Question Three
How many have been translated into the terrestrial Paradise
It is asked how many there are who have been translated into this garden of delights and Paradise of pleasure.
To this it is answered that the first translated into this place was our first parent Adam. As Josephus says, he was formed outside Paradise on the sixth day of the world, in the field of Damascus, from the slime of red earth, from which he derived the designation of his name. For Adam in Hebrew is interpreted “red earth.” From there, almost in an instant, he was translated by God through the air into Paradise.
Hence Genesis 2 says, “Therefore God took the man”—namely, from the place of the field of Damascus in which he had formed him outside Paradise—“and transferred him into the Paradise of pleasure.”
Others, however, say that Adam was formed around the middle of the habitable earth, which appears to be Jerusalem, as though it were the navel of the world: both because the second Adam, namely Christ, was to be born and to die there, and so that, in passing from the middle of the world to the furthest part of the east, where Paradise was, he might see and consider how many things God had made upon the surface of the earth, and how greatly the glory of the region of Paradise—which he had prepared especially for the habitation of human beings—differed from the regions of beasts.
According to this consideration, the human being ought not to have been transferred in an instant from the place in which he was formed into Paradise, nor to have been conducted above through the air, but successively below over the earth, so that he might behold everything.
Afterward, having been tempted through Eve by the serpent, he was cast out from there, clothed in a tunic of skin. According to Dominicus Tolosanus, this was so that it might be shown to Adam that, just as skin is stripped from an animal that was first alive and afterward dead, so the mortality of himself and his successors was drawn from parents who were first alive in the state of innocence and afterward dead through sin. These are his words.
And as all Christian doctors commonly say, and as Vincent sets down in Book I of the History, Adam and Eve transgressed upon the very day of their creation—that is, on Friday, the sixth day of the world—around midday; and a little afterward, around the ninth hour, or according to the Hebrews the tenth hour, they were cast out.
Hence, after the course of many years, the new man Christ, upon the same weekday and at the same sixth hour, was crucified and paid the debt of that same sin; and, expiring around the ninth hour, he reopened to the thief the entrance to Paradise.
From these things it is understood that Adam, the first human being, was formed outside Paradise so that he might understand from this that so excellent a place of delights was not owed to him according to the common course of nature, but came from a special gift of divine grace, just as did the immortality which the human being would have possessed in the state of innocence in the manner stated.
Eve, however, was formed in Paradise on account of the dignity of the principle from which her body was formed. For likewise the children would have been born in Paradise on account of the dignity of the parents who had already been placed there. The Master of the History, however, says that Eve was made in Paradise so that by this the woman might be held more pleasing and more honorable.
The second translated into Paradise was Enoch, concerning whom Genesis 5 says: “Enoch walked with God and appeared no more, because the Lord took him.” For on account of the excellence of his virtue, the Catholic doctors say, he was taken by God and placed in the terrestrial Paradise.
Concerning him Ecclesiasticus 44 also says: “Enoch pleased God and was translated into Paradise, that he might give wisdom to the nations.”
The third was Elijah, concerning whom the final chapter of Malachi says: “Behold, I will send you Elijah the prophet before the great and dreadful day of the Lord comes, and he will turn the heart of the fathers to the sons.” Concerning the same one see Matthew 17 and 4 Kings 2, where it is said that Elijah ascended by a whirlwind into heaven.
This cannot be understood of the empyrean heaven, because no one entered there before the ascension of Christ. Therefore it must be understood of some heavenly place, or of a place having a heavenly disposition, such as the terrestrial Paradise, which Damascene in Book II called a divine region.
Again, since Scripture does not say that Enoch and Elijah are dead, we do not see where they may more fittingly be placed until the end of the age than in Paradise, nor where their animal life could more fittingly be preserved than from the fruit of the tree of life which is in the midst of Paradise.
All the Catholic doctors assign one and the same cause for the translation of these two into Paradise and their preservation there, saying that they are preserved there in life for this purpose: that, before the day of judgment, they may go forth from there against Antichrist, preach against him, and lead those who will then be unbelievers to the faith of Christ.
Thomas, however, upon Hebrews 11 assigns another reason as well, saying:
The reason why the death of Enoch and Elijah was delayed until the end of the world is that the doctrine of the Old Testament is ordered toward the promises of the New, in which the hope of life is promised to us: “Do penance, for the kingdom of heaven has drawn near,” Matthew 3. Therefore, after the Lord had given the sentence of death to Adam, he also wished to lead human beings into the hope of life. This he did in the fathers of each state, namely of nature, the Law, and grace: in the state of nature, in Enoch; in the state of the Law, in Elijah; in the state of grace, in Christ, through whom the effect of this promise is given to us, namely eternal life. Rising from the dead, he dies no more.
Those two, however, who have long lived in Paradise, will die through Antichrist.
Lord Henry of Hesse, adding others to these, speaks thus:
And perhaps not only Enoch and Elijah are preserved in Paradise to preach at the end against Antichrist, but also John the Evangelist and those who rose with Christ, came into the holy city, and appeared to many, concerning whom Matthew 27 speaks.
But Henry pointedly says “perhaps,” because Jerome says formally concerning John the Evangelist:
Some believe that perpetual resurrection has already been completed in those who rose with Christ; that the guardian of the Virgin rejoices with Christ in glorified flesh; and we do not doubt that this was also done concerning the Blessed Virgin.
And Saint Thomas, in Book IV of the Sentences, distinction 43, question 3, says: “It ought piously to be believed concerning the Blessed Virgin and John the Evangelist that their resurrection was not delayed until the end of the world.”
Moreover, the other brute animals were not created in Paradise, but were brought there by God’s arrangement. The serpent, however, was brought there by the operation of the devil. These things are from Saint Thomas in the place cited above and from the others introduced within this little question.
Addition
Do not be disturbed that such holy human beings are delayed from attaining the fruition of eternal life. For the divine power is so great that it can make them blessed as much on earth as in heaven. The angels always see the face of the Father, although they work upon earth.
Although these matters do not belong to the substance of the faith, they must therefore be left to the judgment of the Church and to the secrets of God, especially since it is written: “No human being shall see me and live.”