Saturday, May 02, 2009

Q91 A4: Whether the production of the human body is fittingly described in Scripture?

Yes. In describing man's production, Scripture uses a special way of speaking, to show that other things were made for man's sake, because we are accustomed to do with more deliberation and care what we have chiefly in mind.

Utitur Scriptura in productione hominis speciali modo loquendi, ad ostendendum quod alia propter hominem facta sunt, quia ea quae principaliter intendimus, cum maiori deliberatione et studio consuevimus facere.

Some have thought that man's body was formed first in priority of time, and that afterwards the soul was infused into the formed body. But it is inconsistent with the perfection of the production of things, that God should have made either the body without the soul, or the soul without the body, since each is a part of human nature. This is especially unfitting as regards the body, for the body depends on the soul, and not the soul on the body.

Quidam intellexerunt corpus hominis prius tempore formatum, et postmodum Deum formato iam corpori animam infudisse. Sed contra rationem perfectionis primae institutionis rerum est, quod Deus vel corpus sine anima, vel animam sine corpore fecerit, cum utrumque sit pars humanae naturae. Et hoc etiam est magis inconveniens de corpore, quod dependet ex anima, et non e converso.