События во втором столетии первого тысячелетия

When Adam was expelled from paradise, he was at first not far from paradise; Constantly looking at him with his assistant, he cried incessantly, sighing heavily from the depths of his heart at the memory of the indescribable blessings of heaven, which he lost and fell into such great suffering for the sake of a small taste of the forbidden fruit. So, by the command of God, he was moved to the same place where he was created from clay, so that where he was created from the earth, there he would return to the earth again. The Jews and Blessed Jerome, and after him many others, tell that Adam was created on the field of Damascus, which has red soil, not far from Hebron. By this Damascus we do not mean the city that, after the flood and the increase of mankind, became the capital of Syria and was located near the Lebanese mountains, in which then Saul, the persecutor of Christians, being enlightened, became Paul, Christ's apostle, but mean a special place, the field of Damascus, so called after the murder of Abel, near which later, in the days of Abraham, there was the city of Hebron. There was also the Mamre Oak nearby, where Saint Abraham later built himself a double cave and was buried in it with Sarah. And this place is venerable, because the holy forefathers Adam, Abel, Abraham, Isaac and Jacob are buried there, as well as the holy foremothers Eve, Sarah, Rebecca and Leah (except for Rachel, who is buried in Bethlehem). This field has marvelous beauty and an abundance of fruits, like a second earthly paradise. The soil of this field is very good for potting and better than any other land; Now the Saracens dig it, deliver it to Egypt, India and Europe and sell it at a high price. They say that the pits from which the earth is taken and transported to other countries, after one year, are again filled with earth growing in them. They also say that this earth has the power to drive away poison, and if someone carries it with him or drinks and eats from vessels made from it, he remains unharmed from harmful things. We think that the earth received this power from the honest relics of the holy forefathers and foremothers buried there. For on this earth Adam and Eve were settled and lived with their children, eating from their labor; and there Adam was buried in a marble tomb (as Egisippus writes), although others tell a different story, saying that he was buried on Golgotha, near Jerusalem. But this will be said later in its proper place, when the year of Adam’s death, nine hundred and thirty, is narrated. Although our first parents Adam and Eve sinned before the Lord God and lost their former grace, they did not lose faith in God: both of them were filled with the fear of the Lord and love and had hope for their deliverance, given to them in revelation. God was pleased with their repentance, incessant tears and fasting, with which they humbled their souls for the intemperance they committed in paradise. And the Lord looked upon them mercifully, listening to their prayers, made out of contrition of heart, and prepared forgiveness for them from Himself, freeing them from sinful guilt, which is clearly seen from the words of the Book of Wisdom: “This (the wisdom of God) of the first-created father of the world, the one-created one, preserved and brought him out of his sin, and gave him all strength to maintain” (Wisdom 10, 1-2 ). Perhaps someone will say: if God forgave Adam’s sin, freeing him from it, then why didn’t he bring him into paradise again? God forgave Adam and Eve their sin because this sin was their personal sin, and not because it was the sin of the entire human race. He freed from sinful guilt, but not from punishment, for the punishing justice of God demanded satisfaction from the guilty. And since Adam and Eve could not themselves give satisfaction to God for the sin brought upon the entire human race, for this reason they were not introduced into paradise until the Deliverer of the human race, the Son of God, came, who would give satisfaction to God the Father through His voluntary suffering for universal sin and through the cross would open the entrance to paradise. Our ancestors Adam and Eve, not despairing of God’s mercy, but trusting in His compassion for mankind, in their repentance began to invent ways of serving God; They began to bow to the east, where paradise was planted, and to pray to their Creator, and also to bring sacrifices to God: either from the flocks of sheep, which, according to God’s vision, was a prototype of the sacrifice of the Son of God, who was to be slain like a lamb for the deliverance of the human race, - or they offered from the harvest of the field, which was a foreshadowing of the sacrament in new grace, when the Son of God, in the form of bread, had to be offered as a favorable sacrifice to God the Father for the remission of human sins. Doing this themselves, they taught their children to honor God and make sacrifices to Him and told them with tears about the blessings of heaven, rousing them to achieve the salvation promised to them by God and instructing them to live a life pleasing to God. 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