The Literal Meaning of Genesis
BOOK TEN Teel of a woman who had been conceived from the flesh of a sinful race, nevertheless, since it was not conceived in her womb in the manner in which she had been conceived, it was not sinful flesh but the likeness of sinful flesh.8° For He did not thereby contract the guilt that brings death, manifesting itself by involuntary motions of the flesh which must be conquered by the will and against which the spirit has its desires.8! But He received a body immune to the contagion of sin, a body which would be able to pay the debt to death that He did not owe and to show forth the promised resurrection, thus taking fear from us and giving us hope.8?
33. Finally, if I am asked from what source Jesus Christ received His soul, I should prefer to hear the opinions of better and more learned men; but as far as I can grasp the matter, I should respond that it was from the source whence Adam received his, rather than from Adam's own soul. For if dust taken from the earth on which no man had worked was worthy of being animated by the power of God, how much more fittingly did the body taken from the flesh on which no man had worked receive by lot a good soul. In the first case, he who was to fall would be raised up; and in the second, He who would lift the other up would descend to earth. And perhaps He said, A good soul fell to my lot (if this ought to be applied to our Lord), because what is given by lot is given by God; or perhaps, in conformity with our faith, it was to keep us from thinking that even the soul of Christ was raised to such excellence by any previous deeds meriting that the Word should become flesh with it and dwell among us, and thus the word "lot" was used to remove any suspicion of antecedent merits.
CHAPTER 19
The soul of Christ was not in the loins of Abraham, and hence it was not transmitted from the soul of Adam.
34. In the epistle which is called "To the Hebrews," there is a passage that merits our careful consideration. For through