2

they dared to look upon him; but he conversed as a friend with a friend. For when He made the kinds of irrational creatures, He brought them to him, and he himself placed the names upon all, and the names remained unchanged. For this is the greatest proof of the honor from God, not that He commanded him to place the names, but that, when the man moved the law given to him, God did not move the honor, which He had given to him before the law, but "Whatever Adam called, that was its name." Do you see how there was no symbol of the present life there? no arts, no commerce, no buildings, no clothes, no shoes, no roof, no table, no toil, no grief, no death, no swarm of other passions, but the preludes were splendid, and the gateways were bright, and the beginning leading the way to a better life.

But Adam did not permit it, through unspeakable indolence transgressing the set boundaries, not even enduring to abstain from one tree; but nevertheless, even so, the great loving-kindness of God is shown. For God has such a custom, whenever we fall from something through indolence, not to desist before doing and contriving all things, until He leads us back to something much greater than what we fell from; which indeed also happened then. For we fell out of paradise, and we received heaven; wherefore the undertaking has become greater than the loss. But we did not receive it immediately; and this too is of His care. For since the enemy said, "You shall be as gods," and puffed them up with these hopes, and prepared them to expect equality with God, and anointed them for folly, and made them have a notion greater than their own nature; curing this wound with great abundance, He at once allows them to be subject to death for a time, so that by experience they might learn the devil's counsel, and that the soul, having been well disciplined to be moderate, might then receive back the body as immortal. Meanwhile, however, He wished the fear of death to be at its height in the mind, and for the matter to appear dreadful.

2. For this very reason He also allowed Abel to die first, so that the one who

transgressed might learn by the sight itself, what death is, and how heavy and burdensome a thing it is. For if he himself had died first, he would not have known the nature of the thing, never having seen another dead; but now, while he himself was living, seeing death prevailing in another body, that of his child, he learned more accurately and more clearly the magnitude of the punishment. For this very reason he saw it not simply in another's body, but in his child's, where along with the nature of the thing, the tyranny made the pain more grievous, and along with its nature, the virtue of the child, and along with the virtue, the flower of his age; for not in old age, but in the very prime of youth did he meet his end; and in addition to all these things, to suffer these things from a brother, and from a brother unlawfully and unjustly. For through all these things the mask of death was made dreadful and more painful to the sight, and the pain for Adam was roused more grievously, with each of the things mentioned lighting a great furnace and working a sharper flame, and teaching him into how great an evil the devil had cast him.

For if we, seeing the dead every day, are disturbed, troubled, and humbled, and not we 63.475 alone, but even those who raise their eyebrows and are of great rank and puffed up, if they are present at the funeral of even a common person, they are humbled at the sight, and become more lowly than anyone; what was it likely for him to suffer, seeing the dead for the first time, and in the body of his child, and such a child, and not yet having rehearsed the suffering through the succession of deaths, but being especially disturbed by its strangeness? what was it likely for him to suffer, seeing one not perceiving voice, not touch, not tears, not wailings, not moving, not sharing in the grief of the mourning father, not the usual things

2

ἀντιβλέψαι ἐτόλμων· αὐτὸς δὲ ὡσανεὶ φίλος φίλῳ διελέγετο. Καὶ γὰρ ἡνίκα τὰ τῶν ἀλόγων ἐποίησε γένη, πρὸς αὐτὸν ἤγαγε, καὶ τὰ ὀνόματα πᾶσιν αὐτὸς ἐπέθηκε, καὶ ἔμεινεν ἀκίνητα τὰ ὀνόματα. Καὶ γὰρ καὶ τοῦτο μέγιστον τῆς τοῦ Θεοῦ τιμῆς τεκμήριον, οὐχ ὅτι αὐτῷ τὰ ὀνόματα ἐπιθεῖναι ἐκέλευσεν, ἀλλ' ὅτι, τοῦ ἀνθρώπου τὸν δοθέντα αὐτῷ νόμον κινήσαντος, ὁ Θεὸς τὴν τιμὴν, ἣν ἔδωκεν αὐτῷ πρὸ τοῦ νόμου, οὐκ ἐκίνησεν, ἀλλὰ Πᾶν ὃ ἐκάλεσεν Ἀδὰμ, τοῦτο ὄνομα αὐτῷ. Εἶδες πῶς οὐδὲν τῆς παρούσης ἐκεῖ ζωῆς σύμβολον; οὐ τέχνας, οὐκ ἐμπορίας, οὐκ οἰκοδομὰς, οὐκ ἐνδύματα, οὐχ ὑποδήματα, οὐ στέγην, οὐ τράπεζαν, οὐ πόνον, οὐ λύπην, οὐ θάνατον, οὐ τὸν τῶν ἄλλων παθῶν ἑσμὸν, ἀλλὰ λαμπρὰ τὰ προοίμια, καὶ φαιδρὰ τὰ προπύλαια, καὶ τὴν ἀρχὴν ἐπὶ βελτίονα ζωὴν ὁδεύουσαν.

Ἀλλ' οὐκ εἴασεν ὁ Ἀδὰμ, ῥᾳθυμίᾳ ἀφάτῳ τῶν ἐπιταχθέντων ὑπερβὰς τοὺς ὅρους, καὶ μηδὲ ἑνὸς ἀποσχέσθαι καρτερήσας ξύλου· ἀλλ' ὅμως καὶ οὕτω πολλὴ ἡ τοῦ Θεοῦ φιλανθρωπία δείκνυται. Καὶ γὰρ ἔθος τῷ Θεῷ τοιοῦτον, ὅταν τινὸς ἐκπέσωμεν διὰ ῥᾳθυμίαν, μὴ πρότερον ἀφίστασθαι πάντα ποιοῦντα καὶ πραγματευόμενον, ἕως ἂν ἡμᾶς ἐπὶ πολλῷ μείζονα ὧν ἐξεπέσαμεν ἐπαναγάγῃ· ὃ δὴ καὶ τότε συνέβη. Ἐξεπέσαμεν γὰρ παραδείσου, καὶ ἐλάβομεν οὐρανόν· διὸ καὶ μείζων τῆς ζημίας ἡ πραγματεία γέγονε. Ἀλλ' οὐκ εὐθέως εἰλήφαμεν· καὶ τοῦτο τῆς αὐτοῦ κηδεμονίας. Ἐπειδὴ γὰρ εἶπεν ὁ ἐχθρὸς, ὅτι Ἔσεσθε ὡς θεοὶ, καὶ ταύταις αὐτοὺς ἐφύσησε ταῖς ἐλπίσι, καὶ ἰσοθεΐαν προσδοκῆσαι παρεσκεύασε, καὶ εἰς ἀπόνοιαν ἤλειψε, καὶ μείζονα τῆς οἰκείας φύσεως λαβεῖν ἔννοιαν ἐποίησεν· ἐκ πολλοῦ τοῦ περιόντος τὸ ἕλκος τοῦτο θεραπεύων, εὐθέως ἀφίησιν ἐγχρονίσαι τῷ θανάτῳ, ὥστε τῇ πείρᾳ μαθεῖν τοῦ διαβόλου τὴν συμβουλὴν, καὶ παιδευθεῖσαν καλῶς τὴν ψυχὴν μετριάζειν, τότε ἀθάνατον ἀπολαβεῖν τὸ σῶμα. Τέως μέντοι τοῦ θανάτου τὸν φόβον ἐνακμάζειν ἠβούλετο τῇ διανοίᾳ, καὶ φοβερὸν τὸ πρᾶγμα φαίνεσθαι.

βʹ. ∆ιά τοι τοῦτο καὶ τὸν Ἄβελ συνεχώρησεν ἀποθανεῖν πρῶτον, ἵνα ὁ

παραβὰς διὰ τῆς ὄψεως αὐτῆς μάθῃ, τί ποτέ ἐστι θάνατος, καὶ πῶς βαρὺ πρᾶγμα καὶ ἐπαχθές. Εἰ μὲν γὰρ αὐτὸς ἐτελεύτησε πρῶτος, οὐκ ἂν ἔγνω τοῦ πράγματος τὴν φύσιν, μηδέποτε ἄλλον ἰδὼν νεκρόν· νυνὶ δὲ αὐτὸς μὲν ζῶν, ἐν ἑτέρῳ δὲ σώματι ὁρῶν τὸν θάνατον κρατοῦντα, τῷ τοῦ παιδὸς, ἀκριβέστερον καὶ σαφέστερον ἐμάνθανε τῆς κολάσεως τὸ μέγεθος. ∆ιά τοι τοῦτο οὐδὲ ἁπλῶς ἐν ἀλλοτρίῳ σώματι, ἀλλ' ἐν τῷ τοῦ παιδὸς αὐτὸν εἶδεν, ἔνθα μετὰ τῆς τοῦ πράγματος φύσεως ἡ τυραννὶς χαλεπωτέραν ἐποίει τὴν ὀδύνην, καὶ μετὰ τῆς φύσεως ἡ ἀρετὴ τοῦ παιδὸς, καὶ μετὰ τῆς ἀρετῆς τὸ τῆς ἡλικίας ἄνθος· οὐ γὰρ ἐν γήρᾳ, ἀλλ' ἐν αὐτῇ τῇ ἀκμῇ τῆς νεότητος τὴν τελευτὴν ἐδέξατο· καὶ πρὸς τούτοις ἅπασι τὸ παρὰ ἀδελφοῦ ταῦτα παθεῖν, καὶ παρὰ ἀδελφοῦ παρανόμως καὶ ἀδίκως. ∆ιὰ γὰρ ἁπάντων τούτων φοβερὸν τὸ προσωπεῖον τοῦ θανάτου κατεσκευάζετο καὶ τῇ ὄψει ἀλγεινότερον, καὶ ἡ ὀδύνη τῷ Ἀδὰμ ἠγείρετο χαλεπωτέρα, ἑκάστου τῶν εἰρημένων μεγάλην ἀνάπτοντος κάμινον καὶ δριμυτέραν τὴν φλόγα ἐργαζομένου, καὶ παιδεύοντος εἰς ὅσον κακὸν αὐτὸν ἐνέβαλεν ὁ διάβολος.

Εἰ γὰρ ἡμεῖς καθ' ἑκάστην ἡμέραν ὁρῶντες νεκροὺς θορυβούμεθα, ταραττόμεθα, συστελλόμεθα, καὶ οὐχ ἡμεῖς 63.475 μένον, ἀλλὰ καὶ οἱ τὰς ὀφρῦς ἀνασπῶντες καὶ ἐπὶ τῶν μεγάλων ὄντες ἀξιωμάτων καὶ πεφυσιωμένοι, εἰ παραγίνονται ἐπ' ἐκφορᾷ καὶ τοῦ τυχόντος νεκροῦ, τῇ ὄψει συστέλλονται, καὶ γίνονται παντὸς ταπεινότεροι· τί εἰκὸς ἦν παθεῖν ἐκεῖνον τὸν πρῶτον βλέποντα νεκρὸν, καὶ ἐν τῷ τοῦ παιδὸς σώματι, καὶ παιδὸς τοιούτου, καὶ μηδέπω τῇ συνεχείᾳ τῶν τελευτώντων μελετήσαντα τὸ πάθος, ἀλλὰ τῷ ξένῳ μάλιστα θορυβούμενον; τί πάσχειν εἰκὸς ἦν ὁρῶντα μὴ φωνῆς αἰσθανόμενον, μὴ ἁφῆς, μὴ δακρύων, μὴ κωκυτῶν, μὴ κινούμενον, μὴ συναλγοῦντα τῷ πενθοῦντι πατρὶ, μὴ τὰ συνήθη