childoforthodoxy
posted on Aug 30, 2010 - 05:10 PM
Dearest Fr. Kyrillos and all of my fellow children of Christ and of Orthodoxy,
I realize that my contribution to this topic will be minimal at best, and certainly acknowledge that it is only by the workings of the Holy Spirit within us that we will receive the fruits and blessings that Orthodoxy offers us. It is in Orthodoxy that we find Truth; it is in its liturgical setting that we may determine the emphasis of our understanding, as Fr. Kyrillos has so decisively presented for us above; it is in its patristic writings through which we may see the guidance of the Holy Spirit allowing our blessed Fathers to attain a like-mannered understanding of that which concerns our lives in Christ.
I believe that we must approach this topic with the utmost care. Ramez Mikhail has suggested that a list of books be supplied, that the proper Orthodox understanding of our topic of concern may be illuminated in a proper and beneficial manner. I eagerly await such a list, and wish to add just a few words from the Church Fathers on the matter. I have not yet studied the intricacies of the Greek language, and thus cannot attest to the fact that I have read the whole of the following work, but there are certainly very important excerpted translations that have been provided to us thus far in the English language which has instilled a very strong desire within me to read the remainder of the work. The writing to which I make reference to is the explanation of the book of Romans by St. Cyril of Alexandria (PG 74: http://khazarzar.skeptik.net/pgm/PG_Mig ... anos.pdf). An additional work that is of great value in this particular discussion is St. Cyril of Alexandria’s Commentary on the Gospel of John (http://www.tertullian.org/fathers/index.htm#Cyril_Commentary_on_the_Gospel_of_John). St. John Chrysostom has also provided us with a beautiful homily on the book of Romans, and similarly discusses the matter (http://www.newadvent.org/fathers/210210.htm).
I, of course, have chosen to focus on the book of Romans, as it is Romans 5:12 that has been purportedly mistranslated in Augustine’s works and, as such, has led to the understanding which he held concerning “original sin,” which in proper Orthodox teaching, has been termed “ancestral sin” and has properly been expounded on by its most revered Fathers. I ask that if anyone frequenting this site has the desire and the time to translate the first work cited above from Greek to please do so, as I am positive that it contains a wealth of information within it. With that said, I will present a few excerpts below from each of the works mentioned above; I understand that the cited goal of this thread is to provide a list of books on the matter, and must therefore apologize if these quotes are viewed as unnecessary. They are certainly not meant to be comprehensive, as I am sure that there exists a tremendous amount of material in book format on the topic, though I do not know if they are readily available to us in the English language.
I humbly ask for the blessings of Fr. Kyrillos and the prayers of all of the rest of you, wishing to learn Orthodoxy in its proper light, the Light of Christ, that we may be illuminated with the Truth, in the Father, through the Son, and by the Holy Spirit. But someone will say, verily Adam fell, and by disregarding the divine commandment he was condemned to corruption and death, but how were the many made sinful on his account? What do his transgressions have to do with us? How is it that we who were not even born were condemned along with him, and yet God says, “The fathers shall not be put to death for the children and the sons shall not be put to death for the fathers; everyone shall die in his own sin”? (Deut. 24:18). Surely, then, that soul that sins shall die; but we be came sinners through the disobedience of Adam in this way: For Adam was created for incorruption and life, and his life in the Paradise of delight was holy, his whole mind was continually caught up in divine visions, and his body was tranquil and serene, since every shameful pleasure was calmed, for there was no disturbance of intemperate emotions in him.
However, since he fell under sin and sank into corruption, thence pleasures and pollutions penetrated into the nature of the flesh, and so there was planted in our members a savage law. Nature became diseased with sin through the disobedience of the one, i.e., Adam; thus the many also became sinners, not as transgressing together with Adam – for they did not exist at all – but as being from his nature which had fallen under the law of sin... because of disobedience, human nature in Adam became infirm with corruption, and so the passions were introduced into it....
St. Cyril of Alexandria, Interpretation of the Epistle to the Romans
PG 74, pp. 788-789
And furthermore, if they who were born from Adam became sinners on account of his sinning, in all justice, they are not liable, for they did not become sinners of themselves; therefore the term “sinners” is used instead of “mortals” because death is the penalty of sin. Since in the first-fashioned man nature became mortal, all they who share in the nature of the forefather consequently share mortality also.
St. Cyril of Alexandria
Death entered into the first man, and into the beginnings of our race, because of sin, and very soon it had corrupted the entire race. In addition to this, the serpent who invented sin, after he had conquered Adam because of the latter’s unfaithfulness, opened up a way for himself to enter the mind of man… For since we have all copied Adam’s transgression and thus have all sinned, we have incurred a penalty equal to his.
PG 74, p. 784
By the mouth of Moses He published laws innumerable and in many cases those living in bad habits were ordered to be punished, but nowhere is a command from Him to be found, that children should share the penalties incurred by their sinning fathers… nay, not even does He lay upon a descendant the faults of his ancestors like a burden.
Homilies on St. John’s Gospel, Book 6, § 1
For it would have been in a manner absurd, that the sentence of condemnation should fall upon all men through one man, who was the first, I mean Adam; and that those who had not sinned at that time, that is, at which the founder of our race transgressed the commandment given unto him, should wear the dishonorable image of the earthy.
Homilies on St. John’s Gospel, Book 11, § 17
It cannot be that when one sinneth another should be punished.… This supposition He removed by the mouth of Ezekiel: “As I live, saith the Lord, this proverb shall not be, that is used, The fathers haven eaten sour grapes, and the children’s teeth are set on edge.” And Moses saith, “The father shall not die for the child, neither shall the child die for the father.”
On the Gospel of St. John, Homily 56, (On the Man Born Blind)
Of old, he [David] says, from the very beginning, sin mastered my nature. The transgression of the commandment had preceded the conception by Eve. For it was after the fall and the loss of Paradise that Adam knew Eve, his wife: she then conceived and bore Cain.
Thus the prophet wishes to say that sin, having mastered our first parents, as it were, made a road and a path for itself through our race.[19] We are to learn from all this that the operation of sin is not natural — otherwise, of course, we would be free from punishment — but that our nature has a proclivity to falling while under the influence of the passions; however, the will can be victorious if it takes pains to that end. Here the prophet is not faulting marriage, as some have senselessly proposed, having thus understood the words “I was conceived in iniquities”, but he is indicating the transgression com mitted by our first parents at the beginning, and, he says, that transgression is the source of this proclivity. If, says he, they had not transgressed, they had not received the penalty of death; and not being mortal, they would have been above corruption. Freedom from cor¬ruption, in any event, would have been joined to freedom from the passions; and in the presence of passionlessness, sin would have no place. But since they did sin, they were surrendered to corruption. Having become corrupt, they begat off spring like unto themselves. But desires, fears and pleasures accompany them who are in this likeness. Reason wars against these passions, and winning, is proclaimed victorious, but suffering defeat, it is put to shame.
PG Migne, vol. 55, p. 583
As the best physicians always take great pains to discover the source of diseases, and go to the very fountain of the mischief, so does the blessed Paul also. Hence after having said that we were justified, and having shown it from the Patriarch, and from the Spirit, and from the dying of Christ (for He would not have died unless He intended to justify), he next confirms from other sources also what he had at such length demonstrated. And he confirms his proposition from things opposite, that is, from death and sin. How, and in what way? He enquires whence death came in, and how it prevailed. How then did death come in and prevail? Through the sin of one. But what means, for that all have sinned? This; he having once fallen, even they that had not eaten of the tree did from him, all of them, become mortal.
St. John Chrysostom, On Romans, Homily 10
I ask for your sincere prayers,
childoforthodoxy
Joined: Nov 21, 2008 | Posts: 16777215
