1. 1. If the Manichees chose those whom they deceive, we too would choose the words with which to answer them; but since they attack with their error both those learned in letters and the unlearned, and since, while they promise truth, they try to turn people away from the truth, their emptiness must be refuted not by ornate and polished speech but by plain facts.

For I was pleased by the opinion of certain truly Christian men who, though they are educated in the liberal arts, nonetheless, when they had read other books of ours that we published against the Manichees, saw that those books were either not understood by the less learned or understood only with difficulty; and they very kindly advised me not to abandon the common manner of speaking, if I intended to drive those so pernicious errors out of the minds even of the unlearned. For this customary and simple style is understood even by the learned, whereas the other is not understood by the unlearned.

1. 2. The Manichees, then, are accustomed to disparage the Scriptures of the Old Testament, which they do not know, and by that disparagement to mock and deceive our weak and little ones, who do not find how to answer them; for there is no Scripture that cannot easily be faulted by those who do not understand it.

But for this reason divine providence permits there to be many heretics of various errors, so that, when they insult us and question us about things we do not know, we may at least in this way shake off our laziness and desire to know the divine Scriptures.

For this reason the Apostle also says, there must be many heresies, so that those who are approved may become manifest among you (1 Cor 11:19). For those are approved by God who are able to teach well, but they cannot be made manifest to men except when they teach; and they are unwilling to teach except those who seek to be taught. But many are too lazy to seek, unless through the troubles and insults of heretics they are, as it were, roused from sleep, and grow ashamed of their ignorance, and feel themselves to be in peril because of that ignorance of theirs.

If such men are of good faith, they do not yield to the heretics but diligently inquire what to answer them. Nor does God abandon them, so that those who ask receive, and those who seek find, and to those who knock it is opened (See Matt 7:7). But those who despair of being able to find in Catholic teaching what they seek are worn down by errors; and if they inquire perseveringly, they return, after great labors, weary and thirsty and almost dead, to the very fountains from which they had strayed.

1. 1. After the enumeration and exposition of the seven days, a kind of conclusion was interposed, and whatever was said above was called the book of the creation of heaven and earth, though it is a small part of the book; but it deserved to be so called because the whole age of the world, from beginning to end, was figured, as it were, in a brief image in these seven days. Then it begins to be narrated more diligently concerning man. This whole narration is set forth not openly but figuratively, so that it may exercise the minds of those who seek the truth and may call them away by spiritual business from carnal business. For it runs thus:

But for Adam himself there was not yet a helper like himself. And God sent a deep sleep upon Adam, and he fell asleep: and God took one of his ribs, and filled its place with flesh, and God formed the rib that he had taken from Adam into a woman. And he brought her to Adam, to see what he would call her. And Adam said, This now is bone from my bones, and flesh from my flesh: 'she will be called woman, because she was taken from her man; and she will be a helper to me.' For this reason a man will leave his father and mother, and will join himself to his wife; and the two will be in one flesh. And they were both naked, Adam and his wife, and were not ashamed (Gen 2:4–25).

1. 2. Now the serpent was wiser than all the beasts that were upon the earth, which the Lord God had made. And the serpent said to the woman: 'why did God say you should not eat from every tree that is in paradise?' And the woman said to the serpent: 'of every tree that is in paradise we shall eat; but of the fruit of the tree that is in the midst of paradise, God said we should not eat, nor even touch, lest we die.' And the serpent said to the woman: 'you will not die the death; for God knew that on the day you eat from it, your eyes will be opened, and you will be like gods, knowing good and evil.'

And the woman saw that the tree was good for food, and that it was good to the eyes for seeing and knowing; and she took the fruit from that tree, and ate, and gave to her husband; and Adam received it, and ate: and their eyes were opened, and then they knew that they were naked; and they took fig leaves for themselves, and made themselves girdles. And when they had heard the voice of the Lord walking in paradise toward evening, Adam and his wife hid themselves from before the face of the Lord God, by that tree which was in the midst of paradise.

And the Lord God called Adam, and said to him: 'Adam, where are you?' And he said: 'I heard your voice, Lord, in paradise, and I was afraid, and I hid myself, because I am naked.' And the Lord God said: 'who told you that you are naked, unless it is that you have eaten from that tree of which I had told you, of that one alone, not to eat?' And Adam said: 'the woman whom you gave me, gave it to me to eat, and I ate.' And God said to the woman: 'why have you done this?' And the woman said: 'the serpent seduced me, and I ate.'

And then Adam gave a name to his wife, Life; because she is the mother of all the living. And then the Lord God made for Adam and his wife garments of skins, and clothed them. And he said: 'behold, Adam has become like one of us, in the knowledge of recognizing good and evil.' And then, lest Adam stretch out his hand to the tree of life and take from it, and eat and live forever, the Lord God sent him out of the paradise of delight, to work the earth from which he had been taken. And cast out of paradise, he dwelt opposite the paradise of pleasure. And God set the Cherubim and that flaming sword which turns, to guard the way of the tree of life (Gen 3:1–24).

2. 3. If the Manichees preferred to examine these hidden things of the words, not finding fault and accusing, but seeking and revering, they would surely not be Manichees; but it would be given to those who ask, and those who seek would find, and to those who knock it would be opened (See Matt 7:7). For those who seek with devout diligence propose more questions in this passage than these wretched and impious men do; but the difference is this, that they seek in order to find, while these labor at nothing except not to find what they seek.

This whole passage, then, must first be examined according to history, then according to prophecy. According to history, deeds are narrated; according to prophecy, things to come are foretold. To be sure, whoever wishes to take everything that has been said according to the letter, that is, to understand it no otherwise than the letter sounds, and is able to avoid blasphemies and to proclaim everything in agreement with the Catholic faith, is not only not to be begrudged, but is to be held an outstanding and highly praiseworthy interpreter.

But if no way out is given by which the things written may be understood devoutly and worthily of God, unless we believe these things to have been set forth figuratively and in riddles—having apostolic authority, by whom so many riddles from the books of the Old Testament are solved—let us hold to the manner we intend, with the help of him who exhorts us to ask, to seek, and to knock;

so that we may explain all these figures of things according to the Catholic faith, whether those pertaining to history or those pertaining to prophecy, without prejudging a better and more diligent treatment, whether by us or by others to whom the Lord deigns to reveal it.

3. 4. The day was made, then, on which day God made heaven and earth, and all the green of the field, before they were upon the earth, and all the fodder of the field (Gen 2:5). Above, seven days are numbered; now one day is spoken of, on which day God made heaven and earth, and all the green of the field, and all the fodder—by the name of which day all time is rightly understood to be signified. For God made all time together with all the temporal creatures, which visible creatures are signified by the name heaven and earth. But it ought to move us to inquire that, when he had named the day that was made, and heaven, and earth, he also added, the green of the field, and all the fodder.

For when it was said, in the beginning God made heaven and earth, it was not then said that all the green of the field and the fodder were made: for it is plainly read that on the third day all the green and fodder of the field was made. But what was said, in the beginning God made heaven and earth, does not pertain to any of those seven days. For he was still calling, by the name of heaven and earth, either the very matter from which all things were made, or else he had first set forth the whole creation by the name of heaven and earth, by saying, in the beginning God made heaven and earth; and afterward, piece by piece, through the order of the days as was fitting, on account of the prophecy which we mentioned in the first book (See bk. 1, 23–42), he set forth in order the works of God.

What does it mean, then, that, having now named heaven and earth, he added, the green of the field and the fodder, and was silent about the rest, so many things that are in heaven and on earth, or even in the sea—unless it is that by the green of the field he wants an invisible creature to be understood, such as the soul is? For the field is accustomed in the Scriptures to be called figuratively the world. For the Lord himself says, the field is the world (Matt 13:38), when he was expounding that parable in which the weeds were mingled with the good seed. By the green of the field, then, he means the spiritual and invisible creature, on account of the vigor of its life; and by the name fodder, likewise, on account of life, we rightly interpret this same thing.

3. 5. Then, in that he added, before they were upon the earth, it is understood to mean before the soul sinned. For when it is soiled with earthly desires, the soul is rightly said to be, as it were, born upon the earth, or to be upon the earth; and so he added, for God had not yet rained upon the earth.

4. 5. For even now God makes the green of the field, but by raining upon the earth, that is, he makes souls grow green again through his word; but he waters them from the clouds, that is, from the Scriptures of the prophets and apostles. And they are rightly called clouds, because these words, which sound and pass away when the air is struck, with the obscurity of allegories added as well, as if overlaid with a certain mist, become, as it were, clouds: which, when they are expressed by examination, are poured out, for those who understand well, like a shower of truth.

But this was not yet so before the soul sinned; that is, before the green of the field was upon the earth. For God had not yet rained upon the earth, nor was there a man to work in it (Gen 2:5). For to a man laboring on the earth, a shower from the clouds is necessary, of which clouds it has already been said. But after sin, man began to labor on the earth and to have need of those clouds. Before sin, however, when God had made the green of the field and the fodder—by which name we said an invisible creature is signified—he watered it by an inner fountain, speaking into its understanding: so that it did not receive words from without, like rain from the aforesaid clouds, but was satisfied by its own fountain, that is, by truth flowing from its inmost parts.

5. 6. For a fountain, he says, went up from the earth, and watered all the face of the earth (Gen 2:6). From the earth, namely, of which it is said, you are my hope, my portion in the land of the living (Ps 142:6 (141:6)). But when the soul was watered by such a fountain, it had not yet, through pride, "cast away its inmost parts." For the beginning of man's pride is to fall away from God (Sir 10:14). And since, swelling outward through pride, it began not to be watered by the inmost fountain, it is rightly mocked with the words of the prophet, and it is said, why is earth and ashes proud? Because in his life he has cast away his inmost parts (Sir 10:9–10).

For what else is pride than, with the inner chamber of conscience abandoned, to wish to appear outwardly what one is not? And therefore, now laboring on the earth, it has need of rain from the clouds, that is, of teaching from human words, so that even in this way it may grow green again from that dryness, and may again become the green of the field.

But would that it might at least gladly receive the rain of truth from those very clouds. For on its account our Lord deigned to take on the cloud of our flesh, and poured out a most abundant shower of the holy Gospel, promising too that if anyone drinks of his water, he will return to that inmost fountain, so that he need not seek rain from without. For he says, it will become in him a fountain of water springing up unto eternal life (John 4:14). This fountain, I believe, before sin went up from the earth and watered all the face of the earth, because it was within and did not desire the help of clouds: for God had not yet rained upon the earth, nor was there a man to work in it (Gen 2:5). For when he had said, for God had not yet rained upon the earth, he subjoined also the cause why he had not yet rained: because there was no man to work in it.

But man began to work on the earth when, after sin, he was sent away from the blessed life, which he enjoyed in paradise. For so it is written: and the Lord God sent him out of the paradise of delight, to work the earth from which he had been taken (Gen 3:23): which we will inquire into in its place (See ch. 22). I have now mentioned this for the purpose that we might understand that for a man laboring on the earth, that is, set in the dryness of sins, divine teaching from human words is necessary, like rain from the clouds. But such knowledge will be destroyed. For now we see in a riddle, as if seeking sustenance in a cloud; but then face to face (See 1 Cor 13:8–12), when the whole face of our earth will be watered by the inner fountain of water springing up. For if we should wish to understand some fountain of this visible water, of which it was said, but a fountain went up from the earth, and watered all the face of the earth (Gen 2:6), it is not probable that, when so many perennial fountains, whether of streams or of rivers, are found throughout the whole earth, that one alone should have dried up which watered all the face of the earth.

6. 7. Under these few words, then, the whole creation was introduced to us before the sin of the soul. For by the name heaven and earth the whole visible creation was signified; and by the name day, all time; and by the name of the green and fodder of the field, the invisible creature; and by the name of the fountain going up and watering all the face of the earth, the flood of truth satisfying the soul before sin. But this day, by whose name we said all time is signified, introduces to us that not only the visible but also the invisible creature can experience time: which is made plain to us in the case of the soul, which, by such great variety of its affections, and by the very fall by which it was made wretched, and by the restoration by which it returns again to blessedness, is shown to be able to be changed in time.

And therefore it was not said only, when the day was made, on which day God made heaven and earth (Gen 2:4), by which names the visible creation is intimated: but there was added also, the green, and fodder of the field (Gen 2:5); by which name we said the invisible creature is signified, on account of its vigor and life, such as the soul is. And so it was said, when the day was made, on which day God made heaven and earth, and all the green, and fodder of the field: so that we might thus understand that not only the visible but also the invisible creature pertains to time, on account of its changeableness; because God alone is unchangeable, who is before the times.

7. 8. Now let us see, after the introduction of the whole creation, both visible and invisible, and the universal benefit of the divine fountain toward the invisible creature, what is intimated specifically concerning man, which pertains to us most of all.

First, the fact that God formed man from the slime of the earth (See Gen 2:7) is accustomed to raise the question what that slime was, or what matter is signified by the name slime. But those enemies of the Old Books, looking at everything carnally and therefore always erring, are accustomed to find biting fault even with this, that God formed man from slime.

For they say: "Why did God make man from slime? Had he run short of better and heavenly matter from which to make man, that he should form so fragile and mortal a thing from earthly filth?" Not understanding, first, in how many significations either earth or water is set in the Scriptures: for slime is a mixture of water and earth.

For we say that the human body began to be wasting and fragile and destined for death after sin. For it is nothing but mortality, which we deserved by condemnation, that these men shudder at in our body. But what is wonderful, or difficult, for God, even if he made man from the slime of this earth, to make his body nonetheless such that it would not be subject to corruption, if man, keeping the commandment of God, had been unwilling to sin?

For if we say that the appearance of heaven itself was made from nothing, or from formless matter, because we believe in an almighty Craftsman, what is wonderful if the body, which was made from slime of whatever kind, could be made by the almighty Craftsman such that no trouble, no want, would torment man before sin, and it would waste away with no corruption?

7. 9. And so it is asked needlessly from what God made the body of man—if indeed it is now the formation of the body that is being spoken of. For so I have learned that some of our people understand it, who say that, after it was said, God formed man from the slime of the earth (Gen 2:7), "to his own image and likeness" was for that reason not added, because it is now the formation of the body that is being spoken of. But the inner man was signified when it was said, God made man to the image and likeness of God (Gen 1:27).

But even if here too we understand man to have been made of body and soul, so that what is set forth in this passage is not the beginning of some new work, but a more diligent reconsideration of what was briefly introduced above—if, then, as I said, we understand man in this place to have been made of body and soul, it is not absurd that the mixture itself received the name of slime. For just as water gathers and binds and holds together the earth, when by its mixture the slime of it is made, so the soul, by giving life to the matter of the body, forms it into a harmonious unity and does not permit it to slip apart and dissolve.

8. 10. As for what is written, and he breathed into him the spirit of life, and the man was made into a living soul (Gen 2:7): if there was as yet only the body, we ought to understand in this place the soul joined to the body—whether it had already been made, but was as it were in the mouth of God, that is, in his Truth or Wisdom, from which nevertheless it did not depart as though separated by place, when it was breathed in (for God is not contained by place, but is everywhere present), or whether the soul was then made, when God breathed the spirit of life into that figure, so that that breathing signifies the very working of God, by which he made the soul in man by the Spirit of his power. But if that man who had been made was already body and soul, then sense was added to the soul itself by this breathing, when the man was made into a living soul: not because that breathing was turned into a living soul, but it worked upon a living soul.

Yet we ought not yet to understand a spiritual man, who was made into a living soul, but still an "animal" one. For he was then made "spiritual" when, set in paradise, that is, in the blessed life, he also received the commandment of perfection, so that he might be brought to completion by the word of God. And so, after he sinned, withdrawing from the commandment of God, and was sent away from paradise, he remained in this state, that he was "animal."

And therefore we all who were born of him after sin first lead the life of the "animal" man, until we attain the "spiritual" Adam, that is, our Lord Jesus Christ, who did no sin (See 1 Pet 2:22); and, recreated and given life by him, may be restored to paradise, where that thief deserved to be with him on the very day on which he ended this life (See Luke 23:43). For so the Apostle says: but not first what is spiritual, but what is animal, as it is written: 'the first Adam was made into a living soul, the last Adam into a life-giving spirit (1 Cor 15:45–46).'

8. 11. So, then, we ought to understand this passage in such a way that we do not, because it was said, he breathed into him the spirit of life, and the man was made into a living soul (Gen 2:7), believe that something like a part of the nature of God was turned into the soul of man, and be compelled to say that the nature of God is changeable: an error in which the truth presses these Manichees most of all. For since pride is the mother of all heretics, they have dared to say that the nature of God is the soul. And from this they are hard-pressed by us, when we say to them: "Then the nature of God errs and is wretched, and is corrupted by the stain of vices and sins; or even, as you say, is befouled with the filth of a contrary nature: and other such things which it is impious to believe of the nature of God."

For that the soul was made by almighty God, and therefore is not a part of God or the nature of God, is plainly written in another place, the prophet saying: and he who formed the spirit for all, he himself made all things (Ps 33:15 (32:15)): and in another place: he who formed the spirit of man within him (Zech 12:1). That the spirit of man, then, was made, is plainly proved by these testimonies. But the spirit of man is called, in the Scriptures, the rational power of the soul itself, by which it differs from the cattle and, by the law of nature, has dominion over them. Of this the Apostle says: no one knows the things of a man, except the spirit of the man that is in him (1 Cor 2:11).

Lest perhaps, if it were proved by these testimonies that the soul was made, there should be no lack of those who would say that the spirit of man was not made, and would think it to be the nature of God, and would say that a part of God was turned into it, when that breathing in by God took place. This sound doctrine likewise rejects, because the spirit of man itself, since it sometimes errs and sometimes is prudently wise, cries out that it is changeable: which it is in no way right to believe of the nature of God. But there can be no greater sign of pride than that the human soul should say that it is what God is, while it still groans under such great masses of vices and miseries.

9. 12. Now let us look at the very blessedness of man, which is signified by the name of paradise: for since the delightful rest of men is accustomed to be in groves, and to our bodily senses the light rises from the east, and the heaven rises up, which is a body higher than our body and more excellent; therefore by these words the spiritual delights too, which the blessed life has, are explained figuratively, and paradise is planted toward the east. Let us understand, then, that our spiritual joys signify every tree beautiful to the sight of understanding, and good for the food that is not corrupted, on which blessed souls are fed: for the Lord too says, work for the food that is not corrupted (John 6:27); such as is every reasoning, which is the food of the soul.

"Toward the east," the light of wisdom in Eden, that is, in immortal and intelligible delights. For "delight," or "pleasure," or "feast" is said to be signified by this word, if it is translated from Hebrew into Latin. But it was set down thus, without translation, so that it might seem to signify some place and might make the expression more figurative. And we take all that tree brought forth from the earth to be all that spiritual joy; that is, to rise above the earth and not to be wrapped up and overwhelmed in the entanglements of earthly desires.

But the tree of life planted in the midst of paradise signifies that wisdom by which the soul ought to understand that it is ordered in a kind of middle position of things, so that, although it has every corporeal nature subject to it, it nevertheless understands that the nature of God is above it: and neither turns aside to the right, by arrogating to itself what it is not, nor to the left, by despising through negligence what it is: and this is the tree of life planted in the midst of paradise.

But by the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, this same middle position of the soul and its ordered integrity is likewise signified: for that tree too was planted in the midst of paradise; and it is for this reason called the tree of the discernment of good and evil, because, if the soul—which ought to stretch itself toward the things that are before it, that is, toward God, and to forget the things that are behind (See Phil 3:13), that is, bodily pleasures—turns, with God abandoned, toward itself, and wishes to enjoy its own power as if without God, it swells with pride, which is the beginning of all sin. And when punishment has followed upon this sin of its, it learns by experience what difference there is between the good it abandoned and the evil into which it fell. And this will be for it to have tasted of the fruit of the tree of the discernment of good and evil. It is commanded, then, to eat of every tree that is in paradise, but not to eat of the tree in which is the discernment of good and evil; that is, not to enjoy it in such a way that, as if by eating, it violates and corrupts the very ordered integrity of its nature.

10. 13. And the river that went forth from Eden, that is, from delights and pleasure and feasting—which river is signified by the prophet in the Psalms when he says, you will give them to drink from the torrent of your pleasure (Ps 36:9 (35:9)); for this is Eden, which in Latin is called "pleasure"—is divided into four parts, and signifies four virtues: prudence, fortitude, temperance, justice. And the Pishon is said to be the Ganges, and the Gihon the Nile, which can also be observed in the prophet Jeremiah: now they are called by other names. Just as the river now called the Tiber was formerly called the Albula. But the Tigris and the Euphrates even now keep the same names:

by which names, nevertheless, spiritual virtues are signified, as I said; which the interpretation of the names themselves also teaches, if one considers the Hebrew or Syriac language. Just as Jerusalem, although it is a visible and earthly place, nevertheless signifies spiritually the "City of Peace"; and Zion, although it is a mountain on earth, nevertheless signifies "Watchtower"; and this name is often transferred in the allegories of the Scriptures to the understanding of spiritual things: and that man who was going down from Jerusalem to Jericho, as the Lord says, and on the way was wounded, and left injured and half-dead by robbers (See Luke 10:30), certainly compels these earthly places, although according to history they are found on earth, to be understood spiritually.

10. 14. Prudence, then, which signifies the very contemplation of Truth, foreign to every human mouth because it is ineffable—which, if you should wish to express it, you are rather in labor with it than give it birth, since there the Apostle too heard ineffable words which it is not permitted to a man to speak (See 2 Cor 12:4)—this prudence, then, goes around the land that has gold, and the carbuncle, and the green stone, that is, the discipline of living, which, refined as it were from all earthly filth, shines like the best gold; and truth, which no falsehood overcomes, as the gleam of the carbuncle is not overcome by night; and eternal life, which is signified by the greenness of the green stone, on account of the vigor that does not wither.

But that river which goes around the land of Ethiopia, very hot and burning, signifies fortitude, lively and untiring with the heat of action. The third, the Tigris, goes toward the Assyrians, and signifies temperance, which resists lust, very much opposed to the counsels of prudence: whence for the most part in the Scriptures the Assyrians are set in the place of adversaries. Of the fourth river it is not said against what it goes, or what land it goes around: for justice pertains to all the parts of the soul, because it is itself the order and equity of the soul, by which these three are joined together harmoniously in it; first, prudence; second, fortitude; third, temperance; and in this whole joining together and ordering, justice.

11. 15. As for the fact that man was so set in paradise that he should work and keep it, that more praiseworthy work was not laborious. For there is one work in paradise, and another on the earth, to which he was condemned after sin. And from the fact that there was added, and keep it, it was signified what that work was. For in the tranquillity of the blessed life, where there is no death, all work is to keep what you hold.

He also receives a commandment, of which we have already treated above (See ch. 9). Which commandment, since it is concluded in such a way as not to speak to one person—for it says, but on the day you eat, you will die the death (Gen 2:17)—

it begins to be set forth how the woman was made: and she is said to have been made as a helper for the man, so that by a spiritual joining she might bring forth spiritual offspring, that is, good works of divine praise; while he rules, she obeys; he is ruled by wisdom, she by the man. For the head of the man is Christ, and the head of the woman is the man (1 Cor 11:3).

And so it is said, it is not good for the man to be alone (Gen 2:18). For there was still something that should come about, so that not only the soul should have dominion over the body, since the body holds the place of a servant, but also the manly reason should subject to itself its own "animal" part, through which helper it might command the body.

As an example of this matter the woman was made, whom the order of things subjects to the man; so that what appears more evidently in two human beings, that is, in male and female, may also be considered in one human being: so that the inner mind, like manly reason, may have subject to it the appetite of the soul, through which we work by the members of the body, and by a just law may impose measure on its helper, just as the man ought to rule the woman and not permit her to have dominion over the man; for where this happens, the household is perverse and wretched.

11. 16. First, then, God showed man how much better he was than the cattle and all the irrational animals: and this is what is signified by what was said, that all the animals were brought to him, to see what he would call them, and to impose names on them. For from this it appears that man is better than the cattle by his very reason, because to distinguish and discern them by name nothing but reason can do, which judges concerning them.

But this is an easy reasoning; for a man quickly understands that he is better than the cattle: that is the difficult reasoning, by which he understands that in himself there is one thing, the rational, that rules, and another, the "animal," that is ruled.

12. 16. And since the soul sees these things by a more hidden wisdom, I think that this hidden vision itself is signified by the name of the sleep that God sent upon Adam when the woman was made for him.

For in order to see this, there is no need of these bodily eyes; but the more each one withdraws from these visible things into the interior of understanding (and this is, as it were, to fall asleep), the better and more purely he sees that. For the very knowledge by which it is understood that in us there is one thing that rules by reason, another that obeys reason—this knowledge, then, is as it were the making of the woman from the rib of the man, in order to signify the conjunction.

Then, so that each one may rightly have dominion over this part of himself, and may become as it were conjugal within himself, so that the flesh does not lust against the spirit but is subjected to the spirit, that is, so that carnal desire does not oppose reason but rather, by obeying, ceases to be carnal, he has need of perfect wisdom.

And since the contemplation of this is interior and more hidden, and most remote from every sense of the body, it too can fittingly be understood by the name of "sleep." For then the man is the head of the woman in the most orderly way, when the head of the man is Christ, who is the Wisdom of God (See 1 Cor 1:24).

12. 17. Indeed, in the place of that rib he filled in flesh, so that by this name might be introduced the affection of love by which each one loves his own soul, and is not so hard as to despise it; for one loves that over which he presides. For flesh is not so named in this place as to signify carnal desire, but rather in that way in which the prophet says that a heart of stone is taken away from the people, and a heart of flesh is given (See Ezek 11:19). For in this way the Apostle too says, not on tablets of stone, but on the fleshly tablets of the heart (2 Cor 3:3). For one thing is proper speech, another figurative, such as this is which we are now treating.

Wherefore, even if the visible woman was, according to history, first made from the body of the man by the Lord God, she was surely not made so without a cause, but only to introduce some hidden thing. For was there a lack of slime from which the woman might be formed? Or, if the Lord willed, could he not have drawn a rib from a waking man without pain?

Whether, then, these things were said figuratively, or were even done figuratively, they were not said or done in this way for nothing; but they are plainly mysteries and sacred signs, and are to be interpreted and understood according to sound faith—whether in the way that our slenderness attempts, or in some other better way.

13. 18. The man, then, called her his woman, as the superior the inferior, and said, this now is bone from my bones, and flesh from my flesh (Gen 2:23). Bone from bones, perhaps on account of fortitude; and flesh from flesh, on account of temperance. For these two virtues are taught to pertain to the lower part of the mind, which the rational prudence rules. But as for what was said, she will be called woman, because she was taken from her man (Gen 2:23), this origin of the name, and its interpretation, does not appear in the Latin language. For what likeness the word "woman" has to the word "man" is not found. But in the Hebrew idiom it is said to sound as if it had been said: "she will be called she-man, because she was taken from her man." For "she-man," or rather "maiden," has some likeness to the word "man"; but "woman" does not: this, however, as I said, the diversity of language brings about.

13. 19. But as for what was added, a man will leave his father and mother, and will cleave to his wife; and the two will be in one flesh (Eph 5:31), how it may be referred to history I do not find, except that for the most part these things happen in the human race; but it is wholly a prophecy, which the Apostle mentions, saying: for this reason a man will leave his father and mother, and will cleave to his wife; and the two will be in one flesh. This is a great mystery: but I speak in Christ and in the Church (Eph 5:31–32). If the Manichees, who deceive many through the Apostolic Epistles, read this not blind, they would understand how the Scriptures of the Old Testament are to be taken, and would not dare with so sacrilegious a voice to accuse what they do not know.

And that Adam and his wife were naked and were not ashamed signifies the simplicity and chastity of the soul. For the Apostle too says: I have prepared you to present you as a chaste virgin to one husband, Christ: but I fear lest, as the serpent deceived Eve by his cunning, so your minds be corrupted from the simplicity and chastity that is in Christ (2 Cor 11:2–3).

14. 20. But the serpent signifies the devil, who certainly was not simple. For in that it is said that he was wiser than all the beasts, his cunning is figuratively introduced. And it was not said that the serpent was in paradise, but that there was a serpent among the beasts that God made. For paradise, as I said above, signifies the blessed life (See ch. 9), in which the serpent now was not, because he was now the devil; and he had fallen from his blessedness, because he did not stand in the truth. Nor is it to be wondered how he could speak to the woman, since she was in paradise and he was not; for either she was not in paradise according to place, but rather according to the affection of blessedness; or, even if there is such a place as is called paradise, in which Adam and the woman dwelt bodily, must we then understand the devil's approach bodily too? Not at all, but spiritually, as the Apostle says: according to the prince of the power of the air, the spirit who now works in the sons of unbelief (Eph 2:2).

Does he, then, appear to them visibly, or approach as if through bodily places those in whom he works? Not at all, but in wondrous ways he suggests through thoughts whatever he can. These suggestions are resisted by those who truly say what the Apostle likewise says: for we are not ignorant of his devices (2 Cor 2:11). For how did he approach Judas, when he persuaded him to betray the Lord? Was he seen by him in places, or through these eyes? But surely, as it was said, he entered into his heart (See Luke 22:3).

But a man repels him if he keeps paradise. For God placed man in paradise to work and to keep it: because thus it is said of the Church in the Song of Songs: a garden enclosed, a fountain sealed (Song 4:12); into which surely that persuader to perversity is not admitted. But yet he deceives through the woman: for not even our reason can be led to consent to sin, except when delight has been stirred in that part of the mind which ought to obey reason as its governing husband.

14. 21. Even now in each one of us nothing else takes place, when anyone slips into sin, than what took place then in those three: the serpent, the woman, and the man. For first comes the suggestion, whether through thought or through the senses of the body—by seeing, or touching, or hearing, or tasting, or smelling: which suggestion, when it has been made, if our desire is not moved to sin, the serpent's cunning will be shut out; but if it has been moved, it will be as though the woman had already been persuaded. But sometimes reason manfully reins in and restrains even an aroused desire. When this happens, we do not slip into sin, but with some struggle we are crowned. But if reason consents, and decides that what desire has aroused must be done, then man is expelled from the whole blessed life, as from paradise. For now sin is imputed, even if the deed does not follow; since the conscience is held guilty in the consent.

15. 22. But in what way that serpent persuaded to sin must be considered diligently; for it pertains most of all to our salvation: for these things were written so that we might now beware of such things. For when the woman, on being questioned, had answered what had been commanded them, he said, you will not die the death: for God knew that on the day you eat from it, your eyes will be opened, and you will be like gods, knowing good and evil (Gen 3:4–5).

We see by these words that sin was persuaded through pride: for to this tends what was said, you will be like gods. So too what was said, for God knew that on the day you eat from it, your eyes will be opened, what is here understood, except that they were persuaded to be unwilling to be under God, but rather to be in their own power without the Lord, so as not to observe his law, as though he begrudged them their ruling themselves, not needing his inner light, but using their own foresight, as if their own eyes, to discern good and evil, which he had forbidden?

This, then, is what was persuaded: that they should love their own power too much, and, wishing to be equal with God, should make bad use of that middle position, through which they were subject to God and had their bodies subject to them—as if of the fruit of the tree set in the midst of paradise—that is, against the Law of God; and so should lose what they had received, while they wished to usurp what they had not received. For the nature of man did not receive the power to be blessed by its own power, with God not ruling; because, with no one ruling, God alone can be blessed by his own power.

15. 23. And the woman saw, he says, that the tree was good for food, and that it was good to the eyes for seeing and knowing (Gen 3:6). How did she see, if the eyes were closed? But this was said so that we might understand that their eyes were opened, after they had taken of that fruit—the eyes by which they saw themselves naked and were displeasing to themselves, that is, the eyes of cunning, to which simplicity is displeasing. For when anyone has fallen from that inmost and most hidden light of truth, there is nothing by which pride wishes to please except by fraudulent pretenses. For from this hypocrisy too is born, in which those seem very shrewd to themselves who have been able to deceive and beguile whomever they wished.

For the woman gave to her husband, and they ate, and their eyes were opened, of which it has already been said; and then they saw that they were naked, but with perverse eyes, to which that simplicity which was signified by the name of nakedness seemed something to be ashamed of. And so, that they might no longer be simple, they made themselves girdles from fig leaves, as if covering their shameful parts, that is, hiding the simplicity of which cunning pride was now ashamed. But the fig leaves signify a certain itch, if this is rightly said of incorporeal things, which the mind suffers in wondrous ways by the desire and delight of lying. Whence in Latin too those who love to jest are called "salty." But in jests surely pretense holds the chief place.

16. 24. And so, when God was walking in paradise toward evening (See Gen 3:8), that is, when he was now coming to judge them, still before their punishment, he was walking in paradise, that is, the presence of God was, as it were, moving in them, when they were no longer stable in his commandment; and well "toward evening," that is, when the sun was now setting for them, that is, when that inner light of truth was being taken from them: they heard his voice, and hid themselves from his sight. Who hides himself from the sight of God, except he who, having abandoned God himself, now begins to love what is his own? For now they had the coverings of lying: and he who speaks a lie speaks from his own (See John 8:44). And therefore they are said to hide themselves by the tree which was in the midst of paradise, that is, by themselves, who were ordered in the middle of things, below God and above bodies.

They hid themselves, then, by themselves, so that they were thrown into confusion by wretched errors, the light of truth, which they themselves were not, having been abandoned. For the human soul can be a partaker of truth: but the truth itself is the unchangeable God above it. From this Truth, then, whoever is turned away, and turned toward himself, and exults not in God his governor and illuminator but in his own movements as if they were free, is darkened by lying: since he who speaks a lie speaks from his own; and so is thrown into confusion, and makes plain that voice of the prophet by which it was said, my soul is troubled within me (Ps 42:7 (41:7)).

And so now Adam is questioned, not because God did not know where he was, but because he was compelling him to confess his sin: for the Lord Jesus Christ too did not fail to know the many things about which he asked. But Adam answered that, having heard his voice, he had hidden himself, because he was naked. He answered already with a most wretched error, as if he could be displeasing to God naked, just as God himself had made him. But this is proper to error, that what is displeasing to each one he thinks is displeasing to God too. But that is to be understood loftily which the Lord says: who told you that you were naked, unless it is that you have eaten from that tree of which I had told you, of that one alone, not to eat? (Gen 3:11) For he was naked of pretense, but was clothed with the divine light. Whence, turned away and turned toward himself—which signifies that he ate of that tree—he saw his nakedness, and was displeasing to himself because he had nothing of his own.

17. 25. Then, now in the manner of pride, he does not accuse himself of having consented to the woman, but pours his guilt back onto the woman; and so subtly, as if from the cunning that the wretch had conceived, he wished what he had sinned to pertain to God himself. For he does not say, "the woman gave me"; but he added, saying, the woman whom you gave me (Gen 3:12).

But nothing is so familiar to sinners as to wish to attribute to God whatever they are accused of: and this from that vein of pride; so that, since man sinned in this way when he wants to be equal to God, that is, to be free from his dominion, just as God is free from all dominion, since he himself is the Lord of all—since man could not be equal to him in majesty, now fallen and lying in his sin, he tries to make him equal to himself. Or rather he wants to show that God sinned, but that he himself is innocent.

And the woman, when questioned, refers her guilt to the serpent: as though either he had so taken a wife that he should obey her, and not rather make her obey him; or she could not rather keep the commandment of God than admit the words of the serpent.

17. 26. Now the serpent is not questioned, but was the first to receive punishment, because he can neither confess his sin nor has anything at all by which to excuse himself. But that condemnation of the devil is not now spoken of which is reserved for the last judgment, of which the Lord speaks when he says, go into the eternal fire, which has been prepared for the devil and his angels (Matt 25:41); but that punishment of his is spoken of by which he is to be guarded against by us.

For his punishment is that he should have in his power those who despise the commandments of God. For this is set forth in these words by which the sentence is pronounced against him: and from this his punishment is the greater, because he rejoices over this so unhappy power, who, before he fell, was accustomed to rejoice in the sublime truth in which he did not stand. And therefore even the cattle are preferred to him, not in power but in the preservation of their nature: because the cattle did not lose any heavenly blessedness, which they never had, but pass their life in the nature that they received.

It is said to him, then: upon your breast and belly you will crawl (Gen 3:14). Which is indeed observed also in the snake, and from that visible animal the manner of speaking is figured to this invisible enemy of ours. For by the name breast, pride is signified, because there the impulse of the mind has dominion; and by the name belly, carnal desire is signified, because this part is felt to be softer in the body. And because by these things he creeps toward those whom he wishes to deceive, therefore it was said, upon your breast and belly you will crawl.

18. 27. And you will eat earth, he says, all the days of your life (Gen 3:14): that is, all the days in which you exercise this power, before that last punishment of the judgment; for this seems to be his life, in which he rejoices and glories. You will eat earth, then, can be understood in two ways: either those will pertain to you whom you have deceived by earthly desire, that is, sinners, who are signified by the name earth; or else a third kind of temptation is figured by these words, which is curiosity. For he who eats earth penetrates deep and dark things, and yet temporal and earthly ones.

18. 28. But enmity is not put between him and the man, but between him and the woman. Is it because he does not deceive and tempt men? But it is plain that he deceives them. Or is it because he did not deceive Adam himself, but his woman? But is he not therefore an enemy of him to whom that deception came through his woman, especially since it is now said of the future, I will put enmity between you and the woman (Gen 3:15)? But if it is because he did not afterward deceive Adam, neither did he afterward deceive Eve herself.

Why, then, is it said so, unless because here it is plainly shown that we cannot be tempted by the devil except through that animal part, which shows, as it were, the image or example of the woman in the one man himself, of which we have already said much above? And in that enmities are put also between the seed of the devil and the seed of the woman, by the seed of the devil is signified the perverse suggestion; and by the seed of the woman, the fruit of good work, by which it resists the perverse suggestion. And therefore he himself watches the sole of the woman's foot, so that, if at any time delight slips into unlawful things, he may then seize her: and she watches his head, so that she may shut him out at the very beginning of his evil persuasion.

19. 29. Now about the punishment of the woman there is no question: for plainly she has multiplied sorrows, and sighs amid the calamities of this life; and as for the fact that she bears children in sorrows, although it is fulfilled also in this visible woman, nevertheless the consideration must be brought back to that more hidden woman.

For among the cattle too the females bear their young with pain, and this in them is a condition of mortality rather than a punishment of sin. It can be, then, that even in human females this is a condition of mortal bodies. But this is a great punishment, that they came to this mortality of bodies from that immortality.

Nevertheless there is a great sacred meaning in this sentence, that no abstinence from carnal will is made which does not have sorrow at the outset, until habit is bent toward the better part. When this has come about, it is as though a son has been born, that is, the affection has been prepared for good work through good habit. And that this habit might be born, there was a struggle with sorrow against the bad habit. For as to what was said after the birth, your turning will be toward your husband, and he will have dominion over you (Gen 3:16)—do not many, and nearly all, women bear children in the absence of their husbands, and after the birth not turn toward them? And as for those women who are proud and have dominion over their husbands, are they free of this fault after the birth, so that their husbands have dominion over them? On the contrary, they believe, as it were, that a dignity has been added to them in becoming mothers, and for the most part they turn out prouder.

What does it mean, then, that after it was said, in sorrows you will bear children, there was added, and your turning will be toward your husband, and he will have dominion over you (Gen 3:16), unless it is that that part of the soul which is held by carnal joys, when, wishing to overcome some bad habit, it has suffered difficulty and sorrow, and so has given birth to a good habit, now more cautiously and diligently obeys reason as its husband; and, schooled as it were by those very sorrows, turns toward reason, and gladly serves it as it commands, lest it again flow down into some ruinous habit? These things, then, which seem curses, are commandments, if we read spiritual things not carnally. For the Law is spiritual (Rom 7:14).

20. 30. Likewise, what shall we say of this sentence which was pronounced against the man himself? Are the rich perhaps, to whom sustenance comes most easily and who do not work the earth, to be thought to have escaped this punishment, by which it is said, the earth will be cursed for you in all your works; in your sorrow and groaning you will eat of it all the days of your life. It will bring forth thorns and thistles for you, and you will eat the fodder of your field: in the sweat of your face you will eat your bread, until you return to the earth from which you were taken; for earth you are, and to earth you will go (Gen 3:17–19)?

But surely this is plain, that no one escapes this sentence. For this very thing, that each one born in this life has difficulty in finding the truth because of the corruptible body (for, as Solomon says, the body that is corrupted weighs down the soul, and the earthly dwelling presses down the mind that ponders many things (Wis 9:15))—these are themselves the labors and sorrows that man has from the earth; and the thorns and thistles are the prickings of tortuous questions, or the cares about the provision of this life: which for the most part, unless they are uprooted and cast out of the field of God, choke the word, so that it does not bear fruit in man, as the Lord says in the Gospel (See Mark 4:18–19).

And since by necessity we are now admonished about the truth itself through these eyes and through these ears, and it is difficult to resist the phantasms that enter the soul through these senses, although through them the admonition of truth itself also enters; in this perplexity, then, whose face does not sweat that he may eat his bread? Which we are going to suffer all the days of our life, that is, of this life that will pass away. And this was said to him who has tilled his field, because he suffers these things until he returns to the earth from which he was taken, that is, until he ends this life. For he who has tilled this field within, and has come to his bread, though with labor, can suffer this labor up to the end of this life: but after this life it is not necessary that he suffer it. But he who perhaps has not tilled his field, and has allowed it to be overwhelmed with thorns, has in this life the curse of his earth in all his works, and after this life will have either the fire of purgation or eternal punishment. So no one escapes this sentence: but we must act so that it may be felt at least in this life only.

21. 31. But whom would it not move that, after sin and the sentence of God the judge, Adam calls his woman Life, because she is the mother of the living, after she had deserved death and was destined to bear mortal offspring; unless it is that Scripture attends to those offspring which, when she has borne them in sorrows, her turning will be toward her husband, and he will have dominion over her? Of which offspring it was said above. For so is she Life and the mother of the living. For the life that is in sins is accustomed to be called death in the Scriptures, as the Apostle says that the widow who lives in pleasures is dead (1 Tim 5:6): and we read that sin itself is signified by the name of the dead, where it was said, he who is baptized from a dead body, and again touches it, what does he profit by his washing? So too he who fasts over his sins, and again, going about, does these same things (Sir 34:30–31). For he set down "a dead body" for sin, and abstinence and fasting from sin as a baptism, that is, a cleansing from a dead body: but to return again to sin as to touch again a dead body.

Why, then, should not that "animal" part of ours, which ought to obey reason as a husband, when through reason itself it has conceived from the word of life the burden of living rightly, be called life; and when, by the labor of giving birth to abstinence—though with sorrows and groanings, resisting the bad habit—it has given birth to a good habit toward right deeds, be called the mother of the living, that is, of right deeds; to which sins are contrary, which we have taught can be signified by the name of the dead?

21. 32. For that death which all of us who are born of Adam began to owe to nature—which God threatened when he gave the commandment that the fruit of the tree should not be eaten—that death, then, was figured in the garments of skins. For they themselves made themselves girdles from fig leaves, and God made them garments of skins: that is, they themselves sought the lust of lying, the face of truth having been abandoned, and God changed their bodies into this mortality of the flesh, where lying hearts lie hidden.

For it is not to be believed that in those heavenly bodies thoughts can lie hidden in the way that they lie hidden in these bodies: but just as some movements of the mind appear in the face, and especially in the eyes, so in that clearness and simplicity of heavenly bodies I do not think that all the movements of the mind whatsoever can lie hidden.

And so those will deserve that dwelling and that change into the angelic form who, even in this life, although they can hide lies under the garments of skins, nevertheless hate them and guard against them with a most burning love of truth, and conceal this alone, which those who hear cannot bear; but they tell no lies. For a time will come when nothing at all will be covered up: for there is nothing hidden that will not be made manifest (Matt 10:26).

But these two were in paradise so long—although already under the sentence of the condemning God—until it had come to the garments of skins, that is, to the mortality of this life. For by what greater token could the death which we feel in the body be signified than by the skins which are accustomed to be stripped from dead cattle? And so, when, against the commandment, not by lawful imitation but by unlawful pride, man sought to be God, he was cast down even to the mortality of beasts.

21. 33. Thus the divine Law mocks him by the mouth of God; by which mockery we are admonished to guard against pride as much as we can.

22. 33. Behold, Adam has become like one of us, in the knowledge of recognizing good and evil (Gen 3:22). This ambiguous expression makes a figure: for he has become like one of us can be understood in two ways: either one of us as if he too were God, which pertains to the mockery—as one says, "one of the senators," meaning of course "a senator"—or else, because he too would be a god, though by the benefit of his Creator, not by nature, if he had been willing to remain under his power, it was said, of us; as one says, "one of the former consuls," or "in place of a consul," who is no longer one.

But for what has he become like one of us? "In the knowledge, namely, of discerning good and evil," so that he might learn by experience, while he feels the evil, what God knows by wisdom; and might learn from his own punishment that that power of the Almighty, which he was unwilling to undergo while blessed and consenting, is unavoidable.

22. 34. And then, lest Adam stretch out his hand to the tree of life and live forever, God sent him out of paradise (Gen 3:23). It was well said, he sent him out, not "he shut him out"; so that he might seem to be driven, by the very weight of his sins, as if into a place suited to him. This for the most part a bad man suffers when he has begun to live among the good, if he has been unwilling to change for the better: by the weight of his bad habit he is driven from that gathering of the good; and they do not shut him out as he struggles, but send him away as he desires.

But as for what was said, lest Adam stretch out his hand to the tree of life, this too is an ambiguous expression. For we speak thus, when we say, "I warn you, lest you do again what you did," wishing of course that he not do it: and again thus, "I warn you, in case you may be good," wishing of course that he be so; that is, I warn you, not despairing that you may be able to be good. As the Apostle speaks, when he says, in case God may give them repentance to know the truth (2 Tim 2:25).

It can seem, then, that for this reason man was sent into the labors of this life, that at some time he might stretch out his hand to the tree of life and live forever. And the stretching out of the hand well signifies the cross, through which eternal life is regained. Although, even if we understand it in that other way, lest he stretch out his hand and live forever, it is not an unjust punishment that after sin the way to wisdom was blocked off, until, by the mercy of God, in the measures of the times, he who is dead comes back to life, and he who had perished is found.

He was sent away, then, from the paradise of delight, to work the earth from which he had been taken; that is, to labor in this body, and there, if he could, to lay up for himself the merit of returning. But he dwelt opposite paradise in misery: which surely is "contrary" to the blessed life. For I think the blessed life is signified by the name "paradise."

23. 35. And God set the Cherubim and the flaming sword which turns, which can be called by one word "turning," to guard the way of the tree of life (Gen 3:24). As those wish who have interpreted the Hebrew words in the Scriptures, "cherubim" is said to be in Latin "the fullness of knowledge." But by the flaming, turning sword temporal punishments are understood, since the times turn with revolving motion. It is also called flaming because every tribulation burns in a certain way. But it is one thing to burn unto consumption, and another to burn unto purgation.

For the Apostle too says, who is made to stumble, and I am not set on fire? (2 Cor 11:29) But this affection purified him the more, because it came from love. And those tribulations which the just suffer pertain to this flaming sword: since gold and silver are tested in fire, and acceptable men in the furnace of humiliation (Sir 2:5). And again: the furnace tests the potter's vessels, and the testing of tribulation just men (Sir 27:6). Since, then, whom God loves, he rebukes; and he scourges every son whom he receives (Heb 12:6); as the Apostle says, knowing that tribulation works patience, and patience testing (Rom 5:3–4), we both read and hear, and it is to be believed, that the fullness of knowledge and the flaming sword guard the tree of life. No one, then, can come to the tree of life except through these two, that is, through the endurance of troubles and the fullness of knowledge.

23. 36. But the endurance of troubles must be undergone by nearly all in this life who are striving toward the tree of life: while the fullness of knowledge seems to come to fewer; so that it is as though not all who come to the tree of life come through the fullness of knowledge, although all feel the endurance of troubles, that is, the flaming, turning sword. But if attention is paid to what the Apostle says, the fullness of the Law is love (Rom 13:10), and we see that this same love is contained in that twofold commandment: you shall love the Lord your God with your whole heart, and with your whole soul, and with your whole mind (Matt 22:37); and: you shall love your neighbor as yourself; on which two commandments hang the whole Law and the Prophets (Matt 22:40): without doubt we understand that one comes to the tree of life not only through the flaming, turning sword, that is, through the endurance of temporal troubles, but also through the fullness of knowledge, that is, through love; because if I have not love, he says, I am nothing (1 Cor 13:2).

24. 37. But in this discourse I promised the consideration of the deeds done, which I think has been set forth; and then the consideration of the prophecy, which remains to be set forth, now briefly. For with a kind of clear sign laid down by which the rest may be directed, this consideration will not, I think, detain us long. For the Apostle says that it is a great mystery, what was said: for this reason a man will leave his father and mother, and will cleave to his wife; and the two will be in one flesh (Eph 5:31): which he himself interprets by subjoining, but I speak in Christ and in the Church (Eph 5:32).

Therefore what through history was fulfilled in Adam, through prophecy signifies Christ, who left his father, when he said, I came forth from the Father, and came into this world (John 16:28). He did not leave him by place, because God is not contained by place, nor by the turning away of sin, as apostates leave God; but by appearing to men in a man, when the Word was made flesh, and dwelt among us (John 1:14). This very thing signifies not a change of the nature of God, but the taking on of the nature of a lower person, that is, the human. To this tends also what is said, he emptied himself (Phil 2:7); because he did not appear to men in that dignity in which he is with the Father, coaxing the weakness of those who did not yet have a clean heart, by which the Word might be seen to be in the beginning God with God (See John 1:1). What is it, then, that we said, he left the Father, unless it is, he left off appearing to men as he is with the Father?

Likewise he left his mother too, that is, the old and carnal observance of the Synagogue, which was his mother from the seed of David according to the flesh, and he cleaved to his wife, that is, the Church, so that they might be two in one flesh. For the Apostle says that he himself is the head of the Church, and the Church his body (See Col 1:18). So he too fell asleep in the sleep of his passion, that his spouse the Church might be formed for him—which sleep he sings of through the prophet, saying: I slept and took my rest; and I rose up, because the Lord sustained me (Ps 3:5 (3:6)). The Church, then, his spouse, was formed for him from his side, that is, from the faith of his passion and of baptism. For his side, struck with the lance, poured forth blood and water (See John 19:34).

And he was made, as I said above, from the seed of David according to the flesh (Rom 1:3), as the Apostle says, that is, as if from the slime of the earth, when there was no man to work in the earth, because no man "worked" in the Virgin from whom Christ was born. But a fountain went up from the earth, and watered all the face of the earth (Gen 2:6). By the face of the earth, that is, the dignity of the earth, the mother of the Lord, the Virgin Mary, is most rightly understood, whom the Holy Spirit watered, who is signified by the name of fountain and water in the Gospel (See John 7:37–38); so that from such slime, as it were, that man might be made who was set in paradise, to work and to keep it, that is, in the will of the Father, to fulfill it and to keep it.

25. 38. For the commandment that he received, we received in him, because each Christian not incongruously bears the person of Christ, the Lord himself saying, what you have done to one of the least of mine, you have done to me (Matt 25:40). And would that we enjoyed, as is commanded, every tree of paradise, which signifies spiritual delights;

but the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, long-suffering, kindness, goodness, faith, gentleness, self-control (Gal 5:22–23), as the Apostle says: and would that we did not touch the tree of the knowledge of good and evil planted in the midst of paradise, that is, that we did not wish to be proud of our nature, which, as we have already said, is in the middle, so that, deceived, we should learn by experience what difference there is between the simple Catholic faith and the deceptions of heretics!

for so we come to the discernment of good and evil. For there must, he says, be even heresies, so that those who are approved may become manifest among you (1 Cor 11:19).

And indeed that serpent, according to the prophecy, signifies the poisons of heretics, and especially of these Manichees, and of whoever opposes the Old Testament. For I think nothing was more plainly foretold than that these men are to be avoided in that serpent, or rather that serpent in these men. For none more loquaciously and boastfully promise the knowledge of good and evil; and they presume that they will demonstrate that discernment in man himself, as if in the tree that is planted in the midst of paradise.

And as for what was said, you will be like gods (Gen 3:5), who say this more than these men, who, through their proud emptiness, trying to persuade us of this same pride, affirm that the soul is naturally what God is? And to whom does the opening of the carnal eyes pertain more than to these men, who, having abandoned the inner light of wisdom, compel us to adore this sun, which pertains to the eyes of the body? And all heretics indeed deceive generally by the promise of knowledge, and find fault with those whom they find believing simply; and because they persuade us of wholly carnal things, they try, as it were, to lead us to the opening of the carnal eyes, so that the inner eye may be blinded.

26. 38. But to these men even their own bodies are displeasing—not on account of the penal mortality which we deserved by sinning, but in such a way that they deny that God is the founder of bodies, as if, the eyes of the flesh being opened, this nakedness were displeasing to them.

26. 39. But nothing more vehemently designates and marks these men than what the serpent says: you will not die the death: for God knew that on the day you eat, your eyes will be opened (Gen 3:4–5). For these men believe that that serpent was Christ, and they invent that some god of the race of darkness, as they affirm, gave that commandment, as though he begrudged men the knowledge of good and evil. From this opinion I think there were also born certain "serpent-people," who are said to worship a serpent in place of Christ, and do not heed the Apostle who says, I fear lest, as the serpent seduced Eve by his cunning, so your minds too be corrupted (2 Cor 11:3). These, then, I think were prefigured by this prophecy. But our carnal desire is seduced by the words of this serpent, and through it Adam is deceived—not Christ, but the Christian:

who, if he were willing to keep the commandment of God, and to live perseveringly by faith, until he became fit for the understanding of truth—that is, if he worked in paradise and kept what he received—would not come into that deformity, that, when the flesh is displeasing to him as if it were his own nakedness, he should rather gather the carnal coverings of lies, like fig leaves, to make himself a girdle of them. For this is what these men do, when they lie about Christ and proclaim that he himself lied; and they hide themselves, as it were, from the face of God, turned from his truth to their own lies, as the Apostle says: and they will turn away their hearing from the truth, but will turn to fables (2 Tim 4:4).

26. 40. And that serpent indeed, that is, that error of the heretics, which tempts the Church, against which the Apostle utters his charm, when he says, I fear lest, as the serpent seduced Eve by his cunning, so your minds too be corrupted (2 Cor 11:3); that error, then, creeps upon its breast and belly, and eats earth.

For it deceives none but either the proud, who, arrogating to themselves what they are not, quickly believe that the highest God and the human soul are one and the same nature;

or those entangled in carnal desires, who gladly hear that whatever wanton things they do, they themselves do not do, but the race of darkness; or the curious, who relish earthly things, and seek out spiritual things with an earthly eye.

But there will be enmities between this one and the woman, and between his seed and the seed of the woman, if she bears children, though with sorrows, and turns toward her husband, so that he may have dominion over her. For then it can be known that there is not one part in us pertaining to God the author, and another to the race of darkness, as these men say; but rather that both that which has the power of ruling in man, and that lower thing which is to be ruled, are from God, as the Apostle says: a man indeed ought not to veil his head, since he is the image and glory of God; but the woman is the glory of the man. For the man is not from the woman, but the woman from the man: for the man was not created for the woman, but the woman for the man; therefore the woman ought to have a covering over her head, because of the angels. Nevertheless neither is the woman without the man, nor the man without the woman, in the Lord: for as the woman is from the man, so too the man is through the woman; but all things are from God (1 Cor 11:7–12).

27. 41. Let Adam now labor in his field, and, as for the earth's bringing forth thorns and thistles for him, let him understand that this is not a matter of nature but of punishment; and let him attribute this not to some race of darkness, but to the divine judgment: because it is the governance of justice to render to each his own. Let him himself give to the woman the heavenly food which he received from his head, who is Christ: let him not receive from her the forbidden food, that is, the deception of heretics with their great promise of knowledge and, as it were, the opening up of secrets, by which the error itself is made more seasoned for deceiving.

For the proud and curious desire of heretics cries out in the book of Proverbs under the image of a woman, and says, let him who is foolish turn aside to me (Prov 9:16): and she exhorts those lacking sense, saying, gladly eat hidden bread, and drink stolen sweet water (Prov 9:17).

And yet it is necessary that, when anyone has also believed those things, the lust of lying going before, by which he believes that Christ lied, he also receive a garment of skins by the divine judgment. By which name there seems to me to be signified in the prophecy not the mortality of the body, which is signified in the history, of which it has already been treated; but the phantasms drawn from the carnal senses, which follow and cover over the one lying carnally, by the divine Law: and so he is sent away from paradise, that is, from the Catholic faith and truth, to dwell opposite paradise, that is, to contradict that same faith.

And if at some time he turns himself to God through the flaming sword, that is, through temporal tribulations—by recognizing and groaning over his sins, and by accusing no longer a foreign nature, which is nothing, but himself, that he himself may deserve pardon; and through the fullness of knowledge, which is love, by loving God, who is unchangeable above all things, and loving him with his whole heart, and with his whole soul, and with his whole mind; and by loving his neighbor as himself—he will come to the tree of life, and will live forever.

28. 42. What, then, do these men have to find fault with in these writings of the Old Testament? Let them question after their manner, and let us answer as the Lord deigns to grant.

"Why did God make man," they say, "whom he knew would sin?"

Because even out of the sinner he could make many good things, ordering him according to the governance of his justice, and because his sin in no way harmed God: and whether he did not sin, there would be no death; or, because he did sin, others, being mortal, are corrected by his sin. For nothing so recalls men from sin as the thought of impending death.

"He should have made him," they say, "so that he could not sin."

On the contrary, he himself did this; for he was so made that, if he had been unwilling, he would not have sinned.

"The devil," they say, "should not have been admitted to his woman."

On the contrary, she herself should not have admitted the devil to herself; for she was so made that, if she had been unwilling, she would not have admitted him.

"The woman," they say, "should not have been made."

This is to say, a good thing should not have been made: because she too is surely some good, and so great a good that the Apostle says she is the glory of the man; and all things are from God.

Again they say: "Who made the devil?"

He himself; for he was made the devil not by nature, but by sinning.

"Or him too," they say, "God should not have made, if he knew that he would sin."

On the contrary, why should he not make him, when through his justice and providence he corrects many out of the devil's malice? Or have you perhaps not heard the Apostle Paul saying, whom I have handed over to Satan, that they may learn not to blaspheme (1 Tim 1:20)? And of himself he says, and lest I be exalted by the greatness of the revelations, there was given to me a thorn of the flesh, an angel of Satan to buffet me (2 Cor 12:7).

"Then," they say, "the devil is good, because he is useful?"

On the contrary, he is evil insofar as he is the devil; but it is God who is good and almighty, who even out of his malice works many just and good things. For nothing is imputed to the devil except his own will, by which he tries to do evil, not the providence of God, which does good out of him.

29. 43. Finally, since our dispute with the Manichees is about religion, and the question of religion is what is devoutly thought concerning God, since they cannot deny that the human race is in the misery of sins: they say that the nature of God is in misery; we deny it, but say that the nature which God made from nothing is in misery, and that it came to this not by compulsion but by the will to sin. They say that the nature of God is compelled by God himself to repentance for sins; we deny it, but say that the nature which God made from nothing is, after it has sinned, compelled to repentance for sins. They say that the nature of God receives pardon from God himself; we deny it, but say that the nature which God made from nothing, if it turns itself from its sins to its God, receives pardon for its sins. They say that the nature of God is changeable by necessity; we deny it, but say that the nature which God made from nothing was changed by will. They say that the sins of others harm the nature of God; we deny it, but say that sins harm no nature except their own; and we say that God is of such goodness, such justice, such incorruption, that he neither sins, nor does he himself harm anyone who has been unwilling to sin, nor does anyone harm him who has been willing to sin.

They say that there is a nature of evil, to which God was compelled to give a part of his own nature to be tormented; we say that there is no natural evil, but that all natures are good, and that God himself is the highest nature, and the other natures are from him: and all are good insofar as they are, since God made all things very good, but ordered in degrees of distinction, so that one is better than another;

and so this universe is filled up with every kind of goods, which—some perfect, some imperfect—is, as a whole, perfect; which universe God, its maker and founder, does not cease to administer by just governance; he who makes all good things by will, suffers nothing evil by necessity. For he whose will surpasses all things in no part experiences anything against his will.

Since, then, they say those things, and we say these, let each one choose what to follow. For I, speaking in good faith before God, without any zeal for contention, without any doubt of the truth, and without any prejudgment of a more diligent treatment, have set forth the things that seemed to me right.