DISPUTATION ON THE EXTENT and excellence of the knowledge which Adam had — Commentaries and Disputations on Genesis, Volume I

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DISPUTATION ON THE EXTENT and excellence of the knowledge which Adam had.¹

DISPUTATIO DE AMPLITUDINE et excellentia eius scientiae quam habuit Adam.

Ceterum, hoc loco Mosis de impositione nominum ab Adamo facta satis opinor explanato, ad propositam de scientia Adami disputationem pertractandam aggrediamur. In ea vero disputatione quaestiones quinque sunt enodandae. Prima quaestio: An Adam sit creatus scientia rerum naturalium praeditus. Altera quaestio: Quantam habuerit scientiam. Tertia: An cunctis hominibus qui post eum fuerunt sapientior fuerit. Quarta: An scientiam etiam rerum supernaturalium habuerit. Quinta: An, si mansisset status innocentiae, omnes posteri Adami similiter ut ipse scientiam rerum omnium ab exordio sui ortus habuissent.

Now, this passage of Moses concerning the imposition of names by Adam having been, I think, sufficiently explained, let us proceed to take up the proposed disputation concerning the knowledge of Adam. In that disputation five questions are to be unraveled. The first question: Whether Adam was created endowed with knowledge of natural things. The second question: How much knowledge he had. The third: Whether he was wiser than all the men who came after him. The fourth: Whether he had knowledge also of supernatural things. The fifth: Whether, if the state of innocence had remained, all Adam's descendants would, like him, have had knowledge of all things from the very beginning of their birth.²

Translator’s notes

Major divider: the opening Disputatio of Book V's treatment of Adam's knowledge (de scientia Adami). ↩
Marginal gloss: 'Quinque quaestiones de scientia Adami' (five questions on the knowledge of Adam). Preface enumerating the five questions of the Disputatio. ↩