VISIO SEPTIMA, cap. XII
The Son Who Creates and Saves
The incarnate Son of God, proceeding from a pure virgin and creating all things with the Father, alone could take on humanity without sin and redeem what he had made.
All these things were revealed through the incarnate Son of God, because those who believe in him will be saved, and those who turn away from him will be condemned, since he did not come from any earthly stock but proceeded from a pure virgin by the will of the Father, creating all things with the Father before his Incarnation, and after his Incarnation saving the human being he had fashioned, because he took on the form of a human being without sin and redeemed the human being he had created — something no one else could do except the one who had created the human being.✦✦
Adam's Original Luminous Knowledge
In his unfallen state, Adam existed in a simple, luminous condition, awake to spiritual understanding and asleep to bodily rest, led into unchanging delight to know immortality.
For when Adam was a simple and luminous son, he existed both awake and asleep: awake so that through the spirit he might have understanding, and asleep so that his flesh might rest, and so he was led into the unchanging land of delight, in order that through the spirit he might come to know immortality, and so that he would not deny the invisible things through the outward sight of his eyes.✦
The Clouded Eye of Fallen Perception
Unlike immortal life's unfallen light, the formed eye is darkened by a cloudy membrane, yet the pupil still reveals inner vision and the outward eyelid shows the flesh, so that every human work proceeds through two modes of knowledge.
Immortal life has no dim or clouded light, unlike the formed eye, which sees only for a short time because darkness comes again upon it; and this is what a person suffers, because their eye is covered with a cloudy membrane. The pupil of the eye reveals the vision of the inner eyes, which is unknown to the flesh; and the eyelid displays the person of the flesh that is poured outward. So then, every human work is brought about in two modes of knowledge.
The Serpent's Knowledge and the Fall of Light
Flesh-blinded knowledge performs the serpent's works of night, turning away from the light just as the serpent disturbed the life-giving knowledge within Adam.
For the knowledge of the inner sight teaches a person divine things, but the flesh hinders this; and a knowledge that is blinded performs the works of night according to the sight of the serpent, which does not see the light.✦ From the works of light, it turns away whoever it can, just as it did in Adam, when it disturbed within him the light of the knowledge that gives life.✦
Knowledge Fulfilled in the Son
The knowledge present in Adam continued as prophecy until the Son of God made human, who illuminates and spiritually fulfills all things foretold before and under the law by offering himself entirely to the Father.
Knowledge was also in Adam like a prophecy, and it continued all the way to the Son of God made human, so that he would illuminate it through himself, just as the sun illuminates the whole earth, and so that all the things that were foretold — namely, those recognized as done before the law and under the law — he might spiritually fulfill in himself, when he offered himself entirely to the Father above, as it is also written.
David's Witness
The words of David from Psalm 103 bear directly on this matter and show how it is to be understood.
These are the words of David from Psalm 103 that bear directly on this matter, and how they are to be understood.
Read the original Latin
Et haec omnia per Filium Dei incarnatum revelata sunt, quia qui in eum credunt salvabuntur, qui vero se ab illo avertunt condemnabuntur, quoniam ipse non de radice terrae, sed de integra virgine per voluntatem Patris processit, ante Incarnationem suam cum Patre omnia creans, post Incarnationem vero suam hominem quem plasmaverat salvans, quia formam hominis absque peccato induit et per hominem quem creaverat redemit; quod nullus alius facere potuit quam ille qui hominem creaverat. Nam cum Adam simplex et lucidus filius esset, vigilans et dormiens exstitit, quatenus per spiritum saperet, et per somnum caro illius requiesceret, et sic in immutabilem terram voluptatis ductus est, ut per spiritum immortalitatem cognosceret, et ne per exteriorem visum oculorum invisibilia negaret. Immortalis quidem vita nullam nebulosam lucem habet, quemadmodum formatus oculus, qui per modicum tempus videt, quia illi tenebrae iterum accedunt; et hoc homo patitur, quoniam oculus ipsius nebulosa pelle obductus est. Et pupilla oculi visum interiorum oculorum qui carni ignotus est ostendit; palpebra vero virum carnis qui exterius funditur demonstrat. In duobus itaque modis scientiae omne opus hominis perficitur. Scientia namque interioris visus hominem divina docet, sed hoc caro prohibet, scientia autem obcaecata nocturnalia opera secundum visum serpentis operatur, qui lumen non videt. Unde et ab operibus lucis quoscunque potest avertit, sicut et in Adam fecit, cum in ipso lumen vitalis scientiae disturbavit. Scientia quoque in Adam velut prophetia fuit, et haec usque ad Filium Dei hominem factum perduravit, ita quod ipse illam per se illustraret, quemadmodum sol totam terram illuminat, et quod omnia quae praedicta sunt, scilicet quae ante legem, et sub lege facta dignoscuntur, spiritualiter in se complevit, cum se totum superno Patri obtulit, ut etiam scriptum est.
Verba David ex psalmo CIII ad hoc ipsum spectantia, et quomodo intelligenda sint.
Scripture echoes
- ↩John.3.16 — For God so loved the world that he gave his only Son, so that everyone who believes in him may not perish but have eternal life.
- ↩Isa.11.1 — A shoot will come forth from the stump of Jesse, and a branch from his roots will bear fruit.
- ↩Gen.2.21 — So the LORD God caused a deep sleep to fall upon the man, and he slept; and He took one of his ribs and closed up the flesh in its place.
- ↩Gen.3.1-Gen.3.5 — Now the serpent was more crafty than any other animal that the LORD God had made. And he said to the woman, "Did God really say, 'You shall not eat from any tree of the garden'?" Gen.3.2 — And the woman said to the serpent, "From the fruit of the trees of the garden we may eat, Gen.3.3 — but of the fruit of the tree that is in the middle of the garden, God said, 'You shall not eat from it, and you shall not touch it, lest you die.' Gen.3.4 — But the serpent said to the woman, 'You will not certainly die.' Gen.3.5 — for God knows that when you eat from it your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God, knowing good and evil.
- ↩Gen.3.1-Gen.3.7 — Now the serpent was more crafty than any other animal that the LORD God had made. And he said to the woman, "Did God really say, 'You shall not eat from any tree of the garden'?" Gen.3.2 — And the woman said to the serpent, "From the fruit of the trees of the garden we may eat, Gen.3.3 — but of the fruit of the tree that is in the middle of the garden, God said, 'You shall not eat from it, and you shall not touch it, lest you die.' Gen.3.4 — But the serpent said to the woman, 'You will not certainly die.' Gen.3.5 — for God knows that when you eat from it your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God, knowing good and evil. Gen.3.6 — And the woman saw that the tree was good for food, and that it was a delight to the eyes, and the tree was desirable to make one wise. She took of its fruit and ate, and she gave also to her husband with her, and he ate. Gen.3.7 — Then the eyes of both of them were opened, and they knew that they were naked; and they sewed fig leaves together and made coverings for themselves.
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