Archidoxa ex Theophrastia : Pars I

...from this tree to eat / so that man would not die: and his reason and understanding, enlightened by God / would not be darkened by malice and ignorance: nevertheless / because the serpent promised her: that if she were to eat from this tree, her eyes would be opened / and they would become like the gods / knowing good and evil: the woman / based on the promise of the cunning serpent / whom she believed / plucked fruit from this tree / and not only ate of it herself / but also handed it to her husband to eat: who was then led astray by the woman: and turned himself away from divine, internal, righteous, and true contemplation Contemplationoriginal: "Contemplation" — In this Renaissance context, it refers to the direct spiritual perception of divine truth, which the author contrasts with mere sensory experience. outward / toward the pleasures / which are grasped and understood by the senses: for which reason the punishment soon followed: and both / the man and the woman / were cast out of Paradise / and died: not physically / as they afterward begot children (as Philo Philo of Alexandria (c. 20 BCE – 50 CE), a Jewish Hellenistic philosopher who sought to harmonize Greek philosophy with Jewish scripture through allegorical interpretation. says) / but spiritually: since their mind had been stained with disobedience toward God: because they preferred the serpent's seductive speech / over the earnest, righteous commandment of God: and adhered more to the serpent in this matter than to God.

Through which disobedience / the first parents / introduced not only to their descendants / the temporal death of the body / but also the darkness of the mind: so that in man the natural light Natural Lightoriginal: "natürlich licht" — Referred to in Latin as the lumen naturale, this is the innate human capacity for reason and moral judgment that remains even after the Fall, though in a diminished state. has been almost entirely darkened / and has strayed far from that first radiance / which was implanted so brightly and clearly in man by God in the beginning. Therefore it is no wonder / that at all times various sects among the philosophers and other learn-