The Literal Meaning of Genesis
BOOK ELEVEN 135 point to something else.? It must not be doubted that the statement was made, a fact which the reliability of the writer and the promise of the commentator demand.
3. Hence, They were both naked. It is, then, true that the bodies of the two human beings living in Paradise were completely naked. And they were not ashamed. Why would they be ashamed, since they did not perceive in their members any law at war with the law of their mind?+ That law was rather the penalty for sin, inflicted on them after their transgression, when disobedience violated the command and justice punished the deed. But before this happened they were naked, as has been said, and they were not embarrassed. They experienced no motion of the flesh of which they would be ashamed. They did not think that anything had to be covered, because they did not feel that anything had to be restrained. How they would have begotten children has already been discussed.* It must not be thought that the manner of begetting would have been the same as after the punishment which followed their sin; for before they would die, death entering the body of disobedient men by a just retribution would stir up the revolt of their disobedient members.® This was not the state of Adam and Eve when they were naked and were not ashamed.
CHAPTER 2
How was the serpent the most subtle of beasts?
4. The serpent was there, the most subtle of all the wild creatures which the Lord God had made on the earth.? Now, it is in a figurative sense that the serpent is called "the most subtle" (prudentissimus) or, according to many Latin manuscripts, "the wisest"
In the proper meaning of the word, "wisdom" (sapientia) is normally taken in a good sense referring to God or the angels or the rational soul; but we speak of wise bees or ants because their works suggest an imitation of wisdom.
This serpent, however, could be called the wisest of all the beasts not by reason of its irrational soul but rather because of