Whether in the State of Innocence Man Had Need of Food?
Objection 1: It would seem that in the state of innocence man did not
require food. For food is necessary for man to restore what he has
lost. But Adam's body suffered no loss, as being incorruptible.
Therefore he had no need of food.
Obj. 2: Further, food is needed for nourishment. But nourishment
involves passibility. Since, then, man's body was impassible; it does
not appear how food could be needful to him.
Obj. 3: Further, we need food for the preservation of life. But Adam
could preserve his life otherwise; for had he not sinned, he would
not have died. Therefore he did not require food.
Obj. 4: Further, the consumption of food involves voiding of the
surplus, which seems unsuitable to the state of innocence. Therefore
it seems that man did not take food in the primitive state.
_On the contrary,_ It is written (Gen. 2:16): "Of every tree in
paradise ye shall [Vulg. 'thou shalt'] eat."
_I answer that,_ In the state of innocence man had an animal life
requiring food; but after the resurrection he will have a spiritual
life needing no food. In order to make this clear, we must observe
that the rational soul is both soul and spirit. It is called a soul
by reason of what it possesses in common with other souls--that is,
as giving life to the body; whence it is written (Gen. 2:7): "Man was
made into a living soul"; that is, a soul giving life to the body.
But the soul is called a spirit according to what properly belongs to
itself, and not to other souls, as possessing an intellectual
immaterial power.
Thus in the primitive state, the rational soul communicated to the
body what belonged to itself as a soul; and so the body was called
"animal" [*From 'anima', a soul; Cf. 1 Cor. 15:44 seqq.], through
having its life from the soul. Now the first principle of life in
these inferior creatures as the Philosopher says (De Anima ii, 4) is
the vegetative soul: the operations of which are the use of food,
generation, and growth. Wherefore such operations befitted man in the
state of innocence. But in the final state, after the resurrection,
the soul will, to a certain extent, communicate to the body what
properly belongs to itself as a spirit; immortality to everyone,
impassibility, glory, and power to the good, whose bodies will be
called "spiritual." So, after the resurrection, man will not require
food; whereas he required it in the state of innocence.
Reply Obj. 1: As Augustine says (QQ. Vet. et Nov. Test. qu. 19
[*Works of an anonymous author], among the supposititious works of St.
Augustine): "How could man have an immortal body, which was sustained
by food? Since an immortal being needs neither food nor drink." For
we have explained (A. 1) that the immortality of the primitive state
was based on a supernatural force in the soul, and not on any
intrinsic disposition of the body: so that by the action of heat, the
body might lose part of its humid qualities; and to prevent the
entire consumption of the humor, man was obliged to take food.
Reply Obj. 2: A certain passion and alteration attends nutriment, on
the part of the food changed into the substance of the thing
nourished. So we cannot thence conclude that man's body was passible,
but that the food taken was passible; although this kind of passion
conduced to the perfection of the nature.
Reply Obj. 3: If man had not taken food he would have sinned; as he
also sinned by taking the forbidden fruit. For he was told at the
same time, to abstain from the tree of knowledge of good and evil,
and to eat of every other tree of Paradise.
Reply Obj. 4: Some say that in the state of innocence man would not
have taken more than necessary food, so that there would have been
nothing superfluous; which, however, is unreasonable to suppose, as
implying that there would have been no faecal matter. Wherefore there
was need for voiding the surplus, yet so disposed by God as to be
decorous and suitable to the state.
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