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Some have hastily supposed from the words, "God breathed into
Adam's nostrils the breath of life, and man became a living soul, "
that a soul was not then first given to man, but that the soul already
given was quickened by the Holy Ghost. They are encouraged in this
supposition by the fact that the Lord Jesus after His resurrection
breathed on His disciples, and said, "Receive ye the Holy
Spirit." From this they suppose that the same thing was effected in
either case, as if the evangelist had gone on to say, And they became
living souls. But if he had made this addition, we should only
understand that the Spirit is in some way the life of souls, and that
without Him reasonable souls must be accounted dead, though their
bodies seem to live before our eyes. But that this was not what
happened when man was created, the very words of the narrative
sufficiently show: "And God made man dust of the earth;" which
some have thought to render more clearly by the words, "And God
formed man of the clay of the earth." For it had before been said
that "there went up a mist from the earth, and watered the whole face
of the ground," in order that the reference to clay, formed of this
moisture and dust, might be understood. For on this verse there
immediately follows the announcement, "And God created man dust of
the earth;" so those Greek manuscripts have it from which this
passage has been translated into Latin. But whether one prefers to
read "created" or "formed," where the Greek reads eplasen, is of
little importance; yet "formed" is the better rendering. But those
who preferred "created" thought they thus avoided the ambiguity
arising from the fact, that in the Latin language the usage obtains
that those are said to form a thing who frame some feigned and
fictitious thing. This man, then, who was created of the dust of the
earth, or of the moistened dust or clay, this "dust of the earth"
(that I may use the express words of Scripture) was made, as the
apostle teaches, an animated body when he received a soul. This man,
he says, "was made a living soul;" that is, this fashioned dust was
made a living soul.
They say, Already he had a soul, else he would not be called a man;
for man is not a body alone, nor a soul alone, but a being composed of
both. This, indeed, is true, that the soul is not the whole man,
but the better part of man; the body not the whole, but the inferior
part of man; and that then, when both are joined, they receive the
name of man,which, however, they do not severally lose even when we
speak of them singly. For who is prohibited from saying, in
colloquial usage, "That man is dead, and is now at rest or in
torment," though this can be spoken only of the soul; or "He is
buried in such and such a place," though this refers only to the
body? Will they say that Scripture follows no such usage? On the
contrary, it so thoroughly adopts it, that even while a man is alive,
and body and soul are united, it calls each of them singly by the name
"man," speaking of the soul as the "inward man," and of the body
as the "outward man," as if there were two men, though both together
are indeed but one. I But we must understand in what sense man is
said to be in the image of God, and is yet dust, and to return to the
dust. The former is spoken of the rational soul, which God by His
breathing, or, to speak more appropriately, by His inspiration,
conveyed to man, that is, to his body; but the latter refers to his
body, which God formed of the dust, and to which a soul was given,
that it might become a living body, that is, that man might become a
living soul.
Wherefore, when our Lord breathed on His disciples, and said,
"Receive ye the Holy Ghost," He certainly wished it to be
understood that the Holy Ghost was not only the Spirit of the
Father, but of the only begotten Son Himself. For the same Spirit
is, indeed, the Spirit of the Father and of the Son, making with
them the trinity of Father, Son, and Spirit, not a creature, but
the Creator. For neither was that material breath which proceeded
from the mouth of His flesh the very substance and nature of the Holy
Spirit, but rather the intimation, as I said, that the Holy
Spirit was common to the Father and to the Son; for they have not
each a separate Spirit, but both one and the same. Now this Spirit
is always spoken of in sacred Scripture by the Greek word pneuma, as
the Lord, too, named Him in the place cited when He gave Him to
His disciples, and intimated the gift by the breathing of His lips;
and there does not occur to me any place in the whole Scriptures where
He is otherwise named. But in this passage where it is said, "And
the Lord formed man dust of the earth, and breathed, or inspired,
into his face the breath of life;" the Greek has not pneuma, the
usual word for the Holy Spirit, but pnoh, a word more frequently
used of the creature than of the Creator; and for this reason some
Latin interpreters have preferred to render it by "breath" rather
than "spirit." For this word occurs also in the Greek in Isa.
Ivii. 16, where God says, "I have made all breath," meaning,
doubtless, all souls. Accordingly, this word pnoh is sometimes
rendered "breath," sometimes "spirit," sometimes "inspiration,"
sometimes "aspiration," sometimes "soul," even when it is used of
God. Pneuma, on the other hand, is uniformly rendered "spirit,"
whether of man, of whom the apostle says, "For What man knoweth the
things of a man, save the spirit of man which is in him?" or of
beast, as in the book of Solomon, "Who knoweth the spirit of man
that goeth upward, and the spirit of the beast that goeth downward to
the earth?" or of that physical spirit which is called wind, for so
the Psalmist calls it: "Fire and hail; snow and vapors; stormy
wind;" or of the uncreated Creator Spirit, of whom the Lord said
in the gospel, "Receive ye the Holy Ghost," indicating the gift
by the breathing of His mouth; and when He says, "Go ye and
baptize all nations in the name of the Father, of the Son, and of
the Holy Ghost," words which very expressly and excellently commend
the Trinity; and where it is said, "God is a Spirit;" and in
very many other places of the sacred writings. In all these quotations
from Scripture we do not find in the Greek the word pnoh used, but
pneuma, and in the Latin, not flatus, but spiritus. Wherefore,
referring again to that place where it is written, "He inspired,"
or to speak more properly, "breathed into his face the breath of
life," even though the Greek had not used pnoh (as it has) but
pneuma, it would not on that account necessarily follow that the
Creator Spirit, who in the Trinity is distinctively called the Holy
Ghost, was meant, since, as has been said, it is plain that pneuma
is used not only of the Creator, but also of the creature.
But, say they, when the Scripture used the word "spirit," it
would not have added "of life" unless it meant us to understand the
Holy Spirit; nor, when it said, "Man became a soul," would it
also have inserted the word "living" unless that life of the soul were
signified which is imparted to it from above by the gift of God.
For, seeing that the soul by itself has a proper life of its own,
what need, they ask, was there of adding living, save only to show
that the life which is given it by the Holy Spirit was meant? What
is this but to fight strenuously for their own conjectures, while they
carelessly neglect the teaching of Scripture? Without troubling
themselves much, they might have found in a preceding page of this very
book of Genesis the words, "Let the earth bring forth the living
soul," when all the terrestrial animals were created. Then at a
slight interval, but still in the same book, was it impossible for
them to notice this verse, "All in whose nostrils was the breath of
life, of all that was in the dry land, died," by which it was
signified that all the animals which lived on the earth had perished in
the deluge? If, then, we find that Scripture is accustomed to speak
both of the "living soul" and the "spirit of life" even in reference
to beasts; and if in this place, where it is said, "All things
which have the spirit of life," the word pnoh, not pneuma, is used;
why may we not say, What need was there to add "living," since the
soul cannot exist without being alive? or, What need to add "of
life" after the word spirit? But we understand that Scripture used
these expressions in its ordinary style so long as it speaks of
animals, that is, animated bodies, in which the soul serves as the
residence of sensation; but when man is spoken of, we forget the
ordinary and established usage of Scripture, whereby it signifies that
man received a rational soul, which was not produced out of the waters
and the earth like the other living creatures, but was created by the
breath of God. Yet this creation was ordered that the human soul
should live in an animal body, like those other animals of which the
Scripture said, "Let the earth produce every living soul," and
regarding which it again says that in them is the breath of life, where
the word pnoh and not pneuma is used in the Greek, and where certainly
not the Holy Spirit, but their spirit, is signified under that
name.
But, again, they object that breath is understood to have been
emitted from the mouth of God; and if we believe that is the soul, we
must consequently acknowledge it to be of the same substance, and equal
to that wisdom, which says, "I come out of the mouth of the Most
High." Wisdom, indeed, does not-say it was breathed out of the
mouth of God, but proceeded out of it. But as we are able, when we
breathe, to make a breath, not of our own human nature, but of the
surrounding air, which we inhale and exhale as we draw our breath and
breathe again, so almighty God was able to make breath, not of His
own nature, nor of the creature beneath Him, but even of nothing;
and this breath, when He communicated it to man's body, He is most
appropriately said to have breathed or inspired, the Immaterial
breathing it also immaterial, but the Immutable not also the
immutable; for it was created, He uncreated. Yet that these persons
who are forward to quote Scripture, and yet know not the usages of its
language, may know that not only what is equal and consubstantial with
God is said to proceed out of His mouth, let them hear or read what
God says: "So then because thou art lukewarm, and neither cold nor
hot, I will spue thee out of my mouth."
There is no ground, then, for our objecting, when the apostle so
expressly distinguishes the animal body from the spiritual, that is to
say, the body in which we now are from that in which we are to be. He
says, "It is sown a natural body, it is raised a spiritual body.
There is a natural body, and there is a spiritual body. And so it is
written, The first man Adam was made a living soul; the last Adam
was made a quickening spirit. Howbeit that was not first which is
spiritual, but that which is natural; and afterward that which is
spiritual. The first man is of the earth, earthy; the second man is
the Lord from heaven. As is the earthy, such are they also that are
earthy; and as is the heavenly, such are they also that are heavenly.
And as we have borne the image of the earthy, we shall also bear the
image of the heavenly." Of all which words of his we have previously
spoken. The animal body, accordingly, in which the apostle says that
the first man Adam was made, was not so made that it could not die at
all, but so that it should not die unless he should have sinned. That
body, indeed, which shall be made spiritual and immortal by the
quickening Spirit shall not be able to die at all; as the soul has
been created immortal, and therefore, although by sin it may be said
to die, and does lose a certain life of its own, namely, the Spirit
of God, by whom it was enabled to live wisely and blessedly, yet it
does not cease living a kind of life, though a miserable, because it
is immortal by creation. So, too, the rebellious angels, though by
sinning they did in a sense die, because they forsook God, the
Fountain of life, which while they drank they were able to live wisely
and well, yet they could not so die as to utterly cease living and
feeling, for they are immortals by creation. And so, after the final
judgment, they shall be hurled into the second death, and not even
there be deprived of life or of sensation, but shall suffer torment.
But those men who have been embraced by God's grace, and are become
the fellow-citizens of the holy angels who have continued in bliss,
shall never more either sin or die, being endued with spiritual
bodies; yet, being clothed with immortality, such as the angels
enjoy, of which they cannot be divested even by sinning, the nature of
their flesh shall continue the same, but all carnal corruption and
unwieldiness shall be removed.
There remains a question which must be discussed, and, by the help of
the Lord God of truth, solved: If the motion of concupiscence in
the unruly members of our first parents arose out of their sin, and
only when the divine grace deserted them; and if it was on that
occasion that their eyes were opened to see, or, more exactly, notice
their nakedness, and that they covered their shame because the
shameless motion of their members was not subject to their will, how,
then, would they have begotten children had they remained sinless as
they were created? But as this book must be concluded, and so large a
question cannot be summarily disposed of, we may relegate it to the
following book, in which it will be more conveniently treated.
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