In cosmogoniam homilia 6

On the Sixth Day of the Creation of the World, and on the First-Created, and on the Serpent, and on the Tree of Knowledge, and on the Sojourn in Paradise and the Conversation of God with Adam. Let us again take up the promise and complete the subject concerning Paradise to its end. For if the expulsion of Adam from Paradise was an unbearable evil, much more will it be an evil for us to be expelled from the memory of Paradise. Let us take up the subject, not entrusting the examination to common arguments, but receiving the solution of the difficulties from sacred Scripture itself. For he who thinks and understands as he wishes deceives himself. But he who learns the solution of the difficulties from Scripture has truth itself as its own teacher. Since, therefore, many even of the faithful, when reading, are perplexed, and of the unbelievers, being ignorant, blaspheme, in order that we may give full assurance to the saints and refutation to the unbelievers, let us take up the matter according to our ability, having called upon God together with you to supply the abundance of truth. How man was constructed, how he was formed in body, how the soul, created by God, was implanted in his body, how he had Paradise as a dwelling place, even if not according to worth, yet at least as far as our ability allowed, has been sufficiently said previously. Let us now turn our discourse to the matter at hand. All the earth was given to Adam, but his special dwelling place was Paradise. And it was permitted for him to walk also outside of Paradise.

But the areas outside of Paradise were not set apart for human habitation, but for the irrational animals, for cattle, for quadrupeds, for wild beasts, for reptiles. Paradise was for him a royal and lordly dwelling. For this reason also God brought the animals to Adam as being separated from him. For slaves are not always in attendance upon their master, but only when there is need of them. The animals were named and immediately cast out. Adam remained in Paradise. Let us now learn the precise understanding of this. The irrational animals were permitted both to approach Adam and to bow down before him and to fawn upon him. I mean something like this. Just as there were three kinds of trees—for there were trees that nourished him for living, trees that tested him for living well, and a tree that preserved him for living forever—so also three kinds of irrational animals were given to him: one for food—not for him alone, but set apart for the common race—one for food, another for service, another for delight. For example, for food, those now sacrificed; for service, horses, camels, donkeys, oxen, and the other animals that work; for delight, the imitative animals, the cheerful voices of the birds of the air, which also charm the ears. For just as a body, after exertion, if it does not cast off its labors, cannot endure further labors, so also a soul that endures the labors of virtue, if it is not delighted by pleasant sights, is not sufficient for the intensity of virtue. When God sees a soul weary, he delights it through pleasant things. This happens also in our case.

For often a man, returning from the marketplace, his mind drenched with countless sorrows, having encountered harsh sights and fallen into unbearable misfortunes and losses, comes home and finds the distraction of a child, and the softness of his mind anoints the hardness of his labors. For when he is despondent, his wife does not approach to console him, as her consolation would be untimely; no servant dares to offer comfort. God introduces the unfeigned nature, which is deemed worthy of indulgence, from sources unknown, and through it anoints the soul wearied from toils. If a servant smiles, it is thought he is mocking his master's disgrace; if the wife laughs, she is thought insensible to the calamity; the child's flattery is unsuspected because of the innocence of its nature. And often what friends advising, wise men admonishing, could not achieve, a child's mere smile has accomplished, dissolving the entire calamity. And then the soul, in the very peak of its grief, sees the child and at first recoils, rejecting the untimely distraction; but it is drawn by the child's persistence, and when it often inclines its eye, it is seized in its mind; then, taking up the child, it lays aside its grief and says: "This one alone will God grant me, and I care nothing for the rest.

You see how God raises consolation for the soul even from ordinary things? Since Adam was alone in paradise, having no friend, no neighbor, no relative, God brought the animals to him for his amusement—such as, just as today there are imitative animals, some imitating postures, others voice: for example, the ape imitates human postures and the like; the parrot and other birds imitate voice. So he had amusement from the irrational creatures, some chirping, others fawning. While many things thus filled his consolation, the serpent was the most cunning of all the beasts of the earth, as Scripture said: "Now the serpent was the most cunning of all the beasts that the Lord God made." So it was both more imitative than the imitative ones and more familiar than the fawning ones. Do not judge by its present appearance, that we both flee from it and loathe it. It was not so from the beginning. The serpent was a friend and more familiar among those that fawn upon man. Who then made it an enemy? The decree of God: "For you are accursed from among all the beasts. I will put enmity between you and the woman." That enmity dissolved the friendship. I call it friendship not the rational kind, but the irrational familiarity. Just as today a dog displays a semblance of friendship, not by reason but by natural impulse, so the serpent fawned upon man. So, as it had much intimacy, it appeared to the devil as a suitable instrument. Seeing then Adam rejoicing over the serpent, and that one fawning and imitating many human things, the craftsman of evil conceived what those who weave deceptions by adulterating their own do.

For no one prevails through the agency of others, unless through his own; as the Savior said: "A man's household are his enemies." So he speaks through the serpent, providing an impression to Adam. I entreat your love, do not attend to what is said carelessly. This is no ordinary question. For many inquire, how did the serpent speak? Was it with a human voice or the hissing of a serpent, and Eve understood? Adam, before the transgression, was filled with wisdom and understanding and prophecy. Consider how great wisdom he had, that one man sufficed, without receiving a teacher, taught by no man, to give names to all birds and animals and creeping things and beasts and everything simply. Picture in your mind the species, the genera. And to speak concisely, he gave as many names as we today, after experience, cannot replicate. So when God brought the animals to the man, as wise and having the spirit of God, he saw the property of each. He therefore attended to the serpent as more prudent, as having perception, as understanding movements from signs. With Adam in this state, the devil perceived both the serpent's prudence and Adam's preconception. For he had a notion about the serpent as intelligent. So he speaks through it, so that Adam might suspect that the serpent, being prudent, had also achieved imitating the human voice. So the serpent approaches. But nowhere does Scripture say this, that the devil spoke in the serpent, but Moses simply passed over the narrative. Pay attention, I entreat, with precision. Paul, being second in paradise, did not himself resolve the expression, but says:

I betrothed you to one man, to present a pure virgin to Christ. But I fear, lest as the serpent deceived Eve through his craftiness. And he did not say "the devil." He was a faithful guardian of the Scriptures, a servant of the Scriptures, a teacher of the Scriptures, an interpreter of the Scriptures. He did not wish to dissolve the wording, lest he dissolve the order of the Scriptures, but he resolved the difficulty by the meaning. "I fear," he says, "lest as the serpent deceived Eve through his craftiness, so your thoughts be corrupted." Thus; how? For was Paul afraid that the serpent might come again and deceive some? But "I know," he says, "that that serpent does not appear, but the one who acted through him appears." But Paul, as a faithful servant and guardian of the holy Scriptures, did not distort the wording, but revealed the meaning. And the master of the ancients, the moderns, and those to come clarified the difficulty, so that no one might refer the sin to the serpent, but to the one who acted through it. So Christ says to the Jews, when they said to him, "We are from God." "If you were from God, you would do the works and the will of God; but now you are from your father, the devil." He said "the devil" and immediately introduces the history: "That one," he says, "was a murderer from the beginning." And the servant, as a servant, interpreted; the master, as a master, taught; he showed the one who killed Adam. He did not simply say "he was a murderer," but "a murderer of men." For he did not kill one, but through that one, every man. And in truth, he says, he does not stand, because he is a liar.

See how he interpreted, and that the devil is a liar. And how did he lie? The serpent said to the woman: "Why is it that God told you not to eat from any tree?" Do you see the liar? God said: "You may eat from every tree, but from one do not eat." The liar says: "Why did God tell you not to eat from any tree?" The voice of Christ does not lie; that one is a liar. He lied, and this in a terrible way: for whenever someone wishes to maliciously handle a matter, he pretends ignorance for his purpose, in order to introduce his cunning unsuspected, instead of "I do not know," he says, "it is not a contrivance; I came simply, I know nothing." Have you not experienced many such things? Do we not know the works of the deceitful? Do they not stitch up such matters and pretend ignorance? So also the devil: "Why is it," he says, "that God told you?" instead of "I misheard, I did not hear correctly, that you should not eat from any tree." The woman, thinking it was ignorance, corrects the wording. "Not so," she says, "he did not speak thus; God did not say not to eat from any tree, but from every tree he permitted, and from one he forbade. For he told you: 'Do not eat, lest you die.'" He seemed to be learning what he did not know; then he was not suspected as being crafty, and he says to her: "You will not die by death." See another lie. For since God said, "On the day you eat, you will die by death," the devil says, "You will not die." This is the second lie he told.

For God knew, he says, that on whatever day you eat, you will be as gods. See the third lie. Observe the malicious cunning of the devil. Already he is preparing to sow error in the world. And since he was planning, as I said before, to raise polytheism in the world, he anticipated, as if in a narrative, and sowed into the woman's ears an impression that there are many gods. But the craftsman of evil thus sowed the concept of gods in advance, while God, foreseeing, arranged that the creation which was to come would not be spoken by a human mouth, so that the first rational utterance about gods would not be made, but rather the first mouth of a serpent, so that every mouth speaking about idols would be likened to that mouth. I know that you both forgive the voice and grasp the holy meanings of the scriptures. Let no one therefore be occupied with the flourish of the voice, but with the power of the thoughts. For God knew, he says, that on whatever day you eat, you will be as gods, knowing good and evil. Many say, and especially those who followed the God-hating Porphyry, who wrote against Christians and led many away from the divine doctrine, say then: Why did God forbid the knowledge of good and evil? Granted, he forbade evil; why also good? For by saying, "Do not eat from the tree of knowing good and evil," he prevents, they say, him from knowing evil. Why also the good? Evil always contrives against itself and gives handles against itself. God did not forbid the knowledge of good. For Adam had it even before eating. For if he did not have knowledge, how would he recognize the woman?

How does he speak physiologically of bone from my bones and flesh from my flesh? And how does he also prophesy future things: "She shall be called woman, because she was taken from her man"? Instead of this, "A man will leave his father and mother," and the rest? He knows so much, and did he not know the good? He knew God, he kept God's commands, he had knowledge, he gave so many names. How did he not have knowledge of the good? What then is it? God does not prevent knowledge of the good, but he wants knowledge of evil not to be together with the good. I resolve the sophism of impiety from the Scriptures. Paul says: "You cannot drink the cup of the Lord and the cup of demons." He did not forbid both, but he sanctified the holy and rejected the polluted and profane. Likewise the Savior: "You cannot serve God and mammon." In the same way, it is impossible to serve God and a demon. Thus God prevented taking knowledge of evil, so that it might not be mixed with the good, and knowledge of evil. Now let us pay attention here. Why was it called the tree of knowledge of good and evil at all? It did not have such a nature, but it brought such a subject. I speak of the idiom of the Scriptures. For example, I say: In the desert, one spring of water was called "water of contradiction." "I tested you at the water of contradiction." Did the water have such a nature as to bring the people to contradiction? Why then did Moses, after drinking, not contradict God? Just as the water was called "water of contradiction," not having such a nature, but because of the subject that occurred concerning it. For since the people contradicted there, for this reason it was called "water of contradiction.

Again Jacob saw God as it is possible for a man to see, and he calls the name of the place "the form of God." The place did not have the form of God or the shape of God, but because the vision occurred to him there, he named the place after the event. Another place was called "the peace of God." When an angel appeared to Gideon, he was afraid and says: "Woe, woe, I will die, for I have seen an angel of God." The angel says to him: "Peace to you, do not be afraid." And Gideon, it says, built an altar and called it "the peace of God." Just as, then, the altar or the sacrifice did not itself have peace, but was a symbol of the peace that occurred and was given, and just as the water did not have contradiction, but was so named because of the circumstance that occurred concerning it, so also the tree did not have knowledge, but because everyone who sins comes to knowledge of what he sins. I mean something like this, again by way of example: Sometimes we pass by traveling through places infested with robbers, and it is customary for people to say: "These places are fearsome." Does the place have fear? Or do they say this because of the robbers who frequent that place? So also that tree did not have a nature productive of death-dealing knowledge, but it received its name from the tragedy that occurred to Adam concerning it. I resolve the matter briefly, for divine scripture is not at a loss. Today we have an altar, of which the faithful partake. Does the gift itself have natural salvation, or because of the invoked glory do you have a pledge from present things, so that you should not doubt about what came before? There, death-dealing food; here, life-giving food.

If this food saves by nature and not by grace, then that one destroys by nature and not by transgression. I will show you another food outside of paradise that is death-dealing: I mean idolatry. For why did the martyrs refuse to eat meat? Why were they afraid to eat? Would they have died if they had eaten? Not at all. But because the memory of the idols had been invoked, they fled, not from the food, but from the invocation of the abominable things. Thus the tree of good and evil was known, not by providing knowledge, but by teaching him through the transgression. For experience always teaches the foolish one that transgression is evil. Again, the question will be resolved by another path, not because the first arguments are weak, but because the grace of God is abundant. Let no one think that the introduction of many thoughts occurs because of the weakness of the preceding ones. For the grace of God, being abundant, provides for us from its own treasures, if we are worthy. Pay attention, then. The martyrs refused the food of idol-offerings, truly fleeing from eating, just as if Adam had fled from the tree, he would have been saved. And that it is not the knowledge of good and evil that is hateful, the truth shines forth. For when God asks and does not act, does he know it or not? Who dares to say that he does not know? For knowledge is not action. Therefore, Paul, who says, "Flee from fornication," did he not know what fornication was? He who flees adultery, did he not know what adultery was? But knowledge did not condemn him. And God himself knows all our actions, counting and saying: "From the heart come forth evil thoughts, murders, adulteries, perjuries, debaucheries, envies, covetousnesses." These are the things that defile a person.

If he does not know these things, does he say them, or does God and the Apostle know them? Knowledge, then, does not insult Adam. It was not knowledge that harmed him, but transgression. I wish to ask him: what good or evil did he learn from the tree? After eating, did he know what murder is? No one yet existed to punish; adultery was not known, for there were as yet no marriages, no fornications, no robbery; there was as yet no rich and poor, no false accusations and false testimonies. What evil, then, did he know, except only this: that it was good to obey God, and evil to disobey God? I say a common and well-worn phrase, and let no one condemn it as rash. We are accustomed to say to those who sin, threatening them with correction: "I will make you learn correction." So does he call knowledge learning? Then the known comes from the experience of misfortunes. It taught him to know how many goods he was joined to by transgressing. Pay attention, then, with precision. For even if it has been said before, the subject draws out the discourse. God, who gave all things, was invisible; the one who received all things from God was visible. The receiver was seen; the giver was not seen. Man was alone; the irrational animals were around him. He had no one above him. God placed a law for him, the tree as a reminder in the midst, so that having received dominion he might not forget. For example, he went about gathering fruits with his wife. He approached the tree; he said, "Let us not touch this tree, for concerning it God gave an order." And the visible thing was a reminder of the invisible, as also happens now. Consider how many rulers there are throughout the whole earth.

And since a king cannot be present everywhere, it is necessary that the image of the king be present in courts, in marketplaces, in assemblies, in theaters. Therefore, in every place where a ruler acts, it is necessary for him to be present, so that what is done may be confirmed. The king, then, cannot be present everywhere as a human, but for God to appear as God to humans is impossible. He gave the tree as an image of the kingdom, bearing a reminder to Adam that he had received dominion over all things. Know the one who gave the authority. And so that you may learn how the tree reminded them: when the serpent wished to deceive the woman, he said to her, "Why did God say that you should not eat from any tree?" The woman did not forget the law, but even corrects his ignorance and says, "God did not speak thus, but rather, 'You may eat from every tree; but from this tree,' God said, 'do not eat from it, nor touch it.'" See the precision. God did not say, "Do not touch." For touching did not bring danger; but they, having godly understanding, enjoying the rest, determined among themselves, "God said, 'Do not taste of the tree,' and we will not even touch it." So much did the woman care to keep God's commandment. The tree, then, lay in the middle, by which he deceived them. Hear a strange thing. He used as an instrument for deception something implanted in the human. For God, when forming the human, along with other knowledge, also placed in him a longing for God. Since, then, he saw in them the torch of longing, he says, "You will become like gods. Now, as humans, you cannot always be with God.

If you become like gods, you will always be with him. For he did not say to them: If you eat, you become enemies of God. So desire for equality with God deceives the woman, and she does not deceive the man, but persuades him. And Paul bears witness, saying: Adam was not deceived. And why was he condemned? See the terrible thing. The woman, having been deceived, ate; after eating, she persuades the man too, so that she might not be alone in her transgression; and she persuaded, not deceived; something that often happens even now. A person knows the faith, loves the law, is zealous for orthodoxy, and is persuaded by his wife not to show his zeal, not being ignorant of the truth, but being persuaded by his spouse. For many have thought that Adam, being ignorant, took from the woman, not knowing from where she brought the fruit. But he has no defense; for God convicts him, saying: Because you listened to the voice of your wife. And he did not say: Because you took from your wife, and he could have said: I was ignorant, I did not know, from where she brought the fruit. The charge against the man is not that he was deceived, but that he was enticed. Let us come then to the court; let us see the first records made in that holy and impartial and benevolent trial, written in immortal letters, whose memory and sight and radiance no whole age can destroy. Pay attention then. Adam, it says, heard the voice of the Lord walking in the garden in the evening. He perceived it from the sound and from habit. And from the noise, did God appear? He appeared not as he was, but as he wished.

Blessed is the God of the saints, because then at evening he visited Adam, and now at evening on the cross. For the savior endured the passion at the same hours in which Adam passed from eating to the transgression and the judgment, from the sixth hour to the ninth. At the sixth hour he ate—for that is the rule of nature—after the sixth he hid. At evening God came to him. Adam desired to become God, but he desired impossibilities; Christ dissolved his desire. You desired to become what you could not; I desire to become man, which I can; for God counterbalanced his deception. You desired what is above you; I take what is below me. You desired equality with God; I become equal to man. For this reason Paul also says: And having been found in form as a man. You desired to become God, and I did not resent you for this; for I want you to long for equality with God. But the resentment is that you wished to snatch the dignity against the master’s will. You desired to become God and could not; I become man and make the impossible possible. That he came to this desiring, he himself testifies, saying, when at Passover the one who nourishes ate with those nourished, and a table was set before the one who nourishes the whole world under heaven. He says to the apostles: I earnestly desired to eat this Passover with you. Did I not begrudge you your equality with God? You wished to snatch my things, being unable; I take your things, being able. Pay attention. He came down at evening and says: Adam, where are you?

Those things and these are siblings; for both are of one God. For it was not another who came to the passion, but the one who descended in paradise? He was hidden, he perceived after the eating. For their eyes were opened, it says, and they knew that they were naked. Since the devil said, on whatever day you eat, your eyes will be opened, see, it says, Satan told the truth. It is fitting for Paul to say: For we are not ignorant of his thoughts. The saints know the devices of the devil. See the malice. How did the devil know that after eating their eyes would be opened? For were they blind? Scripture says before they ate from the tree, The woman saw the tree, it says. Therefore she was not blind. The woman saw the tree, it says, because it was beautiful to the sight. First she saw and then she ate. How then were their eyes opened? Pay attention, I beg you. Here is the point at issue. The devil was from a fall, that is, from transgression; and he knew what the transgressor suffered and what those who transgress suffer. And the suffering is common to all. For even today, when we sin, we sin as if blind; and when we have sinned, then we see what we have done. For example, as if someone is accused, why did you do this? He pleads necessity: Truly I did not see what I was doing; not as being blind, but because in sin the reasoning is impaired, becoming entirely intent on the act and is blinded in the doing. He sees afterwards with his conscience what he has done. I speak as by way of illustration: someone enters a house to rob and enters as if blind;

He does not consider the one he meets, the one who arrests him, the fear of judges, the impending danger; for he is blinded by the disease. When he enters, when he takes, when he leaves having stolen, with no one present, he is filled with fear, he perceives what he has done and considers that, if a search is made, they will understand whose work the deed is. And what he did not consider while acting, he considers after the act. For example, the adulterer who throws himself upon another’s fire enters and does not consider that there are laws, courts, accusations, sharpened swords; but when he has acted, he trembles, suspects a slave, a maidservant, a neighbor, a relative; and what he did not see while acting, he sees after the act. Again, one advises another to abstain from evils. Even if he is disobedient, habit says to him: I have often told him and he did not listen; not that he did not hear. Then, having inflicted blows on him, he says: I am teaching you to listen, not that he gives him hearing, but that the blow corrects the preconception and brings him to understanding. So also the prophet: The discipline of the Lord opens my ears. Since, then, the devil fell—for I have not forgotten the subject—he knew where he was after the fall, and then he came to a perception of what he had done. He learned, then, from what he suffered and says: If you eat, your eyes are opened, that is, as also mine were. I know, from the time I transgressed, what I suffered; I recognized what I suffered; I recognized what I missed. Then they ate and their eyes were opened, and they saw that they were naked. For before this they were naked and were not ashamed. They stripped off immortality, the garment of glory was removed, the body was laid bare, and it was clay henceforth.

Immediately the invention of the arts bursts forth. The first art of Adam was sewing. Before every art, he took the leaves of the fig tree and sewed. Who taught him? Who instructed him? He once received understanding from God, he was an image of God, and do you doubt concerning knowledge? When you consider within yourself, whence did man first make a plow, who showed him to make wood and to insert iron in the middle and to fasten it and to put a yoke on the oxen? Whence did a woman find the art of weaving, to take fleece, to wash it, to card it, to spin it, to thin the joined thread and to join again what was separated? Whence this? Who taught the embroiderers the art of embroidery? A loom stands, one thing is passed through, not a hand working, but the word works, the word produces forms. The craftsman does not apply his hands, and the word of the art shapes the garment, and in visible patterns the intention of the craftsman arises. Then the embroiderer does not move his hand and yet produces forms. And if you hear that God works, do you think that he works by moving his hand? And if you investigate every art and every invention and say, how did they conceive this or that?, remembering the first utterance that said, let us make man according to our image, you have the solution to your difficulty. An image of God and does he not understand? An image of God and does he not imitate the master? He sewed fig leaves.

Let the allegorizers be ashamed, who say that Paradise is in heaven and is spiritual. What is a fig tree doing in heaven? But let Paradise be in heaven. From where do the rivers come? Not from the earth? If Paradise is above, it is clear that the rivers also flow from above. Did the Scripture not say, "A river comes down from Eden"? But that is a sophism. The allegorizers mock us. "God clothed them," it says, "in leather tunics." Did he then slaughter cattle or sheep, open a tannery, and practice the tanner's art? We say that he brought forth the whole animal without weaving, without joining. He made what was not, and could he not make a part of what is? So they are ambitious. But God never makes a part of an animal; God makes nothing incomplete. He hears "leather" and asks where it came from. Then I too hear "blood" in Egypt and ask from where the Nile turned into blood, what animals were slaughtered. The river became blood, and no animal was slaughtered. Two leathers came into being, and he asks from what animals they came. But there too, leather came from outside an animal. Pay attention to the sequence, even if the voice has grown weary, and you as well. But so that the discourse not be mutilated, having spoken a few things gently, I will bring the discourse to a close. He sewed fig leaves. Would that heretics had learned this art. Adam, after transgressing, learned to sew; heretics, after going astray, learned to split. Adam, after transgressing, sewed, in order to cover the shameful; heretics, after believing, split, in order to lay bare the holy things. Often we hear about the events at the cross and marvel that soldiers took Christ's garments and divided them among themselves, and immediately our mind says:

Great is the forbearance of God, that no thunderbolt came down, no sword descended. But was the holy one insulted, and were the profane hands not cut off? Do you marvel that those soldiers dared to divide the garments? Marvel that these have rent the garment of the church. The soldiers saw the tunic of Christ, seamless, woven throughout from above, and they spared the garment. But heretics have rent the vesture of Christ, the robe of the church, divided it, cut it up. But let us return to the matter at hand. He sewed fig leaves. They heard God walking, as one may hear; they heard and hid. The nature is grateful. Even if we are sinners a thousand times, our conscience is free. Sometimes the face is shameless and conscience convicts, sometimes the tongue: "For what have I sinned?" and conscience convicts within. Those around Adam were very simple and innocent; they confessed with freedom. God says: "Where are you?" Many have piously considered this. But one must attend to precision. For I accept their views, since they are pious, and I say these things, since they are true. Adam, where are you? From where? Where have you descended? From what glory have you fallen? Truly I accept the thought as pious. For it has both seemliness and pathos. But I seek the sequence. Adam, where are you? God asks. He knew, as the creator, the nature of his creation, that everyone who has sinned is without boldness and that the mouths of sinners are sewn shut. He observed that because he lacked boldness, he fled. A slave is most distressed precisely when he perceives that his master has learned what has happened.

As long as the master is unaware, he comforts himself as though he could escape notice. Adam fled when he was discovered; God pretended ignorance in order to dissolve his fear, as we say about a friend: "I made myself as one who does not know, so as not to grieve him." For such things often happen among us. If such things happen among us, much more so with God, who is benevolent. "Adam, where are you?" instead of "I do not know." Then, while God pretended ignorance, the grateful and free soul did not hide. "I heard your voice and I was afraid, because I am naked, and I hid." "Why were you afraid? Why did you hide?" "I was afraid because of the transgression, I hid because of the nakedness." Truly, one must weep at the voice of the transgressor. "I heard your voice"—that longed-for voice, that voice which granted me everything, that voice which granted and procured good things for me. "I heard your voice." I realized what voice I had spat upon, what voice I had despised. "And I was afraid," having transgressed the command of such a master; "and I hid," because I am naked. Then God persists in the exhortation: "Who told you that you are naked, unless from the tree of which I commanded you not to eat, you ate from it?"—that is, "unless you certainly did that which I forbade." See how he asks as though ignorant: "Unless from that tree of which I commanded you not to eat, you ate." And observe God's benevolence. "Who told you?" For this reason he prolongs the conversation, so as to dissolve fear and arouse confidence. For Adam was considering how there was nothing harsh, nothing abrupt, no insult, no blows. You have custom as your teacher.

If a slave who has sinned approaches his master, from the first word he takes either courage or fear. If the master begins to be indignant and to call him a thief and a deceiver and worthy of countless deaths, the slave is paralyzed; but if he hears him rebuking, "Wretch, what happened to you? Why did you sin?" he is immediately encouraged and takes heart for the time being. For he does not punish as a master, but admonishes as a teacher. So also God: "Who told you that you are naked, if not from the tree which I commanded you not to eat—did you eat from it? Did I forbid many things? I forbade only one thing, and this not out of hatred, but out of forethought. Who told you that you are naked?" He said nothing shameless, like "I did not know." But what? "The woman, whom you gave to me, she gave to me, and I ate," instead of "The one given to me for help." For I heard when I was created, but she was not yet, saying, "Let us make a helper for him like him." "The woman whom you gave to me, she gave to me." He did not say "she deceived," he did not lie; "She gave to me and I ate." Then God says: "And should you have trusted a woman and not me? And is the woman more trustworthy than I? I have given good things, I honored you with deeds; she enticed you with words." And see: just as a judge, if he accepts the defense of the accused and no longer examines him, but moves on to the other, the accused immediately takes courage and says for the time being, "I have been examined," so also God moves on from Adam in order to dissolve his fear, and says to the woman: "What have you done?" She says: "The serpent deceived me and I ate." Since she spoke entirely truthfully, he does not insult the defense of the truth, but leaves it unexamined. He did not say:

And that one—I mean the serpent—was trusted more than I? He promised equality with the gods and procured death. But he does not judge immediately; rather, he spared the weaker vessel, and goes to the serpent, in order to persuade both him and her that he is going to the one responsible, and says: "Since you did this." Do you see a remarkable judge? He questions the deceived, he does not question the deceiver. He does not say to him, "What did you do?" but "Since you did this." According to this image, David says: "The impious will not rise in judgment"—not that they do not rise, but that they are not examined. "Since you did this." The threat against the serpent lightened the blows of the deceived. If, he says, God had not inscribed everything on that one, he would not have judged him without examination. "Since you did this, you are accursed from all the beasts of the earth. You will go on your chest and belly." Since you did this, since you deceived the heart and persuaded the belly to touch food, you will go on your chest and belly. Not that the serpent previously used feet, and now God pronounces the crawling on the belly; but because he stood upright conversing with the woman. For it was not otherwise possible for him to hold his dialogue with Eve. The very posture of the dialogue, with which he deceived Eve, he punishes by the crawling on the chest and expels from the upright gait. For even if he was originally fashioned without feet, yet by means of some swift coils below, raising himself up, he rode with his chests stretched out. Therefore even now the serpent, when angered, often raises himself up and runs coiling in circles.

Proceeding only so far as to show the memory of its ancient gait, it is again cast down by the law of the sentence. "You shall eat earth all the days of your life. I will place enmity between you and the woman." What is "you shall eat earth"? What you procured for Adam to become, that you eat. For this one is about to hear: "You are earth, and to earth you shall return." "I will place enmity between you and the woman." Since you deceived as a friend, you are cast out as an enemy. That word became law. Pay attention, then. "You shall eat earth all the days of your life." Observe. This does not say about the serpent that earth will be its food, for serpents do not always eat earth; they are also nourished by meats, feast on fruits, partake of seeds, and hunt for herbs. But by saying "you shall eat earth," it means this: "You will consume the earth," it says, "rubbing yourself upon it." But some say: If the devil deceived, why did the serpent receive the curse? He scourges the invisible demon with an invisible blow; he subjects the visible instrument to a visible punishment. Why? Just as the invisible God gave a visible reminder, the tree, so the invisible devil speaks to men through the serpent. Therefore, God subjects the serpent to a curse, so that even if someone suffers something from the devil, by always seeing the serpent crawling—the one that once stood erect—he may take it as a reminder that if the servant of evil is punished thus, how much more the author? Pay attention, then. You find things akin to this in the Gospel.

Just as in the visible serpent he condemned the speaker together with the visible, so also in the Gospel, when the demons demanded that Christ not be sent into the abyss, they said: "Allow us to enter into the pigs," and he allowed them to enter, so that he might drown the invisible together with the visible bodies. "You shall eat earth. I will place enmity between you and the woman." He changed friendship into enmity, and the word became law. And while men hasten to tame other wild beasts, if anyone sees a serpent, he is agitated. For the decree remains: "I will place enmity between you." Even if he sees it in a house, he wants to kill it; even if he sees it on a road, he rages to kill it. For the ancient word goads him. If he gives countless blows to the serpent, if he sees that the head is not wounded, he immediately charges the attendant: "You did not strike the head of the serpent; strike against the head," because God said: "He himself will guard your head, and you will guard its heel." What does this mean? It does not say that I will make man not use a blow against the other parts of your body, but only to punish the head. For man also uses blows against all the members of the serpent, punishing the whole from wherever he strikes. And what was said by the master to the serpent, that "you will guard its heel," does not proclaim that the attack against the heel has been granted to serpents; for it sometimes attacks even those who are sleeping, often seizes the belly, injects venom, and brings bites to the hands and the remaining members; and in general, none of the human members that it encounters remains unconquered.

But the meaning of the sentence is this: No longer, it says, will the serpent have the boldness to plot against man, but remaining within, you will have such fear of men that you will hide yourself in lairs and barely peep out from holes with fear, only watching for the passages of men for a safe exit. But man, it says, will walk in safety, while your head is kept in lairs, as of a hidden enemy, not speaking to him, as to a friend. But since the time presses, let us also complete the discourse. He questioned the deceived one, then passes to the deceiver. The sentence, therefore, began from the root of the deceiver. Then it came to the deceived one and threatens. The first word to the serpent is accursed. And God said to the woman: I will multiply your sorrows and your groans manifold. He does not curse her so that she may not bear children, because he had already blessed them beforehand. For when he created them, it says: And God blessed them, saying: Increase and multiply, and fill the earth. And Paul says: The gifts of God are irrevocable. Therefore he does not curse those whom he blessed. But what? He applies a strange remedy to the wound, sorrows and groaning. It is a form of sentence that strikes, but promises release from the transgression. I will multiply, he says, your sorrows and your groaning manifold. Remedies of repentance. Pay attention.

Just as physicians both constrict and heal with the same drug, the same incision and the same iron, and the same pain with the incision produces salvation, so God gives two resources of repentance to the one who has sinned: grief and groaning. What does grief avail? Listen to Paul saying: "For grief according to God produces repentance that leads to salvation without regret." And what does groaning accomplish? Listen to Isaiah: "When you turn back and groan, then you will be saved." I will multiply, multiply your griefs and your groaning. Grief disfigures the outward face and makes it gloomy. When the heart rejoices, the face blooms, but when it is in grief, it looks sullen. Since the eye saw the tree and the mind conceived equality with God, God gives groaning to the heart and grief to the face, so that through the very means by which she sinned she may be punished, and so that this punishment—or rather, salvation—may persuade the woman that the ancient blessing was not false. For having said to them, "Fill the earth," he says, "You will bear children in grief." I do not annul the bearing of children—for I blessed it once—but you will suffer in labors, in disturbances. That grief is most heavy. And the Savior bears witness: "The woman, when she gives birth, has grief." She grieves giving birth, she worries raising the child; if the child is of age, she worries that he may not be foolish; if he travels abroad, that he may not die, that he may not fall ill, that he may not suffer pain. This the man does not have. For even if the father worries, he does not do so as the mother does, but he comforts himself saying: "He is a man, he knows how to take care of himself," and he does not worry. Why? Because he himself did not hear: "You will bear children in grief." A strange form of punishment. Experience is the witness.

When labor pains seize a woman, even in the midst of those sufferings she does not forbid her husband. She does not say, "Would that there were no marriage, would that there were no childbearing." God does not permit her, even after the experience, to hate her husband, but she knows both what she suffered and what she endured, and she loves her husband. For this reason you will bear children in pains, and your turning back is toward your husband, and he will rule over you. Since you have just now ruled badly, and he became a slave of your choice, I dissolve the sequence. Let him who was not deceived rule. For this reason Paul says, "I do not permit a woman to teach, nor to have authority over a man." For she first taught badly in paradise. Nor to have authority over a man. For she exercised authority badly. Therefore, according to this understanding, Paul advises that a woman not teach because of what happened in paradise. Let us not be clever; listen to him: "I do not permit a woman to teach, nor to have authority over a man." And to show that it is because of the first events, he adds, "For Adam was not deceived, but the woman, having been deceived, became the cause of transgression.

What then? Is the race of women subjected to condemnation and does it remain in pains, and is the bond not loosed? Christ came, the one who looses the bond. The God-bearer met this, pleading on behalf of the race, the holy virgin in place of the virgin. For Eve also was a virgin when she sinned. She loosed the grief and the groan of the condemned woman. For just as if someone is summoned to the palace, he hastens to honor his own, even if they are in need of release, so the holy virgin, summoned to the palace to serve the divine birth, coming to strange labor pains, first asks for this grace, or rather receives it. Since it was not fitting for the condemned woman to give birth to the one who is not liable, the one who looses comes first to Eve's grief through joy. The angel comes saying to the virgin: "Rejoice, full of grace." Then through the "Rejoice" he looses the bond of grief. "Rejoice": the one who looses the grief has come. "Rejoice, full of grace," since until now she was accursed. Here pay attention to the grace of God: "Rejoice, full of grace"; the Lord is with you, since with her the serpent was in grief; "rejoice," since with you is God. And see the voice of the angel, how it interprets the whole economy of Christ. "Rejoice, full of grace." Since she received a double curse, the grief and the groan over the labor pains, he introduces the birth that looses that birth. Behold, you will conceive in your womb and bear a son, and you will call his name Jesus. For he himself will save his people from their sins. The sins of your fathers are loosed by the fruit that springs from you. So the matter has been transformed.

Even to this day, those who hear about Eve lament her: "Woe to the wretched one, from what glory she fell! Woe to the wretched one, what she suffered!" Mary, on the other hand, hears from everyone each day, "Blessed one," and indeed she is filled with the Holy Spirit. And this virgin, having prophesied, listen to what she says: "Blessed is the Lord, the God of Israel, because he has visited the humility of his handmaid; for from now on all generations will call me blessed." This is to show that she bears the person of Eve, who until now, she says, is reviled; "from now on all generations will call me blessed." And what, one says, does she gain if she does not hear? Indeed she does hear, because she is in a place of light, in the land of the living—she, the mother of salvation, the source of sensible light; sensible because of the flesh, intelligible because of the divinity. Thus she is blessed throughout. But even while she still lived in the flesh, she was blessed; for she heard the blessing while still in the flesh. That one first saw and then tasted of the tree; this one first spoke and then heard the blessing. For when the Savior was teaching, a certain woman raised her voice from the crowd and said to him, with all listening: "Blessed is the womb that bore you, and the breasts that you suckled." But concerning Adam, God fulfilled the sentence, or rather the healing of repentance, and says: "Because you listened to the voice of your wife and ate from the tree from which I commanded you not to eat, cursed is the earth in your works." Again, the blessed one does not receive the curse, but the earth does. One sinned, and another is struck. Just as with the curse of Eve—or rather, the rebuke. For it was not a curse, but a correction.

Just as the reproach of Eve—"In pains you will give birth"—and indeed every woman gives birth in pains—remains to this day, so also that of Adam: "Cursed is the earth in your works." Our works are lawless, and the earth is scourged. We sin, and the earth receives the curse. God spares the creature, as a well-born child, and strikes the earth as a tutor. "Cursed is the earth in your works." Do not attend to the nature, but to the grace of God. He did not say, "Cursed is the earth," as though it remained cursed and bore no fruit, just as he said to the fig tree, "Let no fruit come forth from you again," and it withered; so it would have happened to the earth, but he says, "In your works." When I sin, the earth is struck; when I prosper, he blesses it. And see the wonderful thing: when God created the earth, the sea, the birds, the reptiles, the beasts, the human, he blessed everything; he did not bless the fruits, because he knew that this punishment was reserved for the earth, so that when humans sin it receives infertility, and when they do right it receives fertility. He did not bless the fruits. For the gift was irrevocable: "Thorns and thistles will spring up for you." You despised, he says, the great things, you are struck by the small. See how the punishments are proportionate: a thorn cannot kill, it can draw blood, and it will eat the earth in pains. She gives birth in pains, you eat in pains. For the ancient decree remains to this day. And look, I ask you, at the rich man, the poor man, the ruler, the great man: can one find his life free from pain or care? Why? Because "in the sweat of your face you will eat your bread.

You did not wish to eat with ease, but in sweat. He does not punish him with hunger, but subjects him to penalty and toil. Therefore, you, the faithful one, consider this: If Adam does not eat bread without sweat, how should we obtain the kingdom of heaven without labors and sweats? "Until," it says, "you return to the earth from which you were taken." O sentence! O fear filled with philanthropy! O sentence full of recall! Not yet had he banished, and he recalled; not yet had he cast out, and he took back. "Until you return to the earth from which you were taken." He did not say "until you are destroyed," "until you are dissolved," but "until you return to the earth from which you were taken," so that you may set before yourself the hope of resurrection. I send you there, whence I took you; as I took you then, I am able to take you again. That you are earth and will go to earth. Therefore you will not be destroyed, but you will go. "You will go," some interpreted as "you will return." As far as it lay in our power, with the provision of the Holy Spirit we traversed paradise with you; we read the royal records; we saw the freedom of the accused, the philanthropy of the judge, through which we may also receive salvation from Christ, so that we may enjoy those heavenly and eternal goods, in Christ Jesus our Lord; for to him is the glory and the power, now and always, and unto the ages of ages. Amen.