The Literal Meaning of Genesis
BOOK TEN 109
CHAPTER 11
Is St. Paul's statement in Romans 5.12, 18-19 compatible with either theory on the origin of the soul?
18. Now let us consider another text and see if it proves neither of the two theories but is capable of being reconciled with both. St. Paul says, Through one man sin came into this world, and through sin death, and so death spread to all men, in whom all have sinned. And farther on, Just as through one man's transgression all men were condemned, so also through the justice of One all men receive acquittal and life. For just as by one man's disobedience many have been made sinners, so by one Man's obedience many are made just.37
On the basis of these words of St. Paul, those who hold the propagation of souls by generation attempt to prove their position in the following manner.*® If sin and sinner can be understood solely in relation to the body (so their argument runs), we are not required by these words of St. Paul to believe that the soul is from the parents. But if it is the soul only that sins, although it is attracted by the allurements of the body, how must we understand the statement im whom all have sinned if the soul has not descended from Adam as the body has? Or how have men been made sinners through Adam's disobedience if they were in him with respect to the body only and not with respect to the soul?
19. We must be on our guard, indeed, against errors that may be implied in holding that the soul does not descend from Adam's soul. For instance, we must not make God seem to be the author of sin if He gives the soul to a body in which it must necessarily sin. Again, we must not believe that there can be a soul—apart from the soul of Christ—for which the grace of Christ is not necessary for it to be freed from sin on the ground that it did not sin in Adam if it is said that all sinned in him according to the body only, which comes from Adam, and not also according to the soul. This position is obviously contrary to the faith of the Church, for parents take even their small children and infants and rush with them to receive the grace of holy bap-