Chapter 091 - The Production of the Body of the First Man

Since God is the absolute perfection wherein all things pre-exist in unity, He distributes perfection in all His works, giving to each creature according to its mode. Thus to the angels He communicates His perfection in the knowledge of all natural things by diverse forms; a perfection which is received by man after an inferior mode; for man has not the knowledge of all natural things; nevertheless, being in a certain manner composed out of all things, he communicates by his intellectual soul with the angels, with the heavenly bodies in the harmony of his constitution, and with the elements in his substance. The body of man was produced immediately by God, to Whose power it belongs to create form without any natural precedent form: for although Himself immaterial, God produces matter by His creative power, which the angels cannot do; for they cannot change the form of bodies except by means of some pre-existing seed. Hence the first man must have been made by God, because in the beginning there existed no other from which a like species could have originated by mode of generation. There may, however, have been some ministry of angels in connection with the formation of the body of man, as there may be hereafter with regard to the Resurrection.

Moreover, God instituted man's body in the best dispositions with reference to the rational soul. For an artificer intends to bestow upon his work the best disposition, not absolutely, but relatively to the effect which he desires to produce; and such is our body with regard to the soul, being its instrument for action.

Thus man excels the lower animals in the sense of touch and in sensitive power, although inferior to them in respect of some of the senses. His brain is large, to temper the warmth of the heart; he stands upright, and has hands for self-defence instead of horns. And he has an erect stature because his senses are not intended only for the necessities of life as with the lower animals, but for the acquirement of knowledge; and that he may freely carry out his works. Thus man's brain is not depressed but elevated, his head is towards heaven and his feet to earth that he may be better able to work with his hands, while his mouth, lips and tongue are soft, the better to fit him for speech. The production of the human body is fittingly described in Scripture, which makes use of special terms with reference to man; because other things have been made for him. Thus the plural number is used to indicate the Blessed Trinity, Who is said to have breathed on the face of Adam more than on any other part, because sense is chiefly expressed in the face; hence the operation of the soul appears chiefly in the face.