For that which the Latin reading has, “He cast in” (Immisit), in Hebrew it is a verb which properly signifies “he made to fall,” or “he made to fall down”: the Seventy rendered ἐπέβαλεν, which signifies “he threw upon” or “he sent in.” But the word which here is called by the Latin “sopor” (deep sleep) is in Hebrew תרדמה (Tardemah), which sounds a profound and deep sleep — for which Aquila rendered καταφοράν, that is, “a descent and a falling-away from all wakefulness”; but Symmachus κάρος, that is, “a heavy and profound sleep”; while the Seventy rendered ἔκστασιν, that is, an excess of mind, or ecstasy. The variety and reason of which word Jerome explains in the book of Hebrew Questions. But the word תרדמה (Tardemah), signifying an exceedingly heavy and deep sleep, occurs also elsewhere in the Scriptures: as in Genesis chapter fifteen, where it is said of Abraham, “When the sun was setting, a deep sleep rushed upon Abram”; and in the first of Kings, chapter twenty-six, “A deep sleep of the Lord had rushed upon them”; and in Isaiah chapter twenty-nine, “The Lord has mingled for you a spirit of deep sleep.”²

But it is wont to be asked whether that deep sleep of Adam was a natural sleep, or rather a certain ecstasy and abstraction of the mind from the senses. And indeed, from the fact that the Seventy render ἔκστασιν, and from the very greatness of the matter, some think that Adam was seized not by a sleep of the body but by an ecstasy of the mind: for then, while his body lay quiet and motionless, his mind, illumined by divine illuminations, contemplated great and hidden mysteries concerning Christ and the Church. But to us it seems more probable that that sopor was a true and natural sleep, to which, nevertheless, a certain ecstasy and prophetic excess of mind intervened — so that at once both the body might rest in sleep, and the mind, irradiated by the divine light, might foresee and foreknow things to come. For those words sufficiently indicate it which Adam, awakened, uttered: “This now is bone of my bones, and flesh of my flesh” — which, as Paul says, is a great sacrament in Christ and the Church. For neither could he have said these things unless taught from on high, and by the gift of prophetic illumination [strata...] [continues]³

[...furnished by the gift of prophetic illumination, could discern both] the things which were being done at that time, and understand the mysteries that lay hidden in them. But lest anyone should think that that sleep was natural and proceeded from natural causes, Moses said that God sent in that sleep. So that it may seem wonderful to no one that so heavy and deep a sleep could befall Adam, that, seized by it, he should not in the least feel the removal of the rib from his side.⁴