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Library / Commentaries and Disputations on Genesis, Volume I

Book Four — the creation of the first human beings

QUESTION VII. Whether the image of God which is in man can, on account of sin, be utterly destroyed and lost

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QUESTION VII. Whether the image of God which is in man can, on account of sin, be utterly destroyed and lost.1

QUAESTIO VII. An Imago Dei quae est in homine, propter peccatum penitus deleri ac perdi queat.

EPIPHANIUS in Epistola quam scripsit ad Ioannem Hierosolymitanum Episcopum, inter alios complures Origenis errores et hunc recenset, dixisse ipsum perdidisse hominem propter peccatum imaginem Dei. Quod refellit Epiphanius tribus Scripturae testimoniis: ex 9. capite libri Geneseos, ex Psalmo trigesimooctavo, et ex capite undecimo prioris Epistolae ad Corinthios, quibus in locis dicitur homo etiam post peccatum esse ad imaginem Dei. Verùm id de quo Epiphanius reprehendit Origenem aliquando sensisse videtur Augustinus, et scriptum reliquisse libro secundo contra Adimantium Manichaeum capit. 5., libro octogintatrium quaestionum quaestione 67., et libro 6. de Genesi ad litteram capite 27. et 28.: sed hoc posteà retractans correxit Augustinus, ut videre est apud ipsum, libro primo Retractationum capite 26. et libro secundo capite 24.
Epiphanius, in the Epistle which he wrote to John, bishop of Jerusalem, reckons this too among the many other errors of Origen: that he said that man lost the image of God on account of sin. This Epiphanius refutes by three testimonies of Scripture: from the 9th chapter of the book of Genesis, from the thirty-eighth Psalm, and from the eleventh chapter of the first Epistle to the Corinthians—in which places man is said to be 'to the image of God' even after sin. But that for which Epiphanius reproves Origen, Augustine too seems once to have held, and to have left in writing in the second book against Adimantus the Manichee, ch. 5, in the book of Eighty-Three Questions, question 67, and in the sixth book On Genesis according to the Letter, chapters 27 and 28: but Augustine afterward corrected this, retracting it, as may be seen in him, in the first book of the Retractations, ch. 26, and in the second book, ch. 24.2
CAETERUM parvo negotio et proposita quaestio enodari, et istorum auctorum dicta ad rectam sententiam deduci possunt. Dupliciter enim de imagine Dei quae est in homine loqui possumus. Vel prout ea consideratur secundum dona naturalia, et posita est in eo quod est habere naturam rationis et intelligentiae compotem: et hac ratione non magis peccato perditur imago Dei quàm perdatur natura ipsa rationalis seu intellectualis; non enim peccatum corrumpit et tollit dona naturalia. Aut consideratur imago Dei secundùm dona supernaturalia, scilicet divinae gratiae et coelestis gloriae, quae quidem est naturalis imaginis absolutio et consummatio: et huiusmodi similitudo et imago Dei peccando penitus deletur atque destruitur. Origenes igitur et Augustinus perdi imaginem Dei peccando intellexerunt, non secundùm substantiam, sed quantum ad eius pulchritudinem et perfectionem: vel id non de imagine naturali, sed de gratuita et supernaturali ab illis dictum est.
But with little trouble both the proposed question may be unraveled and the sayings of these authors brought to the right sense. For we can speak in two ways of the image of God which is in man. Either as it is considered according to the natural gifts, and is placed in this, that man has a nature possessed of reason and intelligence: and in this respect the image of God is no more lost by sin than the rational or intellectual nature itself is lost; for sin does not corrupt and take away the natural gifts. Or the image of God is considered according to the supernatural gifts, namely of divine grace and heavenly glory, which indeed is the completion and consummation of the natural image: and this kind of likeness and image of God is, by sinning, utterly blotted out and destroyed. Origen, therefore, and Augustine understood the image of God to be lost by sinning, not according to substance, but as regards its beauty and perfection; or this was said by them not of the natural image, but of the gratuitous and supernatural one.3

Translator’s notes

  1. Seventh question, set centered. ↩
  2. Margin: 'Error Origenis apud Epiphanium.' Epiphanius, Epistula ad Iohannem Hierosolymitanum (preserved in Jerome, Ep. 51), on Origen's error that sin destroys the image; refuted by Gen 9:6, Ps 38 (Vulg.), 1 Cor 11:7. Augustine's earlier view (Contra Adimantum 5; De diversis quaest. 83 q.67; De Gen. ad litt. 6.27–28) retracted at Retract. 1.26 and 2.24. ↩
  3. Margin: 'Solutio quaestionis.' Pererius's twofold solution: the natural image (rational nature) is not lost by sin; the supernatural image (grace/glory) is utterly destroyed. Foot of page: 'Comm. in Gen. Tom. 1.' with signature 'CC'; catchword 'QVAE' (= Quaestio). RESUME next batch at PDF 427 with the next Quaestio. ↩