The Literal Meaning of Genesis (continued)
BOOK TWELVE 187
(mental) from mens (mind), because it is just a newly-coined word, is too ridiculous for us to employ.
17. If I should give a more detailed account of the meanings of these words, my explanation would be rather diffuse and obscure, whereas there is little or no need for such a thing. Accordingly it is sufficient to know that a thing is called corporeal either in the proper sense, when it refers to bodies, or in a metaphorical sense, as in the statement, For in Him dwells all the fullness of the Godhead corporeally.2" Now the Godhead is not a body, but because St. Paul calls the religious observances of the Old Testament?® shadows of what is to come (using the analogy of shadows in the physical world), he says that the fullness of the Godhead dwells in Christ corporeally; for in Him was fulfilled all that was prefigured by those shadows, and thus in a certain sense He is the embodiment of the shadows; that is, He is the truth of those figures and symbols. The figures, therefore, are called shadows in a metaphorical rather than proper sense of the word; and similarly, in saying that the fullness of the Godhead dwells corporeally, Paul is using a metaphor.
18. The word "spiritual" is used in different ways. Even our body, in the state in which it will be in the resurrection of the saints, is called spiritual by St. Paul when he says, What is sown a natural body shall rise a spiritual body,?? meaning that it will be subject to the spirit in a wonderful way and possess every facility and incorruption, and without any need of bodily nourishment will be vivified by the spirit alone, but not that it will have an incorporeal substance. Moreover, the body as we have it in this life does not have the essence of a soul, and it cannot be identified with soul (anima) on the ground that it is called a living thing (animale). Furthermore, the air or a wind (which is the motion of the air) is called spirit, as in the following words: Fire, hail, snow, ice, and the spirit of the storm.3° The soul of man or beast also is called a spirit, as in the following passage: And who knows whether the spirit of the children of man ascends upward, and the spirit of the beast descends downward tnto the earth?3! The word "spirit" is also used to designate the rational mind itself, in which there is, so to speak, an eye of the soul to which the image and knowledge of God pertain.32 Hence St. Paul urges, Be re-