PREFACE

The ribs and bones of the human body....filled the place with flesh, and from that rib he created Eve. For the ribs of the human body are bones, and they consist of bones, and what flesh is, and how it is typically found in human bodies even now, is unknown to no one. Thus, this account by Moses seems entirely to refute the distinction being made. The body of Christ our Savior himself after the resurrection had flesh and bones, as he himself testifies when speaking to his disciples in Luke chapter 24, verse 39: See my hands and my feet, that it is I myself; touch me and see, for a spirit does not have flesh and bones, as you see me having. original: "ἴδετε τὰς χεῖράς με, καὶ τοὺς πόδας με, ὅτι αὐτὸς ἐγώ εἰμι· ψηλαφήσατέ με, καὶ ἴδετε, ὅτι πνεῦμα σάρκα καὶ ὀστέα οὐκ ἔχει, καθὼς ἐμὲ θεωρεῖτε ἔχοντα." By these words our Savior, the God-man original: "θεάνθρωπος" and Knower of Hearts original: "καρδιογνώστης", clearly showing that the thoughts of his disciples were known to him, The Body of Christ.describes his body as similar to ours, except for sin. By making a manifest distinction between body and spirit, he summoned their eyes and touch, their bodily senses, as witnesses, so they would not think some shadow or spiritual vision was appearing before their eyes instead of a body. Indeed, as the following words of the said text in verses 40, 41, 42, and 43 expressly teach, he also showed them his scars and asked for food, which he ate. He did this not because he was hungry or in need of it, but only to demonstrate that he possessed a body endowed with bodily functions, intending to remove every lingering doubt from their minds. In Acts 1, verse 11, after Christ was taken up from the eyes of the disciples by a cloud, the Angels said to those who were looking intently at the sky: This Jesus, who was taken up from you into heaven, will come in the same way as you saw him going into heaven. original: "οὗτος ὁ Ἰησοῦς ὁ ἀναληφθεὶς ἀφ᾽ ὑμῶν εἰς τὸν οὐρανὸν οὕτως ἐλεύσεται, ὃν τρόπον ἐθεάσασθε αὐτὸν πορευόμενον εἰς τὸν οὐρανόν." Furthermore, as long as the body of Christ lived and moved among mortals on this earth, it had its own bodily affections, for he was born from the promised seed of the Virgin and therefore possessed a human essence, as is clearly evident from the New Testament itself. The affections of the body of Christ.Christ fasted, he hungered, and he ate, as seen in Matthew 4:2, Mark 11:4, and Luke 8:34, 36. He slept and was awakened from sleep, according to Matthew 8:25. He groaned, he wept, and he shed tears for the misfortunes of others, as noted in Mark 7:34, Luke 19:41, and Mark 8:12. He was moved with deep mercy, as in Mark 1:41 and elsewhere, where the Greek word to be moved with compassion original: "σπλαγχνίζομαι", literally meaning a stirring of the internal organs occurs, signifying a great commotion of the inner viscera. Having taken rest, he rose very early in the morning, per Mark 1:35. He reclined and ate with tax collectors and sinners, as in Mark 2:16. In anger, he grieved that the hearts of the Jews had become hardened, recorded in Mark 3:5. He rebuked Peter, in Mark 8:33. Truly, the great distress and torments he endured in his passion and death are hidden from no one who has even a slight knowledge of the history of his Passion and Death. All these are affections and properties of the human body, proving that he possessed a human body. From all these things,

one might therefore conjecture that since Adam consisted of flesh and bones before the Fall, and Christ according to his human Nature had a human body like ours, except for sin, no difference exists between their bodies and ours, with which we men are clothed. One might conclude that only sin arising from the Fall was absent from both, since Adam, not yet fallen, lacked sin, and Christ, born without sin, came into the flesh for the purpose of satisfying for our sins and recovering the lost eternal salvation of our freedom from the power of the Devil.

Solution to the objection.To respond to this objection according to our small capacity, we will briefly open our opinion, while respecting the pious meditations and thoughts of others that do not go outside the boundaries of Holy Scripture. For this is a A most serious question.most serious question, which, being impassable to the capacity of human reason, rejects all investigation and reasoning of human learning. It is left to the Holy Spirit alone, our true Teacher who leads us into all truth, and it is opened only to those in whose pious hearts, his true temples, he has fixed his seat for himself. I do not see that Whether it is curious and unnecessary.this is an overly nosy or unnecessary question, or one about which a pious man, who is solicitous for his eternal salvation, is not permitted to undertake and establish any thoughts. For what prevents someone, by twisting away from the more common and vain anxieties of the earth and earthly things, from aspiring to heavenly things? Why should he not think about that state, which upon reaching, having laid aside all misery, he can enjoy eternal joy and gladness? Why should he not inquire into the state and condition of his Savior, whose brother he is to be, to whom he must become conformed, whose life he ought to imitate, and whom he must propose to himself as the sole rule and sole model in living piously and as a Christian? Necessity demands that he be crucified and die with him, so that with the Old Man crucified and dead, the New Man may rise in us. Thus, living forever with his Savior, he may acquire that joy and blessedness which no eye has ever seen, no ear has heard, no tongue has pronounced, and no mind has ever comprehended with any thought. Judging therefore that this question should not be removed as unnecessary or non-essential, I will indicate my meditation in a few words. I do this, however, without thrusting it upon anyone, but rather submitting it willingly to the judgment and censure of others, being ready to change it if anything more certain is brought to me.

Regarding the body of Adam, which possessed bones and flesh Adam's body before the Fall.before the Fall: since he was in paradise, exposed to no injuries of the elements, subject to no diseases, overwhelmed by no sins, and ignorant of the death to which he later subjected himself by sinning, it is also likely that he was not endowed with a body of this sort. That is, a body that is thick, filled with various waste products, subject to infinite illnesses, and threatening death at every moment. Instead, he likely possessed a body that preserved the harmony of all members, was balanced, and admitted no discord of the elements. For if such a thick, foul, and diseased body...