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Library / Commentaries and Disputations on Genesis, Volume I

Book Three — Paradise

THE HISTORY OF MOSES CONCERNING THE TERRESTRIAL PARADISE, explained in this third volume of the Commentaries. FROM THE SECOND CHAPTER OF THE BOOK OF GENESIS

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THE HISTORY OF MOSES CONCERNING THE TERRESTRIAL PARADISE, explained in this third volume of the Commentaries. FROM THE SECOND CHAPTER OF THE BOOK OF GENESIS.1

HISTORIA MOSIS DE PARADISO terrestri, in hoc tertio Commentariorum volumine explicata. EX CAPITE SECUNDO LIBRI GENESEOS.

VERSE 8. And the Lord God had planted a Paradise of pleasure from the beginning, in which He placed the man whom He had formed: [9] and the Lord God brought forth from the ground every tree fair to behold and sweet to eat of; the tree of life also in the midst of Paradise, and the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. [10] And a river went out of the place of pleasure to water Paradise, which from there is divided into four heads. [11] The name of one is Phison; it is that which compasses all the land of Hevilath, where gold is born. [12] And the gold of that land is the best; there too is found Bdellium and the onyx stone. [13] And the name of the second river is Geon; it is that which compasses all the land of Ethiopia. [14] And the name of the third river is Tigris; it goes toward the Assyrians. And the fourth river, it is the Euphrates.2

VERS. 8. Plantaverat autem Dominus Deus Paradisum voluptatis a principio, in quo posuit hominem quem formaverat: [9] produxitque Dominus Deus de humo omne lignum pulchrum visu et ad vescendum suave: lignum etiam vitae in medio Paradisi, lignumque scientiae boni et mali. [10] Et fluvius egrediebatur de loco voluptatis ad irrigandum Paradisum, qui inde dividitur in quatuor capita. [11] Nomen uni Phison, ipse est qui circuit omnem terram Hevilath ubi nascitur aurum. [12] Et aurum terrae illius optimum est; ibique invenitur Bdellium et lapis Onychinus. [13] Et nomen fluvii secundi Geon, ipse est qui circuit omnem terram Aethiopiae. [14] Nomen vero fluminis tertii Tigris, ipse vadit contra Assyrios. Fluvius autem quartus ipse est Euphrates.

And the Lord God had planted a paradise of pleasure from the beginning.3

Plantaverat autem Dominus Deus paradisum voluptatis a principio.

ILLUD Plantaverat, licet Hebraice sit Plantavit, quia tamen Hebraei saepenumero abutuntur praeteritis perfectis, denotat plantationem paradisi non esse factam post hominis creationem sed ante: ut ea sit verborum Mosis sententia, Iam prius plantaverat Deus paradisum cum formavit hominem, ideoque statim ut conditus homo est in paradisum a Deo est introductus. Basilius extrema oratione quae est de Paradiso (et undecima est inter eas quas scripsit in Genesim) ait Paradisum conditum esse a Deo post creationem hominis; propterea fortasse id opinatus, quod cerneret paradisi a Deo facti non nisi post creationem hominis mentionem fieri a Mose. Verum id factum est per recapitulationem, qua figura prius facta posterius narrantur; sicut contra per anticipationem commemorantur prius quae posterius gesta sunt; et est utraque figura in divinis litteris non infrequens. Sed quaeret aliquis: Sicut paradisus ortu prior fuit homine, cur etiam non fuit a Mose priore loco memoratus? an quo manifestum fieret eum praecipue hominis gratia esse a Deo conditum? an potius quo, magis continente et continuata serie, tota paradisi historia pertexeretur? Consitus autem fuerat a Deo Paradisus tertia die, qua die iussa est terra omnia herbarum et stirpium genera proferre; ac licet res omnes sint a Deo conditae, singulariter tamen Deus Paradisum plantasse dicitur, quod is locus praeter cetera omnia terrae loca eximiae fuit pulchritudinis et incredibilis amoenitatis: nam quae sunt praestantissima et aliquo in genere excellentia, ea solet Scriptura Dei appellatione insignire. Quemadmodum igitur singulariter Deo tribuitur formatio hominis propter eius dignitatem, ita et Paradisi effectio propter incomparabilem eius loci praestantiam et iucunditatem: id quod observatum a Basilio in exordio orationis quam de Paradiso scripsit ab ipso proditum est.
That word Plantaverat (He had planted), although in the Hebrew it is Plantavit (He planted)—yet because the Hebrews very often misuse the perfect tenses [for the pluperfect]—denotes that the planting of paradise was made not after the creation of man, but before: so that this is the meaning of Moses's words, God had already before planted paradise when He formed man, and therefore, as soon as man was created, he was led by God into paradise. Basil, in his last oration, which is On Paradise (and is the eleventh among those which he wrote on Genesis), says that Paradise was created by God after the creation of man; perhaps having thought this for the reason that he saw mention of the paradise made by God to be made by Moses only after the creation of man. But that was done by recapitulation, the figure by which things done earlier are narrated later; as, on the contrary, by anticipation things are mentioned earlier which were done later; and each figure is not infrequent in the divine writings. But someone will ask: Since paradise was prior in origin to man, why was it not also mentioned by Moses in the prior place? Was it that it might be made manifest that it was created by God chiefly for the sake of man? or rather that, by a more continuous and connected series, the whole history of paradise might be woven together? Now Paradise had been planted by God on the third day, on which day the earth was bidden to bring forth all the kinds of herbs and plants; and although all things were created by God, yet God is said singularly to have planted Paradise, because that place, beyond all other places of the earth, was of exceptional beauty and incredible pleasantness: for the things which are most excellent and in some kind outstanding, Scripture is wont to mark with the name of God. As, therefore, the forming of man is singularly attributed to God on account of his dignity, so also the making of Paradise on account of the incomparable excellence and pleasantness of the place: which thing, observed by Basil in the exordium of the oration which he wrote on Paradise, was set forth by him.4

A Paradise.5

Paradisum.

EA hoc loco est Hebraea vox גן Gan, a Graeco et Latino interprete reddita Paradisus, ea significat hortum, ducta (ut quidam Hebraice scientes putant) a radice גנן Ganan, quod est protegere et abscondere; quasi ea voce significetur hortus in quo frequentes ac densae arbores atque procerae, quae patulis diffusae ramis eos qui sub ipsis sunt inumbrare et protegere possint: vel sic vocatur quia sit locus conclusus et circumseptus, nullo ad eum aditu vel bestiis vel hominibus patente; iuxta illud quod est in Can[ticis]...
The word here is the Hebrew גן (Gan), rendered by the Greek and Latin translator as Paradisus; it signifies a garden, derived (as some who know Hebrew think) from the root גנן (Ganan), which is to protect and to hide; as if by that word were signified a garden in which thick and dense trees, and tall ones, which, spread out with their wide branches, can shade and protect those who are beneath them: or it is so called because it is an enclosed and fenced-about place, with no access to it lying open either to beasts or to men; according to that saying which is in the Can[ticles]...6
...[in Can]ticis, Hortus conclusus, etc. Dignum memoratu est duo esse apud Hebraeos vocabula: hoc de quo diximus גן Gan, et alterum פרדס Pardes, idem fere significantia; et utrumque reperitur coniuncte in libro Ecclesiastae cap. 2: nam ubi nos legimus Feci mihi hortos et pomaria, sunt ibi Hebraice duae voces quas diximus, גן Gan et פרדס Pardes. Nec vox Pardes invenitur in Scriptura nisi ter: semel praedicto loco Ecclesiastae, iterum lib. 2 Esdrae cap. 2, tertio in Canticis cap. 4 in illis verbis, Emissiones tuae paradisus malorum punicorum. Septuaginta Interpretes vocem פרדס Pardes vertunt paradisum, sicut etiam nonnunquam vocem גן Gan. Nec mihi displicet quod quibusdam viris doctis placuisse video, vocabulum Paradisus tractum esse ex vocabulo Hebraeo פרדס Pardes, similitudine quae inter utrumque est fidem faciente. Iulius Pollux lib. 11 τῶν ὀνομάτων tradit paradisum proprie Graecam vocem non esse, sed Persicam, et ex consuetudine Persica fluxisse in usum Graecorum. Sane Xenophon et Philostratus paradisos appellant amoenissima loca, quae oblectationis causa comparata erant Regibus Persarum, in quibus servabantur ferae ad Regum venationes. Aulus, lib. 2 cap. 20, scriptum reliquit quae suo tempore vulgo dicebantur vivaria, et olim tempore Scipionis atque aliorum pure loquentium Latine appellabantur roboraria (a roboreis stabulis quibus erant undique septa), ea nominari Graece paradisos. Suidas notionem huius vocis Paradisus sic interpretatur: Paradisus autem dicitur a δεύω, id est irrigo; inde verbale δεῦρος, mutato ypsilon in iota; alii deducunt a collectione herbarum.
...in the Canticles, A garden enclosed, etc. It is worth recording that there are among the Hebrews two words: this one of which we have spoken, גן (Gan), and another, פרדס (Pardes), signifying almost the same thing; and both are found joined together in the book of Ecclesiastes, chapter 2: for where we read I made me gardens and orchards, there are there in Hebrew the two words we have mentioned, גן (Gan) and פרדס (Pardes). Nor is the word Pardes found in Scripture except thrice: once in the aforesaid place of Ecclesiastes, again in the second book of Esdras, chapter 2, thirdly in the Canticles, chapter 4, in those words, Thy shoots are a paradise of pomegranates. The Seventy Translators render the word פרדס (Pardes) as paradisus, just as also sometimes the word גן (Gan). Nor does it displease me, which I see has pleased certain learned men, that the word Paradisus is drawn from the Hebrew word פרדס (Pardes), the likeness which is between the two creating belief. Julius Pollux, in the eleventh book of the Onomasticon, relates that paradisus is not properly a Greek word, but Persian, and that from Persian custom it flowed into the use of the Greeks. Indeed, Xenophon and Philostratus call ‘paradises’ the most pleasant places which had been prepared, for the sake of delight, for the Kings of the Persians, in which wild beasts were kept for the hunts of the Kings. Aulus [Gellius], in book 2, chapter 20, left it written that those which in his time were vulgarly called ‘vivaria’ (game-parks), and of old, in the time of Scipio and of others who spoke pure Latin, were called ‘roboraria’ (from the oaken stalls with which they were fenced on every side), were named in Greek ‘paradises.’ Suidas interprets the notion of this word Paradisus thus: Paradisus is said from δεύω (deuo), that is, I water; thence the verbal δεῦρος, the ypsilon being changed to iota; others derive it from the gathering of herbs.7
IN sacra vero Scriptura vocabulum Paradisi universe significat locum quemvis amoenissimum et ad oblectandum hominem iucundissimum: qua significatione usus est Moses in hoc libro Geneseos ca. 13, cum dixit terram Sodomae et Gomorrhae ante Dei vindictam fuisse tanquam paradisum; et Salomon Eccles. 2, Feci, inquit, mihi hortos et pomaria (pro quo habent Septuaginta, Paradisos); idem in Canticis cap. 4, Emissiones tuae paradisus; necnon et Ezechiel ca. 28, alloquens Regem Tyri, In deliciis, ait, paradisi Dei fuisti; idem cap. 31, de regis Assyriorum potentia et magnificentia scribens per quandam similitudinem quam Rhetores vocant Allegoriam, ait, Cedri non fuerunt altiores illo in paradiso Dei, omne lignum paradisi Dei non est assimilatum illi et pulchritudini eius; denique in libro Ecclesiastici cap. 24 ita loquitur divina Sapientia, Ego sicut aquaeductus exivi de paradiso. Nonnunquam etiam nomen paradisi dicitur in sacris litteris non de loco corporeo sed de spirituali voluptate et iucunditate: maxime vero de vita illa aeterna omnium bonorum voluptatumque plenissima quam Beati in caelis agunt. Hac notione Paradisi usus est Dominus noster Lucae 23, cum dixit latroni, Hodie mecum eris in paradiso; et Paulus in posterioris epistolae ad Corinthios cap. 12, cum inquit raptum se esse in paradisum, ibique audisse arcana verba quae non licet homini loqui; apud Ioannem item in Apocalypsi cap. 2 scriptum est, Vincenti dabo edere de ligno vitae quod est in para[diso Dei mei]...
But in sacred Scripture the word Paradise universally signifies any most pleasant place, and most delightful for the delighting of man: in which signification Moses used it in this book of Genesis, chapter 13, when he said that the land of Sodom and Gomorrah, before God's vengeance, was like a paradise; and Solomon, Ecclesiastes 2, I made me, he says, gardens and orchards (for which the Seventy have, Paradises); the same in the Canticles, chapter 4, Thy shoots are a paradise; and also Ezekiel, chapter 28, addressing the King of Tyre, Thou wast, he says, in the delights of the paradise of God; the same, chapter 31, writing of the power and magnificence of the king of the Assyrians by a certain likeness which the Rhetoricians call Allegory, says, The cedars were not higher than he in the paradise of God; no tree of the paradise of God was likened to him and to his beauty; finally, in the book of Ecclesiasticus, chapter 24, the divine Wisdom speaks thus, I, like an aqueduct, came out of paradise. And sometimes the name of paradise is said in the sacred writings not of a corporeal place, but of spiritual pleasure and delight: but most of all of that eternal life, fullest of all goods and pleasures, which the Blessed lead in the heavens. With this notion of Paradise our Lord used it, Luke 23, when He said to the thief, This day thou shalt be with me in paradise; and Paul in the twelfth chapter of the latter epistle to the Corinthians, when he says that he was caught up into paradise, and heard there secret words which it is not lawful for man to utter; in John likewise, in the Apocalypse, chapter 2, it is written, To him that overcometh I will give to eat of the tree of life, which is in the para[dise of my God]...8
...[in para]diso Dei mei. Manifestum igitur est ex his quae dicta sunt hanc vocem Paradisus in sacris litteris nonnunquam dici de loco corporeo, interdum vero etiam de re spirituali: utrobique tamen praefert ea vox ingentem quandam voluptatem et iucunditatem.
...which is in the paradise of my God. It is therefore manifest, from the things which have been said, that this word Paradise is in the sacred writings sometimes said of a corporeal place, and sometimes also of a spiritual thing: in both cases, however, that word carries with it a certain immense pleasure and delight.9

Of pleasure.10

Voluptatis.

HEBRAICE est בעדן Be Heden, id est in Heden: vox autem Heden significat delicias et voluptates, radice עדן Hadan quod est delectari; unde nomen frequens in sacris litteris עדנה Hedna, id est delectatio. Nec fide caret ex hac voce Heden derivatam esse vocem Graecam ἡδονή, quae de Graecis significat voluptatem, sicut a quibusdam est proditum. Interdum autem Heden in divina Scriptura est nomen proprium loci, quemadmodum animadvertere est infra cap. 4 ubi dicitur Cain habitasse profugum ad orientalem plagam Heden: quo loco Hieronymus vocem Heden non est interpretatus voluptatem et delicias, non dubie agnoscens ibi esse proprium nomen loci. Sic etiam Ezechielis cap. 27 dicitur, Charan et Heden negotiatores tui. Et apud Isaiam capit. 37, inter alia loca et civitates quas reges Assyriorum vastaverant, recensentur Gozan, Caran et filii Heden.
In Hebrew it is בעדן (Be Heden), that is, in Heden: and the word Heden signifies delights and pleasures, from the root עדן (Hadan), which is to be delighted; whence the frequent noun in the sacred writings עדנה (Hedna), that is, delight. Nor is it without credibility that from this word Heden was derived the Greek word ἡδονή (hedone), which among the Greeks signifies pleasure, as has been reported by some. But sometimes Heden, in the divine Scripture, is a proper name of a place, as one may notice below in chapter 4, where Cain is said to have dwelt, a fugitive, toward the eastern region of Heden: in which place Jerome did not interpret the word Heden as pleasure and delights, doubtless recognizing that there it is the proper name of a place. So also, in Ezekiel chapter 27, it is said, Charan and Heden were thy traders. And in Isaiah, chapter 37, among the other places and cities which the kings of the Assyrians had laid waste, are reckoned Gozan, Charan, and the sons of Heden.11
SINE causa autem Caietanus negat his locis vocem Heden sumi pro eodem pro quo ponitur in hoc 2 capit. Geneseos, cum tamen omnibus praedictis locis sit eadem vox et eodem modo scribatur. Sed Heden, inquit Caietanus, de quo hic agit Moses et in quo Adam locatus est, fuit post eiectionem Adae ex paradiso plane inhabitabilis et inaccessus hominibus, propter custodiam Cherubim in aditu eius a Deo positam. At Heden de quo Isaias et Ezechiel supradictis locis loquuntur, regio erat culta et habitata a mercatoribus pretiosas merces comportantibus in Iudaeam. Sic Caietanus, cui etiam Catharinus est assensus. Verum infirma est Caietani argumentatio: Heden namque ante diluvium (quandiu scilicet duravit locus ille Paradisi ex quo Adam eiectus est) inhabitatus fuit et inaccessus mortalibus; sed eo per diluvium vastato et destructo, sublataque prima illa eius pulchritudine et amoenitate (ad usum et oblectationem hominis, si quidem ille iustitiam et innocentiam custodisset, comparata), deinde ab hominibus coli et habitari coeptus est.
But without cause Cajetan denies that in these places the word Heden is taken for the same thing for which it is put in this second chapter of Genesis, although nevertheless in all the aforesaid places it is the same word, and is written in the same way. But the Heden, says Cajetan, of which Moses here treats, and in which Adam was placed, was, after the ejection of Adam from paradise, plainly uninhabitable and inaccessible to men, on account of the guard of the Cherubim set by God at its entrance. But the Heden of which Isaiah and Ezekiel speak in the aforesaid places was a region cultivated and inhabited by merchants carrying precious wares into Judaea. Thus Cajetan, to whom Catharinus too has assented. But weak is Cajetan's argument: for Heden, before the flood (as long, namely, as that place of Paradise from which Adam was cast out endured), was uninhabited and inaccessible to mortals; but, it being laid waste and destroyed by the flood, and that first beauty and pleasantness of it being taken away (prepared for the use and delight of man, had he indeed kept justice and innocence), it then began to be cultivated and inhabited by men.12
CUM igitur vocabulum Heden sit ambiguum, significans et voluptatem et certum quendam locum, in dubio est utro modo in praesentia sumi debeat. Hieronymus sumpsit pro voluptate, cum vertit, Paradisum voluptatis. Sed quia Hebraice est בעדן Be Heden, id est in Heden, significet voluptatem an certum aliquem locum, secundum sententiam Hieronymi verti deberet ad verbum, In voluptate—quod durum est: quid enim sibi vult, Plantavit Deus in voluptate? Septuaginta Interpretes, relinquentes in sua translatione nomen ipsum Hebraeum, Heden videntur intellexisse significari eo voca[bulo]...
Since therefore the word Heden is ambiguous, signifying both pleasure and a certain place, it is in doubt in which of the two ways it ought to be taken in the present passage. Jerome took it for pleasure, when he translated, A paradise of pleasure. But because in Hebrew it is בעדן (Be Heden), that is, in Heden—whether it signify pleasure or a certain place—according to Jerome's view it ought to be translated word for word, In pleasure—which is harsh: for what does it mean, God planted in pleasure? The Seventy Translators, leaving in their translation the Hebrew name itself, Heden, seem to have understood that by that wor[d]...13
...[eo] vocabulo certum aliquem terrae locum. Quanquam deinde in hac ipsa narratione non semel eam vocem nomine voluptatis expresserunt. Mihi quidem simillimum vero fit, ea voce designari hic a Mose locum quendam in quo erat Paradisus. Habeo huius sententiae auctores ferme omnes Graecos Patres; habeo eius approbatores quatuor nobilissimos Hebraeorum Rabbinos, Kimchi, Abraham Ben Esra, et Salomonem; atque id mirifice congruit cum narratione Mosis. Siquidem in describendo Paradisum eas ipse adhibet circumstantias, e quibus locus ille, ubi qualis quantusque fuerit, liquido cognosci queat: ait enim fuisse eum in regione Heden ad plagam eius Orientalem; irriguum magno quodam flumine, quod postea in quatuor ingentia et celebratissima flumina dispertiebatur. Quinetiam inquit fluvium illum egressum esse ex loco Heden ad irrigandum Paradisum. Quibus verbis quis non videt vocem Heden significare locum quendam, non autem voluptatem? quam enim sententiam haberet illum fluvium exisse ex voluptate ad irrigandum Paradisum? Ceterum admonebo lectorem fieri potuisse ut vel regio illa Paradisi, quia esset amoenissima, significata sit vocabulo Heden quod sonat voluptatem et delicias; vel contra, ut vox Heden, ea ratione ut significat voluptatem, tracta fuerit ex illo loco Heden ceu totius orbis delicatissimo atque amoenissimo.
...by that word a certain place of the earth. Although afterward, in this very narration, they more than once expressed that word by the name of pleasure. To me indeed it seems most like the truth that by that word Moses here designates a certain place in which Paradise was. I have as authors of this view nearly all the Greek Fathers; I have as approvers of it four most noble Rabbis of the Hebrews—Kimchi, Abraham ben Ezra, and Salomon; and it agrees marvelously with the narration of Moses. For in describing Paradise he himself uses those circumstances from which that place—where, of what kind, and how great it was—can be clearly known: for he says that it was in the region Heden, toward its Eastern part; watered by a certain great river, which afterward was divided into four huge and most celebrated rivers. He even says that that river went out of the place Heden to water Paradise. By which words who does not see that the word Heden signifies a certain place, and not pleasure? for what sense would it have, that that river went out of pleasure to water Paradise? But I will warn the reader that it could have been that either that region of Paradise, because it was most pleasant, was signified by the word Heden, which sounds pleasure and delights; or, on the contrary, that the word Heden, in the sense in which it signifies pleasure, was drawn from that place Heden, as the most delightful and pleasant of the whole world.14

From the beginning.15

A principio.

HEBRAICE est מקדם Mi Kedem, vox autem קדם Kedem ambiguae significationis est: cum enim significet ante seu principium, potest referri vel ad locum vel ad tempus. Hieronymus, tres secutus Interpretes Aquilam, Symmachum et Theodotionem, ad tempus referens vertit latine A principio. Idem autem in libro traditionum Hebraicarum in Genesim, ex eo quod dicitur Paradisum factum esse a principio, argumentatur eum fuisse a Deo conditum ante caelum et terram: quod Hieronymi dictum, si ut verum tueri volumus, necesse est fateri vel ipsum non esse locutum de Paradiso corporeo sed spirituali quae est vita aeterna, quam electis praeparavit Deus ante mundi constitutionem; vel illud Ante caelum et terram idem sonare quod ante perfectam caeli et terrae exornationem atque consummationem. Nec vero, quia Paradisus factus fuit a principio, continuo sequitur eum vel primo die vel etiam ante factum esse. Etenim apud Ioannem cap. 8 Dominus noster ait diabolum fuisse homicidam ab initio; quem tamen constat mortis hominis tam spiritualis quam corporalis non ante sextum diem quo creatus est homo auctorem esse potuisse. Illud igitur A principio referri debet ad tempus primorum sex dierum, praesertim autem ad tertium diem quo Paradisum esse consitum communis et pervagata est sententia.
In Hebrew it is מקדם (Mi Kedem); and the word קדם (Kedem) is of ambiguous signification: for since it signifies ‘before’ or ‘beginning,’ it can be referred either to place or to time. Jerome, having followed the three Translators—Aquila, Symmachus, and Theodotion—referring it to time, rendered it in Latin ‘A principio’ (from the beginning). And the same Jerome, in his book of Hebrew Traditions on Genesis, from the fact that Paradise is said to have been made ‘from the beginning,’ argues that it was founded by God before heaven and earth: which dictum of Jerome, if we wish to defend it as true, we must needs grant either that he himself was not speaking of the corporeal Paradise, but of the spiritual, which is eternal life, which God prepared for the elect before the constitution of the world; or that that ‘Before heaven and earth’ sounds the same as ‘before the perfect adornment and consummation of heaven and earth.’ Nor indeed, because Paradise was made ‘from the beginning,’ does it immediately follow that it was made either on the first day, or even before. For in John, chapter 8, our Lord says that the devil was a murderer from the beginning; whom yet it is agreed could not have been the author of man's death—whether spiritual or corporeal—before the sixth day, on which man was created. That ‘From the beginning,’ therefore, ought to be referred to the time of the first six days, but especially to the third day, on which (by the common and widespread opinion) Paradise was planted.16
AT enimvero Septuaginta Interpretes per vocem Kedem non tempus intellexerunt sed locum: quoniam autem praeceps mundi pars est Oriens (scilicet unde capit initium praestantissimus caelestis motus primi mobilis), idcirco Graece ipsi transtulerunt κατὰ τὰς ἀνατολάς, id est ad Orientem: quam lectionem omnes fere Graeci Patres secuti et interpretati sunt. In his est Basilius homilia 11 in Genesim, et in Sermone quo tractat verba illa Pauli ad Thessalon. 5, In omnibus gratias agite; Chrysostomus et Theodoretus super hoc loco; Gregorius Nyssenus super Oratione cur versi ad Orientem adoremus; Damascenus libro quarto de Fide orthodoxa cap. 13. Isti enim tradunt vetustissimae consuetudinis convertendi se in orando ad Orientem hanc esse unam de multis, eamque praecipuam rationem, quod Paradisus in quo Adam collocatus est, et ex quo propter peccatum est deiectus, in regione orientali fuerit. In orando igitur spectamus Orientem, quasi reducentes in memoriam acerbum illum casum nostrum, quo ex beatissimis Paradisi locis in hoc aerumnarum et miseriarum plenissimum exilium sumus extrusi, simulque desiderantes ad caelestem Paradisum, cuius ille imago fuit, aliquando pervenire. Ergo in hoc loco vox Kedem significat plagam Orientalem, ut sensus sit Paradisum esse consitum in parte Orientali regionis Heden. Hunc etiam intellectum verborum Mosis habent Hebraeorum Commentarii. Certe, extremo capitis 3 huius libri, eandem vocem Kedem Hieronymus non ad tempus sed ad locum retulit. Sic enim transtulit, Collocavit Deus ante Paradisum voluptatis Cherubim. Ubi cernis vocem Kedem vertisse Hieronymum non A principio sed Ante. Hebraice autem sic est ad verbum, Posuit a parte Orientali horti Heden Cherubinos.
But indeed the Seventy Translators understood by the word Kedem not time but place: and since the foremost part of the world is the East (namely, whence the most excellent celestial motion of the prime mobile takes its beginning), they therefore translated it in Greek κατὰ τὰς ἀνατολάς, that is, toward the East: which reading nearly all the Greek Fathers followed and interpreted. Among these is Basil, in the eleventh homily on Genesis, and in the Sermon in which he treats those words of Paul to the Thessalonians, chapter 5, In all things give thanks; Chrysostom and Theodoret on this place; Gregory of Nyssa on the Oration Why, turned to the East, we adore; Damascene, in the fourth book On the Orthodox Faith, chapter 13. For these hand down that, of the most ancient custom of turning oneself in praying toward the East, this is one of many, and the chief reason: that Paradise, in which Adam was placed, and from which for sin he was cast down, was in the eastern region. In praying, therefore, we look toward the East, as if recalling to memory that bitter fall of ours, by which from the most blessed places of Paradise we were thrust out into this exile most full of toils and miseries, and at the same time desiring one day to reach the heavenly Paradise, of which that was an image. Therefore in this place the word Kedem signifies the Eastern region, so that the sense is that Paradise was planted in the Eastern part of the region Heden. The Hebrew Commentaries also have this understanding of the words of Moses. Certainly, at the end of chapter 3 of this book, Jerome referred the same word Kedem not to time but to place. For so he translated, God placed before the Paradise of pleasure the Cherubim. Where you see that Jerome rendered the word Kedem not ‘From the beginning,’ but ‘Before.’ But in Hebrew it is thus, word for word, He set at the Eastern part of the garden Heden the Cherubim.17
QUIDAM putant eo locatum esse Paradisum ad Orientem quod pars Orientalis tam in caelo quam in terra sit omnium praestantissima: illinc enim primus et perfectissimus caeli motus suam capit incitationem. Certe regiones Orientis, sicut est India, praedicatione rerum pretiosissimarum quarum sunt fertilissimae, nobilitavit antiquitas: quanquam Iulius Scaliger in opere Exercitationum quod scripsit adversus Cardanum, exercitatione 99, multa colligit ad probandum longe meliora et omni genere laudis praestabiliora nasci in terris quae sunt cis Persicum sinum usque ad extremam Lusitaniae oram, quam in regionibus Orientis quae sunt ultra sinum Persicum.
Some think that Paradise was located toward the East for this reason, that the Eastern part, both in heaven and on earth, is the most excellent of all: for thence the first and most perfect motion of heaven takes its impulse. Certainly antiquity ennobled the regions of the East (such as India) by the renown of the most precious things, of which they are most fertile: although Julius Scaliger, in the work of Exercitations which he wrote against Cardano, in exercitation 99, gathers many things to prove that far better things, and more outstanding in every kind of praise, are born in the lands which are this side of the Persian Gulf as far as the farthest shore of Lusitania, than in the regions of the East which are beyond the Persian Gulf.18
VERUM hoc loco prodendum est, quod est ab aliis proditum ante nos et est profecto verissimum: nusquam in sacris litteris regionem quae est ultra sinum Persicum, tam citeriorem quam ulteriorem Gange, sub nomine Orientis appellari; sed orientales terras simpliciter vocat divina Scriptura quae sunt citra sinum Persicum, ut Persidem, Armeniam, Arabiam atque Mesopotamiam. Gentes quoque his regionibus propriores comparatione Iudaeorum nominare solet orientales, eorumque loca esse ad Orientem, sicut[...]
But in this place it must be set forth—which has been set forth by others before us, and is surely most true—that nowhere in the sacred writings is a region which is beyond the Persian Gulf, whether nearer or farther than the Ganges, called by the name of the East; but the divine Scripture simply calls those ‘eastern lands’ which are this side of the Persian Gulf, such as Persia, Armenia, Arabia, and Mesopotamia. The nations also nearer to these regions, in comparison with the Jews, it is wont to name ‘eastern,’ and their places to be ‘toward the East,’ such as[...]19
...[sicut] Arabes, Idumaeos, Amalechitas, Madianitas, Ammonitas et Moabitas, necnon et mare Rubrum ac mare salsum. Quapropter Iob, qui erat Idumaeus, numeratur inter filios Orientis; et tres Magi qui ex Perside, vel Chaldaea, vel Arabia venerunt ad Christum dominum adorandum, venisse dicuntur ex Oriente. Quinimo solet Scriptura frequenter Mesopotamiam vocare simpliciter terram orientalem: etenim Geneseos 29 Iacob, profectus in Mesopotamiam, ivisse dicitur in terram orientalem; et in libro Numerorum capite 23 Balaam ariolus ductus esse dicitur ad maledicendum Hebraeis ex montibus Orientis, quem tamen Moses in Deuteronomio cap. 23 adductum fuisse ex Mesopotamia Syriae scriptum reliquit. Legimus quoque in 25 cap. libri Geneseos liberos quos ex Cetura susceperat Abraham (inter quos numerantur Madian et Epha) separasse eum ab Isaac ad plagam orientalem. Ex his apparet terram orientalem in sacris litteris eam duntaxat nominari quae citra sinum Persicum usque ad Iudaeam porrigitur. Indiam vero orientalem, licet ea tam Mathematicorum designatione quam Graecorum et Latinorum scriptorum appellatione verius aliis omnibus terris sit orientalis, Scriptura tamen eo nomine nusquam eam memorat aut nominat: quo licet intelligere Heden in quo erat Paradisus, et qui dicitur fuisse ad Orientem, non ultra sinum Persicum fuisse; eorumque coniecturam vehementer aberrare qui propterea existimarunt Paradisum in ultimis terrae oris (scilicet in India, vel etiam ultra eam) fuisse, quod Moses dixerit eum fuisse ad Orientem. Ergo integra huius loci Mosis sententia haec erit: Plantavit Deus Paradisum in regione Heden ad plagam eius orientalem.
...such as the Arabs, the Idumaeans, the Amalekites, the Midianites, the Ammonites, and the Moabites, and also the Red Sea and the Salt Sea. Wherefore Job, who was an Idumaean, is numbered among the sons of the East; and the three Magi who came from Persia, or Chaldea, or Arabia to adore Christ the Lord, are said to have come from the East. Nay rather, Scripture is wont frequently to call Mesopotamia simply ‘the eastern land’: for in Genesis 29 Jacob, having set out for Mesopotamia, is said to have gone ‘into the eastern land’; and in the book of Numbers, chapter 23, the soothsayer Balaam is said to have been brought to curse the Hebrews ‘from the mountains of the East,’ whom yet Moses in Deuteronomy, chapter 23, left it written had been brought ‘from Mesopotamia of Syria.’ We read also in the 25th chapter of Genesis that the children whom Abraham had taken from Keturah (among whom are numbered Madian and Epha) he separated from Isaac ‘toward the eastern region.’ From these it appears that ‘the eastern land’ in the sacred writings is named only that which extends this side of the Persian Gulf as far as Judaea. But eastern India—although both by the designation of the Mathematicians and by the appellation of Greek and Latin writers it is more truly eastern than all other lands—Scripture nevertheless nowhere mentions or names by that name: whence one may understand that Heden, in which Paradise was, and which is said to have been toward the East, was not beyond the Persian Gulf; and that those greatly err in their conjecture who, because Moses said it was toward the East, therefore thought Paradise was in the farthest shores of the earth (namely in India, or even beyond it). Therefore the whole sense of this place of Moses will be this: God planted Paradise in the region Heden, toward its eastern part.20

Translator’s notes

  1. The title/running-head for Book Three's exposition, drawn from Genesis chapter 2 (the account of the Garden of Eden). ↩
  2. The Scripture lemma (Genesis 2:8–14, Vulgate) being expounded in Book Three. Pererius will gloss it word by word: ‘Paradisum,’ ‘voluptatis,’ the tree of life, the four rivers (Phison, Geon/Gihon, Tigris, Euphrates), etc. (Marginal verse numbers 8–15.) ↩
  3. Marginal reference: "GENES. 2. VERS. 8." The opening clause of Genesis 2:8, taken up for comment. ↩
  4. Marginal gloss: "Paradisus ante creatum hominem plantatus, contra Basilium." Though the Hebrew reads ‘He planted,’ the Hebrews use the perfect for the pluperfect, so ‘had planted’ means paradise was planted before man's creation (man, once made, was led straight into it). Against Basil (Homily 11 on Genesis = On Paradise), who placed paradise's creation after man's—a view from Moses's order of mention, which is by ‘recapitulation’ (narrating earlier things later; cf. its converse, ‘anticipation’). Paradise was planted on the third day; God is said singularly to have ‘planted’ it (as Scripture marks the most excellent with God's name) for its incomparable beauty—just as man's forming is singularly ascribed to God for his dignity. ↩
  5. Marginal gloss: "De vocabulo Paradisi." The word ‘Paradise’ (Gen 2:8), taken up for a philological gloss on its Hebrew and Greek origins. ↩
  6. The word ‘Paradise’ here is the Hebrew גן (Gan), rendered ‘Paradisus’—meaning a garden, derived (say some Hebraists) from the root גנן (Ganan), ‘to protect and hide’: either a garden whose thick, tall, wide-branched trees shade those beneath, or an enclosed, fenced place barred to beasts and men. Continues onto the next page (catchword ‘ticis’; quoting Canticles 4:12, ‘a garden enclosed’). ↩
  7. Two near-synonymous Hebrew words: גן (Gan) and פרדס (Pardes), found together in Eccl 2:5 (‘gardens and orchards’). Pardes occurs in Scripture only thrice (Eccl 2; Nehemiah/2 Esdras 2; Canticles 4:13). The Septuagint render Pardes (and sometimes Gan) as ‘paradisus,’ and the word ‘Paradisus’ likely derives from Pardes. Julius Pollux (Onomasticon 11) calls it Persian, not Greek; Xenophon and Philostratus use ‘paradises’ for the Persian kings' game-parks; Aulus Gellius (Noctes Atticae 2.20) equates the Greek ‘paradisi’ with Latin ‘vivaria’/‘roboraria.’ Suidas derives it from δεύω (‘I water’). [The final Greek etymological phrase before ‘a collectione herbarum’ is partly illegible on the scan.] ↩
  8. Marginal gloss: "Dupliciter in sacris litteris sumi nomen Paradisi." In Scripture ‘Paradise’ means (1) any most pleasant place: Sodom's land ‘like a paradise’ (Gen 13:10); Solomon's ‘gardens’ (Eccl 2:5, LXX ‘paradises’); Canticles 4:13; the ‘paradise of God’ (Ezek 28:13; 31:8, by allegory of the Assyrian king); Wisdom ‘came out of paradise’ (Ecclus 24:41). Or (2) spiritual delight—especially the heavenly eternal life: ‘this day thou shalt be with me in paradise’ (Luke 23:43); Paul caught up ‘into paradise’ (2 Cor 12:4); ‘the tree of life in the paradise of my God’ (Apoc 2:7). Continues onto the next page (catchword ‘dabo’). ↩
  9. Closing the survey of ‘paradise’ in Scripture: the word is used sometimes of a corporeal place, sometimes of a spiritual reality—but always conveys an immense delight and pleasantness. ↩
  10. The word ‘voluptatis’ of Gen 2:8 (‘a paradise of pleasure’), taken up for a gloss on the underlying Hebrew Eden (Heden). ↩
  11. Marginal gloss: "De significatione vocis Heden." The Hebrew is בעדן (Be Heden), ‘in Heden (Eden)’; the word Heden means ‘delights, pleasures,’ from the root עדן (‘to delight’), whence the noun עדנה (Hedna, ‘delight’). The Greek ἡδονή (‘pleasure’) may derive from it. But sometimes Heden is a proper place-name: Cain dwelt east of Heden (Gen 4:16, where Jerome kept it a proper name); ‘Charan and Heden were thy traders’ (Ezek 27:23); and among the Assyrians' conquests, ‘Gozan, Charan, and the sons of Heden’ (Isa 37:12). ↩
  12. Cajetan groundlessly denies that ‘Heden’ in Ezekiel/Isaiah means the same as in Genesis 2, though it is the same word identically written. His argument: the Eden of Genesis, where Adam was placed, became (after his expulsion) uninhabitable and inaccessible, guarded by the Cherubim; whereas the Heden of Isaiah/Ezekiel was a cultivated trading region (Catharinus agreed). Pererius refutes: Eden was inaccessible only before the flood (while the Paradise endured); once the flood laid it waste and stripped its first beauty, men began to cultivate and inhabit it. ↩
  13. Marginal gloss: "An hoc loco vocabulum Heden significet voluptatem an certum aliquem locum." Since ‘Heden’ is ambiguous (both ‘pleasure’ and a place), it is doubtful which sense it has here. Jerome took it as ‘pleasure’ (‘a paradise of pleasure’); but since the Hebrew is בעדן (‘in Heden’), Jerome's sense would give the harsh literal ‘planted in pleasure’ (‘what does God planted in pleasure mean?’). The Septuagint kept the Hebrew name ‘Heden’ untranslated, seeming to take it as a place-name. Continues onto the next page (catchword ‘voca’; signature N 3). ↩
  14. Continuing the gloss on ‘Heden/Eden’ (Gen 2:8): the Septuagint took it as a place-name (though sometimes rendering it ‘pleasure’). Pererius judges it most likely Moses means a place where Paradise was—backed by nearly all the Greek Fathers and four noble Rabbis (Kimchi, Abraham ben Ezra, Salomon/Rashi). Moses's circumstances (Heden's eastern part, the great river dividing into four) show ‘Heden’ is a place, not ‘pleasure’ (else ‘the river went out of pleasure’ is senseless). Either the region was named Heden for its pleasantness, or the word ‘pleasure’ was drawn from that most delightful place. ↩
  15. The phrase ‘a principio’ of Gen 2:8 (‘a paradise of pleasure from the beginning’), taken up for a gloss on the underlying Hebrew Kedem. ↩
  16. Marginal gloss: "Quod dixit Hieronymus Paradisum esse factum ante caelum et terram, quomodo sit intelligendum." The Hebrew מקדם (Mi Kedem)—the word קדם (Kedem)—is ambiguous (‘before/beginning,’ of place or time). Jerome (following Aquila, Symmachus, Theodotion) took it temporally (‘from the beginning’), and elsewhere argued Paradise was made before heaven and earth. Pererius defends this only as meaning the spiritual Paradise (eternal life), or ‘before the perfecting of heaven and earth.’ ‘From the beginning’ need not mean the first day (cf. the devil ‘a murderer from the beginning,’ John 8:44, yet not before the sixth day); it refers to the first six days, especially the third, when (by common opinion) Paradise was planted. ↩
  17. Marginal gloss: "De antiquo more orandi versa ad Orientem facie." The Septuagint took Kedem as place, not time, rendering it κατὰ τὰς ἀνατολάς (‘toward the East’)—since the East is the world's foremost part (whence the prime mobile's motion starts). Most Greek Fathers follow (Basil, Hom. 11 & on 1 Thess 5:18; Chrysostom; Theodoret; Gregory of Nyssa, On Worshipping toward the East; John Damascene, De Fide orth. 4.13): the ancient custom of praying toward the East is chiefly because Paradise (whence Adam was cast for sin) lay in the East—so we face East recalling our fall and longing for the heavenly Paradise it imaged. So Kedem here = the Eastern region; Paradise was planted in the eastern part of Heden. Jerome too (Gen 3:24) rendered Kedem as ‘before/at the east’ (the Cherubim ‘at the eastern part of the garden Heden’). ↩
  18. Marginal gloss: "An regio Orientalis sit totius terrae praestantissima." Some hold Paradise was eastward because the East is the most excellent part of heaven and earth (whence heaven's motion starts); antiquity ennobled the East (e.g. India) for its precious products. But Julius Caesar Scaliger (Exercitationes against Cardano, ex. 99) argues that far better things are born in the lands this side of the Persian Gulf—as far as the coast of Lusitania (Portugal)—than in the East beyond the Gulf. ↩
  19. Marginal gloss: "Quae nominetur in litteris sacris terra orientalis." A key point: Scripture never calls anything beyond the Persian Gulf (nearer or farther than the Ganges) ‘the East’; it calls ‘eastern lands’ only those this side of the Gulf—Persia, Armenia, Arabia, Mesopotamia—and the nearer peoples (relative to the Jews) ‘eastern.’ Continues onto the next page (catchword ‘sicut’). ↩
  20. Continues the catalogue of Scripture's ‘eastern’ peoples (Arabs, Idumaeans, Amalekites, Midianites, Ammonites, Moabites; the Red Sea, the Salt/Dead Sea): Job the Idumaean is a ‘son of the East’; the Magi came ‘from the East’; Mesopotamia is simply ‘the eastern land’ (Jacob's journey, Gen 29; Balaam ‘from the mountains of the East,’ Num 23 = ‘Mesopotamia of Syria,’ Deut 23; Keturah's sons sent ‘eastward,’ Gen 25). So Scripture's ‘East’ reaches only to the Persian Gulf—never India. Hence Eden was not beyond the Gulf, and those err who placed Paradise in India or beyond. Full sense: ‘God planted Paradise in the region Heden, toward its eastern part.’ ↩