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Library / Commentaries and Disputations on Genesis, Volume I

Book Four — the creation of the first human beings

And it was so done

LatineEnglish

And it was so done.1

Et factum est ita.

ILLVD, Ecce dedi vobis, emphasim habet: significat enim quantam Deus prouidentiam & curam gesserit hominis, cui scilicet à se creato protinus omnia quae necessaria vel opportuna ei erant, non ad viuendú modò, sed etiam ad commodè beatéque viuendum largissimè prospexerit & donauerit: nimirum ad conseruationem humanae speciei & hominum generationem, vtrumque sexum maxima cum foecunditate hominis naturae inseruit; ad hominis habitationem, amoenissimum paradisi domicilium assignauit; denique ad victum eius, saluberrimorum & suauissimorum ciborum copiam ex herbis & arboribus paradisi exhibuit. Vt verissimè liceat dicere, ita Deum tractasse hominem, vt parens vnigenum summéque dilectum filium [tractare solet...]
That, “Behold, I have given you,” has emphasis: for it signifies how great a providence and care God bore for man, for whom, namely, as soon as he was created by Him, He most amply provided and gave all the things that were necessary or opportune for him — not only for living, but even for living comfortably and happily: namely, for the conservation of the human species and the generation of men, He sowed both sexes, with the greatest fecundity, into the nature of man; for man's dwelling, He assigned the most pleasant domicile of paradise; finally, for his food, He furnished an abundance of the most healthful and sweetest foods from the herbs and trees of paradise. So that it may most truly be said that God treated man as a parent is wont to treat an only-begotten and most beloved son.2
[...parens vnigenum summéque dilectum filium tractare solet]. Quoniam autem plurali numero dixit Deus, Ecce dedi vobis (haud dubie significans Adam & Euam, quibus haec verba dixit), optima fit coniectura haec verba dicta esse in paradiso, in quo Eua creata est, nec inde prius exiuit quàm est à Deo propter peccatum eiecta. Quocirca videntur nonnullis haec verba iungenda cum verbis illis quae sunt in capite sequenti, Ex omni ligno paradisi comede; de ligno autem scientiae boni & mali ne comedas: quasi vna fuerit Dei oratio, haec & illa verba eius simul comprehendens. Et huius sententiae fuit Rupertus, vt manifestum sit lectori quae ab eo scripta sunt in lib. 2. cap. 10. & cap. 32. de Trinitate & eius Operibus, diligenter & attentè legenti.
[...as a parent is wont to treat an only-begotten and most beloved son]. But since God said in the plural number, “Behold, I have given you” (doubtless signifying Adam and Eve, to whom He spoke these words), the best conjecture is that these words were said in paradise, in which Eve was created, and from which she did not depart before she was cast out by God on account of sin. Wherefore these words seem to some to be joined with those words which are in the following chapter, “Eat of every tree of paradise; but of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil eat not”: as if it were one speech of God, comprehending both these and those words of His at once. And of this opinion was Rupert, as is manifest to the reader who reads diligently and attentively what was written by him in book 2, chapter 10, and chapter 32, On the Trinity and its Works.3
DILIGENTER consideranda & perpendenda sunt illa verba, Omnem herbam & vniuersa ligna, vt sint vobis in escam. Hinc apparet arbores fuisse in exordio mundi creatas à Deo in perfecto statu, id est cum fructibus iam maturis, videlicet vt homini quem Deus perfecta aetate, ob idque solido cibo indigentem creauerat, statim & abundè victum suppeditare possent. Hinc quoque licet intelligere quanta in statu innocentiae futura esset hominum in victu simplicitas atque frugalitas, vt tá multa & varia quae deinceps in cibo & potu curiosè quaesita & solerter reperta sunt, vel infirmitas vel intemperantia hominú adinuenerit. Quin ea frugalitas vsque ad diluuium, per annos nempè 1656. constanter seruata & religiosè culta est. Ad [hoc...]
Those words are to be diligently considered and weighed: “Every herb and all the trees, that they may be to you for food.” Hence it appears that the trees were created by God at the beginning of the world in a perfect state — that is, with fruits already mature — namely, that they might immediately and abundantly supply food to man, whom God had created at a perfect age, and therefore needing solid food. Hence too it may be understood how great, in the state of innocence, would have been men's simplicity and frugality in diet, so that all the many and various things which were afterward curiously sought and cleverly found in food and drink, either men's infirmity or intemperance invented. Indeed that frugality, right up to the flood — namely, through 1656 years — was constantly kept and religiously cultivated. To [this...] [continues]4
[...Ad] hoc tempus respexisse videntur poëtae, cùm aureum illud suum saeculum describentes, similem in eo fuisse victus tenuitatem & simplicitatem elegantissimis versibus cecinerunt, quorum nonnullos ex tribus Poëtis expromptos hic adscribam.
[...To] this time the poets seem to have looked back, when, describing that golden age of theirs, they sang in most elegant verses that there was in it a similar thinness and simplicity of diet — some of which, drawn from three Poets, I shall here set down.5

Boethius, in book 2 of the Consolation of Philosophy, meter 5, put forth these verses: “Too happy the former age, / content with the faithful fields, / and not ruined by slothful luxury, / which was wont with the easy acorn / to break its late-day fasts; / ... / nor did it know to mingle / the gifts of Bacchus with clear honey; / ... / Would that now our times might return / to the manners of the men of old!”6

Boethius lib. 2. de Consolatione Philosophica, metro 5. hos versus edidit: Felix nimium prior aetas, / Contenta fidelibus aruis, / Nec inerti perdita luxu, / Facilíque sera solebat / Ieiunia soluere glande, / ... / Bacchica munera nec norat / Liquido confundere melle. / ... / Vtinam modò nostra redirent / In mores tempora priscos.

Neither in sentiment nor in elegance unlike are the verses of Ovid in the first book of the Metamorphoses: “Content with foods produced by no one's compulsion, / they gathered the arbute fruits and the mountain strawberries, / and the cornel-cherries and the blackberries clinging on rough brambles, / and the acorns which had fallen from the spreading tree of Jove.”7

Nec sententia, nec elegantia dissimilia sunt Ouidij carmina in libro primo Metamorphoseos: Contenti cibis nullo cogente creatis, / Arbuteos foetus, montanaque fraga legebant, / Cornaque & in duris haerentia mora rubetis, / Et quae deciderant patula Iouis arbore glandes.

A similar sentiment Lucan expressed, in the fourth book, in verses at once most pointed and most charming: “O luxury, prodigal of things, / never content with what is got at little cost; / and ambitious hunger for foods sought on land and sea, / and the glory of a sumptuous table — / learn with how little life may be prolonged! / They drink not with gold and myrrh, but by a pure stream / life is restored: for the peoples the river and Ceres [grain] suffice.”8

Similem sententiam Lucanus, libro quarto argutissimis simul & venustissimis versibus expressit: O prodiga rerum / Luxuries, nunquam paruo contenta paratis: / Et quaesitorum terra pelagoque ciborum / Ambitiosa fames, & lautae gloria mensae, / Discite quàm paruo liceat producere vitam. / Non auro myrrhaque bibunt, sed gurgite puro / Vita redit: satis est populis fluuiúsque Cerésque.

ISIDORVS libro 17. Etymologiarum, capit. 7. vbi de nominibus arborum agit, Ilex, inquit, ab electione dicta est: huius enim arboris fructum homines primùm ad victum sibi elegerunt. Vnde & Poeta, Mortales primi ructabant gutture glandem. NAMQVE glandes & castaneae solidum admodum praebent alimentum, & quandam habent cum pane conuenientiam: quin ex his nonnullae gentes panem sibi ad quotidianum cibum conficiunt.
Isidore, in book 17 of the Etymologies, chapter 7, where he treats the names of trees, says: “The holm-oak (Ilex) is named from ‘election’ (choosing): for the fruit of this tree men first chose for their food.” Whence also the Poet: “The first mortals belched up the acorn from their throat.” For acorns and chestnuts furnish a quite solid nourishment, and have a certain agreement with bread; indeed, from these some nations make bread for themselves as their daily food.9
BEDA in Hexameron, quia hoc loco dicitur Deum homini omnem herbam omnésque arbores in cibum assignasse, argumentatur ante peccatum hominis nullam fuisse herbam vel arborem infructiferam aut inutilem homini ad cibum, nedum noxiam; alioquin non omnem herbam omnémque arborem dedisset homini Deus ad cibum. Sic autem scribit Beda: Iam hinc patet, quòd ante reatum hominis nil noxium terra protulit, nullam herbam venenatam, nullam arborem sterilem, cùm manifestè dictum sit quòd omnis herba & vniuersa ligna data sint hominibus ac volatilibus, terra quoque animantibus cunctis in escam. Verùm BEDAE nec probabilis sententia est, nec firma ratio. Etenim quàm multae sunt species pulcherrima-[rum...]
Bede, in the Hexameron, because in this place it is said that God assigned every herb and all trees to man for food, argues that before man's sin there was no herb or tree unfruitful or useless to man for food, much less harmful; otherwise God would not have given every herb and every tree to man for food. Bede writes thus: “Hence now it is clear that before man's guilt the earth brought forth nothing harmful — no poisonous herb, no sterile tree — since it is manifestly said that every herb and all the trees were given to men and to the birds, and to all the land-animals too, for food.” But Bede's opinion is neither probable, nor his reasoning firm. For how many are the species of most beautiful [trees...] [continues]10
[...Etenim quàm multae sunt species pulcherrima]rum arborum quae vel nullum ferunt fructum, vel certè ad victum hominis minimè accommodatum? quas profectò credibile non est aut defuisse in exordio mundi, aut ex frugiferis & homini ad cibum vtilibus propter peccatum hominis in contrariam naturam esse mutatas. Peccatum enim ne in ipso quidem homine qui peccauit, quae erant ei naturalia vlla ex parte mutauit: quanto igitur minus in stirpibus, quas peccatum hominis nequaquam attigit? Dicet aliquis Bedam locutum esse de solis paradisi herbis & arboribus. Sed neque hoc sententiam Bedae adiuuat. Siquidem Ezechiel capite 31. inter arbores quae [erant in Paradiso...]
[...For how many are the species of most beautiful] trees which either bear no fruit, or certainly one not at all suited to man's food? — which it is surely not credible either to have been lacking at the beginning of the world, or to have been changed, from fruit-bearing and useful for man's food, into a contrary nature on account of man's sin. For sin did not, even in the very man who sinned, change in any part the things that were natural to him: how much less, then, in plants, which man's sin in no way touched? Someone will say that Bede spoke of the herbs and trees of paradise alone. But neither does this help Bede's opinion. For Ezekiel, chapter 31, among the trees which [were in Paradise...] [continues]11
[...inter arbores quae erant in Paradiso], commemorat platanum, abietem & cedros, quas constat natura sua non esse humano victui conuenientes: Cedri, ait Ezechiel, non fuerunt altiores illo in paradiso Dei, abietes non adaequauerunt summitatem eius, & Platani non fuerunt aequales frondibus illius: omne lignum paradisi Dei non est assimilatum illi, & pulchritudini eius. Est autem infirma Bedae argumentatio. Illud enim, Omnem herbá & omnia ligna dedi vobis in escam, hoc nimirum significat, nihil fuisse de herbis & arboribus specialiter eis interdictum (vnam excipio arborem scientiae boni & mali), sed factam esse eis potestatem & copiam edendi quodque sibi deligerent ipsi in cibum. Scientiam autem internoscendi stirpes quae cibo hominis conueniebant ab his quae erant aliena, acceperat Adam à Deo, eámque posteris suis ipse tradidisset: cuius loco in brutis animantibus est naturalis quidam instinctus, quo velut magistro ducéque conuenientia naturae suae [persequuntur...]
[...among the trees which were in Paradise], he mentions the plane-tree, the fir, and the cedars, which it is agreed are by their nature not suitable for human food: “The cedars,” says Ezekiel, “were not higher than it in the paradise of God, the firs did not equal its top, and the planes were not equal to its foliage: no tree of the paradise of God was likened to it, and to its beauty.” But Bede's argumentation is weak. For that, “Every herb and all the trees I have given you for food,” signifies this: that nothing of herbs and trees was specially forbidden to them (the one tree of the knowledge of good and evil I except), but that the power and abundance was given them of eating whatever they should choose for themselves for food. But the knowledge of distinguishing the plants that were suitable for man's food from those that were foreign [to it], Adam had received from God, and would himself have handed down to his posterity: in place of which, in the brute animals, there is a certain natural instinct, by which, as by a teacher and guide, they pursue the things suitable to their nature [...] [continues]12
[...conuenientia naturae suae persequuntur], fugiúntque contraria. Vel illud, Omnem herbam & omnem arborem, intelligi debet non simpliciter & absolutè, sed cum adiunctione, scilicet humano victui conuenientem: ad eum nempe modum quo interpretamur illud Pauli 1. ad Timotheum 4. Omnis creatura Dei bona est, & nihil reiiciendú quod cum gratiarum actione percipitur; intelligimus enim omnem creaturá Dei bonam esse quae ad cibú hominis pertinet, nam id agit & vrget eo loco Paulus. Sanè, cum Moses dixit capite secundo Deum in Paradiso produxisse omne lignum pulchrum visu & ad vescendum suaue, non obscurè indicauit etiam arborum quae erant in paradiso alias fuisse speciosas & pulchras ad aspectum, alias verò iucundas & suaues ad vescendum.
[...they pursue the things suitable to their nature], and flee the contrary. Or that, “Every herb and every tree,” ought to be understood not simply and absolutely, but with an addition — namely, [every herb and tree] suitable for human food: in that manner, indeed, by which we interpret that of Paul (1 Timothy 4), “Every creature of God is good, and nothing to be rejected which is received with thanksgiving”; for we understand every creature of God to be good which pertains to man's food, for that is what Paul there urges. Indeed, when Moses said, in the second chapter, that God produced in Paradise every tree beautiful to the sight and sweet for eating, he indicated not obscurely that, of the trees which were in paradise, some were comely and beautiful to look at, but others pleasant and sweet for eating.13

Translator’s notes

  1. Sub-lemma (Gen 1:30b). ↩
  2. Decorated initial 'I.' 'Behold, I have given you' is emphatic of God's fatherly providence — both sexes for generation, paradise for dwelling, wholesome foods for nourishment; God treated man like a parent his only beloved son. ↩
  3. The plural 'you' (Adam and Eve) implies the words were spoken in paradise; some (Rupert, de Trin. 2.10, 32) join them with the food-precept and prohibition of Gen 2. ↩
  4. 'Every herb and tree for food' shows the trees were created already bearing mature fruit (for full-grown man, who needs solid food). Hence the great dietary simplicity of innocence — later culinary refinements being inventions of weakness or excess; this frugality endured to the flood (1656 years). Marginal glosses: 'Creatas esse arbores cum fructibus maturis.'; 'Quanta fuerit à principio hominum frugalitas.' ↩
  5. Pererius likens primeval frugality to the poets' 'golden age'; he will cite Boethius, Ovid, and Lucan. ↩
  6. Boethius block-quote (Cons. Phil. II m.5): the 'former age' lived on acorns, knew no wine-and-honey luxury — a wish for the return of ancient simplicity. ↩
  7. Ovid block-quote (Metamorphoses I.103-106): the men of the Golden Age fed on wild fruits, berries, and acorns. ↩
  8. Lucan block-quote (Pharsalia IV.373-381, abridged): a rebuke of culinary luxury — life needs only water and grain. ↩
  9. Isidore (Etym. 17.7.38): Ilex from electio (men first chose its fruit); with a verse on acorn-eating. Acorns and chestnuts are solid, bread-like food (some peoples make bread from them). ↩
  10. Bede (Hexameron) argues that before the Fall no plant was unfruitful, useless, or harmful to man. Pererius rejects this as improbable (refutation continues on the next page). Marginal glosses: 'Beda putauit, ante peccatum omnes plantas fuisse frugiferas, nullamque noxiam homini.'; 'Refellitur Beda.' ↩
  11. Refutation of Bede: many fine trees bear no edible fruit, and were neither absent at creation nor transformed by sin (sin changed nothing natural even in the sinner, much less in plants). Marginal gloss: 'Etiam in paradiso fuisse arbores cibo hominis minimè conuenientes.' ↩
  12. Ezekiel 31 names the plane, fir, and cedars in Paradise — inedible trees. So 'every tree for food' means only that nothing was forbidden (except the tree of knowledge), the power of choosing being given; Adam had God-given knowledge of which plants suited food (animals have instead a natural instinct). Marginal gloss: 'Soluitur ratio Bedae.' ↩
  13. Alternatively, 'every herb and tree' is to be read 'every one suitable for food' (as with 1 Tim 4:4, 'every creature of God is good'). Gen 2:9 ('every tree beautiful to sight and sweet for food') already distinguishes ornamental from edible trees in paradise. ↩