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"He stood in need of baptism, or of the descent of the Spirit like a dove; even as He
submitted to be born and to be crucified, not because He needed such things, but
because of the human race, which from Adam had fallen under the power of death and
the guile of the serpent, and each one of which had committed personal transgression.
For God, wishing both angels and men, who were endowed with freewill, and at their
own disposal, to do whatever He had strengthened each to do, made them so, that if
they chose the things acceptable to Himself, He would keep them free from death and
from punishment; but that if they did evil, He would punish each as He sees fit. For it
was not His entrance into Jerusalem sitting on an ass, which we have showed was
prophesied, that empowered Him to be Christ, but it furnished men with a proof that He
is the Christ; just as it was necessary in the time of John that men have proof, that they
"And not by the aforesaid things alone has the Lord manifested Himself, but [He has
done this] also by means of His passion. For doing away with [the effects of] that
disobedience of man which had taken place at the beginning by the occasion of a tree,
"He became obedient unto death, even the death of the cross;" rectifying that
disobedience which had occurred by reason of a tree, through that obedience which was
[wrought out] upon the tree [of the cross]. Now He would not have come to do away, by
means of that same [image], the disobedience which had been incurred towards our
Maker if He proclaimed another Father. But inasmuch as it was by these things that we
disobeyed God, and did not give credit to His word, so was it also by these same that He
brought in obedience and consent as respects His Word; by which things He clearly
shows forth God Himself, whom indeed we had offended in the first Adam, when he did
not perform His commandment. In the second Adam, however, we are reconciled, being
made obedient even unto death. For we were debtors to none other but to Him whose
"Every soul, then, by reason of its birth, has its nature in Adam until it is born again in
Christ; moreover, it is unclean all the while that it remains without this regeneration; and
because unclean, it is actively sinful, and suffuses even the flesh (by reason of their
conjunction) with its own shame. "Tertullian,On the Soul,40(A.D. 208),in ANF,III:220
"Everyone in the world falls prostrate under sin. And it is the Lord who sets up those who
are cast down and who sustains all who are falling. In Adam all die, and thus the world
prostrate and requires to be set up again, so that Christ all may be made to live."
"If, in the case of the worst sinners and of those who formerly sinned much against God,
when afterwards they believe, the remission of their sins is granted and no one is held
back from Baptism and grace, how much more, then, should an infant not be held back,
who, having but recently been BORN, has done no sin [committed no personal sin],
except that, born of the flesh according to Adam. He has contracted the contagion of
that old death from his first being born. For this very reason does he approach more
easily to receive the remission of sins: because the sins forgiven him are not his own but
ANF,V:354
"But if any one were to think that the earthy image is the flesh itself, but the heavenly
image some other spiritual body besides the flesh; let him first consider that Christ, the
heavenly man, when He appeared, bore the same form of limbs and the same image of
flesh as ours, through which also He, who was not man, became man, that "as in Adam
all die, even so in Christ shall all be made alive.' For if He bore flesh for any other reason
than that of setting the flesh free, and raising it up, why did He bear flesh superfluously,
as He purposed neither to save it, nor to raise it up? But the Son of God does nothing
superfluously. He did not then take the form of a servant uselessly, but to raise it up and
save it. For He truly was made man, and died, and not in mere appearance, but that He
might truly be shown to be the first begotten from the dead, changing the earthy into
"That Lord, I say, who in His simple and immaterial Deity, entered our nature, and of the
virgin's womb became ineffably incarnate; that Lord, who was partaker of nothing else
save the lump of Adam, who was by the serpent tripped up."
"Moreover, among the sons of Adam there is none besides Him who might enter the race
without being wounded or swallowed up. For sin has ruled from the time Adam
transgressed the command. By one among the many was it swallowed up; many did it
wound, and many did it kill; but none among the many killed it until our Savior came,
who took it on Himself and fixed it to His cross." Aphraates the Persian
"Adam sinned and earned all sorrows;--likewise the world after His example, all guilt.--
And instead of considering how it should be restored,--considered how its fall should be
"Through him our forefather Adam was cast out for disobedience, and exchanged a
Paradise bringing forth wondrous fruits of its own accord for the ground which bringeth
forth thorns. What then? some one will say. We have been beguiled and are lost. Is there
then no salvation left? We have fallen: Is it not possible to rise again? We have been
blinded: May we not recover our sight? We have become crippled: Can we never walk
upright? In a word, we are dead: May we not rise again? He that woke Lazarus who was
four days dead and already stank, shall He not, O man, much more easily raise thee who
art alive? He who shed His precious blood for us, shall Himself deliver us from sin."
"And this thought commends itself strongly to the right-minded. For since the first man
Adam altered, and through sin death came into the world, therefore it became the
second Adam to be unalterable; that, should the Serpent again assault, even the
Serpent's deceit might be baffled, and, the Lord being unalterable and unchangeable,
the Serpent might become powerless in his assault against all. For as when Adam had
transgressed, his sin reached unto all men, so, when the Lord had become man and had
overthrown the Serpent, that so great strength of His is to extend through all men, so
that each of us may say, 'For we are not ignorant of his devices' Good reason then that
the Lord, who ever is in nature unalterable, loving righteousness and hating iniquity,
should be anointed and Himself' sent, that, He, being and remaining the same, by taking
this alterable flesh, 'might condemn sin in it,' and might secure its freedom, and its
ability s henceforth 'to fulfil the righteousness of the law' in itself, so as to be able to
say, 'But we are not in the flesh but in the Spirit, if so be that the Spirit of God dwelleth
"Little given, much gotten; by the donation of food the original sin is discharged. Just as
Adam transmitted the sin by his wicked eating, we destroy that treacherous food when
we cure the need and hunger." Basil,Eulogies & Sermons,Famine & Drought 8:7(ante
379),in JUR,II:23
"And further, above this, we have in common reason, the Law, the Prophets, the very
Sufferings of Christ, by which we were all without exception created anew, who partake
of the same Adam, and were led astray by the serpent and slain by sin, and are saved
by the heavenly Adam and brought back by the tree of shame to the tree of life from
"For death is alike to all, without difference for the poor, without exception for the rich.
And so although through the sin of one alone, yet it passed upon all; that we may not
refuse to acknowledge Him to be also the Author of death, Whom we do not refuse to
acknowledge as the Author of our race; and that, as through one death is ours, so should
be also the resurrection; and that we should not refuse the misery, that we may attain to
the gift. For, as we read, Christ 'is come to save that which was lost,' and 'to be Lord
both of the dead and living.' In Adam I fell, in Adam I was cast out of Paradise, in Adam I
died; how shall the Lord call me back, except He find me in Adam; guilty as I was in him,
so now justified in Christ. If, then, death be the debt of all, we must be able to endure
the payment. But this topic must be reserved for later treatment."
"In whom" -- that is, in Adam -- 'all have sinned'. And he said 'in whom,' using the
masculine form, when he was speaking of a woman, because the reference was not to a
specific individual but to the race. It is clear, therefore, that all have sinned in Adam,en
masse as it were; for when he himself was corrupted by sin, all whom he begot were
born under sin. On his account, then, all are sinners, because we are all from him. He
JUR,II:177
"How then did death come in and prevail? "Through the sin of one." But what means,
"for that all have sinned?" This; he having once fallen, even they that had not eaten of
the tree did from him, all of them, become mortal ... From whence it is clear, that it was
not this sin, the transgression, that is, of the Law, but that of Adam's disobedience,
which marred all things. Now what is the proof of this? The fact that even before the Law
all died: for 'death reigned' he says, 'from Adam to Moses, even over them that had not
sinned.' How did it reign? 'After the similitude of Adam's transgression, who is the figure
of Him that was to come.' Now this is why Adam is a type of Christ ... [W]hen the Jew
says to thee, How came it, that by the well-doing of this one Person, Christ, the world
was saved? thou mightest be able to say to him, How by the disobedience of this one
"After Adam sinned, as I noted before, when the Lord said, 'You are earth, and to earth
you shall return', Adam was condemned to death. This condemnation passed on to the
whole race. For all sinned, already by their sharing in that nature, as the Apostle says:
"For through one man sin made its entry, and through sin death, and thus it came down
to all men, because all have sinned. ... Someone will say to me: But the sin of Adam
deservedly passed on to his posterity, because they were begotten of him: but how are
we to be begotten of Christ, so that we can be saved through Him? Do not think of these
things in a carnal fashion. You have already seen how we are begotten by Christ our
Parent. In these last times Christ took a soul and with it flesh from Mary:this flesh came
to prepare salvation."
"Evil was mixed with our nature from the beginning ... through those who by their
disobedience introduced the disease. Just as in the natural propagation of the species
each animal engenders its like, so man is born from man, a being subject to passions
from a being subject to passions, a sinner from a sinner. Thus sin takes its rise in us as
we are born; it grows with us and keeps us company till life's term"
Gregory of Nyssa,The Beatitudes,6(ante A.D. 394),in ECD,351
"This grace, however, of Christ, without which neither infants nor adults can be saved, is
not rendered for any merits, but is given gratis, on account of which it is also called
grace. 'Being justified,' says the apostle, 'freely through His blood.' Whence they, who
are not liberated through grace, either because they are not yet able to hear, or because
they are unwilling to obey; or again because they did not receive, at the time when they
were unable on account of youth to hear, that bath of regeneration, which they might
have received and through which they might have been saved, are indeed justly
condemned; because they are not without sin, either that which they have derived from
their birth, or that which they have added from their own misconduct. 'For all have
does undoubtedly, by means of natural birth, pass on the bond of sin to a man's
"Can. 1 If anyone says that by the offense of Adam's trangression not the whole man,
that is, according to body and soul, was changed for the worse, but believes that while
the liberty of the soul endures without harm, the body only is exposed to corruption, he
is deceived by the error of Pelagius and resists the Scriptures .... Can. 2 If anyone asserts
that Adam's trangression injured him alone and not his descendents, or declares that
certainly death of the body only, which is the punishment of sin, but not sin also, which
is death of the soul, passed through one man into the whole human race, he will do an
DEN,75
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