Адам и Ева

Adam was great and became humble. Its beginning is a high degree of glory, its end is deep humiliation. Its beginning is in paradise, its end is in the tomb. He was created before Eve, his flesh was perfect and still inseparable. A bone was taken from him as an image of the future. This bone was Eve, and it soon became the cause of the Fall; This bone soon crushed this wall - Adam. Eve has lost her beautiful and longed-for glory; Mary restored this glory that was lost to Adam and Eve. Eve was given to Adam as a helper, and she served as a stumbling block for him; was given to share the burden with him, but made him guilty. The weakest enslaved him, the subordinate deposed him, the weakest crushed him. Out of jealousy, she did not allow her husband to taste first; wanted to become higher than Adam, to take the first degree, and give Adam the second. Since she wanted to enslave her husband, the Lord exposed her secrets and said to her: “He will have possession of you” (Gen. 3:16). The Good One had not yet accused them, but their own will condemned them, accused their own conscience, overthrew their own pride, destroyed their own lust. Despite all the treasures, sovereign freedom became impoverished; in the paradise of sweets, with the wisdom of the mind, she was seduced by a beautiful tree. The transgression of the commandment killed the man, but he continues to neglect the commandment. The advice of the evil one condemned man, but he continues to do the will of the evil one. The world is perishing, but man is not admonished. He is wise; subjects both sea and land to research; examines the quality of countries and the various properties of every thing; knows seeds and plants, versed in arts and crafts; Visible things are known to him; through research he comes to know invisible things. If his pack animal is lost, he looks for it. He is not only looking for his soul. As for the transitory, he is knowledgeable and experienced, but as for the promises, he is completely ignorant. He is wise in acquiring temporary things, is ready to do useless things, and is lazy in things that are necessary. Everything that is difficult is easy for him, everything that is difficult is convenient. It seems difficult for him to acquire salvation, but he finds death without difficulty. There are many ways for a person to perish, but he also has means of salvation. In this, nature itself assists (helps) him, and Scripture also serves as a support for him. The Father clothes him with weapons, the Son gives him a shield, the Spirit fights him in battle. And there are many obstacles for him to do evil: the sword of the judges makes him tremble, the king’s law threatens him with torment, the Scriptures and books frighten him, the name of Gehenna makes him shudder. A person is not a child in his knowledge, his understanding is not darkened, and the measure of his knowledge is not small. He is the source of inventions, he subjugates all creation to himself. But due to his smallness he is an aphid, due to his powerlessness he is a moth, due to his baseness he is a locust, and in the Tsar’s Garden he wears away everything like a worm. He makes searches in the mountains, steals treasures from rivers, tests the depths of the sea, penetrates the secrets of forests and caves, makes his searches in them; cuts the insides of trees and receives fruits from the moisture imparted to them; trims excess shoots on the grapevine; fertilizes and softens the earth, collects treasures from it. He is God’s image in the world: he draws water from the depths and with his structures, like clouds, lifts it to great heights, so that in this too he can become like the Creator. Instead of creative power, he has a hand capable of doing everything and knowledge sufficient to bring everything into execution. Who will number his treasures? In the dyeing business, he went as far as arranging all kinds of flowers, in weaving - to the production of all kinds of fabrics. How many statues came out of his crucible? How many idols are there from under his chisel? Who will determine how many fragrant ointments he invented, how many different tasty foods, so that his meal, like the Edenic paradise, is filled with all kinds of pleasures? But if you read and talk to him about Judgment and reward, then complete laziness takes possession of him, negligence attacks him, as if he were listening to your words in a dream. And as soon as you leave it, everything comes into motion, begins to care about the profit, about the loan and about the surplus. His whole mind is occupied with ensuring that his money does not disappear. His hand is stretched out to everything. His yoke weighs on his relatives, and his dominion on strangers. He does not know satiety in celebration. Every country is close to him; both sea and land are at his fingertips; only the church stands as if far away from him. His hand is long when he takes, and short for giving alms. If he shows himself to be an innocent baby, do not believe him, because he is deceiving you, appearing simple. And the Omniscient, saying: “the face of heaven and earth is full of temptation” (Luke 12:56), denounces the one who, with the help of his observations, comprehended changes in the world and predicts when there will be heat, when there will be rain, when there will be clear weather. But the saddest thing is that man, through his knowledge, wants to become higher than the Creator, and attempts to explore the Creator like a creature and set limits for Him. Adam wanted to become higher than the Creator by eating the fruit of the tree, and Adam’s descendants seek this with their research. As is the beginning, so is the end. The coming of the Lord is already at the door. You, God, had mercy (mercy) on Adam and gave him the opportunity to repent; open the door to our repentance. Blessed is He who forgives our sins! Blessed is He who multiplies our treasures! The evil one has drawn us into research about Him Who is always completely unsearchable (cannot be explored) and incomprehensible and Who can only be comprehended by faith. His beauty is easily recognizable, but it is indefinable, and in our weakness we think that He is like creatures. The evil one blinded the minds of Adam's descendants so that they would not understand the intrigues that he had created through the serpent. If even in paradise his deception had been subjected to the crucible of temptation, then all the vileness of it would have been revealed there. If Eve had experienced the serpent, whom she did not know by name, she would have understood what he was like and how far he was from knowing the secrets contained in the tree hidden from the Angels and known to the simple. As soon as the heart is filled with love for something, there is no place in it for advice and understanding. The will of man is entirely directed towards one thing; In any case, a person tries for one thing - to fulfill the desire of his heart. Another will say: “If Adam had known that it was disastrous for him to eat the fruit of the tree, he would not have approached the tree.” But this means accusing the Righteous Judge, as if His judgment was unjust, with which He struck the criminal and handed him over to torture. Whoever speaks in defense of Adam and claims that he sinned because he did not know, one can ask why he himself sins, although he knows that he is sinning? Thus, by himself and on his own, he will understand that Adam also knew when he sinned. If it were fair that man would never sin, having learned how wicked it is to anger God, then it would also be fair that Adam, when he ate, did not know, like an inexperienced baby, that he was committing a sin. The serpent laughed at Adam when he sinned. The just judge condemned him according to his sin. Just as he fled and hid, having realized his nakedness, so he hid the fact that he had tasted the stolen fruit. And we are like Adam, just as he is like us. Adam concealed, so do we. Tail Cain, Tail Ahar (Achan), Tail Gehazi, Tail Judah. Blessed be the Judge who condemns us! Eve, clothed with glory, did not want to find an objection to what was said by the despicable, unworthy serpent, although his word needed to be examined and thrown into the furnace of temptation, although glory belonged to her, and dishonor belonged to the serpent. Let us marvel at Mary, who was not afraid to express her bewilderment before the great Angel, who was not afraid to question him. Eve did not want to question the despised serpent when the Virgin objected to Gabriel. Mary did not ask in order to enter into research about the Ever-living Son; she asked because she did not know her husband. Mary asked when what the Angel said was feasible; Eve believed the promise of the impossible. An unreasonable mother became a source of disaster for us, and a prudent sister became a treasury of joys. The serpent, who was to be interrogated, was not put to the test, but Christ, who should be believed, is made the subject of inquisitive research. Let us listen, brothers, sons of Evina, to what our ancient mother did and what Mary put an end to. Eve opened the closed mouth of death, the barred doors of Sheol, and paved a new path to the tomb. Without a doubt, Eve lusted after the fruit of the tree just as Joseph's mistress lusted after Joseph's beauty. One robbed her husband, the other stole fruit from the tree. And the thief realizes that his act is bad. Eve, intoxicated by the promise of glory, dares anything like a harlot. Having given himself over to intemperance, he does not ask the serpent: “Are you a slave, or free and one of those above? Are you a beast, or one of the Angels? None of those above - neither Seraphim nor Cherubim - came to us and proclaimed this. Who gave you this superior knowledge of what neither the highest nor the average know? If there is another God besides the One, and you are his messenger, then he is like you and one can judge from you that he is completely vile. If he loves you, then what did he reward you by making you a participant in his secrets? The one who sent you to us is insignificant. And he himself testifies that our God is the true God, for he gave us everything, although we did not ask for it. How much more will He reward us if we keep His commandment about the tree? If this is the one who sent you, then return with dishonor to the one who, leaving the free, entered into an alliance with our servant and made the one who by birth belongs to the dumb ones a participant in the mysteries. It is clear that both of you, you and he, are no better than beasts of burden. Let us compare you with Adam, if it is possible to compare something dumb with a man. If you insist that you are older than Adam, then your very name will reveal that you are much younger than Adam. Adam was given the right to name animals in order to show his great eldership before them. It is not children who give names to their parents, but names that are passed on from the oldest to the youngest. Just as God, Who in His essence is older than all things, gave names to all creatures, so to His last creation, as a sign of His eldership, He granted the right to name all animals. Created him last, but made him first; a person is younger in time of his creation, but older in dignity; the dumb ones came before him and are older in time of existence, but later in their names. Why did Adam give names only to Eve and the animals, but left other creatures (both heavenly and earthly), as well as paradise, without a name? Because they did not fight with him afterwards, and these creatures did not harm him. The Creator Himself named other creatures, and allowed the slave to name the animals, so that he would remember that he himself named Eve, that he himself gave the name to the serpent, and therefore was not deceived by them. If they had dreamed of themselves that they were higher than Adam, and began to seduce him with the tree, then Adam could have exposed them with their names, because they received names from his wisdom and, having previously been as if dead, received life with names. Newborns, while they do not have names, are the same for voice and hearing as dead ones, and names make them as if alive for those who speak to them, call them, listen to them and treat them. Shame on the wife, the source of cunning. Having defeated the source of wisdom - Solomon, she herself is defeated by the serpent, who, although called cunning, is not a man, but an animal; belongs to the race of dumb people, although it is said about him that he was wise. If his ancestors had turned to him with reproach, he would have disappeared and disappeared. If they had entered into a contest with him, he would have been defeated and fled. But Eve did not reproach him, did not enter into competition with him. She inclined her ear to the serpent, her eye to the fruit, and the word became deed. Oh, if she had asked herself what this tree is - a creature or a Creator, a creature or an Eternal Being, in Whom are all treasures? For creation is unable to give anything without Him who can do everything. This tree could not produce death itself, which was supposed to follow the eating of its fruit, at the same hour as the first parents sinned. How could it bestow deification? And it was not the tree itself that showed nakedness, but the Just One, who saw that the first parents had sinned. That both other creatures and this tree were created by the Eternal Being, we are convinced by the fact that God gave them names, and Adam also named them. Between these names there is no name of other eternal beings (eons), there is no other force that would give new names to creatures. It should be asked: if the Righteous One hid the names of the eternal ones and did not reveal them, but left them in obscurity, not wanting the teaching about them to become publicly known, then who could have revealed them? Let those who are puffed up with wisdom understand where the names of such eternal beings appeared who do not even exist. From the Greeks they learned the empty names of these eternal beings, but there are no such names in Scripture. The deceiver’s voice is unsteady, his speech is vague, the complexion of the one who plots and sets networks constantly changes. Whoever looks with a prodigal eye, who has a Tat (thief's) look, fear speaks of his crime. The ancestors, without asking, believe the deceiver, agree with the liar, listen to the insidious, do not require a sign, or proof, or testimony. And the Good One, who provides thousands of witnesses to certify His truth, is considered a deceiver. Heaven, earth and everything on them testify to the Creator and proclaim His goodness. And paradise preaches that He is the giver, who gave all creation as a possession to Adam, who showed himself to be shameless. The evil one was jealous that so much was given to Adam. Taking on the appearance of a generous giver, he robs him like a thief. Hidden in his gift were thorns and illnesses, sweat and labor, shameful foliage, spiritual repentance and death. He gives a stone instead of bread, a snake instead of a fish, a scorpion instead of an egg to those who ask him. Cursed be this hand and its gift! This is shuytsa (left hand), and its gift is similar to it. You, the Victor, descended to the guilty Adam, rewarded him with great gifts from Your treasury, and for his earthly suffering brought him into the blissful abodes of the Kingdom. Your greatness appeared to the poor in order to enrich us, the poor, with Your heavenly treasures, and so that through our treasures we would become friends of those on high. If a person is silent, then he is shamelessly ungrateful. Therefore, I open my lips to thank You, and I remain silent so as not to say anything impudent. In what language can a person fully depict Your mercies? No one's mouth is able to sing of their fullness and abundance. Who can open his mouth, but who can also remain silent? I don’t want either one or the other - neither to be silent nor to speak. I will sing songs as much as I have the strength, I will remain silent when I have no strength. I go out into the field in order to gain benefit, I remain motionless in order to receive salvation. With the flesh - this small vessel for the soul that dwells in it - You united Your greatness. Marvelous is your birth from Mary. Just as death entered and flowed into the small opening of the ear, so life entered and flowed into Mary’s new ear. Just as one tree was the cause of death, so the other became the cause of life. One brought victory to death, to others life triumphed. Enoch and Elijah prefigured this mystery because they were raptured and translated into paradise. The two winners entered where the other two were forced to leave disgraced. Two winners entered paradise in order to reprove the two who were defeated in paradise. Two condemn two; children judge their parents. Adam was defeated and expelled because he obeyed his wife, but Enoch and Elijah were victorious and entered because they were glorified: Elijah for virginity, and Enoch for holiness. They were victorious with the same armor with which Adam was defeated. It is not the weapon that disgraces the vanquished, but the one who was equipped with the same weapon and won the victory. Elijah was transferred to the paradise of life in order to overthrow the arrogance of the foolish Jews, who claimed that the inheritance was in Jerusalem. The land of promise was only a semblance of an invisible paradise; who will choose the prototype instead of the typed, the likeness instead of the reality? The circumcised, like children, expect the earth, flowing with honey and milk, to be their mother. They are like children turning their gaze to the milk that feeds them. But those who have reached perfect age direct their gaze to that paradise of life in which the tree of life is the image of the Ever-living Son and which will not be desolate, like desolate Jerusalem. Adam, who became proud and desired to become like God, is convicted by Elijah, who, although, like God, closed and opened heaven, he was not proud in his heart. It was fair to enter heaven for the one who humbled himself to the same extent as he ascended higher. The one who became proud is expelled from paradise; He who humbled himself entered heaven. Not only two turned out to love humility; and the others did not enter, not because they were all arrogant. But in these two the Creator wanted to show an image (model) to those entering heaven. Enoch loved righteousness and was caught up into paradise as evidence that Adam was expelled from paradise for his own guilt. Enoch was brought into paradise when Adam was outside it, so that no one could say that our Lord resisted sin only because He is God. He opened paradise, and two victors entered it, so that the truth would not be put to shame. The weak cannot be shamed by the victory of one who is stronger than him; but he is put to shame when someone like him wins and receives a crown. You might be interested in: