Chapter 23. The Devil Is a Liar. God Is the Truth.
Chapter 23
1. The Devil was already accustomed to lie against God for deceiving men. For in the beginning God had given man much food but had commanded him not to eat of one tree only. As Scripture tells us: God said to Adam, “You may freely eat of every tree of the garden; but of the tree of knowledge of good and evil you shall not eat, for in the day that you eat of it, you shall die the death.” But the Devil lied against the Lord and tempted man. As Scripture tells us, the serpent said to the woman, Why has God commanded you that you should not eat of any tree of the garden? But she exposed the lie and restated the command simply by saying, We may eat of the fruit of the trees of the garden; but of the fruit of the tree which is in the midst of the garden God has commanded us that we should not eat; and that we should not touch it, lest we die. When he had learned God’s commandment from the woman, he used his cunning and told another lie: No you shall not die the death; for God knows that in the day that you eat of it, your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God, knowing good and evil. First he disputed in God’s garden about God, as if he were absent; for he was ignorant of the immensity of God. Then when he had learned from her that the Lord had said they would die if they ate of the tree mentioned, he uttered the third lie, “No, you will not die the death.” But the effect, namely, that death came upon those who ate, made it clear that God is truthful and that the serpent is a liar. For together with the food, they also took death into themselves, because they were disobedient and ate; but disobedience to God brings death. For that reason, from that time on, having become debtors to death, they were handed over to it.
2. And so they died on the same day that they ate, and were made debtors of death, since a day of creation is one. Scripture says, For there was evening and there was morning, one day. Now on this very day they ate, and on it they died too. In the cycle and course of the days one is called a first day, another a second day, and another a third day. If anyone wishes to ascertain carefully on which of these seven days Adam died, he will find out from the Lord’s economy. For by recapitulating in himself the entire human race from the beginning to the end, he recapitulated also his [Adam’s] death. And so it is clear that the Lord suffered death in obedience to his Father on that day on which Adam died because of his disobedience to God. But he ate on the same day that he died. For God said, For on the day that you eat of it, you shall die the death. So the Lord recapitulated the death in himself and came to the passion the day before the Sabbath—which is the sixth day of creation, the day on which man was fashioned—in order to give him a second creation through his passion, which freed him from death.
Certain ones place the death of Adam in the thousandth year; for, since a day of the Lord is as a thousand years, he did not overstep the thousand years, but died within them, fulfilling the sentence of the transgression. So, whether [we consider the transgression] according to the disobedience, which is death; or, the fact that they were then handed over and made debtors of death; or, according to the one and same day on which they ate and died, since a day of creation is one; or, according to the cycle of days, because they died on the day on which they ate, that is, on the day of preparation, which is called the clean supper, namely, the sixth day, which the Lord manifested by dying on it; or, according to the fact that he did not overstep the thousand years—according to all these things that are pointed out, God is truthful; for they who tasted of the tree died. But the serpent was shown to be a liar and a homicide. This the Lord said of him: He was a murderer from the beginning and has nothing to do with the truth.