And as the protoplast himself Adam, had his substance from untilled and as yet virgin soil (\u201cfor God had not yet sent rain, and man had not tilled the ground\u201d), and was formed by the hand of God, that is, by the Word of God, for \u201call things were made by Him,\u201d and the Lord took dust from the earth and formed man; so did He who is the Word, recapitulating Adam in Himself, rightly receive a birth, enabling Him to gather up Adam, from Mary, who was as yet a virgin. If, then, the first Adam had a man for his father, and was born of human seed, it were reasonable to say that the second Adam was begotten of Joseph. But if the former was taken from the dust, and God was his Maker, it was incumbent that the latter also, making a recapitulation in Himself, should be formed as man by God, to have an analogy with the former as respects His origin. Why, then, did not God again take dust, but wrought so that the formation should be made of Mary? It was that there might not be another formation called into being, nor any other which should [require to] be saved, but that the very same formation should be summed up [in Christ as had existed in Adam], the analogy having been preserved.
\n–Against Heresies Bk. III. Ch. 21<\/p>\n
Wherefore Luke points out that the pedigree which traces the generation of our Lord back to Adam contains seventy-two generations, connecting the end with the beginning, and implying that it is He who has summed up in Himself all nations dispersed from Adam downwards, and all languages and generations of men, together with Adam himself. Hence also was Adam himself termed by Paul \u201cthe figure of Him that was to come,\u201d because the Word, the Maker of all things, had formed beforehand for Himself the future dispensation of the human race, connected with the Son of God; God having predestined that the first man should be of an animal nature, with this view, that he might be saved by the spiritual One. For inasmuch as He had a pre-existence as a saving Being, it was necessary that what might be saved should also be called into existence, in order that the Being who saves should not exist in vain.<\/p>\n
For this reason did the Lord declare that the first should in truth be last, and the last first. And the prophet, too, indicates the same, saying, \u201cinstead of fathers, children have been born unto thee.\u201d For the Lord, having been born \u201cthe First-begotten of the dead,\u201d and receiving into His bosom the ancient fathers, has regenerated them into the life of God, He having been made Himself the beginning of those that live, as Adam became the beginning of those who die. Wherefore also Luke, commencing the genealogy with the Lord, carried it back to Adam, indicating that it was He who regenerated them into the Gospel of life, and not they Him.
\n–Against Heresies Bk. III. Ch. 22<\/p>\n
If anybody seeks diligently to learn upon what day out of the seven it was that Adam died, he will find it by examining the dispensation of the Lord. For by summing up in Himself the whole human race from the beginning to the end, He has also summed up its death. From this it is clear that the Lord suffered death, in obedience to His Father, upon that day on which Adam died while he disobeyed God. Now he died on the same day in which he did eat. For God said, \u201cIn that day on which ye shall eat of it, ye shall die by death.\u201d The Lord, therefore, recapitulating in Himself this day, underwent His sufferings upon the day preceding the Sabbath, that is, the sixth day of the creation, on which day man was created; thus granting him a second creation by means of His passion, which is that [creation] out of death. And there are some, again, who relegate the death of Adam to the thousandth year; for since \u201ca day of the Lord is as a thousand years,\u201d he did not overstep the thousand years, but died within them, thus bearing out the sentence of his sin.
\n–Against Heresies Bk. V. Ch. 23<\/p>\n
Eve and Mary<\/b><\/p>\n
In accordance with this design, Mary the Virgin is found obedient, saying, \u201cBehold the handmaid of the Lord; be it unto me according to thy word.\u201d But Eve was disobedient; for she did not obey when as yet she was a virgin. And even as she, having indeed a husband, Adam, but being nevertheless as yet a virgin…, having become disobedient, was made the cause of death, both to herself and to the entire human race; so also did Mary, having a man betrothed [to her], and being nevertheless a virgin, by yielding obedience, become the cause of salvation, both to herself and the whole human race.<\/p>\n
And thus also it was that the knot of Eve\u2019s disobedience was loosed by the obedience of Mary. For what the virgin Eve had bound fast through unbelief, this did the virgin Mary set free through faith.
\n–Against Heresies Bk. III. Ch. 22<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
And as the protoplast himself Adam, had his substance from untilled and as yet virgin soil (\u201cfor God had not yet sent rain, and man had not tilled the ground\u201d), and was formed by the hand of God, that is, by the Word of God, for \u201call things were made by Him,\u201d and the Lord took dust from the earth and formed man; so did He who is the Word, […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"advanced_seo_description":"","jetpack_seo_html_title":"","jetpack_seo_noindex":false,"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[16],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-315","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-irenaeus"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":980,"url":"https:\/\/nemoslibrary.com\/patristics\/tertullian-on-the-flesh-of-christ\/","url_meta":{"origin":315,"position":0},"title":"Tertullian: On the Flesh of Christ","author":"Nemo","date":"January 11, 2021","format":false,"excerpt":"The Virgin Birth He who was going to consecrate a new order of birth, must Himself be born after a novel fashion, concerning which Isaiah foretold how that the Lord Himself would give the sign. What, then, is the sign? \u201cBehold a virgin shall conceive and bear a son.\u201d Accordingly,\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Tertullian"","block_context":{"text":"Tertullian","link":"https:\/\/nemoslibrary.com\/patristics\/category\/tertullian\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":289,"url":"https:\/\/nemoslibrary.com\/patristics\/the-nature-of-the-soul\/","url_meta":{"origin":315,"position":1},"title":"The Nature of the Soul","author":"Nemo","date":"February 2, 2017","format":false,"excerpt":"The Soul is not Immortal Per Se For God alone is unbegotten and incorruptible, and therefore He is God, but all other things after Him are created and corruptible. For this reason souls both die and are punished: since, if they were unbegotten, they would neither sin, nor be filled\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Irenaeus"","block_context":{"text":"Irenaeus","link":"https:\/\/nemoslibrary.com\/patristics\/category\/irenaeus\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":347,"url":"https:\/\/nemoslibrary.com\/patristics\/theophilus-of-antioch-on-the-trinity\/","url_meta":{"origin":315,"position":2},"title":"Theophilus of Antioch On the Trinity","author":"Nemo","date":"February 14, 2017","format":false,"excerpt":"The Image of God For God is seen by those who are enabled to see Him when they have the eyes of their soul opened: for all have eyes; but in some they are overspread, and do not see the light of the sun. Yet it does not follow, because\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Theophilus of Antioch"","block_context":{"text":"Theophilus of Antioch","link":"https:\/\/nemoslibrary.com\/patristics\/category\/theophilus-of-antioch\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":1363,"url":"https:\/\/nemoslibrary.com\/patristics\/creation-and-resurrection\/","url_meta":{"origin":315,"position":3},"title":"Creation and Resurrection","author":"Nemo","date":"February 1, 2022","format":false,"excerpt":"For He that made the body of Adam out of the earth will raise up the bodies of the rest, and that of the first man, after their dissolution, (to pay what is owing to the rational nature of man; we mean the continuance in being through all ages). He,\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Church Fathers"","block_context":{"text":"Church Fathers","link":"https:\/\/nemoslibrary.com\/patristics\/category\/church-fathers\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":21866,"url":"https:\/\/nemoslibrary.com\/patristics\/on-the-septuagint\/","url_meta":{"origin":315,"position":4},"title":"On the Septuagint","author":"Nemo","date":"February 4, 2017","format":false,"excerpt":"God, then, was made man, and the Lord did Himself save us, giving us the token of the Virgin. But not as some allege, among those now presuming to expound the Scripture, \u201cBehold, a young woman shall conceive, and bring forth a son,\u201d as Theodotion the Ephesian has interpreted, and\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Irenaeus"","block_context":{"text":"Irenaeus","link":"https:\/\/nemoslibrary.com\/patristics\/category\/irenaeus\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":283,"url":"https:\/\/nemoslibrary.com\/patristics\/irenaeus-the-nature-of-thought\/","url_meta":{"origin":315,"position":5},"title":"Irenaeus: The Nature of Thought","author":"Nemo","date":"January 28, 2017","format":false,"excerpt":"When refuting the Gnostics, who pride themselves on knowledge of the divine, and make a pantheon out of such knowledge, Irenaeus expounds on the relation between a rational being and his knowledge, by way of proving that Christ, the Wisdom of God, is one with the Father, though distinct from\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Irenaeus"","block_context":{"text":"Irenaeus","link":"https:\/\/nemoslibrary.com\/patristics\/category\/irenaeus\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]}],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/peqR9l-55","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/nemoslibrary.com\/patristics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/315","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/nemoslibrary.com\/patristics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/nemoslibrary.com\/patristics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nemoslibrary.com\/patristics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nemoslibrary.com\/patristics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=315"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/nemoslibrary.com\/patristics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/315\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/nemoslibrary.com\/patristics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=315"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nemoslibrary.com\/patristics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=315"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nemoslibrary.com\/patristics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=315"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}