Principal Question Seven of Chapter Three
On the terrestrial Paradise, containing four Questions
Question One
Whether the terrestrial Paradise is something corporeal or something spiritual
It is asked whether the terrestrial Paradise is a corporeal place upon earth or the figure of a spiritual reality.
To this, as Augustine reports in Book II Upon Genesis, and as does Epiphanius the Greek, Bishop of Cyprus, Origen and the Manichaeans first answer that the terrestrial Paradise is not a corporeal or real place upon earth, but a spiritual thing. Thus they understand the terrestrial Paradise spiritually, just as Christ is called in the Scriptures a rock or the Lamb of God.
Christ plainly is not understood corporeally to be a rock when it is said in 1 Corinthians 10, “And the rock was Christ,” nor was he said really to be a lamb when John the Baptist called him the Lamb of God, John 1, but spiritually, metaphorically, and morally.
Similarly, they say that when anything is said or written in the Scriptures concerning the terrestrial Paradise, it must be understood spiritually and allegorically, namely as spiritual beatitude, which is a state made perfect by the aggregation of all goods, as Boethius says, and not as some real and corporeal place, because, they say, no such place is found in the nature of things.
They proved this opinion of theirs by reasons.
First, certain persons at different times wandered throughout all the dry land, most diligently inquired into the boundaries and dispositions of all regions and places, and wrote concerning the particular regions and places of the world, yet made no mention of the terrestrial Paradise. Therefore the terrestrial Paradise does not appear to be a real place upon the dry land.
Likewise, they say, we see that if a gardener is absent from an orchard for some years, the garden’s beauty will perish and its shrubs will grow old and fail. Since, therefore, the human being who cultivated the terrestrial Paradise was irreversibly expelled from it—and it is now more than six thousand four hundred and ninety years—the place and its beauty have perished and been laid waste.
Third, no place upon earth can reach as far as the lunar circle, since it is contrary to the nature of earth that it could be elevated so greatly in any of its parts, because beneath the lunar globe is the region of fire, which would consume the earth. But according to Bede, Paradise reaches as far as the lunar circle. Therefore no real place of this kind can be posited upon earth.
Likewise, Genesis 7 says that all the high mountains beneath the whole heaven were covered by the waters of the Flood, that the water was fifteen cubits higher than the mountains, and that all flesh which moved was consumed. Therefore it appears that that universal Flood, prolonged through an entire year and ten days, as is commonly held, destroyed and overturned that place, just as it altered the other places of the earth.
Likewise, such a place was made for the special habitation of human beings. Therefore, after the human being was irreversibly expelled from it it ought successively to have perished.
Likewise, carnal and sensual pleasure impedes and obscures the intellect concerning the spiritual virtues in which human happiness principally consists. Therefore such a place of pure pleasure and complete convenience, which is called the terrestrial Paradise and would furnish the occasion for virtues not to be exercised, was not really created by God.
But to the contrary is the Scripture in Genesis 2, saying: “God had planted a paradise of pleasure from the beginning, in which he placed the man whom he had formed.”
I answer that it must be said that, as Augustine says in Book IV Upon Genesis, there are three general positions or opinions concerning Paradise. One is that of those who wished to understand Paradise only corporeally; another, that of those who understood it only spiritually; and the third, that of those who take Paradise in both ways. Augustine acknowledges that this position pleases him more, and confirms it as follows.
If, he says, the things found written concerning Paradise are understood according to figure alone, by equal reasoning those things which are said there concerning Adam and Eve, the prohibition concerning the tree, and the transgression of the commandment will also have to be understood spiritually, which no one doubts is erroneous.
Similarly, if anyone wishes to understand the things said concerning Paradise in Scripture so literally that they signify nothing else, let him understand wisdom to be a certain corporeal tree, since it is said in Proverbs: “She is a tree of life to those who lay hold of her.” Let him also say that Christ is properly a rock or stone, a sheep or lamb, or a lion—which is blasphemy.
Therefore the things said here and elsewhere in Sacred Scripture must not be taken literally as though they were posited and described to signify nothing else; nor must they be taken spiritually as though the events did not and had not happened. They must be taken in both ways, because this belongs properly to Divine Scripture—especially the Old Testament—in which not only words signify, but deeds preordained by the most wise God are the most fitting figures of future and spiritual things. For, as the Apostle says, “All things happened to them in a figure”—that is, to the ancient worshipers of God before and under the Law. These are Augustine’s words.
And in Book XIII of The City of God, chapter 21, speaking more clearly in conclusion upon this matter, he says:
Whatever things can suitably be said concerning understanding Paradise spiritually may be said without anyone forbidding them, provided nevertheless that the most faithful truth of that history, commended as a narration of events, is also believed. For the things said concerning Paradise in Scripture are proposed in the manner of a historical narration. In all things which Scripture thus hands down, however, the truth of the history must be held as the foundation, and spiritual expositions must be constructed upon it.
These are his words.
Therefore it must be said conclusively that the Paradise described in Genesis 2 is a certain real place upon earth, concerning which Augustine says in Book XIII of The City of God, chapter 18:
Those first human beings were in a wooded and fruitful land which obtained the name of Paradise.
It also figuratively signifies a threefold Paradise: the anagogical Paradise, that is, of the blessed; the allegorical, that is, of the Church militant, or of some private region or sunny and delightful place, as the poets invent tales concerning the Fortunate Isles and the gardens of the Hesperides; and the moral, that is, of the virtues in the soul.
Similarly, in the terrestrial Paradise the tree of life in its midst is taken first literally for a material tree whose fruit had the power of preserving life; spiritually, however, it signified Christ, the Wisdom of God, Proverbs 3, or the cross of Christ, Ezekiel 31.
The tree of the knowledge of good and evil was likewise a material tree there, so named on account of the event of future evils, as will be said in the following article. Spiritually, however, it could signify free choice, as certain persons hold.
The rock in the desert was likewise something material, yet spiritually signified Christ.
To the first argument of the Manichaeans, therefore, it is answered that that place of the terrestrial Paradise is separated from our habitation and is inaccessible to us because of the obstacle of seas, mountains, deserts, or some region burning with heat, such as the region beneath the equinoctial circle. Therefore writers concerning the regions and places of the dry land which lies between the equinoctial circle and the Arctic pole made no mention of the region of the terrestrial Paradise. It consequently cannot be known by us except through revelation.
To the second, it must be said that, because of the earth’s fecundity and the vitality of the influence in that region, new plants grow spontaneously from seeds without cultivation or gardener. Or perhaps the ministry of angels supplies the work of human beings there if anything in planting is necessary for the preservation of Paradise. Or perhaps Enoch, Elijah, and the others who are said to be there, as will be said below, perform in Paradise the things which Adam would have performed and in the manner in which he would have performed them.
To the third, it must be said that Bede’s words are not to be understood as though the place of Paradise according to its position reaches as far as the sphere of fire or the concavity of the lunar orb, because this is not true. They must be understood parabolically, insofar as the region of Paradise appears even higher than all other high regions and mountains. Thus Damascene says in Book II that Paradise is a place positioned in the east, higher than all the earth.
Or it is said to reach the lunar globe because the temperateness and purity of the air of that region ascends as though to heaven; and because perhaps the whole air lying over that region is defended through the ministry of angels from clouds, winds, rains, and every disturbance, it is therefore said to reach heaven, as Isidore says.
The temperateness of that place is called perpetual, perhaps because on account of human sin it suffered no disorder either in its air as far as heaven or in the substance of its earth as far as the center. It still perseveres in that excellent disposition which it possessed before sin and would have possessed in the state of innocence, in memory of original integrity and so that it may appear how great were the things God arranged for human beings even upon earth if they had obeyed him, and how greatly on account of their sin nature and the disposition of times and regions were made worse.
To the fourth, it must be said that, although the waters of the Flood ascended fifteen cubits above every mountain beneath the whole heaven, it does not follow from this that they also rushed into the region of Paradise. For it could have occurred by divine power that, although the waters of the Flood were higher than that region, they nevertheless did not enter Paradise, but that, while it remained dry, the water stood around it like a wall, just as the Red Sea stood around the children of Israel as they walked on dry ground through the midst of the sea.
To the fifth, the solution is evident from the solution to the third, in which it was said how God wished Paradise to be preserved until the consummation of the age, and secondly for the preservation of Enoch, Elijah, and others.
To the sixth, it is answered that the argument is true of excessive and disordered pleasure in a mortal and lascivious body, such as every human being now possesses. In an integral nature or one gloriously restored, however, it is not so. Rather, corporeal pleasure and delight according to every sense there neither absorbs nor depresses the intellect, but raises it to God and inflames it toward a greater perception of the Creator and his benefits.
These things are from Thomas in Part I, question 102, article 2, and in Book II of the Sentences, distinction 17, and from Lord Henry of Hesse upon Genesis.
Addition
Modern doctors, such as Augustinus Steuchus; Jacobus Naclantus, Bishop of Chioggia; and Hieronymus Quainus, a Paduan theologian of the Order of Servants, hold that this place was corporeal and was undoubtedly situated upon earth in Eden, namely the land of promise. But they hold that it does not exist at present; indeed, that it was destroyed and laid waste from the beginning, immediately after the sin or when the waters inundated the world at the time of the universal Flood. Yet they assent to this matter no further than the matter itself permits, for they subscribe to truth and to the sense and determination of the Church.
Hieronymus Quainus presented this opinion in the Paduan Academy in this year 1574, when he commenced the Book of Genesis, with such eloquence and learning that he obtained no small reputation in this matter.