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he did not want to repent through Me, but was found completely unhumbled, but rather said: The woman whom You gave me sinned, as if declaring Me the cause of the sin. Likewise again the woman blamed the serpent, and no one confessed to having sinned at all. For this reason he was cast out of the delight of paradise (388) and remained in sensible things alone with the irrational creatures, having become irrational from being rational, and indeed material, separated from the immaterial. A strange wonder: like a body, the soul has become without eyes, blinded and not seeing God. For a body, if it should be blinded, is moved by the soul; but the soul, having been blinded, what movement will it find? And how will it be able to live at all? In no way, but it will die a death for eternity, which is what the first-formed suffered, as I said, through foolishness and they went down into Hades and were brought down to corruption, whom I, having had compassion from above, came down to; being invisible, I shared in every thickness and flesh and I took up a soul, being God, unchangeably I, the Word, became flesh. And taking a beginning from flesh, I was seen by all as a man. Why then did I endure to do this at all? Because for this very purpose I created Adam, as I also said, (389) that he might see Me. But since he was blinded, and from him all his descendants at the same time,

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ὑπ᾿ἐμοῦ μετανοῆσαι οὐκ ἠθέλησεν, ἀλλ᾿ ὅλως ἀταπείνωτος εὑρέθη, εἶπε δέ μᾶλλον˙ Ἡ γυνή ἥμαρτεν, ἥν δέδωκάς μοι, ὡσανεί τῆς ἁμαρτίας αἴτιόν με ἀποφήνας. Ὁμοίως πάλιν ἡ γυνή ᾐτιάσατο τόν ὄφιν, καί οὐδείς ἡμαρτηκέναι ὡμολόγησεν οὐδ᾿ ὅλως. ∆ιά τοῦτο ἐξεβλήθη τῆς τρυφῆς τοῦ παραδείσου (388) καί ἔμεινεν ἐν αἰσθητοῖς μόνοις μετά τῶν ἀλόγων, ἄλογος ἐκ λογικῶν τε γεγονώς καί ἔνυλός γε, χωρισθείς ἐκ τῶν ἀΰλων. Θαῦμα ξένον˙ ὥσπερ σῶμα, γέγονεν ὀμμάτων δίχα ἡ ψυχή ἐκτυφλωθεῖσα καί Θεόν μή καθορῶσα. Σῶμα μέν, εἰ τυφλωθείη, ὑπό τῆς ψυχῆς κινεῖται˙ ἡ ψυχή δέ τυφλωθεῖσα ποίαν κίνησιν εὑρήσει; Ζῆν δέ πῶς ὅλως ἰσχύσει; Οὐδαμῶς, ἀλλά θανεῖται θάνατον εἰς τόν αἰῶνα, ὅπερ ἔπαθον, ὡς εἶπον, οἱ πρωτόπλαστοι ἀνοίᾳ καί κατῆλθον εἰς τόν ᾅδην καί εἰς φθοράν κατήχθησαν, οὕσπερ κατελεήσας ἄνωθεν ἐγώ κατῆλθον˙ ἀόρατος ὤν πάντῃ πάχους καί σαρκός μετέσον καί ψυχήν ἀνελαβόμην, Θεός ὤν ἀναλλοιώτως ἐγενόμην σάρξ, ὁ Λόγος. Ἐκ σαρκός ἀρχήν λαβών δέ ἄνθρωπος ὡράθην πᾶσιν. ∆ιά τί οὖν ὅλως τοῦτο ἠνεσχόμην τοῦ ποιῆσαι; Ὅτι ἐπί τούτῳ πάντως ἔκτισα, καθώς καί εἶπον, (389) τόν Ἀδάμ τοῦ καθορᾶν με. Ἐπειδή δέ ἐτυφλώθη, ἐξ ἐκείνου τε οἱ πάντες τούτου ἀπόγονοι ἅμα,