Mind of the Church

The mind of the Church, faithfully rendered into English

Library / Commentaries and Disputations on Genesis, Volume I

Book Four — the creation of the first human beings

And God created man to His own image and likeness: male and female He created them. CHAPTER 1, VERSE 27

LatineEnglish

And God created man to His own image and likeness: male and female He created them. CHAPTER 1, VERSE 27.1

Et creauit Deus hominem ad imaginem & similitudinem suam: masculum & foeminam creauit eos. CAP. 1. VERS. 27.

CAETERA quae homini à Deo sunt data, vel ad eius dignitatem, vel ad salutem & incolumitatem pertinent: distinctio autem sexus in marem & foeminam, ad conseruationem speciei & propagationem humani generis conducit. Licèt autem hoc loco Moses simpliciter dicat factum esse è Deo marem & foeminam, non est tamen intelligendum vtrumque factum esse simul atque eadem ratione: namque ipse cap. 2. narrat, & à nobis suprà explicatum est, priùs factum esse virum ex limo terrae, posterius autem foeminam ex viri costa. Sed quia vterque factus est die sexto, cuius diei opera hic describit Moses, propterea strictè & compendiosè creationem vtriusque simul commemorauit. In solo autem homine expressa est distinctio maris & foeminae, quòd vtriusque coniunctio ad generationem prolis habeat multa eximia & singularia, quae in caeteris animantibus minimè insunt. Gene-[ratio...]
The other things which are given to man by God pertain either to his dignity, or to his health and safety: but the distinction of sex into male and female conduces to the conservation of the species and the propagation of the human race. But although in this place Moses simply says that male and female were made by God, it is nevertheless not to be understood that both were made at the same time and in the same manner: for he himself in chapter 2 narrates, and it has been explained by us above, that the man was made first, from the slime of the earth, but the woman later, from the man's rib. But because each was made on the sixth day, whose works Moses here describes, therefore he strictly and compendiously commemorated the creation of both together. But in man alone is the distinction of male and female expressed, because the conjunction of both for the generation of offspring has many excellent and singular things, which are by no means in the other living creatures. Gene[ration...] [continues]2
[...Gene]ratio enim carnalis à solo homine fieri potest vel cum vitio vel cum laude; & praeter communem cum caeteris animantibus finem, conseruationem scilicet atque propagationem speciei, alium habet singularem multóque praestantiorem, complementum dico numeri electorum & praedestinatorum. Humanú praeterea coniugium in noua lege sacramentum est gratiam conferens, habetáque singularem educandae prolis curam & necessitatem, ex eoque longa cognationis & affinitatis series deducitur. Denique, ad actum generationis vir & mulier conuenire debent, non tam incensi libidine voluptatéque [tracti...]
[...For carnal gene]ration can be performed by man alone either with vice or with praise; and, besides the common end with the other living creatures — namely, the conservation and propagation of the species — it has another singular and far more excellent end: I mean the completion of the number of the elect and the predestined. The human marriage, moreover, in the new law is a sacrament conferring grace, and has a singular care and necessity of rearing offspring, and from it a long series of kinship and affinity is deduced. Finally, for the act of generation the man and the woman ought to come together, not so much inflamed by lust and drawn by pleasure [...] [continues]3
[...non tam incensi libidine voluptatéque tracti], quàm honesta suscipiendae prolis cupiditate, & multiplicandi generis humani amore, adhibita rationis moderatione, aliisque adiunctis circumstantiis quae actum illum honestum & laudabilem acceptúmque Deo reddant. Dixit autem plurali numero, Masculum & foeminam creauit eos, ne quis putaret (vt monet Augustinus c. 22. lib. 3. de Genesi ad litteram) eundem hominem marem & foeminam esse factum, quales nimirum à Graecis appellantur ἀνδρόγυνοι, & quales in Africa reperiri tradit Plinius lib. 7. c. 2. Supra Nasamonas, inquit, confinesq́ illis Machlyas, Androgynos esse vtriusque natura, inter se vicibus coeuntes, Calliphanes tradit. Aristoteles adiicit, dextram mammam iis virilem, laeuam muliebrem esse. Plato etiam in Symposio, vt suprà memorauimus, fabulatur à principio fuisse tria hominum genera, marem, foeminam, & tertium vtriusque particeps, idque fuisse valentissimum ac diis bellum intulisse: quamobrem praecidendae multiplicationis eius [causa...]
[...not so much inflamed by lust and drawn by pleasure], as by the honest desire of receiving offspring, and the love of multiplying the human race, with the moderation of reason applied, and with other adjoined circumstances which render that act honest and laudable and acceptable to God. But He said in the plural number, “Male and female He created them,” lest anyone should think (as Augustine warns, On Genesis according to the Letter, book 3, chapter 22) that the same man was made male and female — such as are indeed called by the Greeks ἀνδρόγυνοι (androgynes), and such as Pliny relates are found in Africa (book 7, chapter 2): “Above the Nasamones,” he says, “and bordering on them the Machlyae, Calliphanes relates that there are Androgynes of both natures, coupling among themselves by turns.” Aristotle adds that their right breast is virile, the left womanly. Plato too, in the Symposium, as we mentioned above, fables that in the beginning there were three kinds of men — male, female, and a third sharing both — and that this was most powerful and made war on the gods: wherefore, for the sake of cutting off its multiplication, [...] [continues]4
[...quamobrem praecidendae multiplicationis eius causa], à Ioue fuisse diuulsum atque diuisum.
[...wherefore, for the sake of cutting off its multiplication], it was torn asunder and divided by Jove.5

Translator’s notes

  1. Lemma — the commentary now returns to Genesis 1:27 (deferred from Book I), on the creation of the two sexes. ↩
  2. Decorated initial 'C.' Sex-distinction serves species-conservation. 'Male and female He made them' (Gen 1:27) does not mean simultaneously/identically — Gen 2 shows man first (from earth), woman after (from the rib); both on the sixth day, hence Gen 1's brief joint mention. The sexual distinction is expressed of man alone because human generation has singular excellences. Page breaks at catchword 'Gene[ratio].' ↩
  3. Carnal generation in man may be virtuous or vicious; beyond the shared natural end (species-survival), it has a higher one — filling up the number of the elect. In the new law marriage is a grace-giving sacrament, with the duty of rearing children, and the source of kinship/affinity. Spouses should unite not for lust but... ↩
  4. Spouses should unite for offspring and the race, with reason's moderation, making the act acceptable to God. 'Male and female He created them' (plural) guards against thinking man was a single androgyne (Gk. ἀνδρόγυνοι) — Pliny (NH 7.2, from Calliphanes) on the African Machlyae; Aristotle (right breast male, left female); Plato's Symposium myth of the three sexes split by Jove. GLYPH verified by magnification: ἀνδρόγυνοι. ↩
  5. Conclusion of the Platonic myth: the powerful androgyne was split in two by Jove to curb its multiplying. ↩