25.  This is why the heathen rage and the peoples imagine vain things;65    Ps. ii. 1. why tree66    Gen. iii. 3.  Why tree, &c.  A striking contrast of the means of Redemption by the Cross of Christ with the circumstances of the Fall. is set over against tree,67    S. John xix. 17. hands against hand, the one stretched out in self indulgence,68    Gen. iii. 6–23. the others in generosity; the one unrestrained, the others fixed by nails,69    S. Matt. xxvii. 35. the one expelling Adam, the other reconciling the ends of the earth.  This is the reason of the lifting up to atone for the fall, and of the gall for the tasting, and of the thorny crown for the dominion of evil, and of death for death, and of darkness for the sake of light, and of burial for the return to the ground, and of resurrection for the sake of resurrection.70    For the sake of resurrection.  One translator carries on the contrast, and renders “to atone for the insurrection,” sc. of Adam.  The preposition ὑπερ seems decisive against this.  All these are a training from God for us, and a healing for our weakness, restoring the old Adam to the place whence he fell, and conducting us to the tree of life,71    Rev. ii. 7; xxii. 14. from which the tree of knowledge estranged us, when partaken of unseasonably, and improperly.

ΚΕʹ. Διὰ τοῦτο ἔθνη φρυασσόμενα, καὶ λαοὶ μελετῶντες κενά: διὰ τοῦτο ξύλον κατὰ τοῦ ξύλου, καὶ κατὰ τῆς χειρὸς χεῖρες, τῆς ἀκρατῶς ἐκταθείσης αἱ γενναίως ταθεῖσαι: τῆς ἀνειμένης αἱ τοῖς ἥλοις δεθεῖσαι: τῆς ἐκβαλούσης Ἀδὰμ αἱ τὰ πέρατα οἰκειούμεναι. Διὰ τοῦτο ὕψος κατὰ τοῦ πτώματος: καὶ χολὴ κατὰ τῆς γεύσεως, καὶ στέφανος ἀκάνθινος κατὰ τοῦ πονηροῦ κράτους, καὶ θάνατος κατὰ τοῦ θανάτου, καὶ σκότος ὑπὲρ τοῦ φωτὸς, καὶ ταφὴ κατὰ τῆς εἰς γῆν ἀποστροφῆς, καὶ ἀνάστασις ὑπὲρ τῆς ἀναστάσεως. Ταῦτα πάντα παιδαγωγία τις ἦν περὶ ἡμᾶς τοῦ Θεοῦ, καὶ τῆς ἀσθενείας ἰατρεία τῆς ἡμετέρας, τὸν παλαιὸν Ἀδὰμ ὅθεν ἐξέπεσεν ἐπανάγουσα, καὶ τῷ ξύλῳ τῆς ζωῆς προσάγουσα, οὗ τὸ ξύλον ἡμᾶς τῆς γνώσεως, οὐ κατὰ καιρὸν, οὐδ' ἐπιτηδείως μεταληφθὲν, ἠλλοτρίωσε.