St. Thomas Aquinas, in the Summa Theologica, expresses a theological opinion not uncommon in past centuries.

“Now it is evident that in the opinion of philosophers, the active principle of generation is from the father, while the mother provides the matter. Therefore original sin, is contracted, not from the mother, but from the father: so that, accordingly, if Eve, and not Adam, had sinned, their children would not contract original sin: whereas, if Adam, and not Eve, had sinned, they would contract it.” (Summa Theologica, I-II, Q. 81, A. 5.)

The belief that original sin is transmitted through the father, not the mother, comes from two premises. The first premise concerns the biology of the procreation of the body. A lack of understanding about how human life is conceived and develops is evident in Aquinas’ description and in similar texts from past centuries. More recent medical knowledge does not support the premise that the biology of procreation consists in an active principle of generation from the father and a passive matter from the mother.

The second premise (implied but unstated in the above quote) is the philosophical and theological principle that the husband is the head of the family and his wife is subordinate in role and function. This principle can be applied to procreation, such that, the lineage of a child is primarily through the father. In the Jewish faith, lineage is through the paternal line, not the maternal line. This premise is sound; the Gospels of Matthew and Luke each give a mainly paternal lineage. However, the conclusion Aquinas gives above is incorrect, for the following reasons.

Prior to original sin, there was no procreation by means of sexual relations. Procreation was intended by God to occur through a miraculous virgin conception and birth. If Adam had sinned, and Eve had not, or vice versa, then one would be predisposed to procreation by natural means and the other to procreation by supernatural means. Thus, if one had fallen from grace but not the other, they would never have procreated at all. A man with original innocence would not procreate with a woman who had fallen from grace, and a woman with original innocence would not procreate with a man who had fallen from grace.

The transmission of original sin, takes place through the propagation of the species, that is, through human reproduction, because the body is created in a natural process that draws from the human natures of both parents. If both parents have a fallen human nature, then that natural process produces a human being with a fallen human nature. Both parents contribute substantially to the human nature of their offspring from each of their human natures. Thus, both parents pass on to their child a fallen human nature. Original sin is therefore inherited from both parents. Furthermore, since original sin began with both Adam and Eve, it can be correctly said that each of us has inherited original sin from both Adam and Eve.

The above article is an excerpt from my book: New Insights into the Deposit of Faith

by
Ronald L. Conte Jr.
Roman Catholic theologian and
translator of the Catholic Public Domain Version of the Bible.