The Literal Meaning of Genesis
BOOK ELEVEN 173 brium on Adam as to instill in the rest of mankind, for whom these words have been written down, a fear of being filled with a similar pride. God said, He has become like one of Us, knowing good and evil. How are we to interpret this except to say that it is an example presented for the purpose of inspiring us with fear because the man not only did not become what he wanted to be but did not even retain the condition in which he had been created?
CHAPTER 40
Adam and Eve driven from Paradise.
54. "And now," God said, "Jet him not put forth his hand and take of the fruit of the tree of life and eat and live forever." And the Lord God sent him forth from the Paradise of pleasure to till the earth from which he was taken.14® The words in the first part of this text are spoken by God; then the author records what followed as a result of what was spoken. Deprived not only of that life which he would have received with the angels if he had observed God's commandment, but also of that life which he had in Paradise, where his body enjoyed a privileged state, man had to be separated entirely from the tree of life. This was necessary because that privileged state of the body was kept in existence by an invisible power from the visible tree of life, and also because in that tree there was a visible sacrament of invisible wisdom. He had to be removed from the tree, then, because he was now destined to die, and because he was also excommunicated, as it were, just as in this paradise, which is the Church, people are sometimes excluded from the visible sacraments of the altar by ecclesiastical discipline.
55. He drove Adam out and placed him over against the Paradise of pleasure.149 This action actually took place, but it also has a symbolical meaning inasmuch as it prefigures a sinner living in a wretched state over against Paradise, by which is signified the blessed life.
And He placed the cherubim and a flaming sword turning every