Genesis 2:7

Gen 2:7 And the LORD God formed man [of] the dust of the ground, and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life; and man became a living soul.

Ver. 7. Formed man of the dust. ] Not of the rocks of the earth, but dust, that is soon dispersed, to note our frailty, vility, and impurity. Lutum enim conspurcat omnia, sic et caro. a But why should so glorious a soul (called here Neshamah , of affinity to Shamajim , heaven, whence it came) dwell in this corruptible and contemptible body? For answer, besides God’s will, and for order of the universe, Lombard saith, b that by the conjunction of the soul with the body, so far its inferior, man might learn and believe a possibility of the union of man with God in glory, notwithstanding the vast distance of nature, and excellence; the infiniteness of both in God, the finiteness of both in man.

And breathed into his nostrils. ] The greatest man is but a little air and dust tempered together. Quidam volunt metaphoram sumptam a vitrorum formatione. What is man, saith one, c but Nους και χους , soul and soil, breath and body, a pile of dust the one, a puff of wind the other, no solidity in either? Man is nothing else but the son of the earth, the nephew of nothing, terrae filius, nihili nepos saith Augustine; or a piece of clay neatly made up, d as Arian upon Epictetus hath it.

And man became a living soul. ] Dicaearchus doubted of the soul, whether there was such a thing in natural events. rerum natural e He could not have doubted of it without it; as man cannot prove logic to be unnecessary, but by logic.

a Zuinglius.

b Lomb., l. ii. dis. 1.

c Nazian.

d πηλος κομφως πεφυραμενος .

e Tusc. Quaest.