The Literal Meaning of Genesis (continued)
BOOK TEN 119 was good, therefore, from another source before coming to the body, but certainly not because of a difference in his way of life, since there is no merit for deeds in a previous life; nor because of a difference in his body, since he was good before entering the body. What, then, was the source of the difference?
31. This text, in so far as it says, J came to a body, does not seem favorable to those who maintain that souls are created as offshoots of the soul that first sinned; but for the rest it fits that theory, since after the author has said, As a child I was well endowed, explaining the reason why he was well endowed, he immediately adds, And a good soul fell to my lot, that is, from the character or the well-balanced bodily disposition of his father. Then he says, Being good above the common, I came to a body undefiled; and if this is understood as referring to his mother's body, the statement, J came to a body, will not be in opposition to that opinion when he is understood to have come from his father's soul and body to his mother's undefiled body. Defilement in this connection would be either from menstrual blood, which they say oppresses the natural endowment of the infant, or from the contamination of an adulterous union. Hence, the words of the Book of Wisdom are more favorable to those who speak of the soul as an offshoot of Adam's soul; or if the other side can explain them in keeping with their theory, this text leaves the question open.
CHAPTER 18
The soul of Christ. Is it possible to apply Wisdom 8.19-20 to Christ?
32. If we wish to apply these words from the Book of Wisdom to our Lord according to the created human nature assumed by the Word, there are some details in the context which are inconsistent with His perfection. This is especially true of the fact that the one who is speaking in this book, shortly before he said these words which we are now discussing, confessed that he was compacted with blood, from the seed of a man.' Now, this manner of birth is irreconcilable with the birth from the Virgin, who did not conceive the body of Christ from the seed of man, as every Christian holds without any doubt.
But there are also the words of Christ in the Psalms where He says, They have pierced My hands and feet; they have numbered all My bones. And they have looked and stared upon Me. They have divided My garments among them, and upon My vesture they have cast lots.7+
These words belong properly to Christ alone. But earlier in the same Psalm He says, O God, My God, look upon Me. Why hast Thou forsaken Me? Far from My salvation are the words of My sins.75
Now this does not properly belong to Christ except in so far as He transfigures in Himself the lowly condition of our body, since we are members of His body.
Furthermore, in the Gospel it is said, The Child advanced in years and wisdom.'° Hence, if the words which we read preceding the text we are discussing in the Book of Wisdom?' can be applied to the Lord Himself in view of the lowly form of servant that was His and the union of the body of the Church with its Head, who could be more richly endowed than the Child whose wisdom at the age of twelve was admired by the elders?78 And what could be more excellent than the soul of Christ?
But even if the advocates of traducianism prevail, not by contentious argumentation but by proofs, it will not follow that we must believe that the soul of Christ has also come by generation from the soul of Adam, for we cannot suppose that our Lord Himself is made a sinner through the disobedience of the first man when through the obedience of Christ alone many are freed from guilt and made just. And what more undefiled than the womb of the Virgin, whose flesh, although it came from procreation tainted by sin, nevertheless did not conceive from that source? Consequently, not even the body of Christ was planted in the womb of Mary in accordance with that law which, placed in the members of the body of death, is at war with the law of the mind."? The holy patriarchs restrained with marriage this law of sin, not relaxing their restraint until intercourse was allowed; nevertheless, even when it was allowed they felt the force of this law.
Hence, although the body of Christ was taken from the flesh