The Literal Meaning of Genesis
bodies. On the other hand, the same thing is true if He forms individual souls and sends them into bodies or if He forms them in the bodies into which He has sent them.
However, the text cited above from the Psalm, I believe, refers only to the fact that our souls are renewed and formed by grace to the image of God. Hence St. Paul says, For by grace you have been saved through faith, and this is not your own doing, but tt is God's gift; it is not because of your works, so that no one may glory. For we are His work of art, created in Christ Jesus in good works.'9 We cannot, indeed, understand these words in the sense that our bodies have been created or formed through this grace of faith, but in the sense in which the Psalmist says, Create in me a clean heart, O God.?°
11. In the same sense, I believe, we must understand the text which says, Who formed the spirit of man within bim,?} recognizing that it is one thing to send into a body a soul already made, and another thing to make it in man himself, that is, to remake and renew it. But even if we understand this not as referring to grace, in which we are renewed, but to nature, in which we are born, the text can be interpreted in accordance with either opinion. For in one interpretation God forms in man from the one soul of the first man that which is drawn like a seed of the soul to vivify the body; and in the other interpretation God forms the spirit of life not as the offspring of Adam's soul but infused into the body from elsewhere, and He likewise fashions it in the senses of the mortal body so that man may become a living being.
CHAPTER 7
What theory on the origin of the soul is supported by Wisdom 8.19-20?
12. A more thorough consideration is needed of the text of the Book of Wisdom which says, A good soul fell to my lot; and being good above the common, I came to a body undefiled.2? This does, indeed, seem to support the theory which holds that souls
BOOK TEN 105 are not generated from one soul but come from above into bodies.
However, what is the meaning of the statement, 4 good soul fell to my lot? Are we to imagine that in the fountainhead of souls, if there is such a thing, there are some souls that are good and some that are not, and that they go out by lot, each lot determining what soul is to be assigned to each man? Or does God make some good and others not good at the moment of conception or birth, so that each person has the kind of soul determined by his lot? It is strange if this text simply supports those who think that souls made elsewhere are sent individually by God into individual human bodies, and does not rather support those who say that souls are sent into bodies in accordance with the merits of the deeds they performed before entering bodies.?4 Indeed, by what criterion can some good souls and some souls not good be thought to enter bodies unless it is by their deeds? It is not by their nature, for in it they are made by Him who makes all natures good. But far be it from us to contradict St. Paul, who says that those not yet born had done no good or evil,?+ thus confirming the fact that it could not have been because of deeds but because of the One calling that it was said, The elder shall serve the younger, when there was question of the twins still in the womb of Rebecca.?5
Let us, then, put aside for a moment the text from the Book of Wisdom cited above. Indeed, we ought not to overlook, whether they are right or wrong, those who think that those words were spoken particularly and exclusively about the soul of the Mediator between God and men, the Man Christ Jesus.2® But if necessary, we shall consider the meaning of the text later, so that if it cannot be applied to Christ, we may investigate to see how we ought to understand it, in order that we may not find ourselves contradicting the faith as handed down by St. Paul, thinking that souls have some merits for their deeds before they begin life in the body.