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For the glory of God, in the One Trinity, in honor of the Most Pure Virgin Mary and all the saints, we begin a chronicle that briefly tells about the deeds from the beginning of the world to the Nativity of Christ and compiled on the basis of various chronographs and historical legends of Greek, Slavic, Roman, Polish, Jewish and others. In the beginning, God created heaven and earth (Gen. 1:1), and a dark watery abyss or, as the Greeks say, chaos, which is an inseparable mixture of elements, in which the earth was invisible and unstructured, covered with the waters of the abyss and darkness, as Scripture says: “And darkness is on top of the abyss” (Gen. 1:2). The Lord created this out of nothing and brought it from non-existence into existence, and from this He then produced all other creatures, creating above and below for six days. And the first-created invisible thing in the abyss was, as it were, the seed and firstfruits of everything that could be created from it later. Just as when we talk about any one seed from the grain of a garden tree, we assume in it a certain tree with root, branches, leaves, color and fruit, not in the sense that they already exist, but that they will come from it when the grain, being planted, germinates and grows, in the same way here the first creation, matter or substance, produced by God, was the firstfruits of everything that was created later. For the sky, the first matter was water, and for the earth - a thickened thickness, a block. When later, by the command of God, the former water was separated from the thickness, the sky from the earth, then air appeared between them, fire appeared, and other creations also began to arise in their order and time. The Creator, beginning to transform the first-created invisible and unadorned into the perfect and adorned, first of all commanded the light to shine from darkness. Just as an artist, who gets up at midnight to do what he wants, first of all lights a candle in order to see everything that is in his house, in the same way the all-wise Creator God, although all-seeing, sees what is in a dark abyss just as if it were in a bright place, first of all, like a candle in a church, he illuminated the daylight in the dark abyss, saying: “Let there be light, and be light” ( Gen. 1.3). Some attribute the creation of angels to this time, believing that God created them along with the light. But Saint Basil the Great, Gregory the Theologian and Ambrose, as well as Saint John of Damascus, believe that they were created at the beginning and first of all creation. “For it was fitting,” says Damascene, “that first of all an intelligent being should be created, as well as a sensory one, and then only from both of these would man be created” (John of Damascus. An exact exposition of the Orthodox faith. Book 2, Chapter III). It is not inappropriate to say a few words about angels here for the simple ones. Regarding the creation of angels, Saint Gregory the Theologian says: “Angels came from God, like rays from the sun, before all creation; and the second lights were formed, the servants of the first light of God” (Word for the Nativity of Christ). Saint Gregory the Besednik (Gregory Dvoeslov) says: “Angels came from God, like sparks from a stone.” The Lord created them, just as He later created the human soul, in His image and likeness, creating them rational, free and immortal. At the beginning He left them imperfect in bliss and not established in such grace in which they could not sin, but He gave them some time, during which they, as free and having full will, could deserve and prosper before the Lord, having received perfect grace, or sin and fall under the wrath of God. At that time, one of the angels, who had leadership, became exalted with pride and wanted to be equal to God, and said in his mind: “I will ascend into heaven (where the throne of God is) and will set my throne above the stars of heaven, and ... I will be equal to the Most High” (Is. 14:13-14). Some theologians find the reason for this angelic pride in the following: the Lord God, as it were, revealed to the angels the secret of the incarnation of the Word, in which the Divinity was to be united with humanity in the person of Christ, to whom all angelic beings would have to bow. One of the main angels, called the Light-Bearer, having considered the height and glory of his angelic nature and judging the badness of the mortal human nature that was about to appear, became proud and thought not to bow down to God the Word, who wanted to be incarnate, and said within himself: “I will ascend to heaven and be like the Most High.” Theologians base this assumption regarding the revelation to the angels of the mystery of the incarnation of the Word on the following. The Holy Apostle Paul in his Epistle to the Hebrews writes: “When he again brings the Firstborn into the universe, he says: And let all the angels of God worship Him” (Heb. 1:6). Reasoning about these words, they see that the Son of God was introduced into the universe twice: the first time through revelation to the angels about the incarnation of Him who was before the creation of the angels, and the second time through the incarnation itself. In both of these cases, the command is given to the angels that they worship Him: in the first, that they worship by faith, for they were to believe in God the Word who was incarnate, to whom they must worship, and in the second case, that they worshiped by deed itself. And that is why the Apostle says the words: “when again, this is the second, he introduces the First-born,” which indicates His twofold introduction, which was first for the angels, and after the established years for people. From this it is clear that the secret of the incarnation was revealed to the angels. The same assumption is based on the words of Christ Himself, who said to the Jews: “You are of the father of the devil, and you want to do the lusts of your father; he is a murderer from time immemorial” (John 8:44). For the Jews wanted to kill Christ. If the Jews in this desire imitated their father the devil, who was from time immemorial a murderer, then the assumption is made that from time immemorial the devil, at the beginning of his angelhood, not yet having lost his light-bringing power, wanted to kill Christ, who had to become man. This means that he was homicidally hostile to Him, looking for an opportunity to destroy and destroy Him, and he was hostile when he learned through revelation about the incarnation of Christ. This is how some theologians argue. But since the most ancient teachers did not write about this, therefore we do not speak affirmatively about this. However, we know that that angel with his like-minded people through pride angered God, his Creator, and lost his angelic glory, being cast by the righteous judgment of God from light into darkness, from heaven to hell, from angelism to the devil; and he fell from heaven along with the third part of the angels who voluntarily joined him. This is written about in the Apocalypse: “His trunk tore away a third of the stars of heaven” (Apoc. 12:4), meaning the angels who fell away with Satan. When those angels boldly began to fall into such a sin of pride, which angers God, the rest of the holy angels, led by Archangel Michael and other officials, stood firmly with the Lord God, their Creator, and began to resist the proud one, entering into a struggle with him, as it is written: “And there was a war in heaven: Michael and his angels made war with the serpent... and the great serpent was cast out” (Rev. 12:7, 9). And the holy angels solemnly sang the song of victory, praising God: “Holy, holy, holy is the Lord of hosts!” (Isa. 6:3) After this, the holy angels, as faithful servants of God, received perfect bliss from the Creator: such grace was given to them that in the future they could no longer sin before God, but always began to do His holy will, as the Psalmist says: “His servants who do His will” (Ps. 102:21). The fallen angels became so bitter that they will never have the opportunity to repent. From here we must know that the one from whom the grace of God is taken away due to sins becomes bitter and no longer cares for his soul. We must also know that the holy angels, the first sons of God by grace, not without merit from God received the eternal bliss of their angelhood, but first they showed faithful service to their Lord, as has already been said about this. Moreover, we, sinners and mortals, must work while we have time, so that we too may be worthy of a part of them. Anyone who wants to know anything else about the holy angels, let him look in the first three-month book “Lives of the Saints” under the eighth day of the month of November (the Council of St. Michael the Archangel and other ethereal heavenly powers), where enough is written. Here we need to turn to the visible creation. When the light shone in the depthless darkness, God separated light and darkness and called the light day and the darkness night; and this was the first day, which we call week (Sunday), and the first of the month, subsequently called March, and the first day of this month. But let us not be verbose, telling in detail about the creation of all visible creation, for both Saint Moses in his First Book of Genesis, and many others, have already written about this at great length and at length. Let anyone who wishes to read the Sixth Days of St. Basil the Great and the Damascene Book of Faith, as well as the chronograph of Dorotheus, Metropolitan of Monemvasia, recently (during the reign of the pious Tsar Alexei Mikhailovich) translated from Greek, and other Slavic and foreign chronographs and historical narratives. For us, who set out to write briefly, it is enough to remember only that the Creator, after the first day and on the second day, which we now call Monday, with His omnipotent word created the heavens from the waters of the abyss, as the psalm says: “By the word of the Lord the heavens were established, and by the spirit of His mouth all their power” (Ps. 32:6). On the third day, which we call Tuesday, having gathered the waters into one place, He revealed dry land and called it earth; and created it capable of sprouting seeds and all kinds of grass and growing trees. On the fourth day, which we call Wednesday, he created two great luminaries in the sky - the sun and the moon, as well as the stars. On the fifth day, which we call Thursday, he created fish and aquatic creatures and produced birds. On the sixth, corresponding to our Friday, He created beasts, cattle and creatures that creep on the earth according to their kinds; after all the creatures he created Adam and Eve and brought them into paradise. On the seventh day, God rested from all His works, and this day was called Sabbath, that is, rest, for the Creator rested on this day and sanctified it, as it is written about in the Book of Genesis in the 2nd chapter (Genesis 2:2-3). When the time of the Old Law passed and new grace came, then the honor and holiness of the seventh day of the Sabbath passed to the first weekday, Sunday, due to the blessed Resurrection of Christ on that day. Having said in a few words about the creation of all visible creatures within six days, we will not do anything useless if after this we begin to learn at least a little about this, in the likeness of David, who says: “We have learned in all your works, in the creation we have learned your hand” (Ps. 142:5). What can we learn here? Knowing God and ourselves. Saint Basil the Great says this: “If we learn from creation, then we will know ourselves, understand God, worship the One who created us, work for the Master, glorify the Father, love our Nourisher and honor the Benefactor” (Six Days, conversation 6). A certain philosopher once asked St. Anthony the Great, an Egyptian desert dweller who was a non-bookish man: “What, father, do you use and comfort your soul, being deprived of the opportunity to read books, what is the benefit of the soul and spiritual consolation?” The saint answered: “O philosopher! My book is all visible creation, created by God, and when I wish to read the words of God, I offer this book composed by God Himself to my eyes and learn from it with my mind, and draw useful things, am filled with spiritual consolation, rejoice in God, my Savior, and glorify His almighty power.” Wise is the answer of the reverend elder, who called all visible creation a book, in which heaven and earth are, as it were, two leaves; and as many as we see on them of God’s most beautiful creatures, we have so many writings that teach us about God. Is the sky beautiful with its luminaries; how much more beautiful is He who created this sky and the heavenly bodies? Is the earth good with its riches; but how much better is he who created the earth and everything in it? If everything above and below is wisely arranged, then how much more wise is the Creator who arranged it all? Let us also recognize our unworthiness, reasoning that everything in heaven and earth was created and arranged by God for the sake of our temporary life, to serve us; but an incomparably better thing in the future eternal life is prepared for us, mortals, by His goodness. Are we, dust and ashes, worthy of such mercy from God and are we grateful for such great His benefits? In the same way, other great fathers and teachers who lived after the Monk Anthony called the visible creation a book, like the aforementioned Basil of Caesarea and John Chrysostom, church hierarchs. Saint Basil the Great says to man: “You were not created by God for anything other than to be an instrument of the glory of God; for this whole world is, as it were, a kind of written book, telling the glory of God, the hidden and invisible greatness of God, proclaiming to you who have understanding” (Six Days, conversation 11). And Saint Chrysostom says that a person who has a rational soul, in former times, when there were no books, used creatures instead (Chrysostom. Commentary on the First Epistle to the Corinthians, chapter 2). The wise and most kind Creator, wanting to create a rational creature - man, for whom he created and arranged the entire universe, prepared for him on earth a special, most beautiful and worthy place, like a royal city for the one who was supposed to become the king of the whole earth, a bright paradise, I say, planted in the east. About this, Saint John of Damascus says the following: “Since God had from an invisible and visible creature to create man in His image and likeness, as a certain king and ruler of the whole earth and those who exist on it, He first arranged for him, as it were, a kind of royal place, a paradise, staying in which, he would have a blissful and all-rich life; for the Divine paradise, planted by God’s hands in Eden, is the repository of all spiritual pleasure and joy. The word “Eden” means “sweetness”; it was located in the east, above the whole earth, and shone with the thinnest and brightest well-dissolved air, was decorated with always green gardens, filled with incense, light, all sensual beauty and unimaginable kindness, like a Divine place and a worthy dwelling of a person having the image of God” (John of Damascus. An exact statement of the Orthodox faith. Book 2, Chapter XI). Whose language can express or what human mind can comprehend the beauty and kindness of the paradise planted by God? However, on the basis of Divine revelations to some worthy saints, part of the splendor of heaven is described in the lives of the saints. Whoever wishes, let him look at this in the life of St. Andrew the Fool on the 2nd day of the month of October, in the life of St. Joasaph, Prince of India, on the 19th day of the month of November and in the life of St. Euphrosynus on the 11th day of the month of September; as well as in the Prologue in the narration of the vision of the Abbot Cosmas (October, 5th day) and in the word about a certain holy old woman fasting, who saw her father in heaven and her mother in hell (December, 31st day), and in many other places the beauty of heaven is described. Some of the interpreters of Divine Scripture, the so-called neotericians, believe that the paradise in which Adam was no longer exists, for it was devastated by the flood, since the waters of the stream covered the entire earth and its highest places and mountains; they destroyed and destroyed not only buildings and everything created by human hands, but also all the trees, forests, oak groves and gardens planted by God, bent to the ground like a reed; also, the earthly paradise in which Adam lived, along with other plantings, was destroyed by flood waters, which covered the entire earth for a whole year. As for the paradise remembered after the flood, it, in their opinion, is not earthly, subject to human feelings, but is something above, in the air or in the sky, a special place prepared by God for the repose of righteous souls departing from this life. The holy Apostle Paul was caught up to this place (2 Cor. 12:2-4). However, the most ancient holy fathers, like Irenaeus, Justin, Athanasius, Epiphanius and others, agree that the earthly paradise in which Adam lived is still intact and not destroyed: for the sake of the righteous Enoch and the prophet Elijah, who lived in it, the Lord preserved that place from the flood waters and now preserves it unharmed. And if the flood had covered paradise with its waters, then in any case it would have drowned Enoch in it. If, as some of the neotericists think, Enoch was caught up into the air and kept there until the end of the flood, then in what sensual paradise would Enoch have lived hitherto in his flesh, and with him Elijah? From this it is clear that paradise, not damaged by the flood, remains. It is also not untrue that for the repose of the souls of the righteous, according to the dignity of each, Almighty God created, in addition to the earthly paradise, other most beautiful and most luminous places, closer to heavenly glory and height and inaccessible to human feelings. For the Gospel says: “Many are the mansions of the Heavenly Father” (John 14:2), which can be understood from the words of St. Gregory the Interlocutor. Deacon Peter asked him whether the souls of the righteous are received before receiving the bodies? The saint answered the question as follows: “This cannot be said about all the righteous, that after separation from the body they are immediately received into heaven, but it cannot be denied that the souls who have departed in perfect righteousness receive heavenly acceptance. For there are souls of the righteous who are separated from the Heavenly Kingdom by certain abodes; The reason for this is not any other, but only that they had some lack of perfect truth. And that the souls of the righteous, emerging from carnal bonds in perfect truth, are immediately received into heavenly villages, this is clearer even than God’s day” (Conversations or dialogues on the life and miracles of the Italian fathers. Book 4, chapter XXV). Let us heed the words that besides heaven and besides the sensual earthly paradise there are other bright places that rest the souls of saints. This can also be seen from the history of the life of St. John Chrysostom, Fr. After his death there was a revelation to Adelphius, Bishop of Arabia, who saw many holy church teachers at their repose in the green place, but among them he did not find Saint John Chrysostom and was sad. And it was announced to him that John would stand before the throne of God with the cherubim and seraphim (see about this at the end of the history of the life of Chrysostom, on the 13th day of the month of November). If the soul of St. John Chrysostom stands before the throne of God with the cherubim and seraphim, and the souls of other teachers rest in some other bright place, then it becomes undeniable that there are other monasteries besides the village itself. It is true that earthly paradise is not achieved without the installation of holy souls in it. For the holy martyr Dorothea (her memory was on February 6), after her suffering death, sent the scholastic Theophilus, as she promised, from paradise gifts subject to the senses - apples and flowers, which grew not in another, but precisely in the earthly paradise. From this gift, the mentioned Saint Euphrosynus gave three tactile apples to the priest, which were eaten by the brethren. So, the earthly paradise is intact, and the saints are installed in it. Since the aforementioned Saint Gregory the Interlocutor says that the Souls of some righteous people are separated from the Heavenly Kingdom due to the lack of perfect righteousness found in them, then here we should not lose sight of his understanding of souls perfect in righteousness, that they reside in the Heavenly Kingdom. Having said that the souls of the perfect righteous, freed from the bonds of the flesh, are immediately received into the heavenly settlements, he cites in confirmation the testimony of the Truth itself - Christ, who says in the Gospel: “Where the body is, there the eagles will be gathered” (Luke 17:37). Saint Gregory explains this testimony as follows: where our Savior Himself with His accepted flesh, there, without a doubt, the souls of the righteous gather. And Paul wanted to “be separated and be with Christ” (Phil. 1:23). Anyone who does not believe that Christ is in heaven will deny that Paul’s soul is there; but the Apostle says about carnal permission and about entering the heavenly fatherland: “We know that even if the earthly church of the body is destroyed, the imams were created by God, a church not made by hands, eternal in heaven” (2 Cor. 5:1). Peter the Deacon asked Saint Gregory: if now the souls of the righteous are in heaven, then what does it mean that what is said about them, that on the Day of Judgment they will receive a reward according to their righteousness? The saint answered: “Now only for their souls, and then for their bodies, the righteous will receive bliss and glory, so that they can rejoice in the flesh itself, in which they endured illnesses and labors for Christ. About this great glory of theirs it is written: “They will inherit their land again, and eternal joy will be upon their heads” (Is. 61:7). It is also written about the souls of the righteous that before the day of resurrection they were given one white robe and it was said: “Let them rest for a little while, until the measure of their minions and their brothers is fulfilled” (Apoc. 6:11). Those who accepted one garment each at the trial receive a double garment, since now only in souls, but then in souls and bodies they will rejoice in glory” (Conversations or dialogues on the life and miracles of the Italian fathers. Book 4, Chapter XXV). After arranging and putting in order all the visible creation above and below and planting paradise, God the Trinity, Father, Son and Holy Spirit, in His Divine Council said: “Let us make man in our image and likeness; may he possess the fish of the sea, and the birds of the air, and the wild animals, and the livestock, and all the earth, and every creeping thing that creeps on the earth. And God created man” (Genesis 1:26–27). The image of God and likeness is not created in the human body, but in the soul, for God does not have a body. God is a disembodied Spirit, and He created the human soul disembodied, similar to Himself, free, rational, immortal, participating in eternity, and united it with flesh, as Saint Damascus says to God: “Thou hast given me a soul by Divine and life-giving inspiration, having created a body from the earth” (Funeral hymns). The soul is the image of God because it has threefold power, and the nature is one. The powers of the human soul are the following: memory, reason and will; in memory she is likened to God the Father, in reason - to God the Son, and in will - to God the Holy Spirit. And just as in the Holy Trinity, although there are three persons, there are not three, but one God, so in the human soul, although, as has been said, there are three spiritual powers, there are not three souls, but one soul. The Holy Fathers make a distinction between the image and likeness of God in the human soul. Saint Basil the Great in his 10th Sixth Day Discourse, Chrysostom in his interpretation of the Book of Genesis in his 9th Discourse, and Jerome in his interpretation of the 28th chapter of Ezekiel’s prophecy establish the following difference: the soul receives the image of God from God at the time of its creation, and the likeness of God is created in it in baptism. The image is in the mind, and the likeness is in the will; image in freedom, autocracy, likeness in virtues, just as Christ in the Gospel says: “Be like your Father who is in heaven” (Matthew 5:48), similar in strength, goodness, gentleness, etc. Saint Basil the Great reasons as follows: “Let us create, says God, man in Our image and likeness. We have one thing created by God, but we acquire another by our will; in the first case, we are the image of God, and in the second, by choice we must be like God.” And again: “God has provided for me to be like Him: I was created in the image to be verbal, and in the likeness to become a Christian. “Be ye,” says Christ, “perfect, even as your Father in heaven is perfect.” Do you see how the Lord allows us to be like Him? When we become like Him, “Whose sun shines on the evil and on the good, and rains on the righteous and on the unjust” (Matthew 5:45). If you hate deceit, if you are not bitter, do not remember yesterday’s enmity, if you are distinguished by brotherly love and compassion, then you have become like God; If God treats you, a sinner, the same way you treat your brother who has sinned against you, then you have become like God through mercy. So, you have the image of God in that you are a verbal creature, and you are like Him when you do goodness.” Let it also be known to us that the image of God exists in the soul of an unfaithful person, but the likeness exists only in a virtuous Christian. And when a Christian commits a mortal sin, he is deprived only of the likeness of God, and not the image; and if he is condemned to eternal torment, then even then the image of God remains with him forever, but there is no longer any likeness in him. There were some heretics called anthropomorphites, whom Saint Epiphanius recalls, and who, explaining the words of God: “Let us create man in the image and likeness,” said that God has a body, a head, a limb, arms, legs and all other members, and that in this likeness He created man. But just as then the anthropomorphites were madmen and considered heretics, and rejected from the Church, so now those who do not know and do not believe that the head of God and hands with feet were not material, bodily, but were immaterial, spiritual and are His Divine omnipotence and power, and strength, and authority over everything, and omnipotence, are now unreasonable, heretical and worthy of rejection from the Church, and ubiquitous. Saint Basil the Great also exposes the anthropomorphites in his Tenth Sixth Day Discussion, saying to them the following: “Since we are created in the image of God, we will cleanse the ignorant heart, the wrong understanding, the false opinions about God. If we are created in the image of God, is God like us? Does God have ears and eyes and a head and a part to sit on? For in Scripture God is called sitting. Does He have legs with which to walk? Is this what God is like? Reject absurd dreams, reject from yourself thoughts that are not worthy of the greatness of God! God has no image, for he is simple, not majestic (in age), not quantitative. Do not dream of creating His image and do not humiliate the Great One in the Jewish way! You will not comprehend God with your bodily eyes, you will not describe Him with your mind, for He is incomprehensible in His greatness. Think about the Greatest and add to this much more, and to much more still much more, and admonish your thought that it cannot comprehend the infinite, but do not think of an image. In power God is known, and there is nothing in Him that is in us. Although we are created in the image of God, we do not have His image in our body: when the body decays, then our image disappears, and the incorruptible is not depicted in the corruptible. The body increases, decreases, ages, changes; it is different in youth, different in old age; some in prosperity, some in suffering; it is different when there is fear and another when there is joy; it looks different in peacetime and differently during war; the one who is awake has a different appearance and the one who sleeps has another. How can the changeable be similar to the unchangeable? If God says: “Let us make man in our image,” then He means the inner man, about whom the Apostle says: “Even though our outer man decays, yet the inner man is renewed all the days” (2 Cor. 4:16). Inside we have a man, and yet we are not dual, and what is said about our inner being is true. I am the inner man, but the outer is not me, but belonging to me, for I am not there is a hand, but I am the verbal soul, and the hand is a part of man. The human body is an instrument of the soul, and man is like a master in the soul itself.” And again (in the same conversation) he says: “And the wife is created in the image of God, like the husband, of one integrity by nature, and although she is weak in the flesh, she has the same power in her soul, for the image of God is of one integrity.” This is how Saint Basil the Great argues. From his words, today’s schismatic anthropomorphites can come to their senses and know that the image of God is not in the face, eyes, mouth, beard and other visible members of the body, but in the invisible verbal, rational, free, immortal soul. “God created man and took away dust from the earth, and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life, and man became a living soul” (Gen. 2:7). Adam's creation contained a prototype of the incarnation of Christ in the womb of the Most Pure Virgin. Saint Ambrose discusses this as follows: “Just as Adam was created from the virgin earth, so Christ was born from the Virgin Mary. Just as Adam’s mother earth had not yet been plowed or sown by anyone, so Christ’s Virgin Mother did not know a husband. Adam was created from the earth by the hands of God, and Christ in the Virgin’s womb was imagined by the Holy Spirit. Both are the work of the one Father God, and both have virgin mothers; and everyone is the Son of God, but Adam is a creature, while Christ is co-present with the Father, by nature God and Creator.” Why did God deign to create man from such a bad thing, from earthly clay? For two reasons: firstly, to reproach and shame the devil, so that he would be ashamed and tormented by envy, seeing such a thin and weak creature achieving that heavenly honor with which he fell; secondly, so that a person, remembering his thinness, does not fall into pride. “God called the name of the first man Adam” (Gen. 5:2). From the Hebrew language Adam is translated as an earthen or red man, since he was created from red earth. In Greek, Adam means “microcosmos,” that is, a small world, for he received his name from the four ends of the great world: from the east, west, north and noon (south). In Greek, these four ends of the universe are called as follows: “anatoli” - east; “disis” – west; “Arktos” – north or midnight; “mesimvria” – noon (south). Take the first letters from these Greek names and it will be “Adam.” And just as in the name of Adam the four-pointed world was depicted, which Adam was destined to populate with the human race, so in the same name the four-pointed cross of Christ was depicted, through which the new Adam, Christ our Lord, was subsequently destined to deliver from death and hell the human race, inhabited at the four ends of the universe. The day on which God created Adam, as already mentioned, was the sixth day, which we call Friday. On the same day that God created animals and cattle, He also created man, who has common feelings with animals. Man with all creation, visible and invisible, material, I say, and spiritual, has something in common. He has in common with insensible things in being, with beasts, cattle and every living creature - in feeling, and with angels - in reason. But man was not created with angels, but with beasts and cattle, and with them he was, as it were, born together, for he is one and the same, and in many ways he is likened to them, as they say about him in the psalms: “Be like the foolish cattle and become like them” Ps.48:13). Saint John Chrysostom speaks more clearly about this. He says to the man: “How can I know about you that you are truly a man? How can I know if you kick like a donkey in anger, if you neigh like a horse at women, eat like a bear, fatten your body like an ox and a boar, be malicious like a camel, kidnap like a wolf, get angry like a serpent, quarrel like a scorpion, deceive like a fox, but hide the poison of wickedness like an asp and a viper, you hate people like a lynx”, etc. Prologue, 6th day of February). This saying of Aristotle about man is not false: “Just as among the animals there is no better animal, like man, when he is controlled by reason, in the same way there is no worse when he does not obey reason, for then the ferocity of man exceeds the fury of all animals. For animals are sometimes tamed when good deeds are shown to them, but evil people are more fierce than leopards, for when you do good to them, they become even worse.” And the Lord God took the created man and brought him into a beautiful paradise, filled with indescribable blessings and sweets, irrigated by four rivers of the purest waters; in the midst of it was a tree of life, and whoever ate its fruit never died. There was also another tree there, called the tree of understanding or the knowledge of good and evil; it was the tree of death. God, commanding Adam to eat the fruit of every tree, commanded him not to eat from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil: “If you bear it on the same day,” He said, “you will surely die” (Gen. 2:17). Let us pay attention to the fact that in paradise there is a tree of life and a tree of death. And in a good, holy place, evil is found that causes evil, so that a person learns to beware of evil everywhere, that is, the fall, both in a holy place and in a virtuous life; for evil is nearby everywhere, sin, I say, over which a person stumbles and falls. The Apostle exhorts well: “Be careful to stand and be careful, lest you fall” (1 Cor. 10:12) and the Psalmist: “Who understands the Fall?” (Ps. 18:13). The tree of life is attention to yourself, for you will not destroy your salvation, you will not lose eternal life, when you are attentive to yourself. And the tree of the knowledge of good and evil is curiosity, exploring the deeds of others, followed by condemnation of one’s neighbor, and condemnation entails the punishment of eternal death in hell: “For he who judges his brother is the Antichrist” (James 4:11-12; 1 John 3:15; Rom. 14:10). God made Adam king and ruler over all of His earthly creation and subjected everything to his power, all the sheep and oxen, the livestock, the birds of the air, and the fish of the sea, so that he would possess them all. And he brought to him every cattle and every bird, and meek and submissive animals; for at that time the wolf was still like a lamb, and the hawk like a hen in its disposition, one not harming the other. And Adam gave them all names such as were appropriate and characteristic of each animal, coordinating the name of each animal with its true nature and disposition that subsequently emerged. For Adam was very wise from God and had the mind of an angel. The wise and most kind Creator, having created Adam as such, wanted to give him a concubine as a loving friendship, so that he would have someone with whom to enjoy such great blessings, and said: “It is not good for man to be alone, let us make him a helper” (Gen. 2:18). At the beginning of the world, it was not good for a man without a wife to help him, for then the human race had to multiply; at the present time, when the universe is filled with various peoples, the apostolic word is glorified: “It is good for a man not to touch his wife” (1 Cor. 7:1). In the Old Testament the law established life according to the flesh, but in the new grace only spiritual things are counseled. There, marriage was revered, but here womanlessness is honored, and even more so, virginity itself is honorable and glorious, about which Saint Cyprian says: “Virginity is the sister of angels, the overcoming of passions, the queen of virtues and the inheritance of all good things” (On Virginity). But even in Old Testament times there were some such holy men who lived their celibate lives and kept their virginity incorruptible from the womb; These were Elijah, Elisha, Daniel, the three youths and John the Baptist. And God brought Adam into a deep sleep, which at the same time was also “ecstasy,” so that in his spirit he could see what was happening and understand the upcoming sacrament of marriage, and especially the union of Christ Himself with the Church; for the mystery of the incarnation of Christ was revealed to him (I speak with theologians), since knowledge of the Holy Trinity was given to him, and he knew about the former angelic fall and about the impending reproduction of the human race from him, and also through God's revelation he then comprehended many other mysteries, besides his fall, which by the destinies of God was hidden from him. During such a wonderful dream, or, better yet, delight, the Lord took one of Adam’s ribs and created him a wife to help him, whom Adam, waking up from sleep, recognized and said: “Behold, bone of my bones and flesh of my flesh” (Gen. 2:23). Both in the creation of Adam from the earth, and in the creation of Eve from a rib, there was a prototype of Christ’s incarnation from the Most Pure Virgin, which St. Chrysostom perfectly explains, saying the following: “Just as Adam produced a wife in addition to his wife, so the Virgin without a husband gave birth to a Husband, repaying her debt to her husbands for Eve; Adam remained intact after the removal of his fleshly rib, and the Virgin remained incorrupt after the birth of the Child from her” (Word for the Nativity of Christ). In the same creation of Eve from Adam’s rib there was a prototype of the Church of Christ, which was to arise from the piercing of His rib on the cross. Augustine says the following about this: “Adam sleeps so that Eve can be created; Christ dies, let there be a Church. When Adam slept, Eve was created from a rib; When Christ died, the ribs were pierced with a spear so that the sacraments by which the Church would be structured would flow out.” It is also not superfluous to know that Adam’s “ecstatic” sleep in the Lenten Triodion, on the heel of the first week of Great Lent, at Vespers, in the reading from the Book of Genesis, is spoken of as a frenzy; for the following is written there; “God put a plague on Adam, and he succeeded” (Gen. 2:21). If in that dream it was revealed to him about the incarnation of Christ, he could not be told about the redemption of the human race; if it had been revealed to him then about redemption, then one way or another it would have been necessary to reveal to him his crime. Here it is also necessary to know what were Adam and Eve’s physical age (here – height, body size)? Some, adhering to Jewish fables, assumed that they were giants. But this is incorrect, for only later did giants begin to be born from lawlessness. This is described in the sixth chapter of the Book of Genesis. When the sons of God, that is, the descendants of Seth, seeing the daughters of men, that is, Cain, that they were beautiful in face, mingled with them contrary to the favor of God, then from their lawless bed people began to be born, not according to the measure of age created by God, but monsters, giants, like trees and certain monsters, revealing by themselves God’s unblessing of such a bed. Adam and Eve were created by God both in ordinary human growth, as John of Damascus testifies to this, saying: “God created man who was gentle, righteous, virtuous, carefree, sorrowless, sanctified by every virtue, adorned with all the blessings, like a kind of second world, small in the great, another angel, a joint worshiper, bowing down with the angels to God, a watcher of the visible creation, thinking about mysteries, the king existing on earth, earthly and heavenly, temporal and immortal, visible and mental, average majesty (in stature) and humility, as well as spiritual and carnal" (John of Damascus. An exact statement of the Orthodox faith. Book 2, Chapter XII). The thought is also pious that Christ our Lord, the New Adam, wishing to put on the old, took upon Himself flesh that was in all respects similar to the first Adam - age, face, beauty, conversation, walking, but except for sin alone. In the same way, He deigned to have His Most Blessed Mother, who was in all respects similar to the foremother Eve. Just as in the beginning God created Adam in His image and in the likeness contained in his rational soul, so in the last years the same God appeared in Adam’s flesh, in his bodily image and likeness. And just as Christ, living with people on earth, was “more beautiful in kindness than the sons of men” (Ps. 44:3), and His Most Blessed Mother, the Most Pure Virgin, surpassed in beauty all the daughters of men, was like a cranium (rose) among thorns, so it must be understood about our first ancestors Adam and Eve, that they were the most beautiful in the entire human race, both in terms of age and in the beauty of your face. For it was not fitting for man, the first animate and rational creation of God, to be filled with ugliness. Let us also turn our attention to the following: whose birth was the most honest - Adam's or Eve's? Adam was created outside of paradise, and Eve was created in paradise; Adam is from the dust of the earth, Eve is from human bone. Truly, it seems that Eve’s birth was more honest compared to Adam’s, but nevertheless the wife is not more honest than her husband, but is even submissive to him. Here is a lesson for those who are proud of their nobility, for it is not the great and honest man who is noble and has a corrupt life, but the one who is prudent and virtuous in his life, even if he was from a simple family by origin. Having thus created on the sixth day a husband and wife to stay in paradise, entrusting them with dominion over all the earthly creation, commanding them to enjoy all the sweets of paradise, except for the fruits of the reserved tree, and blessing their marriage, which then had to be a carnal union, for he said: “Grow and multiply” (Gen. 1:28), the Lord God rested from all his works on the seventh day. But He did not rest as if weary, for God is Spirit, and how can He be tired? He rested in order to provide people with rest from their external affairs and worries on the seventh day, which in the Old Testament was Saturday (which means rest), and in the new grace the weekday (Sunday) was sanctified for this purpose, for the sake of the Resurrection of Christ that happened on this day. God rested from work in order not to produce new creatures more perfect than those created, for there was no need for more, since every creature, above and below, was created. But God Himself did not rest and does not rest, and will not rest, supporting and governing all creation, which is why Christ said in the Gospel: “My Father works hitherto, and I work” (John 5:17). God acts, directing the heavenly currents, arranging beneficial changes of times, establishing the earth, which is not based on anything, motionless and producing from it rivers and sweet water springs for watering every living creature. God acts for the benefit of all not only verbal, but also dumb animals, providing for, preserving, feeding and multiplying them. God acts, preserving the life and existence of every person, faithful and unfaithful, idle and sinful: “In Him,” as the Apostle says, “we live and move, and we are” (Acts 17:28). And if the Lord God withdrew His Almighty hand from all His creation and from us, then we would immediately perish, and all creation would be destroyed. Yet the Lord does this, without bothering at all, as one of the theologians (Augustine) says: He rests and rests while he does.” The Sabbath day, or the day of God’s rest from work, foreshadowed that coming Saturday, on which our Lord Christ rested in the tomb after the labors of His free suffering for us and the accomplishment of our salvation on the cross. Saint Ambrose, discussing the words: “God rest from all His works on the seventh day” (Gen. 2:2), says: “God created the heavens, but I do not read further that He rested after creating the heavens; He created the earth, and did not rest then; I created the sun, the moon and the stars, and I do not read here that God should rest. When he created man, then he rested, having someone to forgive his sins.” Here, perhaps, someone will object: why didn’t Adam forgive his sin, but subjected him to punishment? Saint Dorotheos answers this: “Because Adam did not humble himself before God, did not say: I have sinned, forgive me, but he laid the guilt of his sin on his wife, and the wife on the serpent; for this reason they were condemned by the righteous judgment of God” (On the rejection of the world). David says well: “Reh, let me confess my iniquity to the Lord, and you have forsaken the wickedness of my heart” (Ps. 31:5). Adam and his wife were both naked in paradise, and were not ashamed (just as little babies are not ashamed today), for they did not yet feel within themselves carnal lust, which is the beginning of shame and about which they still knew nothing, and this very dispassion and innocence was like a beautiful robe for them. And what could be more beautiful clothing for them than their pure, virgin, immaculate flesh itself, delighted with heavenly bliss, nourished with heavenly food and overshadowed by the grace of God? The devil was jealous of their blissful stay in paradise and, in the form of a serpent, deceived them so that they would eat the fruit from the forbidden tree; and Eve tasted it first, and then Adam, and both sinned gravely, transgressing the commandment of God. Immediately, having angered their Creator God, they lost the grace of God, recognized their nakedness and understood the enemy’s deception, for (the devil) said to them: “You will be like gods” (Gen. 3:5) and lied, being the father of lies. Not only did they not receive deity, but they also destroyed what they had, for they both lost the ineffable gifts of God. Is it only that the devil turned out to be telling the truth when he said: “You will know good and evil” (Gen. 3:5). Indeed, it was only at that time that our ancestors realized how good paradise and staying in it were, when they became unworthy of it and were expelled from it. Truly, good is not so recognized that it is good when a person has it in his possession, but at the time when he destroys it. Both of them also knew evil, which they had not known before. For they knew nakedness, hunger, winter, heat, labor, illness, passion, weakness, death and hell; They learned all this when they transgressed the commandment of God. When their eyes were opened to see and know their nakedness, they immediately began to be ashamed of each other. At the same hour in which they ate the forbidden fruit, carnal lust was immediately born in them from eating this food; Both of them felt passionate lust in their members, and shame and fear seized them, and they began to cover the shame of their bodies with fig tree leaves. Having heard the Lord God walking in paradise at noon, they hid from Him under a tree, for they no longer dared to appear before the face of their Creator, whose commandments they did not keep, and hid from His face, being overwhelmed by both shame and great awe. God, calling them with His voice and presenting them before His face, after testing them in sin, pronounced His righteous judgment on them, so that they would be expelled from paradise and fed from the labor of their hands and the sweat of their brow: to Eve, so that she would give birth to children in illness; Adam to cultivate the ground that produces thorns and thistles; to both, so that after much suffering in this life they would die and turn their bodies into the earth, and with their souls descend into the prisons of hell. Only God comforted them greatly by revealing to them at the same time about the upcoming redemption of their human race through the incarnation of Christ after a certain time. For the Lord, speaking to the serpent about the woman that her Seed would erase his head, predicted to Adam and Eve that from their seed would be born the Most Pure Virgin, the bearer of their punishment, and from the Virgin would be born Christ, who with His blood would redeem them and lead the entire human race from the slavery of the enemy and from the bonds of hell, and would again make heaven and heavenly settlements worthy, and would trample the devil’s head and will completely erase. Jewish rabbis, and after them some even now, believe that Adam’s sin in paradise, expressed figuratively in the legend of the forbidden tree, was carnal intercourse with his wife. But the general and unanimous opinion of all the holy fathers asserts that Adam and Eve remained in paradise before their expulsion in pure virginity. For before they transgressed the commandment of God, they did not know their nakedness, and there was no lust, as mentioned above. In the same way, after their crime, even if they recognized their nakedness and felt lust within themselves, they were ashamed of each other, and besides, because of the fear and horror that attacked them, they did not know what to do. Then they did not have time for carnal mixing, since God approached menacingly and asked: “Adam! Where are you? (Gen. 3:9). And God expelled Adam and Eve from paradise and settled him directly opposite paradise, so that he could cultivate the land from which he was taken. He appointed a cherubim with weapons to guard paradise, so that no man, beast or devil would enter it. Many people have a curious research: how many years did Adam live in paradise, and at what hour and day did he fall and be expelled from paradise? Various researchers make different assumptions about this. In the Lenten Triodion on the week of the Cheese Festival, the following is written in the synaxarion: “On the sixth day Adam was created by the hand of God and, having received the commandment, he lived even until the sixth hour in paradise, and then, having broken the commandment, he was expelled from there.” Saint Theophylact in his interpretation of the Gospel of Matthew, ch. 27, says the following: “Since man was created on the sixth day (that is, on Friday), and ate of the tree at the sixth hour - for this is the hour of eating - then the Lord, resurrecting man and healing the fall, is nailed to the tree on the sixth day and at the sixth hour.” Georgiy Kedrin, a historiographer from Constantinople, writes the following: “Some say that Adam was created at the third hour (the sixth day, that is, Friday), sinned at the sixth hour, and was expelled at the ninth hour. Those who talk about this confirm their opinion by the fact that at the sixth hour our Lord was nailed to the cross, and at the ninth hour he died for us. I think that they were led to this opinion by the fact that at noon the Lord came to the fallen Adam and Eve. But this opinion is not probable, and the interval of three hours is very short. How was Adam able in those three hours to name the names of all the beasts and livestock and birds and every living thing? When was he able to see all the beauty of paradise in three hours, enjoy food from all the trees until he was full and fall asleep? In addition, during this time, a wife was created when Adam was sleeping, and the devil’s envy of man, the serpent’s insidious approach to Eve, conversation and seduction occurred. All this required more time than three hours. It is an undoubted truth that on the sixth day, that is, on Friday, and at the sixth hour, the sin of our first parents took place in paradise, and at the ninth hour, the expulsion, but not on the same Friday on which both of them were created, but then on some other Friday this happened.” The same George Kedrin also says the following: “Some of the most ancient (writers) argued that Adam’s sin happened in the seventh year, that is, after living in paradise for seven years, he transgressed the commandment of God on the same day and month in which he was created seven years ago.” In the above-mentioned synaxarion of cheese, Philo the Hebrew is mentioned, who attributed to Adam a hundred-year stay in paradise. Some Western theologians make the assumption that Adam sinned and lost paradise on the second day after his creation: on Friday he was created, on Saturday he fell and was expelled. Others suggest that Adam, on the eighth day after his creation, transgressed the commandment of God and was expelled; these say that he enjoyed the blessings of heaven for a whole week: on Friday he was created, and on the following Friday he fell, deceived. Others say that Adam's sin in paradise happened on the fortieth day after its creation. Therefore, Christ the Lord fasted for forty days for Adam’s intemperance in paradise, which supposedly happened on the fortieth day. Finally, others claim that all this happened thirty-three years later, just as subsequently the Son of God Christ, born of the Most Pure Virgin, lived for the same number of years on earth, raising the human race from Adam’s fall. We, seeing the great disagreement of so many theologians, will not further explore the mystery about which the Holy Spirit was silent in the Divine Scripture. Not only is there no news about the period of time during which Adam was in paradise, but also in other periods after Adam’s expulsion from paradise and before the flood, before the exodus of Israel from Egypt, before David and before the Nativity of Christ, there is a lot that raises doubts, for there is great disagreement among the chroniclers, as we will now see! You might be interested in: