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| Chapter XXIII.—Arguments in opposition to Tatian, showing that it was consonant to divine justice and mercy that the first Adam should first partake in that salvation offered to all by Christ.
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Chapter XXIII.—Arguments in
opposition to Tatian, showing that it was consonant to divine justice and mercy
that the first Adam should first partake in that salvation offered to all by
Christ.
1. It was necessary, therefore,
that the Lord, coming to the lost sheep, and making recapitulation of so
comprehensive a dispensation, and seeking after His own handiwork, should
save that very man who had been created after His image and likeness,
that is, Adam, filling up the times of His condemnation, which had been
incurred through disobedience,—[times] “which the Father
had placed in His own power.”3756
[This was
necessary,] too, inasmuch as the whole economy of salvation regarding man
came to pass according to the good pleasure of the Father, in order that
God might not be conquered, nor His wisdom lessened, [in the estimation
of His creatures.] For if man, who had been created by God that he might
live, after losing life, through being injured by the serpent that had
corrupted him, should not any more return to life, but should be utterly
[and for ever] abandoned to death, God would [in that case] have been
conquered, and the wickedness of the serpent would have prevailed over
the will of God. But inasmuch as God is invincible and long-suffering, He
did indeed show Himself to be long-suffering in the matter of the
correction of man and the probation of all, as I have already
observed; and by means of the second man did He bind the strong
man, and spoiled his goods,3757
and
abolished death, vivifying that man who had been in a state of death. For
as the first Adam became a vessel in his (Satan’s) possession, whom
he did also hold under his power, that is, by bringing sin on him
iniquitously, and under colour of immortality entailing death upon him.
For, while promising that they should be as gods, which was in no way
possible for him to be, he wrought death in them: wherefore he who had
led man captive, was justly captured in his turn by God; but man, who had
been led captive, was loosed from the bonds of condemnation.
2. But this is Adam, if the truth should be told, the
first formed man, of whom the Scripture says that the Lord spake,
“Let Us make man after Our own image and likeness;”3758
and we are all from him: and as we are from
him, therefore have we all inherited his title. But inasmuch as man is
saved, it is fitting that he who was created the original man should be
saved. For it is too absurd to maintain, that he who was so deeply
injured by the enemy, and was the first to suffer captivity, was not
rescued by Him who conquered the enemy, but that his children were,
—those whom he had begotten in the same captivity. Neither would
the enemy appear to be as yet conquered, if the old spoils remained with
him. To give an illustration: If a hostile force had overcome certain
[enemies], had bound them, and led them away captive, and held them for a
long time in servitude, so that they begat children among them; and
somebody, compassionating those who had been made slaves, should overcome
this same hostile force; he certainly would not act equitably, were he to
liberate the children of those who had been led captive, from the sway of
those who had enslaved their fathers, but should leave these latter, who
had suffered the act of capture, subject to their enemies,—those,
too, on whose very account he had proceeded to this retaliation,—
the children succeeding to liberty through the avenging of their
fathers’ cause, but not3759
| 3759 The old Latin translation is: “Sed non relictis
ipsis patribus.” Grabe would cancel non, while Massuet
pleads for retaining it. Harvey conjectures that the translator perhaps
mistook οὐκ ἀνειλημμένων
for οὐκ ἀναλελειμένων.
We have followed Massuet, though we should prefer deleting non,
were it not found in all the mss. | so that their
fathers, who suffered the act of capture itself, should be left [in
bondage]. For God is neither devoid of power nor of justice, who has
afforded help to man, and restored him to His own liberty.
3. It was for this reason, too, that immediately after
Adam had transgressed, as the Scripture relates, He pronounced no curse
against Adam personally, but against the ground, in reference to his
works, as a certain person among the ancients has observed: “God
did indeed transfer the curse to the earth, that it might not remain in
man.”3760
But man received, as
the punishment of his transgression, the toilsome task of tilling the
earth, and to eat bread in the sweat of his face, and to return to the
dust from whence he was taken. Similarly also did the woman [receive]
toil, and labour, and groans, and the pangs of parturition, and a state
of subjection, that is, that she should serve her husband; so that they
should neither perish altogether when cursed by God, nor, by remaining
unreprimanded, should be led to despise God. But the curse in all its
fulness fell upon the serpent, which had beguiled them. “And
God,” it is declared, “said to the serpent: Because thou hast
done this, cursed art thou above all cattle, and above all the beasts of
the earth.”3761
And this same thing does
the Lord also say in the Gospel, to those who are found upon the left
hand: “Depart from me, ye cursed, into everlasting fire, which my
Father hath prepared for the devil and his angels;”3762
| 3762 Matt. xxv.
41. This reading of Irenæus agrees with that of the Codex
Bezæ, at Cambridge. | indicating that eternal fire was not
originally prepared for man, but for him who beguiled man, and caused him
to offend—for him, I say, who is chief of the apostasy, and for
those angels who became apostates along with him; which [fire], indeed,
they too shall justly feel, who, like him, persevere in works of
wickedness, without repentance, and without retracing their steps.
4. [These act]3763
as Cain [did, who], when he
was counselled by God to keep quiet, because he had not made an equitable
division of that share to which his brother was entitled, but with envy
and malice thought that he could domineer over him, not only did not
acquiesce, but even added sin to sin, indicating his state of mind by his
action. For what he had planned, that did he also put in practice: he
tyrannized over and slew him; God subjecting the just to the unjust, that
the former might be proved as the just one by the things which he
suffered, and the latter detected as the unjust by those which he
perpetrated. And he was not softened even by this, nor did he stop short
with that evil deed; but being asked where his brother was, he said,
“I know not; am I my brother’s keeper?” extending and
aggravating [his] wickedness by his answer. For if it is wicked to slay a
brother, much worse is it thus insolently and irreverently to reply to
the omniscient God as if he could battle Him. And for this he did himself
bear a curse about with him, because he gratuitously brought
an offering of sin, having had no reverence for God, nor being
put to confusion by the act of fratricide.3764
| 3764 The old Latin reads
“parricidio.” The crime of parricide was alone known to the
Roman law; but it was a generic term, including the murder of all
near relations. All the editors have supposed that the original word was
ἀδελφοκτονία,
which has here been adopted. |
5. The case of Adam, however, had no analogy with this,
but was altogether different. For, having been beguiled by another under
the pretext of immortality, he is immediately seized with terror, and
hides himself; not as if he were able to escape from God; but, in a state
of confusion at having transgressed His command, he feels unworthy to
appear before and to hold converse with God. Now, “the fear of the
Lord is the beginning of wisdom;”3765
the sense of sin leads to repentance, and God
bestows His compassion upon those who are penitent. For
[Adam] showed his repentance by his conduct, through means of the girdle
[which he used], covering himself with fig-leaves, while there were many
other leaves, which would have irritated his body in a less degree. He,
however, adopted a dress conformable to his disobedience, being awed by
the fear of God; and resisting the erring, the lustful propensity of his
flesh (since he had lost his natural disposition and child-like mind, and
had come to the knowledge of evil things), he girded a bridle of
continence upon himself and his wife, fearing God, and waiting for His
coming, and indicating, as it were, some such thing [as follows]:
Inasmuch as, he says, I have by disobedience lost that robe of sanctity
which I had from the Spirit, I do now also acknowledge that I am
deserving of a covering of this nature, which affords no gratification,
but which gnaws and frets the body. And he would no doubt have retained
this clothing for ever, thus humbling himself, if God, who is merciful,
had not clothed them with tunics of skins instead of fig-leaves. For this
purpose, too, He interrogates them, that the blame might light upon the
woman; and again, He interrogates her, that she might convey the blame to
the serpent. For she related what had occurred. “The
serpent,” says she, “beguiled me, and I did eat.”3766
But He put no question to the serpent; for He
knew that he had been the prime mover in the guilty deed; but He
pronounced the curse upon him in the first instance, that it might fall
upon man with a mitigated rebuke. For God detested him who had led man
astray, but by degrees, and little by little, He showed compassion to him
who had been beguiled.
6. Wherefore also He drove him out of
Paradise, and removed him far from the tree of life, not because He
envied him the tree of life, as some venture to assert, but because He
pitied him, [and did not desire] that he should continue a sinner for
ever, nor that the sin which surrounded him should be immortal, and evil
interminable and irremediable. But He set a bound to his [state of] sin,
by interposing death, and thus causing sin to cease,3767
putting an end to it by the dissolution of the flesh, which
should take place in the earth, so that man, ceasing at length to live to
sin, and dying to it, might begin to live to God.
7. For this end did
He put enmity between the serpent and the woman and her seed, they
keeping it up mutually: He, the sole of whose foot should be bitten,
having power also to tread upon the enemy’s head; but the other
biting, killing, and impeding the steps of man, until the seed did come
appointed to tread down his head,—which was born of Mary, of whom
the prophet speaks: “Thou shalt tread upon the asp and the
basilisk; thou shalt trample down the lion and the dragon;”3768
—indicating that sin, which was set up
and spread out against man, and which rendered him subject to death,
should be deprived of its power, along with death, which rules [over
men]; and that the lion, that is, antichrist, rampant against mankind in
the latter days, should be trampled down by Him; and that He should bind
“the dragon, that old serpent”3769
and subject him to the power of man, who had been conquered3770
so that all his might should be trodden down.
Now Adam had been conquered, all life having been taken away from him:
wherefore, when the foe was conquered in his turn, Adam received new
life; and the last enemy, death, is destroyed,3771
which at the first had taken possession of man. Therefore, when
man has been liberated, “what is written shall come to pass, Death
is swallowed up in victory. O death, where is thy sting?”3772
This could not be said with justice, if that
man, over whom death did first obtain dominion, were not set free. For
his salvation is death’s destruction. When therefore the Lord
vivifies man, that is, Adam, death is at the same time destroyed.
8. All therefore
speak falsely who disallow his (Adam’s) salvation, shutting
themselves out from life for ever, in that they do not believe that the
sheep which had perished has been found.3773
For if it
has not been found, the whole human race is still held in a state of
perdition. False, therefore, is that, man who first started this idea, or
rather, this ignorance and blindness—Tatian.3774
| 3774 An account of Tatian will be given in a
future volume with his only extant work. |
As I
have already indicated, this man entangled himself with all the
heretics.3775
| 3775 His heresy
being just a mixture of the opinions of the various Gnostic sects.
| This dogma, however, has been invented by himself, in order that,
by introducing something new, independently of the rest, and by speaking
vanity, he might acquire for himself hearers void of faith, affecting to
be esteemed a teacher, and endeavouring from time to time to employ
sayings of this kind often [made use of] by Paul: “In Adam we all
die;”3776
ignorant, however, that “where
sin abounded, grace did much more abound.”3777
Since this, then, has been clearly shown, let all his disciples
be put to shame, and let them wrangle3778
| 3778 Though unnoticed by the editors, there seems a
difficulty in the different moods of the two verbs, erubescant and
concertant. | about Adam, as if some great gain were to
accrue to them if he be not saved; when they profit nothing more [by
that], even as the serpent also did not profit when persuading man [to
sin], except to this effect, that he proved him a transgressor, obtaining
man as the first-fruits of his own apostasy.3779
| 3779 “Initium et materiam apostasiæ
suæ habens hominem:” the meaning is very obscure, and the editors
throw no light upon it. | But he did not know God’s
power.3780
| 3780 Literally,
“but he did not see God.” The translator is supposed
to have read οἶδεν, knew,
for εἶδεν, saw.
| Thus also do those who disallow Adam’s salvation gain
nothing, except this, that they render themselves heretics and apostates
from the truth, and show themselves patrons of the serpent and of
death.E.C.F. INDEX & SEARCH
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