Julian excerpt in the intermediary document
Marriage 2.4.12
God, who formed Adam from mud, built Eve from a rib and said: “She will be called Life, because she is the mother of all the living” (Genesis 2:7, 22; Genesis 3:20).
From the first naming he showed the task for which she had been prepared, and said: “Increase and multiply and fill the earth” (Genesis 1:28).
Therefore God, the Creator of male and female, formed organs suited to procreation and arranged for bodies to be born from bodies. Yet the power of his action works in their production, governing everything that exists by the same power by which he created it.
If, then, offspring come only through sex, sex only through the body, and the body only through God, who can doubt that fruitfulness is rightly attributed to God?
Latin
Attende cetera o, quibus se existimat adversus nos hoc praemisso titulo consonare. "Deus - inquit - qui Adam ex limo fuerat fabricatus, Evam construxit e costa, 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 est omnium viventium 15. Sed hoc fortassis ita intellexerit, ut Deus per Adam nomen illud Evae imposuisse credatur tamquam per prophetiam. Nam in hoc, quod appellatur Vita materque viventium, magnum est Ecclesiae sacramentum, unde nunc disserere longum est et suscepto operi non necessarium. Nam et illud,quod dixit Apostolus: Sacramentum hoc magnum est, ego autem dico in Christo et in Ecclesia 16; ipse Adam dixit: Propter hoc relinquet homo patrem et matrem et adhaerebit uxori suae, et erunt duo in carne una 17. Quod tamen Dominus Iesus in Evangelio Deum dixisse commemorat 18, 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" 19. Quis enim nostrum negat ad opus pariendi a Domino Deo creatore omnium bonorum bono praeparatam fuisse mulierem? Ad hoc vide quid adiungat. "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 subiungit: "Si igitur - inquit - nonnisi per sexum fetus, nonnisi per corpus sexus, nonnisi per Deum corpus, quis ambigat fecunditatem Deo iure reputari?".
About this text
Intermediary extracts Augustine answered in Book Two — compiler framing labeled where needed. Latin context is on each section when recovered.
English follows the extracts Augustine answered in On Marriage and Concupiscence II. Compiler framing is labeled where needed.
Witnesses
- Copy-text Augustine, On Marriage and Concupiscence II (Latin · Extracts of Julian)
This is an AI-assisted study translation. Source fidelity and completeness have not been independently certified. Open Latin on each section (or the Latin source witness link) for the source text. This is not a complete critical edition.