Whether Woman Should Have Been Made from Man?
Objection 1: It would seem that woman should not have been made from
man. For sex belongs both to man and animals. But in the other animals
the female was not made from the male. Therefore neither should it
have been so with man.
Obj. 2: Further, things of the same species are of the same matter.
But male and female are of the same species. Therefore, as man was
made of the slime of the earth, so woman should have been made of the
same, and not from man.
Obj. 3: Further, woman was made to be a helpmate to man in the work
of generation. But close relationship makes a person unfit for that
office; hence near relations are debarred from intermarriage, as is
written (Lev. 18:6). Therefore woman should not have been made from
man.
_On the contrary,_ It is written (Ecclus. 17:5): "He created of him,"
that is, out of man, "a helpmate like to himself," that is, woman.
_I answer that,_ When all things were first formed, it was more
suitable for the woman to be made from man than (for the female to
be from the male) in other animals. First, in order thus to give the
first man a certain dignity consisting in this, that as God is the
principle of the whole universe, so the first man, in likeness to
God, was the principle of the whole human race. Wherefore Paul says
that "God made the whole human race from one" (Acts 17:26). Secondly,
that man might love woman all the more, and cleave to her more
closely, knowing her to be fashioned from himself. Hence it is
written (Gen. 2:23, 24): "She was taken out of man, wherefore a man
shall leave father and mother, and shall cleave to his wife." This
was most necessary as regards the human race, in which the male and
female live together for life; which is not the case with other
animals. Thirdly, because, as the Philosopher says (Ethic. viii, 12),
the human male and female are united, not only for generation, as
with other animals, but also for the purpose of domestic life, in
which each has his or her particular duty, and in which the man is
the head of the woman. Wherefore it was suitable for the woman to be
made out of man, as out of her principle. Fourthly, there is a
sacramental reason for this. For by this is signified that the Church
takes her origin from Christ. Wherefore the Apostle says (Eph. 5:32):
"This is a great sacrament; but I speak in Christ and in the Church."
Reply Obj. 1 is clear from the foregoing.
Reply Obj. 2: Matter is that from which something is made. Now
created nature has a determinate principle; and since it is
determined to one thing, it has also a determinate mode of
proceeding. Wherefore from determinate matter it produces something
in a determinate species. On the other hand, the Divine Power, being
infinite, can produce things of the same species out of any matter,
such as a man from the slime of the earth, and a woman from out of
man.
Reply Obj. 3: A certain affinity arises from natural generation, and
this is an impediment to matrimony. Woman, however, was not produced
from man by natural generation, but by the Divine Power alone.
Wherefore Eve is not called the daughter of Adam; and so this
argument does not prove.
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