LatineEnglish
And they were both naked, namely Adam and his wife, and they were not ashamed. CHAPTER 2, VERSE 25.1
Erat autem vterque nudus, Adam scilicet & vxor eius, & non erubescebant. CAP. 2. VERS. 25.
SIGNIFICAT Moses hac ratione fuisse primos illos homines animo simplici & candido atque innocenti: tales scilicet, vt quamuis nudi essent, nullo tamen pudore afficerentur; tanta erat carnis & spiritus concordia, nullaque sensus aduersus rationem rebellio. Itaque breuiter his verbis indicatur qualis fuerit primaeuus ille status hominis ante peccatum, tam secundùm corpus quàm secundùm animum. Secundùm corpus, quantùm ad naturalem pulchritudinem & impassibilitatem: tanta enim erat pulchritudo corporis, vt ad eius decorem & ornatum nullis opus esset vestibus. Quantùm ad impassibilitatem, quia licet nudi essent, nullis tamen imbrium, ventorum, caloris, frigoris, aliísve coeli & aëris incommodis obnoxij essent. Secundùm animum verò, quantum ad innocentiam, quae declaratur expressissimè illis verbis, Et non erubescebant: significatur enim perfecta vacuitas ab omni perturbatione animi, omníque appetitus immoderato motu, perfectáque obedientia quam pars inferior hominis praestabat superiori. Et quia tantum hoc bonum ex originali iustitia proueniebat, simul etiam demonstratur quanta fuerit illius admirabilis doni vis & excellentia.
Moses signifies by this that those first men were of a simple, candid, and innocent mind: such, namely, that although they were naked, they were nevertheless affected by no shame; so great was the concord of flesh and spirit, and no rebellion of the senses against reason. And so by these words is briefly indicated what that primeval state of man before sin was, both as to body and as to mind. As to body, with respect to natural beauty and impassibility: for so great was the beauty of the body that, for its comeliness and adornment, there was no need of any clothes. As to impassibility, because, although they were naked, they were nevertheless liable to no inconveniences of rains, winds, heat, cold, or other [discomforts] of sky and air. But as to mind, with respect to innocence — which is declared most expressly by those words, “And they were not ashamed”: for there is signified a perfect emptiness from all perturbation of mind, and from every immoderate motion of appetite, and the perfect obedience which the lower part of man rendered to the higher. And because so great a good as this proceeded from original justice, at the same time is also demonstrated how great was the force and excellence of that admirable gift.
2SCIENDVM autem est post peccatum opus fuisse vestibus, eorúmque vsum varias ob causas esse vsurpatum. Primò quidé necessitatis causa coeptum est vti vestibus, ad tegendum scilicet & tuendum corpus aduersus coeli & aëris iniurias; tum verecundiae & honestatis causa ad velandú obscoenitatem quorundam membrorú; posteà ad vitium aliquod & deformitatem corporis occultandá; deinde ad ornatum & pulchritudiné; quinetiam (proh nefas) ad lasciuiam & libidinis irritamentú; denique ad discernédos varios dignitatis & potestatis hominum gradus. Haec autem in statu innocentiae locú non habuissent, nullus igitur fuisset tunc vsus vestiú.
But it must be known that after sin there was need of clothing, and that its use was taken up for various causes. First, indeed, clothing began to be used for the cause of necessity, namely to cover and protect the body against the injuries of sky and air; then for the cause of modesty and decency, to veil the obscenity of certain members; afterward to conceal some vice and deformity of the body; then for adornment and beauty; nay even (O wickedness!) for lasciviousness and the incitement of lust; and finally for distinguishing the various grades of men's dignity and power. But these would have had no place in the state of innocence; therefore there would have been then no use of clothing.
3Multis item de causis vsu venit vt nuditas corporis non sit probro aut pudori: vel quòd quis non sit compos rationis, vt pueri & amétes; vel quia nimius aliquis timor occupat & obruit pudorem, vt si quis sentiens ruiná aut incendium domus, nudus è lecto prosiliat in publicum; vel ob antiquissimá regio-[nis consuetudinem...]
Likewise, for many causes it comes about that bodily nakedness is no reproach or shame: either because someone is not in possession of reason, like children and the mad; or because some excessive fear seizes and overwhelms shame — as if someone, perceiving the collapse or the burning of his house, should leap naked from his bed into public; or on account of the most ancient cus[tom of a region...] [continues]
4[...vel ob antiquissimá regio]nis consuetudinem, vt in Brasilia & alibi omnes nudo sunt corpore; & mos lauandi simul in balneis nuditatis pudorem aufert; vel quia corpus amictu gloriae vestitum & ornatum est, corpora enim Beatorum post resurrectionem nuda erunt, sed quia tunc fulgebunt iusti sicut Sol, ea nuditas magno illis decori & gloriae erit. Ad extremum, in statu innocentiae nuditas corporis minimè pudenda fuisset: quò enim vestibus vti voluissent? cùm nec exteriùs propter nuditaté mali vel molestiae quicquam eis accideret, nec interiùs quicquam inordinatum & pudendum sentirent.
[...or on account of the most ancient cus]tom of a region — as in Brazil and elsewhere all are of naked body; and the custom of bathing together in the baths takes away the shame of nakedness; or because the body is clothed and adorned with the garment of glory — for the bodies of the Blessed after the resurrection will be naked, but because then the just will shine like the Sun, that nakedness will be a great comeliness and glory to them. Finally, in the state of innocence bodily nakedness would by no means have been shameful: for to what end would they have wished to use clothes? since neither outwardly would any evil or trouble befall them on account of nakedness, nor inwardly would they feel anything disordered and shameful.
5Wisely, therefore, Augustine, in book 11 On Genesis according to the Letter, chapter 1: “The first men,” he says, “were naked, and were not confounded. There was no motion in the body to which shame was owed: they thought nothing must be veiled, because they had felt nothing must be restrained. For what would shame them, when they had felt no law in their members repugnant to the law of their mind?” Thus Augustine there.6
Scitè igitur Augustinus lib. 11. de Genesi ad litteram cap. 1. Nudi erant, inquit, primi homines & non confundebantur. Nullus erat motus in corpore cui verecúdia deberetur: nihil putabant velandum, quia nihil senserant refraenandum. Quid enim puderet eos, quando nullam legem senserant in membris suis repugnantem legi mentis suae? Haec ibi Augustinus.
PLATO priscorum hominum, qui regnante Saturno vixerunt (quod Poëtae tempus aureum appellarunt), innocentiam & simplicitatem in victu & vestitu omnique cultu vitae commendans, similia prodidit eorum quae Moses memorat de felici primorum hominum statu ante peccatum. Haec enim in Politico scripta reliquit Plato:
Plato, commending the innocence and simplicity, in food and clothing and every cultivation of life, of the ancient men who lived under the reign of Saturn (which the Poets called the golden age), brought forth things similar to those which Moses records concerning the happy state of the first men before sin. For Plato left these things written in the Politicus:
7“Nor indeed,” he says, “at that time was there any wild beast, nor did one yield to another as prey and food; nor was there any war, nor any sedition — there would, indeed, be more things that could be said, which followed upon this so great a quiet. But let only that now be said which pertained to man's spontaneous food. God Himself fed them, and was set over them, just as now man, since he is a divine animal, feeds and rules the other animals. And with God feeding [them], there was then no commonwealth, nor any production of wives and children: all were nourished from the earth; they had abundant fruits from the oaks and from the other trees, born not, indeed, by tillage, but generated spontaneously by the earth. Naked and without bedding they continued under the open sky; the pleasant places of the mountains were theirs, they had soft beds, since all the herbs sprang up abundantly from the earth.” Thus Plato — as to food from the earth's produce and the nakedness of bodies, very congruently with the things which Moses wrote in this place.8
Neque verò, inquit, illo tempore erat vlla fera, neque alia in praedam & escam alij cedebat: neque bellú, nec seditio erat vlla; essent quidem plura quae dici possent, quae hanc tantam quietem sequebantur. Verùm illud modo dicatur, quod ad spontaneum hominis victum pertinebat. Deus ipsos pascebat, eísque praeerat, sicut nunc homo, cùm sit diuinum animal, alia pascit & regit animalia. Deo autem pascente, nulla erat tunc Respublica, neque vxorum filiorúmque prouentus: è terra omnes alebantur, vberes fructus habebant à quercubus & ab aliis arboribus, non quidem per agricolationem natos, sed sponte terra generatos. Nudi & sine strato sub dio perseuerabant: montiú amoenitates illis erant, lectos habebant molles, cùm herbae omnes è terra vbertim germinarent. Haec Plato: quantum ad victum ex terra nascentibus & nuditatem corporum, valdè congruenter his quae hoc loco scripsit Moses.
ATQVI hic locus, in quo felicissimus primorum hominum status ante peccatum breuiter significatur & commendatur, inuitat nos vt de amplissimis status innocentiae bonis & excellentia separatim & accuratè disputemus. Verùm, quia satis longa & litigiosa haec futura est disputatio, quaeque iustam vnius libri mensuram implere possit, cumque magnitudo huius quarti voluminis tantùm excreuerit vt iam libi terminum & finem aliquem poni desideret, satiùs erit vt eam disputationem in quintum librum qui hunc proximè sequetur conferamus, eúmque librum in tam graui & difficili praeclaráque materia diligenter & copiosè tractanda totum consumamus.
And so this place, in which the most happy state of the first men before sin is briefly signified and commended, invites us to dispute separately and accurately concerning the most ample goods and the excellence of the state of innocence. But because this disputation will be quite long and contentious, and could fill the just measure of one book, and since the size of this fourth volume has grown so much that it now demands that some limit and end be set to it, it will be better that we transfer that disputation to the fifth book which will next follow this one, and consume that whole book in diligently and copiously treating so weighty and difficult and illustrious a matter.
9Translator’s notes
- Lemma (Gen 2:25), the nakedness without shame of the first pair. ↩
- Decorated initial 'S.' The verse indicates the pre-sin state in body (beauty needing no clothes; impassibility — no harm from weather) and mind (innocence — 'they were not ashamed' = no mental disturbance, no disordered appetite, the lower part obeying the higher) — a fruit of original justice. ↩
- The six post-Fall uses of clothing — protection, modesty, concealing defects, adornment, (perversely) seductive enticement, and marking rank — none of which would apply in innocence, so no clothing then. Marginal gloss: 'Multiplex vsus vestium.' ↩
- Cases where nakedness is not shameful: lack of reason (children, the insane); overwhelming fear (fleeing a fire); or ancient regional custom (continues on the next page). Marginal gloss: 'Quibus de causis nuditas corporis non sit pudenda.' ↩
- More cases: regional custom (Brazil), communal bathing, and the glorified bodies of the risen just (naked yet shining like the sun). In innocence nakedness was no shame — clothing being needless against neither outer harm nor inner disorder. ↩
- Augustine block-quote (de Gen. ad lit. 11.1): the first pair felt no shame because there was no disordered bodily 'motion' needing restraint — no law in the members warring against the mind (the post-Fall concupiscence of Rom 7:23). ↩
- Plato's account of the men of Saturn's reign (the golden age) parallels Moses on the first men's happy state. Introduces a quotation from the Statesman (Politicus). Marginal gloss: 'Plato consentanea Mosi scripsit de nuditate corporum primorum hominum.' ↩
- Plato block-quote (Statesman 271-272): in the age of Cronus no beast preyed on another, no war; God shepherded men, who fed on the earth's spontaneous fruits, lived naked under the open sky on soft grass — strikingly parallel to Eden. ↩
- Pererius defers the full treatise on the state of innocence to Book V, since Book IV has grown too large. Marginal gloss: 'Praeparatio lectoris ad quintum librum proximè sequentem.' ↩