Friday, July 06, 2007

Mercy for Adam

In chapter 22 I was surprised by the passion with which Irenaeus attacks Tatian's teaching that Adam was not saved. Amongst Irenaeus' arguments are:

1) To do so is to deny the power of God to save.
2) To do so is to limit the mercy of God. This is a major theme in this chapter. God was merciful towards Adam and Eve and hence they were not cursed for their sin, in fact this curse was transferred to the land and to the serpent. God was merciful and provided them with animal skin to cover their genitals rather than itchy fig leaves [there is unintentional humour in this section]. Even the punishment of being expelled from Paradise and subject to death is a sign of God's mercy. As Irenaeus affirms:

"Wherefore also He drove him out of Paradise, and removed him far from the tree of life, not
because He envied him the tree of life, as some venture to assert, but because He pitied him, [and did not desire] that he should continue a sinner for ever, nor that the sin which surrounded him should be immortal, and evil interminable and irremediable. But He set a bound to his [state of] sin, by interposing death, and thus causing sin to cease, putting an end to it by the dissolution
of the flesh, which should take place in the earth, so that man, ceasing at length to live to sin, and dying to it, might begin to live to God."

It may be due to such reflections on God's mercy that after ending the book summarizing the teachings of the heretics and their imminent punishment, Irenaeus ends with a prayer for their salvation.

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