On the Imputation of Adam's First Sin · §214

Man. Post. Cap. IV: triple life from plural חיים — weak; singular uses; brutes

Click or tap any sentence to jump there. The side buttons skip a paragraph.

Starting from the beginning, as they say, you hold that God breathed into man the breath of a threefold life: animal life of the body through the soul's union that keeps it alive; spiritual life of the soul through the Holy Spirit's union that sanctifies it; and blessed life of soul and body through union with God that beats both. Your one proof is that the Hebrew text has the plural חַיִּים, "lives."

That seems to me a very weak prop. The plural is used everywhere for the singular—for that one life you call animal. The examples lie ready: Gen. 3:14; 23:1; 25:7, 17; 27:45; Ps. 17:14; 31:11; Eccles. 2:17; 9:9; and many more. Indeed Gen. 7:15, 22 give even brute animals נִשְׁמַת חַיִּים, the "breath of lives" as you would say—and yet, I think, no life but the animal one, and that without reason.

Latin

Rem ab ovo ut aiunt exorsus observas, Deum inspirasse homini spiraculum triplicis vitae, animalis, quae est corporis per unionem animae illud vivificantis, spiritualis, quae est animae per unionem Spiritus sancti illam sanctificantis, & beatae, quae est animae & corporis per unionem cum Deo utrumque beatum reddentis. Idque hoc uno argumento probas, quia textus hebraeus habet in plurali Numero חַיִּים vitas. Quod mihi videtur debilissimum: passim enim usurpatur plurale illud pro singulari, pro ea una vita, quam tu animalem vocas: obvia sunt exempla: vide Gen. 3. 14. & 23. 1. & 25. 7. 17. & 27. 45. Ps. 17. 14. & 31. 11. Eccles. 2. 17. & 9. 9. Et passim alibi. Immo pro ea imperfecta, qualis est brutorum ut Gen. 7. 15. 22. quibus locis etiam brutis animantibus tribuitur נִשְׁמַת חַיִּים spiraculum, ut tu loqueris, vitarum, nec tamen, opinor, alia vita quam animalis, & quidem destituta ratione.

About this text

Josue de la Place (Placeus) — Capita I–XIV partial of De imputatione primi peccati Adami from the 1661 Saumur Latin, through Man. Post. Caput X (GAR.1–3 Rom. 5.13 tip) / before PLAC on reatus-only. Honest partial; Cap. X Rom. 5:14+ / ~494 pp Disputatio remain.

English follows the locked 1661 Saumur Latin of Capita I–XIV partial through Man. Post. Caput IX (eph-ho / eph-ho pantes) before eph-ho / eph-ho pantes, reconstructed from IA PDF page images with Vision OCR and pdftotext as check. No modern English was copied. Cap. IX deepen+ remain.

Catalogue & scope

IA deimputationepri00lapl. Densify: Capita I–XII + Caput XIV + Man. Post. Cap. II–VI through Cap. X Rom. 5:14 tip. Not whole Disputatio; Cap. X Rom. 5:14+ / ~494 pp Disputatio remain.

Witnesses

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.