{"author":null,"canonical_references":[],"database_sha256":"8cfbe7284c6936871d57c02dc6aa63ebbdfd4722422d539dd9f716e46e91112e","date_end":null,"date_start":null,"edition_year":null,"id":"sermonindex-ecf-5573","native_reference":{"book_number":10,"chapter_from":1,"chapter_to":1,"system":"MyBible module coordinates (mapping unverified)","verse_from":28,"verse_to":28},"public_import_allowed":false,"record_kind":"verse-keyed-module-record","review_required":["English edition and exact text","author/work attribution","dating","verse mapping and citation kind","reuse and attribution","split author quotations and deduplicate"],"review_status":"unreviewed","source_html":"<p><b>Augustine of Hippo</b>: One is completely right to ask in what sense we should understand the union of male and female before sin, as well as the blessing that said \"Increase and multiply, and generate and fill the earth.\" Should we understand it in a physical manner or spiritually? For we are permitted to understand it spiritually and to believe that it was changed into sexual fecundity after sin. For there was first the chaste union of male and female, of the former to rule, of the latter to obey, and there was the spiritual offspring of intelligible and immortal joys filling the earth, that is, giving life to the body and ruling it. That is, man so held [the body] subject that he experienced from it no opposition or trouble. We should believe that it was this way, since they were not yet children of this world before they sinned. For the children of this world generate and are generated, as the Lord says, when he shows that we should relatively disregard this carnal generation in comparison with the future life that is promised to us.<br/><i>— TWO BOOKS ON GENESIS AGAINST THE MANICHAEANS 1.19.30</i></p><p><b>Augustine of Hippo</b>: If one should ask why it was necessary that a helper be made for man, the answer that seems most probable is that it was for the procreation of children, just as the earth is a helper for the seed in the production of a plant from the union of the two. This purpose was declared in the original creation of the world: \"Male and female he made them. And God blessed them and said, 'Increase and multiply and fill the earth and subdue it.' \" This reason for creation and union of male and female, as well as this blessing, was not abrogated after the sin and punishment of man. It is by virtue of this blessing that the earth is now filled with human beings who subdue it. Although it was after the expulsion of the man and woman from paradise that they came together in sexual intercourse and begot children, according to Scripture, nevertheless I do not see what could have prohibited them from honorable nuptial union and \"the bed undefiled\" even in paradise. God could have granted them this if they had lived in a faithful and just manner in obedient and holy service to him, so that without the tumultuous ardor of passion and without any labor and pain of childbirth, offspring would be born from their seed. In this case, the purpose would not be to have children succeeding parents who die. Rather those who had begotten children would remain in the prime of life and would maintain their physical strength from the tree of life that had been planted in paradise. Those who would be born would develop to the same state and eventually, when the determined number would be complete, if all live just and obedient lives, there would be a transformation. Thus without any death their natural bodies would receive a new quality since they obeyed every command of the spirit that ruled them. With the spirit alone vivifying them, without any help from corporeal nourishment, they would be called spiritual bodies. This could have been if the transgression of God's command had not merited the punishment of death.<br/><i>— ON THE LITERAL INTERPRETATION OF Genesis 9.3.5-6</i></p><p><b>Augustine of Hippo</b>: Far be it then from us to believe that the couple that were placed in paradise would have fulfilled through this lust, which shamed them into covering those organs, the words pronounced by God in his blessing: \"Increase and multiply and fill the earth.\" For it was only after man sinned that his lust arose; it was after man sinned that his natural being, retaining the sense of shame but losing that dominance to which the body was subject in every part, felt and noticed, then blushed at and concealed that lust. The nuptial blessing, however, whereby the pair, joined in marriage, were to increase and multiply and fill the earth, remained in force even when they sinned. Yet it was given before they sinned, for its purpose was to make it clear that the procreation of children is a part of the glory of marriage and not of the punishment of sin.<br/><i>— City of God 14.21</i></p><p><b>Augustine of Hippo</b>: At times the Manichaeans also ask, \"In what sense did man receive power over the fish of the sea and the birds of heaven and all the cattle and wild animals? For we see that men are killed by many wild animals and that many birds harm us when we want to avoid them or to capture them, though we often cannot. In what sense then did we receive power over these?\" On this point they should first be told that they make a big mistake when they consider man after sin, when he has been condemned to the mortality of this life and has lost that perfection by which he was made in the image of the God. But even man's state of condemnation involves such power that he rules many animals. For though he can be killed by many wild animals on account of the fragility of his body, he can be tamed by none, although he tames very many and nearly all of them.<br/><i>— TWO BOOKS ON GENESIS AGAINST THE MANICHAEANS 1.18.29</i></p><p><b>Bede</b>: And He blessed them and said: Be fruitful and multiply, and fill the earth, and subdue it. For indeed, this multiplication of humans and filling of the earth could only be accomplished through the union of man and woman. Yet, if the human race grows and multiplies by the blessing of God, how much more worthy of a curse are those who forbid marriage and condemn the arrangement of the heavenly decree as if it were devised by the devil? Therefore, marriages should not be condemned, which were established by the grace of the heavenly blessing for the propagation of the human race and the filling of the earth; but rather, virginity is more to be honored and is worthy of greater blessing, which, after the earth has been filled with people, desires in chastity of mind and body to follow the Lamb wherever He goes—that is, the Lord Jesus in heaven—and to sing a new song, which no one else can sing. For God and our Lord, who in the beginning of the nascent world formed the woman from the side of the man to teach that the earth was to be filled by their mutual union, Himself in the end of the age took a man from the flesh of a Virgin, free from all contamination, filled with the fullness of all divinity, to prove that He valued the glory of virginity more than marriage.<br/><i>— Commentary on Genesis (Hexaemeron)</i></p><p><b>Bede</b>: And rule over the fish of the sea, and the birds of the air, and all the living creatures that move upon the earth. It is rightly asked for what use man received dominion over the fish, birds, and all the animals of the earth, or to what uses and comforts these were created for man, if he had never sinned: to whom, as the following scripture declares, these were not given for food but only the herbs and fruits of trees were granted in the first condition, unless it is to be said that God foresaw that man would sin and become mortal by sinning, whom He created immortal, and therefore originally provided those comforts for him by which mortal fragility could be sustained, namely either food from them, or clothing, or aids for work or travel. And it is not worth asking why man also does not now rule over all animals; for after man did not want to be subject to his Creator, he lost dominion over those which his Creator had subjected to his authority. Finally, we read as a testimony of the first creation that the birds provided service to the holy and humbly serving men of God, the jaws of beasts withdrew and the venom of serpents was not able to harm.<br/><i>— Commentary on Genesis (Hexaemeron)</i></p><p><b>Ephrem the Syrian</b>: \"And God blessed them and said to them, 'Be fruitful and multiply, and fill the earth and subdue it; and have dominion over the fish of the sea, over the birds and over every animal that crawls upon the earth.'\" [ Gen1:28 ] Because they were blessed on this earth, it is as if this dwelling spot had been prepared for them prior to their sin. For although they had not yet sinned God knew that they were about to sin.</p><p>\"Be fruitful and multiply and fill,\" not Paradise but \"the earth,\" [ Gen1:28 ] and \"have dominion over the fish of the sea and the birds and over all the beasts.\" [ Gen1:28 ] But how was Adam to rule over the fish of the sea unless he were in proximity to the sea? And how was he to rule over the birds that fly throughout every region unless his descendants were to dwell in every region? And how was Adam to rule over every beast of the earth unless his offspring inhabited the entire earth?</p><p>Although Adam was created and was blessed to rule over the earth and over everything that was created and blessed in [ the earth ], God had indeed made him to dwell within Paradise. God truly manifested His fore-knowledge in His blessings and manifested His grace in the place in which He caused Adam to dwell. Lest it be said that Paradise was not created for [ Adam's ] sake, God made him dwell there in Paradise. And lest it be said that God did not know that Adam would sin, He blessed him on this earth. And everything with which God blessed Adam preceded the transgression of the commandment, lest by the transgression of him who had been blessed, the blessings of Him who gives blessing be withheld and the world be turned back into nothing on account of the folly of that one for whose sake everything had been created.</p><p>Within Paradise, therefore, God did not bless Adam because that place and all that was in it is blessed. But God blessed him on the earth first so that by the blessing with which [ His ] grace blessed beforehand, the curse of the earth, which was about to be cursed by [ His ] justice, might [ thus ] be diminished. But even though it was a blessing of promise, in that it was fulfilled after his expulsion from Paradise, it was, nevertheless, His grace that was effected, for on that same day, God made Adam dwell in the garden, clothed him with glory and made him ruler over all the trees of Paradise.</p><p><b>Gregory of Nyssa</b>: There are two ways to \"increase\": in the body and in the soul. The soul increases by education, progressing toward completion; the body increases (by growing) from small to large. He told, therefore, the senseless animals to increase by the development of the body. But to us he said \"increase\" in the inner person along ways which lead toward God. This was what Paul did, in his stretching out toward what lay ahead and forgetting what lie behind. This is godly increase.<br/><i>— ON THE ORIGIN OF MAN</i></p><p><b>Gregory of Nyssa</b>: Let no one think however that herein we depreciate marriage as an institution. We are well aware that it is not a stranger to God's blessing.… But our view of marriage is this; that, while the pursuit of heavenly things should be a man's first care, yet if he can use the advantages of marriage with sobriety and moderation, he need not despise this way of serving the state.<br/><i>— ON VIRGINITY 8</i></p><p><b>Gregory of Nyssa</b>: \"You will rule over savage beasts.\" How though, you may ask, since I have a beast within? Actually, there are a myriad, a countless number of beasts within you. You should not take offense in these words. Rage is a small beast, yet when it growls in the heart is any dog more savage? Is not the treacherous soul like fresh bait staked in front of a bear's den? Is not the hypocrite a beast?… [Rule] then over the beasts inside you. Rule your thoughts so that you will become a ruler over all things. So the same one who provides the power to rule over all living things provides power for us to rule over ourselves.<br/><i>— ON THE ORIGIN OF MAN</i></p><p><b>Gregory of Nyssa</b>: For I think that from this beginning all our passions issue as from a spring, and pour their flood over man's life; and an evidence of my words is the kinship of passions which appears alike in ourselves and in the brutes; for it is not allowable to ascribe the first beginnings of our constitutional liability to passion to that human nature which was fashioned in the Divine likeness; but as brute life first entered into the world, and man, for the reason already mentioned, took something of their nature (I mean the mode of generation), he accordingly took at the same time a share of the other attributes contemplated in that nature; for the likeness of man to God is not found in anger, nor is pleasure a mark of the superior nature; cowardice also, and boldness, and the desire of gain, and the dislike of loss, and all the like, are far removed from that stamp which indicates Divinity. These attributes, then, human nature took to itself from the side of the brutes; for those qualities with which brute life was armed for self-preservation, when transferred to human life, became passions; for the carnivorous animals are preserved by their anger, and those which breed largely by their love of pleasure; cowardice preserves the weak, fear that which is easily taken by more powerful animals, and greediness those of great bulk; and to miss anything that tends to pleasure is for the brutes a matter of pain. All these and the like affections entered man's composition by reason of the animal mode of generation.<br/><i>— ON THE MAKING OF MAN 18.1-2</i></p><p><b>John Chrysostom</b>: So, after saying \"male and female he made them\" as though to bestow a blessing on each of them, he goes on, \"God blessed them in the words, 'Increase and multiply, fill the earth and gain dominion over it, and have control of the fish of the sea.' \" Behold the remarkable character of the blessing! I mean, those words, \"increase and multiply and fill the earth,\" anyone could see are said of the brute beasts and the reptiles alike, whereas \"gain dominion and have control\" are directed to the man and woman. See the Lord's loving kindness: even before creating them, he makes them share in this control and bestows on them the blessing. \"Have control\" the text says, \"of the fish of the sea, the birds of heaven and all the cattle, the whole earth and all the reptiles creeping on the earth.\" Did you notice the definitive character of this authority? Did you notice all created things placed under the control of this particular being? So no longer entertain casual impressions of this rational being but rather realize the extent of the esteem and the Lord's magnanimity toward it and be amazed at his love beyond all telling.<br/><i>— HOMILIES ON Genesis 10.9</i></p><p><b>John Damascene</b>: After the transgression, … to prevent the wearing out and destruction of the race by death, marriage was devised that the race of men may be preserved through the procreation of children.But they will perhaps ask, What then is the meaning of \"male and female\" and \"Be fruitful and multiply\"? In answer we shall say that \"Be fruitful and multiply\" does not altogether refer to the multiplying by the marriage connection. For God had power to multiply the race also in different ways, if they kept the precept unbroken to the end. But God, who knows all things before they have existence, knowing in his foreknowledge that they would fall into transgression in the future and be condemned to death, anticipated this and made \"male and female,\" and bade them \"be fruitful and multiply.\"<br/><i>— ORTHODOX FAITH 4.24</i></p><p><b>Maximus the Confessor</b>: Indeed being in himself the universal union of all, [Christ] has started with our [sexual] division and become the perfect human being, having from us, on our account and in accordance with our nature, everything that we are and lacking nothing, \"apart from sin,\" and having no need of the natural intercourse of marriage. In this way he showed, I think, that there was perhaps another way, foreknown to God, for human beings to increase, if the first human being had kept the commandment and not cast himself down to an animal state by abusing his own proper powers. Thus God-made-man has done away with the difference and division of nature into male and female, which human nature in no way needed for generation, as some hold, and without which it would perhaps have been possible.<br/><i>— BOOK OF DIFFICULTIES 41</i></p><p><b>Origen of Alexandria</b>: \"And have dominion over the fish of the sea and the birds of heaven and the beasts of burden and all the things that are upon the earth, and the creeping things which creep upon the earth.\" These things have already been interpreted according to the letter, when we spoke of what God said: \"Let us make man,\" and the rest, where he says: \"And let them have dominion over the fish of the sea and the birds of heaven,\" and so on. Yet according to allegory, in the fish and the flying things or the animals and the creeping things of the earth there seem to me to be indicated those things concerning which we spoke nonetheless above, that is, either those which proceed from the sense of the soul and the thought of the heart, or those which are brought forth from bodily desires and the movements of the flesh; of which all the saints, keeping also the blessing of God in themselves, exercise dominion, driving the whole man according to the will of the spirit; but over sinners those things rather have dominion which are brought forth from the vices of the flesh and the pleasures of the body.<br/><i>— HOMILIES ON Genesis 1.16</i></p><p><b>Origen of Alexandria</b>: That which God commands: \"increase and multiply\" — those who take it simply and according to the letter, I do not know how they can explain it. For granted that \"multiply\" refers to number, so that, while they become more than they were before, the multiplication has its place: yet what follows, \"increase\", is not in our power. For what person would not wish \"to add to his stature\", so as to become taller? If therefore something is commanded for this purpose, that it may come to pass — since it is foolish to command what he to whom you give the command cannot do — and it is commanded us that we should increase, then surely that is commanded which we are able to do. Do you wish to know how \"increase\" is to be understood? Hear what Isaac did, of whom it is said: \"Isaac went forward and became greater, until he became great, or exceedingly great indeed\". For his will, ever stretching itself toward better things, had its advances, his mind contemplated something more divine, and he exercised himself in memory, so as to store up more things in his treasury and retain them more firmly. And in this manner it comes about that whoever has cultivated all his virtues in the field of his soul fulfills the commandment enjoining: \"increase\".<br/><i>— HOMILIES ON THE GOSPEL OF Luke 11</i></p><p><b>Tertullian</b>: And from that time, ever since the blessing which was pronounced upon man's generation, Genesis 1:28 the flesh and the soul have had a simultaneous birth, without any calculable difference in time; so that the two have been even generated together in the womb, as we have shown in our Treatise on the Soul. Contemporaneous in the womb, they are also temporally identical in their birth. The two are no doubt produced by human parents of two substances, but not at two different periods; rather they are so entirely one, that neither is before the other in point of time.<br/><i>— On the Resurrection of the Flesh</i></p><p><b>Tertullian</b>: Tertullian says this concerning polygamy of the Patriarchs and the command to be fruitful and multiply: Shall that, then, make it lawful for us also to marry without limit? I grant that it will, if there still remain types—sacraments of something future—for your nuptials to figure; or if even now there is room for that command, \"Grow and multiply;\" that is, if no other command has yet supervened: \"The time is already wound up; it remains that both they who have wives act as if they had not:\" for, of course, by enjoining continence, and restraining concubitance, the seminary of our race, (this latter command) has abolished that \"Grow and multiply.\" As I think, moreover, each pronouncement and arrangement is (the act) of one and the same God; who did then indeed, in the beginning, send forth a sowing of the race by an indulgent laxity granted to the reins of connubial alliances, until the world should be replenished, until the material of the new discipline should attain to forwardness: now, however, at the extreme boundaries of the times, has checked (the command) which He had sent out, and recalled the indulgence which He had granted; not without a reasonable ground for the extension (of that indulgence) in the beginning, and the limitation of it in the end. Laxity is always allowed to the beginning (of things). The reason why any one plants a wood and lets it grow, is that at his own time he may cut it. The wood was the old order, which is being pruned down by the new Gospel, in which withal \"the axe has been laid at the roots.\"<br/><i>— On Exhortation to Chastity</i></p>","source_html_sha256":"60c23851c96c08f97bc71a4dd5094be442078900b5512023890c03b89e75ee41","source_module":"ECF","source_row_id":5573,"source_url":"https://www.sermonindex.net/commentary/ecf/","text_sha256":"e18776f069450162f5e2f8f89d172063c66136d8059417fee814dfb6e1280a27","translator":null,"work":null}