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Library / Commentaries and Disputations on Genesis, Volume I

Book Five — the state of innocence

A DISPUTATION ON THE FOURTH EXCELLENCE of the state of innocence, that is, on the immortality of the body

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A DISPUTATION ON THE FOURTH EXCELLENCE of the state of innocence, that is, on the immortality of the body.1

DISPUTATIO DE QUARTA EXCELLENTIA status innocentiae, id est, de corporis immortalitate.

Restat quarta, maximeque admirabilis innocentiae status excellentia, quae continebat corporis immortalitatem: de qua, quae in praesens videntur disputanda, distincte ac dilucide breviterque tractabimus. Principio, sciendum est, non uno modo sed varias ob causas appellari res aliquas immortales & incorruptibiles. Est illud profecto summum & absolutissimum immortalitatis genus, esse simpliciter & omni modo, id est, tam intrinsecus quam extrinsecus immortale ac prorsus immutabile: quod genus immortalitatis soli Deo qui est prima rerum omnium causa, nec aliunde ulla ratione pendens, convenire potest. De qua immortalitate intelligi debet, quod ad Timotheum de Deo scripsit Paulus: Qui solus habet immortalitatem: sicut enim solus Deus dicitur esse & solus sapiens, & solus bonus ita solus immortalis.
There remains the fourth and most admirable excellence of the state of innocence, which comprised the immortality of the body: concerning which we shall treat distinctly, clearly, and briefly the points that seem at present to require discussion. First, it must be understood that things are called immortal and incorruptible not in one way but for various reasons. There is indeed that highest and most absolute kind of immortality, namely to be immortal simply and in every way—that is, immortal and wholly immutable both intrinsically and extrinsically: which kind of immortality can belong to God alone, who is the first cause of all things and depends in no respect on anything else. Of this immortality must be understood what Paul wrote to Timothy concerning God: 'Who alone has immortality' (1 Tim. 6:16): for just as God alone is said to be, and alone wise, and alone good, so too he alone is immortal.2
Alterum genus immortalitatis est, quo dicitur aliquid esse immortale secundum substantiam, quia caret materia quae est sedes & radix corruptionis substantialis atque mortalitatis. Verum hoc genus tripartitum est, quaedam enim res omnino segregatae sunt ab omni admixtione & societate materiae, ut Angeli: aliae sunt quidem consociatae & copulatae cum materia, verum tamen nec ad esse productae sunt ex eius potentia, nec ut sint, eius ope & adminiculo indigent: in hoc genere est anima rationalis. Nonnullae praeterea res naturam habere videntur ex materia concretam: quia tamen ea materia longe diversa est materiae rerum sublunarium, in qua inhaerens potentia contradictionis ad esse & non esse, causa est corruptionis; propterea immortalitatem & incorruptionem obtinent: huius generis esse orbes coelestes & astra, multi arbitrantur.
The second kind of immortality is that by which something is said to be immortal according to substance, because it lacks matter, which is the seat and root of substantial corruption and mortality. But this kind is threefold: for some things are entirely set apart from all admixture and partnership with matter, as the Angels; others are indeed associated and conjoined with matter, yet were neither produced into being out of its potency, nor do they need its help and support in order to exist: in this class is the rational soul. There are besides some things that seem to have a nature compounded of matter: yet because that matter is far different from the matter of sublunary things—in which the inherent potency of contradiction toward being and non-being is the cause of corruption—they therefore obtain immortality and incorruption: of this kind, many judge the celestial orbs and stars to be.3
Quintum genus immortalitatis & incorruptionis continet ea, quae ipsa quidem per se corruptibilia sunt: attamen quodammodo, & aliqua ex parte vocantur incorruptibilia, quia nunquam tota simul corrumpuntur, aut etiam corrumpi possunt: sed paulatim duntaxat & particulatim, in locum scilicet partium decedentium & pereuntium, aliis semper novis partibus succedentibus & aggeneratis: ita ut totius rei summa & integritas eadem omni tempore constare videatur: atque hac ratione Philosophi quatuor elementa incorruptibilia solent appellare. His autem quinque generibus rerum immortalium & incorruptibilium, naturalis est ipsa immortalitas, & naturali modo eis convenit.
The fifth kind of immortality and incorruption comprises those things which are indeed corruptible in themselves: yet in a certain manner and in some part they are called incorruptible, because they are never corrupted, nor even can be corrupted, all at once and as a whole; but only gradually and part by part—in the place of departing and perishing parts other new parts always succeeding and being generated alongside: so that the sum and entirety of the whole thing appears to remain the same at all times: and on this account the Philosophers are accustomed to call the four elements incorruptible. Now to these five kinds of immortal and incorruptible things, immortality itself is natural, and belongs to them in a natural manner.4
At enim sunt alia quatuor rerum genera, quibus adest quidem immortalitas, non tamen vi ac potentia naturae, sed supernaturali tantum Dei potestate: quippe cum res illae suapte natura mortales sint, atque corruptibiles. Huiusmodi immortalitatem & incorruptionem, post renovationem mundi & generalem hominum resurrectionem habebunt quatuor elementa, & beatorum hominum corpora: quin etiam eorum qui sempiternis inferni mactabuntur suppliciis, quorum videlicet corpora gravissimis cruciatibus perpetuo torquebuntur, nec unquam tamen morte dissolventur. Ad hoc genus immortalitatis pertinet ea (qua in statu innocentiae potiturus erat Adam) corporis immortalitas. Verum hoc interest, quod in prioribus, immortalitas erit impotentia moriendi: in Adam vero fuit, & fuisset in posteris eius nisi peccasset ipse, potentia non moriendi.
But there are besides four other kinds of things to which immortality is indeed present, yet not by the force and power of nature, but only by the supernatural power of God: since those things are by their own nature mortal and corruptible. Immortality and incorruption of this sort the four elements and the bodies of the blessed will have after the renovation of the world and the general resurrection of mankind; nay, even the bodies of those who shall be sacrificed to the everlasting torments of hell, whose bodies, namely, shall be perpetually tortured with the gravest agonies and yet never be dissolved by death. To this kind of immortality belongs that immortality of the body which Adam was to enjoy in the state of innocence. But there is this difference: that in the former cases immortality will be an inability to die (impotentia moriendi); whereas in Adam it was—and would have been in his posterity had he not himself sinned—an ability not to die (potentia non moriendi).5
Quoniam autem de hac immortalitate nunc agitur, caeteris omissis, qualis ea fuerit, quibus ex causis profecta sit, quam vim habuerit, denique qua ratione homini conveniret, diligenter explicandum est.
Since, then, it is this immortality that is now under discussion, the others being set aside, it must be carefully explained of what sort it was, from what causes it proceeded, what power it had, and finally in what manner it belonged to man.6

Translator’s notes

  1. Major structural divider: the fourth and last internal good of the state of innocence (after wisdom, grace, and original justice) is bodily immortality. ↩
  2. Marginal glosses: 'De multiplici genere immortalitatis' (On the manifold kinds of immortality); 'Explicatur locus Pauli ad Timotheum' (The Pauline passage to Timothy is explained). The Pauline citation is 1 Tim. 6:16. ↩
  3. The threefold second genus: (1) Angels, wholly immaterial; (2) the rational soul, joined to but not drawn from matter; (3) the heavens, whose matter lacks the contrary potency that causes sublunary corruption. ↩
  4. The fifth genus (the four elements) is incorruptible only as a whole-by-succession-of-parts. Pererius numbers five genera in all; in each, immortality is by nature. This sets up the contrast on the next page with the supernatural immortality belonging to Adam. ↩
  5. Crucial distinction: the immortality of the resurrected (blessed and damned) is impotentia moriendi (incapacity for death); Adam's was potentia non moriendi (capacity not to die)—a conditional immortality contingent on obedience. ↩
  6. Statement of the program for the disputation. ↩