Annotation XLVIII

”Fear not those who kill the body, but cannot kill the soul.” — Matthew 10:28

Whether the soul alone is the man.

The author of the Opus imperfectum, homily 25, seems to hint that the soul alone is the man, but that the body is its garment, created by God to this end,

that with perpetual and natural hatred it might war against the soul. His words are these: “Fear not those who kill the body: for the substance of man is not the body, but the soul; and the body is the garment of the soul.” And below: “But I will say what I think more truly: the flesh was created not only to be the soul’s garment, but rather for its temptation — as a domestic and natural enemy — [and to it] it has been coupled,” etc. The former part of this error was followed, in earlier years, by Francesco Giorgio [Veneto], whom we confuted in Annotation 26 of the fifth book; but the latter part — alleged under the name of Chrysostom — Johannes of Mechelen noted, on the second [book] of the Sentences, distinction 32, saying that it is to be understood [as applying] in the state of [fallen] nature deprived [of grace]. Read Annotation 26 of the fifth book.