Why hath God? Hebrew, "Indeed hath God, &c." as if the serpent had overheard Eve arguing with herself, about God's prohibition, with a sort of displeasure and presumption. St. Augustine thinks, she had given some entrance to these passions, and the love of her own power, and hence gave credit to the... [ Continue Reading ]
_Not touch it. She exaggerates, through dislike of restraint, St. Ambrose. Or through reverence, she thought it unlawful to touch what she must not eat, lest perhaps, as if there could be any doubt. "God asserts, the woman doubts, Satan denies." (St. Bernard) Thus place, like Eve, between God and th... [ Continue Reading ]
_God. The old serpent's aim is, to make us think God envies our happiness. (Haydock) --- Or he would have Eve to suppose, she had not rightly understood her maker, who would surely never deprive her of a fruit which would give her such an increase of knowledge, as to make her conclude she was before... [ Continue Reading ]
Woman saw, or gazed on with desire and fond dalliance. (Menochius) --- Consulting only her senses, which represented the fruit to her as very desirable, and caused her to give credit to the devil's insinuations, rather than to the express word of God. Do not unbelievers the like, when they refuse to... [ Continue Reading ]
And the eyes, &c. Not that they were blind before, (for the woman saw that the tree was fair to the eyes, ver. 6.) nor yet that their eyes were opened to any more perfect knowledge of good; but only to the unhappy experience of having lost the good of original grace and innocence, and incurred the d... [ Continue Reading ]
_Afternoon air. God's presence has often been indicated by an unusual wind. (3 Kings xix. 12; Act. ii. 2.) The sovereign judge will not suffer the day to pass over, without bringing our first parents to a sense of their fault. They hid themselves, loving darkness now, because their works were evil._... [ Continue Reading ]
_Where. In what state have thy sins placed thee, that thou shouldst flee from thy God? (St. Ambrose, C. 14) Some think it was the Son of God who appeared on this occasion, St. Augustine; &c. or an Angel. (Calmet)_... [ Continue Reading ]
_Afraid. The just man is first to accuse himself: but Adam seeks for excuses in his sin: he throws the blame on his wife, and ultimately on God. (Menochius) --- Thou gavest me. Heretics have since treated the Sovereign Good with the like insolence; saying plainly, that God is the author of sin, and... [ Continue Reading ]
_The serpent, which thou hast made so cunning, and placed with us, deceived me. God deigns not to answer their frivolous excuses. (Menochius)_... [ Continue Reading ]
_Cursed. This curse falls upon the natural serpent, as the instrument of the devil; who is also cursed at the same time by the Holy Ghost. What was natural to the serpent and to man in a state of innocence, (as to creep, &c. to submit to the dominion of the husband, &c.) becomes a punishment after t... [ Continue Reading ]
She shall crush. Ipsa, the woman: so divers of the fathers read this place, conformably to the Latin: others read it ipsum, viz. the seed. The sense is the same: for it is by her seed, Jesus Christ, that the woman crushes the serpent's head. (Challoner) --- The Hebrew text, as Bellarmine observes, i... [ Continue Reading ]
_And thy conceptions. Septuagint:"thy groaning." The multifarious sorrows of childbearing, must remind all mothers (the blessed Virgin alone excepted) of what they have incurred by original sin. If that had not taken place, they would have conceived with out concupiscence, and brought forth without... [ Continue Reading ]
_Thy work, sin; thy perdition is from thyself: this is all that man can challenge for his own. (Haydock)_... [ Continue Reading ]
_Thorns, &c. These were created at first, but they would have easily been kept under: now they grow with surprising luxuriancy, and the necessaries of life can be procured only with much labour. All men here are commanded to work, each in his proper department. The Jews were careful to teach their c... [ Continue Reading ]
_Dust, as to the visible part; and thy soul created out of nothing. This might serve to correct that pride, by which Adam had fallen; and the same humbling truths are repeated to us by the Church every Ash-Wednesday, to guard us against the same contagion, the worm of pride, to which we are all so l... [ Continue Reading ]
_The living. Hebrew chai, one who brings forth alive, (Symmachus,) or one who imparts life, in which she was a figure of the blessed Virgin. (Calmet) --- Adam gives his wife this new name, in gratitude for not being cut off by death on the very day of his transgression, as he had every reason to exp... [ Continue Reading ]
Behold Adam, &c. This was spoken by way of reproaching him with his pride, in affecting a knowledge that might make him like to God. (Challoner) --- "These are the words of God, not insulting over man, but deterring others from an imitation of his pride." (St. Augustine, de Gen. xi. 39.) --- For eve... [ Continue Reading ]
Cherubims. Angels of the highest order, and of a very complex figure, unlike any one living creature. Theodoret supposes that God forced Adam to retire from that once charming abode, by the apparition of hideous spectres. The devils were also hindered from coming hither, lest they should pluck the f... [ Continue Reading ]