Commentary on Genesis 1 part 4/15

but rather fear Him who is able to destroy both soul and body in Gehenna.' And if men kill the one but not the other, then there are two, the body and the [soul]. We were saying, then, that we call also the body alone 'man,' yet not simply, but 'the outer man' with an addition; and the soul alone 'man,' not simply, but 'the inner man'; while the composite being we call simply 'man,' adding nothing.

Let inquiry then be made here concerning the one about whom it is said by the God of all things:

'Let us make man according to our image and likeness.' It is not, then, according to the composite being that man came to be according to the image of God;

for God is not of human form.

And this the divine teaching confirms;

for God is said to be spirit and light, and light and spirit have not the form of a man.

But Scripture also proclaims that God has seven eyes, beholding all the earth, whereas man has two;

man will not, therefore, be found to be according to the image of God, if we contemplate it in this way.

But we say these things not as though God had seven perceptible eyes, but as we hunt out how man is according to the image of God;

for by the number seven the word has made clear His perfect faculty of oversight, and the virtues which the number seven possesses, as has already been said before.

Again, God is said to have wings, as the holy one says:

'In the shelter of your wings you will cover me' — yet man is a wingless creature, and that which is wingless cannot have the image and likeness of God; for we take the wings of God not with respect to perceptible things, but with respect to conceptions that transcend and bear aloft those who long for this.

It must therefore be searched out how man came to be according to the image and likeness of God.

For a man ought not to cover his head, being the image and glory of God. And it has been shown that it is not according to his being composite that he is the image;

for the one is a bodiless and intellectual substance, while the other has a formed body.

In another way, then, must we take his having come to be according to the image and likeness.

God, then, having made all things, and being ruler and leader of all — for as He is Creator, so too is He ruler and king — having made man so as also to rule over the beasts, cattle, and birds that came into being for his sake, shows that man is an image with respect to his ruling.

And that this is so, one may learn from the apostolic wording:

'But I wish you to know that the head of every man is Christ, and the head of the woman is the man.' For as the man is ruled by Christ, so too the woman is ruled by the man, having him as head.

For the likeness must be taken according to analogy, which does not have its likeness in the same materials — as when we say that the relation which a physician has toward producing health, this same relation a builder has toward constructing a house;

for each is productive of some work.

Since, then, man, having come into being as rational, imitates God with respect to ruling over the things subject to him, in this respect he is able to be according to the image and likeness of God.

But it is above all according to the primary meaning that one should apprehend the matter set before us;

for it has been said before that man in the proper sense is the mind and the soul.

This soul, partaking of God, becomes His image out of that very participation; in this sense we say that virtue images forth the one who partakes of it. Paul too, who speaks in Christ, knowing this, says in the passages where he exhorts men to be conformed to the image after Christ:

'until Christ be formed in you,' teaching that a true understanding concerning Christ, when it comes to be in the soul, stamps and images the soul after His likeness.

'Let us make man according to our image and likeness.'

The image of God is His only-begotten Son.

Paul teaches this when he writes:

'Who is the image of the invisible God' — an image essential and in no way differing.

For 'he that hath seen me hath seen the Father.' If, then, it has been said by God:

'Let us make man according to our image and likeness,' we must not take the images to be different ones;

for the Father's image is not one thing and the Son's another.

For if he that has seen the Son has also beheld the Father, and if the Son is the express character of God's substance according to the blessed Paul, we must not conceive of any other image.

For no created thing images forth and stamps God according to essence.

It does not say 'Let us make man an image,' but 'according to an image' — which means to be imaged from that image and to imitate it;

for man was fashioned to be capable of receiving the image.

But we must observe that there are two things which God says come to be, when He says:

'Let us make man according to our image and likeness.'

For I think that a surpassing resemblance displays a likeness that in no way differs, so that the likeness is even an intensification of the image, whereas the image is not in every case rendered so exact as to possess an undeviating likeness.

In this way the image would be the beginning and prelude of the likeness.

First, then, man must come to be according to the image, and then according to the likeness; and this 'first' is not to be taken as first in time — especially since it was the first making of man — but according to the conception of the mind.

And that this is so, the writing Spirit adds:

'And God made man; according to the image of God made He him,'

no longer adding 'according to the likeness.'

For the mind, when it draws near to the fear of God, is stamped according to the image of God, but afterwards, through advancement toward perfection, comes to be according to the likeness of God — which the blessed John sets forth when he says:

'Beloved, now are we the children of God, and it doth not yet appear what we shall be;'

'we know that, if he shall appear, we shall be like him.' For being already according to the image, they hope to come to be according to the likeness.

The understanding is confirmed, and Paul bears witness, exhorting certain men to make progress in virtue, saying:

'That ye may be according to the image of him that created you' — and this although they were already such according to the principle of their being brought into existence.

So what he says is this: that every man, inasmuch as he is a work of God's handiwork and is receptive of reason, exists according to the image, being (as we said) capable of receiving the image and fitted for participation in it; but if he should take this on according to actual operation, as did the man fashioned at the beginning, then he already has the 'according to the image' at work within himself.

And let what is said be made clear by an example.

Man is a rational being;

and this essential aptitude belongs also to the infant, though the actual exercise of reason does not;

the infant too, therefore, possesses this capacity;

and so, when reason has been brought to fullness, it displays these things, if he inclines toward instruction.

So too the 'according to the image': as long as it is not buried over, it bears the dignity of the first creation; but once it has been overlaid with vice and depravity, it needs to receive the broom according to what is said in the Gospel — that is, the word of repentance — so that, unfolding the mist that lies upon it, we may bring to light the features of the image.

And the words 'and let them rule over the fish of the sea and the birds of the heaven and the cattle and all the earth and all the creeping things that creep upon the earth,' according to the former exposition, would display man's dominion over the animals subjected to him.

For one might marvel how man captures, by certain traps and nets, creatures that far exceed his own strength, that are at once savage and by nature apt to do harm, and moreover of enormous size;

and this would not come about thus, unless he held dominion over them from God.

For sometimes even by the care of a little child or of an otherwise feeble person, vast herds of various animals are driven — which clearly shows that a certain divine power is present in the rational creature, by which these things are made subject to him.

And rule is nothing other than lawful oversight.

None of the other creatures, at any rate, rules over its own kind;

and even if at times the so-called bell-wether sheep leads a flock by going before it, it does this not by reasoning, as do the shepherds who are men, but by nature.

But man came to be according to the image and likeness of God, in order that he might rule over the things mentioned.

And since, according to another sense, we also say that the mind of man is 'man' — commanded to come to be according to the image and likeness of God — we correspondingly take it that he rules over those wild beasts concerning which the holy one says, sending up a prayer:

'Deliver not unto the wild beasts a soul that confesseth to thee' — which would be the opposing powers, from which the holy man prays that the confessing soul may be set free, or the wicked thoughts suggested by them.

'Behold, the wild beasts beside thee eat grass like oxen' — not that the beasts in the ordinary sense had, in Job's case, been changed in their nature, but that the wildness of the hostile powers was tamed, having no strength against the greatness of the holy man's virtue.

And one can find in Scripture many animals taken up in a mystical sense.

For there are also certain persons among men symbolically called fish, whom the kingdom of the heavens, cast into the sea, draws.

For from every kind — that is, from every disposition of men and from every nation — the proclamation of the word draws them in.

So he rules also over these fish.

And there are birds that are spiritual: some blameworthy, others praiseworthy;

'The young of the vultures fly on high,' it says; and concerning one who slanders father or mother it is said:

'May the ravens of the valleys pluck it out, and may the young eagles devour it' — which could not hold on the literal level, since a slanderer of his parents can be found in every place, ravens not being found everywhere;

but it is clear that one who is held fast by this fault is in a certain manner subdued and devoured by dark energies, which are lowly and are wont to dwell in ravines.

— animals taken in a praiseworthy and in a blameworthy sense.

Man, then, has been appointed to rule over all these, having come to be according to the image of God.

The apostles, having come into this state so as to be according to the image and likeness of God, ruled over the fish of the spiritual sea, having been made fishers by Christ, who said to them:

'Come ye after me, and I will make you fishers of men,' as also to Peter:

'From henceforth thou shalt catch men' — those, that is, who swim in the said sea.

And that they ruled also over wild beasts, they received authority to tread upon serpents and scorpions and over all the power of the enemy.

But also in the psalm it is shown that authority over such things is given by God to the righteous man, the Holy Spirit saying to the virtuous man:

'Thou shalt tread upon the asp and the basilisk, and thou shalt trample the lion and the dragon.' And He has given them authority also over the birds that snatch away the seed sown by the word, that, hunting them, they may drive them far off; and further, over the more brutish men, concerning whom it is said:

'Be ye not as the horse and the mule, which have no understanding,' and:

'Ye have become as lust-maddened stallions.' And the saints rule over all these, transferring them from worse things to better by means of the word.

But man has also received authority over the creeping things, which, if you refer them to the pleasures and the passions, you would not err — by abstaining from the fleshly desires, in rising up against them and mortifying the members that are upon the earth: fornication, uncleanness, passion, evil desire.

And rightly does the matter stand with respect to the recompense, which says:

'And God made man; according to the image of God made He him.' For whereas the command comprised, in addition to the 'according to the image,' also that he should come to be 'according to the likeness,' the recompense says that He made him 'according to the image,' not adding the 'according to the likeness' — concerning which we treated a little earlier.

But the words 'male and female made He them' must be examined: how, when God gave His command concerning one man, the recompense says:

'He made them.' And this would be, according to the letter, a demonstration that the woman is of the same substance as the man, since they are both ranked under one species, and on this account the words 'let us make man' were spoken;

and the 'male and female' is indicative of the divisions which God arranged for the sake of succession, showing at the same time that the woman too is according to the image of God, both being receptive of the same things — of imitation directed toward God, of participation in the Holy Spirit, and of the acquisition of virtue.

And since we were saying that the appellation 'man' is signified also with reference to the mind and the soul, we shall, by way of anagogy, understand 'male and female' thus: that the one who is able to be a teacher, so as to introduce the seed of the word into souls capable of receiving it, would be male; while those hold symbolically the place of the female who are able to bring forth nothing of themselves, but receive the instructions from others after the manner of seed.

And in the case of the sensible realm, the female and the male come from God; but in the case of the intelligible realm, each man occupies for himself, and by his own free choice, either the place of a teacher — who is male and a sower of good things — or that of a disciple who receives another's seed and is in this respect female.

And in this way one might understand the passage, taking the greater among rational beings in relation to the lesser.

But if one should wish to take it in relation to the Word of God, the whole rational nature would hold the rank of the female toward Him.

For this One is the Bridegroom of the rational substance;

conferring benefit both in matters of conduct and in the doctrines of the truth.

And whereas among sensible things it is impossible for a change of nature to occur, among intelligible things the one who now receives instruction, and on that account exists in the rank of the female, might one day, through progress, become a man, so as to become a teacher of others; just as, conversely, through negligence, one is able to lose the being a teacher, so that he can only with the greatest difficulty receive from another the very things which he himself formerly taught to others.

And a testimony of those who receive the seeds of the Word would be the words: 'From fear of You we conceived in the womb, and we were in labour, and we brought forth a spirit of salvation upon the earth.'

And this fear works the holy conception concerning God;

'The fear of the Lord is pure, enduring unto ages of ages,' and also:

'The fear of the Lord surpasses all things'; and whoever possesses it and advances in it so as even to become a man of an intelligible woman, and on that account is called blessed, as the psalm says:

'Blessed are you, and it shall be well with you; your wife shall be as a fruitful vine upon the sides of your house, your sons as newly planted olive trees round about your table.'

'Behold, thus shall the man be blessed who fears the Lord' — which, according to the literal history, does not hold without contradiction, since many who feared God continued childless, or remained so even into old age, like Abraham and Zacharias the father of John.

What it means, therefore, is this:

the resolve and the faith which the blessed man has received is a wife dwelling together with him, able to beget divine works and words and thoughts;

'Wisdom bears prudence for a man,' and the wise man says concerning her:

'I became a lover of her beauty' — that is, of Wisdom — 'and I led her to live together with me.' The one, then, who fears the Lord has this Wisdom as his housemate, together with faith and virtue, from whom he begets nothing female but all things male;

for he does not beget a reprehensible deed, or an unsound or refutable thought, but all things vigorous and strong;

for it says, 'Your sons as newly planted olive trees,' which bear oil that transforms into light and gives release from toils.

For the spiritual man, ever advancing, has a practice like oil, poured upon his own light, which also contributes to manliness and to the contests against the opposing energy.

Understanding 'male and female,' then, according to the sense that has been stated — the one who teaches being male, and the one who receives the seed from a teacher or from the Word of God, and shapes and brings it to perfection, being female, begetting the divine virtues, out of which he shall also be brought to a perfect man —

'And God blessed them, saying:

Increase and multiply, and fill the earth and subdue it, and rule over the fish of the sea and the birds of heaven and all the cattle and all the earth and all the creeping things that creep upon the earth.'

'Behold, I have given you every seed-bearing herb sowing seed, which is upon all the earth, and every tree which has in itself fruit of seed-bearing seed; it shall be to you for food, and to all the beasts of the earth and all the birds of heaven and every creeping thing that creeps upon the earth which has in itself the soul of life; and every green herb for food.'

'And God saw all the things that He had made, and behold, they were very good.'

'And there was evening, and there was morning, the sixth day.'

As for the saying 'And He made them,' spoken concerning man and woman, one need not be surprised if it has been expressed in a masculine form;

for it was necessary to make the naming of both from the more honourable one.

For never has anyone, when speaking about males and females, chosen to make the designation from the females.

'He blessed them' as those who fill out the common life together and who are beginning the succession.

For this too He added, saying:

that there was an aptitude unhindered and unimpeded, according to which they were to become parents of those born from them, who according to the divine command were to fill the earth.

'And fill the earth' — which one must understand more prudently;

otherwise, it conflicts with what is said here, namely [...]

'The Lord made regions even uninhabited.' For indeed there are uninhabited regions and places.

'Fill the earth' must be heard as referring to the earth taken for habitation, according to supplying the implied sense to 'fill the earth' — that earth which is suitably disposed for this.

'And subdue it,' which signifies the intensified authority.

For one who exercises authority over a part is not said to subdue.

But God has bestowed this upon man, as we have shown, so that both what is cultivable and what is mineable, existing in diverse and many materials, might be under him.

For indeed man receives from the earth copper and iron and silver and gold and many other things — the earth which is set apart for him both for nourishment and for shelter.

And man received such lordship over the earth that he even transforms it by art, when it is converted into glass and pottery and the like.

For this very thing is what is shown by 'and let man rule over all the earth.'

And there is added: 'Let them rule over the fish of the sea and the birds of heaven and all the cattle.'

For indeed, as has already been said before, by certain snares and contrivances and hooks these creatures fall to men, so that even the most fearsome, such as the lion and the leopard, whose nature is most savage, are often tamed under the hand of men.

And thus the rule over them exists, since God has furnished this to them.

But one must know that the manner of rule is diverse.

Rule, then, is a lawful superintendence of both the ruler and the ruled;

for the law gives authority and [...] of rule to the ruler and to the subject, so that at the same time both the ruler may rule and the subject may be subordinate, the law directing that it is to be done thus.

Differently from this, a teacher rules over disciples, and in yet another way a master over slaves, and a general over an army.

Over the irrational animals, then, man rules differently, as has been said — over the tame ones in one way, and over the wild ones according to what they are by nature;

for not all are edible, but some are already useful even for healing and for contributing to another need, which the student of nature will discover.

Next after these is the passage: 'And God said:

Behold, I have given you every seed-bearing herb sowing seed which is upon all the earth.'

For God has given both authority and knowledge, so that man may know which of the seed-bearing things upon the earth is useful for food, and which for healing, and which for another need.

And their nature is diverse;

for some of them are trees, some are vegetables, and some are grasses, and among all of them some are edible while others are well-suited for another use.

Their usefulness must not be left unknown, according to the command prior to this one — when God said:

'Let the earth bring forth the herb of grass sowing seed according to its kind,' He adds:

'and the fruit-bearing tree making fruit' — because the trees differ from the grass, He names them 'fruit-bearing tree' — and not only over the things that come from cultivation does man have authority, but already also over the very materials which he neither sows nor cultivates, so that from these too he has diverse uses;

for it is not far from the inhabited places that He makes these things transportable, clearly with a view to what is useful for men; and for the whole world the sprouting of plants has come to be;

for all things have been made for their use.

And the providential care of God over all things is very strongly signified through His declaring:

'It shall be to you for food, and to all the beasts of the earth and all the birds of heaven.' For it was fitting that the One who cares for men should also provide for the animals that have come to be for their need and service, and for other things useful to them;

not on account of the irrational creatures themselves, but nevertheless for man's sake He has made provision even for them.

All of which again God saw that they were good;

'And God saw all the things that He had made, and behold, they were very good.' And before this, indeed, the text praised each of the things coming into being, declaring:

'And God saw that they were good,' or 'that it was good';

but now it is said with understanding:

'very good,' on account of the harmony and concord of all things.

And let what is said be made clear by an example.

The one who wishes to establish a chorus chooses the best dancers for each part, so that each lacks nothing for his proper task;

and if he should bring these together for the purpose for which he prepared them, he will find the work that comes from their concord exceedingly and surpassingly beautiful — a thing which cannot come to be from one alone.

One might find this also in the case of an army.

For the same man must be within himself the best hoplite, archer, general, and counselor, so that, when the moment comes, the joined work of all these may display the magnitude of the praise, being referred back to one single aim.

By displaying the mutual proportion of all things to one another, their harmony, concord, and order, and moreover the unfactious agreement of opposites, the text teaches that all things are 'very good' — things which, as has been said before as well, are judged not by sense-perception but by reason.

'And there was evening and there was morning, the sixth day.'

For it was fitting that so great and so vast a world should come to be in this number, whose distinctive significance has both been spoken of in what precedes and will be spoken of still more in what follows.

And since in the earlier passages, alongside the literal wording, we also gave the anagogical interpretation, we must do this now as well.

Men are blessed as they increase and multiply in the manner of gathering [what is good].

It has already been said before that the man is the sower and teacher of good things, while the female is the soul that receives the lessons from the teacher, shapes them, and brings them to birth; so that the accomplishment belongs to both — to the teacher as having introduced them into her, and to the disciple as having offered a pliant heart toward the completion of the good deed.

And since divine instruction has an introduction, a progress, and an end (perfection), the [command] 'increase' must be understood according to this.

For the blessed Paul too, indicating the [stage of] introduction and knowing that those in it are infants, says:

'I gave you milk to drink, not solid food.'

But to the perfect he speaks thus:

'I betrothed you to one husband, to present you as a chaste virgin to Christ.'

For the Church, being perfect, is joined to Christ in the manner of a bride, having him as her husband, concerning whom it is said:

'Behold a man, Dawn is his name.' Blessed therefore are all who from small beginnings become perfect, and from few contemplations learn more, receiving increase of virtue and a multitude of intelligible goods — those who cleave to God.

Thus too they 'fill the earth' — namely, their own good fruit-bearing ground.

For the Savior too, in the gospel concerning the seed, taught that the good soil is the good heart, which, having received the divine seed, brought forth many fruits, according to: 'Sow for yourselves unto righteousness, reap unto the fruit of life.'

It is also possible to understand this of a teacher who increases and multiplies his disciples, as effecting the aforesaid blessing which says:

'Increase and multiply and fill the earth and have dominion over it.' For he who reaps what he has sown exercises dominion, so that it may be said of him and of those like him:

'But coming they shall come in exultation, carrying their sheaves' — whether in [the form of] contemplations and divine deeds, or in disciples.

For the benefit that comes from these is no small thing to the teacher.

And the [words] 'And let them rule over the fish of the sea and the birds of the heaven and all the cattle' might be understood thus:

There are diverse characters among men, so that some hear 'Offspring of vipers,' while concerning others it is said:

'You have become lust-crazed horses,' and again:

'Man, being in honor, did not understand; he was likened to the senseless beasts and became like them,' and:

'Do not become like a horse and mule, which have no understanding'; and the lover of the beautiful will find other such sayings scattered throughout the divine Scriptures. He would then be saying that the one who has risen above the others through instruction saves the aforementioned from irrationality. But it is also possible [to understand it] thus:

The soul's diverse passions and movements, being many and varied, are reined in by the [rational] soul, which is not dragged down by the wave of their onrush but masters them and rules over them according to the authority given to it.

For [it says] 'And let them rule over the fish of the sea' and what follows.

Or does he not rule over fish, who — after the manner of Peter — draws up from the depth, by the word of divine instruction, those swimming in the surge of this life, and who drags down those otherwise soaring on high through conceit, instilling in them the saving power of humility, concerning which the Lord in exhortation says:

'Learn from me, for I am meek and lowly in heart' — so that thus, being lifted up from this [humility] to a divine height, they may grow wings like eagles, receiving wings as of a dove, and, having taken flight, come to the rest that is fitting for them.

But he too who leads those grown savage into gentleness displays the greatness of the dominion.

And he who, striving by reason to master his own movements that rise up against the mind and revolt against it, demonstrates the dominion given by God, ruling also over all the earth — that is, over all the bodily passions — putting to death the members that are upon the earth: fornication, uncleanness, passion, evil desire, which you would not err in calling 'creeping things.'

Over these too he is said to rule, by him who gave 'every seed-bearing herb' and the other nourishment — which might reasonably be understood as the teachings of the divine Scripture, being a heavenly source of nourishment: