God had to die. And do you think about adorning yourself over and above your tunics of skins?
St Methodius † AD 311 From the Discourse on the Resurrection, Part I 1
II. Now the question has already been raised, and answered, that the “coats of skins”
St Gregory of Nyssa † AD 395 Funeral Oration on Meletius 1
… No longer does he pray to the type or shadow of the things in heaven, but he looks upon the very embodiment of these realities. No longer through a glass darkly does he intercede with God, but face to face he intercedes with Him: and he intercedes for us , and for the “negligences and ignorances” of the people. He has put away the coats of skin
St Ambrose of Milan † AD 397 Concerning Repentance 2.11
… God cast Adam out of Paradise immediately after his fault; there was no delay. At once the fallen were severed from all their enjoyments that they might do penance; at once God clothed them with garments of skins, not of silk.
St Jerome † AD 420 The Letters of St. Jerome 51.5
… Oh horror! that a man should be so frantic and foolish as to hold that John the Baptist, Peter, the apostle and evangelist John, Isaiah, Jeremiah, and the rest of the prophets, are made co-heirs of the devil in the kingdom of heaven! I pass over his idle explanation of the coats of skins,
St Jerome † AD 420 The Letters of St. Jerome 128.3
… Far from it, they rejoin: “let every man, wherein he is called, therein abide. Is any called being circumcised,”— that is, as a virgin?—“let him not become uncircumcised” —that is, let him not seek the coat of marriage given to Adam on his expulsion from the paradise of virginity.
St Augustine of Hippo † AD 430 The Confessions 7.18
… to the end that they might go on no further in self-confidence, but rather should become weak, seeing before their feet the Divinity weak by taking our “coats of skins;”
St Augustine of Hippo † AD 430 The Confessions 13.15
… As it is said, For heaven shall be folded up like a scroll; and now it is extended over us like a skin. For Thy divine Scripture is of more sublime authority, since those mortals through whom Thou didst dispense it unto us underwent mortality. And Thou knowest, O Lord, Thou knowest, how Thou with skins didst clothe men
St Augustine of Hippo † AD 430 On the Holy Trinity 12.11
… so the slippery motion of falling away [from what is good] takes possession of the negligent only gradually, and beginning from a perverse desire for the likeness of God, arrives in the end at the likeness of beasts. Hence it is that being naked of their first garment, they earned by mortality coats of skins.
St Augustine of Hippo † AD 430 Reply to Faustus the Manichæan 22.84
… And as injury is worse than not doing good, the evil-doer is called the elder and the other the younger. Er, the name of the elder, means a preparer of skins, which were the coats given to our first parents when they were punished with expulsion from paradise.
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St Justin Martyr † AD 165 Dialogue with Trypho 62
… These are the words: ‘And God said, Behold, Adam has become as one of us, to know good and evil.’
St Justin Martyr † AD 165 Dialogue with Trypho 129
… One upon the earth, who, it says, descended to behold the cry of Sodom; Another in heaven, who also is Lord of the Lord on earth, as He is Father and God; the cause of His power and of His being Lord and God. Again, when the Scripture records that God said in the beginning, ‘Behold, Adam has become like one of Us,’
Tertullian † AD 220 The Five Books Against Marcion 2.25
… so that even then was initiated the evangelic doctrine, “By thy words thou shalt be justified, and by thy words thou shalt be condemned.” Now, although Adam was by reason of his condition under law subject to death, yet was hope preserved to him by the Lord’s saying, “Behold, Adam is become as one of us;”
Tertullian † AD 220 On the Resurrection of the Flesh 63
… And should the vessels themselves afterwards fail to hold her, escaping from even these, and returning to her mother earth, she is absorbed once more, as it were, by its secret embraces, ultimately to stand forth to view, like Adam when summoned to hear from his Lord and Creator the words, “Behold, the man is become as one of us!”
Tertullian † AD 220 Against Praxeas 12
… In the following passage, however, “Behold the man is become as one of us,”
St Methodius † AD 311 The Banquet of the Ten Virgins; or Concerning Chastity 3.3
… And how shall he be admitted to be “the tree of life” who was cast out for his transgression, lest “he should again stretch forth his hand and eat of it, and live forever?”
St John Chrysostom † AD 407 The Homilies of St. John Chrysostom 15
… and God also upbraiding him with this, and mocking his folly, said, “Behold, Adam is become as one of us”
St John Chrysostom † AD 407 The Homilies of St. John Chrysostom 30
And this He saith unto them in irony; as when He said, “Behold, Adam is become as one of us;”
St Augustine of Hippo † AD 430 Expositions on the Book of Psalms 74.15
… Strong they willed to be, who thought that they would be Gods by means of the forbidden food. Adam became strong, over whom was reproachfully said, “Behold, Adam hath become like one of us.”
John Cassian † AD 435 The Conferences of John Cassian 13.12
… or else He has not granted him a free will, if He has suffered him only to will or be capable of evil, but neither to will or be capable of what is good of himself. And, in this case how will that first statement of the Lord made about men after the fall stand: “Behold, Adam is become as one of us, knowing good and evil?”
Pseudo-Clement The Recognitions of Clement 2.39
… and after they have tasted of the tree, God Himself testifies, saying to the rest of the gods, ‘Behold, Adam is become as one of us;’
Pseudo-Clement The Clementine Homilies 3.39
… or if not, that I may know.’ Thus he shows himself ignorant. And in his saying respecting Adam, ‘Let us drive him out, lest he put forth his hand and touch the tree of life, and eat, and live for ever;’
Pseudo-Clement The Clementine Homilies 16.6
… and then, when they had thus looked up, God said,
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Origen † AD 254 Origen's Commentary on the Gospel of John 2.24
… According to the deeper sense, however, he was sent into the world, the world being understood as this earthly place where men are; and the careful student will have this in view in enquiring from where John was sent. Examining the words more closely, he will perhaps declare that as it is written of Adam,
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.”
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St Irenaeus of Lyons † AD 202 Against Heresies 3.11.8
… and such as was the form of the living creatures, so was also the character of the Gospel. For the living creatures are quadriform, and the Gospel is quadriform, as is also the course followed by the Lord. For this reason were four principal ( καθολικαί ) covenants given to the human race:
Tertullian † AD 220 On Repentance 12
… For, sinner as I am of every dye, and born for nothing save repentance, I cannot easily be silent about that concerning which also the very head and fount of the human race, and of human offence, Adam, restored by exomologesis to his own paradise,
Tertullian † AD 220 Genesis 1
A cherubim, while fierce the hot point glows,
St Hippolytus † AD 235 The Refutation of All Heresies 6.12
… but in the woman this same blood is converted into milk. And the conversion of the male becomes generation, but the conversion of the female nourishment for the fœtus. This, he says, is “the flaming sword, which turned to guard the way of the tree of life.”
Origen † AD 254 Origen Against Celsus 6.49
… Now, as he asserts that these are silly statements, let him turn his attention not merely to each one of them (in general), but to this in particular, “He placed the cherubim, and the flaming sword, which turned every way, to keep the way of the tree of life,”
St Cyril of Jerusalem † AD 386 The Catechetical Lectures of S. Cyril 13.31
… Adam by the Tree fell away; thou by the Tree art brought into Paradise. Fear not the serpent; he shall not cast thee out; for he is fallen from heaven . And I say not unto thee, This day shalt thou depart, but, This day shalt thou be with Me . Be of good courage: thou shalt not be cast out. Fear not the flaming sword; it shrinks from its Lord
St Gregory of Nazianzus † AD 389 Select Orations of Saint Gregory Nazianzen 39.5
XVI. But further—Jesus goeth up out of the water…for with Himself He carries up the world…and sees the heaven opened which Adam had shut against himself and all his posterity,
St John Chrysostom † AD 407 Homilies on Colossians 6
… that thou mayst be able to grasp the Serpent and choke him, “to tread upon serpents and scorpions.” ( Luke x. 19 .) But as the gifts are great, so is the punishment great also. It is not possible for him that hath fallen from Para dise, to dwell “in front of Paradise” (
St Jerome † AD 420 The Letters of St. Jerome 39.4
… Jacob, it is true, mourned for Joseph, whom he fancied slain, and thought to meet only in the grave (his words were: “I will go down into the grave unto my son mourning”), but he only did so because Christ had not yet broken open the door of paradise, nor quenched with his blood the flaming sword and the whirling of the guardian cherubim.
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.”
St Jerome † AD 420 The Letters of St. Jerome 60.3
… “repent ye; for the kingdom of heaven is at hand.” For “from the days of John the Baptist the kingdom of heaven suffereth violence and the violent take it by force.” The flaming sword that keeps the way of paradise and the cherubim that are stationed at its doors
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It can secondly be translated from the Hebrew as: the serpent was complicated and entwined in many coils and spirals; for the Hebrew word ara also signifies this: whence aramim are called heaps of grain; for these spirals are signs of the internal cunning of the serpent, by which it ensnared and circumvented man. First, Cajetan understands by the serpent the devil, who tempted Eve not by external voice, but only by internal suggestion. Second, Cyril in book III against Julian, and the Eugubine in the Cosmopoeia, think that the demon here assumed not a true serpent, but only the appearance and form of a serpent: just as angels, when they assume a human body, assume not a true one, but an aerial one, which has the appearance of a true and human body. But all others teach that this was a true serpent; for it is said here to have been more cunning than all, not angels, but animals, into which the crafty devil, according to his nature cunning and wily, entered fittingly, and in its mouth, as in an instrument moved, struck and modulated in a certain manner, produced a human voice as he was able. Thus St. Chrysostom, Procopius and Augustine, book XIV of the City of God, chapter xx. Some think, says the Master of the Sentences in II, distinction vi, that this devil was Lucifer, who first tempted Adam and conquered him; he also tempted the second, namely Christ, but was conquered by him, and relegated to hell. The devil fittingly tempted Adam in the form, not of a sheep, not of an ass, but of a serpent. First, because the serpent is by nature cunning; second, because it is naturally contrary to man and lies in wait for him, to bite him secretly; third, because it is the nature of the serpent to creep, to spread venom, to destroy man: this is what the demon does; fourth, because the serpent clings to the earth with its whole body: thus Adam, believing the serpent and the devil, became wholly brutish and earthly, so that he desired nothing but the goods of the earth. Hence St. Augustine, book XI of Genesis according to the Letter, chapter xxviii, teaches that the devil is accustomed to use the form of serpents to deceive men, because by it he deceived Adam and Eve, and there he saw that this fraud succeeded well for him. For the same reason Pherecydes the Syrian said that demons were hurled down from heaven by Jupiter, whose prince was called Ophioneus, that is, serpentine. Tropologically: "The devil," says St. Augustine, "tempts as a lion, tempts as a dragon;" for, as Gregory says in chapter I of Job, "to his faithful servant the Lord reveals all the machinations of the cunning enemy, namely that by oppressing he seizes, by lying in wait he circumvents, by threatening he terrifies, by persuading he flatters, by despair he breaks, by promising he deceives." St. Bernard enumerates the kinds and modes of temptations: "Temptation," he says, "is one kind importunate, which persists impudently; another is doubtful, which envelops the mind in a cloud of doubt; a third is sudden, which forestalls the judgment of reason; a fourth is hidden, which bypasses the order of deliberation; a fifth is violent, which transcends our strength; a sixth is fraudulent, which seduces the mind; a seventh is perplexed, which is hindered in various ways." Note: Eve did not shrink from the sight of the serpent, because as mistress of the animals she was certain that none could harm her. Thus St. Chrysostom, homily 16. You will say, how at least did she not shrink from hearing it speak? They answer first, Josephus and St. Basil (which Plato also held in the Republic), that in paradise every animal had the power and faculty of speaking. St. Ephrem adds, in Barcepha book I On Paradise, that the serpent was granted by God not only the power of speaking for a time, but also of understanding, and he proves this from verses 1 and 13. But these are paradoxes. Second, Procopius, Cyril above, Abulensis and Pererius answer that Eve did not yet know that the power of speaking was natural to man alone. But this contradicts the perfect knowledge which both Eve and Adam possessed. I answer therefore: Eve knew that the serpent could not naturally speak: she was therefore amazed at it speaking, and suspected, which was the case, that this was being done by a higher power, namely divine, angelic or diabolic; fear was absent, because she had not yet sinned, and she knew that she was the object of God's care. Thus St. Thomas, I part., Question XCIV, article 4. Thus "to the wise nothing is unexpected: children and the foolish are astonished at all things, as if at something new." Eugubinus thinks this serpent was a basilisk, which is the king of serpents. Delrio thinks it was a viper; Pererius a scytale, because shining with size and variety of skin it holds those who look upon it. But in this matter nothing is certain. Add that the scytale and basilisk are of stupid nature; but this serpent was more cunning than all animals; for a demon entered into it, not for the purpose of spreading venom, but of deceiving. It is probable, which many hold, that it was the serpent commonly called by that name, because it creeps; and coluber, because it frequents shadows; and anguis, because it seeks corners and hiding places. For this one is called serpent without qualification: the rest with qualification, as royal serpents, fiery serpents, etc., or by their proper names vipers, cerastes, amphisbaenae, asps, etc. are named. This one also is most cunning, and crawls with body prone, which is said of this serpent in verse 14. Wherefore it is improbable what Bede, Dionysius the Carthusian, and the Historia Scholastica, and St. Bonaventura, in II, distinction xxi, and Vincent in the Mirror of History say, that this serpent was a dragon, standing on feet, with a virgin's face, with back shining variously like a rainbow, so that it would draw Eve into admiration, and that it was accustomed to walk upright. For this would have been a monstrous serpent, which God did not create at the beginning of the world, which Eve would therefore have immediately shuddered at and fled from.
Why did God command you Thus also the Septuagint translates. Cunningly the serpent here tries to overturn the purpose of the precept, so that he might overturn the precept itself, as if to say: There does not appear a just reason and cause why God forbade the eating of this tree: therefore truly and seriously he did not forbid it; but what he said: "You shall not eat of it," he said in jest and playing. The serpent proves the antecedent from the very usefulness of the tree, saying in verse 5: "For God knows that in what day soever you eat thereof, your eyes shall be opened, and you shall be as gods, knowing good and evil." Note: For why in Hebrew is aph ki, which word for word sounds, is it so, or is it true; and, as the Chaldean translates, is it true that God said (or said): You shall not eat of every tree of the garden? In this sense it appears more clearly that the serpent did not accuse God of harshness: for Eve would have immediately abhorred this blasphemy; but subtly as if commending God he speaks thus, as if to say: I do not believe that God, who is so liberal, forbade this tree so seriously and absolutely, although you think so: for why would he begrudge you fruit so beautiful and useful? why would he so straiten and burden you? For goodness is opposed to envy: hence in God, who is supremely good, there cannot be anything of envy; this is what Boethius sings: "The form of the highest good lacking in envy." The same doctrine Plato teaches in the Timaeus, and Aristotle, book I of the Metaphysics, chapter II, where he attacks Simonides, who said that God envied man the honor of wisdom. For thus, says Aristotle, God would be sad and consequently miserable: for envy is sadness at another's good. Moreover our interpreter, not following the words but the sense, translates aph ki, with the Septuagint, as why. To this exposition the answer of Eve directly responds, establishing and asserting God's precept as serious and absolute, which the serpent wished to elude as if spoken in jest, and thus this exposition falls in with the former one. From this Hebrew aph ki it appears that the serpent prefaced this question with other speeches, by which he might pave the way to her, although Moses passes over them in silence, for example concerning the liberty and dignity of human nature, concerning the obligation and multitude of natural and supernatural precepts of faith, hope, charity, imposed on man, so that from this he might conclude that he ought not to be burdened by this further new positive precept of God. Thus Procopius and others. Tropologically, Abba Hyperichius in the Lives of the Fathers: "Whispering, he says, the serpent spoke to Eve, cast her out of paradise. To him therefore is he similar, who speaks against his neighbor: for he both loses the soul of the hearer; and does not save his own." Again St. Bernard, in the book On the Life of Solitude, from this place teaches that perfect obedience ought to be indiscreet, namely so that it does not discern what, or why it is commanded. "Adam, he says, tasted to his harm from the forbidden tree, taught by him who suggesting says: Why did he command, etc. Behold discretion, why the precept was given. And he added: For he knew that in what day soever you eat thereof, your eyes shall be opened, and you shall be as gods. Behold for what purpose the precept was given, namely that he might not allow them to become gods. He discerned, ate, and became disobedient, and was cast out of paradise. Whence he infers: so also the animal discerning one, the prudent novice, the beginning wise man, can remain long in a cell, but in a community it is impossible to endure. Let him become foolish, that he may be wise; and let this be all his discretion, that in this he have no discretion." See Cassian, conference 12, and book IV On the Institutes of the Renunciation, chapter x, xxiv and xxv, and St. Gregory on book II of Kings, chapter iv, whose axiom this is: "The true obedient one neither examines the intention of precepts, nor discerns precepts; because he who has subjected all the judgment of his life to a superior, rejoices in this alone, if what is commanded to him he performs; because he thinks this alone good, if he obey precepts."
That you eat not of every tree Not every, that is, none, says St. Chrysostom, Rupertus, and St. Augustine, book XI On Genesis according to the letter, chapter xxx, as if the serpent were saying, God has granted to man the fruit of no tree, and so he lies, in order to accuse God of cruelty. But this would have been too obvious and crude a falsehood. Secondly and better, "not of every," that is to say, Why did he prohibit some, namely the tree of the knowledge of good and evil? Thirdly and best of all, the devil speaks ambiguously after his manner through the serpent, so that this his question can be understood either of every tree or of only some prohibited tree; and this craftily, so that he might insinuate that there is no greater reason for prohibiting one tree than all: and so either all ought to have been prohibited, or none. Again, with the same ease with which God prohibited this one, he would thereafter prohibit all the others. Whence the woman immediately answers this ambiguous question of his with a distinction, saying: "Of the fruit of the trees which are in paradise, we eat (we can eat, we are permitted to eat); but of the fruit of the tree which is in the midst of paradise, God commanded us that we should not eat of it."
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St. Ambrose thinks, in the book On Paradise, chapter xii, that Eve added this of her own accord out of weariness and hatred of the precept, and thus enviously exaggerated the harshness of the precept. For God had prohibited neither sight nor touch, but eating alone. Yet Eve, still whole and holy, seems rather to have said this out of reverence and respect for the divine precept, that is to say, God commanded that we should not touch this tree so as to eat of it, and therefore he has inspired in us reverence and fear, so that we have determined among ourselves that in no way, in no case, should we touch it even lightly, so that thus we might be as far as possible removed from eating and violating the precept.
Lest perhaps you die God had affirmed absolutely, you shall die; the woman doubts, the devil denies: for when he saw Eve wavering, he presses on to drive her forward saying: "You shall not die." Thus Rupertus. Yet Eve was still whole, and therefore out of reverence she added to the precept that we should not touch it; she does not therefore seem to have doubted about the penalty of death attached to the precept. The word therefore pen, that is, perhaps, in Hebrew is often not that of one doubting, but of one asserting and confirming a matter or precept, and it merely suggests doubt about a future event, when that depends on a future free action of man, that is to say, Lest perhaps we eat, and therefore die: for if we eat, we shall certainly die. Thus it is understood perhaps in Matthew xxi, 23, and often among the Prophets.
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The serpent tempts Eve by removing the penalty, and by enticing with promises. Note here five of his splendid lies: first, "you shall not die;" second, "your eyes shall be opened;" third, "you shall be as gods;" fourth, "you shall know good and evil;" fifth, "God knows all these things to be true, and that I do not lie," as if to say: Since God knows these things, and loves you, it is not likely that He wished to deprive you of this tree so profitable. Therefore either He prohibited it only in jest, or some mystery lies hidden under this precept of His, which you do not yet know: but you shall know when you have eaten of it. Thus St. Augustine, book XI On Genesis according to the Letter, chapter xxx. Morally, the same devil even now persuades almost all men; but because the contrary matter is far too clear, and it is evident in fact that all without exception die, hence he uses cunning, so that he may persuade all that you shall not die at all: namely, he does what a physician is accustomed to do, who divides a bitter medicine, which the sick man would entirely reject, into parts, and thus gives it to him in pills, so that he may gradually consume the whole. Thus also the demon divides death into parts and years, and persuades young men: you shall not die in the flower and vigor of age; you are far too robust: you will easily live yet fifty years. He persuades the studious: you shall not die before you finish your studies; others, before you finish the business which you have in hand. Finally, there is no one so old who does not think he will yet live at least another year. Thus he deceives all. For since death carries off some every year, and thus gradually all, it comes to pass that individuals are carried off by it when they least expect it, because they think they will yet live at least another year. Whence follows a most true axiom: Death is nearer to all and to each one than all and each one think; because in that year in which individuals die, they think they will not die, but will yet live another year. Moreover, Christ says that He will come as a thief in the night, whom the master of the house, being absent, indeed does not think will come, Matthew XXIV, 43. As therefore a thief watches the time when the master sleeps, so that he may rob him: so death seizes the unaware and as it were sleeping. Whoever is wise, therefore, let him open his eyes, and dispel this clear fraud of the devil, and persuade himself that death is near to him: nay, that he will die in that very year, perhaps in that month, that week, that day. The Poet wisely says: "Believe every day has dawned your last." Thus St. Jerome and St. Charles Borromaeus kept a skull of the dead at table, so that they might continually remember the imminence of death. It was the custom of certain Saints, that when they met one another, the first in greeting would say: "We must die;" the other would respond in return: "We know not when." Thus St. Marcella, as St. Jerome says to Principia, "thus spent her age and lived, so that she always believed herself to be about to die. Thus was she clothed in garments, so that she might remember the grave, mindful of the Satirist: Live mindful of death, the hour flees, what I speak is from that; and: Always remember the day of death, and you will never sin; and she praised that saying of Plato, who said that philosophy is a meditation on death." Excellently our Thomas, taught by God, in book I of the Imitation of Christ, chapter XXIII: "Today," he says, "a man is, and tomorrow he appears not. O dullness and hardness of the human heart, which meditates only on the present, and does not foresee the future (even though near)! Thus you ought to hold yourself in every deed and thought, as if today or immediately you were about to die." And further on: "Blessed is he who always has the hour of his death before his eyes, and prepares himself to die daily. If you have ever seen a man die, think that you too will pass by the same way. When it is morning, think that you will not reach evening: but when evening has come, do not dare to promise yourself the morning. Always therefore be prepared, and live in such a way that death never finds you unprepared. When that final hour shall come, you will begin to feel far differently about your whole past life, and you will grieve greatly that you were so negligent and remiss. How blessed and prudent is he who strives now to be in life such as he wishes to be found in death! For perfect contempt of the world will give great confidence of dying happily, fervent desire to advance in virtues, love of discipline, labor of penance, readiness of obedience, self-denial, and endurance of any adversity for the love of Christ." And a little later: "It will come, when you will desire one day or one hour for amendment, and I know not whether you will obtain it: while you have time, gather immortal riches for yourself; think of nothing except your salvation, care only for the things of God, keep yourself as a pilgrim and guest upon the earth; keep your heart free, and raised upward to God, because you have not here a lasting city." Finally, observe that saying of St. Jerome: "Study as if you will always live, live as if you will always die."
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Hence some think, according to Abulensis in chapter XIII, question 492, that Adam and Eve did not have their eyes open, but were blind, until they ate the forbidden fruit: then indeed the eyes of both were opened, and they saw that they were naked, verse 7. But this is repugnant to the happiness of the state of innocence, in which Adam and Eve were created. I say therefore that this eye is understood to be of the mind, not of the body: for, as Aristotle says in the first book of the Ethics, "the intellect is a certain eye," especially because the eye and sight, before the other senses, serve the intellect for knowledge: for from things seen arise memories, from memory experience, from experiences art or science: and so the sense is, as it were, You will become of such clear genius and penetrating intelligence that you will seem to yourselves to have been blind before. Thus Rupertus, whom see in book III On the Trinity chapters vii and viii.
You shall be as gods Not in essence, for this is impossible; but in a certain likeness of wisdom and omniscience, as follows. Wherefore some explain it wrongly thus: you shall be as angels, for they were not incited to imitate angelic, but divine likeness. This is what God says in verse 22: "Behold, Adam is become as one of us." You will ask, what was Eve's first sin? Rupertus, Hugo and the Master in II, distinction xxi, answer that Eve's first sin was that she perhaps added to God's precept as if doubting, saying: "Lest perhaps we die." Secondly, St. Ambrose says it was that she added "nor touch it"; thirdly, St. Chrysostom, that she mingled conversation with the serpent and the devil. But these seem scarcely probable. For man's first sin was not in the intellect, but in the affection. For before sin man could not err or be deceived; hence St. Thomas, Question III, LXXXIX, article 3, adds that man in that state could not have sinned venially, and this from God's special protection: for venial sin cannot take away grace; nor again can it consist with that most perfect state of original justice. I say therefore: Eve's first sin, as also Adam's afterwards, was pride; this is clear from Ecclesiastes x, 14; Tobias IV, 14; and this the Hebrew and the Septuagint indicate here, verse 6, namely that Eve and Adam, hearing: "You shall be as gods, knowing good and evil," were invited to regard, increase and exalt their own excellence: thus turning to themselves they became puffed up, so that their heart departed from God, and finally they desired a certain omniscience and equality with divinity, as Lucifer also did. Whence God cast this up to them in verse 22, saying: "Behold, Adam is become as one of us, knowing good and evil." Thus St. Ambrose, book IV on Luke; St. Ignatius, epistle to the Trallians; Chrysostom on I Timothy II, 14; Augustine, book XI On Genesis according to the letter, chapter v, and book XVI On the City, chapter xiii, where he teaches that the love of excellence is so innate and intent in rational nature whole and perfect, that this love is as it were first in man, which incites man to pursue all other things, to this end that he may excel. And St. Bernard: Both, he says, namely the devil and man, affected loftiness; the one of power, the other of knowledge. I say secondly: This proud appetite for divine omniscience seems to have consisted in this, that they desired, as Scripture says, to know good and evil, namely so that through themselves, and by the power of their own nature and wit, they could direct themselves in all things by discerning and choosing what is good, and avoiding what is evil: thus they could direct themselves by their own knowledge, by their own strength, by their own powers to living well and happily, and to attaining complete felicity, as if they were certain gods, who ought to be directed or helped by no one, not even by God, as Lucifer also did. Thus St. Thomas II-II, Question CLXIII, article 2: although Adam knew speculatively that he ought to depend on God and be illuminated by Him, and that it could not be otherwise, yet practically through pride he so conducted himself, so desired this likeness of omniscience and divinity, as if he could truly possess it without God, through himself and his own powers: for pride gradually swelling blinds and maddens the mind. I say thirdly: From this pride there soon followed impatience and indignation of mind indignant at being constrained by this precept, and barred from so noble a fruit; then curiosity; soon concupiscence of gluttony, as is said in verse 6; finally error in the intellect: for both Eve and Adam believed the words of the serpent promising omniscience and immortality, if they ate from the forbidden tree: and thence at last they rushed forth to perfect disobedience, and transgression of the precept, namely to actual eating. I say fourthly: Not only Eve, but Adam also, blinded by pride, believed the words of the serpent: "You shall be as gods, knowing good and evil"; and therefore he lost faith. The first part is clear, because God reproaches him with this, saying: "Behold, Adam is become as one of us, knowing good and evil." For these words spoken ironically signify what Adam from the tasted fruit according to the serpent's promises hoped for, and yet did not obtain. Whence that Adam was deceived by the serpent, through Eve reporting the serpent's promises to him, and gave credence to his words; St. Ignatius teaches to the Trallians, Irenaeus, book III, chapter xxxvii; Hilary on Matthew XII; Epiphanius, heresy 39; Ambrose, on chapter x of Luke; Cyril, book III against Julian; Augustine, book XI On Genesis according to the letter, chapters xxi and xxiv, and book IV On the City, chapter vii. Whence the latter part of the conclusion is also evident; for by this very fact that Adam believed the devil, promising from the forbidden fruit divine omniscience, and that he would not die, he turned away and disbelieved God threatening and saying: "In whatsoever day thou shalt eat of it, thou shalt die the death." He was therefore unfaithful; therefore he lost not only grace, but also faith in God. Thus St. Augustine, book I Against Julian, chapter III. You will say: How then does the Apostle in I Timothy chapter II say that Adam was not seduced, but Eve? I answer, because Eve was seduced by the serpent, the serpent intending to seduce her to eat the fruit; but Adam was not deceived by the serpent, but only enticed by his wife, who did not intend to deceive him: on which more in I Tim. II, 14.
As gods knowing good and evil The first perfection of God, desirable and imitable by man, is knowledge. "There is nothing by which we are more assimilated to gods than by knowing itself," says Cicero: whence also Horace speaking of God thus says: Whence nothing greater is generated than itself, / Nor does anything flourish similar or second to it; / Yet Pallas occupied the honors / Nearest to it. And Damasus: "The ever-watchful eye of God," he says, "by simple intuition knows past, present, and future presentially." And Boethius: "God," he says, "sees those things which are and which have been by one stroke of his mind. Whom, because he alone regards all things, you could truly call the sun." Hence angels, nearest to God, excel in intellect, and from this are called intelligences; nay, demons are called in Greek as it were knowing or wise ones: for natural gifts, even after the fall, remained intact in them, as St. Dionysius testifies. Hence men by natural appetite desire to know, says Aristotle. Hear Quintilian in book I of the Institutes: "Just as birds," he says, "are born for flight, horses for running, wild beasts for savagery, so to us is proper the agitation and diligence of mind; whence the origin of the heavenly soul is believed. But the dull and unteachable are not so much brought forth according to the nature of man as they are prodigious bodies and marked with monsters." The reason is, because the natural operation of man is to reason, to discourse, to understand; by which man is distinguished from beasts and stones. Hence Diogenes laughing at a certain rich man ignorant sitting upon a stone: "Aptly," he says, "stone sits upon stone." Solon asked what a rich man without learning was? answered: He is a sheep having a golden fleece. Foolish therefore are they who despise wisdom and learning, Proverbs I, 22; for these say: "I prefer a drop of fortune to a vessel of wisdom." But the wise say with Solomon, Wisdom VII, 8: "I preferred her (wisdom) to kingdoms and thrones, and I esteemed riches nothing in comparison to her: all gold in comparison to her is a little sand;" and Proverbs chapter VIII, 11: "Wisdom is better than all the most precious riches, and all desirable things cannot be compared to her." For just as sense rejoices in its sensible object, so intellect rejoices in the knowable and in knowledge; equally as the will in good and virtue. But in Adam, as also in many of his descendants, this love of knowing was excessive.
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Knowing good and evil,—because through experience you will know how great an evil disobedience is, and consequently how great a good obedience is: thus some think that the demon spoke truly here, and mocked Eve with this stratagem, who thought something greater was being promised to her. But I say this is a Hebraism: you will know good and evil, that is, you will know all things whatsoever that are good or evil, true or false, necessary or contingent, so that you may discern what is useful, what useless; what is to be done, what to be avoided in all things. 6. THE WOMAN THEREFORE SAW.—She had seen before, but without the desire of eating; now after the temptation, lifted up in pride, she sees it to be desired and eaten. She saw therefore, that is, more carefully, and with alluring pleasure she gazed upon it, and considered it at length. From this therefore it is clear that Eve sinned after the words of the serpent, not before. Rupertus therefore wrongly thinks that she sinned before of her own accord by being proud, and inwardly desiring the forbidden fruit; the devil then approached to drive her to accomplish the sin by external deed. Good,—sweet, savory and pleasing to the palate for eating: the rosy color of apples and cherries is an index of flavor, and provokes the appetite. AND FAIR TO BEHOLD.—In Hebrew, venechmad lehaskil, that is, desirable for understanding; which the Hebrews explain as desirable for acquiring knowledge and prudence. For the serpent had said of it: "You shall be as gods, knowing good and evil." But because Eve could not see this with bodily eyes, from which it is clear that "saw" here is taken from the two preceding members: hence secondly, our Interpreter, the Chaldean and Vatablus better translate it, desirable to contemplate, which namely by its form and beauty (whence also the Septuagint translates horaion, that is, fair) would hold Eve as it were in lingering contemplation of itself. See concerning curiosity and guarding of the eyes St. Gregory, XXI Moral. II. Hear also St. Bernard, On the Degrees of Humility, in the first, which is curiosity: "Keep, O Eve, what is committed to you, await what is promised, beware of what is forbidden, lest you lose what is granted. Why do you gaze so intently upon your death? Why do you cast your wandering eyes so frequently there? Why do you wish to look upon what you are not permitted to eat? I stretch my eyes, you say, not my hand: it is not forbidden that I see, but that I eat. This, although it is not a fault, is nevertheless an indication of fault; for while you are intent upon another thing, the serpent meanwhile steals secretly into your heart, addresses you blandly; with blandishments it restrains reason, with lies it restrains fear: By no means, it says, shall you die; it increases care while it incites appetite; it sharpens curiosity while it suggests desire; it finally offers what is forbidden, and takes away what is granted; it offers the apple, and steals paradise; it draws poison for the perishing, and brings forth those who will perish." AND GAVE TO HER HUSBAND,—relating to him whatever the devil had promised, and bidding him be secure from fear of death, since he saw her who had eaten surviving: thus quickly deceived, she quickly deceived her husband. For Adam, hearing these things, lifted up in pride, and desiring omniscience, consented to his wife, and ate of the forbidden tree. Thus "from a woman was the beginning of sin, and through her we all die," Eccles. xxv, 33. St. Augustine adds, lib. XIV On the City of God, cap. XI, that Adam, because he had not experienced the severity of God, thought this sin of his to be venial, and easily believed he would obtain its pardon from God. Let men learn here that women are dangerous allurements and sweet poison, when they indulge their desires and concupiscences, by which they destroy both themselves and men: let men therefore manfully oppose and resist them. "Always remember that a woman cast the inhabitant of paradise from his possession," says St. Jerome, epistle to Nepotian. Thus did Saturus, the procurator of King Huneric, who when solicited to Arianism refused; soon his wife, fearing the destruction of her family, brought their children to the knees of her husband and besought him by all sacred things, begging him to have mercy on her and on the little daughter hanging at her mother's breast and on the other pledges of their love: God would forgive what he himself had done unwillingly, since others had done the same willingly. Then he himself answered her as did St. Job: "Thou speakest as one of the foolish women speaketh: I would fear these things, woman, if the sweetness of this life alone were to become bitter in the loss of our possessions; nay, if thou truly didst love thy husband, thou wouldst never endeavor to precipitate him by thy insidious flatteries into the destruction of the second death. Come, let them tear apart the children, let them take away the wife, let them plunder the possessions. I, being fully secure in the promises of the Lord, will hold fast the words fixed in my mind: If any man shall not leave wife, and children, and lands, and house for my sake, he cannot be my disciple. The wife departed: Saturus, stripped of all things and weakened by many torments, was left a beggar at last. Victor of Utica is witness in his Persecution of the Vandals. In like manner Thomas More resisted his wife, preferring the offense of God to the offense of the king and to the destruction of his family. WHO DID EAT. — Pererius notes eight sins of Adam: the first was pride; the second, excessive love of pleasing his wife; the third, curiosity; the fourth, incredulity: as if God had threatened death figuratively or by way of threat, not absolutely to one violating the law; the fifth, presumption: as if this violation of the law were only a light and venial sin; the sixth, gluttony; the seventh, disobedience; the eighth, excuse, concerning which St. Augustine, sermon 19 On the Saints, says: "If Adam, he says, had not excused himself, he would not have been exiled from paradise;" and consequently would have eaten of the tree of life: therefore he would have recovered both immortality and original justice (for these are connected). But the contrary opinion, as Pererius teaches, is more true. For Adam, as soon as he sinned, before any excuse of his own, incurred the absolute sentence of death. For in chapter II, verse 17, it was pronounced absolutely: "In whatsoever day, he says, thou shalt eat of it, thou shalt die the death," that is, thou shalt most certainly die. The Hebrew and the Septuagint add "with him," namely that Eve gave the fruit to her husband so that he would eat with her; it appears therefore that Eve ate twice, once alone, a second time with Adam, so that she might entice him to eat and show herself his companion in eating. Whence the Septuagint have "and they ate," and the Chaldee, "he ate" (namely Adam) "with her." You will ask, which sinned more gravely, Adam or Eve? St. Thomas answers in II II, Question CLXIII, article 4, that if you consider the sin in itself, Eve sinned more gravely, both because she sinned first, and because she induced Adam to sin, and thus destroyed herself, and him, and all of us. If, however, you consider the circumstance of the person, Adam sinned more gravely, both because he was more perfect and prudent than Eve, and because Adam received this precept immediately from God, Eve only mediately, namely through Adam.
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That is to say, stripped of the covering of grace and original justice through sin, they perceived their nakedness, confusion and shame, from the fact that they felt in themselves movements of concupiscence rebellious to reason, especially of lust toward one another. For these indecent movements so affect man with shame that he covers and hides those very members in which this concupiscence reigns: and from this, thirdly, they perceived how great a good of original justice they had lost, and into how great sin and evil they had fallen; fourthly, they knew God and that God's sentence is true; but the serpent and the demon to be a liar in the promises made to them. Thus St. Chrysostom, Rupertus and St. Augustine, book XIV of the City of God, chapter XVII. From this place it is gathered that Eve, stripped of grace through sin, did not perceive her confusion and nakedness until she induced Adam to the same sin, and this because a brief interval intervened between the sin of each, during which Eve, wholly occupied with the delights of her apple, and in order to offer them to her husband and persuade him, did not reflect upon her misery and nakedness; or certainly, as Francis of Arezzo wishes, Eve was not stripped of original justice, insofar as it was grace freely given, nor did she feel the movements of concupiscence and her nakedness, until Adam sinned: for then indeed this whole primeval sin of disobedience was consummated, and then both by the decree of God were stripped of original justice, and from this blushed. For if Eve had been stripped of it immediately upon sinning, she would have blushed at her nakedness, nor would she have dared to go naked to her husband, but from shame would have sought hiding places or clothing, as she did immediately after Adam sinned. Why shame naturally follows from nakedness, see in St. Cyprian, sermon On the Reason of Circumcision. Hence St. Augustine, sermon 77 On the Seasons, teaches that gluttony is the mother of lust, just as abstinence is the mother of chastity. "Adam," he says, "knew only when intemperance provoked Eve: for as long as temperate frugality remained in them, so too remained undefiled virginity; and as long as they fasted from the forbidden foods, so long also did they fast from shameful sins. For hunger is a friend of virginity, an enemy of lasciviousness; but satiety betrays chastity, nourishes allurement." St. Augustine adds in the same place, for this reason Christ fasted and hungered in the desert, that by his fasting he might purge the gluttony and lust of Adam, and restore both himself and us to immortality, which we lost through his gluttony. THEY MADE THEMSELVES GIRDLES,—that is, belts for the belly, namely loincloths, or ventral undergarments, so that they might cover the shameful parts: for the rest of the body they remained naked, as Adam himself says to God verse 10, as the Brazilians, Cafres, and other Indians now do. St. Irenaeus thinks, book III, chapter XXXVII, that they made these from the fig tree, as a sign of penance, and as if they had put on a hair shirt for themselves; for fig leaves prick and sting. See also St. Ambrose, book On Paradise, chapter XIII.
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Suppose a terrible noise and crash from the shaking of trees excited by God; for as it were at the footsteps of God coming from afar and walking through the trees, the trees were shaken: for this was the voice of God walking in paradise, as Moses says. Cajetan, however, understands the voice not of the trees, but of God speaking and angry, and, as Abulensis wishes, saying: "Adam, where art thou?" Furthermore, Adam recognized this to be the voice of God, first, because he had already spoken with God before, and recognized the accustomed voice of God; secondly, because this voice was great and terrible, and worthy of God: for although it were formed through an angel, nevertheless it represented God: see Can. 16; thirdly, because Adam knew there was no other man who would produce this voice; fourthly, because the consciousness of sin, and God himself, suggested to his mind that this was the voice of God avenging. AT THE BREEZE AFTER MIDDAY, — suppose at the declining of the day, when gentle zephyrs are wont to blow, and a breeze is sought by men wearied by the heat of the day. Thus from Symmachus, Aquila and Theodotion St. Jerome in Quaest. hebraic. For God appeared here, or rather an angel in the place of God as it were a man, and walking in the form of a man in paradise. Add, "at the breeze," because the breeze or wind (for it blew from that part whence God coming was walking) made the sound of God heard from afar, so that Adam might be seized with greater fear of God, and might have time to seek hiding places. Thus Francis of Arezzo. Note on after midday: For that, says Irenaeus lib. V, signifies that Christ was to come at the evening of the world, to redeem Adam and his descendants. For the tropology, in how many ways God speaks to us, see in St. Gregory lib. XXVIII Moral. cap. II and III. HE HID HIMSELF IN THE MIDST OF THE WOOD, — that is, of the woods, suppose among the densest trees of paradise. It is an enallage. Note here with Pererius five fruits and effects of sin: the first is, that the eyes were opened; the second, is nakedness; the third, shame and confusion; the fourth, is the worm of conscience; the fifth, is fear and dread of divine judgment. Truly St. Bernard: "In sin, he says, passes away joy never to return, remains anxiety never to depart;" and indeed Musonius in Gellius: "When anyone, he says, has done something base through pleasure, what is sweet departs, what is base and sad remains." On the contrary in the labor of virtues, what is hard and sad departs, what is sweet and joyful remains.
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As if to say: In another place I left thee, O Adam, in another I find thee: I had clothed thee with glory, thou didst walk gloriously before me, now I see thee naked and seeking hiding places; whence hath this befallen thee? who hath brought thee into such a change? who, as a thief or robber, hath despoiled thee of all thy gifts, and reduced thee to such want? where came the sense of nakedness, where hath this confusion befallen thee? why dost thou flee, why art thou ashamed? why dost thou hide? why dost thou fear? is there one present who accuseth thee? do witnesses press upon thee? whence hath such great dread invaded thee? where now are those so magnificent promises of the serpent? where is that first tranquility of thy mind? where is the security of thy soul? where is the peace and confidence of conscience? where is all that possession of so great goods, and the absence of all evils? Thus St. Ambrose, lib. De Paradiso, cap. XIV. Where is, he says, thy confidence well assured to itself? this fear confesses guilt, hiding confesses transgression: where art thou therefore? not in what place, I ask, but in what state? whither have thy sins led thee, that thou fleest from thy God whom before thou didst seek?
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"I was afraid," that is, I was ashamed, I was abashed to come into thy sight; for with these fig leaves I have scarcely covered the shameful parts, the rest of my body is still naked. That is, therefore (for the Hebrew vav, that is and, is often causal), "I hid myself." Thus fear is often taken for shame, and so fear or dread of reverence is itself called shame and reverence, as I said Hebr. XII, 28. 11. FOR WHO, — The word for is not in the Hebrew, nor is it causal, but emphatic, and is the same as truly, but, yet. For God presses and urges Adam here, so that he may acknowledge the cause and guilt of his nakedness. 12. THE WOMAN WHOM THOU GAVEST ME TO BE MY COMPANION. — The just man in the beginning is an accuser of himself: but Adam now after sin, full of concupiscence, pride and self-love, goes before us in seeking excuses in sins: then he transfers the blame to his wife seducing him, and indeed to God himself, who gave him such a wife.
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Who was present before God, Adam and Eve: for although after the temptation the demon had left the serpent, and it crawled hither and thither; yet by God's will it was directed to the place where Adam, called forth from his hiding place by God, came forth before God; especially because the place of the serpent's temptation was not far distant from the place of Adam's hiding: for as soon as Adam was tempted and fell, he sought clothing and nearby hiding places. BECAUSE THOU HAST DONE THIS, THOU ART CURSED AMONG ALL LIVING CREATURES. — God turns to the first and certain author of evil, the malicious serpent, and curses it. Note first, that the serpent is here understood literally both as a true serpent, as St. Ephrem, Barcepha, Tostatus and Pererius wish; and as the devil, who was the mover, speaker and as it were the soul of the serpent. Hence secondly, all these punishments in some way literally befit the serpent, because it was the organ of the devil and the instrument of man's ruin: yet some things befit the devil more. For all the ancients understand these things of the devil. Thirdly, the serpent is cursed, because it is abominable, horrible, venomous and harmful beyond all animals, especially to man, with whom after sin it has a natural antipathy. Fourthly, although before the temptation of Eve the serpent was not erect (as St. Basil wishes, homil. De Parad., and Didymus in the Catena of Lipomanus), but crawled upon its breast by creeping through caverns and ate the earth: for both are natural to it; yet it was not then abominable, nor infamous; but it had its own place and dignity among beasts. But after the temptation and the seduction of Eve, the serpent became hateful, infamous, abominable to man: and to crawl, to flee the light and men, to seek caves, to eat the earth, which were previously natural to it, these are now confirmed to it as punishment and ordained as infamy: for why, I ask, would natural gifts be taken from the serpent in which there was no guilt, gifts which were not even taken from demons on account of their sin? Thus death to man, and to the human body composed of contrary elements, is as it were natural, but after his sin it began to be to him a punishment of sin. Thus the rainbow, natural before, after the flood, began to be a sign of the covenant made between Noah and men and God, Genesis IX, 46. Fifthly, this punishment of the serpent was fitting and just, namely that the serpent had tried to creep into the friendship and familiarity of man: therefore hatred and execration are made for it; the devil had raised up the serpent, so that it might mingle in conversation with the woman: therefore it is commanded to crawl on the ground; it had persuaded the eating of the apple: therefore it is condemned to the eating of the earth; it had looked upon the mouth of the woman: therefore now it looks upon the heel and lies in wait for it, says Delrio. Sixthly, symbolically these things befit the demon. For, as Rupertus says in lib. III De Trinitate, cap. XVIII, the demon crawls upon its breast, because now it does not think of heavenly things, as once when it was an angel, but of earthly things, indeed infernal things always, and the earth, that is men who savour of earthly things, are food and nourishment for it now after Adam's sin. For it teaches these men to crawl on the earth with their belly, that is to be wholly given over to gluttony and lust. Thus St. Gregory, lib. XXI Moral. cap. II. Again St. Augustine, lib. II De Genesi contra Manichaeos, cap. XVII; Bede, Rupertus, Hugo, Cajetan: Upon its breast, they say, and upon its belly the demon crawls, because it attacks and seduces men by two ways: first, through pride, which is figured by the breast; secondly, through lust, which is shadowed by the belly; for in the breast is the irascible power, in the belly the concupiscible, which appetites the demon stirs up and inflames, and by them impels men to the gravest sins.
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I WILL PUT ENMITIES BETWEEN THEE AND THE WOMAN. — Because God deprived man of dominion over beasts on account of sin, hence the serpent began to be harmful and deadly to man; and conversely man began to be a serpent-slayer, whereas before sin there was neither antipathy, nor horror, nor hatred, nor desire to harm between man and serpent. Aristotle relates that the saliva of man torments the serpent, and if it touch the jaws (by which it tempted Eve), it kills it. SHE SHALL CRUSH THY HEAD. — There is a threefold reading here. The first is that of the Hebrew manuscripts which have: "It," namely the seed, "shall crush thy head;"; and thus St. Leo read it, and Lipomanus from him. The second is: "He (namely man or Christ) shall crush thy head:": thus the Septuagint and the Chaldaic. The third is: "She shall crush thy head." Thus the Roman Bible and almost all the Latin versions read it with St. Augustine, Chrysostom, Ambrose, Gregory, Bede, Alcuin, Bernard, Eucherius, Rupert and others. There are added certain Hebrew manuscripts, which for הוא read היא or הוא, with a small or large chirich. Add that הוא hu is often put for היא hi, especially when there is emphasis, and something masculine is attributed to the feminine, as here is the crushing of the serpent's head. Examples are here verse 12 and 20, Genesis XVII, 14, Genesis XXIV, 44, Genesis XXXVIII, 21 and 25. Nor does the masculine verb ישוף iascuph, that is shall crush, stand in the way; for there is a frequent enallage of gender in Hebrew: so that the masculine is put for the feminine, and conversely, especially if some cause and mystery underlies it, as here it does, as I shall now say. Therefore היא iascuph is put for תשוף tascuph. Thus in chapter II, 23, it is said יקרא אשה iickare issa, for תקרא אשה tickare issa. Whence also Josephus in book I, chapter III, read thus, as our Interpreter has it; for he has: "He commanded that the woman should inflict blows upon his head," as Rufinus translated it. From which it is clear that formerly Josephus read היא, that is she, but heretical printers removed the word γυνή from it. Note first, that none of these three readings is to be rejected; rather all are true: for when God here sets forth as it were antagonists, the woman with her seed against the serpent with his seed, consequently He wishes to say, the woman with her seed shall crush the head of the serpent; just as conversely the serpent lies in wait for the heel both of the woman and of her seed. And therefore it seems that Moses here in Hebrew mixed the masculine verb with the feminine pronoun, saying, היא ישוף hi iascuph, she shall crush, so as to signify both the woman and her seed, and thus the woman through her seed, namely through Christ, shall crush the head of the serpent. Note second: These, as I have said, apply both to the serpent and to the devil, who was as it were the mover and soul of the serpent, literally. For this antipathy, hatred, horror and war began literally after sin between serpents and men, both males and females, as experience now shows. Indeed Rupert, book III, chapter XX, brings forward a special and noteworthy experience, namely that the head of a serpent can scarcely be so crushed by swords, levers and hammers that the whole body is killed; but if a woman with bare foot should forestall the serpent's tooth and press its head, immediately with the head the whole body utterly perishes. Again, these very things apply more to Christ and the blessed Virgin fighting against the devil, even literally. For the woman is Eve, who crushed the devil when she did penance, or rather the woman is blessed Mary, the daughter of Eve; her seed is Jesus and Christians; the serpent is the devil, his seed are the unfaithful and all the impious. Therefore blessed Mary crushed the serpent; because she herself was always full and glorious, the victor over the devil, and crushed all heresies (which are the head of the serpent) throughout the whole world, as the Church sings; but Christ most perfectly crushed him and his head and machinations, when by his own power on the cross he took from the devil his whole kingdom and his spoils; and from Christ both Eve doing penance and Mary innocent, we also all have received the power of crushing the devil and his seed (that is suggestions; secondly, seed, that is impious men: for the devil is their father and prince) have received. For this is what is said in Psalm XC: "Thou shalt walk upon the asp and the basilisk, and thou shalt trample under foot the lion and the dragon." And Luke X: "Behold I have given you power to tread upon serpents and scorpions, and upon all the power of the enemy." And to Romans XVI: "God shall crush Satan under your feet speedily." Thus Theodoret, Rupert, Bede here, Augustine, book XI On the City of God, chapter XXXVI; Epiphanius, book II Against the Antidicomarianites, and passim other Fathers. Aptly St. Chrysostom, homily On the Interdiction of the Tree, vol. I, opposes to Adam Christ, to Eve the Blessed Mary, to the serpent Gabriel: "Death," he says, "through Adam, life through Christ; the serpent seduced Eve, Mary consented to Gabriel; but the seduction of Eve brought death, the consent of Mary bore to the world the Saviour. What was lost through Eve is restored through Mary; what was taken captive through Adam is redeemed through Christ; what was despaired of through the devil is promised through Gabriel." CONTERET.—In Hebrew it is ישוף iascuph, which R. Abraham translates as "he shall strike"; R. Solomon, "he shall crush"; the Septuagint translates it τηρήσει, that is, "he shall crush"; Philo, however, in book II of the Allegories, with some others reads ἐπιτηρήσει, that is, "he shall watch over." Whence also the Chaldean translates it, "he himself shall watch over you what you did to him from the beginning, and you shall watch over him in the end." Properly the Hebrew שוף scuph seems to signify to strike someone suddenly and as it were from ambushes and hiding places, to overwhelm, to trample, to crush, as is evident from Job IX, 17, and Psalm CXXXIX, 11; whence also Our author here soon translates it, "thou shalt lie in wait." See here how delirious both heretics and idolaters were, called Ophites, that is, serpent-worshippers, from ophis, that is, serpent, whom they worshipped, because he himself by suggesting the forbidden fruit was the beginning of the knowledge of good and evil for Adam and his descendants: and therefore they offered him bread; the rite of this offering is recounted by Epiphanius, heresy 37. AND THOU SHALT LIE IN WAIT FOR HIS HEEL.—In Hebrew it is the same verb already mentioned iascuph, which the Septuagint a little before translated τηρήσει, that is, "he shall crush": here, however, they translate τηρήσεις, that is, "thou shalt watch" (namely by lying in wait for him), thus indeed from the Septuagint do Josephus, Philo, St. Jerome, Ambrose, Irenaeus, Augustine and others read here. For serpents are accustomed properly, lurking in meadows and forests, not to avenge themselves by open force, but by stratagems, and to bite and strike the unwary from behind in the heel, and thence with poison spreading through the whole body to kill. Thus Rupert. Symbolically Philo: The heel, he says, is that part of the soul which clings to earthly nature, and which is prone and inclined to sense and earthly pleasures; against this, and through this against the mind and will, the daemon lies in wait, and therefore Christ washed the feet of his disciples at the last supper so that this sign might be that the curse of the heel was already washed away, by which from the very beginning of things the way lay open to the bites of the serpent. In like manner the devil lies in wait for the heel, that is, through stratagems as it were from behind he attempts to strike (for here is signified the act of striking not perfect, but begun, or attempted, after the Hebrew manner) Christ, the blessed Virgin and Christians; but he does not prevail against them so long as they remain the seed of Christ, namely the children of God. Add that the devil does in fact strike and crush some of this seed, namely the faithful who in the Church are as it were the heel, that is, the lowest, the vile and those fixed to the earth. Again, the head of Christ is his divinity, the heel is his humanity; when the daemon strikes and kills this, he himself is killed: for then Christ crushed his head, that is, cast down his pride, and prostrated all his assault. Allegorically, this enmity between the woman and the serpent signifies the hatred and continual war between the Church and the devil, as St. John teaches in the Apocalypse, chapter XII, verse 13, and throughout the Fathers: indeed some, as Fr. Gordonus, Controversies I, chapter XVII, understand literally here by the woman the Church, by the serpent the devil. But the woman rather at the literal level signifies a woman, mystically the Church; whence the Apostle, Ephesians chapter V, verse 32, calls this a Sacrament, or, as it is in Greek, a mystery of Christ and the Church. Tropologically, St. Gregory, book I of the Morals, chapter XXXVIII: "We crush the head of the serpent," he says, "when we root out from the heart the beginnings of temptation, and then he himself lies in wait for our heel, because he attacks the end of a good action more cunningly and powerfully." And St. Augustine in Psalm XLVIII and CIII: "If the Devil," he says, "watches your heel, you watch his head. His head is the beginning of evil suggestion; when he begins to suggest evil, then repel it, before delight arises, and consent follows. Thus you will avoid his head, and so he will not seize your heel," namely: Resist beginnings: late comes the remedy prepared, When evils through long delays have grown strong. And St. Bernard, to his sister On the Manner of Living Well, chapter XXIX: "The head of the serpent is crushed," he says, "when the fault is corrected there where it is born." To this Alcuin, or Albinus, adds: The Devil, he says, lies in wait for our heel, because he attacks the end of our life more fiercely. For this reason the Saints feared their end, and then served God more fervently. Thus St. Hilarion, fearing in death, said to himself: "For nearly seventy years you have served the Lord, and do you fear to die?" Abbot Pambo, dying, said: "I depart now to my God; but in such a way that I have scarcely begun until now to worship God truly and rightly." Arsenius: "Grant, O Lord," he said, "that even now I may begin to live piously." St. Francis at his death: "Brothers," he said, "until now we have made little progress; let us now begin to serve God; let us return to the beginnings of humility and novitiate," he said and did so, as St. Bonaventura testifies in his Life. Thus also Anthony: "Today," he said, "you think you have taken up the religious life." And Barlaam to Josaphat: "Think" daily "that you have begun today to serve God, that you will finish today." Agatho had lived holily, and yet he said: "I fear death, because God's judgments are other than men's."
3:16
MULTIPLICABO. — In Hebrew הרבה ארבה harba arbe, multiplying I will multiply, that is, I will multiply most abundantly and most certainly. For this doubling signifies both multitude and certainty. A threefold punishment is inflicted here upon the woman on account of her threefold sin. For first, because she believed the serpent saying: "You shall be as gods," she hears: "I will multiply thy sorrows and thy conceptions"; secondly, because she greedily ate the forbidden fruit, she hears: "In sorrow shalt thou bring forth"; thirdly, because she seduced her husband, she hears: "Thou shalt be under thy husband's power." Thus Rupert. SORROWS AND CONCEPTIONS. — That is, sorrows of conceptions; for this is a hendiadys frequent among the Hebrews, such as that of the Poet: "He bit the gold and the bridles," that is, he bit the golden bridles. These sorrows, before conception, are the filth and flow of menstruation; in conception itself, loss of virginity, shame and pain; after conception, uncleanness, foul odor, retention of menstrual flow, uncontrolled appetite, the weight of offspring for nine months, loathings, spasms, and many perils, concerning which Aristotle, book VII On the History of Animals, chapter IV. IN SORROW SHALT THOU BRING FORTH. — With this sorrow is often joined danger to life, both of mother and of offspring, and that both of soul and body, and this pain is so great that one who experienced it said: "She would prefer to decide her life ten times under arms than to give birth once." This pain in woman is greater than in any animal, on account of the more difficult separation of continuous parts, as Aristotle teaches above, chapter IX. In the state of innocence, woman would have escaped this pain through God's benefit and providence. Behold how small a pleasure of sin, a drop, I say, of honey, how much gall, how many sorrows it brought upon Eve and all her descendants! THOU SHALT BE UNDER THY HUSBAND'S POWER. — Not as before willingly, gladly, with wonderful sweetness and harmony, but often unwillingly, with great trouble and resistance. For here the man received power to restrain and punish his wife. Thus Molina. In Hebrew it is: To the man thy teschukatech, that is, desire, course, or recourse; or, as the Septuagint and Chaldean, thy turning shall be, as if to say: Whatever you desire, it will be necessary for you to turn to your husband, so that you may obtain it and accomplish it. Therefore if you are wise, your eyes shall always observe the mouth, eyes, nod and inclination of your husband, so that you may please him, obey him, and bind him to yourself. If you are wise, desire nothing other than what you know will please your husband; if you love peace and quiet, feel and consent with your husband; beware lest you kick against the goad. Rupert adds: "Thou shalt be under thy husband's power." So true is this, he says, that according to Roman laws, though pagan, it was not permitted for a wife to make a will without her husband's authority; and because she was under her husband's hand, she was said to be diminished in legal capacity. And he shall have dominion over thee. — This dominion of the husband, if just and moderate, is a law of nature; if imperious and tyrannical, it is contrary to nature; but either is troublesome to the woman, and is a punishment for sin; therefore it is contrary to nature, and like a monster, if a woman should wish to have dominion over her husband.
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17. "Because thou hast hearkened" — because thou hast obeyed thy wife rather than me. "Cursed is the earth in thy work." — Note with Ada and Procopius, Abulensis, Pererius, that the earth here is cursed by God not absolutely, but "in thy work," namely because to thee, O Adam, laboring and sweating, it shall give few fruits, indeed often thistles and thorns, as follows. Secondly, although before sin the earth would naturally have also produced thorns and thistles (which although Bede, Rupertus and others deny, yet it has been shown more truly to be so in cap. 1, vers. 12): yet that very thing has now become a punishment of sinning man; because if Adam had not sinned, from the fruits of paradise (in which place of pleasantness all things would have helped and delighted man, nor would there have been anything that would harm him, and consequently therein would not have been thorns) he would have lived without any labor; but now laboring that he may prepare food for himself, he often reaps thorns and thistles, by which he is not nourished, but harmed. Add thirdly, through this sin of Adam the primeval goodness and fertility of the earth appears to have been hindered and diminished, and therefore more frequently, and in more places now germinates thistles and thorns than before sin it germinated; this indeed was done to Cain sinning, Genesis IV, 12. So also to the Israelites, on account of sins, God often threatens through the Prophets a brazen heaven and an iron earth. So also today God often punishes cities and kingdoms on account of sins with sterility. Whence the Chaldean and Aquila translate, cursed is the earth because of thee; and Theodotion, cursed is the earth in thy transgression: for the root abar indeed signifies to transgress. Where note fourthly: The Hebrew texts already have baabureha, that is because of thee, as the Chaldean and Aquila translate. Our text however with the Septuagint (from which it is evident that this reading is ancient, and therefore more true) reads baabodecha, that is in thy work. For the letters res and daleth are very similar, so that an easy slip from one to the other is possible. Tropologically St. Basil, homil. De Paradiso: The rose, he says, is here joined with thorns, almost openly warning us with his voice, and saying: What pleasant things are to you, O men, are mixed with sad things. For truly in human affairs it is so arranged, that nothing of them is pure, but immediately to joy and gladness is glued sadness, to marriage widowhood, to the rearing of children care and solicitude, to fertility miscarriage, to the splendor of life ignominy, to prosperous successes losses, to delights satiety, to health infirmity. The rose is indeed flowery, but it inflicts sadness upon me. Whenever I see this flower, I am reminded of my sin, on account of which the earth was condemned to bring forth thorns and thistles. "In labors thou shalt eat of it." — The Hebrew ittsabon signifies labor mixed with great troubles, hardships and pains, such as is agriculture, and it is various, manifold and continuous, by which however with all difficulty man scarcely prepares food for himself and his own. Isidorus Clarius notes, fittingly that to each his own punishments are inflicted here by God: namely the serpent had arrogantly raised itself up; therefore it is commanded to creep on the earth. The woman had tasted the delights of the apple; therefore she is commanded to bring forth in pains. Adam had idly ceased from the woman; therefore he is commanded in labors to prepare food for himself. This is therefore "a heavy yoke upon the sons of Adam, from the day of their going out of the womb of their mother, until the day of burial in the mother of all," Eccles. XL, 1. Under this yoke we all groan. Of it. — In Hebrew thou shalt eat it, namely its sprouts and fruits. 18. "And thou shalt eat the herbs of the earth" — as if to say, Not the delights and fruits of paradise, not also partridges, hares, roasted and boiled meats, but simple and vile herbs of the earth thou shalt eat, both for the sake of temperance and of penance. For the Hebrews call the herbs of the earth or field common and vile herbs, by which beasts equally as man are nourished. Namely through sin man had become as it were a horse and a mule: therefore it is fitting that he be nourished with the same food as they. See the tropology in Cassian, Collat. lib. XXIII, cap. XI.
3:19
19. "For dust thou art, and into dust thou shalt return." — The Septuagint: "For earth thou art, and into earth thou shalt return." Man therefore after sin labors under an incurable disease, as it were a consumption, namely the struggle and corruption of contrary qualities, which gradually wastes him away and kills him. The Hebrew word aphar properly signifies dust; but, as I said before, this dust from which Adam was made was mixed with water, and therefore was mud and slime of the earth, whence also the corpse of man after death is resolved into slime. Why therefore art thou proud, O earth and ashes? Hence it is clear that death is not a condition of man's nature, but a punishment of sin. Whence St. Augustine acutely says in Sentence 260: "Man, he says, was made immortal: God willed it; he did not lose what man was, but lost what immortal he was, and from the pride of disobedience, the penalty of nature was contracted." The same is evident from Rom. V, 12, and Wisdom II, 23. St. Chrysostom thinks that this sentence of death mitigates the former one: "In the sweat of thy face thou shalt eat bread." How useful this penalty is to us, Rupertus has shown learnedly, lib. III, cap. XXIV and XXV, where among other things he says, first, "lest man should not know an evil death of his soul, and should sleep secure until the dawn of the last judgment in his pleasures, God strikes him down with the death of the flesh, so that at least by fear of its imminence he may awake; hence also secondly, he willed that the day and hour of death should be unknown, which does not allow man, always anxious and always in suspense, to grow proud." Third, from Plotinus he teaches that it was from the mercy of God that he made man mortal, lest he should be tortured perpetually by the afflictions of this life. Fourth, God willed man to live in labors. Sharpening mortal hearts with cares, Nor suffered his kingdoms to grow sluggish with heavy slumber. Thus Rupertus. Morally, what therefore is man? Hear the Gentiles. First, man is the sport of fortune, the image of inconstancy, the mirror of corruption, the spoil of time, says Aristotle; second, man is the slave of death, a passing traveler; third, he is a ball with which God plays, says Plautus; fourth, he is a weak and fragile body, naked, unarmed, needing the help of others, cast down to every insult of fortune, says Seneca; fifth, he is the bond of corruption, a living death, a sentient corpse, a portable sepulcher, an opaque veil, says Trismegistus; sixth, he is a phantom and a thin shadow, says Sophocles; seventh, he is the dream of a shadow, says Pindar; eighth, he is an exile and inhabitant of a wretched world: for what indeed is the world now, but a casket of sorrows, a school of vanity, a market of deceivers? as a certain Philosopher said. What is man? Hear the faithful, the wise and the prophets. First, man is a foul seed, a sack of filth, food for worms, says St. Bernard; second, man is a mockery of God, says Zeno the Emperor fleeing, having heard of the destruction of his men; third, man is a drop from a bucket, he is a locust, he is a moment on the balance, he is a drop of dew before dawn, he is hay, he is a flower, he is nothing and emptiness, as Isaiah says cap. XL, vers. 6, 15, 17, 22; fourth, he is all vanity, as the Psalmist says, Psalm. XXXVIII, 6; fifth, he is a messenger running before, he is a ship passing by, he is a bird flying across, he is an arrow shot forth, he is smoke, he is down, he is thin foam, he is a guest of one day, Wisdom cap. V, vers. 9; sixth, he is dust and ashes, as Abraham says Genesis cap. XVIII, vers. 27; seventh, "man born of a woman, living a short time, is filled with many miseries; who cometh forth like a flower and is destroyed, and fleeth as a shadow, and never continueth in the same state," Job XIV, 1. Learn therefore, O man, both to despise thyself and the world. Hear St. Augustine in Sentences, the last Sentence: "Thou boastest in riches, and in the nobility of thy ancestors, and exultest in thy country and in the beauty of thy body, and in honors which are paid to thee by men: look upon thyself, because thou art mortal, and because thou art earth, and into earth thou shalt go; look around at those who before thee shone with like splendors: where are those whom the power of citizens sought after? where are the unconquerable emperors? where are those who arranged assemblies and festivals? where are the splendid riders of horses? where are the leaders of armies? where are the tyrannical satraps? now all is dust, now all is ashes, now their memory is in a few verses. Look upon the sepulchers, and see, who is servant, who is master, who is poor, who is rich? discern, if thou canst, the bound man from the king, the strong from the weak, the beautiful from the deformed. Mindful therefore of nature, be not exalted at any time; but thou wilt be mindful if thou shalt look upon thyself." Thus Zosimas, Easter returning, going back to the place appointed by St. Mary of Egypt, found her lying there and dead, and behind on the ground written: "Bury, Abba Zosimas, the wretched Mary's little body: return earth to earth and dust to dust." And when he did not have a spade, a lion was at hand, which with its claws dug up the earth and made a grave, in which Zosimas buried the Saint's body.
3:20
"He called," after he was cast out of paradise: for immediately after sin and God's sentence he was cast out of paradise. This is therefore a prolepsis or anticipation. Eve. — In Hebrew it is chavva, that is, living, or rather life-giving, from the root chaia, that is, he lived, "because" she was "to be the mother of all the living." Whence the Septuagint for Eve render ζωή, that is, life. From the Hebrew chaia, or chava, that is, he lived, descends the imperative chave, or have, that is, live, which word is that of one greeting and wishing well, as if to say χαῖρε, ὑγίαινε. For have the Latins say, ave; and the Carthaginians, havo. Whence that passage of Plautus in the Poenulus: Havo (that is, ave, hail), whose kinsmen are you? or from what city? Thus our Serarius in Joshua cap. II, question XXV. Note, the Rabbis wrongly placed points in chavva: for it should be pointed and read as Cheva, or Heva; thus indeed the Septuagint read it, and our Vulgate and others. Thus the Rabbis ignorantly read Cores for Cyrus, Dariaves for Darius. By this name Heva Adam comforts himself and his wife, condemned to death by God, because through Eve he will beget living posterity, in whom also they themselves, though destined to die, will nevertheless live perpetually as it were in their children as parents. Hence Eve was a type of the Blessed Mary, who is the mother of the living, not in temporal, but in spiritual and eternal life in heaven. Thus St. Epiphanius, heresy 78. Mary therefore is a better mother than Eve. For Eve is the mother of all, both those dying and those living, and can be called so. Whence Lyra and Abulensis: Eve, they say, signifies the mother of all, not simply, but wretchedly and miserably living in this mortal life. Hence some piously contemplate that Eve is aptly called, as if this name alluded to the wailing of infants born from Eve: for the male recently born says a wailing, the female truly says e, as if to say, Let all who shall be born from Eve say e or a. Again Eve by anastrophe and apocope is Latin ve; by anastrophe alone is ave, which the Blessed Virgin received from the Archangel Gabriel in greeting.
3:21
Note here the unlike character of the devil and of God; the devil ensnares man with some small pleasure, and then abandons him lying in the depths of misery and confusion, so that he becomes a miserable spectacle to all who see him: but God, pitying even his miserable enemy, comes to his aid, clothes and covers him. Origen here understands not true leather tunics, but carnal and mortal bodies, with which after sin Adam and Eve were clothed; for it is ridiculous, he says, to say that God was a leather-worker and maker of hides for Adam. But this is an error: for these words are to be taken historically and literally, as they sound, as St. Augustine teaches, lib. XI De Genes. ad litt. cap. XXXIX, indeed Origen himself hom. 6 in Levit.: "With such things," he says, "it was fitting that the sinner be clothed (namely with leather tunics), which would be an indication of the mortality which he had received from the first sin, and of his fragility, which came from the corruption of the flesh." Theodore of Heraclea and Gennadius think that the barks of trees are here called hides, and that from these Adam's garments were made. But Theodoret rightly refutes this, Quaest. XXXIX. These hides God did not create from nothing, as Procopius wishes, but either stripped them from animals slain by the ministry of angels (for God did not create one pair in each species, as Theodoret wishes, but many at the beginning); or from elsewhere suddenly transformed and fashioned them. Again, understand these hides here as natural, namely with fleece and hair: this is what the Hebrew or and the Latin pelliceas suggest; and this first, so that these garments would serve Adam and Eve equally in winter and in summer by mere inversion. Secondly, because they were not given for ornament, but for necessity, namely to cover nakedness and to ward off the injuries of the air. Thirdly, because these garments were a symbol not only of modesty, but also of frugality, continence and penance. Not purple, not cloth, but hides as if a hair-shirt God clothed men after sin, so that he might teach that our clothing ought to be similarly simple. Hence the holy forty soldiers and Martyrs, according to St. Basil, were stripped by the prefect and cast into an icy pool, so that they might be killed by its cold, and they encouraged themselves with this voice: "We have not put off," they say, "a garment, but the old man corrupted by the deception of concupiscence; we give thanks to thee, O Lord, that with this garment we are able to put off sin at the same time: for we put it on because of the serpent, but we put it off because of Christ." Thus, nearly killed by cold, they are delivered to flames, while angels from heaven display their triumphal crowns. Fourthly, these garments made from the hides of the dead reminded Adam that he was guilty of death. Thus St. Augustine, lib. II De Genes. contra Manichaeos, cap. XXI, Alcuin and others. Allegorically, Adam clothed was a type of Christ, who although he was pure and holy, nevertheless wished to be clothed with hides, that is, to be clothed with our sins, while found in the form of man, made in the likeness of sinful flesh. What then, O man, do you glory in a silk garment? For a garment is the mark and stigma of sin; just as fetters, just as chains, whether of iron or of bronze, are symbols and bonds of thieves and malefactors. Such was the garment of the first Roman Senators, of which Propertius: "The Senate-house, which now shines high with the bordered toga, had fathers with hairy hearts in rustic times."
3:22
"This," says St. Augustine, in book II of Genesis against the Manichaeans, chapter XXII, "can be understood in two ways: either one of us, as if he himself were God, which pertains to mockery, as it is said: One of the senators, surely a senator; or certainly, because he himself would be God, although by the benefit of his creator, not by nature, if he had wished to remain under his power: thus it was said, of us, in the manner it is said, Of the consuls or proconsuls, who is no longer." St. Augustine then adds: "But for what purpose was he made as one of us? for knowledge, namely, of discerning good and evil, so that he through experience might learn, while he feels evil, what God knew through wisdom: and that power of the Almighty, which the blessed and consenting one was unwilling to suffer, through his punishment let him learn to be unavoidable." The former sense is more genuine: for the phrase he was made demands it. It is therefore irony and sarcasm, as if to say: Adam wished through eating the apple to become like us, behold how dissimilar he became; he wished to know good and evil, behold into what abyss of ignorance he fell. Thus Gennadius, Theodoret, and Rupert, who says: "Adam as one of us was made, so that we are no longer a Trinity, but a quaternary: although not with God as God, but against God he affected to be God." These are the words of God the Father not to the angels, as Oleaster and Abulensis wish, but to the Son and the Holy Spirit, as is evident, and thus Abulensis himself understands it in chapter XIII, Question 486. Now therefore,—supply it must be guarded against, or he must be expelled from paradise. This is an aposiopesis. And let him live forever,—but let him die, according to the sentence passed upon him in chapter II, verse 17; this death is a punishment for man, and is also a shortening of punishment; for it is the custom of God, as St. Chrysostom says here, that in punishing no less than in benefiting, he declares his providence toward us, as if to say Rupert: "Man, because he is wretched, let him also be temporal, and thus let him be unlike both God and the devil: for God is both eternal and blessed, and his is eternal blessedness, blessed eternity: of these, one, namely blessedness, the devil lost; but eternity he did not lose, and his is eternal wretchedness, wretched eternity. Let us spare," says God, "man; and because he lost blessedness, let us also take away eternity from the wretched one; so that in neither may he be as one of us. To us belongs eternal blessedness, blessed eternity; let there be to him temporal wretchedness, or wretched temporality, and then for him eternity will be more conveniently restored, when blessedness shall have been recovered."
3:23
In Hebrew it is iescallechehu in the piel, that is, he cast out, he expelled him. The Septuagint adds, and placed him over against, or in the sight (for this is ἀπέναντι) of paradise, namely so that by the sight of it he might continually mourn the good lost and repent more keenly. Note: God sent out Adam through an angel, who either led him out by hand, as Raphael did Tobias; or snatched him away, as he snatched Habakkuk from Judaea into Babylon, to carry breakfast to Daniel. Thus St. Augustine and Abulensis, who adds that the angel transferred Adam from paradise to Hebron, where he had been created, lived, and was afterwards buried. You will ask, on what day was this done? Abulensis thinks Adam sinned and was expelled from paradise on the second day of his creation, that is, Saturday. Pererius on the eighth day, and for this reason, that in the meantime for an interval of several days he might experience that blessed state in paradise. Others on the fortieth day: whence Christ for this gluttony of Adam fasted the same number of days, that is, forty days. Others in the thirty-fourth year, just as Christ lived thirty-four years, and expiated this sin. But commonly the Fathers, St. Irenaeus, Cyril, Epiphanius, the Sarugenian, Ephrem, Philoxenus, Barcepha, and Diodorus according to Pererius, hand down that Adam sinned on the same day on which he was created, and was expelled from paradise on that day, namely on Friday, the day of Venus; indeed in the same hour in which Christ died on the cross outside Jerusalem, and restored the thief and all of us to paradise. This opinion is favored by the sequence of Scripture: for from verse 8 it is evident that this happened after midday, the heat abating, and a gentle breeze blowing. It is favored also by the envy of the devil, which did not permit Adam to stand long. It is favored also by the perfection of nature in which Adam was created, by which he himself, like an angel, immediately resolved himself, and chose one part or the other. Finally, if he had been long in paradise, surely he would have eaten of the tree of life. As therefore Christ in the same place, namely on Mount Calvary, wished to be crucified, where Adam was buried: thus he himself then marked the day of our sin and exile, to pay and discharge the debts of that day. St. Ephrem according to Barcepha, at the end of book I of Paradise; Philoxenus and James the Sarugenian add, that Adam was created in the ninth hour of the morning, and was expelled from paradise in the third hour of the afternoon, and thus remained in paradise only six hours.
3:24
"And he placed before the paradise of pleasure Cherubim, and a flaming sword turning every way." — You will ask, who are the Cherubim, what is this sword? First, Tertullian in the Apology, and St. Thomas, II-II, Question 165, last article, think it to be the torrid zone, which on account of its heat is impassable, which therefore God, they say, placed between these regions of ours and paradise. Second, Lyra and Tostatus wish these to be fire surrounding paradise on all sides. The same opinion is held by many Fathers to be cited at the end of this chapter. Third, Theodoret and Procopius think them to be μορμολύκια, and certain specters of terrible form, such as scarecrows placed against birds in gardens. But I say that all these things are to be understood properly as they sound, namely that angels of the order of Cherubim were placed before paradise, so that they might prohibit its entrance both to Adam and men, and also to demons, lest namely they themselves should enter paradise and pluck the fruit of the tree of life, which they might offer to men, promising them immortality, so that by this means they might entice them to their love and worship. Thus St. Chrysostom, Augustine, Rupert and others. Note first: Cherubim rather than Thrones, Virtues, or Principalities were entrusted with the custody of paradise, because Cherubim are most vigilant and most discerning; whence they are called Cherubim from knowledge, and therefore are most fit to be avengers of the omniscience of God, which Adam had coveted. Hence it is clear that superior angels also are sent to earth, as I have shown in Hebrews 1, last verse. Note second: These Cherubim appear to have been clothed in human form; for they have and brandish a flaming sword, and one turning in all directions, so that with it they might strike those who wish to enter paradise. Note third: For flaming sword in Hebrew it is lahat hachereb, that is the flame of the sword. Whence it is uncertain whether this sword was a flame having the form and appearance of a sword, or whether it was truly a sword, but glowing with fire, flashing and as it were vomiting flames. Note fourth: This sword was taken away and ceased, as also the Cherubim; when paradise ceased, namely in the flood. Allegorically, as St. Ambrose on that passage of Psalm 118, "Render unto thy servant, and I shall live," and Rupert book III, chapter 32, this flaming sword is the fire of Purgatory, which God placed before the heavenly paradise for the dying, not yet fully purified in this life; and hence the Cherubim, that is angels, lead souls fully purified into paradise, namely into heaven. Indeed St. Ambrose, Origen, Lactantius, Basil, Rupert from this place think that fire is placed before heaven, which all souls, even those of St. Peter and St. Paul, must pass through after death, so that they may be tested by it, and if found impure, so that they may be purified by it, concerning which I have spoken in 1 Corinthians 3:15. Morally note: Six punishments were inflicted upon Adam (with Eve) and his posterity, which fittingly correspond to six of his sins: his first sin was disobedience: on account of this he felt the rebellion of the flesh and the senses; the second was gluttony: on account of this he was punished with labor and fatigue. "In the sweat," he says, "of thy face shalt thou eat bread;"; the third was theft of the apple: on account of this he was punished with the pain of the flesh, namely hunger, thirst, cold, heat, sickness, etc. "I will multiply," he says, "thy sorrows;"; the fourth was infidelity, by which he disbelieved God, and believed the demon: on account of this he was punished with death, by which the soul departs and is separated from the body; the fifth was ingratitude: on account of this he deserved to be deprived of his substance, which he had received from God, and to be reduced to ashes. "Dust," he says, "thou art, and into dust thou shalt return;"; the sixth was pride: through this he deserved to be deprived of paradise, heaven and the heavenly beings, and to be thrust down into hell. From what has been said it is clear that the sin of Adam, if you regard the first and proper species of sin, was not the gravest of all: for it was disobedience of the positive law of God, but graver than this is blasphemy, hatred of God, obstinate impenitence, etc. Wherefore Arius, Luther, Judas and others sinned more gravely than Adam. If, however, you regard the damages that followed from this sin, the sin of Adam was the gravest of all: for through it he himself and all his posterity were lost, and so whoever is damned is damned on account of this sin either immediately or mediately; and by this reasoning this sin can be called irremissible; because guilt and punishment pass into all his posterity, nor can it be remitted or prevented in any way.
Machine translation from the Latin, not reviewed.
3:1
« Qui dexit ad mulierem » : — Cum evidens sit et ab auctore etiam tamquam evidens supponi debeat, serpentem natura loquendi facultate haud esse instructum, patet per se spiritum aliquem per illum serpentem esse locutum. Quem spiritum fuisse nequam docemur tentatione et consequente divina maledictione. Explicite idipsum confirmat Sap. 2,24 * « Invidia autem diaboli mors introivit in orbem terrarum »; qui ideo Io. 8,44 dicitur « homicida ab initio » et Ap. 12,9; 20,2 nomen nanciscitur « serpens antiquus, qui seducit universum orbem ». Hebraeis antiquitus notum fuisse diabolum, fuse demonstrat L. Reinke, Beitrage II. 272 sqq., licet de eo, uti etiam de immortalitate animae, rarius neque ita explicite loquantur. Neque tamen adstruere cogeris, ipsis serpentis gutture, lingua, ore, quae humano sermoni edendo penitus sunt inepta (Per.), diabolum efformasse verba ; sufficit admittere, arte daemonisita Evae sensus esse affectos, ut vocem e serpentis ore profectam indubie arbitraretur. Cf. Cyrill. Alex. Contra [ulian. III, M. 76.632 sqq.; Bonfr.; Calm. Ergo certe in aliqua re mulieris sensus decepti sunt. Serpentem vidit, agnovit, eius sibi alloquium audire visa est : tamen non ipse loquebatur. Ubi sponte nascitur quaestio, an alius praeterea fuerit in muliere sensuum error, an daemon forte non vocem tantum , sed vel ipsam serpentis formam sit ementitus. Quod sensisse videtur Eugubinus (Cosmopoeia, Lugd. 1535) et merito defendi posse censet Reinke p. 269. Neque dicas, eundem, cuius modo laudabatur sagacitas, iam in scenam produci serpentem. Producitur idem aut re et forma, aut forma tantum. Nonne idem producitur loquens? At non idem re loquebatur, sed specie solum idem. Scilicet, quod merito adnotat ReznÁe p. 352 et etiam affirmat Lamy, auctor « refert factum prout oculis exterhis proditum est; non agit interpretem, non explicat quis fuerit ille serpens ». Oculis autem protoparentum proditum est factum ita, ut primum formam serpentis adrepentis conspicerent, dein vocem ex eius ore profectam audirent : narrant igitur adfuisse serpentem esseque locutum , neque in ea narratione falsitatis quidquam subest, cum rem, qualis sensibus obiceretur, referant. Leve est illud quoque, quod obiicit Per., verum adfuisse serpentem, quod v. 1* poena in serpentem decernitur. Haud quidquam ea poena in serpentis conditione mutavit, qui iam ante supra pectus gradiretur. Dein quaero, cur eain serpentem . tandem poena feratur : nonne ob tentationis verba, quae specie tantuni e serpentis ore profecta erant? Quodsi iuste sententia ferri potuit in serpentem ob illud, quod loqui visus erat, ergo iuste quoque feretur in serpentem , qui non ipse sed specie tenus solummodo adfuerit. Minus feliciter Lamy priora verba ita premit : « Serpens ille vaferrimum se pracbuit, quando protoparentes in peccatum induxit ». ^*'? non est necessario de uno aliquo determinato eventu accipiendum neque, si de uno tentationis facto agatur, apparet ratio comparalionis adhibitae serpentem inter et reliqua animalia. — Neque placet HReinke p. 353 affirmans, ideo serpentem visum esse protoparentibus animalium omnium callidissimum, quod rationalis creaturae instar sit locutus : tum iam nulla erat ratio comparationis cum ceteris bestiis instituendae, nisi supponas protoparentes aut putasse aut saltem suspicatos esse, cetera eliam animalia posse loqui. — Frequenter monent auctores, ideo a muliere tentationis initium fecisse daemonem, quod ca magis quam Adam deceptioni pateret : « Adam praeditus sapientia, quam a Dco acceperat, qua etiam nomina indidit rebus, haudquaquam ca fuisset passus quae mulier, si prior a serpente fuisset interpellatus » (Proc.).
3:3
« Cur praecepit vobis Deus, ut non comederetis de omni ligno paradisi? » Quod daemon constanter secunda persona plurali de homine loquatur, prodit eius consilium et mulieris et viri perdendorum (Caz.). LXX «t $&u, Symm. zpos «i, Aq. yf 6v: sed recte explicant expressionem ellipticam Chald. Syr. verumne est quod seu verene. Perperam Cai. ex voce colligit, alia plura cum muliere locutum esse serpentem, sed haec sola compendio referri : plurane locuti sint necne, textu non docemur neque nostra interest scire. Licet 52... wb sensum induere consuevit nullus , nemo, kamen eadem expressio sensum habere absolute potest non omnis, ei ita serpentis quaestio reapse est ambigua, licet sensus falsus quique Evae provocet correctionem , utique magis sit obvius. « Hoc nimirum daemonis ingenium est ambigue loqui » (Bonfr.). Infelicius coniicit Proc., daemonem, quid Deus prohibuisset, reapse ignorasse. Quaestio est admirantis, cf. Gen. 18,13 : « Verene paritura sum anus? » Admiratio est de nimia severitate seu duritia prohibentis. « Quamvis, quod sub interrogatione profertur, nec verum nec falsum sit, mendacium tamen hic serpens manifeste sibilavit, rem sicut erat se nescire simulans, ut paulatim felle suo miseram audientis venenaret.animam,... ut paulatim serpendo venenum odii, quo ardebat ipse contra creatorem , magis ac magis iniiceret homini, et cum aggeratione quasi indigni praecepti conflaret indignationem excitaretque audaciam rebellandi? » (Rup.). Merito etiam monet Aug., ideo prohibitionem interrogatione in memoriam revocasse serpentem , quo magis « praevaricatio esset inexcusabilis », quippe quam neque ignorantia legis neque deficiens attentio attenuaret. Dein coarctant serpentis verba humanam libertatem, etiam praeter limites divina prohibitione statutos, quo certius eliciant mulieris responsum : aegre quippe restringi libertatem ferimus omnes (Caz.). v. 9 « Cuirespondit mulier : De fructu lignorum » — vere secundum sensum Syr. addit omnzum — « quae sunt in paradiso , vesctmur », i. e. vesci licet (Per.); v. 3 « de fructu vero ligni, quod est in medio paradisi, praecepit nobis Deus ne comederemus et ne tangeremus illud, ne forte moriamur ». 15 de se nequaquam habet sensum dubii (forte), quasi mulier de certitudine poenae secuturae dubitaverit (Malv.). Ex verbis igitur colligitur intellexisse mulierem , quam serio Deus eum fructum comedi prohibuerit (DilIm.), simulque prohibitionem non reputasse nimis gravem, quippe quae fructus reliquarum arborum omnium edendos concessisset (Per.). Arborem vetitam simpliciter describit Eva ut « lignum, quod est in medio paradisi », cum ex 2,9 cum hoc versu collato efficiatur etiam lignum vitae in medio paradiso prostitisse : unam iam in mente mulier habet prohibitam arborem, alterius arboris vix non immemor effecta; fertur quippe in vetita humana mens. Durius aliqui in verbis v. 2 sq. Evam carpunt, speciatim quod non totidem atque 2,16 sq. verbis Dei prohibitionem referat. Quare Amór. (De Parad. c. 12 n. 56; M. 14.303) causatur « decolorare » eam divinum mandatum ; Rup. ait « depravare tribus modis, quibus usque hodie depravare nititur s. scripturam omnis, qui est ex parte diaboli, sc. appositione, diminutione, mutatione ». Quaestio tandem est de verbis e? ne tangeremus illud , quae 2,16 sq. desiderantur. Quae Proc. putat revera a Deo esse pronuntiata, licet 2,16 sq. non referantur. Amór., Cai. censent Evam , quod sibi displiceat, more mulierum exaggerare mandatum. Sapientius Ma/v., Lap. aliique pronuntiant verba ab Eva adiecta esse « ex religione et reverentia divini praecepti ».
3:4
V. « Dixit autem. serpens ad mulierem : Nequaquam morte moriemzni ». Negatur Dei veracitas una brevi sententia; verbi finiti vis augetur adscripto infinitivo intensivo; negatio non inter utrumque, quod usitatius, inseritur sed utrumque praecedit (De/.).
3:5
v. 5 « Seit enim Deus , quod in quocunque die comederitis ex eo , apertentur oculi vestri et eritis sicut dit scientes bonum et malum ». Primum daemon removet metum supremi mali, mortis, dein excitat spem insignis plane boni (Per.); primum Dei negat veracitatem , dein non caritate sed invidia Deum moveri affirmat (Bonfr.). « Mendax enim ipse est, invidus ipse est. Mendax autem sibi similem i. e. mendacem vult facere Deum. Item vere invidus praecepti Dei causam esse invidám audet asserere... Quasi parum fuerit, quod superbiendo Dei similitudinem perdidit, adhuc detrahendo similem sibi Deum asserere praesumit » (Rup.). Promittit autem apertum iri oculos mentis (Ca?.) : « tanta nascetur animae perspicacia, ut merito iudicare possitis, vos hactenus nihil scivisse et quasi caecos fuisse » (Bonfr.). De expressione sczentes bonum et malum vide, quae diximus ad 2,9. e'5x pluralem intellexere V«/g. LXX, specialius vero Targumem et Versio Sam. interpretata sunt angelos; e contra Syr. singulari vertit Deus, quod confirmari Ma/v. monet v. 92: « Ecce Adam quasi unus ex nobis factus est ». Simul merito advertit Caz., hanc uti alias daemonis voces esse ambiguan : suggerit daemon, gustato fructu vetito fore omniscios sicut Deum; revera experti sunt in se ipsis boni malique discrimen, quale experti sunt m'5x, i. e. angeli, et quidem in hoc contextu angeli lapsi.
3:6
V. 6 « Vidit igitur mulier », — « Ne sententiam videretur praecipitare, accedit propius ad arborem eamque contemplatur curiose » (Mar.). « Audierat, quod dixisset Deus : In quocunque die comederitis ex eo, morte moriemini; audierat serpentem e contrario dicentem : Nequaquam moriemini. Inter haec anceps naturam ligni propriis sensibus diiudicare voluit, ut sciret, cui potissimum, Deo videlicet vel serpenti, palmam concederet veritatis. At illi, qui de hoc iudicare debuerant, interiores oculi exteriorum iam erant oculorum concupiscentia praepediti; ut non viderent » (Rup.). Quid autem vidit? « Quod bonum esset lignum ad vescendum et pulchrum oculis aspectuque delectabile ». In ultüimo membro reliqui textus repetunt subiectum /77num. Syr. illud membrum vertit uti Vulg.; LXX est anceps; sed Targumzm ei Versio Sam. vertunt desiderabile ad intelligendum seu sapiendum; et ita verti debet Hebr. (Ca?. aliique) ob sequentes rationes. Hiphil5*2wn secus nunquam de oculorum aspectu adhibetur; oratio secus esset pleonastica idemque sonaret, quod modo pulchrum oculis; nulla appareret ratio emphatice intertio membro repetiti subiecti. Quomodo autem haec omnia vid:t Eva? Egit ipsa, uti agere consuevere, quotquot sensuum testimonio omnia dirimenda suscipiunt. Quod sc. oculis videret lignum aspectu esse delectabile, neque quidquam videret, quo non esse bonum ad vescendum proderetur, iudicavit bonum esse etiam ad vescendum; rursum, quod nihil videret, quo lignum non esse praestiturum scientiam demonstraretur, iudicavit habere reapse virtutem a serpente eidem attributam. « Et tulit de fructu illius et comedit, deditque viro suo » secum , « qui comedit ». LXX Sam. et Versio Sam. comederunt, sequentis sc. vocis » huc transsumentes. Cf. Ephr. v. "1 « Et aperti sunt oculi amborum ; cumque cognovissent se esse nudos, consuerunt folia ficus », « utendo pediculis frondium pro acu et filo » (Caz.), « et fecerunt sibi perizomata ». Ficum praetulere non ob aliam sane rationem, quam quod aliis arboribus propior adesset. An eadem etiam aptior? Id negant Kn. et Lagarde (Mittheilungen I. 2. sqq.) : sed nota textum non edicere, ea folia sapienter ab Adam ei usui esse adhibita; Deus illico folis substituit pelles. Gratuito Mar. veterum quorumdam resuscitavit opinionem, ficum fuisse ipsam arborem vetitam. Iam totam hanc narrationem ironia quaedam pervadit. Cernitur ea in serpentis promissione apertum iri oculos, quae eo postea impleta est, ut oculi aperirentur ad nuditatem percipiendam ; in promissione fore transgressores sicut t'n5w, qui dein effecti reapsi sunt sicut 2'n5x seu angeli (lapsi). Et haec quidem in serpentis verbis reperitur ironia; sed est etiam alia, qualis est lusus vorborum inter a"ovy nudi et àv sagaz;, et verba Dei v. 22: « Ecce Adam quasi unus ex nobis etc. ». Eadem ironia initio nostri versus cernitur, ubi ipse pudor conscientiam nuditatis consecutus exprimitur verbis aper sunt oculi amborum ; idem h. l. est aperiri oculos e£ cum pudore conscium fieri nuditatis : non aliam scientiam nacti sunt Dei maiestate contempta (Theodoret.). « Ergo accidit eis similiter quodammodo ut pueris, qui priusquam ad rationis usum perveniant, de nuditate minime verecundantur; ubi autem ratio vim discernendi bonum a malo exercere, et ipsi libero arbitrio uti coeperint, continuo de nuditate erubescunt. Quod igitur pueris propter aetatem contingit, hoc illis propter iustitiae originalis praesentiam vel absentiam evenit » (Per.).
3:8
v. 8 « Et cum audisseni vocem Domini Dei deambulantis in paradiso ad auram post meridiem , abscondit se Adam et uxor eius a. facie Domini Dei in. medio ligni paradisi ». Vocem wp Cai. intelligit Dei loquentis : sed idem verbum 2 Reg. 5,24; 3 Reg. 19,12 de strepitu advenientis adhibetur; unde Ephr. scribit « vocem pedum ». At minime ad eum strepitum vox restringitur, neque »nnn necessario dicit deambulare, sed solemnem divinae maiestatis incessum, cf. Lev. 96,19; Deut. 93,14 (15); 2 Reg. 7,6. Igitur Malv. illud 5p interpretatur « levem quemdam sonum advenientis Dei », melius fortasse Donfr. « fragorem quemdam ac sonum inarticulatum, quo non tantum aer resonaret, sed omnia, quae in paradiso erant, ad Dei adventum concuterentur, accommodatum nimirum et ad maiestatem Dei advenientis indicandam et peccatores terrefaciendos ». Unde etiam facilius explicatur Adami et Evae terror se abscondentium, non solum quod Deus offensus adesset, sed quod tanta maiestate adesset. Cf. Proc. Ceterum, quod se absconderint, ratio princeps sane erat conscientia admissi sceleris, necnisi secundaria nuditas, quam perizomatibus iam aliquatenus velavissent. Ubi Vulg. ad, i. e. versus auram post meridiem, ibi Hebr. cwn mmb, quod ad verbum transferunt Aq. Symm. ; LXX cb ósiwóv, i. e. tempore pomeridiano. Explicant Chald. et Ps. Ion. wm nc, « versus requiem diei »; Syr. « vespera dici »; Theod. àv xà zvepntt zpóg zat&juEw. cric fu£pac, « in aura versus refrigerationem diei ». Ili erzo omnes tempus pomeridianum inter et vespertinum indicant, excepto Targ. Hier. « versus robur diei », et Vers. Sam. « versus fervofem diei », qui meridiem exprimunt : sed falso, nam tempus meridianum est Q'*" an Gen. 18, 1, et vespere in partibus orientis aura refrigerat aerem. Sensus autem temporis ita determinandi is est, adfuisse Deum eodem, quo peccasset homo, die, brevi interiecto intervallo, cum tentator serpens v. 14 adhuc praesens adesset.
Arg. — Confessione admissi criminis a reis hominibus elicita, primum serpenti Deus maledicit et protoevangelio ruinam praenuntiat, dein Hevae et Adae poenis impositis tunicas suppetit eosque e paradiso misericorditer dimittit.
3:9
v. 9 « Vocavitque Dominus Deus Adam et dixit ei : Ubi es? » « Inerepantis vox est, non ignorantis » (Aug.). Iudex quodammodo in tribunali assidet Deus; « tamquam loco accusante citat Adam interrogando : Ubi tu? ut ex ipso loco incipiat convinci ad confitendum peccatum suum » (Ca?.). « Quid factum est? In alio statu te reliqui, in alio te invenio : gloria vestitum te reliqui, nunc in nudilate te invenio » (Chrys.).
3:10
v. 10 « Qui ait : Vocem tuam audtvi in paradiso et timui, eo quod nudus essem , et abscond? me ». Timui seu « verecundatus sum » (Lap.) « in conspectum tuum venire » (Bonfr.) propter nuditatem : sentit Adam, quam indecens sit vel ex parte nudum Dei intrare praesentiam. Ratio vero, cur nunc nuditatem vereretur, quam ante non erubuisset, utique peccatum erat, cuius aliqua confessio ipse ille timor erat : « timor me invasit ob delictum, latebras quaesivi propter nuditatem » (Proc.). Sed eam confessionem non fuisse satis explicitam ostendunt Dei verba
3:11
v. 11: « Cui dizit : Quis enim indicavit tibi, quod nudus esses, nisi quod ez ligno, de quo » — solo addunt LXX, unde h. 1. Patrum Graecorum aliqui, quam facilis fuerit divina prohibitio, amplificant — « praeceperam tibi, ne comederes, comedisti? » « Haec ipsa scientia, qua nudum te esse perspexisti, culpa est, quia rapina est » (Rup.). Ceterum Heór. duas habet quaestiones : « Quis indicavit tibi, quod nudus esses? » et dein, reo non respondente, pergitur : « An ex ligno etc.? »
3:12
v. 19. « Dixitque Adam : Mulier, quam dedisti mihi sociam », — . "12y mecum, quod pulchre Symm. reddit 4» covo»wág vot, et Proc. monet idem esse atque « adiutorium » 2,18 — « dedit mihi de ligno et comedi ». « Antequam diceret, comed? , scutum defensionis arripuit dicens : Mulier etc. » (Rup.). Reapse tam Adam quam Eva voce comed; sententiam claudunt, sed ante aliquibus culpam extenuare conantur : Adam in Evam, Eva in serpentem culpam reiicit, Adam illud etiam effert, mulierem sibi ab ipso Deo datam exstitisse causam ruinae. « Peccavi, sed non peccassem, nisi tu mihi talem vitae sociam adiunxisses... Serpens, quem tu creasti et inter nos hic degere permisisti, cui tantum versutiae tribuisti, me decepit » (MenocA.). Quas protoparentum excusationes plures cum Aug., Rup. severe carpunt, tamquam totidem effugia agnoscendae culpae confodiunt; dum alii cum Chrys., Proc. mitius sentiunt. Et reapse erat in illis excusationibus veri aliquid, quod merito extenuandae culpae adhibebatur. Minus graviter peccaratl Adam uxoris blanditiis seductus, quam si ipse unus sibi peccati auctor fuisset. Erat efficax quoddam implorandae divinae miserationis momentum, ut ab ea exhiberetur vir muliere seductus, " quam ipsi Deus tamquam adiutorium maxime necessarium individue copulasset. Caveamus igitur, ne aequo severius protoparentes nostros carpamus. Facile etiam Dei verba ita cum Proc. exponuntur, ut indulgens iudex illorum excusationes non respuerit sed admiserit. Adamo se defendente, quod mulieri fuisset obsecutus, Deus defensionem non respuit sed polius admittit, illico ad mulierem conversus; item ubi mulier serpentem seductorem demonstravit, illico à muliere ad serpentem convertitur Deus.
3:13
v. 13 « Et dizit Dominus Deus ad mulierem : Quare hoc fecisti? Quae respondit : Serpens decepit me et comedi ». « Missa muliere festinat Deus ad' serpentem. Mirabile vide iudicium. Deceptos interrogat, deceptorem non interrogat. Non, ul ad causam ipsum dicendum cohortaretiur, ait : Quid fecisti? sed quasi malum malique auctorem penitusque incorrigibilem veniaque indignum affatur : Quia hoc fecisti etc. » (Proc.). llli similia vide apud Ephr.
3:14
v. 1& « Et ast Dominus Deus ad. serpentem : Quia fecisti hoc , maledictus es inter omnia animantia et bestias terrae ». Non inepte Ps. Ion. et. Targ. Hier. huic narrationis parti verba praefigunt : « Et adduxit Dominus Deus tres istos in iudicium ». Reapse iudicium agitur, et in sententia ferenda a serpente iudex procedit ad mulierem et virum, uti in causa investiganda a viro descenderat ad mulierem et serpentem. o2») reddunt LXX àzó; sed scrpenti non maledicitur a reliquis animalibus. Cai. verlit plus quam; sed an reliqua animalia maledictioni subsunt? an hic forte iam alluditur ad illud Rom. 8, 20, vanitati subiectam esse creaturam? Nota T2 habere significationem primitus localem : ergo si cui cum aliis comparato tribuatur qualitas, quam etiam ipsi habent, vertendum plus quam seu prae; si cui cum aliis comparato tribuatur qualitas, qua ipsi carent, vertendum ínter (Vulg.). « Super pectus tuum gradieris et terram comedes cunctis diebus vitae tuae », quamdiu vives; et quod hic de uno illo serpente affirmatur, necessario etiam de tota eius progenie intelligitur, cum quia sunt eiusdem cum illo speciei, tum quia semen serpentis v. 15 explicite effertur. - Textum crassius accipientes Jos., Ephr. aliique putavere, serpentem primitus pedes habuisse et erectumincessisse. Verum nos non cogi textu adstruere, totam serpentis naturam tam stupendum in modum fuisse mutatam, iam videre Proc., Rup. et fatentur recentiores communiter. « Dico ergo, etiamsi haec omnia, quae quasi in poenam contra serpentem decernuntur, fuerint naturalia, tamen ante peccatum non habuisse rationem poenae aut quasi poenae, post vero habuisse » (Bonfr.). « Sic iris ante naturalis, post Noe coepit esse signum pacti inter Noe hominesque et inter Deum initi » (MenocA.). « Sic Adamo quoque et Evae quaedam deputantur in poenam, quae etiam in statu innocentiae fuerant ipsis naturalia, v. g. uxorem subdi marito, herbis vesci, terram germinare ipsis spinas et alia » (T?r.). « Serpens organum hic daemonis in specie sua non peccavit, ac proinde nec nulla ei nova - poena imponitur, sed solum in opprobrium est denuntiatio suae nati-- vae maledictionis. Idem fere de daemone, qui non peccavit nisi solito modo tentando; quapropter non decernitur nova poena. Nam cum sit extra statum viae, quae ille facit, nec ad meritum nec ad culpam ei imputantur, quo fit ut nec ad praemium sint nec ad poenam » (Gord.). — Neque textus edicit, serpentem uti terra seu pulvere (^Zy) pro cibo. Dicitur quidem « serpenti pulvis panis » Is. 65,95 vel in statu paradisi restituendi : sed id aliud non est nisi « lingere pulverem », quod Mich. 7,17 de serpentibus, Is. 49,23 de iis praedicatur, qui coram aliis humi prosternuntur. Lingere vero pulverem ideo specialius serpentes dicuntur, qui os et linguam semper humi depressa gestent. Ob idipsum dicuntur comedere pulverem, quia scriptura h. 1. uti in Cosmogonia res naturales describit, quales obtutui obiiciuntur : iam videmus serpentes carnibus et herbis non vesci; quibus vescantur, non videmus; os continuo prope terram gestare, quo pulverem frequenter hauriant, videmus; quod sufficit, ut dicamus illos terram comedere. Quo modo Proc. quoque : « videmus », ait, « reptilia omnia vesci lerra ». Putavere aliqui, v. 14 sq. unice dici de diabolo, nullatenus autem de vero serpente, hinc narrationem totam quantam esse figuratam , metaphoricam : ita Aug., Hugo. Imo /tup. exinde, quod serpentes etiam ante lapsum pedibus caruerint, infert verba « supra pectus tuum gradieris » de solo diabolo, minime vero de serpente intelligi oportere. Sed sermonem etiam esse de ipso serpente, demonstrat contextus inde a v. 1. Neque obiicias, serpentem animal irrationale puniendum non esse : punitur ut instrumentum diabolicae nequitiae. Sic pater ensem comminuit, quo filius occidebatur (Chrys.). Cf. Jac. Edess. Dicuntur ergo haec omnia et de serpente et de diabolo, de serpente ut instrumento visibili, de diabolo ut agente invisibili, de serpente proxime et immediate, de diabolo mediate et per émutav, sensu non allegorico neque metaphorico sed quodammodo concomitante. Cf. Bonfr., Mar., Tir., Lap. etc. Hinc ne singula diabolo applicare coneris, ne exponere nitaris, quomodo ille super pectus gradiatur, terram comedat etc. Sufficit generalior quaedam similitudo : maledictus est uti serpens, ita etiam diabolus; abjectio serpentis in pulvere adrepentis adumbrat abjectionem daemonis de coelo ad ima delapsi; inimicitiae ad diabolum longe verius spectant, quam ad serpentem.
3:15
v. 15 « Inimicitias ponam nter te et mulierem, et semen tuum et semen illius : àipsa conteret caput tuum, et tu insidiaberis calcaneo eius ». Vertendum 2psum sc. semen, aut 2pse sc. personificando semen. Primum nota, genuinam Vulgatae lectionem esse ipsa, i. c. hanc vocem ab ipso S. Hier. esse profectam, non vero librariorum incuria irrepsisse. Sensus vero, quem ea lectio suggerit, et argumenta dogmatica, quae eidem innituntur, vera manent, etiamsi Hebr. ipse aut ipsum vertendum esse demonstretur, cum quia sensus dogmaticus versione authentica expressus falsus esse nequit, tum ex subiecia materia, quia so. st sc. seminis triumphus necessario etiam mulieris triumphus sit oportet : vincente ipso "vincit i ipsa. Cf. Verc. — Nota porro, genuinam LXX lectionem esse abró;, quod üpsi personnificatione ad tb exígux referunt; non ab:ó, quod solus habet Theophil. Antioch. (ad Autol. II n. 21; M. 6. 1085). Neque dicas ex a$t1ó cov corruptione oriri potuisse aótó; cov, nam secundum leges critices praecise haec altera lectio, quod sit difficilior, tamquam genuina est retinenda. Cf. Reinke II. 207. Iam Hebr. NW! verti oportere ipsum aut ipse, sequentes efficiunt rationes (cf. C. Sane, si testes hos pensemus, fateri cogimur, utramque et conterendi et observandi significationem solida auctoritate radici *'"w attribui. Ubi perperam aliqui utramque significationem ex radice T"INV vel "v2 inhiare derivare studuerunt, cui cum radice mo vel "no nihil videtur esse commune. Utramque tamen signi(icationem huic radici competere, nihil est quod dubitemus. Adverte, Chald. Iob. 9, 17 ad eam exprimendam uti radice PP quae a significatione tenuem esse profecta duplicem induat significationem comminuendi scu conterendi, et minutim seu attente faciendi et hinc studendi. Habes hic in una radice coniunctas significationes conterendi et studendi seu observandi seu insidiandi : cur non utramque radici etiam au" concedamus? Tandem utraque significatio pro nostro textu non solum admitti potest, sed etiam debet : sc. si alterutram a s. scriptore primarie adstruas fuisse intentam, illico alteram etiam veram esse legitima conclusione demonstrabis. Etenim perpetuae in perpetuis inimicitiis insidiae concipi nequeunt. quin semel saltem vel iterum aut hominis calcaneus vnlnerari aut serpentis caput conteri concedatur; sed neque conteri alteruter potest in tam perpetuis inimicitiis, nisi insidiae praecesserint, ex insidiis quippe pugnare scrpontis maxime proprium cst neque homo ita facile, nisi attente prius serpentem observaverit, eius conteret caput. Utramque significationem unica ad instar textus hebraei voce versiones exprimere non valuere; quare omnibus perpensis videtur nobis tandem Vulgatae versio conteret... insidiaberis ceteris felicius Hebraei sensum exprimere. Elenim duplicem effert significationem radicis propriam, dum reliqui alterutram tantum enuntiant. Apte autem conteret dc semine dicitur lethale vulnus capiti inflicturo, dum serpentis mor- . sus, quod lethales non sint, insidiae potius sint, non clades. Of. F. X. Patritii S. I. de Interpretatione Scr. S. II. 46 sqq., Romae 1844. Alia quaedam notanda. Serpens idem omnino erit intelligendus, qui antea : ergo serpens oculis conspectus, auribus auditus, idem simul diaboli instrumentum intus latentis. Ruüdicule igitur Jos. serpentem interpretatur mere materialem, cui Deus iam indat venenum indicatque perpetuas cum homine inimicitias, eius caput impetituro, in quo insit veneni vis. Venenosus fuisse ille serpens gratis asseritur : venenosum.- fuisse ante tentationem, nihil est quod affirmes; neque talem post tentationem factum esse quidquam indicat, eum v. 14 eius serpentis naturam immutatam relinquat. - Similiter niulier v Nn eadem omnino, quae in hac tota Husllone: erit intelligenda ; eadem, quae v. 1. 2. b 6. 12. 13. 16 hoc nomine designatur ; eadem, quae v. 9. 17 1h'vN et 4nCN, mulier eius et mulier tua audiebat; ergo utique Eva. Nihil est, cur exegeta asserat, in hoc nvNa articulum esse « emphaticum ». Neque cum Lamy obiicias, sermonem hic esse de muliere diaboli inimica futura, Evam autem peccato factam esse diaboli amicam. Facta est utique peccato amica, sed protoevangelio constituitur eidem inimica : promissione salutis recipiendae Eva cum toto genere humano ad certamen contra pum redintegrandum provocatur. n2*N ajunt in Scripturis de solis inimicitiis eorum , qui ratione praediti sint, usurpari (Pass. n. 889). Apte omnino vox h. 1. scribitur de inimicitiis cum eo serpente, qui modo esset locutusatque ita latentis in se rationis indicia dedisset. Monetque EpAr., has inimicitias opponi « fictae caritati », quam in tentatione simulaverat serpens. Quod inimicitiae asserantur serpentem inter et Evam, non. sequitur, ab iisdem excludi Adamum : sed de sola muliere est sermo, quia hanc solam immediate serpens deceperat et quia Dei sententia eodein, quo tentatio, procedit ordine, à serpente sc. ad mulierem, a muliere ad virum. Semen mulieris est tota mulieris posteritas, totum genus humanum. Reinke p. 242, in uno v. 15 vocem semen aut. utrobique collective, aut utrobique de individuo esse accipiendam, non vero modo de collectione et modo de individuo. Cum ergo semen serpentis certissime sumatur collective, ergo item semen mulieris. Conveniebat praeterea, ut de seminis universi fatis edoceretur Adam, qui non ignoraret a divini in pa- Quare in hanc seminis collectivam interpretationem iam « conspirant nostri temporis exegetae fere omnes » (M. Flunk S. J., in : Zeitschrift für kath. Theologie, Innsbruck 1888 p. 315). Quandoque sensu translato aliqui dicuntur semen, non quod carne geniti sed quod spiritu quodammodo cognati sint, uti Is. 1,& « semen iniquorum », Matth. 3,7 « progenies viperarum » (cf. Rom. 4,16). Sed is sensus translatus probandus est, non supponendus, h. l. autem est minime necessarius. Vides iam, Christum quoque seminis mulieris ambitu concludi; at non solum Christum. Vulnus siquidem, quod serpens seminis calcaneo infligit, imprimis est peccatum; peccatum autem in Christo non est. nusquam eiusmodi semen mulieris inveniri potest : unde non aliter quam per adumbrationem ac similitudinem ad Evam hostiles illae inimicitiae referuntur, quas cum huius stirpe serpens ille et, qui in serpente inerat, invidia llagrans diabolus exercet... Plene quidem ac perfecte accommodari ad illam (Evam) universa nequeunt, sed in ' 'sanetissima, eximia ac singulari stirpe, quae ab sola Virgine Maria sine ulla viri consuetudine propagata est, reapse ac penitus impletur ». Hinc patefit, quam apte semen dicatur mulieris, cum secus patri attribuatur (v. g. Abrahae), non matri. Dei iudicium procedit a serpente ad mulierem, a muliere ad virum : v. 15 serpentis ad mulierem, v. 16 mulieris ad virum rationem explicat : ergo viri mentio a v. 15 exsulare debet. Generatim porro posteritas quaeque etiam est matris semen, licet pleniori sensu patris sit. Ubi vero is, qui in posterorum numero ceteris futurus est clarior et communi hosti funeslior, partu edendus est virgineo, ibi totum etiam semen longe aptius mulieri prae viro attribuitur. Semen serpentis proxime est progenies serpentis istius materialis, universi illi eiusdem speciei serpentes, qui super pectora gressuri terramque sunt comesturi. Inimicitiae vero, quae inter hos serpentes et semen mulieris praenuntiantur, eo maxime consistunt, quod serpentum familia cum ob affinitatem cum alis venenosis reptilibus, tum ob memoriam fraudis in paradiso commissae hominibus sit perquam exosa. Praeterea vero uti v. 14, ita etiam v. 15 mediate diabolum spectat; et quod ibi dicebamus, verba generaliori tantum ratione ad daemonem referri eiusque demonstrare abiectionem , quin expressiones « super pectus gradiri », « terram comedere » in illo distinctam patiantur applicationem, idem de v. 15 erit asserendum. Imago a serpentis semine petita non est nimium quoad singula premenda, daemonis fatum generaliori ratione adumbrat. Serpentis semen praeterea intelliguntur reliqui daemones sensu translato, quod sc. non proprie ex illo sint geniti, sed malitia illi sint cognati. Neve obiicias, cum semen mulieris intelligatur sensu proprio, non posse in. eodem contextu semen serpentis sensu translato accipi : quod semen reapse intelligitur sensu proprio, quatenus ad veros serpentes refertur, et hoc suffieit. Convenienter igitur semen serpentis interpretabimur, praeter veros serpentes, daemones universim. — At num mali etiam homines serpentis semini accensendi sunt? Id omnino repudiandum videtur, quod ii iam mulieris semine includantur, et quidem ea illius parte, quae serpentis morsus patiatur. Perfectae autem inimicitiae inter utrumque semen concipi nequeunt, si magna, imo maior seminis mulieris pars constanter supponatur ad seminis serpentis partes transfugere. Mali homines licet aliis scripturae locis semen diaboli dicantur, h. 1. non daemonis semini sed eius victimis adnumerantur. Mox vero a serpentis semine ad unum serpentem redit oratio, cuius caput conterendum affirmatur, curi quia in illum unum praesentem ies QUT D ferenda est iudicis sententia, tum quia in illo uno tamquam principe conteruntur omnes, omniumque cladibus ille unus etiam prosternitur. Regi quippe et victoriae et clades omnes attribuuntur. Unde etiam solvitur difficultas, quam suggerit Lamy, eundem illum unum serpentem conterendum scribi non a muliere sed à semine mulieris , conteri primum ac postea adhuc mordere. Ex opposita parte solum semen mulieris, non ipsa mulier, contriturum asseritur serpentis caput : vincit sc. in semine et cum semine mulier (Vulg. 2psa), sed pugnae et victoriae non ita feminis adscribi consuevere. Ceterum illud certe etiam habet textus, plus ad victoriam collaturum esse semen, quam mulierem i..e. Evam, et protoparentum unam victoriae spem in semine esse. | His praemissis textus ipse superest exponendus, et quidem adhibita primum verbi ** significatione observandi , insidiandi tantum. Igitur insütuuntur inimicitiae perpetuae genus humanum inter et serpentem; perpetuae inquam, i. e. duraturae quamdiu durabit semen mulieris in ea, quae nunc est, conditione rerum, et quamdiu durabit una genimen serpentis materialis, ergo usque ad finem mundi. Instituuntur veri nominis 2ntim:citiae , foederis nesciae, quales inter hominem sunt et colubrum, quae partis adversae non quodlibet damnum, sed quam fieri possit maximum, imo lethale intendant; inimicitiae, quae ex horrore procedant non adventitio ideoque abdicando, qualis hominem ab homine dividit, sed natura insito, ineluctabili. Ex inimicitiis nas- ponit sc. narratio minorum serpentum aliquem, anguem , colubrum, non immanium illorum, qui totum hominem circumplectantur et suffocent. Insidiae igitur in eo sunt, ut homo observet caput serpentis, quod opportuno momento impacto calcaneo conterat, serpens autem observét calcaneum, quem demissum aut evadat omnino aut sublato capite mordeat. Verum haec insidiarum ratio simul continet victoriae ab homine reportandae et exitii serpenti infligendi esplicitam promissionem. Ubi recolas, quod supra monebamus, nihil esse in textu, quo serpentem venenosum adstruere permittamur. Igitur serpens loco omnino iniquiore constitutus cernitur, caput continuo periculo obiici, nonnisi ad calcaneum pertingere valet. Quid tandem, si votis omnibus potiatur, efficiat? vulnus haud lethale calcaneo infliget; homo e contra, ubi semel caput attente observaverit, calcaneum fortiter impegerit, contrita éervice interimet. At qui perpetuo certamine loco omnino iniquiore contenderit, nonne is necessario prosternetur? nonne aliquando tandem in tot saeculorum lucta hominis calcaneus in serpentis cervicem certo ictu descendet? Vides, in locis vel maxime a serpentum genimine infestatis semen mulieris pedetentim superare serpentesque exterminare : at horum serpentum fata serpentum spiritualium fata praesagiunt. Meministi, serpentes e numero eorum esse animalium, quae Gen. 1,26 creator hominis dominio subiecit neque post lapsum eidem dominio subtraxit : vel istud igitur, ut daemonis fata describantur imagine petita ab eo animali, quod homini Dei voluntate subdatur, demonstrat hominem e lucta cum serpentis semine victorem esse proditurum. Accedit tandem , inimicitias illas decerni in daemonem tamquam poena, tamquam pars eius maledictionis praecipua. At quaenam in hoc cernitur poena, ut spirituiilli rebelli perpetuae promittantur inimicitiae, nisi certa simul clades exhibeatur? Igitur v. 15, etsi solam :nsidiandi significationem verbo "1v snpponas, verum est protoevangelium promissionem habens obtinendae aliquando completae contra daemonem victoriae ; vel ex perpetuis futuris insidiis sequitur serpentis caput aliquando fore conterendum. Ex quo inferas, conterendi significationem, quae verbi "v aeque, imo fortasse magis est propria, reapse h. 1l. a s. narratore fuisse intentam. Ea autem admissa significatione textus evidentius etiam est protoevangelium. Non iam insidiae describuntur inimicitias secutae, sed in mediam inducimur luctam. Neque unus tantum eius luctae eventus fortuito quasi seligitur, sed summa totius certaminis oculis proponitur, ut genus quidem humanum aliquod neque tamen lethale patiatur damnum, serpens e contra exitialem omnino stragem. Promitütur ergo textu perfecta de daemone victoria a mulieris semine reportanda : victoria perfecta denique, non tamen vulneris in semine expers, mordebit quippe serpens calcaneum. 1lla porro victoria, perpensis textus verbis, duplici ratione cogitari poterat : vel ita, ut totum semen collective spectatum , omnes pari gressu posteri in eam victoriam essent conspiraturi; vel ita, ut post continuum et fortasse incertum certamen wnus tandem e semine pro omnibus potiretur victoria. Prior illa spes, si unquam priscorum mortalium animis inhaesit, mox tristem in modum defecit, conspecto Caini scelere totque aliorum post ipsum miserrima ruina (M. F/unk l. c. p. 316). Quare primi aevi homines verbis protoevangelii cum factis evidentibus comparatis adigebantur ad salutem ab uno aliquo Evae postero exspectandam. Quod egregie confirmat tot gentium de promisso protoparentibus redemptore unanimis traditio. Sunt etiam in Dei verbis 3,15 aliqua, quae huic sensul favent : victoria vi verborum semini promissa prae Eva; vulnera, quae si in ipso triumphatore non reperirentur, illustriorem efficerent victoriam. Cum vero tam inimicitiae quam victoria sint a Deo positae seu decretae, Dei auxilium speciali prorsus ratione aderit redemptori ; ipse Deus fictae serpentis amicitiae veras substituet inimicitias, hominemque peccato inimicum sibi effectum in perfectam per redemptorem recipiet amicitiam. Igitur textus cum antiquissimis factis collatus clare demonstrabat unum venturum redemptorem. Messianicum hoc vaticinium etiam reputabat Chald. : Et inimicitias pono inter te Gab initio, et tu eum observabis in fine. Igitur caput et calcaneum interpretatus est Chald. initium et finem; pro **W utitur significatione observandi, recordandi ; pro nomine collectivo semen substituit individuale filius. Ipsum Messiae nomen habet Ps. Ion. : « Et erit, quando observabunt filii mulieris praecepta legis, studebunt percutere te in caput tuum; quando vero relinquent praecepta legis, studebis mordere cos in calcaneis eorum. Verum erit medicina eis, tibi autem non erit medecina, quia ipsi facturi sunt contritionem (NIY12WV) caleaneo in diebus regis Messiae ». Studebunt , studebis respondet formis verbi "n accepti significatione observandi. Eandem paraphrasim tradit Targ. Hier. cum aliquibus additamentis, quae omittere possumus praeter ultimum. Videtur sc. non intellexisse verba xaipya ND"w. Et illud quidem derivabat a radice *2 WU, significatione non conterendi sed quietum esse, hoc autem cum Chald. accipiebat sensu translato finis. Ultimum igitur incisum hac explicavit paraphrasi : « quia ipsi alter alteri facturi sunt pacem N2A3pYy23 (i. e.) in extremo finc dierum, in diebus regis Messiae ». Quos testes si attente perpenderis, facile perspicies veteres Hebraeos communiter protoevangelium interpretatos esse de Messia venturo. Unde pronum erit inferre, illud etiam a0:ó; apud LXX non merae prosopopoeae esse tribuendum, sed inde explicandum, quod LXX quoque in semine mulieris unum aliquod distinxerint individuum. Ad quorumdam autem exceptionem, si textus messianicus esset, futurum íuisse ut a Christo et apostolis citaretur, respondeas promissionem seminis mulieris magis determinatam fuisse sequentibus promissionibus seminis Abrahae et Davidis, quas utique Christus et apostoli citabant. Paucis tandem protoevangelium cum dogmate de zmmaculata Virginis conceptione conferre placet. Ubi primum lectio Vulg. /psa argumentum praebet non quidem scripturisticum, at verum et certum, cum ea plenam de serpente victoriam mulieri etiam tribuens falli nequeat, simulque documentum sit fidei ecclesiae antiquioris, sine qua illa lectio praevalere minime potuit. Patres ecclesiaeque scriptores docentes oraculo Gen. 3,15 « clare aperteque praemonstratum fuisse misericordem humani generis redemptorem , ac designatam beatissimam eius matrem V. M., ac simul ipsissimas utriusque contra diabolum inimicitias insigniter expressas » , licet sensus literalis limites quandoque transcendant, certum et ipsi praebent fidei eeclesiae documentum. Et noía, Bullae Dogmaticae verba « clare aperteque » iungi utique verbo « praemonstratum », sed non necessario iungi alteri verbo « designatam ». Examinaturi porro, quaenam ipsi textui insit probandi vis, ad librum convertimur J. B. Malou, episcopi Brugensis, qui in perpolienda Bulla utilissimam ipse navavit operam : L'Immaculée Conception de . la B. V. M., Bruxelles 1857, I. 248 sqq. Protoevangelium igitur explicaturus hoc praemittit axioma : « Ante omnia firmiter persuasum habeamus oportet hoc principium, eam esse divinarum prophetiarum indolem, ut tanto sint obscuriores, quanto sint antiquiores. Quarum pleraeque cum tempora respiciant ab iis, quo ipsae ortae sunt, remotissima , providente Deo spissiore primum velo obteguntur, illustrandae saeculorum decursu aut novis, quibus evolvantur et explicentur, oraculis aut, quibus impleri incipiant, eventibus. Hinc fit, ut, quod ab incunabulis videbatur densissimis tenebris obvolutum oraculum, ubi primum impletum sit, clarissima luce fulgeat ». — Hoc igitur stabilito . axiomate , quid protoparentes verba Gen. 3,15 audientes intellexerint , explorat, pronuntiatque intellexisse futuram mulierem aliquam cum filio perfectam de serpente victoriam nacturam. Id efficit supposito Vwu/- gatae tertu : verum protoparentes non utebantur Vulgata, non legebant ipsa, nvwn non vertebant « une femme ». Novit utique Malou textum hebraeum, sed illud 2psa pronuntiat sensum exprimere, « qui certissime insit literae, et ab universo contextu magis etiam quam a litera indicetur ». Immaculatam conceptionem protoparentes intellexisse non affirmat. — Tandem, quid nos eadem verba audientes intelligere debeamus, disquirit : sc. mulierem esse Mariam, filium Deum incarnatum; contrito serpentis capite exprimi cum gratiis reliquis etiam immaculatam conceptionem; inimicitias vero, quod intelligendae sint absolutae, explicite edicere eandem conceptionem. Haec vero laudatus auctor eruit non e solo textu, sed ex eodem cum posterioribus prophetus, locis parallelis Patrumque effatis comparato. De quibus nobis h. 1. non est dicendum. s
3:16
v. 16 « Mulieri quoque dizit : » -— Gopulgtü initio versus legebant, cum quibusdam codicibus hebr. et chald., Vulg. LXX Syr. Sam. estque ea fere necessaria, cf. v. 17. Maledixerat serpenti, maledicit v. 17 terrae, non maledicit neque mulieri neque viro : sententia misericordiae est (cf. 4,11). « Nec mulierem ita exsecratur, ne pariat omnino. Ante enim benedictionem dederat :. Crescite et multiplicamini. Sunt autem eiusmodi Dei dona, ut eorum ipsum non poeniteat » (Severian.). Sequentes poenae mulieris propriae sunt prae viro, imo eam attingunt speciatim qua uxor est (Caz.); praeter has easdem etiam poenas patitur quas Adam, in quo non sexus consideratur sed natura. « Mw/ttplicabo aerumnas tuas et conceptus tuos ». Non : aerumnas tuas, et. inter has potissimum conceptus (De/.); sed est hendiadys, ergo aerumnas conceptuum (Per.). LXX pro conceptus habet czsveyyóv, gemi(us, contra omnes. 3XY non est necessario aerumna , dolor, 1.32z1, uti fit in mulierum partubus. Sed tenore verborum obtinet hic, quod v. 1^ monebamus, non tam novum aliquid in poenam imponi, quam quae ante fuissent, partus labores virique dominium, elevari in permanens signum eft hinc poenam admissi delicti. Quae utique accedente iam ignorantia corporibusque in morbos pronis plurimum habitura erant.doloris. Hebr. multiplicans multiplicabo, «i. e. plurimum et certissime multiplicabo.» (Lap.). Ex ea, quam modo adstruebamus, hendiady patet, non necessario e textu erui, quod post Ephr. voluere non pauci, futuros esse post lapsum partus numero etiam plures, quam ante fuissent. Tamen is sensus textui congruit. « Mulier quanto foecundior, tanto aerumnosior », inquit Rup. idque explicat Per., quod operosius sit numerosiorem educare prolem, quod ubi plures conceptus, ibi plures sint abortus, deformia plura et infirma, et quod in maiore numero natorum minor sit numerus electorum. — Iam, quod modo dictum fuerat, repetitur : « In dolore paries filios », seu ?n labore (ct. v. 17), « et sub viri potestate eris, et tpse dominabitur tui ». npn h. 1. (cf. 4,7) certe designat mulieris affectum in virum, Cant. 7,10 (11) viri in mulierem. Quod Vulg. scribit potestas, explicationis potius tentamen est quam versio : in Quaest. Hebr. S. Hier. vertit conversio. Quem sensum ubique exprimunt LXX ázootpoo), item Theod. ad. 4,7, ubique Syr. usus radico *35, Chald. 4,7 paraphrasin describens verbo 2*n| reverti. Versio Sam. eandem vocem vertit conversio. Sed Gen. 4,7 Vulg. vertit appetitus, cui accedit Symm. (etiam h. 1.) ópuxj, Ps. Ion. 3,16 et 4,7 et Targ. Hier. 3,16 (4,7 vocem omittens) mv'"rY2, quam vocem habet ctiam Chald. Cant. 7,10. Anceps est Aq. ouv&osta, coniunctio, et. Chald. h. 1. A 6(n2*Nn, quod vel a 3*Nn reverti (cf. hebr. 3*9) vel à 3*NnD appetere (hebr. 3Nn) erit derivandum. Ne vero cum Dilim. coniiciamus, npTUn ortum esse corruptione ex n2*vn (cf. 1 Reg. 7,17), illud prohibet, admittendam fore eandem tribus textibus corruptionem. Porro pu vel PP videtur primitus significare impellere, currere, unde duo habentur derivata, pw via et npron impetus , appetitus , possuntque ambae signilicationes convertendi aut revertendi et appetendi indidem derivari. Haec ultima utique [facilius aptatur tribus Iaudatis textibus in eamque altera, si praeferatur, necessario rccidet. Significatione vocis determinata quaeritur, quid sibi velit h. 1. ad virum tuum erit appetitus tuus. Quae Proc. ita explicabat : « Mulier, ubi perpessa fuerit gravissimos partus dolores, non aversatur viri coniunctionem , sed eam avidius expetit ». Consentiuntque Per., Mar. aliique. Verum, si hoc sensu plane carnaliincisum accipiatur, vix non erit necesse ultimum quoque incisum e/ 2pse domznabitur tui codem crassiori sensu inferpretari : « in eius arbitrio erit tuae concupiscentiae obsequi » (Mar.). Quod videtur adversari apostolo 1 Cor. 15,34 scribenti : « Mulieres in ecclesiis taceant, non enim permittitur eis loqui, sed subditas esse, s?cut et lex dicit ». Hinc cum eodem Proc. placet alterum addere sensum : « ad virum tuum erit tua conversio, i. e. ipse erit tuum refugium, portus, anchora tutissimusque ex omni periculo receptus ». « Oculi tui semper os, oculos, nutum et propensionem viri observent, ut illi placeas, morem geras eumque tibi devincias » (Lap.). Ultimum vero incisum e/ z//e dominabitur tui paenultimo nectitur illudque complet. Est enim etiam mariti ad uxorem appetitus (cf. Cant. 7,10), etiam ipse omnia cum illa communicat, illi in omnibus placere studet. At vir tamquam domnus agit, qui subditam sibi sociam mulcere cupit, mulier tamquam inferior, quae domino placere sollicita est. — Duo igitur v. 16 mulieri imponit, partus labores ut matri , ut coniugi subiectionem.
3:17
v. 17 « Adae vero dixit : Quia audesti vocem uxoris tuae et comedisti de ligno , ex quo praeceperam tibi ne comederes, maledicta terra n opere tuo ». Uti non Eva sed serpens, ita iam terra, non Adam maledictione plectitur (Severian.). Cum Vulg. consentit LXX £v «ci; £oyet; c29 , Symm. &y «3, égacla oc»; quod opus Hier. in Quaest. Hebr. intelligi vult non agriculturam , sed peccatum, appellatque ad 7Aeod. iv fü «apaóáos. oso. Chald. Syr. Aq. et Versio Sam. propter te, quae versio est, praeferenda. Fortasse priores illi auctores pro "v2 legebant 47272. Neque tamen huiusmodi mendum necessario est adstruendum; nam ipsa vox 3y Ios. 5,11 sq. significat proventum, proventus autem Adami h. l. est eius opus; et radicis 37 proprius est sensus £ransgredi, unde Theod. «apá6asu. — Explicatur iam sequentibus, in quo maledictio consistat (Ca2.); ita tamen, ut et res ad oculum depingatur, etillius solummodo agricolarum status, in quo Adam victurus sit, molestiae attingantur. De cetero cf. Rom. 8,19 sqq. « In laboribus » — vay, uti v. 16 — « comedes ez ea cunctis diebus vitae tuae ». Tamdiu durabit maledictio terrae, quamdiu visibilis serpentis v. 1'* maledictio. In cibo peccavit homo, in cibo punitur.
3:18
v. 18 « Spinas et tribulos germinabit tibi ». vvv etiamnum apud Palaestinos carduum designat (Ges.-Mühlau). Ex textu infert Ephr., nisi peccasset homo, non futuras fuisse spinas. Sed merito monet Ca£m. : « Quae hodie nascuntur, non genus sunt novum plantarum post rerum creationem productum ». Et Bonfr. : « Producebat etiam terra ante peccatum tribulos et spinas, nam et haec ad universi perfectionem et specierum multiplicationem spectant habentque usum suum vel ad medicinam vel ad pastum animalium vel ad aliam rem quampiam ». « Et comedes herbam terrae ». Voce 3vy,uti 1,11 sq. 29 et 2,5, primarie cerealia designantur. Perperam Hwgo putabat exprimi « cibum iumentorum », et Ps. Ion. et Targ. Hier. integram eflinxere fabellam : « Respondit Adam et dixit : Peto per miserationes a facie tua, Domine, ne reputemur sicut bestiae, ut comedamus herbam agri. Surgemus nunc et laborabimus manibus nostris et comedemus cibum de cibo terrae, et sic discrimen fiat nunc coram te inter filios hominis et filios iumentorum ».
3:19
v. 19 « In sudore vultus tuz vesceris pane »; « atille tuus panis vitam tibi nequaquam perpetuabit, sed infiemitatem tuae mortalitatis aliquamdiu sustentabit » (Hup.). Recte monet Dim., panem haud raro quidem dici de cibo universim, at hic scribi in oppositione ad fructus arborum paradisi. Sane arborum fructibus potest . quis in Palaestina vel Babylonia sine multo sudore vesci, cum haec sponte nascantur et vix aliquam exigant culturam. Rursum agitur de eo cibo, eui comparando maxime obsunt spinae et tribuli, qui cibus sunt cerealia. Tandem erat iam 54,9 Cain agricola et obtulit de fructibus terrae sacrificium , sane non legumina. Ergo videtur h. 1. veri nominis panis intelligi. Putabat Mar., hac Dei maledictione redditam esse terram. infoecundam. Sapientius Per. * « neque putandum est », inquit, « naturalem terrae fertilitatem propter hominis peccatum aut omnino demptam fuisse aut diminutam : eodem modo se illa habuit ante et post hominis peccatum ». Eo autem iniquior effecta est hominis conditio, quod ille iam e paradisi fertilissima sede expulsus, ob ignorantiam minus etiam fertiles tractus inhabitaret et rudioribus methodis agrum exocoleret. Ergo etiam in Adamo idem hucusque, quod in serpente et Eva , observabamus, non tam novas imponi poenas quam, quae ante iam fuissent, nune poenalia decerni, quae hominis utique ignorantia et malitia graviora in dies essent evasura. Punit se ipsum homo magis, quam punitur. Át nunc tandem positiva etiam adiicitur, quam 2,17 Deus comminatus fuerat, poena : « donec revertaris zn terram , de qua sumptus es, quia pulvis es et in pulverem reverteris ». Cf. dicta ad 2,7.
3:20
v. 20 « Et vocavit Adam nomen uxoris suae Heva, eo quod iater esset cunctorum viventium ». Coniunctivus ostendit, iudicasse S. Hieronymum , ultima verba esse ipsius Adae; quod etiam putabat Aug. E contra Ca:., Per.. verba censent à s. narratore esse adiecta , ut nominis ab Adamo impositi rationem daret. Verba, cuiuscunque sint auctoris, sunt inspirata atque edicunt, Adamum et Evam totius generis humani exstitisse protoparentes (Proc.). Nomen mulieris aliquanto serius impositum tamen h. 1. commemoratur, quo facilius ^1 mentio Hevae intelligatur. mn forma est inter Hebraeos antiquata, sed Phoenicibus usitata pro n'n, LXX (tw, minus recte Symm. teoyovoc (Dillm.). Hunc versum explanaturus fup. : « Mira narrantis digressio! » exclamat. « Necdum sententia terminata est tantae calamitatis, ut vacet hinc divertere ad dicendum nobis, quo nomine reus iam convietus et pendens sub iudicis manu suam uxorem nuncupavit ». Ipse in Adami vesaniam invehitur uxorem appellantis vitam, quo ipso tempore peccato esset mortuus. Similiter Mar. : « Praeposteram . hominis lapsi rationem! Deus illi graves calamitates denuntiat, ipse oblectatur inanibus titulis! » Aequius Calm. nomen censet imposuisse Adamum, grati in Deum animi argumentum ob prorogatam etiam post peccatum vitam; imo Del. in hoc versu primum celebrat Adami actum fidei, quod novo vitae nomine salutaverit mulierem , per quam Deus redemptionem efficiendam promisisset. At prudenter hic Per. dubitat, narrenturne haec eo, quo gesta sint ordine; et Lap. diserte asserit, nomen impositum esse nonnisi post eiectos paradiso protoparentes, sed proleptice hic impositum referri. Sane protoparentes a Deo 5, 29 nomine generico nO"N appellati sunt, quod mox evasit nomen proprium ipsius Adami. Hic 2, 23 mulierem nomine generico nvNw appellavit. At, ubi nati sunt liberi et maxime filiae, visum est opportunum, ut prima mulier appellaretur nomine, quod non ipsi cum filiabus esset commune, sed ipsam cum a liberis tum a marito dislingueret : imposuit ei igitur Adam, qua dominus 3, 16, nomen mater n'n. Adami nomen, aliis productis hominibus, non est mutatum, quod illud a Deo solo Adami domino mutandum fuisset, qui non censuit mutandum. Ergo probabilius nomen impositum mulieri tum, quando primum geniti liberi. At cur impositum h. l. commemoratur, nulla contextus habita ratione? Crediderim insertum a collectore antiquissimarum harum traditionum, quod adverterit 4, 4 nomen Hevae legi illudque sibi ante explicandum duxerit. Explicationem inseruit loco minus apto : at inspiratio non exigit, ut auctor inspiratus singula quaeque locis maxime aptis inserat; aut potuit 3, 90 antiquitus immediate ante 4, 1 legi. -
3:21
v. 21 « Fecit quoque Dominus Deus Adae et uxori etus tunicas pelliceas et induit eos » ; non tunzcas cutis (Chald.) seu ad cutem tegendam. « Et apte primarum vestium materia corium describitur, utpote quod minimum operis expetit inter materias vestium » (Caz?.). Fecit Deus « in perpetuam inobedientiae memoriam » (CArys.); dein ut verecundiae consuleret testareturque, vel post peccatum se hominem amore et providentia prosequi (Per.); et ut in animalium morte suum fatum contemplarentur protoparentes (Ephr.). Sapienter monet Theodoret., superflue et curiose haec inquiri, amplectenda esse scripturae verba sciendumque, nihil creatori esse difficile. Quidni adstruamus, ipsa animalia holocausto esse consumpta, detractis primum pro vestibus pellibus? Ita omnia Deo digne peraguntur.
3:22
v. 93 « Et ait : Ecce Adam quasi unus ez nobis factus est sciens bonum et malum ». Symm. $yo3 ào' £a7:c5, itemque Targumtm : pvofecto ita verti possunt voces 121::2 "i32, sed nullus habetur sensus. Putabat Rup., voce Adam hic et virum et mulierem designari : 23^, uti in tota hac narratione, designat Adamum, sed Adam repraesentat totam humanitatem et, quae de ipso dicuntur, etiam de Heva valent; cf.
3:23
v. 23 « emisit eum » , utique etiam Hevam. Plurali noó:s alludi ad SS. Trinitatis mysterium , diximus ad 1,26; quod pulchre amplificat up. : « Quis enim vel qualis Adam? Adam in anima iam mortuus et corpore quoque in brevi moriturus, indigens victu et necessario coopertus atque cooperiendus vestitu. Sed enim quilibet ex nobis, sive Pater sive Filius sive Spiritus S., neque mortuus est neque morietur, neque propter famem victu, neque propter turpitudinem aut frigus indiget vestitu ». Verba Dei habent zroniam (Ephr.), quam suggerit hominis miseria comparata antecedenti ambitioni; neque est illa ironia Deo indigna, cum ex fine commiserationis proferatur, collatam veniam consequatur novumque beneficium praecedat. Erat enim insigne Dei beneficium, ut hominem jam miserum futurum paradiso excluderet, ne eius evaderet perpetua miseria (Menoch.). « Nunc ergo, ne forte mittat manum suam et sumat etiam de ligno vitae et comedat et vivat in aeternum , » — consiructio est incompleta, apodosin veluti suppetit factum v. 23 narrandum. Merito infert Hugo, fructum arboris vitae etiam post peccatum largiturum fuisse immortalitatem. Nota auctores quosdam (cf. Rup.) assumpsisse ignorasse Adamum, quae inter paradisi arbores esset arbor vitae, edocendum postmodum, si tentationem superasset : quae hypothesis totam solvit difficultatem, quam sensere recentiores aliqui (cf. ad 2,9), arborem vitae nonnisi initio et fine narrationis (2,9 et 3,22) commemorari ideoque spuriam esse et eliminandam. Non commemoratur decursu narrationis, quia nihil de illa erat nuntiandum, cum vel istud ignoraret Adam, quae tot arborum salutares illos ferret fructus. v. 93 « Et emisit eum Dominus Deus de paradiso voluptatis , ut operaretur terram, de qua sumptus est ». Sequens verbum utique aliquam violentiam exprimit,
3:24
v. 2& : « ezecitque Adam et collocavit ante. paradisum voluptatis Cherubim et flammeum gladium atque versatilem ad custodiendam viam ligni vitae ». Secundum quae ad. 2,8 diximus, 2'p23 vertendum non aate sed ab. oriente (Syr., Versio Sam.) ; ab oriente autem collocavit Deus Cherubim non ob aliam rationem nisi, quia eiectus paradiso homo ad orientem et ipse sedem fixerat. Ubi statim insurgit difficultas, quam etiam Caz. sentiebat, videri asseri paradisus fuisse ex aliis partibus omnibus inaccessus : id vero quomodo intelligatur, maxime si de Babylonia , regione omnino plana et patenti, sermo sit? Adverte LXX pro duobus tria huius sententiae legisse verba : X2) AXT(XA08V GS oy Gr évavst vo9 x apaelocu «Tio vpuotig, xat Ezabs cà Nspcutiy. Etiam Jac. Edess. in suo textu syro tertium videtur legisse verbum, et quidem formam verbi mv : facillime autem post 12v" excidere potuit nav". Ergo praeferenda lectio LXX, secundum quam docemur iussum esse hominem ad orientem paradisi incolere, constitutos autem esse Cherubim, qui omnem omnino paradisi aditum praecludevent. Crux praeterea interpretum erat illud n»snnmn aona va5. LXX oAevivn» bopgalay , et reliqui item g/adzum interpretati sunt. Neque mirandum profecto in textu obscuriore omnes formam 23m transtulisse gladium. At hinc fit locutio intricatior et etiam obscurior : quodsi enim de flamma agatur, cur ea tandem gladius vocatur? si de gladio, cur is flamma dicitur, maxime in narratione prosaica, historica? Adde, borum eventuum narrationem ab Adam ad posteros traditione descendisse : at ipse primitus certissime illam flammam , qualiscunque demum fuerit, non descripsit adhibito gladZi tropo, cum gladii nonnisi serius sint inventi. Porro, si gladium asserere placet, cuius tandem manu is gladius versabatur? Non utique manibus Cherubim, fuissent quippe tum gladii uno plures, neque constructione ipsis Cherubim coordinarentur. Puncta 33m ut participium (cf. Ier. 50,21. 21) et verte : et flammam devorantem , huc illuc discurrentem (cf. lob 371,129) ad custodiendam viam ligni vitae. Vides iam hac flamma omnes v nN 5x vx, jungentesque alas supra propitiatorium , in quo i. e. supra àrcam censebatur numen residere. Nihil est, cur supponamus his Cherubim fuisse animalium corpora. Cf. 3 Reg. 6, 23 sqq. Certe non erant iidem atque tauri vel leones alati Assyriorum , quorum alae ita corporibus sunt affixae, ut duorum alae iungi nequeant, nisi illi duo terga invicem obvertant. Potius Cherubim tabernaculi videntur similes fuisse geniis Aegyptiorum, qui forma sunt humana, quandoque utique caput habent milvi, et alas jungunt supra aediculam , in qua, non supra quam numen residet. Sane cum in tabernaculi supellectili plura ab Aegyptiis mutuatus sit Moyses, censere oportebit, eum angelorum quoque symbola ab Aegyptiis potius quam ab Assyriis mutuatum esse. 3) Dicitur esse penes Lud. de Clercq inscriptio quaedam cuneiformis, in qua genii illi Assyriorum Arubu vocentur, ergo idem quod Cherub. Arg. — Narratio, quod monebamus, ad instar narrationis immediate prae cedentis in duas dispescitur partes, quarum prior Caini peccatum, altera Dei in fratricidam iudicium describit. Relatis breviter v. 1 sq. utriusque fratris ortu et studiis, v. 3-5 invidiae causa, v. 6 sq. praevia Dei sollicitudine, narratur v. 8 succincte et nervose Caini fratricidium. Mox uti cap. ^ introducitur Dominus, interrogat reum (cf. 3,9. 13), maledicit ipsi, non terrae (cf. 3,17. 14). Eiicitur ille e regione Eden, uti Adam eiiciebatur e paradiso. Et, licet Cain parente longe sit pravior, prosequitur tamen et ipsum aliqua miseratione Deus 4,13 sqq. Profecto, uno ealamo haec et altera cap. 3 narratio descriptae esse deprehenduntur. Cap. IV. « Hactenus altum sanctae huius scripturae verticem rependo potius quam gradiendo transegimus, et deinceps lucidi atque amoeni campi fessi sese aperiunt pedibus et ingerunt obtutibus ». Ita Rup. : at, misere iam mutata rerum conditione, plena sunt sequentia capita controversiarum perquam intricatarum.
3:1
… Satan approached Eve to make her sin and then induce her husband to fall into guilt (Gen. 3:1-5). Seduced, "the woman... took of its fruit and ate, and she also gave some to her husband, and he ate" (Gen. 3:6). Thus the first sin was committed and the harmony of creation was destroyed. …
… creation of the angels, but it is implicit in the fact that the one God is described as creator of all beings (Ex. 20:11; Ps. 148:2-5). They existed before man sinned in the earthly paradise: the presence of the cunning tempter in the form of a serpent (Gen. 3:1-15) hints at the fall of the angels (transformed into demons), described in the New Testament. …
… That said, from Sacred Scripture (Gen. 3:1-13; Eccl. 25:33) it follows that Eve was the moral and direct cause of our ruin, since she induced Adam to consent to sin. The same must be said of Mary. …
Gen. 3:1-14, where P. Joion proposes to understand "d." or a reptile (cf. P. F. Ceuppens, De historia primaeva, Rome 1934, pp. 166-79).
… Man, because of sin (Gen. 3:1-13; v. ORIGINAL SIN), is driven out of the terrestrial paradise, at whose entrance the Cherubim keep watch, so that guilty humanity may no longer approach it (ibid. 3:14-24).
… St. Paul refers to the account of Gen. 3, 1-19; he passes over Eve, because Adam is the head of humanity as opposed to Christ. …
… The cult of Asclepius, with the emblem of the serpent, may have evoked Gen. 3:1 (cf. Rev. 12:9; 20:2).
S., as the "tempter" who brings ruin to man, appears first in the serpent that tempts Eve and ruins man (Gen. 3:1-15), which symbolizes "evil" (Gen. 4:7); he is connected with the dragon (v.), whom God dominates and defeats. …
3:3
… 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 bodily …
3:5
… The supine face of the damned soul, characteristic of the envious, the memory of the "fruit of the evil orchard," his insistence that they open his eyes - even the serpent had promised Eve that their eyes would be opened: aperientur oculi vestri (Gen. 3, 5) - the name of the zone, taken from that Ptolemy who betrayed Pompey, all make it understood that he violated the universal law of humana civilitas, which ordains that one sit at a …
… It was already in this sense that the tempter introduced himself when he insinuated to the first parents that, by sinning, they would become "sicut di" (Gen. 3:5). It was especially around this theme that St. Augustine developed his City of God, in which, among other things, a group of men seeks love of self to the point of contempt for God.
Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil
… 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).
3:6
… Satan approached Eve to make her sin and then induce her husband to fall into guilt (Gen. 3:1-5). Seduced, "the woman... took of its fruit and ate, and she also gave some to her husband, and he ate" (Gen. 3:6). Thus the first sin was committed and the harmony of creation was destroyed. …
… impious one, is the chief of all the s." (Enoch 40:7; Deut. rabbā on 33:1); Sammael, identified with the angel with whom Jacob wrestled (Gen. 32:25-32), is held in check by Michael or Phanuel; he is the "angel of death" who tempted Eve (Targum Ier. 1 on Gen. 3:6). The chief of the kingdom of evil is Mastema (= S.) in Iubil., Damasc., the "Manual" of the "Community of the covenant" of Qumrān. …
3:7
… In Gen. 3:7 ff., it emerges quite clearly that the first parents, previously immune from c., begin to feel its tyranny after the fall.
… Theoretically they knew that it was evil to disobey and that they would be punished for it; they lacked the experimental knowledge of evil, which they acquired by committing the sin. "Then the eyes of both were opened and they realized that they were naked" (Gen. 3:7); they feel in their members motions and appetites contrary to reason and seek to hide them. …
Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil
… On the nature of the fruit nothing can be said; R. Nehemiah, Theodoret and Procopius identify it with the fig (cf. Gen. 3, 7). Tradition sets in contrast the living tree of the earthly paradise that brought death, and the dead tree of Calvary that gave life: Ipse lignum tunc notavit damna ligni ut solveret …
3:8
The punishment (Gen. 3:8-24) was not long in coming. …
… perfect beings of the universe, but 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. …
… harmony with slow divine preparations (Yahweh, God of life: Gen. 5:24; Deut. 32:39; I Kings 17; II Kings 2:3, 11-12; 4:33-36; 13:21; Ps. 9:2; Wis. 2:24; 16:13) and with deep aspirations of the human heart (permanent familiarity with God: Gen. 3:8; Is. 38:18; Ps. 6:5-6; 73:25; otherworldly justice as the work of Yahweh: Jer. 31:29; Ezek. 18). The first hint appears in the 8th century B.C., under the veil of symbolism …
3:14
… hindu legend and art, London 1926; H. Gressmann, Altorientalische Texte zum Alten Test., Berlin-Leipzig 1926, pp. 138-41; id., Altorientalische Bilder zum A. T., ibid. 1927, pp. 106-17; P. Joilon, Le grand dragon, l'ancien serpent (Apoc. 12, 9 et Gen. 3, 14), in Recherches de science rel., 17 (1927), pp. 444-46; C. Rüsch, Mulier, draco et bestia in Apoc. 12, in Virbum Domini, 8 (1928), pp. 271-74; E. Landett, Dragons et génies, …
… Man, because of sin (Gen. 3:1-13; v. ORIGINAL SIN), is driven out of the terrestrial paradise, at whose entrance the Cherubim keep watch, so that guilty humanity may no longer approach it (ibid. 3:14-24).
… He will be semen mulieris, one born of a woman (Gen. 3:14-15), but also the Son of God (Ps. 2:7; ibid. 109); he will be a child conceived by a Virgin (Is. 7:14), but also the mighty God (ibid. 9:6); he will be the faithful Servant of Yahweh, …
… Satan's attempt to make man his permanent follower against the Eternal is checked by God: the human race from that moment is his enemy and will inflict on Satan a total and definitive defeat (Gen. 3:14 f.). Unanimously, Jewish tradition (Targum of Onkelos, Septuagint, etc.) and Christian tradition rightly identify this victory (of the "seed of the woman" = the human race, but eminently …
… The Protoevangelium (Gen. 3, 14-15), considered in the light of the New Testament and of Tradition, announces the arising of a woman who will be a sharer in the messiahship of her Son and in dependence upon him. As …
3:15
4. The new (or second) A. — In the very act in which God rigorously punished the sin of the first parents, his mercy promised the Redeemer (Gen. 3:15; v. PROTOVANGELO): it is the announcement of the new A. to come who would crush the head of sin. Under this name the Redeemer is recalled especially by St. Paul in 1 Cor. 15:20-22 …
… From the "protoevangelium" (Gen. 3:15) onward, the religious struggle between the Messiah at the head of the righteous and Satan with his satellites is outlined.
1. Biblical texts. - The first biblical text is the so-called Protoevangelium (Gen. 3:15): "I will put enmity between you and the woman, between your offspring and her offspring; she (in the Hebrew text: 'the offspring') shall crush your head, and you shall strike her …
Today all the books of the entire B. are divided into chapters, and each chapter is divided into short passages called "verses"; chapters and verses are numbered in progressive order, and according to this numbering they are cited: e.g., Gen. 3, 15, indicates verse 15 of ch. 3 of Genesis. …
… Scholars of every age, not excluding the moderns, often do not understand one another and consequently fight one another, and this precisely because of the use of terms, some of which have a long and intricate history, as happens today, for example, with certain Mariological questions (Gen. 3:15 and Apoc. 12:1-18). Not infrequently it is rather a question of words. …
IV. SACRED SCRIPTURE — The Protoevangelium (Gen. 3:15), according to the interpretation given by the dogmatic bull Ineffabilis Deus, expresses an indissoluble union of Mary with Christ in the Redemption, that is, in the struggle with …
… revealed to our first parents: the Son of the Woman par excellence will be bitten in the heel by the serpent, which will deprive him of human life; but in the course of this struggle, which ends in death, the Savior will crush the head of the serpent (cf. Gen. 3:15). Jesus announced at one and the same time both this victory and the sacrifice with which he would win the reward, when he said on the eve of his passion: "Now is the judgment of this …
saints applaud the fall of the d. (cf. Lk. 10:18; Jn. 12:31), which "wages war on the remnant of the Woman's seed" (Rev. 12:1-17). It is, in a more dramatic form, the "hostility" described in Gen. 3:15 (J. Bover, p. 325 ff.) between the serpent (the špākav of vv. 3-9, 13, 16 f., is called ἔφις "serpent" in vv. 9 and 14 f.) and the Woman, whose "seed" (already in Gen. 3:15) …
… Judg. 6:12, 16; 1 Sam. 10:7), denotes the singular mission of the Virgin in the order of divine redemption: she is the one chosen by God to bring to fulfillment the great promise: Inimicitias ponam inter te et Mulierem; et semen tuum et semen Illius (Gen. 3:15). Mary's cause will be that of her Son himself. …
… It was precisely then that the biblical argument began to appear, especially that drawn from the Protoevangelium (Gen. 3:15) and from the angelic greeting (Lk. 1:28). The feast of the Conception, too, at that time spread everywhere, especially among the religious.
The first and also the most discussed is that contained in the Protoevangelium (v.), where "the enmity" placed between God and "the woman" (Gen. 3, 15), between the offspring of the woman and that of the Serpent-Satan, is evidently a moral enmity (victory over sin) and, since it must be resolved with the defeat of the serpent, supposes …
Besides the Protoevangelium (Gen. 3, 15) in which Mary appears associated with Christ in the whole work of salvation, and therefore not only in the acquiring but also in the distribution of all graces, some eloquent indications …
… The ultimate foundation of this faith, today universal, which was slowly made explicit and clarified by the Fathers and the theologians, is Sacred Scripture, in which is foreshadowed the total victory of Christ and of Mary over sin and over its moral and physical consequences (cf. Gen. 3:15; Rom. 4:12; 5:14; 6:8; 1 Cor. 15:21-26, 54-57). Therefore the Pontiff holds that the moment has come to define what is so widely documented and so deeply rooted in the Christian conscience, …
… Implicit, but evident, is the tendency to connect the "seed of the blessing" of Abraham with the seed of the woman (Gen. 3, 15), inasmuch as it will be born from Israel. …
… way in the light of Christ: the presupposition from which the messianism of the Jewish expectation and of the Christian realization develops and which gives to Christ's mission the meaning of reparation and reconciliation, redemption, λύτρωσις, is in Gen. 3, 15. Likewise in exclusively Mosaic parts are found those primordial revelatory teachings of monotheism, of creation, of the fundamental moral law, of the Decalogue (v.), from which in …
… And here the prophets illustrate Yahweh's designs for the continuation of the covenant, which must realize the salvific plan, already announced in Gen. 3:15. Divine mercy will preserve a "remnant" for his people; he will lead it back to its homeland after having purged it of every trace of idolatry; with this "remnant" he will renew the covenant. …
PROTOEVANGELIUM. - This is the customary designation for Gen. 3:15, because it contains the "first joyful announcement" of salvation for humanity after sin
… to S. (I Tim. 5:15), the Christian must resist, fight with the weapons of the spirit (I Pt. 5:9; Iac. 4:7; Eph. 6:10-17). Christ has defeated him on the cross and he will be annihilated (Col. 2:15; II Cor. 10:5). God will crush the "ancient serpent" (Gen. 3:15) under the feet of the faithful (Rom. 16:22). The world of S. now fights Jesus and his own, but Jesus in the end will win and conquer the world (Io. 16:33; 17:21, 23); "the prince …
3:16
… The Most Holy Virgin, finally, is greeted "blessed among women" in a wholly singular way. This "singular blessing," a consequence of the "fullness of grace" and of the "special presence of the Lord in her," is opposed to the classic divine curse: "You shall return to dust" (Gen. 3:16-19). It is therefore a question of a "blessing" that is in radical antithesis to the curse hurled by God in the earthly paradise and that is equivalent to a threefold blessing, expressed …
After original sin, of which Eve was the initiator, God pronounced sentence against Eve: "I will greatly multiply thy sorrow and thy conception... yet thy desire shall be to thy husband, and he shall rule over thee" (Gen. 3:16); to pride and sensuality, the essential elements of the fault, the punishment corresponds. …
3:17
… on the solar year of 364 days (neither Hebrew, nor of other peoples); at times it is faithful in reporting the words of the Patriarchs (from whom the history of Israel is understood to have originated), and at times it has interested omissions, as of Gen. 3, 17.
Noe (Heb. Nōah; Septuagint Nōe; cf. Old Babylonian Nuḫīja)
… method of assonance, to connect the etymology of the name: one reads in fact that at the child's birth the father "called him Nōah, saying: This one will relieve us (verb niham) from our work and from the toil of our hands because of the ground, cursed (Gen. 3:17) by God" (ibid. 5:29); an allusion to the restorative effect of wine and to the new methods of agriculture.
3:18
And since the same causes are followed by the same effects, behold, the earth has been converted into a "deep wood," bristling with "thorns and thistles" (Gen. 3:18), like that into which our forefather was exiled. …
3:19
… signification of the immortality of the soul, of faith in the resurrection of the flesh; to a manifest reminder of biblical events and teachings, already operative in Jewish tradition, such as the idea of the body-seed (I Cor. 15, 36-44), of the earth-mother (Gen. 3, 19; Iob. 1, 21; Eccl. 40, 1), of death-rest and sleep (Dan. 12, 2; Io. 11, 11-39).
I. DOGMATIC THEOLOGY. - In Sacred Scripture death is described as a dissolution (Phil. 1:25; II Tim. 4:6), as laying aside one's tabernacle (II Pt. 1:14), a going out from the body: the body returns to the earth, whence it had come (Gen. 3:19; Ps. 145:4; Eccles. 12:7); the soul, before the Redemption, was gathered to those who had previously departed this life in Sheol, as is said in the Old Testament (Gen. 15:15; 25:8; 49:29; v. LIMBO. …
… 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. …
St. Paul always taught the universality of death (Rom. 5:12-21; I Cor. 15:22; Hebr. 9:27; cf. Gen. 3:19; Eccle. 12:7; Ps. 88:49). The whole redemptive economy he illustrates is summed up in the antithesis death-life, in the succession of two aeons: the tribulation of this time and the …
… If it is true that in order to be effective they need a favorable environment, these means, which are called factors of amendment, cannot be confused with it. Already Holy Scripture shows the afflictive character of work (Gen. 3:19); it is moreover a social obligation from which precisely those who have set themselves against society cannot withdraw, and it is a most effective means of combating idleness and …
… 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 of it, you shall certainly die." Likewise after the disobedience it is read in Gen. 3:19: "You shall eat your bread by the sweat of your brow until you return to the earth... for you are dust and to dust you shall return." The same doctrine is found in Wis. 2:23-24 and …
… 7, 27 with innodans in place of innovat of the Vulgate) natus anno XXVIII regis Ge(n)sirici pridie idus septembres Vitalis pr(e)sb(yter) vidi annis XXXVIII requi(esco) ho(die) hic positus placida in pace reserbor pulberi pulbis » (reminiscence of Gen. 3, 19).
… 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 (cf. St. John Chrysostom, In Io. hom., 36, 2: PG 59, 206).
3:20
… 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).
… "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 who preserved the first man formed by God to be the father of the …
… unity of the Church. - The unity of the Church is determined by its nature as a supernatural society founded by the Son of God. Just as the human race forms a unity of all the descendants of the first Adam and of Eve, the "mother of all the living" (Gen. 3:20), so the Church, the society or community of the regenerate, forms a unity of all the descendants of the second Adam, Christ, the children of the second Eve, Mary, who is both the …
3:21
A fragment from a homily on Gen. 3:21 seems authentic.
… Aglaophon begins by interpreting the garment of skins of Gen. 3, 21 given to man after the sin as the body, and by proving resurrection without a body with Mt. 22, 23. Origen is then cited, according to whom in the spiritual bodies of the heirs of …
3:22
… The expulsion of the sinner from the protecting paradise (Gen. 3:22) corresponds to the intrinsic exigency of sin, which places him under the sovereignty of Satan; the return to paradise (Lk. 24:43) will be the term of the Redemption, often described …
3:23
Cherubim (Hebrew Plural Hērubhîm)
… The c. first appear in Gen. 3:23-24, at the gate of the earthly Paradise, to prevent the first parents, with a flaming sword, from access to the tree of life (cf. Ezek. 28:14, 16). Their depiction was the only one …
3:24
… The cherubim placed to guard the garden of Eden present themselves as angels, ministers of God (Gen. 3:24).
… Augustine, De Civitate Dei, XIII, 20; XIV, 26; St. Cyril of Alexandria, Adv. Iulianum, 3). After the sin, God drove the first parents from paradise and placed cherubim "to the east of the garden of Eden to guard the way that led to the tree of life" (Gen. 3:24); so that the tree still retained the power to prolong mortal life.
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.