Whether Paradise Is a Corporeal Place?
Objection 1: It would seem that paradise is not a corporeal place.
For Bede [*Strabus, Gloss on Gen. 2:8] says that "paradise reaches to
the lunar circle." But no earthly place answers that description,
both because it is contrary to the nature of the earth to be raised
up so high, and because beneath the moon is the region of fire, which
would consume the earth. Therefore paradise is not a corporeal place.
Obj. 2: Further, Scripture mentions four rivers as rising in paradise
(Gen. 2:10). But the rivers there mentioned have visible sources
elsewhere, as is clear from the Philosopher (Meteor. i). Therefore
paradise is not a corporeal place.
Obj. 3: Further, although men have explored the entire habitable
world, yet none have made mention of the place of paradise. Therefore
apparently it is not a corporeal place.
Obj. 4: Further, the tree of life is described as growing in
paradise. But the tree of life is a spiritual thing, for it is
written of Wisdom that "She is a tree of life to them that lay hold
on her" (Prov. 3:18). Therefore paradise also is not a corporeal, but
a spiritual place.
Obj. 5: Further, if paradise be a corporeal place, the trees also of
paradise must be corporeal. But it seems they were not; for corporeal
trees were produced on the third day, while the planting of the trees
of paradise is recorded after the work of the six days. Therefore
paradise was not a corporeal place.
_On the contrary,_ Augustine says (Gen. ad lit. viii, 1): "Three
general opinions prevail about paradise. Some understand a place
merely corporeal; others a place entirely spiritual; while others,
whose opinion, I confess, pleases me, hold that paradise was both
corporeal and spiritual."
_I answer that,_ As Augustine says (De Civ. Dei xiii, 21): "Nothing
prevents us from holding, within proper limits, a spiritual paradise;
so long as we believe in the truth of the events narrated as having
there occurred." For whatever Scripture tells us about paradise is set
down as matter of history; and wherever Scripture makes use of this
method, we must hold to the historical truth of the narrative as a
foundation of whatever spiritual explanation we may offer. And so
paradise, as Isidore says (Etym. xiv, 3), "is a place situated in the
east, its name being the Greek for garden." It was fitting that it
should be in the east; for it is to be believed that it was situated
in the most excellent part of the earth. Now the east is the right
hand on the heavens, as the Philosopher explains (De Coel. ii, 2); and
the right hand is nobler than the left: hence it was fitting that God
should place the earthly paradise in the east.
Reply Obj. 1: Bede's assertion is untrue, if taken in its obvious
sense. It may, however, be explained to mean that paradise reaches to
the moon, not literally, but figuratively; because, as Isidore says
(Etym. xiv, 3), the atmosphere there is "a continually even
temperature"; and in this respect it is like the heavenly bodies,
which are devoid of opposing elements. Mention, however, is made of
the moon rather than of other bodies, because, of all the heavenly
bodies, the moon is nearest to us, and is, moreover, the most akin to
the earth; hence it is observed to be overshadowed by clouds so as to
be almost obscured. Others say that paradise reached to the
moon--that is, to the middle space of the air, where rain, and wind,
and the like arise; because the moon is said to have influence on
such changes. But in this sense it would not be a fit place for human
dwelling, through being uneven in temperature, and not attuned to the
human temperament, as is the lower atmosphere in the neighborhood of
the earth.
Reply Obj. 2: Augustine says (Gen. ad lit. viii, 7): "It is probable
that man has no idea where paradise was, and that the rivers, whose
sources are said to be known, flowed for some distance underground,
and then sprang up elsewhere. For who is not aware that such is the
case with some other streams?"
Reply Obj. 3: The situation of paradise is shut off from the
habitable world by mountains, or seas, or some torrid region, which
cannot be crossed; and so people who have written about topography
make no mention of it.
Reply Obj. 4: The tree of life is a material tree, and so called
because its fruit was endowed with a life-preserving power as above
stated (Q. 97, A. 4). Yet it had a spiritual signification; as the
rock in the desert was of a material nature, and yet signified
Christ. In like manner the tree of the knowledge of good and evil was
a material tree, so called in view of future events; because, after
eating of it, man was to learn, by experience of the consequent
punishment, the difference between the good of obedience and the evil
of rebellion. It may also be said to signify spiritually the
free-will as some say.
Reply Obj. 5: According to Augustine (Gen. ad lit. v, 5, viii, 3),
the plants were not actually produced on the third day, but in their
seminal virtues; whereas, after the work of the six days, the plants,
both of paradise and others, were actually produced. According to
other holy writers, we ought to say that all the plants were actually
produced on the third day, including the trees of paradise; and what
is said of the trees of paradise being planted after the work of the
six days is to be understood, they say, by way of recapitulation.
Whence our text reads: "The Lord God had planted a paradise of
pleasure from the beginning" (Gen. 2:8).
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