Friday, June 12, 2009

Q102 A4: Whether man was created in paradise?

No. God made man outside of paradise, and afterwards placed him there to live there during the whole of his animal life and, having attained to the spiritual life, to be transferred thence to heaven, because incorruptibility was man's, not by nature, but by a supernatural gift of God.

Deus hominem extra Paradisum fecit, et postea ipsum in Paradiso posuit, ut habitaret ibi toto tempore animalis vitae, postmodum, cum spiritualem vitam adeptus esset, transferendus in caelum, quia incorruptio non erat hominis secundum naturam, sed ex supernaturali Dei dono.

Paradise was a fitting abode for man as regards the incorruptibility of the primitive state.

Paradisus fuit locus congruus habitationi humanae, quantum ad incorruptionem primi status.

Therefore that this might be attributed to God, and not to human nature: "God took man and placed him in paradise" (Genesis 2:15).

Ut ergo hoc gratiae Dei imputaretur, non humanae naturae: dicitur Gen. II, "tulit Deus hominem, et posuit eum in Paradiso."

Woman was made in paradise, not by reason of her own dignity, but on account of the dignity of the principle from which her body was formed. For the same reason the children would have been born in paradise, where their parents were already.

Mulier facta fuit in Paradiso non propter dignitatem suam, sed propter dignitatem principii ex quo corpus eius formabatur. Quia similiter et filii in Paradiso fuissent nati, in quo parentes iam erant positi.