The Literal Meaning of Genesis (continued)
it can only return to the Author of its being who gave it, not to some creature from which it was made, as the body to the earth. For there is no creature from which it was made, because it was made from nothing; and hence, in returning it returns to its Maker, by whom it was made from nothing. Not all indeed return, since there are those of whom it is said, a wind that goes and returns not.>©
CHAPTER 10
It is difficult to determine the origin of the soul on the basis of Scripture.
17. It is difficult, then, to collect all the texts of Holy Scripture touching this matter; and if it could be done, we should have to write a very long treatise in order to cite the passages and discuss them. But unless this would produce evidence as certain as the evidence which shows that God made the soul or that He gave it to the first man, I do not know how this question could be solved by the testimony of the sacred text. For if Scripture had said that God breathed into the face of the woman He made, just as He had done with the man, and that she was made a living being, this would throw considerable light on the question and would lead us to believe that the soul given to each newly-formed body is not from the parents. Nevertheless, we should still want to know what exactly would take place in the generation of offspring, for this is the ordinary way in which human beings spring from human beings. The first woman, indeed, was formed in a different way, and therefore it could still be maintained that Eve did not receive her soul from Adam for the reason that she was not born as a child from him. But if Scripture were to say that the first child born to them did not have a soul transmitted from his parents but rather given to him by God, then we should have to believe that others receive their souls in the same way even though Scripture is silent on this point.