Summa summae S. Thomae sive compendium theologiae

[I answer in the affirmative¹.

Proof from Sacred Scripture. Genes., II, 7, it is said: The Lord God formed man of the slime of the earth. There by "man" is understood Adam alone, since afterward it is said that Eve was made from one rib of Adam. Hence in Tob., VIII, 8, it is read: Thou madest Adam of the slime of the earth, and gavest him Eve for a helper. Now the slime is earth or dust mixed with water. Hence Sacred Scripture often calls man clay, as in Iob, XXXIII, 6; Is., XLV, 9 and LXIV, 8; Ierem., XVIII, 6; Eccli., XXXIII, 13 and XXXVIII, 33.

It was fitting that this should happen thus, because man, placed at the boundary of the spiritual and material order, ought to have in himself a spiritual nature in his soul, and virtually, in his body, the natures of all material beings, whose elements are contained in the earth. Thus he was made an abridged world, and just as through his soul man draws near to separate, or angelic, substances, and through them to God; so, on account of the affinity which they have with the human body, all corporeal things, which were subject to Adam's dominion, are bound back to their Creator through man.

Now the moral reason for this fact, according to St. Jerome, is that man, beholding the matter of his own body, should know that nothing is baser than it, and should cease to boast of his origin. Another reason, according to others, is that the hope of the resurrection might be confirmed, and men might be reminded that, by the same power by which God was able to form Adam's body from dust at the beginning of the world, he will be able to call forth our bodies from the dust of the grave and restore them to their pristine integrity.

You will ask, 1°, whether the human body was produced immediately by God.

I answer in the affirmative². For everything that is made by a creature is made from something pre-existing similar in species; for the thing made and the maker must be similar in species. But in the first formation of the human body, there was nothing pre-existing similar in species. Therefore.

Certain Jews and Arians were of the opinion that these words, Genes., I, 26: Let us make man to our image and likeness, were directed by God, not to the divine persons, but to the angels. But this opinion is altogether false, both because man is not said in Sacred Scripture to have been made to the image of an angel, but of God; and because God is not accustomed to say to the angels, as to associates: Let us make, but commands them, as a Lord to servants.

You will ask, 2°, in what stature Adam's body was produced.

I answer that Adam's body was produced in that stature which befits a perfect man, namely about six feet. Nor is it an obstacle that in Iosue, XIV, 15, it is said: Adam the greatest among the Enacims was laid there, from which some have said that Adam was of gigantic stature; because there the name Adam is not a proper name of the first parent, but an appellative or common name of the human species, as though it were said "a man" or "a human being" among the sons of Enac, who were giants. Add that in Sacred Scripture no mention is made of giants, except in chapter vi, 4, of Genes., after the death of Adam.

You will ask, 3°, in what physical condition Adam was produced.

I answer that he was produced such as he ought to have been in the most flourishing age, that is, most apt for all operations both of body and of mind: which commonly happens around the thirtieth year, which age is held to be perfect. The reason of fittingness is taken from this, that Christ, after the thirty-third year from his temporal birth, perfectly repaired human nature, by completing the work of our redemption. Augustine asks, lib. VI de Genes. ad litt.,

c. 13, n. 23: « How did God make him from the slime of the earth: whether suddenly in a perfect age, that is, manly and youthful, or as he still forms them now in the wombs of mothers? » He answers, ibid., c. 18, n. 29: « Adam was made, when he was formed from the slime, as is more credible, already of perfect manhood... For then it was the case, not only that it could happen thus, but even that it was necessary for him to be made thus. »]