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Library / Commentaries and Disputations on Genesis, Volume I

Book Four — the creation of the first human beings

QUESTION III. Whether the Angel was made more to the image of God than man

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QUESTION III. Whether the Angel was made more to the image of God than man.1

QUAESTIO III. An Angelus magis ad Dei imaginem sit factus quàm homo.

RESPONDEO imaginem et similitudinem Dei posse in Angelo et in homine spectari, vel secundùm dona naturalia utriusque, vel secundùm gratuita et supernaturalia. Et secundùm naturam quidem considerari potest in utroque vel propria et principalis ratio imaginis, vel minus propria et principalis: quam distinctionem supra exposuimus. Angelus igitur secundùm naturam et secundùm propriam rationem imaginis perfectiùs habet in se imaginem Dei quàm homo: habet enim praestantiorem naturae intelligentis gradum, propter quem David Psalmo 8. dixit de homine, Minuisti eum paulominus ab Angelis. Principalis autem ratio imaginis in eo posita est, quòd habet naturam rationis atque intelligentiae compotem. Confirmat hoc Sanctus Gregorius in homilia 34. super Evangelia, ita scribens:
I answer that the image and likeness of God can be regarded in the Angel and in man either according to the natural gifts of each, or according to the gratuitous and supernatural gifts. And according to nature, there can be considered in each either the proper and principal nature of the image, or the less proper and principal—which distinction we set forth above. The Angel, therefore, according to nature and according to the proper nature of the image, has in himself the image of God more perfectly than man: for he has a more excellent grade of intelligent nature, on account of which David, in Psalm 8, said of man, Thou hast lessened him a little less than the Angels. And the principal nature of the image is placed in this, that he has a nature possessed of reason and intelligence. St. Gregory confirms this in homily 34 on the Gospels, writing thus:2

Whence to that very Angel who was first created it is said through the Prophet, Thou wast the seal of likeness, full of wisdom and perfect in beauty, thou wast in the delights of the paradise of God. Where it is to be noted that he is called not 'made to the likeness of God,' but 'the seal of likeness'—so that, the subtler the nature is in him, the more closely is the image of God intimated as expressed in him. Thus Gregory.3

Unde et ipsi Angelo qui primus est conditus per Prophetam dicitur, Tu signaculum similitudinis, plenus sapientia et perfectus decore, in deliciis paradisi Dei fuisti. Ubi notandum est, quòd non ad similitudinem Dei factus, sed signaculum similitudinis dicitur, ut quò in eo subtilior est natura, eò in illo imago Dei similius insinuetur expressa. Sic Gregorius.

QUOD si spectetur minus illa principalis ratio imaginis, quam suprà in prima quaestione quinque partitò distinximus, clariùs haec in homine quàm in Angelo elucet, ut manifestum sit perpendenti quae paulò superiùs à nobis dicta sunt. Denique, si ratio imaginis aestimetur in homine et in Angelo ex donis supernaturalibus gratiae et gloriae quae in utroque sunt, habent se homo et Angelus sicut excedens et excessum, ut loquuntur in scholis: siquidem aliqui Angeli secundùm gratiam et gloriam sunt Deo similiores quàm pleríque homines; et contrà, nonnulli homines similiores Dei sunt quàm multi Angeli. Potest tamen simpliciter et absolutè dici homo similior Deo quàm Angelus, in eo scilicet, quòd in genere hominum sit deipara semper virgo Maria, quae secundum gratiam et gloriam omnes Angelos longissimè superat, ac proinde similior Deo est quàm sit ullus Angelorum.
But if the less-principal nature of the image be regarded—which above, in the first question, we distinguished into five parts—this shines more clearly in man than in the Angel, as is manifest to one who weighs what we said a little above. Finally, if the nature of the image be estimated in man and in the Angel from the supernatural gifts of grace and glory which are in each, man and Angel stand to each other as the exceeding and the exceeded, as they say in the schools: since some Angels, according to grace and glory, are more like to God than most men; and, on the contrary, some men are more like to God than many Angels. Yet it can be said simply and absolutely that man is more like to God than the Angel, namely in this, that in the race of men is the God-bearer, the ever-Virgin Mary, who according to grace and glory by far surpasses all the Angels, and is therefore more like to God than any of the Angels.4

Translator’s notes

  1. Third question, set centered. ↩
  2. Ps 8:6 ('Minuisti eum paulo minus ab Angelis'). By nature/principal image the Angel surpasses man. Introduces the Gregory block-quote. ↩
  3. Gregory the Great, Homiliae in Evangelia 34. The text is Ezek 28:12 (margin 'Ezech. 28'), addressed to the prince of Tyre / the fallen Angel: 'Tu signaculum similitudinis...' ↩
  4. Conclusion of Quaestio III: the less-principal image and the supernatural gifts; man is absolutely more like God because of the Virgin Mary, who surpasses all Angels. ↩