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cast out Adam.” Therefore the body was able to live forever and to be immortal, if it had not been prevented from tasting of life. But it was prevented, so that sin, being put to death together with the body, might die, and the body might rise up with sin having been destroyed. So that man might not, as I said, be an immortal evil, having ever-living sin dominant within himself, seeing that it had sprouted in an immortal 2.452 body and had immortal nourishment, for this reason God declared him mortal, clothing him with mortality. For this is what the garments of skin meant, so that indeed through the dissolution of the body and its division, all of sin might be utterly destroyed from the root below, so that not even the smallest part of the root be left, from which new sprouts of sins might rise up again. 33. For just as when in the beautiful structures of temples a fig tree has grown and has been well-nourished to extension and size and has spread its many-branched roots around all the joints of the stones, it does not cease from growing until it is all torn out, after the stones in the places where it grew have been loosened—for it is possible for the stones to be fitted together again in the same places, once the fig tree has been removed, so that the temple may be saved, no longer bearing in itself any of the evils that destroy it, and the fig tree, torn out completely from its foundations, may die—in the same way God the craftsman dissolved his own temple, man, who had sprouted sin like a wild fig tree, through the temporary assaults of death, “killing,” according to what is written, “and making alive,” so that again from the same parts the flesh, after the sin has withered and died, might be raised immortal and unharmed like a renovated temple, with sin having been utterly destroyed from its foundations. For while the body is still living, before it has 2.453 died, it is necessary for sin also to live with it, hiding its roots within us, even if it was checked externally by the cuttings from corrections and admonitions, since it would not still happen that we do wrong after being enlightened, with sin having been completely and purely removed from us. But now, even after believing and coming to the water of purification, we are often found to be in sins. For no one will boast that he is so without sin as not even to have thought of injustice at all. So it happens that sin is now checked and quieted by faith, so as not to bear harmful fruits, but it has not been destroyed down to the roots. For now, here, we check its sprouts, such as evil thoughts, “lest any root of bitterness springing up cause trouble,” not allowing the closed mouths to open up and be opened for outgrowths, with the word cutting at its roots growing below like an axe. But then even the possibility of thinking about evil at all will be abolished. 34. For the word of the scriptures is not without witness for those who wish to hear the truth purely, since the apostle knows that the root of sin has not yet been completely destroyed from men, at one time saying, “For I know that in me, that is, in my flesh, no good thing dwells; for to will is present with me, but how to perform what is good is not. For the good that I will to do, I do not do; but the evil I will not to do, that I practice. Now if I do what I will not to do, 2.454 it is no longer I who do it, but sin that dwells in me”; and at another time, “For I delight in the law of God according to the inward man. But I see another law in my members, warring against the law of my mind, and bringing me into captivity to the law of sin which is in my members.” Thus it has not yet happened that sin has been cut off root and branch, but it lives—for it has not died completely; for how could it before man has been clothed with death?—so that, having withered and decayed with him, it might be utterly destroyed and perish, just like a plant, when the stone in which

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ἐξέβαλε τὸν Ἀδάμ». οὐκοῦν ἐδύνατο ζῆν εἰς τὸν αἰῶνα τὸ σῶμα καὶ ἀθάνατον ἔσεσθαι, εἰ μὴ κεκώλυτο γεύσασθαι τῆς ζωῆς. ἐκωλύθη δέ, ὅπως ἡ μὲν ἁμαρτία συναποκτανθεῖσα τῷ σώματι θάνῃ, τὸ δὲ σῶμα ἀναστῇ τῆς ἁμαρτίας ἀπολουμένης. ἵνα τοίνυν μὴ κακὸν ἀθάνατον ὁ ἄνθρωπος, ὡς ἔφην, ᾖ, ἀείζωον ἔχων ἐν ἑαυτῷ τὴν ἁμαρτίαν κρατιστεύουσαν, ἅτε ἐν ἀθανάτῳ 2.452 βλαστήσασαν σώματι καὶ ἀθάνατον ἔχουσαν τροφήν, ὁ θεὸς αὐτὸν διὰ τοῦτο θνητὸν ἀπεφήνατο νεκρότητι περιβαλών. τοῦτο γὰρ οἱ δερμάτινοι χιτῶνες ἐβούλοντο, ἵνα δὴ διὰ τῆς λύσεως τοῦ σώματος καὶ τῆς διαιρέσεως ἡ ἁμαρτία κάτωθεν αὐτόπρεμνος πᾶσα διαφθαρῇ, ὡς μηδὲ κἂν βραχύτατον ῥίζης ἐαθῆναι μέρος, ἀφ' οὗ νέαι βλάσται πάλιν ἁμαρτημάτων ἀναβήσονται. 33. Καθάπερ γὰρ ὁπόταν ἐν οἰκοδομήμασι ναῶν καλοῖς συκῆ ᾖ γεννηθεῖσα καὶ εἰς ἔκτασιν καὶ μέγεθος εὐτροφήσασα καὶ περὶ πάσας τὰς ἁρμογὰς πολυκλημάτοις ῥίζαις τῶν λίθων κεχυμένη, οὐ πρότερον τοῦ φύειν στέλλεται, ἔστ' ἂν πᾶσα ἀποσπασθῇ, λυθέντων καθ' οὓς ἐβλάστησε τόπους τῶν λίθων δυνατὸν γὰρ πάλιν εἰς τοὺς αὐτοὺς ἐναρμοσθῆναι τόπους τοὺς λίθους, τῆς συκῆς ἀφῃρημένης, ὅπως ὁ μὲν ναὸς σῴζηται, μηδὲν τῶν ἀφανιζόντων αὐτὸν κακῶν ἐν ἑαυτῷ μηκέτι φέρων, ἡ δὲ συκῆ πᾶσα προθέλυμνος ἀποσπασθεῖσα ἀποθάνῃ, κατὰ ταῦτα καὶ ὁ θεὸς ὁ τεχνίτης τὸν ἑαυτοῦ ναὸν τὸν ἄνθρωπον, δίκην ἀγρίας συκῆς τὴν ἁμαρτίαν βλαστήσαντα, διέλυσε θανάτου προσκαίροις προσβολαῖς «ἀποκτέννων» κατὰ τὸ γεγραμμένον «καὶ ζωοποιῶν», ἵνα πάλιν ἀπὸ τῶν αὐτῶν ἡ σὰρξ μερῶν μετὰ τὸ ξηρανθῆναι καὶ ἀποθανεῖν τὸ ἁμάρτημα δίκην ἀνακαινοποιηθέντος ναοῦ ἀθάνατος καὶ ἀπήμων ἐγερθῇ, τελέως ἐκ βάθρων ἀπολομένης τῆς ἁμαρτίας. ζῶντος γὰρ ἔτι τοῦ σώματος πρὸ τοῦ τεθνήξε2.453 σθαι συζῆν ἀνάγκη καὶ τὴν ἁμαρτίαν, ἔνδον τὰς ῥίζας αὐτῆς ἐν ἡμῖν ἀποκρύπτουσαν, κἂν ἔξωθεν τομαῖς ταῖς ἀπὸ τῶν σωφρονισμῶν καὶ τῶν νουθετήσεων ἀνεστέλλετο, ἐπεὶ οὐκ ἂν ἔτι μετὰ τὸ φωτισθῆναι συνέβαινεν ἀδικεῖν, ἅτε παντάπασιν εἰλικρινῶς ἀφῃρημένης ἀφ' ἡμῶν τῆς ἁμαρτίας. νῦν δὲ καὶ μετὰ τὸ πιστεῦσαι καὶ ἐπὶ τὸ ὕδωρ ἐλθεῖν τοῦ ἁγνισμοῦ πολλάκις ἐν ἁμαρτίαις ὄντες εὑρισκόμεθα. οὐδεὶς γὰρ οὕτως ἁμαρτίας ἐκτὸς εἶναι ἑαυτὸν καυχήσεται ὡς μηδὲ κἂν ἐνθυμηθῆναι τὸ σύνολον ὅλως τὴν ἀδικίαν. ὥστε συμβέβηκε συστέλλεσθαι μὲν καὶ κατευνάζεσθαι τῇ πίστει νῦν τὴν ἁμαρτίαν, εἰς τὸ μὴ οἶσαι καρποὺς βλαβοποιούς, οὐ μὴν ἀνῃρῆσθαι καὶ τῶν ῥιζῶν ἄχρις. νῦν μὲν γὰρ ἐνταῦθα τὰς βλάστας αὐτῆς, οἷον τὰς ἐνθυμήσεις τὰς πονηράς, συστέλλομεν, «μή τις ῥίζα πικρίας ἄνω φύουσα ἐνοχλήσῃ», μὴ ἐῶντες ἀναμύειν καὶ διοίγνυσθαι τὰ μεμυκότα στόμια πρὸς τὰς ἐκφύσεις, τοῦ λόγου δίκην ἀξίνης πρὸς τὰς ῥίζας αὐτῆς τὰς κάτω φυομένας τέμνοντος. τότε δὲ καὶ τὸ ὅλως ἐνθυμηθήσεσθαι περὶ κακίας ἀφανισθήσεται. 34. Οὐδὲ γὰρ ἀμάρτυρος ὁ λόγος γραφῶν τοῖς βουλομένοις εἰλικρινῶς τὸ ἀληθὲς ἀκούειν, ἐπεὶ οἶδεν ὁ ἀπόστολος μηδέπω τὴν ῥίζαν ἐξ ἀνθρώπων τῆς ἁμαρτίας ὁλοσχερῶς ἀνῃρημένην, ὁτὲ μέν «οἶδα γὰρ ὅτι οὐκ οἰκεῖ ἐν ἐμοὶ τουτέστιν ἐν τῇ σαρκί μου, φράζων, τὸ ἀγαθόν· τὸ γὰρ θέλειν παράκειταί μοι, τὸ δὲ κατεργάζεσθαι τὸ καλὸν οὔ· οὐ γὰρ ὃ θέλω ποιῶ ἀγαθόν, ἀλλ' ὃ οὐ θέλω κακὸν τοῦτο πράσσω. εἰ δὲ ὃ οὐ θέλω, 2.454 τοῦτο ποιῶ, οὐκέτι ἐγὼ κατεργάζομαι αὐτό, ἀλλ' ἡ οἰκοῦσα ἐν ἐμοὶ ἁμαρτία»· ὁτὲ δέ «συνήδομαι τῷ νόμῳ τοῦ θεοῦ κατὰ τὸν ἔσω ἄνθρωπον· βλέπω δὲ ἕτερον νόμον ἐν τοῖς μέλεσί μου, ἀντιστρατευόμενον τῷ νόμῳ τοῦ νοός μου καὶ αἰχμαλωτίζοντά με τῷ νόμῳ τῆς ἁμαρτίας τῷ ὄντι ἐν τοῖς μέλεσί μου». οὕτως οὐδέπω τὴν ἁμαρτίαν αὐτόπρεμνον ἐκ ῥιζῶν διακοπῆναι συνέβη, ἀλλὰ ζῆν οὐ γὰρ εἰς τέλος ἀπέθανεν· πῶς γὰρ πρὸ τοῦ περιβεβλῆσθαι θανάτῳ τὸν ἄνθρωπον;, ἵνα αὐτῷ συμμαρανθεῖσα καὶ συμφθινήσασα αὐτὴ μὲν εἰς ἄρδην ἀπόληται καὶ διαφθαρῇ, καθάπερ φυτόν, λυθέντος τοῦ λίθου ἐν ᾧ