Accordingly, while both (namely the devil and the first man) coveted God's likeness inordinately, neither of them sinned by coveting a likeness of nature. But the first man sinned chiefly by coveting God's likeness as regards "knowledge of good and evil," according to the serpent's instigation, namely that by his own natural power he might decide what was good, and what was evil for him to do; or again that he should of himself foreknow what good and what evil would befall him. Secondarily he sinned by coveting God's likeness as regards his own power of operation, namely that by his own natural power he might act so as to obtain happiness. Hence Augustine says (Gen. ad lit. xi, 30) that "the woman's mind was filled with love of her own power." On the other hand, the devil sinned by coveting God's likeness, as regards power. Wherefore Augustine says (De Vera Relig. 13) that "he wished to enjoy his own power rather than God's." Nevertheless both coveted somewhat to be equal to God, in so far as each wished to rely on himself in contempt of the order of the Divine rule.
(St. Thomas Aquinas' Summa Theologica- question 163, article 2)
3 comments:
Lilith... Satan's wife. The woman that came before Eve, but ran off with the demons... too wild, something of that nature. I know that she had two daughters... but for the life of me I don't know where the story came from.
Because of that, I will stick with the creation story of the bible... it is beautiful. I've been reading much on original sin... It goes along with a paper I'm working on. That is probably the reason for my last drawing I put up. As for woman being the corruptor of man:
"Now it is evident that in the opinion of philosophers, the active principle of generation is from the father, while the mother provides the matter. Therefore original sin, is contracted, not from the mother, but from the father: so that, accordingly, if Eve, and not Adam, had sinned, their children would not contract original sin: whereas, if Adam, and not Eve, had sinned, they would contract it." (Summa- Q81,Art5)
Woman was the bearer of the fruit, but Man ate the fruit. It seems that it shouldn't be interpreted in the sense that woman is the corruptor, how could it be since she was without knowledge just as Adam was. Aquinas puts woman as more of a passive role... think of the roles of man and woman in sex.
Anyway, a little of what I'm working on. Now I will go back to it:)
I was told that Lilith was in the books of the bible taken out by the Vatican... don't know what else to say. Need to know more on the story:)
Yes, woman ate the fruit first. You didn't have that wrong. Both ate the fruit without knowledge though. I have to watch what I write... I simply wanted to put that woman was the bearer of the fruit(ate the fruit), but why does it matter when she ate it with the same ignorance of Adam. Adam knew that it was from the tree of knowledge just as Eve did. Original Sin would not be possible without both man and woman eating of the fruit. I ment more of that the roles of man being the active one that gets the blame and woman being the passive one that bears the fruit seems like sex roles to me. Its not like I have any expertise in this or anything, its just an interest right now.
It would be interesting to know why the story of Lilith isn't in the bible. My had learned of it from my dad when he was doing research for something that he was writing on, so I haven't look too much into it.
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