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Library / Commentaries and Disputations on Genesis, Volume I

Book Four — the creation of the first human beings

QUESTION IV. Whether woman was made to the image of God

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QUESTION IV. Whether woman was made to the image of God.1

QUAESTIO IIII. An mulier facta sit ad imaginem Dei.

ANSAM dubitandi affert Beatus Paulus, qui in prioris epistolae ad Corinthios capite undecimo, sicut expressè dicit virum esse imaginem Dei, ita videtur significare mulierem non Dei, sed viri esse imaginem: hoc enim modo scribit, Vir quidem non debet velare caput suum, quoniam imago et gloria Dei est; mulier autem gloria viri est. Et in Decretis 33. qu. 5. Augustini et Ambrosij testimoniis probatur mulierem non esse ad imaginem Dei. VERUM contra hoc facit, quod Moses, postquàm induxit Deum dicentem, Faciamus hominem ad imaginem et similitudinem nostram, mox subdit, Masculum et foeminam fecit eos, apertissimè significans utrumque sexum ad imaginem et similitudinem Dei esse creatum. Tractat fusè hanc quaestionem Augustinus libro duodecimo de Trinitate, capite septimo. Breviter autem ad eam responderi potest: Si spectetur propria et principalis ratio imaginis, quae attenditur secundùm gradum naturae intellectualis et secundum illas sex proprietates cum ea natura necessariò coniunctas, haud dubiè ratio imaginis aequaliter est in muliere atque in viro. Nam esse rationis et intelligentiae participem, immortali animo et libero arbitrio praeditum, et supernaturalium bonorum ac felicitatis aeternae capacem, aequè inest utrique.
The blessed Paul gives occasion for doubting, who in the first Epistle to the Corinthians, chapter eleven, just as he expressly says that man is the image of God, so seems to signify that woman is the image not of God, but of man: for he writes thus, A man indeed ought not to veil his head, since he is the image and glory of God; but the woman is the glory of the man. And in the Decretals, causa 33, q. 5, it is proved by the testimonies of Augustine and Ambrose that woman is not to the image of God. But against this tells the fact that Moses, after he had introduced God saying, Let us make man to our image and likeness, at once adds, Male and female he made them, most plainly signifying that each sex was created to the image and likeness of God. Augustine treats this question at length in the twelfth book On the Trinity, chapter seven. But it can be briefly answered: If the proper and principal nature of the image be regarded, which is attended to according to the grade of intellectual nature and according to those six properties necessarily joined with that nature, then without doubt the nature of the image is equally in woman and in man. For to be a partaker of reason and intelligence, endowed with an immortal soul and free choice, and capable of supernatural goods and eternal happiness, is equally present in each.2
Sin autem spectetur minùs propria et principalis ratio imaginis, quam suprà tractando primam quaestionem exposuimus, propterea dicitur vir imago Dei, foemina autem viri, quòd sicut Deus est principium et finis ex quo et propter quem vir factus est, ita vir principium et finis est foeminae: ex viro enim et propter virum mulier facta est. Id quod apertissimè indicavit eo in loco Paulus: quippe cùm dixisset virum esse imaginem et gloriam Dei, mulierem autem viri, mox eius rei velut rationem subiiciens, Non enim, inquit, vir ex muliere, sed mulier ex viro; etenim non est creatus vir propter mulierem, sed mulier propter virum. Iam verò, si Dei similitudo in viro ac foemina consideretur non secundùm dona naturalia, sed supernaturalia dona gratiae et gloriae, habent se vir et mulier sicut excedens et excessum: nonnullas enim foeminas reperire licet meliores similiorésque Deo multis viris; et contrà, viros aliquos multis foeminis meliores Deóque propiores. Quanquam negari non potest inter mulieres reperiri aliquam, beatissimam dico virginem Mariam, quae longè perfectiorem Dei similitudinem in se habeat quàm ullus vir: loquor autem de viro qui sit purus homo, ut excipiam Christum Dominum, qui simul homo et Deus fuit.
But if the less proper and principal nature of the image be regarded, which we set forth above in treating the first question, then man is called the image of God, but woman the image of man, because, just as God is the principle and end from whom and for whom man was made, so man is the principle and end of woman: for from man and for man was woman made. Which Paul most plainly indicated in that place: for, having said that man is the image and glory of God, but woman of man, he at once subjoins as it were the reason of this, For man is not of the woman, he says, but the woman of the man; for the man was not created for the woman, but the woman for the man. Now, if the likeness of God in man and woman be considered not according to natural gifts, but according to the supernatural gifts of grace and glory, man and woman stand to each other as the exceeding and the exceeded: for some women may be found better and more like to God than many men; and, on the contrary, some men better and nearer to God than many women. Although it cannot be denied that among women there is found one—I mean the most blessed Virgin Mary—who has in herself a far more perfect likeness of God than any man: but I am speaking of a man who is pure man, so as to except Christ the Lord, who was at once man and God.3
AT ENIMVERO, quae de hac quaestione scholastico modo praecisè disputavimus, latiori et luculentiori Sancti Basilij oratione exornanda et illustranda sunt. Is enim, homilia decima in Genesim super illis verbis, Masculum et foeminam fecit eos, cum dixisset propterea haec verba subtexuisse Mosen ne quis fortè suspicaretur quod dictum fuerat, Faciamus hominem ad imaginem et similitudinem nostram, non ad foeminam sed ad solum virum pertinere, subiungit:
But in truth, what we have disputed precisely about this question in the scholastic manner must be adorned and illustrated by the fuller and more brilliant discourse of St. Basil. For he, in the tenth homily on Genesis upon those words, Male and female he made them, having said that Moses appended these words for this reason, lest anyone should perhaps suspect that what had been said, Let us make man to our image and likeness, pertained not to the woman but to the man alone, adds:4

The woman too, he says, has it no less than the man, that she was made to the image of God: the honor is for both, the nature in no way unequal, the virtues equal, for both an equal reward set before them in the contest of virtue, for both a like decreed condemnation when they sin. I would not have the woman say, I am unwarlike and of a weak condition: this weakness is of the flesh, for in the soul has been fixed a virtue firm and powerful. This divine image, therefore, since it is equally honored in each sex, let virtue also be matched in each, which through good works may exert and unfold its power. And, after a few words interposed: The good woman, then, he says, has that, To the image. I would not have you direct your mind to this external man, which is, as it were, a certain covering of the soul: the soul lies hidden within, lurking beneath this integument and the somewhat soft body—the soul, which yet in man and woman is marked with equal honor: only in these external coverings is a difference found. Thus Basil.5

Habet, inquit, et mulier nihilo minùs quàm vir, quod ad imaginem Dei facta est: honor utrique, natura nihilo dispar, aequales virtutes, utrique in agone virtutis decertati propositum par praemium, consimilis utrique peccanti decreta condemnatio. Nolim dicat mulier, Imbellis sum et infirmae conditionis: isthaec infirmitas carnis est, nam in anima sibi sedem fixit virtus firma ac potens. Divina igitur imago haec, cum in utroque sexu peraequè honoretur, sit et compar in utroque virtus, quae per bona opera vim suam exerat et explicet. Et paucis interpositis: Habet igitur, ait, bona mulier illud, Ad imaginem. Nolim isti externo homini animum admoneas tuum, quòd velut quoddam animi tectorium est: delitescit anima intus, sub hoc integumento sessitans, et corpore molliusculo, quae tamen in viro et foemina pari honore insignita est: tantùm reperitur in istis externis integumentis discrimen. Sic Basilius.

Translator’s notes

  1. Page header: 'COMMENTARIORVM 380.' Fourth question, set centered beneath a rule. ↩
  2. Margin: 'Imago Dei quomodo aequaliter esse dicatur in viro et in muliere.' Objection from 1 Cor 11:7 and Gratian, Decretum C.33 q.5 (Augustine/Ambrose); answer: by the principal image (intellectual nature + the six properties) the image is equal in both sexes. Augustine, De Trinitate 12.7. ↩
  3. Margins: 'Mulier quomodo dicenda imago viri'; '1. Cor. 11.' The less-principal sense (man as principle/end of woman, 1 Cor 11:8–9); and again the Virgin Mary surpassing all men (Christ excepted). ↩
  4. Page header: 'IN GENESIM, LIB. IIII. 381.' Introduces the Basil (Hom. 10 in Genesim) block-quote affirming the woman's equal image. ↩
  5. Basil, Hom. 10 in Genesim. Equal image, honor, nature, virtue, reward, and condemnation in both sexes; the body is but the 'covering' of the soul, where alone the difference lies. A rule closes Quaestio IV. ↩