Works (City of God, On the Trinity, etc.) 14 part 3/3

But even if concerning the angels something more credible can perhaps be argued, the Christian faith at least does not doubt concerning the Saviour himself that, even after the resurrection, in a flesh now indeed spiritual, yet nonetheless real, he took food and drink with his disciples. For it is not the power, but the need, of eating and drinking that will be taken away from such bodies. Hence they will also be spiritual, not because they will cease to be bodies, but because they will subsist by a life-giving spirit. [XXIII] For just as these bodies, which have a living soul but not yet a life-giving spirit, are called animal bodies, and yet are not souls but bodies: so those are called spiritual bodies;

yet far be it from us to believe that they will be spirits, but rather that they will have the substance of the flesh of the body, though suffering no carnal sluggishness or corruption, by reason of the life-giving spirit. Then man will be no longer earthly, but heavenly; not because the body, which was made of the earth, will not be the very same, but because by a heavenly gift it will already be such that, its nature not lost but its quality changed, it may be fit even to inhabit heaven. Now the first man was made of the earth, earthly, into a living soul, not into a life-giving spirit — which was reserved for him after the merit of obedience.

Therefore his body, which had need of food and drink lest it be afflicted by hunger and thirst, and which was kept from the necessity of death not by that absolute and indissoluble immortality, but by the tree of life, and was held in the flower of youth, was without doubt not spiritual but animal; yet in no wise destined to die, unless by transgressing it had fallen into the sentence of God who foretold and threatened, and had, though nourishment even outside paradise was not denied to it, been kept from the tree of life and handed over to be finished off by time and old age — at least in that life which, in a body albeit animal, until it should become spiritual by the merit of obedience, it could have had perpetually in paradise had it not sinned.

Wherefore, even if we understand that this manifest death, by which the separation of soul from body occurs, was also signified together in that which God had said: In the day that you eat of it, you shall die the death: it ought not therefore to seem absurd, because they were not straightway loosed from the body on that very day on which they took the forbidden and death-bringing food. For on that day their nature, changed for the worse and vitiated, and separated by a most just separation from the tree of life, brought about in them the necessity even of bodily death — with which necessity we too have been born. On which account the Apostle does not say: The body indeed is destined to die because of sin; but says: The body indeed is dead because of sin, but the spirit is life because of righteousness. Then he added:

But if the Spirit of him who raised up Christ from the dead dwells in you, he who raised up Christ from the dead will also give life to your mortal bodies through his Spirit that dwells in you. Then, therefore, the body which now exists into a living soul will exist into a life-giving spirit; and yet the Apostle calls it dead, because it is already bound by the necessity of dying. But at that time it was in a living soul in such a way — although not in a life-giving spirit — that it could not rightly be called dead, because it could not have the necessity of dying save through the perpetration of sin. But when God, both by saying: Adam, where are you? signified the death of the soul, which came about by his forsaking it, and by saying:

You are earth, and to earth you shall go, signified the death of the body, which befalls it when the soul departs: for this reason he is to be believed to have said nothing about the second death, because he willed it to be hidden on account of the dispensation of the New Testament, where the second death is most openly declared; so that first this first death, which is common to all, might be shown to have come from that sin which was made common to all in one man; but the second death is by no means common to all, on account of those who were called according to purpose, whom he foreknew and predestined beforehand, as the Apostle says, to be conformed to the image of his Son, that he himself might be the firstborn among many brethren — whom the grace of God has freed from the second death through the Mediator.

That the first man was made in an animal body, the Apostle speaks thus. For, wishing to distinguish this which now is animal from the spiritual which is to be in the resurrection, he says: It is sown in corruption, it shall rise in incorruption; it is sown in dishonour, it shall rise in glory; it is sown in weakness, it shall rise in power; it is sown an animal body, it shall rise a spiritual body. Then, to prove this: If there is, he says, an animal body, there is also a spiritual one. And to show what an animal body is: So, he says, it is also written: The first man was made into a living soul.

In this way, therefore, he willed to show what an animal body is, although Scripture did not say concerning the first man, who was called Adam, when his soul was created by the breath of God: And man was made in an animal body; but: Man was made into a living soul. In that, therefore, which is written: The first man was made into a living soul, the Apostle willed the animal body of man to be understood. But how the spiritual body was to be understood, he showed by adding: The last Adam into a life-giving spirit — without doubt signifying Christ, who has now so risen from the dead that he can thenceforth in no way die. Finally he continues and says: But that which is spiritual is not first, but that which is animal, afterward the spiritual.

Here he much more openly declared that he had intimated the animal body in that which is written, that the first man was made into a living soul, but the spiritual in that which he says: The last Adam into a life-giving spirit. For the animal body, such as the first Adam had, is prior — although it would not have died had he not sinned; such as we too now have, its nature so far changed and vitiated as it was brought about in him after he sinned, whereby it should now have the necessity of dying (such a body Christ too, for our sake, deigned first to have — not indeed by necessity, but by power);

but afterward the spiritual, such as has already gone before in Christ as in our head, and which will follow in his members at the last resurrection of the dead. The Apostle then adds the most evident difference between these two men, saying: The first man is of the earth, earthly; the second man is from heaven. As is the earthly, such also are the earthly; as is the heavenly, such also are the heavenly. And as we have borne the image of the earthly, let us also bear the image of him who is from heaven. This the Apostle so set down that it now indeed comes about in us according to the sacrament of regeneration, as he says elsewhere: As many of you as have been baptized into Christ have put on Christ;

but in the actual reality it will then be perfected, when in us also that which is animal by being born shall have become spiritual by rising again. For, to use his own words likewise: By hope we have been saved. But we have put on the image of the earthly man by the propagation of transgression and death, which our generation brought upon us; yet we shall put on the image of the heavenly man by the grace of pardon and everlasting life, which our regeneration bestows on us — only through the Mediator of God and men, the man Christ Jesus; whom he wills to be understood as the heavenly man, because he came from heaven, that he might be clothed with a body of earthly mortality, which he might clothe with heavenly immortality.

He calls others also heavenly for this reason, because they become his members through grace, so that with them there may be one Christ, as head and body. This he sets down more evidently in the same epistle thus: By man came death, and by man the resurrection of the dead. For as in Adam all die, so also in Christ shall all be made alive — already, assuredly, in the spiritual body which will exist into a life-giving spirit; not because all who die in Adam will be members of Christ (for of these far more will be punished with the second death for eternity); but it was said all and all for this reason, that just as no one dies in an animal body except in Adam, so no one is made alive in a spiritual body except in Christ.

Accordingly, it is by no means to be thought that in the resurrection we shall have such a body as the first man had before sin; nor is that which was said — As is the earthly, such also are the earthly — to be understood according to that which came about by the admission of sin. For it is not to be supposed that he, before he sinned, had a spiritual body, and that it was changed into an animal one by the merit of sin. That this may be supposed, too little heed is paid to the words of so great a teacher, who says: If there is an animal body, there is also a spiritual one; so also it is written: The first man Adam was made into a living soul.

Was this done after sin, seeing that this is that first condition of man from which the most blessed Paul took this testimony of the law to demonstrate the animal body? [XXIV] Hence also this seemed to some, too little considered, that in that which is read: God breathed into his face the breath of life, and man was made into a living soul, the soul was not then first given to the first man, but that the soul which was already within him was quickened by the Holy Spirit. For it moves them that the Lord Jesus, after he had risen from the dead, breathed and said to his disciples: Receive the Holy Spirit. Whence they suppose that something of the same kind was done as was done then, as though here too the evangelist had gone on to say: And they were made into a living soul.

If indeed this had been said, we should understand that a certain life of souls is the Spirit of God, without which rational souls are to be reckoned as dead, although by their presence the bodies seem to live. But that it was not so done when man was created, the very words of the book sufficiently testify, which run thus: And God formed man of the dust of the earth. This some, thinking it ought to be interpreted more plainly, have rendered: And God fashioned man of the mire of the earth, since it had been said above: But a spring was rising from the earth and watering all the face of the earth — so that from this the mire might seem to be understood, namely a compound of moisture and earth. For where this was said, there immediately follows:

And God formed man dust from the earth, as the Greek codices have it, from which Scripture itself was translated into the Latin tongue. But whether one chooses to say formed or fashioned for what is said in Greek eplasen, it makes no difference to the matter; yet more properly is it said fashioned. But an ambiguity seemed to be avoided by those who preferred to say formed, because in the Latin tongue custom has rather prevailed that those be said to fashion who compose something by a lying pretence. This man, therefore, formed of the dust or mire of the earth (for it was moist dust) — this man, I say, that I may speak more expressly as Scripture spoke, this dust from the earth, the Apostle teaches to have been made an animal body when it received a soul:

"And this man was made into a living soul," that is, this formed dust was made into a living soul. Now, they say, he already had a soul, otherwise he would not be called man, since man is neither body alone nor soul alone, but that which consists of both soul and body. This indeed is true, that not the whole man, but the better part of man, is the soul; nor is the whole man the body, but it is the inferior part of man; yet when both are joined together, it has the name of man — which name, nevertheless, the single parts do not lose, even when we speak of them singly. For who is forbidden to say, by a certain law of everyday speech: That man is deceased and is now at rest or in torments, when this can be said of the soul alone; and:

That man is buried in this or that place, when this cannot be understood except of the body alone? Or will they say that divine Scripture is not wont to speak so? Nay, rather, Scripture bears witness to us in this so plainly that, even when these two are joined together and the man lives, it nevertheless calls even the single parts by the name of man — namely calling the soul the inner man, but the body the outer man, as though there were two men, whereas both together are one man. But it is to be understood in what respect man is said to be after the image of God, and man to be earth and destined to go into earth. For the former is said according to the rational soul, such as God imparted to man — that is, to the body of man — by breathing, or, if it be more fitly said, by inspiring;

the latter, however, according to the body, such a man as God fashioned from dust, to whom a soul was given, that there might come to be an animal body, that is, man into a living soul. Wherefore, in that which the Lord did when he breathed and said: Receive the Holy Spirit, he doubtless willed it to be understood that the Holy Spirit is not only of the Father, but also the Spirit of the Only-begotten himself. For the same Spirit is the Spirit both of the Father and of the Son, with whom is the Trinity — Father and Son and Holy Spirit — not creature, but Creator.

For that bodily breath proceeding from the mouth of flesh was not the substance and nature of the Holy Spirit, but rather a signification, by which we might understand, as I said, that the Holy Spirit is common to the Father and the Son, because there are not to each of them singly a several Spirit, but one belonging to both. But this Spirit is always in the holy Scriptures called by the Greek word pneuma, as Jesus too named him in this place, when, signifying him by the breath of his own bodily mouth, he gave him to the disciples; and in all the passages of the divine oracles I have never found him named otherwise. But here, where it is read:

And God fashioned man dust from the earth and breathed, or inspired, into his face the breath of life — the Greek did not say pneuma, which is wont to be called the Holy Spirit, but pnoe, a word which is more frequently read of the creature than of the Creator; whence some of the Latins too, for the sake of the distinction, have preferred to call this word not spirit but breath. For this same word stands in the Greek also in that passage in Isaiah, where God says: Every breath have I made, without doubt signifying every soul. What therefore in Greek is called pnoe, our translators have rendered sometimes as breath, sometimes as spirit, sometimes as inspiration or aspiration, even when it is said of God;

but pneuma they never render except as spirit — whether of man (concerning whom the Apostle says: For what man knows the things of a man, save the spirit of man that is in him?), or of a beast (as it is written in the book of Solomon: Who knows whether the spirit of man ascends upward into heaven, and the spirit of the beast descends downward into the earth?), or that bodily one which is also called wind (for this is its name, where it is sung in the psalm: Fire, hail, snow, ice, the spirit of the tempest), or now not created but the Creator, as is that of which the Lord says in the Gospel: Receive the Holy Spirit, signifying him by the breath of his own bodily mouth, and where he says:

Go, baptize all nations in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit — where the Trinity itself is most excellently and most evidently commended — and where it is read: God is a Spirit, and in very many other places of the sacred writings. For in all these testimonies of the Scriptures, so far as concerns the Greeks, we see written not pnoe but pneuma; and so far as concerns the Latins, not breath but spirit. Wherefore, in that which is written: He inspired, or, if it is to be said more properly:

He breathed into his face the breath of life — if the Greek had put not pnoe, as is read there, but pneuma, not even so would it follow that we should be compelled to understand the Creator Spirit, who is properly called in the Trinity the Holy Spirit; since indeed pneuma, as has been said, is manifestly wont to be said not only of the Creator, but also of the creature. But, they say, when he had said spirit, he would not have added of life, unless he willed that Holy Spirit to be understood; and when he had said: Man was made into a soul, he would not have added living, unless he signified the soul's life, which is imparted to it divinely by the gift of the Spirit of God.

For since the soul lives, they say, in its own mode of life, what need was there to add living, unless in order that that life might be understood which is given to it through the Holy Spirit? What is this but diligently to contend on behalf of a human conjecture, and negligently to attend to the holy Scriptures? For what great matter was it not to go further afield, but to read a little above in that very same book: Let the earth bring forth a living soul, when all the terrestrial animals were created? Then, after a few things intervening, in that very same book what great matter was it to notice that which is written: And all things which have the breath of life, and everyone that was upon the dry land, died — when it was intimating that all things which lived on the earth perished in the flood?

If, therefore, we find both a living soul and the breath of life even in beasts, as divine Scripture has been wont to speak — and since in this place too, where it is read: All things which have the breath of life, the Greek said not pneuma but pnoe — why do we not say: What need was there to add living, since a soul cannot exist unless it lives? or what need was there to add of life, when he had said spirit? But we understand that Scripture said living soul and breath of life after its own manner, when it wished animals — that is, animate bodies — to be understood, in which there was through the soul that same evident sensation also of the body.

But in the creation of man we forget in what manner Scripture has been wont to speak, when it has spoken altogether after its own manner, whereby it intimated that man, even having received a rational soul — which it willed to be understood as created not, like the souls of other fleshly creatures, by the waters and the earth bringing them forth, but by God breathing — was nevertheless so made that in an animal body, which comes to be by the soul living in it, he should live like those animals of which it said: Let the earth bring forth a living soul, and which likewise it said had in themselves the breath of life; where too in the Greek it said not pneuma but pnoe — by no means the Holy Spirit, but expressing their soul by such a name.

But, they say, God's breath is understood to have gone forth from God's mouth; and if we believe it to be a soul, it will follow that we must confess it to be of the same substance, and equal to that Wisdom which says: I came forth from the mouth of the Most High. Wisdom did not indeed say that she was breathed forth by the mouth of God, but that she went forth from his mouth. But just as we can make a breath when we blow — not from our own nature, by which we are men, but from this surrounding air, which by breathing in and out we draw in and give back:

so the omnipotent God could make a breath, not from his own nature nor from any underlying creature, but even from nothing, which — by inserting it into the body of man — he is most fittingly said to have inspired or breathed in: incorporeal breathing in something incorporeal, but immutable breathing in something mutable, because uncreated breathing in something created. But nevertheless, that those may know — who wish to speak from the Scriptures and yet do not attend to the modes of speech of the Scriptures — that it is not only that which is of equal and identical nature which is said to go forth from the mouth of God, let them hear or read what is written with God speaking: Because you are lukewarm, and neither hot nor cold, I will begin to cast you out of my mouth.

There is, therefore, no reason why we should resist the Apostle speaking most openly, where, distinguishing the animal body from the spiritual body — that is, this one in which we now are from that one in which we are to be — he says: It is sown an animal body, it shall rise a spiritual body; if there is an animal body, there is also a spiritual one; so also it is written: The first man Adam was made into a living soul, the last Adam into a life-giving spirit. But that which is spiritual is not first, but that which is animal, afterward the spiritual. The first man is of the earth, earthly; the second man is from heaven. As is the earthly, such also are the earthly; and as is the heavenly, such also are the heavenly. And as we have borne the image of the earthly, let us also bear the image of him who is from heaven.

Concerning all these apostolic words we have spoken above. The animal body, therefore, in which the Apostle says the first man Adam was made, was so made not that it could not die at all, but that it would not die unless the man had sinned. For that which by the life-giving spirit will be spiritual and immortal will be utterly unable to die, just as the soul was created immortal — which, though it be declared dead through sin, lacking a certain life of its own, that is, the Spirit of God by which it could also live wisely and blessedly, nevertheless does not cease to live by a certain life of its own, though a wretched one, because it was created immortal;

just as also the deserter angels, although in a certain manner they are dead by sinning, because they forsook the fountain of life, which is God, by drinking of whom they could have lived wisely and blessedly, nevertheless could not so die as to cease altogether from living and perceiving, since they were created immortal; and thus they will be hurled into the second death after the last judgment, so that not even there will they lack life, seeing that they will not lack even sensation, when they are to be in torments. But men belonging to the grace of God, fellow-citizens of the holy angels who remain in the blessed life, will be so clothed with spiritual bodies that they may neither sin any more nor die;

yet clothed with that immortality which, like that of the angels, cannot be taken away by sin; the nature of the flesh indeed remaining, but with no fleshly corruptibility or sluggishness at all remaining. But there follows a question that must of necessity be treated, and, with the help of the Lord God of truth, resolved: If the lust of the disobedient members arose from the sin of disobedience in those first human beings, when the divine grace had forsaken them, whence they opened their eyes to their own nakedness, that is, more curiously attended to it, and because the shameless motion resisted the choice of their will they covered their private parts: in what manner would they have begotten children, if, as they had been created, they had remained without transgression?

But because this book too must be brought to a close, nor should so great a question be crammed into the narrow limits of this discourse, it is deferred, with more convenient arrangement, to the book that follows.