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to the Hebrews; but it is the error of a Hebrew scribe, who erred in that error, in which it is found in Aquila: This is the book of the generations of Adam; but in the Septuagint: This is the book of the generation of men. For he thought that in this place also a book had been omitted, and so he added it. And God planted a paradise in Eden toward the east, and there he placed the man whom he had formed. And God made to grow still out of the ground every tree that is pleasant to the sight, and good for 12.100 food. When, in our reading, we ascend from the myths and the literal interpretation, let us seek what those trees are that God cultivates; we say that there are no perceptible trees in the place. Of the same. It is placed in the interpretation, a garden in Eden, using the Hebrew word itself. Now, the interpretation of Eden is properly delight. Therefore the Hebrews have handed down, that the place in which the Lord God planted the paradise or the garden is called Eden; and they say it is the middle of the world, like the pupil of an eye; wherefore also the river Pishon is interpreted as mouth of a pupil, as the first river proceeds out of Eden. And what they hand down is such as this: Eden, which is interpreted as delight, existed before the garden came to be; for in it the garden also was planted. And the gold of that land is good. When the mouth is changed by our virtue, and the soul masters good thoughts, then it nourishes good doctrines; which the word, speaking allegorically, called good gold. And the name of the second river is Geon; this is the one that flows around the whole land of Ethiopia. Ethiopia, which in Hebrew is Chus; it also signifies darkness. Therefore from Ethiopia, that is from Chus, on account of the darkness of his skin, which he had in comparison with his other brothers. And he placed him in the paradise. Those who are reborn through divine baptism are placed in paradise, that is, in the Church, to work the spiritual works that are within; and they receive a commandment to love all the brethren, and to eat the coming fruit through patience, according to what was said: Of every tree that is in paradise you may freely eat. But one transgresses the commandment of the one who regenerated him by using the reasonings of the serpent, and loving some as good, but hating others as wicked; which is the tree of knowing good; from which one who has tasted with impunity dies; not because God made death, but because man hated his neighbor. For God did not make death, nor does he delight in the destruction of the living; nor is he moved by a passion of anger, nor does he devise a thing for vengeance, nor is he changed according to each one's wayward disposition, but he made all things in wisdom, having predestined them to be judged by a spiritual law. For this reason, therefore, he says to Adam: In whatever day you eat, you shall surely die. And so to each thing, both of good and of evil, he assigned what is fitting to follow naturally; and not by contrivance, as some suppose, who are ignorant of the spiritual law. 12.101 And the Lord God made for Adam and for his wife garments of skin, and clothed them. What should one understand the garments of skin to be? It is, then, extremely foolish and old-womanish, and unworthy of God, to think that God, having stripped the skins from some animals, which had been slain or had died in some other way, had made the shape of garments, sewing the skins together like a leather-worker. Again, fleeing from what is so absurd, to say that the garments of skin are nothing other than the bodies is plausible, and able to draw one to agreement, yet it is not clear as true. For if the garments of skin are flesh and bones, how before these does Adam say: This is now bone of my bones, and flesh of my flesh? Therefore some, avoiding these difficulties, declared the garments of skin to be the mortality, with which Adam and Eve are clothed, having been put to death on account of sin. Not at all are even they able to demonstrate easily, how God, and not sin, produces mortality in the one who has transgressed. In addition to these things, they are compelled to say flesh and bones in its proper sense

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Ἑβραίοις· ἀλλ' ἔστι πλάνη Ἑβραίου γραφέως, πλανηθέντος ἐν τῇ πλάνῃ ἐκείνου, ἐν ᾧ κεῖται παρὰ μὲν Ἀκύλᾳ· Τοῦτο βι βλίον γεννημάτων Ἀδάμ· παρὰ δὲ τοῖς Οʹ· Αὕτη ἡ βίβλος γενέσεως ἀνθρώπων. Ὠήθη γὰρ καὶ ἐν τούτῳ τῷ τόπῳ βιβλίον παραλελεῖφθαι, καὶ οὕτως αὐτὸ προσέθηκε. Καὶ ἐφύτευσεν ὁ Θεὸς παράδεισον ἐν Ἐδὲμ κατὰ ἀνατολὰς, καὶ ἔθετο ἐκεῖ τὸν ἄνθρωπον, ὃν ἔπλασε. Καὶ ἐξανέτειλεν ὁ Θεὸς ἔτι ἐκ τῆς γῆς πᾶν ξύλον ὡραῖον εἰς ὅρασιν, καὶ καλὸν εἰς 12.100 βρῶσιν. Ὅταν ἀναγινώσκοντες ἀναβαίνωμεν ἀπὸ τῶν μύθων καὶ τῆς κατὰ τὸ γράμμα ἐκδοχῆς, ζητῶμεν τίνα τὰ ξύλα ἐστὶν ἐκεῖνα, ἃ ὁ Θεὸς γεωρ γεῖ· λέγομεν, ὅτι οὐκ ἔνι αἰσθητὰ ξύλα ἐν τῷ τόπῳ. Τοῦ αὐτοῦ. Τέθειται ἐν τῇ ἑρμηνείᾳ, κῆπον ἐν Ἐδὲμ, αὐτῇ χρησαμένῳ τῇ Ἑβραϊκῇ λέξει. Ἔστιμὲν οὖν ἑρμηνεία τοῦ Ἐδὲμ κυρίως ἡδύ. Οὐκοῦν παραδεδώκασιν Ἑβραῖοι, ὅτι ὁ τόπος ἐν ᾧ ἐφύτευσεν τὸν παράδεισον ἢ τὸν κῆπον Κύριος ὁ Θεὸς, Ἐδὲμ καλεῖται· καὶ φασὶν αὐτὸν μέσον εἶναι τοῦ κόσμου, ὡς κόρην ὀφθαλμοῦ· διὸ καὶ τὸν ποταμὸν τὸν Φείσων, ἑρμηνεύεσθαι στόμα κόρης, ὡς ἐκ τοῦ Ἐδὲμ ἐκπο ρευομένου τοῦ ποταμοῦ τοῦ πρώτου. Ὃ δὲ παραδιδόα σιν, τοιοῦτόν ἐστιν· Ἐδὲμ, ὃς ἑρμηνεύεται ἡδὺ, ἦν πρὶν τὸν κῆπον γενέσθαι· ἐν αὐτῷ γὰρ καὶ ὁ κῆπος ἐφυτεύθη. Τὸ δὲ χρυσίον τῆς γῆς ἐκείνης καλόν. Ὅτε ἀλ λοιοῦται ὑπὸ τῆς ἀρετῆς ἡμῶν τὸ στόμα, καὶ κυ ριεύει ἡ ψυχὴ καλὰ νοήματα, τότε τρέφει καλὰ δόγμα τα· ἅπερ αἰνιττόμενος ὁ λόγος εἶπεν, χρυσίον καλόν. Καὶ ὄνομα τῷ ποταμῷ τῷ δευτέρῳ, Γεών· οὗτος ὁ κυκλῶν πᾶσαν τὴν γῆν Αἰθιοπίας. Αἰθιοπίας, ἥτις ἐστὶ Ἑβραϊστὶ Χοῦς· σημαίνει καὶ σκότωσιν. Ἀπὸ οὖν τῆς Αἰθιοπίας, τουτέστιν ἀπὸ τοῦ Χοῦς, διὰ τὸ σκοτῶδες τῆς χροίας, ἧς ἔσχε παρὰ τοὺς λοι ποὺς ἀδελφούς. Καὶ ἔθετο αὐτὸν ἐν τῷ παραδείσῳ. Οἱ ἀναγεν νώμενοι διὰ τοῦ θείου βαπτίσματος ἐν τῷ παρα δείσῳ τίθενται, τουτέστιν ἐν τῇ Ἐκκλησίᾳ, ἐργάζε σθαι τὰ ἔνδον ὄντα ἔργα πνευματικά· καὶ ἐντολὴν λαμβάνουσι πάντας ἀγαπᾷν τοὺς ἀδελφοὺς, καὶ τὸν ἐρχόμενον καρπὸν δι' ὑπομονῆς ἐσθίειν, κατὰ τὸ εἰ ρημένον· Ἀπὸ παντὸς ξύλου τοῦ ἐν τῷ παραδείσῳ βρώσει φαγῇ. Παραβαίνει δέ τις τὴν ἐντολὴν τοῦ ἀναγεννήσαντος ὁ τοῖς ὄφεως λογισμοῖς χρησάμενος, καὶ ἀγαπῶν τοὺς μὲν ὡς χρηστοὺς, τοὺς δὲ ὡς πονη ροὺς μισῶν· ὅπερ ἐστὶ τὸ ξύλον τοῦ γινώσκειν καλόν· οὗ ὁ ἀπογευσάμενος κατ' ἄδειαν ἀποθνήσκει· οὐχὶ τοῦ Θεοῦ τὸν θάνατον ποιήσαντος, ἀλλὰ τοῦ ἀνθρώπου τὸν πλησίον μισήσαντος. Θεὸς γὰρ θάνατον οὐκ ἐποίησεν, οὐδὲ τέρπεται ἐπ' ἀπωλείᾳ ζώντων· οὔτε κινεῖται πάθει ὀργῆς, οὐδὲ ἐπινοεῖ πρᾶγμα εἰς ἄμυ ναν, οὐδὲ ἀλλοιοῦται πρὸς τὴν ἑκάστου ἐξίαν ἕξιν, ἀλλὰ πάντα ἐν σοφίᾳ ἐποίησεν, ὑπὸ νόμῳ πνευμα τικῷ κρίνεσθαι προορίσας. ∆ιὰ τοῦτο οὖν λέγει τῷ Ἀδάμ· Ἧ δ' ἂν ἡμέρᾳ φάγητε, θανάτῳ ἀποθανεῖσθε. Καὶ οὕτω δὲ ἑκάστῳ τῷ πράγματι καλοῦ τε καὶ κακοῦ φυσικῶς ἐπακολουθεῖν τὸ δέον ἀπένειμεν· καὶ οὐκ ἐπινοητικῶς, ὥς τινες νομίζουσιν, οἱ τὸν πνευματικὸν ἀγνοοῦντες νόμον. 12.101 Καὶ ἐποίησε Κύριος ὁ Θεὸς τῷ Ἀδὰμ καὶ τῇ γυναικὶ αὐτοῦ χιτῶνας δερματίνους, καὶ ἐνέδυ σεν αὐτούς. Τί δεῖ νοεῖν τοὺς δερματίνους χι τῶνας; Σφόδρα μὲν οὖν ἠλίθιον καὶ γραῶδες, καὶ ἀνά ξιον τοῦ Θεοῦ, τὸ οἴεσθαι ζώων τινῶν περιελόντα δέρματα τὸν Θεὸν, ἀναιρεθέντων, ἢ ἄλλως πως ἀπο θανόντων, πεποιηκέναι σχήματα χιτώνων, καταῤῥά ψαντα δέρματα δίκην σκυτοτόμου. Πάλιν τε, φυγόντα τὸ οὕτως ἄτοπον, λέγειν τοὺς δερματίνους χιτῶνας οὐκ ἄλλους εἶναι ἢ τὰ σώματα πιθανὸν μὲν, καὶ εἰς συγκατάθεσιν ἐπισπάσασθαι δυνάμενον, οὐ μὴν σαφὲς ὡς ἀληθές. Εἰ γὰρ οἱ δερμάτινοι χιτῶνες σάρκες καὶ ὀστέα εἰσὶ, πῶς πρὸ τούτων φησὶν ὁ Ἀδάμ· Τοῦτο νῦν ὀστοῦν ἐκ τῶν ὀστῶν μου, καὶ σὰρξ ἐκ τῆς σαρκός μου; Ταύτας οὖν τὰς ἀπορίας περιιστάμενοί τινες, δερματίνους χιτῶνας τὴν νέκρωσιν, ἣν ἀμφιέν νυνται ὁ Ἀδὰμ καὶ ἡ Εὔα, διὰ τὴν ἁμαρτίαν θανατω θέντες, ἀπεφήναντο τυγχάνειν. Οὐ πάνυ τι οὐδὲ αὐ τοὶ εὐχερῶς δυνάμενοι παραστῆσαι, πῶς ὁ Θεὸς, καὶ οὐχὶ ἁμαρτία, νέκρωσιν ἐμποιεῖ τῷ παραβεβηκότι. Πρὸς τούτοις ἀνάγκην ἔχουσι λέγειν σάρκα καὶ ὀστέα τῷ ἰδίῳ λόγῳ