Glossa ordinaria (school of Laon)

PL 113, col. 80B

Datecompilation 1110–1130PlaceLaonTraditionlatinVerseGenesis 1:2

English

Verse 26. 'Let us make a human.' (AUG., ibid., c. 19.) A plurality of persons is intimated — of the Father, and the Son, and the Holy Spirit — and at once the unity of the deity, when it is said: 'and God made the human to the image of God', not the Father to the image only of the Son. For it would not truly be said, to our image; but it was said thus: 'God made the human to the image of God', as if it were said 'to his own image'. And when it says 'to the image of God', when above it had said 'to our image', it is signified that the plurality of persons does not work so that we should believe in many gods, but so that we should take the Father, and the Son, and the Holy Spirit as one God.

Draft English (Claude), awaiting Wilson · cc-by

Latin

VERS. 26.-- « Faciamus hominem. » (AUG., ibid., c. 19.) Insinuatur pluralitas personarum Patris, et Filii, et Spiritus sancti, et statim unitas deitatis, cum dicitur: « Et fecit Deus hominem ad imaginem Dei, » non Pater ad imaginem tantum Filii. Non enim vere diceretur ad imaginem nostram; sed ita dictum est: « Fecit Deus hominem ad imaginem Dei, » ac si diceretur « ad imaginem suam. » Cum autem dicitur « ad imaginem Dei, » cum superius dictum sit, « ad imaginem nostram, » significatur quod non agit pluralitas personarum, ut plures deos credamus, sed ut Patrem, et Filium, et Spiritum sanctum unum Deum accipiamus.

PL 113, col. 80B · pd

Notes

⚠ Anchor note: this is a comment on Gen 1:26, not on Gen 1:1–5. It is on the daf under the second clause of the anchor rule — it argues the same philological question the Elohim of Gen 1:1 raises, whether a plural form of speech about God implies a plurality in God — and is anchored on Gen 1:2 beside that material. The school answer in the form the twelfth century actually read: Augustine's De Genesi ad litteram III.19, printed under his name, abridged to the two moves that matter and set beside the verse. What the abridgement drops is the argument — Augustine's careful 'otherwise how is it true, what was said, to our image, if the human was made to the image of the Son alone?' becomes the flat 'for it would not truly be said, to our image' — so that a reader of the Gloss gets the conclusion with the reasoning compressed to a clause. This is the page on which Peter Comestor, Hugh and Abelard all begin. The same volume of the Gloss, ninety columns later, prints the angel reading of Gen 11:7 without a word of warning; see `glossa-11-7-angeli`.

'Let us make' is the TrinityTo the image of the Trinity itself

Threads

→ cites · Augustine
The standard gloss on Gen 1:26 is De Genesi ad litteram III.19 printed under Augustine's name and cut to its two moves: the plural intimates the persons, the singular of v. 27 gives the unity of the deity. What is cut is the argument — Augustine's 'alioquin non vere dictum est, ad imaginem nostram, si ad Patris solius, aut Filii solius imaginem factus est homo' becomes a bare 'non enim vere diceretur ad imaginem nostram'. This is the page on which Hugh, Abelard and Comestor all begin.