Bellarmine · De Controversiis · On the Grace of the First Man
Chapter 10: That the earthly paradise was a bodily place, in which Adam dwelt in the state of innocence
Our translation, from the Latin of the Opera Omnia (Paris: Vivès, 1870–74), vol. V, De Gratia Primi Hominis. The Latin source text is public domain; this English rendering is released with the site. Scripture quotations follow Bellarmine's Vulgate citations, rendered in Douay-Rheims wording where he quotes exactly. Click “Show the Latin” for the original (raw OCR of the scan; scanning errors remain — the scan itself is the authority).
We have discoursed hitherto of the grace and of the immortality of the first man — that is, of the goods of soul and of body granted him by the Creator; now we shall discourse briefly of the external goods, of paradise and of the tree of life.
And the first question is: “Whether paradise was some true and bodily place, as Scripture in the book of Genesis seems to signify, or rather spiritual, and (so to speak) allegorical.” There were not wanting among the ancients those who wished to destroy that whole history of paradise, of the rivers and the trees, and to change it into mere allegories. Known is the opinion of Philo the Hebrew, in book 1 of the Allegories; of Valentinus the heresiarch, in Irenaeus, book 1 against Heresies, chapter 1, before the middle; and of Origen, in the commentary on the book of Genesis. But in our age (which must seem a wonder) Francis Georgius called back to light the opinion long ago condemned by the Fathers, and strove to champion it, in volume 4 of the Problems, expounding those words, And the Lord God had planted a paradise of pleasure, Genesis 2, and in the Harmony of the World, canticle 1, volume 3, chapter 24 — whose reasons we shall refute a little later.
That paradise, then, was a place of bodies, full of true and corporeal plants, and watered by a true fountain and rivers, we can prove first from the divine writings, which so describe paradise that it cannot be doubted that it is a true and bodily place. Genesis 2: And the Lord God had planted a paradise of pleasure from the beginning: wherein he placed man whom he had formed. But to be planted belongs to bodies; and a corporeal and animal man, such as all confess Adam to have been, had to be placed in a true and bodily place. Likewise in the same place is added: And a river went out of the place of pleasure to water paradise, which from thence is divided into four heads. The name of the one is Phison, etc. But those rivers are true, bodily, visible, navigable, and drinkable, as is evident of the Euphrates and the Tigris, most known and greatest rivers. Again, chapter 3: Adam and Eve hid themselves among the trees of paradise, and sewed themselves aprons of fig leaves. There were therefore in paradise true and bodily trees, among which true and bodily human beings could lie hidden; there were also true fig leaves, with which true human members could be covered. Finally, in the same place we read that Adam was cast out of paradise, and a guard of angels set, that no access might lie open to him to the tree of life. But if the tree of life had been only spiritual — wisdom, namely, or some virtue, as certain men dream — God would not with such diligence have taken care that access to it should not lie open to men; seeing that in the book of Proverbs, chapter 3, where wisdom is called a tree of life, men are everywhere invited to wisdom and virtue.
Let there come, second, the testimonies of the Fathers, who refute the opinion of Origen as plainly erroneous and fighting with the orthodox faith. St. Methodius, in Epiphanius, in the heresy which is the 64th: “Paradise, whence in our first parent we were cast out, is manifestly a choice place of this earth, destined for the saints for pleasant rest and a better life. From it the Tigris and Euphrates and the remaining rivers, which pour forth there, appear here as outflows of streams flooding into our continent; for they are not poured out and dashed down from above, from the heavens — for neither could the earth have borne to receive so great a mass of water gliding down in a heap from on high,” etc. St. Epiphanius, in the epistle to John, Bishop of Jerusalem: “Who could listen to Origen giving us paradise in the third heaven, and transferring the one which Scripture mentions from earth to the heavenly places, and understanding all the trees which are written in Genesis so allegorically that, forsooth, the trees are angelic powers — whereas the truth does not receive this?” St. Jerome, in the epistle to Pammachius on the errors of John of Jerusalem, enumerating the errors of Origen: “The sixth, that he so allegorizes paradise as to take away the truth of the history, understanding angels for the trees, heavenly virtues for the rivers, and overturning the whole content of paradise by a tropological interpretation.” And in the commentary on chapter 10 of Daniel, expounding that verse, And in the four and twentieth day of the first month, I was by the great river which is the Tigris: “Whence let the ravings of those fall silent who, seeking shadows and images in the truth, strive to overturn the truth itself, so as to think that rivers and trees and paradise must be undermined by the laws of allegory.” St. John Chrysostom, homily 13 on Genesis: “For this reason blessed Moses inserted the name of the place in the Scriptures, that it might not be permitted to those who wish to trifle to impose on the ears of the simpler sort, and to say that there is no garden on earth — the one they call paradise — but that it is in heaven, and to dream certain fables of that kind.” St. Augustine, book 13 On the City of God, chapter 21, after he had at some length confuted those who so made paradise spiritual as to deny that it was bodily, concludes in this manner: “Let these things, and whatever else can be more fitly said, about understanding paradise spiritually, be said, no one forbidding — provided, however, that the truth of that history also be believed, commended by a most faithful narration of things done.” And book 8 On Genesis [to the Letter], chapter 1, he affirms that the opinion of those approves itself to him who teach that paradise was at once bodily and spiritual. Of whose number is St. Basil, who in the book On Paradise, though he made no mention of Origen and his errors, yet expounds the narration of paradise both according to the truth of the history and according to the spiritual understanding. And that St. Ambrose did the same I shall demonstrate a little later. See also Theodoret, questions 24 [al. 25] and 29 [al. 26] on Genesis; John Damascene, book 2 On the Orthodox Faith, chapter 11; Bede, Eucherius, and Rupert on chapter 2 of Genesis. Add also the scholastic Doctors, on book 2 of the Sentences, distinction 17; for all with common consent make paradise bodily. Add lastly that the arguments of Francis Georgius are most slight, so that thou mayest rightly wonder that a man, otherwise learned, could depart from the common judgment of the whole Church for such feeble little reasons.
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in quo Adam in statu innocentiae habi¬ tavit. Disseruimus hactenus de gratia, et de im¬ mortalitate primi hominis, id est, de bonis animi, et corporis eidem a conditore con¬ cessis : nunc de bonis externis, de paradiso, et ligno vitae breviter disseremus. Est autem prima quaestio : « Fueritne Paradisus locus aliquis verus, et corporalis, ut Scriptura in libro Geneseos significare vi¬ detur, an potius spiritalis, ac (ut sic loquar) allegoricus. » Non defuerunt ex veteribus, qui totam illam historiam de paradiso, de fluminibus, et arboribus destruere, et in me¬ ras allegorias transmutare voluerint. Nota est sententia Philonis Hebra;i in lib. i. Alle¬ goriarum. Valentini Haeresiarchae apud Irc- naeum lib. i. adversus haereses, cap. 1. ante (t) Gen. I, 22, 28. — (2) Gen. HI, 19. CAPUT X. 495 medium, et Origenis commentario libri Ge- neseos. Sed nostro saeculo (quod mirum vi¬ deri debet) sententiam jam olim ii Patribus damnatam, interum revocavit ad lucem, ac propugnare conatus est Franciscus Georgius in tom. 4. problematum, exponens illa verba : Plantaverat Dominus pdPadisum voluptatis (4) Genes, n, et in Harmonia mundi cantico 4. tom. 7. cap. 24. cujus rationes paulo post refellemus. Igitur paradisum locum fuisse corporum, plantis veris corporatisque plenum, et vero fonte, tluminibusque irriguum, probare pos¬ sumus. Primo ex divinis litteris, qua? ita de¬ scribunt Paradisum, ut ambigi non possit quin sit locus verus et corporalis, Genes, ii. Plantaverat autem Dominus Deus paradisum voluptatis a principio, et in eo posuit hominem , quem formaverat. At plantari corporum est, et homo corporalis , et animalis, qualem fuisse Adamum omnes fatentur, in loco vero, et corporali poni debuit. Item ibidem addi¬ tur : Fluvius egrediebatur de loco voluptatis ad irrigandum paradisum, qui inde dividitur in quatuor capita, nomen uni Phison, etc. (2). At flumina ista vera, corporalia, aspectabilia, navigabilia, et potabilia sunt, ut perspicuum est de Euphrate, et Tigri notissimis, maxi- misque fluminibus. Rursus cap. 3. Adam et Eva absconderunt se inter ligna paradisi, consueruntque sibi perizomata de foliis ficus. Erant igitur in paradiso vera, et corporalia ligna, inter quaelatere poterant homines veri, et corporales : erant etiam solia ficulnea vera, quibus vera hominum membra tegi po¬ terant. Denique ibidem legimus ejectum fuisse Adamum de paradiso, custodiamque Ange¬ lorum adhibitam, ne aditus ei pateret ad lig¬ num vita?. At si lignum vita? fuisset solum spiritale, sapientia videlicet, aut virtus aliqua, ut quidam somniant, tanta diligentia Deus non cavisset, ne ad ipsum hominibus aditus pateret. Siquidem in lib. Proverb. cap. 3. ubi sapientia dicitur lignum vita? passim homines invitantur ad sapientiam et vir¬ tutem. Accedant secundo testimonia Patrum, qui sententiam Origenis, ut plane erroneam, et et cum orthodoxa fide pugnantem refellunt. S. Methodius apud Epiphanium in ha?resi, quae est. 64 : « Paradisus, inquit, unde in primo parente ejecti sumus, ex hac terra pa¬ lam est locus eximius ad jucundam quietem et vitam meliorem Sanctis destinatus. Ab ipso Tigris, et Euphrates, et reliqui fluvii, quiillic profunduntur, hicapparentfluxionum excursusin nostrum continentem inundantes; non enim ex supernis de coelis effunduntur, ac eliduntur, nam neque sustinere potuisset terra, ut tantam aquae molem accrvatim ex alto dilabentem susciperet etc. » S. Epiphanius in epistol. ad Joan. Epi¬ scopum Hierosolymitanum : « Quis, inquit, audiat in tertio coelo donantem nobis Ori- genem paradisum, et illum, quem Scriptura commemorat, de terra ad coelestia transfe¬ rentem, et omnes arbores quae scribuntur in Genesi sic allegorice intelligentem, quod sci» licet arbores angelicae fortitudines sint, cum hoc veritas non recipiat ? » S. Hieronymus in epist. ad Pammachium de erroribus Joan. Hierosolym. enumerans Origenis errores : « Sextum, inquit, quod sic paradisum allegorizet, ut historia? auferat viritatem, pro arboribus angelos, pro flumi¬ nibus virtutes coelestes intelligens, totamque paradisi continentiam tropologica interpre¬ tatione subvertens, » Et in comment. cap. 10. Daniel. exponens illud : Die autem, vigesima et quarta mensis primi eram juxta fluvium magnum , qui est Tigris : « Unde, inquit, eorum deliramenta conticescant, qui umbras et imagines in veritate qua?rentes, ipsam co¬ nantur evertere veritatem, ut flumina, et arbores, et paradisum putent allegoriae le¬ gibus se debere subruere. » S. Joannes Ghrysostomus hom. 13. in Genes. : « Idcirco, inquit, nomen loci Scri¬ pturis inseruit B. Moses, ut non liceat nugari volentibus imponere simpliciorum auribus, ac dicere, nullum esse in terra hortum, quem dicunt paradisum, sed in coelo, et fabulas quasdam ejusmodi somniare. » S. Augustinus lib. xm de Civitate Dei cap. 21, posteaquum pluribus verbis confu¬ taverat eos, qui paradisum ita spiritalem fa¬ ciebant, ut corporalem esse negarent, con¬ cludit hoc modo : « Haec et si qua alia com¬ modius dici possunt, de intelligendo spiri- tualiterparadiso,eiemineprohibente dicantur, dum tamen et illius historiae veritas fidelis¬ sima rerum gestarum narratione commen¬ data credatur. » Et lib. viii. de Genescap. 1. eorum sententiam probari sibi affirmat, qui paradisum corporal?m simul, et spiritualem (4) Gen. 11,8. — (2) Ibid. II, 40. LIBER I. •IU6 fuisse elocent. E quorum numero est S. Basi- lius, qui in lib. de Paradiso, tametsi Origenis, et errorum ejus non fecerit mentionem, ex¬ ponit tamen narrationem de paradiso, et se¬ cundum historiae veritatem, et secundum intelligentiam spiritualem. 'Quod idem fecisse S. Ambrosium paulo post demonstrabo. Vide etiam Theodoret. queest. 24. et 29. in Genes. Joan. Damascen. lib. n. de fide orthodoxa cap. 11. Bedam, Eucherium, et Rupertum in cap. 2. lib. Genes. Adde et Scholasticos Doctoresin 2. Sentent. dist. 17. Omnes enim communi consensu paradisum corporalem faciunt. Adde postremo argumenta Fran- cisci Georgii levissima esse, ut merito mirari possis, virum, alioqui doctum, ob tam debiles ratiunculas a communi totius Ecclesite sen¬ tentia recedere potuisse. CAPUT XI. Solvuntur objectiones.