Chapter 12.—Eve’s Name Means Life, and is a Great Sacrament of the Church.

Now, observe the rest of the passage in which he thinks he finds, to our prejudice, what is consonant with the above-quoted title. “God,” says he, “who had framed Adam out of the dust of the ground, formed Eve out of his rib,161    Gen. ii. 22, 23. and said, She shall be called Life, because she is the mother of all who live.” Well now, it is not so written. But what matters that to us? For it constantly happens that our memory fails in verbal accuracy, while the sense is still maintained. Nor was it God, but her husband, who gave Eve her name, which should signify Life; for thus it is written: “And Adam called his wife’s name Life, because she is the mother of all living.”162    Gen. iii. 20, margin. But very likely he might have understood the Scripture as testifying that God gave Eve this name through Adam, as His prophet. For in that she was called Life, and the mother of all living, there lies a great sacrament of the Church, of which it would detain us long to speak, and which is unnecessary to our present undertaking. The very same thing which the apostle says, “This is a great sacrament: but I speak concerning Christ and the Church,” was also spoken by Adam when he said, “For this cause shall a man leave his father and his mother, and shall cleave unto his wife; and they twain shall be one flesh.”163    Compare Eph. v. 32 with Gen. ii. 24. The Lord Jesus, however, in the Gospel mentions God as having said this of Eve; and the reason, no doubt, is, that God declared through the man what the man, in fact, uttered as a prophecy. Now, observe what follows in the paper of extracts: “By that primitive name,” says he, “He showed for what labour the woman had been provided; and He said accordingly, ‘Be fruitful, and multiply, and replenish the earth.’”164    Gen. i. 28. Now, who amongst ourselves denies that the woman was provided for the work of child-bearing by the Lord God, the beneficent Creator of all good? See further what he goes on to say: “God, therefore, who created them male and female,165    Gen. i. 27. furnished them with members suitable for procreation, and ordained that bodies should be produced from bodies; and yet is security for their capacity for effecting the work, executing all that exists with that power which He used in creation.”166    For once a difficulty occurs (for which, however, St. Augustin is not responsible) in the construction of the original. The obscure passage is here translated in accordance with a suggestion in some of the editions. It stands in the original thus: “Quorum tamen efficientiæ potentiâ operationis intervenit omne quod est eâ administrans virtute quâ condidit.” Some editors suggest “potentia” (nominative) “Dei operationis intervenit;” but there is no ms. authority for the Dei. Well, even this we acknowledge to be catholic doctrine, as we also do with regard to the passage which he immediately subjoins: “If, then, offspring comes only through sex, and sex only through the body, and the body through God, who can hesitate to allow that fecundity is rightly attributed to God?”

12. Attende et caetera, quibus se existimat adversus nos huic praemisso titulo consonare. «Deus,» inquit, «qui Adam ex limo fuerat fabricatus, Evam construxit e costa (Gen. II, 22), et dixit: Haec vocabitur Vita, quoniam mater est omnium viventium.» Non quidem ita scriptum est: sed quid ad nos? solet enim accidere ut memoria fallat in verbis, dum tamen sententia teneatur . Nec Evae nomen, ut appellaretur Vita, Deus imposuit, sed maritus. Sic enim legitur: Et vocavit Adam nomen uxoris suae Vita, quoniam ipsa mater 0443 est omnium viventium (Gen. III, 20). Sed hoc fortassis ita intellexerit, ut Deus per Adam nomen illud Evae imposuisse credatur, tanquam per prophetam . Nam in hoc quod appellata est Vita materque viventium, magnum est Ecclesiae sacramentum, unde nunc disserere longum est, et suscepto operi non necessarium. Nam et illud quod dicit Apostolus, Sacramentum hoc magnum est, ego autem dico in Christo et in Ecclesia; ipse Adam dixit, Propter hoc relinquet homo matrem et patrem, et adhaerebit uxori suae; et erunt duo in carne una. Quod tamen Dominus Jesus in Evangelio Deum dixisse commemorat (Ephes. V, 31, 32; Gen. II, 24, et Matth. XIX, 4, 5): quia Deus utique per hominem dixit, quod homo prophetando praedixit. Ergo quae sequuntur intuere: «Prima,» inquit, «appellatione, cui operi parata esset, ostendit, et dixit: Crescite et multiplicamini, et replete terram» (Gen. I, 28). Quis enim nostrum negat ad opus pariendi a Domino Deo creatore omnium bonorum bono praeparatam fuisse mulierem? Adhuc vide quid adjungat: «Deus igitur,» inquit, «maris creator et feminae convenientia generationibus membra formavit, et gigni corpora de corporibus ordinavit; quorum tamen efficientiae potentia operationis intervenit , omne quod est ea administrans virtute qua condidit.» Etiam hoc esse catholicum confitemur. Et quod deinde subjungit: «Si igitur,» inquit, «nonnisi per sexum fetus, nonnisi per corpus sexus, nonnisi per Deum corpus, quis ambigat fecunditatem Deo jure reputari?»