Mind of the Church

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Library / Commentaries and Disputations on Genesis, Volume I

Book Four — the creation of the first human beings

A DISPUTATION ON THE PROPAGATION of the human race in the state of Innocence

LatineEnglish

A DISPUTATION ON THE PROPAGATION of the human race in the state of Innocence.1

DISPVTATIO DE PROPAGATIONE humani generis in statu Innocentiae.

SI Deus igitur ab initio creauit marem & foeminam, proculdubio etiam in statu innocentiae multiplicatio hominum per commistionem vtriusque sexus & carnalem generationem futura fuisset. Verùm quia nonnulli Patrum contrà sensisse videntur, tractanda est haec quaestio.
If God, therefore, from the beginning created male and female, doubtless even in the state of innocence the multiplication of men would have been through the commingling of both sexes and carnal generation. But because some of the Fathers seem to have thought the contrary, this question must be treated.2

Translator’s notes

  1. Major new section heading — the disputation on how mankind would have been propagated had Adam not fallen. ↩
  2. Decorated initial 'S.' The disputation's thesis: since God made the two sexes from the start, propagation in innocence would still have been by carnal generation — but some Fathers demur, so the question is opened. ↩