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Library / Commentaries and Disputations on Genesis, Volume I

Book Five — the state of innocence

QUESTION I. Of what sort was Adam's immortality before sin

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QUESTION I. Of what sort was Adam's immortality before sin.1

QUAESTIO I. Qualis fuerit immortalitas Adami ante peccatum.

Adam igitur immortalis erat in statu innocentiae, quia poterat non mori: nec vero mortuus unquam fuisset, si in eo statu, nunquam peccando, perstitisset. Haec autem potentia non moriendi non proveniebat intrinsecus ex natura Adami, quippe secundum naturam suam mortalis erat & patibilis, vitamque animalem agens: sed princeps auctor eius Deus erat, qui hominem adversus mortem sua custodia & protectione usquequaque sepserat & munierat, & providentissime Adamo comparaverat omnia remedia adversus ea quae possent ei mortem afferre. Mors enim & corruptio potest homini accidere vel intrinsecus ex iis quae sunt in homine vel extrinsecus, ex iis quae mortifera homini accidunt.
Adam, then, was immortal in the state of innocence, because he was able not to die; nor indeed would he ever have died, had he, never sinning, persevered in that state. But this ability not to die did not come intrinsically from Adam's nature, since according to his own nature he was mortal and passible, leading an animal life: rather, its chief author was God, who had on every side hedged about and fortified man against death by his own keeping and protection, and had most providently furnished Adam with every remedy against the things that could bring death upon him. For death and corruption can befall man either intrinsically, from the things that are in man, or extrinsically, from the deadly things that happen to him.2
Intrinsecus mortis causa esse potest defectio caloris naturalis, aut primigenii humoris quem radicalem appellant: vel immoderata vis alicuius passionis & perturbationis animae: quosdam enim nimio moerore, timore, etiam gaudio interiisse proditum est: vel ex propria electione, ut qui praesentis vitae taedio, aut malorum quibus praemuntur impatientia, aut ingruentem calamitatem praevertere cupientes violentam sibi mortem consciscunt: vel ex immodico cibo & potu, venerisque intemperantia: vel denique nimio ex labore & defatigatione corporis, hae sunt in ipso homine mortis causae. Extrinsecus autem mors homini potest contingere vel ab alio homine, vel a bestiis, vel a daemonibus, vel ab ipso Deo per Angelos, vel ex letali aliquo potu esuque, vel ex defectione necessarii cibi & potus, vel ex intemperie caeli, vel ex casu aliquo fortuito, uti est in ignem, aquam, vel foveam prolabi, vel lapidis aut alicuius rei iactu percussum feriri: haec homini extrinsecus interitum afferunt. Nec his addere oportet dissolutionem temperationis quatuor humorum ex quibus humanum corpus constat, unde multa & varia morborum genera existunt: hoc enim nunquam homini contingit, nisi aliqua subsit de supradictis causis.
Intrinsically, the cause of death can be the failure of the natural heat, or of the primal moisture which they call radical; or the immoderate force of some passion and disturbance of the soul: for it is recorded that some have perished from excessive grief, fear, even joy; or by their own choice, as those who, from weariness of the present life, or from impatience at the evils that press upon them, or wishing to forestall an oncoming calamity, take a violent death upon themselves; or from excessive food and drink and venereal intemperance; or finally from too great labor and exhaustion of the body—these are the causes of death within man himself. Extrinsically, however, death can befall man either from another man, or from beasts, or from demons, or from God himself through the Angels, or from some lethal drink or food, or from the lack of necessary food and drink, or from intemperateness of the weather, or from some chance accident, such as falling into fire, water, or a pit, or being struck by the cast of a stone or some object: these bring destruction upon man from without. Nor need one add to these the dissolution of the balance of the four humors of which the human body consists, whence many and various kinds of diseases arise: for this never happens to man unless one of the aforesaid causes underlies it.3
His autem omnibus, Deo custodiente & protegente, facile praecavisset atque propulsasset Adam. Etenim adversus illas mortis causas efficacissima & paratissima habebat remedia: primo quidem perfectam scientiam in universali & in particulari rerum omnium quae prodesse ipsi aut nocere posset: tum summam omnium affectuum moderationem, quos nempe arbitratu suo vel excitabat, vel cohibebat: postea usum cibi, potus, Veneris & exercitationis corporis non nisi tantum, quantum ex rationis praescripto ei conveniebat atque conducebat. Deinde arborem vitae, cuius fructus perceptio & esus ad integrum caloris naturalis vigorem conservandum, & reficiendum nativi humoris defectum potentissimus erat: ad haec maximam & promptissimam ciborum maxime salutarium copiam: denique nullus hominum fuisset alii homini non amicus & cautus, cunctaeque animantes fuissent homini non innoxiae modo, sed etiam aequo obedientes: nihil praeterea fuisset daemoni permissum adversus hominem: a Deo autem & sanctis Angelis tantum aberat ut adversi quicquam posset homini accidere, ut quae ab eo non satis provideri & praecaveri possent, per Angelos arcerentur ac repellerentur.
But against all these, with God keeping and protecting him, Adam would easily have guarded and warded them off. For against those causes of death he had the most effective and ready remedies: first, perfect knowledge, both in general and in particular, of all the things that could benefit or harm him; then the supreme moderation of all his affections, which he would at his own discretion either rouse or restrain; next, the use of food, drink, venery, and bodily exercise only to the degree that befitted and was conducive to him by the prescript of reason. Then the tree of life, whose tasting and eating of its fruit was most powerful for conserving the natural heat in its integrity and for repairing any defect of the native moisture; in addition, a most ample and ready abundance of the most salutary foods; finally, no man would have been to another man unfriendly or wary, and all living creatures would have been to man not only harmless but also justly obedient; nothing besides would have been permitted to the demon against man; and so far were God and the holy Angels from allowing anything adverse to befall man, that whatever could not be sufficiently foreseen and guarded against by him would be kept off and repelled by the Angels.4

But for confirming and illustrating what we now say about the immortality of Adam's body, and what we taught a little above about the rebellion of the flesh against the spirit, arisen on account of Adam's sin and flourishing in all his posterity, that which Gregory hands down in the fourth book of the Morals, chapter twenty-six, is of the greatest value. For at once he lucidly sets forth both of what sort that immortality of Adam was, and from what sin of his there arose both the mortality and corruption of the body and the struggle and rebellion of the flesh against the spirit. Therefore, expounding those words of Job, which are in the third chapter of his book—'For now should I have slept and been silent, and in my sleep should have had rest' (Job 3:13)—he writes in this manner:5

Verum, ad id quod nunc dicimus de immortalitate corporis Adami, & ad id quod paulo supra docuimus de rebellione carnis adversus spiritum propter Adami peccatum exorta, & in omnibus eius posteris vigente, confirmandum & illustrandum, valet plurimum quod tradit Gregorius in libro quarto Moralium, capite vigesimosexto. Simul enim & qualis fuerit illa immortalitas Adami, & quo ex peccato eius tam mortalitas corporis & corruptio, quam carnis adversus spiritum pugna & rebellio exorta sit, luculente declarat. Explanans igitur illa verba Iob, quae sunt in libri eius capite tertio: Nunc enim dormiens silerem, & somno meo requiescerem, ad hunc modum scribit:

For man had been placed in Paradise to this end, that if he should bind himself to obedience to his Creator with the bonds of charity, he might one day pass over to the heavenly homeland of the Angels without the death of the flesh. For he was so created immortal that, if he should sin, he could also die; and so created mortal that, if he should not sin, he could also not die; and by the merit of free will he would attain the immortality of that region, in which he could neither sin nor die. Where, therefore, after the time of redemption, the elect pass over with the death of the flesh interposed, thither without doubt our first parents, had they persevered in the state of their condition, could have been transferred even without the death of their bodies. Sleeping, then, man would have been silent, and would have rested in his own sleep, while, led to the eternal rest of the homeland, he would find, as it were, a certain withdrawal from the clamor of this human infirmity. For after sin he watches as though crying out, who bears the strife of his own resisting flesh. This silence of rest man had when first created, when he received free choice of will against his enemy. He who of his own accord succumbed to it, soon found in himself that which clamored against him.6

Ad hoc enim in Paradiso homo positus fuerat, ut si se ad conditoris sui obedientiam vinculis charitatis astringeret, ad coelestem quandoque Angelorum patriam sine carnis morte transiret. Sic namque est immortalis conditus, ut tamen si peccaret, & mori posset: & sic mortalis est conditus, ut si non peccaret, etiam non mori posset: atque ex merito liberi arbitrii ad illius regionis attingeret immortalitatem, in qua vel peccare vel mori non posset. Ubi igitur post redemptionis tempus, carnis morte interposita, electi transeunt, illuc proculdubio parentes primi, si in conditionis suae statu perstitissent, etiam sine morte corporum transferri potuissent. Dormiens igitur sileret, & somno suo homo requiesceret, dum ad aeternam requiem patriae ductus, quasi secessum quendam a clamore huius humanae infirmitatis inveniret. Post peccatum namque quasi clamans vigilat, qui contentionem carnis propriae repugnantis portat. Hoc quietis silentium iam homo conditus habuit, cum contra hostem suum liberum voluntatis arbitrium accepit. Cui qui sua sponte succubuit, mox de se quod contra se perstreperet invenit.

In the contest he finds the tumult of infirmity: and although he had been created by his Author in the silence of peace, yet, having of his own will been laid under the enemy, he endured the clamors of the battle. For the suggestion of the flesh itself is, as it were, a kind of clamor against the quiet of the mind, which man did not feel before the transgression: because, namely, he had nothing of infirmity that he might have to endure. But after he of his own accord subjected himself to the enemy, bound by the chains of his own fault, he serves it in certain respects even against his will, and suffers clamors in his mind, when the flesh strives against the spirit. Did he not hear clamors within, who endured the perverse words of the law against himself, saying: 'I see another law in my members fighting against the law of my mind, and leading me captive in the law of sin which is in my members'? (Rom. 7:23) Let the holy man, then, consider in how great peace of heart he would repose, had man been unwilling to receive the words of the serpent; and let him say: 'For now should I have slept and been silent, and in my sleep should have had rest'—that is, I would withdraw within the secret of my mind to the contemplation of the Creator, had not consent to the tumults of temptations poured me out, away from myself, into the very depths of fault. Thus far Gregory.7

In certamine infirmitatis tumultus reperit: & quamvis in pacis silentio ab auctore fuerat conditus, hosti tamen sponte substratus clamores de pugna toleravit. Ipsa enim carnis suggestio, quasi quidam clamor est contra quietem mentis, quam ante transgressionem homo non sensit: quia nimirum, quod de infirmitate posset tolerare, non habuit. Postquam vero se sponte hosti subdidit, astrictus culpa sua vinclis, in quibusdam ei etiam nolens servit, & clamores in mente patitur, cum caro spiritui reluctatur. An non clamores intrinsecus audiebat, qui prava contra se legis verba tolerabat, dicens: Video aliam legem in membris meis repugnantem legi mentis meae, & captivum me ducentem in lege peccati quae est in membris meis? Contempletur ergo vir sanctus in quanta cordis pace quiesceret, si serpentis verba recipere homo noluisset: & dicat: Nunc enim dormiens silerem, & somno meo requiescerem: id est, intra mentis secretum ad conditoris contemplationem secederem, nisi me extra me tentationum tumultibus consensus ad ipsa culpae profudisset. Haec Gregorius.

Translator’s notes

  1. First question of the disputation on immortality. ↩
  2. Marginal gloss: 'Unde possit homini accidere mors, & corruptio' (Whence death and corruption can befall man). Adam's immortality is extrinsic and gratuitous—from God's protective providence, not from his nature, which was mortal and passible in itself. ↩
  3. Systematic enumeration of intrinsic and extrinsic causes of death, against all of which Adam was protected. Heavy ink-bleed on this page (especially band 0); reading verified across the four band crops. ↩
  4. Adam's seven-fold array of remedies against death: (1) perfect knowledge; (2) mastery of the passions; (3) temperate use of food/drink/venery/exercise; (4) the tree of life; (5) abundance of salutary food; (6) the obedience and harmlessness of all creatures; (7) angelic protection. ↩
  5. Marginal gloss: 'Praeclara Gregorii sententia' (A distinguished judgment of Gregory). The citation is Gregory the Great, Moralia in Iob, lib. IV, c. 26, expounding Job 3:13. The Gregory quotation begins here and continues onto the next page. ↩
  6. Continuation of the Gregory quotation (Moralia IV.26). Faithful reconstruction from the heavily ink-bled italic text across the four band crops. ↩
  7. Marginal gloss: 'Roma.' marks the citation of Romans 7:23 ('Video aliam legem in membris meis...'). Conclusion of the Gregory quotation (Moralia IV.26), closing 'Haec Gregorius.' ↩