Commentary on Genesis 1-3

✍ Scribed by Lapide, Cornelius à, S.J., 1567-1637 & Toth, Craig R.

• Publisher: Kolbe Center for the Study of Creation
• Year: 2019
• Tongue: English
• Leaves: 199
• Category: Library

✦ Synopsis

The translation and publication of the great scholar Cornelius à Lapide’s commentary on the first three chapters of the Book of Genesis is the latest in a series of on-going efforts by the Kolbe Center for the Study of Creation to demonstrate that the literal historical interpretation of Genesis enjoys the support, not only of all of the Apostles, Fathers and Doctors of the Church, but of the greatest Catholic exegetes of the last 500 years. Lapide was an exegete in the tradition of the Fathers of the Church who combined exceptional learning with great sanctity. His interpretation of the first three chapters of the book of Genesis draws upon three thousand years of Hebrew and Catholic exegesis, revealing an intimate knowledge of all of the major commentaries on the Bible of the Latin and Greek Fathers and Doctors. This magnificent work ought to destroy once and for all the absurd claim that protestant fundamentalist innovators invented the literal historical interpretation of Genesis 1-3.

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from this answer:

[Gen. 2:23:] SHE SHALL BE CALLED WOMAN ( virago ), BECAUSE SHE WAS TAKEN OUT OF MAN ( vir ). ] The translator does not match the force of the Hebrew word: it is clear that Adam is speaking Hebrew here. For virago does not signify nature or sex, but the virile power and spirit in woman. However, the Hebrew word אשה isscha does signify the nature and sex of a woman, because it is derived from איה isch (i.e., "man") by adding the feminine he. Sometimes she will be called vira (as the old Latins spoke, according to Sextus Pompey), because she is taken from man; thus Symmachus's Greek εχ του ανδρος ["from the man"], St. Jerome testifies, Theodotion turns into hæc vocabitur assumptio, quia de viro sumpta est ["she shall be called assumption, because from man she was taken out"]; for isscha itself derives from the root נשה nasa , i.e., "taken up", "brought", "carried"; but the prior version is genuine.
HÆC VOCABITUR VIRAGO, QUONIAM DE VIRO SUMPTA EST. ] Non æquat Interpres vim Hebraeae vocis: adeoque ex hoc loco patet Adamum hebraice esse locutum. Nam virago non significat naturam aut sexum; sed virtutem et animum virilem in muliere. Hebræa vero vox אשה isscha , significat naturam et sexum mulieris, quia ab איה isch , id est a viro, derivatur, addito he feminino. q. d. Vocabitur vira (uti veteres Latini locuti sunt, teste Sexto Pompeio), quia de viro sumpta est: sic Symmachus Graece εχ του ανδρος, teste S. Hieronymo, Theodotion vertit, hæc vocabitur assumptio, quia de viro sumpta est ; ipse enim isscha , deducit arad. נשה nasa , id est assumpsit, tulit, portavit; sed prior aliorum versio est genuina.
Symbolically and elegantly, Rabbi Abraham ben Ezra notes that the contracted name of God, הי, iāh [or yāh ] is contained in the word השא, ’iššāh. God is the founder of marriage, and as long as His name remains in marriage — and it remains as long as spouses fear God and mutually love each other — God will be present in and bless the marriage. But if they hate one another and forget God, then the spouses will cast away that name. Therefore, with the Hebrew letters yod [י] and he [ה] removed, of which the word הי is composed, all that remains of שיא, ’îš , and השא, ’iššāh , i.e. all that remains of the of the Hebrew words for “man” and “woman,” is שא שא, êš êš , i.e., “fire and fire,” the fire of quarrels and trouble in this life, but eternal fire in the next.
Symbolice et lepide, R. Abraham ben Ezra notat in voce אשה isscha , contineri nomen contractum Dei יה ia , qui est auctor conjugii; et quandiu hoc nomen in conjugio manet (manet autem quandiu conjuges Deum timent, et mutuo sese amant), tandiu nuptiis Deum adesse et benedicere. Si vero invicem oderint, et Dei obliviscantur, tum illud nomen conjuges abjicere; itaque sublato jod et he , ex quibus fit אשה, tantum remanere ex איה isch , et אשה isscha , id est ex viro et muliere, אש אש esch esch , id est ignem et ignem, scilicet ignem rixarum et molestiae in hac vita, in altera vero ignem æternum.