The Literal Meaning of Genesis
ous ardor of passion!¢ and without any labor and pain of childbirth, offspring would be born from their seed. In this case, the purpose would not be to have children succeeding parents who die. Rather those who had begotten children would remain in the prime of life!? and would maintain their physical strength from the tree of life which had been planted in Paradise. Those who would be born would develop to the same state, and eventually, when the determined number would be complete, if all lived just and obedient lives, there would be a transformation, so that without any death!® their natural bodies would receive a new quality!9 since they obeyed every command of the spirit that ruled them; and with the spirit alone vivifying them, without any help from corporeal nourishment, they would be called spiritual bodies. This could have been if the transgression of God's command had not merited the punishment of death.?°
7. Those who think that this could not have been look at nothing but the ordinary course of nature as it is after man's sin and the punishment he received. But we ought not to be in the number of those who accept only what they have been accustomed to see. For one could not reasonably doubt that such a privilege as I have described could have been given to a person who lived an obedient and holy life, especially if there is no doubt that the garments of the Israelites were kept in their original condition so that through forty long years they showed no wear.?!
CHAPTER 4
Why was there no nuptial union in Paradise?
8. Why, then, did they not have intercourse until they had left Paradise? The reason is that soon after the creation of the woman, before they had relations, they committed the sin because of which they were destined to die and because of which they went forth from the place of their blessedness. As a matter of fact, Scripture has not specified the length of time between their creation and the birth of their son Cain.