Adam was a spiritual man, in mind though not in body,!54 how
BOOK ELEVEN 175 of vows, the celebration of the wedding banquet, the appraisal of the dowry, and the signing of the contract! This is ridiculous, and furthermore it is taking us away from the literal meaning of what happened, which we undertook to explain and which we have explained in so far as God has wished to help us.
CHAPTER 42
Did Adam believe the words spoken through the serpent? How was he tempted to sin?
58. There is a more serious problem to be considered. If Adam was a spiritual man, in mind though not in body,!54 how could he have believed what was said through the serpent, namely, that God forbade them to eat of the fruit of that one tree because He knew that if they did they would be gods in their knowledge of good and evil? As if the Creator would grudge so great a good to His creatures! It is surely strange if a man endowed with a spiritual mind could have believed this. Was it because the man would not have been able to believe this that the woman was employed on the supposition that she had limited understanding, and also perhaps that she was living according to the spirit of the flesh and not according to the spirit of the mind?
Is this the reason that St. Paul does not attribute the image of God to her? For he says, A man indeed ought not to cover his head, since he is the image and glory of God, but woman is the glory of man.'55 This is not to say that the mind of woman is unable to receive that same image, for in that grace St. Paul says we are neither male nor female.!5® But perhaps the woman had not yet received the gift of the knowledge of God, but under the direction and tutelage of her husband she was to acquire it gradually. It is not without reason that St. Paul said, For Adam was formed first, then Eve; and Adam was not seduced, but the woman was seduced and fell into sin.157 In other words, it was through her that man sinned. For Paul calls him a sinner also when he says, in the /1keness of the sin of Adam, who 1s a type of the One to come.!°® But he