The Venerable Bede (Beda Venerabilis)
(On the Creation of the Six Days)
On the First Day
In the beginning God created heaven and earth. This chapter is the head of all books. For all divine Scripture is twofold: the Old Testament and the New. Some things are where inner realities are made known, as: In the beginning was the Word (John 1). Others narrate deeds, as: In the beginning God made heaven and earth. Others announce things to come, as it is said: When the Son of Man shall come in his majesty (Matt. 5). Others are things commanded to be done, as: You shall love your neighbor (Matt. 5). How then is it twofold? Because some things are said according to figure, as the Song of Songs; and: Adam heard the voice of the Lord God walking in paradise (Gen. 3). And others are according to the truth of events, as when the people crossed out of Egypt and walked through the sea on foot. Others are said in both ways, as the crossing of the Red Sea. And those miracles which the Lord performed in the Gospel.
He says: In the beginning God created heaven and earth. We must inquire in what beginning God created heaven and earth -- whether in the beginning of time, or in a beginning such that this was the start of his creation, from which other things began to exist. For they were not always coeternal with God. And let us say: In a beginning coeternal with himself, God made heaven and earth, that is, in the only-begotten Son, who is the Wisdom of the Father, of whom the Apostle says: Christ the power of God and the wisdom of God (1 Cor. 1); and in the psalm it says: You made all things in wisdom (Ps. 103). And again the Apostle says: Because in him all things were created, which are in heaven and on earth, visible and invisible (Col. 1), for the evangelist also says of Christ: He was in this world, and the world was made through him (John 1).
Yet we must ask whether in the beginning God first made heaven and earth, or light. And if light was created first, why did he not say: In the beginning God created light? It must be understood that he created heaven and earth and light simultaneously. For there is no difference except origin alone, just as a person cannot narrate two known parables at the same time, so also the Lord acted. Because he first narrated what had its origin, and afterward what was made from it, although he had made both simultaneously. So that what is prior only in origin of making should be prior in temporal narration. Therefore since it was fitting that holy Scripture should narrate both -- the deeds done and the things narrated, what was made from them -- reason demanded that it narrate first whence something was made, before that which was made from it, for the sake of those slower in understanding, so they could grasp that corporeal things were made from something. For there is no difference between the creation of heaven and earth and light, except only what is between a word and a voice. Why did he not say: In the beginning God made heaven and earth, but said: He created, on account of the formlessness of matter, and again for the spiritual sense.
Likewise, Recapitulation.
In the beginning God created heaven and earth. The Beginning is Christ, as he himself says in the Gospel: I am the Beginning, who also speak to you. In this beginning, therefore, God made heaven, that is, spiritual beings who meditate on and seek heavenly things. In him he also made carnal beings, who have not yet laid aside the earthly. Now the earth was formless and void, that is, because it was not yet distinguished from the sea. And void, that is, because it was not surrounded by shores, nor adorned with vines -- that is, with trees or animals.
Likewise, Recapitulation.
Now the earth was formless and void. The earth of our flesh, that is, was formless and void before it received the form of teaching. And darkness was upon the face of the deep, because there was no light that could be poured over it; if there had been, it certainly would have been above. But how was it? That is, the air was thickened, lacking the light of day.
Likewise, Recapitulation.
And darkness was upon the face of the deep. Because the blindness of sins and the deep obscurity of ignorance covered our hearts. And the Spirit of God was borne over the waters.
Whence the blessed Apostle says: The surpassing knowledge of the love of Christ (Eph. 3). And elsewhere he says: It surpasses all understanding (Phil. 4). Therefore he showed something begun, over which the Spirit of God was said to be borne -- not by place, but by a power surpassing and excelling all things. For there are two reasons why God loves his creature: that it might exist and remain. That it might exist as formed, and remain in the precept of the Creator. Therefore the Spirit of God was borne over the waters, so that there would be something that would remain; for this reason he named first the unformed things, and afterward the Holy Spirit, because every small love is placed beneath the things it loves.
Recapitulation.
And the Spirit of God was borne over the waters. That is, the Spirit of God the Father. And concerning this same Holy Spirit the Apostle says: Whoever does not have the Spirit of Christ, he does not belong to him (Rom. 8). If therefore there is no difference between the person of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit, why does he not say: Whoever does not have the Spirit of the Spirit, or: As the Spirit of the Father says, or the Spirit of the Son? Why does he not say Father of the Spirit, or Son of the Spirit? Because there is no relative mode by which he could express this, as one says Servant of the Lord, or the Lord's servant, or Son of the Father, and Father of the Son. For if he had said Father of the Spirit, he would have shown God to be the Father of the Spirit. Or if he had said Son of the Spirit, he would have demonstrated that the Holy Spirit was the Father of the Son, since he is neither Father nor Son, but proceeded from the divine substance. For this reason it is not said that the Holy Spirit was born from the Father or the Son, because he was not born as the Only-Begotten, nor made as we are, to be called son through the adoption of grace. And how is the Holy Spirit said to be coeternal with the Father and the Son? Because he said that the Holy Spirit proceeds from the Father and the Son, and is coeternal. For he always proceeded, though he was not always given, because a gift can always exist without being bestowed. For the Holy Spirit always proceeded, and it was prepared by the Father to be given. But then there was no one who could receive him, neither angels nor men, except the sole creator of all things.
And if the three are one -- Father, Son, and Holy Spirit (1 John 5) -- why then is the Father not said to be sent by the Son, or by the Holy Spirit? The order of paternal reverence is preserved.
Recapitulation.
But the Spirit of God was already being borne over our darkened and fluid heart, as over waters. In whom, abiding, we would find rest, and by whose breath we would be given life, and by whose wave we would be washed clean.
On the Creation of Light
God also said: Let there be light. But is this light visible or invisible? It is called invisible, because it is the angelic creation, which our eyes cannot perceive. For it was reasonable that on the fourth day he should fashion stars in the sky, which our eyes could perceive. Is this angelic creation temporal or atemporal? It was temporal in the angels, atemporal in God. It was temporal in the sense that we understand the utterance expressed by the eternal God through the coeternal Word in the spiritual creature, which he had already then made, when it was said: In the beginning God created heaven and earth; but this utterance was not only without any sound, but also without any bodily movement, fixed in some way in the mind and reason of his spiritual creature through the coeternal Word of the Father; but it is very great and most difficult to grasp how it is said -- God not commanding temporally, nor the creature hearing it temporally, which by contemplation of truth exceeds all times -- but intellectually expressed to itself, as the Wisdom coeternal with the Father, transmitting as it were intelligible speech to things below, so that temporal motion might occur in temporal things, whether to be formed or governed.
And light was made. That is, the angelic creation, because they then came to know, recognize, and understand their Creator. Why does he not repeat again: And God made light, as he repeats with other creatures which he created -- as regarding the firmament he says: Let there be a firmament, and again: God made the firmament? It is because it was not necessary to say: God made light, since it was an intellectual creature, that is, the angels. But when he says Let there be a firmament, or the rest regarding other creatures, he says this in the angelic knowledge, since it is not surprising that God wished to show his holy angels, who had turned toward him in the first creation of light, what he was going to make next. But when he says: And God made -- that is, in the proper nature of things. It was no longer necessary to repeat this about the angels, because they had then, as we said, been turned toward recognizing their Creator.
For when that eternal and unchangeable Wisdom, which was not made but begotten, transfers itself into the spiritual and rational creature (as into holy souls, so that being illuminated they might shine), there arises in them a certain bright disposition of reason, which can be understood as the making of light, when God said Let there be light. For there was already the spiritual creation, which was signified by the name of heaven, when it was written: In the beginning God created heaven and earth -- not the corporeal heaven, but the incorporeal heaven, in which all the holy angels are understood.
And God saw the light, that it was good. Why did he praise only the light and not the night? Because night had not yet been made, nor day, but only the angelic light, since it was unworthy for God to praise an unformed thing, which had not yet been formed, but he praised that thing which had been formed, that is, the angelic light.
And he divided the light from the darkness. What is the division of light from darkness, but the distinction of the formed from the unformed?
And he called the light day. Why did he call the light day, when the day had not yet been formed? The day was so named with regard to the appearance of the thing made.
And the darkness he called night. Why did he likewise call it night, when it had not yet been formed at all? Because this night, which is most familiar to us, is caused by the absence of the sun above the earth. For when the sun sets, we call it evening; when morning begins, we call it day. But night here is the privation of activity, or night is the name given to the potentiality that exists in created things, from which something can come to be, even if they are not changed. And again according to the spiritual sense.
Recapitulation.
God also said: Let there be light. That is, let the illumination of belief appear. For on the first day he gave the light of faith, because faith is the first thing in conversion. Hence the first commandment in the precepts is: The Lord your God is one God. On account of which faith the Lord himself willed to appear even invisibly in the world. Already then God, according to the grace of his presence, divided the just -- that is, the children of God and of light -- from sinners, as from darkness: calling these day, and those night. For since in the Church the just are called by the name of light, hear the Apostle: You were once darkness, he says, but now you are light in the Lord (Eph. 5).
And there was evening and morning, one day. What is evening, but the completion of each individual work? And morning, that is, the beginning of the following ones.
On the Second Day
God also said: Let there be a firmament. That is, on account of the firmament of stability, or on account of the inviolability of the upper and lower waters. However, we reckon that the nature of the waters there hangs not with vaporous thinness, but with icy solidity, for the purpose of moderating the natures of the stars, lest they burn up with excessive heat the creatures of God placed beneath them. But how any waters can be there, where we should not in the least doubt them? Because the authority of this Scripture is greater than the capacity of all human intelligence.
The nature of the heavens' constitution must be investigated. The Lord here records one firmament made, but the Apostle testifies that he was caught up to the third heaven. What then shall we say, except that the smallest drops massed together make one collection, and because of the weight of their heaviness the air cannot bear to sustain them, but by pouring their weight downward gives way?
This is rain. Therefore the air between the moist vapors, from which clouds are formed above, and the seas spread beneath -- they wish to understand that the sky is between water and water. The second heaven, which we perceive by the spirit, is that from which the sheet full of animals descended to Peter in his ecstasy of mind. The third heaven, which we know with the mind, is so hidden and remote, or entirely purified, or snatched away from the senses of the flesh, that those who are in that heaven are able to see ineffably the very substance of God, the Word through which all things were made, in the love of the Holy Spirit.
And God said: Let there be a firmament in the midst of the waters, and let it divide the waters from the waters. Therefore the Spirit of God was present to guide the writing, as if one asking him how it was done would have answered rightly. God said: Let it be -- that is, what was in the eternal Word of God to be made. Then he begins to narrate each thing made. When we hear, And so it was done, we understand that the creature made did not exceed the boundaries of its kind inscribed in the Word of God; but when we hear: God saw that it was good, we understand that in his benign Spirit it was not as if something unknown pleased him after it was made, but rather that it pleased him in that goodness so that what was made would remain, where it had pleased him that it should be made.
About the shape of heaven, we must say briefly that our authors knew what the truth holds; but the Spirit of God who spoke through them did not wish to reveal things profitable to no one's salvation. Regarding that dispute which usually arises among many about the shape of heaven -- whether it stands in the manner of a stretched-out skin, or of a sphere or a vault -- we do not see what prevents a stretched skin from being curved in the manner of a vault, or extended into the round curve of a sphere.
Likewise, Recapitulation.
Then on the second day God arranged the firmament, that is, the solid foundation of the holy Scriptures; for in the Church the firmament is understood as the divine Scriptures, because heaven will be folded like a book.
And he separated the waters above this firmament. That is, the heavenly peoples of the angels, who have no need to receive this firmament, so as to hear the word of God by reading (Matt. 24). For they always see him and love him. But he placed the firmament of his law over the weakness of the lower peoples, so that the spiritual ones receiving it there might know how to distinguish between carnal and spiritual things, as between the upper and lower waters.
On the Third Day
And God said: Let the waters that are under heaven be gathered into one place, and let the dry land appear. Why then does he not say: Let the dry land be made visible, or let the water be gathered, except because they are closer to that same formlessness than heavenly bodies, so that from these, through the enumeration of days, the lowest things are established? Therefore he did not wish it to be introduced so as to command it to be made in the same way as the higher things, but he commanded the gathering of water to appear, as the lowest of things in itself. Where then were the waters gathered, if they previously occupied the whole earth? There, namely, where they were drawn back so that the earth would be uncovered. And if some part of the dry land appeared before, where it could have been gathered, then the abyss did not occupy everything, but rather we must understand either that the water previously occupied the earth in the manner of a mist, or that, besieging the earth far and wide, it provided a hollow place where the running waters could be received so that dry land might appear.
Likewise, Recapitulation.
After this, on the third day he gathered into one the lower, salt waters. That is, unfaithful people, who are shaken by the storm of desires and the waves of carnal temptations, and in themselves are enclosed as in bitterness. And he separated from them the dry land, namely the spring of peoples thirsting for faith; and he then fixed the boundaries of the proud, and restrained them, lest with the turbulent waves of their iniquities they disturb the dry land -- that is, the soul thirsting for God -- and that it might be permitted to bring forth the fruit of good works according to its kind.
You shall love your neighbor in the aids of carnal necessities, having in itself seed according to likeness, so that from their own weakness they might show compassion to help the needy, producing also a tree of strong timber. And fruitful -- that is, the benefit of rescuing him who suffers injustice from the hand of the powerful, and offering the shelter of protection with the strong force of just judgment.
And God saw that it was good, and said: Let the earth bring forth green grass, and seed-bearing plants, and fruit trees bearing fruit according to their kind, whose seed is in itself upon the earth. And so it was done. And the earth brought forth green grass and seed-bearing plants according to their kind, and trees bearing fruit, each having seed according to its species. And God saw that it was good, and there was evening and morning, the third day.
For what does it mean that he says he commanded all these things to be done together -- that the earth should sprout and the waters be gathered -- except that all these things are fixed in the earth by their roots? Therefore they are said to belong to the same day because, although they spread far and wide through their growth, yet they do not move from their proper places by their bonds. For trees live, yet they live not through a soul, but through verdure, because that sap is poured into the root, then is made into the quality of the tree, and afterward into the spreading of branches, and thence into the greenness of leaves. Hence he says: And fruit trees -- because not all trees bear fruit, for here fruit is meant -- because each tree has its own use, and each herb likewise has its own utility, both in what is manifest and in what is hidden.
On the Fourth Day
And God said: Let there be luminaries in the firmament of heaven, to divide day and night, and let them be for signs and seasons and days and years, and let them shine in the firmament of heaven, and give light to the earth. And so it was done. And God made two great luminaries: the greater luminary to rule the day, and the lesser luminary to rule the night, and the stars, and he placed them in the firmament of heaven, to shine upon the earth, and to rule the day and night, and to divide the light from the darkness. And God saw that it was good, and there was evening and morning, the fourth day.
So that what was there in the Word of God according to his begotten Wisdom -- then it was made in the spiritual creature, that is, in the angels. Then the luminaries themselves were made, to exist in their proper kind, to be for signs and seasons. Who does not see how obscurely it is stated that times began on the fourth day, as if that earlier three-day period could have passed without time, which nevertheless had their own time of creation, because each creature received its name in turn, yet they did not have that three-day period through the distinction of the stars.
The greater luminary, to rule the day, because we know that the day cannot grow bright unless it is aided by the light of the sun, nor the night with the stars appearing, if the moon is absent, as it is illuminated by the moon's presence. Yet they ask whether these chief luminaries of heaven are equally powerful, but appear to our eyes on earth as greater and lesser because of different distances of interval. Because just as heaven was made first, so it needed to be adorned first. On the fourth day the stars were made, by whose shining the lower dwelling-place upon earth is illuminated, lest its inhabitants be led into a dark habitation.
Therefore by succeeding motions, the lowest bodies of inferior things are restored by rest, and by the circling of the sun the alternation of day and night was made on account of the alternation of sleeping and waking. But that night should not remain unsightly, it was adorned with the light of the moon and stars, to console those people whom nocturnal necessity compels, both travelers and workers, and that animals which cannot bear the light of the sun might be equally comforted. But when he says: God said Let it be, we understand the intention of Scripture recurring to the eternity of the Word of God, for he did not find anything to be recreated that he had not found created in the Word of God; therefore God did not say Let this or that be as many times as it is found written in this book. For he begot one Word, in which he said all things before each was made.
And let them be for signs and seasons: not according to heretics or philosophers, who pursue vain signs, but according to the truth of signs. Signs and seasons are said to pertain to the moon and the stars of heaven. It must be investigated whether the sky revolves in a circle, or the stars go around. This must be understood: that the stars go around, but the sky stands firm.
And there was evening and morning, the fourth day. Why did he name evening and morning, but indicated nothing about night? What else then shall we call night, but the absence of light, which seemed to remain between evening and morning? Or is it because the first light signified the angelic creation, who by contemplating their Creator, with the most harmonious love and without the blindness of ignorance, do not cease to praise the Creator forever? Yet at the beginning and end of the work they clearly recognized what is called evening and morning. And again according to the spiritual sense.
Likewise, Recapitulation.
Then on the fourth day the luminaries shone forth, fixed in the firmament of the law -- that is, the evangelists, teachers, and those who adhere to the holy Scriptures through disputation, demonstrating the light of wisdom to all those below. There also came forth at the same time the rest of the host of gleaming stars -- that is, the multitude of diverse virtues in the Church, which, shining in the darkness of this life as in night, divide in this firmament of Scripture the sensible from the intelligible, as between the light of the perfect and the darkness of the little ones, and are for signs of virtues and miracles. They are also for seasons and years, because preachers live in their own times and pass on. But the Word of the Lord remains forever. Why did the earth first bring forth growth, and then the luminaries were made, except because after good works comes the illumination of light for contemplating the beauty of heavenly virtue?
On the Fifth Day
God also said: Let the waters bring forth creeping things of living soul, and flying creatures above the earth under the firmament of heaven. And God created the great sea creatures, and every living and moving soul which the waters had brought forth according to their kind, and every flying creature according to its kind. And God saw that it was good, and blessed them, saying: Increase and multiply, and fill the waters of the sea, and let the birds be multiplied upon the earth. And there was evening and morning, the fifth day.
What then is the reason that he first adorned the waters with creeping things, before the earth with animals? The reason was that it appeared visible first, so that it should first receive its adornment, or because in the beginning heaven received its adornment -- that is, from the angels, when they were created. Likewise also the earth, which he clothed with herbs and trees; for it was reasonable that the waters should receive their adornment from creeping things, and the air from flying creatures.
For what does it mean that we often read about the creation of heaven and earth and sea alike, how they were created, but he indicated nothing about the air? For we must not think that he passed over that element in this Scripture, except because it is the custom of divine Scripture to call heaven and earth the whole world. And therefore we must reckon that air pertains to heaven and earth. And whatever is moist or expanded as vapor, this pertains to earth; for whatever is calm and quiet is said to pertain to heaven; and the air is so similar to water that it is proven to grow dense from its exhalations; it produces the spirit of a storm -- that is, wind and cloud in opposition -- and can sustain the flight of birds; for he did not say: Let the waters bring forth creeping things of living soul, and let the air bring forth flying creatures over the earth; but he said: Let the waters bring forth creeping things of living soul, and flying creatures over the earth, because air comes from water. And whatever is wavy or fluid, this was given to the fishes.
But whatever is moist or suspended as vapor, this is manifestly known to have been given to flying creatures, because just as the fishes of the sea swim with their fins in the waters, so the birds of heaven seem to fly with their wings in the air as in waters. And therefore they are said to fly under the firmament of heaven, not in the firmament of heaven, because there the space is contiguous where birds cannot fly. This air extends from the luminous boundary of heaven down to the fluid waters and bare earth; yet not all of it pertains to the earth, but from where fire, hail, snow, ice, and the spirit of the tempest begin from above. But whatever is higher is said to pertain to heaven on account of its tranquility.
And demons are said to dwell in the air; and therefore the air bears to sustain them, because they use an airy image, and from there they attack the human race, who were cast from the sight of God immediately when they were created. Whence the Savior speaks to his disciples in the Gospel, saying: I saw Satan falling like lightning from heaven (Luke 10). For how is he said to fall if he did not stand? He did not persevere in the fellowship of the holy angels, but as soon as he beheld himself in the brightness of God, he raised himself in pride against his Creator. And he said: I will ascend above the height of the clouds, and I will be like the Most High. And immediately he was cast from the height of heaven into the air with all his satellites who followed him, who did not remain in divine love, unlike those who were confirmed so that even if they wished they could not sin, because they had their own free will in the beginning, just as the human race is now seen to have.
But they fell by their own free will, and received the sentence of God, so that even if they wished, they could not be restored. And again the Lord said: He was a murderer from the beginning, and did not stand in the truth (John 8). But how was he a murderer from the beginning? He first slew Adam in paradise, when he persuaded him to eat the fruit, and from immortality he was made mortal, and afterward he slew the human race until the coming of the Savior. How did he not stand in the truth? Because he did not deserve to receive what had been promised to him -- that he would remain with his Creator forever with the rest of the angels; but he was cast down to earth with his own, where without doubt they suffer punishment, because the fire of the stars rules over them in the air, and a kind of prison was assigned to him according to his kind, until the time of the day of judgment comes, and they will be sent into eternal fire, where there is weeping and gnashing of teeth (Luke 13).
The air is indeed often stirred up and strongly frozen, and makes snow; sometimes it is more tightly compressed, and a storm results; sometimes lightning and thunder. And by pouring down it makes room, because the air cannot sustain these things; yet all these things happen through divine providence and the hidden judgment of God. But others relate these four elements of the world to the five senses of the body: fire to the eyes, air to hearing, moisture to smell and taste, and say that touch pertains to earth. They say too that nothing can be seen without fire, nor touched without earth, and through this all elements are present in human beings; but each of them has received its name from that which predominates in it. And therefore when the body grows excessively cold through the loss of heat, it dulls the sense, because the motion which is in the body from heat grows cold, as fire affects air, and air affects moisture, and moisture affects earth, with the subtler things penetrating the denser. And the more subtle anything is in corporeal nature, the closer it is to spiritual nature, although the kinds are far apart, since one is body and the other is not. And therefore since perceiving belongs not to the body but to the soul through the body, although it may be acutely argued that according to the diversity of corporeal elements the senses are distributed throughout the body, yet the soul, which possesses the power of sensation, since it is not corporeal, through a subtler body drives the vigor of sensation. It thus begins its motion in all the senses toward the subtlety of fire, but it does not apply to the same thing in all.
In sight, the suppressed heat reaches up to its light; in hearing, the heat of fire penetrates to its more liquid air; in smell, the pure air passes through and reaches the moist exhalation, whence this denser breeze subsists; in taste it passes through even this, and reaches to the more substantial moisture, and when this too has been penetrated and passed through, when it reaches the earthly heaviness, it produces the last sense, that of touch.
But we must inquire when the smallest fishes, or animals, or worms, which Scripture does not mention, were created, since we must investigate the reasoning -- from the greatest elephant to the smallest worm -- how they were created. Therefore by reason we must understand whence these smallest creatures come, since Scripture here indicated nothing; for it must be understood that when God separated the waters from the waters, then the smallest animals, which are produced from waters, had their nature established in those very waters. And those worms which come from the bodies of the dead -- whence do they come? It must be understood that they have in the body the force of their generation.
Did the water cover the earth, or the earth the water? That is, the water covered the earth; if some part of the earth slipped over the water, the water immediately burst forth and the earth returned to its own place. But how does he say in another place: because he founded it upon the seas, and prepared it upon the rivers (Ps. 23)? If here the water covered the earth, either he says this about the higher ground, where mountains seem to be; or this was said about islands, where the earth is higher than the water. But this must rather be understood in the spiritual sense, because the simple ones in the Church are founded upon the prudent; and so they are called living waters, because they sustain those whom they see to be weaker. For the distance between the moon and the stars of heaven is the same as between holy simplicity and holy plainness.
But whence are fishes brought forth -- from water, or from themselves? This must be understood: that they are brought forth from the waters, since he says: Let the waters bring forth creeping things of living soul. And he blessed them, saying: Increase and multiply. Why did these animals deserve to receive a blessing like man? So that we might understand that this blessing remains in the other animals.
Likewise, Recapitulation.
And again during these things, on the fifth day there were made in the waters creeping things of living souls -- that is, people renewed to life through the sacrament of baptism; and flying creatures were made -- that is, holy souls flying toward the heights.
On the Sixth Day
God also said: Let the earth bring forth living creatures according to their kind -- cattle and creeping things and beasts of the earth according to their species, and cattle, and every creeping thing of the earth according to its kind of living soul.
These are the simple animals given for the use of the human race; creeping things -- those that crawl upon the earth -- are serpents and others. And the beasts of the earth are bears, lions, leopards, and others; they are called beasts because they fight with teeth or claws. For we must investigate whether these venomous animals had venom in the beginning when they were created, as they do now. It must be understood that as they were then created, so they remain. Yet in the beginning they did not have the power to harm, as we can prove from the serpents -- when the viper attacked Paul's hand and did not harm him, because it had the power to attack but not the power to harm. Likewise with the beasts, when Daniel was thrown into the lions' den. They did not harm him but licked his feet.
Or these venomous animals were created for the purpose of terrifying man, because God foresaw him sinning, so that he might understand the punishments of hell, since elsewhere it says: Their worms shall not die, and their fire shall not be quenched (Isa. 66). Therefore beasts harm each other among themselves, since from original sin they have no basis for vengeance to be attributed to them, as the blessed Augustine says that beasts within their own kind are fellow citizens. And when they see a beast from the citizenry of others, they immediately fight among themselves, because animals live and feel; but trees, as we said, live and do not feel. Man however lives, feels, and understands, because he has the discernment to distinguish between good and evil.
On the Creation of Human Beings
And God saw that it was good, and said: Let us make man in our image and likeness. To intimate the plurality of persons, he speaks of Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. He immediately adds, saying: And God created man -- to show the unity of majesty -- in his image, that is, so that he might remain immortal. And in likeness, that is, so that he might have the understanding of mind, not as animals have, which do not know how to discern good and evil.
But he did not clothe him with bodily features, but with the understanding of mind, so that he might understand how to praise his Creator forever without mortality. But when he was in honor, he did not understand; he was compared to senseless beasts and became like them (Ps. 48). For when he refused to observe the precepts of his Creator, what had been commanded him, he was made mortal like a beast in body, not in soul, because the soul remained immortal.
Why does he not repeat: And he made man, as with the other creatures he created? This was not necessary, because he was an intellectual creature like the angels, and so was man. For his coming into being is to understand the Word of God the Father, through whom all things were made (John 1). Why does he not say According to its kind, when the propagation of mankind is most evident? This was not needed, since Adam was created such that he would remain immortal, and times would pass, and that immortality would remain; or because from him the human race was to proceed, not from diverse creatures, as there are diverse kinds of animals, fishes, or birds.
For it was not so with man, that there should be diverse kinds of human beings upon the earth; but from one man the human race proceeded, because man excels the animals, because his mind is raised to heaven, and he understands to seek his Creator in heaven, who created him.
And let him have dominion over the fish of the sea, and the birds of heaven, and the beasts and all creation. That is, so that he might understand himself to be made in the image of God, since he excels so many animals by the understanding of mind.
And God created man in his own image, in the image of God he created him, male and female he created them. For what does it mean that he says he created the female together with the male, when she had not yet been formed, and was to proceed from Adam? Because just as in the seed of a tree many things are hidden -- for first it is fixed in the root, then in the quality of the tree, and afterward in the spreading of branches, and thence in the greenness of leaves, and so forth -- so also the woman lay hidden in Adam's body, because she was fashioned from Adam's rib.
And he blessed them, saying: Increase and multiply and fill the earth, and subdue it, and have dominion over the fish of the sea and the birds of heaven and all living things that move upon the earth. Why did man deserve to receive this blessing? So that he would not seem blameworthy in begetting children, lest some should say it was a sin to beget children. And so the Lord blessed man in the begetting of children, to declare that there was no sin in it, if they were lawfully married. If therefore Adam was created such that he would remain immortal, what does it mean: Increase and multiply? This must be understood as meaning they ought not to have begotten children according to the lust of the flesh, nor through any evil will, nor as women now bear children in pain, but just as one commands one's limbs to do something -- the hand in working, the foot in walking -- so they ought to have begotten offspring in paradise.
But if they ought to have begotten offspring in that way, why did they not come together in paradise before they were cast out, to beget children? Because as soon as the woman was created, she transgressed, and was cast down from the height of immortality into the lowest depths. How then ought their bodies to have changed, if they had remained immortal? It must be understood that if they had not sinned, they could not have died at all, but their bodies, without mortality, after that number had been fulfilled -- according to the number of the angels -- ought to have been changed for the better.
And God said: Behold, I have given you every herb bearing seed, and fruit trees, that you may have them for food. Was Adam immortal or mortal? And if mortal, how immortal? And if animal, how spiritual? And if spiritual, what then is it that he took food in common with the other animals? He was mortal and immortal -- mortal because he could die; immortal because he could not die. For if he had not sinned, he could not have died at all; but after he sinned, he was made mortal. He was indeed mortal and immortal. He was mortal by his condition, immortal by the benefit of God, which was provided to him from the tree of life; from which tree, when he had sinned, he was cast out, so that he could die.
If this voice was striking the air, how is this speech to be understood? His speech before all sound of air, and before all flesh, and the voice of a cloud, did not resound as though in human ears, but in that supreme Wisdom through which all things were made.
What then is it that we, reborn through Christ, do not receive the same immortality that Adam had before sin? For we did not receive what we lost in Adam -- that is, the animal body -- but we receive something so much better, as the spiritual is superior to the corporeal. Whence the Apostle says: An animal body is sown, a spiritual body rises (1 Cor. 15). For we did not receive the immortality of the spiritual body, but we received justice, from which Adam fell through sin, of which the blessed Apostle says: Be renewed in the spirit of your mind, and so forth (Eph. 4).
How then ought we to be renewed? That is, we shall therefore be renewed from the old state of sin, not into the original animal body in which Adam was, but into something better -- that is, into a spiritual body, when we are made equal to the angels of God in the heavenly dwelling. We shall also be renewed in the spirit of our mind according to the image of him who created us, which Adam lost by sinning. And we shall also be renewed in the flesh, when this corruptible thing puts on incorruption, and this mortal puts on immortality, so that there may be a spiritual body -- into which Adam had not yet been changed, but was to be changed -- because in body we bear the image of the earthly man, but in mind the image of the heavenly man. Whence again the Apostle says: If there is an animal body, there is also a spiritual one, as it is written: The first man Adam was made into a living soul, the last Adam into a life-giving soul; but the spiritual is not first, but the animal, and afterward the spiritual. The first man was earthly, from the earth; the second man was heavenly, from heaven. As was the earthly, so also are the earthly (1 Cor. 15). Let us also put on the image of him who is from heaven. We have put on the image of the earthly man from the very beginning of the human race. Therefore we now bear the image of the heavenly man from faith, which we believe will dwell in the resurrection.
And God saw all things that he had made, and they were very good. And there was evening and morning, the sixth day. If God created all things very good, whence then did evil increase? Evil would not have existed if we had not done it. For there would be nothing beyond evil nature, but the loss of good received this name. Why did he not bless the trees and herbs, but man and animals? He blessed these on account of propagating offspring, or on account of the masculine and feminine sex, or because trees have no sense of feeling or understanding; animals indeed live and feel but do not understand. Man, however, feels and understands. Therefore he did not say to the trees: Increase and multiply.
On the Seventh Day
Therefore the heavens and the earth were completed, and all their adornment. And God completed on the seventh day his work which he had made. And he blessed the seventh day, and sanctified it, because in it he had ceased from all his work, which God created to make. That is, he completed the creation of heaven and earth. Heaven with all its ornament, and the earth with all its work.
And he completed his work on the seventh day. On the sixth day, when he said: It is finished, and bowing his head he gave up the spirit (John 19). And on the seventh day he rested in the tomb, and then all things were fulfilled that had been written about him. The Jews observed this day in shadow, as had been commanded to them by God through Moses; but for us this day signified rest, because if we complete our works in good works, we rest with Christ forever. For sabbath is interpreted as rest, because Christ is our rest, in whom we rest, because he himself through his death transferred us from death to life.
And he blessed the seventh day and sanctified it. Why did he bless the seventh day, on which he created nothing? Lest he should seem to appear as one in need, as a man is weary after labor and says: I thank my God, because I have completed my work. For the Lord did not act in this way, but blessed the day on which he created nothing, to demonstrate that there was no labor for our God in creating all things, because he merely said Let it be, and they were made. Therefore he rested on the seventh day, so that he might make us rest in him. In what did he bless the seventh day? In nothing, except from himself, because he is blessed by no one except himself; sanctified by no one except himself. For even if he had not made all things, he would not have been diminished thereby, because with God nothing changeable is perceived -- neither in eternity, nor in truth, nor in will -- but all things remain fixed and unchangeable with him.
For what is this day? It is the first, it is the second, it is the last, because it is the repetition of the seventh day. And do these three days which preceded -- before he placed stars in the sky -- belong to days, or not? This must be understood: they do belong to days, because before that there was no light which our eyes could perceive, because the authority of this Scripture is greater than the capacity of all human intelligence. For just as Christ is light in one way and a stone in another -- light properly, a stone figuratively -- so also the angelic light was one thing, and the light of the stars another.
Why did he not bless the first day, on which he created the angelic light, or that day on which he perfected all things? For he did not sanctify the day on which he began to do this, nor the one on which he completed it, lest his action should seem to have been a joy regarding things either being made or already made, but rather the day on which he rested in himself from them. Yet he himself never lacked that rest, but showed it to us through the seventh day, signifying that his rest is not received except after the completion of his work. And therefore it is recognized that evening did not follow on this day, because our rest after the completion of our work will be in joy without end, because in it he had ceased from all his work -- that is, from fashioning new and unknown things of the world -- which God created to make, because he governs until the end of the world, whence he himself said in the Gospel: My Father works until now, and I work (John 5). Why did he not place morning on the first day, nor evening on the last? He did not place morning, because it has no beginning; and evening, because it has no end, nor is it enclosed by any boundary.
And again according to the spiritual sense.
Recapitulation of the Six Days
After this, on the sixth day the earth brings forth the living soul, when our flesh, abstaining from dead works, bears the living shoots of virtues: according to its own kind, that is, by imitating the life of the saints, as the Apostle says: Be imitators of me (1 Cor. 4). For we live according to our kind when in good works we imitate holy men as our neighbors. Then the earth brought forth beasts -- men powerful in affairs, or fierce in pride; likewise cattle -- faithful people living in simplicity; and also serpents -- harmless holy men, discerning good from evil with the liveliness of wisdom, and, as far as is right, crawling to scrutinize earthly things through which they understand eternal things -- not those venomous ones who place themselves in the earthly desires of this world.
After these things, God made man in his own image -- that is, the perfect man, who works justice not by imitating any of the holy men, but by contemplatively gazing upon the truth itself, so that he might understand and follow it, in whose image of truth he was made. He also received power over the fish of the sea, the birds of heaven, cattle, wild beasts, and creeping things, because whoever is made spiritual and likewise made like God, according to the Apostle, judges all things, but is himself judged by no one (1 Cor. 15).
What follows: Male and female he made them -- this shows the spiritual and obedient in the Church. For just as the woman is subject to the man, so the one who is less perfect is obedient to the spiritual and perfect man, as the Apostle says: We ask you, brothers, to acknowledge those who labor among you and are over you in the Lord (1 Thess. 5).
For it is said to them: Increase and multiply -- whether in tongues or in spiritual degrees of understanding -- so that they may rule by the understanding of reason over all carnal disturbances, as over insensible creatures. Moreover, every seed-bearing herb and every fruitful tree given to men for food are the faithful, sharing with the saints from their offerings. Whence the Apostle says: For if the Gentiles have been made partakers in spiritual things, they ought also to minister to them in carnal things (Rom. 15). These are the fruitful trees.
In these steps, therefore, as in the days -- evening is the completion of each individual work, and morning the beginning of the following, the seventh -- after these works of the six days, as it were, very good, man hopes for rest of mind, established in the spiritual paradise, which signifies the blessed life, where there is the fountain of wisdom divided into four parts of virtues, where he may eat the grace of the tree of life, where he may pluck useful moral lessons, as the fruits of trees. For paradise is the life of the blessed; the four rivers are the four virtues; its trees are all useful disciplines; the fruit of the trees, the morals of the pious; the tree of life is wisdom itself, the mother of all good things, of which it is written, Solomon saying: It is a tree of life to those who lay hold of it, and blessed is he who holds it fast (Prov. 3). The tree of the knowledge of good and evil is the transgression of the commandment.
Thus far the exposition of the works of the six days has been set forth -- how they are spiritually understood in the Church; next must be added what they signify as a figure of the ages.
In six days God completed all his works, and on the seventh he rested.
In six ages the human race in this world, through successions of times, displays the works of God: the first of which is from Adam to Noah; the second, from Noah to Abraham; the third, from Abraham to David; the fourth, from David to the exile to Babylon; the fifth, from the exile to Babylon to the humble coming of our Lord Jesus Christ; the sixth, which is now being lived, until the world ends, until the Most High comes for judgment. The seventh is understood in the rest of the saints, which has no evening, because no boundary now closes it.
Let us therefore pass briefly through these ages of the world, and, unfolding the order of times, mystically distinguish their differences. In the first age there was made, as it were, light -- man in paradise; in which age God divides the sons of God by the name of light from the sons of men, as from darkness; and the evening of this day becomes the flood. The second age was made like a firmament between water and water: namely, that ark which floated between the rain and the seas. The evening of this age becomes the confusion of languages. The third age was made when he separated his people from the nations through Abraham, distinguishing him as dry land from the waters, so that he might bring forth the growth of herbs and trees -- that is, spiritual saints and the fruit of the holy Scriptures.
The evening of this age was the sin and wickedness of the worst king, Saul. Thence the fourth age began from David, when God established luminaries in the firmament of heaven -- that is, the splendor of the kingdom like the excellence of the sun, and in the appearance of the moon a light obeying it like the synagogue, and its princes as stars: the evening of this age occurs in the sins of the kings, by which that nation deserved to be taken captive to Babylon.
Furthermore, in the fifth age -- that is, in the exile to Babylon -- there were made, as it were, animals in the waters and birds of heaven, because then the Jews began to live among the nations as in the sea. Nor did they have a stable place, like flying birds. The evening, as it were, of this day is the multiplication of sins among the Jewish people, when they were so blinded that they could not even recognize their Lord.
Now the sixth age occurs in the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ. For just as on that sixth day the first man Adam was formed from the mud of the earth in the image of God, so in this sixth age of the world the second Adam -- that is, Christ -- was born of the Virgin Mary. He in a living soul, this one in a life-giving spirit; and just as on that day a living soul was made, so also in this age those desiring eternal life; and just as on that sixth day the earth brought forth the kinds of serpents and wild beasts, so also in this sixth age of the world the nations desiring eternal life produced the Church.
Which meaning the vessel shown to Peter also manifested; and just as on that day male and female are created, so in this sixth age of the world Christ and the Church are manifested. And just as man is set over the cattle, serpents, and birds of heaven on that day, so Christ in this age is set over nations, peoples, and races, to be ruled by him -- whether given over to carnal desire like cattle, or darkened by earthly curiosity like serpents, or puffed up with pride like birds.
And just as on that day man is fed, along with the animals that are with him, by seed-bearing herbs and fruit-bearing trees -- he who is a good minister of Jesus Christ, together with the people, is spiritually fed by the elements of the holy Scriptures and the divine law: for conceiving the fruitfulness of reasoning and discourse, as by seed-bearing herbs; partly for the benefit of the morals of human interaction, as by fruit-bearing trees; partly for the vigor of faith, hope, and charity unto eternal life, as by green herbs which dry up in no heat of tribulations -- but by spiritual foods, being so nourished by these sustaining things that he understands many things. The carnal person, however -- that is, the little one in Christ, like a sheep of God -- believes many things that he cannot yet understand; yet all have the same foods.
May the evening, as it were, of this age not find us, for it is the one of which the Lord says: Do you think, when the Son of Man comes, he will find faith on the earth (Luke 18)? After this evening, morning will come, when the Lord himself will come in glory. Then those to whom it was said: Be perfect, as your Father who is in heaven (Matt. 5) -- they will rest with Christ from all their works. For such people do works that are very good. For after such works, rest is to be hoped for on the seventh day, which has no evening.
These are the generations of heaven and earth, when they were created in the day that the Lord God made heaven and earth, and every shrub of the field before it grew upon the earth, and every herb of the region before it sprouted. We must investigate whether all these things were made in one day, or through six days, as Scripture here records; and if they were made through six days, how then does holy Scripture say: He who lives forever created all things at once (Eccl. 18)? Because he created all things simultaneously according to the substance of things. For according to the appearance of form he did not create all things simultaneously.
For just as a mother nursing an infant in her lap waits for it to grow strong, so also the Lord waited for the slowness of human understanding. For in the beginning all things were created with him, but they did not immediately come into appearance, when he said: In the beginning God created heaven and earth (Gen. 1). Then all things, as we said, were made with him -- whatever arose from heaven and earth -- although he wished to divide them according to their appearance through six days. As he says he placed the stars in heaven on the fourth day, yet on the first day they were made with him in heaven, and on the fourth day they came into appearance; for just as many things are hidden in a seed -- the root, the bark, the leaves, the fruit, and many other things that come from the tree itself -- so with God all these things were hidden before, which afterward came into appearance.
Therefore all things were thus simultaneous, as the Lord said: My Father works until now, and I work (John 5). Because although he then created all things simultaneously, yet he governs daily -- in watering, in planting, in building, and in other things. For just as a man who cultivates a field, if he abandons it, it remains uncultivated, so also the world created by God cannot exist without God's governance, according to the apostle Paul: Neither the one who plants nor the one who waters is anything, but God who gives the increase (1 Cor. 3).
But there are also others who wish to understand these seven days as the seven gifts of the grace of the Holy Spirit -- that is, the spirit of wisdom and understanding, the spirit of counsel and fortitude, the spirit of knowledge and piety, the spirit of the fear of the Lord (Isa. 11). They say that through the spirit of wisdom God made heaven and earth, and through the spirit of understanding he made the firmament, and separated the waters from the waters; through the spirit of counsel he separated the waters from the dry land, and made the earth sprout; through the spirit of fortitude he placed luminaries in the firmament of heaven, to divide between day and night; through the spirit of knowledge he adorned the waters with creeping things and the air with flying creatures; through the spirit of piety he clothed the earth with animals and created man, and the rest that follows; through the spirit of the fear of the Lord, on the seventh day, he sanctified his work.
So we too ought to imitate these seven gifts of the grace of the Holy Spirit in ourselves: through the spirit of wisdom, to make heaven and earth -- that is, to meditate on heavenly things and abandon earthly things, or to separate light from darkness -- that is, our perfect works from the darkness of the wicked; through the spirit of understanding, we ought to make a firmament between the upper and lower waters -- that is, holy discipline between vices and virtues, so that we do not incline to vices; through the spirit of counsel, we ought to separate the waters from the dry land -- that is, reprobate people from the soul that knows the words of God; through the spirit of fortitude, we ought to place luminaries in the firmament of heaven -- that is, the love of God and neighbor, since St. John said: Whoever hates his brother is a murderer (1 John 3); through the spirit of knowledge, we ought to adorn the waters with creeping things, and send the voice from the secret places of our heart to heaven, just as fishes leap upward with their fins and the birds of heaven fly in the air -- so we too ought always to raise our sense toward higher things; through the spirit of piety, we ought to make cattle, serpents, and the rest -- that is, to have simplicity and prudence for discerning good and evil, and to produce the fruit of good works, so that we may imitate the examples of the saints, or the truth itself, in whose image we were made; through the spirit of the fear of the Lord, we ought to rest in the rest of eternal life, because it is written: The beginning of wisdom is the fear of the Lord (Ps. 110).
Why did he not place morning on the first day, or evening on the seventh day? He did not place morning because he foresaw man sinning in paradise, and the night of ignorance followed him; and on the seventh he did not place evening because he foreknew that man would have been restored to pardon through the coming of the Savior. And in the beginning, did night follow day, or day night? That is, night followed day. And now after the coming of the Savior, day follows night, which designated man's fall -- when he transgressed, night followed him, that is, sin. But after the coming of the Savior, day follows night, because he restored us to pardon, and through his death transferred us from death to life, which we had lost through the fault of our first parent Adam. Night followed him, because holy people penetrated the prisons of hell until the coming of the Lord; and day now follows us, because after his resurrection all the saints departing from the body go to Christ, because what we lost in Adam, we received back through Jesus Christ.
Likewise, recapitulation.
These are the generations of heaven and earth, when they were created in the day that the Lord God made heaven and earth; and whereas above seven days were counted, now one day is spoken of, in which God made heaven and earth, and every shrub of the field, and every herb of the region. By the name of this day, according to the prophet, all the time of this life is signified, in which heaven and earth was made -- that is, in which visible creatures are arranged, governed, and exist.
But what does it mean that now, having named heaven and earth, he added the shrub of the field and the herb of the region, and passed over the rest that is in heaven and earth, or even in the sea, unless because through the shrub of the field he shows the invisible creature to be understood, such as the soul? For it is called a shrub on account of the vigor of life; and herb on account of that same life, never withering. Then what he added -- Before it was upon the earth -- is understood as before the soul sinned. For soiled by earthly desires, as if born upon the earth or being upon the earth, it is rightly spoken of.
For the Lord God had not rained upon the earth, and there was no man to work the earth: therefore the earth had not sprouted, because the Lord had not rained upon the earth; and there was no man to work the earth, because especially on account of rain and the man who worked it, the earth sprouts and produces fruit. Whence he also added: For the Lord God had not yet rained upon the earth -- as if it were openly said: Before the soul sinned, the Lord had not yet granted the rain of teaching through the clouds of the Scriptures to irrigate the soul. Not yet for the sake of man, who is earth, had our Lord assumed the mist of our flesh, through which he poured in the most abundant rain of the holy Gospel. But what he adds: And there was no man to work the earth -- because no man worked in the Virgin, from whom Christ was born. For he is the stone cut from the mountain without hands -- that is, without intercourse and human seed, cut from the virgin womb as from the mountain of human nature and the substance of flesh (Dan. 2).
On the Rising of the Spring and the Watering of the Earth
But a spring also rose from the earth, watering the whole surface of the earth. Who is this spring that watered the whole face of the earth? Not like the Nile, which waters only Egypt, but this spring is said to water the whole world. Either it was called one spring before paradise was planted, and, having received the aid of moisture, it watered the whole surface of the earth. Or after paradise was planted, and the overflow of waters broke forth, that spring was divided through its streams to water the whole face of the earth. Just as we now see waters flowing through river channels and the courses of streams, and flooding the surrounding areas by their excess, so then as well many proceeded as from one spring. Or it was called one spring, hidden in a certain hollow of the earth, and from there all springs great and small proceed.
And what does it mean that this spring is not manifestly found, which seems to water the whole face of the earth? Perhaps on account of the sin of our first parent Adam, this spring was withdrawn, to take away fertility from the earth, and to impose greater labor on the human race. And how can it be that one spring watered the whole earth? And if it watered the earth, how are mountains watered, since some of them have great height? This must be known: that in the newness of the lands it is credible that if not all, at least many places were full of water. Or just as the Nile waters the whole land of Egypt, so that river could then have watered the whole face of the earth, by the command and power of God. Or he used the singular number for the plural, since he does not say one spring, but only: And a spring rose, and: Watering the whole face of the earth -- just as it says: The frog and the locust ascended upon the land of Egypt (Exod. 8), and many frogs and locusts are understood; so perhaps then one spring was named, but many springs are to be understood.
Likewise, recapitulation.
And a spring rose from the earth, watering the whole surface of the earth. The earth is most rightly understood as the Virgin Mary, mother of the Lord, of whom it is written: Let the earth open and bring forth the Savior (Isa. 45). Which earth the Holy Spirit watered, who is signified by the name of spring and water in the Gospel.
Therefore God formed man from the mud of the earth. That is, Adam from the dust of the earth. Some wish to say that man was therefore created in the image of God because the Lord himself created him with his own hands; but this must not at all be accepted -- that the Lord created any corporeal thing corporeally, as he says: In the beginning you, Lord, founded the earth, and the heavens are the works of your hands (Ps. 101). Because God did not fabricate these things corporeally by the works of his hands, but by his command and power he ordered all things to be made as he willed.
Why did he make him from the mud of the earth, and why not from the mud of paradise? The reason was that he would create man from the earth, since he was to return to the earth, as it is written: You are dust, and to dust you shall return (Gen. 3). Hence it must be asked whether Adam was made immediately at full age, or at a child's age. It must be reckoned that he was formed immediately at full age on account of the miracle, just as he made wine from water, and other things which would be long to recount.
Recapitulation.
Therefore the Lord God formed man from the mud of the earth. Christ was likewise made, according to what the Apostle says: From the seed of David according to the flesh (Rom. 1), as from the mud of the earth and the breathing of man, and he breathed into his face the breath of life. What is the breath of life? That is, to make a breath -- that is, to make a soul. As the Lord says through the prophet Isaiah: The spirit proceeds from me, and every breath I have made (Isa. 57). And likewise: He breathed into his face, and so forth -- clearly the infusion of the Holy Spirit, which formed the man Christ. And man was made into a living soul -- that is, he began to feel in the body -- that is, of a living being.
At this point, a recapitulation.
And he narrates all things in order -- how they were created, which he had passed over above. But others say that the soul proceeded from the Divinity, since it says: And he breathed into his face the breath of life. But this must not at all be accepted -- that the soul proceeds from the divinity; those who say this speak against the catholic faith, because divinity is never changed, since they make it better by doing good.
For those who say this reason thus: just as the Lord in the Gospel, when he came to his disciples and breathed on them and said: Receive the Holy Spirit -- just as the Holy Spirit was then given from the Divinity to the holy apostles, so also the soul was given from the Divinity. But this must not at all be accepted, because breathing is an act of the body. For the holy apostles received the Holy Spirit from the Divinity, but the soul is not from the Divinity; rather it was born from God, made from nothing.
We must investigate when the soul was created -- if on the sixth day, when he formed man from the mud of the earth, it was created. But is this not then contrary to divine Scripture, which says: He who lives forever created all things at once (Eccl. 18)? If the soul was then created, where then was it hidden until man received it? Perhaps it was hidden among God's creatures until it entered man; and what does it mean that the soul, which was created innocent, entered a body that God foreknew would sin? But far be it that this should be accepted -- that the soul was therefore created and kept in reserve to enter a body that God foresaw would sin, and if it were so, God would be, as it were, the author of sin. But far be this, for it is not so; rather it must be understood and accepted that the soul itself willingly entered the body to govern the body, because through the soul the body feels, and if the soul is absent, the body is dead.
And what does it mean that he did not breathe the spirit of life into another member -- into the crown of the head, the forehead, or the chest -- but only into the face? Because fire, whose principal seat is in the liver, ascends to the brain, as to the heaven of our body, and from there three parts are produced. The anterior part, through which all sensation ascends from the brain to the forehead, from the forehead to the face, and from the face it spreads through minute channels, as through organs, to the four senses of the body -- that is, to sight, hearing, smell, and taste. The posterior part, through which all motion operates, takes its path from the same anterior part upward to the crown of the head; from the crown to the spinal marrow, and thence distributes all motion to the limbs. Rightly the anterior part is placed before the posterior, because deliberation precedes motion. The third part is that in which memory is fixed, because whatever you wish to do, or have previously done, resides in memory. But where there is no memory, there is no spontaneous motion.
And from there hair and nails are generated from spontaneous motion -- that is, from the anterior part -- through the senses all is understood, because man has a sense that animals do not have, and thence spontaneous motion is produced, by which the mind is governed. This is understood through air and light, because air enters the lungs as into organs, then into the veins, and reaches to the heart, which we call the arteries. And how does the soul exist, or does the body feel, or not? It must be understood that it is governed through the senses of the body: through the eyes it sees, through the ears it hears, through taste and smell it perceives. What is sweet or bitter, and whether the soul operates through the five senses of the body? It must be understood that there is no way we can prove this, because when a person's soul wishes to consider something secret, it closes its eyes and ears, and considers what it has done, or what it will do, or about its Creator who created it.
What then is the soul? And if there is some thing from which souls are made, what is it? What is its name? What is its appearance, what use does it hold among created things? Does it live or not? If it lives, what does it contribute to the workings of the universe? Does it lead a blessed life, or a wretched one? What then is the soul? It is not heaven, nor earth, nor air, nor fire, not water, not God, not the stars, not sight, not hearing, not smell, not taste, nor any other things -- which would be long to recount -- that exist in heaven or on earth: the soul is none of these. Whence then is the soul? If it was given by God, and made from nothing -- because man, who was made from earth, will return to the earth. Likewise snow or a storm, because it is made from water, and is air, takes from the earth, returns to water and to the earth; from water air is drawn. But the soul has no element to which it returns, except to its Creator who created it, after it has departed from the body, if it has acted rightly.
And those blind people who do not have sight, how do they see dreams just as those who have sight? This must be understood: because they are enclosed in the brain and cannot burst forth outward, then they see those very images within themselves; for them the mind never sleeps. We must investigate whence the soul comes when a person is born. Some say that just as flesh is born from flesh, so the soul is born from a soul. But Scripture does not narrate in any place whence the soul comes into a person when he is born; nor about the soul of the woman itself, how it was born to her, as it narrates about the flesh, how it was made. And others say that a soul is given by God to each person when he is born. As it was said in Isaiah: Every breath I have made (Isa. 57). That is, every soul; and in the psalm it is likewise written: He who formed their hearts one by one (Ps. 32).
But others say that the soul is given from the parents, just as flesh from flesh. They seem to contradict the Scriptures, since he said: He who lives forever created all things at once (Eccl. 18), as if he were seen to be always creating new souls. And others say that the soul of all was created when he made all things simultaneously, and they are hidden in a certain place until a person is born, and then a soul is given to him by God. But this is not something for us to determine in our considerations -- what is or is not permitted regarding how the soul is given to man, since Scripture does not narrate this in any place. We cannot discern what the Truth was silent about, and it says nothing about the soul of the woman itself, how it was made, but only narrates how the soul was given to Adam.
Therefore our Savior Jesus Christ -- whence did he have his soul? Not from Adam, but from where Adam received his -- that is, from God -- because although he descended from the lineage of sin, yet he did not conceive from the lineage of sin, because it was not itself the flesh of sin, but the likeness of the flesh of sin. For he did not receive from it the guilt of dying. And when the soul departs from this body, is it corporeal or incorporeal? How then is it described, if it is incorporeal -- that is, it is incorporeal together with bodies -- and where is it carried, to a corporeal or incorporeal place? To an incorporeal place, apart from bodies.
The question is therefore investigated: can the soul without a body dwell among the angels in perpetual blessedness without diminishment? Why then is it necessary for the body to rise again, so that it might then put on as immortal what it now laid down as mortal, except because there is indeed a governance of the body by which the mind is held back, so that it does not proceed to that highest place until the body rises again, so that what is now a burden to it may then be in glory?
And why is it necessary that infants who have Christian parents -- a father and mother -- be born again through the water of baptism, except because each one is born in original sin, and unless one is born again through the water of baptism, one cannot enter the kingdom of God, as the Savior showed in the Gospel, saying: Unless one is born again of water and the Holy Spirit, one cannot see the kingdom of God (John 3)?
And again according to the spiritual sense. And man was made into a living soul -- that is, so that he who was perfect God would be believed to be also perfect man.
On the Planting of Paradise
Now the Lord God had planted a paradise of delight from the beginning, in which he placed the man whom he had formed. Paradise is called a place of delights, or one abounding in the riches of graces. St. Augustine said this: that this paradise was planted in a certain place, where earthly man could dwell. For paradise is understood spiritually as the place where the souls of the saints now go when departing from the body. This paradise was planted as a figure of that one, according to the truth of the events.
And the Lord God brought forth from the soil every tree beautiful to see and pleasant to eat, and also the tree of life in the middle of paradise. He did not bring forth other trees than those which he said above were created on the third day, and now he narrates how he brought them forth in appearance in paradise; and this tree of life -- whoever tasted of it would remain immortal. Yet then in paradise it seemed to become like earthly food, not as other food does, which tends to produce disgust, but from which one would be firmly established in complete health. Yet what was contained in this tree? For in the other trees there was nourishment, but in this one a sacrament was contained. Although it was then done historically, as was said about paradise, which prefigured the Church; or as was done with Hagar and Sarah, and many other things which were done historically yet prefigured something else -- so also this tree prefigured the wood of the cross.
And again, Recapitulation.
Now the Lord God had planted a paradise of delight from the beginning, etc. Paradise is the Church. For thus it is read about her in the Song of Songs: A garden enclosed is my sister (Song 4). Paradise is planted from the beginning, because the Catholic Church is known to have been founded by Christ, who is the beginning of all things. The river flowing out of paradise bears the image of Christ flowing from the paternal source, who waters his Church with the word of preaching and the gift of baptism. Of whom it is well said through the prophet: The Lord our God is a glorious river, leaping into the thirsty land. Moreover, the four rivers of paradise are the four Gospels, sent for preaching among all nations. The fruitful trees are all the saints; their fruits are their works; the tree of life is the Holy of Holies -- indeed Christ -- to whom whoever stretches out his hand will live forever.
On the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil
The tree of the knowledge of good and evil. Why did it receive this name? Because God created all things very good. That is, for knowing good and evil -- how great the difference was between the obedience of the good and the disobedience of evil; because if he had transgressed from it, it would be evil for him; but it would be good for him if he had not transgressed, since he would not have learned the experience of punishment.
On the Going Forth of the River
And a river went forth from the place of delight to water paradise, which from there is divided into four heads. The name of one is Phison; it is the one that encircles the whole land of Evilath, where gold is found. And the gold of that land is the best, and there bdellium and the onyx stone are found. And the name of the second river is Gehon; it is the one that encircles the whole land of Ethiopia. The name of the third river is the Tigris; it goes toward the Assyrians. The fourth river is the Euphrates. As was indicated above about this river, these four rivers go forth from paradise, two of which have their proper names. The Tigris is the Nile, which encircles the whole land of Egypt. The Phison is the Ganges.
Recapitulation.
And again according to the spiritual sense, the tree of the knowledge of good and evil is the free will itself, which is placed in our midst, for recognizing good or evil. Whoever tastes of it, having abandoned the grace of God, shall surely die.
Therefore the Lord God took the man and placed him in the paradise of delight, to work and to guard it, because whenever he speaks about the person of man, he names both -- God and Lord -- to show how much it benefits him to have the Lord as his God -- that is, to live obediently under his dominion, so as to work. But how he ought to work -- not in servile labor, but by the will of an upright soul -- and to guard it, lest he commit anything for which he would deserve to be expelled from there. Rightly, then, anyone who acts so as to lose his possession is said not to have guarded it, because there was no need to guard paradise against beasts, or to work at any other thing with servile labor, since he said: Behold, I have given you every herb, and so forth -- but so that the Lord might work in them justice, piety, and other good things; which God grants to man, because man can do nothing without the help of God. And he was to work it so as to be just, and guard it so as to be safe, because if God abandons him and withdraws his consolation, he would remain empty, since God has no need of any good from him. But we all need his dominion. For it is written: I said to the Lord, You are my God, for you have no need of my goods (Ps. 15); and in another place it is written: But for me it is good to cling to God (Ps. 72).
On the Command Concerning the Tree
And he commanded him, saying: Of every tree of paradise you may eat, but of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil you shall not eat. For on whatever day you eat of it, you shall surely die.
Why did the Lord forbid him to eat of that tree? Because he knew he would be condemned if he transgressed. For it was fitting that man, placed under the Lord God, should be forbidden from something, so that in earning favor with his Lord, obedience itself would be his virtue; and if he had kept the precepts of his Creator, virtue would have been his, and that very obedience which he lost after the transgression.
Recapitulation.
Therefore the Lord God took the man and placed him in the paradise of delight. God assumed flesh and became the head of the Church. To work and guard it -- that is, so that he might fulfill the will of the Father by filling the Church from all nations, and so that the word which the Lord spoke might be fulfilled: I was keeping them in your name; those whom you gave me, I have guarded (John 17).
God also said: It is not good for man to be alone; let us make him a helper like himself. Here he clearly shows that they were meant to beget offspring, since a helper like himself was given to Adam -- that is, Eve, fashioned from his side. They were not meant to beget offspring as they do now, so that when parents die others succeed in their place, but rather so that they would remain immortal, and after the number was completed, they would be changed for the better.
Therefore the Lord God, having formed from the earth all the living creatures of the earth and all the birds of heaven, brought them to Adam, that he might see what he would call them. For whatever Adam called a living soul, that is its name. How did he bring them, since God is unchangeable? Through an angel, or by himself? This must not at all be accepted -- that God did these things corporeally; but rather to show that all things live and feel for him, just as the donkey spoke with Balaam, and many other things, because man received this power from the Lord -- to have dominion over the beasts even to this day.
Recapitulation.
God also said: It is not good for man to be alone. Let the heretics be refuted, who think Christ is only a man and not also God.
Let us make him a helper like himself. Because in the man himself who was assumed, the Church was joined to God.
And Adam called all the living creatures and all the birds of heaven and all the beasts of the earth by their names; but no helper like himself was found for Adam. When then did the fish receive their names, since he mentions here only the animals? This was imposed gradually as the kinds of fish were recognized -- that is, when they were created.
Again, Recapitulation.
But Adam called them by their names, etc. This signifies the nations that would be saved in the Church and through Christ were to receive names, which they had not had before. As it is written: And I will call my servants by another name (Isa. 65).
But no helper like himself was found for Adam. Indeed, because however faithful or just anyone may be, he cannot be made equal to Christ. For who, says Moses, is like you among the gods, O Lord? For David also says: Beautiful in form beyond the sons of men (Ps. 44). For no one could liberate the human race from death and overcome death itself except Christ, as the Apocalypse says: No one was found worthy, either in heaven or on earth or under the earth, to open the book (Rev. 5).
On the Sending of Sleep and the Creation of the Woman
Therefore the Lord God sent a deep sleep upon Adam. And when he had fallen asleep, he took one of his ribs and filled flesh in its place. How then did the Lord God send a deep sleep upon Adam, such that he had so great a sleep that he did not at all feel the rib taken from him? This must be understood: so that he might be a partaker of the care of the angels. There, immediately awakening, he burst forth, saying: This now is bone of my bones, etc.
And the Lord God built the rib which he had taken from Adam into a woman, and brought her to Adam. And Adam said: This now is bone of my bones and flesh of my flesh. Why did he make the woman from a rib? To show that Christ would be born of a woman. Just as then the woman was made from the man, so also Christ was born of a woman, because strength proceeded from a woman into the world. Although death then entered the world through a woman -- or else to demonstrate that chaste members are not to be rejected by God -- or for the force of the recommendation he says that the woman was fashioned from a rib.
Recapitulation.
Therefore God sent a deep sleep upon Adam, etc. Adam slept, and a woman was made for him from his side; Christ suffers, slept on the cross, his side is pierced with a lance, and the sacraments flow forth, from which the Church would be formed. The prophet sings of this sleep, saying: I slept and rested, and I rose again, because the Lord raised me up (Ps. 5). It follows: And he placed flesh in its place. Just as Christ too, in dying, placed his flesh upon the gibbet of the cross for the Church.
And Adam said: This now is bone of my bones and flesh of my flesh. Because whether they are spiritual saints, strongest in temptations, or less perfect, both are in the one body of Christ and in one Church. She shall be called woman, because she was taken from man; therefore Eve, because she is the mother of all the living.
Therefore a man shall leave his father and mother and cleave to his wife, and the two shall be in one flesh. And they were both naked, Adam and his wife, and were not ashamed. They were not ashamed because they did not feel any law in their members rebelling against the law of their mind, nor violent enticements of the flesh in the body of death (Rom. 7). Whence the Apostle does not say: Let there be no sin in your members, but says: Let it not reign (Rom. 6). For it does not reign when we do not obey its desires.
And again, a recapitulation according to the spiritual sense. She shall be called woman, because she was taken from man. So also the name Christian was given by Christ to the Church, which was taken from his side. All these things therefore were done in figure, which were to profit the Church.
Therefore a man shall leave his father and mother, etc. Interpreting this, the Apostle says: But I speak concerning Christ and the Church (Eph. 5). Therefore what was completed historically in Adam is signified prophetically in Christ. He who leaves the Father, when he says: I came forth from the Father and have come into this world (John 16). He also left his mother -- that is, the synagogue, carnally clinging to the Old Testament, which was his mother from the seed of David according to the flesh. And he cleaved to his wife -- that is, the Church -- so that by the peace of the New Testament the two might be in one flesh. Because although he is God with the Father, through whom we were made, he was made through the flesh a sharer in our nature, so that we might be the body of that head.
After this Eve is called life and mother of the living, because she was made from her husband's side, and the Lord says in the Gospel: If anyone does not eat my flesh and drink my blood, he does not have life in himself (John 6). From now on the commandment which Christ received figuratively, we received in him, because each Christian not unfittingly bears the person of Christ, as the Lord himself says: What you did for one of these least, you did for me (Matt. 10). It is therefore said to him: Eat of every tree of paradise. By which spiritual delights are signified. But the fruit of the Spirit is charity, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, gentleness, self-control, as the Apostle says (Gal. 5).
And let us not touch the tree planted in the middle of paradise, of the knowledge of good and evil. That is, let us not wish to be proud about the nature of our free will, which is in the middle, lest, deceived, after knowledge we also experience evil.
On the Cunning of the Serpent
But the serpent was more cunning than all the animals of the earth which the Lord God had made. This serpent was not more cunning by its own nature -- that is, more prudent or wiser -- but from the devil, who spoke through the serpent. Whence Christ the Lord said in the Gospel: The sons of this age are more prudent than the sons of light (Luke 16). How did the serpent speak to the woman -- through itself or through the devil? This must be understood: the devil entered into the serpent, and thus spoke to the woman. And just as now he is accustomed to enter into his vessel and speak through it, so also then he spoke through the serpent. For just as a person treads the organ pipes and the organ itself feels nothing, so also the serpent felt nothing of what was spoken.
Why did he allow man to be tempted through this animal? It is not surprising that he allowed temptation through the serpent, through which the devil had been given permission, because that ancient enemy has the most wicked will and the most wretched power -- for he always has the will to do evil, but has no power to harm without God's permission. Why did he allow the temptation of one whom he foreknew would consent? What is surprising if he permitted this, since they had their own free will for doing evil or doing good? It does not seem to me that man's future praise would have been great if the reason he could have lived well was that no one persuaded him to live badly. That is, there would have been no praise if the reason he lived well was that Adam had no temptation in his members.
Why then did he allow the temptation of one whom he foreknew would consent? Since he was going to do it by his own will through fault, and would be ordered by that one's equity through punishment. And what would be blameworthy if he had not allowed the temptation, since man had his own free will, and with God's help could have resisted the temptation itself -- he who resists the proud and gives grace to the humble (James 4) -- and to resist would have been great praise, just as now the saints of God endure many temptations, and with God's help they conquer: and therefore they receive a greater reward with Christ.
And could this temptation have cast them out of paradise? It must be understood that it could not have, if they had not raised themselves up in vain glory, which the hostile enemy promised them, saying: If you eat of it, your eyes will be opened, and you will be like gods. In this they were raising themselves up, whence it is written: Before ruin the heart is exalted, and so forth (Prov. 16).
What does it mean that God, who foreknew that men would be sinners and would be condemned, permitted them to be born? And why would he not let them be, since they possessed free will -- and if they refused to preserve what they were made to be, they receive damnation, and become an example to others who witness their punishment, and from the wicked the good are made? Because they consider what befell them on account of their sins -- for there is a good nature that cannot sin, and there is a nature that can sin. One is in the angels, the other in humans. The reason was that from both natures they would praise God; yet in both natures iniquity was found, because evil will corrupted the good nature -- for good nature was created by God. For evil will makes it be bad; and if anyone should say: Why did God create evil men? He would rightly answer: It would not be better -- because by making good use of another's evil, one would be mercifully crowned -- than that there should also be an evil one who would be justly punished for his desert.
Why can the devil not be restored, but man can? To demonstrate power and mercy, and so that they might have something to fear and something to hope for. And what is surprising if the devil entered into the serpent, when the Lord permitted him to enter into the swine? And others wish to say that the devil had envy against man because he was created in the image of God, and therefore persuaded him to eat the fruit in paradise, which was forbidden to eat. Whence the Apostle says: The root of all evils is desire (1 Tim. 6) -- that is, the love of money. For the devil did not then covet money, but wished to deceive man: and since in another place it is written: The beginning of all sin is pride (Eccl. 10). This must be understood: that in the devil, pride did not proceed from envy, but rather envy proceeded from pride, and both together were found at the beginning, because through pride he was cast down from heaven, and through envy he deceived man.
On the Serpent's Suggestion to the Woman
Then the serpent said to the woman: Why has God commanded you not to eat of every tree of paradise? The woman answered: Of the fruit of the trees that are in paradise we eat, but of the fruit of the tree that is in the middle of paradise God has commanded us not to eat and not to touch it, lest perhaps we die. Why did the serpent first question the woman, and she indicated to him from which tree they had the commandment not to eat, so that the transgression might become inexcusable? Because she had no basis for excusing herself, since she clearly understood from which tree they were forbidden to eat.
The serpent also said: You shall not surely die, for God knows that on whatever day you eat of it, your eyes will be opened, and you will be like gods, knowing good and evil. Because even to this day the devil has worked in this way. For he always persuades that the commandments of God be despised; and what God threatens, he gives softness and levity and false security, and therefore many are deceived in his seduction.
Now that serpent, wiser than all beasts, indicates the devil, who is therefore called a serpent because he turns with shifting cunning. But what does it mean that he deceived through the woman and not through the man? Because our reason cannot be seduced to sin unless preceded by the delight of carnal weakness, which ought rather to obey reason as a ruling husband. For this is enacted in each person in a certain hidden and secret marriage. We receive the suggestion through the woman -- by the woman we mean the animal sense of the body, and by the man, reason.
Therefore when an evil suggestion arises, the serpent speaks, as it were; but if only thought is delighted, and the suggestions are restrained by reason, consent to carry out the deed does not follow. The woman alone seems to have eaten what was forbidden; but if the mind also determines to perpetrate the sin itself, the man is now deceived, the woman is now seen to have given food to the man. For to consent to the enticement from the forbidden tree is to eat. Then indeed man is rightly expelled from the blessed life as from paradise, and sin is imputed to him, even if the effect does not follow, because even if there is no fault in deeds, the conscience is still held guilty in consent.
These things are according to the anagogical sense; but according to metaphor, this cunning serpent could designate the craftiness of heretics. For some, more loquaciously and subtly, promise through illicit curiosity the opening up of secrets, as in the tree planted in the middle of paradise -- to demonstrate discernment. Against this serpent the Apostle cries out when he says: I fear lest, as the serpent seduced Eve by his cunning, so your senses may be corrupted (2 Cor. 11). Our carnal desire is seduced by the words of this serpent, and through it Adam is deceived -- not Christ, but the Christian.
Therefore this one says to the woman: Why has God commanded you not to eat of every tree of paradise? Thus the curious desire of heretics, thus wicked preachers, to foster love of the deceit of error, inflame the hearts of carnal hearers, saying: Why do you flee from having hidden knowledge? Always seek new things, penetrate the knowledge of good and evil. Whence in Solomon that woman holding the opinion of the heretics says: Stolen waters are sweeter, and hidden bread is more pleasant (Prov. 9). Then the same serpent added: On whatever day you eat, your eyes will immediately be opened, and you will be knowing like gods, good and evil.
So also all heretics profess the merit of generations of divinity, and deceive with the promise of knowledge, and rebuke those whom they find simply believing; and because they persuade entirely carnal things, they attempt to bring about, as it were, the opening of carnal eyes, so that the interior eye may be darkened.
On the Consent of the Woman
The woman therefore saw that the tree was good for food, and beautiful to the eyes and delightful to look upon, and she took of its fruit, and ate, and gave to her husband, who ate. In this let each one of us learn an example. One must never look at what is not permitted to touch, lest perhaps through desire and delight one be deceived like Eve, who first looked at the tree, and afterward was delighted and ate.
Why did he suggest to the woman, and not to the man? On account of the softness or weakness of the woman. As the apostle Paul said: Adam was not seduced, but the woman was deceived (1 Tim. 2). How is this said, when in another place the blessed Paul says: In the likeness of the transgression of Adam, who is the type of the one to come (Rom. 5)? He said this because Adam was not seduced by the serpent, but by the woman, since the woman first ate through the suggestion of the serpent, and afterward gave to her husband, because the man is the image and glory of God, but the woman is the glory of the man (1 Cor. 11), and therefore he did not persuade the man first, but the woman, in whom softness was contained.
And why did Adam eat of the forbidden tree, about which the commandment was given that he should not eat, and he knew that if he did, the sentence of God would be fulfilled, which he had previously spoken to him, saying: If you eat of it, you shall surely die? He ate on account of his love for the woman, because he did not wish to offend and sadden her, just as we read that Solomon did, who on account of his love for women provoked his God against himself. So Adam acted: while he loved the woman, he despised the commands of his Creator, and was cast down from the height of immortality to the lowest depths of the earth.
And the eyes of both were opened. They were not opened for anything else but for desiring each other as the punishment of sin. But when they were cast down from the tree of life, their bodies immediately took on a diseased and death-bearing quality, because before they had sinned, they felt no law in their members rebelling against the law of their mind. But afterward they immediately felt in their members another law rebelling against the law of their mind, and captivating them in the law of sin (Rom. 7).
And again according to the spiritual sense. The woman therefore saw that the tree was good, etc. The woman ate first, not the man; because carnal people are more easily persuaded into sin, nor are spiritual people deceived so quickly.
On the Consent of the Man
And she gave to her husband, and he ate. Indeed, because after the delight of our carnal desire, even our reason is subjected to sinning.
And when they knew that they were naked, they sewed fig leaves together. Those cover themselves with fig leaves who embrace a harsh world, who burn with the itch of carnal pleasure; and those who, deceived by heretical wickedness and stripped of the grace of God, gather the coverings of lies like fig leaves, making for themselves aprons of depravity, when they lie about the Lord or the Church.
And when they heard the voice of the Lord God walking in paradise in the breeze after midday. God walks in them and does not stand still, because they do not persevere steadfastly in his precept; and rightly in the breeze after midday, because already that more fervent light of charity is being taken away from them, as the darkness of errors draws near. Whence it is written: They follow the shadow, and not the light.
Adam and his wife hid themselves from the face of the Lord God in the middle of the tree of paradise. But how could they hide themselves from the face of God? Can anything be hidden from God? This must be understood: that whoever commits sin or scorns the commandment of the Lord hides himself from God, because God ignores him on account of his sin. As he said in the Gospel: I do not know you (Luke 13). For it cannot be that anything is hidden from God, since it is written: The eyes of the Lord contemplate good and evil (Prov. 15). But each one hides himself in the middle of the tree of paradise, because, turned away from the precept of the Creator, he lives in error and in the pleasures of his own will.
The Voice of the One Rebuking and Calling Back
And the Lord God called Adam and said to him: Where are you? He replied: I heard your voice in paradise, and I was afraid because I was naked, and I hid myself. He said: Who told you that you were naked, unless you have eaten from the tree from which I commanded you not to eat? This is not the voice of one who does not know, but of one who rebukes. In calling him, he calls him back to repentance; in seeking him, he shows that God, by right, does not know those who are to be condemned as sinners.
And was Adam such that he could have understood the speech of God, as the angels do, or was it still necessary for him to have perfection of understanding, in order to have been able to grasp the speech of God? Hence it must be understood that God spoke to him through an angel, just as he spoke to the fathers, because he did not know through understanding what God wished to say, as the angels do. But regarding his being naked, this is understood to mean that they already felt in their body the law of sin, which they had not had before they sinned; and if they had not eaten of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, they could not have died at all, as was indicated above.
And again. God called Adam and said to him: Where are you? Here he shows that if any fall from faith or good works into lies and their own desires, God does not despise them, but still calls them to return through repentance, because he does not will the death of the sinner, but that he be converted and live. Therefore no sinners whatsoever should despair, since even the impious themselves are called to the hope of pardon.
On the Excuse of the Man
And Adam said: The woman whom you gave me as a companion gave me from the tree, and I ate. And the Lord God said to the woman: Why did you do this? She answered: The serpent deceived me. Where humility ought to have come, there pride preceded. For they were called to account so that they might confess their sin; but both brought forward excuses, and each excused their faults through the other. Adam through the woman, and the woman through the serpent, and they increased the faults which they ought to have confessed, and seem as though to blame God -- why he gave the woman as his companion; and the woman likewise spoke -- why he placed the serpent in paradise. And they received punishment where they ought to have found mercy, and from the height of immortality they were cast down to the lowest depths of the earth.
On the Curse of the Serpent
Then he says to the serpent: Because you have done this, you are cursed among all living things and beasts of the earth; upon your breast you shall crawl. By the name of the breast, pride of mind is signified; by the name of the belly, desires of the flesh are signified. For by these two things the devil creeps into those whom he wishes to deceive -- that is, either by earthly desire and luxury, or by pride and insane ruin. And you shall eat earth -- that is, those whom you have deceived by earthly desire will belong to you. All the days of your life -- that is, throughout all the time in which you exercise this power before that final punishment of judgment.
I will place enmities between you and the woman, and your seed and her seed. The seed of the devil is perverse suggestion; but the seed of the woman is the fruit of good work, by which perverse suggestion is resisted.
She shall crush his head, if the mind excludes him at the very beginning of the evil suggestion; he lies in wait for her heel, because the mind which he does not deceive at the first suggestion, he strives to deceive at the end. But some understood what was said -- I will place enmities between you and the woman -- as referring to the betrothed virgin, in whom the Lord was born, because at that time the Lord was promised to be born from her to vanquish the enemy and to destroy death, whose author he was, as it is written in David: Of the fruit of your womb I will place upon your throne (Ps. 131). For also what follows -- She shall crush your head, and you shall lie in wait for her heel -- they understand this of the fruit of the womb of Mary, who is Christ: that is, you will trip him up so that he dies; but he, having conquered you, will rise again and crush your head, which is death. As David also said in the person of the Father to the Son: You shall walk upon the asp and the basilisk, and you shall trample the lion and the dragon (Ps. 90). He called the asp death, the basilisk sin, the lion the Antichrist, the dragon the devil.
On the Curse of the Woman
To the woman also God said: I will multiply your sorrows and your conceptions; in pain you shall bear children, and you shall be under the power of your husband, and he shall rule over you. But regarding the punishment of the woman, what does it signify that it is said to her: In pain you shall bear children, except that carnal pleasure wishes to overcome through some evil habit? It suffers pains at the beginning, and through a better habit it bears good work as children. What he added -- And your turning shall be to your husband, and he shall rule over you -- this signifies that carnal will, which had struggled painfully to form a good habit, now instructed by those pains, is more cautious, and, lest it fall, obeys reason and willingly serves as one obeying a commanding husband.
On the Curse of the Man
But to Adam he said: Because you have listened to the voice of your wife and have eaten of the tree from which I commanded you not to eat, cursed is the earth in your work. In toil you shall eat of it all the days of your life: thorns and thistles it shall bring forth for you, and you shall eat the herbs of the earth. In the sweat of your face you shall eat your bread, until you return to the earth from which you were taken, because you are dust, and to dust you shall return.
And Adam called the name of his wife Eve, because she was the mother of all the living. She is thereafter called the mother of the living -- that is, of the rightly-acting, to whom sins are opposed, which are signified by the name of the dead; but through the sentence passed upon the man, our reason is convicted, which, seduced above by the desire for sin, has the curses of earthly labor and the pains of temporal cares, like thorns and thistles; if nevertheless one is sent away from the paradise of blessedness, to work the earth -- that is, to labor in this body and to establish for oneself the merit of returning to eternal life, which is signified by the name of paradise.
On the Mortal Garment
The Lord God also made for Adam and his wife garments of skin, and clothed them, and said: Behold, Adam has become like one of us, knowing good and evil. Now therefore, lest perhaps he stretch out his hand and take also from the tree of life, and eat, and live forever. This is the voice of the Trinity -- of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit -- as if he had said: Just as we know the difference between the good of obedience and the evil of disobedience, so now Adam understands, because he not only was not made as he wished to become, but he did not even preserve what he had been made.
He also received a tunic of skin by divine judgment, by which name the mortality of the body is signified in the historical sense. But in allegory, those abstracted from carnal senses and living carnally in pleasures are followed and covered by the divine law, because if one should at some time turn to God, one might at some time stretch out the hand to the tree of life and live forever. The stretching out of the hand well signifies the cross or the suffering of penance, through which eternal life is recovered.
On Their Expulsion from Paradise, and the Flaming, Turning Sword
The Lord God sent him out of the paradise of delight, to work the earth from which he was taken. And he cast out Adam, and placed before the paradise of delight the Cherubim and a flaming and turning sword, to guard the way to the tree of life. This sword was placed so that man would not enter paradise, lest he eat of the tree of life, lest perhaps he remain immortal and be irreparable, like the demons who cannot be restored; and therefore the turning flame was placed so that when the time of mercy came through the advent of our Savior, it could be removed again. Because all the just and elect before his coming penetrated the prisons of hell; but now all the saints, departing from the body, go to Christ, as the Savior says in the Gospel: If anyone serves me, let him follow me; and where I am, there also my minister will be.
And again, this is the path for those returning. Through the flaming sword. That is, through temporal tribulations, acknowledging and lamenting their sins; and through the cherubim -- that is, through the fullness of knowledge, which is charity -- one will arrive at the tree of life, Christ, and live forever. For Cherubim is interpreted as fullness of knowledge; and the flaming, turning sword, placed to guard the way to the tree of life, is understood as temporal punishments. For no one can reach the tree of life except through these two things: the endurance of afflictions, and the fullness of knowledge -- that is, through the love of God and neighbor: For the fullness of the law is charity (Rom. 13), which is the mother of virtues, which the saints, imitating the footsteps of God, strive with all their strength to fulfill also in others. Let us pursue this charity, and strive to exercise it in works, so that we may be able to reach the tree of life, which is Christ, and, refreshed and satisfied by his sweet and pleasant fruit, may deserve to rejoice forever with him and his saints without end. Amen.