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.
All Commentaries on Genesis 2:7 Go To Genesis 2
Tertullian of Carthage
AD 220
Since God forms us in the womb, He also breathes upon us, as He also did at the first creation, when "the Lord God formed man, and breathed into him the breath of life." Genesis 2:7 Nor could God have known man in the womb, except in his entire nature: "And before you came forth out of the womb, I sanctified you." Well, was it then a dead body at that early stage? Certainly not. For "God is not the God of the dead, but of the living." [Treatise on the Soul 36]
Besides, what else is man than flesh, since no doubt it was the corporeal rather than the spiritual element from which the Author of man's nature gave him his designation? "And the Lord God made man of the dust of the ground," not of spiritual essence; this afterwards came from the divine afflatus: "and man became a living soul." What, then, is man? Made, no doubt of it, of the dust; and God placed him in paradise, because He moulded him, not breathed him, into being—a fabric of flesh, not of spirit. [Against Marcion 1.24]
In fact, the Scripture, by expressly saying Genesis 2:7 that God breathed into man's nostrils the breath of life, and that man became thereby a living soul, not a life-giving spirit, has distinguished that soul from the condition of the Creator. The work must necessarily be distinct from the workman, and it is inferior to him. The pitcher will not be the potter, although made by the potter; nor in like manner, will the afflatus, because made by the spirit, be on that account the spirit. The soul has often been called by the same name as the breath. [Against Marcion 2.9]
So that man was clay at first, and only afterwards man entire. I wish to impress this on your attention, with a view to your knowing, that whatever God has at all purposed or promised to man, is due not to the soul simply, but to the flesh also; if not arising out of any community in their origin, yet at all events by the privilege possessed by the latter in its name. [On the Resurrection 5]
