Whether the Woman Was Formed Immediately by God?
Objection 1: It would seem that the woman was not formed immediately
by God. For no individual is produced immediately by God from another
individual alike in species. But the woman was made from a man who is
of the same species. Therefore she was not made immediately by God.
Obj. 2: Further, Augustine (De Trin. iii, 4) says that corporeal
things are governed by God through the angels. But the woman's body
was formed from corporeal matter. Therefore it was made through the
ministry of the angels, and not immediately by God.
Obj. 3: Further, those things which pre-exist in creatures as to
their causal virtues are produced by the power of some creature, and
not immediately by God. But the woman's body was produced in its
causal virtues among the first created works, as Augustine says (Gen.
ad lit. ix, 15). Therefore it was not produced immediately by God.
_On the contrary,_ Augustine says, in the same work: "God alone, to
Whom all nature owes its existence, could form or build up the woman
from the man's rib."
_I answer that,_ As was said above (A. 2, ad 2), the natural
generation of every species is from some determinate matter. Now the
matter whence man is naturally begotten is the human semen of man or
woman. Wherefore from any other matter an individual of the human
species cannot naturally be generated. Now God alone, the Author of
nature, can produce an effect into existence outside the ordinary
course of nature. Therefore God alone could produce either a man
from the slime of the earth, or a woman from the rib of man.
Reply Obj. 1: This argument is verified when an individual is
begotten, by natural generation, from that which is like it in the
same species.
Reply Obj. 2: As Augustine says (Gen. ad lit. ix, 15), we do not
know whether the angels were employed by God in the formation of the
woman; but it is certain that, as the body of man was not formed by
the angels from the slime of the earth, so neither was the body of
the woman formed by them from the man's rib.
Reply Obj. 3: As Augustine says (Gen. ad lit. ix, 18): "The first
creation of things did not demand that woman should be made thus; it
made it possible for her to be thus made." Therefore the body of the
woman did indeed pre-exist in these causal virtues, in the things
first created; not as regards active potentiality, but as regards a
potentiality passive in relation to the active potentiality of the
Creator.
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