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Adam's womb (Augustine, Confessions 13.28) and the salty sea

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  28 February 2013

E. G. Clark
E. G. Clark
Affiliation:
University of Liverpool
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Extract

a quo [sc. Deo] si non esset lapsus Adam, non diffunderetur ex utero eius salsugo maris, genus humanum profunde curiosum et procellose tumidum et instabiliter fluidum

This paper begins with a puzzle, a passage of Confessions 13 which has left commentators baffled. How can Adam have a uterus? Gibb and Montgomery, in 1927, gave the problem a name; O'Donnell, in 1992, opted for citing their comment with a quiet gloss of his own

utero G–M (understatement): ‘A remarkable example of catachresis. It is to be explained, no doubt, by the fact that “Adam” is used generically rather than personally.

Type
Research Article
Information
Proceedings of the Cambridge Philological Society (Second Series) , Volume 42 , 1997 , pp. 89 - 105
Copyright
Copyright © The Author(s). Published online by Cambridge University Press 1997

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References

Notes

1. Aug. Conf. 13.20.28 (CCL 27: 257). I note at once, and with admiration, Prof. E. J. Kenney's suggested emendation (in discussion) from eius to Euae. This would remove many of the problems discussed in the first part of the paper, but neither manuscripts nor editors (and there are many of both) offer support, and the text, according to its most recent editor, is ‘generally sound’ (O'Donnell, J. J., Augustine, Confessions I (1992) lviGoogle Scholar). I have, therefore, kept to the generally accepted reading.

2. O'Donnell (n.1) III 388, citing Gibb, J. and Montgomery, W., The Confessions of Augustine (1927)Google Scholar ad loc. O'Donnell does not engage in detailed analysis of this passage, but it is a pleasure to acknowledge his help, both through his commentary and in discussion.

3. Cic., Orator 92–4Google Scholar (OCT ed. Wilkins 1903). Wilkins brackets two obvious glosses on Cicero's examples. The relevant passage of Aristotle is not extant.

4. Inst. or. 8.6.35; references to other ancient sources in Cousin, J., Quintilien: Institution Oratoire tome V (1978) 296–7Google Scholar, who sees two contrasting theories.

5. Whittaker, J., ‘Catachresis and negative theology: Philo of Alexandria and Basilides’, in Gersh, S. and Kannegiesser, C. (eds.) Platonism in late antiquity (1992) 61–2Google Scholar.

6. The discussion which follows is indebted to Adams, J. N., The Latin Sexual Vocabulary (1982) 100–9Google Scholar, and André, J., Le vocabulaire latin de l'anatomie (1991) 188–93Google Scholar, especially for the usage of fourth-century medical writers. Adams notes that uterus does not survive into any Romance language as the word for ‘womb’.

7. Celsus 4.1 uses uterus for abdominal cavity (4) and vulva for womb (11–12): sub corde atque pulmone traversum ex valida membrana saeptum est, quod praecordiis uterum divisit. For the vocabulary of Celsus, see further Langslow, D., ‘The development of Latin medical terminology: some working hypotheses’, PCPS 37 (1991) 106–30Google Scholar. OLD has a remarkable definition of vulva: (1) the womb, (2) the female sexual organ. Read ‘organs’?

8. The task is being carried out by the monks of Beuron in Vetus Latina: Die Reste der lateinischen Bibel (1951– ).

9. It is often argued that the passio of the Scillitan martyrs (who died in 180) contains the earliest reference to Latin versions of the Bible: but this depends on the assumption that these North African martyrs knew Latin but not Greek. See further Ruggiero, F., Atti dei martiri Scilitani (1991) 110Google Scholar, and on the date of the earliest Latin versions Barnes, T. D., Tertullian: a historical and literary study (1985) 276–8Google Scholar. Augustine comments on the concerns of the early translators in De doctrina Christiana 2.13.19 (CCL 32: 44–5).

10. Adams (n.6) 105 cites Gen. 29.31, 30.22; Lk 2.23 as examples of vulva for mētra, and Gen. 25.22–3, 38.24 and 27; Lk 1.31, 41, 44, as examples of uterus for gastēr or koilia. Similarly, Greek versions of the Bible reflected variations in Hebrew vocabulary: I am indebted to my colleague Alan Millard for advice on this point.

11. CETEDOC lists 32 instances of vulva (all cases), 70 of uterus (all cases) 6 of matrix (all cases) in the Vulgate OT.

12. Sparks, H. F. D., ‘Jerome as Biblical scholar’, in Ackroyd, P. R. and Evans, C. F. (eds.), The Cambridge history of the Bible I: From the beginnings to Jerome (1971) 526Google Scholar. Kamesar, A., Jerome, Greek scholarship and the Hebrew Bible: a study of the Quaestiones Hebraicae in Genesim (1993)Google Scholar and Hayward, C. T. R., Jerome's Hebrew Questions on Genesis (1995)Google Scholar are both illuminating on Jerome's textual work, but do not discuss his techniques of translation. See now the helpful survey by Tkacz, Catherine Brown, ‘Labor tam utilis: the creation of the Vulgate’, Vigiliae Christianae 50 (1996) 42–72CrossRefGoogle Scholar, with extensive bibliography.

13. De natura et origine animae 4.20.32 (CSEL 60: 410Google Scholar).

14. CETEDOC gives 3 uses of matrix (all cases), 36 of vulva (all cases). All uses of vulva depend on Biblical citations, most often alienati suntpeccatores a vulva, erraverunt a ventre (Psalm 57.4); antequam exires de vulva, sanctificavi te (Jeremiah 1.5); separabis omne quod aperit vulvam Domino (Exod. 13.12); the closed womb of Sarah and of the women of Abimelech's household (Gen. 16.2, without vulva in text; 20.18); and Ambrose, Expositio evangelii secundum Lucam 2.56 (CSEL 32.4: 72Google Scholar): […] non enim virilis coitus vulvae virginalis secreta reseravit. There are 400 uses of utero and 75 of other cases of uterus.

15. De civitate Dei 15.17 (CCL 48: 479), citing Gen. 5.2. Augustine contrasts the name Enos (son of Seth): he says that according to Hebrew linguists it means homo, but cannot be applied to women. See further Kamesar (n. 12) 103–26 for Jerome's exploitation of Hebrew etymologies.

16. De civitate Dei 12.22 (CCL 48: 380).

17. ‘For as in Adam all die, so in Christ all are made alive’, 1 Corinthians 15.22; and the difficult Romans 5.12. See further Rist, J., Augustine: ancient thought baptised (1994) 121–9CrossRefGoogle Scholar; Bonner, G., ‘Adam’, in the Augustinus-Lexikon (ed. Mayer, C. et al. ) I (1994) 63–87Google Scholar.

18. On Augustine's position in Ad Simplicianum 1 (CCL 44), see Frederiksen, P., ‘Excaecati occulta justitia Dei: Augustine on Jews and Judaism’, JECS 3 (1995) 299–324, especially 299–313Google Scholar. She regards the Confessions (ib. 300) as an ‘autobiographical companion-piece’ to the Ad Simp.

19. potest tamen et hie in uno species accipi generis humani. fuit Adam et in illo fuimus omnes; periit Adam et in illo omnes perierunt. Ambrose, Expositio evangelii secundum Lucam 7.234 (CSEL 32.4: 387).

20. Opus imperfectum contra Iulianum 2.177 (CSEL 85.1: 299).

21. Conf. 10.20.29; on ‘having in memory’, i.e. as part of one's mental furniture, see further O'Daly, G., Augustine's Philosophy of Mind (1987) 131–51Google Scholar.

22. Hexaemeron 6.9.73 (CSEL 32.1: 260); see further Horowitz, M., ‘The image of God in Man – is Woman included?’, HThR 72 (1979) 175–206Google Scholar.

23. Galen On the Use of Parts 14; On the Seed book 2. See further de Lacy, P., Galen: On semen (1992; CMG V.3.1)Google Scholar.

24. De hominis structura (Homilia 10 in Hexaemeron) 1.22 (PG 30: 33); an unduly optimistic comment in Clark, G., Women in Late Antiquity: pagan and Christian lifestyles (1993) 122Google Scholar.

25. De civitate Dei 1.16–19 (CCL 47: 17–20); see on this episode Trout, D., ‘Re-textualising Lucretia: cultural subversion in the City of God’, JECS 2 (1994) 53–70Google Scholar.

26. De civitate Dei 22.18 (CCL 837): quid nos impediret ut virum pro homine positum acciperemus? sicut in eo quod dictum est, ‘beatus vir qui timet Dominum’, utique ibi sunt feminae quae timent Dominum.

27. De Genesi ad litteram 3.21–2 (CSEL 28.1: 88–9); see further Bonner (n.17) 65–8.

28. De Genesi ad litteram 3.22 (CSEL 28.1: 89–90). See also, for androgynous representations of Christ, Mathews, Thomas F., The Clash of the Gods (1993) 119–41Google Scholar; I owe the reference to Janet Huskinson.

29. Opus imperfectum contra lulianum 2.178 (CSEL 85.1: 299).

30. But see Markus, R., ‘Augustine's Confessions and the controversy with Julian of Eclanum: Manicheism revisited’, in his Sacred and Secular: studies on Augustine and Latin Christianity (1994)Google Scholar for the close relationship between Confessions and the debate with Julian.

31. Clark, E. A., Ascetic Piety and Women's Faith (1986) 291–349Google Scholar.

32. Contra Iulianum 3.7.15 (PL 44: 709); Ep. 6* (CSEL 88: 32–8). See further Brown, P. R. L., ‘Sexuality and society in the fifth century A.D.: Augustine and Julian of Eclanum’, in Gabba, E. (ed.), Tria corda: scritti in honore di Arnaldo Momigliano (1983)Google Scholar; E. A. Clark (n. 31).

33. DeLacy (n. 23) 215–16.

34. Soranus, Gyn. 1.10.37; 1.3.10 for the cervix dilating in the desire for intercourse. See further, for medical theory in relation to Augustine's theology, Clark, G., ‘The bright frontier of friendship’, in Mathisen, R. and Sivan, H. (eds.) Shifting Frontiers in Late Antiquity (1996) 212–23Google Scholar.

35. Porphyry, Contra Christianos fr. 77 Harnack.

36. Opus imperfectum contra Iulianum 3.85.1 (CSEL 85.1: 411–12); see E. A. Clark (n. 31) 311.

37. Opus imperfectum contra Iulianum 2.179 (CSEL 85.1: 299–300).

38. Bonner (n. 17) 82.

39. Conf. 13.24.36.

40. There is a full range of expressions in Conf. 7.6.8–10, where Augustine discusses simultaneous births and the near-simultaneous births of twins as a counter to astrology.

41. De civitate Dei 12.22 (above, n. 16).

42. Some examples: Conf. 1.16.25–6, the torrent of human custom; 2.2.2–3, waves of sexual feeling; 3.2.3, the diverted stream of friendship.

43. Gerson, L., Plotinus (1994) 26–7Google Scholar cites Enneads 5.1.6.3–8, 5.2.1.7–9 for ‘overflow’; see further Armstrong, A. H., ‘“Emanation” in Plotinus’, in his Plotinian and Christian Studies (1979) 61–6.Google ScholarO'Meara, D. J., Plotinus: an introduction to the Enneads (1993) 60Google Scholar notes, in Augustinian style, that the ‘derivation’ of being is an image of water.

44. Conf. 13.8.9; cf. 13.2.3, 4.5, 5.6, 7.8 for defluere and related words in association with darkness and the abyss. In his commentary on Psalm 74.6 (Vetus Latina), Augustine relates defluxit terra to delicta, glossing delicta in a manner worthy of Varro: tamquam de liquido quodam defluere a stabilitate firmamenti virtutis atque iustitiae (Enarrationes in Psalmos 7A.6, CCL 39: 1028). Note also his announcement that he cannot wait longer to meditate on God's law, Conf. 11.2.2: nolo in aliud horae diffluant.

45. At Conf. 13.21.30, Augustine adds to the citation nolite conformari huic saeculo (Romans 12.2) the gloss continete vos ab eo.

46. Conf. 1.3.3; compare 1.11.18 for the imagery of formless earth, turbulent seas and baptism which forms the human being. For the connection in book 13 between anima viva and continentia, see the passages cited by O'Donnell (n.l) on 13.25.38.

47. Conf. 2.2.2,2.10.1 fornicationes is an OT metaphor: Augustine was being unfaithful to God, not (from what he tells us) engaged in fornication.

48. Conf. 10.20.29.

49. Miles, M., Desire and Delight: a new reading of Augustine's Confessions (1992) 94–5Google Scholar for tumescence and spilling; Conf. 10.30.41 for Augustine's experience of celibacy.

50. De bono nuptiarum 20.23 (CSELA 41: 217–18); Cassian, Collationes 12.15 (CSEL 13.2: 358). See further Brakke, D., ‘The problematization of nocturnal emissions in early Christian Syria, Egypt and Gaul’, JECS 3 (1995) 419–60Google Scholar.

51. Vikan, G., ‘Art and marriage in early Byzantium’, DOP 44 (1984) 145–63Google Scholar.

52. Psalm 32: 6–7 (Vulgate). For Biblical texts not cited but almost certainly present to Augustine's mind, see for example Conf. 2.3.6 and Clark, G., Augustine: Confessions, books I–IV (1995) ad loc.Google Scholar

53. Isaiah 46.3.

54. Sermo294 (PL 38: 1340); cf. Enarrationes in Psalmos 109.16 (CCL 40: 1615–16) dictum est ergo, ut did oportuit, figurate, prophetice, ut et uterus pro secreta substantia, et lucifer pro temporibus poneretur.

55. Job 38.28–9 (PL 28: 1178), in an early version by Jerome based on the Greek not the Hebrew text. O'Donnell (n.1) I lxxi suggests that this text comes close to what Augustine read in his Old Latin version.

56. Adnotationes in Iob 38 (CSEL 28.2: 617).

57. For instance, Conf. 1.15.24, ut … amplexer manum tuam totis praecordiis meis, or 4.5.10, possumne … admouere aures cordis mei ori tuo?

58. Conf. 9.4.8–11. The classic study is Knauer, G., Psalmenzitate in Augustins Konfessionen (1955)Google Scholar: he does not discuss Conf. 13.28.

59. For the dating of the Enarrationes, see the table in CCL 38: xv–xviii.

60. Enarrationes in Psalmos 32, enarratio 2, sermo 2.10 (CCL 38: 261–2); cited by O'Donnell (n.1) on Conf. 13.20.28. Note Persius 3.81 murmura secum et rabiosa silentia rodunt, cited by Lewis and Short for rodo meaning ‘carp at’. Philip Hardie suggests, as another possible intertext, Aeolus controlling the restless imprisoned winds (Aeneid 1.52–7); the bag of winds he gave to Ulysses is called utres in Ovid, Am. 3.12.29.

61. Adnotationes in Iob 39 (CSEL 28.2: 617): ‘qui dimisit onagrum liberum’: miruxm nisi eosper onagrum significat, qui pauci ab omni negotio liberi deo serviunt. ‘et vincula eius qui solvit?’ affectionum carnalium atque popularium. ‘posui enim habitaculum desertum, et tabernacula eius salsuginem’: unde clamet ‘sitivit in te anima men’. Thirsty land: Conf. 13.17.20.

62. Enarrationes in Psalmos 64.9 (CCL 39: 832), cited by O'Donnell (n. 1) on 13.17.20.

63. Fish: Parsons, W., ‘Lest men, like fishes’, Traditio 3 (1945) 380–8CrossRefGoogle Scholar. Sea-imagery: Rondet, H., ‘Le symbolisme de la mer chez saint Augustin’, in Augustinus Magister: congrès international augustinien II (1954) 691–701Google Scholar.

64. Conf. 13.17.20–1. For amaricantes, cf. Psalm 77.1 generatio prava et amaricans; for limits imposed on human desire, cf. Conf. 2.2.3 ut usque ad conjugate litus exaestuarent fluctus aetatis meae.

65. For instance, Conf. 2.1.1, 2.2.4.

66. Job 38.8–11 (Vulgate).

67. On curiositas and its connection with pride, superbia, see further Markus, R. A., ‘De civitate Dei: pride and the common good’, in his Sacred and Secular (1994)Google Scholar, and O'Donnell (n.1) II 150–1.

68. Tunics of skin, Genesis 3.21. In Conf. 13.15.16 Augustine combines Psalm 103.2 with Isaiah 34.4.

69. Conf. 13.15.18; compare Augustine's comment (Enarrationes in Psalmos 103, sermo 1.8, CCL 40: 1479–80) on Psalm 103.2, ‘he stretched out the heaven like a skin’: heaven is Holy Scripture (a parchment codex) which God has set over the church; skin means mortality because Adam and Eve were clothed in tunics of skin when they were expelled from Paradise; and it was through mortals that Scripture was proclaimed. For the distentio of human reading in time, see Conf. 11.28.38–29.39. On angelic reading, see also Stock, Brian, Augustine the Reader (1996) 240–2Google Scholar.

70. Conf. 13.20.26.

71. Conf. 13.20.28.

72. The discussion of Basil's Hexaemeron in Rousseau, P., Basil of Caesarea (1994) 320–31Google Scholar suggests an interesting similarity of interpretation, though not of literary technique, between Basil and Augustine.

73. Conf. 13.24.36.

74. See further Markus, R. A., ‘Signs, communication and communities in Augustine's De doctrina Christiana’, in Arnold, D. W. H. and Bright, P. (eds.) De doctrina Christiana: a classic of Western culture (1995)Google Scholar. Augustine himself gives an example of catachresis, in De doctrina Christiana 3.29.40 (CCL 32: 101), which can be used to make this point: ‘Who does not use the word piscina for something which neither contains fish, nor was made for the use of fish?’ piscina, commonly used for any pool or large basin of water, was in Christian usage a baptismal pool, carrying all the associations of ‘fish’ in Christian imagery.