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Library / Commentaries and Disputations on Genesis, Volume I

Book Six — the temptation and fall

GENESIS, chapter 3, verse 8. And when they heard the voice of the Lord God walking in Paradise at the breeze after midday, Adam and his wife hid themselves from the face of the Lord God in the midst of the tree[s] of Paradise

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GENESIS, chapter 3, verse 8. And when they heard the voice of the Lord God walking in Paradise at the breeze after midday, Adam and his wife hid themselves from the face of the Lord God in the midst of the tree[s] of Paradise.1

GEN. cap. 3. VERS. 8. Et cum audissent vocem Domini Dei deambulantis in Paradiso ad auram post meridiem, abscondit se Adam & uxor eius a facie Domini Dei in medio ligni Paradisi.

Vocem Dei, qua perterritus Adamus abdidit se in nemus Paradisi, permulti putant eam fuisse, qua eum Deus compellavit dicens, Adam ubi es? verum non recte: cum enim hoc dixit Deus, iam erat Adamus absconditus, idcirco enim ita Deus locutus est, siquidem per hanc vocem non modo Adamus non est absconditus, sed potius cum esset absconditus, ex latibulo suo processit in apertum, & in Dei conspectum venit. Verisimile igitur est eam vocem non fuisse aliud quam ingentem quendam terrificumque sonitum ac fragorem, quo Deus adventum suum Adamo praesignificare voluit. Solet enim Scriptura ingentes aliquos sonos appellare voces: ut cum ait, Vox aquarum, vox Cataractarum, vox nubis, vox tonitru, vox tubae: sicut videre licet in Apocalypsi non semel, & in Psal. 28. 41, 46. 76. & aliis in locis. Ergo Deus qui antea pacate & blande Adamo consueverat apparere, tunc ei se praesen...
The voice of God, by which Adam, terrified, hid himself in the grove of Paradise — very many think it was that by which God addressed him saying, 'Adam, where are you?' But not rightly: for when God said this, Adam was already hidden; for God spoke thus precisely because by this voice not only was Adam not hidden, but rather, being hidden, he came forth from his hiding place into the open, and came into God's sight. It is therefore likely that that voice was nothing other than a certain huge and terrific sound and crash, by which God wished to presignify his coming to Adam. For Scripture is wont to call certain huge sounds 'voices': as when it says, 'the voice of the waters, the voice of the cataracts, the voice of the cloud, the voice of thunder, the voice of the trumpet' — as may be seen in the Apocalypse more than once, and in Psalms 28, 41, 46, 76, and other places. Therefore God, who before had been wont to appear to Adam peacefully and gently, then presented himself to him...2
praesentavit formidabilem & terribilem, & quasi peregre advenientem, ac velut ira tumente, tuentemque, & suo ingressu concutientem terram, ipsasque Paradisi arbores pressis vestigiis tremefaciente, scilicet, ut illi ea re perturbati & pavidi, scelus suum agnoscerent, atque confiterentur, Deique misericordiam & veniam implorarent.
...presented himself formidable and terrible, and as if coming from abroad, and as it were swelling with anger and watching, and shaking the earth by his entrance, and making the very trees of Paradise tremble with his pressing footsteps — namely, so that they, perturbed and fearful by that thing, might recognize their crime, and confess it, and implore God's mercy and pardon.3

But that phrase, 'At the breeze after midday,' is variously read: for some Latin codices, which Jerome cites and Augustine followed, had only 'At evening,' others 'After midday.' Jerome's words, in the Hebrew Questions on Genesis, are these: 'In most codices of the Latins, for that which we here put, At evening, After midday is found: because we cannot translate to the word the Greek expression τὸ δειλινόν (to deilinon, the late-day time); for which in Hebrew is written לרוח היום (Leruah haiom): which Aquila interpreted ἐν τῷ ἀνέμῳ τῆς ἡμέρας, that is, In the wind of the day; but Symmachus, διὰ πνεύματος ἡμέρας, that is, Through the breath of the day. And Theodotion more clearly, ἐν τῷ πνεύματι πρὸς κατάψυξιν τῆς ἡμέρας, so as to show, the midday heat being past, the refreshment of the breathing breeze.' Thus Jerome.4

Illud porro Ad auram post meridiem, varie legitur: quidam enim codices Latini, quos citat Hieronymus, & secutus est Augustinus, habebant tantum Ad vesperam, alij Post meridiem. Verba Hieronymi sunt haec, in quaestionibus Hebraicis in Genesim: In plerisque codicibus Latinorum pro eo quod hic posuimus, Ad vesperas, Post meridiem, habetur: quia τὸ δειλινόν, Graecum sermonem ad verbum transferre non possumus: pro quo in Hebraico scriptum est, לרוח היום Leruah haiom: quod Aquila interpretatus est, ἐν τῷ ἀνέμῳ τῆς ἡμέρας, id est, In vento diei: Symmachus vero, διὰ πνεύματος ἡμέρας, id est, Per spiritum diei. Porro Theodotion manifestius, ἐν τῷ πνεύματι πρὸς κατάψυξιν τῆς ἡμέρας, ut meridiano calore transacto, refrigerium aurae spirantis ostenderet. Haec Hieronymus.

Paraphrasis Chaldaica habet, Ad quietem diei, haud dubie vesperam significans: videlicet eo tempore incipit diei aestus quiescere, ac remitti. Pagninus & Vatablus habent, Ad auram diei, id est, sub vesperam: nam eo tempore ventus spirare solet, praesertim autem Zephyrus. Dicitur autem ventus diei, qui post meridiem & ante solis occasum in locis maritimis spirare solet. Aegyptus enim, terraque Chanaan, in quibus Hebraei, ad quos volumen hoc scripsit Moses, habitaverant & habitaturi erant, sunt regiones maritimae, a latere Occidentis terminatae clausaeque mari Mediterraneo: in quibus regionibus ex vespertino solis accessu, quotidie ventus seu aura ex mari excitari & spirare consuevit: quem ventum, Hebraei ventum diei nominabant. Est igitur periphrasis pomeridiani seu vespertini temporis, quo tempore Deus in Paradisum venit. Sunt praeterea, qui existiment, significari his verbis ventum quendam antecessisse quasi praenuncium Dei adventus, sicut Eliae contigit in monte Horeb.
The Chaldaic Paraphrase has 'At the rest of the day,' doubtless signifying evening: namely, at that time the heat of the day begins to rest and slacken. Pagninus and Vatablus have 'At the breeze of the day,' that is, toward evening: for at that time the wind is wont to blow, especially the Zephyr. Now the 'wind of the day' is so called, which after midday and before sunset is wont to blow in maritime places. For Egypt and the land of Canaan, in which the Hebrews — to whom Moses wrote this volume — had dwelt and were to dwell, are maritime regions, bounded on the West side and enclosed by the Mediterranean sea; in which regions, from the evening approach of the sun, daily a wind or breeze from the sea was wont to be stirred up and to blow: which wind the Hebrews named 'the wind of the day.' It is therefore a periphrasis of the afternoon or evening time, at which time God came into Paradise. There are besides those who think these words signify that a certain wind went before, as it were a herald of God's coming, as happened to Elijah on Mount Horeb.5
Nec mysterio vacat, quod Deus ad increpandum Adami peccatum, & ad eius peccati delendi auctorem, redemptoremque promittendum, venerit post meridiem & ad vesperam, scilicet ea re adumbrare voluit adventum Christi ad redimendum genus humanum, ad mundi vesperam futurum: sicut interpretatur Irenaeus libro quinto adversus haereses. Ad vesperam quoque columba reversa est ad Noe, quae virentem oleae frondem ore gestans aquarum diluvij cessationem nunciavit. Gregorius lib. 28. Moralium, cap. 2. eleganti interpretatione mystica hunc locum explanans sic ait: Quid est quod post peccatum hominis, in Paradiso Dominus iam non stat, sed deambulat, nisi quod irruente culpa, se a corde hominis motum demonstrat? Quid est quod ad auram post meridiem, nisi quod lux ferventior veritatis abscesserat, & peccatricem animam culpa sua frigora constringebant? Increpavit ergo Adam deambulans, ut caecis mentibus nequitiam suam non solum sermo...
Nor is it void of mystery that God came — to rebuke Adam's sin, and to promise the author of blotting out that sin and the Redeemer — after midday and at evening: namely, by that thing he wished to adumbrate the coming of Christ to redeem the human race, which would be at the evening of the world, as Irenaeus interprets (book 5 Against Heresies). At evening too the dove returned to Noah, which, carrying a green olive branch in its mouth, announced the cessation of the flood of waters. Gregory (book 28 of the Morals, chapter 2), explaining this passage with an elegant mystical interpretation, says thus: 'What is it that, after the sin of man, the Lord no longer stands in Paradise, but walks about, except that, the fault rushing in, he shows himself moved away from the heart of man? What is it that He came at the breeze after midday, except that the more fervent light of truth had departed, and her own fault was binding the sinful soul with cold? He rebuked Adam, therefore, by walking about, so that to blind minds he might reveal their own wickedness not only by words...'6

'...but reveal it even by things: insofar as sinful man might both hear through words what he had done, and through the walking-about — the state of eternity being lost — perceive the inconstancy of his mutability, and through the breeze — the fervor of charity being expelled — notice his own torpor, and through the declining of the sun, know that he was drawing near to darkness.' The same (Morals 33, chapter 3): 'The first man, after the fault, is found hidden among the trees of Paradise at the breeze after midday. For because he had lost the midday heat of charity, he now, under the shadow of sin, grew torpid as under a cold breeze. This Behemoth, therefore, because in them he found as it were a certain rest — those whom, by withdrawing them from the heat of the true sun, he made cold — is said by holy Job to sleep under the shade.' Thus Gregory.7

nibus, sed etiam rebus aperiret: quatenus peccator homo, & per verba, quod fecerat audiret: & per deambulationem, amisso aeternitatis statu, mutabilitatis suae inconstantiam cerneret: & per auram, fervore charitatis expulso torporem suum animadverteret: & per declinationem solis, cognosceret quod ad tenebras propinquaret. Idem 33. Moralium, cap. 3. Primus homo, inquit, post culpam, inter arbores Paradisi ad auram post meridiem absconsus invenitur. Quia enim meridianum charitatis calorem perdiderat, iam sub peccati umbra quasi sub frigore aura torpebat. Iste igitur Behemoth, quia in illis quasi quandam requiem invenit, quos a veri solis ardore subtrahendo frigidos fecit: sub umbra dormire a sancto Iob perhibetur. Sic Gregorius.

Quod autem Adamus voluerit se abscondere a facie Dei, id nonnulli malam in partem interpretantur, quasi putaverit aliquid Deum latere posse. Non est fugiendum a Deo, sed confugiendum est ad Deum: peccator autem si fieri posset, vellet se suaque omnia scelera Deo esse abscondita & occulta. At vero Augustinus libro undecimo de Genesi ad litteram, cap. 33. scribit fecisse id Adamum, vehementer animo turbatum, prae nimio pudore ac metu nescientem quid ageret: turbati enim homines interdum quaedam faciunt similia dementibus. Augustini haec sunt verba: Cum Deus avertit intrinsecus faciem suam, & fit homo conturbatus: non miremur haec fieri, quae similia sunt dementiae, per nimium pudorem ac timorem. Illo quoque occulto instinctu non quiescente, ut ea nescientes facerent, quae aliquid significarent quandoque scituris posteris, propter quos ista conscripta sunt. Hoc modo Augustinus.
But that Adam wished to hide himself from the face of God, some interpret in a bad sense, as if he thought something could be hidden from God. One must not flee from God, but flee to God; but the sinner, if it could be done, would wish himself and all his crimes to be hidden and concealed from God. But Augustine (book 11 On Genesis according to the Letter, chapter 33) writes that Adam did this, vehemently disturbed in mind, through excessive shame and fear, not knowing what he was doing: for disturbed men sometimes do certain things similar to the insane. Augustine's words are these: 'When God turns away his face inwardly, and a man becomes disturbed: let us not wonder that these things happen which are similar to madness, through excessive shame and fear. That hidden instinct also not resting, so that they unknowingly did things which would signify something one day to posterity, who would come to know them, on whose account these things were written.' Thus Augustine.8

Irenaeus, however, takes that flight and Adam's attempt to hide in a good sense, referring it to a certain pious and salutary fear and dread of a humble and penitent mind. For in book 3 Against Heresies, chapter 37, he writes in this manner: 'Adam, seduced by another under the pretext of immortality, is at once seized with fear and hides himself: not as if he could escape God, but, confounded because he had transgressed God's command, he thought himself unworthy to come into his sight and conversation. But the fear of the Lord is the beginning of understanding; and the understanding of the transgression produced penitence.' Thus Irenaeus.9

Irenaeus tamen fugam illam & abscondendi se conatum Adami bonam in partem accipit, referens ad pium quendam & salutarem humilis & poenitentis animi metum & pavorem. Nam libro tertio adversus haereses, cap. 37. hunc in modum scribit: Ab altero seductus Adamus sub occasione immortalitatis, statim timore corripitur & absconditur: non quasi posset effugere Deum, sed confusus quoniam transgressus erat praeceptum Dei, indignum se putavit venire in conspectum & colloquium eius. Timor autem Domini, initium est intelligentiae: intellectus vero transgressionis fecit poenitentiam. Haec Irenaeus.

Ea quae fecit Adamus post admissum scelus, cum animo meo cogitantem atque reputantem subit recordatio eius, quod Paulus scribit ad Romanos, cap. 6. Quem ergo fructum, inquit, habuistis tunc in illis, in quibus nunc erubescitis? nam finis illorum mors est. Verissime hoc dictum esse Adami exemplum, & quotidiana experimenta confirmant. Sed in Adami exemplo videor mihi animadvertere quinque peccati fru...
As I think over and reflect in my mind upon the things which Adam did after the crime was committed, there comes the recollection of that which Paul writes (Romans 6): 'What fruit therefore had you then in those things, of which you are now ashamed? for the end of those things is death.' That this was most truly said, the example of Adam and daily experience confirm. But in the example of Adam I seem to myself to notice five fruits of sin...10
fructus, atque eos quidem omnes amarissimos & perniciosissimos. Primus peccati fructus est apertio oculorum: ante peccatum enim, vel etiam in peccando plane caecus est homo, quantum mali in peccato sit nequaquam cernens: at continuo post peccatum aperiuntur ei oculi, clarissime enim videt, pro exigua & brevi peccati voluptate maximum & sempiternum malum sibi comparatum. Alter fructus est nuditas: propter peccatum enim spoliamur plurimis & maximis Dei ornamentis, & pretiosissimis virtutum coelestium vestibus. Legitur Exod. 32. Hebraeum populum post adorationem vituli nudum fuisse, Spoliaverat enim eum Aaron, inquit Scriptura, propter ignominiam sordis, & inter hostes nudum constituerat. Quocirca Deus in Apocalypsi, capite tertio, cuidam peccatori dixit, Nescis quia tu es miser & miserabilis, & pauper, & caecus, & nudus: suadeo tibi emere a me aurum ignitum, probatum, ut locuples fias, & vestimentis albis induaris, ut non appareat confusio nuditatis tuae. Et Ioel, Nudans, inquit, spoliavit eam, & proiecit. Apud Oseam vero, cap. 2. loquens peccatrici animae Deus, Ne forte, inquit, expoliem eam nudam, & statuam eam secundum diem nativitatis suae, & ponam eam quasi solitudinem, & statuam eam velut terram inviam, & interficiam eam siti.
...fruits, and all of them indeed most bitter and most pernicious. The first fruit of sin is the opening of the eyes: for before sin, or even in sinning, man is plainly blind, by no means seeing how much evil is in sin; but immediately after the sin his eyes are opened, for he sees most clearly that for a slight and brief pleasure of sin he has procured for himself the greatest and everlasting evil. The second fruit is nakedness: for because of sin we are despoiled of very many and the greatest ornaments of God, and of the most precious garments of the heavenly virtues. We read (Exod 32) that the Hebrew people, after the adoration of the calf, was naked: 'For Aaron had stripped it,' says Scripture, 'because of the ignominy of dishonor, and had set it naked among the enemies.' Wherefore God in the Apocalypse, chapter 3, said to a certain sinner: 'You know not that you are wretched and miserable, and poor, and blind, and naked: I counsel you to buy from me gold tried by fire, that you may become rich, and be clothed with white garments, that the confusion of your nakedness may not appear.' And Joel: 'Stripping,' he says, 'it has despoiled it, and cast it down.' But in Hosea, chapter 2, God, speaking to the sinful soul: 'Lest perchance,' he says, 'I strip her naked, and set her according to the day of her birth, and make her like a solitude, and set her like a pathless land, and kill her with thirst.'11
Tertius fructus est pudor & confusio animi, & ad supprimendum dolorem ex peccato contractum, ad inanes mundi consolationes perfugium: hoc enim est consuere sibi ex ficulneis foliis pudendorum subligacula. Atque hunc de plurimis unum peccati fructum supradicto loco Paulus expressit, Quem, inquit, fructum habuistis tunc in iis, in quibus nunc erubescitis? Huc etiam spectat illud, quod est apud Hier. c. 33. postquam convertisti me egi poenitentiam: & postquam ostendisti mihi, percussi femur meum. Confusus sum & erubui, quoniam sustinui opprobrium adolescentiae meae.
The third fruit is shame and confusion of mind, and a refuge to the empty consolations of the world, to suppress the pain contracted from sin: for this is to sew oneself loincloths for the shameful parts from fig leaves. And this one fruit of sin, among very many, Paul expressed in the aforesaid place: 'What fruit had you then in those things, of which you are now ashamed?' To this also pertains that which is in Jeremiah, chapter 31: 'After you converted me, I did penance; and after you showed me, I struck my thigh. I was confounded and blushed, because I bore the reproach of my youth.'12
Quartus fructus est iudicium ac testimonium conscientiae, vehementer hominem patrati sceleris accusantis & condemnantis: id quod apparuit in Adamo & Eva, qui, ut narrat Moses, cum audissent vocem Domini Dei, absconderunt se a facie eius: & Paulus ad Romanos, cap. 2. Testimonium, inquit, reddente illis conscientia ipsorum, & inter se invicem cogitationum accusantium, aut etiam defendentium. Quae conscientiae vexatio, & ut vocant, morsus, licet gravis homini poena sit, utilis tamen ei & salutaris est: alioquin in plura scelera rueremus: retrahit enim nos a peccando, & ad agendam poenitentiam stimulat.
The fourth fruit is the judgment and testimony of conscience, vehemently accusing and condemning a man of the crime committed: which appeared in Adam and Eve, who, as Moses narrates, when they had heard the voice of the Lord God, hid themselves from his face; and Paul, to the Romans, chapter 2: 'Their conscience bearing testimony to them, and their thoughts between themselves mutually accusing, or also defending.' This vexation of conscience, and (as they call it) the gnawing, although it is a grave penalty to a man, is nevertheless useful and salutary to him: otherwise we would rush into more crimes; for it draws us back from sinning, and stimulates us to do penance.13
Quintus fructus est pavor & trepidatio, divinique iudicij & vindictae metus: quod significatur de Adamo & Eva illis verbis, Absconderunt se a facie domini Dei in medio ligni paradisi. Nam ut scriptum est in libro Sapientiae, cap. 17. Improbi homines frequenter praeoccupant pessima, redarguente conscientia. Cum sit enim timida nequitia, dat testimonium commendationis: semper enim praesumit saeva perturbata conscientia. Atque hic perpetuus conscientiae stimulus & cruciatus, tanta est poena, ut etiam Philosophi ac Poetae tradiderint, quamvis nulla peccatum alia consequeretur poena, hanc unam tamen videri debere gravissimam & acerbissimam, ut millies profecto mors praeoptanda peccato sit, quod tanta plectatur poena. Unde est illud Iuvenalis, Satyra 13. Exemplo quodcumque male committitur, ipsi Displicet auctori, prima est haec ultio, quod se Iudice, nemo nocens absolvitur. Notus est ex Graecis tragicis, Orestes ille matricida, quem scelus in matrem admissum, nullam quietis partem capere, nullo loco consi...
The fifth fruit is fear and trembling, and the dread of divine judgment and vengeance: which is signified of Adam and Eve by those words, 'They hid themselves from the face of the Lord God in the midst of the tree[s] of paradise.' For as it is written in the book of Wisdom, chapter 17: 'Wicked men frequently anticipate the worst, conscience reproving them. For since wickedness is timid, it gives testimony of its own condemnation; for a savage, disturbed conscience always presumes the worst.' And this perpetual stimulus and torment of conscience is so great a penalty that even Philosophers and Poets have handed down that, although no other penalty followed sin, this one alone ought to seem the gravest and most bitter — so that truly death would be a thousand times preferable to a sin which is chastised with so great a penalty. Whence is that of Juvenal, Satire 13: 'By whatever example anything is wickedly committed, it displeases the author himself; this is the first vengeance, that with himself as judge, no guilty man is acquitted.' Known from the Greek tragedians is that Orestes the matricide, whom the crime committed against his mother [caused] to take no part of rest, to be able to stand still in no place...14
stere, nusquam respirare sinebat, sed cruentae matris species, & flammivomi oculi per magnam orbis partem vagum, & profugum, & velut exulem agebant. Idem quoque infra narrat Moses de Cain qui post fratricidium, totam vitam pavidus, trepidus, ac profugus vixit.
...to stand still, nowhere let him breathe, but the appearance of his bloody mother, and her flame-vomiting eyes, drove him wandering and fugitive, and as it were an exile, through a great part of the world. The same thing Moses also narrates below of Cain, who after the fratricide lived his whole life fearful, trembling, and a fugitive.15

I will not hide from the reader here what Rupert wrote excellently (book 2, On the Victory of the Word of God, chapter 14), treating this very passage of Moses which we are now handling. I will put his whole passage here: 'For a little while,' he says, 'the Lord God had, as it were, slept, while meanwhile a thing happened by which that serpent thought himself the victor — that is, thought he had thwarted God's purpose. For unless he had in some way slept, his adversary could have effected nothing. This very thing, namely that he slept with a certain sleep — on account of which we are wont to say, Arise, why do you sleep, O Lord? — Scripture intimates when it says, And when they heard the voice of the Lord God walking in Paradise at the breeze after midday. For to walk about at the breeze after midday is a human custom, that after a warm nap someone who had perhaps fallen asleep surfeited may breathe in the warm breeze, and cool and relieve his body. He had therefore slept with a certain sleep, that is, with silence, by permitting the serpent to approach, the woman to converse with the serpent, and the man too likewise to die by disobedience with the death of the soul. Now that God should so sleep came from the fault of men, because they did not rouse God either by giving thanks or by invoking him. What, then, had been done by the devil, but a certain robbery? As a thief is wont to boast when he has departed after stealing, so that deceiver could boast for an hour over his crime. But as, at a far later time, it was done and written, And the Lord was awakened as one sleeping, and as a mighty man surfeited with wine, and he struck his enemies — so also of that time it can rightly be said. For then he was awakened as a mighty man surfeited with wine, that is, as having become negligent of man on account of the daring of pride by which man had aspired to become like God. He was awakened, I say — that is, he sought out the lost, and struck his enemies, namely the serpent, the man, and the woman. With what did he strike them? Namely with his word, his victorious word, each indeed according to their merits, but he did not strike them with the same severity. For as one strikes his enemy to kill him, so he struck the ancient serpent, so as to condemn — nay, to confirm the sentence of condemnation upon him. And as one strikes his son or servant to correct him, so he struck the proud man, so as to lead him back to the humility which is the beginning of salvation.' Thus Rupert.16

Non celabo lectorem hoc loco, quod Rupertus lib. 2. de Victoria verbi Dei, cap. 14. hunc ipsum Mosis locum, quem nunc versamus pertractans, egregie scripsit. Ponam hic integrum eius locum: Paululum, inquit, quasi dormitaverat Dominus Deus, dum res interim accidit qua se victorem esse serpens ille, id est, propositum Dei avertisse putabat. Nisi enim quodammodo dormitasset, nihil adversarius eius efficere potuisset. Hoc ipsum, videlicet eum dormisse dormitione quadam propter quam solemus dicere, Exurge, quare obdormis Domine? Scriptura innuit, cum dicit, Et cum audissent vocem domini Dei ambulantis in Paradiso ad auram post meridiem. Post meridiem namque deambulare ad auram, consuetudinis humanae est, ut post calidum soporem, quispiam qui forte crapulatus obdormierat, in aura tepida respiret, & corpus suum refrigeret ac relevet. Dormierat ergo quadam dormitione, id est, taciturnitate, permittendo serpentem accedere, mulierem colloqui cum serpente, virum quoque mori pariter per inobedientiam morte animae. Porro ut sic dormiret Deus, culpa hominum extitit, quia Deum neque gratias agendo, neque invocando excitavit: Quid igitur a diabolo factum fuerat, nisi quoddam latrocinium? Quomodo gloriari solet fur cum furatus recesserit, sic ille deceptor, ad horam gloriari pro scelere suo potuit. Verum sicut tempore longe posteriori factum & scriptum est, Et excitatus est tanquam dormiens Dominus, & tanquam potens crapulatus a vino, & percussit inimicos suos, ita & de illo tempore recte dici potest. Excitatus enim est tunc tanquam potens crapulatus a vino, id est, tanquam negligens factus hominis propter ausum superbiae qua Deo fieri similis ambierat homo. Excitatus, inquam, est, id est, requisivit perditum, & percussit inimicos suos, videlicet serpentem, virum, & mulierem. Quo percussit eos? nimirum verbo suo, verbo victorioso, singulos quidem pro meritis, sed non eadem animadversione percussit. Nam quo modo percutit quis inimicum suum ut interficiat illum ita percussit serpentem antiquum, ut damnaret, immo ut damnationis sententiam confirmaret super eum. Et quomodo percutit quis filium vel servum suum, ut corripiat eum, ita percussit superbientem hominem, ut ad humilitatem qua initium salutis est, reduceret eum. Sic Rupertus.

Translator’s notes

  1. New lemma: Genesis 3:8. ↩
  2. The 'voice of God' Adam heard was not 'Adam, where are you?' (Gen 3:9, which came after he hid) but a terrific crash announcing God's coming; Scripture calls great sounds 'voices' (waters, cataracts, cloud, thunder, trumpet; Apocalypse; Pss 28, 41, 46, 76). Marginal glosses: 'Vox Dei, qua Adamus perterritus se abscondit, qua fuerit'; 'Vox pro sono saepe in Scriptura usurpatur.' Catchword: 'praesentavit' (continues on the next page). ↩
  3. Continued from page 670: God presented himself terrible and earth-shaking, to drive Adam and Eve to confess. Running head misprinted '661'; true printed page 671. ↩
  4. Jerome, Quaestiones Hebraicae in Genesim, on the textual variants of Gen 3:8 ('At the breeze after midday'). GLYPHS verified by magnification: Hebrew לרוח היום (Leruah haiom, 'at the wind/breeze of the day'; read right-to-left, lamed-resh-vav-chet / he-yod-vav-mem); Greek τὸ δειλινόν (the Septuagint phrase, 'in the late-day/evening'); Aquila's ἐν τῷ ἀνέμῳ τῆς ἡμέρας ('in the wind of the day'); Symmachus's διὰ πνεύματος ἡμέρας ('through the breath of the day'); Theodotion's ἐν τῷ πνεύματι πρὸς κατάψυξιν τῆς ἡμέρας ('in the breath, toward the cooling of the day'). Marginal glosses: 'Aquila Ponticus'; 'Symmachus'; 'Theodotion.' ↩
  5. Further renderings: the Chaldaic (Targum) Paraphrase, Pagninus, and Vatablus ('the breeze of the day') — the evening sea-breeze (Zephyr) of maritime Egypt and Canaan, called by the Hebrews 'the wind of the day.' Some take the wind as a herald of God's coming (Elijah at Horeb, 1 Kings 19). Marginal glosses: 'Aura diei quid sit'; '3. Reg. 19.' ↩
  6. Mystical sense: God's coming at evening foreshadows Christ's coming at the world's evening (Irenaeus, Adversus Haereses 5); the dove returning to Noah at evening (Gen 8:11). Gregory the Great, Moralia 28.2 (quotation begins). Marginal glosses: 'Interpretatio mystica. Genes. 8'; 'D. Gregorij Moralis horum verborum expositio.' Catchword: 'sermonibus' (continues on the next page). ↩
  7. Conclusion of the Gregory quotations (Moralia 28.2 and 33.3): the mystical reading of God walking 'at the breeze'; the Behemoth (the devil) resting in souls made cold by sin (Job 40:21). Running head misprinted '662'; true printed page 672. ↩
  8. Why Adam hid: some read it in a bad sense (as if hiding from God were possible — vain); Augustine (De Genesi ad litteram 11.33): he acted in disturbed shame and fear, 'like the insane.' Marginal gloss: 'Cur Adamus voluerit se abscondere a facie Dei.' ↩
  9. Irenaeus (Adversus Haereses 3.37) takes Adam's hiding in a GOOD sense — the salutary fear of a humble, penitent mind (Ps 110:10, 'the fear of the Lord is the beginning of understanding'). Marginal gloss: 'B. Irenaeus.' ↩
  10. Pererius's own analysis: reflecting on Adam's deeds after the Fall, he recalls Rom 6:21 ('What fruit had you...; the end is death') and finds FIVE fruits of sin in Adam's example. Catchword: 'fructus'; the marginal gloss begins 'Quinque a-' (continues on the next page). ↩
  11. The five fruits of sin (continued): the FIRST = the opening of the eyes (seeing too late the everlasting evil bought for brief pleasure); the SECOND = nakedness (being despoiled of God's ornaments — Exod 32:25; Apoc 3:17-18; Joel 1:7; Hosea 2:3). Marginal glosses: '...mari & pestilentes peccati fructus'; 'Primus est apertio oculorum'; 'Secundus, nuditas'; 'Ioel 2.' Running head misprinted '663'; true printed page 673. ↩
  12. The THIRD fruit = shame and confusion of mind, and flight to the world's empty consolations (= sewing the fig-leaf loincloths). Citations: Rom 6:21; Jer 31:19 (the margin reads 'Hier. c. 33,' but the text is Jer 31:19). Marginal gloss: 'Tertius pudor.' ↩
  13. The FOURTH fruit = the judgment and testimony of conscience accusing the sinner (Rom 2:15). The 'gnawing' (morsus) of conscience, though a grave penalty, is salutary, drawing us from sin to penance. Marginal gloss: 'Quartus, conscientiae testimonium.' ↩
  14. The FIFTH fruit = fear and trembling, the dread of divine judgment (Wisd 17:10-11). The perpetual torment of conscience is so great that even the philosophers and poets held death preferable; Juvenal, Satire 13 ('prima est haec ultio, quod se iudice nemo nocens absolvitur'); and Orestes the matricide from the Greek tragedians. Marginal glosses: 'Quintus, est pavor & trepidatio'; 'Iuvenalis.' Catchword: 'consistere'; page footer signature 'QQQ.' ↩
  15. Conclusion of the fifth fruit of sin (from page 673): Orestes hounded by the bloody image of his murdered mother; Cain the fugitive fratricide (Gen 4:12-14). Running head misprinted '664'; true printed page 674. ↩
  16. Rupert of Deutz, De Victoria Verbi Dei 2.14, quoted at length: God 'slept' (kept silence) while the serpent triumphed like a boasting thief, then 'awoke as a mighty man' and struck his enemies with his victorious word — the serpent to condemn, the man to correct and lead to humility. Scriptural allusions: Ps 43:23 ('Exurge, quare obdormis Domine?'); Ps 77:65 ('excitatus est tanquam dormiens Dominus'). Marginal gloss: 'Explanatio huius loci secundum Rupertum.' ↩