Wednesday, May 06, 2009

Q92 A4: Whether the woman was formed immediately by God?

Yes. God alone could produce either a man from the slime of the earth, or a woman from the rib of man, because God alone, the Author of nature, can produce an effect into existence outside the ordinary course of nature.

Solus Deus potuit vel virum de limo terrae, vel mulierem de costa viri formare, quia solus Deus, qui est naturae institutor, potest praeter naturae ordinem res in esse producere.

The natural generation of every species is from some determinate matter.

Uniuscuiusque speciei generatio naturalis est ex determinata materia.

As Augustine says (Gen. ad lit. ix, 15), we do not know whether the angels were employed by God in the formation of the woman; but it is certain that, as the body of man was not formed by the angels from the slime of the earth, so neither was the body of the woman formed by them from the man's rib.

Sicut Augustinus dicit IX super Gen. ad Litt., an ministerium Angeli exhibuerint Deo in formatione mulieris, nescimus; certum tamen est quod, sicut corpus viri de limo non fuit formatum per Angelos, ita nec corpus mulieris de costa viri.

The woman's body was produced in its causal aspects among the first created works, as Augustine says (Gen. ad lit. ix, 15).

Sed secundum causales rationes corpus mulieris in primis operibus productum fuit, ut Augustinus dicit IX super Gen. ad Litt.

As Augustine says (Gen. ad lit. ix, 18): "The first creation of things did not demand that woman should be made thus; it made it possible for her to be thus made." Therefore the body of the woman did indeed pre-exist in these causal virtues, in the things first created: not as regards active potentiality, but as regards a potentiality passive in relation to the active potentiality of the Creator.

Sicut Augustinus in eodem libro dicit, "non habuit prima rerum conditio ut femina omnino sic fieret; sed tantum hoc habuit, ut sic fieri posset." Et ideo secundum causales rationes praeexsisit corpus mulieris in primis operibus: non secundum potentiam activam, sed secundum potentiam passivam tantum, in ordine ad potentiam activam creatoris.