Cornelius a Lapide
Table of Contents
Synopsis of the Chapter
The serpent tempts Eve; she sins together with Adam: whence in verse 8, they are rebuked by God. Third, in verse 14, the serpent is cursed by God, and Christ the Redeemer is promised. Fourth, Eve and Adam, in verse 16, are condemned to labors, sorrows, and death. And finally, in verse 23, they are expelled from paradise, and the guardian Cherubim with a flaming sword is placed before it.
Vulgate Text: Genesis 3:1-24
1. Now the serpent was more cunning than any of the beasts of the earth which the Lord God had made. He said to the woman: 'Why has God commanded you that you should not eat of every tree of paradise?' 2. And the woman answered him: 'Of the fruit of the trees that are in paradise we do eat: 3. but of the fruit of the tree which is in the midst of paradise, God has commanded us that we should not eat, and that we should not touch it, lest perhaps we die.' 4. And the serpent said to the woman: 'No, you shall not die the death.' 5. 'For God knows that in what day soever you shall eat thereof, your eyes shall be opened: and you shall be as gods, knowing good and evil.' 6. And 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. 7. And the eyes of them both were opened: and when they perceived themselves to be naked, they sewed together fig leaves, and made themselves aprons. 8. And 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. 9. And the Lord God called Adam, and said to him: 'Where are you?' 10. And he said: 'I heard Your voice in paradise; and I was afraid, because I was naked, and I hid myself.' 11. And He said to him: 'Who has told you that you were naked, unless you have eaten of the tree, of which I commanded you that you should not eat?' 12. And Adam said: 'The woman, whom You gave me to be my companion, gave me of the tree, and I did eat.' 13. And the Lord God said to the woman: 'Why have you done this?' She answered: 'The serpent deceived me, and I did eat.' 14. And the Lord God said to the serpent: 'Because you have done this thing, you are cursed among all cattle, and beasts of the earth: upon your breast shall you go, and earth shall you eat all the days of your life. 15. I will put enmities between you and the woman, and your seed and her seed: she shall crush your head, and you shall lie in wait for her heel.' 16. To the woman also He said: 'I will multiply your sorrows and your conceptions: in sorrow shall you bring forth children, and you shall be under your husband's power, and he shall have dominion over you.' 17. And to Adam He said: 'Because you have hearkened to the voice of your wife, and have eaten of the tree, of which I commanded you that you should not eat, cursed is the earth in your work: with labor and toil shall you eat thereof all the days of your life. 18. Thorns and thistles shall it bring forth to you; and you shall eat the herbs of the earth. 19. In the sweat of your face shall you eat bread till you return to the earth, out of which you were taken: for dust you are, and into dust you shall return.' 20. And Adam called the name of his wife Eve: because she was the mother of all the living. 21. And the Lord God made for Adam and his wife garments of skins, and clothed them. 22. And 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 forever.' 23. And the Lord God sent him out of the paradise of pleasure, to till the earth from which he was taken. 24. And He cast out Adam: and placed before the paradise of pleasure Cherubim, and a flaming sword, turning every way, to keep the way of the tree of life.
Verse 1: 'Now the Serpent Was More Cunning Than All Living Creatures'
It can, secondly, be translated from the Hebrew as: the serpent was coiled and wound into many folds and turns; for the Hebrew word aram also signifies this: whence aramim are the name for heaps of grain sheaves; for these coils are signs of the serpent's inner cunning, by which it ensnared and entrapped man.
First, Cajetan understands by 'the serpent' the devil, who tempted Eve not by an external voice, but only by internal suggestion.
Second, Cyril in Book III Against Julian, and Eugubinus in his Cosmopoeia, think that the demon here assumed not a real serpent, but only the appearance and form of a serpent: just as when angels assume a human body, they assume not a real one, but one made of air, which has the appearance of a true human body.
But all other authorities teach that this was a real serpent; for it is said here that it was more cunning than all -- not angels, but living creatures -- into which the crafty devil, finding it naturally cunning and clever, fittingly entered, and in its mouth, as in an instrument moved, struck, and modulated with a certain design, fashioned a human voice as best he could. So say St. Chrysostom, Procopius, and Augustine in Book XIV of The City of God, chapter 20.
Some think, says the Master of the Sentences in Book II, distinction 6, that this devil was Lucifer, who first tempted Adam and prevailed; he also tempted the second Adam, namely Christ, but was conquered by Him, and was cast down into hell.
Fittingly the devil tempted Adam in the form not of a sheep, not of an ass, but of a serpent. First, because the serpent is cunning by nature; second, because it is naturally hostile to man and lies in ambush for him, so as to bite him secretly; third, because it is the serpent's nature to creep, to spread venom, to destroy man -- and this is what the devil does; fourth, because the serpent clings to the earth with its whole body: so Adam, by believing the serpent and the devil, became entirely brutish and earthly, so that he gapes after nothing but earthly goods.
Hence St. Augustine, in Book XI of On the Literal Meaning of Genesis, chapter 28, teaches that the devil is accustomed to use the form of serpents to deceive men, because he deceived Adam and Eve by it, and saw that this fraud succeeded well for him. For the same reason Pherecydes of Syros said that the demons were hurled from heaven by Jupiter, and that their chief was called Ophioneus, that is, 'the serpentine one.'
Tropologically: 'The devil,' says St. Augustine, 'tempts as a lion, tempts as a dragon;' for, as Gregory says on chapter 1 of Job, 'to His faithful servant the Lord reveals all the machinations of the cunning enemy, namely that he seizes by oppressing, ensnares by plotting, terrifies by threatening, flatters by persuading, breaks by despairing, and deceives by promising.'
St. Bernard lists the kinds and modes of temptation: 'Temptation,' he says, 'is of several kinds: one is importunate, which brazenly insists; another is doubtful, which envelops the mind in a fog of uncertainty; the third is sudden, which anticipates the judgment of reason; the fourth is hidden, which escapes the order of deliberation; the fifth is violent, which surpasses our strength; the sixth is fraudulent, which seduces the mind; the seventh is perplexing, which is obstructed by various paths.'
Note: Eve was not horrified at the sight of the serpent, because as mistress of the animals she was certain that none could harm her. So says St. Chrysostom, Homily 16.
You will say: how was she at least not horrified when it spoke? They answer first: Josephus and St. Basil (which opinion Plato also held in the Politicus) say that in paradise all living creatures had the power and faculty of speech. St. Ephrem, cited by Bar Salibi in Book I of On Paradise, adds that the power not only of speaking but also of understanding was here granted by God to the serpent for a time, and he proves this from verses 1 and 13. But these are paradoxes.
Second, Procopius, Cyril (cited above), Abulensis, and Pererius answer that Eve did not yet know that the power of speech belonged naturally to man alone. But this is incompatible with the perfect knowledge that both Eve and Adam possessed.
I answer therefore: Eve knew that the serpent could not naturally speak; she therefore marveled at it speaking, and suspected -- as was indeed the case -- that this was being done by a higher power, namely divine, angelic, or diabolical; fear was absent, because she had not yet sinned, and she knew she was in God's care. So says St. Thomas, Part I, Question 94, article 4. Thus: 'To the wise nothing is unexpected: children and the foolish are astonished at everything, as though it were new.'
Eugubinus thinks this serpent was a basilisk, which is the king of serpents. Delrio thinks it was a viper; Pererius a scytale, because dazzling in size and the beauty of its back it holds onlookers spellbound. But in this matter nothing is certain. Furthermore, the scytale and the basilisk are of a dull nature; but this serpent was more cunning than all living creatures; for the demon entered into it not for the purpose of spreading venom, but of deceiving. It is probable, as many hold, that it was the creature commonly called serpens (serpent), because it creeps; and coluber (snake), because it frequents shadows; and anguis, because it seeks corners and hiding places. For this one is called simply 'serpent' without qualification: the others are named with a qualifier, such as basilisk serpents, fiery serpents, etc., or by their proper names -- vipers, cerastes, amphisbaenae, asps, etc. This serpent is also the most cunning of all, and crawls entirely flat upon its body, which is said of this serpent in verse 14. Therefore it is improbable what Bede, Denis the Carthusian, the Scholastic History, and St. Bonaventure (in Book II, distinction 21), and Vincent in his Mirror of History, assert here: that this serpent was a dragon, standing on feet, with a maiden's face, its back gleaming with various colors like a rainbow, so as to 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, and from which Eve would therefore have immediately shrunk back and fled.
'Why Has God Commanded You'
The Septuagint also translates it thus. The serpent here cunningly tries to undermine the purpose of the commandment, in order to overthrow the commandment itself, as if to say: There appears no just reason or cause why God should have forbidden the eating of this tree; therefore He did not truly and seriously forbid it; but what He said -- 'You shall not eat of it' -- He said in jest and play. The serpent proves the antecedent from the very usefulness of the tree, saying in verse 5: 'For God knows that in whatever day you eat of it, your eyes shall be opened, and you shall be as gods, knowing good and evil.'
Note: For 'why' the Hebrew has aph ki, which literally means 'is it even so?' or 'is it truly the case?'; and, as the Chaldean translates, 'is it true that God said (has said): You shall not eat from any 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 recoiled from such blasphemy -- but cunningly, as if commending God, spoke thus, as if to say: I do not believe that God, who is so generous, truly and absolutely forbade this tree, even though you think so. For why would He begrudge you such a beautiful and useful fruit? Why would He thus restrict and burden you? For goodness is opposed to envy; hence in God, who is supremely good, there can be nothing of envy; this is what Boethius sings: 'The form of the supreme good, free from spite.' Plato teaches the same in the Timaeus, and Aristotle in Metaphysics, Book I, chapter 2, where he attacks Simonides, who said that God begrudged man the honor of wisdom. For thus, says Aristotle, God would be sad and consequently miserable: for envy is sadness at another's good. Now our translator, following not the words but the sense, rendered aph ki, with the Septuagint, as 'why.' To this interpretation Eve's response directly corresponds, establishing and asserting God's commandment as serious and absolute, which the serpent wanted to eliminate as if spoken in jest; and so this interpretation coincides with the previous one.
From this Hebrew phrase aph ki it appears that the serpent prefaced this question with other remarks, by which he paved the way for it, though Moses passes over them in silence -- for example, about the liberty and dignity of human nature, about the obligation and multitude of natural and supernatural precepts of faith, hope, and charity imposed on man, so that he might conclude from this that man ought not to be further burdened by this new positive commandment of God. So say Procopius and others.
Tropologically, Abbot Hyperichius in the Lives of the Fathers says: 'The serpent, whispering to Eve, cast her out of paradise. He therefore who speaks ill of his neighbor is like this serpent: for he destroys the soul of the one who listens to him, and does not save his own.' Again, St. Bernard, in his book On the Solitary Life, teaches from this passage that perfect obedience ought to be 'indiscreet' -- that is, it should not discern what or why something is commanded. 'Adam,' he says, 'tasted to his own harm from the forbidden tree, instructed by him who suggested: Why has He commanded, etc. Behold the discernment of why it was commanded. And he added: For He knew that on the day you eat of it, your eyes will be opened, and you will be as gods. Behold for what purpose it was commanded, namely that it should not allow them to become gods. He discerned, he ate, he became disobedient, and was cast out of paradise. Whence he infers: so too it is impossible for the worldly-minded 'discreet' person, the prudent novice, the wise beginner, to remain long in his cell, to persevere in a congregation. Let him become foolish, that he may be wise; and let this be his entire discernment: that in this matter he have no discernment.' See Cassian, Conference 12, and Book IV of the Institutes of Renunciation, chapters 10, 24, and 25, and St. Gregory on 2 Kings chapter 4, whose axiom is: 'The true obedient man neither examines the intention of precepts nor discerns between precepts; for he who has submitted all the judgment of his life to a superior, rejoices only in this: that he carries out what is commanded; because he considers this alone good: to obey precepts.'
'That You Should Not Eat of Every Tree'
'Not any,' that is, 'none at all,' say St. Chrysostom, Rupert, and St. Augustine in Book XI of On the Literal Meaning of Genesis, chapter 30 -- as if the serpent were saying that God granted man the fruit of no tree whatsoever, and thus was lying in order to accuse God of cruelty. But this would have been too obvious and gross a lie.
Second and better: 'not of every one,' as if to say: Why has He forbidden any, namely the tree of knowledge of good and evil? Third and best: the devil through the serpent speaks ambiguously in his usual manner, so that this question of his could be taken either as referring to every tree or only to some particular forbidden tree; and this craftily, to insinuate that there is no greater reason for forbidding one tree than for forbidding all: and therefore either all should have been forbidden, or none. Again, that God, with the same ease with which He forbade this one, would henceforth forbid all the others too. Hence the woman immediately answers his ambiguous question with a distinction, saying: 'Of the fruit of the trees that are in paradise, we do eat (we are able to eat, it is permitted for us to eat); but of the fruit of the tree which is in the midst of paradise, God has commanded us that we should not eat.'
Verse 3: 'And That We Should Not Touch It'
St. Ambrose, in his book On Paradise, chapter 12, thinks that Eve added this on her own out of weariness and hatred of the commandment, and thus enviously exaggerated the harshness of the commandment. For God had forbidden neither the sight nor the touch, but only the eating. But since Eve was still upright and holy, it seems rather that she said this out of religion and reverence for the divine commandment, as if to say: God commanded that we not touch this tree for the purpose of eating from it, and therefore He inspired in us a religious scruple and fear, so that we resolved within ourselves that under no circumstances, by no chance, would we even lightly touch it, so that we might be as far as possible from eating it and violating the commandment.
'Lest Perhaps We Die'
God had stated absolutely 'you shall die'; the woman doubts; the devil denies. For when he saw Eve wavering, he presses on to push her, saying: 'You shall not die.' So says Rupert. But Eve was still upright, and therefore out of piety she added to the commandment 'that we should not touch it'; she does not therefore seem to have doubted the penalty of death attached to the commandment. The word pen, that is, 'perhaps,' in Hebrew is often not a word of doubting but of asserting and confirming a thing or commandment, and merely implies uncertainty about a future event, when it depends on man's future free action, as if to say: Lest perhaps we eat, and therefore die; for if we eat, we shall certainly die. Thus 'perhaps' is taken in Matthew 21:23, and often in the Prophets.
Verse 4: 'No, You Shall Not Die the Death'
The serpent tempts Eve by removing the punishment and enticing her with promises. Note here his five splendid lies: the first, 'you shall not die'; the second, 'your eyes shall be opened'; the third, 'you shall be as gods'; the fourth, 'you shall know good and evil'; the fifth, 'God knows all these things to be true, and that I am not lying,' as if to say: Since God knows these things and loves you, it is not likely that He wished to deprive you of so beneficial a tree. And so either He merely forbade it in jest, or under this commandment of His some mystery lies hidden, which you do not yet know; but you will know it when you eat of it. So says St. Augustine, Book XI of On the Literal Meaning of Genesis, chapter 30.
Morally, the devil still persuades nearly all men of this same thing; but because the contrary fact is all too clear, and it is plain that absolutely everyone dies, he therefore uses a stratagem to persuade everyone of 'you shall by no means die.' Namely, he does what a physician is wont to do, who divides a bitter medicine -- which the sick man would reject if given whole -- into parts, and thus gives it to him in boluses, so that he gradually consumes it all. So too the devil divides death into parts and years, and persuades the young: you will not die in the flower and vigor of your age; you are far too robust; you will easily live another fifty years. He persuades students: you will not die before you finish your studies; others: before you finish the business you have in hand. In short, there is no one so old who does not think he will live at least another year. Thus he deceives everyone. For since death carries some away each year, and thus gradually all, it happens that each one is carried off by it when they least expect it, because they think they will live at least one more year. Whence follows a most true axiom: Death is nearer to all and each than all and each suppose; because in that very year in which each one dies, they think they will not die, but will live yet another year.
Moreover, Christ says He will come like a thief in the night, whom the master of the house thinks distant, or indeed not coming at all (Matthew 24:43). Just as a thief watches for the time when the master sleeps, so as to rob him, so death seizes those who do not expect it and are, as it were, sleeping. Let him who is wise, therefore, open his eyes, and dispel this clear fraud of the devil, and persuade himself that death is near to him -- indeed, that he will die this very year, perhaps this very month, this very week, this very day. Wisely does the Poet say: 'Believe that every day that has dawned for you is your last.' So St. Jerome and St. Charles Borromeo kept a death's skull at their table, that they might ever remember the imminence of death. It was the custom of certain saints, when they met one another, that the one greeting first would say: 'We must die'; and the other would answer: 'We know not when.' So St. Marcella, says St. Jerome to Principia, 'so spent her years and lived, that she always believed she was about to die. She so clothed herself as to be mindful of the grave, remembering the words of the Satirist: Live mindful of death; the hour flies; what I speak is already past; and: Remember always the day of death, and you will never sin; and she used to praise that saying of Plato, who said that philosophy is the meditation of death.'
Our Thomas, taught by God, writes magnificently in Book I of The Imitation of Christ, chapter 23: 'Today a man is, and tomorrow he is gone. O the dullness and hardness of the human heart, which thinks only of the present and does not better foresee the future (even what is near)! You ought so to order yourself in every deed and thought, as if you were about to die today or at once.' And further on: 'Blessed is he who always has the hour of his death before his eyes, and daily prepares himself to die. If you have ever seen a man die, consider that you too shall pass by the same road. When it is morning, think that you may not reach the evening; and when evening comes, dare not promise yourself the morning. Be therefore always ready, and live in such a way that death may never find you unprepared. When that last hour comes, you will begin to think very differently about your whole past life, and you will grieve deeply that you were so negligent and remiss. How happy and prudent is he who strives now to be in life such as he wishes to be found in death! For a perfect contempt of the world, a fervent desire to advance in virtue, the love of discipline, the labor of penance, readiness of obedience, denial of self, and the bearing of any adversity for the love of Christ, will give great confidence of dying happily.' And shortly after: 'The time will come when you will desire one day or hour for amendment, and I know not whether you will obtain it. While you have time, gather for yourself immortal riches; think of nothing besides your salvation; care only for the things of God; keep yourself as a pilgrim and stranger upon earth; keep your heart free and raised upward to God, because here you have no abiding city.' Finally, observe that saying of St. Jerome: 'Study as though you were going to live forever; live as though you were going to die at once.'
Verse 5: 'Your Eyes Shall Be Opened'
Hence some, according to Abulensis in chapter 13, question 492, think that Adam and Eve did not have their eyes open, but were blind, until they ate the forbidden fruit; for then 'the eyes of both were opened, and they saw that they were naked' (verse 7). But this is incompatible with the happiness of the state of innocence in which Adam and Eve were created. I say therefore that 'eye' here is understood of the mind, not the body; for, as Aristotle says in Ethics, Book I, 'the intellect is a kind of eye,' especially because the eye and sight, more than 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 meaning is, as if to say: You will become of such clear genius and penetrating intelligence that you will seem to yourselves to have been blind before. So says Rupert; see his Book III on the Trinity, chapters 7 and 8.
'You Shall Be as Gods'
Not in essence, for this is impossible; but by a certain likeness of wisdom and omniscience, as follows. Therefore some wrongly explain it as: you shall be like angels; for they were incited to aspire not to an angelic, but to a divine likeness. For this is what God says in verse 22: 'Behold, Adam has become as one of us.'
You will ask: what was Eve's first sin? Rupert, Hugh, and the Master in Book II, distinction 21, answer that Eve's first sin was that she added 'perhaps' as if doubting to God's commandment, saying: 'Lest perhaps we die.' Second, St. Ambrose says it was that she added 'that we should not touch it'; third, St. Chrysostom says it was that she entered into conversation with the serpent and the devil. But these opinions seem not very probable. For the first sin of man was not in the intellect, but in the will. For before sin, man could not err or be deceived; hence St. Thomas, Question 94, article 4, adds that man in that state could not sin venially, and this by God's special protection: for venial sin cannot take away grace; nor again can it coexist with that most perfect state of original justice.
I say therefore: The first sin of Eve, as also of Adam afterward, was pride. This is clear from Sirach 10:14; Tobit 4:14; and the Hebrew text and the Septuagint indicate this here, in verse 6: namely, Eve and Adam, hearing 'you shall be as gods, knowing good and evil,' were invited to contemplate, increase, and exalt their own excellence. And so, turning to themselves, they swelled with pride, so that their heart departed from God, and they finally coveted a kind of omniscience and equality with the divine nature, as Lucifer also did. Hence God reproached them with this in verse 22, saying: 'Behold, Adam has become as one of us, knowing good and evil.' So say St. Ambrose in Book IV on Luke; St. Ignatius in his Epistle to the Trallians; Chrysostom on 1 Timothy 2:14; Augustine in Book XI of On the Literal Meaning of Genesis, chapter 5, and Book XI of The City of God, chapter 13, where he teaches that the love of excellence is so innate and intense in a rational nature that is whole and perfect, that this love is, as it were, the first impulse in man, which incites man to pursue all other things with this end: to excel. And St. Bernard says: Both, namely the devil and man, aspired to loftiness; the former to power, the latter to knowledge.
I say second: This proud craving for divine omniscience seems to have consisted in this: that they desired, as Scripture says, to know good and evil -- that is, by themselves and by the power of their own nature and intellect, they might direct themselves in all things by discerning and choosing what is good, and avoiding what is evil. And so they might direct themselves by their own knowledge, on their own initiative, by their own powers, to living well and happily, and to attaining full felicity, as though they were gods of a sort, who need not be directed or aided by anyone, not even by God -- just as Lucifer also did. So says St. Thomas, II-II, Question 163, article 2. For although Adam knew speculatively that he depended on God and ought to be enlightened by Him, and that it could not be otherwise, yet in practice through pride he so conducted himself, so desired this likeness of omniscience and divinity, as if he could truly attain it without God, by himself and his own powers; for pride, gradually swelling, blinds and maddens the mind.
I say third: From this pride there quickly followed impatience and the indignation of a mind chafing at being constrained by this commandment and barred from so noble a fruit; then curiosity; next the 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 of the forbidden tree. And from all this they finally leapt to perfect disobedience and transgression of the commandment, that is, to actually eating the fruit.
I say fourth: Not only Eve, but also Adam, blinded by pride, believed the words of the serpent: 'You shall be as gods, knowing good and evil'; and therefore he lost the faith. The first part is clear, because God reproaches him with this, saying: 'Behold, Adam has become as one of us, knowing good and evil.' For these words, spoken ironically, signify what Adam hoped to gain from the tasted fruit according to the serpent's promises, but did not in fact obtain. Hence that Adam was deceived by the serpent, through Eve reporting the serpent's promises, and gave credence to his words, is taught by St. Ignatius to the Trallians, Irenaeus in Book III, chapter 37; Hilary on Matthew 12; Epiphanius, Heresy 39; Ambrose on Luke chapter 10; Cyril in Book III Against Julian; Augustine in Book XI of On the Literal Meaning of Genesis, chapters 21 and 24, and Book IV of The City of God, chapter 7.
Hence the latter part of the conclusion is also evident: for by the very fact that Adam believed the devil promising divine omniscience from the forbidden fruit, and that he would not die, he turned away from and disbelieved God threatening and saying: 'In whatever day you eat of it, you shall die the death.' He was therefore unfaithful; therefore he lost not only grace, but also faith in God. So says St. Augustine, Book I Against Julian, chapter 3.
You will say: How then does the Apostle in 1 Timothy chapter 2 say that Adam was not deceived, but Eve was? I answer: because Eve was seduced by the serpent, which intended to seduce her into eating the fruit; but Adam was not deceived by the serpent, but was only enticed by his wife, who did not intend to deceive him. On this, see more at 1 Timothy 2:14.
'As Gods, Knowing Good and Evil'
The first perfection of God, desirable and imitable by man, is knowledge. 'There is nothing by which we become more like the gods than by knowing itself,' says Cicero. Hence Horace too, speaking of God, says: 'From whom nothing greater is born, nor does anything flourish that is like Him or second to Him; yet Pallas has seized the honors nearest to Him.'
And Damasius says: 'The ever-watchful eye of God, in a single glance, knows past, present, and future as present.' And Boethius says: 'God perceives in one glance of His mind all things that are and have been. Whom, because He alone surveys all things, you may truly call the Sun.' Hence the angels nearest to God excel in intellect, and are therefore called 'intelligences'; indeed, the demons are called in Greek daimones, as if 'knowing' or 'wise'; for their natural gifts, even after the fall, remain intact in them, as St. Dionysius attests. Hence men desire to know by natural appetite, 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 ferocity, so to us is proper the activity and cleverness of the mind; hence the origin of the soul is believed to be heavenly. But the dull and unteachable are produced not so much according to man's nature, as they are bodies that are monstrous and marked by deformity.'
The reason is that man's natural operation is to reason, to discourse, to understand; by which he is distinguished from beasts and stones. Hence Diogenes, laughing at a certain rich ignoramus sitting on a stone, said: 'Fittingly, a stone sits upon a stone.' Solon, when asked what an uneducated rich man was, answered: He is a sheep with a golden fleece. Foolish therefore are those who despise wisdom and learning (Proverbs 1:22); for they say: 'I prefer a drop of fortune to a vessel of wisdom.' But the wise say with Solomon (Wisdom 7:8): 'I preferred her (wisdom) to kingdoms and thrones, and esteemed riches as nothing in comparison with her: all gold in comparison with her is a little sand'; and Proverbs 8:11: 'Wisdom is better than all the most precious treasures, and no desirable thing can be compared with her.' For just as the sense delights in its sensible object, so the intellect delights in the knowable and in knowledge, just as the will delights in the good and in virtue. But in Adam, as also in many of his posterity, this love of knowing was excessive.
Verse 6: The Woman Therefore Saw
'Knowing good and evil' -- because through experience you will know how great an evil disobedience is, and consequently how great a good obedience is: so say some, as if the demon spoke truly here, and by this trick deceived Eve, who thought something greater was being promised to her. But I say it 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 is useless; what should be done, what should be avoided in all things.
6. THE WOMAN THEREFORE SAW. -- She had seen it before, but without any desire to eat; now after the temptation, puffed up with pride, she sees it as something to be desired and eaten. 'She saw,' therefore, that is, she gazed at it more curiously, and with alluring pleasure she looked upon it and lingered in contemplation.
From this, therefore, it is clear that Eve did not sin before the serpent's words. Rupertus is therefore wrong to think that she sinned beforehand by spontaneously indulging in pride and inwardly desiring the forbidden fruit, and that the devil then approached her to drive her to consummate the sin by an external act.
'Good' -- sweet, savory, and pleasing to the palate for eating: the rosy color of apples and cherries is an indicator of flavor, and stimulates the appetite.
AND DELIGHTFUL 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.' However, since Eve could not see this with bodily eyes -- and that 'she saw' here is to be understood of bodily sight is clear from the two preceding clauses -- therefore, secondly, our Interpreter [the Vulgate], the Chaldean, and Vatablus translate it better as 'desirable for contemplating,' meaning that by its form and beauty (whence the Septuagint also translates it horaion, that is, 'beautiful') it held Eve, as it were, in a lingering gaze and contemplation of itself.
See on curiosity and custody of the eyes St. Gregory, Moralia XXI, 2. Hear also St. Bernard, On the Steps of Humility, on the first step, which is curiosity: 'Guard, O Eve, what has been entrusted to you; await what has been promised; beware of what is forbidden, lest you lose what has been granted. Why do you gaze so intently at your death? Why do you cast your wandering eyes upon it so often? Why does it please you to look upon what you may not eat? I stretch my eyes, you say, not my hand; it was not forbidden to see, but to eat. Although this is not a fault, it is nonetheless a sign of fault; for while your attention is directed elsewhere, the serpent meanwhile slips secretly into your heart, speaks to you sweetly; with flatteries he subdues your reason, with lies he quells your fear: You shall not die at all, he says; he increases your anxiety while he incites gluttony; he sharpens curiosity while he suggests desire; at last he offers what was forbidden and takes away what was granted; he extends the fruit and steals paradise; she drinks the poison, about to perish and about to bear those who will perish.'
AND SHE GAVE TO HER HUSBAND -- telling him all that the devil had promised, and bidding him be free from fear of death, since he could see that she who had eaten was still alive: thus she who was so quickly deceived, quickly deceived her husband. For Adam, hearing these things, was puffed up with pride, and desiring omniscience, consented to his wife and ate from the forbidden tree. Thus from 'a woman was the beginning of sin, and through her we all die' (Sirach 25:33). St. Augustine adds (City of God XIV, ch. 11) that Adam, because he had not experienced the severity of God, thought this sin of his was venial, and that he would easily obtain pardon from God.
Let men learn here that women are dangerous enticements and sweet poison, when they indulge their desires and lusts, by which they destroy both themselves and their husbands: therefore let men manfully oppose and resist them. 'Remember always that a woman cast the inhabitant of paradise out of his possession,' says St. Jerome, Epistle to Nepotian.
So did Saturus, the procurator of King Huneric, who when solicited to embrace Arianism, refused. Soon his wife, fearing the ruin of the family, bringing their children to her husband's knees, threw herself before him, and by everything sacred implored that he have pity on her and on their little daughter still nursing at her mother's breast and their other dear ones: God would pardon what he did unwillingly, since others had done the same voluntarily. Then he answered her, like holy Job: 'You speak as one of the foolish women: I would fear these things, wife, if only the sweetness of this life were to become bitter in the loss of our possessions; rather, if you truly loved your husband, you would never try to cast him by your treacherous blandishments into the destruction of the second death. Come, let them take away the children, let them take the wife, let them plunder our goods. I, perfectly secure in the Lord's promises, will keep His words fixed in my mind: If anyone has not left wife, children, field, or house, he cannot be my disciple.' The wife departed. Saturus, stripped of everything and weakened by many tortures, was at last left a beggar. The witness is Victor of Utica in his Persecution of the Vandals. In like manner Thomas More resisted his wife, and preferred offending God less to offending the king and the ruin of his family.
WHO ATE. -- Pererius notes eight sins of Adam: the first was pride; the second, an excessive desire to please his wife; the third, curiosity; the fourth, unbelief -- as if God had threatened death only figuratively or as a warning, but not absolutely to one who violated 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, making excuses, concerning which St. Augustine says (Sermon 19, On the Saints): 'If Adam had not made excuses, he would not have been exiled from paradise;' and consequently he 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 on his part, he incurred the absolute sentence of death. For in chapter 2, verse 17, the sentence had been pronounced absolutely: 'On whatever day you eat of it, you shall die the death,' that is, you shall most certainly die.
The Hebrew and Septuagint add 'with her,' namely that Eve gave the fruit to her husband so that he might eat together with her; it seems therefore that Eve ate twice, once alone, and a second time with Adam, so that she might entice him to eat and show herself his companion in eating. Hence the Septuagint has 'and they ate,' and the Chaldean has 'he ate (namely Adam) with her.'
Question: Which of the two sinned more gravely, Adam or Eve?
St. Thomas responds (Summa Theologiae II-II, q. 163, art. 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, 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 more prudent than Eve, and because Adam had received this commandment immediately from God, whereas Eve had received it only mediately, namely through Adam.
Verse 7: And the Eyes of Both Were Opened
As if to say: Stripped of the covering of grace and original justice through sin, they noticed their nakedness, confusion, and shame, from the fact that they felt in themselves movements of concupiscence rebellious against reason, especially of lust toward each other. For these shameful movements so affect a person with shame that he covers and hides those very members in which this concupiscence reigns: and thence, thirdly, they recognized how great a good of original justice they had lost, and into how great a sin and evil they had fallen; fourthly, they recognized that God and God's sentence were true, but that the serpent and the devil were liars in the promises made to them. So say St. Chrysostom, Rupertus, and St. Augustine (City of God XIV, 17).
From this passage it is gathered that Eve, though despoiled of grace through sin, did not notice her confusion and nakedness until she induced Adam to the same sin, and this because a brief interval elapsed between their two sins, during which Eve, wholly occupied with the delights of the fruit and with offering and urging them upon her husband, did not reflect upon her own misery and nakedness; or certainly, as Francis of Arezzo holds, Eve was not despoiled of original justice insofar as it was a freely given grace, nor did she feel the movements of concupiscence and her nakedness until Adam sinned: for then this entire primeval sin of disobedience was consummated, and then both were despoiled of original justice by God's decree, and thence they blushed with shame. For if Eve had been despoiled of it as soon as she sinned, she would have blushed at her nakedness, nor would she have dared to go naked to her husband, but out of shame she would have sought hiding places or clothing, as she did as soon as Adam sinned.
Why shame naturally follows from nakedness, see St. Cyprian, Sermon on the Reason for 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, 'did not know Eve except when provoked by intemperance: for as long as temperate frugality remained in them, unpolluted virginity remained also; and as long as they fasted from forbidden foods, so long they also fasted from shameful sins. For hunger is the friend of virginity, the enemy of wantonness; but satiety betrays chastity and nourishes enticement.' St. Augustine adds in the same place that for this reason Christ fasted and hungered in the desert, so that by His fasting He might purge the gluttony and lust of Adam, and restore both Adam and us to the immortality which we lost through Adam's gluttony.
THEY MADE THEMSELVES LOINCLOTHS -- that is, girdles for the belly, namely waistbands, or under-garments for the loins, so that they might cover their shameful parts: for they remained naked in the rest of the body, just as Adam himself says to God in verse 10, as do the Brazilians, the Kaffirs, and other Indians today. St. Irenaeus (book III, ch. 37) thinks that they made these from fig leaves, as a sign of penitence, and fitted them upon themselves as a kind of hairshirt; for fig leaves prick and sting. See also St. Ambrose, On Paradise, ch. 13.
Verse 8: And When They Heard the Voice of the Lord
Namely a terrible noise and crash from the shaking of the trees stirred up by God; for as if 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 'voice' not as the sound of the trees, but of God speaking and angry, and, as Abulensis holds, saying: 'Adam, where are you?'
Moreover, Adam recognized this to be the voice of God, first, because having previously spoken with God, he recognized the familiar voice of God; second, because this voice was immense and terrible, and worthy of God: for although it was produced through an angel, it nevertheless represented God (see Canon 16); third, because Adam knew that there was no other person who could produce this sound; fourth, because the consciousness of sin, and God Himself, suggested to his mind that this was the voice of God the Avenger.
IN THE BREEZE AFTER MIDDAY -- namely as the day was declining, when gentle breezes tend to blow, and the breeze is sought by people wearied by the heat of the day. So St. Jerome from Symmachus, Aquila, and Theodotion, in his Hebrew Questions. For God appeared here, or rather an angel in God's place, as a man, walking in human form in paradise.
Add that 'in the breeze' is said because the breeze or wind (for it was blowing from the direction in which God was approaching) caused the sound of God to be heard from a distance, so that Adam might be struck with greater fear of God and have time to seek hiding places. So Francis of Arezzo.
Note the phrase 'after midday': For that, says Irenaeus (book V), signifies that Christ was to come at the evening of the world, to redeem Adam and his posterity.
For the tropological sense -- in how many ways God speaks to us -- see St. Gregory, Moralia XXVIII, ch. 2 and 3.
HE HID HIMSELF IN THE MIDST OF THE TREE -- that is, of the trees, namely among the densest trees of paradise. It is an enallage [change of number].
Note here with Pererius the 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, the worm of conscience; the fifth, dread and fear of divine judgment. Truly St. Bernard says: 'In sin, the pleasure passes never to return, the anxiety remains never to leave.' And also Musonius, cited by Gellius: 'When someone through pleasure has done something shameful, that which was sweet departs, that which is shameful and sad remains.' On the contrary, in the labor of virtues, that which is hard and sad departs, that which is sweet and joyful remains.
Verse 9: Where Are You?
As if to say: I left you in one state, O Adam, and find you in another. I had clothed you with glory; you walked gloriously before Me; now I see you naked and seeking hiding places. How did this happen to you? Who brought you into such a reversal? What thief or robber, stripping you of all your endowments, reduced you to such destitution? Where did this awareness of nakedness, where did this confusion befall you? Why do you flee? Why do you blush? Why do you hide? Why do you tremble? Does someone stand by to accuse you? Do witnesses press upon you? Whence has such dread invaded you? Where now are those magnificent promises of the serpent? Where is that first tranquility of your mind? Where the security of spirit? Where the peace and confidence of conscience? Where that entire possession of so many goods, and freedom from all evils? So St. Ambrose, On Paradise, ch. 14: 'Where,' he says, 'is that confidence of your good conscience? This fear confesses guilt, this hiding confesses transgression: where then are you? I ask not in what place, but in what state? Where have your sins led you, that you flee your God whom before you sought?'
Verse 10: I Was Afraid, Because I Was Naked
'I was afraid,' that is, I was ashamed, I was embarrassed to come into Your sight; for with these fig leaves I barely covered my shameful parts, and in the rest of my body I am still naked. 'Therefore' (for the Hebrew vav, meaning 'and,' is often causal) 'I hid myself.' Thus 'fear' is often taken for 'shame,' and so 'fear' or 'dread' of reverence is called shame and reverence itself, as I said at Hebrews 12:28.
Verse 11. WHO INDEED. -- The word 'indeed' (enim) is not in the Hebrew, nor is it causal, but emphatic, meaning the same as 'truly,' 'but indeed,' 'and yet.' For God here presses and urges Adam to acknowledge the cause and guilt of his nakedness.
Verse 12. THE WOMAN WHOM YOU GAVE ME AS A COMPANION. -- 'The just man is the first to accuse himself': but for us, Adam, already after sin full of concupiscence, pride, and self-love, leads the way in seeking excuses for sins; then he shifts the blame onto the wife who enticed him, and even onto God Himself, who gave him such a wife.
Verse 14: And the Lord God Said to the Serpent
The serpent was present before God, Adam, and Eve. For although after the temptation the devil had left the serpent, and it was crawling here and there, yet by God's command it was directed to the place where Adam, called out of his hiding places by God, came forth before God; especially because the place of the serpent's temptation was not far from the place of Adam's hiding: for as soon as Adam was tempted and fell, he sought coverings and nearby hiding places.
BECAUSE YOU HAVE DONE THIS, YOU ARE CURSED AMONG ALL LIVING THINGS. -- God turns to the first and certain author of the evil, the treacherous serpent, and curses it.
Note first, that by the serpent here is understood literally both the real serpent, as St. Ephrem, Barcepha, Tostatus, and Pererius hold; and the devil, who was the mover, the speaker, and as it were the soul of the serpent.
Whence, secondly, all these punishments in some way literally apply to the serpent, because it was the instrument of the devil and the tool of humanity's ruin: yet some apply more to the devil. For all the ancient writers understand these things of the devil.
Third, 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.
Fourth, although before the temptation of Eve the serpent did not walk upright (as St. Basil holds, Homily on Paradise, and Didymus in the Catena of Lipomanus), but moved on its breast crawling through caverns and eating earth -- for both of these are natural to it -- yet it was not then abominable or infamous; it had its own place and dignity among the beasts. But after the temptation and deception of Eve, the serpent became hated, infamous, and abominable to man: and to crawl, to flee the light and humans, to follow caves, to eat earth, which before were natural to it, were now confirmed upon it as a punishment and ordained as an infamy. For why, I ask, would natural gifts be taken from the serpent in which there was no guilt, gifts which were not taken even from demons on account of their sin? Thus death is, as it were, natural to man, and to the human body composed of contrary elements, but after his sin it began to be a punishment for sin. Thus the rainbow, previously natural, after the flood began to be a sign of the covenant made between Noah, mankind, and God (Genesis 9:46).
Fifth, this punishment of the serpent was fitting and just: namely, the snake had tried to creep into friendship and familiarity with man; therefore it received hatred and execration. The devil had raised up the snake to engage the woman in conversation; therefore it is commanded to crawl on the ground. It had persuaded the eating of the fruit; therefore it is condemned to eat earth. It had looked upon the woman's mouth; therefore now it looks upon the heel and lies in ambush for it, says Delrio.
Sixth, symbolically these things apply to the devil. For, as Rupertus says (On the Trinity III, ch. 18), the devil crawls on his breast because he no longer thinks of heavenly things, as once when he was an angel, but of earthly, indeed of infernal things always; and earth, that is, men who are minded toward earthly things, are his food and nourishment since the sin of Adam. For he teaches them to crawl on the ground on their belly, that is, to devote themselves entirely to gluttony and lust. So St. Gregory, Moralia XXI, ch. 2. Again, St. Augustine (On Genesis against the Manichees II, ch. 17), Bede, Rupertus, Hugh, and Cajetan say: The devil walks 'on his breast and on his belly' because he attacks and seduces men by two paths: first, through pride, which is figured by the breast; second, through lust, which is shadowed forth by the belly. For in the breast is the irascible power, in the belly the concupiscible, and the devil stirs up and inflames these appetites, and by them drives men to the gravest sins.
Verse 15: She Shall Crush Your Head (Protoevangelium)
I WILL PUT ENMITIES BETWEEN YOU AND THE WOMAN. -- For since God deprived man of dominion over the beasts on account of sin, the serpent began to be harmful and deadly to man; and in turn man began to be a serpent-killer, whereas before sin there had been no antipathy, nor horror, nor hatred, nor desire to harm between man and serpent.
Aristotle records that human saliva torments a serpent, and if it touches the throat (with which it tempted Eve), it kills it.
SHE SHALL CRUSH YOUR HEAD. -- There is a threefold reading here. The first is that of the Hebrew codices which have: 'It' (namely the seed) 'shall crush your head'; and so reads St. Leo, and from him Lipomanus. The second is: 'He (namely man or Christ) shall crush your head'; so the Septuagint and the Chaldean. The third is: 'She shall crush your head.' So the Roman Bible and nearly all Latin ones read, with St. Augustine, Chrysostom, Ambrose, Gregory, Bede, Alcuin, Bernard, Eucherius, Rupertus, and others. Some Hebrew manuscripts also support this, which read hi or hu instead of hu, with a small or large chirich vowel. Add that hu is often used for hi, especially when there is emphasis and something masculine is attributed to a woman, as here the crushing of the serpent's head. Examples are in this verse 12 and 20, Genesis 17:14, Genesis 24:44, Genesis 38:21 and 25. Nor does the masculine verb iascuph (meaning 'shall crush') present an obstacle; for there is frequent enallage of gender in Hebrew, so that the masculine is used for the feminine and vice versa, especially if some cause and mystery underlies it, as here, as I shall now explain. Therefore hi iascuph is used for hi tascuph. So in chapter 2:23, iickare issa is said for tickare issa. Hence Josephus too (book I, ch. 3) reads it as our Interpreter [the Vulgate] has it; for he says: 'He commanded that the woman should inflict wounds upon its head,' as Rufinus translates. From which it is clear that Josephus formerly read hu, meaning 'she herself,' but that heretical printers removed the word gyne (woman) from it.
Note first, that none of these three readings is to be rejected; indeed all are true: for since God here sets up as antagonists, as it were, the woman with her seed against the serpent with its seed, consequently He means to say that the woman with her seed will crush the head of the serpent; just as on the contrary the serpent lies in wait for the heel of both the woman and her seed. And therefore Moses seems here in the Hebrew to have mixed a masculine verb with a feminine pronoun, saying hi iascuph, 'she shall crush,' to signify that both the woman and her seed, and therefore the woman through her seed, namely through Christ, would crush the head of the serpent.
Note second: These things, as I said, apply literally both to the serpent and to the devil, who was as it were the mover and soul of the serpent. For this antipathy, hatred, horror, and warfare literally began after sin between serpents and humans, both men and women, as experience now shows. Indeed Rupertus (book III, ch. 20) adduces a special and noteworthy experience, namely that the head of a serpent can only with the greatest difficulty be crushed by swords, clubs, and hammers so that the whole body is killed; but if a woman with bare foot anticipates the serpent's fang and presses its head, immediately with the head the whole body completely dies.
Again, these same things apply even more literally to Christ and the Blessed Virgin fighting against the devil. For the 'woman' is Eve, who crushed the devil when she did penance, or rather the woman is the Blessed Mary, daughter of Eve; her seed is Jesus and Christians; the serpent is the devil; his seed are unbelievers and all the impious. Therefore the Blessed Mary crushed the serpent; because she was always full of grace and glorious as conqueror of the devil, and crushed all heresies (which are the head of the serpent) in 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 all his kingdom and his spoils; and from Christ, both the penitent Eve and the innocent Mary, and we also, all received the power of crushing the devil and his seed (that is, first, his suggestions; second, his seed, that is, wicked men, for the devil is their father and prince). For this is what is said in Psalm 90: 'You shall walk upon the asp and the basilisk, and you shall trample the lion and the dragon.' And Luke 10: 'Behold, I have given you the power to tread upon serpents and scorpions, and upon all the power of the enemy.' And Romans 16: 'May God crush Satan under your feet swiftly.' So Theodoret, Rupertus, Bede here, Augustine (City of God XI, ch. 36), Epiphanius (book II Against the Antidicomarianites), and the other Fathers passim.
Aptly St. Chrysostom (Homily on the Prohibition of the Tree, vol. 1) sets Christ against Adam, the Blessed Mary against Eve, and Gabriel against the serpent: '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 brought forth the Savior to the world. Through Mary is restored what had perished through Eve; through Christ is redeemed what had been captivated through Adam; through Gabriel is promised what had been despaired of through the devil.'
SHALL CRUSH. -- In Hebrew it is iascuph, which Rabbi Abraham translates as 'shall strike'; Rabbi Solomon, 'shall pound'; the Septuagint translates tereset, that is, 'shall crush'; Philo however (Allegories II), with some others, reads epitereset, that is, 'shall watch.' Hence also the Chaldean translates: 'He shall watch you for what you did to him from the beginning, and you shall watch him at the end.' Properly, the Hebrew scuph seems to mean to strike someone suddenly and as if from ambush and hiding places, to overwhelm, to trample, to crush, as is clear from Job 9:17 and Psalm 139:11; hence our Interpreter also translates it shortly after as 'you shall lie in wait.'
See here how deranged were both the heretics and idolaters called Ophites, that is, 'serpent-worshippers,' from ophis, meaning serpent, whom they worshipped because, by suggesting the forbidden fruit, it had been for Adam and his descendants the beginning of the knowledge of good and evil; and therefore they offered bread to it. Epiphanius describes the rite of their offering (Heresy 37).
AND YOU SHALL LIE IN WAIT FOR HIS HEEL. -- In Hebrew it is the same verb already mentioned, iascuph, which the Septuagint shortly before translated as tereset, meaning 'shall crush': but here they translate it tereseis, meaning 'you shall watch' (namely, by lying in wait for him). For so Josephus, Philo, St. Jerome, Ambrose, Irenaeus, Augustine, and others read here from the Septuagint. For serpents properly, lurking in meadows and forests, avenge themselves not by open force but by cunning, and bite the unwary from behind and strike at the heel, and thence kill by the venom creeping through the whole body. So Rupertus.
Symbolically, Philo says: The heel is that part of the soul which clings to earthly nature, and which is prone and easily drawn toward bodily sense and earthly pleasures. The devil lies in ambush for this part, and through it for the mind and will. And therefore Christ washed the feet of His disciples at the Last Supper, so that this might be a sign that the curse of the heel had now been washed away -- the curse by which, from the very beginning of things, an entrance lay open to the bites of the serpent.
In like manner the devil lies in wait for the heel, that is, he tries as if from behind to strike by ambush (for what is signified here, in the Hebrew manner, is not a completed act of striking, but one that is begun, or merely attempted) Christ, the Blessed Virgin, and Christians; but he does not prevail against them so long as they remain the seed of Christ, that is, children of God. Add that the devil does in fact strike and crush some from this seed, namely those faithful ones who in the Church are as it were the heel -- that is, the lowest, the worthless, and those fixed upon earthly things.
Again, Christ's 'head' is His divinity, His 'heel' is His humanity. While the devil attacked and slew this humanity, he himself was slain: for then Christ crushed the devil's head, that is, He cast down his pride and prostrated all his force.
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 (Apocalypse 12:13) and the Fathers passim. Indeed some, such as Fr. Gordon (Controversy I, ch. 17), understand literally by 'the woman' the Church, and by 'the serpent' the devil. But the woman rather literally signifies a woman, and mystically the Church; hence the Apostle (Ephesians 5:32) calls this a sacrament, or, as the Greek has it, a mystery of Christ and the Church.
Tropologically, St. Gregory (Moralia I, ch. 38): 'We crush the head of the serpent,' he says, 'when we root out the beginnings of temptation from the heart; and then he lies in wait for our heel, because he attacks the end of a good action more cunningly and powerfully.' And St. Augustine on Psalms 48 and 103: 'If the devil 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. And so you will avoid his head, and accordingly he will not seize your heel,' namely:
'Resist the beginnings: the remedy is prepared too late, when evils have grown strong through long delays.'
And St. Bernard, To His Sister on the Way of Living Well, ch. 29: 'The head of the serpent is crushed,' he says, 'when fault is corrected where it is born.' Alcuin, or Albinus, adds to this: 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: 'You have served the Lord for nearly seventy years, and you are afraid to die?' Abbot Pambo, dying, said: 'I depart now to my God; but as one who has scarcely begun to truly and rightly worship God.' Arsenius said: 'Grant, O Lord, that at least now I may begin to live piously.' St. Francis near death said: 'Brothers, until now we have made little progress; let us now begin to serve God; let us return to the beginnings of humility and the novitiate.' He said this and did it, as St. Bonaventure testifies in his Life. Likewise Anthony said: 'Today, consider that you have taken up the religious life.' And Barlaam to Josaphat: 'Think' each day 'that today you have begun to serve God, that today you will finish.' Agatho had lived holily, and yet he used to say: 'I dread death, because the judgments of God are different from those of men.'
Verse 16: I Will Multiply Your Sorrows
I WILL MULTIPLY. -- In Hebrew harba arbe, 'multiplying I will multiply,' that is, I will most greatly and most certainly multiply. For this doubling signifies both multitude and certitude.
A threefold punishment is here inflicted upon the woman for her threefold sin. For first, because she believed the serpent saying 'You shall be as gods,' she hears: 'I will multiply your sorrows and your conceptions'; second, because she gluttonously ate the forbidden fruit, she hears: 'In pain you shall bring forth'; third, because she seduced her husband, she hears: 'You shall be under the power of your husband.' So Rupertus.
'SORROWS AND CONCEPTIONS.' -- That is, the sorrows of conceptions. For it is a hendiadys frequent among the Hebrews, such as the one used by the Poet [Virgil]: 'He bit the gold and the bridle,' that is, he bit the golden bridle.
These sorrows, before conception, are the impurities and menstrual flow; in conception itself, defloration, shame, and pain; after conception, uncleanness, stench, retention of menses, uncontrollable cravings, the weight of the child for nine months, nausea, spasms, and very many dangers, about which see Aristotle, History of Animals VII, ch. 4.
IN PAIN YOU SHALL BRING FORTH. -- To this pain is often joined danger to life, both of the mother and the child, and this both of soul and body; and this pain is so great that a woman who experienced it said: 'She would rather fight for her life under arms ten times than give birth once.' This pain in women is greater than in any animal, on account of the more difficult separation of the continuous parts, as Aristotle teaches (above, ch. 9). In the state of innocence, woman would have escaped this pain by the benefit and providence of God. See how small a pleasure of sin -- a drop, I say, of honey -- brought how much gall, how many pains upon Eve and all her posterity!
YOU SHALL BE UNDER THE POWER OF YOUR HUSBAND. -- Not as before, willingly, gladly, with wonderful sweetness and harmony, but often unwillingly, with the greatest annoyance and reluctance. For here the husband received the power of restraining and punishing his wife.
So Molina. In Hebrew it is: 'To her husband shall be her desire' (teshukathek), that is, her concupiscence, longing, or recourse; or, as the Septuagint and Chaldean have it, 'your turning shall be,' as if to say: Whatever you desire, you will necessarily have recourse to your husband, so that you may obtain and accomplish it. Therefore, if you are wise, let your eyes always observe the face, eyes, nod, and inclination of your husband, so that you may please him, comply with his wishes, and win him over to yourself. If you are wise, desire nothing other than what you know will please your husband; if you love peace and quiet, think and agree with your husband; take care not to kick against the goad. Rupert adds: 'You shall be under the power of your husband.' So true is this, he says, that according to Roman law, even among the Gentiles, a wife was not permitted to make a will without her husband's authority; and because she was under her husband's hand, she was said to have suffered a diminution of legal standing.
'And he shall rule over you.' -- This dominion of the husband, if just and moderate, is of the law of nature; if imperious and tyrannical, it is contrary to nature; but both are burdensome to the woman and are a punishment of sin. Therefore it is against nature, and like a monstrosity, if a woman wishes to rule over her husband.
Verse 17: Cursed Is the Ground in Your Work
17. 'Because you listened' -- because you obeyed your wife rather than Me. 'Cursed is the ground in your work.' -- Note with Adam, Procopius, Abulensis, and Pererius that the earth is here cursed by God not absolutely, but 'in your work,' because, namely, to you, O Adam, as you labor and sweat over it, it will yield few fruits, and indeed often thorns and thistles, as follows.
Second, although before sin the earth naturally would also have produced thorns and thistles (which though Bede, Rupert, and others deny, I have shown to be more true at chapter 1, verse 12), nevertheless that very thing has now become a punishment of sinful man; because if Adam had not sinned, he would have lived without any labor from the fruits of paradise (in which place of delight all things would have helped and refreshed man, and there would have been nothing to harm him, and consequently there would have been no thorns in it); but now, laboring to procure food for himself, he often reaps thorns and thistles, by which he is not nourished but injured.
Add third, through this sin of Adam the primeval goodness and fertility of the earth seems to have been impeded and diminished, and therefore it now produces thorns and thistles more frequently and in more places than it did before sin; for this is what happened to Cain when he sinned, Genesis IV, 12. So too for the Israelites, on account of their sins, God often threatens through the Prophets a sky of bronze and earth of iron. So also today God often punishes cities and kingdoms with barrenness on account of sins. Hence the Chaldean and Aquila translate, 'cursed is the ground because of you'; and Theodotion, 'cursed is the ground in your transgression': for the root abar means to transgress.
Where note fourth: the Hebrew text now has ba'avureka, that is, 'because of you,' as the Chaldean and Aquila translate. But our Vulgate, with the Septuagint (from which it is clear that this reading is ancient and therefore more authentic), reads ba'avodeka, that is, 'in your work.' For the letters resh and daleth are very similar, so that a slip from one to the other is easy.
Tropologically, St. Basil in his homily On Paradise says: 'The rose here is joined with thorns, all but declaring to us in open voice and saying: Those things that are pleasant to you, O men, are mixed with sorrows. For truly in human affairs it is so arranged that nothing in them is pure, but immediately sadness is glued to joy and cheerfulness, widowhood to marriage, care and anxiety to the raising of children, miscarriage to fertility, disgrace to the splendor of life, losses to prosperous successes, satiety to delights, sickness to health. The rose is indeed beautiful, but it inflicts sadness on me. Every time 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 you shall eat of it.' -- The Hebrew word itsabon signifies labor mixed with great hardships, troubles, and pains, such as is the labor of agriculture, and it is varied, manifold, and continuous, by which, however much he exerts himself, a man scarcely provides sustenance for himself and his family.
Isidore Clarius notes that each one's punishments are fittingly inflicted here by God: namely, the serpent had arrogantly raised itself up; therefore it is commanded to crawl on the ground. The woman had tasted the delights of the fruit; therefore she is commanded to bear children in pains. Adam had weakly yielded to his wife; therefore he is commanded to procure his food in labors. This therefore is 'the heavy yoke upon the children of Adam, from the day of their coming out of their mother's womb, until the day of burial in the mother of all,' Sirach 40:1. Under this yoke we all groan.
'Of it.' -- In Hebrew, 'you shall eat it,' that is, its sprouts and fruits.
18. 'And you shall eat the herb of the field' -- as if to say: Not the delights and fruits of paradise, not partridges, hares, roasted and boiled meats, but the simple and lowly herbs of the earth you shall eat, both for the sake of temperance and for the sake of penance. For the Hebrews call herbs of the earth or of the field the common and lowly herbs on which brute animals as well as man feed. For through sin man had become like a horse and a mule: therefore he must feed on the same food as they do.
For the tropological sense, see Cassian, Conferences, Book XXIII, chapter 11.
Verse 19: For Dust You Are, and to Dust You Shall Return
19. 'For dust you are, and to dust you shall return.' -- The Septuagint has, 'for earth you are, and to earth you shall return.' Man therefore after sin labors under an incurable consumption, as it were, namely, the conflict and corruption of contrary qualities, which gradually wastes and kills him. The Hebrew 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 clay of the earth, whence also the corpse of man after death is dissolved into clay. Why then do you exalt yourself, you who are earth and ashes? Hence it is clear that death for man is not a condition of nature, but the punishment of sin. Whence St. Augustine acutely says in Sentence 260: 'Man had been made immortal: he wanted to be God; he did not lose what he was as man, but he lost what he was as immortal, and from the pride of disobedience, the punishment of nature was contracted.' The same is clear from Romans 5:12 and Wisdom 2:23. St. Chrysostom thinks that this sentence of death mitigates the former one: 'In labor you shall eat of it.' For how useful this punishment is to us, Rupert learnedly shows in Book III, chapters 24 and 25, where among other things he says, first, 'lest man should not recognize the evil death of his soul, and should sleep securely in his pleasures until the dawn of the last judgment, God strikes him with the death of the flesh, so that at least by the fear of its approach he may awaken; hence also second, He willed the day and hour of death to be unknown, which, keeping man always anxious and always in suspense, does not allow him to be proud.' Third, from Plotinus he teaches that it was God's mercy that He made man mortal, lest he be tormented by the perpetual miseries of this life. Fourth, God willed man to live in labors.
'Sharpening mortal hearts with cares, and not allowing his kingdom to grow sluggish in heavy torpor.'
So Rupert.
Morally, what then 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 a 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, in need of another's help, cast forth to every insult of fortune, says Seneca; fifth, he is a bond of corruption, a living death, a sentient corpse, a revolving sepulcher, an opaque veil, says Trismegistus; sixth, he is a phantom and a faint shadow, says Sophocles; seventh, he is a dream of a shadow, says Pindar; eighth, he is an exile and a sojourner in a wretched world: for what is the world now but a casket of sorrows, a school of vanity, a marketplace of impostors? as a certain Philosopher said.
What is man? Hear the faithful, wise, and prophets. First, man is fetid seed, a sack of dung, food for worms, says St. Bernard; second, man is the mockery of God, says the Emperor Zeno fleeing after hearing of the slaughter of his people; third, man is a drop from a bucket, a locust, a turn of the scale, a drop of morning dew, grass, a flower, nothing and emptiness, as Isaiah says in chapter 40, verses 6, 15, 17, 22; fourth, he is utter vanity, as the Psalmist says, Psalm 38:6; fifth, he is a running messenger, a passing ship, a flying bird, a launched arrow, smoke, down, thin foam, a guest of a single day, Wisdom chapter 5, verse 9; sixth, he is dust and ashes, as Abraham says in Genesis chapter 18, verse 27; seventh, 'man born of woman, living for a short time, is filled with many miseries; who like a flower comes forth and is crushed, and flees like a shadow, and never remains in the same state,' Job 14:1. Learn therefore, O man, to despise both yourself and the world. Hear St. Augustine in his Sentences, the last Sentence: 'You glory in riches and boast of the nobility of your ancestors, and you exult in your homeland and the beauty of your body, and in the honors that men bestow upon you: look at yourself, for you are mortal, and you are earth, and to earth you shall go; look around at those who before you shone with similar splendors: where are those whom the power of citizens courted? where the unconquerable emperors? where those who arranged assemblies and feasts? where the splendid riders of horses? where the leaders of armies? where the tyrannical governors? now all is dust, now all is ashes, now in a few verses is their memory. Look at the tombs, and see who is slave, who master, who poor, who rich? distinguish, if you can, the prisoner from the king, the strong from the weak, the handsome from the deformed. Mindful therefore of your nature, never exalt yourself; and you will be mindful if you look at yourself.'
So Zosimas, returning at Easter to the place agreed upon with St. Mary of Egypt, found her lying dead, and nearby written in the earth: 'Bury, Abba Zosimas, the poor body of Mary: return earth to earth and dust to dust.' And since he had no mattock, a lion appeared, which dug the earth with its claws and made a grave in which Zosimas buried the Saint's body.
Verse 20: And Adam Called the Name of His Wife Eve
'He called,' after he had been expelled from paradise: for immediately after the sin and God's sentence, he was expelled from 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.' Hence the Septuagint translates Eve as zoe, that is, life. From the Hebrew chaia, or chava, that is, he lived, comes the imperative chave, or have, that is, live -- which is the word of one greeting and wishing well, equivalent to the Greek chaire, hygiaine. For have the Latins say ave; and the Carthaginians, havo. Whence that line of Plautus in the Poenulus: 'Havo (that is, hail, greetings), what countrymen are you? or from what town?' So our Serarius on Joshua chapter 2, question 25.
Note that the Rabbis have wrongly added the vowel points in chavva: for it should be pointed and read as Cheva, or Heva; for so the Septuagint, our Vulgate, and others have read it. So the Rabbis ignorantly read Cores for Cyrus, and Dariaves for Darius.
By this name Eve, Adam consoles himself and his wife, condemned to death by God, that through Eve he will beget living descendants, in whom they too, though destined to die, will nevertheless live on perpetually, as it were, as parents in their children.
Hence Eve was a type of the Blessed Mary, who is the mother of the living, not with temporal but with spiritual and eternal life in heaven. So St. Epiphanius, Heresy 78. Better therefore Mary is a better mother than Eve. For Eve is and can be called the mother of all, both the dying and the living. Whence Lyra and Abulensis say: Eve signifies the mother of all, not simply, but of those living wretchedly and miserably in this mortal life. Hence some piously contemplate that Eve is aptly so called, as if this name alludes to the wailing of the little ones begotten from Eve: for a male child newly born cries out 'a' in its wailing, while a female says 'e,' as if to say: Let all who are born from Eve say 'e' or 'a.' Again, Eva by anastrophe and apocope in Latin is ve ('woe'); by anastrophe alone it is ave ('hail'), which the Archangel Gabriel brought to the Blessed Virgin in greeting.
Verse 21: God Made for Adam and His Wife Tunics of Skin
Note here the different character of the devil and of God; the devil trips man up with some petty pleasure, then immediately abandons him lying in the depths of misery and confusion, so that he becomes a pitiable spectacle to all who see him: but God comes to the aid even of His pitiable enemy, clothes him and covers him. Origen here understands not real tunics of skin, but carnal and mortal bodies, with which Adam and Eve were clothed after sin; for it is ridiculous, he says, to claim that God was Adam's tanner and cobbler of hides. But this is an error: for these words are to be taken historically and literally, as they sound, as St. Augustine teaches in Book XI of On Genesis Literally, chapter 39, and indeed Origen himself in Homily 6 on Leviticus: 'With such garments, he says, it was fitting that the sinner be clothed (namely tunics of skin), which would be a sign of the mortality that he had received from the first sin, and of the frailty that came from the corruption of the flesh.' Theodore of Heraclea and Gennadius think that bark of trees is here called skins, and that Adam's garments were made from these. But Theodoret rightly refutes this in Question 39. God did not create these skins from nothing, as Procopius holds, but either had them stripped from slain animals by the ministry of angels (for God created not just one pair of each species, as Theodoret holds, but several at the beginning); or He instantly transformed and fashioned them from some other source.
Again, understand the skins here as natural, namely with fleece and hair: for this is what the Hebrew or and the Latin pelliceas imply; and this first, so that these garments might serve Adam and Eve in both winter and summer by simply reversing them. Second, because they were given not for adornment, but for necessity, namely to cover their nakedness and ward off the injuries of the weather. Third, because these garments were a symbol not only of modesty, but also of frugality, continence, and penance. Not with purple, not with cloth, but with skins as with a hair shirt God clothed men after sin, to teach that our clothing should be similarly simple. Hence the holy forty soldiers and Martyrs, as recorded by St. Basil, stripped naked by the prefect and cast into a frozen lake to be killed by its cold, encouraged themselves with this voice: 'We are not putting off a garment, they say, but the old man corrupted by the deception of concupiscence; we give thanks to You, Lord, that together with this garment, we may also put off sin: for on account of the serpent we put it on, but on account of Christ we put it off.' Thus, nearly killed by the cold, they were consigned to the flames, while angels from heaven displayed their triumphal crowns. Fourth, these garments made from the skins of dead animals reminded Adam that he had been guilty of death. So St. Augustine, Book II of On Genesis against the Manicheans, chapter 21, Alcuin, and others.
Allegorically, Adam clothed was a type of Christ, who, although He was pure and holy, nevertheless willed to be clothed with skins, that is, to be clothed with our sins, when being found in human form, He was made in the likeness of sinful flesh. Why then, O man, do you glory in a silken garment? For clothing is a mark and brand of sin; just as shackles, as chains, whether of iron or bronze, are the symbols and bonds of thieves and criminals. Such was the garment of the first Roman Senators, of which Propertius writes:
'The Senate house, which now shines lofty with the purple-bordered senate, held skin-clad fathers with rustic hearts.'
Verse 22: Behold, Adam Has Become as One of Us
'This,' says St. Augustine in Book II of On Genesis against the Manicheans, chapter 22, 'can be understood in two ways: either one of us, as if he himself were God, which pertains to mockery, as one says: One of the senators, that is, a senator; or indeed, because he himself would have been God, though by the benefit of his Creator, not by nature, if he had been willing to remain under His power: so it is said, of us, just as one says, Of the consuls or proconsuls, who no longer is one.' Then St. Augustine adds: 'But for what purpose has he become as one of us? For the knowledge, namely, of discerning good and evil, so that this man might learn by experience while he feels the evil that God knows by wisdom: and he might learn by his punishment that the power of the Almighty, which he was unwilling to endure when blessed and consenting, is inescapable.' The former sense is more genuine: for the phrase 'has become' requires it. It is therefore irony and sarcasm, as if to say: Adam wished to become like Us by eating the fruit -- see how unlike he has become; he wished to know good and evil -- see into what an abyss of ignorance he has fallen. So Gennadius, Theodoret, and Rupert, who says: 'Adam has become as one of us, so that we are no longer a Trinity but a Quaternity: although he aspired to be God not with God, but against God.' These are the words of God the Father not to the angels, as Oleaster and Abulensis hold, but to the Son and the Holy Spirit, as is clear, and so Abulensis himself understands in chapter 13, Question 486.
'Now therefore' -- supply: we must take care, or he must be expelled from paradise. This is an aposiopesis (a deliberate breaking off of speech).
'And live forever' -- but rather let him die, according to the sentence passed on him in chapter 2, verse 17; this death is a punishment for man, and also an abbreviation of punishment; for it is God's custom, says St. Chrysostom here, that in punishing no less than in bestowing benefits, He declares His providence toward us, as Rupert says: 'Since man is wretched, let him also be temporal, and thus let him be unlike both God and the devil: for God is both eternal and happy, and His is eternal happiness, happy eternity: of these two, the devil has lost the one, that is, happiness; but he has not lost eternity, and his is eternal unhappiness, unhappy eternity. Let us spare man, says God; and since he has lost happiness, let us also snatch away eternity from the wretched one; so that in neither respect is he as one of Us. Ours is eternal happiness, happy eternity; let his be temporal misery, or miserable temporality, and then eternity will be more conveniently restored to him when happiness has been recovered.'
Verse 23: And He Sent Him Forth from Paradise
In Hebrew it is yeshallachehu in the piel form, that is, He cast out, expelled him. The Septuagint adds, 'and He placed him opposite,' or in sight of (for this is the meaning of apenanti) paradise, namely so that by the sight of it he would continually mourn the good he had lost and repent more bitterly.
Note: God sent Adam forth through an angel, who either led him out by the hand, as Raphael led Tobias; or snatched him away, as Habakkuk was snatched from Judea to Babylon to bring a meal to Daniel. So St. Augustine and Abulensis, who adds that the angel transported Adam from paradise to Hebron, where he had been created, lived, and was later buried.
One may ask on what day this happened. Abulensis thinks Adam sinned and was expelled from paradise on the second day from his creation, that is, on the Sabbath. Pererius says on the eighth day, and this with the purpose that in the interval of some days he would experience that blessed state in paradise. Others say on the fortieth day: whence Christ fasted for the same number of days, that is, forty days, for this gluttony of Adam. Others say in the thirty-fourth year, just as Christ lived thirty-four years and expiated this sin.
But commonly the Fathers -- St. Irenaeus, Cyril, Epiphanius, Sarugensis, Ephrem, Philoxenus, Barcepha, and Diodorus as cited by Pererius -- hand down that Adam sinned and was expelled from paradise on the very day he was created, namely on the sixth day, Friday; indeed at the very same hour at 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 clear that these things happened after midday, as the heat was abating and a gentle breeze was blowing. The envy of the devil also favors this, which did not allow Adam to stand for long. And the perfection of nature in which Adam was created favors it, through which he, like the angel, immediately resolved himself and chose one side or the other. Finally, if he had been in paradise for a long time, he would certainly have eaten from the tree of life. Just as Christ chose to be crucified in the same place, namely on Mount Calvary, where Adam was buried: so He Himself marked the day of our sin and exile, to pay and discharge the losses of that day.
St. Ephrem (as cited by Barcepha, at the end of Book I of On Paradise), Philoxenus, and James of Sarug add that Adam was created at the ninth hour of the morning and was expelled from paradise at the third hour of the afternoon, and thus he remained in paradise for only six hours.
Verse 24: Cherubim and a Flaming Sword
'And He placed before the paradise of pleasure the Cherubim and a flaming sword, turning every way.' -- One may ask: Who are the Cherubim, and what is this sword?
First, Tertullian in his Apologeticus, and St. Thomas, II-II, Question 165, last article, think it is the torrid zone, which is impassable because of its heat, which God, they say, placed between our regions and paradise.
Second, Lyra and Tostatus hold that this is a fire surrounding paradise on every side. Many Fathers to be cited at the end of this chapter think the same.
Third, Theodoret and Procopius think they are mormolykia -- certain terrifying phantoms, like the scarecrows placed against birds in gardens.
But I say that all these things are to be taken properly, as they sound, namely that angels from the order of the Cherubim were placed before paradise, to bar entrance to it both for Adam and men, and also for demons, lest the demons themselves, having entered paradise, should pluck the fruit of the tree of life and offer it to men, promising them immortality, so that by this means they might entice them to love and worship them. So St. Chrysostom, Augustine, Rupert, and others.
Note first: The custody of paradise was entrusted to the Cherubim rather than to the Thrones, Virtues, or Principalities, because the Cherubim are the most vigilant and most perceptive; whence they are called Cherubim from knowledge, and therefore they are the most fitting avengers of the omniscience of God, which Adam had coveted. Hence it is clear that the higher angels too are sent to earth, as I showed at Hebrews 1, last verse.
Note second: These Cherubim seem to have been clothed in human form; for they hold and brandish a flaming sword, turning in every direction, so as to strike those who would try to enter paradise.
Note third: For 'flaming sword' the Hebrew has lahat hacherev, that is, 'the flame of the sword.' Hence 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 spewing flames.
Note fourth: This sword was removed and ceased, as did the Cherubim, when paradise came to an end, namely in the Flood.
Allegorically, as St. Ambrose says on that verse of Psalm 118, 'Reward Your servant, and I shall live,' and Rupert in Book III, chapter 32, this flaming sword is the fire of Purgatory, which God placed before the heavenly paradise for those dying who have not yet been fully purged in this life; and from there the Cherubim, that is, the angels, lead souls that have been fully purged into paradise, that is, into heaven. Indeed, St. Ambrose, Origen, Lactantius, Basil, and Rupert from this passage think that a fire was placed before heaven through which all souls, even those of St. Peter and St. Paul, must pass after death, so that they may be tested by it, and if they are found impure, they may be purged through it, concerning which I spoke at 1 Corinthians 3:15.
Morally note: Six punishments were imposed on Adam (along with Eve) and their posterity, which fittingly correspond to his six sins: his first sin was disobedience -- on account of this he felt the rebellion of the flesh and the senses; his second was gluttony -- on account of this he was punished with labor and weariness. 'In the sweat of your face you shall eat your bread'; his third was the theft of the fruit -- on account of this he was punished with bodily pain, namely hunger, thirst, cold, heat, diseases, etc. 'I will multiply your sorrows'; his 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; his 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 you are, and to dust you shall return'; his sixth was pride -- through this he deserved to be deprived of paradise, heaven, and the heavenly beings, and to be cast down into hell.
From what has been said it is clear that Adam's sin, if you consider the primary and proper species of the sin, was not the most grievous of all: for it was disobedience of a positive law of God, and graver than this is blasphemy, hatred of God, obstinate impenitence, etc. Therefore Arius, Luther, Judas, and others sinned more grievously than Adam. If, however, you consider the damages that followed from this sin, Adam's sin was the most grievous of all: for through it he ruined himself and all his posterity, and thus whoever is damned is damned either immediately or mediately on account of this sin; and for this reason this sin can be called irremissible, because its guilt and punishment pass to all his posterity, and this cannot be forgiven or prevented in any way.