The Literal Meaning of Genesis
was the Devil, who had already been assigned to everlasting fire for his sin of impiety and pride.
What is said to the serpent, therefore, and is intended for him who worked through the serpent is undoubtedly to be understood in a figurative sense. For in these words the tempter is described as he will be with respect to the human race. For the human race began to be propagated only when this sentence was pronounced, apparently against the serpent but in reality against the Devil.
In the commentary I wrote entitled Two Books on Genests against the Manichees, 1 have discussed to the best of my ability these words as they are to be understood in a figurative sense.'*9 Beyond this, if I am able on another occasion to give a more thorough and appropriate interpretation of the text, may God be with me to aid me in the task. But now my attention must not be turned without necessity to a purpose other than what I have undertaken.
CHAPTER 37
The sentence pronounced on the woman.
50. To the woman He said: "I will greatly multiply your sorrows and your anguish. With sorrows you shall bring forth children, and you shall be subject to your husband, and he shall rule over you.'+4
These words that God spoke to the woman are also more appropriately understood in a figurative and prophetic sense. The woman, of course, had not yet given birth. Furthermore, the pain and anguish of childbirth belong solely to this body of death (a death engendered by the transgression), in which the members from the beginning were those of a natural body, which, if man had not sinned, were destined not to die but to live in that other more blessed state until they would deserve to be transformed, after a life of virtue, into a better condition, as
I have already stated above in several places.'35 The punishment, then, given to the woman is also understood in a literal sense; and furthermore we must give consideration to the state-