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he transgressed the commandment, or even after transgressing if he had repented, deemed him worthy of glory and honor and compassion, allowing him to be within paradise?

Thus, therefore, for ages, the ancients, being taught by one another successively about God, knew their maker. But later, when men had multiplied and had given over their own minds from youth to wicked things, they were brought down into forgetfulness and ignorance of the God who made them, and not only did they revere idols and demons as gods, but also, deifying the very creation given to them by God for their service, they worshipped it, and gave themselves over to all licentiousness (60) and impure action, defiling the earth, the air, the heaven, and all things under it with their perverse actions. For nothing else of all things so defiles and renders impure the pure work of God as for this very thing to be deified and worshipped equally with God, instead of the one who made and created it. Therefore, all creation, deified and worshipped by men, was polluted and brought down to complete corruption; and when the summit of excessive evil was reached and all were enclosed in disobedience, according to the divine Apostle, then the Son of God and God came down to earth to refashion the one who was shattered, to give life to the one who had been put to death, and to recall His own creation from error.

But pay attention, I beseech you, to the precision of the discourse; for the discourse will be profitable both to us and to the generations that follow. It is necessary, from a certain image, to behold the incarnation of the Word and His ineffable birth from the ever-virgin Mary and to understand well from that the mystery of the economy hidden before the ages for the salvation of our race.

3. Concerning the incarnation of the Word and in what manner He was incarnate for our sake. (60) Just as, therefore, long ago in the fashioning of our foremother Eve, the rib of Adam

God took animated and built this up into a woman—for this reason, He did not breathe into her the breath of life as He did into Adam, but the part which He had taken from his flesh, He formed into a complete woman's body; and the first-fruit of the spirit, which He had taken with the ensouled flesh, (61) He made into a perfect living soul, fashioning both together into a human being. In this same way, then, from the holy Theotokos and ever-virgin Mary, taking ensouled flesh, as it were a leaven and a small first-fruit from the lump of our nature, that is from the soul together with the body, the fashioner and creator God united it to His own incomprehensible and inaccessible divinity, or rather, uniting essentially the entire hypostasis of His divinity to our substance, and having mixed it with that without confusion, the human with His own, He built it into a holy temple for Himself and, without alteration and without change, He, the maker of Adam, became a perfect man.

For just as from his rib He made the woman, as we have said before, so from his daughter Mary the ever-virgin and Theotokos, having borrowed and assumed flesh without seed, He was born similarly to the first-formed man, so that just as that one through transgression became the beginning of our birth in corruption and death, so Christ and God, through the fulfillment of all righteousness, might become the first-fruit of our re-creation in incorruption and immortality. For this is also what the divine Paul means when he says: "The first man was from the earth, a man of dust; the second man is the Lord from heaven. As was the man of dust, so also are those who are of the dust; and as is the man of heaven, so also are those who are of heaven."

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παρέβη τήν ἐντολήν, ἤ καί μετά τό παραβῆναι εἰ μετενόησε, δόξης καί τιμῆς καί συμπαθείας ἠξίωσεν ἔνδον ἐάσας εἶναι τοῦ παραδείσου αὐτόν;

Οὕτως οὖν ἐπί χρόνους τά περί Θεοῦ κατά διαδοχήν διδασκόμενοι ὑπ᾿ ἀλλήλων τόν ποιητήν αὐτῶν οἱ παλαιοί ἐπεγίνωσκον. Ὕστερον δέ πληθυνθέντων τῶν ἀνθρώπων καί τήν ἑαυτῶν διάνοιαν ἐκ νεότητος ἐπί τά πονηρά ἐκδεδωκότων, εἰς λήθην καί ἄγνοιαν τοῦ πεποιηκότος αὐτούς Θεοῦ κατηνέχθησαν καί οὐ μόνον εἴδωλα καί δαίμονας ὡς θεούς ἐσεβάσθησαν, ἀλλά καί αὐτήν τήν κτίσιν τήν εἰς ὑπηρεσίαν αὐτῶν ὑπό τοῦ Θεοῦ δοθεῖσαν αὐτοῖς θεοποιήσαντες, ταύτῃ ἐλάτρευσαν, εἰς πᾶσάν τε ἀσέλγειαν (60) καί ἀκάθαρτον πρᾶξιν ἑαυτούς ἐκδεδώκασι καταμιάναντες τήν γῆν, τόν ἀέρα, τόν οὐρανόν καί τά ὑπ᾿ αὐτόν ἅπαντα ταῖς πράξεσι ταῖς ἀτόποις αὐτῶν. Οὐδέν γάρ ἕτερον τῶν ἄλλων ἁπάντων οὕτω μιαίνει καί ἀκάθαρτον τό καθαρόν ἔργον ἀπεργάζεται τοῦ Θεοῦ, ὡς τό θεοποιηθῆναι αὐτό τοῦτο καί λατρευθῆναι ἴσα καί θεῷ παρά τόν πεποιηκότα καί κτίσαντα. Τοιγαροῦν καί πᾶσα ἡ κτίσις παρά τῶν ἀνθρώπων θεοποιηθεῖσα καί προσκυνηθεῖσα κατερρυπώθη καί εἰς τελείαν κατήχθη φθοράν· ὅτε δέ ὁ κολοφών ἐπληρώθη τῆς ἄγαν κακίας καί εἰς ἀπείθειαν ἅπαντες συνεκλείσθησαν, κατά τόν θεῖον Ἀπόστολον, τότε κατῆλθεν ἐπί γῆς ὁ Υἱός τοῦ Θεοῦ καί Θεός ἀναπλάσαι τόν συντριβέντα, ζωοποιῆσαι τόν τεθανατωμένον καί τό ἑαυτοῦ πλάσμα ἐκ τῆς πλάνης ἀνακαλέσασθαι.

Ἀλλά προσέχετε, παρακαλῶ, τῇ ἀκριβείᾳ τοῦ λόγου· ἔσται γάρ ἡμῖν τε ὠφέλιμος ὁ λόγος καί ταῖς μετέπειτα γενεαῖς. Χρεών δέ ἐξ εἰκόνος τινός τήν τοῦ Λόγου σάρκωσιν καί τήν ἐκ τῆς ἀειπαρθένου Μαρίας ἀπόρρητον γέννησιν αὐτοῦ θεωρῆσαι καί γνῶναι καλῶς τό τῆς οἰκονομίας ἐκεῖθεν μυστήριον τό ἀποκεκρυμμένον πρό τῶν αἰώνων εἰς σωτηρίαν τοῦ γένους ἡμῶν.

γ΄. Περί τῆς τοῦ Λόγου σαρκώσεως καί κατά τίνα τρόπον δι᾿ ἡμᾶς ἐσαρκώθη. (60) Καθάπερ οὖν ἐν τῇ πλάσει πάλαι τῆς προμήτορος Εὔας τήν τοῦ Ἀδάμ πλευράν

ἐψυχωμένην ἔλαβεν ὁ Θεός καί εἰς γυναῖκα ταύτην ἀνῳκοδόμησε - διά τοῦτο γάρ οὐδέ ἐνεφύσησεν εἰς αὐτήν ὡς εἰς τόν Ἀδάμ πνοήν ζωῆς, ἀλλά τό μέρος, ὅ ἐκ τῆς σαρκός αὐτοῦ εἴληφεν, εἰς σῶμα γυναικός ὁλόκληρον ἀπετέλεσε· καί τήν ἀπαρχήν τοῦ πνεύματος, ἥν σύν τῇ ἐμψυχωμένῃ σαρκί εἴληφεν, (61) εἰς ψυχήν ζῶσαν τελείαν πεποίηκε, τά ἀμφότερα ἄνθρωπον ἐργασάμενος ἅμα , τόν αὐτόν δή τρόπον καί ἐκ τῆς ἁγίας θεοτόκου καί ἀειπαρθένου Μαρίας ἐψυχωμένην σάρκα λαβών ζύμην οἱονεί καί μικράν ἀπαρχήν ἐκ τοῦ φυράματος τῆς φύσεως ἡμῶν, ἤτοι ἐκ τῆς ψυχῆς ὁμοῦ καί τοῦ σώματος, ὁ πλαστουργός καί κτίστης Θεός ἥνωσε τῇ ἑαυτοῦ ἀκαταλήπτῳ καί ἀπροσίτῳ θεότητι, μᾶλλον δέ τῇ ἡμετέρᾳ οὐσίᾳ ὅλην τῆς θεότητος αὐτοῦ τήν ὑπόστασιν ἑνώσας οὐσιωδῶς, ἀμίκτως τε μίξας αὐτήν ἐκείνῃ, τήν ἀνθρωπίνην τῇ ἑαυτοῦ, ᾠκοδόμησε ταύτην εἰς ναόν ἅγιον ἑαυτῷ καί ἀναλλιώτως καί ἀτρέπτως αὐτός ὁ τοῦ Ἀδάμ ποιητής τέλειος ἐγένετο ἄνθρωπος.

Ὥσπερ γάρ ἐκ τῆς ἐκείνου πλευρᾶς τήν γυναῖκα ἐποίησε, καθά πρόσθεν εἰρήκαμεν, οὕτως ἐκ τῆς αὐτοῦ θυγατρός Μαρίας τῆς ἀειπαρθένου καί θεοτόκου σάρκα δανεισάμενος καί ἀναλαβών ἄνευ σπορᾶς ὁμοίως ἐγεννήθη τῷ πρωτοπλάστῳ, ἵνα καθάπερ ἐκεῖνος διά τῆς παραβάσεως ἀρχή τῆς ἐν φθορᾷ καί θανάτῳ γενέσεως ἡμῶν ἐχρημάτισεν, οὕτως ὁ Χριστός καί Θεός διά τῆς ἐκπληρώσεως ἁπάσης δικαιοσύνης ἀπαρχή τῆς ἐν ἀφθαρσίᾳ ἀναπλάσεως καί ἀθανασίας ἡμῶν γένηται. Τοῦτο γάρ βούλεται καί Παῦλος οὕτω λέγων ὁ θεῖος· "Ὁ πρῶτος ἄνθρωπος ἐκ γῆς χοϊκός, ὁ δεύτερος ἄνθρωπος ὁ Κύριος ἐξ οὐρανοῦ· οἷος ὁ χοϊκός, τοιοῦτοι καί οἱ χοϊκοί· καί οἷος ὁ ἐπουράνιος, τοιοῦτοι καί οἱ ἐπουράνιοι".