On the Soul against the Philosophers · §4 · Eustathius of Antioch

Soul grows with body; first-formed body lifeless until God breathed

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Eustathius is concluding his argument against the philosophers by showing that the soul's powers develop with the body, and that even the first-formed human body lay lifeless until God breathed into it.

But if these powers belong to the soul itself, and it receives its better additions superabundantly, then surely the soul grows together with the body. Just as the body gradually develops its powers, so too the soul advances in mind. And those who never step toward what is better but remain foolish clearly have incomplete souls because some part has been damaged, just like those who have fallen ill with the disease of madness. Certainly the body of the first-formed human also lay dead after it was shaped—breathless, motionless, yet arranged to the highest degree in its limbs and joints, and fittingly adorned in form and beauty, since it was created by the Creator God himself as a first-model statue and impressed as the finest copy from the most divine image. But it was without sensation, without speech, and without breath. Then, when God breathed into its face in the manner of a craftsman, it immediately received movement. From that moment it walks and breathes and speaks; it rules, reasons, acts, administers. In this way, sleep is a condition common to body and soul.

Greek

Εἰ δὲ ταῦτα ἴδια μέν ἐστιν ψυχῆς, ἐκ περιουσίας δὲ τὰς κρείττους ἐπιδέχονται προσθήκας, ἆρ' οὖν ὅτι συναυξάνει μὲν τῷ σώματι, καθάπερ δὲ τοῦτο λεληθότως ὑπαναλέγεται τὰς δυνάμεις, οὕτω καὶ ἡ ψυχὴ προκόπτουσα τὸν νοῦν· ὅσοι δὲ μηδέποτε βαίνουσιν ἐπὶ τὸ ἄμεινον, ἀλλὰ μωροὶ διαμένουσιν, δῆλον ὅτι

λελωβημένου τινὸς μορίου ἀτελεῖς ἔχουσι τὰς ψυχὰς, ὥσπερ οἱ τὴν φρενίτιδα ἀρρωστήσαντες νόσον. Ἀμέλει καὶ τὸ τοῦ πρωτοπλάστου σῶμα σχηματισθὲν ἔκειτο νεκρὸν, ἄπνουν, ἀκίνητον μέλεσιν μὲν καὶ ἁρμονίᾳ ῥερυθμισμένον ἄκρως, μορφῇ τε καὶ κάλλει κεκοσμημένον ἐμπρεπῶς ἅτε δὴ καὶ παρ' αὐτοῦ πλάστου γεννηθὲν τοῦ Θεοῦ πρωτότυπον ἄγαλμα καὶ τῆς θεσπεσιωτάτης εἰκόνος ἐκτυπωθὲν ἀφομοίωμα κράτιστον, ἀναίσθητον δὲ καὶ ἄφωνον καὶ ἄπνουν· ὡς δὲ εἰς τὸ πρόσωπον αὐτοῦ δημιουργικῶς ἐνεφύσησεν ὁ Θεὸς, αὐτίκα τὴν κίνησιν εἴληφεν· ἐξ ἐκείνου δὲ βαδίζει καὶ ἀναπνεῖ καὶ φθέγγεται, ἄρχει λογίζεται πράττει διοικεῖ. 6 Κοινὸν σώματος καὶ ψυχῆς πάθος ὕπνος.

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On the Soul against the Philosophers attributed to Eustathius of Antioch.

Eustathius of Antioch (fl. c. 320–337) wrote this treatise to refute philosophical teachings about the soul. He addresses followers of Pythagoras and Plato who claimed that the soul is unbegotten, exists before the body, and drinks from a water of forgetfulness before birth. Eustathius argues instead that the soul is created and develops together with the body.

The argument begins by establishing that God fills all things and is not confined by place or subject to fixed laws and times. Eustathius then attacks the myth of the water of forgetfulness with a dilemma. If the philosophers escaped the drink of deception, then many others obviously did too, so the myth fails to explain universal ignorance. If they drank the water along with everyone else, they could not remember it well enough to fabricate myths about souls. Either way they are ignorant.

A reader will meet Pythagoreans and Platonists addressed directly as opponents, and David cited as a psalmist for the teaching that God is present in every place. Eustathius argues that newborn infants lack mind, reason, and wisdom, and only gradually acquire them as the body grows. He concludes that the soul grows with the body, and that defects of the soul correspond to defects of bodily organs, just as the first-formed human body lay lifeless until God breathed into it.

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Translated from PG 18 (Greek)

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