Six Homilies on the Creation 5.5–5.9

But let us return to our subject. “He breathed into.” By “he breathed into” he showed the simplicity of the soul; therefore it is not composite. Attend now. Since the creation had grown old, Christ renews it in his saving dispensation. Adam was formed from earth; Christ formed the eyes of the blind man from clay, so that you may learn that he is the one who took dust from the earth and formed man. God breathed into the face of Adam the breath of life; Christ breathed into the face of the apostles and says, “Receive the Holy Spirit.” The breath that Adam lost, Christ gave back here, and man became a living soul again. Attend: here is the sequence. For even if the instrument of my voice is weary, still, running ahead with the usual hope and cutting short the entreaties of the brothers, I believe that a word will be given me, not for my worth but for the eagerness of those who listen. Even if we are unworthy of the saints, they too suffered these things and were hindered by the weakness of the body. David testifies, saying, “I grew weary crying out; my throat became hoarse.” It is better to say right things hoarsely than to have a right voice and a twisted soul. “God planted a paradise in Eden toward the east.” What is Eden? Eden is interpreted “delight,” as one might say, “He planted a paradise in delight,” that is, in a delightful place, a fine place. That is why at the end it says: “And he cast out Adam and settled him opposite the paradise of delight.” “God planted a paradise in Eden toward the east.” Why was paradise not in another region, but toward the east? Where the course of the luminaries begins, there too begins the life of men. God foretells the future: he places man in paradise toward the east, to show that just as these luminaries rise and run to the west and set, so man too must run from life to death and set after the pattern of the luminaries, and receive another rising from the resurrection of the dead. Adam ran to the west and set in the tomb; the affairs of the earth followed him and were buried with the one who set. Christ came and made the one who had set rise again. That is why the prophet says about him: “[…] from beneath him he will rise,” that is, from the tombs. In Adam man set; in Christ he rose. Paul testifies: “For as in Adam all die, so also in Christ all will be made alive.” “And God took the man whom he had made and placed him in the paradise.” He brought him into a house made ready. Just as one who invites someone to a feast first prepares the house and then brings in the guest, so here too: he prepared paradise for him as a worthy dwelling, and so brought in the guest. Where was he formed? On the earth, outside paradise. For just as the luminaries came into being elsewhere and were placed in the heaven, so Adam was formed outside, in another land, and then brought into paradise. How do we know this? Scripture says at the end, when Adam was cast out: “And God sent Adam out of the paradise of delight to work the earth from which he was taken.” “He placed him in the paradise of delight, to work and to guard the paradise.” To work: for what was lacking in paradise? And if there was need of a worker, where would a plow come from? Where the other tools of farming? To work and to guard the commandment of God, and to believe the commandment, was the work of God. The Savior says: “This is the work of God, that you believe in him whom he has sent.” Just as believing in Christ is a work, so believing the commandment was a work: that if he touched, he would die, and if he did not touch, he would live. The keeping of the spiritual words was a work. What sort of work did Paul have? Was Paul a farmer? Did he have some other occupation? Was not his whole work the word? Was it not preaching? And he says to the disciples, “You are my work in the Lord.” To work it, he says, and to guard. Against whom? There was no robber, no passer-by, no plotter; against whom was he to guard? To guard it for himself: so that he might not transgress and lose it, but by guarding the commandment keep paradise for himself. My mind grows weary along with my voice; but let us keep to the thoughts. “He placed him in the paradise.” Next, Scripture sketches the future through what came first. “And a river goes out from Eden to water the paradise.” From this learn that paradise was not a little garden of small size. So great a river waters it that from its overflow there are four rivers. “A river goes out from Eden to water the paradise; […] four sources”: into the Tigris, into the Nile, into the Euphrates, into the one called in Scripture the Pishon, which they now call the Danube.

See the size of a river divided into four; and such a river by itself waters paradise. Why so great? Adam was alone; what need was there of so much? But it was not made for one man only, but for the ends of the world. It was being prepared for patriarchs, prophets, apostles, evangelists, martyrs, confessors, saints, the faithful, the orthodox, those who live godly lives, all the righteous. For if the Savior promised paradise to the thief who confessed in a single hour, saying, “Today you will be with me in paradise,” [what of] those who labored from youth, Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, and the patriarchs descended from him …? And before all these the thief inherits paradise. So God makes his works not for what appears but for what is awaited. Why did he make the earth so broad? For Adam, or for those who now inhabit it? “From there it is divided into four sources”: he did not say “four streams,” but “sources” (archai), that is, springs. “The name of the one is Pishon,” which we have just mentioned. Then the Gihon: this is the Nile. Gihon is its ancient name. Jeremiah testifies, saying: “What have you to do with the way of Egypt, to drink the water of Gihon?” Here attend. Imagine this to be paradise; for many things are conveyed better by sight than by word. A great river comes out, with a rich stream, and waters paradise. From there it is carried into some underground chasm and sinks under boundless earth, as the Master who laid its road knows; and the stream is hidden for a long way, and comes up in different places, and is found, one branch in Ethiopia, one in the west, one in the east, God thus drawing the stream through an underground passage and making new springs for the first river. Why this? So that men might not follow the tracks of the rivers and find paradise; so that it might be beyond the reach of men. For if one could travel there, no one would have found paradise before the rich; but God shut it off to poor and rich alike, so that they might find the way by virtue alone. How much did patriarchs, prophets, and saints labor seeking paradise, and did not find it? The thief, not by traveling the road but by believing, truly found the way, the one who says, “I am the way.” He found the paradise that disobedience shut against the first man. I ask the reason why the historian, in mentioning the first river, said: “There the gold is good, and the carbuncle, and the green stone.” If he had been describing the whole world, he ought to have named the good things produced in each country, the emeralds, the jacinths, the topaz, all the different materials; but he picks out gold and two stones, the first-fruits of the priesthood, since the priest wore a golden plate on which the name of God was inscribed. There were twelve stones on the priest's breast: sardius, […], onyx. Of these twelve stones the green stone is set apart for the priestly tribe, the carbuncle for the royal tribe. Why? Because it is the property of fire to burn and to give light, and the property of a king to do good and to punish. He places Reuben, the first tribe, on the sardius; Simeon on the topaz; Levi on the green stone; Judah, from whom Christ came, on the red carbuncle. Indeed, Isaiah, many years later, says to Jerusalem: “On my hands I have painted your walls, and you are before me always. Behold, I am preparing carbuncle as your stone,” meaning the Savior. For “Behold,” he says, “I lay in Zion a cornerstone, chosen and precious, and whoever believes in him will not be put to shame.” So the carbuncle is set apart for the royal tribe, the green stone (prasinos) for the priestly tribe, for doing (prattein) well belongs to the priesthood. From that river four sources of rivers are divided off. Why, then, is their water not alike? For lovers of learning ask: if they come from one river or one spring, why do they not all have one quality? What, then, is the answer? They take on something of the earth and of the quality of the places through which they pass. Just as water itself has one nature and quality, but if it is steeped with wormwood it takes one quality, with dill another, with rue another, and the nature is one but the ingredients change it; so it is with rivers. Since they travel through strange places, one through earth of one quality and another through another, they take their qualities from the places.

Since he gave the rivers their qualities by the situation of the places, next he makes in paradise “every tree beautiful to see and good for food.” He did away beforehand with the transgressor's excuse. For since he said of the woman, “The woman saw that the tree was beautiful to see and good for food,” so that no one might think that among the other trees that one alone was comely, he testified this excellence of all of them, that they were lovely to the eye and very beautiful, so that you may learn that he transgressed not from want, but turned aside while he had abundance. “And the tree of life,” he says, “in the middle of paradise, and the tree of knowing good and evil.” There were three kinds of trees: some were given him so that he might live, others so that he might live well, others so that he might live forever. He had life from those he permitted; he had living well from what he forbade. For living well meant touching what he did not forbid and not touching what he forbade. This was living well: obeying God. The tree of life stood in the middle like a prize; the tree of knowledge like a wrestling bout, like a training ground. Keep the commandment about this tree, and you receive the prize. And see the wonder. All the trees of paradise round about were everywhere leafy, everywhere teeming; only the two in the middle were a training ground and a stadium. Those round about were food. But the occasion of the transgression and of the tree must be kept for another time. Now to the subject: God brings all the animals to Adam. Let the heretics hear; and do not marvel if in every phrase and every word the argument is turned against the heretics; for by every pretext those who fight against the glorified kingdom are accused. “A stone cries out from the wall”: I do not say a word from Scripture; not one iota or one stroke leaves the heretics blameless; through all things those who deny the Master of all are accused. Attend, then. One could see a strange sight: Adam standing, and God, like a servant, bringing things to Adam. For God brought the animals. Here attend not to the word but to the sense. Think of God standing, and Adam judging. God brought them all forward and says to Adam, let us say: “What do you think this one should be called?” “Let it be called lion.” God, it says, stamped it. Then: “This one, what?” “Let it be called bull.” “You have assigned it well.” Likewise God sealed each of the names given. For Scripture says: “He brought them to Adam to see what he would call them. And whatever Adam called it, that was its name.” See: since he made him according to his image, he wished to bring his honor into view and to show truly that he bears the image of wisdom. And see the wonder. God had already shaped the names for himself; but he wished it to be shown through the image that Adam's decisions agree with God's wishes. Indeed, Scripture, wishing to show that God had predetermined the names Adam gave, says, “And whatever Adam called them, that was its name”; that is, “This had been predetermined; God glorified it.” But let us return to our subject. Adam stands, and God brought the animals to him, and the Master is not insulted by bringing them to the slave. Yet if the heretics hear that Christ brings us to the Father, they at once say, “Do you see that he is a servant?” “He brought them to Adam.” The slave stood judging, and the Master bringing. God, bringing them to Adam, was not insulted; but if they hear that Christ brings us to the Father, they drag him down to the rank of a servant. If the Savior says, “No one comes to the Father except through me,” at once the heretics prick up their ears, or rather twist them. God, bringing the animals to Adam, is not his servant; if God brings man to God, does he hold a servant's rank? So that ignorance of the words may not feed your disease: I know of the Son bringing people to the Father, and of the Father bringing them to the Son. For having said, “No one comes to the Father except through me,” the same one says again, “No one comes to me unless my heavenly Father draws him.” But, as I said before, I know I have said this earlier, but the word is akin to the subject; and it happens that some did not hear it then; so I say it now. Consider how many four-footed beasts there are; consider the tame, the wild, those in the mountains, those in the plains, those in Gaul, those in India, those in all the regions of the world; again the creeping things, their kinds and species, all the birds, the swimming creatures, all those in the sea, in lakes, in rivers. All these he brought forward, and Adam set a name for each; and God did not contradict, but abided by it. Tens of thousands of names, and God holds to them. God speaks one name, bearing witness from heaven, “This is my Son,” and the heretics falsify the voice that bears witness with one name: that holy voice that accepted ten thousand names and did not falsify them. The animals were brought and named. Then Adam stood as king.

Just as men who enlist are marked with the royal seal, so, since he was going to hand the mastery over to him, God has him give names as master; for no one gives names but a master and a father. Attend. Of the names, some God gave and some Adam. God named heaven, earth, sea, firmament, day, light, night, fruit, plant, grass, trees; but the cattle and the rest Adam named: peacock, eagle, calf, sheep. Adam named the species, God the kinds, so that the word of the one who said, “Let us make man according to our image,” might not prove false. God gives names to the luminaries: the Bear, Orion, the Pleiades, the Evening Star, the Morning Star. All these God named. David testifies, saying, “Who numbers the stars and calls them all by name.” God names the things above, Adam those on earth. God names heaven, earth, and all the rest; he names Adam “fire” and “man.” What does Adam name? He gives names to the cattle, the birds, the creeping things, the wild animals. Adam gives a strange name, “bone and flesh,” to the woman, saying, “This now is bone from my bones and flesh from my flesh.” For God, when he formed him, did not say that he formed him from bones and flesh. Again, God says “male,” and Adam says “husband”; God says “female,” and Adam says “wife.” And the wonder is that, since he was filled with the Holy Spirit, and the wretched man had not yet transgressed but was full of grace, the whole of prophecy, which I divided into its kinds some days ago before your love, was in him. He knew things past, he knew things present, and things to come. How did he know things present? Bone does not appear from outside a body; but since he had the Spirit, he says, “This now is bone from my bones.” How did he know, unless the Holy Spirit revealed it? Why, then, bone first and then flesh? Because it was a rib that God first took from him. “She shall be called woman,” he says, “because she was taken from her husband.” He prophesies things past, he told things present, and he speaks of things to come: “For this reason a man will leave his father and his mother.” There was not yet marriage; where would father and mother come from? Again let the heretics listen. God wished to make the woman for Adam. He cast a trance on Adam, and he slept. Every word of God became an ancient rule of nature. From the first man he taught how the creature is to be divided off from man. God cast sleep on Adam: a wonderful thing. He means the occasion of marriage. Sleep is called “ecstasy” because the man stands, as it were, outside himself. The soul is within, and yet is not within: it does not perceive, it does not think; hearing, it does not hear. Just as today we say, “He was in ecstasy,” meaning he was outside of things, so the soul, when it is outside the senses, is in ecstasy. “And he slept,” it says, “and God took one of his ribs.” Let the heretics be asked this: How did God take it? How did Adam feel no pain? How was he not hurt? One hair is pulled from the body, and we feel pain; even if someone is deeply asleep, the sleeper is woken by the pain; so great a member is removed, so great a rib is disturbed, and the sleeper is not woken? He did not tear it out by force, so that Adam would wake; he did not rend it; but Scripture, wishing to show the swiftness of the craftsman, says:

“He took the rib,” as he took the dust. If one had joined and another had loosed, there would have been a struggle; but since the one who bound also loosed, he loosed it gently. “He took the rib and filled up flesh in its place.” From where did he fill it up? Did he draw it from the rest of the body? But every body that is drawn out becomes thinner. How did he fill it up? We speak about a body and do not understand; we speak about God, and do we pry? “And the Lord built the rib, which he took from Adam, into a woman.” Whence were eyes set in place from a rib? Whence a heart that reasons? Whence a tongue that speaks? How was an intestine stretched out from a rib? How did a liver come from a rib? You cannot grasp how these things came to be, and do you pry into the craftsman? But see the image of Christ everywhere. God did not take the rib from Adam until he had cast sleep upon him. Why? Sin was going to come from a rib, entering through the woman. The Savior came bringing from his side water and blood: water to wash away sins, blood to grant us the mystery. See the type. When Adam slept, a rib was taken; when sleep came upon the body of Christ, his side was opened, so that he might undo the ancient tragedy by a new history; I mean the sleep on the cross. He built the rib into a woman, and brought her to Adam. O the Master's love for mankind! How much he does: he forms, he does good! He brings forward the animals; he leads the bride to her husband. For since Adam was like an orphan, and Eve likewise a virgin without father or mother to fill that role, God fills the role of father and mother. And see the law; for every utterance of God is an ancient rule of nature. God brought the woman to Adam; and this has remained law to this day, that the woman is brought to the man; he does not dress the man as a bridegroom to bring him to the woman. “They were naked, and they were not ashamed.” The rule remains; the law cries out. A man is ashamed before everyone except his own wife; a woman feels shame before everyone except her own husband. This I have said with regard to the law; but the reason they were not ashamed of their nakedness is that they were clothed with immortality and arrayed in glory. The glory did not allow their nakedness to be seen, for it covered it. Where again can you see a man naked and not ashamed? You find him in Christ. Peter and John and James came to the tomb seeking the body, and did not find it; but they found the clothes wrapped up, to show that after the resurrection of Christ the ancient form of Adam is preserved in him: he is without clothes, not naked but clothed. Christ rose and puts off the clothes that Adam had put on, and he was naked, yet was not seen naked. After the resurrection the women see the clothes thrown aside. Martha and Mary see him, recognize him, fall at his feet, and do not see him naked. Where did he get the clothes he wore? For he had thrown his off in the tomb, and his first garments the soldiers had divided. How, then, was he so clothed? How was the naked one not naked? And I ask another thing. Why did they see the clothes and the linen in one place, and in another place the napkin with which the saving head had been bound? To show, by the holy grace, that the resurrection was not accompanied by disturbance. And since the Jews were going to spread the report that he had been stolen by the disciples, he leaves his clothes in the tomb; for whoever steals a corpse steals it with its clothes. One could see the Savior coming out of the tomb as Joseph came out of the house of the Egyptian woman. And see the difference. After the resurrection Christ was seen naked, and Peter was naked; but the one had immortality, the other was still mortal. Jesus stood on the shore, clothed in glory, and said: “Children, have you anything to eat?” “No,” they say, “we have nothing,” for they did not recognize him. Then he says: “Cast on the right side of the boat.” They cast, and caught a great multitude. John recognizes him and says to Peter, “It is the Lord.” O the wonder! They did not recognize him from his voice, but from his works. “And Peter,” it says, “took his outer garment, for he was naked.” The mortal body is ashamed; the immortal body is not ashamed. But let us fall down before the one who clothed us with glory, who clothed the world with immortality; let us entreat him to clothe us with faith, the hope of salvation, and the glory that is in Christ; for to the Father be glory, with the only-begotten Son and the Holy Spirit, now and always and to the ages of ages. Amen.