Chapter XIII.
How the temptations of the devil are full of lies; and about the deception of the woman, and the fall of Adam. Also, how they realized they were naked, and made themselves loincloths, and what that signifies.
61. Let us therefore learn that the temptations of the devil are full of lies; for hardly one true thing seems to be among those which he promised, the rest he has composed as falsehoods. For you have it thus: And the serpent said to the woman: "You will not die by death" (Gen. III, 4). Behold, one falsehood; for the man, who followed the serpent's promises, died by death. Then he added: God knows that on whatever day you eat from it, your eyes will be opened (Ibid., 5). This is the only truth, because you have it below: because they both ate, and their eyes were opened. But this is the truth that harmed. Finally, it is not useful to open the eyes to everyone, because it is written: They will see and not see. But immediately a deceitful lie is attached, because it adds: And you will be like gods, knowing good and evil. In this, it is allowed to notice that the serpent is the author of idolatry, because it seems that the cunning of the serpent led to the error of introducing multiple gods into humans. And this deceived them, because man wanted to be like gods. For not only did men cease to be as gods, but even those who were like gods, to whom it was said: I said, you are gods, lost their grace (Ps. LXXXI, 6).
62. And the woman saw that the tree was good for food, and that it was pleasing to the eyes, and a desirable tree to look at (Gen. III, 6). A weak judge who judged on something she had not tasted. And therefore, it does not seem easy, unless we have examined it more diligently, unless we have approved it with inner affection, to be taken for any work. Taking, he said, of its fruit, she ate and also gave it to her husband, and they both ate. It is well known that Adam was deceived; for it was not his fault, but the fault of his wife's fall.
63. And their eyes were opened, he says, and they knew that they were naked (Ibid., 7). And before, indeed, they were naked, but not without the coverings of virtues (De Poenit. dist. 2, c. Ut cognoverunt). They were naked because of the simplicity of their manners, and because the nature of fraud did not know clothing. But now, human understanding is veiled with many disguises of simulations. Therefore, after they saw themselves stripped of that sincerity and simplicity, they began to search for worldly and manufactured things with which to cover the nakedness of their minds: pleasures assuaging pleasures, and the shadowy delights of this world like leaves clinging to leaves, with which they might overshadow their genital secret. For how did Adam, who saw all living beings in such a way that he could even give them names, have closed eyes of the body? How did they know, that is, with an inner and higher knowledge, not that a covering of virtues was lacking, but a covering of a tunic?
64. And they fastened, he says, fig leaves, and made for themselves belts. In this place we should understand figs in terms of their symbolic interpretation, as the series of readings teaches us: since Scripture has noted that those who rest under the vine and fig tree are holy (Mic. 4:4), and Solomon has said: Who plants a fig tree and does not eat its fruit? (Prov. 27:18), and the Lord came to the fig tree; but he was offended because he did not find fruit, but only leaves. Therefore, Adam teaches me what leaves are, who, after he sinned, made a loincloth for himself out of fig leaves, who should have tasted more of its fruits. The righteous chooses fruit, the sinner leaves. What is the fruit? The fruit, he says, is the spirit: charity, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control (Galatians 5:22). He who did not have joy did not have fruit. He who violated God's commandment did not have faith. He did not have self-control, who had tasted the forbidden fruit.
Therefore, whoever transgresses God's commandment is stripped and laid bare; and he himself becomes filthy: he desires to cover himself with certain fig leaves, perhaps with empty or shadowy discourses, skillfully weaving falsehoods and constructing word upon word, in order to cover the conscience of his mind and to cloak the shame of his actions, so that he may hide his shameful deeds. For he throws leaves upon himself, desiring to conceal either the devil as the author of his guilt, or the allurements of the flesh, or some other persuader of error. And he frequently produces examples from the divine Scriptures, by which he alleges that the just have fallen into sin, saying, for example, if perhaps he is caught in adultery: And Abraham slept with his concubine (Gen. XVI, 4), and David loved another man's wife and took her to be his own (II Sam. XI, 4 and 27). For he weaves together certain passages, certain examples from the series of prophetic writings, and he does not consider the fruit of these passages to be worth seeking.
66. Do not the Jews also seem to you to be sewing the leaves together, while they interpret the spiritual words in a bodily way? Their interpretation loses all the fruit of freshness, being condemned by the curse of eternal dryness. Therefore, a good interpretation, that is, a spiritual fig tree, is fruitful, under which the righteous and the holy find rest. Whoever plants it in the minds of individuals, as Paul says: I planted, Apollo watered (I Cor. III, 6), will eat fruit from it. But a bad interpretation will not be able to bear fruit, nor preserve vitality.
Therefore, Adam clothed himself with this interpretation more heavily in that place where he should have clothed himself more with the fruit of chastity. For in the loins with which we are girded, certain seeds of generation are said to exist; and therefore Adam clothed himself wrongly there with useless leaves, where he was signifying not the future fruit of future generation, but rather certain sins, which remained until the coming of the Lord and Savior. Moreover, after the Lord came, He found a fig tree uncultivated: when asked if He should order it to be cut down, He allowed it to be cultivated. And therefore now, we are girded not with leaves, but with divine speech; because the Lord Himself says: Let your loins be girded and your lamps burning (Luke 12:35). Hence, He also prohibits us from carrying money in our belts (Matthew 10:9); for our belt should guard not earthly but eternal things.