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for this reason fashioned tunics of skin, as it were, clothing him with mortality so that through the dissolution of the body all the evil that had come to be in him might die. 31. But it has already been questioned and demonstrated that the tunics of skin are not the bodies. Nevertheless, and again—for it must be said not once—let us speak. The first-formed man himself, before their fashioning, acknowledges that he has both bones and flesh, when indeed, having seen the woman brought to him, he exclaimed, "This now is bone of my bones and flesh of my flesh; she shall be called Woman, because she was taken out of her Man. For this reason a man shall leave his father and his mother, 2.450 and shall be joined to his wife, and the two shall become one flesh." For I will not tolerate some who talk nonsense and shamelessly do violence to the scripture, so that for them the resurrection might proceed as not being of the flesh, supposing intelligible bones and intelligible flesh and at different times in different ways changing things up and down with allegories; and this, too, while Christ confirms the scripture, that these things are to be taken just as they are written, where, to the Pharisees asking about the putting away of a wife, he answers, "Have you not read that he who created from the beginning made them male and female and said: For this reason a man shall leave his father and mother" and what follows. For how is one to take "be fruitful and fill the earth" as applying to souls alone? Or "God took dust from the earth and formed man," which seems properly to have been said of the body; for the soul did not acquire its substance from dust and heavier things. So that it is most truly established in every way that man was embodied before the tunics of skin. For all these things were said before he fell, but the things concerning the tunics after the fall. Therefore let us go again to examine the matter at hand, having sufficiently demonstrated that the tunics of skin are not the bodies, but the mortality fashioned from the irrational animals; for this remains. Doubtless for this reason he is exiled outside the bounds of paradise. For he did not cast him out because God did not wish him to pluck from the tree of life and to eat—for he was able to live forever, having eaten again from life—but so that evil might not become immortal, as we supposed. For why did he send Christ from heaven to earth, if he wanted man, having not tasted of life, to die completely? But if 2.451 the objector should say God did this out of regret, his argument is weak, introducing a God who repents. But God is neither ignorant of the future nor a doer of evil, but both supremely good and foreknowing the things to come. Therefore, it was not that he cast him out so that he might not be saved forever by eating from the tree of life, but so that sin might first be put to death by death, so that thus after death, when sin had been consumed, man, being raised clean, might taste of life. 32. And let no one, being a simpleton, run the risk of thinking these things were said in another way. For he who defines this flesh as not being at all capable of immortality, truly being subject to the disease of folly, blasphemes. For why, after the fashioning of the tunics of skin, is Adam cast out, being prevented from eating of the tree of life and living, if it was at all impossible for man to live forever with a body? For the prevention occurs because he was able not to die, if he should take and taste of life. For it says, "And the Lord God made for Adam and for his wife tunics of skin and clothed them; and God said: Behold, Adam has become like one of us, to know good and evil; and now, lest at any time he stretch forth his hand and take of the tree of life and eat and live forever. And the Lord God sent him out from the paradise of delight to work the ground, from which he was taken, and

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δερματίνους χιτῶνας διὰ τοῦτο κατεσκεύασεν, οἱονεὶ νεκρότητι περιβαλὼν αὐτὸν ὅπως διὰ τῆς λύσεως τοῦ σώματος πᾶν τὸ ἐν αὐτῷ γενηθὲν κακὸν ἀποθάνῃ. 31. Προηπόρηται δὲ ἤδη καὶ ἀπεδείχθη τοὺς δερματίνους χιτῶνας μὴ εἶναι τὰ σώματα. ὅμως δὲ καὶ πάλιν οὐ γὰρ ἅπαξ ῥητέον φράζωμεν. αὐτὸς πρὸ τῆς κατασκευῆς αὐτῶν ὁ πρωτόπλαστος ὁμολογεῖ καὶ ὀστᾶ ἔχειν καὶ σάρκας, ὁπότε δὴ τὴν γυναῖκα προσενεχθεῖσαν αὐτῷ θεασάμενος «τοῦτο νῦν ὀστοῦν» ἐφώνησεν «ἐκ τῶν ὀστῶν μου καὶ σὰρξ ἐκ τῆς σαρκός μου· αὕτη κληθήσεται γυνή, ὅτι ἐκ τοῦ ἀνδρὸς αὐτῆς ἐλήφθη. ἕνεκεν τούτου καταλείψει ἄνθρωπος τὸν πατέρα αὐτοῦ καὶ τὴν μητέρα, 2.450 καὶ προσκολληθήσεται τῇ γυναικὶ αὐτοῦ, καὶ ἔσονται οἱ δύο εἰς σάρκα μίαν». οὐ γὰρ δὴ ἀνέξομαι φληναφώντων τινῶν καὶ βιαζομένων ἀπηρυθριασμένως τὴν γραφήν, ἵνα αὐτοῖς δὴ σαρκὸς μὴ εἶναι προχωρήσῃ ἡ ἀνάστασις, ὀστᾶ νοητὰ καὶ σάρκας νοητὰς ὑποτιθεμένων καὶ ἄλλοτε ἄλλως ἄνω καὶ κάτω μεταβαλλομένων ἀλληγορίαις· καὶ ταῦτα οὕτως ὡς γέγραπται παραλαμβάνεσθαι κρατύνοντος τοῦ Χριστοῦ τὴν γραφήν, ἔνθα πυνθανομένοις τοῖς Φαρισαίοις περὶ χωρισμοῦ γυναικὸς ἀποκρίνεται «οὐκ ἀνέγνωτε ὅτι ἀπ' ἀρχῆς ὁ κτίσας ἄρσεν καὶ θῆλυ ἐποίησε καὶ εἶπεν· ἕνεκεν τούτου καταλείψει ἄνθρωπος τὸν πατέρα καὶ τὴν μητέρα» καὶ τὰ ἑξῆς. πῶς γὰρ ἐπὶ ψυχῶν μόνον τό «αὐξάνεσθε καὶ πληρώσατε τὴν γῆν» παραληπτέον; ἢ τό «ἔλαβε χοῦν ἀπὸ τῆς γῆς ὁ θεὸς καὶ ἔπλασε τὸν ἄνθρωπον», ὃ κυρίως ἐπὶ τοῦ σώματος λελέχθαι φαίνεται· οὐ γὰρ ἀπὸ τοῦ χοὸς καὶ τῶν βαρυτέρων τὴν οὐσίαν ἐκτήσατο ἡ ψυχή. ὥστε συνέστηκεν ἐκ παντὸς ἀληθέστατα πρὸ τῶν δερματίνων σεσωματοποιῆσθαι χιτώνων τὸν ἄνθρωπον. ταῦτα γὰρ πρὸ τοῦ ἐκπεσεῖν αὐτὸν ἅπαντα εἴρηται, τὰ δὲ κατὰ τοὺς χιτῶνας μετὰ τὸ ἐκπεσεῖν. Ὅθεν ἴωμεν πάλιν ἐπισκεψόμενοι τὰ ἐν χερσίν, ἱκανῶς ἀποδείξαντες μὴ εἶναι τοὺς δερματίνους χιτῶνας τὰ σώματα, ἀλλὰ τὴν ἀπὸ τοῦ ἀλόγου τῶν ζῴων νεκρότητα κατεσκευασμένην· τοῦτο γὰρ λείπεται. ἀμέλει τῶν ὅρων ἔξω τοῦ παραδείσου κατὰ ταύτην ἐξοικίζεται τὴν αἰτίαν. οὐ γὰρ ὅτι μὴ θέλων ὁ θεὸς ἀπὸ τοῦ ξύλου δρέψασθαι τῆς ζωῆς αὐτὸν καὶ φαγεῖν ἐξέβαλεν ἐδύνατο γὰρ εἰς τὸν αἰῶνα ζῆν, αὖθις φαγὼν ἀπὸ τῆς ζωῆς ἀλλ' ἵνα μὴ ἀθάνατον, ὡς ὑπεθέμεθα, γενηθῇ τὸ κακόν. ἐπεὶ διὰ τί τὸν Χριστὸν ἀπὸ τῶν οὐρανῶν ἀπέστελλεν εἰς τὴν γῆν, εἰ ὅλως ἤθελε ζωῆς τὸν ἄνθρωπον ἀγευστήσαντα ἀποθανεῖν εἰς τὸ παντελές; εἰ 2.451 δὲ ἐκ μεταμέλου φαίη τοῦτο πεποιηκέναι τὸν θεὸν ὁ ἀντιλέγων, ἀσθενὴς αὐτῷ ὁ λόγος, μεταγινώσκοντα τὸν θεὸν εἰσάγων. ἀλλ' οὔτε ἀξύνετος τοῦ μέλλοντος ὁ θεὸς οὔτε κακοποιός, ἀλλὰ καὶ ἄκρως ἀγαθὸς καὶ προγινώσκων τὰ μέλλοντα. ὥστε οὐκ ἄρα διὰ τὸ μὴ σῴζεσθαι εἰς τὸν αἰῶνα φαγόντα αὐτὸν ἀπὸ τοῦ ξύλου τῆς ζωῆς ἐξέβαλεν, ἀλλὰ διὰ τὸ νεκρωθῆναι πρῶτον θανάτῳ τὴν ἁμαρτίαν, ἵν' οὕτως μετὰ τὸ ἀποθανεῖν ἐκτακείσης τῆς ἁμαρτίας ἐγερθεὶς ὁ ἄνθρωπος καθαρὸς γεύσηται τῆς ζωῆς. 32. Μηδεὶς δὲ ἀβέλτερος ὢν παρακινδυνευέτω ὡς τούτων ἑτέρως λεχθέντων. ὁ γὰρ ὅλως ὁριζόμενος τὴν σάρκα μὴ εἶναι ταύτην ἀθανασίας δεκτικὴν ὄντως ἀνοίας ὑπεύθυνος ὢν νόσῳ βλασφημεῖ. διὰ τί γὰρ μετὰ τὴν τῶν χιτώνων τῶν δερματίνων ὁ Ἀδὰμ κατασκευὴν ἐκβάλλεται, κωλυόμενος φαγεῖν ἀπὸ τοῦ ξύλου τῆς ζωῆς καὶ ζῆσαι, εἰ ὅλως ἀδύνατον ἦν μετὰ σώματος εἰς τὸν αἰῶνα ζῆσαι τὸν ἄνθρωπον; ὡς δυναμένου γὰρ αὐτοῦ μὴ ἀποθανεῖν, ἐὰν ἀπὸ τῆς ζωῆς γεύσηται λαβών, ἡ κώλυσις γίγνεται. φησὶ γάρ «καὶ ἐποίησε κύριος ὁ θεὸς τῷ Ἀδὰμ καὶ τῇ γυναικὶ αὐτοῦ χιτῶνας δερματίνους καὶ ἐνέδυσεν αὐτούς· καὶ εἶπεν ὁ θεός· ἰδού, γέγονεν Ἀδὰμ ὡς εἷς ἐξ ἡμῶν, τοῦ γινώσκειν καλὸν καὶ πονηρόν· καὶ νῦν μή ποτε ἐκτείνῃ τὴν χεῖρα καὶ λάβῃ τοῦ ξύλου τῆς ζωῆς καὶ φάγῃ καὶ ζήσεται εἰς τὸν αἰῶνα. καὶ ἐξαπέστειλεν αὐτὸν κύριος ὁ θεὸς ἐκ τοῦ παραδείσου τῆς τρυφῆς ἐργάζεσθαι τὴν γῆν, ἐξ ἧς ἐλήφθη, καὶ