VISIO QUARTA, cap. XLI
Teeth as the Firmament of Restraint
The teeth symbolize the firm, shining air that restrains the waters from overflowing beyond their proper measure.
In the teeth, however, the restraint of those same waters is shown, because in the manner of teeth, what is strong and firm — namely, the strong, white, and shining air that holds those waters in place — keeps them from dissolving when they exceed their proper measure.
The Mind Held by Grace
As teeth restrain waters, so the mind strengthened by God's grace is kept from being carried away by evil thoughts and unlawful desires, and is healed through repentance.
Through this it is shown that the mind of man, when it is strengthened by the grace of God through the soul, is also held in check, so that it doesn't flow away too much through evil thoughts — and so draw them to itself willingly through unlawful desires. In this way, what is now like a storm through the works of sins is at other times, as it were, healed through repentance, as if by medicine in a person.1
The Hardening of Teeth and the Soul's Constancy
Teeth are hardened through the brain and bodily structures like a firmament, signifying that the rational soul stands firm in infinite life and suffers no loss through the body's growth or decline.
For the teeth of a man are not hollowed out, nor do they have the softness of marrow, because they are not clothed in flesh. Instead, through the brain and through all the structures of the human form, which are set in place like a firmament, they are coagulated and hardened, and through the heat and moisture of the head they rise up into hardness.2 These things signify that the rational soul, standing firm in an equality of infinite life, receives no loss either through the body's growth or through its decline. For it is itself the very breath of almighty God, who marvelously created all creatures, ordered in his foreknowledge, through his Word.3
The Soul's Invisible Power Over the Body
The soul invisibly moves and gives life to the body, just as God strengthened every creature by invisible powers drawn from the elements and provided a body as a garment for the soul.
For the soul visibly moves the body into which it is poured invisibly through the power of its Creator, and, giving it life, the soul itself remains invisible within it — just as God strengthened every creature he created for man's service by an invisible power drawn from the greenness of the earth, the heat of the air, and the moisture of the waters, and also foresaw, as a garment for that same soul, a body unknown and foreign to its own nature.4
The Riddle of Teeth Across a Lifetime
The vision poses the question of why infants are born without teeth and the elderly often lose them, inviting reflection on what this life-cycle pattern reveals.
So why is it that an infant, though it already has bones, is born without teeth, and that when people decline into old age they often lose those same teeth — and what is being shown by all this?
Read the original Latin
In dentibus autem retentaculum earumdem aquarum monstratur, quod secundum modum dentium forte et firmum est, videlicet fortis et albus lucidusque aer, qui aquas istas continet, ne modum suum excedentes dissolvantur. Per hoc ostenditur quod mens hominis cum gratia Dei per animam firmatur, et retinetur, ne per malas cogitationes nimis diffluat, ita ut eas sibi voluntarie per illicita desideria attrahat, quae etiam modo per opera peccatorum quasi tempestas, modo per poenitentiam eorum quasi medicina in homine efficitur. Dentes etenim hominis cavernati non sunt, nec mollitiem medullae habent, quoniam carne induti non sunt, sed per cerebrum atque per omnes constitutiones formae hominis, quae secundum firmamentum positae sunt, coagulantur et obdurantur, et per calorem et humiditatem capitis in duritiam exsurgunt. Haec autem designant quod anima rationalis in aequalitate infinita vita consistens, nec per corporis vegetationem incrementum, nec per ejus defectionem accipit detrimentum, quoniam spiraculum ipsa omnipotentis Dei est, qui omnes creaturas in praescientia sua ordinatas per Verbum suum mirabiliter creavit. Anima namque corpus cui per Creatoris sui potentiam invisibiliter infunditur, visibiliter movet, ac illud vivificando invisibilis in eo manet, quemadmodum Deus omnem creaturam, quam ad ministerium hominis creavit, invisibili quadam possibilitatis suae vi ex viriditate terrae, et aeris calore, sed et aquarum humiditatem firmavit, et eidem animae indumentum, scilicet corpus, naturae suae incognitum atque alienum praevidit.
Quare infans, cum ossa habeat, sine dentibus nascatur, et homines cum in senium declinant eosdem saepe dentes amittant, et quid secundum ista demonstretur.
Notes
- 1 ↩The Latin plays on diffluat (flow away) as moral dissolution; rendered 'flow away too much' to capture the nimis + diffluat force without over-allegorizing.
- 2 ↩firmamentum here carries a structural/architectural sense (the solid framework of the body), not the biblical firmament; rendered 'firmament' to preserve the Latin resonance while relying on context for clarity.
- 3 ↩spiraculum rendered 'breath' (not 'breath of life' or 'spirit') to stay close to the Latin's created/derived nuance — the soul as God's own exhalation, not a direct hypostasis.
- 4 ↩incognitum atque alienum: the body is 'unknown and foreign' to the soul's own nature — a striking claim about the soul-body distinction. Rendered faithfully without smoothing over the tension.
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