Whether the Production of the Human Body Is Fittingly Described in
Scripture?
Objection 1: It would seem that the production of the human body is
not fittingly described in Scripture. For, as the human body was made
by God, so also were the other works of the six days. But in the other
works it is written, "God said; Let it be made, and it was made."
Therefore the same should have been said of man.
Obj. 2: Further, the human body was made by God immediately, as
explained above (A. 2). Therefore it was not fittingly said, "Let us
make man."
Obj. 3: Further, the form of the human body is the soul itself which
is the breath of life. Therefore, having said, "God made man of the
slime of the earth," he should not have added: "And He breathed into
him the breath of life."
Obj. 4: Further, the soul, which is the breath of life, is in the
whole body, and chiefly in the heart. Therefore it was not fittingly
said: "He breathed into his face the breath of life."
Obj. 5: Further, the male and female sex belong to the body, while
the image of God belongs to the soul. But the soul, according to
Augustine (Gen. ad lit. vii, 24), was made before the body. Therefore
having said: "To His image He made them," he should not have added,
"male and female He created them."
_On the contrary,_ Is the authority of Scripture.
Reply Obj. 1: As Augustine observes (Gen. ad lit. vi, 12), man
surpasses other things, not in the fact that God Himself made man,
as though He did not make other things; since it is written (Ps.
101:26), "The work of Thy hands is the heaven," and elsewhere (Ps.
94:5), "His hands laid down the dry land"; but in this, that man is
made to God's image. Yet in describing man's production, Scripture
uses a special way of speaking, to show that other things were made
for man's sake. For we are accustomed to do with more deliberation
and care what we have chiefly in mind.
Reply Obj. 2: We must not imagine that when God said "Let us make
man," He spoke to the angels, as some were perverse enough to think.
But by these words is signified the plurality of the Divine Person,
Whose image is more clearly expressed in man.
Reply Obj. 3: Some have thought that man's body was formed first in
priority of time, and that afterwards the soul was infused into the
formed body. But it is inconsistent with the perfection of the
production of things, that God should have made either the body
without the soul, or the soul without the body, since each is a part
of human nature. This is especially unfitting as regards the body,
for the body depends on the soul, and not the soul on the body.
To remove the difficulty some have said that the words, "God made
man," must be understood of the production of the body with the soul;
and that the subsequent words, "and He breathed into his face the
breath of life," should be understood of the Holy Ghost; as the Lord
breathed on His Apostles, saying, "Receive ye the Holy Ghost" (John
20:22). But this explanation, as Augustine says (De Civ. Dei xiii,
24), is excluded by the very words of Scripture. For we read farther
on, "And man was made a living soul"; which words the Apostle (1 Cor.
15:45) refers not to spiritual life, but to animal life. Therefore,
by breath of life we must understand the soul, so that the words, "He
breathed into his face the breath of life," are a sort of exposition
of what goes before; for the soul is the form of the body.
Reply Obj. 4: Since vital operations are more clearly seen in man's
face, on account of the senses which are there expressed; therefore
Scripture says that the breath of life was breathed into man's face.
Reply Obj. 5: According to Augustine (Gen. ad lit. iv, 34), the works
of the six days were done all at one time; wherefore according to him
man's soul, which he holds to have been made with the angels, was not
made before the sixth day; but on the sixth day both the soul of the
first man was made actually, and his body in its causal elements. But
other doctors hold that on the sixth day both body and soul of man
were actually made.
_______________________